Thursday, July 23, 2009

Coffee break

I love when my mornings go like today has. Up before the break of dawn and Tom's alarm, laundry in, dishes going, took care of the pool and the chickens and sent Luke off to school. Now I'm sitting here with my coffee.

Drew borrowed the van today since he had to be at work at 6am. Allison picked up Luke and dropped him off to school on her way to work. (a little early for her but not too much) Drew will pick up Luke on the way home from work and then take Michelle to work for me. :o) So ALL day with no interruptions. What to do. The list is so long. I could work in my room, tackle the little girls' pile of clothes in their room, start hoeing out the laundry room or crochet the baby blankets I need to have done by the end of August. And then there's the regular work that still needs doing...kids fed, diapers changed, supervision in the pool, dishes, laundry, counters to bleach, floors needing sweeping, etc.

Oh I guess save the dog from the ferocious chicken coop fence would have to be added in there. I have no idea what was wrong with him but he was yelping horribly. By the time I got to the coop area he had stopped and was sitting there. (looked like he was stuck in the fence before that) He then proceeded to come in and throw up all over the livingroom floor. Oh joy! Guess it could be one of those minutes when I was glad I wasn't pregnant. Actually I had the same thought when I turned on the sink to wash my face last night since it's especially stinky (sulfur water). If there was a possibility of me being pregnant I'd be wondering since I've noticed a lot of not so nice smells lately. But of course I can't.... *heavy sigh* I knew there'd be times like this. I've been waiting for times like this. Hopefully it doesn't stick around for long or get too bad.

Sean's up! It's a whole new ballgame now. I always tell him...it's a good thing you're so cute! I'm glad he's a snuggle bug. There's nothing better then to sit with him in my arms. I just wish at times he didn't want to do it EVERY TIME I SIT DOWN! And at times when I'm not...insisting...SIT DOWN MOM! My Mr Man is getting to be such a boy. Right now his favorite thing to do is to play in the new (to us) sandbox with his cars. It's hard to believe he'll be 2yo tomorrow. It's exciting and sad at the same time.

Tomorrow we have a Skype date set up with Liz for anytime after noon our time (6pm her time). I keep thinking it's suppose to be today. Our microphone and speakers are getting shot so I think I'll buy Sean a new set for his birthday. Lucky guy. :o) I do have some cheap things put away for him too...mostly trucks. He really doesn't need anything but I want him to be able to open something.

Well the kids are getting up and I'm needing to do things. So I don't risk turning this into a multiday event, I'm ending it here. Hopefully next time I'm here I'll have gotten a lot accomplished.

Saturday, July 18, 2009

This wasn't my intention

I never intended to let this place go dormant, especially now that Liz is gone. I wanted to keep this updated and fresh with tons of pictures for Liz to see. I even bought a new camera before she left. Unfortunately I keep forgetting I own it and now the batteries are dead, so tons of pictures there aren't.

I've come to realize that I can't do everything. And now it's three days later and I still haven't gotten anywhere on this thing. *heavy sigh*

So what's been happening here since the 4th? The bedrooms have been in a state of disarray since we started tearing them apart on the 3rd. Some of them are in a lot better shape then others. Some have also been in various stages of being done. But to be all done...nope. The Library (my project) is a HUGE disaster area. I managed to weed out a ton of books from the shelves, making room for our overflowing bookcase of kids books but that's about it. But hey! The bookcase wall looks awesome! So what if you can't walk in the room to get to the bookcase!

We had a birthday party/cookout for Tom's 51st birthday on the 11th. It was lots of fun and I stayed up WAY too late around the bonfire and got too little sleep. When I had barely recovered from that it was Eileen's birthay on the 16th. We had 2 nieces over and one of Eileen's friends from school. It was a time for yummy 1st time food discoveries with bacon and grilled cheese sandwiches for lunch and chocolate waffles with ice cream for breakfast (used brownie and waffle mix together, next time I might try just brownie mix lol). Eileen was amazed to find out that Liz had bought and left her a birthday present. A Hannah Montana sundress which was a big hit. We did have a not so great episode to her day though. In the evening she told me, everything makes me think of Uncle Billy. I told her it's because he'd have been a part of her day and she missed him. Just like I'm sure dad missed him this last weekend at his birthday party. Then she broke down crying. I wish there was a way I could make this easier for her to bear.

We're not done with birthdays either, Sean is turning TWO on Friday!!! He's gotten huge and maturing at an unbelievable rate. (although still insists on nursing everytime I sit down!) He talks up a storm and you really have to watch what you say around him if you don't want things repeated. Even if you don't think he's paying attention or sleeping. There is some hint of potty training on the horizon. Everytime I buy a box of diapers I say...Hey! Maybe this will be the last box I buy. But I've been saying that quite awhile now.

We've talked to Liz on Skype a few times and the last time I thought she was going to cry when Sean kept telling her...My Dirtday Nex! I asked if she was homesick and she put her index finger and thumb about half an inch apart and held it up. As much fun as Skype is, and it's great seeing her when we talk, I'd love to get her alone on the phone and talk talk. Skype is mostly idle chitchat and fooling around. To be able to have a real conversation with her would be awesome. I told her if I was going to get her a package out I needed her address. She said she'd find that out for me. lol One of her Norwegian friends came up to the computer and Liz introduced Eileen and Carrie who could be seen on the laptop. The girl came closer to the camera and said....Your sister is CRAZY!!! I then popped my head into view and she said OH! Is that your mom? When Liz told her it was, the girl then told me....She's a good girl! I laughed and said...oh so now there's a sister version and a mom version!?

On Sunday we went to my sister's for Jess's graduation party. (Oh this is ridiculous! It's the next day AGAIN! Now where was I....) The party was nice with tons of food (leftovers which we've been eating all week) and talking with family. I ended up bringing home my sister's youngest, Emily who will be going home this morning.

Oreo is getting HUGE! He's also gotten a lot better with the kids although we still have to watch him closely with the little ones. He feels free to think of the rules as more like guidelines with them. And as I type this Sean is in the kitchen telling Oreo...No Oreo! My truck! Seems Oreo is laying next to him and had somehow managed to end up with the truck Sean was carrying around. Sean had it back in his possession before I even got out to the kitchen. He's hilarious with Oreo. He's not afraid of him in the least and is always telling Oreo..NO! Or Leave 'lone! The newest problem area is getting Oreo to realize the kitchen table is OFF LIMITS to him! He's so big now that reaching up there is no problem. Until he gets caught that is.

We had our first major harvests from the garden this week. On Monday Tom picked a big pile of green beans. It wasn't enough for everyone to have as much as they wanted (some kids prefer canned to garden fresh) but it was enough for us all to have a decent taste of them. Tuesday it was the zucchini. I cooked a HUGE pot of it with butter, garlic powder, salt and pepper. YUM! Then the rest I cut up, threw on a cookie sheet and froze. It filled a gallon baggie and is now in the freezer. I have a feeling we'll be freely giving away zucchinis soon.

We had a cool thing happen yesterday. Val left with her friend Brittany shortly before I had to leave to pick up Luke from school. On the way to school the kids yelled that a yard was full of stuff with a huge FREE sign. I told them it was probably a garage sale with a free area and that I wasn't going to stop. It seems Val and Brittany did stop because they pulled into the driveway shortly after we got back from school. And with them was a pickup truck FILLED with things...a turtle sandbox with lid, a Little Tykes desk with lamp and chair, a Little Tykes workshop, a Little Tykes pink rocking chair, a wood toddler bed complete with mattress in awesome condition. Brittany's car was full of stuff too...books, Barney dvds, remote control cars, a Dora play tent, dishes, appliances and much more...including a size 14 wedding dress which the woman insisted Val take...Plain but very pretty. And it was all FREE! They just wanted to get rid of everything. I stopped by there on the way home from picking up Michelle from work and grabbed a midsize bike for the girls.

So what's the rest of the week look like? Not much. Luke back and forth to scummer school. Which he's doing good in (91% in Math which says...YOU SHOULDN'T be in this class. 76% in English which he DID need to attend for). Only 2 more weeks left for that. Michelle has today and I think Friday off (which Luke has off from school too so no NEEDED driving that day). Tom's on call so no major outings or such planned. It also means I'm stuck driving Michelle all week/weekend as the city she works in is in a different county then he works. He can't risk getting a call being so far from home. I know my sister mentioned us coming over to her house this weekend and eating the grad party leftovers she threw in the freezer. Not sure I want to do that after eating all this week here though. lol Although visiting with her in a more relaxed setting isn't a bad thing. Oh yeah, Sean's birthday on Friday! We'll have cake and ice cream for him. We also have a Skype date set up with Liz so she can wish him a happy birthday.

Well the house is starting to get a bit busier so I probably should end this before I put off posting it ANOTHER day. I'm hoping to get pictures up soon. (started that post a week earlier then this one!)

Saturday, July 04, 2009

Tearing the place apart

Why is it that to clean we have to make messes? We're in the middle of moving rooms around here. That means dragging things out of rooms, dealing with things in corners that haven't been dealt with in a long time. The beds are in the proper rooms but I have a table and a empty bookcase in my livingroom that DOES NOT BELONG THERE! And the books that were previously on that bookcase? Sitting on a bedroom floor waiting to be carried down the hall. OH my already aching back!

Luke's been the big helper here, tearing bunkbeds apart, carrying huge things up and down the stairs. I'm sure he's sore this morning. I just keep reminding myself that once it's done, the rooms will look nice. Especially if I can get them painted too.

We're suppose to go to my uncle's house on the lake but the weather doesn't seem to be cooperating. It's chilly, dark and gloomy out there. A day that makes you want to go back to bed with a book (or my crocheting). I can just start to see some blueness breaking through so maybe it won't be THAT bad. Still, I think we'll delaying leaving for a bit.

Then I got busy and it's now the next morning...

So the dark clouds did start to break up and before 1pm the skies were blue. We
decided to leave about 3 (well I mentioned 3, Tom was thinking 5 lol). We got out the door about 4 something. It was weird to think I was wearing long sleeve on July 4th though. People were freezing all night long.

After leaving this post hanging in midair I got busy working on the bedrooms and the library again. I'm giving the wall of shelves a lot of attention. I don't think it's been cleaned this well since we built it in '97. I'm hoping with Tom's permission to ditch a bunch of the books. I really love books and it's hard for me to get rid of them. These though...most are discards from a library that Tom junk picked in the early '90s. They're falling apart, smell musty and haven't been touched since they were put on the shelf.

I got into a groove and was going like gangbusters when I realized it was time to get ready to leave. It was really hard to not say....Oh let's just stay home. I know Tom probably would've been fine with it. The kids not so much but they'd have gotten over it. I'm glad I didn't give in to that urge though. It was so nice to see a lot of my relatives. The kids had a blast at the lake even though I was a meany and wouldn't let them go swimming. Just watching Sean's reaction to holding a sparkler and seeing the roaring bonfire and fireworks was worth it. I wish I'd thought to bring my camera!!!

My uncle's picnic is a mixed venue with his family and all his friends. It tends to stay in distinct groups with family near the food tent under the tarps. Friends up by the house with the music and the beer. There are times when those lines aren't distinct since my dad's also friends with a lot them. (My uncle runs a golf league made up mostly of his friends, my dad's on it) For the most part though, the line's there.

My mom was funny. One of my uncle's old friends that I've known since I was little (the same one mentioned in this post) came over to her and was sweet talking her (you look the same, etc). She called him on his BS as she usually does. Then he braggingly said...I have 5 grandkids...How many do you have now? She said with a big grin on her face...I have 18! She sat with the grin plastered on her face and waited for him to stop OMG'ing. Then she pointed to me and said...Kim has 12 of them! And grinned some more. And the OMG'ing started again. I thought it was neat that he mentioned the son that's given him the 5 grandkids has said he wants to have 12. :o) I hope he does. My mom answered all his questions while I went to chase Danielle and Sean. What are their ages? How old is she? Then a strange thing happened. I went from just being Kim the cousin and niece (albeit the crazy one with ALL those kids!) to my family. To...that girl there has 12 kids! She's 44 and has a 25yo! I kept hearing little tidbits of comments and heads would turn to watch me as I was dealing with the kids and meandering around the place.

I know I shouldn't care what people think and I really didn't care about their opinions. But to feel the eyes on me while I was walking and hear the whispers and such...didn't matter that they were mostly positive...became heavy to me. I'd lost my "anonymity", my sense of being just Kim. Luckily it was near the end of the evening and the fireworks started to distract everyone and me lol.

The night ended with me having to call my sister. I've had her youngest since Wednesday. The plan was that if we met at up my uncle's she'd go with my sister. If not, my sister would come out here Sunday morning and pick her up. Well our paths didn't cross. My sister had to leave for her inlaws (who live on the same lake in the next town over) minutes before we got there. My niece kept coming up to me and complaining of a belly ache on and off. I'm not one to coddle too much, my sister...just a bit. I could tell that my niece was getting more and more on edge over it. So I asked her...do you want to go home home? She sure did. So calls were made and we arranged to meet at the store parking lot to exchange the package. Then we stood in the dark empty lot and talked. :o)

As usual, almost everyone fell asleep on the ride home. We pulled into the driveway, climbed out of the van, untangled the dog from some yarn and jumped into bed. THE.END.

Thursday, July 02, 2009

Who knew

Whoda thunk a brain fart could snowball into a huge fiasco...but it did. Luke started summer school yesterday. He's one of my kids that hates to get up in the morning so I was happy to see him up and about before I came out of my room on Wednesday. Today though...not so lucky. I crawled out of bed at 6:15, talked to Tom for two minutes before he went out the door, decided to let Luke sleep another 15mins and then got busy. I forgot WHY I was up (besides being unable to sleep) until it hit me at 7:11. Luke's suppose to be at the high school to catch the bus at 7! A bunch of us little districts do summer school together and classes are held two districts west of us. I yell for Luke and he's flying down the hall dressed and ready to go in a minute. Not knowing exactly where it is, I google where the middle school in the district is and we take off. We're flying driving down the road at 7:14.

I had a slight problem in that I was racing the clock. I had to have Luke to school by 8 when classes start so he's ok. BUT I had to be home by 8 because Michelle is due to work at 8:30. I MIGHT be able to do it but it'll be close that's for sure. My original thought on where to get off the main road is wrong....district's in the next town over, so we turn around immediately. We get to the town the school's in and go into the village. Luke says nothing looks familiar and I'm getting frustrated. Finally I see the road that google said the middle school's on. We find the school quickly but it doesn't look like there's anyone there. Luke sees it's the MIDDLE school and reminds me school is held at the ELEMENTARY school (suppose to be at the high school but it's under major reconstruction). We turn around, see some kids who look to be waiting for the bus to summer school (I suggest Luke climb out and try to hitch a ride but he's pretty sure their driver won't allow it...he's probably right so I don't push it).

We ask the kids for directions (back to the main road, further west, a certain road, past the high school and down the road) and are on our way, backtracking to the main road and even further west...further away from the house. We see another school and drive to it but realize it's not it. BUT we find the road that the kids mentioned we needed to be on and drive down it. It comes back out to the main road! I'm fit to be tied! We're still not at the school and I need to head home if I'm going to get Michelle to work on time. So I tell Luke he's not going to school that day and he's fine with it. (he's only allowed to miss 2 days) We start heading back east on the main road and I have a sense of guilt hit me...we're SO close. It would be terrible for us to get so close only to make him miss a day. So I have Luke call Michelle and inform her she either needs to call in late to work or find a ride. We turn back around and wouldn't you know it, there's a sign for the high school...we'd just needed to keep going on the road we were on! We find the high school ok and keep driving down this country road. It seems to go on forever and I start declaring there's NO WAY the town WAY BACK THERE would have elementary school WAY OUT HERE! We must've passed it or got lost. I'm about to turn around at the next 4 corners when I see a school bus approaching from the left with it's signal light on to go down the road we're on. So it is still ahead. I drive down the road with my eye on the bus behind me incase it turns off our road, but it doesn't and eventually the elementary school appears. Although Luke's still not sure it's the right one. I drop him off, tell him to follow the kids who get off the school bus and he'll be fine. Then I start to race home to get Michelle. About half a mile down the road I see it...Luke's spiral notebook on the dashboard. OH that poor kid, not only is he frazzled, he's unprepared too. I hope he knows where to go since his schedule and room assignment is in the book. I say a little prayer for him and continue racing down the street. I arrive home at 8:20, pull into the driveway and honk. Michelle's not quite ready, so I run in the house, grab Sean, change his diaper, throw a clean shirt on him, throw him in his car seat and we're on our way. She gets to work about 25mins late. I drop her off, turn around and head back home...pulling into the driveway at 9:25 and ready for a nap! At least I have 4.5hrs to relax before I have to do it all over again.

Tom and I have to talk. I NEED to get my girls driving!

Sorry I meant to get on and share more pictures. Guess I needed to let off a bit of frustration. I promise to share cute, cuddly and nice things next time. :o)