Mystical Land Full of Puppies

We are keeping two puppies. Of course it started as one, then became two. We are keeping a black one and the brown one. The black one is our favorite. He reminds us of his dad so appropriately named "Black Dog." That is what the kids would like to call this one. Hmmm. Then there is the brown one. She has been under deliberation. She is the rough and tumble type and a bit dense, but cute.


They are so cute when we bring them in and let them warm up in the room with the wood stove. They just pile up, snuggle in and sleeep! It's adorable.




I love the foggy days here. It's nuts when people (us included) here burn wood in the stoves it just sticks in the air. It almost just stays right in path and you can follow the stagnant trail leading right to the chimney it belongs to. The air gets 100 percent humidity often here. With burning the wood stove it dries it out inside, and makes it nicer and not so humid. Outside is a fog wonderland.

In the morning, there is a mystical feeling, like you stepped into another dimension. I am waiting for a white stallion to run through my field (yard) so that I can jump on run through this magical land while the gentle breeze flows through my black tresses ( who said it couldn't be color treated to become "black tresses":).

Bacon Saves the Day!

As I am cooking at the stove I hear the familiar sound of Rider squeeling the stool over to me.
"Whatcha makin'?"...Bacon?!...I LOVE BACON!...Thanks MOM!"

This morning after getting kids off I laid in bed entirely too long. I parented from my covers. I finally got up after many "C'mon Mom, let's go downstairs."

But now that I made bacon, I am saved! Children are wonderful! I won't mention their fast turn-over rate from the "I love yous" to the "I hate yous" but wow, he just made me feel like mother of the year :)

Fisher is 7!

Fisher turned 7! He wanted a "Halloween" themed party. I put some sprinkles on the cake that were bones sprinkled (barely) with red coloring, to look like blood, and I get "Mom, I said Halloween party, not SCARY party!"





So, I have no worries that Fisher's level of gore is pretty low:)



He had a blast! This kid is a party animal! He loves to play, party and socialize. The puppies were the girl's favorite part of the party! They carried them around the entire time. We even had one girl bartering the ENTIRE time over the price of the puppies.







I am so grateful for my beautiful boy, Fisher! He is our happy-go-lucky-let's-just-all-have-fun kid!
It was a great day:)

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.......