Bice Family Fun: A little "venting" tonight.

Noah took ALL his trucks outside to the top of the slide to slide them down.

The pile at the bottom, he was just getting started.

Thursday, oh the hell of Thursday! We woke up Thursday morning as usual, but Josh slept in and wanted to do breakfast early, rather than coming home at 10:30 for breakfast....which was fine, but when it was time for him to leave, he couldn't find his keys, and I had to help him, instead of get the kids ready, and by the time we (eh em, I) found his keys (that were somehow at the bottom of laundry "monster" as Josh says)---we still haven't figured out how they got there-- he was way late and it was too late to get Noah to school. So, he skipped school. I got them ready and we went to "exercise school." I was supposed to take Juddson in for his 18 month check up at 10:30 and called Dr. Fred's as we were leaving the gym to make sure he was running on time. Of course he wasn't, so they said to wait 30 minutes, then come. So we killed time by running to Walmart to pick up a few groceries I needed, and the kids got their usual popcorn chicken, then we went to Dr. Fred's. (me and all 3 kids by myself remember) and we sat in the waiting room for about 10 minutes, then got called back into the little tiny, tiny, tiny room and waited for Dr. Fred. Let me just say, we didn't get home til after 1pm. I was furious. The kids were tired and it was right during their nap time, they were thirsty and bored, and I felt so bad for them. Plus, I was mad because I assumed I would get home way earlier and I left Hoov in his crate, with no one to let him out until I got home, and I felt bad for him-- and I just think if you are running that far behind that you should call people and reschedule rather than screw up their WHOLE day! Anyways, I will get off the soap box now. But, anyways, to top it off, Judd has had diarrhea, and I attributed it to teething, but come to find out, they have hand, foot, and mouth disease, and that's why they've been sickly and tired and have had fever on and off this week. Lovely. So, he told us not to go anywhere or be around kids for a week. Then, we get home, and Josh calls and tells me that my truck has to go in the shop from the stinkin' hail damage and I am going to be without transportation for 2 weeks at least! What in the world am I going to do? I can walk Noah to Tillis everyday instead of going to the gym, but how are we going to hike to Van Buren twice a week for his therapy? I don't want to just skip it.. ugh.. and hopefully I won't need to go to the store or bank for 2 weeks... gimme a break, what are they thinking??? So, that ticked me off... After I got off the phone with Josh, I went to look for Noah, who I found in the back yard. He had the lid off the charcoal grill and was pouring the ashes out on Hoover, so he could have a "white dog." I felt so sorry for that dog. He would shake and it would just be a huge cloud of white dust and it was getting into his eyes, and he tried to use his paws to get it out and so Noah got in trouble and Hoover went straight to the bath. (Luckily, earlier that day, I bought a new bottle of dog shampoo at Walmart)... Unless you have actually tried to wash ashes out of hair, you wouldn't know, but for some reason, it's really hard to get out, it's not like powder that rinses off, this stuff turns sticky, and once you get the sticky out, you have this gritty--little tiny black beady things leftover, that you have to start over and wash out... I am sure dad has the explanation for this, but I used almost that entire bottle of shampoo on poor Hoovy. He is one clean dog now though.

Meanwhile, we got a Toys R Us book in the mail. Noah must have read that book a hundred time and brought it to me and showed me what he better have. "better have one" is what he says. It's cute, but a hundred times is a little much. I don't even remember what else happened that day, I know I just couldn't cook due to the fact that my head was about to pop off, so Josh brought home Dominoes hot sub sandwiches for dinner (Yuck, by the way) and then we finally got the kids to bed. I drove off 5 miles, and they were out.

Today wasn't much better, Hoover had some peeing in the floor issues this morning, which started my day off on the wrong foot. I am totally overwhelmed with clothes and laundry and sorting through summer and winter and too small for next year and too big for this year... maybe, depending on who grows how fast???... and toys that I pick up and the kids immediately have to dump back out. It's one of Noah's traits that he likes to be surrounded by his toys, and he constantly is. And dishes and dishes and dishes... I am thankful for my dishwasher, but it's so little..... I need to do like 4 loads a day, which for some reason, I only get to 2, so I have dishes piled in my tiny sink and on my tiny kitchen counter. My only counter, so then I have no room to cook, and try to scoot them over, but then I need the mixer or something electric, and oops, I forgot, none of the outlets on this one side work, so I have to scoot everything back over to the other side and use the outlet, and then my lights in the kitchen go out because our house needs to be rewired or because we have a ghost, you can choose, so then I have to cook in the dark, all the while, 2 kids are standing at the gate and Judd is screaming because his poor bottom is raw and Harper is crying that she "wants me so much all day" and Noah is finding ways to jump over the gate and Hoover is running around my feet peeing in the kitchen floor and Josh is in the shower hollering for me to get him a towel because there's none in the bathroom because they are all in laundry mountain.... Whew.... and that's just the beginning, but I won't bore you with the rest-- you get the idea of my mental state....... Anyways, where was I??? I know, I know, I got myself into this, wanting all these babies, and wanting to live in an old house with "character" instead of a new cookie cutter house... and wanting to get a puppy for the kids....(actually, I wanted to adopt an older dog that was pre-trained, but Josh wanted a puppy... don't get me wrong, I love this cute little dog, but he's a handful, and my hands are already full!!!) I know I know, doesn't mean I can't vent though, right????? OK, so that was pretty much the day. I got laundry mountain down to a hill, so that's a good thing. Noah thinks it's funny when Hoover cries, and tonight I was in the other room looking something up online and here Hoover whimpering, crying, and it took a second and I realized Noah was back here, and he'd opened the crate and then shut it, and was trying to lock it, but Hoovy's leg wasn't in all the way and Noah was just pinching it, trying to lock the door back and Hoover was just crying and couldn't move, and Noah was laughing!!! It scared me to death, I thought Noah broke his paw or something. Noah got in BIG TROUBLE and a lecture about how that hurt the dog and it's not funny when he cries... but I still don't know if Noah knew his paw was caught and he was mashing it... I think he just thought Hoover was making a funny noise. Hoover is ok, as far as I can tell; he's been running around and seems fine. Then, I had to make a cake. I had big fancy plans in my mind. I let each kid help me, (Judd just got to help lick) and they had a blast. The cakes didn't turn out at all.... so now I have to order one. blah... oh well.. the kids had fun-- we'll just have to eat ugly but yummy cake for a few days. Finally, once again-- they are all asleep. Breathe in, breathe out.... slowly... repeat...