I really ought to be uploading a bunch of pictures from our trip to Florida and posting about the wonderful time we had with my Uncle Dale park hopping...or about the immaculately clean home I came home to (courtesy of my mom and dad)...I promise, I'll get to all that, but for now...You've GOT to go look at this video...it's so sweet!!

Two quick stories I don't want to forget...

Last Saturday, our cat...named Kitty, how clever...snuck in the house and headed straight under the futon hoping not to be noticed.  A cat going unnoticed in this house full of kids would be like a mouse going unnoticed in a room full of cats...not gonna happen!  But anyway, this time, all of the kids were outside except for Susanna (2).  I pretended I didn't notice the cat, wanting to wait until one of my big kids came in so they could crawl under and get him.  As I was going about my business in the kitchen I began to hear some kind of conversation going on in the living room.  Curious, I peeked my head around the corner and saw the cutest thing...Susie was halfway under the couch...Kitty's paws playfully batting her...while she "read" a story to him, her little fingers carefully following each line of the book and turning pages frequently.  Her story didn't quite match up with the author's intent, however...in her story every page said something to the effect of "Kitty, no bite my (her way to say "me")...No, no bite, Kitty...No, Kitty, no scratch my, no bite my"...page after page, the same story.  So sweet!!!

Secondly, on Sunday David was wonderful enough to make a way for me and the 3 youngest to stay at my parent's house in town after church and take a nap while he took the 2 oldest back to our house to get some things done before a church picnic.  Just as they were leaving, a storm looked about to erupt.  As Joshua (5) and I laid down to take a nap, I heard him...ever so faintly...say "Dear Jesus..."  I couldn't quite make out the rest of the prayer...I waited until he was finished and then opened my eyes and asked him if he had been praying.  He said, "Yes, I asked Jesus to please help Daddy and David and Julia to be safe and not to get hit by lightening."  WOW...I'm soooo glad I didn't miss that!  Hearing kids pray at meal time or at family devotion time is special, but there is an element of routine to those prayers...but to hear my 5-year-old pray to Jesus unprompted was so incredible to me...the faith of a child...he didn't tell me he was nervous about them leaving in a storm, he went ahead and took it to the One that can calm the seas...and the storms.  "Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you" . 

Well, I wasn't planning to post tonight...but as I was sitting here at 11:15pm waiting for my 2 David's to return from the emergency room (which, of course, could be a blog post in itself, but I'll fill you in in a minute...keep reading), I was catching up on a few blogs I like to read.  One of which is the blog of my former pastor and father of a high school friend . 

His latest post is about Oprah.  I'm sorta, a little, completely out of the loop at this stage in my life...I have really no idea what's going on in current events unless David informs me...and we usually have other things to talk about ...  But, anyway...Pastor Kinnan linked to a youtube video about what Oprah's been up to these days and it's just scary!  When David was little one...about 7 years ago, I watched Oprah and Dr. Phil faithfully...I "knew" in my head that half of the stuff she was saying was a little off, but she always sounded so good that I continued to watch.  Thankfully, as more kids came along, I had less time to spend watching anything... In a nutshell, she has basically just started her own religion and is billing it as truth...  She is making the path to hell sound great and enticing many to join her in her "enlightenment".  Oh, that we as the people of God would spend more time in His Word than watching TV...Oh, that we would know the Truth so well that any counterfeit would be spotted immediately so that we are not dragged away and enticed! 

Check out the video...

"But there were also false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you. They will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the sovereign Lord who bought them-bringing swift destruction on themselves. Many will follow their shameful ways and will bring the way of truth into disrepute. In their greed these teachers will exploit you with stories they have made up. Their condemnation has long been hanging over them, and their destruction has not been sleeping." II Peter 2:1-3

On a lighter, though more immediately painful, topic...we had Home Group tonight here and afterwards as some of our friends lingered to chat a little, the kids all went out to race bikes on our long driveway...Great, except it is really dark as you get farther away from the house.  There was a collision...Iron headed Joshua's forehead hit poor David's mouth head-on...the poor boy stuck his tooth clear through his upper lip...we could have shown a flashlight in the inside and seen the light on the outside...NICE...so, that's why I'm still up...waiting on the patient and tired Daddy to return home from the ER.

I had the same basic injury playing softball, but I was 20...not 7...and it did hurt...alot....think of the worst canker sore  you could imagine and then increase it's size by about 5 times...not to mention the swollen, busted lip!  It's gonna be a fun few days around here finding things he'll want to eat

What's amazing to me is that this is actually our FIRST ER visit with any of our kids...well, that's not true, I fell down the stairs holding a 3 week old Joshua, so we had him checked out...but the first for a child that has injured him/herself.  Not bad for 7 years...I'm sure it will be the first of many, though, as the kids get older and a bit more sure of themselves (aka...overconfident and careless). 

I'd post a picture, but the vibe I was getting from him when I pulled the camera out was not a good one ...maybe he'll be more ambivalent tomorrow.

Not quite 3 weeks ago our family travelled to Savannah, GA to see off David's "little" brother, Phillip.  He has been deployed along with more than 3,000 other soldiers of the Indiana Army National Guard to Iraq.  The ceremony was amazing.  Just seeing all of those soldiers lined up...almost more than my camera could get in!   

We "thought" we knew what group Phil was in...turns out, we were looking at the wrong group...something about 3000 people all dressed the same and marching the same makes it a tad difficult to distinguish them.

Somehow, this is the only picture I got of "our" soldier.  He was holding his baby girl, Isabelle, who he hadn't seen since she was 5 weeks old (she is now almost 4 months...I may be a tad off on one of these numbers, but we're close  ).

The army put on a great "festival" for the families.  Our kids had a blast on all of the blow-up slides and bouncy gyms.  They played little games for candy and toys, ate hot dogs, had their faces painted and even held a tiny aligator and snake (well, only Joshy did that)...and all for free!!!  Thank you taxpayers!!

Here's Josh and Jules having a ball...

Susanna LOVED her American flag...and, yes, she loves her "boops", too.  She sort of grew out of her black dress shoes and I wasn't about to buy a new pair this close to spring...and she loves to put on her boots all by herself...and, well, she's just so cute with them...

Phil got a few days of leave after the ceremony, so we spent a day in Savannah with Granne, Grandad, Uncle Phil, Aunt Melissa and Isabelle.  We went to a restaurant called The Lady and Sons...apparently the restaurant of some famous cooking show lady...Paula Deen...I've never seen her here under my rock, but if the crowd outside the restaurant was any indication, she has some fans that don't live under rocks.  Actually, because we had a party of over 10, we were able to get reservations (reason #652 to have lots of kids ) and walk right past the crowd on the parking lot...even though we didn't know who Paula Deen was!!

Here's a couple of pictures of Susanna enjoying her Daddy and her grossly overpriced food.  It's the only 2 pictures I snapped while wrestling Sammy (19 mo) who decided early that he'd eaten enough and now wanted to show everyone how ugly a temper looks even in a baby!  Good times.  I ate a few bites standing up with him, begged my 2 non-eating children to eat something, and then realized if they didn't eat their food, well, then...I get to eat their dessert!!  Good deal!

We were smart enough to let our 2 oldest drink sweet tea...and, boy, was that waiter, whose name was Vyt which rhymes with Beet...where'd that name come from??? on top of the refills.  So, we spent the next several hours looking for and visiting restrooms all over Savannah.  

Savannah is a beautiful city with what appeared to be lots of shopping.  I wasn't about to take my crew into all those fru-fru shops, though.  We did visit the candy shop  , got scared half at of our minds by the ferry boat blowing it's horn right next to us...David, Jr jumped, cowering, behind a tree, the babies ducked in their stroller, David, Sr. jumped out of his skin and I ducked for cover and braced for what seemed surely would be the train that was going to run us down right there in front of the candy shop, and greatly enjoyed playing in the water fountains in one of the many squares that the city is built around.  (Now how's that for a run-on sentence).

Here's the crew...between bathroom breaks... 

 Here they are again posing with Uncle Phil and Isabelle at the hotel..  Julia seems to have inherited my inability to open my eyes when looking at the sun.

Next topic...  in David's science experiment book, he found a fun idea...to build things out of gumdrops and toothpicks.  So, after a couple of months of forgetting to get them every time we went to the store, we finally remembered.  I got 2 bags of gumdrops and 4 boxes of toothpicks.  Turned out to be woefully inadequate, though they would have used all I got no matter how many that had been...they had so much fun!

Julia's creations started small...

 This is the beginning of David's "Eiffel Tower"...I don't think I've mentioned in awhile how much I love this boy...he has, at times, been my "high maintenance" child, but in the last 4-6 months, he has become my right arm and my buddy!  He has learned to be a hard worker, doing anything we ask him to do without complaint (and as the oldest of 5, we ask ALOT sometimes).  He has just become so loving and so sweet and so fun to be around!  7 looks good on him!

 Julia's creations got a bit bigger...the 2 bridges on the left are hers...the ones on the right are David's.

When we ran out of gumdrops, Julia built an Eiffel Tower with blocks...and took her own picture of it...since I was, of course, taking a nap...

Have I mentioned how much I ADORE my 2 youngest destroyers kids?  To think...they were so thoughtful and creative that they took my fresh baked bread and made me a bread bowl out of one...Who needs Paneral Bread soup-in-a-bowl...we've got it right here! 

Here are the two trouble makers...can't stay upset with them for too long...even when they go straight from the bread to the pantry to empty boxes of cereal and on to the clean folded laundry basket and empty it piece-by-piece...and EVEN when one takes a Sharpie to the new, not-so-cheap, leather couch...at least she only made two lines and then brought the marker to me, saying, "No write on couch".

Lastly, our newest batch of baby chicks arrived yesterday.  We are in chicky heaven.  We got 7 different varieties this time and we learned just how fragile their little 2 day old bodies are when Susanna loved one of them to death...oops...

Well, despite everyone (except Julia) being sick for much of the last week, we've managed to have some noteworthy (to our family, anyway) things happen...and then just some non-noteworthy but cute-worthy things, anyway...

Julia (6) has some LONG hair...er...HAD some long hair...she'd become increasingly disgruntled with the washing, brushing, drying process and rarely remembered to brush her hair between washings...or at least very well...as a result, the de-tangling process could be a bit painful.  So...we had heard about the company Locks of Love that makes wigs for little girls who have lost all of their hair permanently out of donated hair.  Julia loved the idea of giving someone her extra hair...so, today, we did it...

Before... (Susanna felt the need to pose in her backwards shirt, too )

During...

After...Isn't she adorable??!?!!

She's most excited to now be able to shower without assistance for her long hair...I may be fighting her for shower time

In other news...we have a new entrepeneur in the family.  Several months ago, David (7), began collecting mini-NFL plastic helmets from a machine at Wal-mart.  You couldn't spring a Wal-mart trip on him...he had to know in advance exactly where we were going so he could have his quarters ready!  Once he had a bunch (and got some in his stocking at Christmas) he began developing a game with them.  He made himself a cardboard "field" and came up with rules and everything.   Over a couple of months he tweaked the game after playing it with his friends and Daddy until he felt ready to make it official.  He then wrote up and typed out the instructions to his game and Daddy and he made the first game board this weekend.  He took the board and instructions to his friend's house today (whose momma has the hair salon in the basement that Julia was getting her hair cut in) and MADE HIS FIRST $5 SALE!!  He was thrilled!!  He's got big plans now...

It really is a cool game...if I do say so myself ...

Moving on...have I ever mentioned how RED the dirt is here...particularly right in our front yard where grass doesn't grow so the kids find it to be a nice big digging paradise???

The front yard is now looking like Venice (as if I've been there ) with its intricate system of canals and aquaducts.  Remind me to be careful whilst mowing come spring...

Lastly, I wanted to document for my own memory's sake this little peculiarity about Sammy.  The boy does not like to drink, er, traditionally.  If you give him a cup he prefers to dump it onto the nearest surface and slurp it up like a dog.  I finally took a picture of him...this cup wasn't actually given to him...he climbed across the table to get it...but it serves the picture's purpose.  Usually I find him laying prostrate on the kitchen floor drinking away (and we all know my kitchen floor is NOT clean...even when I just mopped it!! ). 

Makes perfect sense!!

Well, if you didn't already know or didn't see the ticker at the top of my blog...I'll tell you...we're expecting #6 in September!!  Yeah!!  We are so excited...and I am S-O-O-O-O-O sleepy  

So, if you don't see me around here for the next 5 weeks or so (until I hit my second trimester stride and get a bit of energy back), it's because I'm dozing off reading stories to the kids, falling asleep eating lunch, nodding off as I milk Bessie or putting toothpicks in my eyes while listening to my early readers read. 

Thankfully, my kids are VERY excited about this baby and are very tolerant of their sleepy momma.  David (7) is my faithful alarm clock when I get to grab a small nap in the afternoon when the little ones are sleeping but before Bessie needs milked.  He even does the "snooze" function for me...just 5 more minutes, Buddy!  In the daily argument   discussion over whether this will be a pattern breaking boy or a pattern extending girl (B-G-B-G-B-"G"), David came up with the idea that he'd like me to have 5 boys at the same time...then he said, "Wow, Momma, if you had 5 babies in your tummy you'd be so sleepy you'd NEVER get out of bed!" 

So, once I wake up...and after I clean up this house after sleeping for 2 months...I'll get back to my less than consistent blogging...I promise.

Apparently, we are an oddity.  I really have a difficult time getting through a grocery store without being stopped numerous times by people asking incredulously if all those kids are mine?!?!?!  David, Jr (7) finds it rather amusing.  If I had a dollar for every time someone told me I have my hands full...well, I could send all of these kids to college without them having to work for it at all!!

I've heard of people talking bad about larger families, but no one has ever shared their comments with me.  It does crack me up when people see all of my kids and then ask me if I know about the Duggar Family ...as if somehow having 5 kids is even comparable to having 17 .  Most of the time, people smile at us, say something sweet to the kids, squeeze a baby's cheeks... I suppose, occasionally I probably do get nasty stares...but that's most likely when I'm utterly consumed with maintaining order among the ranks or perhaps when the dynamic duo of Susanna (2) and Sammy (1) are absolutely DONE shopping happily.  So, I'll pretend it never happens.

My hard-working hubby has been working non-stop for the last 2 weeks or so...and I do mean non-stop...it's 11:30pm on Friday night right now and he's still working...poor guy!!  He had a deadline move on him by about 6 weeks, so we'll be out of these woods in another week or so, but in the meantime, he can be found at work.  So, anyway...my trusty kitchen companion...something I managed to live without until 18 months ago and now can't envision being without ever again...my dishwasher...died last night.  So the kids and I headed to town FIRST THING today to get us a new one...yes, I'm spoiled...it just didn't really even feel like an option to wait .  After spending way too long at Sears, it was lunch time and since I didn't have a dishwasher at home and since we still needed to go to another store, and since I wanted to treat the kids to make the day special, and, well, since I had a hankerin', we headed to Steak 'n Shake instead of our usual drive through at Chik-fil-A on these types of days.

About as soon as we got seated and got Steak-n-Shake hats on all who wanted them...and got crackers in Sammy's mouth to make him content for 2.2 seconds, an older lady came up and put her arm around me and asked me if I was enjoying these kids...at that moment, I could honestly say, "yes"...and not just in "theory"...I really was enjoying them (Honestly, I'm more prone to be caught up in the "stuff" that needs to get done and many times have to force myself to ENJOY them!!)  She went on to share that she'd had 5 kids and they all turned out beautifully.  I thanked her for taking the time to encourage me and she went back to her table.  (My 7-year-old still can't figure out why perfect strangers like to talk to us .)  About 10 minutes later, the lady stopped by our table on her way out the door and slipped $20 onto the table to help cover our meal...She paid for our meal!!!!  Is that not the sweetest expression?  David was absolutely incredulous and later asked why I didn't share the money with all of the kids since they're why she gave it to me . 

I'm not really sure what my point to this rambling post is...I just wanted to share...and you can be sure that I will be doing the same for someone else someday!!

A few months ago, David (Sr) sent me an email from work that had all the makings of a forward, but he disguised it well...and I'm gullible.  He said, "Hey, take a look at this...but make sure you turn the volume all the way up on the computer before you open the attachment because it's hard to hear".  Being an obedient...er, gullible...wife, I cranked the volume and opened the attachment.

The first screen was some kind of announcement from the IRS that they would be refunding alot of our money for some oversight...yada, yada...obviously untrue and I didn't fall for that part, but I did go ahead and click the red button to see the audio of the announcement from the IRS...

remember...the cranked volume???  Well, we all jumped through the roof...the picture was of an adorable kitty...the sound was hideous laughter.  The kids thought it was hilarious, except for Susanna who cried the first few times she heard it.  Sammy (15 mo at the time), became obsessed...if anyone was on the computer, he'd point at the computer and try to laugh like that kitty.

I've been trying to upload this video forever, and have finally been successful...so, enjoy!!

Here's the link to the video

(If anyone knows how to embed the video onto this site...please let me know...I can't seem to figure it out).

The video is probably not as cute as I think it is...I just love that boy so much!!  Especially after an entire dresser fell on top of him yesterday...an entire dresser...the boy has a knack for getting himself into sticky situations...God has His hand on him...and several extra angels assigned to him , I'm sure!!  We have most of our furniture attached to the wall for this very reason, but we were re-organizing the boys room and while I stepped into my room for a couple of minutes...right next to the boys room...Susie and Sammy emptied the bottom drawer of the moved dresser and then apparently Sam decided to climb it... After the crash I ran in and lifted the dresser off of him...scared of what I would find...he stood up, turned around, pointed at the dresser...and YELLED at it!  Thankfully, there were little crates also in the path of the dresser that were crushed...but likely broke the fall just a bit.  Praise the Lord...he didn't have a scratch or bruise on him! 

Well, I've been "tagged" two times in as many days, so I guess I oughta do this one...so, thank you to Misti over at Raising Sweet Savages and to Suzy over at Javanuts.

Here are the tag rules:

(1) Link to the person that tagged you. (2) Post the rules on your blog. (3) Share six non-important things/habits/quirks about yourself. (4) Tag six random people at the end of your post by linking to their blogs. (5) Let each random person know they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their website.

All right...6 quirky things about myself...now that's going to be difficult because everything I do is quite normal...it's everyone else that have all of the quirks....  But I'll try anyway...

1.  I am very much a slob...I really need to join some SA (slob anonymous) group.  "Hello, my name is Michelle...and I'm a slob".  I've managed to change some of my behaviors and my house looks much nicer now than it even did before we had ANY kids.  But I will always hold on to my messy desk and I refuse to put my keys in the same place every time...that would make life so predictable!

2.  Details are not my thing...somehow I used to be a CPA and yet I have no natural accountant tendencies...it was easy enough for me to pretend, but I certainly didn't enjoy it!!

3.  I love milking the cow almost as much as Julia (6) loves scooping manure...and I'm being serious...I really do enjoy it and she gets very excited when it's her day to scoop poop...ok...so maybe we're a little bit quirky...

4.  The only times I have ever served salad to my family is when we've had company over...I just don't do salad.  Actually, the times I've had salad as an adult, I've enjoyed it...sorta...but I just can't seem to shake the taste of that big white chunk of the iceberg lettuce that always seemed to find MY bowl every night at the dinner table as I was growing up...so bitter...YUCK!  Thankfully, that's the most traumatic thing in my childhood, so I am blessed!!

5.  I don't like hamburgers, ketchup, mustard, or french fries (as I've gotten older, I can tolerate fries, but only skinny, salty ones...definitely not steak cut fries...blech!!).  The only thing I like ketchup on is liver and onions...'nother childhood trauma (love you mom and dad ).  ...and that's just because liver and onions tasted SOOOOO bad and gritty and disgusting that even though I despised ketchup it at least made it go down easier.

6. This one's for my brother, Mark, who LOVES to bring this up at all family gatherings.  I once ate an entire dish (minus the small serving I gave my big brother) of banana pudding.  I had good intentions, but when I got done making it, only Mark was home, so I served us both some and then I went back for seconds...and I just kept eating and eating...and then, I was REALLY full, but I couldn't just leave a small amount 'cuz then everyone would KNOW I had eaten a ton...so I polished it off and washed the dish and prayed my brother had a short memory.  Proof that sometimes God answers NO to our prayers because it's like 20 years later and Mark still hasn't forgotten .

Anyone want to be tagged??

I've always prided myself in my good sleepers...that was my first mistake..."pride goes before a fall".  ...and really, my kids still all sleep amazingly well...David and I can both take credit...not so much that we taught them well, but that they inherited our "love to sleep" gene...unfortunately, they also inherited our "hate to go to bed even though we know we'll be miserable in the morning" gene. 

I rarely get up in the night with a child...even when they're sick or hacking up a lung, they just sleep right through.  When I was a newer mom, I'd hear them coughing and start stressing out that they were going to wake up and be up all night...I gave that worry up pretty quick because it just didn't happen.

But my wonderful, beautiful, sweet, helpful, inquisitive, 2 year old...Susanna...has broken the mold...the child doesn't seem to need the volume of sleep that the rest in the family needs or desires.  She can often be found at 2am, 3am, and/or 4am, fraternizing in the boys room burying Sam in books, emptying all of the boy's dresser contents into Sam's crib or climbing up into her sister's top bunk and taking all of the stuffed animals out of the hanging net and burying Julia...or emptying her sister's closet neatly onto the floor or her own entire dresser.  She is busy and she is sooooo quiet.  Even when Sam wakes up, they just go about their business of her trashing the room and him quietly approving each move as if they know that the first noise one of them makes will end their fun. 

It reminds me of when I attended church children's camps as a little girl...the excitement of sneaking out of the cabin at night to go play some ridiculous trick on the boys...I never made it far...what group of 9-year-old girls can stay quiet running through the woods in the middle of the night on a covert mission?!?!  But, somehow, Susanna has no need to squeal in delight or giggle with nervousness over the thought of getting caught.  She's a pro.  Even when the inevitable happens and she accidentally drops something or shuts a door a little too loud and she gets caught...there are no hysterics, she just high-tails it back to her bed, braces for what's comin' and answers my command of "Susanna, it's time to sleep, stay in bed." with a non-chalant, "Yes, Momma".

We've actually taken to locking the boys room when they go to bed so that Susie can't go in there.  They know how to open it and we can open if from the outside very easily with a hangar...this, so far, has kept her out of there, though she has figured out that somehow the hangar will get the door open...she just hasn't been successful yet...it's just a matter of time.  Now she just stays in her room or plays polly pockets in the hallway or looks at books in the bathroom . 

All of this nighttime activity, though, sometimes leaves her a bit testy and irritable and downright tired in the morning.  A week or so ago, I was working in the kitchen and I hadn't seen Susie in a bit.  I called to her and she answered from the family room that she was "readin' books".  3 minutes later I went to see what she was reading and this is what I saw...

She is such a joy...it is so fun to listen to a child learn to talk and Susanna has been no exception.  She is saying new phrases every day and repeating everything she hears...her brothers delight in hearing her repeat, "Patriot's Rule!" while Daddy prompt her to say, "Patriot's stink" or some such.  She loves to please her audience!