You've been on my mind

I'm curious how long this post is going to take me to write. It is now 12:58pm...

Sunday, August 30th: Matt went to church in Machias with Zoe and Zach. Zach's fever didn't turn into anything serious and he is feeling fine today. Mom gave a great talk on prayer today in Sacrament meeting in Ellsworth. I listened in the Relief Society room with a cranky Kate, and Noah.

Sister Jensen (a visitor) talked to me after church to let me know what a great Sunday School class we have and that she loves the class participation we have in our class. I love the class participation, too!

Our family met up at my parents' house for lunch/dinner. Kate fell asleep on the way home from church, so she slept through our meal and most of our time at my parents' home. My mom watched the kids so Matt and I could go visit Rachel and then we all went home to have Family Council. Zoe's favorite part of Family Council is going over our calendar for the week.

9:31pm...Kate is still wide awake. This is why I am not a fan of naps! Zoe, Emily, and Zach were awake, too. Fun!

Something got into our zucchini and ruined most of the plants. :-(

Monday, August 31st: Kate woke up around 4am and got into bed with us. Matt's comment was "No more naps for Kate!" We found out that Emily was already awake, she woke up at 3am and went into the living room to read her Harry Potter book. Zoe got up at 4:30 to read her Harry Potter book. We were all up at 6am, so we are off to a good start getting into our new school routine!

Zach likes to know what time it is, so he often asks, "What time is it?" If I don't know the answer, he tells me to look up into the sky to find out. That's when I make up a time and he is satisfied.

Noah has had a slight fever today. He fell asleep after eating his lunch.


We had our last swimming day of the season today at Craig's Pond. We were the only ones at the lake, which was nice. The kids swam for about a half hour before they were too cold to swim anymore. Fall is in the air. The younger 3 kids fell asleep on the way home, so the older 3 girls watched "Monsters, Inc." in a quiet house. It is rare for our house to be quiet!

Later on, I read Kate some books, which was nice. Having alone time to read doesn't happen as much as I'd like it to either. Noah was content to play in the kids' room. He is great at entertaining himself, but I have to check on him often because he is also great at getting into stuff that he's not supposed to be in to.

The kids went outside to blow bubbles and to play. I tried Noah's fall shoes on and they fit! That is great news since we have lost one of his sandals.

Tuesday, September 1st: Emily finally got her hair cut today! She has the stylin' stacked bob, which looks really good on her.



While Emily was getting her hair cut, the kids and I walked over to the library, so Zoe could get the 3rd Harry Potter book. I picked up "The Lucky One" by Nicholas Sparks.

Eleanor is so excited for school to start tomorrow that she wants today to go by super fast! We came over to my parents' house after Emily's haircut to help the day go by faster. The last lazy afternoon of summer. We didn't stay too long, though because we had made plans to go over to Mary's house for a short while in the evening. Mary lives on the other side of the Daigle's, so we have more kids nearby to play with. :-) The older girls had fun picking sweet potatoes and some other vegetables. Zoe and Emily have hit it off well with Mary's 2 oldest girls who are the same age. Zoe now wants to grow sweet potatoes because they are fun to harvest.

Emily has had a headache all day and Eleanor said she felt like she was going to throw up as we left Mary's. Great. Emily and Eleanor plop down in the living room when we get home and I wonder if either of them are going to make it to their first day of school. Emily perks up a while later, so Zoe and Emily eat dinner and get ready for their first day of school. Eleanor remains asleep on the chair.

Wednesday, September 2nd: First day of school and all 3 girls were well enough to go! Eleanor stayed asleep through the night, but woke up feeling fine. None of the girls ate breakfast, which is typical for the first day of school. Noah cried as I got snacks ready and filled out the lunch envelope. I hope that doesn't become a habit.

The girls are old enough now to wait for the bus by themselves, but they wanted me to wait for them the first day. I took these pictures of them while we waited.





I took Zach, Kate, and Noah to storytime. We left during the 2nd book because Zach and Kate were fighting over my lap. We went for a walk along the waterfront instead. Noah tripped while walking and now has a scrape between his upper lip and his nose.

We ran some errands and then went home for lunch. Zach complained of a headache and laid down in the living room. I gave him some medicine and then fixed myself some lunch. As I was eating, Zach threw up on the living room rug. He threw up again a little while later, but thankfully in the bucket. We had plans to go over to Don and Terri's house in the evening, but I ended up staying home with Zach and Matt took the rest of the kids to Don and Terri's. I cuddled with Zach and read my book until he fell asleep and then I cleaned up the house. When Zach woke up, he was thirsty so he drank some water, but he just threw it back up...on the rug. He whined the rest of the evening for water, but we told him he would have to wait until the morning.

I did my homework this evening. The kids always bring home paperwork for me to fill out on the first day of school.

Zoe expressed interest in doing x-country this fall, so I have been working on getting a copy of her physical that she had during softball. Now she doesn't want to do x-country anymore because none of her friends are doing it. Well, her physical is good for 2 years, so at least I won't have to think about it again for awhile and Zoe is doing soccer, so that will keep her plenty busy.

There has been a lot of whining and crying this evening!

Thursday, September 3rd: It's only the 2nd day of school and we are already getting up late! We rushed around this morning and got the girls out the door on time.

I had a much needed cleaning day. I took apart the kids' chairs and threw away the covers and put the cushions in storage. The covers were falling apart and the chairs don't get used much anymore...except for turning them upside down and bouncing on them. I found Noah's sandal that was missing. :-) When the girls got home from school, Zoe held Noah for me and he fell asleep. Zoe sat in the butterfly chair and watched a movie while Noah slept, which was very helpful!

After cleaning all day, I got all the kids loaded up in the car for soccer sign-up. We drove to the community center, got out of the car, crossed the street, went into the building, and found out that next Tuesday is the night for soccer sign-up. Bummer.

Matt went to his High Council meeting after work. Matt's parents spent the day flying to Maine to visit us. :-) Matt went to meet them at the airport after his meeting.

I was exhausted in the evening! I wondered why our family can't get along better. We need to be more kind and loving toward each other, less hitting, biting, kicking...you name it, it happens. Emily had hair coming out of her head because of a fight and Eleanor had a nose bleed from a different fight. I feel like we lead two different lives...the public life where we LOOK like we all get along and have it together and then our private life where we are quick to anger and lash out at each other. I have made it a goal to be the way I want my children to be. If I want my children to change then I need to change first.

Friday, September 4th: Matt went into work, but he came home in the late morning to spend time with us and his parents. It had been a year since the younger kids had spent time with Grandma and Grandpa. Noah was just a little baby the last time they were here.


Kate warmed up to Grandma pretty quickly, but Grandpa didn't have such luck. Kate did allow Grandpa to draw pictures on her magnadoodle, though.

The older girls were hoping that Grandma and Grandpa would be at the house when they got home from school and their wish came true!

My mom watched the kids in the evening while Janet, Steve, Matt, and I went shopping in Ellsworth and then went to Bangor to eat dinner at Bugaboo Creek. It was a fun evening! Here is a picture of our new futon. We are so excited to have a couch in our living room!
This is the frame that we picked out.

We now have a slipcover just like this one and we now own these pillows. :-)

The futon will be delivered on either Wednesday or Thursday.


Saturday, September 5th: Matt and Zach went to Bangor for haircuts and then we went to the Blue Hill Fair (or known as the Blue Hair Fair at our house).


For the first few hours, I walked around with Zoe, Emily, and Kate. We saw most of the trampoline show, which was very entertaining. I took Kate on the Merry-Go-Round. This was her first ride and she loved it!

Zoe and Emily went on the Thunder Bolt. Kate wanted to go on it, too, and she asked over and over again, but I kept telling her that she was too little.

I bought the girls some lunch and then we wandered around hoping to find Matt who had the water. We didn't find him before our meeting time, so we were all heading for the water when we finally met up. We saw the Daigle's and the Dauk's at the fair. Zoe and Morgan got to hang out for a bit after the pig racing show. I took Emily, Eleanor, and Zach to find some rides to go on. We all went on the Tilt-a-whirl and enjoyed a super long ride. Then Eleanor and Zach went on the dragon ride.


Matt took Zoe and Emily back to the ride area before we left to enjoy one more ride together.
Matt took Zoe and Emily back to the ride area before we left to enjoy one more ride together. Everyone had a great time at the fair! Here are some Grandma and Grandpa moments.




Matt was sweet and agreed to stay home with the kids to give them baths and get them ready for Sunday so I could go birthday shopping for him. My mom came with me. I also bought a few plastic organizers to put in the kids' room. My plan is to have many of these organizers, different shapes and sizes in the kids' room. The organizers I bought were only $3.50 each. Zoe doesn't want organizers all over the bedroom, but I keep telling her that it's going to happen and that eventually the organizers will end up in the playroom. I'm tired of the bedroom looking like a disaster all the time.

I sat down before bedtime to finalize my Sunday School lesson and I was happy that it finally came together because it wasn't coming together during the week.

Sunday, September 6th: It was another Sunday of going to church feeling nervous and leaving church feeling great that I had made it through another lesson. I really appreciate the participation I get in class. I will miss having our summer visitors in class.

We took some pictures as we were leaving church. We can't get a picture of Zoe now without a dramatic pose.





We all gathered at my parents' house for chicken and rice soup. We had a very nice visit and ate lots of yummy food. :-)



We went home to have Family Council and to get settled in for the evening.

Monday, September 7th: Happy 45th birthday, Matt! We had a fun celebration at the Blue Hill park.





These are the frames I bought Saturday night for Matt's office. I need to get on the ball and get updated pictures of Zoe, Emily, and Eleanor!


Here are the kids trying to give daddy his birthday spankings. I think they got more spankings then he did! I love the laughter on Eleanor's face.

Time for a rest.

Zoe and Emily put on a few shows for us.

The younger kids joined them after a few shows.

The kids played on the playground for awhile before we went home to have FHE.

Tuesday, September 8th: Noah is 14 months old! Janet spent time with Noah, Kate, and Zach while Steve and I went grocery shopping. Matt went into work for most of the morning.

When the girls got home from school, we went to visit Janet and Steve in their hotel room. Eleanor wanted to know what their room looked like. We went to the Dairy Port for ice cream.

We walked down by the water and sat on benches and a picnic table to enjoy our treat.

This was the last get together with Janet and Steve for Zoe, Emily, and Eleanor, so it was a sad parting.


My mom watched the kids again, so we could enjoy one more adult dinner with Janet and Steve. We went to Pizzeria Uno, which was delicious as always.

I signed Zoe and Emily up for soccer before we went to dinner.

This was the first night of homework for Zoe and Emily. We are too busy having fun to deal with homework! I guess it's time to get out of vacation/summer mode.

Wednesday, September 9th: The younger kids and I stayed home today. Matt went to Portland for work. Janet and Steve stopped by for one more visit before they headed to the airport.

We are so glad you came to visit us, Janet and Steve! Thanks for EVERYTHING!

While I was puttering around at home, I moved the paper holders we have for school papers and finally went through Emily's papers that were in her holder from 2nd grade.

Our futon came this afternoon! We were getting things done before soccer practice and the guy that we bought the futon from knocked on our door. I thought Matt would have to set the futon up, but the guy did it for us. Yay! We all LOVE having a couch.

I took Zoe and Emily to soccer practice with no shin guards to protect them. I looked in my parents' attic and in our shed for the shin guards, but I haven't found them yet. They will need shin guards before their first game on Saturday.
Zach slept through the practice while Eleanor, Kate, and Noah played on the grass with other kids that were around. A few of Emily's friends are on our team, so there are more moms that I know this year.

Matt got home late, but earlier than I expected. We watched "Survivorman" before going to bed. It was fun to stretch out on the futon!

Thursday, September 10th: Zach wanted to know if Grandma and Grandpa were coming over today. Little did I know that they were still in Atlanta and not at home.

Zach wanted to go to the museum, so we got ready and headed to Bangor. After parking in the garage and walking to the museum entrance, we read the sign saying that the museum was closed for cleaning. We walked back to the Yukon and drove to a park near Matt's work. On the way Zach said, "I hope the park isn't closed for cleaning!" We went in to see Matt before we played at the park. Noah was in his glory at the park. He LOVES to be outside!

When we got home, I put away laundry and made dinner. I made a new chicken casserole with zucchini in it. The recipe said it would take 30 minutes to cook, but it took an hour and 15 minutes, so Matt and I ate when we got home from the middle school open house that we went to with Zoe. Mom once again watched the kids for us. Zoe peeled potatoes while I was making the casserole, so the kids were able to eat potatoes and cranberries while the casserole cooked.

Emily read to me for part of her homework while I made the casserole. I haven't been able to sit down with her yet while she is reading out loud, but I figure having her read while I am busy doing something is better than not reading at all. She read yesterday while the futon was being put together and I was washing the dishes.

Matt brought home a flute for Zoe that Marianne gave to us. Zoe is anxious to learn how to play it. I hope she doesn't take after me because I could never make a sound on the flute. I played the saxaphone.

Matt and I ate together in the evening, which was nice and peaceful and then we watched "Survivorman" again. I have yet to stay awake through all the episodes.

Today: I was up at 4:15 this morning. I had a dream that my mom died. I was sobbing in my dream and tears were running down my face when I woke up. I was wide awake when I woke up, so I decided to get up and read. I read until 5:30 and then I took a shower and got ready for the day. I like getting my shower in before the kids wake up, but it doesn't happen very often.

After Matt and the girls left, I washed the dishes. Usually, we have the dishes done every night before bed, but last night we were too tired to deal with them.

Kate has been peeing on the potty more lately. She came in from outside this morning saying, "I need to go potty!" I took her into the bathroom and sure enough, she went pee. She just may potty train herself since I'm waiting until she's 3.

Jenn watched the kids for me this morning while I got my hair cut. It's still long, but it's all one length now. I've needed a haircut for a long time, so it feels nice to have it cut and it looks better, too.

Matt is off with Don today and he'll be back tomorrow. They are on the boat and having fun, I'm sure. Matt wanted us all to go, but I wasn't willing to take the girls out of school and Zoe and Emily have their soccer game tomorrow.

Kate has been saying "I hate you!" a lot today. I keep telling her that I love her every time she says, "I hate you, mom!"

My mom is home now and we are going to have pizza for dinner and I need to go through boxes in the attic again to see if I can find those shin guards.

I have been on this computer since 12:58pm. The girls rode the bus here to my parents' house and they are now watching "Mulan". I knew I would need many hours to update here. I'm glad I am caught up now. It feels good. I have to add this picture before I end, though.

Here is Zoe posing in front of our futon.


It is now 5:32pm.

P.S. 9/11 has been on my mind all day.