Happy half a birthday to you....

Today the firstborn in our home turned 13 and a half. What fun crazy thing did I do for him you ask, well..... I was going to have a balloon and his favorite candy delivered to the school ( I was going to eat half of the candy) since he never gets birthday deliveries at school with a July birthday and all. But, as it was preschool today I never made it to the store to accomplish afore mentioned task. Then I thought I might bake a cake and throw half of it away--but Jr. Miss was right away today instead of in the evening. Then all of a sudden I was back home with five kids, no man(business trip) and all Jax got was, "happy half a birthday son" from me. He replied with " oh, yeah, cool---can I quit wrestling?" I replied "I don't know, ask your Dad." It was a special time for us both!! I did however sneak in his room tonight and take a picture of "half" his face (I always wondered when bed head occurred--apparently early on in the sleeping process)! This will have to do for now. I resolve to do better at half birthday's for us all this year. Once a year just isn't enough times to have a fuss made about each one of them. I need to do more. Tonight the man comes back, the lone grownup in the house won't be so outnumbered and I am sure to get my groove back. And I want to say that silly or not -- you don't forget to feel grateful for the Half birthday's when at one time in life you weren't sure he would have any more birthdays at all. The blessing of cancer, you don't ever forget to feel gratitude for every milestone or in this case half a milestone!

Pictures are a Go!

If there is one thing I have learned, after 15 1/2 years of marriage it's that if I wait long enough for help from Michael I'll either get it-- or I resort to turning my stagnant brain on and I figure it out alone. The fact that there will be pictures on this post, FINALLY, is all thanks to my cobwebby brain. There are pictures from the Christmas post, from the BAM the basement flooded post, and most recently Sierra and Zoe danced during half-time of the high school boys basketball game and there is a photo of those two beauties. I think this new camera and I will do just fine, although from the looks of the Christmas pictures it doesn't like taking pictures at 6 am any more than I do!

BAM

Do you ever go to bed at night and your house is fairly picked up and clean? I rarely do, but Tuesday night I did(It was such a thrilly moment for me). As I lay in bed I could hear the hum of the dishwasher washing my dishes all clean and sparkly. I could hear the buzz of the dryer as it finished it's cycle. I was thinking that except for vacuuming and laundry I really had a pretty calm day ahead of me. I also thought that every time, in the past, I've had those thoughts about a nice calm quiet day ahead, that the day ahead blows up in my face. I slept uneasily. Wednesday morning was the usual get four kids off and ready for school rush. Sammi is needing P.E. clothes and I am feeling like I have a handle on my home because I actually know where they are. "Sam, they are in the dryer honey I started it last night before I went to bed." Skip ahead 1 minute and Sammi comes upstairs --"Uh Mom I'm like walking to the laundry room and BAM(bam is the new catch word with our kiddos) I walk in like all this water all over the play room floor." Cut ahead to the next 12 hours of shop vac sucking, every towel in the house soaking wet, Michael and good ole' Matt scooping leaves, snow, ice and muck to discover the blockage, hoses (frozen ones too), and power snakes to unclog the said clog. Bulging and warped flooring in the preschool room. Popped trim and sopping wet carpet and carpet pad. Dryers making unearthly noises and causing mind blowing headaches, carpets ripped up and two extremely exhausted, extremely sore adults living in this blessed, blasted house. BAM-- that's what I get for thinking I might be getting ahead.