had a wonderful long weekend at the lake. it was restful and fun. lots of friends and family and good memories....

and then i got hit hard yesterday with how behind i am at home.

mountains of laundry. dirt and dust and dishes. homework.

......just too many things to keep organized in my home and in my head.

my famous line to dave is that if only there were 2 of him and 2 of me our lives would be much more manageable......

dave is still working in the pantry. which makes for lots of extra dust.

and most of our food has been on temporary shelves in our laundry room for about a month.

he is painting now though, so we are close!

this is the last week that vaulting and soccer are intermingling. exhausting!

shaeya has a performance this weekend and then she is done until spring. soccer goes until the end of september......

and during that wonderful weekend last weekend we said good-bye to neiko's pacifiers.

we had a little ceremony. dave dug a hole in the ground with my parents' excavator and neiko threw each paci in one by one. and then dave buried them. and drove over them :)

neiko was completely mesmerized by the whole tractor thing, so of course it didn't hit him that he now had to live a paci free life until we got home.

he's been having a rough time. and creating a rough time for all of the rest of us.......

one thing about him....he doesn't deal well with change. and he isn't sleeping well at night without his pacis so he's tired.

which means pure chaos around the house.

ripping books, having accidents, getting into EVERYTHING, hitting, pushing, screaming, tantrums, and SHOES.

he is so weird about SHOES. more like obsessed. we keep all of our shoes in the mudroom in individual cubbies, and his greatest thrill in life is to go in there and play with the shoes. try them on, wear them around the house, throw them.....

doesn't sound all that terrible, does it?

but it NEVER STOPS. and we have 7 different people's shoes in there. and he is always mixing them up or losing them.

i probably tell him 20 times a day to put the shoe he is wearing or carrying BACK.

seems so harsh to punish him over shoes but i guess i have to start cracking down.......

especially now, since the whole pacifier drama has caused him to take every bad behavior times 10. today while i was in the shower he got into my closet and into my stack of winter shoes which is a whole new level in the shoe craziness....

in other news, tyden turns 11 on saturday. he's pretty pumped.

he's been dreaming of this one amazing dragon lego set all year.

and we bought it for him, but he had to pay for half- and he can't open it til saturday.

i'm happy for him- he waited so patiently, but i give it about 3 weeks before i'm stepping on broken lego pieces while i'm trying to cook supper.

and that's exactly why we made him pay for half.....

also saturday marks the 28th day since the "mating of the bunnies" :)

the kids are REALLY counting on having babies this weekend......i don't know......that girl bunny doesn't look any different to me.....and thinking of how many kids run through this house in a week- and how challenged i am in the animal department.....i'm sorta foreseeing disaster either way.....

AND, so crazy, but both of our sets of parents sold their houses last weekend. they are both moving out of our childhood homes. both homes have inspections this friday and if all goes well, they both have to be out of the homes before october.

it'll be so weird not to have those houses to go to anymore! but we are happy for our parents to be able to downsize and have less work and maintenance.

dave's parents are looking for a ranch with a small yard, and my parents will be living in their new addition at the lake.

might be a crazy month with helping everyone get moved and settled!

and adding to that craziness is my duct surgery. which looks like it'll be on sept 17th. the surgeon is available that day but we are waiting to hear back from the hospital about a room.

she only does surgeries on mondays, which is going to complicate things with school and driving and such, but only for a few days.

and they are trying to tell me that i wont be able to lift any children for a few days also......don't quite see how that is gonna work.....

BUT, 12 days after the surgery, i will be taking off with dave and the kids and 4 other couples and heading to the BEACH.

for our annual fall trip to gulf shores.

i found a big house for most of us, and the other half will be in a condo.

and just like last year, we will meet on the beach everyday and hang out with the kids, and we are bringing babysitters so that we can go out every night without the kids......makes for a perfect vacation! :)

ok i think that's all of our news.....

i'll be sure to let everyone know if our bunny becomes a baby daddy over the weekend ;)

oh yeah, and speaking of the bunny.....i found this today.....