Straight out of a storybook comic strip...

When the blogger girls and I get together, we try to enjoy a time of catching up, personal talk, and the sorts. We are girls, you know...and we each maintain blogs...we could probably talk for hours!

Well, that wasn't so much the case this morning.

K, J, and A descended upon my house for our Blogger's Brunch, which we try to do regularly for some catch up and girl/mom time. None of us realized until this morning that there are 9 children among all of us. N.I.N.E. Ranging in age from 4 years old to 8 weeks old. Are we insane?!

Maybe.

The story opens in the dining room, where we tried shoving all nine of us around the table. Umm...no. My lack of chairs forced J's two boys to eat on the back deck. Not too bad...good shade, and a window where we could pass them food as needed. The window was also helpful in showing J the two paring knives that her two-year-old was waving around after having found in my deck, which we had lost a week ago after a night of husking corn. Good eye, buddy...good eye.

Next up: my screaming one year old, who thinks that he'll get all the food on the table if he just yells loud enough...loud enough to scare the pants off of K's two kiddos. Annoying enough for me to continually throw food at him in his highchair, most of which ended up on him and on the floor. Poor K's kids...I think my son triggered her soon-to-be three-year-old's mini-meltdown. Great. I have a bully on my hands.

Round 3: While J nursed her youngest in the t.v. room, the four older kiddos played outside and inside the house, and the rest of us chatted and tried to keep babies calm in the dining room. The conversation then becomes, "Um, Beth? Do you have a dog?" Nope. "There's a big black dog walking around the house." Uh, what? Sure enough, I round the corner into the kitchen to see a huge (as in, the kids could have rode it like a pony) black labrador (kinda like this guy, only a little fatter)...

...strolling through, right into the t.v. room where my daughter and J's little man were frozen with fear and screaming, with A's little girl standing next to mine on the couch, on the verge of crying. My immediate thought was to grab any child I could, out of fear of a dog bite. I mean, this thing was BIG, and I had no clue where he came from or who he belonged to. So, while J (in the middle of nursing a baby, mind you) corralled this animal out the door, the rest of us held kids and/or tried to shield them. A Dora video quickly calmed the crowd and restored order.

Closing Act: While J and A were trying to leave and load children into their cars, we hear a scream from one of J's boys. She drops her baby girl on the driveway (c'mon, she was in her car seat...totally safe) and runs to release her son's fingers from the shut car door. Oh, boy. Screaming, blood, smashed finger. We get him an ice pack, then Danae and I run back inside to get a Band-Aid, all the while Danae is trying to convince me that Tyler just needs a regular Band-Aid and not a Sponge Bob one, while I'm lecturing her on being loving, having a giving heart when others are hurting, being more like Jesus, etc. She finally gets it and hands the poor boy the Sponge Bob Band-Aid, which immediately ceases the tears. So, we get a lesson in car safety and in good character traits. Woohoo!

All in all, we had good company, yummy food, unfinished conversations, and a whole lot of comedy. Of course, we couldn't help but laugh at the fact that we are bloggers who never had time to whip out the cameras in the midst of the madness. (Can you imagine if we would have gotten face photos during the doggy escapade?! I laugh just thinking about it!) I did, however, manage to get K and her little man...

...as well as two of Janelle's kiddos loving on each other. Too precious.

Next Blogger's Brunch? Dessert, coffee, FINISHED conversations, and no children. 'Nough said.