Let's cram four days into one...

I woke up, made a double batch each of oatmeal banana pancakes and fried potatoes, and then almost had a heart attack. It was time to pour all the extra boiling oil out of the giant, deep skillet of potatoes, so I told Robbie (the only kid present) to leave the kitchen. I always order all kids out no matter how much they've been helping, when it's time to move big pots or pans full of boiling anything. It's a major thing with me, I knew this little kid growing up whose whole face and upper body were a freakshow of scar tissue because his mom dropped the pasta she was about to drain on him when he tangled in her feet.

SO, oil was drained, I set the pan down, and Isaac came running in to try to grab a pancake off the stack - I told him no, I'd make him a plate just wait a minute, and he grabbed at the big ol' pan of steaming potatoes - I tried to catch it by the handle, but it was too oily and then Aaron kind of ran in and knocked into the side of me, and woosh...Isaac was sitting - naked - in a small puddle of oil and covered in these hot things and screaming his head off. Grant ran in, I was feeling like I would puke and tearing up...all his initial red spots faded and after a bath he seemed fine, but GEEZ MAN. Geez.

(I always cook on back burners, but there was no where not hot to set these pans except up front. Argh.)

Aaaaaanyway. Once everyone in the house was full and we'd all sat around a little, I packed up the kids and drove Grant over to his office to work for a few hours, so we could keep the van. Then, came back to the house to get my brother, and a shirt for Isaac, and sandals for Aaron, and a diaper bag, and change my own clothes (...Grant had been in a hurry to get to the office). Then I realized we were headed to a book sale and I should have gotten our Barnes and Noble discount card from Grant, so I drove us all back to his office to get it from him (with my brother PISSED that I'd drug him away from video games, sitting in the passenger seat blaring music so loud on his headphones that it was interfering with the music in the van - first real fit of classic Bob temper that we've had so far).

Got the card, realized I'd forgotten to grab Annie's money and purse for her like I said I would, went back to the house and got them.

Then we all went over to ArtSouth. THAT ended up being pretty cool. Bob seemed genuinely interested in some of the stuff there, even asked to go up to the 3rd floor when I started to head down from the second. Isaac walked the whole time, did really well. Melissa and Alex were in Alex's studio, so we caught up...he was painting, and I'm sure my brother felt at ease finally being around someone else wearing black clothes with hair dyed an unnatural color. Melissa looks SO DIFFERENT with her hair dyed and cut and dressed all fashionable and WHAT?! Biz-arre. In a good way. Aaron played with Memo's old cat Killer, who they have now that Memo moved away again.

Left there, got on the highway for the mall. The bookstore there is closing, so everything is 50% off - with our card, that's 60% off. I got myself The Hours, The Girl With the Pearl Earring and Pilates for Dummies. A touch n feel for Jake, a BOY potty book for Isaac (we only had a girl one around), and an adventure story with a dragon-slaying boy in it, for Aaron. Also a great novella style thing on Sojourner Truth for homeschool sometime, I LOVE SOJOURNER TRUTH. By this time Bob was acting great again, he helped me like crazy with all the kids while we were out. Ananda bought herself two chapter books and proudly carried her little separate bag for the rest of the time we were there. Aaron dissapeared at one point and when we all found him, he was sitting on the floor in a circle of 5-6 other kids around his age, and when he saw us he said "See, there they are - she's 6, and he's 2, and that one's just a baby. The cool one is Uncle Bobby and my mom's pushing the stroller." He never fails to amaze me.

Then it was the bathroom and diaper changing, the play area for a long time, another bathroom and diaper changing, some nursing and pretzel dogs (barf) and Ananda decided to pay for her and her two biggest brothers to ride the train (she got a card with $20 in it for her birthday). I thought that was really nice of her. I refuse to pay $1.50 per child for that nonsense, it was free for years and I think they have a lot of nerve. ISAAC LOVED IT. He flipped out, grinning and yelling "Fun fun!" and waving at everyone. While they were on it my sister and Frank materialized behind me o_O She was looking *so* pregnant.

So we came home when I realized it was already 7. I could tell Bob was in a REALLY good mood by then, because he actually took out the rock cd in the stereo and put in "Something for the chillins", which in this case was a bunch of Veggietales songs.

I made a big pot of chicken and yellow rice. Shaun brought Grant home from the office, with a stop off at Home Depot - he's going to make us a new living room shelf for baby toys, that Jake can pull up on. The old one is unstable and keeps coming unanchored from the wall. Dinner all around. Blows my mind how things like a big pot of chicken and yellow rice or a huge pan of lasagna yield NO LEFTOVERS around here (Robbie and G Sr have also been eating with us...I have a menu for the week posted on the fridge).

And many teeth brushed, words read aloud and nursings later, all the kids are in bed and here I am. Thinking I should work on Cracked and wishing I could have some good conversation. Grant and Shaun are filming skits and Bob is playing video games. I'm trying to ignore the mess, because damnitt I'm tired of cleaning right now. I already read the first couple of chapters of The Hours while nursing Jake, but it somehow just feels too wasteful of kids-sleeping time to sit around reading. We'll see.