A trip to the Farm

We always try to make it out to Brumbaugh Fruit Farm every Fall. We went out a couple weekends ago, when it was nice and sunny. The kid were slightly over dressed, and I, of course, became the jacket holder. That's the bad thing about having a 2 1/2 yr old. He thinks he's too big to be wheeled around in a stroller, so I'm stuck carrying everything. Anyway, Brumbaugh is great kids fun, and so much better than most of the Fall festivals around here, in my opinion. Although the old lady working in the bakery was a moody bugger. Of course, it was rather warm in there and there were alot of people, so I tried to cut her a break. Unfortunately, you couldn't really see what you wanted until your spot in line moved up enough to view the display case, which was exactly the time they wanted to know what you wanted. She seemed to be a little annoyed that people had to think about it before deciding between donuts, cookies, fritters, pies, dumplings...... I opted for the apple dumpling. Yum! And some apple fritters. Bobby chose a cherry turnover, and the kids split a dozen cookies. The kids got a kick out of the "Gourd"geous bathtub.



The 'Monster" slide. A huge plastic drainage pipe turned into an extra tall slide. It was pretty fun. I tried it out myself.

Teag had a little help from Daddy, swiping an apple from a tree. The boy does love apples. And whoever said the bees are disappearing, never walked around on a warm day, eating an apple.
The corn box. Much less messy than sand.

Such a cutie. Minus the snot.

Yummm, nummy pumpkin cookie.

No, I'm not a mess! Don't look at me.

Happy belated birthday Ryan!

Another little bro's birthday has passed. Ryan and Lauren are my youngest bro and sis. They live in Wyoming with my Dad and step mom, Dianna. They are both in college right now.

I know I'm a couple days late, but I still hope you had a great day little brother. (Little brother who's like 6 feet tall!) Ryan is 20 now. No longer a teenager! And since I used to change his diapers, I feel really old.

Happy Birthday Little Bro!

I hope you had a great day, Travis! I know I missed the actual day, but, I work nights. What do you want? I thought about you though, especially when a couple new little people came into the world. I thought, hey, they get to share their day with my little brother. My "little" brother, who is creeping further into his thirties, who is making me feel older and older, the older he gets. My little brother can't be 31, unless......... unless........ unless I'm OLDER!!!

Happy belated birthday, Trav!

The littlest T's

While the older T's are at school, the littlest T's have to find ways to entertain themselves. Sometimes it involves playing together. Most of the time, it involves fighting. A rare moment of sibling bliss. Notice they even had a basket for their bunnies to sit in. Aren't they sweet?

Uh, no. In order to obtain the two baskets, they needed to dump out the toy basket and a laundry basket. The cards? Yeah, I don't know why it was necessary to spread those all over the floor. And why was there a laundry basket in the living room anyway? Well, that is dh's way of folding whites. Put the basket in the living room, grab socks as needed, leave it there for however many days it takes for Carla to get sick of looking at it and put it away herself. And those big clodhoopers, yeah, those are his too. He has a hard time locating the closet, so a collection of his shoes can generally be found under the coffee table.

Bread doughn't

Well, the bread experiment was just that, an experiment. Part of the instructions said something about being sure to get the air bubbles out. I wasn't exactly sure what they meant by that. And apparently, what I did didn't work. The bread was full of little air pockets, and was no where near light and fluffy like normal white bread. I tried it. It wasn't terrible, but it seemed rather heavy. Bobby has been eating it, but that just proves that he will eat anything.

If you want to try some really yummy bread, stop by the Big Sky Bread Company, and get some Serious Sinnamon bread. Mmmmmm.

And yes, it has been alot longer than the hour I said it would take the bread to bake, but that's what happens when you work nights and have 4 kids.

Being domestic

Well, Bobby went and did it. He threw in the SAHD towel. He started a new job last week. A supposed day job. However, he has been getting home between 8:30 and 9 pm everyday. I'm not sure I'm liking this new job, and I wonder how long it will take him to get burnt out on the long hours. He's gone 14 hours a day.

In the meantime, I am here at home, picking up his slack. Now, I have to preface this by saying that I pushed him to look for a job. For a couple reasons, one, because he encouraged me to switch from my PT weekend shifts, to FT, which resulted in a slightly smaller paycheck. And two, because he was seriously starting to suck at the whole housewife gig. I felt like I was working 48+ hours each week only to spend my days off cleaning up the house. Now, he'll disagree, but it's all about perception, and that was my perception. So, I guess I shouldn't complain since it was my idea to get him off the couch and out of the house. (In his defense, the house wasn't a wreck. It just wasn't clean ALL the time, which is how I perceive it should be if someone is in it ALL the time). I'm sure that last statement will come back to bite me in the butt, especially since the clothes I gathered up for a children's sale 2 weeks ago, are still sitting in their totes in the dining room. : p

Now I am not what you'd call a SAHM, since I do work 12 hr shifts at least 3 nights/week. But on the days I am off, it sure feels like I am. With getting the boys off to school, taking care of the little ones during the day, laundry, cleaning, bill paying, grocery shopping....... well, you get the idea. In the battle of SAHM versus working Moms, I must say, working moms have it soooooo much easier, IMO. Well, if you have somebody to help with the home front.

So anyway, I am easing back into domesticity. Which I'm sure will cause a chuckle to those who know me IRL. Beyond basic cooking and cleaning, I am far from domestic. I have been tackling the housework the last few days, trying to figure out a system. Has anyone tried Motivated Moms Chore Planner ? I've read about it on other blogs and it seems pretty interesting. I need some motivation and organization when it comes to cleaning. I'd much rather check my email or read a book, than clean.

And cooking? Well, I used to do it. Back in the pre kid days. But with the amount of effort it takes and the lack of satisfaction I get, what with 4 little picky eaters, home cooked takes on a whole new meaning. Not like homemade, more like home thawed, then fried or baked. However, I am making an attempt. So today, I tried something I have never done. I am making homemade bread. Eek! I have made the bread machine mixes before which have turned out well, but have you ever tried to make a sandwich with those huge square slices? This is actually homemade bread. And it's a little scary. You're supposed to add enough flour to make a "workable dough". Um, what's that? The only dough I have "worked" with comes out of a can. This dough was a whole lot stickier. And when the recipe says use a very large bowl, it means it. I split the recipe in half to make two loaves, and the dough still rose up over the top of my Pampered Chef batter bowl. I had to transfer it to my Tupperware humongo, giganta bowl when I got to the "punch down" stage. After 2 risings, and a third in the loaf pans, it is in the oven. It is still pretty sticky. I used the dough mixer attachment on my Oster Kitchen Center (first time in 13 years). I can't imagine kneading this stuff by hand. I'm sure I didn't put enough flour in it or something.

Anyway, I will let you know how it goes, in about an hour. Or when "the crust is brown and it sounds hollow when it's thumped". Seriously.

Welcome October!

This past weekend was the Fall Farm Tour. We took the kids to a couple family farms, a farmer's market, and Germantown Metro Park.
200 pounds of kids!
There was a petting area at the farm market. The little people liked the little pigs.
This one laid down right next to the fence to get it's belly rubbed.
Tatum took this pic of Travis doing his homework. I asked her why she wanted to take a picture, she said "Because he works so hard."
Checking out the sheep.

Some were not so enthralled by the sheep shearing demo.

A pretty cool honey bee exhibit.
The kids had fun checking out the farm animals, seeing the costumed old timers, chowing down on hot dogs grilled over an open fire, and going on a hay ride. Tanner asked as we were leaving, "Mom, someday can we live on a farm?"

Conversations with children

Tatum has an obsession with going to the "grass station", AKA Speedway. Apparently, not only can you get "grass" there, it's a candy store too. Let's not get into the time my kids thought Speedway was a restaurant. Remember the 2 hot do

Sorry, had to take a break. Tatum came running in to tell me that Travis crashed. So after sliding my slipper socked feet into my sandals (which was not an easy task, yeah, I suppose I could have taken my slippers off..) I walk over to the church parking lot behind our house. Not only is the boy not crying or BLEEDING, he's got a goofy grin on his face. "Mom, do you know how I did it? I got too close to the bars and............ I fell on em". Now, anybody who has listened to Travis can imagine the inflection.

Anyway, back to the hot dogs. There was a time that Speedway sold 2 hot dogs for a buck. It was during this time frame, that my children thought Speedway was the most appropriate place to stop for dinner whenever we happened to drive by. And for a family of 6, it would have been a very affordable dinner. I have to say though, we never actually ate dinner there. Okay, so onto Tatum. She spent several hours asking to go to Speedway for candy. I could only ignore her for so long when no obviously wasn't working. So I told her, you don't need to go to Speedway. Her reply, I do need to go. Along comes the 2 yr old to interject "Need go, need go, need go." Aww, he learned a new sentence fragment. Hmm, no Teagan, you need to go to bed. It was naptime, but what an easy transition. (No more Speedway talk). While he didn't agree with me, he did head up the stairs.

So I ask him to pick a movie. I know, there is some controversy over using the TV as a babysitter. But in all actuality, the crib was going to babysit, the TV was just to keep him quiet. And if you must know, it's a practice that his Dad started, and amazingly, works pretty well. He picks a movie, walks to the crib, climbs up the side rail, stands up and asks for hugs and kisses, then lies down and asks for his blankie. Cool system.

Teagan, which movie do you want?
Was dat? (as he points to the collection of Disney videos)
Lion King
Oh. Was dat?
Tarzan
Oh. Was dat?
Dalmations
Oh. Was dat?
Bambi
Oh. Was dat?
Lady and the Tramp
No. Dog.
Uh, okay. Do you want to watch that?
No. Was dat?

And on and on, two times over, until he finally settled on Chicken Run.

And after he was asleep, Tatum started in with "when the boys get home, can they take me to Speedway?" Ugh!

Strange things said by the little neighbor girl who plays with Tatum. Keep in mind, she's 7. As I'm munching on my spaghetti, "Ooooh, I love spaghetti." If you're getting hungry, _____ (little neighbor girl's name), maybe you should head home for dinner. (It was 6 o'clock). "My mom won't fix my any. She doesn't like it when I eat."

Huh? So I settle the tummy rumblings with some fruit snacks, and she and Tatum settle down to watch Goosebumps. LNG goes on to say, "I like scary movies. I watched Saw II. I haven't watched Saw III yet, but we have it at home." Huh? Okay, Saw I freaked me out so bad, I have no desire to see the other 2! And I definitely wouldn't let any of my kids watch it. I learned my lesson after 3 yr old Tanner claimed there were snakes coming out of his belly. He was playing with some toys on the floor while we watched the Matrix. I didn't even think he was paying attention. Remember when Neo was in the cab, and those freaky robotic snakes came out of his belly button? Yeah, freaky.

Poop

I know, it's been awhile, and I have no new pics to share. Sorry. My computer was out of service for 2 weeks. (Thanks to Geek Squad for the 3 day estimate!!!) Basically, they backed up my files and reinstalled Windows, to the tune of $300! Ugh!

Anyway...... I'm working past that.

It took four kids, but I finally have a funny poop story. And I'm sure Teagan will someday thank me for not chronicaling this stage of his life in film. So I go to get him up from his nap. I noticed his diaper was slightly amiss. He rolled over and I noticed, hmmm, something was peeking out of the top of his diaper. Uh, Teagan, why is your pee pee sticking out of your diaper? He grabs his butt and says:
Poop!

You pooped?

Yeah, poop.

Okay, lay down and we'll change your diaper.

No, poop.

Yeah, I know, poop.

Noooo, poop (he says, while pointing outside of the crib)

Huh? (looking around)

Poop! (still pointing)

Ohhhh, poop. (as I spot the poop in question, lying atop the Fisher Price garage)

Apparently, he didn't like the poop in his diaper, or he was bored, or there is some other unexplainable reason why a toddler would throw his poop outside of his crib. Thankfully, he drinks way too much milk and it was nice, solid, little turds. I have managed to avoid poop spread all over beds and walls, although I have heard horror stories from other parents. Speaking of turds, the dumb dog, I mean Buddy, was in the house the other day, and I noticed something lying on the floor. I asked Tatum, "Is that a cat turd?" (Buddy has a littler box fetish which is why she is usually closely monitored while in the house). Tatum giggled, "What's a turd?" Apparently, my children are not very cultured and stick to calling it all poop. (Btw, I didn't have to worry about the cat turd, because the disgusting dog, ate it!) I know, gross, huh? See why you should never let your dog lick you in the face?

Just so you don't think toddlers and turd eating dogs are all I have to contend with, I'm riding along in the van the other day, with a bunch of kids, I mean, my kids. So, Tanner, is listening to ONE OF MY CD's, and as I start singing along, he says "You're ruining it, Mom."

Smart aleck. He makes it a point to mention, frequently, that he is 3 years away from being a teenager. I say, he's already there.

Last of the vacation pics

I think I have finally reached the end of the vacation pics. Or most of them, at least.

These were at the Wyoming Dinosaur Center in Thermopolis, WY. We picniced there in Hot Springs park, but we skipped the water parks. There are two pools with water slide that use water from the hot springs. I don't know if a warm pool would necessarily feel good on a 90 degree day. Not to mention the smell of sulfur that the springs put off. I can just imagine the smell sticking to you if you swim in it.

There were pretty cool exhibits. They had full scale dinosaur skeletons displayed. This one was a little freaky. I guess they have actually unearthed nests like this.


We stopped at the world famous Yellowstone Drugstore for Milkshakes. If you are ever in Shoshone, WY, this is the only thing there. The milkshakes and malts are $4/each, and they only come in one size, BIG. But they have a gazillion flavors. They are good, but if you're not used to high butterfat, really rich ice cream, you may want to split one with somebody else. The cherry cheesecake flavor was YUM!

Hot tub

The kids thought the hot tub at Dad's house was pretty cool. Me? I wasn't too interested in the mosquitoes buzzing around my head. Surprisingly, another thing they haven't asked for. Yet.
They thought the color changing lights were way cool.

Family pics

More pics from Dad's house. Teagan had no qualms about hanging out with Grandpa. This was actually the first time he's ever seen them in person, as he wasn't born yet the last time we got together. We all went on a vacation to San Antonio in 2004. Tatum was only 18 months then. Since they live so far away, and the cost of airfare is astronomical, we hadn't seen Dianna, Ryan or Lauren since then. Dad came up to Ohio a few months after that trip when my sis, Krista was sick in the hospital. Other than that, our visits are, unfortunately, far between.
The kids with Aunt Lauren and Uncle Ryan. Ryan is going off to college in Elko, NV, and Lauren is heading off to Sheridan, WY for school.
The kids with Ryan, Lauren, and Grandma and Grandpa.
Add Mom and Dad to the mix.

Tramp pics

No, not that kind of tramp. I'm trying to upload the rest of the vacation pics. This is at my Dad's house in Wyoming. Surprisingly, the kids have not requested a trampoline. I'll have to withhold the pics from them.


That's my little brother bouncing with them. Okay, maybe little isn't the right word since he towers over everyone. That's my younger brother, Ryan.