Out of the mouth's of Recruits

Walking out of the gym the other morning with Recruits 5 and 6.

Recruit 5: Mom, when you're dressed more appropriately could we go to Wal-Mart?

Mom: Um... (looking down at my gym clothes) Well, yeah, sure I guess...

Tagged by Two....

Okay I was tagged twice and I just found out I was tagged AND it was two different tags by two different friends. I am new to this blogging tag thing. So I'm going to break all the rules, make new rules and combine them. If you choose to read any further, then so be it.

I obviously can not stop you.

Still here?

Okay...

Step 1. If you want to, you can put up this picture to make it look like you're a totally cool special blogger person.

2. Stick the name of the person who tagged you here: House of Chaos and hyperlink it so people can go see who tagged you. Thank you Rebecca! You made my day with your sweet comments about me and my offspring! We miss you too!

2. Name Three Blogs you love:

1. Jen's 11th Heaven: because you're you and you give stuff away, just not to me, so perhaps you aught to fix that...

2. Heather: because she keeps me entertained with her unnatural devotion to TWILIGHT.

3. Carly: because I miss her and her three kids... (I KNOW she only has two, I was being snide about Jesse, who we actually do miss too...) And because she is awesome handling the deployment. You make us Marine Wives look good!

Now you three have to go tag people. Just not me... Oh and you can choose to put the cute love your blog stamp up or not. And then you link to me like I did Rebecca. or not. or whatever.

Still here? What nothing else to do??

Part TWO: Jessica tagged me but not everybody can go visit her. She practices blog op sec. However she said I had to list 7 quirky things about myself and then tag 7 people.

1. I had to go ask The Marine what 7 things were quirky about me. That got a look. He wanted to think about it. I think he was nervous to answer me.

2. I have two sinks in my bathroom one for me and one for The Marine and his whiskers. I fill mine up with stuff. Hair products, make up, q-tips and use his sink as a sink. We switched sides. He thought I would then use the side he had been using, but I was ready for him. I filled it up with stuff and used his new side, which was my old side. He said to take a picture of it. I said no. You would think less of me if I did.

3. When the alarm goes off in the morning it actually makes me a little angry if he (meaning The Marine) takes too long to get out of bed so I can roll into his spot. Is that quirky or just weird? It's like this NEED... can't really explain it, it just is.....

4. I have a rule. If he returns from a deployment, mission, TAD trip, etc. and gives me 1 hour or less notice of his return I am not responsible for what he finds at home. AND he has to help clean up whatever he does find. I need at least two hours to shove stuff under the bed.

5. I like to sleep in his pj bottoms. (Not with him in them though...) They make me feel skinny.

6. I think if I eat handfuls of walnuts and chocolate chips I am being healthier than if I ate one chocolate chip cookie. Please don't anyone disillusion me. It's a small joy.

7. I PASSIONATELY dislike it when ANYONE asks me what's for dinner. It just sends me into an unreasonable rage and I have been known to be violent and crazed when this happens. Sometimes a whisk is involved.

Now the following people "should" Link to me as the tagger and they have to list quirky, weird, odd, and preferably a little embarrassing little known facts about themselves. or not.

House of Chaos, Singer Sentinel, CrazeeMomee (start your blog missy), CruisingFoote, The Hussey's, Familia Fonseca, Emily's Angels. Notice ya'll are my only blogging friends listed on my blog.. Sorry, I just can't tag perfect strangers...

I should be embarrassed but...

But by the time you have your sixth child and he is a boy, it takes a lot to phase you. Recruit 6's birth story is a good one, and maybe when I have time I'll put it on here. For now just know there was a moment when he was about 10 days old I stayed up all night searching the Internet because I thought he might be autistic.

What made me think this? He spent 9 days in the NICU on oxygen. My main defense is I was post-partum and I had never had a new born with health issues. He is SO not Autistic...

My main point is, when this child was born, I knew he was special and I worried I wouldn't be a good mom to him. I have no idea yet either, time will tell, but I kiss him a lot...

I also had an inkling early on he was going to give me fits. Ex: when he was still new and straight from Heaven I was working on my column and holding him in my lap. I was concerned he had not smiled at me yet.

Just as I was either talking to someone about my concern or researching it ( the Internet can sometimes be too easy a resource) I glanced down at my sweet baby just in time to see the fading of a smile! Eyes wide open starring at me and a baby grin just fading. I was stunned!

As soon as he made eye contact with me the tail end of his smile abruptly left his tiny face.

He continues to stun me. Like a stun gun sometimes. I am stunned into immobility. I just stand there sometimes and watch, horrified.

I actually asked him if he was messing with me! He just starred at me solemn faced. No repeat performance, (that I saw), for days. And so Recruit 6 began his reign of love and terror over me.

This was my last baby that would be my very own. The last one I could choose the type of diaper, or I alone could decide if he was held too much (he NEVER was...) I had ultimate and total responsibility and authority over him and he was MY last baby. (Yes, The Marine was involved and when I say I , I mean US, but I'm going to use MY, MINE, and I).

I had a moment when the full realization hit me. Just as with Recruit 1, with every 'first' for her I was poignantly aware those were also my 'first' moments as a mother. So with Recruit 6, they are my 'last' moments as a mother...

And then he began to grow...

And some last moments aren't/won't be so hard to let go of...

I can't keep him dressed correctly. He rarely wears underwear, (I've spared you that photo moment) and it is against his nature to stay clean or scab free.

Even at the beach with the whole Atlantic Ocean he is still gross. How could I not have taken that picture? To take time to wipe his face would have ruined this moment. They did this on their own. I'll take the dried snot and chocolate.

His energy and spunk are contagious!

Proof! I do bathe him. Actually he loves to bathe and has recently discovered "big boy showers". He just loves getting disgusting, filthy, and gross even more.

He is unique and you NEVER know what he is thinking or what he'll do next. So let me tell you what he did to me yesterday....

I went to the gym yesterday after having not worked out for the last two weeks. I did a spin class and almost died.

Seriously.

I was wheezing after the class and felt puke-y (weather here is bad for asthma lately) and I had arrived at the gym late, so I didn't really look at Recruit 6 on the way in. I saw a bruise above his left eye brow but figured he was functioning normally so I would investigate it later.

I really struggled through the class. I was as red faced as you can get and light headed after wards.

Lack of oxygen does that.

I grabbed the boys out of the child care and stopped by the gym's manager's office, a friend of mine to let her know I was alive... barely. One of the other instructors was in there at the time.

I don't think she has kids. If she does she isn't old and worn down and miserably out of shape like I am.

So my friend, T-Rock, is chatting with the boys and Recruit 6 was hopping around. She asked him about his head. The 'bruise'.

He didn't say anything. I was starting to recover from almost dying by now but starting to go into the after work out coma you get when you haven't been regularly working out. She asked me if it was a bruise or dirt. I said I didn't know.

She rubbed it.

I didn't really care, I was breathing again and that seemed more important at that moment.

However instinctively I started to lick my finger (gross I know) and wipe his head but I decided to look first because by now the part of my brain oxygen had gotten to was curious.

I got a good close look and discovered a dried booger right above his left eye brow!

I recoiled in horror and before I could figure out how to cover up the booger I spouted out loud "IT'S A BOOGER"!

To an outsider (meaning someone not inside my body at the time) who wasn't aware of my exhausted, oxygen deprived state it probably appeared that I casually claimed it was a booger and wasn't grossed out. Inside my head was more energy than my body could portray.

I was actually mortified. And yet here I sit writing the world about it...

Recruit 6 proceeds to try and pull it off once he realizes he has a booger there and it was actually like glued to his skin. I could see the skin pulling up as he ripped it off and wiped it on the wall where the keys hang.

Everyone is yelling EEEWWW! Don't do that! etc. Except me. I just stand there calmly watching it all making no move to recover the booger.

Remember the other instructor. Cute, young, and yelling "get a napkin!"

I just said, "it's gone now..." I was not able to bend over with my head below my heart, to look for the dried booger. I hadn't recovered that much yet. To have a booger incident and pass out all in the same 30 seconds would have been too much, so I left.

Looking back I wish I had made more of an effort to reclaim the booger.

And typing booger over and over has me totally laughing right now. I live in a house full of boys. It has damaged me.

Of all the things in this world I would like to be known as, "the mother of the booger wiper kid" is not one of them.

My sincerest apologies to my friend, the cute young instructor, and the gym. I hope your cleaning crew paid special attention to the floor around the key board last night because the booger wiper's mom was WAY off her game....

But seriously.... That is a 'last' mom moment I willingly would do over again just to have the privilege of being this little booger's mom! Just next time I'd grab a napkin....

What Happens When the Marine Mis-behaves at Church?

He goes in Time Out of course!

It doesn't seem to be working. He looks a little too happy for Time Out...

More Sunday Fun

Dinner is over and we fed the missionaries and a single Marine from the Ward. It was a lot of fun and the boys (Recruits 4-6) were all hyped up and crazy just as one would think small boys would be when guests come around. I'm wondering how much Halloween candy they have hidden and have eaten today...

I couldn't leave the girls out of the picture taking fun today. However... ONE of them is very difficult lately. This daughter was uncooperative.

These were taken before church today, right after the boys all ditched me outside. Recruit 1 was cooperative. She likes to take pictures. Recruit 3 is ornery. She is 13. I think it's the law.

She was giving her dad THE EYEBROW. It's this new thing the two of them do. It's nice they have a "thing" but why does it have to be in my pictures?

Okay darling, your cute and you and your Daddy have your weird eyebrow thing which is nice and all bond-y but let's take a nice mother/daughters picture, shall we?

Seriously? Again??

Okay... Now seriously stop it. Marine, stop giving her the eyebrow behind the camera. Can I just have one picture with us looking normal and happy? Now stop it! Please.

NO SHE DIDN'T?!! That would have been a cute one. The Marine is totally messing this up with his infantile encouragement of THE EYEBROW! I can totally see him eyebrowing from behind the camera....

I WANT ONE NORMAL PICTURE!!! IS THAT TOO MUCH TO ASK?? I GAVE BIRTH TO YOU JUST DO WHAT I SAY!!! PUT YOUR EYEBROW DOWN THIS INSTANT!!!

Never mind. At least the eyebrow pictures didn't look like they were being held captive...

Sunday Continued...

So we made it to church. I wasn't sure how church would work out today in the wee hours of the morning. It started off pretty good actually. Everyone looked lovely and it wasn't too bad today, well, until AFTER church when The Marine drove off and left Recruit 3 and I at church. He said he was leaving at 1205. I ran in to get Recruit 3 and we came straight out. Apparently not in time for 1205!

So we made it home but I don't want to post it here HOW we made it home. Mainly because eventually The Marine does read the blog and we want to protect our resources in the event we need them again. He came back of course to get us be we weren't there. hehehehe... He should have been terrified, worried sick even when he realized he had abandoned us. Nope. He just came home and demanded to know how we got there. Recruit 3 was tough though. She said, "Can't tell ya that" and then gave him an eyebrow.

Back to the more pleasant part of the day. I was in the mood to get some pictures of my people. I had prepped the clothes the night before, one of those rare moments of thinking ahead.

These are my own Stripling Warriors. Mama's Boys!

I decided next I needed the leader of the pack in the picture. These men and men-in-training don't cooperate very well sometimes. I had about 30 seconds to get a decent shot and then it all fell apart. Finally only one loan Recruit was left for the picture as they all left me.

So we went to church, I was mauled, we taught our cute primary kids and then it was all over. Only one had their shirt tale un-tucked at the end of the three hours... Now it's NAP time!

What Is Happening RIGHT Now!

Nothing. It's Sunday morning and it's 0700. No one is awake but me. Well, The Marine is awake because I just made him listen to Carly's post and Savannah's words of wisdom. However I now hear funky breathing, I think he has drifted off again. I'll slug him in a minute.

I have a love-hate relationship with Sundays. I love going to church to see friends, hear uplifting and edifying words for my spirit.

I don't enjoy what I am fixing to have to do. Wake up the sleeping beasties and get them dressed. It's not as bad as when The Marine is deployed, which is on the horizon. I can't even mentally go there yet.

I am pondering how to better start our Sundays. I KNOW all the tips and pre-planning that should be done. It's the implementation of them that somehow eludes me. Alot.

Right now my children are sooooo sweet and kind. In about 3 minutes someone is going to be nasty. At least it's a toss up which one it will be. That's kind of a mental guessing game I could play.

"Which recruit loses their mind today?" If there were prizes for me I might not mind playing...

It's been a busy weekend and everyone is running low on get up and go. So I have to supply the get up and GO! Recruit 2 has barely avoided getting sprayed with water lately...

I love having my family all together, I am less than thrilled with the competition that goes on in Sacrament and primary between the kids. What are they competing for? ME!

Oh don't even think I should be flattered. It's all about the competition. I am just the convenient chump sitting on the same row of chairs.

And why is it NEVER The Marine they fight over? He's a nice dad. He loves them, He doesn't even yell and scream like I do? It makes no sense...

Who can sit next to me, who gets to hold my hand, who can rub my shoulders (I sort of take advantage of that last one). Who gets to sit in my lap and so forth. Because the Marine and I teach Sunday School, we are in primary during sharing time. It's gets worse.

Recruit 4 is not in our class but refuses to sit with his class because it is all girls. Recruit 5 IS in our class and so is sitting with us already, the lucky duck.

Recruit 6 LOVES his teacher but when he sees the other two both jockeying for mom he has to hold out his little arms and look pitifully at me and even cry on occasion.

I am already exhausted and it's only a little after 7!

Okay.... I'm going in... cover me.....