Finally there is an End!

Cayleb just finished the last assessment he has for the year!! Yeah! Now he's just finishing up his Science Project presentation so that he can present it to Dad, and we still have some spelling words :) But the pressure is off! And NO my Konos isn't here YET!! All I can think is that they didn't get it out in Monday's mail and that means that 3 Day Priority will have it here tomorrow. And I think that 3 Day has some lee-way regarding actual delivery times etc. so 3 day may actually mean 3-5 days.... so Hopefully Friday or Saturday, but this totally Stinks! I did go pick up a few FREE bookcases from a really nice Home School Mom this morning. I think that hers are all about to fly the coop, and she's downsizing :) Free is good, I can do free, unless it's across the state or something, these were only about 10 minutes up the road and back :) So they went in the boys room and I designated one for each of them and we have organized all the kids books into categories and Cayleb picked out which books he wanted on his Shelf, and I picked out some that I know Noah would want on his. Then Cayleb filled the rest of his shelf up with treasures :) I also adorned Noah's shelf with some treasures too, so that when he gets home he can be surprised. Sarah Rose has been a little pickle this morning, getting into all kinds of stuff while Mom was trying to Organize!! She definitely knows when Mom is not paying attention like she should be! Hehe!! Nothing to painful, though, so we survived.

Here is my beautiful flower!! Happy Mother's Day to Me!! Isn't it gorgeous!! I LOVE fuchsias!!

Fun Fun Fun....

Today has been pretty busy, I went and picked up the Wyckoff Boys (3 boys) to come and play with my munchkins. They have been playing very well together. We went swimming and just got back a little while ago, they had a blast. And now most of the kids are outside playing!! Thank Goodness for Sunshine!! Tomorrow, I hear, isn't going to look so pretty, though! But I did see in the fortcast for May 16th that it's going to hit 70??!! We'll just have to wait and see on that one! I'm gonna take the boys back home tonight after their Mom gets home from work :)

I am hoping that school will fly by this week so that Cayleb and I can keep working on the yard after school. I have gotten quite a bit done, but we still have lots to do!! Mary-Anne's track came in today, so she won't be a gimp anymore (in case anyone cares to know, Mary-Anne is our excavator, she reminds me of Mary-Anne the steam shovel from the book Mike Mulligan and Mary-Anne, at least I think that's what its called.... not sure at the moment, my brain's a little overstimulated!!) I'll try to post a pic. of Daddy or Cayleb working with her sometime :) They both have so much fun!!

Today, I could have taken a picture for advertisement of the airplane teeter-totter that we got from costco. I have 7 Kids here today and every single one of them was on it!! Yes, it seats 7!! I need to ask them to pose for me!! Okay, so I bribed them with candy! Here it is!!

We have also been working on the yard, so here are some pics of the process....
-First is the Western view from out our back door

-Then a Southern view out the back door and

-Last a Eastern view out our back door so imagine looking slowly from your right to your left and that's pretty much a panoramic view....

Okay, so we've decided, I think?!

Okay, so we've decided to go with the Swing Set from Costco. Looks pretty cool, right? My one condition, well actually two is that we HAVE to add monkey bars!!! And we are going to add a Stage 3 to our original plan that includes a zip line of some sort. I'll try to take some pictures to show you where we are thinking of putting the zip line..... hint-hint:we have a huge hill off the back of the house with a valley and another hill on the other side.... So, I think that I am excited!
Phase I: Airplane Teeter-totter, picking this up this weekend from Costco (I have an earlier post with a cool pic of this)
Phase II: Swing set with added Monkey Bars, too come soon after grass is planted.
Phase III: Zip Line!! Yipee!!!

The last two days have been Busy!!

So, I didn't get a chance to post yesterday! Is it bad that that made me a little sad? But I decided to post a few times today to make up for it! Yesterday was a long day, we began by cramming in a days worth of school in 4 hours, which technically is all it's supposed to take, but usually it takes us closer to 6.... And then we meet my friend Kristy in Blaine to check out the "Blaine HomeConnection." It has turned out to be a really cool program, which I listed several of the classes in an earlier post. Any-who, there is a waiting list though, so we may not get in in the Fall, but we were comforted and told by one of the Mom's that "you'll get in, don't worry about it," so needless-to-say, it'll happen when it happens :) After that, Cayleb, Sarah Rose and I burned some time at the library then went and picked up the other kids at school then ran home to put chicks away cause it started to get really cold while Cayleb and I were in town and the chicks were out "sunning" in their play pen :) After that, we went to B'Ham and saw Sarah Rose's Dr., had some prescriptions filled (Charity Ann ended up having an ear infection.... yes, the appt. was for Sarah Rose, not Charity Ann..... ) Then ran over to the pet store to get goldfish for "Beaker" and "Oscar the Grouch" then, went to Lowes (with all four kids, mind you) to fetch a swing-glider thingy for Jason's Mom and Dad :) Then went home and passed out on the couch.... no, just kidding..... went home and made dinner, got kids to clean rooms, brush teeth, get into bed and then..... collapsed on the couch :) So, Today..... got kids off to school, did 1 hour or so of school with Cayleb, dropped off girls at neighbors, took my truck into the dealership to have a recall part replaced, got home, had lunch, finished school, went swimming for a few hours with Kristy and her very cute girls! Then came home, made some Mac 'n Cheese for the kiddos and.... well, still on the Mac 'n Cheese so..... Phew, I am exhausted just typing about it! Anyways, I hope that tomorrow is nice (today turned out very lovely) so that we can work out in the yard, then we have our 4th Date of our "10 Great Dates" Saturday evening! I think that next week will be a bit calmer, I hope :) But I still want to try to go swimming with Kristy and her girls again :P
Tonight, I want to feed the kids, pop in a movie for movie night then send them off to bed when it's over, that way I can Veggitate in on my bed and relax before I have to Konk out. A bowl of Ice Cream would be nice too! I'm thinking Some Cookies N' Dreams would be nice about them, with some chocolate sauce gently drizzled over the top, Mmmmmm.....
That'l do donkey, that'l do :P!!

Doesn't this just look like a blast!!! Thank you Nana and Pops!!!! They decided that since this was on the kids wish list (we'll maybe mine too) that they would get it for the kids for their combined Birthday's and Christmas this year!! Yipee!! I can't wait to get it and find the perfect spot for it!!!!

So what's with the name?

Just in case someone was wondering as to the relevance of my Title.... There are a lot of things that I could file as good uses of my Million Dollars. But chances are, I won't be getting a sum like that in my days, so, I'll just stick to the stuff I can aim for :) Currently the kids, Jason and I are saving for a "backyard makeover." If one could call it that, I am not actually sure.... you see for it to be a "makeover" wouldn't that require that it had been "done-up" to begin?? I mean, unless we are going to take into account God's creation of this beautiful land, nothing besides the occasional annoying freeloader who decided to dump off his families trash for the year has been on the property for a very long time.... Very Annoying....!! But that is not what I was going to talk about here, really, I'm done venting about that matter :) Soooo...... Our Make over is going to be small, really small, but we have a large yard that is involved, so mostly it means contouring the land and planting lots and lots of grass! Most of the expense, however, is going to be in construction some sort of "play area" for the kids. Now, we've been looking around this whole time of saving up, about a year and a half and counting, and we have banned all thoughts of "Cheap Wal-Mart Metal and Plastic" from our minds. Mostly because we see those around and after a year or so I see quite a few of them rusting in our humid environment, but secondly, our oldest is almost as tall as me and only about 30 pounds lighter and he's only 9! Mind you, he's not over weight by the slightest, he is just very athletic, can carry a 50 pound bag of feed if I need him too and is finally getting some meat on his bones! So, he's perfect, in my eyes, but is going to require something a little less flimsy! The hunt continues, we've been looking at the sets at Costco, really nice and have a LOT of features for the price... I guess you could say they have a lot of bang for their buck, but this years model has decided to be absent of the one factor that my eldest daughter requested.....Monkey Bars! So, that pretty much squashed that idea! So, let's move on.... Lowes and Home Depot have similar "build it yourself" models and a few have been rather provoking lately to me, but they are still a little out of our budget if we want to have anything besides a few quarters left over for the grass.... Really nice sets, we just have to think a little bigger than some families considering we have 4 already and haven't decided to "stop" for sure yet, so that puts us in the more expensive size brackets.... Still haven't said no for sure yet on those yet.... but the idea sprung into my mind yesterday morning as I woke up bright and early, "Hey we did it before! Why not just be creative and build something entirely unique??" So, I am thinking we are going to go with that..... So, that name "If I had a Million Dollars," though it may change tonight, is somewhat in reference to the fact that a Million Dollars would make things a little easier to be less creative :) So, thank you God, for allowing me the chance to be creative! Really, I am not being sarcastic, you just have to learn to accept life's challenges, and make the best of it, right?! So, no moula, means I get to use my brain :) I like using my brain! I'll write more later about my actual thoughts regarding the "swing set of dreams!"