Ewwwwwww!!!

OMG! OMG! OMG! I was sitting in the backyard yesterday watching the kids play when Dylan and one of the other boys disappeared on the side of the house. I didn't really think much of it because there is nothing over there except the gate, which was locked. Pretty soon, I hear them come back around the corner saying, "Awwww, Miss Sara (Mommy), look, isn't it cute?!?! It's sleeping!!!" and in the little boy's arms was a dead RAT!!!

OK, I thought, (after I nearly jumped on top of the patio table) stay calm, you're the adult!!! Ewwwwww!!! So, what did I do??? I said, "Oh My God! No, No! Put that down! It's not sleeping! EWWWWWW!!!" So, the little boy dropped it with a thud and looked at me with this scared look like he was going to cry. Crap! So, I quickly dragged them inside, scrubbed all of their hands, arms and faces (just in case) furiously all the while saying, "My goodness, that was interesting wasn't it?!?! Miss Sara will have to take him to see a doctor so he can get well!" and of course I'm thinking, "Yeah, the doctor in the garbage can." Gross!

So anyway, here's the picture I took after I managed to scoop up the little rodent carcass from my patio into a disposable tupperware container.





I'm not sure where this guys family is, but hopefully this is the last we will be seeing of any of them!

It also crossed my mind several times yesterday if there was a full moon or something. The rat made his appearance in the morning, then after nap time, I had some more fun with the kids. The infant was having a tough afternoon and just wanted to be held. The 20 month old has figured out that if she screams, she gets lots of attention from everyone. So, all day, I listened to this high pitched squeal every time she wanted something, didn't want something, or simply wanted people to pay attention to her. The 2 1/2 year old woke up from her nap and went potty, like a good girl. Then not 10 minutes later, pooped in her underwear! Geez, could you not do that a few minutes ago?!?! So, I get her all cleaned up, underwear washed out and all...by this time the baby is wailing because I have not been holding her for the last 10 minutes and she is dang sick of looking at the same toy dangling above her.

Just as I return poopy girl to play with the other kids, I look over at Dylan and he said, "Oh no Mommy" and proceeded to pee all over the tile at the front door! (At least he realized he needed to go before he went...do ya think you could give me more than half a second warning?!?!) So, I walk right by the wailing baby (who is soooo not happy at this point) and proceed to get a roll of paper towels from the kitchen to sop up the mess. I returned to Dylan only to find him "skating" through his puddle with his bare feet shouting "WEEEEE!!!"

So I get the puddle (and skate marks) cleaned up and take DJ to the bathroom to clean him up. Shew...now I can finally get to the baby. Or so I thought. For whatever reason, Dylan got mad at the 2 1/2 year old on his way out of the bathroom and slugged her (again). So off we went to his room for the 44th time-out that day (it seemed). OK, now I can get to the baby, whose face is beat red with snot running out of her nose. So I pick her up, wipe the gooey mess from her face and turn around to see Dylan standing there grabbing his you-know-what saying, "Uh Oh Mommy". OH FOR THE LOVE OF GOD!!!

OK, I can handle this...so I set the baby back down where she proceeded to make another gooey mess of her face. Dylan and I tromp back to the bathroom to deal with the poopy mess in his underwear. Just then, a parent walks in to see the baby screaming on her blanket (still lying below the infamous toy) so she goes over to pick her up. I have never heard a baby scream as loud and long as that baby did right then! Woo Wee, that kid has some lungs, and apparently hates strangers even more than the stupid toy dangling above her! So, I get DJ taken care of, re-integrated into the group, and take the baby and calm her down just as her mom walks in. "Why does she look like she's been crying?" Weeellllll, let me see.........

And so ends another day of daycare.

Lightning...Are you KIDDING ME?!?!

Have you ever met someone who was struck by lightning? Yeah, me neither...until now at least. Last night we had a thunderstorm (that really didn't seem that bad) but there was lots of lightning. Sure enough, around 10:30, we heard a really loud Crack! Crack! I had the windows open and it just about scared the pea right out of me! The first thing I did, was check to see if the kids were going to start screaming (they didn't even budge)! We are still not sure where it actually hit, but we're pretty sure that it didn't hit directly on our house as there is no outside damage. HOWEVER, we lost half the power in our house because the power surge blew some circuits. When we fixed the breakers, we realized that some of the GFCI outlets needed to be reset...OK, fine, that's easy enough. Well, then we realized that the security system was acting funny--when we went out in the garage to check it, the transformer was smoking at the outlet! Took care of that, went to check the actual motherboard and it smelled like someone had set fire to an outlet. Then as we checked further, we realized that the garage door opener was fried, our stereo receiver will not turn on, the outlet in the utility room did not work, one of the DVD players will not turn on, one of the phones would not work and the others had a terrible static on them, one of our lamps in the bedroom will not turn on, and best of all, our HVAC (heat/air conditioner) system is fried as well. CAN YOU EVEN BELIEVE THIS?!?!

Brad and I just kind of have to laugh...I mean, what else are we supposed to do? Getting mad won't help. So we thought that there may be some light at the end of the tunnel because our house is less than a year old and should be covered by warranty...unless you get struck by lightning! It should fall under our home owners insurance, but of course there is always the lovely deductible! Arrrrggggghh!!!

So, I just have to chuckle at this whole situation. Here we are, trying to save money for our upcoming changes that have us scared enough as it is, and now this! I guess you shouldn't plan on standing too close to us since we have officially been struck down! You know what they say though, lightning never strikes twice! Gee, I hope that's really true!

Provider of the Quarter

Well, if you've read my profile, you know that pretty much all I do all day is run around behind 6 kids, putting toys away, wiping up the spit-up off my shoulder, teaching the ABC's and 1,2,3's, cleaning the kitchen at least 4 times before noon, and generally making sure that the 6 of them do not kill each other or themselves (or back me into a corner with Nerf dart guns)! Anyway, it's a thankless job, but someone has to do it, right??? Well, on Friday, I found out that it is apparently not as thankless as I thought as I was recognized as Provider of the Quarter for Tinker AFB. What does that mean you ask? Well, I get a plaque to put next to my license on the wall, and eventually, I think I get a sign in my yard that will stay there for like 3 months or so. The sign in the yard will be nice because it helps to alert those that may not already know that I have a zoo just on the other side of the door, to knock at their own risk! Maybe the mailman will get the hint and quit ringing the doorbell numerous times when he drops off a package during naptime. You know, apparently the sign RIGHT ABOVE my doorbell that reads "Do not ring doorbell between noon and 3 pm" is not good enough. Anyway, it was nice to be recognized for what I do so I thought I would share!

Happy Halloween!

So, alot of you know that Fall is my most favorite season ever! I love the fall colors, the changing leaves, and the cool, brisk mornings! Ok, Ok, I'll stop sounding like a hallmark card. But seriously, this is the best time of year to decorate! Check out the pic of the ginormous pumpkin that I have in my front yard compliments of Linda (a.k.a. Grandma Garcia). The top pumpkin spins and the cat pokes it's head in and out of the smaller pumpkin! It was pretty funny when I put it up...the neighbors had to come out and comment on it...at least those neighbors that decide to poke their heads out of their domicile. Sometimes I wonder if their front doors even work--now days everyone opens their garage from down the street, zips inside, shuts the garage door, and you don't see them again until they open the garage door in the morning to leave for work! Sad... I remember the days that my parents would be out until dark talking to the neighbors, we didn't even have a garage door opener (yes, I know, unfathomable now! We actually got rained on to open it!) and my Dad would have to use his "extra loud whistle" to call us home from the neighbor kid's backyard.

Whew, that was a bit of a tangent. Anyway, I love this season! The hay bales are on my front porch and will soon be adorned with all the pumpkins that the kids (and I ;)) will collect from the pumpkin patch and carve. Woo Hoo, I can't wait!

Jinx?

So, I am probably going to jinx myself by uttering these words--even electronically...but Dylan may be figuring out this potty thing! I spent all of last week and the whole weekend doing tiny loads of laundry just so that Dylan would have clean underwear to "practice" in. It seemed like every time I turned around Dylan would be there, saying "Uh oh Mommy, I wet!" or, even better, "Awwww, Mommy, I poopy!" So, off to the toilet we would go, carrying him out at arms length as if he had the plague or something. And the best part of all, cleaning the poopy out of the 'Lightning McQueen' underwear by wringing them out in the toilet. I must say, that my toilet has never been cleaner (aside from when Taylor was in this lovely stage) since I now have to immerse both hands in it almost daily. All of you mom's who have done this, I'm sure are chuckling...to all of you who may not have kids yet...your time is coming!

Anyway, getting to the point...Dylan has been in the same pair of underwear since he woke up this morning!!! Annnnd, his pullup was dry after naptime too! Ok, so I know it is only one day, but boy, it was nice to not do a load of laundry that consisted of 6 pairs of underwear and maybe a towel if I was lucky. Keep your fingers crossed! Don't you wish you could come and switch places with me for a little while?!?!

STOP TAKING PICTURES!!!

Wahoo!!! I got a new camera this last weekend! I love, love, love it! It is the Nikon D40 and it takes amazing pictures (at least I hear it takes amazing pictures, once you figure out how to do the settings!) Actually, it's not that difficult to figure out, but I still have some perfecting to do. Anyway, I think the kid's cheeks must be killing them by now since, between Brad and I, we have snapped a gazillion pictures of them. Thank god for the delete function and big storage cards!

Almost Forgot...

Oh yeah...I saw this really cute gift idea on Stacy Julian's blog (which I check on a daily basis). They are customizeable Kleenex boxes! How fun are these??? You can create one at mykleenextissue.com. Kind of expensive for a box of kleenex, but pretty cheap for a cute gift *wink*!