And now it's Wednesday already

Yesterday, mid morning, I got a call from a friend’s hubby asking if I could help her celebrate her thirty-first birthday by going out to dinner with her that very night.

I told him I couldn’t promise anything, but that I would try. I called my sisters, angels that they are, and explained the situation and that it was totally up to them to decide if they wanted to help me out with the kids, yet again.

They did.

Since Tuesdays are Andy’s day off, I ran the errands on my list while the kids were napping, without having to hurry home for him to leave for work. I also just got a free $10 gift card to Ann Taylor for ten of my friends signing up to Shop It To Me (shout out to Jo-Lynne for sending it to me in the first place).

So I did a little turn around Ann Taylor. Hey, I had a good excuse. Leave me alone. (And I even found a cute something.)

I was really at the mall to pick up Madeline’s three-year-old portraits I had done of her a few weeks ago. (Never mind that it was three months past her birthday. She’s still three.)

They turned out pretty cute, so real-life friends and grandparents, be warned. Also, I’m taking Adelaide on Friday.

After I had fed the kids and wrangled them into their pajamas, my sisters came over and I got myself ready. Andy sings in the local “professional?” choir and they rehearse on Tuesday nights – which is why he wasn’t going to be home to keep the kids.

We had a really nice dinner. Nicky and her mom came, with baby Seb (wink to Nick), and then the birthday girl and two other friends.

And since I know you’re dying to know (work with me here), I wore the shirt I had found on sale at Ann Taylor that afternoon.

Shop It To Me may just be my new BFF.

Unusual Monday. Meaning, I actually did something(s).

This morning I managed to get up off my rear and go on a long walk/jog.

No, my husband’s running a marathon this week did not inspire me. I’ve been meaning to start exercising for a long time. (And then I’d remember after I’d already taken a shower.)

(Clearly, I lacked motivation.)

I’m sure I’ll be sore tomorrow but the energy boost was nice for today.

After I had showered and ‘put my face on,’ I baked a quick batch of scones and invited myself over to Nicky’s for a little mid-morning tea party with her and her mom.

(And to get away from Andy practicing voice in our living room. I mean, I can only handle so much.)

We had ourselves a nice little time. (“Sit down, Nicky. Do not pick him up. Let me get that. No, for heaven’s sake, sit down!”) You can tell she’s been stuck on a couch for 4 days.

Tonight I decided to load everyone up and take my kids to the free play area in our mall. I’ve just spent the last several nights at home by myself with the kids; I needed to change things up a bit.

And it just so happened it was Kids’ Night at the Chick-Fil-A there and so we got a free kids’ meal, which is handy. They could have done a craft, but I graciously opted out of that.

(I might have reconsidered for free candy.)

Andy got home from work just as we were pulling in the drive. Monday nights are really hit-or-miss at the restaurant, but you take the good with the bad.

And I for one am glad to have him home early.

A Week, in Review

Two Fridays ago now, Dolly called to see if we were doing anything that Saturday, since Ethan had to work here in town. She caught a ride with him and she and the kids played with us all day.

We went ahead and renewed our membership at the children’s museum then. Having her in town was a good excuse. (Like I needed one.)

My angel sisters watched ALL the kids that night, so we could go out to dinner (Andy’s restaurant, of course). Heaven.

And then early in the week, I made myself finish up the work on the house, including getting rid of that pesky box sitting next to my china cabinet all this time. I got the rest of the pictures hung in the hallway, and the extras carted up to the attic.

I love, love, love finishing major projects. It’s cathartic.

Some other, smaller projects I checked off my to-do list were letting out the hems in several of the girls’ dresses (now ironed and ready for a few Sundays), converted a lot of Madeline’s old hairbows from alligator clips to French barrettes, (I love me a glue gun) and organized the laundry basket full of random fall-ish clothes that’s been sitting in the hallway for the last forever.

We met Sarah and her girls twice at the museum this week – the first time on one of Drew’s school days and it was nice to have just all the girls. Calmer, shall we say. I love my Drew, but he can wear a mama right out.

I picked him up from preschool on Thursday only to have the teacher tell me he had had some trouble listening and obeying in class. Honestly, I’m surprised it hasn’t already happened. He’s obviously getting comfortable in his surroundings there. (A little too...)

So, we’re working on THAT.

And that brings us to Friday, which you already read way too much about. Today the kids and I had an uneventful breakfast, got a few groceries at Walmart, played outside, took a nap, ate a cookie, went to the playground, ate pizza outside on the patio table (less mess to clean up), and played some more.





I usually bathe my kids Saturday nights, and as you can see, tonight they were in dire need of a scrub-down. I’ve managed to get all three in bed and now my sisters are here doing their laundry and we’re about to pop in a DVD.

Oh! I almost forgot – the marathon!! Andy said they finished a little under 5 hours. They ran the full 26 miles and he said around mile 17 he thought he was going to die. He thought there was no way he could run a whole other hour and a half! But they did.

In “pouring down, torrential rain,” no less. Even got a medal for it.

He comes home tomorrow afternoon and I don’t know who will be more relieved.

The Never-ending Day

[I had a wonderful bloggy break, thank you! And after taking a whole week off, I feel refreshed and ready to blog now in earnest. In case you’re wondering, THIS is the promised new post, really, since technically I've had the Before & After: Girls Room post (below, in case you missed it...for some reason feedreaders didn't pick it up) finished since July. And after not hearing from me for a week, I’ll expect comments from every last one of you. Fair is fair.]

Today was one of the craziest mornings I’ve ever had, which is really saying something considering I have a separate category for 'Morning Mishaps.'

I mentioned before that Andy is running a marathon in New York, and it happened to be this weekend. He had signed up (and paid) before we moved and we were able to find a really cheap flight. So, in the end, he was able to keep his commitment with a friend.

However, since our city is about two hours from any major airport (although several to choose from), he was scheduled to take a shuttle today in the wee hours of the morning so that I didn’t have to drive him to the airport.

And for some unknown reason, he set the alarm for 4:10. He was supposed to board the shuttle at 4:30. It takes around 10-15 minutes to get there.

We woke up at 4:40.

(!@#*$%^&!)

In a groggy panic, we surveyed our options – none of which were even remotely appealing. We do have two cars; Andy's service engine light is on, however, and he wasn't comfortable driving it that far. I couldn’t even think straight enough to come up with a plan; I just knew I did NOT want to load the kids and drive Andy two hours away to the airport.

Especially at 4:40 in the morning.

A fleeting thought suddenly crossed my mind – he’d been dropped off from that same shuttle service on our side of town before after returning from an out-of-town trip… maybe they’d be willing to stop and pick him up?

I frantically grabbed the phone book, looked up their number (cursing my tired brain that would not churn out my ABC’s) and finally got a hold of the operator. He was pretty sure that the driver had already passed us on the highway.

I asked him if he could please check, just to be sure. Turns out the driver WAS willing to pull off and pick up Andy, and hadn’t passed us quite yet. I practically threw Andy his cell phone on his way out the door and then waited on pins and needles by my own phone to hear if he had made it.

I talked to him right as he was pulling into the gas station; no shuttle in sight. We figured out he was one exit down from where the driver was waiting, at another BP. He hopped on the interstate, sped over to the right place, and got on the shuttle.

[Cue the Hallelujah Chorus in all of its splendor.]

We could not have orchestrated it any better. It was totally and completely a God-thing. I laid in my bed afterward, my mind still racing and not wanting to think about what would have been necessary if Andy hadn’t made that shuttle; my eyes tearing up at the Lord’s mercy and silently repeating “thank you, Jesus,” over and over.

Even when I woke up a few hours later, my head was still spinning from that close of a call.

But the morning, it had only just begun.

First, Adelaide dumped her million pumpkin bread crumbs all down herself, her chair, and the floor – I saw her lift up her plate and felt myself switch into slow-motion as I moved across the room to try and stop her. It was too late.

Moist bread chunks and crumbs are not exactly easy to sweep up, turns out. I took the whole chair, booster seat and all, out to the back deck and turned it upside down.

(I let her out first, in case you are wondering.)

Then, after breakfast, Madeline came up and handed me several locks of hair – her own – asking me if I could put them back. I knew there would be a day where she tried to cut her own hair; I just didn’t expect it to be so soon.

I explained that it doesn’t work that way, that I can’t just fix her hair and put it back the way it was. She cried. Thankfully, they were mostly small cuts, and none of them right next to her head. She’s got a head full of layers, so it blends in fairly well.

Several times throughout the morning she said “I’m so sorry for my hair, Mama,” and would cry a little. It was such a delicate balance in responding because I wanted her to know that it’s just hair, after all; it will grow back. But I also don’t want her thinking she can just go chop off her hair whenever she happens to spot a pair of scissors.

Meanwhile, we’d tentatively planned to go to the children’s museum and all morning I had been trying to move in the direction of getting everyone out the door. So far I had only managed to change Adelaide out of her pajamas and into a clean diaper before Madeline’s hair cutting spree.

Next thing I know, I’m looking down at Adelaide, still wearing only a diaper, sitting in a dirt pile in the backyard with a shovel in her hand. And she was filthy.

She needed a bath, no way around it.

As I was getting myself dressed after that, I came out to the living room where Madeline had spilled the sugar bowl all over the place. It was a grainy, sticky, dusty mess. And then my head, it suddenly exploded into tiny little pieces.

Kind of like the sugar.

After THAT mess was taken care of, what do I do but go outside, and Adelaide is BACK in the dirt! This time only her hands needed washing, and boy, it’s a darn good thing.

[Also, all of this mayhem caused me to completely space that it was trash day, and I totally forgot to get our can out to the street. It may not seem like that big of a deal, but forgetting is one of my pet peeves. Now we have to wait another whole week and it was already almost full.]

Sarah and I did spend a couple of hours this afternoon at the children’s museum and although really fun, it totally wiped me out. (I got up at 4:40am, remember?) I had the kids nap for an hour when we got home, gave them an interesting collection of foods and called it dinner, and then attempted to get them all down for bed before I suffered a nervous breakdown.

Once in bed, Drew wanted a children’s Tylenol because he said his head hurt. Whatever, fine. A few minutes later, I hear him wailing because he squished it and the tablet broke all over his sheets.

I’m so glad I have a trusty vacuum cleaner and I’m so glad that I can go to bed now.

When All You Can Do Is Laugh

Or cry.

I usually choose to laugh.

Last night I was trying to get Adelaide quickly to bed, but, after playing outside several times during the day, she really needed a bath. Madeline loves baths, and thinks that every time Adelaide gets a bath, she’s entitled to one, too.

And Drew’s never one to turn down a party.

So, I shrugged, said “fine!” and let them all get in. I went downstairs for something and a little while later heard “Mom! There’s poop!”

Perfect timing, Adelaide, as always. (Think she plans it?)

I somehow managed to get her squirmy, slippery self clean and rinsed, meanwhile Drew was playing with the faucet and succeeded in spraying the entire bathroom. I looked down and realized I was kneeling in an inch of water. My poor jeans.

I grabbed Adelaide (who felt rather like a greased piglet), stuffed her into a towel, threw her diaper on, and left her in the girls’ room so I could finish refereeing the bath party.

Oh, and the poop cleanup. Let’s not forget about that.

The three of us finally made it out of the bathroom, mostly unharmed and relatively dry, and I began trying to wriggle pajamas onto two jumpy kids (otherwise known as A Mother's Nighttime Workout). Madeline insisted on dressing herself, which inevitably I had to help her turn her shirt around, but then I just left her pants backwards.

I mean, I can only take so much.

I ran down again to get Adelaide’s bottle, but while I was waiting for the microwave I heard the upstairs bathroom faucet turn on.

(Not a good sound when your bathroom is already sitting under an inch of water.)

It turned out they were just brushing their teeth, but unfortunately Adelaide had crawled in after them, which meant she was soaked. I changed her into fresh pj pants and dry socks, and put her to bed.

I immediately went back into the bathroom, perhaps a little nervous at the tooth-brushing chaos I was about to witness. They had all three selections of toothpastes out, each one opened and generously sampled.

Needless to say, there were blue spots all over the counter and the white bath mats on the floor.

Since it was obvious their teeth were sufficiently brushed, I made them wrap it up and shooed them out. However, as I was stepping back to let them pass, I stepped on an opened tube of Tow Mater toothpaste:



Yeah.

Like I said, all I could do was laugh.

Originally published May 2008.

Fun with Friends

This has been quite the week for playdates! It started last Friday, we went to see Laura and her darlings and have lunch with them. She also has two girls and a boy, so there’s sort of a friend for everyone.

On Tuesday, Nicky and her boys came over. We had some tea and teased Andy about doing his vocal exercises at home. (Did y’all know I married a music major? Well I did.)

(Sometimes my ears wish I hadn’t.)

(Like when I’m trying to fall asleep.)

Yesterday, Oriel came over with her beautiful little girl, who is five-going-on-thirty. I’m so glad it worked out since I haven’t had much time to catch up with them since we’ve been back. (Sorry again about the grass in A’s hair.)

(My son, he acts like a boy.)

And then today my girls and I went up to Sarah’s for a little tea party while Drew was in school. I think that was Madeline’s first real tea party. And it was tea, not just juice or lemonade.

(It probably had more sugar than either, though, I’m afraid.)

We had such a good time talking about fall girl clothes and hairbows, I almost forgot to pick Drew up from school. I was sweating the drive over there, hoping against all odds I wouldn’t be charged the $5 late fee.

(They mean business.)

I made it, somehow, and there were two other little boys still to be picked up. Whew! Totally by the hair of my chinny chin chin.

So I'm curious, what's a fun thing you like to do with friends? (It can be anything, of course, but I'm particularly interested in ideas that would be suitable for preschoolers.)

Weekend? Busy. Fun. Tiring.

Just a quick weekend update. My friend Jenny called me Friday afternoon for another spontaneous movie night. We watched “What Happens in Vegas,” which I’d already seen but I’m always up for free movies. It’s a fun one. El flicko chicko.

(No, I don’t speak Spanish. I don’t know if that’s grammatically correct.)

(Don’t care.)

Saturday morning Andy took Drew and Madeline to the mall to get himself some new running shoes at Rack Room (BOGO1/2off) because he’s running a marathon at the end of the month. Try to wrap your head around that one. And then he also let them run around in the play area and eat Chick-Fil-A.

I got to vacuum underneath my couch cushions so clearly life is fair.

I called my sisters to see if they wanted to run some errands that night, and they did (I knew they could be counted on for shopping and food). We went to Target and they needed to go to the party store for a Mexican-themed dorm event. (FUN!) Then we had fast food for dinner and stopped in at Walmart on the way home for rice milk and bananas. We had a fun time together, as usual.

Sunday we went to church and then had lunch plans with a friend. The kids got to do a little swimming, and then we all came home for marathon naps. I can’t remember the last time I’ve had that good of a nap.

While we were fixing supper, my cousin called and wanted us to come up to Aunt Collyn’s for popcorn. (That may or may not mean anything to you.) We gobbled down our food, ran out the door – in the rain – and drove on up to her house.

Other than trying to contain the kids and keep them from breaking anything, we had a really nice time hanging out with the college crowd and singing hymns. Actually, Andy sang while I chased three unnamed kids.

(Hey, shout out to Jeannette, I finally met your sister Luisa!)

After we were home and had the kids in bed, we popped “Daniel Deronda” into the dvd player and I may or may not have dozed a little to that. That’s another good movie I’d recommend, along the lines of "North & South," "Wives & Daughters," and the Jane Austen movies.

Gotta get moving (after another cup of coffee)

(I hope you people realize I'm joking around on this blog about 95% of the time. I'm just sayin'. I didn't really go to K & Nicky's shower for a piece of chocolate cake, delicious as it was. You knew that, right?)

So. Today has been designated The Cleaning Day of the Century. Or at least Month. We've been busy every day this past week and even the evenings have been full. And it shows.

It might just be easier to burn the house down and start afresh. But that might be inconvenient. So I'm off to play cleaning lady. What are your big plans for this lovely Saturday, hurricane conditions notwithstanding?

Write a title, win a prize

I think my ‘dry-clean-only’ clothes are out to get me. (Which, as a mother of young children, are few and far between.) First, a dress I had just picked up from the cleaners was the one I was wearing when the wasp stung me. Some of the venom got into the fabric and every time it touched my skin, I felt like I was being stung again. Back to the cleaners it went. (So much for getting a few wears out of it first.)

Then today, I pulled another skirt out of the plastic to wear to church, only to have my kids bump my arm and send my communion cup flying, drenching both my skirt and Madeline’s sock.

(I’m just thankful it didn’t get Madeline’s dress or my cute, cream-based top. Those would have been infinitely worse than the skirt, which was black, even if it had just been cleaned. Again, a few uses would have been nice.)

Of all the Sundays we’ve had communion with kids (that would be four-and-a-half-years’ worth), this was the first time I’ve ever been spilled on. Which is pretty good, considering.

*****

We spent the afternoon with some friends we’ve known since college and are expecting their first baby. Oh, sweet innocence. I always get funny questions from our guy friend, such as “oh, you mean they don’t just potty-train themselves?” and “do they eat real-people food?” Today’s was: “isn’t there a rule or something that girls have to wait to get their ears pierced until they are sixteen?”

Oh, they shall be fun parents to watch. (They’ll be great, I have no doubt. I’m just glad I can be along for little bits of the ride.)

*****

You know those classic childhood stall-tactics for squeezing every possible second out of one’s bedtime routine, such as I need a drink of water, I need to go to the bathroom, and there are monsters in the closet? Drew’s become quite the master at bedtime stallage. I’m too scared to call his potty bluff and always let him take that last trip.

But it’s the end of the day, I’m tired as it is. And then when the excuses start to multiply, my patience runs low and my blood pressure high. Add in the fact that Andy is now working the evening shift and I get to do the whole jolly charade by myself, well, we have ourselves a recipe for disaster. And yelling. Lots of yelling.

I believe I have found a solution, however. Friday night I put the baby to bed (she’s easy, not having figured out how to climb out of her crib yet), and told Drew and Madeline to get in my bed for stories. (Usually I’m so exhausted I fly through a couple of books on the couch or floor, sneak in a skipped page or two here and there, and get them in bed as fast as I can before I collapse or my brain goes numb.)

We made it through several books rather leisurely, relaxing and letting them sort of ease into bedtime. Then I turned out the light. They like me to scratch their backs (or, as Drew says, “shrack his back”) and draw circles on their faces with the tip of my finger. We laid there together for a while, just breathing and calming down from the busyness of the day. (Andy’s better at doing this, but now it's completely up to me.)

A little while later, I placed each child in their beds, still awake (as usual), but peaceful and sleepy. Content. Still. And you know what? Not once did they get out of bed. Not even Drew, which is a minor miracle.

(Makes me think all those bedtime excuses really were just a ploy for water attention.)

So Mad I Could Spit

Several of my friends have had terrible experiences with Sprint PCS and its customer “service.” For us, though, Verizon was only worse. So we’ve stuck with Sprint (but admittedly, mostly because my family also uses them and we can talk without using any minutes).

And also, there’s the minor detail of being locked in by a little something they casually call an “early termination fee.”

(Otherwise known as torture on a phone bill.)

However.

I mentioned already that I can’t find my phone. My current suspicion is that the baby threw it in the trash and somehow we missed it. We don’t have a landline, either, so I’ve been rendered utterly disconnected. (If it weren’t for wireless internet, I don’t know what I’d do.)

This evening I even had to send a gmail chat to a friend, asking her to call another friend and tell that friend to check her email, in which I asked if I could drop my kids off to go to the phone store and procure a new phone. Talk about networking.

Anyway, I was able to leave the kids with her (belly and all), and drove out to Sprint.

What an absolute waste of time.

Turns out I have to call an 800 number, report my phone missing, and then wait by the mailbox several days for them to send a new one. And only after I’ve paid a $50 deductible. I’m wondering what on earth good all that insurance money has done me.

And they couldn’t even help me solve Andy’s phone dilemma, and, well, I just can’t think about that right now.

So, yes, we’re having phone issues.

After collecting my kids and returning home, bathing them, and putting the baby to bed, Drew and Madeline were horsing around, running up and down the hallway, and Madeline tripped and fell, knocking a lower baby tooth a little loose.

(That’s when the no-phone thing quickly became more of a scary inconvenience. I had to consciously beat back all the “what-ifs” that immediately came to mind.)

She’ll be fine. I sent a quick e-mail to Ethan, our resident go-to for all things teeth. There’s nothing to be done until Monday (since it obviously wasn’t bad enough to warrant a trip to the ER) and I’ll continue to peek inside her mouth for any discoloration or change.

I gave her some children’s medicine for the pain, and it was obviously starting to work because as we were reading bedtime stories she smiled and excitedly said, “my tooth is all better!”

He said it might take 7-10 days to regain gum tightness around the tooth. So I guess she’ll be eating her fair share of jello and applesauce this week, which will make her quite happy.

(But I still don’t have a phone.)

The Wasp Saga Continues and also, First Day of Preschool

Yesterday morning Andy was standing at the kitchen sink and got attacked by another wasp. In our own kitchen! He's sure it came in from along that wall somewhere, maybe the window or the light fixture?

We remembered we had seen one outside entering the electrical meter box thingie. Andy took the kids down the street to the hardware store and bought some wasp spray. When they got home, they came inside (for obvious reasons) and Andy opened the box door.

He was expecting maybe ten or so wasps to be in there. Instead, a huge ball of at least a hundred were waiting for him. He sprayed the life out of the can and ran. (Unfortunately I failed to capture it on video.)

So that was probably our problem; they were getting in by following the electrical cables into the house and through the walls. Nice.

Hopefully that will be the end of it. Good riddance.

And thanks to Fay, we started preschool this morning in the middle of a downpour. It's a good thing Andy was around to take Drew or he would have been late. I'm a little out of practice for getting three little kids and myself out the door before 8:45 a.m.

(Okay, I never was in practice. Ahem.)

As Drew was eating his breakfast, I was telling him he needed to hurry so he could go to school and his response was "Yeah! Because I'm growing up!"

True that.

Hello, welcome to my boringest post ever.

Today was non-stop. I had to be up and in the shower before 8 a.m.

Which, like, never happens in this house. Seriously, ever.

I also don’t normally schedule anything for Mondays, but we had a playdate invite for this morning that I didn’t want to miss. We were over there for several hours and my kids were surprisingly well behaved. (Until about the last ten minutes.)

(Always a sure sign it’s time to leave.)

I’d never met any of the other moms, save the host, and it seemed to be quite the diversified bunch. Everyone was nice (now there's a word) and I think we all had a good time.

My kids and I had leftover pizza for lunch (a friend came over last night to watch the Olympics and what goes with friends and the Olympics better than pizza?) and then I sent Drew and Madeline out back to swim.

(Otherwise known as a blink of peace and quiet.)

I was just settling into naptime when another friend called wanting to come over with her new Macbook so I could show her around on it.

Which was really fun but also meant there was no break for me today spent lazing on the couch. When we finished, the kids were up and I had to make a quick run to Wal-Mart (yes, with all three) and whip up something edible for dinner. Andy and I tried to let the kids play at the park after we finished, but there were yellow jackets everywhere. So we left.

The kids were disappointed, so I let them swim in the backyard pool again. Adelaide even got in on the action and thought she was big stuff.

I’m currently working up the energy to push through to bedtime. The baby’s already down and the big kids have their jammies on. Why is that last step so impossibly difficult to finish?!

Unexpected Fun

When I woke up this morning I thought today would be just like all the other days. Mostly spent “quietly” at home with my kids, maybe picking up my book at naptime, eating an average dinner, etc.

Instead, I managed to make it to the chiropractor finally. I’ve had some neck/shoulder/back pain that was getting slowly worse. I’m much better now, although he told me to expect three days of soreness (typical for me after an adjustment).

Afterwards we threw nutritional caution to the wind and ate lunch at Chick-Fil-A. I let the kids play in the playland for a bit (and then doused them in anti-bacterial gel afterwards).

This morning I had convinced Dolly to come up for the evening with her kids. So after my kids woke up from their nap, we ran around like crazy people trying to get some groceries and pick up pizza for dinner.

Our local Papa John’s does $6 one-topping larges on Tuesday nights. I’ll take two, please.

We’ve more or less successfully gotten all five (five!) kids in bed – split between two rooms – and D and I are off to Blockbuster.

So catch y’all lata!

Yawn.

Today was long and, well, long. Somehow Madeline got put to bed last night without her monkey, so when she woke up early this morning of course she had to have it.

And of course she let us all know about it by asking (repeatedly, with zeal and determination) for the keys to get it out of the van while we did our best impression of bears hibernating in winter.

When it became a decent hour, I threw my robe on, grabbed the keys, and ran out to get the monkey. Perfect timing as usual, the neighbors were just coming home from their (very! early!) morning at the park.

(Okay, so it wasn't that early.)

I did my best to keep my robe, um, closed, but the frantic hurrying to and fro did nothing to aid such matters as modesty. It would have been fine except for the whole perfect timing thing. At least it was just a fellow mama and her own little crowd. No cable man in sight.

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Madeline looks like she’s been infected with green chicken pox. I guess she wanted to use her dry erase marker and couldn’t find the board. Arms and legs are clearly the best alternative.

I stared at the computer screen the entire length of naptime getting caught up on bills and other boring business-y items. Hallelujah that it’s done. (Until next month.)

I also ordered 209 photos from Snapfish to get caught up on Adelaide’s first almost year-and-a-half (Which actually isn’t ‘till end of September, but you get the point). Let's not even talk about how long it took to select, edit, and upload 209 photos, mkay?

I used PhotoWorks last time and wasn’t at all happy with the quality. So, we’ll see. SF was 9 cents a print, and that seems hard to beat. And the first 50 are free. Just purely FYI.

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And then it rained. I mean poured. And the last several times it’s rained hard, we’ve had a small pool on our bedroom floor. It finally dawned on me that the storm window wasn’t shut and so the water was filling up in the sill, streaming down the wall, and soaking the floor. I had Andy clean out the sill this past weekend, and I managed to get it shut today before the rain started.

Well. There’s a crack below the storm window panel so water was still getting in. I shoved plastic grocery sacks in there with a flat-head screwdriver and called it a day. Obviously we’ll be in need of a more permanent fix the next time it rains. (Must add 'Great Stuff' to shopping list.)

And then late this afternoon I found a bag of potatoes rotting away in my laundry room. The smell, oh! the smell.

So thank goodness tomorrow is Trash Day.

(And also, FRIDAY.)

The Gift That Keeps On Giving

I didn’t mention it before, but late Saturday evening I heard Adelaide wake up and cry out a little bit. I finished what I was doing (dishes?), dried my hands, and was on my way to check on her when all was quiet. I stood there a minute and then went back to my work.

Then it happened a second time. I walked back down the hallway to check on her and stopped outside her door to listen, but it was silent again.

And I didn’t hear another peep from her the rest of that night.

When I went to get her Sunday morning, though, I discovered her crib was full of dried throw-up. And she had slept in it.

Mother of the Year.

She was completely normal, back to her cheery and smiley self. So we knew her bout with the tummy bug was over. And Madeline had gotten over it just as quickly when she had it last week.

I’ve been crossing my fingers over Drew. Until this afternoon.

He was abnormally cranky at the park. So we came home early. He was filthy, so I gave all three of them a quick bath and put them all in their respective napping locales. (Sometimes I have Madeline sleep in my bed so she and Adelaide don’t try to play instead.)

After a while Drew woke up and said his tummy hurt. I placed a plastic bowl on his bed and said if he felt sick, he could use it. I had laid down with him for a while but then when I thought he was okay, left his room but left the door open.

A while later he called “Mom!” I went in and he had thrown up neatly into the bowl and was pointing to show me. He said he felt better. It was the easiest bout of sickness with a child, possibly ever.

Except that it was followed by a similar sickfest, only without such good aim. (His sheets are washed and currently drying.) And then again later all over the couch.

(I think I’ll now buy some stock in Kids ‘N' Pets.)

I’m a little nervous that the bug is going to make a second round through the girls. Or that Andy and I are going to get it (although I was told it’s a lot easier on the adults). I just bought some Airborne, which may or may not help. It's worth a try, at any rate.

Also, Madeline woke up from her nap in my bed with a leaking pull-up, to top the day off nicely. I have a feeling I’m going to be doing quite a bit of laundry in the next twenty-four hours. Good thing I’ve come to terms with it.

And then I just burned my hand making pasta for dinner. Which makes perfect sense because when it rains, it pours.

Craig's List, my new BFF

We’ve had these two wooden armchairs piled in our living room ever since we unloaded the furniture. Our previous house was much larger and we had the luxury of space to put random chairs in (great for holding cast-off clothes, by the way).

I meant to list them for sale somewhere. But, well, that takes effort. So they sat, taking up real estate in our tiny living room for over a month. Annoying.

Finally yesterday, as I was close to dragging them down to the street to be carried off by gypsies, I made myself take a photo and place an ad on Craig’s List. I received two calls within 15 minutes.

I called a lady back who lived in my immediate area, thinking that’d be easiest. She came soon after and decided to take them. Snap, just like that. (Why did I wait so long?)

Two funnies. The first was Andy was vocalizing in the back hallway when they (she brought a friend) first walked in. Hi, welcome to our crazy house! Second, after they had loaded the chairs up and were getting into their car, I was remarking to Andy how quick and easy that whole deal was. He held his hand up to slap me a high five.

I looked over my shoulder out the window and the ladies, THEY TOTALLY SAW IT.

Slightly embarrassing.

I hope they don’t think they got ripped off because they didn’t. It was a steal of a deal for them, all things considered. We were just happy that those chairs, they are gone. And now we have a little more open space to breathe in.

And to, you know, fill up with stray toys that will inevitably get tripped over or stepped on in the middle of the night.

Fun times.

Because my husband rocks

Where do I start?!

Well, when I got home from Starbucks Thursday night, Andy declared he was giving me his bonus money to use for my very own computer. (I think I'll keep him.)

So, thanks to that and our area's tax-free weekend, I now sit blogging on my new laptop. I still have to figure out what to do for internet connection at home because there is no network umbrella reaching here (believe me, I've checked. I even sat on the toilet. Lid closed.) I'm "borrowing" his wireless card at the moment...

Which, among other things, means I'll be able to blog/e-mail/pay bills during naptime and not as much while he's home in the evenings. Yay.

Last night we had a little pool party with a bunch of our friends and all the kids. My girls? They are DARING. Thankfully Madeline kept her water wings on. But she stayed in the water practically the entire time (she surfaced to jump off the diving board and, well, to eat). I think she's part fish.

Adelaide figured out she could jump in and I would catch her. Rinse and repeat nine thousand times. Let's just say she does not fear the pool, either.

Amazingly, the kids let us sleep in 'till 9:30. They started their own bath (both Drew and Madeline woke up wet - all the water and juice consumed post pool) and then hung out in the living room while we dozed. The funny (okay, maybe not so funny) part was I found an empty package of cinnamon-raisin English muffins that was brand new only yesterday.

No wonder they were so quiet.

Hey, it's all good now

I bought some new pajamas for Madeline a few days ago and she wanted to wear them yesterday, waaaaaay before it was time for bed. I said she could. She also wanted underwear instead of a pull-up. (Picky, picky.) I said that was fine, too.

You know where this is going, right?

Around 4 a.m. I woke up in a dreamy fog to a little person standing next to me whining in a tiny voice, “I’m all wet!”

Yeah – totally forgot to put a pull-up on her before I tucked her into her cozy little toddler bed last night. (Smack head with hand.)

She started herself a bath and I stripped and changed her bed. Adelaide, of course, woke up from all the commotion. Got her a bottle.

I finally had both girls settled down again in their beds and made a tired beeline for my own. A few minutes later Madeline reappeared, this time saying she had to poop.

So we dealt with that.

Went back to bed…

A few minutes later I heard more crying and whining. I went back in to her room to check on her; “I feel hot!” I felt her head, and it was a little warm. So I doled out some toddler chewable fever-reducing tablets and trudged back to bed, hoping I wouldn’t see her again ‘till morning.

I didn’t, although she did wake up a tad on the early side. Anyway, right after Andy left for work, I found her in the bathroom munching on Tums. I think she only had two or three at the most but I put in a call to Poison Control anyway. (It's been a long time since we've called them; we were due for a chat.)

They said a one-time dose of thirty or forty tablets would have no effects. (Who knew?!) Perhaps a stomachache akin to eating too much candy. So that was a relief, since we were dealing with a quantity much, much less.

So, yes, I drained the contents of the coffee pot myself today. When he got home, dear Andy thought it in the family’s best interests to send me off to Starbucks alone, which is where I now sit, Vanilla Latte in hand.

I love that man.

Down Days

Not a whole lot going on around here these days. Madeline picked up a little bit of the bug the Lewins brought home to us so graciously. (I'm sure we've spread around our own fair share of germs the past four-and-a-half years so I really can't complain.) All that to say, we've been laying fairly low.

She felt better this morning so we headed to the playground. I'm so glad we did because we reconnected with a family friend of sorts and she has two small children of her own. It was fun to chat. I had called Nicky (my default since she's just down the street), but they were pouring new sidewalks in front of her house and had cemented her in.

The electricity just flashed a few times and went off. Thank goodness for laptop batteries and wireless connection. Anyway, hopefully I'll be back maybe tomorrow with something more interesting to say.

Off to search for some candles... (and little kids to snuggle with)...

Lazy Blogging

I've been busy doing a whole lot of nothing. Well, not really, we did have our friends Nicky and Steve and their boys over for lunch after church yesterday. I served Eggplant Parmesan (I got the recipe from my cousin Vangie). Yum.

But, fun as having people over is, it's also a whole lot of work. So I had very low expectations for today because I knew I'd be tired. My main accomplishment was hanging the black-out roller shades behind the wooden blinds in the girls' room. Hopefully that will help curb Madeline's recent habit of early rising. (They have had a very morning-bright room.)

And then I "swam" in the kiddie pool with Drew and started in on my new book during naptime - but fell asleep almost immediately myself.

Oh, and I've been taking some pictures. These are the most recent, straight out of my camera with no editing. (And no flash, which is why the first one is a bit dark; it was taken at dusk).












(Like Drew's bed hair?)