Paul’s aunt and cousin are coming out from Cali in about a week, and we want the house to look really nice. I love these “Oh shit! People are coming! Hurry!” moments we seem to have, because they really kick Paul in the ass when it comes to stuff around the house. I guarantee we’ll get stuff done this week that I’ve been nagging him about since day one. What do you want to bet by the end of the week, there will be hooks for backpacks and lunchboxes and kids’ coats, and curtain rods in place, and all the stuff on the walls that require a drill and a level for hanging.

Huh! An entire year has passed, and my house is still in a state of disarray! We do have hooks for backpacks and lunchboxes and kids’ coats, and we do have curtain rods and stuff on the walls that required a drill and a level to hang. But…we also have ten times more toys than the kids really need, which is reflected in the chaos you have to wade through in the study. Which is where our houseguests will be SLEEPING. Here’s a nice little view of the study, taken from the hallway…

Nice and neat, huh? What you can’t see in this picture is the whole wall on the left side of the room, which is completely covered with toy bins, baskets of dress-up clothes, and a dollhouse. That’s in addition to the huge bin ‘o shoes and the rack containing all the kids’ coats and backpacks. And much of that stuff gets dragged out into the middle of the room, so that you have to step super carefully wherever you can find floor space. Many days, it looks like it’s straight out of Hoarders. How, praytell, am I going to fit a queen sized AeroBed in there? This is going to be tricky.

And why is it that a year, a full YEAR after we moved into this house, we’re still bursting at the seams with…STUFF? I’m blaming my husband. We’re probably going to BE one of those families on Hoarders in years to come! Don’t tell him, but I take bags and bags of stuff to Goodwill every month, and he never even notices.

Wish me luck over the next week – like I said last year, I love having a deadline looming over us. It really gets our asses in gear! Bring it on, man!

Possibly Related

• May 6, 2009 — Spring Cleaning! (Sucks!)
• January 24, 2008 — Freedom! Well, not so much.
• February 17, 2010 — I love Vinegar!
• December 17, 2009 — I’m lame.
• June 22, 2009 — Mama’s crackin’ the whip!

Until I sat down to write a post, and realized I don’t have a damned thing to say here. I’m happy, and my family is happy, but we live at the Casa de Chaos, remember? If anyone should be writing “works for me!” it should be my husband. He’s the organization expert. He’s the enginerd who can design and build anything. I sat here and scratched my head for a minute, trying to come up with SOMETHING worthy of a blog post. And then it came to me. VINEGAR. Yep, that’s the sort of thing I get excited about. Writing about the virtues of vinegar. Hey, my younger twins start Kindergarten in July. I’ll try to use that extra free time to get a life. Anyway, here are some things I’ve learned while parenting five children and cleaning up the messes they leave in their wake.

VINEGAR IS AMAZING. You can clean anything with it. It’s cheap as hell. You can buy a whole gallon of it for like two bucks. Here’s what I do with it.

These are my top three uses for vinegar, but this isn’t even all I do with it. I pour it over my kids’ heads in the bath after we go to the pool – it gets that chlorine out really well. I put it in my mop bucket when I clean my kitchen floor. I run it through my coffee maker once in awhile to get rid of that hard water build-up that I mentioned earlier. I’m telling ya, vinegar is magic, and it’s cheap!

Possibly Related

• June 22, 2009 — Mama’s crackin’ the whip!
• March 2, 2010 — Wow, a year already, huh?
• September 28, 2009 — Laundry Day! Uh…yay?
• May 6, 2009 — Spring Cleaning! (Sucks!)
• October 2, 2008 — Just trying to catch my own ass, here.

I figured I should, y’know, pop in and post something of actual content here on the ol’ blog. It’s been awhile. I know. I’ll do a quick bulleted list.

• Thanksgiving was delightful. My sister came over the night before and we drank wine, watched TV, made pumpkin pie, and had some nice sister-time. That’s really at the top of my “I’m Thankful For…” list: my sister being back in my life.
• The big twins are going on a field trip to the museum soon. I don’t think they even realize this yet, but I do, and I’m SO EXCITED FOR THEM! I remember being a little kid, growing up in Denver, and taking the annual field trip to the Museum of Natural History. (Now it’s called the Museum of Nature and Science. I have no idea why they changed the perfectly fine name, but they did.) My kids will be thrilled about riding the school bus across town. I always hated that part, since I rode the bus over an hour each way to and from school. My kids aren’t growing up in the age of mandatory bussing, so it’s still a novelty to them. Bring on the dinosaur bones!
• We’re coming up on ONE YEAR in our new house. I guess after December 27th, I won’t be able to call it The New House anymore. It’s been fun celebrating all our first holidays here. Now that I’ve got Thanksgiving under my belt (went off without a hitch, except I never did find my turkey platter) I’m ready for Christmas. Bring it on! I’ve already got my tree up, and we’ve got the house decorated with brand new LED lights. I think it’s safe to say that while we may not have the most lights up, our house is definitely the BRIGHTEST on the block! Those LEDs are kind of crazy bright, aren’t they? I love it.
• Speaking of Christmas, I went out on Thursday morning (at 10 am, not 3 am!) to Christmas shop at Walmart. Scored a few good deals, I did. I don’t think I’ll ever be able to embrace the notion of leaving my bed in the middle of the night to stand in line out in the cold with a bunch of strangers so I can save a few bucks. But hey, whatever works for you.

I’ve already wasted half my morning dicking around on Facebook and trying to figure out my new Electric Cookiepress. I guess I’d better embrace MONDAY and get my shopping list made. Have a wonderful day!

Possibly Related

• December 12, 2008 — How much do we love Santa?
• October 17, 2006 — The Pumpkin Patch

Plex!

I still have another couple of walls, and I think I’m going to do Toodee on one wall and DJ Lance on another. I’m also pretty certain the boombox is going to go somewhere. I’m still regretting painting Foofa gigantic when I did the rest of them smaller, but the kids all like her so much, she needed to be BIG. Anyway. It’s coming along and looking good, even if I did intend to have it all done a couple of weeks ago.

Want to see the rest? They’re on Flick right here.

Possibly Related

• October 5, 2009 — Here’s Foofa!
• October 2, 2009 — First character complete…it’s Muno!
• February 17, 2010 — Yo Gabba Gabba SEASON THREE!
• October 1, 2009 — Things to come!
• September 30, 2009 — Checkin’ in on Day 6 – BYE, TRAINING WHEELS!

Soooo…I have three of the Yo Gabba Gabba characters finished, and I’m pretty sure I’m also going to paint the other two. Not sure yet if I’m going to paint DJ Lance again. He turned out to be the cutest when I finished the mural in the old house, but he’s also got the most detail and took me by far the longest to paint – not sure if I want to do all that again! We’ll see.

I’ve got a set on Flickr that shows the progression, if you’re interested. It’s right here: Yo Gabba Gabba Bathroom!

Possibly Related

• October 27, 2009 — It’s Plex!
• October 2, 2009 — First character complete…it’s Muno!
• February 17, 2010 — Yo Gabba Gabba SEASON THREE!
• October 1, 2009 — Things to come!
• September 30, 2009 — Checkin’ in on Day 6 – BYE, TRAINING WHEELS!

I’m doing these MUCH, much smaller than the ones I did at the old house. This is like…12 to 18 inches high, maybe. Maybe not even that big. The scale will be more evident when I finish, and you can see the sink next to it. Fun!

Possibly Related

• October 27, 2009 — It’s Plex!
• October 5, 2009 — Here’s Foofa!
• February 17, 2010 — Yo Gabba Gabba SEASON THREE!
• January 4, 2010 — Who would have thought this would bring me such joy?
• October 1, 2009 — Things to come!

And my OWN laundry is so piled up, it won’t even fit in my hamper. I’ve been randomly tossing things into Paul’s hamper, and he’s starting to notice. I always do his laundry separate from everyone else’s, so his is never piled up like mine and the kids’. And Kayley does her own laundry nowadays. Considering the kids don’t go to uniform school anymore, I should have LESS laundry, not more! I’m blaming the little girls. Lexi in particular. If left unchecked, she’ll change clothes two or three times a day. Little punk!

You know, in our last house, the laundry room was upstairs, about two feet away from the kids’ bedrooms. In our new house, it’s downstairs, next to the garage. It’s less of a laundry room and more of a mud room, really. It’s essentially the passageway for entering and leaving the house, which means I can’t just leave laundry going 24/7. I’m not sure if this has made it easier or harder to stay on top of it all. Actually, I’m leaning more toward the notion that I HAVE done a better job of keeping the laundry done, except for the past few weeks. There have actually been many occasions where ALL the laundry is done and put away – ALL OF IT – which never happened in the history of the world, until we moved here.

I think I’ve adequately psyched myself up; I’m ready to dive right in. Send help if you don’t hear from me soon.

Possibly Related

• February 17, 2010 — I love Vinegar!
• February 9, 2010 — My washer is lame.
• October 1, 2009 — What the…MOLD in unopened Swanson’s Chicken Broth??
• June 22, 2009 — Mama’s crackin’ the whip!
• October 22, 2008 — True Confession Wednesday!

I didn’t really do much to it, beyond painting the wall and getting the new bed set and tons of coordinating accessories. It sure made a difference, though! And you know what? I think I’m done painting murals and stuff on textured walls. It’s HARD! And it’s one of those things that looks GREAT from a distance and shittier the closer you get to it. So…I hope Kayley likes it. She seems to love it!

More pictures here.

Possibly Related

• May 2, 2009 — I feel a change a’coming!
• January 4, 2010 — Who would have thought this would bring me such joy?
• October 27, 2009 — It’s Plex!
• October 5, 2009 — Here’s Foofa!
• October 2, 2009 — First character complete…it’s Muno!

The party was OUTSTANDING. If you weren’t here, well – you missed out, dude. Paul worked for a solid month building his badass DJ booth, which he designed to match the existing pieces in our finished basement. As you may know, the previous owners put hundreds of hours into finishing this basement, to include custom built-in cabinetry, a wet bar, and a bathroom complete with a URINAL. Total guy zone. The only thing missing was a massive DJ booth that makes the bar itself look like a toy kitchen. And Paul did such a phenomenal job – his work impressed everyone!

And for the party, we went all out! Paul even bought glowstick necklaces and drink stirrers for everyone. It looked like a rave. Ha! I saw kids looking like LL Cool J, covered in necklaces. Well, if LL Cool J wore glowstick necklaces. You get the idea. He also bought a whole set of tooter shot tubes and Jagerbomb shot cups. And did I mention he constructed an actual STAGE for singing karaoke? It was downright delightful.

We invited every neighbor on our street and all of our friends – and this house felt like it was literally pulsating from the energy of all the music and people and spilled Jagermeister. I can’t believe how many people were here, especially considering that dozens of our friends were off camping or celebrating their wedding anniversary or on vacation. It was crazy times!

And someone decided to smash Kayley in the face with her slice of cake, which was really not very nice. She was pretty upset about it. But damned if that incident didn’t result in one of the funniest pictures I’ve ever seen!! I laughed for 30 seconds straight when I got that one off the camera. Sorry, baby girl.

And hey, you’ll never believe this shit. I was cleaning up the day after the party and guess what I found, embedded in the rug near the door? A tooth. A human tooth. Someone lost their TOOTH at my party. How does that even happen? If you were over here and you’re missing a tooth, holler at me. I saved it for you! Check out the party pictures on Facebook right here.

Possibly Related

• October 19, 2008 — Debbie Downer here.
• August 1, 2007 — Rabbit, Rabbit.
• January 18, 2010 — The Itty Bitties Turn Five
• August 30, 2009 — Pablo and Mallory turn SIX.
• August 2, 2009 — Sign of a Good Party: Finding People’s Teeth!

I’m feeling splendid, even though the rain is BEATING DOWN on my house right now, preventing me from venturing out to Costco. (Maybe I should be thanking the rain! Costco is not that much fun. But neither is being out of lunchbox snacks and salad greens.) I’m feeling pretty marvelous because it seems like a lot of things in my little world are coming together. I think this calls for a bulleted list!

• I may have found a church home for us where they’ll welcome Pablo with open arms. We tried a place on Sunday and the kids loved it. Pablo had one tiny issue, but the teacher there seemed positive that he could succeed and really enjoy being there with some precautions put into place. I’m optimistic that things may actually work out where this is concerned. I always crave more order and structure for my children, particularly for Pablo, and I think Sunday school would benefit all of them tremendously. Also, I think the whole, “We are all God’s children, and everyone is special and wonderful” atmosphere of, y’know, CHURCH, will be a good thing. Pablo’s had to deal with so much unkindness from people due to his disability, which SUCKS ASS. I’ve got my fingers crossed that this might be a really good thing.
• I’ve gotten back in touch with a friend of mine on Facebook who was a huge, major part of my life for many years. We “survived” small town life together, moved up to Denver together, and leaned on each other for years before going off and living our lives. I hadn’t seen or spoken to him for TEN YEARS until last week, and now we’ve been spending lots of time catching up. It makes me sad that we were absent from each other’s lives for so long, but I’m thrilled to be catching up now, and each time we have a little chat on Facebook, it brightens my whole day. There’s absolutely nothing like old friends, who have seen you at your best and worst, and who  knew you when you were going through puberty! Love. It.
• My husband and I are moving forward with major improvements to our house! It’s gorgeous as it is, but we’re really trying to make it our own. On the horizon: building a custom bed for the kids, additional built-in storage in the basement for our plethora of toys and games, and…::drumroll:: extending our DECK and putting a roof on it so we can spend more time enjoying our amazing backyard! I’m so grateful to have married that crazy enginerd, who meticulously designs things, agonizing over every minute detail that no one else would even notice. It’s going to be cool.
• Pablo is doing fantastic! We started a fish oil regimen a few weeks ago, and I really think it’s benefiting him. He’s all but stopped hitting himself, and the vocal tics have dropped off completely. We’ve had a few minor issues, but we’re starting to realize (duh) that Pablo is growing and maturing, and wants more than anything to just be a regular kid. It seems like whenever we have a huge blowup or tantrum, it’s because the kids around him are doing something he wants to do. Like line up and walk into school without having his aide grab him by the hand. Little things. He’s really blossoming, and we’re really enjoying him. Those weeks of hell always seem to result in big breakthroughs for him!
• Although I haven’t addressed it here or anywhere online, Kayley has been dealing with a huge healthl issue which has really affected her. I’ve been worried to death about her. A few days ago, we finally figured out the problem, and we’re on our way to a solution. She is positive and happy and optimistic that it’s all going to work out fine. She has been such a big, brave girl and I am just SO proud of her right now. Things aren’t 100% rosy, but where this area is concerned, it’s all good. 

And, it’s JUNE! How can it be June? It’s 55 degrees outside. I packed up all the winter clothes last week! We’re ready for summer weather, pretty please. The kids are graduating from kindergarten on the 18th and we’d like to eventually visit the beautiful pool in our neighborhood. So, get your act together, Mother Nature!

Possibly Related

• June 30, 2009 — OMG! Eight days since I last blogged?
• November 5, 2008 — Uh oh!
• July 26, 2008 — Weddings and Strollers.
• July 16, 2008 — Goodbye, Christy
• June 28, 2008 — Old friends are the best, part 2.