The neighbors are SO not getting a Christmas card

Our back-yard neighbors are driving me insane. Last night they woke Lucy up at 11:30pm because they were out in the pool being loud again. This time it was the adults rather than the teenagers, I think. I put a fan in the girls' room to drown out the noise. I think the appeal of living in a neighborhood is wearing off now. I'm anxious to move someplace where people are more considerate of their neighbors. The whole reason we wanted to move into RiverBend in the first place was because it is quiet and peaceful. What are the chances that, in primarily a retirement community, we would be lucky enough to move into a house bordered on two sides by noisy people who like to throw late-night parties?

River Fun

This evening, our friends the Nicolaysens invited us and the Weekes to meet them at Flanners Beach. In the summer, the water there is SO warm, it feels like bathwater. That part of the river is shallow for a long way out, so it's a good place for little kids to wade and splash, if you don't mind the funny river-smell (George does).


Anyway, it was a perfect idea for a Family Home Evening outing, although it was really hot and humid. The kids, of course, had a blast. That's what's so great about being a kid. You can have the most amazing time just playing fort in an old cardboard box, for heaven's sake.


There were several interesting developments while we were hanging out on the beach. The first was that George discovered that people (me included) do in fact regularly post personal information on their blogs. Sometimes it amazes/concerns me that his brilliant engineering mind seems to have a hard time wrapping itself around certain simple concepts. Anyway, George was surprised that I would blog about him buying my Coach bag. Come on!! I mean, I have to write about something other than baby poo, which is pretty much the recurring theme in my life right now.
Which brings me to the second interesting development. It has to do with baby poo.
Drake pooed his swim diaper while we were drying off and by the time I got him to the car, it was absolutely disgusting. Honestly, I am going to have a party when that boy finally gets potty-trained. Usually he runs and hides from me when he poos, so I knew it was going to be pretty bad when he actually sought me out and asked me to change his diaper.

Anyway, it was an absolutely gorgeous sight as the sun started sinking. I couldn't resist taking some pictures of the sky over the river.


And I didn't want George to feel left out of all my blogging fun, so I took and posted as many pictures of him as I could.

Drake's Stunt Double

I took the kids to the library on Friday to sign up for the Summer Reading Program. Lucy fell asleep on the way over, so I loaded her carrier into the double stroller and strapped Drake in the front seat. It took a few minutes to sign all of them up, and Story Time ended before I was done. Our mondo huge stroller was taking up half of the children's section, so I asked Skylar to move it out of the way so the people coming out of Story Time could get by us. As she pushed the stroller by, I noticed suddenly that the kid in the front seat of the stroller wasn't Drake.
I think I did a double-take before yelling, "Hey, that's not my kid!"
Apparently Drake had unbuckled while I was signing them up for the program and had gone off with Bart to pick out some books. They were both reclining on the floor, reading. Meanwhile, a kid roughly the same age and with the same hair color as Drake had climbed up in the stroller for a free ride. I doubt I would have even noticed if Drake's double hadn't had a bright blue binky in his mouth.
The kid's mom came to collect him (he did NOT want to get out of the stroller), and I located Bart and Drake. Everyone thought the situation was pretty funny. I guess it was funny. I was just thankful that I had noticed our little stowaway before we had actually left the library.

Tonight when I finally recharged the batteries in our camera (I've been using my phone to take pictures lately), I found all these adorable pictures I took of Lucy at Easter. I really want to post them, but there are a ton. Maybe if I have ten hours free anytime soon, I'll upload them.

Our Fun (and Naughty) Outing

After we visited Dad and Diane, we headed over to the outlet shops in Smithfield so George could buy me a Coach bag (long story). He pretty much insisted that I get a Coach, so not being one to pass up a bizarre and unprecedented opportunity to get a new handbag, I spent like 40 minutes elbowing my way around the Coach store. I got this super-cute bag for 70% off - it was still muy expensivo, though. So that was my naughty purchase, although George basically FORCED me to get the bag, so it wasn't really my doing.


Next Skylar and I bought new sneakers at the Reebok store. I have never owned any Reeboks, only Adidas and Nike, so we'll see how they hold up, but they were buy one pair and get a second pair free, so I figured, why not? Last week, I bought Bart some awesome Reeboks at the mall for $25. They look like space shoes, shiny and silver, and I knew he would love them. He is so hard on his shoes. I know if this pair survives his abuse, then they're pretty tough sneakers. At this point in his life, I absolutely refuse to buy him $70 sneakers like some of his friends. George and I had a hard enough time shelling out the $40 for Skylar's pink Timberlands (she wanted Sperries, but they were like $60). Now, I am basically in love with shoes, but I hate spending a ton on kids' shoes.

So, we were very bad and bought things we really didn't need. Last week, George wasn't satisfied with his Father's Day gift of nothing but my love and appreciation, so we went out on Monday and bought him the Guitar Hero Metallica game for Wii. I had planned on buying him this game for Father's Day for weeks, but he got a ticket and we just had to pay $160 in court costs, which effectively killed that idea. I thought George and I were on the same page with the understanding that paying for that ticket was, unfortunatley, the Father's Day gift, but apparently not. I got so sick of his mopey, feel-sorry-for-me attitude I just gave in. So he got the dang game anyway, and I didn't feel so guilty for letting him buy me a Coach today.

After shopping, we headed back home, stopping in Goldsboro at a pizza restaurant called Dough Boy's. We had the biggest pizza ever and I ate too much and made myself sick. It was really good pizza, though. Lucy thought the plate was tasty, too.

Yum, yum.

Drake and the giant pizza.

Summer Vacation

This has been a busy two weeks for me! Once the kids got out of school, it rained for days and days and Lucy got sick so we couldn't go to the pool for an entire week. The children were so whiny and bored. This week, we finally went on Monday and Wednesday. Lucy loved it! It was her first trip to the pool and she splashed and splashed and tried to put her face in the water. Drake got to wear his new Lightning McQueen arm floaties and kept drinking the water sneakily after I told him not to. Bart played with a school friend (a girl...) and Skylar got upset because she had to take the swim test all over again this year and it was SOOO tiring to swim the length of the pool (oh, the drama).
I took my Pharm Tech mid-term and scored a 101 - woo-hoo! I've been working a good deal and trying not to beat my children as they squabble non-stop over who has this toy and who had the audacity to LOOK at the other one the wrong way. (Mom and Dad, I am offering up a sincere, heart-felt apology for all the stupid crap Elsie and I used to fight over, like dirt and who was going to have their time-out in the "gray chair"). I am also sorry about the time we mud-wrestled outside in a puddle and threw vegetables into the fan blades to make tossed salad. And also the time we loosened all the screws on the kitchen and bathroom cabinet doors so they would fall on you guys when you opened them. I know I'm so going to be getting payback times four.
Bart had Tennis Camp all this week at the high school. He came home totally tanned, even though I slathered him with sunscreen. He really enjoyed it and there's supposed to even be a school team this year.
Thursday, I helped give my friend Vanessa a baby shower - I hope she enjoyed it, even though I gave the YW the OK to play the Baby Poo in the Diaper game (the one with melted candy bars, and you have to smell and try to guess what kind it is). I know it was totally disgusting, but there is something so satisfyingly juvenile about giggling over fake poo.
Friday was Dad's birthday, so we headed over to visit him and Diane today. We had a really good time and the kids were enjoying themselves so much they didn't really want to leave. Drake kept asking if they had "another one present" for him. You see, no matter who's birthday it is, Drake thinks that he should get a present, too. We stayed for several hours and had lunch with them. It's funny because most of my teenage years were spent desperately wanting to get away from where I had grown up, but now I get so nostalgic when we go back there. I know it's only 100 miles away from where we live now, but it's so different to drive through the wide, green fields with the corn and soybeans growing and to see all the old, white farmhouses. In the fall, the fields of cotton are about the closest we get to having snow. There's just something that makes me feel so at home. Driving through the country in the summer - to me that's part of the essence of my childhood, right up there with catching lighting bugs at dusk with my sister and drinking water straight from the waterhose after we had doused each other.
It is strangely quiet this evening. The neighbor kids, I think, have finally learned their lesson. This time last week, they decided to have a crazy, screaming pool party again. At 12:30, they woke Lucy up, who having been sick all week, needed every bit of sleep she could get. Well, she was MAD. She would not go back to sleep and screamed for the better part of an hour. I was so ticked off, I took the baby monitor outside and plugged it up on our back porch and turned it up full blast so the neighbor kids could listen to her scream for awhile. They did quiet down...but then they started up again after I had finally gotten Lucy settled back down. They were yelling and hitting this stupid beach ball back and forth (thwack! thwack!) and just being really really loud. I wasn't going to give them a chance to wake Lucy up again, so I just called the cops. Well, the cop broke up the little shindig and it got real quiet at last. I finally got to bed at 2:15 am. I was such a zombie the next morning! Like I said, I don't mind parties, but if they interfere with my baby's sleep (and therefore mine), there is going to be some trouble.
I would love to go to sleep tonight, but I am not feeling very well. I think I enjoyed dinner a little too much, if you know what I mean. Now I am paying for it.

Ah, the weekend

So here's how my hair ended up. I like it, it's just a really big change. It's weird not being able to put my hair up, but it's kind of nice, too. I've gotten a ton of compliments. I'll have to tell Darcy; she did a great job.
Last night was awful. I didn't get a wink of sleep. I went up to bed early enough, but I had restless leg syndrome really bad, so I tossed and turned and my legs twitched until about 1:15. I finally drug myself out of bed, popped some Benadryl, and ate a snack while I waited for the meds to kick in. I must have slept for about an hour and a half when Lucy woke us up, crying. We were worried, since Lucy hasn't woken up at night in ages - not since we turned off the baby monitor for about three nights in a row and made her cry it out. I was so groggy from the Benadryl that my head was spinning as I went to check in on her. The neighbor kids directly behind us had woken her up! The idiots were in their pool at 4am, yelling and splashing and squealing. I was so mad! I opened the window and yelled at them to quiet down. Yesterday was graduation for the local high schools, so there were a lot of celebrating teenagers living it up last night. I'm OK with parties, but 4am???? Come on! Their pool is directly behind Lucy and Sky's room, so the sound really carried to the rooms on that end of the house (you could barely hear anything in our bedroom). It took me forever to get Lucy settled down; she was all keyed up because there were people outside yelling and laughing. They did stop screaming after I yelled at them to be quiet, but they were still splashing and talking fairly loudly - loud enough that I had to turn on Lucy's musical mobile to drown out some of the noise. If she hadn't gone back to sleep when she finally did, I was going to threaten to call the cops. Luckily, she did go back to sleep, and I was able to go back to bed, but I don't think I really got into a deep sleep before the alarm clock went off. Ugh - George and I both felt so tired and yucky. He was going to skip church to catch up on some zzz's, but I pretty much forced him to get up and help me get the kids ready. I hate trying to get them all to church by myself.
George, Drake, and I did get a nap after church, thank goodness. We paid Skylar and Bart two bucks each to watch Lucy for an hour while we napped. When I woke up, I saw that I had gotten a message from work that they needed some help, so I ended up going into work from 4 to 6. George and the children showed up at Target to say hi and wait for me to get off work. The boys were so hyper. Bart was bubbling over with excitement that he had found eleven rubber bands on the floor while waiting for me. Drake screamed for popcorn, and we tried to ignore him. When we got home, we made tomato soup and grilled cheese sandwiches, followed by ice cream for dessert - mmmm, healthy.
George made lemon meringues last night, but they did not turn out as nice as the ones I made on Wednesday. They got all chewy and tough. They tasted fine, though. He's been quite the little chef lately. Saturday night, he called me at work to tell me that he was working on a special dinner, so I should try to be on time getting home. It turned out to be an Olive Garden-like meal of ricotta, mozzarella, and aged parmesan cheese-stuffed lasagna noodles with this to-die-for homemade alfredo sauce over it and Italian sausage on the side. He even sprinkled a few diced tomatoes on top so that it was almost as pretty as it was tasty. It was absolutely delicious! The best part was dipping our rosemary bread in the leftover alfredo sauce. We had leftovers for lunch today, and all I can say is yum!
Early Friday morning, I had this dream that kind of freaked me out. I dreamed that we had to evacuate our house, so I went to get the kids. But I realized we had another baby that we had forgotten about, a little girl. So I grabbed both her and Lucy up to leave. But I could not for the life of me remember her name. Finally I realized it was because we weren't supposed to have a fifth child and so we had never given her a name. So I decided to call her Ella (I can't remember the middle name I gave her). I hugged the two babies close as I carried them out to the car - Lucy with her dark hair and Ella with her fairer hair. I was really freaked out when I woke up. I mean, what if there was a little Ella waiting for us, and now we'll never know her? Of course, it's probably just a dream, but it was just a little too weird for me. Honestly, I would really love to have a decent night's sleep.

Bop

I think Lucy has started to say "Bart" now. It sounds like "Bop", but it's close enough to make Bart feel like the most-loved big brother in the world.

Yummy

I decided to make lemon meringues this morning for Bart and Skylar's teachers as an end-of-the-year gift. They're super-easy and really good. When I got my Bosch mixer from the shelf and took the cover off the bowl, I should have been surprised to find a pair of Lucy's dirty socks inside. I was dismayed, but not surprised. It could have been much worse.

Date night

Saturday night I was invited to a party given by one of our pharmacists at work. It sounded like a lot of fun and I really wanted to go, but George had planned for us to go out on a date. He even asked his mom to come over and watch the children. We had not gone out together on a date in quite awhile, so I skipped the party.
From minute one, the date kind of stank. We quibbled over what we were going to go do. George wanted me to tell him exactly what we were going to do. Well, there's really nothing in New Bern to do for a date when it's the last minute and you're short on funds. Besides dinner and catching a movie, there wasn't much else we were up for - I was too sore from work to be up for bowling or skating. So we ended up annoyed with one another because neither of us wanted to decide what to do. We ended up going to see Star Trek, but because it was so late, we didn't have time for dinner before the movie, so I ate a ton of popcorn smothered in butter and made myself sick. George was grumpy most of the evening. I was kind of ticked off and figured I'd have had a lot more fun at the party with people I barely knew.
George ended up making the whole thing up to me, though. He took the kids out on an errand to find a funny, romantic comedy from the 30's or 40's while I was at a church meeting with Lucy. After all the children were in bed, he surprised me by turning out the lights, lighting an oil lamp on the mantle, and making a pallet on the living room floor for us. He took the futon mattress and COVERED it with every pillow in the house almost. (Skylar told me the next day that she had slept on only one very flat pillow that night). He put on the movie - a Marx Brothers film from 1938 - and gave me my own personal container of Ben & Jerry's Karamel Sutra ice cream. Yum, yum, yum, delicioso!
It was so fun and relaxing. And George had obviously put a good deal of thought and effort into surprising me. He certainly did surprise me. He didn't even try to sneak any of my ice cream. We had way more fun staying at home together than we did going out and spending at ton at the movies. We both agreed that it was the most fun we've had in a long time and can't wait to do it again soon.

Miss America

Lucy started to wave today.
Over the past week or two, she started doing something funny with her hands. She would kind of twist her wrists back and forth and stare at her hands as though surprised by their movement.
Well, today it officially became a wave.
Granted, it is a backward Miss America wave, but it is so adorable. I guess technically Lucy is waving at herself, but we all get the idea.
Today was Skylar and Bart's last day of school for the summer. They both came home with phenomenal report cards. Skylar's reading level is the equivalent of a twelfth-grader's. Bart read 119 books this year for school. Now if we can just teach him how to tie his shoes before he starts second grade....
Drake is ecstatic to have his big brother and sister home with him now. I'm ecstatic that I get to (hopefully) sleep in tomorrow. Poor George. Maybe I'll let him sleep in on Saturday morning.

The Great Debate

To cut or not to cut?
That's the eternal question if you're female.
I'm trying to figure out whether to leave my hair long or cut it short.
George likes my hair long, I like it long, but I hate how long it takes to wash, dry, and straighten it - ugh. And then if it's humid out, it looks crappy again five minutes later. I've worn my hair in a cute chin-length bob before, but I'm afraid to go that short again.
I found a bunch of pictures of hairstyles I like and I'm just trying to decide now. Here are a couple:


I've basically had the second hairstyle before. But there's just something about Christina Ricci's cut and color that I love. I don't know if it would look any good on me, though, since we don't have the same face shape. I like Katie Holmes' hair, too, but George was like, "Please don't come home looking like Katie Holmes. Or Kate from Jon & Kate Plus Eight."

Of course, this is what I'd like my hair to look like in a perfect world. But in a perfect world, I'd also have three stylists to make it happen every day.


I know, I know. There are more important issues in the world right now besides what to do with my hair. Maybe if I wait awhile, the President will tell me how to wear it.

What?!

Is this a Bart look or what??

I'm so proud

Yesterday George called me at work to let me know that he beat Metallica's One on Guitar Hero. On Hard. Granted, that song is really difficult, especially on Hard. Beating it on Expert has to be completely impossible. It was so cute. He was so proud of himself. I had thought he was calling to tell me one of the kids had broken an arm or something. Then when I got home, he asked me if he'd told me yet that he beat One on hard. He was so excited, though, I just had to laugh at him.
Tonight I had my Pharmacy Tech mid-term. I expected it to be pretty hard since it was on 9 chapters, but I finished in about half an hour. I think I did well.
The first grade classes at BDQ had a little assembly yesterday. Bart was recognized as an Independent Reader. All the Independent Readers received gold medals. I'm really happy that Bart loves to read so much now. He's always liked books, but I can pinpoint the exact day (if I go back and look at my earlier posts) that he caught the reading bug. It was the day over Spring Break that I took the kids to the library and Bart checked out the Pirate School chapter books. He DEVOURED them and has been going strong ever since. He's read over one hundred AR books for class this year.
Watch out, Skylar. For the past few years, she's been our little over-achiever. Now it looks like Bart is following suit. Last Thursday at BDQ Awards Night, Skylar was probably one of the most awarded kids. She's really done well this year, earning over five hundred AR points.
Let's see....news about Drake. He's been alternating between being a total punk and being the sweetest boy ever. I just don't understand how they can swing back and forth like that. One moment I'm ready to beat his butt and the next moment I'm covering his little face with kisses and telling him what a good big brother he is. He's very excited about his upcoming birthday (in September) and we're already planning a Diego/jungle theme. Drake thinks every birthday that is celebrated is HIS birthday and he should get cake and presents. A few days ago, he said, "I want Daddy to make pancakes so I can sing Happy Birthday to You to me".
Madame Lucy is into everything. Today she grabbed one of Drake's markers and colored on her hand and shirt before I got it away from her. Later, I found pink marker smudges high up on the wall of the downstairs bathroom. I'm not sure how she got it up there.
Well, that's about it for now. Heigh ho, heigh ho, it's off to work I go again tomorrow. I get to pick up my first pay check - hopefully it'll be worth the work.