Randomvis

If you are here, you may notice a different look. I am experimenting and am not so sure I like it yet. So if you come back a few times and notice that it looks different each time, that is why.


We have the first tball game tonight. Can't wait for the entertainment.


The kids have learned to rhyme. So I often hear, "Mom, ketchup....betchup, that rhymes!" or other random things like that. Some are real words, some are made-up.


I went to CVS today and walked out with a gallon of milk, a small pkg of M&M's and one of Peanut M&M's, and a box of Oreo Cakesters and only payed $.02 and also received a coupon for a free gallon of milk next time I'm there. I had to share with you all because Brad is sick of listening to all my good deals and I was quite sure you all wanted to know this information.


Thought I'd also share with you that this is what happens when you hang too many coats in your closet. I wish I could say this just happened but it's been this way for about a month and to be honest it might just stay this way until we actually need to wear these coats. I think a few might be going to the thrift store though. If you notice the baseball mitt on the top. That normally goes on the floor in some bins I have in there but for now it gets set on the top. Isn't the blog world great! I get to share my messy house with everyone.



I will be at jury duty this week, so you won't be seeing me for a few days. I'm working on some special posts for the end of the week.

A Camping we went!

We left for our first family camping trip with our 'new' camper on Tuesday afternoon to the Indiana Dunes. We went with friends Rick and Julie Wories whose old camper is now ours! They were able to show us how everything worked and it also gave us a good idea of the kind of things we are going to need to purchase for our future trips. We had a ton of fun and think we are going to like the camping thing. It was supposed to be REALLY hot! But it ended up not being as bad as we thought. We came home with a ton a sand and I personally came home with about 200 mosquito bites even thought I covered myself with OFF. New tip I learned though, rub ice on your mosquito bite and it helps with the itching. Here are pictures of our trip.

On Wednesday morning we went to the Nature Center and took a hike through one of the many trails in the woods.

After the hike we breaked for lunch and then headed out to the beach.



Then it was time to dig a hole.

And bury Alex.


And then Amanda.


Before we left Amanda told us she had to go to the bathroom so Brad convinced her to go in the lake. So he walked out to the water with her, while he was looking the other way she started to take her bathing suit off so that she could go to the bathroom. It was very funny!
After the beach, we had one sleepy little camper.


And also a sleepy big camper.



I thought Aunt Nikki would love to see her nieces sweeping the sand off the street. They definitely take after her and not me.

On Thursday morning the kids insisted on climbing this huge sand dune. I tried to talk them out of it but they really wanted to do it. I figured they would give up pretty quickly but Alex, Joshua and Isaac did it!




Then it was time to run down. Amanda decided to climb this little one instead.



A great time was had by all but I'm glad to be home and sitting in my house with air conditioning and happy that I was able to put 4 kids to bed tonight with clean feet!

It's Finally Here!

A long time ago, OK not really a long time ago, but when I started this blog I posted this. I told you I had plenty more cute things that my kids say that I would share with you later. Absolutely everyone no one has been asking when I'm going to be posting more of these. But I know you have all been sitting around thinking about this even though you haven't verbalized it to me. So here they are!

Here are a few words that my kids have changed up and are often heard around our house:

1. Bessert - Dessert

2. Resgusting - Disgusting

3. Nexterday - This word might mean tomorrow, yesterday, next week, or last week. They made up one word to cover them all.

4. Smarshmallows - Marshmallows

5. Burp-ed - because just saying burped is too ordinary.


Now for a couple cute stories:

I often give my kids my old purses to play with. I try to take everything out of them but sometimes I guess I miss a couple things. One day Joshua (yes, he was playing with the purse) brought me a pantyliner that he had found and asked,"Mom, what is this gross thing?" If only he knew. Unfortunately that wasn't the only one he found, a little later he brought me another one.


One night I was doing dishes and Amanda decided to pull up a stool and watch. Somehow we got on the subject of caterpillars. She was talking about how they don't like garbage but when they turn into a raccoon they do. For awhile I was just kind of nodding and going along with her. Finally I asked her what she was talking about and she explained to me how Daddy told her that a Caterpillar turns into a raccoon. It finally dawned on me that she thought a cocoon was a raccoon. Brad claims he did not tell her this but I'm stickin' to that story.


And finally, here is a little trick that we've learned. Do your kids ask you 5 million questions a day? Well mine do. We like to encourage questions if they are curious questions but we tend to get questions that are so random and make no sense. It seems no matter what I say each kid has to respond with asking 5 questions about one simple statement. Brad and I have come up with question time. We allow the kids to take turns asking us any question they want. By the time they are on their 2nd or 3rd question they have run out of things to ask. It's become a fun little game for us.

T-ball

Monday night began 6 weeks of t-ball. It is an instructional league that Joshua, Alex and Amanda are in. They are all on the same team and play every Monday and Wednesday. So far they love it! The first 4 nights are teaching them running bases, catching, throwing and hitting. Then we start the games.

Isaac isn't old enough so he kept busy by throwing his hat into a tree.

Rain and Garage Sales

What a busy week we have been having. Brad once again has been insanely busy with work! He has been working on this job where the wallpaper just wasn't wanting to come off and these people were on a deadline. He has been working the last 2 weeks nonstop! We've barely seen him. I guess you can never count on being slow or busy right now, but we'll take busy. That's what pays the bills!

Wednesday night I woke up to Thunderstorms. As I lay in bed, I remembered how we fixed the drain in the basement so I could rest easy because no water would be coming up them! Then in the morning I headed to the basement to grab a loaf of bread out of the freezer and found 2 inches of water! We figured out that the sump pump had broken. Lovely! If it's not one thing it's the next! The worst was that I didn't have the kids pick up their toys the night before so I had toys floating everywhere. Thankfully we were able to find someone to come over on short notice and fix it and he didn't charge an arm and a leg! I've been wanting to tear up that carpet for awhile and just paint the floor and get some carpet remnants, so I guess now is the time to do it. I will be tossing all the furniture down there too. Since I'm doing that I moved all the toys up to the office and it will now be an office/toyroom.


This is what it is looking like right now. Next week I get to organize! On a side note, that night Amanda thanked God for the rain in our basement. We need to be thankful for everything, right? How a child can remind us of these simple things! We need to be thankful for even the annoying things that ruin our day!

Also this week I've been hosting a garage sale with my sisters. This means 9 kids in my house with very little supervision. This has brought my kitchen floor to a whole new stickiness. I also know that my nephew Eddison has been over a lot when the soap dispenser is close to being empty again when I just filled it 2 weeks ago. The kid gets so excited that he can get to my sink that all he wants to do is wash his hands! He then flashes his cute little dimples at me and I can hardly get mad at him.

The garage sale has been going good and we've all made a decent amount of money. We tried the evening thing and then a day. The evening was a little rainy, but it still went pretty good. I have now sold both my double and quad strollers. Getting rid of strollers I think officially takes me out of the baby stage!

Here are Beth and Nikki among all the treasures and my cousin Lisa is in there too finding lots of good bargains!

Morgan wanted to have a lemonade stand and Beth made her some cookies to sell too. Here she is with all of her helpers. Those cookies were selling like hotcakes! I think the kids drank most of the lemonade instead of selling it.

And that is my week in a nutshell!

Nurse Amanda

As much as Amanda looks live a Vis, she definitely has more of my personality. She is a little more particular than the other kids, she does not like to lose things, and likes to be around me and help me with whatever I'm doing. She has always been one to watch out for the other kids and try to make them feel better when they are hurting or sad. When they were only 1, if someone was sad, she would always run and get their blankie because she knew that would make them feel better.

Amanda is also very emotional which she doesn't necessarily get from me. I will get upset about things pretty easily but not to the point of crying. Amanda is a fountain! After many talks with her about crying over little things she has learned to control it a little. I now notice that when she is upset because she can't find her purse, she will come and tell me and she is fighting back those tears. We're making progress. But most of all she loves to imitate me. This can be a good thing and a bad thing. For instance, the other day the boys were fighting over a toy and I heard her saying in her motherly voice,"Now, who's toy is it and who had it first?" When she got her answer she came running to give me the report so I could solve the problem.

Yesterday, I was in the basement doing 'The Shred' when I hear "Joshua's knee is bleeding!" and then Amanda says, "I'll take care of it!" She took some toilet paper to wipe up the blood and then put band-aids on it for him. This is a picture of her handiwork.

Pretty soon these kids aren't even going to need me around. The thought makes me very happy and very sad at the same time!

Parents of a Teenager

Many of you may not know this about us, but Brad and I have a 5th child. He actually was our first. We adopted him through Compassion International in 2002 and he was just 5 years old. His name is Hakizimana Habimana and he lives in Rwanda.Some of the things the card we received when we first adopted him was that his chores include carrying water, gathering firewood and cleaning. He also loved to play soccer and hide-and-seek. Today he turns 13 and we have been supporting him for 7 1/2 years now. Over the years we have received many letters from him. When he sent letters thanking us for Christmas gifts and Birthday gifts he often told us that he bought Christmas dinner with the money or purchased a goat for the family. He has definitely shown us how good we have it here in America. Last year we received a letter from him stating that someone had poisoned him and he almost died.

Now that the kids are getting a little older we have tried to get them involved. All letters that we send out now include colored pictures from all the kids and they faithfully pray for him every night. We are thankful for the opportunity to support him and for what he has also taught us. We are thankful that through the God given money that we send to Compassion, Hakizimana is getting a Christian Education and is learning about God.

My Fashionista

I used to look at kids out at in public with mismatched clothes and think, "How can their mother let them go out of the house looking like that?" Then I had 4 kids and realized that it doesn't really matter what they are wearing as long as they have gotten themselves dressed. This was the first time I took a very mismatched child out in public.

Notice the shoes on the wrong feet. In my defense we were going to the Auto Parts store and I'm not sure they are really into fashion or would even notice or care.

Now most the time I don't let my kids leave like this. If I know we are going out running errands I do ask them to change but some days we are just staying home and I don't feel I need to waste my breath asking them to change. This was one of those days that we were staying home and it was last minute that I decided to take Alex with me.

Today was actually a different story. She put this beautiful ensemble together. I guess I just didn't think it was hideous enough to make her go change. I'm thinking a career in Fashion is not in her future.

This is Alex this afternoon. She put on a preemie sleeper from Joshua. Joshua wore this when he was 5lbs and it fits Alex as a shirt.

Clothes Swap

As I explained in my last post, my clothing fund is a little low and I need new clothes. Of course that doesn't mean I've given up on my exercise. In general I just need new clothes. Ok, well I guess I don't NEED new clothes. I'm just a little sick of the old ones. I also just don't have time to shop for them. I do not shop for clothes with my kids, so that usually leaves me having to go out at 8pm to shop. That is really the last thing I feel like doing after working around the house all day. So, I've been trying to think of a way that I could swap clothes with people. Then, WA-LA! I read an article in the Chicago Trib yesterday about how the "new" thing is to have Clothing Swaps. My friend Clair had a similiar idea to do this with your MOPS or church group.

Wouldn't it be great to get a new shirt in trade for that old one instead of the dollar you might make at the garage sale you're having! Basically, the idea is that everyone brings a specified amount of clothing items and you swap clothes. I do have a few ideas of how it could work, just from my own thoughts and from the article. Don't worry about the fact that you might be a different size than me. Right now, I would just like to see if there is interest out there. If so, please leave a comment or email me at mjvis@att.net. If there is huge interest we could break up into groups according to what size you are. So, just be warned that I might be asking your size down the road and don't worry I won't share that info. Start looking in your closets to see what you would like to swap. Please make sure it has no stains, rips, tears or is simply worn out. Also, no items that have been sitting in your closet since high school. No one wants your old IOU sweatshirt! We'll try to stick with summer clothes for right now and if it goes well, maybe we'll do another one with winter clothes in the fall.