April 22, 2006

Hello Everyone,

May I be the first to wish Jane, Kate, and Zach a very happy 2nd birthday! Man, time flies. I hope you cute kids have a wonderful day.

Well, I am surviving being the "mother" of 5 kids, but just barely. The kids are all being reasonably good, it's just that there are FIVE of them! And especially with the addition of Emma; it's not just that she is one more child, it's that there are now 3 more possible combinations of fights between the kids, so it's sort of like having 3 more kids, right? And when Carter is home, that's another combination (him and Emma I mean, Carter doesn't fight with my kids). So it does add quite a bit to the chaos.

Joseph is suffering the most of my kids from having to share his home/toys/space/mom, etc. Some not-so-good behavior out of him, but he is responding pretty well to discipline which is good. Tonight we went to eat at Pizza Hut with Melissa and her 4 kids (Aerin is at scout camp), and my nerves were pretty well fried by then and my patience all but non-existant. Joseph got upset by something at the very end, can't remember what now, and he started crying in that very loud, almost yelling sort of way. Not real sad crying, just mad crying. Everyone in the restaurant turned to look at us and I was just FED UP. I dragged him by the arm and took him outside and told him he couldn't scream like that in the restaurant and when he could stop crying, he could come back in. Then I went back inside. A few seconds later he follows me back in, still screaming, and I dragged him back out again. This time he came back in quiet, but mad, and proceeded to start pushing the chairs over onto the floor. I told him he had to the count of 5 to pick up the chairs or else he would not get to watch the movie when we got home, and he immediately put the chairs up. I'm glad he didn't push me because the scene at home when I put him to bed and the other kids got to stay up and watch a movie would NOT have been pretty.

But let me begin at the beginning. It was a long day. I got up a little before 7 to wake up Carter, get breakfast out and his lunch made. We were in the car by 7:30 and I took him to school. Meanwhile Ben was up and packing for his trip. He had to drop off his Hummer at the dealership before going to the airport so I met him there after taking Carter to school. Of course Brigham and Emma both REALLY had to pee as soon as we got on the road, so when we got to the dealership I put a diaper on Emma (no time to go in and find a restroom-- I wasn't going to get all the kids out of their seats and take them all in), and Brigham peed into a cup which I then threw away. Gross, huh? Brigham and Joseph thought it was totally hilarious to pee into a cup, but at least it was a little more civilized than having him go out and pee on the grass by the car... Finally Ben was ready and we had to skeedaddle to get him to the airport. It was 8:20 and his flight left at 9:15. You do the math. Well, we managed to get him there in the nick of time and some nice people at security let him go ahead of the line and he made it!

I drove home, stopping for donuts at a gas station (my bribe to the kids if they would GET IN THE CAR and be good), and then went home. They played and fought and made messes until lunch and after lunch it was about time to get Carter. After getting him we went to Blockbuster where we managed to get out with 3 movies and 5 kids still alive and not beating each other up over which movie to get, and then to the gas station and then to Lowes. Lowes was not fun. Brigham kept reaching out to pull things off the shelves (I had Brigham and Emma in the double-cart seats, Mosey in the regular front-of-the-cart seat, Joseph in the back of the cart, and Carter walking), Emma kept trying to get out of her seat, eventually breaking one of the straps, she spilled her cup of Sprite on the floor (I TOLD her not to bring it in...), and Carter had on those wheel shoes and kept wheeling like crazy all over the store going way too fast and going way too close to people. I asked him to stop several (many) times, but those shoes are just too tempting and he would almost immediately forget and start wheeling again. I am NEVER getting those for my kids!!! Aargh. And then of course after I managed to get my stuff purchased, Emma HAD to go to the bathroom, so I left Carter with the cart and the boys and took Emma way back to the restroom, and came back in time to see the 4 10-foot long pvc pipes go clattering to the floor (I asked Carter to keep his hand on them so they wouldn't fall, but he was wheeling again...). Oh well.

I finally got them home, got Emma down for a much-needed nap, and started cleaning up the big mess. Then it was off to dinner and after that into Winn Dixie for ice cream. Emma kept trying to pull things off shelves, and Carter had those wheel things on again. When I told him very sternly to STOP WHEELING, he instead went up to the big scale at the front of the store (where you can weigh yourself) and started climbing on it and trying to pull himself up over it. I saw the store manager (or someone) heading toward him, but we had just finished paying so I headed quickly to the door and called for Carter to come on, we're leaving. Phew! Made it out of the store.

Back at home I put the movie on (Care Bears Share a Scare, picked out by Mosey, Joseph, and Emma), and Carter played computer games. I got some laundry done. The kids ate ice cream and made a mess on themselves (well, Mosey and Emma did), but didn't spill any on the floor, thank goodness. Mosey got bored of the movie and went outside in the back and did a real fun experiment with dirt, sand, and water, came in filthy, and spilled a partly-filled bucket of muddy water on the carpet. So out comes the water vac, which I guess was ok since there was a 3-day-old grape jelly stain I had to clean anyway. THEN it was FINALLY bed time.

It was 10:20 by the time I came back downstairs after getting the kids in bed. I then spent the next 2 hours getting my photo order finalized, so that is almost done (still waiting to hear back on the cropping of one of the pictures-- I gave her 3 choices). She chose 3 to go in a series on the wall so I had to adjust the exposure and color balance to make sure they matched. There is a LOT more to digital photo proofing than people think, believe me.

So now it is 1:22 and I better get to bed. Carter and Emma's dad is going to take them tomorrow morning for a couple of hours to Carter's golf practice, so that will be nice. The good thing about having these extra kids here is that when it is just the 3 boys again, it will seem so calm and quiet!!

I hope I don't sound too complaining, I'm actually feeling much better now. I just needed a bit of peace and quiet and ALONE time. Carter and Emma are really good kids, their parents have done a good job with discipline. But they are still KIDS, you know? And it is hard for me to know how strict I should be with them (especially Carter) because I remember being a kid and really resenting it when another adult besides my mom or dad tried to tell me what to do. I know Carter tries to get away with stuff his parents wouldn't let him do, but I don't want to come across as real mean or strict, because I'm sure it's hard enough for him to have to be away from his home and parents for so long.
Anyway, I will leave you with a few pictures from the on-going proofing session from Rosalynde's house. I am practicing my black and white conversions. It is a lot more complicated than just clicking a "black and white" button-- you have to adjust levels, contrast, curves, erasing back where the conversion blew out any highlights, try to get skin-tones to look natural, not grey, etc., etc. There are photoshop actions you can buy which do all this for you, but I'd rather learn to do it myself. Do they look good?
Well, have a great Earth Day everyone. Go hug a tree.