Things as they really are.

January 2011.

We have 5 kids.

We have 2 dogs. They get on my nerves.

We go through AT LEAST 8 gallons of milk per week. On Monday I buy 6, determined to ration it a little better than every other week up to that point and by Saturday we usually end up polishing of the last of #6, so we run in and grab a couple more to get us through Sunday because you know we're gonna be making cookies or brownies or something after church because what else is there to do with all of that Sabbath Day? You definitely don't want to be stuck with a batch of cookies and no milk. Definitely not.

On Sunday I "did" my hair for the first time in 2 weeks. It was a special occasion. I had to speak in Sacrament Meeting. I also have become alarmingly lackadaisical with my make-up routine. I actually forgot to do my hair and make-up today when my visiting teachers came over. It isn't like me to forget stuff like this. I'm a card carrying member of the "pretend this is what my house usually looks like" club when company comes over. I'm worried about this development.

I am still stuck in the rocking chair with the baby for hours on end. I've almost finished watching season 1 and 2 of Grey's Anatomy on Netflix. But lest you think I'm pathetic or anything, I do take breaks to check my email, catch up on facebook, and get Laney drinks of water. Oh...and get spoonfuls of cookie dough.

We had Sonic for lunch and cold cereal for dinner.

We just ran out of strawberry freezer jam and if you know anything at all about my family, you know that this is a huge emergency. I'm thawing out some frozen strawberries to make a new batch, but Laney keeps sneeking them and then saying, "I wuv fwozen stwawbewwies!" Cute. But cute doesn't put strawberry jam on the table, girl.

Ethan and Mathew just convinced Mark that they would like to sleep in the downstairs bedroom so they can "have their own space". Mark spent most of Saturday disassembling and reassembling their furniture and moving all of their stuff up and down the stairs. Approximately 20 minutes after completing the move, they decided that it was scary down there and they would like to move back please. Even I, a sucker and a softy, have one thing to say, boys. "Suck it up. You're going to be there until we move." Even so, they are sleeping next to each other on the bottom bunk (safety in numbers), with my ipod playing classical guitar, the closet light and the lamp on AND the dogs are stationed outside their bedroom door...."personal guard dogs".

I owe my kids each 17.50 in back-allowance. It's been a while.

We found an awesome Chinese restaurant a couple blocks away. The big selling point? Their meat doesn't taste like the parts that the hot dog factory rejected. AND they are named Bo Bo Chinese. It's just plain fun to ask Mark to pick up "a little Bo Bo" on the way home. Can't beat the Bo Bo!

Laney is starting to show interest in potty training. Keep us in your prayers.

I still have 15 lbs to lose. And yet I can't stay away from the cookie dough. I have zero clothes that fit me, unless you count the two pair of black yoga pants that I bought at Sam's Club the other day. I've become that mom. The one who wears yoga pants like they are normal clothes and also DOES NOT do yoga. Besides that, even if I could fit into my old clothes, I think I used them to wrap up breakables when we moved. Somewhere in the basement is a box and in it is a vase with my favorite jeans wrapped around it. sigh.

Every morning the boys sit down for breakfast and pour themselves a bowl of cereal and then it begins. I call it the "Calorie Wars". Each one picks a box and they start comparing the nutritional information:

"Dietary Fiber....7 grams."

"Dietary Fiber ....8 grams! OH!"

"Dangit!"

"Calcium...30%"

"Calcium....22%"

"YES!!"

"Dangit!"

And so on and so forth.