Back to our regularly scheduled program

First of all, I would like to thank everyone who commented on my post for disappearing for awhile. I had a major case of overload and pms. And as much as I enjoy blogging, I needed to put myself and my family first and put this blog on the backburner for awhile. I would like to thank you also for all the well wishes for Christopher and his mom. Chris is doing much better today. He had a little scare with his blood count #'s yesterday that indicated rejection but he started improving and has started waking up a little more. He's improving more and more with each passing day. In the coming weeks a dinner benefit will be in the works for him and his family. Donation jars are being set up and all sorts of stuff being worked on. The support has been amazing!

Now on to stuff going on around here. I've completed day 1 of "hell". Which means Chris left for Las Vegas early this morning for work and won't be returning until Thursday night. While this in itself isn't a big deal, because I'm used to dealing with them on my own during the day, the nighttime/bedtime routine plain sucks. I'm normally wait for Chris to get home from work so he can help me settle them in for the night. Tonight I flew solo. And it wasn't so bad. Emilie is spending the night at a friends house so I only had to handle 3 kids. I managed to keep the little ones from napping in the car so they were ready to zonk. I had Matt and Molly in bed by 9pm, and turned off the t.v. Ryan read a book while I picked up, and he went to bed peacefully at 10pm. The only other thing about these few days is that I have no one family-wise to help out either. Mom is in South Carolina, Jen is working all week, and my brother and SIL have the hospital stuff to deal with.

A funny thing Molly said the other day. It was Saturday and her and I were making dinner, and I was waiting for Chris to get home. I wondered out loud where he was. And she said "well, maybe he got lost in Vegas" I started laughing and told her he wasn't going for a few more days ,and she still was concerned that he got "lost". Apparently, she thought it was Lost Vegas instead of Las Vegas!! She really can be too cute!

My supervisor at work watches Nanny911. Its funny because she's 40-something without any kids, yet went out of her way to help me set up a behavior chart. She bought posterboard, reward stickers and markers and crayons for each child to decorate their own chart. We have chores listed, a "rules" list and a "punishment" list. They get a sticker on their board for every day they do their chores and have to follow the rules. So far its going okay. I keep slipping up, but on the flipside, the older kids are basically doing their chores without me even asking. And if I have to remind them, they do them without complaint! The hardest part has been curbing the physical stuff. Hitting, throwing, kicking. I keep reminding myself that it didn't get this way in a day and its not going to be fixed in a day either. My kids are sweet kids though (if I do say so myself) and they really want to behave, and really, no child is perfect.

I think I've touched down on every subject tonight...lol The kids and I are home this week on winter break, so I might be around more often.

Hope everyone has a great Wednesday!