Calming the Chaos

WPA/PPS day one

2009-06-08T21:44:00.002-05:00

Today we started Princess Prep School and Warrior Prince Academy at the main campus of our church. I was excited for my kids to get to do this even though I knew it would require very long days. We left our house at 7:45, ate breakfast in the car, and did not sit down or slow down until we ate lunch at 12:45! That alone made for 3 crazy acting children. We ate lunch at the restaurant that is in our church building, Jane's Grill. It fast ( sometimes), it's yummy, inexpensive and most importantly it is located on the campus. I just assumed that after our long day my kids would pile in to the car for our 30 minute drive home and fall right to sleep.

I of course was wrong. They talked and sang and fought over the Rexy that came in their Mcdonald's toy box from a few days before. Right at we turned into our neighborhood Jocelyn fell asleep. I was VER Y excited as she is my "non-Napper" and since I was hoping to get a nap in myself I really needed her to be asleep. I carried her to the couch and laid her down and then moved Graham into my room. My room is his favorite napping spot and he usually curls right up and goes to sleep. Riley of course went straight to his room ( it's nice having a big kid).

I came out to the living room to get some paper work done for Warrior Prince Academy and spent about 10 min. typing away. Finally I closed the computer and went to curl up with Graham. When I walked in to my room it smelled yummier than it was supposed to. I searched quickly for Graham who was not in the bed and I found him tucked in the corner of my Bathroom COVERED in Donna Karen Lotion. I asked him where he got it and he pointed to my beautiful bedding. There in the middle of my awesome bedding was a huge pile of Donna Karen Lotion. Spread smoothly into a slippery circle about 12 inches by 12 inches. It was on the carpet , the bed, the night stand, the books near the bed, everywhere!!!!! After a spanking and a time out. PLus a NEVER sleep in my bed again warning, I moved him upstairs and began to clean the mess. When I got to the sheets I scooped them up and carried them to my laundry room. and that's when I saw the beautiful picture Jocelyn had drawn for me.....on the half bathroom door....with a SHARPIE. I dropped the clothes in the hall and rushed forward to see the picture was actually more of a MURAL that started in the kitchen on my cabinets and wrapped around to the wall and THEN the bathroom door and them the inside of the bathroom wall finally finishing on the toilet seat. Isn't she so thoughtful to give me that hand-made one of a kind Mural. I will be so tragically sad to have to leave it here when he finally move out of this house. :) Jocelyn's mural really adds to the uniqueness of the half bathroom. It is after all the bathroom that is missing the back of the toilet because Graham pushed it off, causing it to shatter, because he wanted to see inside the tank.

In conclussion I would like to say:

If you are looking to remodel your own home, please consider hiring my children they do one-of -a-kind projects that are always permanent additions to your homes retail value.

Life

2009-05-21T09:02:00.002-05:00

Life has been freakishly busy but also amazingly rewarding lately. I had a GREAT mother's day! We spent the day with my dad and step mom at the baseball game. The kids had a blast! Riley watched the entire game, Jocelyn ATE the entire game, and Graham practiced his swing with every batter.

The kids have been out riding bikes, playing on the swingset, and swimming at the pool. SUMMER IS ALMOST HERE! I am pumped for summer. I have even let Riley play hookey one day to go swimming with us! I am so ready for summer break to be here!

I will post sson about our trip to the strawberry patch!

Graham's Rare Find

2009-04-27T12:43:00.004-05:00

My Grahambo is at the age where everything he says is odd and funny. I will be sad when my last child passes through this funny stage. Luckily I will always have the memories of the funny things he has said so bring a smile to my face.

We were shopping recently at Target(We shop there way to much). All of a sudden Graham gets a HUGE smile on his face. He is standing in the basket of the cart and he begins to jump up and down and scream repeatedly "Ghost Milk!" "mommy, I see Ghost Milk" I look up with wonder to see what he was pointing at with such excitement. This is what my darling child had spotted:

Bottled Water! I could not help but burst out laughing at the VERY logical conclusion that my 2 year old come to find. There was just no other explanation. It HAD to be Ghost Milk. We were all so excited to see this rare find! We bought 2 jugs of the rare "ghost Milk". Graham drank so much of it! He was so proud of the treasure he had found for all of us! :)

Mystery Responder

2009-04-22T13:22:00.002-05:00

I have a mystery. I need it solved. Who can help?

I posted about Graham in the plush bus and someone left a comment.

Here are the clues:

Her name is Traci.

She went to elementary school with me.

she was able to find my blog.

There is no photo and there is no way to link back to her.

Those are all of my clues. I had a few friends named Traci in Elementary school. 3 were spelled with an i. One of those I talk to on FB. One of those I can't remember her last name. One of those was my good friend who I have hunted for online. If you have any clues about the Mystery Poster, or if you are the mystery poster, please post again with more info. I am also on FB look me up!

The Plush Bus

2009-04-16T15:13:00.005-05:00

Riann, my supportive friend, bridesmaid, Godmother to Riley, Aunt to my children is moving away. I am terribly sad to see her and her hubby Chris move to Georgia with their to beautiful children Bria and Emily. Their moving date is fast approaching. We decided to get together today to spend some time with each other before she leaves. Graham enjoyed seeing baby Emily. Before beginning to play the little piggy game he asked the cutest question. “ will she bite me”? After being reassured that 4 month old Emily had no intention of biting him, he began to tickle her cute toes. When it was time for lunch we headed over to “spot”, CiCi’s Pizza.

We arrived about 1:45 and so the lunch crowd was long gone. There were only a handful of other tables and none of those had children. When Jocelyn and graham asked if they could go to the game room I said yes. They were pleasantly surprised because I always say no. There are usually too many kids in that room and too many adults lingering around for me to feel safe. I checked on them a few times and they came out a few times to check in and everything was going great. Jocelyn came out and smiled so big and went on to tell me how much fun she and Graham were having with the animals. I looked at her excited face with intrigue as she continued to tell me how soft they were to touch. I slowly arose from my chair and went in to the game room where I found this:

I ran out to Riann and yelled he is IN the animal game! I ran into to look at him again. Then I remembered my camera! I ran out and yelled again he is in with the stuffed animals! I grabbed my camera and took a few shots.

I even tried to help him escape!

I was begining to wonder if I would be the crazy mom on tv who is crying about her kid stuck in the game! Luckily there was no need to call the fire department or the news crew! Soon the manager, along with everyone else in the restaurant, had come over to check on the commotion. The manager was even taking pictures on his cell phone! He began to dig around for the key. After about five minutes he finally found the right one and opened up “the plush bus” and pulled my happy kiddo out! Graham was not scared at all. Graham did not get to keep a cute toy, but I did let him have a brownie!

Thank you my sweet friend Riann, for coming over and sharing in one last hurrah with us! I know you will miss us when you move to Georgia and life gets boring!

We all know that life is never boring in OUR household! What will you do without us for excitement? What will we do without you:(!?

2009-04-13T12:23:00.002-05:00

2009-04-13T10:03:00.000-05:00

I forgot to post Easter pics!

2009-04-13T09:45:00.002-05:00

He is Risen!

2009-04-13T09:19:00.002-05:00

We have had an eventful Easter weekend! The kids spent Good Friday with my Dad and step-mom which made getting ready for Easter pretty easy! I went up to the Woodlands to see my friend Melody and to get her help finding some cute Easter outfits ( nothing like waiting til the last minute).The adventure was a success! I got Riley and Graham coordinating oxford shirts. Jocelyn already had a dress I had purchased a while back but was saving for Easter. They looked super cute when they go to wear them to Easter service at church. We were taking them to the Saturday night service at Second for many reasons. However, my kids were VERY confused when I got them dressed in their "Easter Clothes" on Saturday night because they knew Easter was on Sunday! We made it through the egg hunt at church and I even survived a VERY chaotic Saturday night G.I.G.L. worship service and then it was back home to prepare for Easter Sunday when all of our family would be coming to visit.

Easter Sunday was going off without a hitch when suddenly I heard painful crying coming from the living room. I ran in to find Jocelyn lying on the floor near our coffee table. The table is VERY heavy and I knew it had to have crushed her when she hit it. Someone( I do not even remember who) scooped her up and was moving her to the couch. I ran past them to grab an ice pack from the freezer and I ran it back to them and placed it on her head. Then I ran into the other room to grab the childrens tylenol. When I got back over to her she was doing the slow blink thing and she was wanting to fall asleep. So we sat her up quickly and her Nanny checked her out. Nanny is a nurse and I was very thankful that she was around to help. Jocelyn curled up on the couch with my Dad while I went to talk to Riley would had in fact pushed her into the coffee table. After much discussion and many tears we came to a great punishment, I think. Since Riley was unkind to his sister his punishment is to serve his sister. He will have to set her place at dinner every night making sure she has her napkin, plate, fork , and her drink. He willhave to get her whatever shee needs during the meal, more water, extra napkin, second helping, etc. Then it will be his job to clean and clear all of her stuff. I told him he would have to do this for as long as she has the bruise/goose egg on her forehead. I bet it will end up being close to 3 weeks. I am curious to see how this punishment works. I will keep ya'll updated! Jocelyn is feeling much better today and I of course checked in on her all night long.

It made for an eventful Easter!

6 Months

2009-04-02T21:21:00.002-05:00

This has to be some kind of record. I have gone more than 6 months between posts on my blog. Ya’ll probably thought that I had given up on the idea of this crazy blog, but I have not. I just forgot about it for awhile in the midst of my chaotic life! I have decided that it is time to let you all back into our lives.

We will start with today’s chaos but I promise to fill you in on the missing paint on my walls at a later time.

So, today.

Graham woke up from his nap crying and saying he needed a new pull-up. I hollered up at him to just come down to me. He said no he needed a pull-up. So I grab a pull up and head up the stairs to help him out. When I got upstairs I quickly realized the problem. Graham did not need a pull-up, he had throw-up. The poor kiddo! That’s why he did not want to come down to mom! He then proceeded to be sick all afternoon. My dad and step mom were coming over to take the kids on a date to their favorite restaurant, Tony’s Mexican food so that I could go to an eye doctor appt. I called to cancel with my folks but they insisted that I keep the appointment. My dad took the big kids to Tony’s and Nana stayed with Graham. I hated leaving Graham when he was sick, but having to reschedule would have been such a hassle. The appointment was short and sweet and I was very thankful for a Doctor who is on time!

Graham will be crashing in my bed tonight so that I will be close to him if he needs me. I hate to have a sick kid, but I LOVE all the extra cuddles I get when one of them is sick. I am planning a day of cuddles tomorrow! I already have our “cuddle” movies all lined up! We will be watching Family fave “Flight of the Navigator” and introducing “ Labyrinth”! It should make for a great day!

I am so blessed to have such great parents to call on when I need help! Thanks guys for watching a sick kid and for being brave enough to take 2 kids out to eat with out me! Ya’ll are the best.

Now I am off to bed to cuddle with my littlest dude.

Summer Update

2008-08-14T00:21:00.007-05:00

WOW Summer has just flown by and I have been feeling so overwhelmed with all my kids at the house running around. Lots has happened this summer and I wish I could take the time to layout the summer for ya'll but,it is just to late at night for that.

A few weeks ago My husbands cousin got married. We went down to the wedding( it was at the beach) It was a fun night away from the kids and we really enjoyed oursleves. Here is a pic from the wedding.....

Spending time at the beach has been a BIG summer activity for us. We took the kids to the Beach for the fourth of July. Jocelyn Loved it so much! She took her flip flpos off right away and danced in the sand like tinkerbell. THe boys liked the beach but Jocelyn LOVED IT. A few weeks later we had soem good friends come home from Indonesia for a visit. They had a big beach Bash. My kids had such a good time. Riley was really into wave boarding. Bruce took all the kids way out in the water. I of course stayed close to the beach. I hate all the sea weed in the water it creeps me out!

This has been our most "classic" summer. SOmetimes life gets so hectic that I can't find time to eat much less slow down and enjoy my life. There have been many ocasions this summer where I have been able to relax with my kids and spend summer the way I remember spending it as a child. We have been to the pool. the library, had popsicles every week. With my kids getting older doing regular activities has gotten easier and easier and I have enjoed the freedom that has given us.

I hope all of you are enjoying summer as much as we have been!

MISS ME???

2008-05-18T19:48:00.010-05:00

Quick update.... We have been so sick! We have had pink eye, strep, bronchitis, pneumonia, double ear infections, and sinus infections.... I hope I did not leave anything out!

Life has been a blur. Here are some pics to update you better

These ar epics of Jocelyn and Bruce at the Dads and Dolls Luau Date night at church!

Here is Bruce and I on a rare date night to see John Fogerty at the Rodeo!

This is Riley on Story book day at school!

Graham finally got his first haircut!

Here are a few of my fave easter pics!

Here is a new fave of Graham. He has Jocelyn's sunglasses, Riley's hat and his own 2 pacifiers!

Riley Lost a tooth! It is his first one!

Okay! Whew! You are sorta caught up now, I will post again this week so watch for news from the fam!

Have a blessed day!

Hello Faithful readers!

2008-03-04T15:21:00.002-06:00

Hello there all and sorry for the delay in a new post!

It is of course the fault of the terrible twosome. Which one to blame though remains a mystery.

I always blog on my laptop that I keep in the living room. I am in complete view of all my kiddos. Howeever, one of them knocked it off the coffee table bending the prong to the cord. ANd NOW it does not recognize that it is plugged in. So Now I have to Blog from the upstairs computer in the office. and having to leave my kiddos to do that is not a good idea!

Other than the broken computer, not much has been going on here.

We have Rodeo tickets this week so I will post soon and let ya'll now how things go. We are excited to see what happens there. We are seeing John fogerty ( of CCR fame) and then Toby Keith.

Sorry for the short post, I do not have much time!

Jersey Boys

2008-02-20T13:39:00.001-06:00

At the last minute my dad and step mom had an extra ticket to see Jersey Boys! I was so excited to see it( and it was an awesome show) However, I should warn those of you who might want to see it also that the language is AWFUL! Someone had mentioned to me that it was bad, but I was still shocked when I heard it come out of an actors mouth on the stage! It is F-this and F-that. At first it really throws you off, but after awhile the shock is over. My Step moms good friend lives in Jersey and she said they really do talk like that to each other.

Jersey boys is the story of Frankie Vallie and the four seasons. I realized how much I loved their music. So my step mom ordered us some CDS. I can hardley wait until they get here!

Happy Belated valentine's day!!

2008-02-19T15:22:00.002-06:00

Here are some pics showing ya'll what the kids and I gave Bruce for Valentine's day.

I really love the thought of valentine's day But I really do NOT like the pressure it puts on people. My hubby knows he is going to be in big trouble if he buys me 80 dollar rose that next week will be back down to 10 dollars. It just seems like such a waste. We have made kind of a silly tradition instead.

We spend less than 10 dollars( we got him this picture frame and the pics in it for $1.36 plus tax!) I got a hilarious card! Then we make Breakfast for dinner( heart shaped pancakes) it is a HUGE hit with our Kids!

I am a Big Girl Now!

2008-02-15T14:16:00.008-06:00

Jocelyn turned 3! The day after Jocelyn got her stitches out was here 3rd Birthday! We took her out for dinner to get her favorite thing Mexican food! She Loves Beans and cheese! and of course T-T's( which are actually tortillas). She ate so good! Her big brother Riley gave her a very sweet toast ( his idea) it only took 4+ attempts of glass banging to finally get the toast out, but he did it! It was such a big kid thing to do!

Here he is Deep in thought during the toast!

Jocelyn was so happy that all her Grandparents had come to have dinner with her! She loves Mexican food and we usually give her little piles of her favorites. On this night we looked over and she was loading pieces of tortilla up with Queso and beans and then wrapping it up like an enchilada! She was shoveling it right in. I guess we can move on to more grown up food for her!

Graham is also a super eater! This night though he did something so funny! After he dropped his fork he tried a new way of eating.

I guess this is the mess we get for trying to teach him NOT to eat with his hands!

This week Jocelyn also got her big Girl bed! She slept fine all night! We had no problems and no falling out. Things are changing here in our house! It feels so good to be leaving the baby side of life, but it also feels kind of sad! All part of growing up!

STITCHES!!!!

2008-02-15T08:26:00.006-06:00

I am Very sorry for the long pause in my blogging.

Blogging is a little bit therapeutic for me. I often find Humor in our lives, but it usually takes a good week or so after the act for it to be funny to me. With blogging I have found the humor so much faster. All of this is leading to the great reason for the lack of posts.

We had a terrible thing happen and It has been 2 weeks and I am just now able to bring myself to blog about the STITCHES!

My beautiful daughter was climbing on a wooden bed frame to a day bed at her great grandmothers house. Bruce and I were in the bathroom painting and pulling off wallpaper. When her Great grandmother brings her into to us. Jocelyn looks like a vampire! She has blood gushing out of both sides of her mouth. ( that area bleeds so much). It was hard to tell where the blood was coming from exactley. We ran to the kitchen and blotted the blood away and put some ice on her mouth. We couldn't tell if she had bit through her lip with her bottom teeth or her top. We rushed her to the ER and they took us right back to give us the bad news. She needed STITCHES! or her BEAUTIFUL face! The ER dr also told us it was one of the worst places to have a cut on the face. SHe crossed over aand cut both lip and regular skin. He said it would definitely leave a scar. WE paged the plastic surgeon who could not get there for another three Hours! ( which was actually four hours by the time he showed up)

I will spare ya'll the sad details of the stitches and the IV and the throwing up in the car on the way home. and i will leave you with just some pics of her lip.

Here she is 15 or so hours AFTER it happened

And here she is 2 days later

and here she is at her first dental appointment ever to check out her VERY bruised gums and her slightly loose teeth!

And here she is so Brave 5 days later when she got her stitches removed

So many things have happened since then that I have a lot to blog about and to catch ya'll all up on! But I will let this settle a day or two before I get back to posts a usual

the TERRIBLE TWOSOME strike again!

2008-01-30T11:56:00.000-06:00

If you liked my last entry than you will love this one!

I have tried to make a little personal goal to load the dishwasher right away, instead of piling dishes in the sink all day. This was mostly done as a small way to respect my hubby. He likes the sink to be empty all the time. He tries to let me know that it only takes 30 seconds a dish and would hardly change my day at all.

So I tried the dish method. It took aboiut 7 minutes total to pick up the kitchen after a late lunch, and then to rinse the dishes and load the dishwasher. Graham and Jocelyn had gone up to her room to play. I could here them rocking in her chair through the floor. So seven minutes after they left my sight, I went upstairs to join in the fun and this is what I found.

That is diaper rash cream rubbed into the carpet and Jocelyn's princess chair(the front of the chair was much worse). When I saw the mess I made a huge gasp startling my hiding children who then rushed out to see if I was okay. That is when I realized my kids had been hiding double lives as ghosts!

I had obviously caught them during their transformation! LOL

I quickly tossed them in the tub and began the first of what whould be 4 washings to get the cream out of their hair. It was really close to the time I needed to leave to go get Riley from school, so I was trying my best to hurry the job along. In the rush to get everyone out of the tub, I ended up with wet clothes myself. I dried the kids off, got them dressed, and then ran to my room and changed my shirt. This took less than 2 minutes. When I came rushing out of my room ready to pile the kids in the car I had a big surprise waiting for me...

ASHES! Surprise! They had played in the fire place!( not pictured is Jocelyn who was hiding between the couch and the wall). and yes those are ashes in Graham's mouth! So I had to give them both full sink baths before we could go pick Riley up from school. We were the LAST car through the pick up line, but we made it.

Just another day of Crime fighting.
The Terrible Twosome v. Marvelous Mom!

Why I started this blog!

2008-01-24T09:11:00.000-06:00

I started this blog at the encouragement of friends who love to hear the ridiculous stories that happen at our home, crazy things that would only happen to us! Yesterday was a perfect example of the chaos I would like to calm!

We are in hard core potty training mode over hear. Jocelyn does NOT like to sit on the potty. Graham likes to be big, so he enjoys the potty. Every time Jocelyn goes potty, then Graham screams "meeeeee" and bangs on his own tummy. Yesterday started great we made it to the potty in the morning ( and earned an eye patch for her pirate costume). Then Graham went also, all was well. By midday we were dragging. Jocelyn had a Messy accident which made her so sad, and also made her lose her focus. Later I let her sit on the potty and I pulled a tv tray up to the potty so she could color while she sat. She sat and sat and sat. She seemed so content, so I made a choice I would later regret. I left the bathroom while she sat and colored and I went to my own bathroom. When I came back I heard loud noises and even louder laughter! I ran to the half bathroom and there they were....... my adorable children playing together....by dropping 64 crayons into the potty! ICK! I was so grossed out. As I tried to encourage myself to stick my hand into the now crayon filled tinkle water, I decided I should give them some lunch to distract them while I did the cleaning.

I made the kids some mac and cheese gave them two bowls and then began looking for some disposable gloves that I could put on my hand to clean the potty. Meanwhile the terrible twosome had other plans. They smacked their bowls on the floor spilling hundreds of cheese covered noodles in all directions, stepping on them as they ran away laughing.

Crayons put on hold. Cheese mess first. So I am cleaning the cheese mess, when I heard a sound I was beginning to dread. LAUGHTER! I find Graham at the dinning room table pouring lentils from my glass candle holders onto the floor! I am so torn! What mess to clean up first. I decide that the cheese mess still reigns supreme. So back to the kitchen I go when I hear a LOUD clanking and the sound of shattered glass. Graham has shattered the 1 1/2 inch thick glass holders all over himslef and the floor.

NEW PLAN. Glass , cheese, tinkle crayons. I start vaccumming the glass and lentils . I go back to get the cheese mess. And I head toward the potty. Things are looking up.....or so I thought. That is when Jocelyn gets the craft bucket and opens it up. I agree to let her use the markers while I answer a call from the DR. BAD IDEA ( I am just full of those today). Jocelyn and Graham open up the glitter( I had NO idea they could open that container, I can't even do it sometimes), they had poored it all over the floor( 2 colors) they had taken the marker tops off, Jocelyn had attempted to turn herself into Barney by coloring her arms and hands almost solidly purple, and she had taken the time to color Graham's red and yellow little tikes car purple as well. Last but certianly not least they had dumped out the hundreds of sequins and foam cut outs that come along with the craft bucket!

It is about that time that Bruce gets home from work and asks what's for dinner. I could not help it! I laughed out loud! AS IF i could manage to have done that too! He had to live on leftovers! It was all I could muster! Luckily, My hubby is awesome and while I warmed the leftovers he was on sequin duty! ANd while I scrubbed Jocelyn's arms and cleaned the car, he did the dishes. Sometime during all this turmoil, I managed to get Riley home from school and to do 3 days worth of homework in one day.

mmmm.. not even a second to sit and think yesterday. Today we have started well. One time on the potty down, a new pirate gold necklace earned. and one viewing of the 1960's era Batman movie starring "the doker, and penwin, and cat one, and the riller"{ joker, penguin, cat woman, and the riddler}. This is bound to be a better day!

2008-01-11T10:56:00.000-06:00

What's up, blogosphere? I've never blogged before. This is my first blog. I don't know if I'm going to do this right. I'm totally behind the times: No texting, just figured out what you tube was all about, and I cannot — cannot — get my darn Bluetooth to work (it is a good thing I keep my technology genius hubby around to take care of all those things), And I've never blogged. I feel like an 80-year-old going online for the first time. Scary. So here goes. I'm about to blog. Look at me... blogging.

Well, getting back into the routine of school and work has been hard now that the holidays are over. It is only the 11th day of 2008 and we have already had a sleepover, 2 parties, 2 birthday parties, 1 couples bible study, 3 detailed discussions about the woes of the world, 1 anniversary and 1 funeral. 2008 has had a very busy beginning.

We are really hoping to simplify this year. Last year was filled with activity after activity and commitment after commitement! This year we want to get to spend more time together. The older your kids get the more you realize how hectic life can really be!

We have made some new years resolutions this year, a tradition we had skipped in the past.

1) More "Collins Family Fun" days- these are simple days where we can wake up on a weekend with no commitments to be anywhere or do anything. Then as a family over breakfast we pick a big activity for the day ( beach, zoo, park, picnic,movie day, etc.)

2) more traveling- with a 2 year old and a 1 year old it is a LOT of work to go almost anywhere. But this year they are turning 2 and 3 and to Bruce and I those numbers mean FREEDOM, long awaited freedom! We are planning a big family trip to Disneyworld with our dear friends and their children. Along with a trip to Napa Valley and to lake tahoe without kids! Hooray for trips with kids AND without.

3) More saying NO! - a word I scarcely use. I will be taking a break from being the go to PTA mom, the go to room mom, being at every bday party for every kid who has ever come into contact with any of my children,etc. That alone should free up more time!

There are others, but just in case I fail at them, no need to have them be made public for everyone to see! :)

Well, there it is my first blog. A window into the first 11 day of our year!

Enjoy and welcome to our family!