NOTE

Note to Marvin and Jake....
Occasionally, beyond my control, I am required to go potty. I can promise you I wait until I just can't hold it any more. I don't go just to make your life a party. Your party makes my life miserable.

With that being said.....

Under NO CIRCUMSTANCES are you to sneak a jar of peanut butter into my room and eat it with your fingers. You DO NOT then try and wipe off the evidence of my carpet. This tends to really upset me and make me angry.

Then after I get the floor cleaned up and the peanut butter back in the kitchen, DO NOT come running to me with peanut butter all over your hand and say "Do you want me to wash my hands?"

Yes Please!!!!

Maybe, just maybe I can understand the fascination to a three year old but a five year old???? Just don't get it. Never have. Never will.

HERE'S YOUR SIGN

For some reason today I feel prickly. I don't know why. Maybe it is lack of sleep. Three hours just doesn't get it for me.
Anyway, remember that Bill Engril (spelling of last name might not be right) who did the "here's your sign" routines?:

Lately I have felt like I should have signs. Does anyone stop to think before they talk? The rule around here is think before you speak. I say it about 50 times a day.

1- Do you love your "real" kids more? DUH. All my kids are real. No imaginary kids here. I love all six of my kids. Days and days go by and I even forget I have two types of kids. To me they are all our real kids and we love each of them for their unique ways. Adoption does not qualify for second rate.

2- Do you think they know they look different? My word I hope so. I am blond and hazel eyes. Blake is grey and blue eyes. The three older ones are also shades of light brown and either brown or blue eyes. The three youngest are coal black hair and eyes and beautiful brown skin. By the way, ask them. After all Marvin is 5 and Bell is almost five. Jake constantly plays with my hair and says pretty. He knows. Just so you know. Our house also has lots of mirrors so I am sure they have seen their reflections once or twice.

3- Are the Mexican? Technically Mexican isn't even a race. People from Mexico are Hispanic. Guatemalans are Latinos. They were born in Guatemala, another tip off they aren't "Mexicans".

4- How can the two oldest ones not be twins? Well they each have a biological mother and father, not the same mother and father. They are five months apart. If they don't look like me and you know they are adopted, figure it out when I say they are five months apart.

5- I bet they really like it when you go to a Mexican restaurant right? Yeah but so does the rest of the family. I have been eating Mexican food all my life. It is not a cultural thing.

6- Do you eat burritos and tacos every night? Nah sometimes we mix it up and have tacos and burritos.

7- When they grow up are you going to send them back to Guatemala to live? No. They are US citizens. They will live here. After all, this is what they know and love. How about we send you to a deserted island to keep you from spreading your "stupid"?


8- Do they speak only Spanish or do they understand English? Or a variation can be "How did you know what they were saying when they were babies? Did they speak English?" No they spoke baby. Marvin came home at 8 months, Bell and Jake both at two years. Bell had the best language skills of the three and even then it wasn't much. I knew what they needed because they were MY children. Refer back to answer 1 if you find this confusing.

THE MOST BIZARRE QUESTION TO DATE:

9- What do you mean they are from Central America? I thought you said they were adopted from another country? GEOGRAPHY... learn it. Central America is south of the US. It does not mean sitting the in middle of the United States or centrally located in the U.S.

So there you have it. The nagging questions of our society. Sad but true.

Looking at the airline prices to Guatemala City. No real reason except I have done it for so many years it is just what I do.
I am so wanting to go back. The food, the wonderful people and the beautiful brown babies.
Such a change from a year ago when I didn't ever want to go back and relive the horrors of Jake's first two years.
It is amazing how God and time heals all wounds.

THE ROMANCE IS OVER

I just hope I can revive it.
My marriage was going to be different. I was going to always have romantic feelings for my husband. I was going to walk on water to get him anything he needed or desired. I was single handily going to change romance.
I have failed.
Today I was doing laundry from our vacation. As I was using my neurotic sorting techniques I decided Blake was running low on socks without holes.
The man doesn't care about much. He is really easy to live with but he does have his limits. I don't care how much it costs he wants a certain kind of shaving cream, shampoo, toilet paper, underwear and socks.
He is on his feet sometimes as much as 12 hours a day seeing patients. He deserves his choice of socks while he is "healing the world of their seizures and sleep disorders". Dramatic??? maybe. A little over the top??? Definitely.
Anyway you just can't go to Wal-Mart and buy socks for him. So I thought about it. It would include but not be limited to the following points.
Getting three munchkins into the car.
Working around preschool schedules, PT and other appointments, etc.
Remembering the stroller.
Dealing with hunger issues that are sure to pop up with Chik-Fil-A next to the mall.
Getting into the mall and finding the store.
Buying the socks while trying to keep track of all three kids.
Leaving and fighting the traffic.


Next thought: Can I just do more laundry and get away with this until I go Christmas shopping? It would be so much simpler.

So my friends, the romance is over. I no longer feel as if I can move the world to take care of my husband's special needs.

On the brighter side it took 19 years for me to fall off the wagon!!! :)

WHY?

Why is it the phrase, "Jake come to mama." requires him to run in the opposite direction as fast as he can??? At least he is running. LOL

TOILETS

What is there about a three year old and a toilet?
He sure won't use it for the intended purpose. He screams "Jake no potty" if you even suggest it.

Side note- If told he will go get a diaper and wipes. Or if I forget about changing him he will bring me a diaper and say "Jake new diaper". But the potty is evil.

So far today I have fished out a washcloth, a receipt from somewhere (I can't read it with the ink smeared), a wood block and a pencil.

I tried toilet locks but my little guy figured it out before I did.

So we went to sitting a brick on the lid. Genius I thought until he figured out how to scoot if off and gouged the wall.

Love this guy!

QUESTION OF LIFE

So this is the "life question".

You buy Krispy Kreme doughnuts for the kids. They are soooo fattening so you allow yourself ONE!
How do you know which one to pick???

ANSWER: You wait until the little ones are in bed and the big ones are out of the room. Then, you pick each doughnut up with your fingers and weigh them. Of course the one that is the heaviest wins since you know it has the most cream.

And you know that a doughnut has xxx calories (it says so on their website). So might as well take the one with more cream. RIGHT????

I should be a philosopher.

I do plan on updating soon I promise. School starts next week and we are just trying to jam as much summer as we possibly can into what little time we have.

WHO AM I

Today our youth pastor's message was on "Who Am I?" It was a wonderful message.
We should never forget as Christians we are God's children. The sacrifice of His Son on the cross was huge. More than we could ever imagine.
As we become Christians, we become children of THE KING. His blood has covered us and made us whole.
When I think about what was said today it became clear to me that everything I am is because of God's hand on my life.

So here are the stats:

I am a woman who is fearfully and wonderfully made. God took care of that!
I am the wife of a neurologist who just happens to be the best in the world at what he does. I couldn't imagine in my wildest dreams marrying someone so perfect for me. God had it all planned out.
I am a 40 something mom of six. I am the mom to the most beautiful two daughters in the world. I am the mom to the four most handsome boys in the world. My thoughts years ago were to be a career woman and not have children. I wasn't cut out for family life. God knew the truth.
I am the daughter of a 30+ year cancer survivor the world of medicine did not know of a cure but God knew more.
I am not out to change the entire world. God didn't call me for that. He called me to change the world of my six children and in doing so teach them His ways.
I have never shied away from a challenge but I had no idea God would challenge me as hard as He has in the last year.
I am not an educator but God has a plan for me to educate others on His life and plan.

When I was working around the house today, "Who I Am" was on my mind. Then the more I thought about it the more it became clear to me. It is time now to work on what I want to be when someone says, "Who was Cindi?"

I want people to remember me by my love for my family. I want my children to remember their mom as someone who loved them with all her heart and wanted the very best for them. I want my children to remember me by following God's plan for each of their lives.

I wanted to be remembered by my faith. God's plan for our lives requires faith. It is not easy to roll with the punches. Faith in God and His plan keeps us safe.

I want to be remembered for my passion of telling others. Life is so short. I have memories from a young that seem as if it was only yesterday. Time passes on. Sharing the gospel should have top priority.

But it is not enough to be remembered for "telling others". I want to be remembered for showing others the way. Practice what you preach. Don't just tell about the Bible. Show the Bible and God's love in every single thing you do.

Who Am I? I am the adopted princess of Christ the King. That is all that really matters.

LAUNDRY CLOSET

It is after midnight, closer to 1 AM I think but now I am all worked up and can't sleep.

Get ready:

It is all because my laundry closet is in a shambles.

Yes I am totally off my rocker. Yes I am losing my mind. Yes I am concerned about my laundry obsession BUT...

I am more concerned that my children cannot follow a logically developed system. What is the deal???

First of all I love me house. Our home was a gift from God that allowed us the ability to adopt three times. But that is a whole new post. Someday I will tell the story.

But there are two flaws. 1- The kitchen is incredibly small. This house was built for a large family. I have got to know some of the children very well. Even they felt the kitchen was too small for them. So on that fact I am not alone.

2- The laundry room is even smaller. It holds my washer and dryer on one wall. The whole wall is used up by the washer and dryer. Across you have a sink and a small cabinet and a door. One side wall is bare the other has a pull out ironing board that won't pull out unless the door is closed because there is no room. Once you close the door and pull it out you are stuck until you are done. Needless to say I don't pull it out often.

Anyway I have a laundry closet. This is a normal size coat closet that had a shelf about five feet from the laundry room.

I added another shelf and stacked laundry baskets in it to make a laundry closet. This is all the space I have for dirty clothes and with eight people dirtying clothes things can get out of control before you know it.

With everyone sick laundry started to pile up. I just didn't have time to do it. My main concern was my children, my husband and keeping myself and Ann well.

I asked the three oldest, please to gather all the dirty laundry and sort it into the right containers. Ann didn't have any clean clothes today because she has been hoarding her dirties. Why???

Now my obsession has me labeling the shelves and all you need to do is read to know there is a basket for lights, darks, reds, jeans, towels and to be bleached.

Maybe it is excessive but I read a book once that said to find your own "clean" space that makes you feel comfortable and keep it clean. When you are stressed you will know at least one part of your home is clean.

Mine is my laundry closet. The rest of my house can be a wreck. My youngest three can have snot pouring out of their noses and dirty, muddy clothes on. My oldest can be loud and obnoxious and have things strewn everywhere as long as I can open the closet and things are orderly I am safe in my own little world.

Mess with the closet and you mess with my universe.

Now also they (the school system) tell me my three oldest children are "gifted". They say they were born that way. Don't think so but who am I to argue?

Each one of these children can read way above grade level. Ann was reading her father's medical books in fifth grade and then discussing them at supper. She even knew that she was talking about.

I don't know what your normal supper conversations are about but ours include things such as what our bodies look like without skin? How much blood can you lose before you die? Why did God give us nose hair? How do you take out some one's appendix? Have you ever seen someone who is decapitated (one child is extremely sick in the head)? What is your favorite surgery? And my favorite, If one of us needs surgery can you ask the doctor if we can all watch?

So why can't these children understand what a dark article of clothing is? Or what a towel looks like and even better, why even though it is not a towel we put washcloths in the same basket? I know it doesn't say that just use your head!

I opened my closet tonight and almost needed heart surgery but then the thought of Blake and the three oldest watching my open heart surgery brought me to. I can hear the conversations now...

"Can you let me see it beat?"
"What happens if I cough right now? Do we need to start over?"
"Want to add a little more love in the old lady's heart while you are there?"
"Can I keep the bloody gauze pads? I bet I could gross out some people with those?"
"While you are in there can you make her more patient?"

Once again I digress.

Everything was a mess. They are all sleeping with their sweet, little tired bodies resting on soft mattresses with sheets that I am sure would cause mass confusion if I told them to put them in dirty clothes closet. After all there isn't a basket marked sheets? Where would they put them?

I sorted out four loads and lined the hall for tomorrow with them and then even though it is late, cleaned out each basket, vacuumed the closet floor and surrounding area, put the extra dirtys in the basket, put it all back and then quietly stared into the closet. I even found Marvin's long , lost knight and Donkey Kong in that back of the closet from last week.

Then it hit me. During the day or two the closet was in such a mess the world did not implode. We are all still alive (for the moment) and things are good.

But unfortunately that feeling didn't last long either. I just don't understand who three smart kids have trouble with laundry. It is probably a part of the universe I will never be able to grasp.

Now that I have vented I am off to bed. If they only knew tomorrow will hold yet another laundry lesson, they would all be down here helping me :)

I am such a sad, sad irrational person!

WRAP UP

Vacation was fantastic. We had a ball.
Quick post though.
I will try and get things caught up really soon.
Marvin was very sick our last two days in Florida with a high, high fever. Very scary.
We began to wonder if we were going to make it home on a plane.
He managed to get well enough to fly.
Made it home. Flew into Columbus. Blake was in the front of the plane with the two oldest. I was in the back with the three youngest. Does that seem fair to ANYBODY??
Met him at the luggage pick up and he looked AWFUL.
He ended up missing work the next day while he had a high fever.
Slowly but surely it has made if through five of six kids and Blake.
I did not get it. PTL.
Ann didn't go with us and she didn't get it.
Must have been a "bug" floating around the happiest place on earth.

I am way behind from holding sick little ones and caring for two older sickies plus Blake. Of course there is always the laundry to keep me busy too.

Will be back soon. I promise!!!
Marvin's birthday is Saturday so I also need to get a present, order a cake, etc.