Why I *need* a maid

 We had a sitter coming over to help my mom with the 8 kids while Jon, Noelle, Josiah and I went out for Noelle's birthday dinner. The plan was to go to Texas de Brazil which is a fabulous restaurant with tons of scrumptious food. We had been looking forward to this night for a while now. No kids. Yummy food. SCORE.

I started cleaning up the house in preparation for the sitter and our date...quite a task considering the 8 children running amuck. 

The kitchen floor was SO filthy from everyone playing in the yard and coming inside continually so I decided to mop. I HAD to. It was a necessity.

Most people would consider mopping an ordinary job. Nothing fancy...just a sink full of water, a mop and a strong arm...right?

Wrong.

Not when it comes to me.

As I am happily mopping (yes, you can be happy and mopping at the same time) and minding my own business, I am suddenly attacked by a large, hefty barstool. It came at me from my side, thinking I was unaware of it's presence. I suspect that it's plan was to foil my mopping attempts and not allow me the satisfaction of a clean floor in retaliation for my allowing the kids to paint whilst sitting upon it.

The stool lunged at me, narrowly missing my head and instead, being caught off balance by my stealth maneuvers, came crashing down upon the top of my ankle bone and scrapping it's way down my foot.

Now, most people might have flown into a sudden rage and attempted to throw the barstool out the large, glass window that was oh so near...but instead, I calmly removed the battered stool from my leg....sat down...and proceeded to cry. (crying makes it feel better)

I remained seated for quite some time because I could NOT WALK. 

That could prove difficult...

My only thought?

"Are we still going to be able to go out tonight????" (the question of a desperate mother needing some quite adult time)

In my mind I had several choices:

A. Stay home, which was not an option in my mind.

B. Go ahead and go out with Josiah and the Griggs...and crawl through the restaurant since I could not walk.

C. Find a wheelchair. Tempting........except you must remember my very recent tailbone injury while mountain biking. Oh, you do not remember? Hu. That must be because I decided not to humiliate myself by divulging that story. (oops)

As I was trying to sort out in my mind the best option, my mom called and is sick and cannot help watch the kids.... my sitter Natalie arrives and her poor little son is screaming.....my iron broke and I could not iron my dress....and Findlay is super fussy as we are trying to convince Natalie she CAN watch 8 kids with no problems even though her wee one is upset...!!!!!!

End of the story.....we went to eat at Carrabba's instead of the Brazilian Steakhouse (we plan to try to go again next week) and were home inside of an hour. I had to hang on to Jon (until Josiah met us there) and HOP into the restaurant. Yeah.

Happy birthday Noelle!

I should be thankful for my "free" hour....well, free is a fluid term here because we did take the baby and had to leave suddenly because Findlay was hysterical. I guess dinner with one child is easier than dinner with 8!

In conclusion, I want everyone to know that I am taking donations for a maid service to clean my kitchen floor. If you care to contribute to my sanity, er, clean floor...feel free to contact me day or night.

Presley Solomon and Margaret Isabelle

Mr and Mrs Jonathan Carl Griggs

                and

Mr and Mrs Josiah Steven Flamm

request your attendance 

to celebrate the marriage of

Margaret Isabelle Griggs

             and

Presley Solomon Flamm

on the 25th day of July, 2022

Videos!!!

I decided to shoot a short video of the beautiful landscape/mountains/river while we were camping.

Then, there was a little surprise.

Jon was SHOCKED. (it will be his turn soon...)

I am just glad no one was downstream.

Kell *finally* lost his two front teeth. This was a long awaited occurrence...especially since he derived pleasure in freaking people out with his tooth turned backwards. (yeah.)

Here is a short video of the second tooth coming out. There is a little blood involved...but isn't there always with boys and teeth????

At the end he is saying, "Go get a paper towel!!!!"

At Sarah's wedding, all the boys danced the night away! They had moves I had never seen.

VBA2C

VBA2C = vaginal birth after 2 c-sections

It is with a joyful heart that I "announce" the birth of Bridget Mary...born Father's Day!

Elaine Mills, an ICAN (International Cesarean Awareness Network) leader in Atlanta gave birth to Bridget vaginally after having 2 prior c-sections!!! 

I personally LOVE Elaine and Matt, and am on cloud nine about the birth of their baby.

To see some beautiful photos (modest) of the birth click HERE. Notice the look on Elaine's face as she is handed her daughter!!!!!!!!! This is the power of natural birth  :)

CAMPING -with 8 children-

The plan:

Go camping Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday at the Great Sand Dunes!

What actually happened:

The little ones got sick so we wanted to wait till they felt better to leave...and we did not want to drive 4 hours to the Sand Dunes. So Jon, Josiah, Ethan, Kellen, Tarin and Brennah went camping on Friday night in the mountains. They got to the desired road to take them to the campsite (back country) at 10 p.m. The road was closed. So they began looking for "real" campgrounds to crash at for the night...and everything was either closed or full. At midnight they found a campground...pitched the tent, slept, awoke the next morning and backed up to find another place.

Noelle and I (and the 4 smallest ones) met them Saturday morning...still no campground. We drove till around 3 p.m. when we found a great place on Lake Granby. We set up camp, planning to stay till Monday night. Saturday night was SO COLD that we were worried about the babies...so Sunday afternoon we packed up and went home.

We were on the campsite less than 12 hours.

But it was still fun with a TON of great memories!!!!

Enjoy!







A camping we will go!!!!!!!!!! Maggs, Pres, Finn and Laz (and Noelle and I ) loaded up the kids early Saturday morning to go meet with all the guys/gals to continue the camping adventure as one big happy family.











8 kids later.

Yeah, we are hot.  :)













At the campsite, gathering wood for the roaring fire.








A great idea! Draw elaborate pictures on cups so that everyone knows which cup is theirs and they can use it all weekend!

Reality: elaborate pictures do not help if you LOSE the cup 10 minutes later.










Tarin-Bo-Baron













Where we picniced.













Yes, the actual sign from our campsite.









"YES! We finally found a campsite!!!!!"










"Yummmmmy"












Quite possibly the cutest children E-V-E-R...from a non-biased person, of course.











Noelle layed an egg.






Jon and the boy










Maggs did not want anyone to mistakenly drink from her water bottle.









Josiah and Laz











Which is more beautiful....us or the sunset?

Hummm.....






















Yeah.  We are.

HOT.

I LOVE this picture!!! Noelle, Brennah and Finn.







Josiah thought it would be a better idea if Laz and I slept in the van (he took a seat out) instead of the tent so we would not get cold.

Riiiight.

A nice plan....but it did not go so well.


Breakfast....after a rough night of no sleep...crunched on the floor of the van with a baby in 30 degree weather. Pancakes, eggs, bacon (pork even!!!) and cherries!







About 7 a.m.









About 5:40 a.m. This is my "I'm gonna kill my husband" picture...because for some reason at 5 a.m. it was his fault that I was stuck in the van all night with NO sleep during sub-zero temperatures...and I kept thinking I was falling forward...sleep deprivation, perhaps???







All bundled up for sleepy-time! The daytime was hot at 85 degrees and the nights were COLD in the 30's.

















While at Lake Granby we encountered some tribes indigenous to the area and only found on the tiny peninsula we were camping on. Thankfully they were a friendly bunch, wanting only one thing: SMORES.











I seriously wondered all night if I was going mad...I felt as if my head was lower than my body and Laz and I kept slipping forward.

The next morning I discovered I was correct in my estimations.

And somehow that was also Josiah's fault.









Noelle was attacked by a rabid mountain lion while trying to rescue our children from it's grip of death.

Welllll....sorta.

She WAS attacked.......by a wee Scottie dog. And bitten. It was horrifying to behold. Thankfully Josiah had the gun or I *might* have gone hunting for Scottie.







Hiking!!! Laz enjoyed the ride...asleep on Dadddy :)







The next American Idol!!!








Beautiful Maggie

A gorgeous hike....








...on a CDT trail (that is Continental Divide to you lay folk)...









...that got VERY steep.....







...and although beautiful, it was not kid-friendly. Maggs doesn't seen to mind!












So we headed another direction and found the river that flowed into the lake.

















































All the poor pine trees. It was seriously awful....the entire landscape was littered with dead/dying trees because of some stupid beetle.















































The universal sign of FUN......feet so dirty you can see the Chaco outlines!!!!  :)


After the hike we headed home...which was thankfully only about 2 hours away.

Yes....we DO live in Paradise  :)