My Dairy Queen Ice Cream inspired thought for today...

"Life is like a cool layout of Dominos.  There's a constant chain reaction of things knocking down, we all just choose our perspective whether we view it as a big ol' mess , or change where we are so we can see it as some really cool artwork."

Ahh, what a long day at work + allergy medicine + time away from kids + yummmy icecream can inspire.

 

Do you all remember those mini domino sets full of a gazillion colorful dominos?  Like these... 

Well, I just got distracted for a good 30 minutes checking out come cool domino layouts people have posted on YouTube.  My favorites I think are the ones I've seen by FlippyCat.  Check out DoMona Lisa, and Puzzles

Oh, and this one's pretty cool too...

So, enjoy the chaos in your life -- hey, my kids drive me completely insane sometimes, but I'm thinkin' one of these days' we'll get to angle our view to see a cool bit of art.  

Jason's thinkin' that the Kids are like dominos, if they're standing close enough, you can gettin'em ALL in one fail swoop.  ;o)  He he he.

To thy Hair - - - Be GONE!!

I had to laugh as I read from this blog to that.  You see, it seams that I am not the ONLY one that found it necessary to cut some hair this week -- and I don't mean my own.

I desperately tried to be patient, and allowed all my boys - especially the teenagers, the opportunity to do what THEY chose to do with their hair.  I've let this go on for a few years actually, insisting on a trim here and there, but letting them choose the style. 

Before I proceed, let me post some before photos which were taken while on the family vacation only a couple of weeks ago...

 

So let me just ask all of you:

DO YOU SEE Very much EAR in these Photos?????(not including the ones that just aren't visible due to the angle of the pictures.)

You know, those things attached to either side of your heads that allow you to HEAR what is going on, or when you are being spoken to.

Well, I'm guessing there's a small possibility that Cindy's mind was working very much along the path mine was.

If my boys ears are SO covered by hair that they can NOT find it possible to LISTEN to me when I am trying to talk with them, then MAYBE, just MAYBE I should make sure there is no longer the opportunity for any additional muffling of my voice.

I DID take time to cool off after being totally ignored by ALL of my children --and wanna know that saddest part -- I was trying to ask them to take care of 15 minutes worth of chores so I could take them all out to Dairy Queen or Michael's Craft, something fun to take a break on one of my few days off.  They all chose to talk over me; yawn and lay down while I was talking; leave the Room (Oh, not a good idea buddy boy) and then, upon my excusing everyone to just get on with it, they decided it was time to get back to playing & screw the chores.

---That's IT!! I'm DONE with this garbage.  If having longer hair that is sweaty and icky and is making you BEHAVE icky and nasty, then I guess it's time I take over, and you can just say BYE-BYE to your Hair!  (They know -- If this doesn't work, say bye to the t.v....as in unplugged and no longer in the family room.)

In all fairness --  I DID give them a say for the hair style THIS time too (though they didn't deserve it)...not a whole lot of one, but their voices WERE heard (Unlike MINE, which is how they got IN to this boat) and that is how the big boys avoided total buzz cuts. The 2 younger boys, however, CHOSE their buzz cuts.

Ahhhh, let the light shine thru. . . .

 

... What is THIS?!

    ..... Say it ain't so ...

. . . . . We were SO sure the Aliens had come and traded our kids in for very poor replacements.

But lo and behold, I have MY SONS!!

 They have EARS.  They look GOOD.  And ya wanna know thee very best part -- They have actually been LISTENING and HELPING and even working WELL together and with their sister ever since the cutting of the hair.  Talk about SHOCKING.

I love my kids, and I love being a Mom, but there are some days I just have to hold my ground and prove a point - having hair is a PRIVELAGE! One that I will no longer let go wild.  It's been a year filled with tough adjustments and meltdown and frustrations.  But the summer has given us the break from school, and I got a MUCH needed break from home/kids/& work.  This gave me the energy to finally put my foot down.  WOW am I happy with the results!!  (and my foot didn't hurt either.) :o)

Enjoy your new hair cuts boys -- the better attitudes are MUCH appreciated, and I even like that you take faster showers now. Love ya xoxo :o)

Waste not -- is this to an extreme??

Have you ever wondered just how much your kids are actually listening when you tell them to use something up before they throw it out.  Like the shampoo, or the honey bottle: Make sure you turn it upside down and let every little drop drip to the mouth of the bottle that you can possibly get out of that bottle.

Well, as I was straightening up this week, I came across something that made me laugh.

This is a pencil, what is left of one anyway, that my 15 year old son had amidst the 'stuff' he collects in his pockets.  I'd had him empty his pockets into a container a few weeks ago, then forgot to have him sort thru the container, so THERE it SAT. 

I giggled as I realized he really DOES use up his pencils till they just can't be used anymore.  While the flip side are all his siblings that can't seem to hold on to their pencils for a whole week, and I KNOW I had to have gone thru at LEAST  a 24pk of pencils each month of school.  Now I have proof why my oldest almost never said he needed more pencils.!!

Honestly though, I'm a Good Mom, I DO give my kids access to pencils that are still long enough to comfortably FIT in their hands

:o)

Have a lovely evening.  I'm off to find my son a clicky pencil.  I know he'll eventually ask for leads, and still be able to hold his pencil appropriately. :o)

Vacations are the Greatest thing EVER!!!

Okay - so I got to take the WONDERFUL opportunity to take 2 whole weeks off of work to enjoy a 2 part vacation.  One on my own, for the first time ever since becoming a Mom, and the second half with my WHOLE Family.  I mean WHOLE, not just Jason and the kids.  My parents, ALL 7 of my siblings and the spouses and their kids.  What FUN!

We've actually been home since Sunday 10pm, but I've been so utterly and completely exhausted that every ounce of energy I could find was used to get thru my work schedule.  Luckily Jason was smart enough to take Monday & Tuesday off too, so he got some vacation recovery time.  Lucky git.

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Keeping in mind that this blog is for me and mine, I try to respect my extended family as well as our friends, so when asked to keep specific details private, I do.  So let me do some very Vague bragging that will ONLY make sense to those this involves, most likely.

I was able to enjoy the THRILL of going to visit a family VERY dear to us, and enjoy every single one of their amazing, loving, crazy kids - and LOVED every single moment I could be there. Important to note: this was the first time I've ever left my kids for more then 24 hours (other then to give birth to another kid). It was to help this family celebrate the adoption of THEE most adorable little one that I have ever seen (not including the 5 most adorable kids ever because they're MINE ;o).

I took a zillion pictures, went to sleep each night on west coast time and woke up on east coast time clock; realized JUST how much energy I no longer have to keep up with ALL the kids  -- WOW what a difference it makes to visit ALONE instead of having Jase and all the kids to balance out their mob.   I'm using EXTREME restraint not to post a single picture here folks!  But to this wonderful family that means the WORLD to us, thank you thank you THANK YOU so very much for letting me come and spend the week with you, for loving me so much that I missed you as soon as I got to the airport, even though I was SO excited to be going home.  Talk about torn.  I am thrilled I was there to not only enjoy the court date for the adoption of such a great child into your family, but to enjoy going to the temple with your family as well!! :o)  Know that Jase & I and the kids ALL love and miss you SO very much.  Thanks for the fun, and ALL the hours of laughing till my face hurt.       ps....I'm never hiding on top of a fridge again ;o).

_______________________________________________________

My family reunion was TONS of fun.  Thanks to Andrea I am extremely eager to gather ALL the different family members photos and create a yearbook style book on blurb.com.  I think I'm going to do one experiment book to see what the quality is, but they claim to be "bookstore quality" and Andrea loved hers she made of her blog, so I'm pretty darned excited and the idea.

I will have to reunion blog later.  Kids and dinner are a callin.

Have a GREAT Weekend Everyone.! ! ! !

delayed notice of P90X on pause

Okay, the week following our initial start up assessment to begin the P90X workouts, Jason had a week on the range. So, part of being on the range is taking your turns at pulling targets. This requires alot of pulling and tugging the targets down, being up and down on your feet, etc. It's not something I've ever personally done, so any description I may offer up is completely inadequate as to how this end result happened....

Jason has been suffering with multiple stress fractures in his left leg which was apparently made worse due to shine splints. Thanks to our lovely friend Percocet, Jason's been able to get thru some of the worst pain.

SO, needless to say, P90X will have to sit and wait till another day, after the doctors have figured out just exactly what is wrong with Jason and how they can best help him begin to heal. He had a bone scan done today, and will have to wait another freaking TWO WEEKS to get the results. Lovely, it took 3 weeks just to get the dang appointment. Sometimes he gets in and helped fast, but his leg hurting makes him really grumpy --- someone please oh PLEASE fix my poor broken husband, and SOON.