Happy New Year!

It's time to start messing up the dates on your checks...if you actually still write them! That was always the worst part of a new year for me....that's not the point of this post...I'm only posting for Leslie, otherwise I'd be in bed. So Leslie, here you go :)

We had a good new years eve...in fact, I think it was one of the better ones I have been to in a while. The party was at a kid-friendly house with lots of stuff to do. I Think there is a gaming system in every room, including the new Wii. I kicked Chad's butt in Wii golf! That was fun! This party was completely right up my alley (and I'm not saying that because the hostess may be reading) because they had games galore! If you know me very well, I love card games and board games. When Chad and I were first married I conned him in to playing Scrabble MANY more times than he actually wanted to play! As we have gotten busier and gotten a bigger family, the games don't always leave their shelves, but tonight was great! I love it.

The kids were really pretty good. We had a few blunders....like the time Evan was running in to the house from the garage (filled with an air hockey table, remote control monster trucks, chalk to draw a track for the trucks on the garage floor, other assorted toys and bikes). Let me preface this by saying that he was wearing new pants that he got from his grandma for Christmas. These are tricky pants even though they are advertised as easier for kids. For one thing, Evan and Drew are built like their daddy: STICK THIN. Usually when they go to the bathroom, they just slide the jeans or whatever pants they have on down over their hips to go without unbuttoning. Herein lies the problem. These pants are slims because of their build and because that is what I told their great-grandma to buy. However, when she bought them she did not know they were specially made to make it "easier" to go to the bathroom. These pants are equipped with an orange plastic tongue-looking device that surrounds the button. The concept? Push the orange tab through the button hole. Grab the tab once through the hole, twist in a circle. The tab will pull the button through the hole. Re-adjust the tab to the side to keep from sticking you in the belly when you sit or bend over. Sounds easy.

Yeah...not so much.

Evan, Drew, and Luke have all struggled with these pants. I think this is the 2nd time I had them wear them. Evan had to go the bathroom. He was in the garage playing with his playmate of choice for the evening, Leah, I believe. We were all Wii-ing in the living room. All of a sudden something crashed in to the house and shook the house. Adults scattered. Then we heard Evan. He didn't see the GLASS door at all when he came barrelling up the back steps to come in the house to potty. Bloody nose. Chad was trying to help him, he was crying, he had to go potty. Wet pants. My kids don't have accidents (when they are awake). I can count on one hand how many times that has happened with all of them. (Sleeping is a different story.) So I loaded Evan up, bloodied and wet, took him home, cleaned him up and changed his clothes (and shoes). He had to have hit pretty hard...it shook the whole house.

But that was pretty much the worst that happened. They were really good about playing, even though they were tired. There were few tattles, few arguments (between all 11 kids). The adults had a great time. We played such games as Pit, Bang, and some card game about Ninja Fighting. All on top of snacking and playing the other things around the house.

There was one other time when Evan and Leah got "locked in" the garage. I think it really amounted to them not being able to unlatch the door. They both came in pretty weapy-eyed...sounds like a bad evening for Evan...but he had fun, as did the others.

As far as New Years go, I'm not good about resolutions. It's been a long time since I even had one. I usually never did well with them when I did make them, so I don't have any exciting things as far as that goes...the ones I have made to myself are too personal to put on here. Other than I'm going to try to better at housework. You can imagine that I am really busy with two jobs and four kids, so I usually don't have the desire or energy to clean well, but I'm going to work on that this year. A little each day should be pretty sufficient....Plus we did some re-organizing and some trashing, so everything has a PLACE now. In a tiny house, that is imperative if you want to appear clean. That should help.

Sorry there's nothing exciting about the new year as far as promises or life-changing goals. Like I said, I have a few, but they aren't really blog material.

Have a fantastic 2007! Here's praying that God blesses you abundantly in it!