"...SHUT-UP!!! I WAS TRYING TO HIT YOU STUPID!!!!"

Sometimes the things that happen in my home make me laugh, and sometimes make me cry. Then there are things that happen that make me cry because I'm laughing. Luckily we had one of those experiences.

Chris and Katie are having some friends over tomorrow night to watch movies, eat, and "hang out" (whatever that means). I have SERIOUS ANXIETY when I have people over to my house. The house is never clean enough, the walls all need fresh paint, we need new carpet, I don't cook the way I should, my dishes don't match (when they are clean), and on and on and on. One of the biggest problems I have when it comes to my home is that I HATE to clean. I HATE IT!!!! I look for any excuse to not clean (which is kind of weird considering my biggest excuse to not have people over is because my house isn't clean enough). Here are some of my best excuses:

- I just don't want to.
- I sneezed a couple of hours ago and that means I must be coming down with
something therefore, I must rest.
- We don't have the right kind of cleaning supplies.
- I can't handle the fumes from the cleaning supplies, they always give me headaches.

AND MY FAVORITE:

- The house is just too dirty to clean.

Writing this down makes me realize how stupid it sounds. If I had a dollar for every time there was a fight around here about cleaning or doing the laundry, I'd be able to...hire a housekeeper.

Well, back to my story. Chris and Katie and I were in the kitchen making a shopping list and a to-do list so they could be prepared for their party. Kolbie came home from school and was making herself a snack. I don't remember exactly what Katie said to Kolbie, but I do remember it was snotty. I turned my head to see how Kolbie reacted to see her try to hit Kate with a dishtowel, she missed and hit me right in the face. Everything suddenly went very, very, quiet. Kolbie had a look of pure terror on her face. Chris and Kate we both holding their breath wondering if I was going to have a huge meltdown. The next thing I know I glance at Chris and HE'S CRYING!!! And then I look at Katie, and SHE'S CRYING. When I looked at Kolbie she was terrified!!! I looked at my children again, and there was an explosion of laughter from the older two. The next thing I know, Chris and Katie are literally on the floor in the dining room, laughing so hard they are crying. And this only mad Kolbie mad...no...this only made Kolbie REALLY, REALLY MAD!!

Kolbie has a flare for the dramatic (a trait she gets completely from her father, not from me), so the next thing I know she's screaming at Chris and Katie to "...SHUT-UP!!! I WAS TRYING TO HIT YOU STUPID!!!!!!!"

This was one of those wonderful situations in parenthood that you bite your lip so hard your bleeding so you won't laugh at your children. I honestly was not mad at Kolbie, I was irritated that she was trying to hit her sister, but I wasn't mad. But seeing the look on her face when she realized what she'd done was just hilarious.

The funniest thing about this story is that not 3 minutes before all this occurred I was instant messaging a friend of mine and asked her if she had an idea of something I could blog about. Her response was "No. If I had an idea, I would have blogged about it." I told her what was happening with the kids, and her response was "...see, at your house if you stand still for a minute something will always happen that you can blog about." She was, of course, right. If you just stand back and watch, you'll ALWAYS find something to write about, and you'll ALWAYS be entertained.

We have our ups and downs. And a lot of the time it feels like we have more downs than ups, but these 4 people (mainly the kids) are always entertaining. My kids give me more to think about, laugh about and cry about than anyone else on the planet.