Inked

"Josie, did you write on your legs?"

"No."

"Who did?"

"Mom, I have no idea."

"Jennnie, did you write on your . . . ." and before I could finish . . .

"Yeah. But that was yesterday . . . "

Lesson learned: if you do something you shouldn't have, just give it a day. Then it's all just old news.

Remember?

10 on 2sday

10. I have an insane feeling of restlessness going on right now. It's like I have a list a mile long of things I want to accomplish, and I get even get the dishes put away. I need time. I don't know how to get time. So, I'm frustrated.

9. I've been thinking a lot about Faith. I need to get some special time in with her. And get her out for some special time with others. Last night, we were walking, and it struck me how little she still is. She's grown so much. Changed so much. But she's still a baby. And she needs some quiet time with her mom.

8. I have the most brilliant idea for a Halloween costume. But I can't tell.

7. Saturday night, the kids weren't with me, and it struck me how tired I was. So very tired. I'm like that when they aren't around. Like my body goes so fast for so long, that when I'm not in full throttle mode, I get sickly tired. I drank two glasses of wine. And I ate so much food that I about made myself sick. And I slept. I'm so much older than I was three years ago. The physical demands of not having a "back-up" is very difficult.

6. Josie has been into taking her backpack to school. It's filled with so many books, and folders and random other important things. Like flip-flops and candy bars. She does her homework every night, which is a Madlibs book. She fills in the lines with "words." She tells Jennie to do her homework, too. Then yells at her for doing it wrong. And Jennie yells back that she knows what she is doing. "I know how to make a "m"!!! yelled Jennie. "Up, down. Up down." "Good," said Josie. "That's right."

5. The twins have been working on Spanish in school. They count in Spanish when they count. I'm not convinced they know how to count in English yet.

4. Faith has been doing her hair all by herself in the mornings. Insisting on it. She's not doing half bad.

3. All four girls ended up in my bed last night. And frankly, it's a relief when they crawl in. I think I sleep better with them beside me. I just wish I had a king-sized bed.

2.The picture is my afternoon delight today. I hope there is Chai tea in heaven.

1. God-damn drunk drivers, anyway.

Waukee Homecoming

They ended up with more candy than they could haul away. The parade only lasted 10 minutes or so, but high schoolers tend to throw a lot of candy.

That was Thursday night.

On Friday, Faith comes home with a pile of cash.

"Where did this come from?" I ask, as I pull five dollar bills out of her bag.

"I sold my candy on the bus!" She exclaimed. "Made some good money."

I still don't know if I should make her give the money back or compliment her on her enterprising skills.

But I have to say, I had no idea tootsie rolls were worth so much. She knows her market, that's for sure.

10 on 2sday

10. The highlight of my entire day is listening to the twins say their prayers. If I try to get them to sleep before they say them, they yell at me. "We say our prayers!" And my favorite part is when they pray for each other.

9. Jennie collapsed three steps into our walk the other night. Fell all the way down, right on the gravel trail, and cried out that she was too tired to walk. Jessica picked her up. Then Josie decided she was too tired.

8. Faith lost her second top tooth. She didn't tell me. We were at Billy's. She wanted to know if the tooth fairy was real or not. But I noticed her tooth being gone. It was hard to miss. And I had to find $5 worth of quarters. I need to have a tooth fairy stash. I should know that by now.

7. My entire body is covered with welts from those little black bugs.

6. Grace looked so grown up the other day when she left for school, I about cried. She then noticed Bridgit was wearing mascara later that night, and told Bridgit how pretty she looked. I love that she notices details on people and compliments them on what she sees.

5. I decided I will not die from a broken heart, after all.

4. I daydream about new carpet.

3. My bread hasn't been raising correctly. I've bought new everything, thinking some ingredient was old. But it occurred to me, after talking to Jessica the other day, that I might be using the wrong kind of yeast. And it makes me want to beat my head against the wall.

2. A crazy co-worker told me about a famous painting that was just recently discovered in a basement in Spain. It's a Bruegul the Elder painting. Dating back to the 16th century. The country of Spain is trying to secure it for their museum. I can't even imagine the delight of finding such a treasure, but I totally intend on seeing it one day.

1. God, I need to get back to being me.

Fun At Raccoon River Park

The girls go to a brand new school. And with the new school comes heightened security. It's like Fort Knox. I wanted to surprise the girls and pick them up from school so we could go to Raccoon River park. So I go into the office and ask for Grace and Faith Millsap. Well, the secretary gets on her walkie talkie and tries to locate Grace. Back and forth she goes with numerous people trying to locate Grace. I told her I saw her on the playground when we walked in. Five minutes later, it was confirmed. She was on the playground. The secretary, who was a little flustered, told me I could just walk to her classroom and in the meantime she would call Faith down to the office. I was there when she did it. Ok. So the twins and I walk down the hall, and run into Grace and the Assistant Principal. She looked very nervous. I guess she thought she was being called into the principal's office. She was relieved to see me :)

So the four of us are walking down the hall, back to the office. I got stopped by a lady who said to me how lucky I was to have three girls, I told her I was on the way to get my fourth girl. We walk into the office and there stands a little boy with his backpack on. I look at him, he looks at me. And we both look at the secretary.

The secretary says,"He's all ready."

I said, "He's cute and all, but he's not my daughter. He's not even a girl."

And the secretary says, "Oh, there must be some sort of a mistake."

"Yeah. Like that's not Faith," I said.

And the little boy says, "My name is Tate. And she's not my Mom."

Security works well. If you don't mind me stealing your child. I almost got away with three girls and a little boy.

Brushing Teeth

Such good little girls . . .!