Weekend Ramblings

I am so very tired right now. I have slept a total of about 12 hours over the last three nights. I have a cold, or allergies, maybe both, and one thing or the other has kept me up for hours each night. One night it was some animal(I think a rabbit) that was crying for an hour or so, then it has also been the TOTALLY annoying bats that we have in our space in between the roof and our room. I hear those stupid things scratching back and forth across the ceiling all night and it keeps me awake. Finally at about 4 this morning I took Callie and we went down and I slept on the couch. I think I will be sleeping in the guest room in the basement until this problem is resolved. I can't take anymore. I just want to sit and yell and bang on the walls all day while those bats are trying to sleep to show them how annoying it is to not get any rest. We know what we're going to do to rid ourselves of them, we just have to tear down our chimney first, which we'll be doing very very soon. We are going to be starting our remodel in the next few weeks. Our plans are to replace all the windows that haven't been replaced, reside the house, tear down the chimney and get a new fireplace, change the front and back doors, add insulation to the upstairs, make a dining room and add a deck. We are also going to move the playroom down stairs and move Callie into the playroom, so we'll be doing some painting also. It'll pretty much take our summer, but I am so excited! Tonight Brent and I are going on a "date" to price some stuff that we aren't getting locally, like light fixtures and doors. I am excited to go on a date with Brent b/c this has been one of the worst weeks yet of his work schedule. He's been gone every night from about 5:30 on and sleeps most of the morning, so we have seen each other almost zilch. He's out right now on a canoe trip with his buddies, so he wasn't home all last night and today either, so it'll be good to catch up with him.

Since he was going to be gone all night along with my friend's husband, we decided to have a giant slumber party at her house. I spent a good half hour getting all the stuff ready for one night over, and we went to her house and gave all the kids a bath(5 kids) and then laid them down. Hunter slept(or I should say WAS going to sleep) in Isaiah's room on the floor between him and Micah, but they were pretty chatty. Nikki went in to tell them to go to sleep and she heard Hunter say to Isaiah right before she opened the door, "Sometimes my butt itches." So they must have been having some interesting conversations. I asked Hunter this morning what they talked about and he said, "Oh, just kid stuff." Anyway, I was going to sleep in their basement with Tate in a pack-n-play and Callie in her bassinet top. Tate DID NOT WANT TO SLEEP. He was hysterical for a good hour. I'd go down, calm him down and go back upstairs and he would get right out of the pack-n-play and come crying upstairs. I rocked him to sleep finally and I thought that was the end of it, but he woke up the minute I layed him down and was once again hysterical. So, I decided to pack it all up and head home. I got Mr. Chatty out of Isaiah's room and packed it all in the van and we drove home in our pj's. I think my friend and I will jot that down on our "Do not attempt" list. We pretty much have one. The kids were in bed a little before 10, so they have been a little crabby today and are already in for naps. We had already told the kids we'd have a nice breakfast in the morning at Nikki's house so we got up and went back this morning about 8 and had pancakes and sausage and then did some playing. Helped pass the time till the daddies come home.

I've been trying to get Hunter to be a little more self-sufficient lately. I no longer help him get his shoes off or get him dressed. I realized that if I didn't stop helping him he'd never learn, so I just stopped. He throws a fit and cries for me to help him saying he can't do it, but there hasn't been one time that he hasn't been able to. I think its starting to sink in that he can b/c the last time we were leaving he put his shoes on without being asked and took his coat and shoes off when we came home without being asked. Its a small thing but I'm happy about it.

Here are a few pictures from the week. The other night we went on the trail and for a walk to the park by the DQ. We saw some fun stuff along the way.