Happy 8, Chloe!

My niece, Chloe, turns 8 years old today! She was the first child for me and my 2 sisters. I can't believe it's been that long already. She had her party on Saturday and we were able to go. It was fun. She picked her 8 favorite foods for the menu: chocolate covered donuts, m&ms, 100 Grand Bars, Sour Cream and Onion chips, carrots chips, polka dot cake, hot dogs, and something I can't remember! She is a cute young lady and I hope she had a great birthday -- we love you, Chloe!

Randomness

1. I whispered in Caden's ear today "I love you" and he whispered back "I love superheroes!" Cute but not what I was expecting to hear back -- guess I am one rung lower than Ironman and The Hulk.

2. I am on day 2 of potty training Ethan. So far all I have to show for it is a bunch of wet underwear and time spent sitting in the bathroom with him as we both say "Come on, pee pee" no results so far . . . this might do me in on potty training and Reese will have to either: (a) train herself or (b) have a professional potty trainer come in -- if there is such a thing.

3. Today we went to get much needed haircuts for the kids. We go to Carl Sandburg Cosmetology School because it's only $5 and they can cut all 3 kids hair at the same time. I was in a bit of a shock when we went to walk in and the sidewalk on a busy street was blocked by some big tall crane sort of machine. I mean the whole side walk and the parking spaces in the street too. I had to walk all of them into the street right in the lane of oncoming traffic we made it but it was one of those panicky moments. I was also carrying Reese's carseat and the diaper bag too. Luckily the all the girls who cut the kids hair offered to walk us out to the van. I should have kidnapped them to be my nannies! At least Caden no longer looks like Jim Carey in "Dumb & Dumber".

4. The guy on Blue's Clues needs smaller pants -- they are giant on him.

5. What's with President Bush giving a press conference today and acting like he's a comedian. I don't normally watch those things but "The View" was coming on so I left it on and he was cracking jokes and ribbing the reporters right and left. Maybe he needs a new gig? Maybe the press conferences are always like that since I don't normally watch them. I'm sure some of it will be on The Soup on Friday!

6. I started keeping a potty chair in the van. Wow! this is one of the best things I have ever done. It sure beats lugging 4 kids into a public restroom where they are touching everything -- yuck, yuck, yuckity, yuck!

7. As requested by Keely I typed my "5 list" on my blog and then made a new entry about Reese turning 5 months and then the "5 list" was gone! I am such a computer genius and it's no where to be found! Loving it! Don't know if I am redoing it or not -- if I do it will probably have different answers than yesterday. . . because I change my mind a lot and I don't remember anything.

8. As we drove past Wal-mart today to get our haircuts, Caden whispers to me "that's where I get my guys" (superheroes for pooping in the potty). On Sunday when we were there he really wanted some Ironman ones and he kept saying in Wal-mart "I poop for Ironman".

9. Did you know it is National Scrapbook Day this Saturday? Keely and I are going to a crop at Creek Bank Creations near her home. Aaron about fell over dead when I said there was a holiday for scrapbooking -- it is kind of funny!

10. Ethan and Reese napped today -- Addison and Caden did not. The haircuts threw a wrench into our schedule. Finally after Addison and Caden goofed around for over 2 hours in their room I let them come downstairs. Addison asks me if I am going

to say "sorry to them" I ask her why and she has no answer. Then she says "just kidding" I guess I should be sorry they didn't take a nap and believe me later tonight I will be!

11. Ethan calls bananas "monkeys" he really wanted a "monkey" today so we had "monkeys" with our lunch.

5 Sweet Months

Reese is now 5 months old!

1. She sleeps in her own crib many times completely through the night. If she wants to eat, she'll cry a little but never wakes up all the way. She likes to sleep in (wish her brothers and sister did too) and she goes to bed around 8:30 when the older kids do. She almost always wakes up happy (she doesn't get that from her mama!)

2. She doesn't suck her thumb as much now but likes to use 2 of her fingers instead.

3. She loves toys now and will grab at anything she things she can play with.

4. She loves her brothers and sister so much. She squeals and smiles at them. They play with her a lot and keep her occupied quite often. They even fight over her.

5. Her laugh is this crazy cough sound.

6. She can sit up for a couple seconds but falls over fast. She can roll over both ways but is really too efficient at it yet.

7. She is wearing size 3 diapers now.

8. She just started pulling my face close to hers. She loves it when I kiss her and then she tries to kiss me back by pulling my face close but she's an open mouth kisser.

9. She is really good at riding in the van.

10. I have yet to get her on a napping schedule -- it's so hard when our daily schedule is so varied with preschool, speech, appointments, etc. I am determined to work on it though.

11. She is still one happy girl!

My Engergizer Boy: Ethan

1. He LOVES to jump especially on my furniture. We have a mini trampoline for the house which he likes but jumping from our couch arm to the love seat is way better. I thought getting outside would help . . . I was wrong.

2. He is talking up a storm. He is very hard to understand especially without context but he says pretty much anything and everything including "really stuck", help (this is fabulous when we are in public and I'm trying to get him to do something or stop doing something), cracky (crackers), meat, watch, "shut up" and "num, num" (either something is really delicious or he also uses it for his car sounds). He also repeats the question "Do you . . . fill in the blank" "this is from the Dora and Diego series -- they are always asking questions on there and he's picked it up).

3. He is obsessed with dogs! Our backyard neighbors have a new one that is out in their yard most of the day and he can hardly stand to stay in the fence and just watch it. He wants to pet it and play with it so bad and he yells at it a lot. But once he gets close to her, he gets super nervous. He loves Aunt Keely's dog, Haley. Keely calls him the "dog boss" and it's so true. We will have to get one someday but not until he can be more responsible for the dog.

4. Just this week he started calling my "Mommy" before that I was "Omni".

5. He loves to pretend he is hitting and wrestling invisible things/people. He does this to get attention with sound effects and everything -- it's really funny to watch.

6. He's still in a crib with a crib tent on it. He will not stay in bed without it. We have left it unzipped to see what he will do. Answer: get out 1 million times.

7. We haven't even started potty training at all. I'm ready and I think he is a little. He will not leave his diaper on in bed. We have to tape it on with packing tape. He loves to take off his diaper and come tell me and say "oh no, yuck, diaper".

8. He is my best eater. He loves fruits and vegetables and will normally clean his plate and ask for seconds of them.

9. His favorites are Wiggles, SpongeBob, Chicken nuggets, cars, horses, apples, dogs, Papa, swinging, jumping, hot dogs, singing & dancing, wrestling his brother, tickling, kissing Reese, PB&J crackers, playing and sleeping with the play food, turning on/off light switches and TVs, and playing with stuffed toys.

10. He loves to go to Grammy and Papa's house and Papa will take him down the street to feed the horsey apples. He pretends he is doing it all the time at home.

11. He is quite the comical actor. He loves to overact everything. He had my cell phone the other day and would open it, dramatically dial the number, and then talk. "Halo, Papa? What are you doing? Okay, Bye" He did this about a million times . . . same dialing, same conversation every time.

12. He stands in the mirror and watches himself pretend cry and laugh and talk to himself. He has always done this. If he's wearing his glasses, he looks over them or lifts them up to see his eyes better.

13. He runs away from us all the time still but it is getting better. He watches to see if you are chasing him and goes faster. He loves to do this in stores and sometimes I can't catch him. For as fast as he is he can be just as slow if you are in a hurry and acts as if he's 90 and can barely walk.

14. He loves to dig in the dirt and pull up all the flowers that are randomly coming up in our backyard . . . oh well.

15. He stills sucks his thumb and twirls his hair when he's tired, sick, or upset. He will probably do it for a long time but it's his coping mechanism. It doesn't bother me at all.

16. He is one of the most determined children I have ever seen (and I've seen a lot). He can throw a fit about something for 45 minutes and there's no distracting him either, he just won't give up which is the whole reason he's still here . . . he's my miracle baby!

A Jump Start . . .

I made a page today! Reese doing her first tummy time way back in January. Keely thinks I'm nuts trying to make 15 layouts next month -- this one wasn't hard and less than an hour. I told her they won't be award winning (not that anything I make is award winning) but just some "creative me" time that I need so badly! Two things I need to remember is not to obsess over every little detail: make a decision and move on and pick up EVERYTHING after I am done -- very important!

My Scrapbook Diet = Scrapbook Binge & Purge

I mentioned a few days ago that my scrapbooking supplies area was in explosion mode. I have not made anything in nearly a month except for the class I attended last weekend. So last night I decided to begin to tackle the mess. I stayed up until 1:30 am and got my desk mostly cleaned off and put away. I also had a bench of paper and new acquired supplies to put away that I am currently organizing. I seriously have way too much stuff. No wonder all the girls at Scrapaganza know my name when I only go there about once a month -- I could open a branch of Scrapaganza here (just let me know, Kelly and Beth) -- it's so ridiculous that I am starting to have some anxiety about owning so much stuff and not having one moment of time to use any of it. Last year around this time I vowed to not buy any scrapbook supplies for one month and I did it and it helped me with using up my stuff. So I am going to make a different resolution. I am going to do a couple of challenges for April that I have wanted to enter all month then I am attending a crop with Keely at Creek Bank Creations (the store where Keely works) for National Scrapbooking Day on May 2 and 3 that will jump start me into my goal. I would love to say I will make one layout a day in the month of May but that's not realistic for me so I will aim to make one layout every 2 days. So that will be 15 in addition to what I make at the crop. I am going to try to use up some of these old embellishments that I have and never used. Keely said I just need to get rid of a bunch but I already did that twice in the last year. I am pretty much down to stuff that I like just but I just don't have a lot of time to scrapbook anymore. So what I don't use or have left may get some weeding out at the end of May. Now why am I writing all this in my blog . . . why does any one care? I am doing it because if it is "public knowledge" I'm more likely to keep my promise than if I just kept it private. I will post my creations as I move through the month. I just have to get everything organized and put away so I can create in the small amounts of time that I do have each day. Now it's back to work . . .

Attack of the flu bug!

Everyone except Reese has had some sort of illness here since Saturday! Addison was luckiest as she just seemed to have a slight temp and laid around most of Saturday. Caden came in our room late Sunday night and said "Mama, I throw up" and yes, he had. 5 minutes into that cleanup, Ethan is throwing up. He sleeps with everything in the world so some things had to be thrown away including his sheet. They both had a bath at 1am and I had 4 loads of laundry to do. On Monday I started feeling bad and then Monday night Aaron starts to throw up. I think we are all starting to feel better, but the kids' doctor told me to be careful because this sickness tends to leave and come back so we will be eating lightly the next couple days.

Slow News Day

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The kids made it into the newspaper (and no, they weren't arrested!). When we were playing at the park yesterday with my dad and me, a man came up and said he was with the Register Mail Newspaper and said it was a slow news day and he was looking for something interesting to take photos of and he said instead of going to the gas pump to to take photos and listen to people complain about high gas prices he thought that the nice weather and the kids playing outside would be fun. He took tons of photos and they were all about posing for him. He said that the photos would probably be in the next day but I wasn't holding my breath so I bought a newspaper today just in case and there they were. Cute photos! (Sorry for the bad photo I had trouble fitting the article into my scanner.)

One of my {new} favorite things

Keely and Jeremy gave me this cool and cute necklace for my birthday. I just got it a couple weeks ago and have been wearing it everyday (actually I never take it off). I love it and have gotten tons of compliments on it. I had a triplet necklace that I always wore of 3 babies in utero that I also love but I wanted something with Reese on it too. The kids like it because they try to find their letter on it -- so it's a learning tool and Reese thinks it's a handle to grab onto while I'm holding her. Keely ordered from Lisa Leonard -- she makes them herself at home. There are tons of cute designs. She also has a neat blog that details her life -- she has 2 sons, one with a rare disorder (I know Cathi needs more blogs to read so here you go, Cathi). Check her out and let me know if you order anything!

There you are, Spring!

Finally some really nice weather . . . the kids have been out a lot two days in a row. Now it's supposed to get a little bit cooler and maybe rainy but what a relief to get them outside. They have been napping much better for 3+ hours and last night no one wandered in our room in the wee hours (so nice to wake up on your own rather than from 3 year old foot, knee, or elbow wedged in your back). Today we played in the yard and then Grandpa came over and we went to the park for a little while too. Reese didn't like it so much, I need to dig out a sun hat for her but she does like to be outside just not so much sun please! Caden tried to tell me it was "cold" outside because he wanted to go inside -- it didn't work, he stayed out! Yesterday they kept telling me that they saw some spiders on the house when they were digging in the dirt. I just said don't touch spiders, they can bite. When Aaron came home and took them out they told him the same thing but he looked at what they were talking about and it was LOTS of ants . . . I guess they were digging up anthills and Aaron was afraid they would have a million bites since they were tiny ants but I haven't seen any bites yet but I'm sure it will happen. I'm just hoping for many, many more nice days like this --- I've been waiting for months for this to happen!

Happy Birthday, Jeppie!

Today my little nephew Jeffrey is ONE! He is a ball of cute babyness! He was so good for us when he stayed here and I hope he can continue that for his mommy at home! Happy Birthday, Jeppie -- We love you!

Tagged!

I've been tagged with 6 random things . . . thanks Penny!

#1 I can't keep up with my messy house anymore! Seriously it's bad -- I think it's a mixture of too much stuff, too many people, not enough space, and the age of the kids! I either need a maid or arrange some time for the kids to "leave" for a few hours a week so I can get some major cleaning accomplished.

#2 I will not eat anything that lives in the water full or part-time.

#3 I sent my 3 3-years outside today without me for the first time! We have a fenced in backyard and I checked on them every 5 minutes or so. They lasted a little more than an hour and there were not any fights at all. Addison even pushed Ethan in the swing for about 20 minutes. Gave me a little time to clean!

#4 I am hopelessly addicted to TV namely reality shows. I love Jon and Kate Plus 8, American Idol, Project Runway, LA Ink, Miami Ink, Celebrity Fit Club, Dr. 90210, etc. I hate to admit this but I even watched Scott Baio is 46 and Pregnant and Bret Michaels' Rock of Love (I and II) -- these shows are so stupid and pointless and I'm appalled and a lot of the stuff on them but I watch them anyway. I hate that reality shows' seasons are so short so when they end I have to find a "new show". Sad.

#5 My scrapbook stuff is in explosion mode right now (right Keely and Jeremy?). After my last project I didn't pick up and then more stuff was added (by me and Keely) and now I have a desk and a bench covered with stacks and piles of stuff! ugghhhh . . .

#6 I am still in my PJs at 3 pm today. My neighbors probably think I'm crazy since I let the three 3 year olds outside alone and I came out a few times in my snowman pajamas with my hair uncombed and wearing tennis shoes! Don't you want to be my neighbor?

I tag Keely, Chrissi, Cathi (now you have to start a blog), Laura, and Tiffany . . . six random things, girls!

Wow!

Okay, I'm behind again! My houseguests left yesterday. Jackson and Jeffrey were here for one week and they were so good! I wish I could say the same about my kids. Poor Jackson got some wounds from us. My kids are rough and mean sometimes and Jackson really doesn't have to fight anyone for anything (although Jeffrey will soon be bugging him) so he's not used to this. Keely and Jeremy were here part of the time (Keely came late Sat night and Jeremy came Mon night). It's too funny because Keely said they didn't even get all the way home and Jackson asked if he could go to our house again. Caden asked if we could go to Jackson's today too! Keely and I think we should build a "compound" for us all to live in and I agree but it needs to be bigger than the 1700 sq ft we are living in now!

Today I am trying to clean and regroup. It is impossible to get things picked up, keep up with laundry, or pretty much do anything with 6 kids here. So I am pretty far behind and we have hardly any food in our house and I have no desire to go grocery shopping!

Why do kids get up so early?

That Jeffie sure is cute but at 5:45 am he started to lose a little bit of his cuteness when he decided to start the day! He woke up a couple of times in the night but a paci put back in and cover up with a blankie and he went right back to sleep. The older kids didn't want to nap yesterday (except Ethan) so they finally fall asleep at 4:00 then they didn't want to get up at 5:15 therefore they weren't tired to go to bed at 8:45. At 10 last night they were still awake. I "made" them get up today not too long after Jeffrey so hopefully everyone will nap easily later on.


Reese is obsessed with other kids -- her siblings and any other kid. Jeffrey was making her laugh yesterday and he wasn't really even doing anything other than looking at her. I have to watch him though because he just plows on through so if she is on the floor he will just crawl on top of her. She's tough -- she's been stepped on a couple of times when the kids forgot she was on the floor but I still have to watch closely.





Ethan was up first from nap and Jeffie was already awake. The first time I checked on them Jeffrey was playing with several cars. Then I go in there and Ethan has taken every car away from him. Poor guy! So I gave him some trains and I guess trains are okay with Ethan but Jeffie is not allowed to play with cars -- go figure!

So Far . . . So Good

Aunt Keely made a cake that says "Be Good". It must be working!

Everything is going quite smoothly so far. Now it's only my first day alone with 6 kids, 3 and under but I don't feel insane or anything. Everyone has been fed breakfast, snacks, and lunch . . . except me and everyone got dressed . . . except me (still in jammies at 2:30 pm), everybody is up in bed (not everyone is asleep though) . . . except me, and the plan is everyone will get a bath later tonight . . . I'm going to make sure I get a shower for sure tonight because there is NO TIME during the day to do that. Jeffrey gives his mom fits all the time but I think he's being extra good for his Aunt. He slept all through the night and his daddy said that hasn't happened in over a month. He hasn't cried much at all and went down for naps easily and slept 2 hours this morning which is a little longer than usual. He is pretty much just doing the opposite of whatever his mom told me . . . she said at lunch to give him juice but he probably won't drink it and I had to take it away from him because he wouldn't stop! Kids, go figure! Only problems I am having is with Caden who is picking fights with Jackson and Addison . . . Alpha male thing I think. And poor Jeffie he tries to play with the "baby toys" and every time he gets something in his hand a 3 year old is telling him "No, it's Reese's" and then the 3 year old proceeds to play with it. I think that's all I need to own is "baby toys" and everybody would be happy. Reese and Jeffrey seem to be on opposite schedules when Jeffie sleeps, Reese is awake and when Reese sleeps, Jeffie is awake which is just fine with me . . . I didn't plan to get anything done when they were here anyway.

Here's little Jeffie hanging out!

Jackson is too funny and very clever. He made a cast out of lego tunnel pieces. He sure to invent something great someday or be an engineer!

Caden got the last sticker on his "poop chart" today! Took a loooooooooong time to get those 8 stickers. Now he gets a prize -- he's already having a hard time deciding between some Spiderman Guys and a Spiderman handheld Video game (says it's for age 10+ on the package) -- I'm pushing for the guys! He's so proud of himself!

Technology Challenged

I'm still alive! First my cell phone was killed in a drowning accident (yeah it's finished for sure) and then after we were gone all weekend for my nephews' birthday party my computer would not turn on. Our power went out for like 3 seconds Friday night and I was on the computer but never bothered to turn it back on. The power switch got zapped. I had no idea what was wrong with it but was a little freaked out because ALL my photos on it and I've said it about a million times I need to back up my photos somewhere but never do! So that was only $64 to fix but I said all I need is the TV to go and I would be living in the 1800's.
So I need to get back on the "blog horse" but that may be a little hard as both my nephews, Jackson (3) and Jeffrey (1) are staying with us until Sunday. Their dad brought them today and he is staying until tomorrow morning and then I'm on my own so pray for me! I'm sure it will be fine but I was really counting on being outside a lot and now it's supposed to rain and snow the next 2 days so I guess that's out! I'll try to keep you updated!

The Phone Saga continues . . .

At 9:30 pm my phone was retrieved from the potty. The toilet had to be "pulled" according to my plumber, a.k.a. my husband. Look how many people it takes to work on this potty in a super small bathroom too. So you can google pretty much anything in the world and I thought it was worth a chance so I googled "cell phone in toilet" and there's a ton of info about this. Apparently this happens to tons of people all the time and believe it or not but some people have dropped theirs in the toilet more than once -- seems like you might learn after the first time. I didn't feel bad after reading stories of phones being dropped in sinks while washing dishes, rivers, bowls of soup, cups of coffee and tea, and someone dropped theirs in apple juice in their car???? Evidently sticky apple juice is pretty much the end of your phone! Most people tell tales of using a hair dryer on low heat to dry it out. Some people are putting theirs in the oven on warm for 1/2 hour and it dried the phone out well but others reported it melted the phone. I didn't think that sounded so great. I did the hair dryer thing and now it's sitting in a bag full of uncooked rice to help absorb more moisture. I even got it to turn on today but it wouldn't do anything else so I think I'll dry it more than see if it will work. My mother in law said she washed hers in the washing machine and it worked after but wouldn't hold a charge well but it still worked. So I'm crossing my fingers . . . in the meantime I'm hoping the kids weren't so intrigued by the whole working on the potty thing that they don't start "accidentally" dropping things in there. And now I don't know how my plumber ever gets any work done with out his three "assistants".

Good Thing I'm Married to a Plumber

I can't believe this just happened. I flushed the toilet and my cell phone fell out of my sweatshirt pocket and went down! It happened so fast that at first I wasn't even sure what it was. We just got new cell phones last Thursday so I've had it one whole week. I called my plumber and he says it's probably in the trap but those new phones are so small you never know. I had to tape the toilet lid shut so the kids don't use the potty since our bathroom doors won't shut tight (joys of owning an old home) while I was taping I could hear the phone humming so it's somewhere in there -- drowning. And no, we don't have insurance because last time we had it we had to pay $50 to get a new phone after we had spent $6 every month for 2 years on the insurance so it seemed so stupid. We only paid $10 for the new phone, but I'm sure we won't be able to get another for $10. When my plumber comes home, we'll see what happens . . . I'll keep you updated!

My Little Man: Caden

1. He's a superhero ADDICT: Spiderman, Superman, Batman, and especially THE HULK are big with him.

2. He is still working on potty training. He's got the potty part down --it's the pooping that he seems to pick and choose when he's going to use the potty. Right now his incentive is if he poops on the potty 8 times he gets some Spiderman Guys from Walmart that he REALLY wants. He needs 3 more stickers and has been working on this for a week and half.

3. He says "tool" for cool and "teetees" for cookies. He favorite phrase is "alright".

4. He is all boy! Loves to play rough and wrestle. He is all energy. He does like to play with Addison's dollhouse though (when she lets him).

5. He loves Reese so much. He is super sweet with her. He always asks me "like me, Mama?" I think he is referring that I have said to a lot of people that she looks like Caden when he was a baby.

6. He has some ESP thing going on with me. I swear it doesn't matter what time I get up in the morning he always gets up about 15 minutes ahead of me whether it be 5 or 8. I can't catch a break to shower and dress without children wanting 100 different things. He can't seem to understand that I can't put in a DVD while I'm in the shower.

7. He is the first to crawl into our bed in the morning.

8. If he gets hurt, he must have me kiss his "owie" and it's all better.

9. He loves bandaids, goldfish crackers, TV, football, monster truck shows, Mr. Monkers (his little stuffed monkey that he sleeps with, and Donalds (McDonalds) and tells me to order chickens, french fries, lemon (lemonade), and ketchup.

10. He is constantly changing his clothes especially his underwear. He changes them because he likes the different characters on them. By the time Daddy comes home, he is usually only wearing underwear (on backwards) and nothing else. He's on his third pair today and it's only 9am.

11. He is so much taller than Addison and Ethan that most people think he's the oldest and the other two are twins. People are super surprised when I say he is the youngest of the triplets, born one minute later than the other two. I guess bigger means you were born first even if it's just one minute more.

12. He gets shy when there's a new people. It takes a little while to warm up to people.

13. Lately he has begun to tell me "I don't feel good" which is his favorite justification to anything like why he didn't want sprinkles on a cupcake but he still wanted the cupcake.

14. He is the King of Stalling when it comes time to sleep. He needs new clothes, he wants a drink, his button is undone, he has an owie, he wants to wear his slippers, he wants a kiss, he forgot a toy, his book is ripped, and about a million other things I can't remember!

15. He loves to go "bye-bye" and in stores. He is good about staying with us when we are out. He can spot anything Spiderman a mile away -- he must have Spidey-sense.

16. He calls me "Mama".

Does this toy make me look fat?

She's growing more and more everyday!

Stuffers vs Unrealistic Over-Achievers

On Sunday on my never ending quest to clean up clutter in our house, I decided I would start working on our bedroom again while the kids napped. Everything in the free world ends up in our bedroom and we have stacks and piles of stuff all over the place. I have tried for several months to get my bedroom clean and uncluttered. Doesn't that sound ridiculous? It does to me and while I was working I was thinking what's the deal -- why can't I just do it? Then it suddenly occurred to me what my big obstacle is (besides the 4 kids). I believe there are 2 types of cleaners . . . the stuffers and the unrealistic over-achievers (there's probably more types but these are the two I am familiar with). The stuffers' house always looks clean but if you open a closet, cupboard, drawer, spare room, it is not the case, you could be killed by an avalanche of stuff. They clean by shoving or stuffing everything away for the appearance of clean. Well this is not me! I am an unrealistic over-achiever meaning if I am going to clean EVERYTHING must be clean and put away in the CORRECT place NOW. I am seriously incapable of putting a bunch of stuff in the closet or basement and saying I will put that away later when I have time. I would rather see the clutter than have a messy closet. So in our bedroom there are boxes of maternity clothes, kids' clothes (some to be sold, some waiting for Reese), boxes of toys (some to be sold, some waiting for Reese), and other things that I don't remember. I have put on my to-do lists for months to put away these things but I can't. Here's why . . . Aaron is a stuffer. Our basement is a storage type place not a unusable living space. Many times I ask him to take things to our basement for storage. I normally put in in a container that is marked. We just cleaned our basement about a year and half ago and it looked so good (so good I took photos of it!) and everything was in it's own area (kids' clothes, Christmas decorations, things to sell, etc). Since then when I have asked him to take it to the basement I pretty much think he must stand at the top of the stairs and toss it down there. I went to the basement a couple days ago to get the kids' inflatable ball pit and balls for them to play with for a few days and he had put or thrown all Addison's baby doll stroller, high chair, and pack and play on top of the ball pit along with a box or two. It's like that every time I go down there to get something, first I have to find it then I have to dig and move a ton of stuff to get to it -- it's so aggravating. Our garage is the same way. . . packed to the door with no sort of organization or way to move around in it and he just complains about it but he's the one doing it! Most of our closets, drawers, cupboards, etc are clean because I reorganized them all within the last few years. So I am unable to take the boxes of baby clothes, shoes, and toys downstairs because once I got down there it be so overwhelming that I would have to clean the basement which would take me days and days alone then I would never get the bedroom cleaned. I figure if I make him help me clean the basement again maybe it would motivate him to keep it more organized but it's doubtful. I guess we are lucky that we both aren't stuffers or someone would be seriously injured when opening any closet or we both aren't unrealistic over-achievers or nothing would get put away EVER and we couldn't walk in our home. So what are you stuffer or unrealistic over achiever?