Bucket is going back on night shift next week and this puts our family once again in state of upheaval. We had a “last blast” weekend with the kids last weekend and this weekend it will just be he and I, which will give us a chance to recover, regroup, and prepare.

There is actually a process of the messy business of our family re-organizing for a shift change. The power in the family shifts to me, because I usually let him take the lead on discipline and general household management when he’s on day shift. I get home about 3 and a half hours after he does on weeknights, so generally things are in full swing by the time Monkeyboy and I walk in the door. Anyway, the kids are all preparing for me to be back in charge. This probably does not make them happy. Over the last three or four weeks our house has become a very yucky place to be and one of my mandates is that the house is clean every night before we go to bed. Last night I cleaned the kitchen and by Sunday night I hope to have the rest of the house ready for a fresh start.

It’s not that Bucket doesn’t clean, he does, he just doesn’t make it the priority. For me, weeknights are about housecleaning, homework and school functions, and weekends are for fun. It’s tough though, when I don’t get home until 6:30 and there are baseball games and practices and dinner to make and kids to bathe and a toddler to potty-train, and it’s really just me to handle all that. On the other hand, the kids and I tend to really bond during these times. 

I’m trying hard to cling to the silver lining.  I’m praying that it will only be a couple of months until he’s back on day shift, but it’s something you just can’t know.

Oh, for everyone out there planning….I think Bucket and I will be getting married July 1. The other possible date is June 21, but I think July 1 is much more likely. More info TBA.

I went to the doctor on Friday for some ear pain. Turns out there’s nothing wrong with my ear and it’s probably just sinus issues. It was a total waste of a $20 copay. Anyway, to add insult to injury, they weighed me. I realize that is par for the course at the doc’s office. But I am BY FAR at my heaviest weight EVER (pregnancy & the six months following excluded).

This is depressing. Very, very depressing. Because I just hadn’t had enough punishment for the weekend (or because nothing in my wardrobe actually fits), I went clothes shopping. Oh, the betrayal!

I realize that I have been blessed with a decent weight for most of my life. It’s just that I’m having a hard time adjusting to the fact that when I eat, it matters what the food is. I know I’ve been spoiled by my previously high metabolism, believe me. that isn’t going to stop me from whining, okay?

Anyway, today I had a kids meal for lunch. This is my method of dieting…no change in food, just smaller portion sizes. My method of exercise is to clean up after four kids and two dogs constantly. I’ll let you know how it goes.

I don’t have one specific topic I want to blog about at the moment, but I told myself at the beginning that I was going to post something new at least five times a week. So here are some random things from the past couple of weeks in the crazykidfamily that weren’t enough to make a whole blog out of:

1. Prankster came home from his Grandmother’s house one night with a present for me. It is a chunk of broken glass. He swears it is a diamond. If it’s a diamond, all of my problems are solved because it is at least three inches by three inches.

2. Pitcher had an away game yesterday so Bucket called him in the morning and told him to make sure he packed a peanut butter and jelly sandwich or something to eat before the game. Later, Bucket texted him and asked him what he took to eat. Pitcher said he didn’t have time to pack anything, so could someone bring him some money?

3. I had my very first “energy drink” this morning. I was disappointed because it didn’t make me feel like a rock star. Course, I bet rock stars don’t get up at 5:30 in the morning. So do rock stars even need energy drinks?

4. Grey’s Anatomy is back with the first new episode since the writer’s strike tonight. I am not ashamed to tell you that Monkeyboy is going to bed early so I may watch uninterrupted.

5. Last night Prankster was in the back yard and he called the dogs out to the far corner of the yard, and just kind of held them there. We eventually realized that he was using them for chick magnets for these two little girls that were walking by. It worked.

One of my friends has come up with a brilliant idea that could improve the quality of my everyday life.

In spite of those who think I do very little work at my job, one of my countless responsibilities is updating our Web site. (For those of you who know how completely technologically illiterate I am, this is probably a pretty amazing revelation.) Today, THREE times someone has asked me to put something on our site and then been amazed when I show them that not only is that bit of information already on our site, but it has been there for quite a while. I actually find that I am frequently in a position at work where someone is asking me to start a project that I finished months, or even years ago.

I was telling my friend about my frustration with the Web requests today and she said that I should tell these people that they need to start doing some research before they make these requests, otherwise an “Ignorance Fee” will be charged. The fee will increase with each infraction.

I love this idea, and I feel it could make me a wealthy woman. ESPECIALLY if I could apply this fee anywhere, instead of just at work. There are people in my life that could pay off my van all by themselves within the next few months alone.

Yesterday Prankster had a double-header. I worked yesterday, so I showed up towards the end of the first game. Bucket, Princess and Monkeyboy were all there. Pitcher was off trying to find some helpless flightless birds to shoot. Turkeys, in this instance.

Anyway, as Monkeyboy is only 3, his reaction to being at the Little League field all day is unpredictable. Sometimes it is all I can do to keep him from running out onto the field and jumping for the fly balls. Other times he wants absolutely nothing to do with it. Yesterday he only got a half an hour nap, which is about a quarter of the norm, so he was particularly charming. At the Little League, there is a pile of brick dust in the middle of all the diamonds. For those of you with no baseball/softball experience, brick dust is just what it sounds like. It is basically red dirt. The thing that causes it to be a magnet for children is that it is extremely difficult to get out of clothes. So you can imagine what taking this stain-maker and making a small mountain out of it means. That’s right, my darling children feel a magnetic pull to this pile-o-dirt so strong it is physically impossible to resist.

Because Monkeyboy was already having a rough day yesterday, I let him go play on the pile with several other random children. I saw him do the following in roughly a thirty-minute timespan:

1. Walk up to a little girl that had a shovel and take the shovel away from her.

2. Use said shovel to get some dirt and throw it in another little boy’s hair.

3. Walk up to the SAME LITTLE BOY and take the candy right out of his hand!!

I really believe it is our fault. You see, he’s three and the next youngest in our house is 11. So typically if he wants to have something that belongs to someone else, it’s okay. Cause he just doesn’t want the same things the bigger kids want so it’s no big deal. In fact, the big kids LIKE letting him have stuff and playing with him. But I guess I just never realized that he truly believes EVERYTHING is HIS.

Oh, and one more note on Monkeyboy. Last night we were outside and he was riding his bike and I told him we had to go in because it was getting dark. He said, “No Mommy, don’t make it get dark.” I told him that God is who makes it get dark (Guess I’m always looking for someone to share the blame with). He started crying and saying, “No, God doesn’t want to make it dark.” I had no response for that.

Yesterday was the 2008 Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure in Indianapolis. It is an event that is very, very close to my heart. Breast cancer runs in my family, on my mother’s side. It killed my Great-grandmother, who I don’t remember at all. It took my aunt, who I was very, very close to and was only 51 when she died. One of my college roommates is fighting breast cancer that returned after a complete masectomy and hysterectomy. She is in her 30’s. Anyway, you get my point. I’m feeling pretty invested in the cause.

So Princess, Monkeyboy and I set out with other family and friends to walk in the rain in hopes that the awareness and the money raised could one day make a difference. There were several things I saw that brought tears to my eyes, not the least of which was the survivors’ photo.

Sometime that day, someone brought up the fact that in the past couple of years, several huge advances have been made in cancer research, and perhaps one day soon we won’t be racing for “the cure” but racing to remember those that didn’t make it long enough to see the cure.

After the race, Princess and I went home (don’t fear for Monkeyboy, he decided to stay and play at his grandmother’s house for a while).  Bucket asked if we had a few trinkets from the event that we could take to Mrs. B. She is a lady whose grass Bucket has cut since he was a teenager. She is fighting breast cancer, but has been diagnosed as terminal. The cancer is in her bones and her lymph nodes and she undergoes chemo only with the hope of prolonging her life. So we took a few things over to her to show her we care and we’ve been thinking of her. We sit, and we chat for a bit. She has a bandana to hide the hair loss, and a wrap on her arm due to the lymphedema. She is still in pretty good shape, and gets around well. In fact, she’s gained five pounds. She’s been doing the “prolonging life” treatment bit for almost a year now.

As I’m sitting there, I can’t help but think that it’s time that’s the issue here. We know there will be a cure eventually, but will it come soon enough for her?

Today has not been a stellar day so far. I suppose it started when Pitcher came in my room a little after 5:30 and said, “The house is shaking.” I was happily asleep and told him that it was just from his dad slamming the door as he left for work. As soon as he shut my door, leaving my whining cocker spaniel inside to annoy me, I got a text message from Princess. “Open my door,” it said. I wrote backa highly intelligent, “Huh?” The next text said, “My bed is shaking and I think theres someone or something underneath it. Please come.”

I’ll admit it, I was annoyed. But I had to let the Cocker Spaniel out anyway, so I got up and walked down the hall. I threw open her door and looked under her bed and told her all was clear. She asked me why her bed had been shaking. I explained about the door slamming. I trodded back to bed.

I had just gotten back to sleep when Bucket called and told me we’d had an earthquake. Oh. Oops. I was kind enough to call the kids, who now thought they were losing their minds, into my room and show them on the news what had happened.

Then I allowed myself to lay in bed a little longer than prudent. Finally, I rushed around getting myself and Monkeyboy ready. I couldn’t carry everything to the car because Monkeyboy insisted that it was too cold for him to walk and I had to provide his transportation from door to car. So I piled stuff up, carried stuff in one arm and him in the other. For easy access, I let him carry the keys. We locked the front door and got in the car. I strapped him into his carseat and he kept playing with the keys. He set off the alarm on the van. I took the keys away from him and threw them in the front seat, then I gave him a kiss and shut the van door.

This was the moment when I realized two very important things. 1. Monkeyboy had locked all the van doors while playing with the key fob. 2. My cell phone was locked in the house.

I spent the next fifteen minutes in my driveway shouting at my poor child through the van window. I tried to talk him into getting the seat belt off, but he isn’t strong enough to push in the button to free his legs. I tried to tell him how to wiggle his legs out of the restraint. He thought wiggling was pretty fun, but couldn’t get out. He tried to open the door, but my van’s locks don’t work like that. So finally I was able to tell him where the lock was, and he was able to reach way down and slide the lock up. Whew. While I was so relieved I was almost in tears, he just smiled and calmly readjusted his seat belt.

I wish I could say the day has gotten better, but it really hasn’t. Sometime I will post about my bad luck with tires, but we’ll save it for another day…

While sometimes our kids seem like meteorites (as in they move very fast and do a lot of damage, then they’re gone before you know it), this post is about what officials say may have been an actual meteorite shower (as in burning rocks falling from the sky).

This wasn’t like the UFO stuff where only a couple of people seem to have seen it; we’re talking about 146 calls to 911. I am not overly skeptical (though I am probably pretty cynical) in general, but am I the only one that feels like we have absolutely no idea what happened and are just taking a stab in the dark?

Last night was a pretty typical weeknight for us in the Spring. I had to take monkeyboy to swim lessons. Bucket and Princess went to watch Pitcher’s game in Westfield. We recruited Bucket’s mom to take Prankster to his baseball practice in Avon. In other words, we were scattered about the state until late last night.

Monkeyboy did great in his swim lesson, despite his mommy letting him fall and hit his back on a bench in the locker room. It’s a good thing kids are spongy and resilient. He is currently learning the basics of dog paddling. This is a good thing, cause since he has absolutely no fear of water it will be comforting if he can keep himself afloat until someone pulls him out.

Pitcher was the starting pitcher last night, and he pitched a shut-out for the first three innings. They got a couple of hits off him in the fourth inning, but at the end of that inning his team won due to the “run rule.”

Princess was mostly bored last night and plotting to get her best friend signed up for Race for the Cure this weekend so she can go with our family. (By the way, if you’re looking for a great cause, this qualifies!)

All in all, the first time we all saw each other was about 9:30 p.m., and at that point it was only long enough to say goodnight. This morning, Pitcher tried to talk me into letting him sleep in and go to school late. I wasn’t up to the argument so I told him to call his dad. His dad said, “You know, I understand that there are days when you are just worn out. You know what you do on those days? You grab a Coke and head out the door.” Ah, parental wisdom…

I have been here before, all inspired and determined to keep a creative record of my adventures. You may have seen the first two blogs I started and then miserably failed to keep up… Now my sister-in-law has started a blog that is too darn cute. So here I am again, inspired and determined.

This blog will serve to document the adventures of my family. There are a lot of misconceptions about my family, and we seem to be too busy to really keep up, so hopefully posting our adventures here will help. Included in these tales will be the following characters:

Crazykidlady works full-time, and actually usually exceeds the normal 40 hours per week. She is currently searching for a job that is more in-tune with her crazykidlife and trying to figure out the logistics of her second wedding. She thinks she may have been sane once, but can’t remember for sure. At her last haircut, her longtime stylist told her the kids seemed to have “really enhanced” her “natural highlights.”

Bucket works on an assembly line and it seems at least once a year, his shift changes, sending the established routine into a period of tumult. He is constantly in pursuit of day shift work. He pulled off one of the most romantic proposals ever and his life truly revolves around his family. His other constant battle is weight management. Recently, the doctor said his cholesterol is dangerously high, so the crazykidfamily has been working to make what Oprah calls a “lifestyle change.”

Pitcher, at 15, is officially in moody-teenager mode and seems obsessed with the size of the parts that make him a boy. Crazykidlady is trying to block this out until it passes. He is playing baseball for the high school for this first time, and this is currently the center of his world. Much to Crazykidlady’s dismay he also likes going hunting for just about anything less than human. We have, so far, been able to protect his younger siblings and defend them as humans.

Princess is 13 and has recently turned into a social butterfly. She’s the child that rarely gets in trouble and makes good grades. She stopped playing softball this year and now participates in color guard, volleyball and science club. She wants to be a doctor when she grows up. Oh, and she digs polka dots. Like, a lot.

Prankster is our problem child. He is a super-sweet boy at heart, but if he can’t find trouble to get into he’ll create some. He has to be the center of attention and already loves the ladies, at the ripe age of 11! He is also very, very involved in baseball and very social.

Monkeyboy owns the hearts of thousands, and sometimes Crazykidlady thinks he runs the family. He recently turned 3 and loves his swim lessons, riding his brand new bike, Bob the Builder, Thomas the Train, Lightening McQueen and dinosaurs. He does not like using the potty.

We also have two dogs, who shall be referred to as “the ladies.” For now, we’ll leave it at that. Stay tuned for our adventures.