Long time, no see...

It's been over two years since I posted on my blog. Maybe it's because I've been busy. Maybe it's because I've been lazy. Maybe it one of a million reasons that kept my voice silent.Most likely, it's because I was afraid that every thing I post would turn into a negative post because of how negative I have felt. But now I'm ready to jump back in. Or maybe I'm ready to dip a toe in the water and see how it feels.

I tend to avoid saying the personal shit. Mostly because one of my favorite pastimes is watching drama on Facebook so I know others are watching for it too. I belong to entire groups where we just post to send each other to check out other people's drama, then discuss it to death. I'm not sure what this says about me as a person. But I feel like sometimes that what I see on the computer or phone screen is what's really happening in a real person's life.I know I'm not alone in forgetting this. 

My daughter has been having some issues lately. Recently she ran away from home  I used Facebook as a tool at the time and it panned out. I was able to find her because of people sharing on Facebook. But I was absolutely astounded at the reaction. So many people sent me messages asking what happened or what was going on and why she would run away. People I don't know, or barely know thought that they needed to be a part of very private details of my life. People I haven't spoken to in person since the second grade sent me private messages asking for details. Strangers did the same.

Maybe it's the down fall of social media. If I've sat at home on a Saturday night and watched your very public break up the I feel like I know you a lot better than I do. If you post things that I relate to and I give the status a like, in my head it's almost like we've had a conversation and bonded over this feeling. This tricks people into thinking that they're closer to someone than they think. Because if I post a funny meme that relates to my life, yes I check to see which people like it,but a week from now I'm not going to remember that someone liked a majority of what I post so obviously this means we should be good friends. But on the other side of it, I'm going to notice when a person posts only things that I relate to and wonder if they would make a great friend in real life. 

I've had entire conversations with someone on a status and then not felt comfortable enough to say hello to them in the grocery store a week later. But I've stopped myself several times from asking someone if they're ok because I realize that I don't know them all that well and my friendly gesture might be taken as me fishing for details.

Social media has its bright sides too. I've reconnected with people I barely knew in high school and found that I've had way more in common with them than I thought, and wished that we'd been friends all of these years. I even ended up helping to plan my high school reunion, and no one who knew me in high school would have predicted that I would ever willingly even attend that thing.

In a way I'm a little envious of the kids growing up in this time. I've managed to make friends all over the United States and even in England and Australia with things in common with me that no one else would understand. Like being a mother of triplets, or a huge fan of a TV show that only lasted 4 seasons 10 years ago (Veronica Mars).

I sort of went off on a tangent. I planned to make a point at the beginning of the post and then move on to what I wanted to say but it seems to have turned into a post all on its own. The perks of being a writer I guess. So I will save the rest for a future post. 

To bring this full circle I will end this post by saying the usual promise that I plan to write more. But also saying that I plan to write some personal things here. I don't plan to be dramatic, or post a public break up. But I don't plan to post all fluff anymore. It's exhausting trying to seem that perfect and happy, and no one needs that anyway. 

The blogs I read the most are the ones with REAL moms, moms who say fuck a lot, and admit that they aren't perfect moms.The ones who admit when they have a bad day, or that their kid is acting like an asshole.

The winter break from hell...

Winter break is a time of year that a lot of kids (and sometimes their parents) look forward to. I am usually on the fence about it. I usually hope that its far enough away from summer that they don't remember all the ways their siblings wronged them then. I hope that they have been so busy with school and plays that they have missed their siblings and are looking forward to spending time with them rather than fighting the whole time.

Our winter break started off with a small hiccup in the form of a cancelled baby sitter. I asked around and all of the usual people that I would trust leaving my children with were sick. Luckily, my mother happened to stop by and was willing to stay with them.

On the 23rd my husband's ex called. Stormy and Braydon had been with her for a couple of days, she called to tell us that Stormy wasn't feeling well, and she wanted us to meet her at the ER. Stormy had a slight fever, and had been complaining that her ear hurt. His ex decided to take her in because Stormy's ear had started leaking. It turns out that her ear drum had popped. Three hours later we left the ER with a prescription and a Stormy who was looking forward to sleeping in her own bed.

Christmas Eve was when the real fun started. Alex (the husband) started throwing up that morning, and so did Josh and Eric. We managed to power our way through our Christmas Eve traditions. Luckily, (for the first time ever) we had gotten everything ready early, so all we had to do was set everything out and go to bed.

Christmas day was ok. We didn't have anyone that was sick, and we felt well enough to visit our families. Sorry if we left behind germs, I didn't know what I was dealing with at that point!

Every single year for the past 14 years I have had a party on Christmas night. A bunch of people get together and get drunk to celebrate the fact that Christmas is over. Due to the fact that I was feeling pretty crappy Christmas night, and the fact that they were predicting a huge snow storm that night, I decided to break tradition and cancel the party.

I think we had one get sick early in the morning on the 26th, and the baby had a mystery fever on the 27th. We had one randomly throw up on the 28th. The 29th everyone seemed well so Morgan went to hang out with her best friend and I went to hang out with her mom. It wasn't long before my husband started texting me about Sidney (the baby). He threw up all over his bed, then fell off the couch!

I was feeling pretty crappy on New Year's Eve. I ended up laying around most of the day, not doing much. Alex and I ran out at around 6 or so to get dinner. We grabbed some Little Caesar's pizzas for the kids. We settled in to watch Brave and wait for midnight. We were an hour into the movie when the hell began. Stormy stood up and started walking towards her dad. She got about halfway there before she stopped and puked on the floor. We sent her to the bathroom (where she promptly vomited in front of (not in) the toilet. While we were dealing with those messes Eric quietly slipped into the bathroom and threw up. When we finally settled back into watching Brave, we gave Stormy a bucket to use, just in case. Twenty minutes later she made use of the bucket. Which apparently prompted Braydon to get sick on the floor. Then they were sharing the bucket for a few minutes while all of the other kids scattered. This in turn prompted Eric to get sick again, and Morgan joined the pukefest too.

I sort of lost track of all the days after the New Year's Eve vomitfest, but here are the rest of the events between then and today:

-Alex fell over the baby gate, hurting his arm, back and head.

-We tried to go to the bowling alley to cash in on the gift certificate we got for Christmas, only to be turned away for leagues. (Despite the fact that I called before we loaded 7 kids into the van and drove there on the last of our gas and was told that it was a good time to come in and use it.)

-We had to take Eric to the doctor with a mystery rash. (virus related?)

- Had to rush Morgan to the ER when she broke out in hives.

- Both Alex and I have gotten sick a couple of times.

I think that's it. I think I managed to tell you everything.

Of course all of this was on top of the kids fighting and beating the hell out of each other, and figuring out every imaginable way to torture each other. But that's normal every day stuff, right?

Thanks for reading (and hopefully being glad that your break was not this bad)

~Kelli

The Batmobile

Not that long ago I saw on Pinterest where someone had turned one of those Fisher Price Cozy Coupes into a Batmobile, and I just had to do it for Sidney!

It wasn't that difficult!

I started with a Cozy Coupe.

Sorry about the picture, I had already started taking it apart when I realized I should take pictures of the process!

I took off all of the parts that I could, the front wheels, the steering wheel, the top, and the door. 

Then I spray painted the whole think with grey primer. Make sure you get spray paint that is meant to be used on plastic or things won't go well. 

The next step is to paint the car black. I decided to use yellow on the steering wheel and accent pieces. 

I ordered some vinyl stickers online. I set them on top of the side table. Then they disappeared. I ordered some more, then the day that they came in the mail, I immediately put them on the car. So I wouldn't lose them again. This is a photo of me, putting the stickers on the car. :)

The stickers really were the final step. After that it was done!

It really was an easy project. If I hadn't lost the first set of stickers and then gotten distracted by other projects it would have taken maybe one day at the most, and he LOVES it!

Thanks for reading!

~Kelli

Peanut Allergies

I'm a big believer in Karma. When my oldest Morgan was in the first grade and the triplets were less than a year old, we learned on her first day of school that she shared the classroom with a girl who was allergic to peanuts. I'll be honest, my first thoughts were of how much of a pain in the ass it was going to be. We were presented with a list of snacks that we weren't allowed to send in with our children, and that included no cupcakes for birthdays!

"How unfair?!" I thought. "My kid has to miss out on bringing cupcakes to school because this girl can't have any?!"

Of course Karma kicked in. I was only a few months later that we discovered that Hannah was allergic to eggs, and that Josh was allergic to peanuts.

My story changed rather quickly after that. LOL

Now I'm that mom who stands up at Back To School Night and mentions it whether I know if the teacher is aware or not. I want to make sure that everyone knows. I don't want to just leave it up to the teachers to make sure my kids are safe. I can't give up that much control!

I've had people who accidentally gave my kids their allergen say "Oh well they only had a little." The amount ingested doesn't matter! If they had no reaction this time, Good! Great! next time could be a different story. Every time they ingest the allergen could be the one that puts them into anaphylaxis!

So I read this article today. I'll link it so you can read it too.

Basically schools are starting to ban peanut products because there has been such a rise in peanut allergies and it's really pissing some people off. I've been there, I know it's annoying, but why are people getting so pissed off?!

Someone made the point that there are autistic children who refuse to eat anything BUT peanut butter for every meal. I can understand that. It's got to be frustrating, but your autistic child missing out on that peanut butter sandwich at that one meal per day isn't going to KILL him.

For some peanut allergic children, just being around a peanut butter sandwich can kill him! KILL him.

I would much rather your child miss that one meal than my child die. If it's the difference between your kid eating a late lunch after school and the other parent planning a funeral, then you're just being fucking selfish. That's all there is to it.

What are your thoughts? Comment my readers. Tell me how you feel.

The article!


Thanks for reading!

Kelli

Accidental mom!

I never intended to be a mom to so many kids. I will be honest, I hadn't even considered whether I wanted to be a mother before I got pregnant. Don't get me wrong, the minute I learned about my daughter's existence, I wanted her. I just hadn't ever thought about that decision before fate made it for me.

Little did I know that she was the beginning of this life.

She was a whole lot of fun as a toddler. The kind of fun where you question on a daily basis whether you want more children! LOL When she moved past the toddler years and started kindergarten my ex and I decided it was time to add in that little boy we had been talking about for a while. Regular readers know how that ended up, but in case you are a new reader, I'll explain. ;)

I found out I was pregnant and was quite happy about it! I knew something was different though, so I saw the doctor pretty early in the pregnancy. We listened to the heart beat and she said everything had sounded great. She listened to my concerns and said that we would get an ultrasound to check everything out but she was sure everything was fine. Fast forward to the ultrasound tech telling me how excited she was because she had never found triplets before! My doctor was so shocked she came to the ultrasound building in the middle of the day so she could see for herself!

When the triplets were 4 or so, after their father and I had mutually agreed that we didn't belong together, I began seeing my current husband. He brought along his two amazingly awesome kids which brought the total to six children!

So when I was again surprised last year to learn that my youngest was coming, it was a little scary! I already had six! Of course, there was never a question of if he would join the family, just HOW. LOL

So I guess I am an accidental mother. People ask me all the time if I am done. I usually answer "probably." I think our family is complete, and we do our best to prevent further members, but what I've learned so far is that if it is meant to be then there isn't a whole lot I can do about it!

Some women with large families made this choice at some point in their lives, hopefully with the help of their husbands! I guess I never actually made the choice. It just sort of fell into my lap, like I'd won the lottery. In the last nine years I went from one child to seven!

I guess my point is this: I'm not sure what the hell I am doing!

I'm not organized the way that someone with seven kids should be. School notes get lost, shoes get lost, things go unnoticed. Today, for example I didn't notice that Braydon was wearing his pants backwards until about six this evening. Things like this happen all the time.

But I try every single day to be the best mother than I can be to these kids of mine. I try to teach them right from wrong and to own up to their mistakes and try to be better next time. I make mistakes. I hurt their feelings. I forget what they tell me. I mix Josh and Eric up all the time. But I desperately love them, and my world wouldn't be complete if any single one of them were missing from it.

I think that means I am being the best mom that I can be.

Isn't that the point?

Thanks for reading!

~Kelli

The Birdcage

This post is brought to you by my Lifespan Psychology class. The assignment was to watch a movie and relate it to the themes we had been studying in class. When I saw that The Birdcage was on the list I of course picked it. I love that movie! Albert is just hilarious, so of course I chose to focus on him for my paper. I am posting the entire paper below, I hope that you enjoy it!

            Albert is an older man who is having anxiety over his many roles in his life and his satisfaction with his life. His partner Armand owns a club where Albert is the headlining act (as a female impersonator named Starina. Albert struggles with being the star of the show, becoming hysterical in the opening scene insisting that he is too old and fat to go onstage and perform. When Armand arrives to calm Albert/Starina down Albert begins acting worse until Armand threatens to send someone else onstage. Albert calms down, but argues with Armand accusing him of cheating, and demands a palimony agreement so that he isn’t left with nothing if Armand dies or leaves him.

            Starina (Albert) finally goes onstage and we meet Albert and Armand’s son Val. Val seems closer to Armand, and has arrived to inform him of his upcoming marriage. Later Albert rushes to the apartment above the club he shares with Armand and hopes to catch him cheating, and seems disappointed that he doesn’t. Armand informs Albert of their son’s upcoming marriage, and Albert becomes hysterical.

            We see Albert in the role of a parent the next morning as he tells Val that he is too young to be married and asks him to wait. Albert is more of the “mother” figure to Armand as the father, and Val seems to dismiss everything Albert says. We see Albert’s love for his son as he looks through a baby book later sobbing over the fact that his son has grown up.

            Val’s fiancé Barbara Keely comes from a conservative family and their daughter marring the son of a gay couple would not be agreeable to them so she lies to them about Val’s family. Barbara has lied to her parents even to the point of telling them the wrong last name to hide the fact that her fiancé comes from a Jewish family. She changes their last name from Goldman to Coleman. Barbara’s father is a Senator in the middle of a scandal, and they decide to avoid the press by visiting Val’s family.

            Val asks his father Armand to hide the fact that he is gay and convince Albert to go away for the weekend so that he can impress his fiancé’s family the Keelys. Albert agrees but shows Val his disappointment of him for asking this of his family.

            Armand attempts to manipulate Albert into leaving town but his attempts end up making Albert distrustful, and feel like Armand doesn’t want him around. When Armand finally explains the situation Albert is very upset and hurt by the fact that he is being excluded and from this important event in his son’s life. Armand feels bad about excluding Albert and attempts to teach him to be manlier so they can try to pass him off as an uncle to the Keely family. Albert loves Val immensely and wants this to go well and agrees to leave town, but Armand changes his mind and tells Albert he can stay.

            Val’s next request causes even more pain to Albert. Val asks his father to convince his biological mother to join them for dinner. Val feels like Albert is obviously gay, and that Armand would look less gay if he had a mother figure to introduce to the Keely family. Armand goes to visit Katherine, Val’s biological mother, and she agrees, but Albert becomes upset and feels that Armand was flirting with Katherine.

            Albert has been hurt many times by this point, and doesn’t feel like he belongs in his own home or family anymore due to all of the expected changes to please the Keely family. Albert has reached his breaking point and attempts to leave Armand, feeling everyone would just be better off without him. Albert has been arguing with Armand during key points in the movie, demanding that he be given a palimony agreement by Armand. Without this agreement he feels vulnerable, and Albert feels that this agreement would prove that Armand loves and trusts him. When Albert threatens to leave and seems serious about doing so, Armand finally produces the agreement for Albert.

            To me is seemed like Armand was saving this agreement for the moment when Albert’s antics reached a serious point. Throughout the film Albert was constantly trying to get Armand to show him his love, or prove it in some way. Albert constantly fought to have all attention on him, and have people fawning over him, but his true goal seemed to be to get this from Armand.

            Albert is very pleased when he receives the palimony agreement, because it is more than expected, instead of the property and the club being half his and going to him fully after Armand’s death, the property and club belongs solely to Albert, proving that all along Armand has cared about him in a way he hadn’t seen.

            Albert becomes upset again upon returning home and discovering that Katherine is still coming to dinner and he hides in his bedroom. The Keelys arrive and things are very tense. Armand is struggling to act straight and lie to the Keely family. Katherine is late, and things are just not going well.

            Albert arrives to save the day when he shows up dressed as a woman and introduces himself as Val’s mother. The Keely family loves Albert and accepts them. Eventually the Keely family discovers the lies. Albert is again shown his worth to someone as Val stands up and identifies Albert as his real mother over Katherine. The Keely family is upset but when they attempt to leave, they discover that the press has tracked them down. They escape the press by dressing up as female impersonators and escaping with the crowd from the club at the end of the night. This seems to bond them with the Goldman family and they accept their daughter’s relationship and upcoming marriage.

            Albert seems to be struggling with life satisfaction and role strain. Albert has many roles to fill in his life that of mother, wife, star and meeting his own needs. He has reached an age where he is reflecting on his life and deciding whether it has lived up to his expectations.

Albert is having a hard time finding his place and balancing the roles of being the wife figure, mother figure, and stage star at the club. He constantly seeks validation from everyone around him, constantly resorting to manipulation and hysterics to make everyone prove their need for him. He doesn’t feel important so he makes everyone around him show how important he is to them. This movie shows Val ignore Albert in his role as a mother several times, and dismiss his worth and even demand that Albert be sent away during this very important time in his son’s life. If Val is so willing to do this during an important point in his life it wouldn’t be that much of a stretch for the viewer to believe that Albert has valid concerns over his worth in his family’s life.

            I believe in the end of the movie Albert has shown his worth to his family, and they in turn have shown Albert how much he means to them as well. The movie ends on a good note with Albert firmly in place as the Mother of the groom sobbing in the pew as his son gets married. Val’s biological mother is at the wedding too, but not sitting with the rest of Val’s family, showing that Albert is his rightful mother.

            Albert began the movie reflecting on where he was in his life. He was due to go onstage and be the star of the show for Armand, but he is upset and worried about his ability to perform perfectly for Armand, and worried that he has become too old and too fat to carry the show. No attempts to tell Albert otherwise are successful. Only when Armand stops feeding into the hysterics and threatens to replace Albert does he finally get angry and decide to prove that he is the only one who can do it. Albert feels like his life hasn’t turned out the way he wanted because he feels like he has been standing by as the wife while Armand built a successful club and that none of that belongs to him. He wants validation in his life.

            He eventually gets the validation he needs when Armand confesses that the club has always been in his name and that his club and his life would be nothing if Albert wasn’t a part of it. Later in the movie after many sleights by him, Val finally stands up and declares that Albert is his real mother, and he is proud of that. These events finally give Albert the validation that he needs to know that he has a satisfactory life. 

Thanks for reading!

~Kel

Reviews!

I don't wear makeup very often, but for some reason I love to buy it! I check the make-up section every time I go into the store to see what is new, fun and pretty! Lately the trend in makeup seems to be long lasting make-up so I have tried a couple of these products out, and today I will be telling you all about it! There are also a couple of other gimicky things that have sucked me in, and I'll review those too! I'll probably even steal some photos from their website to illustrate my thoughts!

Here we go!

Revlon "Just Bitten" lip stain:

I mainly bought this because I was getting married. Alex always tries to dodge my kisses when I am wearing lipstick because he doesn't want to wear it too. So I knew that the next time I saw this in the store I would be purchasing it for my wedding day at least. I actually love this stuff! I throw some on in the morning, and get a little surprise later when I look in the mirror because I've forgotten that I put it on. I have a red color and a pinkish color. I honestly can't tell much difference between the two. The color lasts 3-4 hours. One end is like a marker you color your lips with, and the other end is like a clear gloss. I usually use sparkly lip gloss with it, cause I like to sparkle! LOL

Rimmel London Stay Glossy lip gloss:

I bought this in "Stay My Rose." The giant poster in the store promised it would last (up to) six hours! I had high hopes. When I put it on I was excited about the gloss wand, it picked up a lot more gloss than other glosses that I have. I applied it before my psychology class. I figured I wouldn't be eating or drinking or doing much talking so it seemed like a great time to test it out. With minimal mouth contact and movement the gloss lasted about 45 minutes to an hour. I was not impressed with this at all. It wasn't worth the added cost.

L'oreal One sweep eye shadow:

I bought this on my wedding day because I didn't have a lot of time, but I wanted pretty eye shadow. It has three colors of shadow, and a giant eye sized applicator. Honestly when I saw it in the store, I laughed and made fun of it. I officially apologize for that. It worked really well. When you follow the directions it does apply in the stripes, and it takes a minimal amount of blending to make it look professional. My only complaint is that like most eye shadow, it only lasted a couple of hours and settled into my crease quite quickly. Which brings me to my next review!

L'oreal Infallible 24 hour eye shadow:

I bought this one specifically to see if it did what it promised. I bought a purple color. Here is the evidence:

This is what it looked like a day and a half after I applied it. I love this stuff! It didn't settle into the creases or smudge up around my eyes and make me look like a crazed raccoon. I even went out and bought another color after trying this one out!

So those are my opinions of these products. As a little disclaimer, you should know that I used my own money to buy these things, and no one gave me them for free or told me what to say about them.

Thanks for reading!

~Kelli

My wedding.

Pull up a chair, and I'll share the story of my whirlwind wedding.

Alex and I had decided we were going to get married on June 6th. It was never going to be a big wedding. The plan was always going to be a small wedding with only our attendants, and maybe the children and our parents. We were going to save our money for the party after.

So on or around February 19-20 I said to Alex half-joking "Wouldn't it be cool to get married on leap day?" He was against the idea. He wanted to wait for June 6th, like we had planned and there was no changing his mind.

So early afternoon on February 28th, I made a joke about it again, and Alex got really excited about the idea, like it was the first time he had heard anything about it! I thought about kicking him, but decided to marry him instead.

After that it was a whirlwind of activity. We decided right away to have a minimum amount of people there. The first plan was to just have us and the person officiating. I texted a friend to ask if she was still ordained, and she was. So I explained the plan and asked her to help. She was on board and completely excited to help. She reminded me for the need for witnesses, and so she and I agreed that her husband and our mutual friend Elizabeth could join us.

So then I started thinking about my hair and the fact that there would be pictures, so I decided to include my friend Sarah, so she could do my hair, also because she's my best friend. Unfortunately she couldn't come.

The day of the wedding, Alex and I had a lot to do. The first thing we did was get our marriage license. After we got the license we both started talking about how our mothers were going to kill us, so we decided at that point to invite them. I called both of them, but was unable to get in touch with mine. I kept trying throughout the day but ended up not talking to her until it was too late for her to come.

Alex also wanted to stop by and invite his good friend Tabby, so we did that.

We ran all over town, getting Alex a haircut, me shoes, flowers, and a veil, and a basket for our flower girl Stormy.

I decided it would be a bad idea to pull each of the kids out of school for the wedding since it was so last minute, but Stormy only goes to school half the day, so we decided to make her the flower girl.

The wedding was beautiful. It was unusual weather for February, it was in the 60s, but very windy.

We went to a bridge over Sugar Creek, and were married there. Alex and I read our own vows, I promised not to run off to Mexico and ditch him with all of our children, and he promised to stay by my side, even during the zombie apocalypse. We exchanged rings, and kissed each other.

I couldn't have planned a more perfect day even if I had months to plan it.

After the wedding I began to call people, and tell them about how I was now a married woman, and a lot of friends and family were pretty upset that they weren't included.

I am happy now that I am finally married. :)

Thanks for reading!

~Kelli

Catching up, and making stuff

I know, I know. So much for trying to post more often, it's been like a month! Terrible of me. I'll try to do better. So why don't we do a quick review of the last month?

I got engaged!

Christmas happened.

I made Earrings. 

New Years happened.

I made a necklace.

And Sidney and I became obsessed with a giraffe.

I think that catches us all back up. 

Today I decided since I was so successful at my liquid soap making venture I would try yet another thing I learned about while stalking  browsing Pinterest. 

I made my own powdered laundry detergent! I found the instructions on this blog. I followed the instructions as directed. Morgan, Alex and I took turns grating the soap because that's a tedious process. The first load of laundry is in the washer now, so I'll be sure to let you know how it turns out. But I spent a total of $11.64 on supplies, except the Oxyclean which I already had at home, and that is an optional ingredient anyway. I added it up earlier and we spend about $30-$40 a month on laundry soap. So I'll report in on how long the soap I made lasted, how well it worked, and the total amount of money it saved when I run out. 

I'm about to start a new jewelry project. Sort of a charm bracelet for myself. I can't wait to see how it turns out! 

Thanks for reading! 

Kelli

Creativity!

I've been obsessed with Pinterest lately. There are so many links to crafts and stuff I want to try!

Alex got me a bunch of jewelry making supplies for the holiday, and I talked him into giving them to me early. I've been so tired lately that I haven't had time to play, but I have high hopes for the weekend. Especially since I've decided what I'm making every one for gifts this year. I'm sort of running out of time.

One of the things I found on Pinterest that I have tried is a recipe to turn a bar of soap into a ton of liquid soap. Since I have 7 children soap is an issue. We have to buy it by the gallon and it doesn't last long. So spending less than a dollar to make 10 cups of liquid soap is a great deal for us!

The recipe I used was from this blog. I already had liquid glycerin in my cabinet of soap making supplies, so I didn't have to buy that. I got it at Hobby Lobby but rumor has it you can get it at any pharmacy, you just have to ask for it. So all I had to buy was a bar of soap. So I spent less than a dollar.

I hope everyone has a great weekend, hopefully I'll have some more to say to you before the weekend is over!

Thanks for reading!
Kelli

Sleep deprivation!

So I thought I would stop in and tell you about my holiday weekend, so far. It's been an exercise in patience. I don't think I've been this sleep deprived since the triplets came home from the hospital. I woke up Thursday morning at around 9, and got the kids dressed and ready to go to my dad's house for Thanksgiving dinner. Things went surprisingly well with getting the children ready, they all found their socks and shoes with little to no effort. Maybe that should have worried me, because my van didn't start. We thought it might have been the battery but it quickly became clear that the issue was more than just a battery. Since the only other modes of transportation that we have between us is a small car and a scooter, obviously we had to call someone to help us get to our Thanksgiving destinations. I knew that I'd be up most of the night for Black Friday, so when we got home from the dinners we did manage to make it to at 4 pm, I went and attempted to take a nap. I didn't sleep well, but I did get a couple of hours of sleep. I made it to Wal-Mart at 10, where I finished shopping for Hannah and Sidney, and then went back home to try to catch a couple more hours of sleep before heading out to shop some more. That didn't work out. My friends arrived at around 1:45 am and put their kids to bed and we all left with Alex's mom to go shopping. There were five of us, Morgan, Thom, Sarah, Diana (Alex's mom), and me. Poor Alex didn't get much sleep after I left, because it seems the arrival of the other kids woke up my kids, and all of them had just enough sleep that they were fine being awake for the rest of the day. We got home from shopping at around noon, and other than a couple of cat naps throughout the day, I didn't really sleep. So I was more than ready to go to bed at 11 pm. Usually Sidney goes to sleep at 9 pm or so and sleeps through the night. So Of course on the night that I am beyond exhausted he wakes up for an extra feeding. I fed him, and put him back to bed and settled down for some much needed sleep. So I wasn't at all surprised when I heard a light tapping sound on my bedroom door followed by every parent's least favorite three words ever, "I threw up!" So I spent the next hour cleaning up that mess (Alex can't do it without adding to the mess so it falls on me). After cleaning up the mess I was afraid to go so sleep, so I ended up not getting to sleep until around 2 am. So in the past three days, I've had 10 hours of sleep. So I should be lots of fun tonight at my class reunion once I start drinking! LOL Thanks for reading! Kelli

A holiday rant...

Language warning!!!

There are a lot of things that piss me off about Facebook, but lately this is what pisses me off the most:


A status I've seen a lot recently:

I am sick and tired of every year when CHRISTMAS comes around, there are people who want to take CHRIST out of CHRISTMAS because it might offend someone. Well, how about all of the CHRISTIANS? What about offending us because you are taking our CHRIST out of CHRISTMAS!?!? CHRIST IS CHRISTMAS!!! If you aren't celebrating CHRIST then why are you celebrating? CHRISTMAS is about the birth of our SAVIOR! CHRISTMAS is one of a few holidays left that celebrate my CHRIST! Leave my holiday alone!!! And tell everyone MERRY CHRISTMAS, not Happy Holidays! 




So I thought I'd rant about this, because this is my blog and I can do whatever I want! 


I think the reason many people say "Happy Holidays" rather than "Merry Christmas" is because hmm... I don't know, maybe it's because IT'S NOT THE ONLY FUCKING HOLIDAY IN DECEMBER! 


How can someone be so arrogant that they feel personally insulted by the fact that not every store greeter, acquaintance, or random Facebook friend feels the need to exclude EVERYONE but you in their holiday greeting?! Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, and Winter Solstice are all December holidays. 


Just because it's not YOUR Holiday it doesn't matter? Bullshit. 


Christianity moved their holiday from another time to December to take the focus off of the pagan holidays. Do you see Pagans running around demanding that everyone only say "Happy Solstice!" or Jewish people demanding that everyone use the greeting "Happy Hanukkah!" Why is that? Because they aren't arrogant! 


Not to mention the fact that people generally start saying "Happy Holidays" around November. So that in case they get to busy, they cover all the major things like Thanksgiving, whatever winter holiday you desire, and New years. Why do they do that? BECAUSE CHRISTMAS ISN'T THE ONLY FUCKING HOLIDAY IN DECEMBER! 


I think that's all I have to say. Unless the comments section heats up. 


Thanks for reading, 


Kelli

I'm thankful.

Everyone on Facebook seems to be doing daily posts about what they are thankful for. I assume it's because Thanksgiving is this month.

So because I'm a procrastinator, and forgetful I won't even attempt to try to think of what I'm thankful for every day. Besides, I feel like a list of positive things in my life is just what I need right now, so here goes:

(The first part is not in order of favorite. This section of the list is equally important, and should all be labeled #1 but I'm keeping total so they are not.)

1. Morgan - She is so smart and beautiful. Of course we argue, but I feel like we laugh as much as we fight. If not for the fact that I have to be her mother, she really is the type of person I'd choose as a best friend. Maybe when she's 30 we can be friends.

2. Eric - He reminds me so much of my brother Shawn, even though his twin is the one named after Shawn. Eric is sweet and caring but he is an all around crazy boy.

3. Josh - He is so protective of his brothers. Especially Sidney. He also loves to torment his brothers, and sisters, especially Morgan. Morgan doesn't understand it, but the reason he always harasses her so much is because he loves her so much.

4. Hannah - Hannah is so sweet and kind. She is so different than the other kids. She is hardly ever in trouble. She would give away everything she had to make another person happy.

5. Sidney - Sidney is the happiest, easiest baby I've had so far. He only cries when he is really really hungry, even then it's not so much a cry as it is screaming. Most of the time you can't tell if it's a happy scream or an angry scream because he goes back and forth so quickly.

6. Braydon - He has to be one of the smartest six year olds I know. He is reading at the same level as the triplets who are a grade ahead of him. He is so sweet and kind, especially to his younger siblings. He is so fun to talk to, although sometimes I feel he is smarter than me. LOL

7. Stormy - She is always so happy. Her world is all about fun. She doesn't care what is going on around her as long as she's having fun. She loves to talk, apparently I was the same way as a child, who knew? LOL

8. Alex - No one in the world knows me better than he does. He pushes me to do the things he knows I'm to scared to try, and is there to help me try again if I fail. He takes care of me when I need it, and tells me things I need to hear. I can be myself with him, and that feels good.

9. Shawn - my brother. He is my only full brother, and the only person in the world who knows where I came from. No matter how much we fought as kids we were always there when the other needed each other. In short, he is a great brother.

10. My family - I wouldn't trade any of you. Despite our differences, and troubles, I know that any one of you would be there if I needed you, and I hope you know the same goes for me.

11. Adam - He gave me three wonderful babies, and became dad to Morgan. Despite everything we have been through he still remains one of my closest friends, and is there when I need him.

12. Sarah and Tammy - Everyone needs that friend who gets their sick sense of humor, tells them when they are being an idiot, and shuts their mouth when they know that they should. You two are the type of friend I can talk to for hours and hours and not realize any time has passed. You two are my very best friends and I am so glad I have you in my lives.

13. Thom - No one makes me laugh the way you do. :)

14. Diana - I hope that someday she will officially be my mother in law but honestly I feel like she is more of a friend. I love spending time with her and talking to her.

I think that's all of the important people. Now I'm moving on to other things. If you are hurt that I left you out, comment, and I'll apologize profusely and then tell you exactly why I am thankful for you.

15. The Vanity Theater (and the family I've found there) - I am so thankful that I keep getting cast in plays there. I love the theater, the excitement of preparing for a show, the extreme fear right before going on stage, and the bond that forms between the cast.

15. Bacon - everyone who knows me knows that this belongs on my list. To be honest (don't tell the kids) it probably ranks right up there at number 1.

16. My kitties - Mitzi can be a bitch, yes, but she's so cute and fluffy. Bean is a great cat though. He was a housewarming gift from a friend, and he has always been MY cat. If I'm upset, he is right there trying to get me to pet him, and if I let him in the bedroom at night, he always sleeps in my arms.

17. My iPhone - yeah I know, I'm lame. I'm one of those people who can't sit idle. I always have to be distracted in some way. I seriously wish I had one back when I was on bedrest with the triplets, and stuck in the hospital waiting to have them. Though I imagine some of the statuses I might have posted at the time would have gotten me into the mental ward. That mag is some nasty stuff.

Ok. I actually thought this would take less time, and I have some homework to do, so I'm going to finish this later. (See, I warned you about the procrastination)

Thanks for reading!

Kelli

Fun with the kids!

This morning the kids and I took part in our monthly ritual of attending the "Kid's Workshop" at Home Depot. The kids REALLY love going there and building things on their own. We help them, with some of the things and supervise well, but it won't be long before I become one of those parents who stares at the floor while my kids produce a perfectly built picture frame, or napkin holder. We have been going there on the first Saturday of the month for about a year and a half. Home Depot gave the kids an apron when they first started going, and each project they complete earns them a pin to put on their apron. Each of the kids has approximately 15 pins.

This was the first weekend that Braydon and Stormy were gone at their mother's house on Kid's Workshop day. It felt really odd going without them. They said they were going to ask their mom to take them, but she might have had something else planned with them, so I don't know if they got to go.

Alex, the kids and I went to the high school last night to see the middle school's production of Mulan. I was so proud of Morgan. The whole cast obviously worked really hard on the show, and it was very entertaining to watch! Morgan isn't shy at all about getting up on stage and putting her whole heart into a part. I hope she never loses that bravery.

Sorry it was such a short post this time I guess I either don't have a lot to say, or I have so much to say I can't focus on enough to narrow down some topics.

Thanks for reading!

Kelli

Posting daily? Ha!

I was doing so well with the daily posting thing!

I guess I just have to accept my limitations. Between seven children, school for me, play rehearsals for three people, homework for seven people, dinner, house cleaning, and finding time for sleep, I really can't realistically find time to blog daily.

Maybe if I could trust my tablet to work the right way, or I got dictation software so I could blog while I drive. Blogging while I drive... I have a feeling it would go a little something like this:

"I took the kids Trick or treating in New Market this year... COME ON YOU STUPID F*#KER! THE SPEED LIMIT IS 55 NOT 35!!!!... Hannah was dressed like an angel cat... F*#K YOU! PULL OUT IN FRONT OF ME, I DARE YOU! ... Sidney was a happy baby the whole time."

Would you really want to read that? It could be entertaining.

I just got distracted by Dora the Explorer. I'm not sure the plot of this particular episode, but Dora's mom was giving some medicine to a chicken. Dora seemed glad that the chicken felt better. I thought that seemed a little excessive since she's probably going to get served that chicken for dinner lately.

I generally try to keep my personal drama off the internet. I feel like it's something most people should strive for. I also try really hard to avoid religious and political discussions as well. These are things no one can agree on, so it's pointless to argue because EVERYONE is convinced they are right. Back to my original point, I keep my drama to myself,  but it's been a crappy few months. It seems like stuff on top of stuff, so if you have a moment to send some positive vibes my way, it would be appreciated.

On a somewhat related note, some of my close friends are aware of this, but I get a bit upset when it gets brought up, so I'm saying to clear things up: I am not getting married on November 11th. Alex and I are good. It's just not going to happen.

Wow, this post turned fairly serious didn't it. Let me lighten the mood with a joke!

What do you call a deer with no eyes?

no-eye-deer!


Sorry. It's all I got.

Thanks for reading!
Kelli

Halloween fun!

Last night I took part of the family to dinner. Morgan and Hannah were spending the night with their dad, so we only had five of the kids with us. So after dinner I was waiting at the cash register, and a waitress approached a nearby table. I heard her ask the man who had just come into the restaurant a couple of times if her needed a menu. I kinda glanced at his table, and realized at once what was distracting him. He was staring across the room at the table where Alex was with the kids. The waitress asked the guy how he was doing, hoping to gain his attention, and her replied at once. "I'm doing a hell of a lot better than that guy! He's got five kids!"

So of course I had to say something. I went with, "Actually we have seven kids, two are spending the night somewhere else." The man sort of laughed and said wow or something, followed by "You know what causes that don't you?!" Alex had joined me by that time, and he laughed and I answered "Yeah we know! We should be ok now, we finally got a tv for the bedroom!"

After that the waitress asked about the triplets, and admired Sidney. As we left both the waitress and the man made comments about how I must be a patient woman, and how they couldn't handle that many kids and so on. The waitress did tell me that I had really well behaved children though. I always like hearing that from waitresses because I know they see a LOT of kids, and it's not something they are expected to say.

Today we took the kids to Wabash, the college I practically live on the campus of. The kids brought home fliers last week about free pumpkin carving on the campus mall, and the kids really wanted to go, so I took them.

Our sidewalk is now lined with 6 pumpkins, and Sidney's pumpkin is waiting to be carved, along with one each for Alex and I.

Before we went to Wabash we went to a costumed birthday party. Sidney was one of three babies at the party. He was of course a monster, and there was a 5 week old pumpkin girl, and a seven month old devil boy. The cake was awesome and decorated like a graveyard with candy corn fencing, a black licorice tree, chocolate gravestones and candy bones and spiders.

I haven't been feeling well today, I hope that I feel a lot better later, I had hoped to do something fun tonight.

Thanks for reading!

Kelli

Life choices!

Hello again!

 Look at this! Writing two days in a row! How crazy is that?!

 Monday is Halloween! I'm very excited about that because it's my favorite holiday! I was fairly disappointed at first because part of the family would be gone on Halloween with Morgan going with her friends and Braydon and Stormy going with their mother, but it turns out that we all had the custody guidelines mixed up so Braydon and Stormy will be with us after all. I've known for a long time that Morgan wouldn't be with us this year. For years now 14 has been the magical age we have told her she would be allowed to go with her friends on Halloween instead of going with the family.

 I've been trying to work my way through the stuff on my DVR. Since school has started, I've been so busy that my DVR has been close to full for quite a while now. I even had to reluctantly delete the seven episodes of Jeopardy that my friend Christopher was on to make room. Of course after I deleted them Alex told me there was a way to transfer them to a hard drive. Thanks Alex!

 School is really kicking my ass this year. I had to drop a class already because it just wasn't working for me, I have a feeling it will work out better when I take the same class next semester. Spanish class is going well so far. A lot better than it did the last time! Math class is borderline. Sometimes I know what is going on and the math comes easy, then it gets really difficult again. I'm holding on to a C in that class though and that's good enough to move on the the next level if I keep it until the end of class. I'm holding onto a C in Chemistry as well, but I'm completely lost in that class. I don't know if I'm cut out for Science, which is seriously disappointing since Forensic SCIENCE was what I wanted a degree in.

So I'm in the process of rethinking my end goal. My original college goal, back in high school was broadcast journalism, but I think that's a career you have to start earlier in life than 6 months shy of 35 years old. So I'm not sure what classes to sign up for next semester, because I still don't know what to do with my life! If you have any suggestions, let me know. As long as it's not anything that's working with children, I found when I worked at Head Start that I was so done at the end of my work day that I had very little patience for my own kids.

I would LOVE a job with food, but that's really not a practical career choice in this town. I would love nothing more than to join my friend Laney's cake business (as she's offered a few times) but that would require the family to move to South Carolina, and that's not so practical either.

Well, thanks for reading!

Kelli

Long time, no see!

I know, I know, it's been a while.

I find it a little humorous that the last post I wrote was about how my English professor (at the time) suggested that his students write on a daily basis (Hi Mr. Brewer if you show up here!), and then I follow that advice up with not writing a thing for the next 10 months.

In my defense, things have been fairly crazy in my house since then. I'd like you to meet: Sidney Gene Livengood!

He's wearing his Halloween costume here. He is a monster (obviously). He is quite adept at snarling and growling so the costume is very fitting. He is five months old, and by far the easiest of all the babies I've ever had. To be fair, individually the triplets were great babies, but the fact that they ganged up on me all the time makes them fall under the category of difficult babies. Morgan was just a crazy baby. She was so active, not to mention the whole sleep apnea thing. No one likes it when their baby forgets how to breathe while she sleeps. Sidney only cries when he is hungry. That's pretty much it. The rest of the time he is either asleep, or happily playing. He smiles so much!

I'll update more on the happenings of my life tomorrow, hopefully. I intend to try this writing on a daily basis thing.

Thanks for reading!

Kelli

Taking a joke too far?

Today in my English class, my professor was discussing the concept that most people can write, it just takes practice. He jokingly mentioned that one could even write about their toaster. Of course in my mind that set off a chain reaction, so today as my first blog entry in a while, you will get to know way too much about my toaster.

Now many people when they hear the phrase toaster, have an automatic vision of a box shaped object, likely to be white or silver, with slots on top that the bread fits into. Now anyone who knows me, knows that the average two slot toaster that you might have the vision of in your head, isn't going to work for this house, or this family. There are eight of us in this house, soon to be nine. Assuming we all had breakfast at the same time, it would take forever for me to make toast in a two slot toaster.

Before I tell you all about my current toaster, I feel like I can't tell you without describing the death of it's predecessor.

It was probably much like the toaster you imagined. White plastic shell, two slots on top, wide enough for a bagel. When I bought that toaster, there were only six people living in my house, and toast seemed much more manageable then. It lived happily in its home on my counter, providing us with toast and various toaster pastries in its all too short life. The demise of this toaster was very confusing at first. It took us a while to figure out what happened to it.

One ordinary day Morgan was being quite helpful and decided to make toast with breakfast. She dropped the toast in the slots and pressed the lever down that magically turns the bread into toast. Moments later the kitchen filled with a horrible smell. I told Morgan to stop using the toaster and throw the half turned bread away. I meant to check it out later and figure out the smell, but I puzzled over it in the back of my mind for the rest of the day. Later that afternoon, Alex walked into the kitchen for an unrelated reason, and promptly discovered the source of the smell. He caught my strange cat Bean hovering over the toaster...relieving himself into it. I'm still confused as to how my cat was not electrocuted. We disposed of the toaster, and took Bean to the vet. She said he had a bladder infection, and that cats will relieve themselves in unusual spots when that happens, but that she had never heard of a cat using a toaster for that purpose.

After that we were toasterless for a while. We wanted to make sure Bean was cured before we released another toaster into the house. We also took a long time debating over the type of toaster we wanted. Two slots was obviously too small for our rather large family, and four slots didn't appeal to me either. We ended up deciding on a toaster oven.

Our toaster oven has been good to us. Providing us with toast and other toaster items, as well as giving us a quick way to have some pizza rolls. But sometime in December some friends called with a very serious request. They wanted to borrow the toaster oven. Now a casual friend might have gotten the immediate no, but these weren't casual friends. They are the couple with kids the same age as ours, couple with the same interests, couple we love to hang out with, couple we always have fun with, couple we trust our kids alone with, best friends couple. You can't say no to them unless you have a really good reason.

So I sent my toaster off with them. They used it to make us really awesome Christmas presents, so I guess it was a good trade off.

But you know, I think I had the urge to make toast more times when it was gone than I ever did while it was here. Isn't that the way things always work?

A couple of weeks ago, They called, wanting to return it, I was about to leave the house so I had to say no. My friend informed me that my poor toaster had been in her trunk for a couple of weeks, and had been whimpering out of loneliness every time she opened the trunk. I felt bad, but I still left.

They were finally able to return the toaster over the weekend. We went to their house for dinner, and they had Morgan put it back in my van, and you know, I haven't thought about it since then. Until my English professor mentioned toasters today. That's when I decided that I needed to tell you the tale of my toaster. Well I guess this was closer to a tale of two toasters.

Thanks for reading.

Speech Class

One of my required classes for my degree is a speech class. I think most people panic at the thought of that, but I loved speech in high school, and even joined the speech team, and earned a couple of awards. So while I still get the jitters before a speech, I still love the class. Recently we were asked to give a narrative speech. We had to tell a story, and share what we learned from it. This was the story I shared with my class.

I’m sure that you have all felt the frustration of setting an object down and finding that it is nowhere to be found when you return for it, it’s happened to all of us. Most of the time, though in this situation more than a minute or so has passed before you return for the item.

The story I plan to share with you today isn’t about a lost set of keys, a wallet, or even a cell phone. The object I lost was a person.

As some of you know, I have six year old triplets at home. Life with them has never been dull, in fact, every day has been a chance to learn something new.

On one typical day when my triplets, Eric, Josh, and Hannah were around 7 or 8 months old, I left them playing on the living room floor while I went to the restroom, and to get something to drink. I was alone in the house at the time, other than the triplets.

We had spent months perfecting the baby proofing of my living room. Every single area of escape was covered by a baby gate, because every time we thought we had it perfect, they outsmarted us, and escaped. There were even occasions where they worked as a team to escape. We were pretty confident with the latest configuration though, because we hadn’t had an escape attempt in a month.

So when I left the room that fateful day, I was positive that nothing major would happen while I was out of the room.

I was of course, wrong about that.

When I returned to the living room, I did the head count that is just second nature to me now, Josh, Hannah, and… um. Where was Eric? My first instinct was to check the front door. It was still locked up tight. I checked to make sure all the gates were up, and they were all secure. I stood in the middle of the room just looking around.

I even tried calling his name, and asking the other two, but no one answered, since they hadn’t learned to talk yet. I ran to their bedroom, wondering if I had forgotten to get him up that day, or maybe just forgot that I had put him down to nap (I was still pretty sleep deprived at that point in time). The bedroom was empty too.

I rushed back to the living room, thinking that maybe he would have reappeared by then, and he hadn’t. I checked their toy basket, all the corners of the room and even under the couch. I even pulled out the cushions, as though there was some chance he had fallen through the cracks like the remote does. I searched every inch of that room twice. Understandably I was becoming quite frantic at this point.

Finally, I looked over at Hannah, who was sitting by my entertainment center patting one of the closed drawers and giggling. I stared at her for a moment, and then it occurred to me that she probably had a reason to be giggling at the drawer. I should explain that this drawer at one time was home to part of our DVD collection, but they had figured out the baby lock almost instantly and torn apart several DVDs, so we emptied the drawer. It was usually stuck partly open because of the baby lock but in my frenzied search, I had failed to notice that it was closed tightly.

I pulled open the drawer, momentarily slowed down by the baby lock since they had figured it out before I even had the chance, and looked inside to find Eric, sleeping soundly. I picked Eric up, and just as soon as I moved him out of the way, Hannah slammed the drawer closed and giggled like mad. I assume this is what happened to poor Eric. Eric, is a very calm boy, even to this day, and hardly ever gets mad at his sister (even when she throws up on him, like she did Saturday night). So rather than cry in the drawer, like any other child might, he just accepted his fate, and took a nap.

So what I learned from this experience is thatwhen you lose something perhaps it wasn’t lost, maybe someone just hid it from you, and as a bonus lesson, I offer to you this advice “never trust your sister”.

I got an A+ on this speech, but beyond that, I got to share an adorable memory of my crazy triplets.