Brandi Lacey: School Has Started, Chaos Has Only Begun

Madison her first week of school

Another day her first week

Why did I think that I was getting a break when school started? Am I crazy? All I did was push 90% of everything I have to do to a few measly hours in the evening. Granted, it sure is nice to have only 2 at home during the day. And I really couldn't ask for a better behaved 3 yr old out of Shanna and as far as babies go, Tyler is a good one. But there is still bills to pay, house to clean, laundry to do, errands to run, kids to feed, and 2 kids to care for. So the school hours are a bit easier than a normal summer day of 6 energetic kids. But the evenings...now that is a whole different story. When school starts so do all the other activities. Lauren, James and CJ are in Karate. Madison was, but her dr said she didn't need to this semester because of her arm. Lauren goes on Tuesdays and the boys on Thursdays. Madison goes to ballet on Wednesday and CJ goes to boy scouts of Mondays. We just found out this week that James was too young this year for cub scouts, gotta be in first grade. He was a little disappointed but I guess he is alright with it. So we have something going on Mon-Thur. Then there is also homework to squeeze in, dinner for me to cook, a little play time before dinner ,then baths and bed time. Then I clean up from dinner, sign folders, make lunch and put snacks and water bottles in bags. All while stopping here and there to feed Tyler. And most of that all needs to happen for 5 kids by 7:30 if I want them to fall asleep by 8:30, otherwise they will stay up too late and give me hell about getting up. Which Madison does no matter how early she goes to bed. And boy do they hate going to bed when it is still light outside and getting up when it's still dark.

The kids all love school, they just don't act like it in the mornings. It's hard for me too because at 6 am the last thing I want to be doing is having a crying baby follow me around the house (why did I want him to learn to crawl anyways???) and argue with Madison about why she has to go to school in the dark, and get 3 other kids ready for school. Then Shanna, Tyler and I walk them down the road to the stop sign. I breathe a sigh of relief when they step on that bus, so glad that the chaos is over until 3:45 p.m.

Kayla was approved to watch the kids on Friday so that was wonderful news, I got a nice long break, especially being a 3 day weekend. I am loving the peace, or what peace comes with only 2 kids. Madisons friend is staying over and that does come with some drama, but 3 is still half as easy as 6!

Madison had to have surgery on her arm Friday. They did have to put one pin in her arm. It went like this...

Beforehand they give them medicine to make them calm and sometimes they just go to sleep and others become very drunk like. Madison was so drunk like, it was hilarious. I have 4 videos of her on my phone. There was another girl in there who silently set on her moms lap for 30 minutes until taken back. Madison was as if totally wasted in 5 minutes. It was EXACTLY like being so drunk that you cant walk or speak or stop laughing. She was sprawled out on the floor bc she was too all over the place with her arms and legs for me to hold her but she couldn't walk. She kept saying "let me up, let me up, I can walk, I'm serious".. She would try to get up and lift her head just a little and fall back and hit her head on the floor. She talked like the stereotype drunk person, when asked my name she said brrrandEEEEEEEEEE with really high pitched e's lol.

Afterwards was not so great. they took her and she was put to sleep, surgery took an hour, they said 30-45 min so i was getting worried. But everything went okay other than needing a pin. It's sticking out of her arm but we cant see it because of the cast. When she woke up, they brought her too me but she was so disoriented she couldn't speak, she just cried really bad and crying owwwwwww and yelling in pain and refused to take medicine, she just let it fall out of her mouth. She cried "maaaamaaaa" and it broke my heart, it was so hard to see her in so much pain. I was really worried thinking she was gonna be in this much pain all day, but she wasn't. She went back to sleep after her IV pain meds kicked in and woke up much better. It took her a few hours to be herself again, but by the time we got home at 4 she was back to normal. She was a little bit of a Mommy's girl all night, sweet and clingy but today she is 100% herself. The cast has not slowed her down at all, I have to make her stop running, climbing, ect. She wants to do everything just as hard and fast.

Tyler looks awful, he has a cold sore and some other sores/bug bites/booboo's on him that make him look like I have abused the crap out of him. I swear I haven't. I must admit that I have wanted too put him outside a few times though. The past week every night has been horrible. The past month or two has been horrible, but the past week way worse. He wouldn't sleep more than 30 minutes to one hour at a time every single night. Seriously, I saw every single hour on the clock nearly. Finally, last night I prayed to God and begged for a decent nights sleep. He slept better than he has in a month. He only woke at 1:30 and again at 5:30 but went right back to sleep until 8. He hasn't slept past 6:30 since school started two weeks ago, so it was SO nice! I don't know what is going on with him but if it's those darn teeth....I wish I had something witty to say here that I could do to them but really what can I do but wait it out. I hate teething!!! Poor guy is probably as miserable as I am, he cant help it.

Shanna's shoot, I am a little out of practice. It feels like so long since I really tried to take good pictures.