Back to my normal life

I have not written a post in months. I was so consumed by the custody battle that I couldn't bring myself to sit and type. Besides you would have gotten sick of reading the F word over and over again. The battle is not over but at least life has a sense or normalcy again. I am back to enjoying my day to day with my kids.

I wanted to write this story down so that when my kids are older we can read it and laugh about it all over again....

Last Friday my seven year old daughter performed in her first ever lip sync concert at her school. We had many weeks to prep for this. She chose the song Make it Shine by Victoria Justice. Such a perfect song for my little super star. She had the dance down all that was lacking was her lip sync skills. Sometimes she would barely even move her lips. The night before the big show I had her watch a portion of Rupauls Drag Race. Perfect way to learn to lip sync. Plus Mommy loves Drag Queens.

Friday after school was spent doing hair and makeup. We bought an new outfit and cleaned up what used to be her white shoes. Time could not go fast enough for her. She was so excited and we were so excited for her.

We were one of the first families to arrive at the school. This was because my children were insistent we go ridiculously early so that we could get a front row seat. I must say I am kinda glad that we did because that place was packed. Another benefit of getting there so early is that all my kids got to volunteer to pass out the programs to people as they entered the building. My step son was a door holder and my daughter passed out the programs. My four year old son was not about to stand around and watch everyone else help. My oldest took him under her wing and made sure he was a pro at it. I walked down to check on him to see how it was going. He was so happy to be helping and interacting with so many people. I suggested that he say Welcome to the lip sync, when he handed out the programs. He quickly responded and said " No Mom I say Enjoy yourself" Only his version of the word enjoy was slightly different than mine or yours would be. His little boy speech impediment was to cute for words. I was definitely a proud Mama that night. Cameryn did great. She has not a single nervous bone in her body. She ended her song with two round offs and a big smile. The crowd cheered and in that moment she was truly a super star.

Clothing issues

Today was a hell of a day for getting dressed. I started my morning at 7:30am. I woke up my two oldest daughters for school. They get dressed in their rooms before coming out for breakfast. My eight yr old comes up first. She has on the brown jogging pants that I hate so much. She is still boycotting jeans by the way. Her shirt is two sizes to big and a hideous shade of pink. I tell her for the 85th time that I hate those pants and she just rolls her eyes and continues to the kitchen. A few minutes later my six yr old comes up. She has on a shirt that was once a shirt and is now a bordering on a sports bra. I bring to her attention the fact that I can see her stomach. This only reminds her to yank on the bottom of the shirt in an effort to stretch it back into place. No such luck. When I tell her that it is just to small for her she argues with me. After ten minutes of debating the proper fit of a shirt she decides to change it. Only this time her shirt is also two sizes to big. I am starting to think I should bag up the hand me downs til they almost fit. The girls get on the bus and I think my clothes debates are over for the day. Boy was I wrong!
When I get my baby out of bed for the day she immediately runs to the bathroom door and starts to pull at her pj's. She apparently wanted a bath. Even though she had one less than 12hrs ago. I strip her down and give her a bath. Once she is all clean and done playing I take her out. I lay her down on my bed to dress her and she proceeds to throw a fit. It took me ten minutes just to get her diaper on her. She is still wearing just a diaper as I write this. I guess she is just boycotting clothes all together.
Next I get my son dressed. Everything was going smoothly until we got to the socks. I had a pair of black ankle socks. Before I could put them on he says " NO I want white ones." At first I did not realize he was even talking about the socks. So I proceed to try and put them on his feet. Bad idea! He started yelling and screaming that he wanted white socks. I lost that battle because he has on his white socks. Maybe tomorrow will be a better day in the wardrobe department.

A few nights ago my friend came over to visit. She works for a portrait studio and has taken pictures of all of my children. All them except the baby that is. Her first birthday is just around the corner and I still have yet to take her to get professional pictures done. After five kids you tend to realize how much money you waste on such pictures. I still have envelopes full of picture packages never passed out or I just ordered to many.

My friend just so happened to have one of the old props from her studio in her car. The little wooden tub that everyone loves to stick their half naked babies in to take a picture. I was in luck I guess I had not only a half naked baby but I also had the black sheet, the pink rubber ducky and a few towels. Insert tub here and we have a photo shoot. No fancy cameras just my digital camera and away she went. She took a few of the baby and soon all the kids wanted to get in the tub.

Today I loaded those pictures onto my computer and touched them up a little. I added some color and their names. I figured my two older kids have school and cheer pictures. What do the little kids have? Nothing! My plan was to take them to wal mart and print them out in wallet size and pass them out to family and friends.

Printing pictures at wal mart is way more confusing and frustrating than one would think. Throw four kids in the mix and is damn near impossible. None the less with the help of a nice lady working the photo lab, I was able to print 8 wallets of each kid. When I took them up to the counter to pay for them. The woman quickly asked me where my copyright release form was. I was not prepared for that question. After all they were my pictures. Taken with my camera in my kitchen with my kids. My first thought was that the graphics I added may have looked suspect. Then it hit me. How many people have a little wooden tub and black back drop at home. I explained to them that I had a friend with a tub and blah blah blah. They looked at me weird and discussed among themselves. Finally they had reached the decision to hand my over my suspect pictures. Not before they had me sign a release form though.

Got bored went home...

My sister came over tonight with all of her kids and her borrowed daughter. I made meat loaf, mashed potatoes, broccoli cheddar, and biscuits. Not to mention muffins for dessert. This is my usual fall night. I enjoy having everyone over to eat. I have a huge table and lots of chairs for everyone. After dinner my sister and I took some time to compare our bridesmaid dresses for my little brothers wedding. Which is in 16 days. I showed her my daughters dresses and shoes. I know we are exciting people aren't we?! Once the dress comparing came to an end...10 minutes tops. We sat all the kids down in the living room to watch a movie. It was on Nickelodeon. The movie was called "Fred the movie" Clever I know. In the movie the prepubescent teenage boy was in love with a girl named Judy. We laughed the entire way through the movie. My three year old even found it funny. For me it was a little funnier every time this character said the name Judy.
Flash back to this past summer.....
My children were outside playing on a Friday evening. I was in the kitchen making tacos. Friday has become Taco Night. The children look forward to it all week. They tell all of their friends about our families taco night. This taco night was no different from any other. I kicked the kids outside to play while I got everything ready. When dinner was ready I yelled off the back deck that dinner was ready. All of them came rushing from the park next door. You would swear I never feed them. My fiance loves to have races and contest. This was not the first time they had a taco eating contest. The rules were simple who could eat one the fastest and who could eat the most. You will never believe who won....My fiance. (I swear he has a tape worm) That night we ate over thirty tacos between all of us. It was almost dark when we finished.
After dinner I started the usual bedtime procedures of showers snack and teeth brushing. With all the children tucked in bed my fiance and I finally laid down. We had plans for the next day. Not that I can remember what those plans were. But I have a good excuse the only thing that stands out to me from that day was the note written in chalk at the bottom of my steps. We were headed out to get all the kids in the car when I turned around to read what it said.

GOT BORED
WENT HOME
JUDY

I had no idea who Judy was. I was telling my fiance what was written on the sidewalk. My children chimed in with a little help. Apparently the night before just before dinner was done they were playing with a little girl they had just met at the park. When I yelled that dinner was done. My children told Judy to just wait for them in our yard and they would be right back out. Needless to say they never did make it back out.
So to Judy I say this. Sorry they forgot about you and thanks for the note.