Last week will go down in history as one pretty lousy week.  Last Sunday (Father's Day) we had a Mission farewell, and Father's Day luncheon, which we were looking forward to. But Hand, foot, mouth disease made other plans.  We were able to go to both sans Chloe, but it definitely was not the same without her.  And then Monday Macie came down the dreaded HFMD.  And then Tuesday I got it.  Apparantly adults CAN get it.  And let me tell you, it was wretched.  I am so grateful my mouth finally feels better.  The blisters on the back of my throat made sleeping and eating hard.  And also being pleasant to those around me.  People who live with chronic pain and still manage to smile and be kind, are completely and utterly amazing.  Pretty much my entire week was spent with me complaining to Don about how bad my mouth hurt.  And I think that might have been my only "accomplishment" for the week.  I did manage to keep my children alive, so I guess I can be proud of that. 
Speaking of children:
This week Macie learned how to float in the pool with the floaties. We are all pretty excited about her newfound freedom.  She, more than anyone.  She just likes to bob around like a buoy.  She also learned how to do a somersault, which I might have already mentioned previously. I love her stage right now.  She is picking up new skills and we see more of her personality daily.  Today I saw her give another baby a hug because he was crying.  I love when babies try to take care of fellow babies.  I love that they recognize another baby as being the same as themself.  Whenever I have a baby over, they just follow eachother around and squeal and babble at eachother.  And cry when the older kids lock them out of the room.
Chloe has been loving her swimming lessons and then eating lunch with her friends over in the cafeteria.  She was so disappointed to find out today that the free lunch program has been discontinued, as was I.  But I will not miss sitting on dirty, hot tables outside.  Her favorite thing to do was to do her "exercises" on the bar dividers for the outside lunch lines.  And then go hide behind the wall which she and her friends dubbed their "secret place." 
Some funny things she has said:
Upon viewing some grafiti on a street post...
"Mom. Did they do that because they wanted it to be decorated?"

She made me draw a gazillion princesses.  And all of them were not up to par.  I am not sure when she will realize that most 5 year olds draw better than I do.  But anyway, I drew one princess and then I put eyebrows on her.  And Chloe got very frustrated and said, "No!!!! I don't like eyebrows! They look mean!"  She will not allow any eyebrows on princesses.

I had Chelsey over here a couple weeks ago and I took her with me to a church function. She stayed in the nursery with my girls.  Afterwards she said, "I never knew playing with baby toys could be so fun."

When I dropped her off at my Dad's house, I asked her if she had seen my Dad when she got home.  He was not feeling well and was hiding out, so to speak.  I asked if he was dressed and decent to talk to, and she told me, "Yes. He is wearing a lovely red robe."

Chloe is also in the "why" stage.  She asks me "why" over every possible topic.  And if I say, "I don't know," she gets frustrated and says,  "try to think of something!!"  And she will not give up until I have tried to think of something. 

The other day I was looking at recipes online and asking for Chelsey's input.  After a few, "Mmmmmm, that looks good," she got serious and said to me, "Looking at pictures of food is nice, but I would rather be eating it."  So I made her a sandwhich and she was happy.

That is all I can think of right now. 

Quarantined

Hello outside world.  I miss you.  I hope to see you soon!
I just want to give a big shout out for Hands, Foot, Mouth Disease!
Thank you for ruining our weekend!
Thanks for coming to visit during such a convenient weekend too!
Good thing we had lots of fun plans, because I sure would have hated to do any of them!
I mean why I would I want to go out to eat with my husband, when I could spend another Friday night at home watching a 2 hour special about a crazy guy walking a tightrope across Niagara Falls?!
Poor Chloe.  She is only comfortable if she is eating a Popsicle because the cold soothes the blisters in her mouth.  I guess that is the one good thing about it for her.  She can have an unlimited amount of Popsicles.
she is breaking my heart though. We have a family party this weekend that she has been looking forward to, and every time she talks about it, her chin quivers and she starts crying because she is so sad she won't get to play with her favorite cousin.  So not only is she in pain, but she also has to miss out on all the fun.  Such a bummer.
It will be a miracle if Macie doesn't get this.

So I said to Chelsey and Chloe:
"I love you guys. You are the best."

And Chelsey says,
"Even though I don't shave under my armpits sometimes?"

For the record, I love all people.  I prefer if your armpits are shaved, but I still love you.

I discovered yesterday that Chloe thinks "cotton candy" is called "ROTTEN Candy."
Also, she thinks "mistletoe" is called "Crystal toe."    (I do have a crystal mistletoe that she thinks belongs to her and is hanging up in her room all year.  So I definitely see how this one makes sense in her brain.)

Favorite Quotes This week:
 Background: I was looking at recipe ideas online and asking Chelsey and Chloe which ones looked good.
Chelsey: "Looking at pictures of food is nice, but I'd rather be eating it."

Background: Today I was driving home from church and totally out of the blue chloe says;
"Mom. I need to ask you a question.  How does a person in a wheelchair get in their bed at night time?"

Background: After 2 days of trying to get Chloe to clean up her room....I went into her room and starting picking up her toys and told her all the toys I picked up, would be going in storage and she would have to earn them back.  She still spent most of the evening laying around the house and sighing and complaining about how tired she was and how she couldn't possible pick anything up, being as exhausted as she was.  Well after *I* basically cleaned up her room she asked me when we were going to the splash pad.  I told her it was too late, and besides how could we go to the splash pad when she was just sooooooo tired....  And then she said,

"I wasn't really tired. I just didn't want to clean my room."

She sure tricked me.


Favorite moments this week:
Macie figured out how to do a somersault. 
And she shared her sucker with her friend at church.

chloe
(Chloe just typed her name above)
CHLOE
(she just made me fix her name, because she wanted all the letters to be big)
and she just asked me why we need fingernails.

Anyway, I digress.
So this past week Chloe started swim lessons.  Last year there was a little girl in her class that had the same swimsuit, so of course they bonded over that.  Chloe asked me if that little girl was going to be there this summer.  I said I didn't know.
Well what do you know, the little girl was there and in her class.
And I was shocked when the little girl came up to Chloe and said, "Hi Chloe."
I could not believe she remembered Chloe's name from a year ago.  Now that is a smart kid.

Dumb decisions of the week:
I realized that bringing cheese ravioli for the kid's snack to church is a really, really bad idea. Although Don told me it was an improvement over the time that I brought a large bag of Doritos.  Do you know how loud a bag of Doritos is? It's loud.

Parenting.

I have been thinking.  About parenting mostly.  I had a conversation a while back with a friend, about how different Moms have different pet peeves and how that is usually what we focus our parenting on.  I thought about it, and I wasn't sure what my pet peeve was.  (It is hard to pick, I do have so many). And then it got me thinking, what is my parenting goal?  As in, what is my ultimate goal for how my children turn out? What is my priority?  I think as with everything, you have to have a goal if you want to be successful.  Otherwise it is just work without any purpose.

Well I figured it out, thanks to a very mouthy week on Chloe's part.  I shed one tear yesterday thinking about how my 5 year old was acting like a 16 year old Queen Bee.  So that's my pet peeve: A Bad attitude, and an unbridled tongue.

So that is my goal: to raise polite and respectful children. 

And to do this, I know I need to be calm and consistent.  Which is a challenge for me.

But I have to.  

Yesterday Chloe told me that my meatballs looked like poop.  And then she stuck out her tongue about a billion times and refused to eat them.  

It was a really great day.

Observations.

When I am alone during the day, doing my usual duties, I sometimes have thoughts.  And these are just some of them.  I thought that I'd write them down. 

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For the most part, I dread going to Wal Mart.  But at least I never have to worry about being underdressed. 
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Why do commercials always say that if you use their detergent, drier sheets, fabric softener, etc. , that your clothes will come out feeling like they were air dried on a beautiful, windy spring day?  Have you ever let your clothes air dry out in the sun? They come back feeling like cardboard. And smelling like 4 day old unwashed hair.
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Don told me that he heard the way to lose weight, is to write down your goal weight on a piece of paper, and then put it in your pocket.  But the problem is I wear skirts with no pockets.  So do you think I should just pin it somewhere?
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I finally saw "The Notebook" today.  That's because it was on the ABC Family channel.  And just like every other movie based on a Nicholas Sparks book, they die at the end. I hate Nicholas Sparks. Although it wasn't cancer, so that was different than usual.
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The ABC Family channel, is anything but a family channel.  Unless you want your 13 year old being taught that it is perfectly acceptable to have no standards or morals, and to act like they are 25.
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I don't understand swimming suits.  Men are the one's with the nice thighs, yet they get to wear long shorts.  Well now that I think about it, I think that men should go ahead and keep wearing the long shorts.

Dear Don, Please come home soon. Now. I have now started referring to our children, as "your" children in my head. When you come back from your two day camping trip, I hope your are not offended, but I am planning on taking a drive out to the desert where I will scream very loudly, and then I will return home. I might also just sit in the hot car for an hour to enjoy the silence and personal space. I also will want to buy myself a pair of shoes, but I will refrain. Maybe just some earrings. And a red velvet cupcake from Target. These are my plans. Melissa