December « 2009 « Lucky Thirteen and Counting

Archive for December, 2009

31 Dec

2009 over and gone just like that

Posted by Sandi in Random, blogging

Last year I didn't do the big "year in review" post. This year, Dave did half of it for me and shined the light brightly on all my craziness. Dave is always good at stirring up the trouble! Let's just say, he won't be finishing the second half of the year that's for sure. Once I write these posts, I usually forget about them. So, I had as much fun as the rest of you reading about the insanity. We really are an exciting family to read about if you like this kind of CRAZY.

2009 has been an amazing year. We are happy and healthy and pretty stable, but that's all relative. This has been a year I would do again if I had to. It was filled with way more positives than negatives. More laughter than tears and a whole lot of fun. But, without the pain and heartache, I would never have been able to appreciate the JOY! 2009 was a joyous year! (except for all the shit that was pointed out by Dave in last weeks post.)

Last year at this time, I had 74 daily hits on my BEST day. (and most of those hits were probably Brandon) Today, I have over 3,000 daily readers. But on my WORST day this year, I had 14,000. Thank you Dooce for linking "the nasty one who shall not be mentioned's" true identity on the same day that I did. All google searches came straight to me.

I love my blog. I love writing. I do this because I love it. There will never be ads on these pages. I do this to vent, to share, and so my kids can someday read the everyday stuff that went on in this family. There are things I am not so proud of. I have my moments. But I believe in being honest about them, and for me, that means sharing.

We are a NORMAL family, doing normal family stuff, just on a larger scale. We are nowhere near perfect. We scream and yell on occasion. I cry every now and then. I pray daily I didn't bite off more than I can chew. I wonder if I can do enough for all these little people. I get overwhelmed. I have days I contemplate buying a one way ticket to Cancun never to be heard from again. But I remind myself I can't go to Vegas without freaking out about leaving my kids. I struggle with demons and skeletons, but you all know about them….. They certainly don't live in the closet.

This blog has brought tons of positives. I have made so many friends through this journey. I now have a connection to the outside world that I was so craving. Since leaving Utah I felt so alone. Thankfully this has provided many wonderful friends both near and far that have made that empty pit almost go away. It has also allowed me to stay in touch with many of my real life friends in Utah. It has allowed me to sort through a lot of yucky stuff. It has been awesome to hear from so many of you that have also survived a divorce, a blended family, and a new life. I hate that any of you know the grief, but am so happy to hear from you that choose to share your own demons with me. This blog has been an adventure.

This blog has brought it's share of negatives to my life FOR SURE! I was such a pollyanna prior to living out loud on the internet. I thought people were nice and the world was tolerant of differences and tolerant of blogging. WOW did I ever get a wake up call. Did it change the way I blog? NO. Have I gotten tougher and developed a thicker skin? NO. But I am smart enough to know when to stay away from the HATE. That doesn't mean it doesn't still come oozing over here. But I am getting better at hitting the delete button instead of engaging. "Don't feed the trolls" has taken on a whole new meaning in this house. This past year, I have had two trolls try and fuck up my marriage. I have had CPS called on me. I have been the talk of the nasty blog on a number of occasions because "I don't love my kids. I only like them when they are babies. I ship them off to boarding school when I am tired of them. I am a home wrecker. I am old and ugly. I am a gold digger. I am stupid and unable to care for so many children. OH OH Wait wait, AND I am an irresponsible pet owner.

Even with all the negative shit we deal with. I AM GOING NOWHERE!

Thank you Brandon for allowing me to expose our insanity on the world wide web. Thank you for supporting my blogging and encouraging me to write and purge and let it all hang out. I love you. I am undeserving of your greatness! Thank you for the adventure.

And now, this is where I will lose readers, because I am married to Edward Cullen people. Brandon is the most amazing man you could even dream up. He sends me love notes. He tells me daily how amazing I am. And how beautiful his love blind eyes think I am. He holds my hand and opens doors and never takes his eyes off of me. He waits on me hand and foot. He talks to me. He has emotional yip yap all the time with me. He rubs my back NOT just my front. He cooks and cleans and changes butts and smiles the entire time he is doing it. And then, he loves up on me and gets me a diet coke and says nice things like, "Lets go shopping." Or "How about I take you to dinner?" He runs my tub every night and lights the fire and sits on the edge to talk about the day. It's nauseating isn't it? I am so freaking lucky I can't even wrap my brain around it. He puts me first. Above everything and everyone. We have an amazing love. I wake up every single day and stare at his face and count my lucky stars that he is mine!! This has been a ride that I don't ever want to get off of. And just so the trolls have something to chew on, The SEX IS FABULOUS!!

Being a mother of fifteen children couldn't be better. It also couldn't be harder. This job is not for the weak or weary. Maybe writing a paragraph about parenting this brood while they have ALL been home for two weeks straight on Christmas vacation isn't the smartest idea. But, when do I ever do anything smart? I love being a mom. I love my kids. Each and every one of them are totally unique. There are some that make me want to pull my hair out daily. And some that I have to make it a point to touch base with every day because they are so easy and independent that I am afraid they will get lost in the shuffle. Our family dynamics are ever changing and the squeaky wheels last year will be the independent ones next year. I heard a saying a long time ago that read, "A mother is only as happy as her saddest child." I have to agree. Everyday is a balancing act. Everyday is a new drama, a new booboo, a new success and a new adventure. There is never a dull moment but the chaos is controlled. I am doing what I love to do. How lucky am I?

I am blessed beyond measure for the opportunities I have. I am proud of my family. I am grateful I have the opportunity to share them with all of you in this small way. I hope I get to continue this blogging for decades! But for now, I will shoot for this time next year.

Thank you all for being part of my life in this way. Your comments and friendship have been priceless to me. I miss the old days of responding to each and every comment and email, but damnit, I don't have time! But please know that every comment and every email is read and either makes my day, or ruins it. I love you all to bits.

FAREWELL 2009!

46 Comments »

30 Dec

Blogging with Baby

Posted by Sandi in Sailor, blogging

And that's how we roll these days.

And this is the last baby EVER, so I am cherishing every moment!

17 Comments »

29 Dec

Disturbing

Posted by Sandi in Kate

Can I tell you what's disturbing about these pictures?

It's not that my baby is playing with a gun.

It's not that she is pointing a gun right at me.

It's not that her knees are ashy and screaming for lotion.

It's not even that she is wearing panties.

Nope.

It's that she is wearing MY panties!

And they fit her better than they fit me. Kate is SIX. And I am jealous as hell of her booty.

Once I realized those panties she had on were mine, I asked her what on earth she was doing in them.

She replied, "I know they're yours, but I found them in my drawer."

Is there nothing sacred in this house?

12 Comments »

28 Dec

disregard the previous obituary

Posted by Sandi in Pets

It's the happiest day ever!!! I was leaving Covenant Hills, and there on the gate was a sign.

FOUND CAT

12/27/09

call

XXX-XXXX

There are not words to describe the feeling. I was too nervous to get my hopes up. I called the numbers on the sign at least 20 times in a two hour period. I left countless messages and waited and waited…… And finally somebody answered. They said, "Can you describe the cat?"

Oh yeah. "Huge, orange, fluffy, declawed, neutered male, disregards personal space."

She said, "I have your cat."

and then I cried some more.

We have him. He is here. He is safe. We are THRILLED and grateful!

46 Comments »

28 Dec

Good-bye sweet kitty

Posted by Sandi in Pets

We lost Tang last night and we are heartbroken. The last time he was seen by anyone of us was yesterday morning, basking in the sunshine in my window. My nightfall we were frantic. We have gone through the house with a fine tooth comb. We have scoured the neighborhood, both this one, and the old one. He is nowhere to be found.

By seven last night, I knew it was over. (Hunter wasn't convinced and is still looking) We live in the wilderness here in SoCal. Coyotes and Mountain Lions share our backyards. Pets don't stand a chance in this area. I am sad. Brandon is devastated. Hunter is still in denial.

Poor baby. All I can wish for now is that it was fast and painless. Effing circle of life!

Tang Benson

3-9-09 – 12-27-09

During his short life he loved us beyond measure.

He provided us hours of entertainment per day and hours of love. He was a lover. He didn't know boundaries at all. He got in our faces all the time. He was a kitty that wanted to smell your breath to see what you were eating.

Tang liked people food. Not just meat, he liked fruit and bread. Strange kitty!

He caught his first mouse just a few weeks ago. He walked a little taller that day.

Tang preferred lizards. In fact, he delivered one to me a month ago, but I wasn't around to take delivery, so he left it's bottom half on the couch for me to sit on. Sweet Kitty!

Tang marched to the beat of his own drum.

I will miss him.

Farewell fluffy orange friend. I love you.

23 Comments »

26 Dec

week in pictures

Posted by Sandi in week in Pictures

This week in pictures begins and ends with a nap. It's been an exhausting, but fun, week.

This is our "Christmas eve feast" preparation. I can't keep my kids off the counter tops. No matter how big or how small the kids are, they always end up on the counters.

This is a cheese ball in the making. They sample it all the way through the process.

It takes two turkey's to feed our crew.

Bronson was in charge of mashing the potatoes.

We don't have guests, so it's okay to eat off the spoon.

I get to make the good stuff. English toffee is a Christmas must in my house. I don't mind that it keeps me next to the stove for 30 minutes. It smells so good and it's the warmest place in the house.

I know I have written about this before, but I am constantly amazed and amused by this disgusting habit. I do NOT eat meat off the bone. I buy boneless, skinless, EVERYTHING. So for Jazzi and Colby to fight over the turkey legs every year… *shudder* It just freaks me out. Why do they like this? Where do they come from? I feel like a caveman eating something off of a bone. In fact, I can't do it. Even a bone-in-steak gives me the willies when my knife scrapes it. I am at a loss….. This picture shouldn't even be here. But I have to document the gross along with the cute.

Dalin and company spent the rest of the evening in front of the computer tracking Santa's movement around the world. They loved it. When he hit the USA, they all high tailed it to bed.

Here are a few out takes from "2009 Christmas jammies" picture.

And finally, this picture makes a lot more sense to me after the jammie picture fiasco.

Ty walked up to me five minutes after the family photo shoot and said, "you take my picture?"

I said, "Ty, I just took 27 pictures of you."

He said, "no."

So I took this picture.

DUH!

The baby sisters

The big sisters

and Pickle wanted to join them. I love this picture. It's one of my favorites!

And then we all went to sleep. But none of us really slept, we all waited and listened for Santa to come down our chimney. We heard lots of pitter pats all night long, but they were always explained by Brandon as either, Ty or Dalin, or Kate, or Ty again. And finally morning came and at 6AM we were all up opening our gifts.

It was MERRY CHAOS.

This is the "BIG" present from mom and dad. We gave all of the kids an Ipod touch. I wrapped them individually and then all together in one big box so that they would all get them at the same time.

Shaylee is reading off names and handing each child their present.

Ready, Set, OPEN!!

And they were thrilled!

Paker didn't get an ipod, but he did get a whole lot of cleaning supplies. He was in cleaning nirvana.

Santa Claus didn't get the memo that we don't allow weapons in our house and he gifted us all a nerf weapon of some sort. At the writing of this post, there are hundreds of nerf bullets from hell to breakfast in this house. I am finding them EVERYWHERE! In fact, they are whizzing past my head at this very moment. Santa and I are going to have a little chat before next year. BUT, If you can imagine twelve armed kids, running through this house, screaming like banshees, and firing left and right and smiling bigger than I have ever seen…. It's been a blast! Thank you Santa.

By noon, I had no choice but to wash the candy, from the stockings, off these little bodies. They were so sticky. I hate sticky fingers. As quickly as I would wash their fingers, they would find a candy cane or a chocolate mint or a gummy worm somewhere else. I have since pitched the candy. I can't keep up.

Tang and Storm were pleased we emptied out their favorite sleeping spot. Under the tree is where they want to be.

By 2:30pm we were tuckered out. There is nothing better than a long Christmas nap. Especially when you have a two month old baby snuggled in.

Even Pickle couldn't keep her eyes open one more minute.

After a long winters nap we headed out to the hot tub and warmed our bones. We all had a perfect Christmas. Every single kid was happy and loved their presents. I went to sleep smiling last night. I believe it was our best Christmas ever. Not because of things we got, but because of the loving spirit in our home. It honestly felt like Christmas. The kids all got along. They all played together. There were minimal complaints and zero fights. There were hundreds of hugs, kisses and Thank you(s).

As happy as I am that it's over, as in the shopping, wrapping, preparing, decorating, and cooking, I am going to miss the fun. Having all the kids home won't last forever. Bronson is growing up and moving on and someday soon one of our own will be off having his own Christmas somewhere else. And truth be told, Shaylee will probably be first. But she better keep coming home, I will die without her. I have to publicly thank my girls here and now for all their help this year with Christmas. Shay and Hadley saved my life! I love you two. You will be pro's by the time you are doing it for your own kids. Thank you for helping me keep our traditions alive. I couldn't have pulled it off without you.

23 Comments »

24 Dec

Merry Christmas 2009

Posted by Sandi in My kids

I was so excited about my picture. I took about fifteen and got one good one. I sat down at the computer to upload and counted my adorable children. Then I counted them again. And then I flipped a shit, because now they are all in bed and Ty was missing from my Christmas picture!! He just got moved to the naughty list.

14 Comments »

23 Dec

Avatar

Posted by Sandi in Random

If you don't do one other thing this holiday season, you ALL must go see Avatar in digital 3D. I went reluctantly last night. It was my version of taking one for the team. This is not typically a movie I would run out to see. I hate violence and military movies. They stress me out. But Bronson and Hunter wanted to see it. So I encouraged Brandon to invite my dad and make it a boys night out, but at the last minute Brandon was dragging his feet, feeling bad for leaving me. So I joined them. I honestly thought I would have to leave in the middle when it got too violent. But OH MY HELL it was the best movie I have seen in a long long time. THE BEST!!

Hunter said it best as we were walking out. "I won't be able to see a movie for months." (because everything else will fall short.)

GO GO GO. Today! Right now! Go buy your tickets at Fandango.com and get in the car. You will thank me!

12 Comments »

22 Dec

a little update

Posted by Sandi in Family updates, New house

This move, combined with Brandon being gone, Christmas approaching, my dad moving in, Bronson coming home to stay, and life as a mother of fifteen, has kicked my ass this week. I have missed this place to vent, but have had zero time to be here. ZERO!

The first part of the week I was without internet. Then I was without a place to set the computer. Then I couldn’t find the camera. Then it was the camera cord……

That was when I decided to take a break.

So, I am throwing out a little update and taking the rest of the week off. I will return with Christmas pictures by the weekend. I am still not finished with my shopping. I am still not completely unpacked. I still can’t find a damn thing that has been put away. The kids want to swim 24/7. I still can’t figure out how to run half the stuff in this house….. I may never learn because it is HIGH TECH.

In the middle of the night I woke up to loud obnoxious music playing outside my bedroom. I was ready to get up and call the cops because I thought there were a bunch of teenagers parked on the vacant lot next door. I woke Brandon up. (Because he can only hear out of one ear, and in the night he sleeps with that good ear down. Do you blame him?) I had to shake him awake to tell him about the loud music out the back door. He got up to investigate. Come to find out, we have speakers in our backyard so we can pipe our music outside while we are in the pool. That was my music that woke me up. Coming from my ipod. How in the hell it got turned on and piped outside is beyond me. It took Brandon about fifteen minutes of button pushing to get it off.

The day before that, we were all lounging on the sofa when the fire alarm went off. I have no greater fear than a fire in the house, because getting all the kids out of a burning, or smoking, house would be a little mind boggling. I jumped up and ran straight to the fire panel, (Yes we have a fire panel and it would tell me where the fire was and when and if the sprinklers were going to come on.) and it says "system normal" but the piercing beep is still blaring through the house. The kids are all front and center waiting for instructions, when Hunter and Bronson meander around the corner, and calmly say, "The Wii sensor bar is running low on batteries. That’s what you hear." WHAT THE HELL? It sounded like a smoke alarm, and it’s a Wii sensor bar? What is the world coming to? It’s an emergency if the batteries are running low? I lost a few years of my life. SInce that dreaded day, that thing has run low two more times. Now, we don’t even react. We all just look at Brandon who walks upstairs to replace the batteries. I’ll tell you what’s going to happen, There will be a fire and all of us will sit on the couch and look at Brandon who will walk upstairs with his batteries and walk straight into the smoke never to be heard from again. Damn Nintendo is going to kill my husband.

The pool is heaven. The kids love it. But better than the pool is the pool net! It’s saved a few kids already. Day one at this house, Pickle walked right out into the middle of the pool net and stuck her feet through and proceeded to get stuck. She was too far for any of us to reach and the net won’t suspend anyone over eighty pounds. It will keep you from drowning, but it won’t keep you from getting wet. We were only half way moved in and had nothing to change into or dry off with. We all stood around the pool trying to figure out how to get her back to solid ground. Hunter jumped in the wagon and Bronson and I pushed him out as far as we could. He reached out and grabbed her and pulled her into the wagon and we pulled them both back to dry ground. It was an adventure. I felt like I was on the discovery channel. It was a good test of the net. I feel much better about a pool now that I have seen the power of the net.

This house is beautiful. I love it. I am so happy to be here, but it is still so loud. I may never sleep in late again. My house sounds like a cross between McDonalds playland and a public pool. Add any excitement, ie Christmas, a new house, new TV’s, a new pool and the noise level quadruples. Dear God, please let the novelty wear off quickly and send January as quickly as possible. Amen.

There are at least ten more stories I could tell you all, but I am exhausted. And I am going to sit in the hot tub with my man so I don’t have to listen to Sailor fuss herself to sleep.

I have much to be thankful for…..

Shaylee arrived home this weekend.

I have all fifteen babies in the house.

Brandon made it home from Nigeria despite staying in a hotel that was shot up and robbed by armed gangsters.

My dad is hanging out with us indefinitely. Heidi took the kids and moved home to Utah and left my Dad’s ass in Mexico. We have since convinced him to live near us in The OC.

My kids have loved having a full time Grandpa. (One more thing to squeal loudly about.)

The business is going well.

My kids are healthy and happy.

Brandon and I haven’t fought for………… for at least three days.

I am content. It feels good. I know how blessed I am. I know how lucky I am. Thank you all for being part of my life. I love my readers. (even my nasty readers bring a level of entertainment to this house.)

I wish you all the happiest of holidays!

XOXO

27 Comments »

20 Dec

week in pictures

Posted by Sandi in week in Pictures

31 Comments »