1.31.2009

My Flippin' House is Done!!!


WOO HOO!
Today 'tis a day of celebration!
(so I chose a little Kool & the Gang for ya)

I am done!!!

Actually, it is in the process of being power washed and a few interior teenie-tiny things done... but:

IT IS ON THE MARKET!

I am using a flat fee listing. I have a realtor sign, a lock box, realtors can come and go with their clients, but I am not paying 3% for someone to just enter my info in a computer.

So if you want to check it out:


I would love to hear your first impressions. If you were looking for a house in this price range would you consider at least looking at this one? Can you think of anything to make it more sellable?
Any comments though, please leave here and not there because that is the site that is on my flier! I am cheap and my flier is black and white, so this is a way for people to see color pictures as well as a lot more pictures! It is not under the same account as this site. So feel free to say anything you want on here!!!

1.29.2009

Sharing the Joys of Reading... and other baby cuteness!

For my song I changed it to Gracie by Ben Folds. He wrote it for his daughter and it is the perfect "little girl" song. It reminds me of all my sweet little girls!

I have been reading books as I put the babies to bed. I lay on a pillow on their floor propped up against their dresser with a blanket and enjoy some quiet time. Well... not too quiet since they both usually put up quite a fight as they are going to sleep. Sometimes they cry, but usually they talk and sing. I also read them books before bed in the same spot.

So, the other day Yonas comes into my room laughing that they babies were being funny, so I grabbed my camera. They were both lounged back on the pillow reading their books. It was cute because all you saw were 2 open kids books with feet sticking out underneath, but then they noticed the red-eye flash and put the books down. But it was still cute that they were reading together!
Then I go into the kitchen the next day and find that Jovie found a book and joined Kanga in her crate for some quality reading time. Or maybe she was just using Kanga as a pillow.

Doesn't Kangaroo look thrilled?
So onto the "other cuteness" part! Here is Callie, with her favorite swim suit on... backwards... after a yummy spaghetti dinner! What a mess she is!!! And notice the marker on her chest! That girl gets into everything! (Since I did not put her swimsuit on for her, she got Ruby or Lettie to do it.)
Since Levi's shoulder is out I was giving him an Icy-Hot masage! As soon as I was done with him, Jovie came up to me and without a word turned and back-up into position for her masage. Dont worry, I did not use the Icy-Hot on her!
I always say that when someone is sad, Jovie tried to fix it with her brain and Callie tried to fix it with her heart! If someone is sad over something, Jovie will often try to find something to fix it. Callie on the other hand is always the FIRST to come over and give a hug of consolation! She saw Silas was sad and she went over to give him a hug and patted him on the back until he felt better. She has a lot of empathy and is very sweet!

1.27.2009

My Turn... Ugh

Last night as I was putting the kids to bed I started feeling queezie in my stomach... and I knew it was coming... yep... sure enough, it is my turn! How could I not get sick when I was the one cleaning up all the sick! ALL DAY for 2 DAYS!!!

I had it a month ago!!! I secretly hoped I was somehow imune for a year or something!

At least last time it seemed a little worse and all I could do was read and all I had was the Twilight series on hand, so I started reading it again and then got hooked AGAIN and started reading it when I put the babies to sleep. Now this time that I am in the middle of Breaking Dawn. So I at least get good reading in. But Levi is on some heavy meds that make him semi-high... and although he said he would take care of me today I need to pull myself up by the bootstraps and play mom and not patient again. Poor Levi's back is bad yall! At least I was sick during the night and not during the day. Though now I am sleepy and now I am pooped. I will put the babies down for a nap and sleep again this afternoon.

1.26.2009

A Worn out Superwoman.

Let's start at the beginning:

Thursday- Levi somehow "slept on his shoulder wrong" and wakes up and it is killing him! Still goes to school, but is in a lot of pain and spends a lot of the time teaching from his roller chair. And by the way, he has had 2 back surgeries and so this is a big deal.

Friday- Levi wakes up in even more pain. It is a teacher workday. Goes into work in pain and I call and gets an appointment with a chiropracter that afternoon. Which was a small miracle since all offices close at 12:30 and I found ones place that would take him. Gets x-rays. X-rays show his lower back disk is almost non-existent and his upper neck disk is all herniated and wacky. Chiropractor gives him an adjustment... does not help.

Saturday- Levi wakes up and his arm is numb feeling. Not a good sign. Numbness does not go away. Calls chiropractor. Meets chiropractor in office. Nothing helps. Told to go to Urgent care for meds. Gets meds. Meds make him loopy.

This is where the bad day comes in:

Sunday- Levi sleeps propped up on the couch because he can not lay flat. I let Flea sleep with me because... well, he has some weird tumor coming up on him and I am worried about him and I needed some quality Flea time. I wake up at 4:30 hearing heavy breathing. Look and can see Flea breathing in the dark and think it is him. 4:35, wake up when there is a moan outside my door. Realize was Jovie breathing before and she is laying on the floor asleep in a small puddle of her own vomit (because heaven forbid she make herself vunerable by asking for help). Undress pitiful little girl and put her in bath. Then to realize the hair in the back of her head is caked in something dry, and crunchy, know where it came from... sleeping through/in her sickness. Go into her room to find Callie sleeping on the floor... which is weird... but grateful she did not come into your bed where the puking incident would wake her up. Find Jovie's bed covered in puke and a line of puke leading from her bed all the way to your room. That is going to be fun to clean up!

Levi wakes up at 5:30. Says he can not go back to sleep, offers to watch Jovie. Go back to bed in which you have vivid dreams in which Jason Castro (the guys with dreds from American Idol last season) is a flight attendent, your best friend, is going to Disney World with you and your family, and wants to hold your hand like "Jacob" in Twilight because you have been watching American Idol, thinking about your trip to Disney World, reading Breaking Dawn while putting the babies to bed, and hearing stories about how the flight attendents were heros when the plane crashed into the Hudson. So, really, you do not sleep, but wake up at 6:30 with this overwhelming impression that you are now best friends with Jason Castro (which also happened to me with Mark from So You Think You Can Dance... but that is a whole other post). But the only reason you wake up at 6:30 is because Levi is calling your name up the stairs because Callie woke up and decided SHE was to be the only one on daddy's lap and she and Jovie get into a shoving match on the lap of the man who has a herniated disk.

Oh... and by the way... I forgot to mention... this whole time Jovie is dry heaving and can not even drink a teaspoon of liquid without hurling.

Get up... kids asking for breakfast. Make breakfast, organize everyone getting dressed and showered, steam church clothes, bathe, get on my church dress, clean up puke piles as they spew from my 2 year old, get lunch ready, and go to church minus Levi and Jovie. But in the middle of this I am shaking out sheets in the bathtub, gathering up puked on clothes, banging the chunks off the stuffed animals before throwing it all in the wash. Since Jovie sleeps with a harem of stuffed animals, so that is a big chore. Throw towels over the area that need deep puke cleaning because you dont have time at the moment, and run the washing machine.

Get home to a husband sitting on the couch with a Jovie fallen asleep beside him looking like death warmed over. He has the stomach virus as well. So my world is puke. Put a movie on for the big kids and ask them to watch it quietly while dad and mom rest and put the babies down for a nap. That lasts a half hour before they are yelling at each other to stop this and that or unexplicably banging the floor with who knows what. Ask them to stop banging floor and to PLEASE be nice to each other. Make dinner (which was awesome by the way), think Jovie is over it and she is begging for dinner. Let her eat because it is hard to tell your hungry child they cant eat. Clean up pile of puke off computer chair and floor after she upchucks everywhere she just ate (well, not imeediately just ate... it got to ferment a bit first... fun). Run the green machine over the puke spots that needed attention from this morning. Ask Levi to read homework books to the kids. Levi tries and realizes reading makes him feel sick. Promise to read to the kids when I am done. Find Callie's diaper leakes poop on shag carpet. Just a small spot, but green machine does not work on shag rug so must use baby wipes then green machine for good measure. While doing that 3 kids who still don't understand some things are standing over me saying "read to me" "mom, mom, I need to read!"

Before reading check on laundry and see for some reason the laundry machine is not draining right. Say things in my head about how much I hate front loading washers. Tinker around, fix the problem. While being asked to do 10 other things at once.

Go downstairs because cookies were promised. They were supposed to bake in the easy bake while the kids watch America's Funnies Home Videos. Do first cookie and realize they needed to be smaller or they spill over Easy Bake pan. Levi keeps saying "You smell something burning!" My reply "Yes! Don't worry about it! I don't want to explain it!" He knows to leave me alone.

Miss 3/4 of funnies. Make most cookies in regular over. Overcook them, they are too crunchy and do not taste as good (which I hate because I am usually a great cookie baker). Only get 2 cookies made in Easy bake. Dissapoint 5 out of 7 kids. AFV done so onto homework. Read to Silas and Ruby. Silas picked out a way too long children's book. Read it to them and they seem uninterested because, as I said, it is way too long.

Open Yonas' homework and you would not think it was the weekend with as much homework as he has. He is tired so he is making lots of mistakes and when I asked him what 2 + 7 is he says 12 and then says 3... and this kid can do math by the way. So, it was weird mistakes because he was out of his head. Send kids to get ready for bed. They fuss over toothbrushes and who gets what night light. Levi says prayers with them. Babies fuss as they go to sleep. Finally they are asleep. Go downstairs to transcribe an e-mail for Levi since he needed to write school to tell them he will not be in but reading makes him sick. Go to bed with the kitchen looking like a bomb exploded in the kitchen. Sleep on a make shift bed on the babies floor in case Jovie wakes up puking again. Dream about being a cop fighting a guy like the joker, my partner is Will Smith, and the Joker hands me a bomb that sticks to my hand and I am 3 feet away from him and my gun gets jammed and I shake the bomb off my hand just in time before it explodes and race to attend a stage play that I am suppsoed to somehow be involved in... but of course I don't know my lines.

But today is not great... but it is not so bad... still puke, less of it, and the kitchen still is exploded, but I need a break so I am blogging, and if that is the worst day I have I am pretty lucky I suppose! But looking back at days like that you sometimes just feel like a worn out Superwoman!
So, I changed my song choice to You had a Bad Day. I think it is appropriate!

1.22.2009

If you don't have pockets...


Then I suppose you have to get creative when it comes to where you put your change!
Callie came downstairs and announced that she was "tin-tee" (aka stinky) and we were suprised because she hardly ever admits when she is poopy... when we ask her she usually replys "nope"!
So, Levi pulled back her diaper to check and said, "Your not stinky" but when he let go, her diaper jingled!
She had gotten into my loose change and stashed it in her diaper! Since that was all she had on, I suppose she thought that was the best place for it! She is crazy!

1.21.2009

Inauguration Day!

I watched the Inauguration... and although I am a "yellow dog Republican", as my mom would say, I really was not sad. It is an amazing day to see an African American leading our nation. I sat at the lunch table with my multi-colored brood and just smiled at the thought that America is getting better every generation. Every generation gets more and more color-blind, and that is important for my kids and for our family!

Also, I want change too! I hope it is the right kind of change! I would like to see the education system fixed, the unemployment situation fixed, and I would like to see the war drawn to a peaceful close! How that should be done? I don't know. Hopefully Barack Obama and his people have some good ideas! Hope... that is the key word... we just have to hope it will get better!

Now, I do have to mention one thing that made me smile- The Oath of Office! It ended up getting all messed up and I do think the Chief Justice is the one who flubbed the lines, which messed up President Obama, but it just made me smile that for once something involving Barack Obama was not "perfect":



There are seriously people who think this mad can do no wrong! I think he is a great guy and all, but he is... gulp... human... gasp!

And I do have to laugh that his middle name is Hussein... because... come on, we just captured, tried, and killed the most notorious Hussein and you know all those crazy e-mail sending conspiracy theorists that send out those crazy e-mails saying Barack Obama is Muslim are shaking their heads as he says his full name: I Barack Hussein Obama do solemnly swear...
So, I am laughing at the e-mail senders, not President Obama... basically I am laughing at ignorance!

I went into the gas station the other day and there was a HUGE rack of Obama t-shirts that had his face really big on it and it said in big gold hip-hop type letters "THE CHOSEN ONE!" It made me giggle.

The only thing that makes me happy about that, is most shirts in that "style" have someone like Biggie, Tupac, or 50 cent. People you do not want the youth of our country to be looking up to! People who say demeaning things about women, talk of drug use, and violence. The fact that a lot of these shirts now sport pictures of Obama is funny in some ways, but then on the flip side it is nice to know that this is who youth are starting to look up to and that is a step in the right direction!

Let freedom ring and let GOOD change come!

(And in case you are wondering, according to my mom a "yellow dog republican" is someone who would vote republican even if a yellow dog was running or a "yeller dog republican" if I was to say it right... very southern... I know... what can I say?!

Oh, and I found a blogger who wrote this:
"I’m a Yellow Dog Republican. If the Republicans put up a mangy yellow dog for president, I’d vote for it. In fact, I’d prefer a dog to a human being because Congressional Republicans would have more control over the dog."

I thought that was funny and worth sharing!)

1.20.2009

SNOW DAY!

In honor of our snow day, I changed the song to: Snow Day, by Bleu!

Yesterday the news kept saying over and over again... SNOW... SNOW... SNOW! 3-6 inches!

The kids were so excited! They talked all day about all the things they were going to do in the snow! And Levi and I were excited for them because this would be the first snow for 3 of them and the first snow that 2 of them could really play in!

So, as Levi and I were going to bed, we waited for the 11 o'clock news and they said "Oh... looks like it is going to the east of Charlotte now... oops!" We were so aggravated! It seems like the Charlotte weathermen are notorious about getting people hyped up for bad weather and then it never happens. It is almost like they do it just to keep you watching for updates. Then during the 11 o'clock news they say nevermind. So, I went to bed worried that 7 little kids would be EXTEMELY dissapointed because of a lack of snow!

Luckily Mother Nature cooperated and we had our first!

SNOW DAY!!!

Yonas- all bundled up and ready to go!
Callie loves the swings, even in the cold!

The one benefit of having a weird hill in your back yard! It is heck to mow, but great for sledding!
Ruby- all bundled up and pretty!
Daddy taking Callie down the hill! She loved the snow at first, but she got cold easily! She did not like sledding much either! Levi had to still go into work at 9, but at least he got to enjoy the snow with the kids first!
Jovie getting a snow ball ready! I was sure she would be grumpy about the snow, but she loved it!!! She would go inside for a little bit to warm up and then go right back out!
Jovie's turn!
Look at that face! She loved sledding!
Silas and Nolan loved the snow the most I think! The sled and sled and sled down that hill! Making a snow ball!
Jovie made snow balls too!
The biggest instigator in the snow ball fights... Silas!
Levi is the biggest kid of them all!
Group snow ball fight!
My doe-eyed Ruby-doo!
Even Jovie made a snow angel! She was so into the snow!!! I was shocked! I thought she would find it too cold!
Silas' first snow angel! He had a list of things he wanted to do in the snow (that apparently he saw on TV or something): Make a snow angel, snow ball fight, sledding, and skating on the snow... which I told him he could not do!
Imagine if he actually threw that snowball while I was trying to take a picture! Messing with my camera = death!
Happy Jo! With a snowball!
Daddy with his cold Callie!
Nolan said he found a way to make it snow twice!
Callie staying out of the way of Nolan's second snow!
Jovie giving Silas a taste of his own medicine!
Ummm... that is a really big snowball!
Trying to catch snowflakes on her toungue!
Pretty Snow-Princess Teenie!
Yonas did not like the cold very much! He got used to it, but spent a lot of time inside!
Go Nolan Go!
A Silas-cicle!
Callie warming up! This is what was on under her snow clothes... her PJ top, her ducky PJ bottoms (under the jeans), and of course... a swimsuit... put on her by a loving daddy!
Lettie finding a great way to warm up! She found her daddy's heating pad!
Two brothers warming up! They had a good time together!
Toastie Toesies!
After this we had Hot Cocoa! The kids have been in and out of the snow all day! It was a great first snow!