camera-less

i'm still without pictures.
and i officially hate it!

there has been so much going on too.
so much to share.

i finally visited my dear friends doris and mike and got to see their beautiful new/old home. oooohhh--i really want to show you!

and then we went to the buddy walk on saturday. (it's a down syndrome awareness fun-a-palooza!) we ate sooo well, the kids played lots of games and we won all kinds of neat prizes. seriously, it was like christmas! you have to see this stuff!

and then there's the deck--john has stained about 1/3 of it--there's so much to do: railings and new lattice and the checkboard floor. i want to show you that too. bah!

hopefully i'll be able to get this figured out tonight.
because last night was a bust.
i went to kristi's for another uppercase living party. i mean i am uppercase livinged out, but you know, it was the reciprocal thing. she came to mine, i have to go to her's. unfortunately some of you out there don't do that (you know who you are), but kristi and i have an understanding.

so i went.
and i drank 2 1/2 cups of coffee.
at 8:30pm.

needless to say, i didn't fall asleep until after midnight.
i heard ben on the monitor around 4:30am.
yup. 4:30 am.
i finally dragged myself out of bed and into the shower around 5.

in my head were glorified ideas of getting to work by 7.

john showered first so by the time i got in, ben was fussy and hungry. he sat in the bathroom, boogers oozing and fingers in his mouth (trying so hard to get those bottom molars through). the water was luke warm at best and i tried to hurry up so i could get out and soothe him. josh was complaining about getting up while it was dark out and anna came in the bathroom crying that someone had turned out her nightlight and she was cold. out of the shower and realized that my bras were in the washing machine. i threw them in the dryer, threw on my robe and quickly combed my hair. picked out anna's clothes and bossed her to get dressed and brush those teeth. she complained again about being cold but didn't want to put on a sweatshirt. oh and josh was hogging the bathroom and she had to go. (we have 3 bathrooms--pick one!!) grabbed ben, still fussing and hungry, ran downstairs and popped some waffles in the toaster. in the high chair he seemed happier, especially with something to drink. got waffles ready for the kids and slowly they made it down--arguing the whole way. finally three minutes of silence while they all ate. thankfully john took over here and took them all to the bus stop so i could finish getting ready. i ran upstairs, threw on clothes, put on some blush and combed my hair again, made three beds, picked up dirty clothes and toys, back downstairs to pack bags for the other kids and make coffee. when the coffee was done, i went outside to pack up the car. john was walking back down the street so the kids just hopped in and we were off. it was 7:05. the traffic was ridiculous, some truck needed to be turned around in the intersection right before i pull into work and held everyone up for about 25 minutes, all while ben fussed and anna watched curious george, complaining about our new rule of no food in the car. i still had to drop off ben and anna, pay their tuition, deliver pumpkin party invites to the kids in anna's class, drop off gifts to ben's infant room teachers, fill out forms for toothpaste and suncreen, and then go to work.

so, now i'm exhausted and it's only 8:30am. and i'm an hour and a half behind schedule. with three voice mails already and about a dozen emails.

and that camera still isn't working! don't you see how i have no time to mess with that???!!@!*()&#)

if you are still reading this, then thank you. thank you for listening to me rant. i appreciate it more than you realize.

oh, and have a nice day! ;-)