8:30 am - awake again to Abigail's giggles. Meet she and Isabelle on the landing and head down together. Kiss Scott good morning and then pass kisses & hugs all around.
8:32 am - Snag first and only cup of coffee of the day.
8:35 am - proceed to take vitamins with a large glass of milk to ward off the inevitable nausea if taken with anything else.
8:40 am - Sit down with Scott to draw up plans for the day. Eat a bowl of Kashi while we chat.
8:50 am - Shoo everyone upstairs to get dressed and /or grab shoes.
9:00 am - nurse Elias while supervising the kiddos folding/putting away laundry & beginning another load. Scott calls & finally sets up Shelby's email account. She chooses the name apollo96. Inevitable discussion on God v. gods follows.
9:30 am - get dressed. Borrow Shelby's shoes.
9:40 am - begin loading van.
10:00 am - Head out:
1. Drive to eye doctor to have Tucker's glasses tightened. Again. Add note on To Do list to purchase tools to tighten & adjust Tucker's glasses ourselves.
2. Drive to Mom & Dad's house to pick up Kainos checks to deliver to Chip.
3. Return home to get cooler clothes for Elias since his screaming in the van has caused him to puddle.
4. Go to Wawa gas station to pull $30 from their no-fee ATM.
5. Go to Metro bank and proceed to open 7 checking accounts for the kiddos. Read 10 books, get $10. We've had this done since June. The deadline for opening the accounts is Sept. 30. Use the $30 plus cash in Scott's wallet to add $5 to each account.
6. While at the bank, load kids in car when 15 minutes from completion of accounts. Nurse Elias. Change Elias.
7. Scott drops myself and all the children except Tucker at Target. I put Elias in the Moby Wrap and we head inside. Dawson & Abigail are using their Birthday Gift Cards from Mimi & Popi. This will take awhile.
8. Scott & Tucker drop Kainos checks at Chip's house then go bowling together, since Tucker earned a privilege of a "Date With Dad."
9. Meanwhile, back at Target, Dawson agonizes over his choices, but eventually settles on a Nerf machine gun and a blow up Yugio punching bag. What lost out? A Count Dukoo Light Saber, a Nerf Sword, Walkie Talkies, a Laser Trip-Wire, a Star Wars Nerf blaster, & some freaky looking plastic character. Abigail knows she wants a baby doll and we spend 30 minutes in the baby aisle selecting. Anything which makes noise due to motion is absolutely out. She finally chooses a baby that quite realistically drinks from a bottle. The noise is pretty muted, so it passed the test. She also gets a stroller. We head over to cameras so Shelby can browse. She is really hinting her camera needs upgrading . . .
10. I give Scott a quick call to ask a question to learn he's walking into Target already. I tell him where we are and shortly the 10 of us are reunited. Abigail begins whimpering that she can't hold her baby right in the box. We help her get her arms underneath and she is content rocking her baby with the box completely obscuring her from the outside world.
11. Elias begins to stir, so the camera browsing ends and we head to check out. Run into a neighbor whose youngest just began school. Find out they've been trying to have a baby for a couple years and she tears up. Wish I could do more.
12. We rip all the toys out of their packaging in the parking lot and run by the community recycling center. Drop off our paper recycling plus the new packaging. Hope everything works okay.
13. Go to the library. Take advantage of Get the Card Month and upgrade our dog-eared, beat-up library cards free-of-charge. Return the 50 books we checked out last week. Choose more books while I nurse Elias. Tucker selects a Pokemon Cartoon for his "Choose Next Family Movie" privilege. I bite my tongue to keep from saying "NOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!" out loud.
14. Go to Giant to pick up Pesto for a last minute dinner change. Realize grapes are on sale for $.97/pound. Buy 20 pounds. Also get bananas, hotdogs (BOGO), decaf Chai tea (my new fav), organic marshmallow fluff (YUM!), chicken breasts (on sale $1.87/lb) and pesto. Scott calls at checkout to find out why it's taking so long to simply buy Pesto. I try to hedge my answer before he finally says: "THIS IS WHY I RUN IN!!!" Teasing, but also a little sincere.
15. Go home and begin making dinner. Let the kids attack the grapes. Scott takes over dinner so I can nurse Elias. Send the girls to get mail since we forgot to pick it up all last week. Dawson takes out trash. Tucker puts laundry into the dryer. Explain to Abigail the stroller is for baby dolls while making her get out of it.
16. Boys start watching Pokemon movie. I avoid the living room.
17. The girls return with an envelope marked "Perishable" and a tote bag full of mail. Realize the perishable is the Ants we ordered for Keats & Aidan's birthday Ant Farm. Open them up and find all but one dead. Wonder how long they've been in the mailbox. Obviouslly too long. Get out To Do list & cross off note to call Uncle Milton to find out why we don't have ants yet. Add new note to reorder ants from Uncle Milton.
18. Quickly go through mail and set aside 5 true pieces & dump the rest into our was-empty-but-now-is-half-full paper recycling bin. Start washing a load of diapers.
19. Eat favorite dinner - Aunt Laura's Chicken Pesto -- very casually. Scott & I chat with the girls at the table and the boys trickle in to grab a bowl to eat in the living room while watching the movie. Nurse Elias.
20. Loading dishes I glance at the calendar. Realize we have the kid's flu shots at 5:30. It's 4:30. Call for Scott to let him know. Decide he'll take the kids still needing shots (Dawson through Aidan) & I'll stay home with Shelby, Abigail & Elias.
21. Flurry of finding shoes, putting on shoes, getting in the car, explaining to a weeping Abigail why she isn't going (received her shot at her well check), reassure Aidan it will hurt but it's important, and kiss Scott goodbye. They pull out by 5:00.
22. Shelby & I start the end of day chores. Nurse Elias. Play with Abigail. She names her new baby "Baby No Name." Set up Shelby's mailbox on the computer & sign her up for Facebook.
7:00 pm - the rest of the crew returns with ice-cream, the traditional "I'm proud of your courage while getting a shot" reward.
7:45 pm - Abigail goes up with Shleby for a bath to wash off her crazy chocolate face, Dawson & Tucker help Keats & Aidan get into their pjs, Isabelle helps clean up from ice-cream.
8:15 pm - tuck in Abigail, Keats, & Aidan. Settle Dawson, Isabelle, & Tucker in living room watching a TiVo-ed "Jonas" so Scott & I can chat with Shelby. Let her know that we've decided against the People to People Australia trip for this summer, but that we realize she's old enough to do more than she currently is doing. She cries about Australia, but gets excited about staffing Camp, taking photography classes at the community college, being allowed to cook one major meal (she loooooooooves cooking) per week, making a trip to Cali to spend time with Aunt Laura & Uncle Ryan -- basically, to choose some of her dreams and we'll see what we can do. Nurse Elias.
8:45 pm - gather in the living room to say prayers as a family and the oldest four head up to bed. Just before going up, Dawson's face crumples in pain and he begins crying. We ask what's wrong & he complains that his throat hurts really bad. Ask why he's waited so long to say anything. Check his temp - 101, and his throat -- possible white spots. He gargles salt water & then goes up to bed. Shelby finished the "Jonas" she started earlier before going to bed.
9:00 pm - Scott & I finish tidying up the living room and sit down to watch Monday Night Football. Realize we forgot to work on the Trebuchet Scott is building for our Physics studies this year.
9:45 pm - Head up to bed. Nurse Elias, hoping he'll fall asleep before Scott leaves. Nope.
10:15 pm - Scott heads down to make coffee for the night & grab a fluffernutter sandwich. (I'm forgiven for the extended shopping at Giant.)
10:30 pm - Scott leaves for night shift. I keep watching football. Nurse Elias.
11:00 pm - Elias falls asleep. Tuck him into bassinet & crash into bed. Sleeping within moments.
Sept. 29 5:30 am - check ESPN for the score from the game. Cowboys won. Drat.
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