Grumpy old Man!!!

I went to Costco today, and I was putting my things in my van along with all FOUR of my children. There was no shopping cart thingy around, so I just left it next to my van.as I was unloading it. Meanwhile, this man had pulled into a space close to me, and he's sitting in his car staring at me. I proceed to empty the cart, and leave the cart exactly where it had been in between all four cars So, I finally get everything in and get in myself, and this man gets out of his car and starts yelling at me through my window saying...."and this is why cars get all dinged up...blah, blah, blah!!" He's looking directly at me, so I smart right back off by saying...."I have four kids in the car. If you really want to watch my kids, then I'll go put the cart up." (Not that I would have left my kids with him...but I was trying to prove a point.) Then he goes on about how he knows people who have 4 or 5 kids in their car and don't have a problem with it. Then I, of course, can't leave well enough alone and say, "It's against the law to leave your kids in the car, so just GET OVER IT!!!!!" Now I don't know if it's really know if it's against the law or not, but well...I did feel better about the whole thing. Of course after I drove away I thought of all these other creative things to say, and then I thought of all these creative things to do...like put a whole bunch of carts around his car...but of course, I didn't stoop that low.

I think the funniest thing about the whole thing was....as I was driving away, Luke says...."Mommy, were you gonna leave us with that man?" I just laughed out loud!!

My name-- MARSHAN

Here's the blog challenge of the day which I personally think is pretty easy and pretty cool to do.

My name: Susan Marshan.....

Susan means Lily...which to me means "pretty flower" which doesn't quite fit me.....I was named after my mom's best friend Sue. For those of you who know me...you would agree..."pretty Flower" is so not me, and maybe that's why I go by my middle name which would be....MARSHAN. My name is a mixture of my Grandparents names....MARion (meaning bitter) and SHANnon (meaning wise one).

A roommate in college actually found my name on one of the bookmarks....you know, the kind that has your name on it with the meaning. The meaning for Marshan was "in charge." Now that's my kind of name!!!! Definitely fits me better than a "lily." Of course, being named "Marshan" definitely has it's downfalls: I've been called everything from....Marshawn....to Martian...to Marsha Anne... to even Marianne....People who don't my name and see if for the first time usually butcher it. It's Marsh...anne....one word Marshan...Not too hard!!! Just use some phonics. lol

In case some of you were wondering why my parents didn't name me Marshan Susan.....they thought that Marshan Sue sounded foreign, so they settled on Susan Marshan.

Luke's dog!!!

Luke loves dogs and he's been talking about how when he turns 7 he'll get a dog. So I got a book about dogs from the library the other day so he could see all of the different kinds of dogs and maybe pick a favorite. Well, he looked at it and told me he found 8 different dogs that he liked, so he would just get 8 dogs. A couple days later, I decided to look at the book with him, and he was so excited to show me "his favorite dog." I mean, he kept telling me how cute it was, and that he really wanted it. So we look page by page, and I kept expecting him to point to a German Shepherd or Golden Retriever or some other big dog. We finally come to the page of the dog he wants, and it's Bichon Frise, some French poodle looking dog. He looked at me with this adorable face and said, "Isn't he just cute, Mom" How could I say no?

Cleaning

Yesterday, I was cleaning the house. I mean, I should say that I was mopping the floor. I guess it doens't get done too often because Blake looked at me and asked, "Mommy, who's coming toour house today? Is someone coming to our house?" I asked him why he thought that, and he said......."Because you're cleaning!"

Sickness has struck our house!!!!!

We're all sick. Okay not everyone, but Kaleb was sick last week up until last night. And now Luke has it. I have the cough too. Now we're just waiting for the other boys to get it too. AHHHH!!!! Oh well;...but other than that nothing has been going on.

Well, I've been scrapbooking again. I'm trying to do it only when the boys are in bed. And the house is somewhat clean.....yeah, right!!! I'malso trying to use up my stash of stuff. I'm trying to do the matching of Patterned paper and trying to use tools that I haven't used in awhile. Here's my latest page.....

Hair Stories!!

The other day, I think it was a Thursday or Friday, I was combing Blake's hair, and he goes, "Are we going to church today?" That was when I realized....I don't comb their hair very often now do I? They have hair that even when you do comb it, it does it own thing anyways. They inherit that hair trait from their mother!!

Awhile back, we were shopping at Old Navy looking at the clearance stuff. I had the double stroller with me. All of a sudden I see this little boy come up to Jake and say, "Wow! You got some CRAAAZZZZYYY Hair!" (For those of you who don't know, Jake has naturally curly hair in tight little curls all over his head....absolutely adorable although he's gonna hate it later in life.)
Anyway, cracked me up to hear this little kid say it! His mother was mortified and embarrassed. I tried to convince her that it was funny and it was okay although I'm not sure that I did.

Koala bear???

This is the first layout I've scrapped in awhile. I actually looked through and read part of The Big Picture by Stacy Julian today, and today I focused on my journaling. I wanted to tell the story about Luke wanting a koala bear. Here's the journaling:

You had been talking about your birthday for quite awhile when you told us one day that you wanted a dog for your birthday. A couple days later, you came up to me and said, “Mom, I don’t want a dog for my birthday anymore, I want a KOALA BEAR.” A Koala bear? Where did that come from? Who knows? But when I saw this in the store, I knew it had to come home with me. It purrs, laughs, burps and all sorts of stuff, but with no mess. So instead of for your birthday, you got a KOALA BEAR for Christmas.

Stampin' up

Why??? WHy do I insist on buying Stampin up stuff only to let it just sit in my room unused. I tell myself that I need to use it, but I don't usually. I mean, I have it all... the stamps, the rollers, the stamp pads, the embossing powders, alphabet stamps....and everything else imaginable. But it just sits unused in the drawers. I mean, I have great intentions to use it, but when I'm sitting down working on my stuff, I forget about it. Maybe I 'm scared to use it. SHoot! I know sometimes I am too lazy to get it all out. I have stamps that I have never used. Shoot I have stamps probably that I don't even know about. I'll admit it all, but regardless.....I buy more.
Maybe it's a disorder or something because tonight I'm going to a party. I'm actually going to pick up an order (three sets of stamps) probably only to place another one!!! HELP!!!!!


EDITED: I spent $40!!!!!! on a new stamp set and a white pen!!! AHHHHHHHH!!!!!!
But by the way...the new stampin up Patterned Paper in the spring catalog is awesome!!!

The Exchange

The boys had their first “activity” today. They went to Sports of all Sorts at the Sharonville Community Center. It’s supposed to teach them skills for all different kinds of sports.. It’s just for 4 and 5 year olds. I think they had a good time. Jake was pretty upset that he couldn’t go in too, but when I finally explained to him that we were going to the library right across the parking lot. Anyway, after that, we went to JoAnn’s and got a few crafts for the boys. We got all the way back out into the car and into the car when I realized that Jakeb didn’t have his sippy cup. He must have sat it down somewhere which means that we had to go all the way back inside to find it. We got inside and some lady overheard us talking about it and she pointed us into the very back of the store where he put the cup down. Good new is….on the way back out I stopped at the book section and found a book that I’ve been looking for….forever….THE BIG PICTURE by Stacy Julian!!!!! Yay!!! The only bad thing about that is that we had to go back out to the van to get my purse because I left it in there so I WOULDN”T buy anything!!! So much for that!

"Jake's crazy!"

These are not my words, but words of a four year old. I was asking Luke if he loved me, and he said yes and held out his hands to show me how much. I asked him who else he loved that much and proceeded to tell me.....Dad, God, Grandma and Grandpa. I asked him if he loved his brothers that much, and he said, "You know why I love Jake that much????? Because he's CRAZY!!!"

As much as I agree with that....look at these pictures, and you decide which one is crazier!!!!

Collections

What do I collect? I should write...what have I collected! Over the span of my life I've collected tons of stuff....porcelain dolls....music boxes...Nancy Drew Mysteries...pigs.....little figurines .....My Little Ponies....piggy banks....stuffed animals.......stickers....teddy bears...Kim Anderson Figuirines....Baby-sitter's Club books....Julia Roberts movies....shells........I've collected a ton of stuff in the past! DO I still have it? Well, let's see....some of it I do, and some of it I don't. The dolls are packed away along with the music boxes and the stickers and the books. THe Kim Anderson Figuirines are on a shelf in my living room and the movies are in a cabinet (I can't get rid of Julia movies even if she has made some crappy movies lately!). Everything else....has found new homes through garage sales and other ways. There were a few things I always wanted to collect like Boyd Bears, old cameras, or I Love Lucy stuff, but I just didn't want to put any money into it. I also always wanted to start a strange collection, something that no one else really collects, but I could never think of anything. I know some people who collect Turkeys.....yes, turkeys....gobble..gobble....Well, I thought those were just too ugly. Others who collected cows and pigs and giraffes (now that one could have been fun) and so forth. SO I eventually gave up the quest to have my own collection unique to just me.Instead, Now I just have pictures...tons and tons of pictures. So if that counts as a collection, that's it!I would have to say my scrapbooks are my collections now. It's not really that unique, but it's me.

PROCRASTINATION

WHy do I always wait until the very last minute to clean my house when people are coming over to my house? It's the one area that I constantly procrastinate on. Of course then I start to stress out and yell at the boys and Eric. but it never fails.....I do it every time. I remember once the people actually showed up early, and I mean 30 minutes early. I was sweating, hadn't taken my shower yet, just finished vacuuming, and was still in my bare feet....It was insane.

If I actually stop to think about it,I procrastinate in cleaning the house at all times, not just when guest are coming over. I start to clean the house at 5 o'clock right before Eric gets home. I only do the laundry when the boys have no more pajamas clean....and then I pull them out of the CLEAN laundry basket for days before folding all the clothes. If I have to be somewhere, I usually wait until the last possible minute to leave to try to make it on time although having four kids helps you not procrastinate too much in that area.

I think I've always been a procrastinator. In college, I would wait till the night before to study for a test.....or sometimes even the hour before. I remember once that I had huge project due...and I mean huge. It had to be over 20 pages just to get a "B." And of course, I wait till the last minute to do it. Now remember, I had "light's out" at my college and it was 11:00. If you were caught up after light's out, it was demerit time. Regardless, of light's out, I borrowed my friend's word processor, yes, Word Processor, and snuck into the bathroomto sit on the nasty floor (realize, that 7-8 girls shared a bathroom) to start typing the project. (Hey, at least I had finished reading the books required for the project.) I typed so many pages into the word processor that it stopped saving them, and I had to print them out as I went which meant pages 20 and up were not on the disk. I think I finally made it to bed at 4:00 in the morning. Well, as I take the project to class the next morning, I realize that a page is missing.....and of course, it can't be a page that is saved...it's a page over 20. ARRRGGGHHH!!! SO I debated.....turn it in with the page missing......or turn it in a day late........well, I discovered a third option.....go to the teacher and explain that one of the pages didn't print out.......(there was no lying there!) It was truly a miracle because this was not the type of teacher that allowed for things like this..or so I thought. I remember his exact words (with a huge slow Southern accent), "You know, Marshan, I realize that accidents can happen like this, so you know what I'm gonna do?? Why don't you just turn that paper in to me before 12:00 and we'll call it even!" (Okay, now that I type it, I don't think those were his exact word, but you get the drift.) I ran frantically back to my dorm after class, skipped lunch, and typed that page from scratch all over again. In the end, I think I made a high B on the paper which I was completely pleased with.

This all said....I'm a procrastinator, and I don't think it's going to change anytime. Maybe one day....but don't get your hopes up!

Say Cheese!!!!!

If I tell Kaleb to say Cheese....He'll make this face! How cute is he?

St. Patrick Day (a little late)

We wore Orange to protest the normal St. Paddy's green color. You see, St Patrick also known as St. Padraig actually brought Christianity to Ireland, not catholicism. So we wore orange to protest. And since orange is one of my favorite colors, I had to get pics of us all wearing the orange. The boys even took some pictures of us. The good one of us was by Blake and the one that chopped our heads off a little was Luke's . How many of you get a little nervous seeing Kaleb up in the air like that?????

Grocery shopping again!!!!!

i went to the grocery store today. Right when we were starting to walk across the parking lot, it started to pour down rain. You should have seen us running across the parking lot....me carrying Kaleb and dragging Jakeb.....Blake and Luke running behind us with their little umbrellas. Actually Blake was walking because he figured he wouldn't get too wet because he had an umbrella. obviously we were pretty wet by the time we got inside.

Once we got inside we started to shop. Luckily no pooping incidents happened, but there was a lot of wrestling going on. It was pretty crazy trying to be a referee and a shopper at the same time. We were only half way through the store when I realized that one cart just wouldn't make it this time. It was already overflowing and we had barely gone through any aisles. SO back to the front we went to get another cart. SO picture this...me pushing the bench cart (the mother of all carts) and then pulling another behind. Two children walking behind that. We definitely got lots of stares. I felt like we were a parade! By the time we were done, I had two carts full of groceries that I had to unload on the conveyor belt and then load back up in the cart and take to the van that's back was full already with a stroller and King's kids stuff. What was I thinking?

Such a joy!!! The boys are pretty good about helping me carry the groceries upstairs. I even had Jakeb carrying stuff too. (Gotta start them out helping when they're young!)

Well, now we gotta go have some school!

$16 and pickle juice

We had just finished dinner, not to mention the pickles, when Blake looked at Eric and said, "Dad, will you give me $16 to drink the pickle juice?" (For those of you who don't know, Eric is always doing this to me. For instance, I made $20 for drinking a 4 oz. bottle of baby formula!) Eric laughed and said, "Sure, Blake!"

And so it began........ There was probably 1/3 of the jar filled with juice. And he began to drink it slowly. At first, he kept saying, "MMmm, this is good!" Then that changed to a little bit of silence. Then we started hearing him say, "I don't think I can do this!" But he persevered. At one point, he actually puked....went to the bathroom, came back, rubbed his belly, and said, "Now I feel better, I'm ready to drink again!" Luke and I started to cheer, "Go, Blake, Go!"
Well, I've learned that Blake is the not the type of kid who likes to be cheered for.....he would much rather be left alone...which is what we ended up doing...... and no lie, within seconds he had that pickle juice all gone and $16 coming his way!!

TOYSRUS here we come!!!!

5 cars that I wouldn't mind having

#1 I want a convertible Chysler Sebring......It's a practical convertible, right. Roomy enough for the whole family....(I don't know who's family I'm talking about since mine won't fit, but someone's family must fit in it!) There's just something about it that I love......maybe it's the fact that it's a convertible, but not as sporty as some. I'm a practical kind of girl, so I see it as being a fun, but practical car. (by the way black or maybe even red would work)


#2 I would get Eric his Hummer that he wants.

#3. A F-150 extended cab truck. I love that truck. Eric used to like Dodge Rams, but he's even made the switch recently.

#4, When I was younger I used to want a Jeep Wrangler. Not sure why....okay that's not true.....I always pictured myself in the Jeep with my hair flowing in the breeze...just like on movies. Well, obviously, that only happens in the movies because any time I've been in a convertible..my hair has flown in my face, not away from it.

#5 a Honda Odyssey.....talk about being practical. I have 4 kids, so well.....it's just a cool looking mini-van with tons of cool features. The seats fold into the van....So cool!!!

10 top pet peeves

1. Christmas lights up still between January and November!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2. Getting stuck in a line at the store that's actually short, but then there's a problem and I'm there forever!!

3. Mopping the floor only to have the boys spill something on it a few seconds later. ARGH!!

4. people lying to me

5. Cops in the median of the interstate waiting for people to speed.

6. Going all the way through the grocery store, putting my food on the conveyor belt thingy, and then realizing I forgot something.

7. People cutting me off in traffic.

8. Being told that I can't do something.

9. Mismatched clothes on any one

10. Not being able to understand the foreign people working at Qdoba or any where else.

Blake lost his first teeth!

I say teeth because he has lost two, not just one. He did lose his first one on Saturday night. He was brushing his teeth before bed, and came out of the bathroom all worried because his tooth felt different, only to find out it was gone!! We were happy to find the tooth in the bathroom. We were worried it had gone down the drain! Then Eric pulled Blake's other tooth out yesterday. We were getting a little worried about his tooth because his adult teeth had already been growing behing his baby teeth. Man, is he gonna have crooked teeth!! (I mean, seriously, between me and Eric's teeth....we're gonna file for bankruptcy getting braces for the boys.)

Anyway, Blake, so far, as made $2 off the toothfairy! Oh, and by the way, the picture is of when he had only lost one of the teeth, and his adult tooth is pretty visible, so you can hardly tell he's missing one....but he is!

10 things guaranteed to put me in a good mood

1. Going out to eat!!!!! If I don't have to cook or clean a meal......can turn a crappy day into a day from paradise!

2. Eric surprising me with a gift.....it can be anything....food from a fast food restauraunt, a card, telling me to go spend some money.....that can turn my day around.

3. My kids' smiles.....Of course, if they were doing something they shouldn't have been doing...well, that's another story.

4. scrapbooking

5. a clean house.....as in.....someone else cleans it.......of course, that rarely happens....

6. a good book

7. finding a good garage sale find!!! I love garage sales!!!!

8. Saving a buck or two with coupons.

9. Taking a good picture of my kids

10. I Love Lucy! reruns

10 things that make me laugh.****

1. Eric's laugh. He doesn't do the genuine laugh that often and when he does laugh, it makes me laugh.

2. TV show Friends- It doesn't matter how often I watch them.....they always make me chuckle.

3. People nodding off to sleep. When people fall asleep in church/any other place that they shouldn't really sleep.....and then you see them trying to stay awake, and they just can't, so their head does the bobbing thing......Today, it was acutally Blake during the invitiation...he was standing and doing the bobbing thing. Always makes me laugh......oh, and then if they do the whole jerking thing while they are sleeping.....that is so awesome. I laugh Hysterically!

4. funny looking people....wearing funny looking clothes......Okay, be honest who doesn't laugh at this???? (if you're laughing in your head....it still counts!)

5. the Movies HITCH, Money Pit,

6. my kids doing silly things....like Luke dancing,

or Kaleb raising his eyebrows,

or Blake telling me he knows that his food turns into poop.......

or Jakeb getting into trouble and then making these adorable faces...and then getting himself out of trouble.

7. High school/college memories There are so many to list, but sometimes, I get a huge chuckle out of a memory.

8. Playing Eric a game and hearing him say, "This is the last one!" Then Beating Eric at the game and then hearing him say, "okay, let's play one more!" Of course, sometimes he sighs when I beat him and that's pretty funny too because I know he's frustrated that I beat him.

9. When people slip and fall.....of course, then I feel bad if they got hurt, but it's so funny to watch them fly up in the air....like on all those America's funniest videos. You have to admit...it is funny!

10. When a cop pulls someone else over speeding and not me. I feel like I got away with murder! (:

Eric's birthday

So yesterday was Eric's b-day. He had already gotten his present (the x-box) and I gave him his game at midnight, so I had to come up with another idea for something to do for his birthday. So we decided to go up to Fisher Design and surprise him at work. And we did! Completely surprised him with Penn Station and with cupcakes and cookies for his b-day. I think he enjoyed it. We went out that evening and he spent some of his b-day money from his parents getting another game for his X-box. oh, and we went out to eat at Toot's too. Tonight we're going to Toysrus to get his contoller and then we're going out to eat with some friends to Red Lobster...(we have gift cards)

Look at Jakeb giving his daddy birthday kisses!! SO cute!

Going STIR CRAZY!!!!!

Wow! I've been in my house since Sunday night. Now, grant it I'm went out to do the newspapers last night and tonight, but beyond that....I have been in the house all week. tomorro wis Eric's birthday, so the plan is to surprise him tomorrow at work with Penn Station and a birthday cake at work.
Anyways, that's all I have to say today.