The leaves are falling......

It's that time of year..... Fall! My most favorite season of the year. The perfect weather! Beautiful scenery for picture taking. I love everything about it. The holidays are right around the corner. This year I pray to not hear "we can't afford much" from anyone. Because if you can afford to love, you're as rich as you need to be! :) My 'minnow' baby will be SIX on Turkey Day! Full circle :) She was born on Thanksgiving nearly 6 years ago. Great memories!

Today I did.... well.... started on.... fall cleaning!

So I pull out all 5 tubs of fall/winter clothes.

Slowly, but surely my 'give away/sell' pile got MUCH larger than my 'keep' pile.

Last year, Jackie was a size 7. Lord the girl might knock me out later on in life if she ever finds this blog ::ducks::. This year, a size 10!! Why do kids grow SO much? SO fast? In one year.....

So that leaves me with a large pile of size 7's that at barely 40lbs, Emmy won't be fitting into. Haha Emmy is about a waist size 3T and a length size 6X. I swear, I should go into business making kids 'odd size' clothing!

Then there is Ms. WhyCantPeanutButterCupsBeAFoodGroup (aka Julie) who FLEW out of her 3T/4T and straight into size 6!

So in the end, they all have good starts at least! Children's clothing is a FANTASTIC business!

So then I take all of the summery stuff out and put them into the 5 tubs that were filled with the fall/winter stuff. Pack that away for next year. Next year I'll pull it out and 3/4 of it probably won't fit any of them, yet again. And I KNOW the worst is only to come. When, sure they will stay the same size for awhile, but that $70 pair of jeans is only going to be 'in-style' for one month, right? haha The JOYS of having three girly girls! Lets pray at least a couple of them can SHARE clothes! My parents never got that luxury lol But there was only ONE of me ;)

So then I tackle the empty closets. Oh LORD! Who knew SO much could go into a closet? Tell me why there was a 1/2 eaten Yogurt Tube from Lord knows when! How come there is approximately $12,000 worth of play money crumped into the back corner? Why can't that be REAL money that the people that lived here before mysteriouslly forgot? HAHA

So then I get on this task of just cleaning their whole bedrooms. Might as well, right?

Some things I found
-3 headless dolls (apparently I have plastic surgeons in training that one day hope to conquer whole head replacements? Brain augmentation anyone?)
-11 naked baby dolls (because they HAAAAAAAAAAAVE to have THAT doll, with the REALLY cute outfit on @ the store!!!)
-a moldy milk cup ( I know, it's gross. We REALLY do not allow food/drinks upstairs, except for the cup of water by their bed at night.... I guess the household ghost hauled it up there lol)
-an emtpy gatorade container (sadly, i can't remember the last time anyone consumed gatorade here)
-FOUR empty cups (WITH lids! I am forever buying cups with lids because I live with Ms. SpillsAlot and Ms. SpillsMoreThanSpillsAlot)
-$710,000 in play money (still cussing that the old man who lived here didn't hide money all over in hopes that his crappy family would never find it)
-An entirely pulled apart plastic Hawaiian Lei..... (yes, that's A LOT in case you've never had some cute little kid pull it apart. And then it was pulled into 500 tiny pieces. But not QUITE tiny enough that my hand dandy Dust Buster would eat!) And it's made of that annoying plastic that static clings to your hands!!
-4 1/2 pairs of socks (I've wondered where all the COOL ones went. The pretty socks!) We dug and dug for that final neon green sock. It was nowhere to be found. But, alas, Julie points out we can just give it to Aunt Shanny!!! Smart girl :)
-3 pairs of sandals that I couldn't find for 1/2 the summer. JUST in time to be packed away for next year!


that was just ONE room! Made me dread the next room!

But Jackie is Ms. Tidy :) All I really did was remake her bed. She washed her own bedding a few days ago and made her bed 100% on her own. She was really proud. But after last night of sleeping, the fitted sheet was no where to be found! So I just put a little shelf in there for her 419 stuff animals she has :)

Of course, a picture had fallen and shattered all over her floor weeks ago. I remember she told me. But she doesn't really play up there... because why would she? We only remodeled her room and she has a huge easel (with rolls and rolls of paper and enough paint to paint the outside of our entire house) and floor to ceiling chalkboard, but that's boring, right? lol It couldn't have fallen RIGHT onto the plastic we have under her easel. Noooooo it fell 3/4 onto her carpet. You know, the carpet that EVERYTHING sticks to. Yes, especially shattered glass. That was fun!!

So then I tackle her closet. It wasn't nearly as 'exciting' as Emmy and Julie's though! But her clothing line dwindled from over filling the closet to bare shelves and lots of empty hangers. Mom will fill it back up with bargains! :) I always do!

In between doing all of this, I was baking for Girl Scouts. (our leader hosts a Fall Fenzy Scrapbooking event, we donate food, they [scrappers] pay for it, we [the troop] keep the profits for fun stuff) When I signed up, a month ago, I felt good :) Like I was helping. She wrote everything I volunteered to make and I tucked it away in my purse, knowing I had until the 4th to get the stuff. What was I thinking??? I had to make 2 different double batches of brownies and 2 dozen cookies. Surprisingly, nothing burnt! I opted for Fudge Frosted brownies (with fall sprinkles!), Cheesecake Swirl brownies and cake cookies with frosting. All festive for fall!! My house smelled DELICIOUS!! I guess those scrapin' ladies know how to EAT, huh?! Then I also got a 6 pack of bottled 7-up, ketcup, mustard and pickles. Wow!







Oh! Something else fun that's been happening. I have been volunteering at school. I had to fill out FOURTEEN papers. Don't get me wrong, it's good they do extensive background checks. But my goodness, my hand could have fallen off. I guess I was good enough! I got the thumbs up last week. Glad I hadn't commited any felonies lately ;) But was it really necessary they know what foods I'm allergic to? haha One day, I was signed in, had SEEN the nurse with my own eyes, even waved to her. Yet while I was there she called and left me a message to give her a call haha

So I get an email with a list of what teacher needs what help. I was a bit disappointed not to see Jackie or Emmy's classes on there. So I picked which I thought would be the most fun. Jr. Kindergarten. Yes, that same class that I bitched was so stupid to start back before the school year started. So they now have preschool, jr kindy and regular kindy. Funding anyone?! Ha!

Anyway.... so I go in my first day and there I see 14 kids running around like chickens with their heads cut off. Wow! The energy was AMAZING! They all settle down and say "Hi" in unisen to their new helper. The teacher asks me if I'd like to be called "Wendy or.... Mrs...... G?" haha I'll go with Wendy :)

The teacher apologized a few times. She said they were being 'off' from normal. I just told her it makes me smile. And that it did. I smiled for three hours straight, I do believe. Other peoples kids, that are naughty, are SOOOOO much cuter than your own, right? The ora that comes off of these kids just cannot make you have a bad day. So I get to help my station. I get three little guys and a little lady :) One boy has autism. Sad illness :( So helpless. His name is Joey. But that day, it was George. We just go with George, whatever stresses him out less. Kyle asks me "Do you know Mrs. Kilpack?" (she is another kindergarten teacher) Nope... don't know her. "her name is kill. Like when you stab people in brains. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA" Again, I smile. Politely tell him 'that's not nice talk' and go on fishing for letters!! In my group there was Kyle, Lukas, Joey and Madysen. Which magnetic letters were missing?! K, E, L, I, O and Y. Yea.... Kyle was bored ;)

Alright, I've rambled enough!! Just like to give little updates here and there!