The poor toothfairy was bizzy-bizzy last night!  Bailey spent the morning with a pair of pliers trying desperately to extract his prize.  Gives me shivers!  Later on, Ella was crying (surprise, surprise) when she discovered a loose tooth in her mouth.  I was so excited for her -- yay!  A BIG girl!  But, of course, she had trouble letting go.  Then, her big sister came along and they locked themselves in the bathroom for an important surgical procedure.  Five minutes later - no tears - Ella emerges with a tiny pearl in hand.  Of course she lost it right before bedtime, but that is the standard proceedure around here.

Now, Ella knows I'm the toothfairy.  But in her mind I'm THE toothfairy.  Meaning, I show up at YOUR house too, you know?  I've got this sparkley deep green evening gown and shoes with rhinestones and, in her mind, she's stumbled upon my secret toothfairy outfit.  "But where are the wings, Mama?"  "At the drycleaners, of course."  I told her that when she grows up, I will give it to her and then SHE will be the toothfairy. 

I used to tell the kids that I was Mrs. Incredible, but they wouldn't fall for it.  I told them that after they all went to bed I would run around the house in spandex.  Jonathan and I would laugh and laugh!  "Why is that funny, Mommy?"

So, today I'm about $1.50 poorer (this toothfairy is a cheapskate) and I've tucked away my superpowers until called upon once again.  No, today the extent of my powers I will wield upon my trusty crockpot, some onions, carrots and a buttload of chicken breastuhses.  No, that is not a typo.  That's how I say it.  Sort of a shout-out to my sister who taught me the "correct" pronunciation. 

Alright, now I'm getting silly so I better dash.  Must thaw chicken stock!  Away!!!!!

I've been in a fog.  I guess for about 2 weeks now.  Before I knew it, the dreaded pageant was upon us and my entire weekend was committed to pomp and circumstance.  Luckily no makeup or swimsuits, so my dear Olivia looked just like herself only dressier. 

She amazed me.  Her poise and confidence was beyond her years.  As a nine year old I would have never survived a weekend like this but Olivia actually thrived in it.  I'm completely looking forward to another healthy dose of pageantry next year.  Olivia finished in the top 15 finalists out of 64 contestants and could not be more pleased with her success!

During all this commotion, hurricane Gustav uprooted not only my in-laws but also my sister, her husband and their baby girl.  It was great to have family in town to support Olivia on her big day.  We also got to spend a few days afterward hanging out with everyone -- a rare treat for us!

The most fun I've had in a long time was the opportunity to go to dinner with 2 of my 3 sisters.  Cheesecake Factory was a delicious blast!  Made me wish we all lived much closer : )

After relatives left, the big kids started their fabulous tutorial.  The first day was a big success.  Their favorite part was the "cave" drawings they worked on during art class. 

We have just now settled back into some sort of school rhythm and now it is the weekend.  Tomorrow, our neighborhood is having a community yard sale.  The kids are going to do a bake sale in front of the house and I am going to sell off all our baby stuff that didn't move at our last event.  (Yes, by selling the baby stuff, I am definitely putting a period at the end of a very long sentence.  Or is it a question mark?  A comma,  Oh God please not a COLON:  My poor colon! ) 

Anyway, I wonder if I will ever shake this feeling that I just can't get it all done?  Or, maybe someday I'll just accept the fact that I can't get it all done and I'll be happy anyway....

Later.

I'm the first to admit I'm a big fan of the show.  I love to hear all the kid noise and chaos coming from someplace other than my own home.  Makes me feel sane somehow.  But, last night I just had enough of Kate and her husband-bashing.  (Tune into Jon & Kate Plus 8 if you don't know what I'm talking about.)  I mean, I get Kate.  I get the whole control-freak thing.  I should - People say I'm just like her.  I just NEED her to be nice to the father of her children once in a while.  Is that so hard?

OK, enough venting.  Today was fantastic!  We spent a long time on Math.  I know I saw lightbulbs turning on for the first time ever regarding long division.  I finally pulled the plug on Math-U-See and I'm teaching it mommy-style.  The kids were so relieved to do it my way, they were actually glad to do their math.  Finally.  That Steve Demme really beats a dead horse when it comes to explaining long division.  I'd rather have a frontal labotomy.

Alrighty, then onto the other subjects...whatever I had assigned....oh yeah...They got to finish up their science experiment on osmosis.  We had two cups of baking soda water with a string connecting them.  After 3 days, the water soaked the string, then evaporated, leaving crystals.  Cool.  I'm a geek.

OK, the kids did that and other workbooky things, etc.  Then lunch, then silent reading.  Ahhhh....I love silent reading.  Mainly because of the word "silent."

Afterwards, we headed out to run errands and grocery shop.  We dropped off overdue library books in town, and overdue movies at Blockbuster, then headed out of town to drop off more overdue library books and then onto the grocery store.  Now, WHY do I shop at a distant grocery store, you may ask?  Remember last time when I talked about my cheapness?  My cheaposity?  OK, here's the prize.  My local gas stations are $3.59 per gallon.  Which is great, right?  But, my out of town Kroger gas station is $3.26 and when I use my Kroger plus card that brings it down to $3.16/gallon.  OH NO I DI-INT!!  So, I signed up for the Grocery Game using this zip code in a different county and I can print their list, shop there & fill up supacheap!

So, back to the narrative.  At the store, I run into my long lost friend "MADDIE ROSE!"  Names have been changed...because my children have mispronounced her name as long as we known her.  We had fun catching up.  The loudest two housewives you've heard seen in the grocery store.  Ever.  I ran into another friend from church too.  It was like a big reunion.

Survived the grocery store and come home in time to hand over the little ones to Jonathan and take the big ones to orientation at their tutorial.  I wish I could go there too.  I would totally love it!  So artsy fartsy.  Just a really great group of people and an awesome program.

Oh lordy, I am soooo tired.  I'm outta here.

Later.

I am notoriously cheap.  Sing it loud and sing it proud!  Here's my latest spectacular cheapfest:

1.  For our fall schedule, the following extracurricular activities for my kids are absolutely FREE:  Tap, Creative Child class, Acrylic Painting, Dance, Choir, AWANA, Boyscouts.  Nashville rocks!

2.  Golf lessons: I pay $20 for 8 weeks and they give you the clubs.  Say, whut?

3.  The Grocery Game (check it out online): I subscribe for about $7.50/month for the Kroger list and the Walgreens list and I save over 50% off the shelf price.  I know I've said this before, but my pantry and storage are looking like a 1950's bomb shelter. : )  If you join, tell them I sent you and I can earn some free weeks.

4.  I recently joined MyPoints.com and click on emails and fill out surveys to earn points for $10/$25/$50 gift cards.  One of the offers today was for Vista Prints. They have tons of items you can personalize and pay only shipping.  So today, I ordered several stationary items for the girls; notepads, notecards, address labels etc with their names on it.  Then I personalized a T-Shirt for my son with the name of his movie production company on it.  I paid $11 for shipping for all of it and that was it.  Normally, it would have cost $50+.  Vista Prints also does free business cards with tons of designs to choose from.  I ordered a set for my jewelry design business.  Anyway, that was a little early Christmas shopping.  You know, just cute little things to put in the stockings.

5.  I usually get 2 Sunday papers so I can clip double the coupons.  I am SUCH an old lady. : )

Oh, there's probably plenty more where that came from but I better quit for now.  We've got our evening routine to conquer in time for the kids' favorite show.

Later.

Hope you haven't been holding your breath for the last eight months!  I'm feeding this blog to my new facebook account so I seem to have found my mojo.

We have schooled all Summer.  That's just how we roll...my poor kids.  Good news is they don't seem to mind.  We keep it fun. 

Our Fall '08 schedule is cranking up and I'm really excited.  Now, even little Ava is on the board for extracurricular activities and I practically need a spreadsheet to keep up with all our comings and goings.  As usual, we will live in our minivan:

Mondays:  Acrylic-on-Canvas classes (Bailey/Olivia/Ella)

Tuesdays: Creative Child (Ella/Ava), Tap (Ella), Boyscouts (Bailey)

Wednesdays: Homeschool Tutorial covering History, Music, Art & Drama (Bailey/Olivia)

Thursdays: Golf (Bailey/Olivia), Dance/Hip-Hop (Olivia/Bailey), Choir (Bailey/Olivia/Ella)

Fridays: I MAY be teaching Acrylic-on-canvas classes and jewelry design classes at my home in the afternoons.  TBD

Sunday afternoons: AWANA (Bailey/Olivia/Ella and possibly Ava)

Once we get going with this (September) I will figure out when to schedule our library days.  Now we have a 2nd library in a nearby county we love to go to.  May have to alternate weeks or something. 

Today the kids and I discussed the upcoming Science Fair.  We were talking about theories they could test etc.  My son wants to do something with water and capsized boats.  He's really into moviemaking and has recently seen Jaws and The Poseidon Adventure.  Boys seem to process that intense stuff better than girls.  I never, ever got used to watching any type of disaster movie.  I was definitely born in the wrong era.  So anyway, little Steven Spielberg is wanting to either capsize something or blow it up.  And, of course my Olivia Jane wants to grow things and make the world a pretty place.  It will be interesting to see this evolve.

The kids worked hard today.  They memorized Eph. 4:29 which is our school verse for the year.  Got a lot of "unwholesome" words flying around these days and I'm determined to nip this thing in the bud.  Bailey and Olivia played a math game using flashcards and quizzed each other for a bit.  Then went onto math worksheets, grammar workbook, spelling words, cursive practice etc. 

For lunch, they helped me put it all together and we ate like pigs.  I don't know why some days we have too much food and somedays there's not enough.  You can never predict their appetites.  Or mine.

After lunch they went onto silent reading.  After they finished up all their work for the day, I had a nervous breakdown when I hurt my foot on one of the 15 million toys lying around on the floor.  It was like a giant storm cloud rolled in and all four kids braced themselves for the worst.  They got to work quickly cleaning up the mess; living room, hall, playroom and stairs - yes stairs!  When it was all done they were FREE -- oh, except for the laundry.  The never ending laundry.

Ok, but after THAT they were free.

More later. No, really.  I mean it.