Libby Regarding Thanksgiving

My thanksgiving was awesome we went to my granny's house and when we got there the dog was barking and my pawpaw was on the phone.  My granny was standen at the door.  When we walked in it was 6:30 and it smelled like popcorn because my pawpaw was eating popcorn.  When my pawpaw got of the phone he started to talk to my granny about what happened to the car like if it was totel or not.  After that we at some dinner After dinner we watch 2 movies.  We ate popcorn, chip, and we ate ice cream

When it was time to go to bed we just could not find out how was sleeping with each other.   So about 10 minutes later I said Madi + Carlie sleep with mom.  I sleep on the couch Frank sleeps on the other couch dad sleeps in the back room and my granny + papaw sleep were they usely do.  So before we went to bed we had to brush are teath.  We went to bed and my mom in the morning was yelling she was having a nightmerror.  In the morning we had to get started cooking right away because we mad turkey, fruit saled, mashed potatos and gravey, and we also have to make pie.  whe we ate the food smelled so good I just keep eating.  When everyone was done eating we all just sat back and relaxed.

It is time to go home nobody wants to leave but it is time to.  When we got home it was about 5:00.  When we are at home every body just sleep.  At 7:00 we made dinner and we ate.  It is not time to go to bed but we all wanted to go to bed.

Libby Regarding the Coolest Place on Earth

The coolest place that I have ever been is Granny + papaws house. I like my granny + pawpaw's house because when I am there it is fun. Another thang is that I have my own refrigorater and I can get whatever I want out of it. In my refrigorater is all diffarent tipe like lunchables. In the freezer is popsycles. I get to eat whatever I want out of the frige + freezer because it is mine.

My granny and pawpaw's house is the coolest place because I get almost everythang I want, 1 is I got my own school set 2. I got my own cooking set 3. I am a queen.  I love my granny + pawpaw because they give me almost everythang.

My granny + pawpaw's house is the best.  I get to play my granny's laptop.  I get to sleep in my pawpaw's big and comphy chair.  I get to watch what I want to.  I get to have my friends over.

My granny's house is the best house.  I get to play bord games and get to do puzzles.  I love my granny's house because it is fun and there is alot of stuff to do there.  I love my grann and my pawpaw.

Libby's View on Family

I was looking for some paper and picked up a spiral notebook and found this.  They were dated Aug and Sept 2009.  Libby would have just started 5th grade.

All About My Family

My Mom's side lives in Madison a small town.  My Dad's side lives in the country in Savanna Oklahoma.  On my Mom's side I get mostly what I want.  And I get paid.  On my dad's side of the family I still almost get what I want.

On my mom's side I am spoledd.  I get paid, I get a wii all to myself.  I can eat what ever I want.  My mom's Dad has a cool chair that I get to sleep in when ever I want.  My Granny tot me how to sow like 2 years ago.  I enterd a geen contest for how ever had the best geen Disin.

On my Dads side of the Family I get to drive the four weeler every ware.  I get to go shoping.  It is alot of fun.  My Pepa alwas takes me to the lake.  The alwase are fun even thow they are 68 years old.

About by brothers.  My older brothers can be anowing.  Frank can go into my room and take my Dairy and Privet stuff and read it.  Witch I think is rude.  My oldes brother JB can pull me down and hurt me.  JB smokes and he has to share a 4th of closet with me.

My sisters can be rude to me and each other.  My sisters are a messy.  They have a messy room.  When they get out of the warpool they have the floor like the water had fluded.  My sisters ar picky.

Carlie is vary pike about what she eats or wares.  Carlie is strong and she can bite like an animal (stopping here in my typing to fall out of the chair laughing).  She is vary rude.  Madi is a rude person.  She all sweet at school but at home she can be a rude girl.

Lois my oldest sister is vary nice and sweet.  She plays 3 insterment.  She plays clarinet, and Drums and guitar.  I love Lois.  The End

What's Your Name and How Many Kids Do You Have?

When I was at the school field trip, I'm talking to another Mom who lives in our neighborhood. I was telling her who my four kids were...and she goes "Ohhh...you're Frank and Libby's Mom!!!" She said that when we first moved into our neighborhood for years ago, Frank and Libby rang her doorbell. When she answered the door, they asked her if she had any kids at her house. When she said yes, Libby wrote down their address and then wanted the name and age of each child so she could write them down. The neighbor said she was SO serious about, and asked how to spell each name...then they went on to the next house. LOL. I had NEVER known that. I was so embarrassed when she told me. Libby would have been in 1st grade at the time and Frank in 2nd. The same age that Madi and Carlie are now

Still Goofy, After All These Years.

Ages 1 month, 12 months, 3 years and 4 years.



Ages 6 years, 7 years, 9 years and 10 years.

Still Goofy, After All These Years.

Make Up

The first year the girls took dance lessons, Carlie was too young to join a class. She was only 2 years old. So Madi and Libby got to dance. The two older girls had a recital at the end of the year. This was complete with costumes, dress rehersals, etc.

Well I had to have them in Wichita (30 minutes away) dressed and ready for their dress rehearsal early on the day of the recital. So we are rushing around trying to get costumes on, find all of their shoes, fix their hair and get their make up on. I left Carlie with Bob while I took the big girls to rehearsal.

In my haste to get out the door and get them to their dress rehearsal on time, I made a critical mistake. I left the make up bag sitting out!!!! Apparently Carlie had been watching all the hustle and bustle with a tad bit of jealously. So once I was out the door, she helped herself to the make up bag.

I got back from the dress rehearsal to find my two year old sitting in time out and looking like THIS.



Not sure if she was going for the Tonto look or Phantom of the Opera!!! Yeah, thanks Bob for keeping a good eye on her while I was gone!!

You know something bad is about to happen when you walk in the door and the first thing your husband says is "Go on. Show your Mother what you've done!!!" LOL.

Would You Get OFF of ME!!!

When we first moved to Wichita, Carlie had just turned two. It was the first time we'd lived with the kids in a big city where we had access to things like the YMCA.

I was so excited and enrolled the kids in several different classes at the Y. The kids took swimming lessons. I put Carlie and I in a class called Tumble Tots for kids ages walking to 2 years. It was a parent child class. Carlie always talked like a grown up when she was little (like my niece, Morgan). She was also very head strong.

At the beginning of the class, the Mommies and Babies were supposed to sit on the floor with the child and do stretches. Then after the stretches were completed the kids got to play on tumbling equipment with their parent. Well Carlie liked the playing part, but she didn't want anything to do with the stretching. She would get up and run away.

Finally one day, I decided I was going to hold her down and we were going to DO the stretches. So I'm trying to wrestle her into place. I look down the line of other parents and kids and all the other babies are sitting there with their parents doing their nice little stretches and saying things like "Hi, Mommy!" "Look, Mommy" "Find Ball".

Meanwhile it's taking all my strength to wrestle MY child down to the mat. Then Carlie finally yells at me (sounding like she's six years old) "Would you get OFF of ME!!!!" As everyone in the class stopped what they were doing to look at us, I just gave an embarrassed chuckle and shrugged.

Libby's Revenge

When Frank got angry, he was going to throw a big tantrum (or do something spectacular) and everyone was going to know about it. Now Libby reacted completely differently. She'd give you the evil eye, and then get even with you later.

When she was four years old, she went through a period where she colored on the walls every time she was alone. I was complaining about this to my Mom, and she said "All kids color on the wall. YOU did it." My reply was "I colored on the wall ONCE, got a spanking, and never did it again!!!!" Libby just kept on doing it.

We gave her a bucket and a soapy rag and made her scrub it all off, we grounded her, we spanked her, and still she colored on the walls. She did that for about a year before she finally stopped.

Then one day she got in trouble (I don't remember what it was about) and she gave me the evil eye and skulked off somewhere. I thought that was the end of it. Later that night, I went to take a bath. I was going to read my romance novel in the tub. When I got to the bathroom, Libby had taken my paperback and torn all the pages up!!! That was her revenge!!!

Frank's Revenge

At one point we have two little foster boys named Dodge and Caleb. We were considering adopting them along with their two younger brothers. Dodge was 6, Caleb was 5, and Frank was 4.

One day they were playing out in the back yard. Like typical boys, Dodge and Caleb were poking Frank with a stick. I went out there and made them stop and had them apologize. I thought it was all over and done with.

We'd just moved into a new house, and I didn't have all of the beds put up yet, so Dodge and Caleb were sleeping on a pallette in the bedroom. When they got ready to go to bed that night, they came and got me and told me that their covers were all wet. I didn't really believe them, but I went in there to check and sure enough there was a big wet spot in the middle. At first I thought one of the cats had gotten in there and peed on the blankets, but I smelled of it and it smelled like HUMAN pee, not cat pee. So I lined them all up, and Frank confessed that he had done it because he was mad at them.

After we got all the beds set up, in one room we had bunkbeds along one wall and a full bed along the opposite wall. I walked into the room, and Frank was on the top of the bunkbed, peeing in an arc right into the middle of Dodge and Caleb's bed!! I made him change all of their covers!!!

Fast forward a few weeks, and he got mad at ME. So instead of standing in front of the toliet and peeing into it, he stood on the toliet and peed all along the back wall. So I got him a bucket and some soap and made him clean up the mess himself. Then I told him "Son, if you don't stop peeing on things...I...AM....GOING....TO...CUT....IT.....OFF!!!!!"

I'm not sure if it was the threat or the fact that he had to clean up his own pee, but one of the two worked, and he never peed on anything again.

Why Mom Never Gets a Hot Meal

From my journal five years ago today. Frank is 5, Libby is 4, Madi is 18 months, and Carlie is 8 months old. It's the end of football season, and as always I exhausted by then.


Bob is home tonight...so I think oh good...I have some help tonight. I go after school and pick the kids up from daycare. Its only 4:30...since Bob is home I think that I can get some errands done. So I drop the kids off with him....I leave Carlie and Madi both screaming because they want me....and Frank and Libby bawling because they want to go. So I go by the post office and mail Parker's package, fill my van up which is on empty, go by the library and pick out two new books on tape for my van, go to the bank and deposit our paychecks...then go to Sonic to get something to eat.

I get back home and immediately Madi and Carlie both want me. I stick Madi in the high chair and get her food ready and put her drink in a sippy cup, and give Frank and Libby their food and drink. Calie is screaming. Bob had a shake to drink...so I tell him to go drink this before it melts, and I will give Carlie a bottle. So he eats while I give Carlie her bottle. She finishes and wants her paci...and starts screaming for it. Its no where to be found because Madi stole it and ran off with it. So Bob and I look all over the house. We have SEVEN of these paci's and not one can be found. Finally I find one in a corner. I was going to give Carlie to Bob so that I can eat, but now Madi is throwing a fit in the high chair. She doesn't do this unless she needs something. I give her a spoon and fork...nope. I put her out...nope...put her back in ...nope...give he raisins...nope. Finally figure out she has a poopy diaper. So Bob goes to change her. I am still holding Carlie. So I put Carlie in her walker...thinking I can finally eat. I go to get my hamburger...and before I can sit down...Frank pokes a hole in the bottom of his styrafoam Sprite cup. It was completely full and floods the kitchen floor...his pants and my feet with sticky Sprite. So I get a mop and a towel and get it cleaned up somewhat...but the floor is still sticky. Again...I start to sit down...when Libby decides to pull off her shoes which are full of sand. The sand sticks to the sticky floor!!! Ugh!!!

So finally I do get to sit down with my food. And here comes Madi. She has been in the trash and retrieved Bob's empty shake cup with the straw. She has taken the straw off and licked the cup and has it all over her face. She runs toward my plate and is waving the straw. I am trying to catch her...while I wrestle the cup away from her...she takes the straw and jabs it in the ketchup on my plate and gives the straw a good whing...which splatters ketchup everywhere. Ugh!!! So I catch her....wipe the ketchup off of both of us...and the shake off her face. Take everything away from her. And guess what. She's pooped AGAIN. It smells like diarhea poop, so I figure I need to go change it quickly. So I go change her......Bob still has Carlie all this time who is still fussing off and on....and FINALLy get to sit down and finish eating!

Calgon...take me awaaaaayyyyy. LOL. All of this and it wasn't even 6PM yet!!!

Thrown out of Preschool

When we moved to Cleveland, Ok to both be teachers, it was 2002. The school system had a Non-For-Profit daycare that was available for teacher’s kids. It was cheap and convenient. The daycare was run by a board of teachers (all of them elementary teachers who had kids in the daycare).

We’d been in school for a few months when Bob and I were “called before the board”. By then, I was several months pregnant with Carlie and EXTREMELY irritable. We met with “the board” in one of the elementary classrooms, and I remember perching on one of the tiny little grade school chairs while these old biddies proceeded to tell me how awful my children were.

The more I listened to all the petty offenses, the angrier I became. They went on to tell me how their daycare was just not set up to handle “those kinds of children”. Finally, I blew I gasket. I stood and looked the snottiest one in the eye and began to speak

“You’re worried about MY son throwing a shoe at your daughter right now. What you SHOULD be worrying about is that no one is willing to take the time to help “Those kinds of children”. What you SHOULD be worrying about is whether or not my son will grow up and AXE MURDER your daughter in 20 years, because no one would take the time to help him when he was LITTLE.”

You could have heard a pin drop, and then the woman burst into tears and ran out of the room. The whole time I’m talking, Bob has me by my shirt tale saying “Julie….Julie….calm down Julie”. LOL. Poor Bob.

What’s even funnier is that this woman had twin girls who were Frank’s age. When they were in first grade, one of her twins was in Frank’s class and fell head over heads in love with him!!! We’d run into them in the store and the little girl would be hollering “FRANK!!! Frank!!! I love you Frankie!!!” And you could hear her Mother hissing at her to be quiet.

Until we moved away, I’d secretly hoped they’d get married some day. Hehehe. Karma gets you every time.

P.S. They still threw them out of the daycare, despite my speech!!! But we found a much better one!

Honk, Honk, Honk, Hooooonnk!!!

I think I've mentioned before that my husband is an optimist.....while I am what I call a "REALIST".

When the kids were really little, Bob would often leave them in the car with it running. I was constantly griping at him about this "Don't you know what could happen? They could get out of their car seats and put the car in gear. Someone could get in it and drive off." Yadda, yadda, Yadda.

Bob would always blow me off. That would NEVER happen, etc, etc.

Well one summer when Frank was 4 and Libby was 3, he had to go move the sprinklers on the football practice fields. There were a couple of them which mean he had to walk about 200 yards away from the mini-van. Because it was hot, he left it running with the kids in the car.

He got about 200 yrds away from the car, on the back side of one of the practice fields when he hears "Honk, honk, honk, Hooooooonk!!!!" Frank and Libby had unbuckled from their car seats and were honking out a tune on the mini-van horn. And Bob was 200 yards away.

The practice field was full of people, and they are all watching as Bob (who weighed about 400lbs at the time) is running back to the mini-van at a dead sprint in the heat. The whole way back they are merrily honking out tunes. He didn't leave them in the car by themselves any more after that!

Wild Night in 2004

The Wildness is still the same when you have as many kids as I do...its just the types of things they get into that changes

Feb 2004 - The kids are 5, 4, 2 and 1 years old.

I had the kids by myself tonight because Bob was running the clock at a Junior High Basketball Tournament. So I made them some dinner. Carlie had not taken a nap at daycare, so I'd put her down for a nap earlier. Before we could eat dinner, I caught Frank sneaking some marshmallows out of the cupboard without asking. He knows this is against in the rules and ended up in a tantrum where I had to hold him down. He hasn't done that in FOREVER. So I put him to bed for a while, and fed Madi and Libby. I made noodles in tomato sauce which everybody loves. By the time they were finished Carlie was awake, and I let Frank get up.

Frank was eating, and I was feeding Carlie yogurt which is her favorite. I'd just given Carlie a bite or two when Libby comes to tell me that Madi has locked herself in the bathroom (I imagine she had a little help, but can't prove it *wink*). So I have to leave Carlie in the high chair who throws a raging fit because she's not done eating her very favorite food...the yogurt. So I have to hunt up the set of little tiny screw drivers to spring the lock on the bathroom door. It only took about 10 minutes, but by the time I got Madi out she was so hysterical she was broken out all over in hives.

When I go back to check on Carlie...she is happily eating the noodles off of Madi's tray and is wearing them all over her. I guess I should be glad she wasn't eating them off the floor or eating cat food.

I then begin the bathing process. I call it a process because bathing four kids under the age of six is NEVER a simple chore. Since the bad incident a few weeks ago where Madi pooped in the tub while Libby was in it, Madi has had a phobia about poop in the tub. I had put Carlie into the tub first, and some of the noodles in her hair washed down into the tub. So when I tried to put Madi in the tub she started bawling hysterically again screaming *No Poop, No Poop, Carlie Pooped.* SOOO...I had to drain the tub with Carlie in it and refill it with clean water. At least now I have two kids clean.....two to go. Libby is in and out quickly and easily, and I am glad of this. Then I assume that Frank will be easy too. Well he was...except for the fact that Madi had gone back into the bathroom when I wasn't looking and threw a roll of toilet paper into his bathwater. Frank's supposed to have the door locked while he's in the tub to prevent such accidents from happening.

SOOOOO....I get all that cleaned up. In the mean time, I am about a month behind on Foster Care Logs which I'm trying to get caught up by Wednesday. Libby's teacher sends home a poster TODAY saying she's the Student of the Week this week and please put pictures and captions on it BY YESTERDAY. Hmmm...how do you do that one? And Frank's homeroom teacher calls while I am dishing Toilet Paper out of his bath water to ask me to please bring two bags of chips to his Valentine's Party on Friday.

Bob walks in the door a few minutes later and cheerfully says *Hi Honey, how was your day?* and can't figure out why I looked daggers at him. LOLOLOL.

Granny's Response

Oh well, those are the happy times you will remember twenty years from now. LOL Love, Mom

Aunt JoLynn's Response

Hahahaha! I am dying laughing at Madi not wanting to get in the tub cause she thought Carlie pooped in there!!

Cleaning the Kitchen When the Kids were Little

This was written when Frank was 5, Libby was 4, Madi was 2 and Carie was a newborn.

We have been cleaning the kitchen. We had so much fun. I gave Frank, Libby and Madi all wipes and they wiped down EVERYTHING. I get the cheap orange spray at the Dollar Store for a $1 for a big bottle. We used about half of one. LOL. Madi was right in the middle saying *I want some spray. I want some spray.* Then I got out the mops. I had two good ones. So I used one, and I set the timer on the stove for five minutes. So they each got to mop five minutes, and the one who wasn't mopping got to water my flowers.

Now my kitchen is sparkly clean. I didn't want to mess the floors up, so I sent the big kids outside to eat with a picnic.