Sweet Corn

Isn't this the cutest little ear of Indiana Sweet Corn you've ever seen?

I decided to sneak a few shots of Tess before the wild rumpus that is this weekend begins.  (Busy busy fun weekend!)

I figured most pictures of her would look like this, since she's not a big fan of large groups or wild rumpusses.  (Rumpusi?  Rumpussies?  Rumpai?)

This ridiculously cute costume is courtesy of my ridiculously talented friend, Gigi.  Can you believe she made this costume without a pattern?  Madness. Gigi is awesome; I wish I could be more like her.  I've been wanting to put a baby of my own in it ever since I saw it on Gigi's daughter, and Tess finally gave me the chance.  Gigi's the best ever for letting me borrow it!

Oh mercy, I just want to eat her up!

 

You'll have to excuse the billion and one photos I took of her.  But she's a baby.  Wearing a corn costume.  Billions of pictures must be taken.

 

 

Nom. Nom. Nom.

I wanted to take pictures of her outside with the pumpkins, but it was a bit chilly out for little ears of corn.  I knew I should have done it last week!  Oh well.

Sweet corn!

Money Pit

Have you ever seen the movie The Money Pit, with Tom Hanks and Shelley Long?  If you own a home it's a must-see.  It's about this newly married couple who buy this big old house that they think will be wonderful and an investment and instead turns out to need a million repairs.  So they make all of these repairs, resulting in many hilarious situations and the end of their marriage.

I've been thinking about this movie a lot today.

Not that our house (or my marriage) is falling apart.  But all of our appliances seem to be dying off, one by one.  Let's review what we've replaced in the last few months:

1. Washing machine (although, in all fairness, we brought that to the house)
2. Sewer pump
3. Water softener

And now we get to add a number four: Water heater.

Yes, we were informed today that our water heater is slowly dying.  While I appreciate the fact that we still have hot water, I do not appreciate the timing.  Sheesh.  The plumber (who now recognizes my name and number - is that a bad thing?) was impressed with our current water heater.  But not in a good way.  Apparently the last homeowners put in the cheapest, worst water heater ever.  The plumber was impressed that it had lasted as long as it did.

This kills me.  It makes me mad at the last homeowners.  I know it's not really their fault, but come on!  When Lance and I buy stuff like that we try to get a good deal, but we also don't buy junk.  We try to get quality that will actually last. We are slowly learning that this last couple did not share this same concept.  The basement appliances were all cheap and stupid; the plumbing was done in an odd way; and the paint on the walls?  Don't get me started.  (It's all builder's grade and needs to be redone.  Yesterday.)  Oh, and the kitchen counters?  Awful.  I keep dreaming of getting them replaced, but all of my counter money is going to boring things like water heaters.

Oh, and the appliances that all seem to be really nice and they probably paid a lot of money for?  I hate them.  The fridge looks fine, but is terrible inside; it barely holds anything.  And anytime you put anything on the stove it leaves a black mark.  (Even when just boiling water!)  And the dishwasher?  Not so great. It's noisy and Cole keeps picking the buttons off.  Why couldn't those have been the appliances that died?  They'll probably be the ones that last forever and I'll never have an excuse to replace them.

Well, regardless of how much I dislike my kitchen appliance, I am calling a moratorium on all appliance deaths.  No more!  Our budget cannot handle it!  We would like at least three months inbetween major unexpected expenses!  No more, I say!  No more.

Nose Full of Kryptonite

My Kryptonite Cold Virus

You know how most super heroes have some sort of fatal weakness?  Like Superman and Kryptonite, and... er... Harry Potter and, uh, Potions class... and Spiderman... and his bad puns?  The Wicked Witch didn't like water, so that kinda counts... Wait.

Okay, forget that first part.  You know how Superman is impervious to everything but Kryptonite?  You get just a little bit around him and he loses all of his super strength and powers?

Not to compare myself to Superman (even though all moms are Superman in some way or another), but I have found my Kryptonite for the season: the common cold virus.

In the past I have dealt just fine with colds.  They come, I'm miserable for a day or two, and then they go away.  But I've noticed over the past few years (and as I add more children to the home... hmmm...) that my colds have become worse and worse and last longer and longer.  I tried all sorts of stuff: Mucinex, zinc, essential oils, none really seemed to help.  In fact, the best thing I could do is try to rest and get lots of sleep.  With all my kids at home.  Ha!

Last week I came down with a cold, hard and strong.  I couldn't breathe.  I couldn't sleep.  I was miserable for a long time. 

Then it started to get better.  Then Sunday night it got worse.  A lot worse.  Like, "Just Kill Me Now" worse.  Oh man, this cold is flattening me.  Cough cough cough all day long.  Hack hack hack.  And then yesterday my nose started to run.  And run and run and run.  It was literally like a faucet!  I gave up and just walked around with tissues up my nose.  Lance wisely kept his comments to himself.  (Poor Lance - he probably wonders what happened to his super-wife every time he gets into bed, as I snort and snore and cough the night away.)

I broke down and bought some super-strength antihistamines today.  (They usually knock me out and I have too much stuff to do, but desperate times and all...)  I practically had to sign Tess away at the pharmacy to get the drugs.  In fact, I bargained with them and said they could have Cole instead, which they agreed to until he started running around like the looney bedlamite that he is.  So instead they just took my driver's license number.  (Because, you know, I so fit the profile of a meth addict.)

Anywho, drugs.  Powerful drugs.  Nothin'.  I've been waiting two hours and my nose is STILL running.  I decided to see if a little caffeine would help (it being a diuretic and all), but one Diet Dr. Pepper later and I have a little buzz going on but still have the runny nose.

Curse you, freakishly-drug resistant Kryptonite germ virus!! 

I have a huge weekend coming up.  Family coming into town, parties to throw and go to.  Trick or treating, for Pete's sake!  Too much to do, and not easily done with tissue up my nose. (Maybe I can make it part of a costume?)  Let's just hope I can get rid of this Kryptonite over the next few days.

Random P.S.: I don't care what anyone says - Gene Hackman was the best Lex Luthor ever.

Have You Ever Been So Tired...

...that you fell asleep while your daddy was pushing you in the swing?

 

 

And then stayed asleep during a diaper change?

Cole has.

Lava Mess

Somehow Josh knew that it was Lance's and my dream to clean up a broken lava lamp.  On a Sunday morning. In our church clothes.  Ten minutes before we're supposed to leave before church.

There was glass and blue water and lava gunk all over the place.  What a mess.

We still haven't figured out how to clean the blue out of the grout.

Cole kept trying to walk on the glass and play in the blue water.  Tess kept fussing on the couch.  Josh hid.  Spencer kept talking incessantly about something completely unrelated.  Lance and I cleaned and cleaned and cleaned.

Kids get us into interesting situations, don't they?

We still made it to church on time.  Lance and I rock.

Green Becomes Her

Ignore the tears.  They're from when she was gagging herself with a spoon earlier.

See Food.  Yum!

Six Month Comparisons

I thought it'd be fun to look at all of my babes at six months old.

Mr. Spencer William

(a.k.a. "The Heir")

 Mr. Joshua Roper

(a.k.a. "The Spare")

Mr. Cole Robert

(a.k.a. "And Cole")

Miss Tess

(a.k.a. hmmm... I don't know.  She doesn't have a title yet.  Suggestions?)

Well, you can certainly tell they're all Madsen babies!  Just look at those cheeks!

6 Months

Can you believe it?  Miss Tess is 6 months old!

As you can see, she's pretty happy about it.  In fact, we're all pretty happy about it - I think I like this stage of baby-dom the best.  She's so squishy and cute and still likes to be held and doesn't think she needs to be entertained all the time.

Don't  you just love the face she's making?  But what's up with my hair?  I look like one of the Beatles.  Yikes.  Why did I even bother doing it this morning, what with all the rain and wind and such?

At her check up this morning she weighed in at a whopping 17 pounds 4 ounces (50th percentile).  She's 25 1/4 inches long (25th percentile).

Poor baby had to have FOUR shots.  To say Tess was displeased is putting it mildly.  Since Josh had his Kindergarten shots a few weeks ago, he at first hid in the corner and was quite upset that poor Tess had to have shots.  But then he came out to try to comfort her; it was quite cute.

I still don't know who she looks like.  She just looks like Tess.  She looks like her brothers, that's who she looks like.  She acts like them, too, in that she doesn't like to stand or put weight on her legs and, while perfectly capable of doing so, refuses to roll over.  She will lean as far as she can go without actually rolling over in order to reach something.  But get on her tummy?  No way.

The pediatrician mentioned that they do have laser treatments for hemangiomas like the one on Tess's cheek, but she didn't recommend it because they're pricey and they kinda hurt.  I agreed.  Plus, they tend to grow until they're about 18 months old and then start to shrink.  Why put this cutie through what would most likely be something quite traumatic if it's just gonna go away on its own?

Besides, Tess doesn't seem to care about it.

Miss Tess, I could just eat you up.

Random Gratitude

I've kinda been in a funk lately.  I haven't been feeling well, the kids have already started to develop cabin fever because of all of this incessant rain, and all of my precious free time (what little of it I had) is being eaten up with editing and other projects I'm not so keen about.  Which means I don't have much time for projects I do want to work on. 

*sigh* 

Oh, and now Lance and I have a new calling that I'm not so sure about: we're ward missionaries. 

True story: when they released me as Primary President and Lance as Executive Secretary the bishop said he wanted to give us callings that we could do together.  So they called us as ward missionaries - but also put Lance in nursery.  So I had all of 6 weeks or so to actually sit in Sunday School with my husband.  And since I can't go alone on splits with the missionaries and we certainly can't take all of our kids and I don't expect someone to watch them then (they always want to go out at 7pm - prime bedtime) and we can't afford to pay a babysitter every week, I'm not sure how much time we'll actually be spending together in this calling.

The ward mission leader wants us to take 2 hours a week to go visit less active families in the ward.  Okaaaayyy... not so sure about all six of us showing up on someone's doorstep uninvited and unexpected!  I could find someone to watch the kids, but not every week.  That's just too much - for all of us.  We could go on a Saturday or a Sunday, but our Saturdays are already over-booked for the next month, plus, the chances of catching anyone home on a Saturday afternoon are slim at best.  And Sundays after church?  I don't know about your kids, but mine are generally little imps of Satan after church.  (Irony?)

*sigh* *sigh*

So I've had a personal pity party for the past few days.  But today I decided that was over.  Sure I feel gross, but I've certainly been sicker in the past.  Buck it up.  And the kids are punks.  Oh well.  They're kids; that's their job.  (At which they excel.)  So editing isn't always so fun - at least I have this option to work at home.  And my calling is a little challenging.  The Lord put us there for a reason; time to stop whining and start figuring out what I can do instead of dwelling on what I cannot.

I also decided I needed to recognize more things to be grateful about.  So here's the random list that I made in my head today.

• Heated car seats (One of the greatest inventions of the 20th century, my friends.)
• Pumpkin chocolate chip cookies
• Humidifiers
• OxiClean (Because Tess poops more than any baby I've ever met; no diaper can withhold her.)
• Zombie books around Halloween
• Pumpkins!
• The basic sewing skills my mother taught me.  Sure, I could have learned more because she was a great seamstress, but I was a teenager who knew better.  Anywho, I'm not making ball gowns any time soon, but I can make some basic jedi robes and Yoda ears.
• Kisses on each cheek from Cole when I pick him up
• The sound of rain on the roof at night
• Really good vacuum cleaners
• A basement I can close the door to so I don't have to see the mess my kids made
• Dumb jokes that 2nd graders think are hysterical
• Listening to Josh sing "Ghostbusters!"

Oh, and if this post weren't random enough already, here are a couple of pics of my Tessie girl.  Because, you know, why not?

FOUR Hours

I don't know what Spencer was doing at school today, but it certainly wasn't any work.  He brought it all home and now we've been working on it for the past four hours. 

The past FOUR hours.

He claims he didn't get it done at school because he had all of these other things going on - AR testing on the computer, library time, etc.  I know that Spencer is a slow-poke and a talker.  A TALKER. I know he often doesn't finish all of his work and has to bring it home.

But FOUR hours worth?  Seriously?  And this time it hasn't all been whining and crying - once I told him that if he didn't finish at a certain time he wouldn't be able to read any Harry Potter tonight he got his hiney into gear and worked as hard and as fast as he could.

This all leads me to the very loaded question of Where The Heck Was His Teacher During The Day?

I know she cannot police my child all day.  I don't expect her to.  He's in the high ability class and more is expected of him.  But FOUR HOURS worth of homework?  I mean, seriously, what teacher would not notice that a student wasn't getting ANYTHING done ALL DAY? 

I'm probably opening a can of worms here, but I really want to know.  And I feel like picking a fight.  (A small one, not a big one.  If I wanted a big one I would have posted this question on Facebook instead.)

Are there any teachers out there that can help me out?  I really need to get this off of my chest before I meet with the woman on Thursday for parent/teacher conferences. 

That is, if I can get away from the homework long enough.

Sheesh.

Sunday Smiles: Improving!

Tess is really getting better with the camera.  In fact, she was fussing yesterday when I put her on the couch for her weekly photo shoot, but when I brought out the camera and said "cheese!" she started smiling and cooing just like a pro.  (I think we have a kind of Pavlovian thing goin' on here.)

In this one her grin reminds me of a baby picture I've seen of my dad.  Maybe they had the same double-chins as babies.

What a cute little Tessie-girl I have!  Too bad the lighting wasn't better, or I would have gotten more pictures.  That, and I think my camera is slowly dying.  (Hang in there, camera!  I don't have the budget to replace you any time soon!  I love you!)

Now it's time to get back to the seemingly constant coughing and hacking that I have been enjoying in the evenings lately.  This cold started off so bad on Thursday night that I thought it could only get better.  I was wrong.  When we die I hope we get to ask a few questions about life here on earth.  One of my first will be "Why colds?  I mean, really, what was their purpose?"  Because I can't think of one good reason for colds. 

My next question will be "Why did you create Nevada?", which was a question posed by my (then) seven or eight year old brother Kevin as we drove through Nevada's barren wasteland to get back to Zion California after a trip to Utah.  I've pondered it ever since.

Tess Halloween Outfit

Dad and Susie bought Tess a cute Halloween outfit.  Now that it's finally cool enough to wear I put it on Tess and tried to have a little photo shoot.

Cole decided he wanted in on the action. Actually, he decided that he should get all of the attention, NOT Tess, which is why there are so few pics.  Oh well, I'm sure we'll get more since she's gonna be wearin' this outfit all month!

Tess really wants to be able to sit up by herself, but as you can see she's not quite there yet.

The little monster on the side of her shirt has teeth, horns, and eyes that glow in the dark.  It thought about trying to get a picture of that, but then reconsidered.  Taking a toddler and a baby into a dark closet just didn't seem like the greatest of ideas just then.

If you think that's cute, just wait until you see her Halloween costume!

Have You Ever Been So Tired...

... that your mom tried to bribe you with peanut butter and pretzels so you'd stay awake?

 

Cole has.  (It worked, too!  Mostly.)

See the awesomeness on video!

How Old Does He Think I Am?

I think Spencer suspects that I am ancient.  Ancient.

Yesterday we were discussing the book Tom Sawyer, which his class recently read.  We talked about Tom and what his school was like.

Spencer just assumed that when I went to school the boys and the girls were separated by gender in the classroom.

Because, you know, I went to school with Tom Sawyer.

(Side note and fun fact and true story: one of my youth leaders growing up was named Tom Sawyer.  Really and truly, his real name was Tom Sawyer and he was awesome.  He took me skeet shooting a couple of times and each time he tricked me by putting in a trick shell that blew confetti and was super-strong and made the shot gun kick hard against your shoulder and made it ache for days.  Good times.)

Today Spencer and I were discussing Indiana history.  I told him I was glad that he was studying Indiana history because then I would learn it.  Why didn't I already know Indiana history?  Because I grew up in North Carolina and learned North Carolina history.

Spencer: So, you didn't speak English?  What language did you speak?

Me: Wait, what?  Spencer, I spoke English.  Because North Carolina is a state.  In the United States of America.  Just like Indiana.

Spencer: Yeah, but it was a long time ago.

I am ANCIENT.

Smiles!

I have been teaching Tess how to ignore the camera and just smile.  She was extra good at it today because I think she's finally feeling better.  (I think she had a bit of the flu.)

Love those fat rolls!  (She's storing up for winter.)

And you gotta love those big, toothless smiles!

I know she's not smiling in this one.  But I love all her chins.

Okay, no smiles in this one either.  But I like that she somehow got the rings stuck around her foot.

Who has the cutest baby ever?  Me, that's who.