This Post is Alarming

We have a lot of alarm clocks in our house.

This is Chris's alarm clock:

Ooooh, "dream machine".  That means it's extra fancy.

It goes off every morning at 5:23am.  Why 5:23?  Because then he can hit snooze and go back to sleep until it goes off again at 5:30.  And 5:37.  And sometimes 5:44.  Most of the time I sleep through all this, but not always.

It used to be my alarm clock.  I got it right before I left for college, and it was the awesomest alarm clock ever for two reasons: 1) it had two alarms, so I didn't have to change it on the mornings my first class was at 10:00, vs. the mornings my first class was at 8:00, and 2) I could set it to wake me up by playing a tape, instead of the annoying beeps or the radio.  How cool is that?  But after we got married, Chris took it over, and it's his clock now.

This is mine:

It goes off every morning at 6:15am.  And also 6:23.  And then usually I get up.  Either then, or at 6:31.

I like it because it's little and easily portable.  I got it sometime before Chris and I got married, and after he took over the big clock, it became my permanent alarm clock.  I think it might be dying a slow and painful death, because sometimes it doesn't actually go off at 6:15, even though I checked and double-checked it the night before.  Although, now that I think about it, this problem hasn't recurred since I discovered that it was actually set for 6:15pm, so maybe it's okay after all.

This is Vicki's alarm clock:

Lego Hagrid, yay!

And this is Lexi's:

(Yes, I know they're the same, but it didn't feel fair to show a picture of one and not the other.)

Santa must've known I was tired of the grouchies every morning when I went in to wake them up, because he left these in their stockings.  They're simple little clocks.  They run off a single AA battery.  All they do is beep, with increasing loudness and frequency, for an entire minute or until they get turned off, whichever comes first.

Lexi has decided to just wake up at 6:30 every morning, without the help of an alarm clock.  Often she gets dressed and eats breakfast and is pretty much ready to go to school before I'm even out of the shower.

As for Vicki...well, Vicki's alarm goes off at 7:00.  Each and every morning.

And this is what I find at 7:15.  Each and every morning:

Dead to the world

Clearly, sharing a room with your little sisters for pretty much your entire life is great training for being able to sleep through anything life throws at you.

This does not bode well for middle school mornings.