THE GOOD AND THE BAD.................

If you have a weak stomach you may want to skip this post, but if you're looking for a good laugh......read on.

Friday started our crazy hectic weekend. After I got off work and got the kids we headed home to get ready to have a couple of Terry's old friends over for dinner. Things had been so hectic last week that I had not had time to get all worked up about having everything perfect and they were wonderfully gracious enough to bring sides and other stuff to go with our steaks and even have some left over for the weekend ahead. As soon as they left we got cleaned up and ready for my family to come in for the weekend. We were celebrating Cassidy's 13th Birthday and Raelynn's 5th Birthday with the family. Mom, Cassidy, Chandler, Steph and Karli all got in Friday evening. Saturday morning we started potty training Coop so in the midst of everything that happens from this point forward, every 30 minutes we are stopping to take Coop to the bathroom. Bonnie had arranged for everyone to go horse riding as a little treat especially for Raelynn and Cassidy. Cassidy and Chandler do not get the opportunity to ride much so of course they loved it and Raelynn and Cooper always love it so it was a fun afternoon. We did some shopping after nap time and got home late but did get some things ready for Sunday's birthday party and 4th of July Celebration. This is when the fun begins........Sunday morning I got up and started going non stop. I have a terrible problem of getting completely worked up about having the house perfect, kids perfect, me perfect, food perfect and on and on. Which it is nearly impossible for everything to be perfect when you are starting with a house full of people to begin with. I always tell myself to just let things go and have a good time but it never works out that way. Thank goodness for my Mom though as she always makes sure the food is perfect and my sisters try very hard to help me make the house perfect as well. So anyway, I am running around like crazy and finally head out the door to get the balloons and cake. I jump in my car and discover that when Steph had pulled my car in the garage the night befofe, she did not shut it completely off and therefore, my car was dead. So I go back inside, freaking out of course, and grabbed Mom's keys and off to the store. Just FYI, my car is still dead. We have been unable to get the battery to hold a charge. Anyway, so everything else in regards to the party goes pretty well. Cassidy and Raelynn both have a great time which is what it is all about. Afterwards we were to head down to Watson Park for the 4th of July celebration but it was raining. We held off for quite awhile and when it did finally stop raining we decide to head down. We get down there and just as we are dragging all our chairs, coolers and wagon out it starts to sprinkle. We continue and by the time we are in the park it is down pouring. We hold out for about 10 minutes and then it really cut loose. Even with umbrellas we were drenched. Raelynn announces that this is crazy and it was time to go home. We all agreed and headed home. By the time we got home we were soaked and freezing. We could not stop laughing though because everyone was just so wet. We got home and got in our warm, dry Pj's and decided to make a picnic in the living room and watched the fireworks on TV. We could see them out our sliding glass door as well so we still got a fireworks show. The rain even broke long enough that Raelynn, Karli and I did a few sparklers out on the driveway. Finally we got to bed around midnight. I heard Terry and Coop up around 6:30am Sunday morning and knew that Coop needed to go potty so I got up and took him in their bathroom. I flipped on the light and there all over the bathroom someone had thrown up. I quickly took Coop to our bathroom and then when he was done I got out the cleaning supplies. I had not heard a thing in the night but knew it had to be my youngest niece that had gotten sick. It wasn't long after that I heard Terry hollering for me and she was up sick again. I went and woke up my Mom for a little help and support :) I got the bathroom cleaned up and was headed to put the rags and towels in the laundry. I already had laundry going from the night before so I went to empty the dryer and there in my dryer was something I would later discover was gum that my oldest niece had left in her jeans pocket. So there I was, now cleaning up the dryer. I was almost done there when Coop walks up and says to me, "Mommy I pooped." Now remember we are potty training. I had actually changed him into actual undies because the pull ups had not seemed to be doing the trick. In addition, due to the medicine that Coop is taking, his poop is less than solid. So I stop cleaning the dryer and took him to the bath tub to clean him up. It is only 7:30am by this time. My Mom gets everything gathered and decides to head back to Scott City with Chandler sick because she wanted to get her home and we didn't want Coop exposed anymore than he already had been. Karli was staying here with us because each year she stays a week with us and goes on vacation with us. This week she was staying and then we have planned to head to the Ozarks at the end of the week. So she helps me scrub and disinfect my entire house and my children. We head down stairs to finish cleaning. My niece had been down there with a pail and let's just say apparently she didn't hit the pail every time and I got the pleasure of stepping in it. Seriously I wasn't sure that it could get any worse and it really didn't for me. My Mom however was another story. Remember she had headed back to Scott City with Cassidy and Chandler. She knew Chandler was sick but had not expected that Chandler would be sharing the pail with Cassidy. Yep, Mom had a 6 hour drive with 2 sick girls!!! The good news is they did make it and they did survive. As of now, there has been no other reports of sickies but we are all just waiting. So I guess you could say our weekend was anything but boring. I am only hoping the rest of the weekend will be a little less eventful.

Karli is here and spending the week with the kids. We will head to the Ozarks at the end of the week and have a mini vacation. It will be great to relax outside of a hospital with the kids! There will be many pictures of the good parts of the weekend to follow :)