30 SOMETHING.

I HAD THE LOVELIEST BIRTHDAY EVER TODAY.

A BILLION FACEBOOK BIRTHDAY WISHES!

4 TRIPS TO SONIC FOR MY FAVE EXTRA LARGE ICE WATER WITH EXTRA ICE.

HUGS AND KISSES FROM THE KIDS. I HAVE THE SWEETEST KIDS.

AND THE RADDEST FRIENDS.

AND THE BEST FAMILY.

ever!

i went to  Lunch with the hubs.

my mother in law took my sidekick for the day.

my mom came to visit.

my cousin stopped by.

so did one of my best friends.

and a girl in my ward.

i didn't cook dinner. we ate out. 12 of us. US, my mom and little brother and my mother in law. 12 people. FUN TIMES! and i wore the sombrero. admit it. that's FANCY!

;)

somehow i didn't have time for a pedicure. i'll go another day. who are we kidding i'm stretching this sucker out for a few more days. i deserve it.
;)


34. SHEESH. SOMEHOW THAT FEELS OLD TO ME.
JUST ONE YEAR AWAY FROM 35. AND 35 IS ONE OF THOSE YEARS THAT MAKES YOU FEEL OLD.

AND HOLY CRAP I USED TO WATCH 30 SOMETHING. DID YOU WATCH THAT?

THEY SEEMED OLD. AND I'M RIGHT THERE NOW.

OF COURSE I AM NOT that old yet! JUST OLDER.

AH WELL. THE BIRTHDAY WISHES MADE IT SUPER GREAT.

i ♥ Facebook birthdays!

and my friends. and my family and my kids. and my birthday loot.

BEST DAY EVER!


© 2011 crazymamaof7

Mom, push play!

yesterday was one of those crazy end of the school year days.

the hubs is in Boston this week.

The morning went remarkably well. kids off to school (we were late as usual)

the little kids and I had errands to run, i was all set to hit a store and i looked back and saw Pierce naked from the waist up. hmmm.

 no shirt , no shoes, no shopping for mama.

so we went home and i sent him in for a shirt and shoes. and we were off.

I picked up the CUTEST bench for my birthday from a girl from the bunko group i subbed in. she refinishes furniture and stuff.

 so i bought it for myself.

then,

i wanted flag buntings. i'm ready to decorate for summer. so we hit the store i saw them at on sale last week.

we got home and i wanted to hang them up. so Pierce and I brought the extension ladder into the front entryway so i could hang one in the transom window above the front door.

i had my hammer and nails and got about 4 rungs up on the ladder and decided it wasn't going to happen, i could just see myself falling and breaking my neck with Pierce and the baby here alone.

 so i left it for later when Peyton got home.

and moved on to baking cookies.

 chocolate chip.

again but i jazzed some of them up with peanut butter m&m's and others with Reese's peanut butter cups. i wrapped a chunk of pb cup in the middle with cookie dough.

oh my they were fabulous. i ate 2 and they sit untouched. apparently we are cookied out. (i made them for visiting teaching treats)

i finished baking them (6 dozen) just in time to get the kids from school.

I was feeling REALLY ON TOP OF THINGS!


I dropped most of the kids off while i took some with me to get happy hour at sonic. where i realized i'd spaced an appointment for Peyton at his school for next year. We'd missed the orientation since he was only on the waiting list. so i frantically called and they said come on in at 4:00.

awesome! so we headed home and i wanted to get the ladder out of the front entryway before i left the kids with Liberty while i was gone.

so i made Peyton climb the ladder, hammer in nails, and hang the bunting, it of course took some trial and error to get the nails in the right spot. and get the bunting hung .

so we were in a hurry and were  2 minutes late again to the meeting. SHEESH! i can't win!

in the mean time i had an appointment for visiting teaching at 4:15 i was missing.

so once we were done at the school, and i dropped him off  i rushed to go visiting teaching.

by then i was over it! we were having  pizza for dinner.

so i called and ordered,

 hit the pharmacy and bank

and then picked up pizza and went home.

over dinner Joy reminded me we needed to do the invites for her birthday party she wants to have Friday.(her birthday is in june but to invite school friends, you have to do it early). and Paxton had a "celebration of Learning" at school.

so i loaded 6 kids (Peyton stayed home) into the car to hit the celebration of learning and then TARGET for party invites and a tshirt to tie dye for Paxton.

as we got out of the car at school i said," don't touch anything, don't run around, don't talk, you may have 1 cookie only and don't embarrass me!"

we were walking in and i noticed Pierce had no shoes on. CLASSY!

we passed someone walking in. i knew his face, . he recognized me too and smiled and said hi. but i couldn't place where i knew him from. which bugged me, i finally realized where i knew him from. and decided i HATE being so recognizable/memorable. (he was a counselor  at the place we went to counseling before, not our counselor but we'd see him while we waited or made appointments or whatever)

we checked out Paxton's stuff for a minute, wanting to leave asap, just because everyone was with me.
i was so glad we'd revamped his Albert Einstein poster. his was one of the better ones there, instead of ONE THAT SUCKED.

when we left the kids decided they needed to watch a movie during the drive to target.

they'd opened the screen. i hit power the movie was going. PREVIEWS. bah.

so it kept going and got to the main menu finally.

Kid: MOM push play!

Me: there aren't any batteries in the remote!

Liberty: i put extras in the console, starts digging for them. and installed them. INCORRECTLY. hands me the remote because she can't get them back out.

Paxton: mom push play.

Me: it's not working. i have to get the batteries out.

JOY: mom push play.

(I'm struggling with the batteries)

Hope: mom Push play!

pierce: Hope stop hitting me. MOM HOPE IS HITTING ME.

JOY: mom push play.

still struggling with the batteries while driving.

Paxton: Joy stop it! MOM PUSH PLAY!

I finally got the batteries out and in the right way.

 push play.

right about then we arrived at TARGET.

they unload, and i say, "no running around, don't touch anything! STAY OUT OF THE ROAD! Pierce get in the cart you don't have shoes!"

we hit the $ bins.

insanity ensues.

MOM CAN I HAVE THIS (hopping up and down)

mom can i have this? (waving something in my face)

Oh mom look at this can i have it?

Mom we need this! and this and this!

oh oh oh MOM MOM MOM! LOOK! i want this!

we grabbed the Tshirt for Tie dye Tuesday.

and hit the party section.

while i'm debating between the super cute rock star party and the sweet cupcake stuff, the kids have grabbed dollar fake microphones. and are talking into them simultaneously! you know the ones with a spring inside so it echoes? one is annoying. 5 is insane.

Singing, dancing. blathering on.and they start in with the MOM can we all have one of these?


NO YOU ARE KILLING ME! put those away.

i picked the rock star party stuff. because it was fuchsia and black and blue and it matched my house better.
(they have CUTE ready made pennant garland thingies.) and let's face it it's my birthday week and i wanted those.

Joy didn't truly care. so i bought them. and plates. and party favors.

and finally we headed to the register.

Paxton and Hope and found these giant flying disc things in the $ bins and the lady rang them up and handed them back to them . I looked over and they were in between the exit doors and throwing them into the air.

AWESOME.

please stare at me like i'm an idiot. i feel like one.

EMBARRASSING.

anyway. eventually we made it home and played some rock band together. i played guitar while i held the baby. that takes skill.


everyone got to take a turn or two and i sent them to bed.

i started off the day thinking i was pretty well on top of things. by the end of the day, we all know i have no clue what i'm doing and i should NEVER take the herd shopping.

OY!





















©2011 crazymamaof7

mismatched chairs.

I have a thing lately for chairs.

Random, worn out, vintage, antique chairs.

I see them and buy them @ Garage sales, thrift stores, estate sales.

I have all these big plans for redoing them.

The hubs just laughs when I tell him I have another chair for him to unload from the back of the car.

 Some are simple makeovers but a couple need a little more skill.

I've always wanted to take a re-upholstery class.

I guess I am just stocking up on projects to redo someday.

With all my spare time.

I follow a few blogs that are always redoing furniture. I fantasize my stuff can look that fabulous someday.

The hubs jokes someday we'll have a super long kitchen/dining room table with  mismatched chairs.

I'm still waiting for the hubs to get my new chair out of the car today.




© 2011 crazymamaof7

no wonder you are so casual about it.

So the other day, on the other blog I referred to my shopping trip for jam making supplies. So here you go. I thought it was funny. Whether you do or not I may never know since no one bothers to comment. (hint hint)

So it was Wednesday. Which started out like any other. (Ya know, mad rush to get the herd out the door to school, no preschool on Wednesday,sorta boring)

Earlier that week I'd promised Pierce we'd go buy Popsicles and ice cream.

He forgot until Wednesday morning and since we had nothing better to do we took off on an adventure to the superstore.

When we got out of the car the baby was starting to fuss so I figured I'd end up holding him the whole time and got him out of his car seat and didn't bother bringing it in.

Pierce drove the cart while I carried the baby.(all of my kids think it is the ULTIMATE THRILL to drive the cart.)

 Everything was working out great for the first 3 minutes until Pierce asked to buy a watermelon. 2 feet into the store. usually I'd just say no, but I've been craving watermelon.

and then I realized...

There was no place to put the baby.

How do you pick {slash} load a watermelon into your cart while holding a 2 month old?


You hand the baby to the 4 year old to hold.


I  loaded up the 10 lb watermelon and took the baby back.

Some old lady saw Pierce holding Patriot and thought he was holding a doll.

NOPE. That's my baby.

An old man stopped to chat and look at the baby.

Then I saw the strawberries. They weren't on sale. They weren't even a good deal but they looked good and I was in the mood to make some jam.

As I was bending over loading 4lb boxes of strawberries into the cart with one hand , baby in the other, a guy in a pilot uniform caught an eye full of the girls, looked at the baby and the kid with me smiled and went on talking to his friend in a foreign language.

Sometimes I wonder why all the pilots and the foreign people shop for groceries at this particular super store. it happens to be across from a small private airport but still, WALMART? really?

Anyway, we shopped, we bought stuff, ALOT of stuff, people made comments, "you have your hands full there!"

As I walk away thinking, "IF YOU ONLY KNEW LADY!"

 I don't even bother telling people who make comments about my reality. That information is on a need to know basis and they don't need to know.

I handed the baby off to Pierce again when I loaded the huge bag of sugar into the cart. Again I got comments and stares.

Eventually I grew tired of shopping with Pierce and the carrying the baby and our Popsicles were getting melty so we went to the register.

Where once again I faced down the dilemma over what to do with the baby while I unloaded the watermelon and the 10lb bag of sugar out of my cart.

I was waiting my turn in line and unloading my cart.

Funny how little kids are so happy to load the cart with stuff but less delighted about unloading the cart at the register.

The older lady behind me saw I was unloading my full cart one handed. So she started helping me.(probably wanting me to hurry up and finish so she could be done faster) I said i was fine and kind of just wanted her to back off, but she kept insisting on helping, Pierce was no help, so i let her.

We got to the watermelon at the bottom of the cart and I handed Patriot to Pierce to hold so I could get it, and the bag of sugar.

The lady commented something about Pierce being a big helper, and having my hands full and she knows what it is like, she had two boys herself and 2 grandsons,

so I said," Yeah, you should see the OTHER 5 kids that are at school."

She said , "wow, no wonder you are so casual about it."

I smiled to myself.

Then after everything was on the conveyor belt. I was waiting to pay and loading the cart back up with bags of groceries.

The lady was making small talk with Pierce and said, "OHHH, you have strawberries, can I come to your house?"

I said, "yeah we are going home to make Jam."

The lady about passed out!

"You have 7 kids AND YOU MAKE JAM?"

YES, YES I DO!



so I went home and spent the afternoon making jam, and then homemade cookies.

The kids were super thrilled to deliver jam to some of our neighbors, and to all of their teachers at school.

Pierce's preschool teacher sent a note back. "thanks for the jam, WHERE DO YOU FIND THE TIME?!"

Someone else asked the same question on Fb, I said I pay someone else to clean my house, it frees up all sorts of time.

NOTE TO SELF: (or anyone making jam) - i used 2 different brands of pectin. (the stuff you add to jam to make it Jell up) The Ball brand (famous for their canning jars) was not as delightful as the Sure jell brand. both were liquid type and didn't require cooking but the Ball brand recipe called for 4 cups of fruit to 2 cups of sugar. The Sure Jell recipe calls for 2 cups of fruit to 4 cups of sugar. HELLO! hands down i liked the sure jell jam better.

oh PS i made freezer jam.

 i have made cooked jam before. it lasts longer in your pantry. and it's better food storage wise but freezer jam is easier.

QUESTIONS:

jam. what is your favorite kind?

Have you ever made Jam?

what do you do when people comment about having your hands full? do you tell them the whole story? or let them think you only have as many as you have with you at that moment?

© 2011 crazymamaof7

Mothers day 2011

On mothers day i woke up at the usual time the baby was up. @7:30ish. the hubs took care of him but eventually i was up. for the day.

Pierce brought me breakfast in bed. it was a bag of peanut butter m&m's he'd found in my purse.


I asked him where dad was, thinking he was downstairs making me a real breakfast. (turns out he was in the bathroom.)

m&m's were it.

Paxton delivered his school made mothers day gifts. a book and bookmark and pin. (I'll take pics later to share)

I figured i should probably start getting ready awhile later, and got in the shower, when i was joined by Patriot and Pierce. mothering doesn't stop even when it's mothers day. they did get out faster than usual though because i had to shave my legs for once and the hubs said i could have a long soaky shower alone for once.

I found the babies outfit, and was sad it fit so well (size 6-12 months)

i finally got dressed in my new dress. it was white. with a white shrug. it had a FABULOUS flower pin pinned onto it which MATCHED my super fabulous New shoes.

 the shoes were the best part. i got the yellow flower ones. ♥ them!

my mom came to church with us, and she had the 3 girls spend the night and got them ready in the morning so we could make it on time.

we came home and rushed around getting ready for the family dinner at our house. i had salsa to chop up and things to tidy.

it was pretty fun to have my siblings and mom over.

the kids had a great time as always. this house is perfect for big family gatherings.

after everyone left the hubs made a Texas sheet cake, (it's my favorite) but apparently with all the help he had making it, someone forgot the baking soda so it didn't rise. which is funny. it still tastes fine, it just isn't as fluffy as usual.

after the kids were sent to bed we started Salt , i fell asleep partway through.

anyway it was a pretty fabulous mothers day.

the kids crafts and cards were darling as always and i was pretty stoked with my new outfit.

I'm blessed to be the mother of my babies.

© 2011 crazymamaof7

Becoming Crazymamaof7 and other things I find hard to do.

I used to be a crazymamaof6 and then...we had a surprise.

#7.

he's a delight for sure but since his arrival some things have had to change.
not all are delightful

but it is, what it is.

 I mean 5 years with my last blog and the title crazymamaof6 it's hard to let go.

what was i gonna do? leave it and just call myself crazymamaof6 plus one more?

believe me, it's tempting.

everyone just calls me straight up crazymama but that blog was already taken DARN IT!


so here's my first big change. my blog. Crazymamaof7.

I'm still truly delightful in every way. but I figure new URL , new TITLE.

so

 TALES FROM THE HERD.

here we go.

I hope my friends will make the switch with me.

you will won't you? (please reassure me and validate me I'm still postpartum and fragile mentally)

I'm sure you were wondering what the other things are hard for me to do.

 i mean i sucked you in with that fabulous title didn't I? I guess I'd better pony up, you know I hate to have anyone think I'm  tease.

Other things I find hard to do? 

• letting my children do their own hair.

• letting my kids pick their own outfits.

• Getting up in the middle of the night with the baby when I've stayed up too late. (like right now)

• Getting the herd to school on time. 

• Not screaming when a bug flies down my shirt or in my general vicinity.(I was screaming this evening over just that happening while furiously trying to remove the flying insect from between my substantial cleavage, when the neighbor offered some assistance, not knowing why I was screaming.) AWESOME. 

• Not cussing when I would normally cuss. (irritation, injury,etc) (effing bug.) I was retelling the story mentioned above to the hubs in front of the herd and well My #1 asked did you use the real f word or just effing? it was just effing and yet I was still embarrassed my prudish neighbors heard me. *sigh*. and how pathetic he has to verify my usage or non usage.

• going without my cell phone and it's constant stream of internet functionality. (How did I survive before?)

I'm sure there are many more things I could list but like I said I have to get up with #7 and it's way past my regular bedtime.

GENIUS I tell ya. you'd think I'd know better by now but alas, I like to do things the hard way. 

p.s. Apparently I still find it hard to use proper capitalization and punctuation. you still love me right? I mean I have no intentions of  making any major changes there, you understand right? I'm still keeping it real. hope you can handle it. 

© 2011 crazymamaof7