Welcome to the House of Payne

Rite of Passage

2009-08-24T17:54:00.000-07:00

Little kid...

Big kid....

Murphy, NC and Brasstown Valley, GA

2009-08-17T18:52:00.000-07:00

The week following soccer camp was vacation week. Roger's dad and his wife invited all of us; Roger's brother, Micah, and his wife, Alisha; plus Shirley's children and grandchildren to spend a few days at their home in Murphy, NC, then on to Brasstown Valley Resort in Georgia for a few days. 18 of us in all! It was great to meet Shirley and her children and grandchildren. And my new (and only!) sister-in-law, Alisha. Our kids had a lot of fun playing with new friends, and 2 months later they are still asking when we can see them again!

In NC, we spent time at Gary and Shirley's houseboat on the lake watching the kids swim, jump off the top of a pontoon boat, ride the jet ski, fish a little, and Shirley's son, JR, brought his boat so the kids were able to tube and wake board a little, too. I hadn't been able to get into lake water since the end of April because of some dermatological surgery I'd had on my back. But by the 4th week of June, I was cleared to expose my skin to whatever funk the lake had to offer, so I tried the wake board myself. Surprisingly, I was able to do it! I even had more success than I'd had before the 8-week hiatus. Lots of fun!

Brasstown Valley was a super nice resort. Every night there we had a fabulous family dinner, all 18 of us, all arranged by Gary and Shirley. The men all played golf one day while us girls hung out at the pool with the kids. Erin even learned to swim there! She overcame her fear of going underwater and she was jumping in and swimming all over that pool. The next day, a bunch of us went for a long trail ride through the northern Georgia mountains. It was beautiful. Carrie was thrown from her horse, but that didn't stop my girl! She got right back on and finished the ride back to the stables. The entire trip was truly fabulous. A big thank you to Pa Pa and Grandma Shirley for having us! Incidentally, today is Pa Pa's birthday. Happy birthday, Pa Pa!

Victory...(tweet! tweet!)...Soccer Camp! Whoop, Whoop!

2009-08-07T18:27:00.000-07:00

On to week 2 of summer...Victory Soccer Camp. Our church has a soccer camp every summer rather than a VBS. What would you expect in a church where both the pastor and his wife are soccer players?! There are character lessons taught daily as well as soccer skills and an elaborate World Cup tournament. They also do a cheer to rally all the campers, but I bet you can't guess what it is.

The 100 campers are divided into teams by age and each team represents a different country. They play a few mini games each day plus a World Cup game where they get points for the final World Cup games. At the end of the week, the teams with the least points play each other and the teams with the most points play each other to determine the World Cup Champion. Alec, Carrie, and Erin all played and Haley was an assistant coach. Carrie's team, Ireland, went on to win the World Cup in her age range, as did Haley's team, Italy.

This embedded slideshow is pretty small, but if you click on it, you will be taken to Picasa's website where a larger version can be seen.

Erin was quite the little soccer champ. She and Carrie and Landon are all signed up with the local Parks and Rec to play in the fall. Which is next week. But, Erin...pray for her. The child is in danger of losing her new love. She is slacking off at school and at home with her chores. If there isn't a huge improvement by the time practice starts next week, I'll have to revoke her privilege of playing. Pray for her. She needs it. And so do I.

Let's Dance!

2009-08-03T10:33:00.000-07:00

With all the trips, camps, and summer activites done, and school back in full swing for Alec, Carrie, and Erin, it's time to share what we've been up to all this time. As soon as the '08-'09 school year ended, Carrie and Erin's dance recital was the first order of business. The girls did well and the show was excellent. What I saw of it was excellent, that is. I was the backstage mom for both girls' classes and wasn't able to watch all the performances. What I did see was excellent, and as soon as I pick up my DVD of the entire recital, I'll see just how excellent the rest of it was. Here are some pictures from dress rehearsal the night before the recital...

Erin's Tap Dance - Lullaby of Broadway

Carrie's Tap Dance - Little Shop from Little Shop of Horrors

Erin's Ballet dance - Do Re Mi from The Sound of Music

More of our summer coming soon. Next up...Victory Soccer Camp! Bet you can't guess who's the best soccer player?!

Isn't she lovely? Isn't she wonderful?

2009-06-26T13:20:00.000-07:00

Yes. She is.

She is 13, beautiful, smart, sweet, wants to be a veterinarian, and loves little children. Unless they're from the same gene pool as she is. Then she still loves them, but doesn't love to show it.

More coming soon! Things have been so busy over the last few weeks that I haven't had time to update the blog, but soon enough you will be inundated with pictures from the dance recital, soccer camp, vacations, 4th of July, our summer party, and then the 1st day of school. 'Til then.... I'm out.

EEEWWWWWW!

2009-05-10T18:46:00.000-07:00

There's no other title that describes these pictures better than "EEEWWWWWWW!" The kids found a dead snake today near the entrance to our neighborhood. He was a biggun, too. About 4 feet or so. And fresh. Did I say, "Eeewwwwwwwww!"?

Now, Alec is the snake fanatic in the House, but Landon was all about this dead snake today. He carried that thing around for about an hour. He even wanted to keep it and make a house for it! I put a stop to that right away. He hung the snake from our mailbox, hung it over the front porch, and hung it around his neck for quite a while. Again, "Eeeeewwwwwww!"

'Nuff said. I can't talk about it anymore. I'm getting nauseous. Here are the pics...

Look how he's swinging the tail around like a rope. Eeewwww! Bad lighting, I know. So I took another one...

Despite the look on his face, Landon was not at all disgusted by the snake. He was talking about building its house and squinting into the sun. LOL

One more time...EEEEWWWWWWWWWW!!!!!!!!!

Good times!

2009-04-27T18:37:00.000-07:00

Like much of the eastern half of the country, we just came through a very warm weekend. Well, forget about warm. It was downright hot. Temps went from the low 70's on Thursday straight to the 90's for the weekend. The 80's never even made an appearance. Sounds like a perfect weekend to spend at the lake! When we lived in Nashville, we were moments away from Old Hickory Lake. We had a boat and spent nearly every weekend on the lake swimming, fishing, and even did a little tubing even though the kids were all really small and we had to pull them very slowly. It was a lot of fun. We had to get rid of that boat when we left there and moved to northern Virginia. There was nowhere to use the boat up there that was close enough to make it worth keeping it. So we sold it and missed it for 3 years. Then we came back south where there are lakes galore, and we knew as soon as we got here that a boat would be in our very near future. Within 6 weeks of moving down here, we were at a boat show. We left the show with a sizable stack of business cards from salesmen, 2 bags full of brochures of different models of boats, and stars in our eyes. Oh yes, a boat was in the very near future! After a few months of shopping around, a near disaster with "boat selling" scam artist, and another boat show, we finally found the boat for us. Everyone has been outfitted with life jackets and new swimsuits. We've stocked up on beach towels and sunscreen. We got a tube and a wake board. The only thing we needed was some warm weather to bring up the temperature of the water. Then the heat wave hit, and we hit the lake!

The little kids were excited about the tube, though they were also a little nervous. Everyone wanted Mommy to ride the tube with them. The big kids were excited about the wake board. We watched a tutorial video on YouTube and read lots of articles on how to get up on the board. We thought we were prepared. The first disaster happened when I got on the tube with Erin and Landon. They are not very tall, so all their weight was at the front of the tube, along with half of mine. As soon as the boat took off, the front of the tube submerged and we were knocked off. Unfortunately, we had not told the kids that they should let go of the handles in the event of a fall. I let go and watched the tube pull Landon and Erin ahead of me as it tried to flip over. They both went under water, but popped right back up with their life vests on, screaming and crying. We knew they were okay because there was no choking and gagging, just a lot of crying. We put them right back on and I sat upright in the middle of the tube to control the weight distribution. They were not happy. Even at 4mph, they wanted off that tube. NOW. It wasn't long before Landon calmed down and began to enjoy the ride. Erin was a different story. She did stop crying, but she never got around to enjoying the ride. It'll happen. We have an entire summer ahead of us. She will get over the trauma of her first tubing experience in time. Carrie was the one we were actually worried about with the tube. She was pretty afraid. But she got on with Alec and Haley and though she was scared at first, she eventually came to love the thrill of the speed, the water in her face, the bouncing over the wake of the boat, and she even enjoyed being slung off the tube on a tight turn! She surprised us all. Success! It was short-lived, however. Because next we got out the wake board. And as prepared as we thought we were, nobody could get up on that thing! I tried, Roger tried, Alec tried and *almost* got up, Haley tried. Then something bad happened. Nobody got hurt...we couldn't even get out of the water! But something else didn't get out of the water when it should have, and that was the tow rope. Our boat is a "jet boat" - it's like a jet ski all grown up. There are 2 engines that propel the boat by forcing water through them. The tow rope went under the boat and was sucked up into both engines, cutting off all power to the boat. After about 45 minutes of working to untangle the rope, we had one engine free and were able to slowly crawl back to the ramp, pull the boat out, and take it home. There, Roger was able to untangle the rope quite easily.

Sunday after church we went back out for a repeat performance. Little kids on the tube...not yet a success, but they managed to ride for about 10 minutes without freaking out. Big kids rode the tube together until they got slung off. Haley was ready to call it quits then, so Roger got on with Alec and Carrie and they had a blast. Then we did a second take with the wake board. This time Alec went first and wasn't able to get up. Then Haley went, and she got up! She rode for about 3 or 4 seconds then fell. Then I went, and I got up! I stayed up for maybe 10 seconds then felt some turbulence under my feet and decided I was going to go down gracefully rather than fall on my face, so I let go of the rope. It was a ton of fun. Roger was sore from hanging on to the tube the day before and from trying to get up on the wake board, and had decided he was going to lay low and not try the wake board that day. But after seeing Haley's and my small victories, he changed his mind and gave it a go. He did better than either of us girls. He was able to stay up for maybe 30 seconds at a time before falling off. And once, the front of the board dipped under the water causing it to stop immediately. Roger didn't stop immediately. He was pulled out of the bindings, went airborne, and was able to let go of the rope and turn his head before hitting the water. Talk about saving face! I think we were going about 30mph when that happened. A face plant at that speed would have really hurt! He did lose a contact lens, and it wasn't a painless fall, but at least he had time to realize what was about to happen before it happened. That ended the wake boarding for the day. We let the kids swim for a few minutes, then it was time to head home. What a wonderful weekend! Here are some pics...

My Favorite Invention

2009-04-21T18:46:00.000-07:00

The "goings-on in the House" posts are temporarily on hold. I could write about what what's going on here...like the mold and tick post...but there are only so many of those that can be done without pictures. And I have no pictures. My camera was knocked off the kitchen counter TWICE. Yep, twice! First Carrie knocked it off and broke the flash cover. Super glue is a good invention, but it's not my favorite invention. It doesn't work as well as it claims it does on plastic. So, the following week when Haley knocked the camera off the kitchen counter, the already weakened flash cover was completely wrecked. The mechanics involved in lifting the flash into position were compromised before. Now they are collapsed. There are little wires in there that used to be connected to something. Now they're connected to nothing. Trying to use the flash completely locks up the camera. Not using the flash isn't the best choice for many of the pictures I take. I have been wanting a new camera for a while now. But I didn't need one. Sure, I can get my old one fixed. But I don't think I will. I have had it for 6 years and for the first 5 of those years it has had to be repaired at least once a year. I can say with a certain degree of certainty that the two drops have probably affected more than just the flash and that the camera is probably headed for more expensive repairs. So I'm considering replacing it. And I'm considering other things as well. Like inventions. If super glue isn't my favorite, what is? Computers are a great invention. They have spawned the inventions of countless other devices. And right now my favorite one is the DVR. I seriously don't know how I ever got along without one. Football season would be a complete bust for me because I would always have to watch Alabama games instead of South Carolina games. Because of the DVR, I can watch both! I can record my favorite reality shows to watch when my kids are in bed. I love to watch The Biggest Loser, Survivor, and Deadliest Catch. But you never know what real people are going to say on their reality shows. Or even what contrived characters are going to be scripted to say. Even the stuff that doesn't get bleeped by the censors isn't always suitable for little ears. So I just record those shows and watch them later. Shows that Roger and I like to watch together we save to watch when we are able to both be in the same place at the same time with enough free time to watch them. Like Heroes. I have a whole season saved for future entertainment. In the summer when reruns are on and reality TV season is over, I will have something to watch. When I want to watch something at 8:00, I can pause it until the little ones are all bathed, read to, and tucked in. I remember when Haley was little and I wanted to watch Friends at 8:00 on Thursdays. I would put her to bed half an hour early just for that "must-see TV." With one kid that's easy. With 5, you have sports practices, dance classes, scout meetings, etc. Those usually happen near dinner time. Dinner is a little later on those nights. Bedtime is usually later on those nights. But now my shows will wait! And they wait for me if there is an emergency in the middle of the show. Like a blown out night-light. Or a phone call. Or a cat throwing up on the carpet. Believe it or not, all 3 of those things happened during The Biggest Loser tonight. But I didn't miss a moment of the action...on TV or in the House. Yep, I think the DVR is my favorite invention. What's yours?

By the way, I do realize the kitchen counter is not the best place to keep an expensive camera. It doesn't live there. I had been using the camera and had put it down momentarily. I know someone would have something to say about that, so I thought I had better clear it up!

Who wants to come visit??

2009-04-16T18:11:00.000-07:00

Anybody up for a road trip? Or for my local friends, who wants to come over and hang out? I'm sure you'd find the House a most welcoming place right now. We have a fantastic guest room. It even has its own bathroom. It's nice and cozy with a queen size bed, there is a TV and video games, there's a dresser you can put your clothes in during your stay. Or, if you prefer, there's even a nice little closet for you. And in that nice little closet, you will find a nice, big, black, smelly mold-stained wall!! That's right, MOLD. Seems that when the guys who did the trim work in the House got to the closet in the guest room, they found what they thought was a stud and nailed right into it. Only it wasn't a stud. It was a big ol' plumbing pipe. So for the last 9 months that pipe has been leaking right onto the wall. The wall in the closet in a room that is rarely used. Which means the door is always closed. Which means it is dark in there. I didn't need a degree in math to realize that wet + dark = MOLD. We called the builder right away who arrived bright and early Wednesday morning to rip out the molded wall. The insulation seemed fine, the wood framing seemed fine, but the wall was a complete wreck. And my 8th grade yearbook was a complete wreck. 2 days later I'm still wiping the pages down with bleach. Tomorrow is Field Day at the elementary school and I'm supposed to go there and help out. But our dear friend Sergio (the builder's right hand man) is coming back to the House yet again in the morning to work on the wall. He's always late, though. Today he was supposed to be here at 8:30. He got here at 9:00. He was supposed to come back at 4:00. He rolled in at 4:40. Maybe I'll see him by noon tomorrow. This morning when he was late, I had to leave him in the House alone while I drove my kids plus a friend's kid to elementary school, then I had to drive the preschool carpool. When I got back I had to grab the dog and go to the vet. As if the mold isn't bad enough, we also have ticks. Well, Dash has ticks, but he's a sweet dog and he will share them. 2 days ago I pulled 13 ticks off my dog. As long as we've had Dash we have never had any flea or tick problems, but we have lived in northern Virginia where there are no bugs. You people who live up there and think there are bugs there, you are wrong. Come down here sometime and you will see how good you have it up there. Compared to the south, there are no bugs up there. So...I get the ticks off the dog and call the vet the next day to get him started on Frontline. The appointment was this morning, so after I dropped off the little guys at preschool, I went back home and checked on Sergio, who was still working away, spraying bleach on everything left in the closet. Talked to Mike, the builder, for a few minutes, then realized it was 10:05. Luckily we live in a small town and the vet is only 3 minutes away. I cruise in there, still unshowered (and I ran this morning! P-U!), hadn't brushed my teeth, hadn't eaten breakfast yet, 10 minutes late. Dash gets his yearly checkup, shots, and heart worm test. Everything looks good. They load me down with Heartguard (which is also something you don't need in Northern Virginia, especially if your dog is mostly indoors like Dash is) and Advantix. We went with Advantix for the ticks rather than Frontline because they had some special deal going on and I got 2 free applications. Just when we think we are all set to go, the vet comes in and tells me Dash is positive for Lyme Disease. Wow. That was like a punch in the gut. He hasn't even shown any symptoms yet. He just got the ticks a couple of days ago! Fortunately, it is not as bad in dogs as it is in humans and in a month, he should be fine. He has to take antibiotics twice a day for 30 days. Finally the vet gave us our walking papers, I paid the bill, then I picked myself back up off the floor and went home. Sergio was gone. I finally got my shower. By then it was time to start picking kids up from school. Today was early release for the elementary school. I go get my kids and my friend's kid, come home, grab a quick sandwich, then head out to pick up the preschoolers. One of those was our friend's other kid, so he came back home with us. We had just a few minutes before it was time to pick up Haley. The kids were going crazy while I started to clean up the kitchen. Then my friend showed up to pick up her kids. We decided she would stay at the House with all the kids while I went to get Haley so they could play. They stayed for about an hour after I got back with Haley. It was great sitting and talking with Robin while the kids ran all over the place and the kitchen didn't get cleaned, the beds never got made, etc. And that's real...no sarcasm at all. Robin is a wonderful new friend for me and I'm glad I got to spend time with her today. Even though the House was a wreck and she cleans houses to make some extra cash, so she probably was thinking I needed to hire her. When they left, we had to go to the grocery store to get something quick for dinner because we had dance class and youth group later on and Sergio was also coming back, so I had to have something that could be prepared quickly and kept warm while I operated my taxi service. We got back in just enough time to have the kids start their chores while I made spaghetti sauce. Still no daily cleaning done and I've had 7 kids playing here today. Sergio showed up just as we were leaving for dance class. He was here just long enough for me to drop Carrie off. He was coming out as we were coming back in. He said he'd see me in the morning about 9:00. We'll see about that.

So, who's coming over? We have mold, ticks, and a dirty House to offer you. If that's not enough, I do make some darn good iced tea!

One week to go!

2009-03-24T21:58:00.000-07:00

You may not have realized it, but in a week March will be over. It will be April. April 1, to be exact. April Fools Day! It's time to start preparing, people. There are a lot of websites out there with pranks you can play on your kids. I'm beginning my search for some new ones tomorrow! But I thought I would share some of the past pranks from the House of Payne, just in case you need a little motivation. If you have a good one, post it in a comment. I'd love to hear it!

The ol' kitchen sprayer prank: If you have one of those sprayers on your kitchen sink that is operated by a lever, place a rubber band around it, holding the lever down. Then sit back and wait for someone to turn on the faucet. I got Haley with that one year. Good one!
Switcheroo's : Kids sleep pretty deeply and you can move them while they're sleeping so they wake up in their brother's bed, under their own bed, or in some location other than where they fell asleep. It was great when Alec, then 8, woke up in Landon's crib. LOL! If you have a little girl who sleeps in a nightgown and also have a baby in size 5 or 6 diapers (or even pull-ups would work), put a diaper on the older daughter while she's asleep. She'll wake up wondering how she got switched back to diapers. I have also switched cereals from box to box and switched the kids' clothes to another kid's dresser drawers. You can switch their shoelaces to lace toward and tie at the toe of the shoes. The list of switcheroos is limitless!
Hey, that's not what I thought it was!: Once I made Jell-O in the Kool Aid pitcher. When the kids went to pour a cup of Kool Aid, nothing would come out. Once I made dinner out of candy. They REALLY liked it when the peas were really chewy fruit candy and the mashed potatoes were really ice cream. That was a bad plan, though. The ice cream started melting on the plates and the jig was up pretty fast. Too bad my kids don't eat gravy or they would have gotten caramel sauce on their "mashed potatoes" like I did!
Piddle Puddle: A classic. Put clear plastic wrap over the toilet bowl, but under the lid. If you get it on nice and tight, the unsuspecting victim won't see it. If it works, it will make a mess, but I would think it would be hilarious. Unfortunately it didn't work in the House. Alec was not an unsuspecting victim. He was very suspicious that April 1 and was on the lookout for my pranks. He saw the plastic wrap, and I was busted.
Drive bye-bye: This was one of my favorites. The kids knew we were going to play pranks on them, so they waited all day, suspicious of our every move. Nothing happened all day. The morning went by uneventfully. The afternoon was spent at a carnival at their school. On the way home the car started acting up. It was kind of jerking, almost as if someone was abruptly hitting the brakes. Then it just coasted to a stop. We ran out of gas! Unbelievable! Fortunately, we were already in our neighborhood. Roger got out with the kids to walk home and get the gas can in the garage. When they got several yards up the road, I started the car back up and sped past them yelling, "APRIL FOOLS!" out the window. Then I had to run into the house and lock them out because they were coming after me with vengeance!

I'll have to ask my kids what has been the most memorable prank for them. I have been messing with them for so many years that I can't even remember everything I have done to them. Poor kids....they are going to be so messed up. Let me know what you do to your kids. I need some fresh ideas!

The Chore Chart!!

2009-03-20T20:27:00.000-07:00

It's finally here! The long-awaited chore chart post! A couple of people have been asking me to post this, so here it is. You'll never believe this, but over the last, oh, 7 or so years, many moms I have known have been uber impressed that my kids do chores. Crazy, huh? I thought all kids did chores. Silly me. Here in the House, we are firm believers in giving responsibilities to the kids. Not only that, but let's be real - there is no way this many people can live in one house and the kids not have responsibilities. We start them doing chores on a regular basis somewhere around 3.5 to 4 years old. At that age they like helping and they are able to help without making more work for everyone else. Contrast that with the exuberant 2.5 year old who wants desperately to "help." Now that Landon is 4, he is finally a part of the chore chart. He has been for quite some time, actually! And the chart I'm posting here is an old one. He now has a couple of other small jobs listed in his little row on the chart.

Our chore chart has gone through several evolutions over the years. Sometimes this is due to the kids needing a change to keep them motivated, and sometimes they just outgrow their assigned chores. Right now we are in a really good place with our chore chart. And it's pretty, too! But the best thing about it is that there are quite a few jobs around here that most of them can do without help, so our current chart rotates all the chores so the kids don't have to do the same thing all the time. There are 4 different jobs each day that the 4 oldest kids do. They all have something they really don't like doing, but with this chart, they don't have to do that chore very frequently. Over the last 6 months it has worked really well for us. Here's what the chart looks like:

It's a beauty, huh? At the beginning of every month, I print a weekly calendar for each week of the month. Then I take MY markers out of the cabinet and transform it into that thing of beauty. Then I get really excited as I fill in the chores. First things first - the job of cleaning the ferret cage. Those little critters stink to high heaven just by virtue of being ferrets. Add that to the fact that they poop their own body weight every single day, and you have one stinky mess every single day. Sunday is our chore-free day, but cleaning the ferret cage is the one job that absolutely must be done, no question, even on Sunday. They do this in pairs so that the smaller ones can help, but don't have to do the whole thing themselves. They couldn't do it themselves anyway. I also Febreeze Haley's room (where the u-reeka, u-stinka creatures live) at least once a week.

The next jobs on the chart are the Monday, Wednesday, Friday jobs. If I had my way, every square inch of carpet in the House would be vacuumed every single day. That is a tad unreasonable at this point in our lives. I used to vacuum every day when we had a smaller house and 3 kids. Now I have more space and less time to vacuum it. So I handed some of the vacuuming off to the kids. They are responsible for the rugs downstairs (there are 3 of them), the stairs, and the cabinet where we keep our cats' litter box. I love my kitties, even though they throw their litter around when they dig in the box. Since one of the cats belongs to the kids, they have to vacuum the litter box cabinet. They don't feed the cats or scoop the box, but they do have to do something for their cat, so this is it. The other M-W-F job is sweeping the wood floors downstairs. On Mondays, I clean the wood floors myself, so that job is replaced with vacuuming the living room furniture. Those jobs rotate so that everybody does 3 of the 4 every week.

Tuesday and Saturday are filled in next. They are the dusting days. The kids dust 4 rooms - the living room, the dining room, the playroom, and the guest room. And again, this is a rotating job, so they each do 2 of those rooms every week. The next week they will do the other 2. Erin is not a particularly good duster even though this is an easy job. She is just not very thorough, which she isn't with most of her chores...Lord help the man she marries. At least until she has kids. She will be very well trained in making chore charts!

Thursday's jobs are pretty involved. Well, except one of them. They have to sweep the front porch and walkway. That's the cream puff job they wait a whole month to get on Thursdays. Whoever isn't lucky enough to get that one may end up cleaning a bathroom. The kids clean 2 of the 3 bathrooms in the House. The downstairs one is small, so it's pretty quick. The upstairs one is the kids' bathroom, and it has more counter space, 2 sinks (that usually have toothpaste in them - ICK!!), and 2 mirrors. The kids have to clean the toilet inside and out, wipe down the counters and sinks with Clorox wipes, and clean the mirrors. I don't make them do tubs or floors. I would have to do those again after they, so I just go ahead and do them myself. If they escape the bathroom chores, but don't get the sweeping the porch chore, they have to take out the trash. Friday is trash collection day, so they have to take out ALL the trash in the House on Thursday. Then they have to haul the Herbie Curbie down to the road and bring the recycling down as well.

Finally, I remind them all at the bottom of the chart that everyone must pick up their room, put away any laundry that is in their cubby in the laundry room, and check the basket on the stairs for homeless items that I have picked up during the day. They also get another gentle reminder. The chore chart is posted on the refrigerator with one of my favorite magnets, which addresses anyone who may question why they have to do all these jobs.....

Happy St. Paddy's!

2009-03-17T17:51:00.000-07:00

So, after a month-long (and then some) hiatus, the House of Payne has once again reopened its doors. Glad you stopped by. Now you can see what we did for St. Patrick's Day!

We are sure there is a leprechaun somewhere in the House. Every March 17th our toilet water turns green, our milk turns green, or something else really weird (and green) happens. So this year we decided to try to catch the little bugger. A few days ahead of time, we started planning how to build a trap. The kids came up with the idea to use a tall box as the trap so that the leprechaun couldn't climb out once we had him ensnared. Alec and Carrie rigged the trap with yarn that went out the bottom of the box, back in the box about halfway up, then was tied to the flaps at the top.

Everyone knows leprechauns love gold, so we used gold coins as bait.

The yellow ball? I have no idea..... Don't ask me what it was for.

The bag of coins was tied to the yarn at the bottom of the box. When it was lifted, the trap would be sprung and the flaps would close on the top of the box, trapping the leprechaun. Pretty good thinking! And look in there. It would be a pretty steep climb for a tiny leprechaun to get back up to the top of the box. I don't think it's gonna happen. I think our chances of catching him are pretty good!

We set up the trap, decorated the outside of the box, and set a little ladder next to it so the tiny trickster could get in. Then we went to bed dreaming of what we were going to do with all the gold the leprechaun would have to give us after we caught him.

They look really confident, don't they? And when they got up this morning, they were 100% sure he was in there. Alec was totally freaked out. Carrie told him the trap had been thrown - the flaps were closed! He ran downstairs and picked up the box which started rattling with movement from inside! Man, you never saw a 10 year old boy run so fast in your life! It scared the Blarney out of him! He came running, no, flying, no, he practically teleported himself back upstairs to interrupt my shower and tell me the leprechaun was in the trap. After I was clean, dressed, and dry, I insisted they wait to open it until I could get the camera. I wanted pictoral proof of what we had accomplished!

So, the box is slowly opened and we see what was moving around inside when Alec picked it up....

Blast! He tricked us! That little stinker got away! But he left a bag of goodies for each kid. This one was tied to the yarn where our gold coins had been! That was what was holding the flaps on the top of the box closed fooling the kids into believing they had trapped the leprechaun.

They don't look so happy now, do they? Slightly disappointed, I'd say. I can't quite figure out how anyone could be disappointed with jelly beans and creme de menthe Hershey's Kisses. I guess they were expecting gold??? Mabye it was the jeering note the leprechaun left that said, "Can't catch me!" in green ink.

Oh well....we have already begun brainstorming ways to improve upon our trap for next year. Now that we know the leprechaun is really here and that he can be lured into a trap fairly easily, we just have to get the trap right. He's pretty slick, but I think we can get him. Maybe next year we'll get the gold.

We're back!

2009-03-16T17:14:00.000-07:00

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Laughter is the best medicine

2009-01-29T12:12:00.000-08:00

WARNING: The House is contaminated. I refuse all responsibility for any germs you may get for visiting the House of Payne. We are on round 3 of various viral and/or bacterial infections. The current one appears to be strep, so you might want to go wash your hands after your visit here.

Among the bottles, vials, and boxes of medication that have suddenly appeared in the House (which now bears a frightening resemblance to a pharmacy), Landon brought us the best medicine of all, laughter. Tuesday of this week was his first day back to school in 10 days. Snow canceled school for him all week last week and he doesn't attend on Fridays or Mondays, so he had been out for a while. Apparently, Tuesday didn't go so well for him. Wednesday morning he was whining about having to go to school. After being told at least 5 times he was going to school, the whining turned to crying. Between sobs he choked out a conversation with me that went like this:

Landon: Whyyyyy do I have to go to schoooolll??!
Me: Because it costs money for you to go.
Landon: How do you knooowww???
Me: Because I write a check to your school every month.
Landon: (appalled, sobbing, and angry) You shouldn't do that!!!
Me: (laughing hysterically)
Landon: (crying even harder because now, not only does he have to go to school, but he is being laughed at which is taboo)
Me: (Still giggling) Landon, it doesn't matter how much you cry, you still have to go to school.
Landon: What if I stop crying? Then can I stay home?
Me: (dissolves in laughter)

No wonder I'm not sick. I get a daily dose of this medicine, and it truly is the best medicine of all.

Rockin' the House

2009-01-22T20:41:00.000-08:00

So...I've discovered a new hobby. My dad got my sister Lm, the smart one, the Guitar Hero full band set for Christmas. I personally never had much interest in Guitar Hero until we were all together at Daddy's for Christmas. I think we played that thing for 2 days straight! I never got to try my hand at the guitar, but I was scared of it anyway and was content to play the drums. We had so much fun with that game that as soon as we got home, we sent an urgent letter to Santa via Fed Ex Overnight to please bring us a Guitar Hero game for Christmas. And he did! We didn't get the full band set, just the Guitar, but it was great! Haley hogged it for about 2 weeks and nobody else could touch it. Then the novelty wore off and the guitar stayed leaning against the wall for another 2 weeks. It started whispering to me, "Play with me!" You know, I hear this all the time, so I was able to ignore it...for a while. One night I picked that thing up and fired up the Wii and started rocking out. So. Much. Fun. I played and played for a couple of hours until my wrists hurt and my scores started falling. But I made a big mistake that night. I didn't wait until the kids were in bed before I started playing. Haley's interest was rekindled. Alec tried to play, and very quickly realized this was not the game for him. I won't publicly embarrass him by posting his scores, but let's just say you have more fingers than his either his percentage of notes correct or his correct note streak. Even Erin and Landon got into the act. They would hit the strum bar while Roger or I worked the frets. And speaking of Roger...he really got into the game. He made his own band and has advanced to medium difficulty. But the one who really took an interest was Carrie. She practiced daily until she was able to play all the songs at 90% or better accuracy and has even had streaks of over 100 notes correct! She is so funny to watch, too. Here she is playing just ONE song...

I think we have a future Pat Bennetar on our hands!

Let it snow!

2009-01-20T19:49:00.000-08:00

Finally, a snow day! We really, really, and I mean REALLY miss the snow in northern Virginia. We miss other things, too, but today we're all about the snow. We woke up this morning to a good 4" on the ground, could have been 5", and it kept snowing most of the day, adding on another inch. AWESOME! The kids went out and played this morning, but I never could get out there! One or two kept coming in needing something. After an hour and a half of that, 3 of them were cold and wet and ready for a break. Wimps. We've been out of Virginia too long. So they watched Gilligan's Island while I worked out and dried their coats, socks, gloves, etc. Then we had lunch and everyone was ready for round 2 of the snow. Here was the worst part of the day ~ I had to climb a ladder to get the sleds down. You can read more about that here.

In the meaantime, here are some pictures from today:

The full album is available on my Facebook page. Try this link. If that doesn't work, you'll just have to join Facebook!

Now, pass the hot chocolate, please!

So true...

2009-01-13T22:00:00.000-08:00

I found this on another blog, but loved it so much I swiped it.

THE MONTH AFTER CHRISTMAS DIET:

T'was the month after Christmas, and all through the house
Nothing would fit me, not even a blouse.
The cookies I'd nibbled, the eggnog I'd taste
At the holiday parties had gone to my waist.
When I got on the scales there arose such a number!
When I walked to the store (less a walk than a lumber).
I'd remember the marvelous meals I'd prepared;
The gravies and sauces and beef nicely rared,
The wine and the rum balls, the bread and the cheese
And the way I'd never said, "No thank you, please."
As I dressed myself in my husband's old shirt
And prepared once again to do battle with dirt --
I said to myself, as I only can
"You can't spend a winter disguised as a man!"
So -- away with the last of the sour cream dip,
Get rid of the fruit cake, every cracker and chip
Every last bit of food that I like must be banished;
"Till all the additional ounces have vanished.
I won't have a cookie -- not even a lick.
I'll want only to chew on a long celery stick.
I won't have hot biscuits, or corn bread, or pie,
I'll munch on a carrot and quietly cry.
I'm hungry, I'm lonesome, and life is a bore --
But isn't that what January is for?
Unable to giggle, no longer a riot.
Happy New Year to all and to all a good diet!

Happy New Year!

2009-01-02T18:52:00.000-08:00

So, it's 2009, a whole new year. But as many years removed as I am from teaching, there is one thing that still hasn't left me yet. Maybe it's because I'm a parent of school-aged children now so I still live by a school calendar, but to me, January never feels like a new year. The year seems to start in late August/early September when the new school year starts. Now that we have kids on a year-round school schedule and their new school year starts in early July, maybe January will start to feel like the beginning of the year....after a few years. LOL

We do celebrate the New Year in the House, though. Even if it doesn't seem like a new year. Here are the highlights from Dec. 31, 2008:

The kids all had bags with clocks on them. The clocks told them what time to open the bags.

Their first bags had the Wii remotes in them. So we had a FamiWii Mario Kart tournament. That booster seat rocks.

The next bags had paper plates and plastic forks in them. The kids were a little puzzled by that until Alec figured out that they were for the kids to use to eat the confetti cake.

Here's what it looked like when that realization happened:

There were questions about how many of the kids would actually make it to 12:00 to ring in the New Year.

There's one answer. He made it to the cake, which I think was his goal. But he missed the next bag, which contained balloons. We played a very energetic game of balloon volleyball. Any other kids who were starting to poop out were very quickly revived by that!

The wrestling match ended the volleyball game and we brought out the next set of bags. Each of those had a card for us to write our 2009 resolutions on. Then we made a time capsule and put the resolutions inside. We'll open it on December 31, 2009 and see how we did.

It was after 11:00 by the time we finished the time capsule. I couldn't believe Erin was still up. Roger wasn't even awake! He missed the best bag of all! It was 11:15 and the kids all sat on the couch to open bags that had nothing but a post-it note stuck to the bottom. The notes read, "WATCH YOUR BACK!" So they all looked behind them where I was standing with a camera and a can of silly string!

Yep, I think that one was my favorite bag of the night. The running and screaming woke Roger up so he was with us to open the final bags at 1 minute till midnight. The bags had horns, streamers, and a couple of handfuls of confetti. We watched the ball drop in New York and they blew their horns and threw their confetti.

It was a lot of fun. We watched Robbie Madson (I probably butchered the spelling of his name - sorry Robbie) jump his motorcycle up to the top of the Arc de Triomphe in Las Vegas and then back down. Then we all went to bed and slept until 9 or 10 the next morning!

Happy New Year, everyone!

Friday, December 19 - Wednesday, December 24

2008-12-30T18:18:00.001-08:00

Ok, so I'm slack. I got really busy and didn't post the rest of the calendar as we did the activites. BUT! We did do them, and I did take pictures. However, since it's so late, I'm not going to share the pictures. It's just too many. It's certainly not because my transfer cable went missing among the Christmas chaos and I have yet to find it. There was one thing I would like to post pictures of, though, because they turned out so cute and that was little mini wreaths that we made. You wrap a sparkly green pipe cleaner (actually it took 3 pipe cleaners) around the plastic ring from the neck of a juice bottle then glue on a little red bow. They were adorable and made some really cute decorations on some of the wrapped presents. When my cable turns up, I'll show you what they look like.

Other events from the calendar were making cookies (of course!), making peppermint bark (which we delivered to our neighbors, all 4 of them), sibling shopping (where the kids buy gifts for each other), Secret Santa day (once again, not so secret for a few of us), and going ice skating (one of our favorites!). Everyone voted for their favorite calendar event and the winner was Snowman Tag. I knew that one was a keeper! Ice skating was a close second.

Now, stay tuned for my New Year's Eve post. I have some fun stuff planned for tomorrow night! Too bad I didn't come up with these plans earlier or I would have been more prepared and things would look really nice and festive. Next year we are going to undecorate our Christmas tree and redecorate it as a New Year's tree. I wish I had thought of that at least a day earlier! But, I do have some fun stuff planned and I'll be taking pictures and posting what goes on in the House on First Night!

Thursday, December 18 ~ Present scramble

2008-12-21T19:52:00.000-08:00

Okay, before I go anywhere with this post, I have to admit something. We didn't do this on December 18th. The truth is, we are a few days behind on Santa's Christmas Holiday...whatever the name of the calendar is. Today is December 21 and we did this yesterday. We have been in SC at my dad's house for the weekend and we were already two days behind when we got there. We didn't do anything today, so now we're 3 days behind. But we will catch up this week and I'll post what we do on another wrong date. I brought this game with us so that my kids' cousin, Katie, could play too. The kids sat in a circle with a present in the middle.

They youngest person chooses a number and that becomes the magic number. The first player rolls a die, hoping to roll the magic number. If they don't roll it, they pass the die to the next player.

If they do roll the magic number, they get to open the present. But they have to do it with oven mitts on their hands.

Inside the present was another present, so the game continues.

And continues

and continues

and continues until finally there is something inside the box other than another box.

Don't you love a game where everybody wins?

Wednesday, December 17 ~ Gumdrop Penguins

2008-12-21T19:41:00.000-08:00

Oh goody! Another yummy treat! We made penguins out of gumdrops, big round sprinkles, and tiny M&M's. They start out kind of rough looking. They reminded me of the weird looking rabbits in the Rayman Raving Rabbids video game. But once we had done a few, figured out a few tricks, and they came out kind of cute. More like penguins than mutants. I only got pics of the crazy looking ones, but they are more interesting anyway....

Woo-hoo for yummy treats!

Tuesday, December 16 ~ Cupcake surprise!

2008-12-21T19:27:00.000-08:00

Today was an act of kindness day. We went to Wal Mart and bought a package of mini cupcakes from the bakery. Then we wrapped a box so that it could be opened without tearing the paper, put the cupcakes inside with a nice note, and left the package in a shopping cart in the parking lot with a note on top that said "OPEN ME." Then we parked nearby and waited. It was a misty, gray, humid, nasty day so we had to wait a little while because people were trying not to go out first of all, and the people who did go out were trying to get into the store or into their cars and they weren't paying much attention to the carts in the return space. One lady found the box, opened it, read the note and smiled, then closed the box and went into the store. Guess she wasn't hungry. A little bit later, a man and his daughter came by. She was excited to see a present sitting there, but he wasn't having any of it. The third person who noticed it picked up the package and shook it. Then she put it back in the cart. Then she picked it up again and shook it again. Then she put it back again and started to walk away. Major disappointment - we almost had her! But she changed her mind and she came back, picked up the present again and shook it. Then she took it to her car and tossed it into the trunk and left. The kids were laughing hysterically. I hope she ended up eating the cupcakes. We were a little worried she might throw the box away when she got home, but I'll bet she looked inside. Why else would she take it with her? They were still in their sealed package, so I hope she felt safe enough to enjoy them. And I hope she smiled when she opened them. That was the point after all - to make a stranger smile.

Monday, December 15 ~ Popcorn balls

2008-12-21T19:07:00.000-08:00

Ooohh, another yummy treat. We need more yummy treat days. Today we made popcorn balls. It's just like making Rice Krispies Treats (or "Ice Skrippies" Treats if you're 4 years old) except once you melt the butter and marshmallows, you put in popcorn instead of Ice Skrippies. Shape them into balls and squeeze hard because they will unball themselves if you don't.

Thow on a little frosting (if you like to get messy - you really don't need it because these are sticky enough on their own)....

...and some sprinkles to make them Christmas-y and festive. Go nuts with them. Alec did.

The kids really liked these. Apparently, dogs do too. I prefer Ice Skrippies treats myself.

Sunday, December 14 ~ Star Lanterns

2008-12-21T18:49:00.000-08:00

We were supposed to make star lanterns today. Well, we did make them. Or, we started making them. These little things are hard to make! They are made out of flat sticks that you shape into a star and bind the points together with rubber bands. Then you make another one, stack the two, and bind the corners again with rubber bands. Then the hard part - you put little pieces of the flat sticks on the corners of the pentagon shape in the center of the star to push the top and bottom stars apart and make it 3-dimensional. Well, our sticks were pretty short, so the two stars were kind of tight and it was hard to get and space between them. It took us an hour to get 5 sets of two stars made and pushed apart so that they were 3-D. That's as far as we got. LOL I'm posting this a week after we started this craft (it has been very busy here!), and it is still not done. Only the easy part is left - cover with tissue paper. We won't be making the cute little tassels you see on the one in the picture. And when we do get around to finishing them off, maybe I'll even remember to take some pictures!

Saturday, December 13 ~ FamiWii game night

2008-12-15T19:00:00.000-08:00

Ok, so this isn't a Christmas-y activity, but the kids really wanted a FamiWii game night, so I ditched my planned activity (which is good, because I have a couple of spots left to fill before the 24th!) and we played FamiWii. That is what we named our Wii - "FamiWii." We all have our own Mii's and we played Wii Sports tonight. I bowled 4 strikes in a row tonight and had a final score of over 200 points! It's all technique, people. And the person in our family with the technique is Erin. You see, you have to jump as you release the ball and yell, "P-shawww!" 4 strikes in a row. Speaks for itself, wouldn't you say? And I'm not even a pro yet, but I got a lot closer after tonight's game! Roger and Alec carried on their baseball brawl. Alec has been kicking his butt for a long time, so Roger comes home at lunchtime and trains. He beat Alec for the 4th time tonight, so Alec has moved on to tennis now. LOL Haley is the Tennis Queen in the House. Alec's goal is to push her off her throne and become Tennis King. Tonight Haley beat both Carrie and Alec, so she's still queen. Landon wears the big belt in boxing. He is really hard to beat! It's hilarious to watch him, too. There is no rhyme or reason to his moves, but he gets those arms pumping and punching so fast you break out in a sweat just watching him.

Other family faves for the Wii are Rayman Raving Rabbids 2, Wii Play, and Carnival Games. Those are all great for FamiWii nights. We're hoping Santa will bring some others. ;-)

Friday, December 12 ~ Peppermint Fudge Pie

2008-12-15T18:39:00.000-08:00

We found this recipe a couple of months ago that sounded simply scrumptious, and right away I thought of the Christmas calendar. So today we made the pie, and unfortunately, it was a flop. It's very simple to make ~ layer peppermint ice cream with fudge sauce in a graham cracker crust and top with Cool Whip.

Separately, these ingredients are all delicious. Together, not so much. I think the main problem was the fudge sauce. I had imagined the sauce would be less saucy and more solid when it froze, but it never froze. It just stayed saucy. And it wasn't that good with the peppermint ice cream. Go figure... one of my favorite candy bars is a York Peppermint Patty - chocolate and mint. But this pie was really kind of nasty. Wrong chocolate with the wrong mint, I suppose. Anyway, go ahead and try it yourself if you wish, but keep your expectations low so as not to be disappointed when your watering mouth and grumbling tummy finally try it. It's edible, but definitely not delectable. I do think a homemade fudge sauce would make a big difference. If you made it with butter, it would freeze inot a solid layer of fudge and not be runny like ours was.

December 11 ~ I scream, you scream, we all scream for

2008-12-11T18:59:00.000-08:00

ICE CREAM! Man, we love our ice cream in this House! We even love it in the winter. Never mind that it doesn't feel like winter here today. It feels like spring with rain and tornadoes. (Or "tomatoes" if you're 4 years old.) I don't think our county had any tomatoes, but a couple of nearby ones did. Maybe we had an isolated tomato in our yard. The gazebo that was screwed into our back deck was lifted up and tossed into the yard next door. Thank God it didn't injure any people or property. Thank God it didn't fly in any direction other than the way it went. It used to sit right up against 3 very large windows. Less than a foot of space was between the windows and the gazebo. That thing has weathered many storms and never even shaken back and forth, so I don't know what ripped it from its screws (2 on each corner!) and tossed it off the deck. All the furniture that was out there was also rearranged. This all happened at 5:45, in the dark, in the rain, just as we were getting home from dance class. We were supposed to rush in, eat some stew, change Alec into his chorus outfit, and rush out the door to his Christmas concert at school. Which was lovely, BTW. I ended up out in the rain in the dark dragging the gazebo out of the next yard, back over beside our deck, and strapping it as tightly as I could to keep it from blowing away again. And it was not light! It's still tethered to the deck, though, so all is well. I had a bunch of big, balloon-like Christmas lights on that gazebo. I doubt they all survived. Anyway, the whole point of this post....

One thing that always makes it onto our calendar is going out for doughnuts and hot chocolate or for ice cream. Some years we do both. Usually we get something Christmas-y, like peppermint milkshakes or doughnuts with red and green sprinkles. But today the kids voted to go to Sonic to get Blasts. They didn't have a candy cane flavor or egg nog flavor or anything else that was Christmas-y, so we just got our usual flavors. Yes, we have a "usual" Blast order at Sonic. We love Sonic Blasts. They are really good, really large, and really fun to eat in the rain. LOL It's a good thing they are so big because due to the gazebo fiasco, we did not have time to eat dinner before the concert (which was lovely, BTW) so we didn't eat until we got home at 8:00. By then Landon was passed out, and Haley was sick (she didn't even finish her Blast at Sonic, so I know she's not faking it to get a long weekend off from school!), and Erin was starting to get nauseous. Wait, I thought we had finally escaped the curse of the Christmas Stomach Flu. It is a Christmas tradition we have been trying to get rid of for 10 years now. Last year was the first year nobody got sick.

Did I mention that the concert was lovely? Well, it was.

December 10 ~ Popcorn & Movie Night

2008-12-10T20:48:00.000-08:00

This is a favorite calendar activity. It's a staple. We all cuddle up on the couch and watch a Christmas movie (or TV show) and have popcorn. This year we watched Santa Claus is Coming to Town, the 1970 classic stop-motion animation narrated by Fred Astaire. We usually have hot chocolate with our popcorn, but it's way too warm for that here today. It was over 70*! And the house was abou 74*. What's up with that?? We all said no thanks to hot chocolate, even if it did have extra marshmallows and a candy cane.

If you'd like to have a listing of all the Christmas specials coming on between now and Christmas, you can find it here: http://christmas-specials.wikia.com/wiki/2008_Christmas_Specials_TV_Schedule

December 9 ~ Shimmering snowflakes

2008-12-09T19:42:00.000-08:00

This is a simple craft that has the potential for a big bang factor if you get fancy enough with it. All you need is some sparkly silver pipe cleaners and clear beads. Cut the pipe cleaners in half and bundle 11 of those pieces together. Tie them tightly with a 12th pipe cleaner half. Then spread the pipe cleaners out in all directions then add clear beads. Our beads were all the same kind, but there are many sizes and shapes of clear beads out there. If you use a few different sizes or shapes, you'll have fancier snowflakes. You could also trim some of the pipe cleaners to mix it up a little. Go crazy with your snowflakes. It is crazy enough around here without adding multiple sizes and shapes of beads or extra trimming... that stuff scares me. Here's how ours came out:

Hang them in a sunny window and watch these little babies shine!

December 8 ~ Cake pops

2008-12-08T18:05:00.000-08:00

I found this awesome blog, http://bakerella.blogspot.com/ . This woman is creative to the highest degree. We made her cake pops today, and boy were they good. And messy. But it was so much fun, especially for the girls. Landon got kicked out of the kitchen after making about 2 of these because he wouldn't quit eating everything in sight. I was so busy reheating the candy melts that I couldn't help him as much as he needed, so he was distracted from the task at hand. Too many sprinkles, M&M's, nonpariels, sugar, candy...it all spells bad news for a 4 year old left to his own devices. So he was banned from the kitchen until most of the other kids were done. Then I let him come back and he and I finished a few more together. These are pretty easy to make. Bake a box cake mix in a 9 x 13 pan, let it cool, crumble it up, then mix in a can of frosting. Shape into balls, put in a stick, firm up in the freezer. Then coat with melted candy melts and decorate till your heart's content.

Yep, I think we're going to be on a sugar high until the middle of next week.

December 4 ~ Snowflake window clings

2008-12-07T18:13:00.000-08:00

(I don't know how this happened - I published these in order. This is why I don't get along with computers very well. They just don't obey!)

This was a fun, easy project that all the kids really enjoyed. We made those cool little clingy deals you stick on your windows. Yes, you can make these yourself! Just paint your design on wax paper with dimensional fabric paint. When the paint dries, peel off the design and stick it to the window. We downloaded some snowflake patterns from Family Fun's website. Put the pattern under the wax paper and trace with paint. We used Tulip's Crystal Glitter. Thursday is a busy night for us, so we are going to make some more of these when we have more time. And when we have more wax paper. You can see we used plastic wrap for some of them. This doesn't work as well. The snowflakes did peel off, but it wasn't as easy as the ones done on wax paper, and some of them didn't survive.

December 7 ~ Christmas parade

2008-12-07T18:02:00.000-08:00

I love a parade! Today was our town's Christmas parade and Carrie and Erin were both riding a float with their dance studio. Afterward, Erin's class danced in the park. If I ever get the video on my laptop, I'll post it. I'm technologically challenged in a big, big way.

We had a great time, although we did freeze our tushies off! I think it was 41* in the sun and there was a nice wind blowing just in case someone in the crowd wasn't a southern wimp and didn't think it was cold enough.

December 6 ~ Snowman tag!

2008-12-07T17:51:00.000-08:00

Today we had an all-day event. We played snowman tag. We made a little snowman much like this one:

We put tape on his back to make him good and sticky and then the game began. The object of the game is to tag someone by sticking the snowman to their back without them knowing. Once they figure out they have been tagged, they remove the snowman and secretly tag someone else. As you can probably imgaine, some people are very good at this game and others.... well, not so much. Everyone did get tagged at some point during the day, and Roger even sported the snowman for over an hour! It was a lot of fun for the kids. This was something new for us this year, but it will most likely become a traditional calendar activity. It would also be a fun party game. Or if you're having a big family gathering with lots of people of all different ages, it would be really great. Someone needs to have the video camera fired up to capture all the kids giggling at Grandpa walking around with a snowman stuck to his butt.

December 5 ~ Fruit Christmas Tree

2008-12-07T17:40:00.000-08:00

Tonight we made fruit salad in the shape of a Christmas tree. The branches are green apples and the ornaments are grapes and star fruit. That's what we used because that's what we had, with the exception of the star fruit. I don't keep that stuff lying around, but I already had the apples and grapes. If you want to make your own fruit tree, you could use strawberries, cherries, pineapples, or whatever you like. You could get really creative and put a nice, colorful dressing on it like a garland. Payne kids don't do dressing. Weirdos. Hey, you could sneak some veggies onto the tree if you wanted to. OR! You could just do the whole thing with veggies. I don't think it would trick my kids into eating them, but it's worth a try! Hmm...I think I have an idea for next year's calendar! Anway, here's our tree:

Can't really see the tree in that one, but how could I resist that photo? Aren't they adorable? The tree is kind of cute, too.....

It was yummy! Go make one. Your kids will think you are the coolest mom in town.

Dec. 3 ~ Chocolate Lollipops

2008-12-03T18:13:00.001-08:00

This is one of those activities that makes it on the calendar every year. It's a favorite. It's simple - chocolate melts in the micro then fill the molds and the fridge finishes them off.

And it's fast, which we needed tonight. We didn't even get started on these until after 8:00, so that's why most of the kids had wet hair and PJ's on. LOL

Here's one who's crying. She was in trouble for leaving her room a wreck. One of these days I'll post my chore chart. It's a work of art, much like chocolate lollipops.

This little project is fast and simple, but it can also be messy!

It was straight to bed afterwards, and here I sit guarding the hall to keep the kids in their beds, blogging. How many of these little people do you think are sleeping?? That's right - not a single one. Well, maybe one. Landon isn't talking and the only time he isn't talking is when he's sleeping. And even then sometimes he talks.

Yeah, we usually cut off all the "spare parts" that hang around the edges, but who needs pretty chocolate at 9:00 at night?? We'll have to finish the rest tomorrow and those will be pretty. I'm out of here until then. I have more to do this week than I can finish in two weeks, so I'm doing laundry and cleaning the house at 10:15. It's going to be another late night. Wait, I think there is one of those chocolate elves left.........

December 2 ~ Decking the Halls

2008-12-02T18:21:00.000-08:00

So today Santa's Christmas Holiday Season told us we were gong to decorate our Christmas tree. The kids were howling with excitement. Not so much about the tree. More because of the dinner they knew they would have. Our tradition is to have appetizers/finger foods on tree decorating night and we just nibble while we decorate. We eat off of Christmas plates, drink from Christmas cups, and use Christmas serving platters for the food. It's quite festive. We also play Christmas music, but the CD Haley wanted was full of music from the Trans-Siberian Orchestra. If you have never heard their stuff before, it's like Christmas music on crack. It is hard core. Don't get me wrong, I do like their stuff, but tonight was one of those nights that I just couldn't take more than a song or two. Fortunately, the CD didn't want to cooperate and after about that many songs, it was skipping and repeating, so we got to shut it off. Christmas miracle #1.

Let me just preface the pictures by saying I know they are bad. I didn't use the flash on these and knew that I needed to, but never got around to retaking them with the flash on. But you have to see our dinner! The sausage balls are the biggest hit here. We also have veggies and dip, fruit, and Christmas cookies. This year we also added Little Smokies. The kids liked those, especially Landon, who will probably become a hot dog before he goes to kindergarten. We also usually have cheese and crackers, which I forgot to do this year. Oops. Eventually I will make some really nice appetizers on tree deco night. Most of the kids are too little to appreciate or even remember something like that yet. So it will still be sausage balls, fruit, and veggies for the next few years.

That's enough with bad pictures. Let's move on to the actual tree decorating. While the kids got started on their dinner, Roger and I put the lights on the tree. One day when we're filthy rich, I'm going to buy new lights every year so they won't be tangled when we take them out. I don't care how careful you are when you take down your tree and wrap up the lights, they are always tangled the next year. Or maybe that doesn't happen to you. It does to us.

Then we sat down and let the kids loose. It was nice listening to them reminisce as they went through the ornaments. That is my favorite part of decorating the tree - looking at all the ornaments and the memories they bring back.

If you don't have these ornament boxes, you need to get them. These are canvas-covered. They are made by Rubbermaid and they hold a TON of ornaments. There are dividers to keep your ornaments separated and there are 2 or 3 levels to each box. There is also a clear plastic pocket on the front of the boxes so you can label what is in each one. Wait until after Christmas to get them. I got mine at Home Depot the lear before last for like $3 each. I think the regular price is $15. They are indespensible.

That's Landon's favorite ornament - "Melmo."

Did you notice how nice everyone was being? The last few days have been fight after fight after fight. Something about decorating a Christmas tree can totally change the mood though. But don't be deluded. It wasn't the Christmas Spirit. It was the Christmas Contest. I didn't realize how important a job it was to put the angel on top of the tree. Not until the fight broke out over who was going to get to do it and who did it last year so they couldn't do it again this year. So we had a contest. Whoever had the most angelic behavior while decorating the tree would get to put the angel on top. Worked like a charm. Everyone was sweet and loving and helpful and kind. So who won? While eveyone was behaving so angelically, I decided to make the decision myself instead of going with some fair, impartial method. Carrie has been sick for a couple of days, so I chose her, and guess what? NOBODY argued! Nobody complained or rolled their eyes or started to cough and sneeze. They got used to being angels, and it carried over! Woo hoo!

Where's Rog?? He was trying to find the self-timer on our camera, that's where. Never found it. We are going to have to write a note to ourselves and stick it in the camera bag next time we figure out the self-timer. We can never remember where the thing is! Don't ask me where the manual for the camera is either. We have moved too many times to keep up with such unimportant things as the directions to operating an expensive piece of equipment.

'Til tomorrow, when some other exciting, creative Christmas thing-a-ma-bob will happen...

December 1 - Making Necklaces

2008-12-01T17:35:00.000-08:00

So it's only Dec. 1 and already I'm relying on my dud-craft. This little project was meant to be saved for a day when I lost control of time and had to have something, anything, to throw under a flap on Santa's Christmas Holiday Season. We're really starting with a bang this year, huh? I did lose control of time today, though. And by the time we were ready to rip off the calendar's flap for today, it was 6:30 and we were waiting for our dinner to come out of the oven. So I whipped out the $0.80 crafts I got a couple of weeks ago and we got to work making necklaces.

It's a simple concept: string beads and ornaments onto a piece of elastic then tie the ends in a knot and viola - a necklace.

You'd think this would be easy, right? You'd be wrong.

The person who drilled the holes in the little wooden ornaments that we were tring to string onto the elastic must have been having a bad day the day he drilled the holes in ours. They were too small, not straight, and sometimes ended on the back of the ornament instead of the side opposite where the hole started. But what can one expect for $0.08? A crooked drill bit, apparently.

We got them done in time for dinner, though, so the project was a success.

I promise to do better tomorrow. Aaack...the pressure!

Let the countdown begin!

2008-11-30T19:20:00.000-08:00

Well, today is November 30, the last day of November. That means one thing in the House of Payne: tomorrow the notorious Christmas Calendar starts! Every year on November 30, the kids make a sort of Advent calendar. It's just a piece of poster board with a big calendar in the middle. They work together to name the calendar and decorate the poster with their own Christmas-y drawings. This year everyone was so tired from the Thanksgiving weekend...staying up late watching Charlie Brown or football games or Hannah Montana...that they couldn't work together and the naming ceremony for the calendar was an all-out brawl with kids yelling at each other, hurt feelings, etc. You know, all the stuff that sibling rivalry is made of, and that seems to dominate when people are overly tired. Finally, we went around the table and everyone said one word. Then they put the words together to make the name of the calendar. The final decision was Santa's Christmas Holiday Season. Nice, huh? The creative juices were just a-flowin'. It was like a flood. So, they decorate the poster and we tape little red and green flaps over each day on the calendar leading up to Christmas.

Every day they will rip off a flap (yes, RIP it off!) and discover the surprise underneath. The surprise is either a craft we all make, something we bake, somewhere we go, a game we play, or some other activity designed to ramp up the Christmas spirit. As if we need any ramping up this time of year. But it's fun and this has become a tradition that the kids simply cannot live without. The anticipation begins in November with them wondering out loud, "What will be on the Christmas Calendar this year???" Or, "I wonder if (insert your own creative idea here) will be on the Christmas Calendar this year?" Or they sometimes just get bold and ask for something specific to be put on the calendar. But I'm always a step ahead of them. The calendar activities are decided by me with no input at all from them. Sorry, but that's the way it has to be. I make my list of calendar activities way in advance and narrow them down so that we have a fairly even amount of baking, crafts, activities, and field trips. There are some things that are on the calendar every single year, like decorating the Christmas tree, baking cookies, and movie & popcorn night. But they never know when those will be. And last year we had a huge hit with Secret Santa week. It will be modified this year so that it lasts only a day. Little people can't keep secrets for a week, nor can they be discreet for that long. One day is probably going to be a challenge for a couple of them.

So stay tuned, people. December is going to be a busy month in the House of Payne. Check back here daily to see what we've done. And prepare to be impressed. These Payne kids have got it going on when it comes to Christmas.

Sorry, Alec. But 'tis the season!

2008-11-22T11:28:00.001-08:00

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Six secrets/six tags

2008-11-20T22:35:00.000-08:00

Good grief. It's 1:36am and I just found out I've been tagged by Gina and must now reveal 6 secrets about myself. I am not going to be happy at 7am when my alarm goes off!

Little noises irritate the crap out of me. Like the sound of someone swallowing or breathing too heavily or the ticking of a clock in a quiet room. I hear all of those right now.
Sometimes I regret having Roger get a vasectomy. Sometimes I want another baby. That used to happen a lot on Sundays when I kept the nursery at church. By Wednesday or Thursday I would come to my senses. I'm too old. My body would completely revolt. The other kids are "easy" now - all potty trained, out of strollers, done with naps. Would I really want to go back to all that? No. But babies are so soft. And they don't talk back. And they smell good. And they are babies. I still want one. Sometimes.
I am a night owl. Obviously - it's 1:45 and I'm still up. I used to be such a morning person. I wish I still was. I miss my mornings.
I used to want to be an aerobics instructor/personal trainer. I'd still like to do that. But I'm out of shape now and don't really have the motivation to change that. I love to exercise, but I also love to eat. And I don't mean veggies. If I ever did get back into shape, I doubt I'd get certified as an instructor. I have started that venture 3 times and each time I got pregnant just before I was ready to take the test. Hmmmm.....
I don't really like to read. Occasionally I will go on a reading binge and read 2 or 3 novels (yes, that's a binge for me), and I enjoy it for that week or two. That happens about once a year. Email is about the extent of my reading.
I don't really like to watch movies either. My attention span is too short. It's not that I don't like the movies themselves, I just don't like to sit around for 2 hours while there are so many other things I could be doing.
I'm pretty stupid. I used to be sort of smart, but motherhood has really dumbed me down. Most women can confirm that when you push out a baby, you also push out at least 100,000 brain cells. Women who go back to work can replenish some of them. And women who have only one child somehow get all of their brain cells back and then some. And women who have c-sections don't seem to be as affected. My sister, Lm, is a good example. She has one child, who was born by c-section, and she works. She was smart before she had her daughter, but she's really smart now. She doesn't forget things she should automatically know - like a blanket is called a blanket. You know how you're looking right at something, and you know what it is, but you can't remember what it's called? Women who have pushed out multiple babies and stayed home with them know what I mean. But Lm probably doesn't. And she's old. She's almost 41 and she can tell you the difference between a blanket, a quilt, a duvet, a coverlet, a throw, and an afghan. That's pretty impressive. She could probably even come up with more types of blankets than that, but I can't. It hurt my poor empty little mind just to name those few.
I am 39 years old. I have to reveal that because Lm is going to get me for picking on her for being old. Roger is also old, so I pick on him, too. But I don't have much time left to do that. I will also be old less than a year from now, so I have to live it up and pick on Rog & Lm for the next 11 months. But I say my age is a secret because most people think I'm younger than I am. Or at least they used to. When I had 4 kids, a lot of people (strangers, I mean) would comment that I didn't look old enough to have 4 kids and I must have started when I was a teenager. I don't get a lot of that anymore. Maybe I do look my age now. So I guess this one turned out to be not much of a secret after all. What a waste of time.
I'm afraid of heights. I used to not be, but this is another one of those things that results from having babies. The more kids I had, the worse it got. I don't like to look over balconies, out of high windows, or go up into an attic with pull-down stairs. That hole in the floor when you get up there freaks me out. I don't like ladders or flying or going into houses that are under construction and the railing is not on the stairs yet. Or even worse, if the stairs are not complete and there is just a narrow board for the steps. I can do all of those things. It's not like I get vertigo or panic attacks. I just don't like any of them, and all of those things used to not bother me a bit.
I am more of a saver than a spender. I'm thrifty. There are people who have called me a miser, but those same people have gotten a taste of reality and they should have eaten those words by now. I don't know if they have, because they don't know that I know they called me a miser on a regular basis for years. But I do know that they look for bargains, don't buy things they don't really need, and will buy a generic brand of something just to save a couple of bucks. Those are the things that won me the title of miser. Most people understand that if you save a little bit on a lot of things, it adds up pretty quickly. And then you have money to buy things you really want. Or to donate to charity, which is something else that I do regularly. How many misers do you know who do that? You know at least one. :)

If you made it through the entire list, you have proof of Mommy Brain. I was only supposed to give 6 secrets, but I gave 10. And it's not because I'm an overachiever either. It's because I'm stupid and I forgot it was only 6 and went to 10. But if you think I'm going to delete all that stuff that I stayed up until 2:30 to type, you're nuts. So now I am supposed to tag 6 people and they have to reveal their secrets. But let's be real. There are probably not 6 people who are going to read this so I stayed up his late for 5 people or less. You people better appreciate that. And you better put some secrets about yourselves in a comment. Good night. Or good morning. However you want to look at it.

Good things...

2008-11-08T17:02:00.000-08:00

Hearing "I love you, Mommy" so many times in one day that you lose count.

Security. Nobody knows what the future brings, but I know mine is secure in Christ.
Getting blogger to put a break between list items right here, just like it did with the others - that would be good. Aesthetics are important.
Playing a game of spider solitaire, with a winning streak of over 300 games, but you're in the middle of an unwinnable game, and then Windows updates itself, restarting the computer so that the game is wiped out and you get a new game without blowing your winning streak. Nice.

People with caring hearts. Someone from the church we have been attending called me today to check on me after my oral surgery. She made us a pound cake and brought it over and visited with me for a little while. That was so sweet. We haven't spoken many times, and she wasn't sure I would know who she was when she called, but she reached out and let me know she had been thinking about me this week. God bless you, Laura.

Motrin.

Tylenol.

Motrin and Tylenol combined. (Not a fun day for me today. Or yesterday, for that matter.)

Alabama beating LSU in overtime, remaining udefeated, and (hopefully) the #1 team in college football. Texas Tech would have had to lose their game to guarantee that, but they didn't. If Alabama had lost....I don't even want to think about it. It makes me want to hide under a blanket, hugging my knees, rocking back and forth, sucking my thumb. College football is very important in the House of Payne. Very. You probably don't understand the relevance of this game. The obscenities that would have come out of Roger's mouth.... scary. There are children in the House! But, even better than that...

The Gamecocks beat the Razorbacks today!

Digging for worms

2008-11-07T13:22:00.000-08:00

It's a beautiful day here. Nearly 80 degrees and sunny and gorgeous. The perfect day to plant some flowers. Or dig for worms. Your choice. For Landon, there is no contest.

That's the nice thing about being 4 years old. You can dig just to dig. There doesn't have to be a purpose to the digging. You can just dig for fun. Or for worms. Nevermind the flowers.

It's even more fun to dig once all the mulch is out of the way.

Man, that's quite a hole. He actually had two holes going - one for flowers and one for worms. This one's a multi-tasker.

Any worms in there???

Nope, nary a worm to speak of. But that won't get this kid down. He'll be out to dig another day. Just for the sheer joy of it.

Eat Mor Chikin

2008-11-06T15:59:00.000-08:00

I had my wisdom teeth removed yesterday. It was surprisingly painless. Really. I was expecting the worst - nausea from the general anesthesia and pain and grogginess lasting for a few days. So I had 3 days' worth of meals prepared for the family ahead of time. Well, that was the plan. When Haley found out I had chicken nuggets planned for tonight, she asked if she could make them herself instead of me making them Tuesday night and Roger reheating them. I thought that was a good plan. Reheated chicken nuggets aren't all that good. I was pretty sure I could manage stove supervision even if I wasn't feeling well. But I feel fine, and I still got out of cooking! Here's how it went:

Haley started out by cutting the chicken into bite-size pieces.

Landon counted the eggs for her. She only needed two, but he had to count how many there were in the carton. He got to crack and beat both eggs for Haley to dip the chicken nuggets in. Then she dredged them in a flour/breadcrumb mixture.

Meanwhile, Erin made fruit salad.

And Alec and Carrie were still doing their homework.

Then things started to break down and Haley and Alec started wrestling.

This makes my face hurt. Aren't we supposed to be cooking dinner and doing homework??

But Landon kisses my boo-boo and sets the process back on track.

Erin and Landon prep the tater tots. They are such good helpers.

And Haley cooks the chicken nuggets.

"Mommy, I don't want any tater tots. I don't want any shicken nuggets. I just want fwuit salad." He's tired. And he has a bruise on his right eyelid. It's a boo-boo from a few days ago.

Moooove over, Chick-fil-A!

Dash waits patiently for something to fall on the floor. Poor doggie.

Ever wonder what a meal for a family this large looks like? Here it is all laid out. I fill the plates, in birth order, on the island and everyone takes their own plate to the table. Plastic for everyone under the age of 12. "Real" dishes for adults & kids 12 and over. Now that's a lot of food! Notice that I got oatmeal. Yum.

Bon Apetit!

We have arrived!

2008-11-06T14:04:00.000-08:00

Now that we have finally settled (hopefully!) in North Carolina, I decided it's about time I started documenting the day-to-day happenings in the House of Payne. Let me introduce the family. I'm Lisa, the CarolinaMom. Don't get confused. We live in North Carolina, but my Carolina is for South Carolina. That's where the Payne family started. I was raised in Columbia, SC, went to school at The USC (that would be the University of South Carolina) where I met Roger, my wonderful husband. We were married on September 4, 1990. We were babies. I went on to finish college with a degree in mathematics and got certified to teach 6th - 12th grades. I taught middle school for 3 years and we found out our first darling, Haley, was on the way the summer before my 4th year teaching. After my 4th year, I quit my job and we moved to Greenville, SC where Roger found more gainful employment. We lived there for about a year, then his company moved us to San Diego, CA. That was culture shock for me as I had only lived in the south my whole life. Roger grew up in the Army, so new places were the norm for him. We were in San Diego for about 6 months, which was long enough for Haley to catch chicken pox, bronchitis, get diagnosed with asthma (which was bogus, but with the air quality over there, who wouldn't wheeze?), and for me to get pregnant with Alec. At that time, getting pregnant was not easy for us. It took almost 3 years, many tests, lots of drugs, and a surgery to conceive Haley. Alec was drugs, drugs, drugs, then artificial inseminations. Right about the time I finally got pregnant with him, Roger's company was having financial difficulty and we were sent back to Greenville, SC. I think we were both ready to come home! We lived there for 4 more years, had one more child (no drugs this time, although we were about to start again!), and the addition of Roger's mother after his parents divorced. The financial difficulties with the company Roger worked for were continuing, so he started looking for another job. He ended up going back to the company he worked for in Columbia before we had any of our kids. Now, at this point in the story, there is a definite pattern. We moved back to Columbia, lived there a year, and had another baby. Then we moved to Ocala, Florida, lived there a year, and got pregnant again. We moved to Nashville, TN, lived there a year, and had the baby. Then we moved to Stephens City, VA. This time it wasn't just for a year and there and there were NO MORE BABIES. We lived at the top of Virginia for 3 years and loved every moment. Too bad it wasn't in the south. We love the south. But we also loved the 4 distinct seasons in northern VA and the 360* mountain views. Now we are in the Raleigh area of North Carolina and we believe we are done moving around. Our kids are Haley, age 12; Alec, age 10; Carrie, age 8; Erin, age 6; and Landon, age 4. They keep my hoppin', that's for sure! So, through this blog, you will get a glimpse into our crazy life. We love it.