Woody's Roundup

Right now there are 7 children in my toyroom. And there are two more on the way. I love summer. My house is always full of oodles of children and the noise and giggling and spontaneous dancing that occurs is enough to make me one of the happiest people on the planet. Just now I was playing "My Humps" by the Black Eyed Peas (Hey, only the most educational music for my kids) and even the babies were dancing. These kids know a danceable beat when they hear it.

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Friday night was our end of the year ceremony thing for Girl Scouts. It went off without a hitch. The girls remembered their parts and Abby and MaKayla looked so big as they crossed the bridge and donned their new green sashes, all blank and ready to be filled with many, many badges next year. I had stressed out over it all week and Tater made fun of me saying, "I hope none of your kids get married if this is how you react over a little thing like this!" Well, I just wanted it to be memorable. I still remember my bridging ceremony! Magnet Lady and Magnet Sister interrupted the ceremony so that the girls could present Tater and I with flowers, which made me all misty. And I got misty again when we sent Taylor across the bridge to her momma (They're military now and will be moving this summer). Thankfully none of us broke down and really cried, which I was afraid we'd do. Well, except for Tater who thought us all rather silly for being sentimental in the first place, the big poot.

After the ceremony we had dessert and everyone kind of milled around and visited. Then after that, the grandparents and uncles and daddies left and we had our last shindig of the school year - a camp out. Magnet Lady and Magnet Sister, Tater and I were the parents that had planned on staying and then we talked Jeanie, Magnet Lady's best friend, into staying as well. Jeanie, ML and I graduated together so we were walking down memory lane by having a sleep over together again.

We had grand plans of playing flashlight tag, but the brand new batteries I had put in Abby and Addison's flashlights went dead after 5 minutes, so that was out. So pretty much we just let the girls run around and do what they wanted. Well, as long as it was safe. They giggled and ran and squealed and so did the little girls. Around 10 we came inside and gave the girls a healthy bedtime snack of Double-Stuft Oreos and milk and then it hit us adults that we hadn't eaten dinner so I whipped us up some smoked sausages, again a healthy meal right at bedtime.

We retired to the tents close to midnight, hermetically sealed the girls in theirs and then got into ours and proceded to giggle and talk sex and stuff until nearly 3am. The girls finally quit their giggling around 2:30. One of our famous Diva Skunks kept playing Hide and Smell with us all night, which punctuated the night with frantic wakeups and scurrying to find the flashlight to see if it was in eyesight, aka lurking outside our tents with tailed raised in spraying mode. But Jake slept between the two tents all night long and never even stirred when we smelled the skunk, so it was obviously not close. The wind was just right, I guess.

I woke up around 5:30 and Magnet Sister woke up shortly after that. The other grownups were awake by 6 but we all dozed back off again. I woke up at 7:40 and Magnet Sister did, too. We both came inside and started breakfast. Mr. Diva went out and sprayed the adult tent with water, but that didn't get them up, so with Magnet Sister and I giggling quietly behind him, he headed outside with a shotgun. He snuck around to the girls' tent and told them to not be scared and that he'd be shooting a gun into the air. He fired off about 3 shots just boomboomboom and Magnet Sister and I both started squealing and screaming, "It's still moving!! Oh MY GOSH it's still ALIVE!!" We saw the big tent start shaking, then Tater's head poked out the door and she growled, "What'sgoin'onouthere". She kind of reminded me of a sleepy-headed - albeit white - Arnold from Different Strokes.

After feeding the crew pancakes and bacon we let the girls play until their parents picked them up. Then I slept pretty much the entire afternoon while Mr. Diva went out riding with his brother and my children's brains rotted while they watched too much TV.

We had secured an overnight stay at Tater's for the kids because we had been invited to a wedding, but we decided to instead go to the movies. We had a romantic dinner at Sonic (Mmmm....Jumbo Popcorn Chicken) and then saw RV. We toyed with going to see Over the Hedge, but since we knew that one or both of us would see it with the kids, we opted on something non-animated. Bad choice. The two hours spent watching RV are two hours of my life I'll never get back. And that makes me sad. It was so horrendously stupid that words really fail me in describing it.

But quite possibly, hopefully, I will gain those two hours back with the satisfaction I will get from seeing NACHO LIBRE weekend after next. I am so stoked about it I can hardly stand it.

And even though the movie was a bomb, we came back home and had - yep, you guessed it - RLTKAOOTHS. (For the new folks: Really Loud The Kids Are Out Of The House Sex) That almost redeemed the 2 hours lost during the movie.

And yesterday my dad and husband installed my new ceramic, flat-top stove top!! I have pictures of the campout and of the range installation, but I'll have to retrieve them from the camera and I don't have time right now. But suffice it to say that I cooked dinner last night on FOUR WHOLE BURNERS that all worked at once!! It was a very liberating experience.

And now I must go. There are 9 children in my house now:
5 months
12 months
15 months
4 years - x3
7 years - x2
and 9 years

Yes, I'm insane.