Insane is My New Name

Forewarning...I am writing this with only half a cup of coffee in my system

S3 and S4 have been on this kick lately...either they fight like no one else or they are adorable like no one else.

Example:

They arrive home from school and help each other get a glass, milk and cookie.  Best of buds.  They decide to go outside to toss the football back and forth.  Within five minutes they are screaming at each other, wrestling the other to the ground, shoving and pushing each other around.  Did I mention screaming?, it bears repeating. 

Because I continue to say, "You two are brothers and you will be FOR THE REST OF YOUR LIFE so figure this out", I try to let them hash it out themselves.  I cringe through the exchange and every once in awhile I have to separate them because they need to be separated.

At night, when they have gone to bed (finally), I sit down, hold my head in my hands and want to cry.  I am emotionally and physically exhausted.  I peer through my fingers at my husband and groan, "They are driving me insane....."

He laughs.

I am serious.

Last week the three youngest boys announced they are going to be in the church Christmas program.  Daddy said they could. Mama was going to make sure they weren't because she didn't want to do the practice running.  Daddy won.

The Christmas Play is a Spelling Bee Musical.  We have a cd.

We must listen to the cd because the boys need to know the songs and their lines.

So, we get in the suburban and the Christmas musical cd in on and singing "S P E L L I N G B E E" all happy high-pitched kid like.  You parents know what I mean.  It hurts your ears it is so high-pitched, happy, scrape your fingernail along the chalkboard sounding.  And the music is so loud as to soak into them that they might absorb the words.  They need to know every song, every line and all their friends lines too.

Today, I am listening to this super happy high-pitched singing and actually missed the moments that all I had to do is deal with them fighting over who hit who with a wad of paper or stole the others hat.

This morning I had only time to suck down a half a cup of coffee as I was walking out the door and had no time to make myself coffee for the ride, I am certain that has to do with some of my insanity at the moment.  However, if you see me with my head twitching to some weird beat and my eyes buggy eyed out and me singing in a chant sort of way, "Be nice, S P E L L I N G B E E, be nice, S P E L L I N G B E E," you will understand why.

Place coffee in my hand.

Perhapes consider kidnapping me.

And pray I make it through this current phase in our lives. 

The Great Christmas Play

The boys were in a Christmas play for our church this Sunday and I could tell you that it went off without a hitch and it was perfect and all went smoothly.

Then you would look at the title of the blog to make sure that you were, in fact, reading the correct blog and then you would believe it had been hijacked.

But it DID go very well. The play went perfectly. The boys were great......
Well....
Sorta.
Here is what happened.

You recall my bad day that wasn't so bad. Yes, well, the glass places are closed until Monday so we did not have the suburban. But we had the great to the rescue cab and half, nice and cuddly close, plow truck.

On Sunday, the day of the play, we had church, we had dinner and then I had a little tiny bit of time to clean a big huge mess. And cook. And bake.

But I had a great plan. I made the cookies and then when husband brought the boys to church for their last practice at 4:30, I would clean the floors, wait til then to clean the bathroom, and be ready to go by 5:15 to be to church by 5:30 to get a great seat and cheer on my handsome fellows.

I have great ideas.
They just rarely work.

As I was getting the boys their shoes and socks (this is a big deal, they all had socks on!), I told S4 to go in and wash his face. He was gone a very long time. He came running out of the bathroom grinning. “See my hair, Moma?” he asked. “I cut it just like Daddy does!”

And he had. A big huge bald spot right in the very front of his head.

You see, Husband cuts his own hair. He buzz cuts it, along with the boys hair. But he trims his goatee with scissors, it gets singed by the hot wood heat so often he usually trims it every few days. And always always always when we are headed out to church or some other look nice event.

What do you do? I just sweetly smiled and said “Wow...how about we not use the scissors again though, okay?” His hair is so short I am hoping no one notices the bald skin....but I will.
Not long after the boys had left and I was jamming along to great Christmas music, the phone rang. It was husband. “Honey, please tell me that JM is home with the extra set of keys to the Dodge.....”

JM plows with Husband.

“Um, I think so.....” I said, straining to see if she was but not seeing her car. “Why?” I asked afraid of the answer.
“Somehow we locked the truck. And it's still running.”

Well, I skedaddled, grabbed the extra set (we so are making hidakeys after this!) and jumped in the big mean Dodge with the hunking huge v-blade and raced to be the hero.

It's kinda fun being the hero for Husband for once.

Except, the gas light was dinging just as soon as the Dodge rumbled loudly to life.

But I talked to Dodge, told him how to shift correctly and warned him of the predicament he'd put me in if he left me stranded with no gas and made it to the rescue, and then Husband and I celebrated by rolling into the gas station.

We are very romantic.

This put a HUGE crimp in the getting the house ready for the Christmas play party but I figure they are family and they are forced to love us anyhow so we raced to the church and arrived five minutes before the play began, when our family was all there already, waiting for us.

The play went off without a hitch. S1 had a speaking part and he has been grounded from all hunting or target practicing until he memorized his lines and since he said them correctly I am sure hunting will be in the very near future. S2 grinned perfectly, stood perfectly, sang perfectly. S3 was hard to see because he was on the far side of the group and I could only catch glimpses of him from where I was sitting. Then there was S4.

This was a big deal to S4. He was finally old enough to be in the play with his guys. He knew every sang every line with determination, a constant bop of his head to keep time. “Gloooo,oooo,ooooo,oooo, ria” was a fun one to watch him sing. Every new “o” was a new bop. When the play would start up again after the song, he would turn and watch it, I mean, why not, that's why everyone was here. And since he was at the end of the row, why not get comfy? Here's a few poses.

GM, my sister in law, and I especially liked when he was up on his knees waving his butt in the air like he had a tail. And then there was time when just the girls talked in the play and who wants to listen to girls? Apparently not him, because he just laid right down on the middle step in the middle of the stage and waited for them to be done.

But when it came time to sing, he stood up straight and sang proudly.

GM and I giggled through the whole play. Husband, at the other end of the pew, couldn't see him. So only half the church seen S4's antics.
Which is good.

(after the play, S4 didn't get the mic during the play, thank goodness!)

Afterwards my parents, Husband's Mom, my brother and sister in law and Jr and my sister and her husband and baby Back-up all came back to the house to eat the cookies and sloppy joes I had made and we ended up having more food than we needed and having more fun than expected.
It was a great night.

That went perfectly.