Okay, So It's Been Awhile

So I haven't posted in forever. Well, after returning from our vacation, I had a lot to do to get the house put back together (which still isn't completely done). We got a new housekeeper and I wanted to get some things fixed up before she first got here. Then we went to Oakland to help Maria get rid of some of the clutter in her house. Now we are home and I have a sore throat and the kids (yes, all four of them) all have runny noises.

I am still working on a journal of our vacation. I have gotten to about day three and it is already three and a half pages long. We did have a lot of fun. I will post a picture with a link to the album I created on yahoo albums.

The new house cleaner. Well, she was late (which I hate), but she said she was confused as to the time she was to be here - even though she was the one that picked it! Anyway, she did a fantastic job and really did clean up a lot better than the other service I used. I didn't realize how dirty it was until she got it all sparkly clean! She spent about 45 minutes in the master bath alone fine cleaning the cracks along the walls and counter tops. Like I said, I didn't know they were dirty until she fine cleaned them! Well, I am sending her a reminder e-mail as she is coming tomorrow. If she is late again, out she goes. I hate waiting around when I am paying for a service.

Maria's. Well, we left here early Wednesday morning (10th). Dad came with us to watch the kids. He was a huge help. He took care of all the kids, but Kenna most of all. She slept in the same room as him and he was the one that tended to her in the middle of the night. I had the three olders in the same room as me. Kyle finally figured out how to climb out of the pack n play and didn't want to go to bed the same time as Kevin and Kaela did. So, I ended up rocking him to drowsiness every night and then I would have him walk to his bed, then he would sleep. Well, it has carried over to home. He doesn't want to just get put to bed and I have to rock him. Last night, Keith did the SuperNanny thing and just kept putting him back in bed every time he got out. Well, Kyle finally gave up and fell asleep. Well, Keith and I watched "The Wedding Date" last night and Kyle came down stairs during the last half hour of it. He crawled into my lap and fell asleep. He woke a few more times throughout the evening. He isn't the only one having sleepy problems. Kaela has cried two nights in a row now about sleeping and she keeps getting out of bed. Last night we just let her fall asleep on the couch while we watched the movie. Tonight she has been told that she is expected to go to bed when we say and that she can not keep getting out of bed. She says she will be good about bed - yeah right, we will see.

Anyway, back to Maria's. All the kids had loads of fun playing together. We stayed home the entire time except on Saturday. They played in the backyard and ran around. All my kids have scraped knees. Kaela has it the worst though. She biffed it pretty hard on the bike. She had a huge scrape on her right knee, left shin and her elbow. But she was pretty tough about it. Kyle got his scraped knees from pushing the dump truck at full speed and then falling. It looked painful to me, but he continued to do it all week.

On Saturday, Joann's was having a 50% off clearance fabric sale. So, of course I couldn't pass that up. We loaded the five oldest into the Expedition and Dad stayed home with the baby. Maria waited in the car with the kids while I picked out fabric. I got ten really pretty designs. This Joann's was about a third of the size of my regular Joann's, so the selection was tiny. But, I was very happy with what I got. After Joann's Maria had to run into Office Depot. After that we went to Ellie and Colin's new preschool.

This was the cutest preschool I have seen! We went to the open house. It is brand new and just opened. The owner/principal has launched preschools before and decided that she should launch one herself. She did a great job. It is in a residential neighborhood, but with the high wooden fence, and the surrounding buildings, it is like in its own little world. The front yard is nice and big and there is a huge sand box. When you walk in the front room on the right is a play area. The room on the left is the science room. There is a kitchen and bathroom and a dress up/reading room. They are going to learn a little bit of Spanish as well as music once a week. There were all kinds of learning games and cognitive thinking games. It was so neat. The kids had a lot of fun trying everything out. Kaela cried when it was time to go (her new thing. She bawled when we were leaving Ellie and Colin's house to come home - I don't want to leave! She says). After the preschool, we had lunch (you don't even have to ask where!). Then to Uncle Dan's fire station. They got to climb on the trucks and see the station. They even got to ride the truck with the ladder. Uncle Carlos drove and Uncle Dan drove the rear section. They all got fire chief hats. It was a fun afternoon.

Okay, the progress on Maria's house. Let's see. Well, we mostly worked on the guest room where lots of clothes were stored. We got rid of all the baby boy stuff and sent a lot of it to Maria's friend Liz. Maria got rid of a lot of her older clothes and a TON of toys. She took two full car loads of things to the Goodwill. We rearranged her front living room so now there is actually room to sit and spread out. When we first got there, there was just a narrow pathway to get through. We also cleared out her hallway. It is completely bare. The kitchen counters are cleared off and the house is somewhat straightened out. There is still a lot to do, but Maria says she is now motivated to clear out more stuff on her own. Yeah! Now, I am going to start working on our house. It isn't cluttered, cluttered, but I want to get rid of some of the stuff that we haven't used in ages.

We got back on Monday afternoon and yesterday I spent most of my day on the computer (was having internet withdrawals). I am going to straighten up today and then back to business as usual.

Okay. Was that a good update? I know, not much on the kids. I have some pictures to upload (just have been to lazy). I will try to get some pic kids up. Bye!