Minus two plus one ... kids, that is.

Well, I've 'lost' my two boys and gained an extra girl - just for the night, that is.

My boys have gone off with their cousin to the high school basketball game and to spend the night at his house. He got an XBox 360 for Christmas, so I'm sure they will have a blast!

The boys begged and begged for one, but, Mark decided that was plain silly! Our XBox isn't really all that old. The boys just cannot get him to see the dire need they have, in that Halo 3 is only for the XBox 360. LOL! Why in the heck do they do that, anyway? Just to torture our kids? Geez!

Don't they know that not all parents are going to give in to their preposterous, drug-dealer-like sales tactics?!

Ah well...I suppose they'll live!

Back to this evening, Sammie has a girlfriend sleeping over here. So we did a trading, of sorts.

And the house is much different, with only two girls - no other children.

One thing about having your children all so close in age - when the friends come to sleep over, there is often a lot of opposite-gender tension and silliness that goes on! LOL!

The girls go knock on the boys' bedroom door and run - and fall into Sammie's room in FITS of laughter....stuff like that goes on ad infinitum.

And then there are those moments when they all get along beautifully, but, there are just so many - and so many complicated dynamics going on - that is just stressful - even when it's peaceful.

For instance, there is one girl that comes over, mostly to play with Sammie, who is in fourth grade, but, the girl is in sixth grade, and is 'school friends' with Shawn.

That gets tricky.

Ah well - it's awfully quiet around here tonight. I'm catching my blogs up to speed, Mark is watching movies downstairs, and the girls are giggling, watching movies, and just hanging out in Sammie's room.

Interesting - the different moods that descend upon the house, when you switch a kid, take an extra kid, get rid of two kids - just all the different ways....