Baby names

We've been talking about baby names for the past couple of days, and I've been asking the boys opinions on them. Most of you all know that the baby name "should" have a the K sound in it if we want to keep with our tradition. (BlaKe, LuKe, JaKeb, Kaleb, and MaKenna) It seems like it's getting harder and harder to find names that we like with a K in them. And when we do...we usually voice it.

Yesterday I mentioned the name Brock for a boy, and Blake about flipped out saying, "No way, Mom! It sounds too much like BARACK OBAMA!!!!" How funny is that. I had never even thought of that, but if you say it slow enough B-r-o-c-k....I could see how it sounds like Barack.

I then went on to tell the boys that Barack is a great name. We should name our next kid BARACK, and well, of course no one agreed.Somehow today, we were talking about the name Barack again as a joke, of course, and Blake said...if we're going to name our kid after a President then it needs to be a President that we like. I said jokingly, "What about Lincoln?" He was like, "Yeah, that's a good one!" And I said ignorantly, "Blake, it doesn't have k in it." He looked and me and said, "Yeah it does, Mom, Link-k-k-k-oln!" I about busted a gut. I totally didn't even think of the "k" sound in it. It drives me nuts when my kids are right!

Anywho......here's some names that we like so far.

Boys: Brock, Cole (Kol), Clark, Connor (The boys like Clark. I'm not too fond of it.)

Girls: Kinsley, Klaire, Brecken...not necessarily in that order

any other ideas? any preferences??

Christmas in January

These presents have been sitting in my room since Christmas in clear view. The boys have been pretty good about not bugging me about them. I didn't want to open them because they took 28 batteries for all of them to work together. (Seriously, what was I thinking? But I got them so cheap.) Well, today Makenna decided that it should be the day to open them and started opening the gifts, so I let the boys finally have their presents. Man, they were stoked! They are Halo guns kinda like laser guns. You have to shoot the person hit the target, and blah, blah, blah. Too bad I wouldn't give them the batteries. Funny part is....they didn't care about getting the batteries. So, for the rest of the day, all I heard was boom, boom, bang, bang. Hey, they were having fun.

A new do

After Luke took his shower, he came downstairs like this....and he was SERIOUS!!! I just smiled and took a picture because I knew gel or no gel, his hair is way too thick to stay sticking up like that. It flattened with in an hour or so. (Thank goodness!)

More Word-Free Wednesday

Almost Word-free Wednesday

Double hugs - It's Makenna's new thing.

Our "Cell Mobile" that we made yesterday for science. And one just to scare you a bit! Ha!

Introducing Wedgits

These toys are cool. Jakeb got these for Christmas, and they've been playing with them ever since. You know how most toys get forgotten within a week after Christmas? These DIDN'T! They're a HIT! You build them every which way, and they're just plain fun to see what the next invention is that you're going to build. They're a little pricey, but every now and then amazon.com has them on sale. Of course, I got mine on sale too. I'm thinking Jakeb might even be getting more for his birthday.

A Dreaded VISIT

Seriously, why in the world would someone make an appointment to go and inflict pain on themselves? Why would anyone want to go somewhere where scrape and poke your teeth and gums until they are bleeding profusely. I absolutely hate going to the dentist. My personal favorite is after the hygenist/lady pokes the needle/scraper into my gums around every single tooth, the doctor comes in and says...."You have some puffy gums." Well, of course they're puffy...the woman just stabbed me over and over with scraper thingy! What do you expect???? My teeth hurt the entire day after the dentist. I tell myself every time I leave the dentist that I'm never ever going back. In fact this was my first time in over a year going, but I have a worse fear than going to the dentist. (Well, actually, I don't fear the dentist. I just don't like it.) My worst fear is losing my teeth, so I guess I should try to take care of them the best I can, huh? But seriously...I can NOT stand the dentist.

On a happier note, Kaleb supposedly got his tooth fixed today although it looks pretty much the same to me.

Not Me Monday!

I love reading MckMama's Not Me Monday, and I'm trying very hard not to be envious of the fact that she is going on a CRUISE!!!! Who-hoo for her!

I did not freak out this week on my poor kids over and over while homeschooling. No way! I'm in complete control every day. And I would definitely not blame pregnancy hormones on it. That would be just pathetic.
I did not somehow let the dirty laundry get backed up again until it's overflowing onto the floor in multiple rooms of the house. That would make me sound lazy or something, so I would never do that. Oh, and I did not tell my boys that I would give them 25 cents for every clean basket of laundry that they place in my room. I wouldn't bribe my kids into doing my job and would definitely never underpay them. And you would NEVER be able to find me in this room of the house with my laptop. That would be crazy. Seriously, why would I need to have the laptop in the bathroom? Oh yeah, here's the reason:

I also did not pass on going to the CHEC homeschool meeting this past week or wait, maybe it was two weeks ago, simply because I wanted to watch The Biggest Loser with my kids. That would make it seem that I'm slightly addicted to the television, and we all know that's not true.

Games today

We had a great day of basketball games. I actually only got to go to two of them because Jakeb's and Blake's were at the same time, but the two that I saw were great. Blake played his best yet. He's still hoping to make a basket by the end of the season. I'm sure it'll happen.

Luke did great too at his game. he made a basket tonight and was just so fun to watch. Here's a video of him making the basket.

Random picture

I decided to do this challenge today. It's a random picture challenge. The pictures are from August 30, 2007, ahem...okay, so they are from the 29th. I searched all over for the 30th. I had them every other day but that day. Oh well.

I remember this day was the day that the boys received their schoolbooks in the mail. You can see how excited Luke was about it.
And here's the little princess from back in the day.

Wii-ing it up!

Mindy and I finally had our play date. Yes, I said "our play date." It wasn't for the kids although this first picture proves otherwise. It was truly for us. She got a Wii for Christmas, and she had been wanting me to come over and kick her butt in softball. So, in efforts not to get her upset at me because I love her so much, I obliged and went over and KICKED HER BUTT IN SOFTBALL. Now, in her defense, she did successfully kick my butt in a few games, but there's no need to mention those.

Frustration build-up

Today, I was done. I was done homeschooling. I was packing them all up, going against my morals, and sending them all to public school. It's free, so why not. So what if they will learn all about evolution, not be able to read that well, and learn about sex at an very early age..(and that's just to name a few problems), who cared? I was DONE!
It was just one of those days. You know, we've all had them. One of those days when you would love to just crawl back under the covers and hide in bed all day. Now grant it, most of this was my fault because we started so late, not to mention the fact that we've been having school upstairs at the kitchen table for the past 2 months instead of downstairs in the classroom. (It works so much better down there, but we haven't tried it down there since Makenna started walking. I just don't want to deal with that. Not to mention that my IKEA desks that I bought a a good while ago are still propped up against the island in the classroom making it impossible to actually get any work done down there anyways. (Note to self: Clean up basement this week to try to have school back where is should be.)

Seriously, I feel like I yell at my children ALL the time. I try hard not too, but when they don't listen after I say it a million times, I lose it. I can't seem to help it. I mean, how hard is it to write a 2 the right way instead of backwards. Or how hard is it to write in their math book small enough so that it doesn't look like a three year old wrote in their book. Or why can't they simply NOT put stuff where it DOESN'T BELONG. AHHHH!!! And why, oh why, does Makenna have to continually climb on the table grab a pencil and write in everyone else's books? ARGH!!! (Note to self: all of this is not that bad. Life could be much worse. Keep reminding self of this.)

I know that God doesn't give a person more than they can handle, but today...as trite as it might seem, I'm feeling overwhelmed. Shoot, we're adding to the chaos! Let's just throw in one more kid to make my life a little bit more hectic. My house is never clean no matter how hard I try. (Not that I'm known for trying that hard.) Laundry is NEVER caught up. And well, I'm just frustrated. Can I quit? It would be so much easier to just throw in the towel. I seriously stood up from the table today, looked at my kids, and said, "I'm done," and proceeded to walk to my room where I was quite content to stay all afternoon. Of course, I actually called Eric and vented to him a few minutes, and went back into the living room/dining room where the kids were, but it did feel good. It felt good to get away...even if it was for just a few minutes.
Now before you all think I'm going psycho or that pregnancy hormones are setting in or something, all's well now. The kids finished their schoolwork today. I still have all my hair; and Makenna has not gotten any bumps, bruises or broken bones from falling off the table. My house, however, is still not clean, but it's getting a little better.
Oh, and those IKEA tables...I started putting them together tonight while watching LOST online, so see...life is getting better, so the goal of getting the basement together this weekend is looking good. Oh, and did I tell you all that my husband took me to Toot's tonight?? That definitely made life better.

Jakeb the firefighter

The boys got some new jammies tonight. Blake got some Ohio State pajamas because he knows his daddy can't stand them. (ha-ha!) Luke got some roaring T-Rex pajamas. Yes, they actually roar. I don't think he'll be liking them when he rolls over and the roaring wakes him up in the middle of the night, huh? And Jakeb got his new firefighter pajamas. Tonight in church the younger kids had a firefighter come in and demonstrate all the stuff they do, so it was just perfect that he got firefighter pajamas. He was so excited to come home and put them on. He said, "You know what would have been really cool is if my pajamas would have came with a hat." I wholeheartedly agreed with him, and then it hit him, "Hey, Blake and Luke have a hat in their room." And off he went. The first picture is him demonstrating how to hold the hose.

Not me, Monday!

Last week we went to the library, and I promise you I did not go tot he self check-out computer, and frantically try to figure out how to check my books out. I did not keep comparing my screen to the person's screen next to me, and keep wondering why it looked different. I did not jump when the librarian asked if she could help me with something only to realize that the computer I was at was actually a STAFF computer with the words STAFF ONLY!!!! on a sign in big bold letters across the top of the computer. I did not try to laugh it off and say just like my mother, "Oh, sorry, I'm just not with it today. It's been a long day." No way, not me.

I also did not make sure all of my kids had their mid-week bath except for one who managed to escaped the shower for almost an entire week.

I did not have to take five kids to 3 different basketball games at three different locations all by myself this past Saturday with a trip to Walmart in between it all. My husband would never dessert me just to go buy some fireworks three hours away.

I was not sitting in church yesterday when I noticed a disturbing smell that should only belong in a bathroom toilet. I was not slightly concerned when I looked at my children next to me thinking...."Both of these children are well past the age of potty training, so it better not be one of them." I did discover that whenever a certain five year old would move next to me, the smell would become stronger. I did not ask him in the middle of the song service if he had poop in his butt. And he most definitely did not answer me by saying something like this, "Well, I tried to go to the bathroom and wipe, but there was still a little poop still stuck in there." I most definitely almost gag at the thought of this and proceed to lean over to Eric telling him that he needed to take our five year old to the bathroom because he had poop in his butt. I was never so glad that I was the mom and not the dad. Ahhhh...the joys of motherhood.

And well, that's all I have for you this week.

Wordless Weekend

Okay, so I know it's not been wordless this weekend, but I just wanted to post some cute pictures that I haven't posted before.

My very own Sour Patch Kids

So, we had a contest to see who could eat a Sour Warhead the fastest, and who could make the best sour face to go along with it. We had a few good faces, a crazy dance, a few laughs, a few good cries (because they were so sour), and even some bad hair. (Yes, I just threw that last one in there just so I could include this picture.)

A favorite teacher

You know...I'm sad. A beloved teacher of mine from high school whom I haven't seen in close to 8 years passed away this past week. Whenever I would think of this teacher a huge smile would always come to my face. He was an encouragement to everyone who had him as a teacher. He influenced everyone, and he was just one of those FUN teacher who genuinely loved you unconditionally. Some of you might be thinking..."Marshan, it's been close to 15 years (GASP!!!!) since you've been in high school. Come on, the guy couldn't really mean that much to you still." Oh, but he did. Whenever I thought about going back to Providence to visit...I would think of him. You see most of my friends have moved away, but Mr. Geer, well, he was still there. Sure there were others that I might have wanted to see, but he was top on my list. I found out about his death on facebook, and someone started a tribute to him in our "school group page." I was shocked although I don't know why...it makes perfect sense....but there were so many people who were touched by this man. His influence has touch kids for decades. From what I understand, he was still active in the children's ministry in church. It was amazing the kind words that everyone said about him. I ask you all to pray for his family. He was married for...I would assume....40+ years, and he had 3 children and lots of grandchildren. He will never be forgotten by anyone whose life he touched.

New Blog

So, Candace and a college friend, Becky, were my inspiration to document this year in a separate blog. To see my Project 365 BLOG, click here.
At least this way, I can keep track of the journaling that goes with the pictures.