Keeping My Head Above Water

Things have been pretty crazy around here.

Right now my boys are rocking out to ABBA's "Dancing Queen" on the karaoke machine, and Ada and Jennabee are napping, so I finally have a few minutes to write.

Here's the very quick run down of recent events:

Ada's first two teeth finally made their way out. I'm pretty sure she's been teething since she was three months old. Even though they have broken through, she's still waking up every one to two hours every night. That's worse than when she was a newborn. I think she's starving and it's time to break out the rice cereal. The doc says not to start until she's six months old, but I think 5 1/2 is close enough.

We're getting ready to move into our house but want to paint a few rooms first. Joe started painting our very first room after 11 years of rentals, and I LOVE the colors. I'm so relieved that it looks nice. You never know how the little color swatch will turn out on a big wall. One funny story about this is that when I brought the paint home and Joe looked at the little color dabs on top of the lids, he was convinced that it was going to look terrible. He decided to paint it anyway and a couple hours later he called me and said, "Where are you? You've got to get over here quick, this room looks GREAT!" I promise a picture when it's all done.

Joe's youngest brother graduated last Saturday and we successfully survived the ceremony with six kids in tow. It was during our dinner time, so Joe smuggled in fruit snacks and bagels with cream cheese and salami for the kids. The people in front of us couldn't help but turn around and look once they caught a whiff of the fragrant salami. It also helped that the ceremony was virtually speech free. Congratulations Jeff!

We finished homeschool for the school year--kind of. We still do "summer school" where the kids read, play math games on the computer, and practice penmanship. They love the easy schedule. My sister-in-law Jana, who also homeschools, sent me this great math games site where kids can race other kids anonymously online by doing math facts. My kids are addicted.

Sadly, on Monday I got a call from my dad telling me that my grandpa, who just turned 77, passed away that morning. He was a really great man and deserves a post of his own which I plan on writing soon. On Friday I'm going back to my roots in Southern California to attend his funeral. I'm glad that I'll get to spend some time with my grandma, dad, sisters, and other extended family while I'm there. It's been too long since I've seen them.