Days with the Dorans

Life is busy. Busier than I remember! Thankfully I have had (and will have) the help from parent friends this week as we try to get all the kids to different places.  I don't feel that our kids are in a lot of activities... it's just that we have a lot of kids! I think I first felt this last week when Jeff had conferences and I was solo (with a little help from my dad).  This is what my day looked like: Leave school immediately (a bit after 4). Drive home and throw Al's hair in a bun so my dad can take her to dance. Get boys in car and leave. Drop Joe off at Piano. Hit McDonald's Drive-thru for Littles. Back to Piano- give Littles food to eat in car. Joe gets in car. Drive to fields to drop Z off at game. Watch him run to dugout to be sure he makes it (my dad is en-route to see him). Leave to get Ali (complete other side of town... over half hour drive). Pick Ali up at dance. Hit Taco Bell Drive-thru for the Bigs (yes... 2 fast foo...

Last Saturday was a busy one for us.  Jeff had practice at church, I had the four and was dropping the boys off with my dad and Al off with Jeff so he could get to her game and I could get to the annual Walk to Remember.  Ali had a hard time finding her shoe before we left (somehow this was MY fault) and went into total breakdown mode.  It was hysterical and I was sad that Jeff wasn't there to hear her, so I quickly turned on my phone and set it on the floor.  It was AWESOME (though the footage I didn't get was awesome too)! While in the car she realized I was taping her (with my phone facing her direction) and she got quiet.  No doubt she remembers the days of the infamous CAR STOPS when Ila (Ali's evil self and Ali spelled backwards) would rear her ugly head.  I got those videos on tape too and they were (and still are) AWESOME!  Ali was still mad at me before her game.  I told her to pretend my face was the ball and kick it hard and ...

I've been a parent for 8 and a half years now and overall things have gone quite smoothly.  The kids are usually kind to one another, they laugh hard, love big and for the most part have been pretty easy to parent... or should I say they 'had' been pretty easy to parent!  I knew that one day the kids would start to push things, get in some 'big' trouble with us~ and that day came last Friday. I was at school when I got an email form Joe's teacher.  Apparently he had missed some homework assignments during the week and when she asked him about it he said (and I quote), "My dad was in charge and he 'wasn't in the mood' to check it."   He went on to blame his after school activities and again threw Jeff under the bus saying he doesn't have "time". To say I was livid, would be an understatement! I found it hard to concentrate on my own students when all I wanted to do was drive over to Joe's school, pull him out of class...

Ali Jane and Zach have been hanging out togethera lot more now that Joey is in kindergarten. Here they are in one of their 'houses'. (Rarely are the cushions on our couches anymore.) Since hanging with his sister, Zach is beginning to test his boundaries- and while we have never spanked our children they have gotten their fair share of time-outs, and (if you've been reading for a while) one of my 'things' is that our car does not move if there is a whining or screaming child in it. (Usually Ali Jane- I'm putting a label on this blog in case you want to see her melt downs...) Well- today I broke my own rule. It started with Zach wanting to sit in Ali Jane's car seat on the way to preschool today. I told him "No." and put him in his seat and he screamed, and screamed and screamed. After five minutes with no let up, (look at the clock and see how long five minutes really is and imagine a screaming two year old the entire time) Ali Jane said, "...

It turns out that I don't need a way to download my first video to illustrate one of our 'pull-overs'- Should have known there would be more opportunities to capture Al in her glory. Of course the worst of it is always BEFORE I pull over the car. These 'pull-overs' were because she wanted to go back to school to get the magazine she had left. I'm happy to say that she was true to her word and we only had to stop twice on the way home. Sorry for the bumpy video- I didn't want to turn around so remained facing forward and used my rear-view mirror to try to manage the video from my phone...

My mom got me a present today and it wasn't even my birthday! I was complaining the other day that all of our travel mugs have had coffee in them now that Jeff is working. I can't stand it because my tea has this horrible coffee after-taste. I love that she got a ceramic travel mug that will never have that awful smell/taste that gets cemented in there- but I love even more what the mug said! We have an amazing car. If there is someone whining, yelling or crying it pulls off the road and waits for the someone (AKA Ali Jane) to stop. The record, I believe is three times in the 20 minutes it takes to get home from school. I've gotten quite good at it- no emotion- just stop the car and wait. On one of our last car stops, we sat for five minutes- and I pulled out the phone and videotaped the tail end of it... Unfortunately I didn't have my photo card in my phone and don't know how to upload videos from my phone directly to my computer. (If I figure it out, I'll be...