Vida Loca

Ok today was GOOD DAY as Grace would say.
We did not get confirmation, but Eli's birth oven was scheduled to goto the court today and sign off the paper work on him. So in theory it is done and the last big hurdle for Eli's adoption is done. The other two are still working though things, we need to go sign more papers this weekend. Sign paper is a nice way of seeing what the state is charging us for now... sigh.

Other than that only 2ft of snow left in the back yard and the pond is mostly unfrozen. YEAH.
Oh and one of the hens was acting broody.. Cool beans. Hoping for some interesting chicks this spring

Posted by Chuck at 06:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Yeah ok.

I agree we really have sucked at posting.

And its mostly my fault, but darn it if I was to use an excuse the kids have hit fun stages, even the grumpy teenager.

But here, some pics and so forth...

This is the young ones on a cow at the Fair a month or so ago.. man, we were there for a day with Granny, and the WORST thing the kids did was be loud for like 10 mins in the car on the way. The behaved like angels. No whining, no gimmi gimmi, no running around, they were awesome. Fun day fr all.

We have one branch that always turns first. i really want to remove the tree, but not gonna happen cause it always goes vivid first. This is not it, this is an other tree, but point is there.

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This is the tree that does the first leaf... Also first without leaves...

Nother one of the tree...

I finally got rid of one of the big trees hanging over the house. Bout time it was being eaten by carpenter ants and was not happy.

The kids had a great Halloween. Alex was an aquarium, the twits were Thing one and two and grace was grace...

The night shot...

Same one with a flash. HAHAh

Ok so there some pics for all and I will try to update more. if not just yell at me again

Posted by Chuck at 02:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

I said I wasn't going to cry on the first day of kindergarden AND I didn't, BUT I did tear up a bit. How in the heck did they get to be five and going to school? Sheesh What are they trying to do break my heart? We won't, and I mean WILL NOT discuss the fact that the oldest is talking about joining the N@vy. WILL.NOT.DISCUSS.IT! ~sigh~

Uh he had his shirt on backwards for the pic, I didn't notice until the bus was coming up the hill. That must have made a great impression on the bus driver while he was flipping his shirt around. What? I hadn't have my coffee yet!

Today I sent him to school with a shirt that said, "Troublemaker is my middle name" because I figure the teacher should know what she is in for, especially with two of them in class. AHAHAHAHAHAHAA!!!

Looks innocent doesn't he? Don't let that fool you. I sent him to school with a shirt that says, "Monkey see, Monkey do, Monkey get in trouble too." AHAHAHAAA!! I almost, ALMOST feel sorry for the teacher.

"Uh where does the bus think it is doing without me? Come back! Uh Mom, they left without me." Miss G was NOT pleased that they left without her. She took off down the driveway to my car wanting to go somewhere. Let's say that when she realized she wasn't going anywhere she was very displeased.

I did better today, I didn't do a little dance when the bus left with them on it. AHAHAHA!!! I win! Five down, one to go. =)

Posted by Laura at 01:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (7)

So, things have been rather busy here at Demon Brigade Central. Right now we have a teacher coming twice a week to sit with Z and E to help them get ready for school. They read, do little projects and basically just soak things in. So with that, starting to get the kids ready for school, working and everything else that goes into being a family of 8 we have been rather busy. In all of that we have had time for water balloon fights, quiet time of reading, going to the beach and what not. During all of this some of the things that come out of children's mouths shock and amuse the hell out of Chuck and I.

Z~"Mom, Dad, E won't let me go to sleep because he is following me down the stairs." Huh, if you were in bed, then he wouldn't be following you down the stairs, thus letting you sleep. =)

After nailing his 17 year old brother with a water balloon, Z runs around saying, "I win! I win!! You got owned! You lost to a little kid. I own you!" You see where this is going right? After getting hit with a water balloon by said 17 year old."You cheat!"

E~"Z hit me! He was being rude! He hit me after I threw the toy at him and it really hurt. How rude!"

After getting told not to play with the hose, he is caught playing with the water spigot to fill a water balloon. "But I wasn't playing with the hose Daddy."

G~"E is looking at me!!!" And it starts. Oy! Next she will be mad because he is breathing in her general direction.

The other three have been actually be rather good lately. JD has actually started reading. Ok ok so we had to ground him from everything under the sun to get him to do it but hey, baby steps right?

So, it is starting to hit me that I have: A junior in high school, a seventh grader, a third grader, and two starting kindergarten. Chuck seems to think I will be crying for that first week. Yeah, tears of freaking joy! I might just do flips too. ~heh~five down and one to go! =) ~sigh~ I feel old.

Posted by Laura at 09:13 AM | Permalink | Comments (7)

I am not a teacher. Isn’t that a good thing. 30 mins working on the alphabet with the twins and I am about to get a cattle prod. Arrgggggg.

I KNOW it is not them, but the 2 sec memory drives me insane. If I hear A,B,Z,T one more time I am going to go mental so it was time to stop class for the day.

God it seems like all my posts are negative lately, don’t know why, the kids are boisterous but they are SOOOOOOOOOO well behaved considering most peoples kids I have nothing at all to complain about. Grace is big time into wandering the house and getting into everything, and the twins are beating the crap out of each other now and then, but that’s normal kid stuff. Seems like every time I post I sound frustrated and things are great here. Its always a challnge mind you, but that’s why we have 6 house monkeys.

Was reading a blog today about someone who lost their nanny, she was hired off by someone they met at the park and blah blah blah.

HAHAHAHAHHAH

I read 2 pages snickering to myself, and the anguish of losing the nanny and the kids upset and so on. HAHAHHA. Sorry, but raise em yourself. Of course I say that and right now I would kill for one. Sigh.

Anyways, tired and sun burnt, but life goes on and time to finish dinner. But hey, I posted two days in a row. Badly, but I posted.

Posted by Chuck at 05:52 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

So, things have been unreal here for last few weeks.
SHE had vacation for a week so I worked 2X as hard… not sure how that worked out, but it did and no worries. Last weekend we did the Yarmouth Clam fest 2 days and then the Farm day at Shaker Village. Great fun and kids had a blast and we were exhausted. Then a week of things with kids and the Friday I took the day off to and we went to the beach for the day.

And we are mostly all fried. Me, Zach and Alex are pretty toast, Eli has color and the women escaped as always.

Today was another local fest and I am wiped out, but SHE goes back to work. Sucks to have her gone, but getting her into bed before 11 is imposable. It just DOES NOT HAPPEN. And I really need to catch up on the 10 hours or so sleep I am short by the end of the week.

Talking about HER this morning she broke the mixing bowl on my Oster Kitchen Center. The love of my kitchen life. I remember when Mother broke hers when I was young and Dad was pissed for a week over the cost of replacing it. I found em online, 12$, hey I am over it. Let her talk me out of a Stainless Steel one, thinking that might have been mistake to not just get 2, but her birthday is coming (insert evil grin here)

Other news the 12 year old has gotten himself a girl friend. Sigh. And the oldest looks like has one too, again named after one of the dogs. Weird he keeps dating girls with the dog names.

Today’s minor project (major project was not killing any of the monsters) was to put a big fan in the twits room on the 3rd/4th floor. Been getting really hot up there. So I literally covered a window and mounted a box fan in it. That should cool it down.

All the heat in the house works up there so it is understandable warm, but it was in the 120Deg range the other day.. a bit too warm for the twits and Alex to sleep in.

Ok well dinner is done so I am going to post this and feed the horde…

Posted by Chuck at 06:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

You are 5 years old.
You are 60 months old.
You are 261 weeks old.
You are 1,828 days old.
You are 43,887 hours old.
You are 2,633,254 minutes old.
You are 157,995,264 seconds old.

And to paraphrase the famous Master card commercial, Helping Dad's hair turn gray, priceless.

So he lived 5 years, scary huh. I would like to think with out HER it probably would have been shorter. Eli has a tremendous capacity to be cute, he is also the most evil of all the kids. And I do not really mean evil in a bad way, he is just far sneakier and the most needing of one eye always on him. When you take your eyes off him for only a minute things like his older brothers Atom models made out of marshmallows disappear. But he had a wonderful birthday even though not a single grandparent called.. Or uncle, or Aunt... But that is fairly normal so hardly worth noticing and he did get a card from Granny that he proudly read to us all. Other than that and the daily fights over who wins at Chutes and Ladders thing are quiet here.
Oh and i left the eyes red on purpose, he has been in one of those moods today

Posted by Chuck at 03:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

Pissing me off is usually a pretty bad plan. The rooster has been attacking me only when I am walking away for a bit now. I was going to just wring his neck, but we are trying a different tact.

Now I just laugh at him.

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The chicks are doing fine and growing daily. The Araucarias are being very hand trained…

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All the new birds got together for a few mins the other day.. so you can see how they have grown..

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The twits signed up for Kinder the other day, and I got pics.. One with his nametag on, the other with a flower… Sigh. Why do the words alternate lifestyles come to mind…

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Ok I’m done doing pics, it’s a pain in the butt.

Posted by Chuck at 07:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

Last year for Mother's Day I was given a very pretty yellow rose bush. It was of course meant to withstand the frigid Maine weather we get. That being said, we didn't plant it in the ground. We planted it in a very nice pot. Which of course left it to my mercy. Have I ever mentioned that Chuck has a green thumb? He does. His father was a Master Gardener and Chuck has inherited that gift. He doesn't like it mind you but the man can make anything grow much to my disgust. Me? Black thumb. I can kill the ivy that you put a cutting of in a glass of water and leave it alone. Oh yeah, I can kill it. Although to give me some credit, I have managed to keep one alive for the past month. So far, so good. Keep your fingers crossed for the ivy, folks. Oops, what does this have to do with Mother's day? Well this past winter I brought in said yellow rose because I thought it was too cold. I shocked it and the sucker died on me. Well hell. Who knew that going from -10 outside to 78 inside ::because I put it in the kitchen where the wood stove is:: would kill it? Apparently everyone but me. Oops. This year? I was given a glorious lavender/purple rose bush that was planted in the back garden to "protect it from you" I was told. What's he trying to tell me? Gee, I wonder. So I got a beautiful rose bush, a nice painting hand made by a certain eight year old and a very nice corsage. Not to mention the assorted hugs and kisses from everyone. I did have to work later on that day but it was all in all a nice day.

Yesterday we went and registered the younger boys for kindergarten. Whoa, take two. Kindergarten? When did that happen? Wasn't it just yesterday they were one and running around finding ways to gang up on me. Wait, they still do that. But still. School? Already? Damn, I don't know if I am ready for it. On the one hand, oh hell yes I am ready. On the other? School? Aren't they a little young? ~sigh~ Obviously not. I think it is funny that they call it kindergarten screening but that is essentially what they do. There weren't any surprises. We were pretty sure about what the teachers/evaluation team was going to say. Zach was a little miffed. He thought he was going to get to play with more toys. Welcome to the beginning of your academic career there Bud. =) So, we have one in high school, one in junior high, one in elementary and two about to start kinder. When did I get so old? Then again, those teachers and administrators are going to be SO tired of us before it is all said and done!! As I have told one of the school psychologists that said some thing that I wasn't please with, "I have six kids going through this school system, you are going to be dealing with me for a long time whether you like it or not." =) But Kindergarten? ~sigh~ Wow.

Granny~ Thank you for calling this morning. It was, as always, a treat to talk to you! I am glad everything is going well. Send D our best. =)

On the computer front, we have a friend wiping my computer and reinstalling the operating system. I knew it was bad when he asked, "Is there anything on here you are going to miss?" DAMN. All my knitting patterns that I had saved on there! Double Damn! Lucky for us ::knocks on wood:: all our pictures are saved on Chuck's computer. For now I have confiscated the laptop. ~mutters~

Posted by Laura at 08:01 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Chickens (and teenagers) are mind numbingly stupid at times.

I have my sprinkler going in the back yard. The chickens wander into the reach of its water and all start to beeline for the porch cause it is raining, get 1/2 way there, and Magic, the rain stopped. Wander back and OMG its raining again… Repeat for 30 mins or so.

Almost like a teenager, “I have to do the dishes?” yeah you have done em every night for a year but today magic happened and they cleaned themselves.. Arrgggg.

Or a darling baby girl who started to cry when she was getting her hair washed tonight cause she just does not like it, and then listen while daddy explained that every time you pour tomato soup on your head your hair get washed…

Oh well, at least the twits haven't actually broken any thing since about 3. Progress.

Posted by Chuck at 07:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I have gone pretty much the whole year, as in fall, winter, most of Spring without so much as a damn sniffle!

This morning? I woke up with a sore throat and I feel like doggy doo. Damnit. ~sigh~ I hate being sick. Now? I have to be sick? I could have handled it when it was negative 10 out and icy. That is when you are supposed to be sick. But now? ~grumble~ It's all Chuck's fault, he is sick right now. I KNOW he gave it to me. When in doubt? Blame the husband.

Oh? Wanna have fun? Tell Chuck the full moon is tomorrow night. He seems to think my moods and the full moon tend to coincide. ~rolls eyes~ Can't imagine whatEVER gave him that idea. *heh*

To top it off the three little ones are having a "HE LOOKED AT ME" day. I have half a mind to sit them in a circle and make them watch eachother until lunch time because I am JUST that evil! =)

Posted by Laura at 11:07 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

On April 22nd we had a birthday around here. I know, what month don't we have birthdays right? =) Actually it is easier to list what months we don't as opposed to what months we do, but that is besides the point.

Anyhow~Zach turned five. FIVE. I cannot believe it. Seriously FIVE! As in he starts school next year ::does cart wheels:: and is starting to think for himself! How in the heck did this happen? FIVE! I suppose we won't mention that the oldest is going to be 17 this summer. I am in complete denial about that. So back to Zach, FIVE.

Here is a pic of the birthday boy on his bike which he got for his birthday. Upon seeing said bike he exclaimed "SWEET!!" and told me later when we were out riding it that he looks, "SO cool on my bike mom!" ~sigh~I feel old.

Holy chit! Tomorrow is going to be MAY already!

As for this new blog. We mostly wanted a blog that we could give to family and friends that live out of state so that we could keep in touch and have pictures up for them to see. We've had this domain for over a year a had done not a darn thing with it. So with that, here we are! =)

Posted by Laura at 07:33 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)