Hear Ye Hear Ye...

All in favor of eliminating Thursday from the week....say "I".

I

No more Thursdays for us in the Darley household. We are officially skipping from Wednesday to Friday as of now. I mean who wouldn't like to get to the weekend faster? See, it's a win/win for everyone.

Yesterday was Thursday and true to our past 3 weeks and running, the boys are sick....AGAIN. This time we only made it to the drop off line at school before Peyton tossed his cookies, thus sparing the chapel. Like the good mother that I am, I sent the bouncing and laughing Parker right in the door. What are the chances he is sick at the same time? Weeeel, obviously REALLY GOOD. Good thing I'm not a betting woman. We had not even made it home yet when I got THE PHONE CALL. Parker had graced the classroom floor. Wonderful, I am THAT mom....AGAIN this week. You see, it was last Thursday that Peyton lost "it" in chapel:) The week before that was nasty, nasty colds and Peyton's croup.

So you see my dilemma. We either take Thursdays out of the picture or we go into hibernation until the first sign of life in the spring. That is an awful lot of indoor time....lots of pent up energy...nope, I think we will just choose the NO Thursday option.

I wanted to title the post "You're Invited"....but Chris said I was not allowed to have pity parties anymore. I tried really, really hard yesterday....he even brought me flowers to decorate with, but declined to join me. What good is a party by yourself? He is trying to convince me his eternal optimism is going to rub off. This is where we butt heads...he is the optimist (visionary) and I am the pessimist (realist). This has lead to many a talkuments in our 7 years of marital bliss. A talkument...what's that? Glad you asked. Our good friends in California, the Turners introduced us to this concept, well term really. We were already having them on our own, just didn't have a name for them. You see a talkument is a close kissing cousin to an argument. There are no loud voices or hurtful words....disagreeing, yes plenty of that. Tears? You betcha. Maybe even an eye roll and grunt or two. You know the ones....don't tell me you've never had a talkument with your other (better) 1/2!

He finally convinced me to read The Energy Bus by Jon Gordon...which I did not do begrudgingly at all. Really, I didn't. So, I just put if off until you know...a better time. Like, standing in line for 1 1/2 hours to vote:) Alright...it was a pretty good book and I finished it in no time flat. You could probably read the whole thing in less than 3 hours if you had the time. If you're a leadership/knowledge junkie like my hubby than this is the book for you. If you are like me, then I promise you will find it a good read and may just turn your realism a little more toward the optimist side....yes, I might be switching camps. Well, you know except for the times when something realistic needs to be said:)

For example: It's Clemson homecoming this weekend. Before the second edition of puke fest we were planning on going. The kids are better but there is a 70% chance of rain and wind and cold temps. Yes, yes, that does mean there is a 30% chance of sun:) However...we have 3 small kids...who have been sick...who still have colds and coughs...sounds like the perfect storm for pneumonia:) There you have it...realism at it's best!

SOOO...since I am trying to switch camps. I decided to think of all the things these icky 3 weeks of sickness that am thankful for.

1.The car is clean....again
2.The car seat is clean...again
3.The floor mats of the car are now clean...again
4.The washing machine has had a good workout...again
5.We have a NEW bottle of Lysol
6.The bathrooms are disinfected (heck, the whole house is disinfected)...again

OK, OK I am trying...I really am.

I did think seriously about it though. If I am having to clean the car...it means I have a car to drive. If I was taking them to preschool then that means I had money to send them and money to pay for gas for the car. Cleaning bathrooms means I have a home to call my own. Washing clothes means we have clothes to wear and get dirty. Having a washing machine means we have multiple clothes to wear and get dirty...that I am not going to a laundry mat or washing by hand. Complaining that the kids have been sick for 3 weeks must mean that a majority of the other 49 weeks they have been healthy. So, Chris is right. Something good can be found in anything. All I have to do is look for it and then focus on it.

What fun is a post without pictures? Not very fun!

Miss Priss' all time favorite toy to play with?... a truck, go figure

This could be a picture of how the boys DESTROY our den all before 9am...but it is to capture their idea of what I thought was a learning moment.

Miss Priss is on the move...very soon she will be on all 4's on the move...right now it is a slow and steady, but get you where you need to go, army crawl. The boys prized possessions are now within her reach. They DO NOT appreciate her new found interest in ANYTHING theirs, especially their cars. We had what I thought was a teachable moment this morning. We were talking about not pulling all our toys out at once. Picking our books up when we are done with them, BEFORE pulling out something else. "If you don't want your sister to get into your things, you need to be mindful of where you keep them. Maybe you should take this time to clean up your books." Hoping this would spur them on and they would clean up the toys and books they were not playing with...teaching them to make wise decisions without mom asking them to clean up every time. Trying to teach them there are consequences to the choices we make...some are good and some are bad. If you choose to disobey then there are consequences of timeout...loosing a privilege...maybe even the dreaded spanking. When you make choices on your own...say not cleaning up your toys...and your sister gets them and something breaks....this is the consequence of you leaving you toys out. How did our little "chat" and lesson go? Something like this:

"The heck with consequences, those are no fun. Neither is cleaning up our toys. We'll just barricade her with the toy bins in a corner of the den so she can't reach our car parades or books."Oh boys....I am afraid that she is going to outsmart you here in just a few days. I am afraid our consequence talk is going to show up again soon. Sometimes things are best learned the hard way. I can only discipline you so much for not putting your toys away. Maybe it is time to learn a consequence to your own decisions. You can't pin her in a corner forever....I don't think?

Her favorite spot...maybe 'cause the boys can't get her here...maybe b/c she knows she will be taller than them one day and she wants to see what the view looks like from above:)

a sweet moment with the 3 monkeys

Miss Priss learning to snort...very lady like of course!

"Let's go treating"

Wow! What a busy, busy day we had. So much to do...so much to see...so little time. We've never taken the boys trick or treating before so this was a new experience for them. They didn't quite get it at first but it did not take long to catch on! Peyton told us "let's go treating"...he quickly learned he wanted only treats...no tricks.

Friday morning we went downtown to "the square" where many of the local businesses dress up and hand out candy to the kids. It was a ZOO, but so much fun to see all the kids toddling around in their costumes consuming way too much sugar. It's a neat thing our small town does for all the small kids. The boys were eating the candy as fast as they could get it. I was begining to think we would not make it home with any spoils at all. It went something like this...

get a lolipop...lick, lick, move on to the next piece. I think I found a dozen open and 1/2 licked suckers in their pumpkins when we got home:) Thankfully my sister was in town and helped out. I could not have done this with 3 kids on my own!

Monkey see, monkey do...more candy for me and you!

Miss Priss taking it all in. She is her daddy's girl for sure. Her personality is her daddy all the way. The more attention the better. Will take a nap if given the chance but is just fine without one. LOVES being IN the action. Happy ALL THE TIME!

Our attempt at getting a picture with four tots...yeah right!

Parker:"Peton, whatch got in your pumpkin?"

It was home for naps...which they actually took despite the sugar bolus from that moring. That evening we were off to a party and to meet up with daddy. Last year the boys were complete grouches and no fun to be around at the party. Thankfully they made up for it this year.

Surprisingly we got a pretty good shot as a family.

Looking through the loot in the treasure chest

Aunt Mel and Miss Priss

The cutest monkey I've ever seen! (well, besides his look alike brother)

They were DONE with my effort to try to get a cute picture of the 3 of them. Sooo, here it is!

Our last attempt to get us all "dressed up". We were out of creative juices and just went as ourselves. Daddy as a cow, my two monkeys, Miss Priss and me, Little Miss Scaterbrain!

I'm sooo over this people. Besides, it's FREEZING out here. The bow on the hat mom, really? I thought I already told you what I thought about it a few months back!!

Governor Palin made a detour off the campaign trail to stop by the party.

Michael Phelps was kind enough to stop by too!

I can't believe how much the boys have grown in a year. I was going to link back to last year for the grandparents....but I never posted the pictures from last year. They were so cute in the outfits my mom made for the occasion. Sadly, they were at the age where NOTHING was going on thier head. Parker was an Indian without his headpiece and Peyton was a Cowboy without his hat. It took everything I had to get Peyton to wear his boots! They made the cutest Cowboys and Indian ever!

Most of our pictures were true to the mood they were in....craby! I did find a few where they appeared to be having a good time. I just remember they were in this stage where no matter how good of a nap they took....they woke up CRABY! Thankfully that passed as they are much better now after naptime....it's only before nap that they get craby now:)

Parker liked the fairy wand more than his headpiece...hmmmm.

Chief Parke riding his pony....updide down!

Cowboy Peyton

Our best result at a family picture. And to think Miss Priss was just a small bean in mommy's tummy at the time!

The one picture I snuck with his hat on:(

See what I mean: WAS. NOT. WEARING. THE. HEADPIECE!

You can't stay mad at that face long!

Our favorite pumpkin sighting from last year.