You scratch my back..

I'll scratch yours...

Or not.

Agent P has no intention of reciprocating the back scratching, I guarantee it.

I was in the kitchen getting dinner going and I hear Agent P "Sissy, will you tickle my back - on the inside (of his shirt)". Being the little miss mama that she is, she happily lifts his shirt and scratches his back.

Mini P is a very diverse little girl.

She is an eye patch wearing, plyer using, crazy haired, back scratching kind of girl!

I would NEVER!

Friends, parenting is serious business. This is no time to be messing around! There are countless parenting books that you should read, classes you should take - and most of all - friends to get great advice from! It is important to raise kids to be good and trustworthy people.

I thought I would share the things I would NEVER do - so that you can understand how serious I take this parenting stuff. It is really up to you if you choose to "never" do these things either. But being a good parent takes lots of hard work and dedication!

.....

I would NEVER allow my kids to eat food off the floor if it had been there from the day before. Even if it IS chocolate.

I would NEVER carry a kiddy potty in my minivan and have my kids pee in it and then pour the pee out elsewhere. I would especially never take the potty out, put it on the ground and wait for them to use it while I load up other kids. I think that might be classified as public indecency.

I would NEVER use the pool as a replacement for a bath. That is wrong.

I would NEVER turn on the TV (to a kids show) just because my kids are making me completely nuts. Never.

I refuse to bribe my kids with cookies, gummies or candy of any sorts. Ever.

I would NEVER feed my kids chocolate chip pancakes for snack.

I would NEVER let my kids wear their PJ's all day. They have more clothes than they would need on a 30 day vacation - why not wear them?

You would never catch me taking my kids outside to let the dog clean them off - that's gross!

I am pretty sure that I would NEVER let my kids out of the house completely mismatched with hair that hasn't been combed in days. That is just irresponsible.

I have NOT contemplated "velcro"ing my kids to their beds, just to keep them there during nap.

I NEVER call my kids by the wrong name, nor have I called them by the dogs' name. If anyone you know has done this, I recommend that they get tested for Alzheimer's or Dementia.

I would NEVER skip feeding my kids dinner so that we could go out for ice cream. Kids need balanced meals and nutritious snacks every day.

I absolutely would NOT sneak a mocha from Starbucks - it is our job as parents to teach sharing.

I NEVER tell my kids "I'm going to a meeting" when I'm actually going out with my girlfriends. That is lying and lying is bad.

.....
If you or someone you know has done one or more of these things - then perhaps it's time to take a long hard look at the type of parenting that is going on. What kind of children can survive a childhood being subject to any of the items listed??
......

(and if you really believe that I did NONE these, I have a beach house in Nevada I can hook you up with! I do take parenting seriously and none of my kids were hurt in the making of this blog post. In fact, they are all perfectly happy watching Dora right now eating chocolate chip pancakes! I've gotta run, I have a meeting - LOL!)

When the going gets tough...

the tough get goin'!

And gone they are! For 3 (choke...cough) MONTHS!!!

I know, you are thinking "how could they leave on a 3 month vacation and endure all that relaxing??? What kind of person is willing to make that kind of sacrafice?"

We are thinking the same thing. I mean, really, you can only drink so many margaritas, bottles jugs of beer, glasses bottles of wine...before the whole visiting wonderful cousins (Hi Jani!), and enjoying parts of our amazing country before you just want to come back to these little sweeties...

Well, apparently 3 months.

Maybe.

You know how Gilligan's "3 hour tour" turned out.

They (even the non-pictured ADog) miss you Grandma and Grandpa - please travel safe! We all love you!

A well laid plan.

I had it all figured out...ya know, like I usually do. Agent P would go to afternoon Kindergarten. We'd have the morning all together and in the afternoons when he was at school - the twins would have a nice quiet house to get in a great nap. I would get all sorts of things done. I would work out, clean, catch up on stuff...ya know - the good stuff! It was all dreamy and perfectly choreographed!

Apparently my twins have other plans for me. We are 2.5 weeks into this new schedule and I've accomplished zilch.

I had a conversation with Mini P - because really she doesn't just repeat everything I say like Monkey does. She doesn't always agree with me and that's ok - at least I know she's got an opinion and isn't just repeating back what I've said.

So, the conversation went a little like this:

Me: Today you are going to stay in your bed and take a nap - no getting up and playing.
Mini P: But I need to talk to Monkey, in his bed.
Me: No, you need to stay in your bed.
Mini P: No, I need to read books with Monkey.
Me: During nappie time - you can read books in YOUR bed, but you need to STAY THERE. Stop getting out of bed.
Mini P: Stop getting out of bed?
Me: YES!

The conversation went nowhere from there, I'm sure it ended with me saying something like "whatever, go color". As I searched for some hard liquor of sorts.

It is Thursday in in 4 days they have napped 1 of those days. Therefore I have not worked out. I have not caught up on much. I've spent most of the time walking around in my Bose Noise Cancelling Headphones yelling "get back in bed" from all areas of the house. I figure if I can hear them - they are not behaving and are probably not even in bed.

(By the way - when I got these headphones for my birthday - Agent P and I looked at each other and were both convinced there was an airline ticket in there somewhere. Obviously they are for wearing on an airplane - and daddy was shipping me off somewhere like a remote island, or perhaps a nice quiet beach somewhere. No, he was just offering up something to help me get thru the day.)

I wear them. Every. Single. Day. Honestly.

Anyway, I (as usual) have digressed.

Here is what I found this week:

Books that were once on the shelf

Other days I have found their beds completely cleared of any friends or pillows or blankets. I have found puzzles all over the floor half completed. The list goes on and on.

So, my naptime plans have changed. I'm getting good at just wearing the headphones trying to get a 'breather' for the day. It's not real good on the hair, but whatever.

Got any ideas on how to get 2 peeps in the same room who think nap time is one big party - to STAY IN BED AND SLEEP??? I need help. Big time.

Pause for a moment.

As I about to post some more pictures, I received a phone call that no one ever wants to get.

My sweet husband called to tell me that there was an accident and one of his co-workers was killed. My husband has worked at this mining consulting company for 16 years - this has never happened to one of their employees.

As a side note, the employee that was killed (while in South America working with another of the employees) has a twin brother that we know and really like. I have not met the brother that was killed. This makes is especially heatbreaking - because twins are something special.

This is very devastating for us. My husband has worked at these mines. He has done the travel these younger guys are doing. These are his workmates. His work family. These are people I know - since I worked there for 4 years as well. I am devastated for them. I am heartbroken for the owners of this company - my husband being one of them. Recovery will not be easy. Please pray for them.

I cannot post pictures today. I just can't.

Vacation part 1.

I know, right? You are thinking - "geez, it's about time". I mean, really - what have I been doing? Well, since I could write and entire post on that, and never get pictures posted - I will skip it!


So, vacation. I have to do this in 2 parts. 1 Beach, 1 other things we did. Notice the beach takes up 1 section. That should tell you how much time we spent there, or not. I forgot to take pictures when I relaxed too much. That and boy, the beach is sandy!!! Didn't want to ruin my camera!

So, here it is...Pure bliss!

Romping in the waves

Who will go first?

It's not always who you think it will be!

Building my new castle, so I can live on the beach : )

My kids and my nieces - working on my driveway...to my new castle.

Watch out Bay Watch, you got nothing on this girl!

"I really need to clean out the handle, so much sand!"

Beach Bum.

There. There are some to tide you over until I can sit down and do some more. For now, just know we really enjoyed leaving 100 degree temps for the 60s/70s we enjoyed on the beach. Did I mention we went to the beach a lot???

That time of the year...

when school starts and everyone at the stores are fighting over the last pack of loose leaf paper (until everyone realizes that they are bringing another box).

When the lazy days of summer are replaced by alarm clocks and routine. 

I hate this time of year.

I suppose that hate is a very strong word. I really tend to dislike the end of summer. The end of any break really. I enjoy break, a LOT :- ). I mean, I have a child of the age that I can utilize for a very large array of chores - what's not to like???

But there are more changes than school starting, but why don't we start here. (OH, and friends, I am still editing the vacation photos. I use "burst" mode to try to capture at least 1 decent photo in an array of 12ish, so, let's be patient shall we?? PLUS, I STILL don't have good photo editing software on my Netbook - but let's not start with that again...)

1. ADog is my new 7th grader. He's such a nice poser. Basically every "first day photo" since Kindergarten looks like this. Some have teary eyes, but this one doesn't. Same pose, same smile, different length of hair. He's good like that!

2. Then there is my new Kindergartener Agent P. Also a nice pose - however, not necessarily 'framable'.  All 5 I took look like this, or crazier. The kid was coming out of his skin for 3 days before school started. It's a miracle he I survived.

Agent P is in afternoon Kinder - but really, it's only like 3 hours. He rides the bus home with ADog and it is the sweetest thing!.

On day 2 of Kindergarten, he asked me why I was walking him to his class AGAIN. He KNEW where it was. I told him the school requires I do this, sorry. So he says "can't I just ride the bus to school?" So, now I don't make the 15 mile round trip journey, I let the bus do it. He just loves the independence - and it's all about him. (we won't go into MY feelings of rejection tho..)

3. I now drive a minivan. We knew we needed another vehicle that held all 6 of us - my sweet husband suggested the minivan. I personally was not a fan, but it works.

Pretty sure I was boon-doggled into this one.  I didn't realize that I would be driving it until we got it home and my sweet husband says "do you want help putting the car seats in there?". I mean we did trade in his car, not my suburban. Now the twins call the minivan mine and the Suburban mine. So sweet!

4. Our twins now sleep in toddler beds.

Personally I would have kept them in their cribs until at least 2nd grade, but one of my girlfriends is having a baby and I told her I would give her one of the cribs. So, since during vacation, the twins slept on the floor and that went decent ("well" would be overstating), we decided to bite the bullet.

Mini P has been ready for this for quite some time. We were waiting for Monkey and frankly, if I could have gotten away with him in a crib still, I would have. He is the worst at nap. While she stays in bed reading and goes to sleep - he plays loudly with trucks (siren and all), drops them on the wood floor, kicks the wall and gets out of bed for more toys. Yet, somehow, she sleeps thru it all for the most part.

Notice on the photo, where he has several letters from his name missing? Those were removed a few weeks ago. They are out of reach - so he must have used a book, truck or just banged the walls so violently hard that they fell down (and he subsequently destroyed them). Now I just call him "ike" :- )

5. I applied for one of my kids to join the circus. The Freak Show specifically. I'm sure Grandma would be super proud of this kid - but it is just wrong.

The question "why is he putting crayons between his toes" will just have to remain unanswered. Sometimes, there are just no answers.

Keep hanging on to the edge of your seat - vacation pictures will be up soon!