Monkey Room

Friday was a crazy day! I was helping out with a Reality Store program in a highschool about 30 miles away, but it was in the very early morning when Paul has combat training, so once again we were so thankful for our wonderful babysitter who could run across the street for half an hour before Paul got home. Carly was out of school early as usual. I love these crazy kids. =)

Here's Bree, sweet little girl, checking to see that they were still playing the bin-on-the-head game. =)

Oh MY. Glue all over Carly's cool homework. I had heard Bree coloring and then it got quiet - never good - and when I asked what she was doing, she said "painting". Yikes! Thankfully we can still sort of access the rest of the pages in this book and none of the glue got on the base housing carpet. You would THINK I would have learned my lesson about trying to organize the closet while the kids are awake...but nooooo

...because when Christopher and Stella (Kirstikers and Stedda) came over to play so their parents could go tot he Marine Corps Ball, I wasn't done organizing and I set them up in Bree's room so at least they would be close. Well, Christopher and Stella stayed in there playing with blocks and climbing up the bed and back down again, but not Bree. I found her in the laundry room, hiding in the dirty clothes and practicing grease hair sculpture with a tub of Vaseline.

Look! It's SHINY!

Being a good listener and putting the lid back on that stuff as I asked while I quietly hyperventilated in the background...

Then, we hear something and Bree goes, "where's Stedda?" At this point, all hey broke loose and it took me a good two hours to get the situation under control. All three of them were going in different directions...it was exactly like any movie you've ever seen where there are a lot of kids in the house going crazy and usually one clueless dad (or in this case an OCD mom who just had to finish what she started, annoying) and to be perfectly honest, even though it was crazy and loud and a little stressful, it was really fun, too. Or maybe that was just me losing my mind. =)

Oh THERE'S Stella! Standing on the table eating Bree's mac-n-cheese. Great job at safety, Liz! Anyway, the following pictures were taken within one minute of one another, so you can get a sense of the pace...

Christopher, being a good listener and not climbing back on the table. He did try to climb every piece of furniture in the house, but he's 2.5 so of course he did, that's what kids his age are supposed to do. I didn't take them to the park and his little legs needed to do something! Once I finally figured out that I just needed to ask him to not climb each particular item, we were good and I could watch him go into a room and look around, like, "Okay, she said don't climb that, don't climb that, don't climb that..." so cute!

This picture is funny because Stella wasn't responsible for ANY of that mess and she's just sitting in the middle of it playing with Carly's ring magnets (they're big, don't worry!). Okay and yes that is a banana peel and no, I don't know how it got there or whose it was.

Christopher remembered he wasn't supposed to have jumping feet on the couch...

I think maybe half of it got into her mouth. Again, had I been sitting WITH her, not chasing the big kids out of the back yard, garage, my bathtub, etc, it wouldn't have been a problem. Besides, it's easy to clean and she liked being independent. =) Haha, what she did NOT like was the bath they all had to take after this. Holy Moly I've never heard three kids scream so loud about bubbles and warm water!

Above: waiting for the bath to fill...these two had to sit for a minute and watch the music channel. =) Whew! And now, let's break for a little self-indulgent meme. =)

1. A different twist on last week’s question. This week, the first question is: what’s the nicest thing a MILSPOUSE has ever done for you? (brought to you from navy_smurfette)

I, gosh, I don't know. Several of my closes friends are military spouses, and the nice things they've done for me just fall into line with what good friends normally do...I think one that tops my list would be when I got a bouquet of flowers on my front doorstep the day my husband went back on deployment after coming home from R&R.

2. How often do you drive faster than the speed limit?

Rarely, and only because I have like two points left before I lose the privilege of driving on base. Most of those points are due to the fact that Paul has yet to apply the VA license plate to the front of his truck and although the MP's never pull HIM over, I get a ticket every single flippin' time I drive the S-10.

3. Did you have a nickname in school? If so, what was it?

Bonnin. It's my maiden last name, and back when I went by my full first name, I guess my friends preferred to reduce by half the number of syllables they'd need to use to get my attention. My siblings call me Lizardbreath. I used to hate it - now I don't. =)

4. If your life was a book, what would the title be and how would it end?

Well, I haven’t lived my entire life, so I don’t know. But at this moment, maybe it would be "How To Do Awesome in 10 Easy Steps" because I like lists, and also telling people what to do. It would end with a question, something that I actually want to know about everyone...How do YOU rock your awesome? 

5. Look back (in your planner if you have one) to September 14th… what did you do that day?

Well, that was a Tuesday, so I was at Navy Relief from 9-2 then I came home for a second, went to pick up Carly at school and, if I remember correctly, we went and did art at the park.