I Am Afraid Of The Library

Do you have an illegal un-licensed fruit stand in front of your school?  We do!  While the country goes on and on and on about the effects of illegal immigration, just know that I can get bulk produce without getting out of my car.  That actually works for me.

The kids had another great day at school yesterday, although Amanda is having a little separation anxiety.  She keeps running across the playground to hug her siblings goodbye, after the bell has rung, when she's supposed to be standing in line.  I'm sure that will work itself out.  I hope.

The dreaded reading logs have begun, and I'm finding myself having less time than when the kids are at home all day.  I never sat down yesterday!!!!  Without my slave labor, I'm doing all the household chores, then I got my hair cut, and I worked out, then I started dinner, then POOF, they were home.

Last night before bed, Gregory approached me and said, "Mom.  Tomorrow is library and I'm scared."

 Can you believe that?  That librarian has actually made my child afraid to go to the library!!!!!

For the record, she is still holding children hostage on the stage during lunch if they forget their book.  You can read about that right here.  That is still going on and I'm done with that this year.  I'm going over her head to her boss and to my trustee.  Children, especially the underprivileged children who are being bused into our school, should be enjoying the library, which may be the only opportunity they have to have access to books.

She should be teaching them to love literature, not turning them into prisoners, which half of them are destined to become anyway.  I am being dead serious when I say I am pissed off about it.  I can remember being overcome with joy and excitement in the library and having a feeling of absolute wonder at all the amazing things there are to learn.  HOW DARE SHE TAKE THAT AWAY FROM CHILDREN!!!!   GODDAMN IT!!!!!

Okay.  I had three cups of coffee this morning, so you guys better talk me down before I make a fool of myself.

Going To School In The Outhouse

We took our annual back-to-school photo in front of the cactus yesterday, before walking to school in the sweltering heat.

Gregory and Sarah's classroom is in a portable on the playground.  One might be concerned about sending their children to school in a trailer, until one realizes the teachers control their own air-conditioning in the portables, thus making Gregory and Sarah's classroom 20 degrees cooler than Austin and Amanda's.

Since Gregory and Sarah's classroom is not in the actual building, this meant Greg and I had to split up to drop them off, so I started off by accompanying them into their room.  I was a little surprised to see that their new teacher had seated them at the same table, but they told me they didn't bother each other.

I was really happy to see that Big Tall Kid did not get into Gregory's classroom this year.  Gregory really needed a year without him.  I love the boys that did go into his classroom and I laughed when I noted there are three Andrews in the class and only 18 students.  Was Andrew that popular eight years ago?

Sarah and Gregory are seated with their friend, Little Peanut, who they've been in school with since kindergarten.  It's a good classroom, with a great mix of kids.  I am very happy.

They keep referring to their classroom as the "outhouse", and I have to keep telling them it's a portable, not an outhouse.

When I walked out of the outhouse, I noticed Amanda wandering around the playground by herself.

"What are you doing?  Where is your class?", I asked her.

"You didn't hug me!", she cried.

Paging Mr. Clone.  Mr. Clone.

Her class was actually still on the playground, so I accompanied her into the Sweat Lodge, and her teacher gave a little presentation.  I know all the kids at Amanda's table and I am friends with their parents.  None of them could understand where the other children were.

One of the mothers said, "Where are the other ones?"

They're in the outhouse!


Amanda got in the same class with the boy who stabbed her with a pencil in kindergarten, so I gave him the "I'm watching you, Focker." stare.

Then I ran down the hall to Austin's classroom to see where he was seated, when I ran into a scene between a little girl and her mother in the hallway.  I know the little girl because I've worked with her in Austin's kindergarten class and I see her at the community center all the time.  She wouldn't go in the classroom because she was afraid.

Her mom told me that over the summer, her dad had dropped her off at day camp at the community center, went home, and died of a heart attack.  The poor little girl was afraid that if her mom left her, she would die. It was heartwrenching and I hope she's getting grief counseling somewhere. I hope someone knows that she can get grief counseling.  Can anyone tell me where she gets that?  I left before the situation was resolved, but Austin told me that she did eventually go in the class.

I thought about her all day.

On a happier note, Austin got into class with a little boy he went to preschool with since he was two years old.  I know the mom and the grandmother so well and we were all hugging like lost friends being reunited, after not seeing each other since preschool graduation.  They lived through Austin's ordeal with me when I was going through it, and the grandmother said, "How is everything?", which is code for how is Austin's brain tumor.  I was delighted to tell her that we are fine and I am just thrilled to have this kid in class with Austin.

Austin has 16 kids in his class, which does not bode well for the future.  I can only hope that more students will roll in before Count Day.

Lerayshaun did not come to school.  It's possible he'll show up after Labor Day, since it's customary for people in his neighborhood to not send their kids to school until after Labor Day, regardless of when it starts.  I was actually disappointed that he wasn't there.  

The kids all seemed to really enjoy their day.  I spent the day cleaning the house, folding laundry, cleaning the car, and grocery shopping.  I seriously blinked and they were home, but the house was clean, the laundry was done, there was dinner in the crockpot, and I was mentally rested for the absolute ONSLAUGHT OF NOISE AND CHAOS.

OHMYGOD, they are SO LOUD.  It's like they saved it up for me.

Gosh, I sure missed them anyway!!!

I Need A Do Over In My Dreams

A couple weeks ago, we were climbing at the indoor rockclimbing wall at Lifetime.  The children were all waiting in line for their turns and it was going well.

When you have a large family, every single thing you do requires someone waiting their turn and every single thing is a giant process.  People actually try to kill me with their mind when they get behind us.  I can visibly see their irritation when their child has to wait behind my children, which just brings up my stress level.

As if whatever we are doing isn't annoying enough, I have to have the gaspers and tsk-ers weighing in behind me in line.  I get that it takes a long time for us.  Okay?  I get it!!!!  I live it.

So it's important when you have multiples or a lot of little kids to teach them to wait their turn.  It's just a fact of life that you are going to be waiting and it's something you start working on with them from Day One.

I haven't mentioned it, but Amanda is afraid of heights.  Really, really, afraid, like me.  She would get halfway up the three story rockwall and freeze.  But after the entire summer she finally made it all the way up and it was an amazing victory.

Directly after that victory she waited in a  particularly long line, because she was the last of the four children to go, and I was calling it a day and going home, when the guy who worked there, approached Amanda and said, "I need to show these people how to use the rockclimbing wall and they are going to go in front of you, okay?  You're fine with that, right? C'mon, you can wait, right?"

I know I write in a concise fashion, so I'm certain I am not conveying how condescending he sounded and how he was dismissing her because she was a child.  He would have never asked an adult to wait.  Looking back, I'm pretty certain he didn't know she was my child, so he was speaking to her that way because he thought she was alone.

So this really put us on the spot, because I actually wasn't fine with it.  I wanted to leave, and I had worked it out that we all had this one last climb, and she had waited a long time and she had waited patiently, which is no small feat for Amanda.  For reasons I cannot explain because it goes completely against my personality, I told them to go ahead.  Mostly because the people he was helping would have felt uncomfortable and I figured it wasn't their fault he was an asshole.

Then for ten minutes I had to watch the guy explain to them how to hook-up, then I had to sit there and watch the grotesquely out-of-shape, middle-aged lady's butt as she tried to climb the wall, poorly, while my other three kids scampered off and started waiting in new lines.  All the while, I was steaming pissed off and Amanda was upset that they cut in front of her.

Because we wait our turn and we DON'T CUT.

Anyway, I cut in front of the lady's husband when I'd had enough and I was ready to have an aneurysm at the thought of watching his butt, and hooked Amanda up and let her go, then we got out of there, once I pried the other three children down and got all the belts off.  So who am I kidding?  It was still another 20 minutes.  

I was mad all the way home.  Why didn't I say anything?  What is wrong with me?

When we got home, I took Amanda aside and said, "You know how that man let those people cut in front of you?  I shouldn't have let him do that.  I should have said something.  I know you were waiting patiently and I am sorry that I didn't stick up for you.  That was wrong of me and when we go back there, I am going to tell that guy that he was wrong."

Then she said, "That's okay, Mom.  When you go to sleep tonight, dream that you told him off and then when you wake up tomorrow, you'll feel better.  That's what I do.  When I do something wrong, I correct it in my dreams and then I feel better the next day."

Wow!!!!!  Two weeks later and I'm still pondering that seven year old profoundness.

I promptly went to sleep and dreamt that I stabbed him in the brain with an ice pick.  Is that wrong?  I sure felt better.

I have a lot to learn from my children.

School Comes Along Just To End It

I am feeling discombobulated today.


In the famous words of Phineas and Ferb, "There's 104 days of summer vacation and school comes along just to end it."


So on our last day of summer vacation, we are all feeling a little anxious and excited.  Austin is not at all sure that he will like full-time school.  He's glued to my side as type this.  He's causing me to have butterflies in my stomach.  


I have begun waking up at around 5am or 5:30, as my body seems to automatically go back into autopilot, preparing for assembling lunches, getting myself ready, serving breakfast, and walking everyone to school.  


Greg took the kids yesterday morning and when I called him several hours later to see what they were doing, he told me they were out to lunch with "Uncle" Norm.  Uncle Norm is the man who gave us his condo for a week in Del Mar and he apparently asked the kids if they were ready to go back to his condo and to the beach?


That darn pesky school!!!!  I'm ready right now!  He sent Greg home with 9 bottles of wine for me.  What a guy!  Am I too old to be adopted?  


I got hooked on a blog yesterday and I think I read it for hours!!!!  It's called Permission To Live, and it's about a young mother's parenting journey after being raised in a fundamentalist, patriarchal, homeschooling, Quiverfull family and how she is struggling to find her own identity, after being denied one her entire life, while now trying to raise her own four children.  


Powerful read.  I am literally hooked on it now.  


I am hooked on the concept that this sort of physical, spiritual, and emotional abuse is legal in America and I have to wonder, WHY?  Why aren't we protecting these kids?  Shouldn't there be a fundamental right to an education in America and if a parent denies that right, shouldn't the authorities step in?  


Go read it in your spare time so we have something to discuss next week when I have my empty nest.  


Today my baby birds are cheeping their heads off, so I must go enjoy our last day together!!!!

Bring It

I spent four hours working at our teacher's luncheon yesterday, which was actually the most pleasant lunch I've had all summer.

Yes.  Serving 60 people lunch is more pleasant than serving my four children lunch.  I'm not sure what this says, but it can't be good.

I am really excited about the teachers they got this year.  Austin ended up getting the teacher they were laying off last year.  The one who was going back to work at the Bellagio, for more money.  I really, really like her. She has a tremendous amount of potential and I hope she has the opportunity to teach.

Unfortunately, our teacher's union has still not agreed to concessions and since she is lowest on the totem pole in seniority, if they end up laying off 800 teachers, she will lose her job and Austin will get shuffled around midyear.  It's also possible if our numbers are low on Count Day, she will lose her job and Austin will get shuffled around midyear.

Let's put it this way, the odds that Austin will not get shuffled around midyear are pretty low right now, which means I pretty much don't get to put my guard down until around November.  This sucks.  I hate it.

Greg ended up taking Gregory and Sarah to soccer practice last night and not only did they practice in the heat, they practiced for 2 hours.

Sarah is the only girl on the entire team.  We are on the Mexican team again.  Greg said our kids are the only white kids on the entire team this time, which they honestly don't even seem to notice.

I asked Sarah how she felt about being the only girl on the team?  Did it seem weird?

"No, it's fine.", she replied.

"Are the boys too rough for you?", I asked.

"No, I'm bigger than them.", she shrugged.

Well, okay then.  Bring it, BOYS.

The kids and I are glued to The Weather Channel right now, watching Hurricane Irene.  We sure hope all of you East Coasters are okay today.

Danger Everywhere

Our Internet is out until someone comes over from the company to look at our line, so I am typing with my thumbs, which I've never mastered.

The kids and I went to Lifetime yesterday and there was a sign in their daycare that there had been a child with lice there and we had been exposed to lice. This made me laugh and I could not stop. Do the lice not understand this is where the rich people hang out??!!

I didn't expect to get lice until the kids go back to school on Monday!!!!

Today we are hosting the teacher's Welcome Back luncheon. The boys have basketball an Gregory and Sarah start soccer at 6pm, with the projected temperature at 110 degrees.

Can we go back to Wind????!!!!! I promise I won't complain this time.

In all seriousness, we are going to show up and then leave. I'm not going to let my kids practice in 110 degrees. No way.

Don't you think that is dangerous?

Yes, It Makes You Insane

 "Women who stay at home raising children are more likely than working mothers to have symptoms of depression, a new study finds."

I believe it.  The article in the Los Angeles Times was titled Stay-At-Home Moms Have Hardest Job and went on to say that women who enter back in the workforce actually enjoy better mental health.

What does this all mean?  It means I'm bleeping crazy, so stay away from me.  I'm KIDDING, sort of.  On a serious note, my personal theory on that is that raising kids can be a very isolating thing for the stay-at-home mom and it can be depressing.  Only in recent history, did we stop living in multi-generational homes and villages, where many people helped raise our children.  Now we do it all, and we do it alone, and it's making us crazy!

Speaking of crazy, I had to drag all four of mine to the doctor's office yesterday morning because Sarah was still crying about her ears and I ran out of drops and all my refills had expired.  I went ahead and had the doctor examine Amanda while we were there, because Amanda has had a chronic nasal drip and constant sniffles since March, when they started soccer.  I haven't blogged about it, but I've been using nasal rinses, local bee honey to build up her immune system, and I went and bought allergy resistant covers for her mattress and pillow.  None of that has worked.  If anything, she's gotten worse.

I have to say that I still have post traumatic stress disorder from when I took all four of them to Austin's oncologist, when I forgot my diaper bag in the car and a big giant poop rolled out of Austin's shorts and landed on the floor of the doctor's office.  Like I've never gotten over that, so even though my kids are older now, I get all stressed out when I have to take all four of them to the doctor's at the same time. If you've ever dashed to the water machine to grab paper cups to scoop up your kid's bowel movement off the floor of your doctor's office, then have your kids lock you out while you're throwing it out, you would understand

That's why we're insane, Mr. Psychologist.

Sarah's swimmer's ear was so bad it appears to have gotten into the bone in her ear and now she's on oral antibiotics.  Amanda's nasal passageways are so inflamed, they are actually touching inside her nostrils, which is why she's sniffing all the time.  She can't breathe.  Chime in internet if you have some ideas.

I am happy to report no drama at the doctor's office  Everyone sat and behaved and did not act like goons.  I can see a big difference in their behavior after being with me all summer, versus being at school.  I've really been cracking down on Amanda and the backtalk over the summer.  I don't argue with my children.  Adults argue.  Adults and children should not argue and when she has smart ass comebacks for every single thing I say, I shut her down.  I just hope they don't start picking up the attitude when they go back to school.  Riiiigggghhhhhhht.

The doctor decided we needed to do an allergy panel on Amanda for food and environmental causes, so from there I drug all four over to Qwest Diagnostics to get her blood drawn.  I explained exactly what was going to happen and why in the car, then Austin piped up, since he's the expert of our family for getting needles.  He told Amanda exactly what it would be like and she calmed down because obviously if her baby brother can do it, so can she.

It's funny, even though my kids are older and look nothing alike, we still cause a ruckus when we go places just due to the sheer number of them.  Right when we walked into Qwest, the children walked directly to the chairs and sat down, as I had instructed them, and I walked to the counter to sign in, and I could hear the murmurs in the background.

"How'd you like to have that many?"

"My mother's friend had seven."

Whisper.  Whisper.  Whisper.

Then everyone stared at me as I walked back to my brood.  For the record, due to the constant staring, I have always made sure that I look good in public so people don't think I'm some harried, crazy housewife.  Cuz I'm not.  I'm NOT.

When they called us back, you should have seen the lady's face when all five of us piled into her 3x4 blood drawing room.  I don't think she had any idea what was going to happen.  Austin, The Expert, directed the other children on exactly what was going on and everyone was smiling and attentive.  All the children were so fascinated by the process, that the lady began to tell jokes and instruct them.  Amanda didn't even cry when the needle went in and the other three were hanging on the arm of the chair, enthralled.  The lady even let them hold Amanda's blood vial.

As we were leaving, a new mother was bringing her 10 day old twin girls in the door for their PKU tests.  I can remember doing that with my three and being a nervous wreck to the point of crying.  I looked at her, as we passed each other, and mentally hoped she would get through her parenting gig without going insane.

Chances are, she won't.  

In A State Of Transition

Summer is winding down.  The girls got a day of beauty at the salon in Lifetime, where the chlorine was first melted out of their hair and then cut out.  Look at Sarah's natural highlights.  She has no idea that the rest of us pay the big bucks to get highlights like that.

The product our gal used to take the chlorine out is called BB Sunday and I bought a bottle for home and did it on my own hair and WOW.  My hair feels silky and smooth for the first time in like forever.

The girls had their last ballet class for summer and will be joining Ms Renee for a hip hop class in September.

The boys' ears have finally gotten better, but not Sarah's, and I'm going to have to take her in today because I'm out of drops.

With the end of summer, my friends and I are all in a flux.  We know that now that we've finally made it (!!!!!!!!) to full time school with all of our kids that our roles are changing and we're all feeling a little anxious and sad and uncertain about where we go now.  What's the next step?  Where do we go from here?

"We have to go find our own identities again.", I told my friend Laura the other day.

I wonder who we will all end up being?

The Benefits Of Blogging

Before we left on our trip to Michigan, my Eskimo blogging buddy, Maija, propositioned me in my comments that if I sent her homemade strawberry jelly, she'd send me arctic blueberry.

"Do you want to trade?", she asked.

So I sent her a jar of pomegranate and a jar of strawberry jelly, then I also threw in a bunch of peaches, because she can't get peaches up in Kotzebue, Alaska, alternately referred to as BFE.  Maija can see Russia from her backyard.

My peaches did not make it and ended up being a gooey mess.  She told me they ate them anyway!!!!

I got her package yesterday!!!  She included fireweed and cranberry jelly, in addition to wild arctic blueberry.

The kids said, "Mom, mom, mom, mom, what's fireweed jelly?"

Heck if I know.  Let's Google it, kiddos!!!!

So we did, and then we read about it, where it grows, and how you make jelly.  How neat is this?  I love this Eskimo bartering system.

Maija and I are like peas and carrots

Some people are into blogging for the fame and money.  I'm in it for the jelly.

Does This Sound Fun?

I now have three children with severe, severe, severe swimmer's ear.

I'm talking crying and crying and crying over their ears.  Fortunately my doctor gave me 10 refills on the antibiotic eardrops, so I was able to run over to Walgreen's and get a refill.  If you have triplets or a lot of kids, always ask for refills on ear numbing drops, pink eye meds, and swimmer's ear meds.  If one gets pink eye, they will all get it and there is no reason to drag each child in for a co-pay.  It's always good to stockpile the ear numbing drops for those middle-of-the-night-before-you-can-get-to-the-doctor pain and crying, too.

I wonder what bacteria is growing in their poor ears?  I didn't mention it last week, but I met my triplet mom friends, Cathy and Laura, at the Whitney Ranch Community Pool on Wednesday.

We wanted to see each other before all the kids go back to school.  They both have all boy triplets who are Austin's age and are all entering first grade.

Then we were at the lake on Saturday all day.  So, gosh, the possibilities are endless.  EWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW.   I cannot stress the amount of crying going on over here.  The only one who doesn't have it is Amanda.

I never checked the mail on Friday, so when the kids did yesterday, Sarah and Gregory came running into the house with the most darling postcards from their new second grade teacher.  They say, "Welcome To Second Grade", then include the most beautiful, perfect handwritten welcome.

Amanda didn't get one from her teacher, which made her proclaim, "My teacher is probably just BORING and YUCKY."

Then she started crying, which caused Austin to start crying because he didn't get one either.  The non-stop teacher comparisons are going to be the death of me.

Then the other two started crying because their ears were killing them.

So all four of them were crying their heads off and we get to spend the last week of not being in school, not swimming.

Doesn't that sound fun???????

I Only Buy The Best

Although Greg had already started assembling school stuff that has been on sale all summer, the kids and I hit four stores yesterday in an attempt to get the rest of it done.  Let's compare supply lists!!!  Here's what I needed.

• 5 boxes of tissue
• 4 rolls of paper towels
• 5 antibacterial wipes
• 1 sandwich-sized ziploc bag
• 1 snack-size ziploc bag
• 1 gallon-size ziploc bag
• 2 quart-sized ziploc bag
• 12 large gluesticks
• 4 boxes of #2 yellow pencils
• 4 boxes of crayons
• 5 reams of white copy paper
• 1 bottle of handsoap
• 9 erasers
• 3 yellow highlighters
• 4 8x5 pencil boxes
• 6 pocket folders
• 3 pair of Fiskar scissors
• 3 bottles of hand sanitizer
• 12 wide-ruled spiral notebooks

Would it be weird if I brought a wheelbarrow the first day of school?  Because you know I would do it.  After I assembled all that stuff, I had to break it down into four piles and now I'm wondering just how are we supposed to carry all of that in to three different classroom?  The kids will have their backpacks and their lunchboxes, not sure if they call also manage 10 pounds in supplies.

Check out the snack bags I got at the Dollar Store!!!  Snank bags, not snack bags.  Not to be confused with skank bags.

I couldn't pass these up since they were on my list.  I only buy the best quality stuff from China, by golly.

Can't you hear the teachers now?

"Who in God's name brought in the snank bags?"

Boating In A Haboob

Austin's classmate's family invited us to go boating with them on Lake Mead yesterday.  I am happy to report that Austin got into the same classroom as his BFF and this is going to be a really great year for Austin!  I love this family, too, so I'm just thrilled.

I love that the kids are finally old enough to do stuff like this.  I am not sure I would have attempted taking all four of them by myself last year.  Lake Mead is a big, big, big lake and the wind around these parts makes giant waves.  Check out the water line in the background.  It's actually come up 20 feet this year!

I haven't been boating for years, but when I was a child, my dad took us boating a lot.  In fact, it's some of the only family time we ever spent together, so I remember it very fondly.   Someday when I win the lottery or get a job, I'm going to get a boat.  Right after I get new furniture and a car and send the kids to college.

The strangest thing happened as we were driving out to Lake Mead.  The entire Las Vegas valley was covered in a thick haze.  We honestly couldn't tell if it was sand and we were having a haboob.  We couldn't even see across the lake when we first got there.  It actually reminded me of the vog my friend Leslie gets on the Big Island from the volcano.  But we don't have a volcano or moisture or all that pesky rain, so I had to rule that one out!



You can really see it in this video.  I just looked at the paper and it was smoke from a wildfire from somewhere.  They literally don't know where this wildfire is.  I mean, seriously?  Shouldn't someone be checking it out?  HELLOOOO, Mr. Satellite.  

Austin's little friend is one of five children in his family.  All the kids got along so well.  I was really proud of my kids' behavior yesterday.  For once, right?  They all took turns nicely on the tube.  They've never been tubing behind a boat and they all jumped on and nobody was scared.  Sarah and Gregory did some spectacular flips in the air when they got thrown off.

For once I get to write a blog post that is all hunky dory and happiness.  I should mark this one on my calendar.

We Will Never Be In The Peanut Gallery

By the time you read this,  I will be in a motor boat with nine children on Lake Mead.

Throw me a life preserver!!!  Meanwhile, we had an interesting discussion in yesterday's comments about teacher requests and whether you should ask for them.

One commenter (teacher?  I'm not quite clear) does not believe any children should receive special treatment and you get what you get, so don't pitch a fit, as far as classroom placement.

I've never asked for a specific teacher and given the fact that I'll be using three teachers in one grade in the future, I could only ever ask to NOT get the remaining one, rather than ask for a specific one.  That being said, I have zero problem with teacher requests.  If the principal doesn't want to grant a request, that's his prerogative.  Meanwhile, if there's a bad teacher, I see no reason why my children should get the bad one if I can help it.

The parents who are less involved, connected, informed, or concerned should get stuck with the bad ones and I'm not really going to stay awake at night about it.  My mother never advocated for me or my sister and my sister had a psychotic, emotionally abusive teacher in third grade, which actually ruined school for her for the rest of her life.  I wish my mom would have been more on the ball, then she would have known that this teacher segregated the lower performing students in her class into the "peanut gallery", where she would scream and belittle them all day long and hold them out as the example of failure for all the students in the class.  It took my sister until highschool to realize she actually wasn't stupid just from the year she spent with that woman.

I just took an advocacy workshop for the PTA over the summer, where I was actually schooled on how NOT to get stuck with a crappy teacher and how to advocate for my child within the school system.      

So that's my two cents.  None of my kids will ever be sitting in the peanut gallery if I have anything to say about it.

I Was Supposed To Be An Only Child

I didn't wait for the school office to call me yesterday.

I got in the car and drove over to the school, because the night before when I brought up placement with the kids, I said, "However you are ultimately placed, it's the principal's school and his decision, and we will make the best of it."

Then Amanda said, "If the principal is running his school correctly and he knows me, then he'll know to put me in my own classroom because I was supposed to be an only child.  I've been wanting to get away from them my whole life."

So this prompted my dash down to the school to see what he'd done.

Sure enough, he'd put Sarah in her own class and put Amanda with Gregory.

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I told him exactly what she'd said the night before and he said, "Looks like that one needs her own class!!"

So he simply switched them around.  I like both of the teachers a lot, so I don't think that part mattered.  The teacher Gregory and Sarah has comes from educators.  Her parents were educators and they come and work in her classroom several times a week.  So getting her is like getting three teachers and an extra set of charming grandparents.  Amanda's teacher is great and does the whole curriculum for 2nd grade.

I could not be happier and I want to point out to you other triplet moms what a difference it makes to have a principal who is willing to listen, because there are no two sets of triplets alike.  They all have different dynamics and there should be no one-size-fits-all mentality for splitting.  It should depend on how they work together, the teacher's opinion, and the children's opinion.  

So I ran home, triumphantly, to tell the children that everyone was getting what they wanted.

Amanda looked at me and said, "Oh.  Okay.  I didn't really mean it."

She's been on me like a barnacle since yesterday morning.  She even crawled into bed last night and plastered herself against me like we had velcro.

Good times.  Good times.

This should be an interesting year, doncha think?

Am I My Own Person?

Like I mentioned before, our electricity went out while we were gone, also turning off our answering machine.  I finally got around to turning the answering machine back on yesterday and had five new messages on it from weeks ago.

"Hi, Mrs. S.  I'm calling from school because the principal would like to meet with you about the triplet's placement."

AACCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCKKKKKKKKKKKKK!

The placements are already done now, so UGH.  I called and he wasn't there yesterday, so I'll be waiting all day today for a return call.  Of course, I'll be waiting at the pool, while lounging in water, but I will be waiting anxiously.

 
Greg took the boys shopping at Walmart, gag, yesterday and came home with basketball outfits that he paid one dollar for.  He got the shorts and the shirts for one dollar.  I don't want anyone to get jealous by the amazing polyester material, but the boys are actually in basketball again and they actually wear this stuff while playing basketball, so there you have it.

Then I took Amanda clothes shopping in the evening and she picked out a Justice shirt that says, "I like chocolate a lot."  Her shirt cost $8, which equals eight basketball outfits.

Then we were at Trader's and waiting in line, when she blurted out in her super loud voice, "Mom?  Am I my own person?"

Before I could even answer that bizarre question, the lady in front of us turned around and she said, "Of course, you are your own person, honey."

So I really had no idea what Amanda meant by that question, but I quietly explained to the lady that she was a triplet and maybe a little confused.

Then as we went to check out, the lady came back into the store, found us, bent down, and told Amanda, "You know how when dogs have a litter?  All the puppies grow up to be their own dogs, honey."

Yes, Amanda.  You are like a DOG.  Thanks for the unsolicited advice on that one, random lady.

So before she went to bed, I asked her what she meant by that, and she said she sometimes wishes she was someone else.

She said, "When I act the way I'm not supposed to act, sometimes I wish I was Taylor, because if I looked like Taylor, then I wouldn't act like Amanda."

So I told her that it doesn't matter what you look like.  I told her if she looked like someone else, she'd still be Amanda because you have to change your actions to change yourself.

You know, there is a lot going on inside all these kids' brains as they try to figure out their place in the world and sometimes they just throw me for a loop.

Okay, I'm off to take my litter to the pool today.

No Child Left A Dime

School will be starting in less than two weeks and I have to admit to not even coming close to accomplishing the homeschooling goals I had.

Periods gone wild.  "We do not start a sentence with And, m'kay?"

Our school failed to meet AYP (annual yearly progress) in the 2009-2010 school year because of writing.

Although this year's test scores have been known since June, the school district has not published them yet because more than 60 percent of our schools have failed to meet AYP according to goals required by the No Child Left Behind.

I learned while on vacation, that Nevada will join nearly half the states and opt out of the No Child Left Behind this year.

That totally works for me.  They have hammered these kids so much on testing, Amanda is already a mess about it.  She is actually worried about going to third grade because she is so worried about failing the CRT. They started telling them in first grade that the most important thing they will ever do in school is take this test.

As if somehow one test, once a year, accurately measures anything.  I, personally, think the NCLB has been an enormous failure, and an enormous waste of money, and I am so glad my kids will not be part of it in the future.

Austin loves his Grammy!

I'm also glad that our entire school will no longer be judged "pass" or "fail", based on a subset of students, who do not accurately portray the entire school.  For instance, I read a recent article where an entire school failed because three special ed students did not pass their test.  That made the entire school "In Need Of Improvement", based on that subgroup.

So, goodbye, No Child Left A Dime.  I can't wait to see how messed up the new Growth Model, which is replacing NCLB, will be this year.  If you haven't had a chance to dig into that bureaucratic baby, here's the link.  Pour yourself a stiff drink before proceeding.

What I'll Be Doing When The Kids Are In School

Did you know that Lowe's has free children's building workshops every other Saturday?  I didn't.  Greg's been taking the kids to the Home Depot one since they were toddlers, but we missed that Lowe's did it too.
I don't know if I've ever mentioned it, but Gregory worships his father and if Greg is home and working on something in the garage, Gregory is like a barnacle and he is learning how to do and make everything from Greg.  Gregory actually has become better than me at things, which isn't saying much, because I'm practically an invalid when it comes to using a hammer or screwdriver.

Sadly, Amanda inherited my inability to hammer or use a screwdriver.  She'll need to marry a handy husband for sure!

Greg actually brought home these put-together wooden schoolhouse photo holders and we did them in the garage and I have to give him credit for trying to help all four of them do these projects in the store by himself.  The DRAMA!  I am not sorry I've been missing out on that over the years!

So we are getting back into our summer routine here as we still have 2 weeks before the kids start school.  I gained 4 pounds on the trip, Greg gained 15 pounds, and Austin has edged over the 85th percentile on his BMI, putting him in the "at risk of becoming overweight" category.  This just goes to show that if our family ate as much processed food as we did on our trip and was inactive and snacked all day, like we did in the car, we would be a much larger family, for sure.



I just watched this movie on Netflix and I'm going to do this when the kids go back to school.

People keep asking me what I'm going to do all day once the kids go to school all day. OHMYGOSH, I have so much I'm going to do that it will take me until November until I sit down. I need to take 30 hours of continuing education to renew my insurance license. I had four years to do that, so as you can imagine, I'm almost out of time. While I'm doing that, I'm going to get my health insurance license, too. I need to do our taxes, which we filed an extension for due to Greg's freakish number of stock trades I need to wade through, so as you can imagine, that's almost due. I'll be volunteering at school. The kids start ballet, basketball, and soccer.  I'm going to learn how to play tennis and swim properly and work out every single day.

Or maybe I won't do anything at all because you have to stop drinking coffee on that juice fast.

Back On The Urban Farm

We got a dog!!!!!

Just kidding.  We did not.  Our neighbor Jo got a dog.  Smarty is a greyhound and raced at the Phoenix tracks.  He didn't do well and went to the greyhound rescue and Jo rescued him.  He is the nicest, most mellow dog.  Even Greg, who can't stand dogs, mentioned to me that Smarty doesn't bark at all.

I had a greyhound that my mother rescued when I was a child.  Nancy swears we never had a greyhound, but I'm 2.5 years older than her and I remember our greyhound.  It was white.  Either I've fabricated an entirely false childhood memory or we had a greyhound.  I don't have anyone to call.  Lurking family members, c'mon, did we have a greyhound?

I even went to dig around in photo albums to prove to my sister that this was my mom and her greyhound, except it's not.  I love this picture of my mom, though.  Gosh, she was so young.

My father let the Phantom Greyhound out and it got run over by a car.  You know, they run 35-40 miles an hour.  Jo asked me if the gate was closed when Smarty was in our backyard and I said it was, because Greg is a security freak.  Smarty ran right around the side and it wasn't closed, then she ran out of the gate and Amanda caught her, while Jo and I had actual heart attacks.

I'm so happy for Jo.  She has so much love to give Smarty.  What a lucky dog.

Speaking of love, check out Mr. Cheepers.

I think it's pretty obvious that his mother was my Barred Rock and his father is Matrix and that he's a gosh darn rooster, gosh darn it.  I should have let him die in the shell.

The baby chickens turned feral while we were gone.  They got really skittish because Bob doesn't interact with them at all.  In fact, Bob was in Kansas for a week while we were gone and Jerry said the only reason my chickens are alive at all is because Jerry fed them twice a day.  I'm not sure how much Jerry fed them because they aren't laying.  The kids are getting them used to people by chasing them around and catching them.  They "love" it.

No Stuffed Animals Allowed

The day before we left on our trip, Greg bellowed at all the kids, "We're not bringing any stuffed animals on this trip.  Stuffed animals are not allowed."

Amanda and Sarah's favorite stuffed animals are gigantic and we toted their behemoth animals three years in a row, while they got in the way, and they walked on them with their filthy truckstop feet, and drug them in and out of hotel rooms, where they laid on the disgusting, do-not-even-tell-me-what's-been-there floors, and the sight of them gave me the creepers.  So Greg said, "NO STUFFED ANIMALS ALLOWED." this year.

The night before we left, Austin had a breakdown.  He was so hysterical, it took me awhile to figure out what was going on.  The kids had watched a Veggie Tales movie right before bed, and the talking religious vegetables had freaked him out to such an extent that he was bawling his head off.  He told me he never wants to grow up.  He always wants to be a child.  He doesn't want to get old and die and go to heaven.  He just wants to live on the Earth and be a child forever.

I kept reassuring him that growing up is fun and he'll get to do lots of fun things, like driving, and getting married someday, and having his own kids.

And he countered with taking tests, and getting a job, and getting old, all while bawling his head off that being a child is SO MUCH FUN and he just wants to stay a child forever.  He doesn't want to go to first grade and he doesn't want to leave me.

From that subject, his hysteria moved to Green Monkey, his favorite stuffed animal that he's had since he was in the PICU for brain surgery.  Greg  bought it and it hung it on his crib in the hospital and he's had it at bedtime ever since.  I have a video of him at bedtime from four years ago with Green Monkey, where someone accused me in my comments of speaking to my baby like a baby.

Anyway, Greg was not going to give Austin an exception for Green Monkey because that would show favoritism and then he'd have to let the girls bring their animals.  Fair is fair, but Austin was hysterical about it and I was mad at Greg for laying down the edict in the first place.  I planned on slipping Green Monkey in my purse on the morning we left, but when we woke the kids up that morning, I forgot about it as we were rushing out the door.

In fact, everyone forgot about it, including Austin.

Imagine all of our shock, when 400 miles later at a rest stop in Utah, Green Monkey appeared out of nowhere and was hanging on a pine tree.

It was just like magic.  Greg told Austin that Green Monkey must have missed him and figured out a way to find us in Utah.  None of the other kids were mad, because Green Monkey just showed up.

Little did they know that their dad had driven 400 miles with a monkey in his pocket.

From there, Green Monkey started showing up in the strangest places.

When we went tubing on the Platte River in Michigan, we were all floating along in our inner tubes when Green Monkey came drifting by in a plastic bag.  Green Monkey showed up all over the place on our trip.  He was in the forest and in rest stops all over America.

Each time he would make an appearance, the kids would be laughing hysterically.

After 22 years together, there are times that I could just kill Greg.  Are you feeling me married ladies?  Then he goes and pulls a monkey out of his pocket.

It Was A Grand Adventure!

Meteor Crater Rest Stop, Arizona

We woke up to beautiful, cool weather in New Mexico yesterday and started heading West.  I got the local Gallup newspaper and spent the whole drive through the Navajo Nation reading about issues effecting the Hopi and Navajo Indians.  There is a lot of mismanagement of federal dollars in the tribes and it was surprising to read that one Gulf War Veteran had been waiting for 10 years for tribal leaders to build him a house that he had received 175,000 toward.  He'd been living in a hogan, a round traditional Navajo house, with no electricity or water for a decade.  We actually saw quite a few hogans while we were driving.

Then I spent the next two hours reading about the Hopis and how they believe we descended from aliens.  Interesting stuff!!!  I was driving Greg insane with information about Kachina Gods, our alien creators. Have you guys ever seen a Kachina doll?  They actually LOOK like aliens.

We decided halfway through the drive to just go for it and drive the extra 200 miles out of our way and see the Grand Canyon.  I hadn't been there in 15 years.

It's still there, along with about 1 million European and Asian tourists hanging over the edge trying to get the best photo!

Before we got out of the car, I laid out the rules.  No climbing, hiking, bending, jumping, or leaning.

In other words, "You are not allowed to have fun at all."

Sarah and the triplets

Amanda told me in the car that her favorite part of the day was the rest stop in Arizona because they were allowed to climb and jump and scale the rocks.  The Grand Canyon was boring because I wouldn't let them do anything.

I told them they can all go back there and hike it when they are teenagers.  With their father because there is no way I will do that.  I could barely stand there and take a picture because the heights just send me over the edge.

So, anyway, 5000 miles, 13 states, and 72 hours of family drive time later, we are home.  While we were gone, the electricity went off, resetting our sprinkler timer to go off five times a day.  Our backyard has never been greener.  I think the grass is almost 1 inch high.  As you can imagine, Greg is beside himself and as I type, he is out there hacking it back down to its normal 1/8 of an inch.

Wait until he gets the $800 water bill!!!!!