Another new girlie

Clearly I am way behind on my blogging when I haven't yet announced my newest niece!! Mary Grace Sophia was born this past Wednesday, October 12th to my sister and her family out in Washington State. Way too far away for this aunt's liking!! I think the big brothers and sister are already smitten, and so am I.


Mary Grace brings the niece/nephew count up to an even 10. 5 girls, 5 boys. I am so blessed. Welcome to the family sweet girlie. I can't wait to meet you!!!!

Munchkin Time (aka Teaching Important Life Skills)

Saturday morning three of my favorite kids arrived bright and early bearing some beautiful fall mums, donuts for breakfast, cheerful smiles, and overnight bags. There's a recipe for a good weekend.

One of our projects was to set up the guest room. Since Elana moved out, it's just a mostly empty room with curtains that don't match. Which simply won't do. The blue floral curtains looked great when the walls were light blue, but the bright green doesn't work with them. Sigh. Enter Meijer clearance shelf. There they were, chocolate brown curtains marked down to $10 each and then an additional 25% off. Perfect. So I bought three panels (two for the windows, 1 for the closet). I had also gotten a daybed frame off craigslist a few weeks ago to house the mattress that's been on the floor in there for quite some time. So this morning Jane and Lucy and I put the guest bedroom together (or as Jane calls it "our new room"). We put the bed frame together, added the mattress, took down the old curtains and put up the new ones. And there are now about 30 stuffed animals living in the dresser. Jane was a little concerned though, "Aunt Reenie, the closet is still empty. We have to put something in there!" She was also very proud of herself for arranging her teddy bear to sit in the corner of her new room. Perfect.

In addition, Lucy learned what I deem to be an Important Life Skill. Under my careful tutelage, she removed the old broken electrical plate cover and installed the new one. She was clearly digging the project and stood back to admire her handiwork. "That looks SO much better." I did tell her that no matter where she goes and what she does in life, it is always important to know how to replace switch plates. There we go, teach niece important life skill, check!

Sunday got even more exciting. Two more nephews arrived to join in the fun. And Elijah from next door came for pretty much the whole afternoon. I even managed to get a few things done while everyone was playing, well a few things beyond enjoying the beautiful sunny warm weekend and the very entertaining company.

Suzie got a TON of love all weekend. She's horribly itchy again (after a couple weeks of fooling me into thinking things were improving). Every few minutes one of the kids would scritch scratch her and call excitedly "Look, I got her leg is going" as her leg would twitch and try to scratch. It's a great game and nearly qualifies as yet another Important Life Skill-- but not quite (especially when every inch of this dog is an itchy mess right now). By the end of tonight, Suze was tired and ready for some space. Being followed and loved every minute of a weekend does get a little exhausting, even for a dog as needy as the Suze.

Maggie, in her own right, earned points this weekend. She now lets Geno order her around (some anyway), will take treats gently out of the kids hands without growling, played several rounds of the "down stay treat" trick with Jane, and was generally okay with the kids all weekend. Look at Maggie finally acquiring some Important Life Skills. We barely had to shut her in the basement (except for today, because let's be honest, even with a good weekend going, 6 small (and very unpredictable) kids would have blown that out of the water).

Overheard:
Lucy: Geno, here's something to chop people's heads off with.
Geno: Oh thanks Lucy!

Jane: Shiny has a lovely big house. Shiny is a very lucky dinosaur.

Lucy, what is that?
It's a decoration.
Lucy, battles don't have decorations.
Geno, it's a Castle not a Battle.
The battle is going to happen at the castle. Argh.

Jane: "Can I be done? ... Wait (correcting herself), it's May. May I be done?"
Lucy: "It's not May, it's OCTOBER! heh heh heh"
We've got another punster on our hands. Those Cous genes run strong. :)

Here's my list of accomplishments -- not up to my usual weekend standard, but not bad considering (and yes, this list is for me not you-- seriously, why are you still reading? get a life already):
scoop & mow backyard
pick stuff from garden
bake bread
feed kids all 3 meals (clean up after all three meals) each day
oven roast tomatoes (some for dinner, 1 bag for the freezer)
sweep the entire first floor
clear roadtrip crap from dining room table
put an extra dinner in the freezer for later
clean the downstairs bathroom
bathe the dog
set up the guest room (mentioned above)
read a lot of short stories
Sam's club run
clean up toys, books and crayons (numerous times)
wash (but not fold) two loads of laundry
water the house plants
cut the girls hair
soak in the gorgeous weather

The grass is greener...

I rarely post links to other blogs here, but I stumbled across this post this morning and wanted to share it.

I love the living intentionally theme, taking responsibility for our actions and the consequences, the emphasis on not being victims of circumstance but of taking what we have and living life to the fullest right there. Mmmm.

Thought it was worth passing on.

so beautiful

As if life wasn't stressful enough...

Today I walked in the door and the big dog growled and cowered. Crap. Back to that again? Only this time it wasn't anything off the counters (thank you month of mouse trapping, thank you). Nope, it was the bathroom garbage... chewed to pieces all over the living room rug. A first for us. Awesome. A new obsession. I am certainly willing to take some responsibility in this- I have been neglecting the big dog (and the little dog) something terrible lately. But it couldn't be helped. And seriously? We're taking revenge on my poor tired self by eating the bathroom garbage? Gross. There has got to be a better way. I've said it before, and I'll say it again: Dogs are gross. There's simply no getting around that.

And strangely, there is something comforting about coming home to a gross dog moment. There's enough high level stress in my life right now that coming home to that was strangely comforting (though gross). Okay, someone commit me. I just admitted that on my blog. Oy. Maybe I'm more exhausted than I thought.

So much to say, so little time

I figured I should update this blog just so the angsty post moves on down the line. Can't have that be the last thing on there. Lately I have tons to say but this isn't the place. And other stories to recount that are certainly blog-appropriate but no time to say them.

Suffice it to say... September is now over. What a wild month!! Out of town 3 out of the 4 weekends (and stories to tell from all of them). Stay tuned. Some day I may tell you about a Very Bridesmaid Chicago Adventure (aka "The Drinks are in the Sink"). Or the Awesome Ladies Weekend (wish I could come up with an awesome tagline for this) in St. Joseph, MI. Or the car ride with a car sick toddler. Or about meeting my new neighbors. Or about my latest adventure to New Orleans to pack up and move an apartment. And the awesome time I had with my brothers who live there and the rest of my fam who I traveled with. Heck, if I get really crazy I may even post pictures from some of those awesome events.

But for now... I am shocked it is October. Exhausted beyond belief. And thankful for a Father who continues to give His grace in abundance in all things. God is good.

Good night all.