Busy week and shopping frustration!

What a wild and crazy week we have had!
Tues night we ended up going to Gainsville which is about an hour and a half south of us. We have a little boy in our church who has Cerebal Palsey and he had to have surgery a few weeks ago on some tubing in his spine. Well after the surgery he was given too much pain medication and slipped into unconsciouness for a day or two giving us all a scare. Then he came out and we praised the Lord mightily as he returned to church. Last Thursday he got real sick and was even worse Friday afternoon his parents were told to rush him to the hospital in Gainsville (once again 1.5 hours away) and he was found with some bacteria in his blook. It looks like E-Coli. They took all of his tubes out and are working hard to keep it from his brain. Our church family has taken turns going to G-Ville to be with the family and after making arrangements with my mom to watch the children (ALL OF THEM!) we took our turn Tues night. He seems to be doing better and we hope he will be home next week.
I went down to the outlet mall in St Augustine (about 45 min South of here) Wednesday with all of the children looking for school clothes for KE and KA. I was sorely dissapointed. Im not sure why our little girls are supposed to dress like hookers but Im sure there is a reason. If you are a mom of a little girl I suggest you never set foot inside a Limited Too even if the sign says 70% off everything in the store. You wont want to pay $1 to these people! I'd never been inside one and thought maybe I could find a shirt or something. One shirt I saw size 5 was skin tight pink with a flirty looking cat on the front and "Kitten" written across the chest. Remember when "Kitten" was a cute word used by daddies???? Not anymore.. this shirt was offensive. Anyways I finally found some solid color pastel tees at Carter's outlet for $5 each. I got a handfull of them and that was our shopping trip. Oh yeah they also have a toy outlet down there where we do most of our Christmas shopping. Since the children did so well I took them in there to find a cheapy toy or something. I dont usually do stuff like this but it was a loooooooong day for them and we did not have hardly any clothes to show the fruits of our labor.... so I broke down. Well they had "party packs" of bouncy balls and flutes and slinky's 8 to a pack so I bought those. They were 3 packs for $5 so I walked out with 24 toys for $5. The children were happy and I was happy.
Yesterday I went to our local mall and was pleased with the clothes and the prices. Not thrilled but pleased. My girls like to wear skirts and that was a disaster. But I did find a few that came to thier knees and since they have shorts underneath I was a little more comfortable. I still have to get undershirts and underwear and school supplies today before tax free week is over. But things are looking better.
And last but not least we left Friday night to go to Tampa about 4 hours southwest of us to see friends who had thier sweet baby girl two months early. She is doing good though she is looking at hospital time. She came in at about 4 pounds.She is so sweet and so tiny. Apparently preemies have a tendency to stop breathing occasionally. And while my hubby was holding her she decided that should would scare him and stop breathing. Everyone stayed calm and the nurse jostled her around a bit and she started breathing withing seconds but hubby said the wait was excrutiating. I believe it. Her mom and dad were not too perturbed by the whole scene and were actually teasing hubby about it a little later. So I guess it is normal. All I know is if she had stopped breathing while I was holding her they would have had to resucitate me as well!
Im waiting on a check to come in the mail. I should get it some time this week. I am going to get a preschool curriculum I saw at our local homeschool store for T and possibly C. His mom wants him in a preschool program but I dont like the thought of sending him away all day. Im hoping that by getting this curriculum and keeping a daily progress chart I can head off the inevitable questioning by his social worker about why he is not in the preschool program. It is not mandatory here but we did pass a law that gave voluntary free pre kindergarten to all four year olds. I despise it because it wont stop there. Soon it will be madatory pre kindergarten and voluntary three year old kindergarten on down the line until they just take them at the hospital because you have no clue how to raise your own child. I see this whole game as a way for the state to get your children in thier clutches earlier and earlier. OF course my children come to me from the state so I have very little to say in how they are raised but I do the best I can and pray pray pray... ok stepping down for soapbox! :)

Around the House:
Nothing much going on here. Been busy shopping for school clothes (which I came in way under budget on! YEAH!)
I have started the girls on thier own laundry. The eight year old can do almost everything though she still needs a little help. The five year old can do most of it. I have to help her transfer from the wash to the dryer and help put away most of the clothes. I also pour the laundry detergent into the cup for her as the bottle is super big. The three year old is mostly in the watch stage right now. She likes to help put the clothes in the wash and pour the detergent in and she can help transfer to the dryer. I got a hamper seperated into three parts and each girl has a section. Its been working out great Im impressed with how well the girls keep up on it! Now I have to get busy on the boys' laundry situation.
I broke down and finally ordered the MOTH system. I have heard such rave reviews and hubby thought it looked good so we invested in it. I am waiting patiently for its arrival.
School starts August 8th. I am trying right now to work out a new schedule. I know school will take up a lot of KA and KE's time but I still want them to have responsibilities around the house. I have a real tentative schedule for them and I of course will tweak it after school starts and they get settled in and we can be more realistic.
Well we were gone most the weekend so I will spend most of Monday getting the house back in order. Usually when I leave my house to go out of town I leave a disaster area in my wake. I know I know this is not the smart thing to do and it is something I am praying about and working on but thats how it is right now. So alas my Monday will be very busy.