Love grows best in little houses.

It’s a country song.  I’m sure you have heard it.

The chorus goes like this:

But you know, love grows best in little houses,
With fewer walls to separate,
Where you eat and sleep so close together.
You can’t help but communicate,
Oh, and if we had more room between us, think of all we’d miss.
Love grows best, in houses just like this.

Little Houses by Doug Stone
(see it here)

I’m not quite sure that Doug Stone was talking about 4 children, two plump adults, and a dog in that little white house.

When I got the brilliant idea to have us all come up to my Dad’s to watch the house and dog while he went out of the country, I didn’t really think it would be this stressful for me. I admit it. I’m a rule follower. I like order and I’ve come to the realization that I am not a slob. I just don’t like cleaning up after everyone. It’s painfully obvious who in our household has managed to pee on most of the toilets, leave the lights on, and the drawers open.

I bet you are assuming I will blame Jon. Well yes, he does do that, but I wasn’t going to lay that burden all on him. I have discovered it to be all THREE of the boys living in our house posing as the open-drawer-potty bandits.

I really try hard not to get mad, but to remind and use it as a teaching moment for my young boys. How is it working for me?

Not so good.

I think I need to lighten up a little. It is a new environment, a new house, a new town, a new place to hang out and have some fun. But at the same time, it’s a house that isn’t ours and I feel like they will mess everything up!!
I like that it’s clean. I like that it’s ordered and everything has a place, which is the total opposite of how our house is now! They just drop it where ever and whenever and walk away! Gasp! I know!
I hope this will be a good start to new habits, ones I will keep on them about and won’t have to use the excuse, “this is not our house, so let’s keep it the way we found it”.  When we get home, I want to be able to say, “This is our house, let’s keep it nice so we can enjoy living here!”

Ok, now that I have gotten that off my chest. Let’s talk about what we plan on doing while we are here. That is if I don’t lose my sanity while trying to keep them from killing each other with love and communication! Some places that have been recommended to us are tops on our list. Not sure we’ll get to all of them, but here are a few things I would like to do while we are here in O’Fallon, Missouri;  named in 2006 as the “Best 100 Places to Live.”

**edited to cross out what we did already**

• The Magic House
• The City Museum
• The St. Louis Zoo
• The St. Louis Science Center
• Grant’s Farm
• The River City Rascals Baseball Game
  
• New Town at St. Charles
• Visit to the library
• Up the movie
• Swimming

I think that just about covers any and all fun to be had while we are here. Do I think we’ll get them all in? No. We already have tickets to the Baseball game, so that’s a for sure and we went swimming today. (random brain thought: where did I put my camera? must find.) I would really like to go to the City Museum. It looks like a LOT of fun. The childrens museum, not sure that would entertain my kids long enough, might be too young for them as even my youngest wants to do the “big kid” stuff. It didn’t dawn on me until just now that I was bragging and bragging about this awesome place to live (New Town) and I even posted about it here. I took a gazillion pictures (which can be seen here) the last two times I visited and I didn’t even think to take the fam over there to check it out. We totally should because it’s free and we can walk through the models and dream about living there. You know, to torture myself. Cuz that’s just how I roll.

What does it say about me as a Mom that I am sitting on the couch with Spongebob Squarepants muted on the TV while the kids are “supposed” to be going to sleep? Don’t tell me.

I think I need some M&M’s.

In other news:

• MJ got a mohawk
• MJ asked to have mohawk shaved off
• Penny feigned a paw injury for sympathy
• Jon clogged the toilet. And here I thought it was OUR toilet. Nope.  It’s his butt. It’s full of shit no matter where we go.
• Our “new” van just quit on us and then started again once we stopped. Weird.
• I love shopping at Aldi’s grocery store. I can’t wait for Texas to get one! It’s almost like the dollar tree for me…”but it’s so cheap! Buy 9!”
• After watching me put on mosturizer, MJ asked if he could have some. When I put a little on his cheeks he walked away in amazment because his cheeks, “feel as soft as a weasle!!”  Wha??  **crickets**
• I have been able to get up every morning and walk the dog.  I’m not showerd and definately NOT cute, but who cares. I’m UP!  So if you see someone stumbling along the sidewalk with a poop bag in her hands, feel proud of her for getting up at the butt crack of dawn to walk the dog. She’s a trooper!

That’s all I can think of. Muh brain, she is empty.

Where are those M&M’s??!!