Our Little Knight in Shining Armor!

No pictures here today, but Flutter Nutter has his Momma and Daddy shaking their heads and scared to death of what he will try next.
Today, our dear friend Mrs. C came for a visit. She checked to see if a visit would be okay and then went to her van to turn it off. At that time she discovered she never put the van in park, at about the same time the van started rolling backwards. All the children wisely jumped back. All but Flutter Nutter. He jumped forward and grabbed the driver's door and said "Don't worry Mrs. C I will stop your car!" All about the same time she managed to put the car in park. Flutter Nutter of course, doesn't know anything about putting the car in park, he just knows the car has stopped and is so proud. Mrs. C is so humored and tickled by his valient behaviour. And now for the gentle reminder of what we do when a vehicle is moving...move away from the vehicle.
SIGH... Will any of the children all decide at the same moment to make the good and best decision and protect their momma's sanity and nerves?

keyboards...extended warranties

Along with my computer trouble, I am alo having keyboard woes.
It *tarted with the "e" key. I couldn't get it to work all the time. And 'e' i* in a lot of words. Now I am having trouble with the s key...hence the * here and there. It i* really a pain when two of the most often used letters in the Engli*h alphabet fail you. I have found that I have to dig into my creativity to find new and different way* to communicate. A year ago my keyboard did thi* and thankfully the warranty granted me a new keyboard. It ha* not been quite a year, and the trouble has returned. Thankfully BODO took the offer of extended warranty. Time to make another call for a replacement, but al*o find out, what the problem might be. Hopefully fix the problem so it can not return!
I know a lot of people do not take advantage of extended warrantie*. At one time we were like that too. Now with 5 kiddos, life ju*t seems to be hard on THINGS around here. *o for big ticket items we don't want to get *uper angry about.... the warranty is a good option.... I offer yet another explanation for why I have not been blogging lately!

It's been a while...

Considering how busy we have been around here, you would think there would be stories to tell. Although there have been smiles, giggles and laughter, nothing that merited me dropping all that was being done to quickly type a memory before it was forgotten.

Fun Mom and I spent a week working at the church garage sale. Part of the money earned at the sale is divided up among students into a fund for each of them. This helps pay for camps and mission trips. When not working at the sale, I was crazy busy listing things on Ebay. Cleaning out closets and making up lesson plans for this school year.

In the midst of it, my laptop was attacked. Fortunately, Big O Daddy O came to my rescue and fought off the monsters that threatened my organizational lifelines. In the process I he loaded Windows 7 on it. I am thinking I like Windows 7. Fun Mom is disappointed. She was hoping to claim the "wonderous software," BODO brought home from his business trip.

I have worked a couple more shifts at Bingo. We are ever so grateful to the people who offer us their shifts first when they can't work. By the time hockey starts up we will have this year's fees covered and enough set aside to cover equipment costs. These boys think it is okay to keep growing. Hockey Player is up to my shoulder now, maybe a little taller. Little Princess is not far behind.

This past week we started school. HOrror of horrors around here. I hear daily from Daddy's Buddy that it is still summer and there should be no school during summer. What he doesn't realize is that it was purely a loving, protective thing I did in starting their lessons. We have had the hottest days lately. Hitting 109 on two days. Noone wants to be outside. The pool has not been an option. I've been afraid of the burning that would occur on three of the five children in spite of sunscreen and swim shirts. Being cooped up, too much tv, and hot has led to bickering that the momma can't tolerate. The cure...homework! Start now, and take a fall break later when the weather just screams to be enjoyed and it is horribly hard to resist.

So now we are in the day to day school grind. Couple of the kiddos are interested in working ahead which thrills my momma heart. Nothing like getting business done so there is freedom to play when the mood hits.

Flutter Nutter and His 'the girl'

Flutter Nutter is related to his mom. He has a hard time remembering names.
But this time.... well, **sigh**, he really blew it.
FN: "Could you get the basket down, me and the girl want to play a game?"
"The Girl"'s Mom: What's the girl's name?
FN: I dunno.
TG's Mom: Better go ask the girl her name, cause if you are going to buy her a house, you kinda need to know here name. She's gonna want her name on the house.
FN: Okay

The house story can be found here.

Here's Pics of "THE GIRL" and Flutter Nutter!

Gus has been Naughty !

Our newest family member is not enjoying the absences of his boy or girl much at all this week.
He has discovered he can jump the fence and escapes several times a day.
He doesn't go far, but I am sure he is wondering where his two play buddies have gone. The rest of us try to spend some time loving on him, but it just isn't the same as the bond he has formed with Hockey Player and Little Princess. Sure hope he stops the fence jumping once they are home and hanging out with him in the backyard once again.
I took him for a walk the other night along with the other 3. I fed him Flutter Nutter's ice cream... FN didn't want it, it was melting faster than he could eat it. Poor Gus, didn't realize my hand wasn't part of the ice cream sandwich. He didn't hurt me, but he was a little sheepish. Then I offered my hand to him to lick clean and he misunderstood again. Boy was he disappointed with me. Licking my hand clean was not something he thought was his job. He was a good dog to walk. He kept pace with me. When I took him off the leash, he didn't run off, just stayed right there. The only problem we had was when a boy came along Hockey Player's age, he started after him. I'm sure he was hoping for some boy time. He came back when I called him.
He has been entertaining himself and us. When he doesn't know we are looking he acts like a complete dork with his bone. Dancing, bouncing and twisting all over the place with his bone in his mouth. He will go to hide it and check to see if we are looking and sure enough we are and quickly changes his mind and heads in another direction. He has loved the sprinklers. He gets even goofier when they are on.
So if you are wondering, he is still fitting in with this family, that long ago decided it wasn't a family made for pets.

Hockey Player & Little Princess missing...

This week they have been off at camp.
It has been ever so quiet around here. The Little boys are substantially more subdued. THey play and get along with each other more than we ever imagined possible. So much so, I can say, I have completed quite a bit around here on my list of projects. I do make sure we get out and do something each day, so as not to press my luck in the harmony department, but I am astounded at how peaceful it is around here.
Even though I am enjoying the change in temperments around here, I do miss my Little Princess and Hockey Player. I am every so greatful to the camp for posting pics online, so I can stay up on what they are doing and see their beautiful faces. I would say smiles, but in each photo, they have intense looks of concentration and/or competiveness. Their photos seem to be captured when they are playing games. And well, I have some pretty competitive children.
The weekend begins tomorrow and we will all be back together...so off to get more done, while the peace and quiet and harmony exists...

Rock River Rapids Water Park !

Yesterday Rock River Rapids offered free admission to the military and their dependents. Big-O-Daddy-O's boss let him have the day off to take the family.
We headed out mid afternoon. Arrived around 3:30 and boy was the park busy!
The excitement, tears, blood, fighting amongst the little brothers yielded to looks of euphoria as they got their first (second, actually since RRR offered this last year as well and maybe the year before) look of the park.
No pictures, I wanted to enjoy this trip with the two little boys and Fun Mom. I didn't want to have to worry about the camera.
We are missing Hockey Player and Little Princess, but this trip to the water park was significantly less stressful. Amazing how when you only have to count 2 instead of 5 regularly how much easier it is. Before you comment on my math, we don't worry so much qbout counting Fun Mom when there are 3 as we do when there are 5. The more taller people there are, the more confusing it can be in the counting when short one person...trying to figure out which one is missing and saying the correct name as well. So much easier than to count to 5 instead of 4. But even easier counting to 2!
My math skills are amazing aren't they.
But back to RRR. Everyone had a great time! This is how I know:
Flutter Nutter was head banging to the tune of Zzzz's within 10 minutes in the car. Flutter Nutter after dinner was sent to get his jammies on. This he did and then disappeared. Found him curled up on his bed with his blankies sawing logs. Slept till 8:30ish this morning. (Roughly 12 hours)
Daddy's Buddy slept 12 hours and didn't argue about going to bed.
Fun Mom at 9:00 am still in bed.
BigODaddyO at 9:00 am still in bed.
THE MOM was in bed at 9 pm and up at 700 am. Anyone who knows me, knows I tend to stay up late...midnight/1:00 AM Late. Not last night. ;)

Before we left for RRR Daddy's Buddy was certain the waterpark would be fun, but not near as much fun as Hockey player was having at camp. Now he thinks RRR is more fun than camp!