What's in Your Couch?

Our next-door-neighbor girls brought over a Wal-Mart size bag of string cheese (sticks). When they came up missing, I wasn't entirely surprised when one of my children found the cheese stick filled bag in it's entirety

in

MY

COUCH!!!

Seriously? How does that happen? You want to know what else is terrible? When Moqui had her puppies she jumped on our couch and before I could get her down she birthed 2 puppies. I SUPER scrubbed my couch, and now I have an aversion towards it( so super gross). But to top all that off, knowing our history with treasure troves being dug up from the depths of our davenport, I checked, dug and double checked and double dug for another puppy that may have fallen into the mysterious beyond of the o'l chesterfield .

Even now that the puppies are a month and a half old, I still find myself wondering and triple checking for some skeletal remains of a tater-pup.

The allusive beyonds of my couch bewilder me. How does it happen? Is there some systematic form to the loss of our items...an unnatural gravitational pull, maybe? Perhaps the mice in our house have something to do with it all. Maybe they have drunk from some fountain of super intelligence and are now collecting, foraging and storing hoards of foods by means of our derriere lounger.

Is it just me? I want to know!

What have you found? I want the good, the bad and the moldy. Mellissa, you may not have one story. But maybe you have heard a terrible story, maybe it's about me though:) So try and share!!!

Happy Birthday Lance Albern!

Lance Albern Allen turned 15 on October 8, 2010! It was a wonderful day! We had been looking for a used weight set for a long time, and on the day of his birthday we landed and AWESOMELY SWEEEET one! The funny thing was, the 19 kid we bought it from, it was his birthday too!!! Then we took him (Lance, not the other kid:) out to dinner and a movie! When your kids don't ask for a party and pinata, you know they are growing up :)



Lance Albern is the second child, first boy in a string of 5 boys. The kid was born with a six pack:) and ready to use 'em! He has always been really really really energetic (it's my karma). He loves food, like me. I think he can smell chocolate 2 miles away. He begs and begs and begs for things. He is SUPER UBER goofy, but only around those he lets into his super uber goofy club. He loves to start fires (his dad's karma). He even set about an 1/8 of an acre of our property on fire:) Cleared out all the underbrush, what a nice kid :)




He hardly ever does anything consistently but~ begs, works out, starts fires, leaves his dishes out, plays with his lil brothers, and cracks jokes...and is nice. Lance has always been a very nice kid. I think I can count on one hand the amount of times he has said something short-tempered or back-talked me.



Here's a healthy comparison to let you in on the difference between Shylee and Lance Albern, and hopefully let you get to know Lance a bit better:)

If Shylee was tending the boys it would have gone something like this: they would have created some great craft (possibly based around the season at the time), eaten a healthy dinner (protein, fiber, low carb), had a (supervised) bath, brushed their teeth and watched a movie (with an uplifting message) with a homemade bed (so good that a doc would approve it for the lumbar) on the living room floor (vacuumed).

If Lance was tending the boys they would have~ eaten what was readily available..maybe a dinner of: crackers, cereal, dry Ramen noodles, and pancake mix; drank from the faucet, skipped a bath, wrestled until pure exhaustion, passed out on the living room floor (no homemade bed included) while watching their 3rd hour of the Simpsons, and there might possibly be a small fire on the stove:)

I couldn't imagine our family dynamics without Lance Albern. He makes it pretty easy to love him.

Muscle Man and Freckle Face

Muscle Man. He gets more ripped when basketball training starts...It's a sight to behold.





Freckle Face. So cute. I was called freckle face as a kid. But this kid owns it. With the big blues and mile smile. I love it.
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I think I post for myself. So when it comes times to put it all in a book, it will be my super-sweet journal with pictures! So, for those 5 of you that check my blog and think I post too much, realize that I am just logging away the history and tidbits of my family and I have a lot to log away :) One day I am not going to remember it as well. That will be a sad day.

We went to the Indians game in Cleveland and Harbor Port at Lake Erie this weekend. It was amazing. Out of the pics I am to post 2 of my kids for now~ Lance Albern and Trapper. I love kids. There is something adorable, obnoxious and unique about each one. I could have had 35 kids and I bet I would still think it. But then I would live in a shoe...

Just Tinklin'.....

Too bad they haven't found a way to harness the power of urine, because I was just cleaning my downstairs bathroom that my 5 boys use frequently, and.......

Record-Breaking Champ!

"I am the first 4Th grader to ever receive a green belt in the school."

I mean really, those words make a mom proud.

Trapper has received a white, yellow, orange, green and purple belt.....of the recorder :)




He is even at the point that he is mentoring others in this fine musical skill. He helps Brianna, our next-door-neighbor girl, whom can't quite master the yellow belt :)


and


he serenades us as we walk to the end of the driveway to wait for the bus.



Just look at how methodical he (pretends for the pic) plays...and plays....and plays.



It's no surprise that his band teacher is a guy (a good looking guy if you are to ask Shylee): the system is Karate colored "belts" ~a sign of passing off a song on the recorder. The belts are strings they tie at the bottom of their recorders :)




Trapper reminds me of me...very goal oriented. Someone tells him if you do this, you will get this, he is ALL over it!!





I hope everyone has a song in their heart they can hum, sing or whistle to. I hope it helps put a hop in their step :)

Maybe the song could be Old MacDonald, or Row, Row, Row Your Boat.


Just know my son is the champ at it :)

Puppies

I also posted pics on my Facebook photos. There are more there. They were born this morning at 7 am. We had a family contest when they would be born and how many and Fisher won both categories:)

Moqui had 6 puppies. 2 black and white, 2 brown and white, 1 all brown, one all black.

We bred her with Debbie and Greg's "Black Dog." He is half black lab half Spring Spaniel and Moqui is Springer Spaniel. It's a lovely mix :)

Don't mind the disgusting blanket. It gets changed tomorrow:)

Wood You? We Wood!

It has been a busy few weeks, and will be for a few more. We heat with a wood burner. So, here on the o'l homestead we are cutting, hauling and stacking wood. The kids and Lance work very hard and we stay warm because of it. I made sure they had a nice warm dinner and dessert (of course) to come inside for and I try to keep the kids alive and away from the chainsaw and falling trees.

The kids and I will go outside to carry, stack and watch dad and the older kids fall trees. The younger kids like to monkey around on the trees. Our neighbor (awesome neighbor) let us borrow his log splitter, so that's a step up from last year's ax throwing at 5:30 in the morning (ouch!)!

You can see where the wood is stacked now. By the time we are finished the stack under the eves will be entirely filled. We still have to carry in more wood Lance has cut. Then we will split and stack. We will do this for a few more weeks.

There is a part of me that will miss this when we move. I bet you have memories like this. That every time you smell hardwood in a wood stove it takes you back to some memory as a child.

The kids are getting an awesome experience. Its also nice to sit in the family room with a roasting fire all cozy on a winters night!! But I won't mention the 2 am stoking or 5:30 splitting (oops I already did:)

PS Do You like how Lance Albern is the Great Thinker! Poser!