ready for school

school starts tomorrow and we are ready!

mostly ready at least. 

last week we loaded up the jolly green giant and went back to school clothes shopping. we were able to take advantage of the tax free week, so that was nice. we gave each of the big kids a budget and i dropped them + 1 friend each off at the mall so i could hit target and bed, bath, and beyond (where i continued some christmas shopping. i'm thinking since i'm going to be H-to-the-UGE at christmas, i should probably be prepared!)

anywho, life with teens and toddlers is tough (blog rant on that topic in the near future) so we planned ahead to keep everyone (including big mama) happy.

addie and frankie love watching movies, especially in the car. the big kids love listening to music, especially in the car. both groups seem fine doing both at the same time, and for awhile i was letting that happen. but i swear, it makes me so anxious to have all that noise going on! so i tasked the big kids with finding headphones for the little kids so they could listen to their music and i wouldn't go crazy. and for the hour long drive to the mall in waldorf, life was good.

alexis, marissa, and charlie, who was pretending he wasn't in the picture.

and my baby boy and me.

the plan was that they go off with their friend, find what they would like, then take me around to approve (and pay with their allotted budget) or disapprove. all the while i have the girls in the play area at the mall, so again, big kids are happy, little kids are happy.

when all parties were ready, a & m came to watch the little girls and i was off with c & c to shop. he knew right what he wanted, and other than not trying on his jeans ahead of time, all went smoothly and quickly.

then we switched. first of all, frankie had a fit. christian thinks it's funny to tease the little girls, so he's not always frankie's fav., and she was kind of done being away from home. so she screamed as we left. no problem, i thought, lex will be quick. 

ha.

first stop was for jeans. she hadn't tried them on either (seriously?!) but instead of that being easy, it became a an argument because she insists she's a size 1, which she most definitely is not. anywho, mom is always right and we were finally off to store #2 where she wandered around saying "hmmm, what did i like here?" and "there were lots of things i was gonna buy here, i swear!" stores 3 and 4 went about the same way, until finally i was shopping with her as usual. but i did give her a time limit. and we (pretty much) stuck to it. by 3:00 we were finally done and on our way out we stopped by the carousel where it is nearly impossible to take a cute picture. at least with my limited photo prowess.

that's christian there behind the pole. he rode too.

i'm not quite sure how it happened, but last week kind of became a week long slumber party for the big kids. i hate when that happens. not that i don't like having friends over, i really do, (and they weren't here every night) but there needs to be a limit or certain people get crabby. and that's how 2 people were when i tried to go over school supplies with them.

super crabby.

so they still need some school supplies, but they made a choice and i wasn't about to run out today and brave the crowds. they'll be fine for a day or two anyway, i have a box i've stashed of sale priced school supplies.

last night was open house at the high school. we walked around and found lexi's classes and met her teachers. she's excited and i'm sure she'll have a good year.

today was christian's open house. i got to take him + 3 boys to meet their teachers and hug everyone they've ever met. i'm worried about christian for this year. again and again we heard "oh, you have so and so teacher? she'll make you work hard" and "she doesn't put up with anything!" that teacher/student relationship is so important and i hope it will be good!

after the open house i suggested we go see a movie. of course big kids couldn't agree on a movie (and actually the only non-R movie to see was planet of the apes, which lexi had no desire to see.) so i suggested i take christian today, and lexi later in the week to see the help. since robin had come over to invite lex out with her family, lexi was fine with staying with the little girls while they napped and christian and i go to the movies.

about an hour into the movie, christian and i started hearing a rumbling and our chairs started swaying left to right. i didn't think anything of it because sometimes that happens when other screens are playing loud movies. then the chairs started swaying a lot harder. i looked at chris and said "did you feel that? what is that?" by that point i was pretty sure it was an earthquake, so i stood up and asked everyone "did you feel that? is this an earthquake?!" (i know, crazy lady!) there was only one other couple and one teenage girl in the theater and we all went out to the lobby (christian and i holding hands) to evacuate and see what was going on.

there was already a crowd gathered, phones in hand talking about the earthquake. almost immediately the girls there started talking about peoples facebook statuses, that people were already posting about the earthquake. one said "my dad felt it in west virginia" then the other said "my friend felt it in new mexico." my heart was already pounding like crazy, but i was like, wait, what? new mexico?! then the crazy preggy brain (i'm not claiming this one, it was all the crazy pregnancy hormones!) started thinking (and actually saying out loud, sad face) "what if we're getting hit by meteors?" now i can see that was silly, but it was seriously scary at the time!

all i wanted was to be home with all of my babies and husband. not at a cheap old movie theater with only one of my babies! i was so nervous and didn't know what was going on, and the phones weren't working, so i asked for a refund and christian reluctantly left with me.

we got down the street, and after hearing on the radio that it was, in fact, just an earthquake, (5.8, centered 90 miles away near richmond, va) we went sheepishly back to the theater to finish our movie. by that time matt and lexi had texted back that everyone was fine, and i was pretty sure i had just overreacted.

after the house stopped shaking, lexi told me that she and robin ran upstairs to check on the girls. they found addie in the corner of her room between the dresser and wall (not uncommon, but still could have been cause she was scared), naked (again, not uncommon for nap time, which usually becomes a let-me-try-on-every-outfit-i-own time) and saying "my room was bouncing!" and frankie standing up in her crib with wide eyes like "what in the world just happened?!" the big girls took the little girls to the basement and put them in the tub. even though that's the wrong disaster routine, i'm still proud of them that they took care of the girls and didn't freak out. really, i freaked more than they did.

matt was in a class when the quake started. they evacuated his building and then made them stay an hour extra to make up for the time they lost. :(

so to make a long blog post short, (ha!) we're all fine and we're all ready for school.

and i can add earthquake to my list of natural disasters survived.

(along with tornado, blizzard, and possible hurricane this weekend).