Why I hate Stomach Viruses

1. It's super-contagious.
2. It creates the necessity for children to stay home an extra day from school, even if they feel fine, causing day-long bickering with siblings who are not in school yet.
3. I already have a weekly minimum of 9 loads of laundry. Illnesses will up this to at least 12.
4. Did I mention more bickering than usual?

A Look into Megan preparing for Thanksgiving......

I am hosting Thanksgiving this year at our humble abode and have taken great pains to make it the least stressful possible. I broke down cooking into three days. Day One was stuffing, mashed potatoes and rolls. Day Two was pies. Day Three is the Big Day with the turkey, vegetables and baking everything from Day One. So today I have been baking pies to my heart's content, because I LOVE baking, bringing the grand total to 2 pumpkin, 1 pecan, 1 cherry and 1 deep-dish apple.

In the middle of my preparations this morning I realized I should have bought 3 cans of the cherry filling, not the lowly one that I picked up when I was doing my shopping sans children. So, I get the apple done completely and get the pecan made and in the oven and get the kids in the car to run to the store while it's baking. We make it out with only the pie filling and more clementines (because they inhaled the bag I got the other night in one sitting).

Get back home to pull out the pie, take the kids to lunch at Burger King for good behavior. Come home again, create more pies, balance the checkbook and catch up on bills, break up bickering over toys from said restaurant, approve constant snack requests (where does it all go?!), get Cate in and out of a nap.

All in between piles of lanudry from aforementioned stomach viruses which hit our house.

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!!

Apple Crisp and Christmas Pictures

I consider myself a tolerant person. I understand in the world of restauranteuring and food management that not all can be perfect, especially when specific ordering may occur. However, I DO expect something to arrive correctly the way it's described in the menu. The other night Tom and I went out to do some Christmas shopping and dinner. After shopping we went to Garfield's (a chain restaurant at malls on this side of the country) for dessert where I ordered the apple crisp which was described as a HOT apple dish with crispy streusel topping, served with a scoop of creamy vanilla ice cream. It was cold when it arrived to our table. How can this be missed? I was very irritated, but politely asked for our waiter and when he came I explained what was amiss. Tom thought this was hilarious. First, because he has never seen me send anything back at a restaurant. And honestly I don't think I ever have had to. The thing is, why was it so hard to miss? The restaurant was not that busy (other waiters were standing around and I had to ask another girl to find our waiter for me due to his lack in checking back on us) and how do you miss an ice-cold plate?

I'm also preparing to host Thanksgiving for the first time this week. I have a mile-long list of cleaning and shopping to be done, and Tom is working late every night he can this week. So, my fabulous MIL and SIL are coming to watch the kids so I can do my grocery shopping in peace and maybe not spend $100 more than planned.

I also attempted to squeeze in Christmas pictures at Sears this morning. Well, not really morning, noon. Terrible idea, I know. The older three kids were fine. Cate, however, was a train wreck. She was hungry and tired and decided to let us know this by screaming bloody-murder the second I attempted to place her between Beth and Patrick. I continued to try and she continued to cry. I decided to go ahead and do the individual shots and maybe she would warm up to the idea.....Once again, the older three were fantastic. The first shot of each of them was perfect. The photographer thought it would be great for Cate to sit in a little wicker chair. Uh, no! She screamed, squirmed out of the chair and collapsed to the floor. I tried a few more times then thought maybe if I weren't in the room to hold her she would be alright. A different photographer came in and tried his luck but when they called me back in she had thrown herself on the floor and was kicking and screaming. This has never happened to me before!

I told them I would call later in the day to reschedule and took the kids to get lunch where Thomas promptly wiped his nose on his shirtsleeve, cleaning the ketchup off his mouth at the same time and when we left he rubbed up against the dirtiest car that had turned to mud due to the pouring rain. So, now I have to wash picture clothes before I can take them again. But first I have to get my dryer fixed since I blew the fuse in it (again).

Family Update

I discovered that Sportacus is not as maternal as we originally thought. All of her babies have returned to their Creator. Stupid cannibalistic rodent.

Modern Molly Mormon

I wanted to let everyone know that I'm now a contributor for the blog modernmollymormon.blogspot.com. I am Multiple Molly.

Sportacus is the mommy?!

So, a few months ago we found a new home for Buster. It was just too much. He refused to housetrain and would potty in the house out of defiance. He chewed on EVERYTHING and constantly jumped in Cate's face. We gave him to a family we know with teenage daughters and they love him very much. A few days after the kids kept saying how much they missed having a pet. Not missed Buster, just having A pet. So, I considered our caged-in options and decided on hamsters.

I took Thomas and Cate to the pet store in Clarksburg and together we picked out 3, one for each of the older kids. After school that day they were named Sportacus (Patrick's), Stephanie (Beth's) and Ziggy(Thomas') after Lazytown. Later on it occured to me to check for gender on each of them. i quickly discovered we were very mixed up. Stephanie is a boy and Sportacus and Ziggy are girls. I let the kids continue on in their ignorant bliss until yesterday. I was wondering if we would get any babies and we have. Sportacus is the proud mother of at least 6.

Yesterday Beth asked me if she could get the hamsters down to play. I agreed and a couple of minutes later she ran into where I was and said,"I think I saw a baby hamster!" I ran in and sure enough, there in a nest of bedding so lovingly prepared by the mother-to-be were 6 tiny little hairless, blind hamsters. Now, we have dwarf hamsters and full-grown they are only about 4 inches long. A newborn is 1 inch long.

I panicked and called the pet store for advice. They told me to immediately remove the father (Stephanie) so he wouldn't eat them. Yes, eat them. I also had to remove Ziggy so she wouldn't see them as a threat. So, now Stephanie and Ziggy are in the smaller cage I keep around for when I'm cleaning and can't touch the big cage to clean it for 2 weeks. Beth is horribly upset that Stephanie (Stephen?) is a boy and we are hoping to do some trading with my SIL so this doesn't happen again. They already have a rabbit and two guinea pigs (Rocko and Fat Tony). What's a few dwarf hamsters?

Pat on the back

We had our Primary sacrament program yesterday! Everything went great. I got the missionary tags finished for "Called to Serve", Beth and Patrick nailed their duet for "When Jesus Christ was Baptized" and our acoustic guitar accompaniament for "Home" and "I Am A Child of God" was fantastic. When church was over our visiting high council member told me it was one of the best sacrament meetings he'd been to in a long time! Onto Christmas music!

Politics according to a 5-year-old

What to write about? DH has been asking when I'm going to post again. He likes me! He really likes me!

None of the children have taken unexpected bus rides recently. We celebrated Thomas' 4th birthday quietly. Just us 6 plus grandparents. He is newly in love with his Diego Dinosaur Rescue Mountain and Planet Heroes rocket ship.

One downfall to now having children that can read is not being able to write your blog in peace. I currently have two readers over my shoulder.

The only thing that has been broken lately is my camera. Hence, the lack of pictures. "Someone" was playing photographer and the lens is now stuck halfway out and won't budge. That "someone" that I suspect told me Mr. Nobody did it, which is the response I get anytime I suspect a certain "someone" is the guilty party. And since I live in the middle of nowhere near civilized stores I haven't made the trek up to Clarksburg (40 mins. away) for the nearest camera store. Even with the falling price of gas.

I am continuing on with my quest to bake the perfect loaf of bread which I must sadly report is worth 2 points for 1 slice. I have re-committed myself to relieving my body of its Cate-weight and have gone back to Weight Watchers. Wish me luck!

Now onto my title. Every week Beth and Patrick bring home one-page magazines from Scholastic with a theme. Last week's was the presidential election. There was a picture of each candidate inside and Beth asked me who they were. She then asked who I voted for. I told her John McCain. "So John McCain is the new president?" "No," I said, "Barack Obama won the election and is the new president." "You should have voted for him then," says Beth. And that is politics according to a 5-year-old, vote for the person you think will win.

P.S. I started writing this on the first but didn't get to finish it until today.