Day 2...

6:15am - Alarm sounds

6:20am - Consider getting out of bed

6:21am - Go to bathroom

6:25am - Put 24 famous Britnell "Bran Muffins" in the oven

6:30am - Listen to alarm sounding upstairs that no one is paying any attention to

6:35am - Go upstairs to wake up children not affected by earlier alarm....ironically enough, Samuel was NOT one of the children unaffected by the alarm clock, he is already awake and mid-sentence about a new island on a video game

6:40am - Go get children up...again

6:45am - Take muffins out of oven, find butter, and knife. Listen to husband talk about the "barely recognizable as milk" thin, white liquid that he is currently pouring on cereal. 0%...what is that?? Like, at one time, it wanted to be milk but sadly, was unsuccessful. Did that ever even used to be in a cow?? And, exactly how skinny WAS that cow?? Note to self: Buy 2% milk sometime today.

7:00am - watch in amazement as 8 people totally demolish 2 dozen bran muffins. Wait, I think I see some crumbs over there...

7:15am - remind everyone to brush their teeth, brush their hair, and go to the bathroom

7:16am - try to remember which way I'm suppose to brush Samuel's hair...part on left or part on right??

7:30am - watch as 6 children and one husband walk out the door to go to school

7:31am - go back to bed...okay, I'm just kidding...I didn't really go back to bed, but I did consider it...

So, that's how our day started. I realize it's not as exciting as waking up to a view of the Mediterranean Sea but, it does have its advantages....I'll let you know when I think of what those are.

This afternoon, we all went over to the Cook's for a "group" dinner. As it turns out, Steve is out of town and Jacob and Charlie are on the same baseball team so, Marqueta and I decided it might be easier on both of us to feed all these kids at the same time prior to the practices. In case you are wondering, it takes a HUGE pot of spaghetti sauce to feed this crew and 4 tubes of crescent rolls. Jacob and Charlie head to ball practice and Kara, Sabrina, Samuel, and Elizabeth Ann head to soccer practice.

I'm just sitting here wondering how many showers we can get in before the hot water heater over here runs out....wait, we may have our answer, I think I just heard Kara squeal...

Later...

Day 1...

Here's the story...it's 14 days, 6 children, 5 sports schedules, 3 houses, and only 2 adults. Does anyone else see a problem with this??

Several months ago, my brother mentioned an interest in making a "once-in-a-lifetime" trip to Israel and Jordan with his wife. "You wouldn't want to keep our kids for us so we could go, would you??" he nonchalantly asked one day. I believe my exact words were, "Sure! How hard could it be??!?" Did I mention that I have 3 kids of my own? And, he has 3? So, here we are...six against two....and, we've only had them in our care for 7 hours now.

As I sit here contemplating how the next 312 hours are going to unfold, I've learned a few things from the past 7 that might come in handy...

1. Samuel is not going to stop talking...not even while he excuses himself from the room to go to the restroom.

2. Jacob and Emily are much smarter than I am and have already done what I'm about to ask them to do.

3. If I don't leave any outside lights on the house in the "on" position, I will, in fact, drive right past it in the darkness of night. Which will result in Jacob calmly asking me where in the world I am going, AND in the Bailey's asking why I am "cruising" by their house each night. Note to self: Find the switch to the outside lights tomorrow.

4. The Caffeine Free Cokes are in the outside fridge...something tells me by Day 7, I'm gonna need the "fully leaded" version, but these will do for now.

5. When cooking taco meat for 8 people, 3 pounds of meat is not enough.

And, finally...

6. Whatever we do over the next 13 days, I can guarantee that it will not be done without lots of giggles...and lots of comic strips drawn by Samuel!

What will tomorrow hold? Check back and find out!

Oh great...just got an email from the baseball coach...