Life Ain't Always Beautiful.....But It's a Beautiful Ride....

Well this week was much different then I had imagined it to be.  I thought we would be geared up and plugging away at our second 9-weeks of school....and I guess we did on Monday and Tuesday....then came a consultation with the oral surgeon on Tuesday afternoon.....

I knew THE BOY needed to have 7 baby teeth removed but I had no idea we would be doing it on Wednesday.....so school was put on hold.....

THE BOY did well.  He was very brave and has been an A+ patient.  He was really loopy on Wednesday and I enjoyed hearing his memory or lack there of after the procedure....but by late Wednesday he began to wake up a little.

Wednesday night was the big carnival at our church......the kids were syked so I took the crew to church and Daddy Bear stayed home to nurse THE BOY back to health....I think they went on a milkshake run ;)

The kids looked cute....except TWINKIE BOY....I mean he was cute but I have a feeling I'm going to owe him an apology for making him wear that costume one day....so I'll go ahead and say it now.....I'm sorry Buddy.....only someone with your manliness could pull it off :/  I love you and my intentions were good....and Sunday you can be "Twinkies" with BIG BROTHER...and be a basketball player!  Deal?

The Girl LOVES her Dorthy costume!

 The Baby dressed as a frog.  Thank you Nina for the rocking dance costumes!  We love you!!!!

The Twinkies.....Snow White and a Dwarf (Sleepy)....I know....I'm sorry Bud.....It sounded so cute (and was on Lydia at her dance recital.....I'm SORRY)

Anyway....
The Carnival was fun!  I did have a time keeping up with all the kiddos....so here is the only picture I took...

Now just so no one is under the impression that life is as rosy as my blog....I didn't think to pull out the camera on the way home when 2 kids had balloons and 2 did not.  Talk about meltdown!  The kids are strung out on sugar and it's past bedtime and it's 4 against 1.....I wanted to run.....but I couldn't I had 4 buckets of candy, 2 screaming (and I do mean SCREAMING) kids, 2 balloons, 2 hats, a beard, and 5 home baked goods from the cake walk....seriously.....I could not get out fast enough.  I tried to reason....Your sisters will share which was promptly met with "no we won't!" and I tried to console him with the promise of a balloon at the grocery store later in the week....no such luck....then I decided I'd just ignore him and jam to 94.7.  I know not the best parenting....I was just trying to survive!

So really it was not a sunshiny day.....It was LOUD and MESSY and in the words of Junie B Jones....pretty "Yucky Blucky".....

But at least it was BEDTIME!!!!

So.....

Then comes Thursday.  To my surprise THE BOY wanted to do co-op.  So we ended up going even though I'd made arrangements to be out.  He did have Tylenol with codeine in his system and on the way home (we left an hour early...he was worn out) as I asked about his day I realized he probably had not retained much.....but he really wanted to go????  He got home and vegged the rest of the day.  The little ones favorite part of their co-op day was mixing yellow and red finger paint to make orange pumpkins.  THAT was messy!

and of course seeing their little co-op friends:

They all huddled together and were looking at a book one of their friends brought.  It was really cute.

A-D-D MOMENT:
I just want to take a random moment and say how thankful I am for the women God has put in my life. 
One of my most favorite people on earth is DANA she rocks.  She shows up completely out of the blue to hang out at the oral surgeon with a worried mama and 4 kids in a waiting room.  Some people would think that was a rare form of torture!  My girl rocks!  She is a true friend and I am so grateful for her!!!!  What's even more amazing is that she is literally in the middle of moving and takes the time to put her life on hold to love on and care about me!  How sweet is that!  I only hope I can be that kind of friend to others.
My favorite GROUP of women are my home school  co-op mommy friends.  These 14 women are so different: We range from VERY white to VERY dark and everywhere in between.  We originate from 4 different countries and span the political spectrum, economic spectrum and probably every other spectrum....but we all love these kids and the Lord and are truly kindred spirits.  They are so encouraging to me.  When I feel like throwing in the towel they motivate me to keep it up!  LOVE THEM!
AND Thursday night I got to hang out with 2 super cool young girls (17 and 24) and had so much fun getting to know them better and seeing them journey through life's ups and downs and marvel at their maturity (I was so not as mature at their ages as they are)
GIRL FRIENDS ROCK!

Then today instead of doing school....we were slack.  Daddy had a personal day and  took a bunch of junk to the dump for me.... THANK you,! He helped me scrub down the interior of the mommy mobile...(GROSS) ......THANK YOU....and played with the younguns so I could run errands in peace......THANK YOU!!!!  and is now on a retreat with a bunch of middle schoolers sleeping (probably not so much) on a church gym floor....so he can go white water rafting with THE BOY tomorrow......THANK YOU.  I don't say it enough....but it's only because I don't want to brag....:)

I really do have the best husband in the world!!!! and my kids do have THE BEST DADDY on earth!

Nope "life's not always beautiful".....there's a LOT of noise.....sticky stuff... and tears...."but it's a beautiful ride".

Night!

PS Now we are 1 week into our 2nd nine weeks and 2 days behind!  Not such a great start.....