Why I Am Late for Appointments

I had an appointment at 9:00 a.m. this morning.

Yeah, ha, ha, ha. WHAT was I thinking?

Anyway, we were out of bad and in high gear by 7:00. I got dressed-- then remembered I had to appear in public before my toilet scrubbing regimen this morning, so I had to change out of the holey old jean skirt into a more suitable skirt. By the time we had breakfast taken care of it was 7:45. At least we only spilled milk once this morning!

Then it was time to get dressed. Elliott decided to dress himself, which meant some tactful negotiations to make sure he didn't look like he... had dressed himself! Then the same process with Rilla-- maybe I should take the handles off her bureau so we don't start every dressing session with her already firmly clutching a wildly mismatched collection of clothes. Cheyenne tried to put on a play dress that was way too little, but she was easily persuaded into a more appropriate outfit. By this point, we decided to just change Lincoln's diaper and leave him in his jammies.

Okay, three heads of hair to deal with. Thankfully, not TOO many tangles this morning, but braiding still takes a bit of time.

Then, Mr. Grin-All-Around-the-Room-at-My-Siblings-Instead-of-Drinking morphed into I-Will-Die-of-Starvation-if-You-Even-Think-of-Cutting-Short-This-Nursing-Session. Ooookay. We still have fifteen minutes to make it to the appointment, which is about a ten minute drive. We'll assume the diaper bag is loaded with all the essentials.

WHY is my phone beeping "Low Battery" when I plugged it in last night? Must examine the cord-- at a later date.

Oh, right, I have to have paperwork for this appointment. Now where did that go...?

Finally, Lincoln is in the car, I'm running around to buckle in Rilla... and the fumes hit me. "Marilla, do you need your diaper changed?" Back into the locked house, running with the getting-heavier-all-the-time toddler up two flights of stairs. Record changing time, but then we need to scrub our hands.

Whew! Back to the car! Amazingly, Elliott has buckled himself in this time. Only have to deal with Rilla. Which is easier said than done, considering she is carrying two baby dolls, a bag of pretzels, and two Bible bags, all of which she clutched firmly through the diaper change. (Thank goodness Cheyenne didn't notice the theft of her Bible bag and raise a ruckus.) Put the van in reverse, hoping I don't hear a clunk from an abandoned bike or scooter. Notice that the gas gauge is hopping all over the place-- our van's cute little way of telling us it is REALLY low on gas and the gauge will be on strike until we've filled the tank again. Debate with myself whether I would rather be yet later to the appointment, or sitting beside the road with four bored children-- IF my cell phone has enough juice to call AAA while we wait. Reluctantly conclude that I have to stop for gas.

I'm all set, though-- credit card in my hand as I pull into the pump, slam it into park, turn off the key and hop out. Several swipes later (made with exaggerated patience and care), realize that I have my old, expired credit card. Dump my diaper bag out looking for my credit card. Can't find it. Reach for my emergency credit card while adding "tear the trash cans apart, call all the grocery stores, call the credit card company to report a lost card" to my gargantuan to-do list. Finally get five gallons of gas in the van.

No one slow on the road, thank goodness, so I keep it at 64 instead of my usual 62. Get to the place, and start unbuckling kids. Tell Rilla to PLEASE hurry as she attempts to pull her arms out of the car seat while still clutching ALL her stuff. Grab Lincoln, stuff important things back in the diaper bag (oh, yeah! the paperwork!), allay Elliott's fears that I am going to leave him stranded in the parking lot, grab Rilla's hand, and start walking in. We all have our babies-- Mommy, Cheyenne, Elliott and Marilla. In fact, Cheyenne has two dolls. Plus an apple, a bag of pretzels, and some essential books. Elliott has contained himself to one doll.

Pull the door open (watch your fingers!), and walk in the room at 9:08.

The receptionist looks at the out-of-breath mother, smiles, and never says a word about being late.

I did make the follow-up appointment for 9:30 a.m., though.

Fair and Family

I sorted out about 10 different Rubbermaid containers of kid's clothes today, in addition to doing a week's worth of wash, so even though my house is a disaster, I feel justified in sitting down tonight to caption the pictures I put on here last night. I only have about 60 hours of work to do in the next 2 days, so it's all good!

One reason I have so much on my to-do list is that we took Saturday off and went to the fair!

I like this picture, even though I took it on my new camera phone. My new (free) camera has a much better camera than my last phone, but it's still not amazing.

Evan took this picture of us getting ready to go on his new camera phone, which was not free-- a new Droid X. He's been pining for a smart phone for eons now, and he finally took the plunge. He's even given up Pepsi to offset the cost! Now that is dedication!

Cheyenne playing with my camera phone the other day...

She has a front-row seat to the Lincoln Show when she's in the car!

Evan took the three kids up in the Ferris Wheel.

This was in the morning, before the record-breaking crowd poured in-- 115,000 that day. We sure knew it, pushing two strollers around!

Rilla showing off for Daddy's camera. I tried not to freak out about the lack of doors on the Ferris wheel baskets...

This is a cool shot-- it says "Monkey" in the photo of Elliott, and Evan is reflected in Elliott's sunglasses. Not so sure what's up with the hat angle.

I was chilling under the multi-colored umbrella with Mr. Lincoln.

Daddy holding onto Rilla. (Good!)

My handsome husband, with the kids.

Cheyenne holding a reluctant Marilla.

I wasn't there, but I bet Rilla is asking to "See? SEE?"

That's Lincoln and I on the right edge of the umbrella's shadow.

Mr. Cool.

The kid's other ride-- little airplanes!


I love Elliott's tongue sticking out in happiness.

Up in the air!


We saw some stilts walkers with dragon heads.

They were pretty talented at controlling the dragon apparatus-- made it look like they were really riding dragons!

I think we did pretty good at the fair-- no super-size kid meltdowns (just run-of-the-mill ones) and I remembered to slather everyone with sunscreen so there wasn't any sunburns. I was definitely outside my comfort zone walking around outside on such a sunny day-- my skin screams in protest when I'm in the noonday sun!

Speaking of skin, what is up with tattoos? I don't know if tattooed people like the fair more than other people, or a much higher percentage of the population is tattooed than I realized, but tattoos were everywhere that day!

Here's some other pictures taken with my new phone.

Cheyenne squeezing Lincoln.

Marilla wanted to be photographed.

We went to the mall the other day for a book sale-- the newspaper was having a fundraiser in an empty storefront. There are lots of empty stores in this mall, and one of them had been turned into a family rest area. It was apparently a former photography studio, and the props were still there. Elliott wanted to have his picture taken with the five!

Rilla in the train...

And with a two!

Rilla eating sweet corn-- I LOVE watching kids eat corn on the cob!

Okay, back to my normal camera... I really need to look into getting this girl some volumizing conditioner.

Rilla being Cheyenne's baby.

All four of our little squiglets.


Elliott holding his little brother.

I'm not sure why Elliott is rocking the unbuttoned shirt style...

Kisses for Lincoln!

Happy boy!

Lincoln has turned out to be a thumbsucker. I have never thought it was a good habit for a kid to pick up, but he makes it so adorable, thumbsucking is my new favorite bad habit.

He often sleeps with his arm over his eyes and his thumb in his mouth.

Evan with his new love.

A couple of Saturdays ago, Evan got a yen to make dilly beans.

Cheyenne and Elliott were a great help.

I don't know if Marilla did much, but her apron added a note of authenticity to the proceedings.

The finished product. We didn't have quite the right ingredients, despite two emergency trips to Wal-Mart, but hopefully our substitutions will work!

We went to the Farmer's market one Saturday morning, and this was our yummy supper later that week-- Crab and Corn Pudding, and Farmer's Salad.

We've also been harvesting veggies from our garden. Elliott helped shuck peas.

Peas, cherry tomatoes...

Cucumbers and green beans!

The cherry tomatoes are pretty, but since I'm not much for eating raw tomatoes, I'm at a loss for what to do with them. (We didn't plan on having them-- the neighbor lady gave them to Cheyenne for her garden!)

Peas-- not sure if we picked them at the wrong time, or I cooked them wrong, but these ended up being completely tasteless. Oh, well, the kids, Cheyenne especially, have got a big kick out of having the garden, which is one of the main purposes of our garden at this point.

This is what happens when you cook a lot and you don't take time to do the dishes for a few days. When you finally break down and do them, it fills the drainboard. And a couple of dish towels laid out on the counters. At least the counters were clear enough for the towels-- took a while to get them to that point!

I asked Evan to take a picture of me with my kids before we headed out to the fair this Saturday.

Cheyenne and Elliott are into the smiling, but Marilla and Lincoln don't feel the need.

This is Elliott's "I'm being adorable" smile. He's right about that...

We're gearing up for a busy Labor Day weekend, and school after that! I'm hoping I can get through the next couple days of getting the house ready for company, heading to some appointments, and trying to catch up with the mound of paperwork on my desk. Although I haven't thought that I have been much busier with four kids, I realized the other day that my house hasn't been remotely clean even once in August. I'm hoping that September's return to routine will help control the chaos a bit-- I better have some compensation for the heartbreak of letting my little Elly-belly go off to kindergarten!