The stuff of life.

We celebrated TWO birthdays this past week.

Son (#1) turned 15, yesterday. Yikes. I'm looking online to find a shirt that says, "Girls - STAY AWAY - or my mom will GET YOU!" What do you think? The glaring and avoidance (mine) doesn't seem to be giving girls the message that I'm going for. The other option is locking him in his room until he's 22. But I worry about what it would smell like in there. The Glade plug-in can only do so much.

Daughter (#5) turned 9 on Saturday. NINE! As in, "my fifth born child and the tiniest member of our family" (besides Little Man, but at three he's almost caught up with her). Dear heavens. Where does the time go?

We celebrated with a Chili dinner. And Apple Pie. And Angel Food Cake with strawberries. Nothing like two birthdays in one! At least they agreed on the main course.

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Thanksgiving Break was fun. Lots of family time with the troops - lots with the Coach's extended family. Lots of food. And a loss at WW on Friday. Woo hoo! SO excited about the new PointsPlus plan starting this week. Come on Friday!

Know what I did on Thanksgiving morning? Ran EIGHT miles. Didn't know that was a possibility one year ago. Felt great. Especially since I was inside and not out in the wind!

And on Saturday? After the Coach took Son (#1) on his first unsuccessful deer hunt at the farm? He took me shopping.

SHOPPING.

(for clothes, not groceries)

How much fun is that? Great sale. Great jeans. Two new sweaters. What an incredibly amazing guy. (this is a labor of love, I might add. . . shopping would not be on his list of "my favorite things")

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So back to the school routine, yesterday. Three days off last week just reminded me how much I'm looking forward to Christmas Break! Then again, it also reminded me that when the kids are home, I spend all of my time in the kitchen. Lots of food. Lots of dishes. Lots of mess. Love it.

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Last night, I kept hearing a loud "BANG" in what seemed to be the sunroom, right next to our bedroom. I wasn't too worried, until I woke up and the Coach wasn't there. When he came back, he said he was trying to find out what was making that loud noise. Seriously. If something wakes HIM up, I'm scared. He can sleep through an entire pre-dawn, four-kid stomach virus. It's happened.

Then this morning, I'm in the kitchen trying to focus my eyes and get 8 lunches (with a little too much help) made while putting hair in pony tails and finding missing shoes. It's tough enough after good night's sleep!

Out come the boys, talking about "that noise last night". Turns out they heard it, too. Thought maybe it was at the back door. OK. Time for a lesson in "Home Invasion 101" . IF you hear what you THINK might be someone trying to get IN our house in the MIDDLE of the night (daytime it's probably just Little Man locked outside when someone came in without him) then PLEASE wake your parents.

Good Grief.

So the Coach, now even more determined to figure it out than he was in the middle of the night (I'm oddly MORE motivated when it's keeping me from sleep - and it's dark), starts investigating.

Turns out the gate to the back yard was unlocked and blowing back and forth in the wind making a surprisingly BIG banging sound.

Mystery solved.

And then the Coach tells me didn't think it was something dangerous. Just one of our sleep-walkers slamming doors.

Which I'm pretty sure is even MORE frightening. We have an alarm that goes off if someone comes in our house at night. Eventually the police will get here whether the Coach wakes up or not. However those sleep walkers will SCARE the heebie jeebies out of you if you run into them in the hall at 4:00 am. Yikes! I know this from experience.

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That about gets us caught up, here at the troops. And now Little Man is awake (sort of) and curled up on my lap. He's not so "little" anymore, so it's making typing next to impossible.

Happy Tuesday!