Shoes of an 11 year old boy, a trip to the mall, and random day to day events!

Life with four is still pretty awesome. I am getting the hang of getting all four in the car and buckled. I am even proud to say I took them to school 4 days in a row last week. I will admit I am sad to see my morning visits with my friend Amy end, I know its for the best. Since Spring Break she has come to pick up my sweet babies and take them to school. The part of staying in my pjs and not going through car rider was pretty awesome but I really enjoyed chatting with her each morning on those days too. I think we all get to busy sometimes and forget to stop and chat. On another life with 4 kids note, I went to the mall and a few other places yesterday with my babies. I had promised them we would go out and they all had little things they wanted to do. After a quick visit to Babies R Us (more news to follow on this one!) and Toys R Us we headed to the mall. We had lunch and then began to stroll around. I had Buzzy and Brady in the double stroller (later Brady was in the front pack) and Jack and Mary beside me. Well....as we were walking I started to notice people were staring at me. At first I thought it was my imagination but then I realized it was true. Being my paranoid self I began to search out a mirror. Was my skirt stuck in my panties, did I have something on my face, was my shirt all messed up under the front pack and I was showing the world my chest??? I could not figure it out. Then as we went to check out at the cheap jewelry stand (my new favorite place for cheap summer necklaces ) the lady looked at me and asked "Are they all yours?". I looked kinda bewildered. What??? So she repeated the question "Are all the kids your?" ARE YOU SERIOUS??? No, I picked them up on the side of the road on the way here. This is why everyone was looking at me?!? "Yes!" I said as I smiled back at her. I felt like Michele Duggar parading my 18 kids around the mall. Over the next hour I got lots more looks and a few "My you have your hands full." comments. My new motto is "No, not really why?" That really throws them for a loop. :) The funniest part of it all is that ALL four of my kids were behaving perfectly! I can only imagine what would have happened if they had been acting normal!

Next, I must tell you about my sweet son. Jack never ceases to amaze me and this week was no different. After grocery shopping and while putting the food away a can of Pringles fell and busted all over the floor. Going into Super Mom mode I stop putting away the groceries and start sweeping up the mess. This is when my darling son walked in. Since I was on the floor I happened to be eye level with his feet. This is when I noticed his ENTIRE big toe HANGING out of the front of his tennis shoe! THE WHOLE TOE! "JACK! How long exactly has your big toe been hanging out of the front of your shoe AND WHY HAVEN'T YOU TOLD ME????" Those big brown eyes looked at me with that blank stare "I don't know?". Can anyone tell me how you can walk around with half your foot hanging out of the front of your shoe and not notice??? Did he not feel a breeze and maybe a bit of wetness when he stepped in a puddle??? I saved the shoe but Tim came home and took it out to the dumpster before I could get a shot of it. So I guess my final question is... Am I such a bad mom that I didn't notice his shoe or is this normal for an 11 year old boy????

My last entry for this week is the stroller story! This is a shout out to how awesome and patient my husband is with me. About 6 months ago I bought a double stroller at a consignment sale. ($75)I was very pumped and have been ready to use it! Last Friday we went to the party at school and I discovered my stroller was missing the bar to hold in the car seat (ughh...can we say safety hazard!) and the umbrella for Buzz. I was ticked! Well....I happened to be at Babies R Us on Tuesday to get a sound machine and noticed on the way out a brand new double stroller in the clearance section. It had been a return from the website was perfect! She took a huge discount on it (final price was 125) and I jumped! I was so excited I could hardly stand it. I didn't want Tim to flip out so to be a good Dave Ramsey wife I stopped ON THE WAY home and sold my other stroller at the baby store (+30). I was hoping this would make it sound better to Tim. We get home and unload the stroller and he is actually ok with it. (he did ask why we were buying another stroller since we already have 3) I went upstairs to feed Little B and came down a while later to find he had put the stroller together. I was shocked to discover I had bought THE EXACT SAME STROLLER I HAD JUST SOLD NOT 3 HOURS EARLIER!!! It was also missing the car seat bar! I was so ticked! What was I going to do now?? The next morning I spent forever talking to Graco trying to order the bar. I finally gave up and went to visit Catherine at school. It was then I discovered there was a better stroller that would be perfect. I just had to order it and it was only 7 dollars more. It would fit Buzzy better, fold 20% smaller and had more cup holders (the most important part!) Ready to explain to Tim how this would be the best deal for us I went and ordered the new stroller and packed up the other one. This would be my last stroller and besides the other one was missing the car seat bar so that was not safe right!?! Stroller ordered and all is well when i picked up a towel from the living room floor to find the car seat bar smiling up at me. AGHHHH! I have the worst luck!! Anyway I happy to say that now I am the proud owner of a cool stroller (which is why we went to the mall on Saturday. Buzzy wanted to ride in the new stroller). I won't mention the fact that now my car seat does not match my stroller. Tim said not to even think about it...there are no new car seats in my future. :)