We Love You Miss Hannigan

Has anyone had the privledge of watching the original Annie movie lately? Good Heavens!!! That Miss Hannigan is... I don't really have the words to describe her. She's a drunk who walks around in trashy lingerie and mistreats orphans. But for some reason, I love her!!! She says things like:

"Why anyone would choose to be an orphan is beyond me"

and

"It's time for a tumble with the bundle " (in reference to the laundry man Mr. Bundles)

What were our parents thinking when they willilng let us watch this show. It was the highlight of my 5 year old year (aside from going to kindergarten). I recently bought the DVD for Tyler to watch remembering how much I loved it at her age, and true to form, she loves it too. It's amazing how different it is to watch now compared to when all the Miss Hannigan lines went over my head. It's out of control! That Miss Hannigan is dripping in class!!!

As a final thought, what is up with Annie's hair??? I don't care how much of an orphan she is, there is no excuse for hair like that!

Good Times!

I used to naively think that having sick kids is the worst thing in the world when actually the worst thing in the world is having sick kids when your husband is out of town. Ammon was out of town this weekend for his brother Daniel’s wedding. Saturdays are so long when Ammon is out of town! I filled the day with plenty of activities to keep the kids and me busy. At the end of the day, we made a stop into Graeter’s (ice cream). We all downed our ice cream and the kids drank like a gallon of water each. When it was time to leave, Tyler did a little shiver and told me she was really cold. I didn’t think much about it until I was strapping all 3 into their car seats and Tyler started to gag. I knew what was coming and quickly searched for a bag or something. I came up with nothing so when Tyler began to launch- it went EVERYWHERE!!! Her shirt, pants, and car seat were covered (and this stupid Barbie ring she got from school which I only mention because it comes back into play later in the adventure). Our car smelled SO bad that she continued to gag and barf the whole way home. Once home, I unloaded the boys first and then decided the best plan of attack was to strip Tyler down in the garage and then put her straight in the shower. While we were stripping her down (her clothes were so wet they were sticking to her arms and stomach- remember the gallon of water she drank!), Boston informed me he had to go potty (we just started potty training him last week so it’s a brand new thing for him and needs lots of supervision!). I told him to get himself on the potty and I would be there in a few seconds to help. He returned about 30 seconds later to tell me he peed all over his pants and the bathroom floor! On Tyler’s way to the shower, she chucked her Barbie ring on the floor. Ryder located it in about a nano second and was just putting it in his mouth when I confiscated it (so nasty!!!). With Tyler in the shower and Bos in the bath and Ryder in his jumperoo, I grabbed Tyler’s clothes off the floor and started a quick load of laundry. I then Clorox wiped, Spot Shotted, Lysoled, and cinnamon sprayed down my car. Two days later, my car still smells wretched. Also, it was rather amazing (and really, really gross!) that after I washed Tyler’s clothes and then rewashed them for good measure, when I went to switch the laundry from the washer to the dryer, there was a piece of string cheese in there and it looked normal (not squishy or discolored, or distorted in any way)- that’s really scary! Anywho, the miracle of the event was that Tyler was fine before she launched and then after as well. It didn’t linger or spread through the whole family. It came and went in about 10 min. That NEVER happens! I’m really excited about that.

Do you think the IRS would buy the "my son ate the 07 tax statments" excuse?

I Think My Fingertips are Starting to Bleed

A couple months back, I had someone come and clean my house. She brought with her some Murphy’s Oil Hardwood Floor Cleaner. When she left, I noticed all my floors looked a little smudgy but didn’t think much about it- I have 3 kids, it ALWAYS looks a little smudgy. She came back a few weeks later and did round two of Murphy’s. When she left this time, I started to get nervous because now my floor looked waxy. Ammon got home from work and was like- “What happened to the floors???” So, we did a little water and vinegar wash down and were feeling pretty good about the results until the floor dried and we realized, the wax residue was still going strong. At this point, we were getting a little stressed out because we were starting to wonder if our floors were ruined. Ammon looked on the internet for any suggestions on how to solve the issue while I started researching floor refinishing services. Ammon found MANY angry Murphy’s users who all had the same results. One person wrote that if you mix a cup of ammonia with warm water and scrub like crazy, you can have some success getting the residue off the floor. While I was getting the kids ready for bed, Ammon gave it a try. He had some success in our kitchen but stopped there (I wondered why at the time but now there is NO doubt in my mind). It’s now been a couple more weeks and still I had not attempted to finish the project BUT it’s been bugging me like crazy! Ok so tonight, I couldn’t fall asleep and when I finally did around 1:00am, Tyler for some odd reason woke up about 20 min later and couldn’t go back to sleep. Normally I would have sent her straight back to bed but I was feeling compassion since I too couldn’t sleep. So, since we were both awake, and just hanging out, I decided to give the floor a try. I began the project around 3:00am. It is now 4:00am and I have been scrubbing my brains out for the last hour and all I have to show for it is a 3 foot area in my entry. ARE YOU KIDDING ME??? My fingers are all raw from scrubbing with ammonia so hard and my floor still looks awful everywhere else. Not really sure when I will pick this project up again. The issue is that as soon as you are able to pry some of the wax off the floor, trying to wipe it up grounds it back into the floor. Oh and did I mention the residue grinds into the cracks between each piece of wood. It is a nightmare. So the moral of the story- NEVER, EVER, EVER use Murphy’s Oil. EVER!!!

STRIKE!!!

Hey everyone! This is Brooke attempting her first post ever. I figured since Ammon is working on a lesson that he has to teach at church tomorrow, and I was getting ready to go take a bath and read and relax, I really didn't have a good excuse for not updating this. So here goes. Aside from this being a first blog event for me, we also did a family first tonight. WE WENT BOWLING!!! It was pretty funny to watch the kids try and lug around the 6 pound ball. Tyler got brave near the end and up'd it to a 10 pound ball. Boston had a few near-toe-crushing experiences when he wasn't quite able to heft the ball onto the bowling-ball-slide-thing that shoots it down the middle of the lane in case the gutter bumpers aren't enough help. All in all, no major injuries. The kids had a great time (except for Ryder who just wanted to crawl around on the NASTY bowling alley floor which obviously I would not let him). Ammon won of course (I'm still trying to find something I can beat him at) but none of us did too embarrassingly (is that even a word???). As a final thought to the bowling experience, can I just say that going to a bowling alley in Kentucky is a once in a lifetime experience. I'll leave it at that.

I'm also going to post a few pics from my bday that was last week. I am now officially OLD!

One other thing, this week Ammon and I were watching the local news and they had this middle school aged kid on talking about what he was going to do while school was cancelled for a few days due to so much sickness. This is no lie- Ammon and I had to rewind it 3 times to try and translate what he was saying and finally Ammon figured it out (in back-country Kentucky English)- "I'm going to get on the tractor and practice my pulls for the Tractor Pulling Competition." After Ammon was able to decipher, it was still near impossible for me to pick out the words! SCARY but super entertaining!

Slacker

So I've been slacking quite a bit on the blog. The new year travel started off with a bang, at least that is my excuse. So far I have traveled to NC (1), Chicago (2), NM (1), Seattle (1), and I have to go to Chicago again on Wed. The sad news is my Feb. travel doesn't look any better. I hate being away from my family. Anyway enough of my excuses. Tyler turned 4 on Jan 13th. Ryder is "crawling" and waiving, and Boston keeps getting more funny. He informed Brooke that he wants to marry Daddy, the other day. I might be worried if he wasn't such a flirt anytime an older girl is around. Here are a couple of pictures from Jan.

Tyler 4yr old birthday at build a bear

Tyler and Boston ready for their sock hop at school
Tyler and Boston getting ready for church
Tyler and Boston enjoying a strange 60 degree day


Ryder just chillin

Boston getting ready to use his power tools

Puerto Rico

We just returned from a fun vacation in San Juan Puerto Rico with Brooke's family. The weather was beautiful making it hard to come back to snow and 13 degrees. Below are a few pictures from the trip.


Brooke and Lacey


Boston Checking out crabs

Ryder meditating

Boston chilling out of the airplane