Almost done.

The year is almost done. It's altogether surreal and relieving at the same time. It does seem, in retrospect, that time has flown. But thinking of all the hard times where the minutes dragged, it is nice that those are behind us and there are better times (and possibly worse) ahead. Either way, we know not what the future brings and the prospect of a brand spanking new year awakens an air of expectancy. Some things will definitely be different this year. For instance, it is not always a wonderful thing to be the one who eats the most black eyed peas on New Year's Day. Especially if you forgot the Beano. We got a new vehicle, after the December debacle. So there are no impending repairs looming over our heads (or under the hood) with their money hungry claws and disconcerting clunks and grindings. Just a long line of payments. But we are thankful that they are within our reach.

Erin and I had the stomach flu before and after Christmas, and my HC had half of the stomach flu earlier this week. Ian missed it and I am thankful for that as well, since I'm not as confident that he would have made it to the bathroom to retch as successfully as Erin did. Erin is more of a take-action person, where Ian just kind of freezes and stares. For example, if my HC jumps out and scares them, Erin will either turn and run away and hide under the nearest surface or run at him screeching back and jump on his head. Ian will stand there and scream like he's the lead in a b-movie. One long, shrill scream, feet planted. There is no obvious remedy for this.


Now I am waiting until the end of the week, when I can start taking down the Christmas stuff. We really enjoyed our gorgeous hand-me-down fiber optic Christmas tree this year (thanks Mimi and Grampa!). It is enormous and shimmers. It doesn't need any garland and all our ornaments fit on it without looking like a flea market stall. It was well worth driving from FL in July with the giant box strapped to our roof. Our yard was also one of the drive-bys with our new lawn ornaments and lights (complete with Santa, sleigh and reindeer). It was exciting for the kids to drive home from Wednesday church to see all the pretty lights coming from OUR yard. ;) (We have gotten lots of compliments on our yard, thanks to the creativity and industry of Mimi and Grampa!) It makes it even better that they remind us of one of our favorite places in Florida. I'll bet it's the first time any of those ornaments have seen the snow we got last week. haha.
We are trying to make it through our last week of Christmas vacation before the Spring semester of school. Ian and I are doing great. He is staying in his pajamas all day as late as possible and I am getting some extra cleaning, organizing, reading, websurfing done. Erin is overset. Her routine is completely messed up and we need to get back to work as soon as possible. She's not used to having Ian in her way every time she wants to watch something or play with a toy. Siblings!
We are also still waiting to see what will happen with the new boss that was elected in November. He officially starts on Jan 3 (read December 31, or earlier, since almost everyone has either gotten a pink slip or a phone call confirming their continued presence; everyone except for my HC!). Then the fun really starts as everything is restructured to his liking. It is always the hope of politics that the things that work well will be retained and the things that are broken will be fixed. It has been our experience that most campaign promises go out the window with the first enormous paycheck. We are more interested in who the new supervisors will be (and if my HC still has a job, of course!). Either way, it's always interesting to see how things work out.
I hope everyone else is having a nice settled, sick-free week and I wish you could see our Christmas lights. :) (or you could wait until next year)

Holding the Fort

My HC left this morning for a training session in New Mexico. Today has been crazy. I'm not sure if it is a result of him being gone or just a Monday or what. But come on! We were late getting up this morning. Erin has had a bad cold for a few weeks and it is on the downward slope with a bit of sniffles and coughing/asthma. Which means lots of breathing treatments and less sleep for me. So I'll try to quit blaming it on the kids and admit that I didn't get up when I heard the alarm and everyone was late. Ian had a bit of weird eye goop this morning in one eye, but we wiped it off and kept on. Erin's appetite is off due to sickness, so coaxing her to eat is time consuming and futile. So I spent the morning cleaning and finding blue play doh in strange places. My HC texted to say that he had to check his bag in because our tiny suitcase was too big to carry-on. I'm pretty ticked about that. Besides the cost, it was a pain in the butt to fit everything into that tiny suitcase. If we were going to check, we would have packed everything we wanted into a larger case...argh. But he made it to Texas and said he'd text when he got to NM. Meanwhile, Erin was fussy, the dog got into the shed outside and mutilated a bunch of stuff in boxes and had it strewn everywhere.
I finally sat down to finish Gosford Park and sew a couple of quilt squares.
Then I got a call from the school nurse. Ian's eye was red, swollen and itchy, they think it might be pink-eye.
It would be best if I came and picked him up and took him to the doctor. I called the doctor. They said "tomorrow morning ok?" I mentioned his kindergarten program tomorrow night and asked how long he would have to be on meds before he was out of quarantine. They said to bring him in, they'd fit him in somewhere.
So I got Ian from school, loaded his bike into the Jeep and got him from the nurse.
We got into the doctor rather quickly (shocker!), then went to the pharmacy.

Then we hit another snag. The cream the doc had prescribed wasn't in stock, but they would have it by tomorrow after 1pm. Argh! 24 hours of meds before tomorrow night? Yeah right. I called the doc, who called the pharmacy, who checked. Insurance didn't cover the other choice. On to Plan C. The doc was busy and had to sign off. We waited for over 45 min at the pharmacy. Since Ian has pink-eye, he is contagious. Trying to get him not to touch anything in a crowded, small town pharmacy? Nigh impossible. Erin's whining, squalling and meowing didn't help either. But of course everyone there thought she was cute as a button. They weren't holding her squirming, gymnastic little body, either.
We finally got some eye drops. The ones you have to put in every two hours the first two days? Then every 4 hours for 5 days after that. While Ian is awake, not during the night, thank you Lord! So no school tomorrow. If the eye gunk is drastically reduced by tomorrow night, we may make it to the kindergarten program/reward assembly. Otherwise, nope. As for Wednesday, how can he go to school when I have to give him drops every 2 hours? No one else at the school will/can administer them. And 5 days after that, every 4 hours? Argh! Oh well, I just hope that no one else gets pink-eye!

My HC landed in NM. They are an hour behind us, so that's neat. It looks flat and pretty, with mountains in the distance. Ian was disapointed that there were no cactus in the picture. My HC said he'd keep looking. I told him to eat well, because isn't there supposed to be some phenomenal Mexican food in NM? Mmmm...yeah yeah, thinking with my stomach.

He did end up having Mexican on the 70 mile trip from the airport to his hotel. And I haven't heard from him since, so he must be busy and having a good, educational time. :) Because that's what training sessions are for: learning. Right? We'll see, because really, it's all about hotels and restaurants. Mmmm... We at home will take this time to feast on cantaloupe.

Fried Ears

The weekend was an incredibly busy one for us. Do you ever get those [incredibly rare] days when you just feel energized and actually get a whole list of stuff done? Then you spend the rest of the week wondering why you can't feel like that all the time and have a Donna Reed-esque life? Well, last weekend was incredible. We put our entire garden in, ironically the biggest one to date. We had said that we weren't going to do a garden this year, but we are forgoing the weed mat (waah!) and got the seeds very cheap at the local farm store. We did spring for chicken wire to put a barrier between the yard and the garden, to signal the dog to stop (it doesn't exactly keep her out).
We also changed our garden menu a bit. We are not doing corn this year, since it has been set upon by Japanese beetles every year and we only get a 1/2 gallon baggie of shucked corn total after they've finished with it. And we didn't plant anything that we didn't like this year. In the past, we've always planted okra since we love pickled okra. But there was never enough ready at the same time to pickle. And this year I am not making cucumber pickles because we have approximately 27 jars from last year that no one will touch. I am trying, but there was that one mushy jar....yuck. And I have discovered, by a majority vote, that no one else likes zucchini. And no one wants to eat any more zucchini bread or muffins. Ever.
So that saves me a bundle of work right there. So I get a break from pickling, harvesting gigantic okra that is inedible and shredding pounds of zucchini to freeze that no one will eat. I feel better already. Am I REALLY the only one that likes zucchini?! Really?!
I was outvoted again when I suggested opting out of the tomatoes. Phooey.
So this year's garden menu is: (drum roll)
Early Alaska Green Peas [along the whole back fence]
Maxi Beans (green beans) [3 short rows, bush style]
Carrots [a short double row]
Tomatoes (100 and Rutgers) [5 plants total]
Strawberries (Quinalt) [2 plants]
Crookneck Squash (yellow) [3 hills]
Cucumbers (burpless) [3 hills]
Cantaloupe [a short row]
Watermelon [4 hills, with 3 plantings in each hill]

Keep in mind that half of our garden is watermelon, since they need a lot of space.
We are hoping that the peas will shoot up and cover the whole 6 foot back fence, since the lot behind has been turned into a gravel parking lot...whee.
Personally, since we are not doing weed mat this year (bigger garden = more weed mat= too expensive...), I am hoping that a mulch truck will stop at our house and ask us if we need a ton or 2. In the meantime, we'll be out weeding....

So we spent all weekend outside, with the kids going in and out, depending on how many flies they wanted to let in. My HC got fried around his tank top and then burnt weird the next day, so from the back it looks like he was wearing a sports bra. It's a really good thing he can't see himself from the back. Try to smother a laugh or he will find you.
So all my lotion has been used up for the Greater Good (translation: HC). Erin's little pigtail part got red and she has a nice farmer's tan. Ian's nose is a bit red and my ears are fried to fire engine-like proportions. And I am sore all over from raking and shoveling and hoeing. My HC only had to do the rotor tiller, don't know what he has to be sore about. (I am only pouting a bit; watching him till with that thing was enough for me.) Erin also loved a few earthworms to death and pulled one apart ("Mommy! Wum boke!")

In addition to the garden success, my HC mowed and weed eated the front and back yard. We scrubbed all the winter muck off of the siding (as high as I could reach with the scrub pole), cleaned out the yucky corner of the house/yard, cleaned out the tupperware cabinet, cleaned out the shed, cleaned up some stuff to sell on Ebay, did all the laundry, etc. Still can't believe we did all that. Boo yah!

So you'll have to forgive me if I don't have any pictures, because I left my phone inside while I was performing all that manual labor. There's not much to see now except for dirt and hills, anyway.

But as with soreness, the after-effects remain. Now I have garden fingers, because my left hand is all scraped and rough from planting and there's dirt stuck in my nails that will just have to wear off. But I got me a garden, man!

New Schedules

Well, we have officially gotten into the swing of school and the new job. Erin is increasingly hard to keep busy, since she is constantly saying stuff like "Daddy door. Ian door." Which means that they've gone somewhere without her (through the door). The nerve of those guys! I've been on a housecleaning kick because it makes me feel like we'll sell the house quicker if everything is clean. The real estate agent came to take new pictures of the house since it's been on the market since Feb of 08. And those pictures show dead grey grass. Unfortunately, we've done a lot of work on the house since those first pictures, but she likes the old pictures of the unpainted kitchen cabinets and drab walls better than my paint jobs, so those pictures are still on the description. I'm sure if anyone does come to tour the house, they will wonder if they're at the right one.
Ian still says that kindergarten is long. No nap time, so I guess they work instead. The new teachers are....serious. It's a big change from pre-K because they were young and bubbly and enthusiastic about everything. In K, you're lucky if anyone cracks a smile. Not too crazy about that, but there's nothing I can do. They've also told me that Ian is immature, but he did just turn 5. It's hard for me not to get a little riled at that, but a lot of the class is 6 or turning 6 soon, so I guess that would make a difference. I comfort myself with the fact that Ian is smoking the rest of the class's butts in reading. He is also finding it hard to make friends. Several reasons being: Daddy was a cop in town and so has arrested a lot of parents and relatives; Ian can smoke everyone's butt at reading; he has food allergies, so he brings his breakfast and lunch every day and has faced ridicule because of it. So there's no friends there, really, but it just makes us want to move! New start, new teachers, new classmates! It would be really nice. But until then, we will deal with teachers that really need an attitude adjustment and look annoyed and tired all the time.
My HC is loving his new job, even though it takes a lot of hours and we are both bone tired every night. Movie nights are now only on the weekends. We don't even watch tv. He is also becoming quite the filing guru. I am very proud of him. We are still excited about visiting the dentist when our insurance starts.
The kids are recovering from the first school-borne illness. Ian got a cold and a stuffy nose. He still has the stuffy nose, but feels fine. Erin got it and it turned into a raging ear infection. The meds prescribed gave her raging diarrhea and rash, so she was taken off of it. Now we have to go back to the doc's on monday. I really dread these dr visits. I hate sitting there for 2 hours just to be told to keep drinking fluids and taking tylenol. Waste of time!!
In the meantime, we are doing ear cleaning with prescription drops because I don't believe anyone has ever seen the inside of Erin's ears. All 3 of the doctors and specialists that have tried just say "There's too much wax in there to see." After I got annoyed and asked a nurse how to fix this problem, I got a scrip, instructions and plenty of help. Gee, why didn't anyone think of this before?! Honestly. Is it small towns or what?! Ridiculous!


Lest I get all het up again, I will brag about my brilliant HC. The people next door moved and left a bunch of junk, including 2 broken headboards to twin beds. My HC took them apart and used the lumber to make me a coffee table! I love it. I get to stain and varnish it and I'm so excited. We are completely table-less in our living room and now we have something to put our glasses on instead of the floor! And we have something for the kids to snack at and color at (not on, Erin!) and it's a gorgeous wood. I have none of this ability and am amazed that my HC would be motivated and able to do it. The staining and glossing are done and we are so impressed. It's a bit darker than I expected, but that way it won't show Erin's scribbles too badly. ;)
Now I think I've caught everyone up to now, having skipped a week or two. Can't believe that next week is September!!
And congrats to my friend Rachel for delivering a gorgeous baby Elias last Thursday! Mommy and baby are doing great and should be home by now. Thanks for all the prayers! The fun has just begun, Rachel, but I know that you're enjoying every bit of it.

Job, School and Grandparents!

To be short, since I'm sitting in the library and my hoodlums are being hoodlums, my HC started his new job, which has so many initials, I'll just keep him as my HC. This was his first week and he's been busy, but he really likes it. I think he likes eating lunch out even more, since he can eat whatever he wants without the guilt of our munchkins and their food allergies. He had pizza. Twice. sniff sniff. I think I've forgotten the taste of cheese. sigh.
So that is going wonderfully. Still no bites on the house, which makes my HC's commute rather miserable. And school is starting next week. We were hoping to have been moved before school started, but you do what you've got to do. Ian is excited about his new teacher, since we know her from church (it's his Sunday school teacher) and he's got some friends in his class, so that's even better.
And Gramma and Papaw are coming to visit! That's the best! They'll be here for his Meet the Teacher and for his first few days of school, so we are all excited about that. And there is the promise of Red Lobster. Mmmm...
And did I mention that my birthday is Sunday? August is turning out to be a pretty spanking good month. Now if we can just hold out until payday. Transitioning to one payday a month stinks, but we'll get used to it. :)
And my bestest college friend, Rachel is due for her first baby in the next couple of weeks. So August is good for more than just me. So if you're eating a pizza or a really good mouthful of cheese, think of me and enjoy a little more. And if you see a little bundle of joy at church or the grocery store, think of little Elias and how eager we all are to see him when he manages to come out into the world.

Tails of Four Skunks

As told to me by my HC.

I was driving along, going from one campsite to another and saw two little baby raccoons in the road. I got out to make sure they were okay to to make sure they got across all right. I got close enough to see that they were healthy little babies. I leaned over them and got hissed at. They started to get a murderous gleam in their eyes and eyeballing me like I would make a good snack, so I backed off some and watched them get across the road.





I went on a little farther and saw a Mama skunk and four little baby skunks crossing the road. They were so tiny, they could have fit in my hand. I stopped the truck and stayed in it (did you really think I was going to get out?) and watched them. The Mama skunk went off somewhere and it was just the baby skunks sitting there. I sat there watching. They were so cute. Then they all put their noses together and stuck their tails all up straight in the air. They looked like the points on a compass. Evidently, they were willing to spray EVERYthing in all directions. I guess they didn't like my truck. I backed up a little and stopped again. Then they all ran towards me, and immediately stuck their 4 little noses together, stuck their tails up and waited. I backed up again and they chased after me and assumed the position. I don't know where the Mama skunk was during all this, probably right outside my truck door with HER tail up.
I've never been chased by baby skunks before; I've never even heard of them doing that. And I don't know that I would have believed it if I hadn't seen it myself.
But it worked; I picked another road.

*I would like to add that my HC didn't take any pictures, he was too busy backing up in his truck. I got these off Google Image for illustration. ;)

Slugs and Flashing

Yesterday morning was greeted with a loud scream of alarm from Ian. Since this is a normal occurrence, it didn't merit much of a response. Then came the thumping of feet down the hall. "Mommy, come look in the toilet!" My mind instantly flashed back to high school, when similar requests were made by Jeff Foxworthy with questionable results. I shook these disturbing pictures out of my mind and followed Ian into the bathroom. "Hurry Mommy, I gotta go!" I looked in the toilet. Nothing but pale blue water. Guess it's time to replace the breath mint in the toilet tank. "No, no. Look!" Ian got down on his knees and peered into the toilet. He motioned me down. I gingerly knelt next to him. He got eyelevel with the toilet seat and pointed again. "There." Then he jumped up and ran for the safety of the doorway. Uh....I had just seen a byline for an article where a man sat on the toilet and got bitten by a snake....on the unmentionables. I backed up a bit and kept looking. Well, I'm sure you already guessed. It was a little slug. It had taken residence under the rim.
The cold and wet had left them with no choice but to come inside and pester us. I had found and disposed of 4 the night before, but this one was sneaky. I'm sure he was grateful, ultimately, considering the nature of his hiding place. I chucked him outside and Ian relaxed enough to do his business. Though I have noticed him thoroughly checking out the toilet every time before he uses it.
Erin has been sick again, but not from allergies, that we know of. Just lots of diarrhea and fever and some ear pulling. I put off the egg allergy testing until tomorrow to give her tummy a chance to get better. The fever is almost gone now, at least.


Anyway, I've been encouraging Ian to play with Erin a bit more, since they mostly just do their own thing in the same room, but are finding their interests merging some. Erin likes to watch the trains when Ian puts the track together. Ian is concerned that she will grab one and run off or mess up his tracks. It's true, she does do that, but so did he, up until about 6 months ago. You'd think he'd remember.
Anyway, I was painting the hallway during bathtime (it's 2 feet away, don't freak out) and it was time for tub cleanup and getting out. I heard some crazy baby laughter. Big belly laughs. I think she started getting hoarse after a while. It went on for a bit and I peeked my head around so as not to disturb them and watched. Ian had wrapped his towel around himself and was doing a jump/spin open-the-towel "Da-Daaaaaaah!" Erin thought this was hysterically brilliant. She actually started holding her belly before I reminded him what he was supposed to be doing. You never know what will set her off, but everyone has fun doing it.
I just never figured my sweet munchie would get such a kick out of flashers.


To change gears a bit, my HC's last day at the local police department was Friday. He started his new job yesterday. Now he's a State Ranger. So I guess it's not accurate to call him my Hot Cop (HC) anymore. I guess he's really my Hot Ranger, but I'm too lazy to change it. They call them River Cops around here, so I guess I can technically keep the label. So he's enjoying the state-wide jurisdiction and the new job. He's not really enjoying the commute, but at least it's a pretty drive. And me? The hardest thing for me to remember is the packing of suppers. Whoops. I miss him being able to stop in for supper, but the lowering of stress levels is worth a whole lot more.

Improvement

There has been improvement on several levels over the past few days. The weather actually improved for 2 days, allowing us to mow and weedeat the jungle that had shot up in the interim. It also allowed Erin to discover just how much mud she could step in before it sucked her shoe off of her foot. She also discovered that she didn't like the feel of mud on her feet or her hands and expressed her feelings by wiping it off on me. Ian discovered that he'll miss his teachers an awful lot after school ends in little over a week. His attitude toward school has improved somewhat.
Erin's health has improved so much, it's almost uncanny. The runny nose, wheezing and cough is completely gone. She is focusing on being as ornery as possible and getting into everything that's not nailed down. If it is nailed down, she knows where the toolbox is.
I have improved the oatmeal muffin recipe, or I actually followed the directions. One of the two.
We have decided to improve the interior of the house, having done our yard duty. The kids and I moseyed on over to Lowe's and got us a gallon of Brilliant White Flat Ceiling Paint. You never realize exactly how yellow your ceiling is until it is directly compared to Brilliant White. It also helps that I spackled all the cracks. But as for the color, think of the Crest White Strips commercial.
We also got us a five gallon bucket of Summer Rapture. It's the same minty/leafy green we painted the laundry room/bedroom. I think the house is ready. It is desperately needed in the hallway and in the kids rooms, since I've scrubbed all the old paint off along with a lot of pencil and crayon drawings. The blue ink remains, however. I disintegrated a Mr Clean Eraser trying, but to no avail.
Another improvement that has everyone smiling. My HC gave his written notice today at work. Yay! One more week to go and then you'll be able to see every one of my HC's teeth when he smiles. Then our stress levels will just float away. And that will be the biggest improvement of all.

Makeover: Floor Edition

"This project was supposed to be about replacing the carpet!" Clearly, from the pictures, it didn't end up that way. When we moved the furniture out of our room/laundry room/back entryway, the cheesy panelling was moldy and rippled. Ruined! We calculated the cost of drywall and insulation (because there wasn't any!) and took a trip to Lowe's.


15 sheets of drywall, 8 rolls of insulation, 9 strips of trim, a box of nails and a tub of spackle later, I would like to take this time to mention that I am the Expert Insulator (and I have the fiberglass grains to prove it!). I have also (almost) mastered the staplegun. I still kinda stink at hammering though. I still say it's because we only have right-handed hammers. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.



This is some of the mess that was scattered about the living room. We ended up laying our mattress down and sleeping on it for a couple of nights. Boy were we ever so glad to have the bed set back up in our room! The kids really liked having something to bounce on and play in. They especially liked the nice cushy bed when they were watching movies or eating goldfish crackers (pieces of which are still embedded in various parts of my body after sleeping on crumb shards).


Finally, last night, the spackling was dry enough to coat with primer and the primer was dry enough to paint. The carpet and linoleum were rolled out and the trim was smacked on. Now about that mess in the living room...
Today it snowed all day. I was intending to take a picture of the finished play ground, but the back door was frozen shut and there was no chance of me getting dressed just to walk to the back yard for one picture. Maybe tomorrow. ;)
Meanwhile, putting in drywall and such is not something for the faint of heart. We are both sore and with colds, smacked fingers, cuts, bruises and gritty eyes. No more projects! At least until the new front door comes in this week...

Blue

Well, it seems like we have the blues. Everyone is sad about something. Chris is blue because he really wanted to pass his exam in FL and move. Well, he didn't and we can't move anyway until we sell the house. I'm blue because I hate doing dishes and they never seem to all get done and I'm behind on laundry and the baby is crawling and I can't keep the floors clean and Ian keeps spraying when he pees in the bathroom so it makes me positively ill when the baby crawls on the floor in there and it's fly season and I can't keep them all out of the house and why do babies always head for trashcans and my list of stuff to do never seems to get done! Clearly, I'm overwhelmed.

Ian is blue because his pool is broken. So I scrubbed out the baby pool (this is Erin's pool now, so it is tiny) and put a bit of water in it (it's tiny, it won't fit that much water in it). He tried to play in it but the water was cold and it was "too small". So he decided to turn the water on by himself and fill it up some more. He just forgot to turn it off and nobody seemed to notice that the water was on until we woke up this morning to find the yard had turned into the new city pond. Buddy was very blue. His favorite napping place is under water. Now we're even bluer because of our upcoming utility bill. Sigh!

Erin is blue because she keeps trying to walk and keeps bumping her head on Everything. And because I won't let her chew on the computer mouse while I'm typing. And her cup is blue and she is looking at me through it, so she looks blue (har har; hey at least I'm attempting humor).

And then Chris asks me "Did you get any laundry done yesterday?" And I gave him The Look. In other words, and he might need this translation as well. Does it LOOK like I did any laundry? I didn't even know he needed laundry done. There aren't any full hampers in the laundry room and my mind reading abilities were accidently severed when I got my wisdom teeth out. So No. I didn't do any laundry yesterday, which is why Chris went to work in a used shirt.

So I have laundry going now, but as Chris said, "It's too late now." I don't know why I'm doing it anyway, if it's too late. I guess I'm not too blue for sarcasm. Eek.

I am also aggravated at myself for not finishing my list of stuff because an important thing is to clean out the stupid potty seat one last time and pack the sucker away! This is needed because Ian thinks it's more convenient for him to pee in it (standing up, mind you) than to pee in the big toilet and then put the lid down so no one knows it has been used. So TWICE now I have gone to pack the thing up and there has been old pee in it. Go ahead, gag away. I have.

So maybe I'm not blue. Maybe I'm yellow. No, the pee is yellow. I'm green. Blue + yellow = green. Whatever. Even my bad jokes are seriously off today.

And the price of BDUs went up. Way up. These are Chris's work pants. Since we are at a police department that pays bare minimum per hour for the officers (uncertified officers make $7/hr) and have no benefits or retirement or anything, it stands to reason that we have to pay for everything pertaining to equipment and uniform. And let's face it: black pants fade. Anyway, it is time to replace the old faded ripped pants with new ones and the price has gone from $20 to $30 a pair, not including shipping. And those are the cheap ones. Chris finally found another kind that are better quality and supposedly last longer and they are $40 a pair, not including shipping. So. Big Sigh. So 1 pair for the price of 2.

I know that I will find plenty of things to laugh and smile about later, but the great thing about writing is that once it's on the page, it's out. Almost like living next door to your mom or your best friend. You go and blast it all out to them and then it's out. It's gone. And you feel better. So now that I've gotten all that out, I guess I'm not so blue any more. Maybe a nice robin's egg blue instead of navy. Definitely better because Erin is standing next to the desk chair, blowing raspberries on my leg. :)

Just say No to Doo Doo Depression

I've always heard that things get worse before they get better. The only thing they fail to mention is how bad 'worse' gets. How much poop will I have to actually Touch before the whole nice tidy wipe and flush happens regularly? I'm even skipping the dump and wipe out part of the potty chair too. Anyway, there has been flooding here, close to the river. My peat pots are extremely hydrated and any minute now I will be tempted to get the air soft gun and pepper the truck that has currently been revving its superloud mufflerless engine for the past twenty minutes. Yes, your truck is on. Any more questions?? The hazards of living in a small hick township. And I have actually met girls who think noisy engines are sexy. These organisms should be kept in isolation and studied.

Back to our normal venue of entertainment. What was it? Oh yes, scrubbing the potty seat out. Mmmmm. And might I add, if anyone from the potty seat industry happens to come across this, let's make the next strain of potty seats seamless, okay? Because nasty things get into cracks and are very very hard to get out. Comprende? Bueno.

More revving. What do you do? Oh yes, you call your cop husband and fuss. Whoops, maybe not. He's on a traffic stop being annoyed himself. Ooh, really annoyed, he's checking warrants through county, something that normally doesn't get done on a routine traffic stop unless someone is ticking him off or he finds something naughty...hm...oh well, the dispatcher on duty had a similar story and we made each other feel better. At least my engine revver is not related to Chris. Well, of course, while I was fussing to the dispatcher, the truck was turned off and the garage closed and all the lights turned off. Finally! Take that sucker to the Car Doctor tomorrow!

Okay, looks like this post is mostly about broken cars. Didn't plan on that one. Well, while Chris was in court this morning for 3 hours, only to get on the stand and find out that the case wasn't about what he thought it was and that he had nothing concrete to contribute to the charges brought, the DA dismissed him. So he came home and was only 10 minutes late to his physical and they [graciously?] allowed him to keep his appointment. So that's done. Anyway, Chris amused himself by taking pictures of the courtroom. To understand Adair County politics, you must know that there are two courtrooms in the courthouse. The one most commonly used is downstairs, around the corner from the little secretaries behind the plexiglass with little holes cut above the counter to pay tickets, etc. There are signs posted there. For example, the judge's side job, "Marriage Ceremony $10". Shucks Ida Mae! Let's just skip the movie and go get hitched! Wait, I need 35 more cents.

The real shiny courtroom, the one used for important cases is upstairs and since most of the cases are not worthy of the room and it probably is a cost liability to heat and cool, it isn't used much. During Chris's down time, since he won't take my advice and take a Book with him, he went to the courtroom and took some pictures on the camera phone for me, so I could see what it looked like. So that's what all those pictures are. Hyuck. You can tell that it must give the judge a real charge to sit in the Big Chair. If they really wanted to make enough money to be able to use the Big Courtroom year round, they would tape some of the silly cases and sell them to a cable show. People would watch. Gramma and Grampa used to watch Citrus County court on tv, so I know that people would watch here. It might actually pry them off of the police scanners for a while. That would be good.

Ian played outside today for a long time, since it was chilly and muddy and somewhat sunny. I got more laundry done, since there is a constant rotation of tiny underwear. Since Erin is getting mobile, I have to keep the floors cleaner than normal, so the broom is staying within reach. Especially since she somehow got a piece of dried caulk from the tub and tasted it before Ian pounced and stole it (Whaaa!). He is starting to get smart though. If she has something that he wants, he is learning to bring her another toy to distract her with so he can get his car/train/book/cup/sock, etc back. Tonight before bedtime (and the engine revving concert) Ian was putting blocks on his head and chew rings on his eyes and making her laugh really hard. Then he started throwing the blocks over his shoulder, again causing loud chuckles and gurgling. Mommy was beaned by a flying red cylinder and put a stop to the whole thing. That's when the somersaulting began. More laughing and gurgles. More Mommy putting a stop to festivities. Then it was 'make-the-baby-dizzy' time by running in circles around her. This is actually a neck exercise. Then it was everybody-sit-in-their-chair-and-calm-down time. Bedtime followed soon after.

Ian normally makes himself scarce while I am changing baby diapers. He stopped wanting to see when I was throwing a poopy wipey into the trash receptacle and didn't see him standing there. He was very grossed out and now I think he hides whenever we smell something that's not him. Anyway, I was mentioning to Erin that we were going on an airplane to see Gramma and Papaw. She kicked and squealed. She is excited. Well, Ian had his selective hearing Extendable Ears (another Harry Potter reference. Similar to the whole Nosebleed Nougat entry a while back) and popped his head around the corner. When he saw that the clean diaper was on and I was snapping her shirt back in place, he deemed it safe to enter and question/interrogate/demand clarification on what I had said. He wants to take a helicopter to the airplane, by the way. Then he wants to fly in circles. I asked him if he remembered going to Mimi's house at Thanksgiving. He got excited. I told him we were going to stay at Mimi and Grampa's house again and that we would see Gramma and Papaw. He was ready to leave right then. I told him it would be a long time until we went, but that we would ride on a plane. That announcement called for a cookie. Or that's what he thought. Anyway, the cat's out of the bag and May cannot come too soon. At least for Ian. Maybe by then the Poo Poo Panic will be an absentminded inquiry and Doo Doo Depression will be a thing of the past.

Le Pew!

Today was interesting (and it's not over yet). Chris got called out to what he thought was a dog check, where he takes Berry out to sniff a suspicious vehicle. It turned out to be a search warrant with the Drug Task Force, so he was not even dressed all the way, though he did have his vest on. This is the kind of search warrant where all the guys jump out of the cars before they stop and burst through the doors shouting and waving firearms to catch the drug-selling scum before they escape out the back door (where Chris was waiting; Berry never got out of the car; he was there 'just in case'). So by the time Chris got back, it was 45 minutes before his normal start of shift and we were at the park with Girric and 25 other kids whose families were all having a giant cookout at the park. Brian (Girric's dad) and I got to be the Park Police today. Brian happens to be the mayor, so he was yelling at all the teenagers who stuffed themselves into the toddler toys to get off. I was the referee for all the little boys who played too rough and pushed and called names. I really expected to get an offended parent come yell in my face, but I guess I'm the only one who actually watches their kids on the playground, because I never even saw the other parents within 50 feet of the playground at all. And the boys all listened and quit shoving each other onto their faces, so we managed to get along. Somewhat.

But then Chris came and we went home to watch him run around the house and get dressed for work. Erin had a great time in the stroller with her little shades on. She is just too cute and loves being in the sunshine and watching her big brother play.

Later, while I was making our chicken fried rice for supper, Ian came running into the kitchen. "There's a skunk, Mommy!" he shrilled. What?! There's a WHAT?! I followed him, running to the back sliding glass doors and peered through. "Where's a skunk?" I asked. "By the neighbor's house!" Ian insisted. Well, it wasn't a skunk. It was a cat. Thank the Lord, it was just a cat. The last skunk we saw was smeared on the road 200 feet from our house and stunk for a solid week. I told Ian it was a cat, but he didn't believe me. I guess it waved its tail funny or something. Then again, he's seen Looney Tunes. He knows what Pepe LePew (sp?) looks and acts like and that cat was just pretending. Poor deluded Mommy.

Erin has been fretful of late, I think she's teething some more. She's been steadily getting her appetite back though, which is a great thing. Chris is just convinced that she doesn't like vegetables. He thinks her appetite is fine, she just hates peas. Well, she just about licked her carrot baby food container clean today before she fell asleep sitting up, so I'm not sure it's all vegetables! All that sunshine just wore her plum out.

But we were in the tub and she leaned too far forward and took a header into the water. So bath time ended prematurely. She was ready to get out after her dunking.

A fellow officer's sister got tired of her pet rat, so the officer offered to get rid of it for her. I wonder if he told her that he was going to feed it to our snake? Oh well, it's too late now. Chris brought the rat + cage home on his 10-45 (meal break) and fed it to Sir Hiss. It's being digested as we speak. There was some kind of cotton batting/bedding in with the rat and since the rat bit the previous owner several times, Chris didn't want to handle it. So he turned the cage sideways and dumped the thing into the snake cage. Well, the cotton wadding went in with it and our either really hungry or not quite bright snake got a mouthful of fluffy cotton stuck in its mouth. It tried to throw it up, but it was all caught on its teeth. So Chris got most of the bedding out but had to get most of it out of the snake's mouth with my kitchen tongs. He got enough to where the snake was able to quit heaving and eat the rat, so I'm hoping the rest of the cotton will come up with the fur, etc when it is expelled after Hiss's supper.

And randomly, we have purchased and eaten pears this week. I can't even remember the last time I ate a pear that wasn't in syrup and mixed with peaches. But we bought Bartlett pears from Harp's and Ian, Erin and I have been eating them! Shocker! And they're really "tasty and dewishus" as Ian puts it. Gotta love Sesame Street! Without Ian's fruit requests I don't think I would have even considered them. Erin loves them in her mesh bag. She had some fresh corn I cut off the cob (I love spring!) and put in there today. She is getting a lot more than Ian did when it was his turn. I guess that's the luck of not being firstborn. There are pros and cons all around.

And if you get a chance, go to JD's blog. For today's post, he has a link to another guy, who talks about the sex scandal of that Governor, you know the one that got busted for prostitution. I haven't paid much attention to the news articles, because that sort of thing doesn't really interest me, but I like JD's blog, so I read it. It's really interesting. Let me know what you think. I will just sit here and eat pears and wait for the snake to hack up that last wad of cotton. :)

Inevitability

There are things, I've found, that are as predictable as finding freckles when I look in the mirror.

--Erin will always find a way to spit up right down the neckline of my shirt.

--Whenever there is inclement weather, the chief will not come to work.

--As soon as things start getting romantic, one (or both) of the kids will cry.

--The most perfect dinners will be eaten as leftovers.

--Chris will get called out most holidays.

--Mom will call on the phone as soon as I get in the bathroom.

--The last roll of toilet paper will be gone when you most need it.

--The library books I requested will all get in after we move.

--Chris will get great job offers as soon as we decide to move (actually there were 3 opportunities!).

--As soon as we pull out of the driveway, someone will have to go to the bathroom.

--As soon as he gets in bed, Ian will need ______ (it could be anything).

There were others that I was thinking of, but these are the ones foremost in my mind. I'm sure there's some kind of order to all of it. :) Other topics for today were: Gack! It's Monday! Chris gets Monday and Tuesday off, so this is the first day of his work week (thus, Monday). We have decided to just register Chris for the May classes in FL that he needs to be FL certified. We were hoping that the house would have sold by now, but oh well, it's just been 6 weeks on the market. We still have time. We are expecting to sell the house while we are gone at this class in FL, just because it can't happen while we're actually HERE! Of course not! But it's okay, really. As long as it sells, we don't really care how. Still thinking that once the dopers get the word out, it's only a matter of time.

I need to go get Erin's flu booster shot and am kind of balking. Chris is talking about getting his Hepatitis B shot and charging it to the town. The only rub is that it's a 3 shot installment. The second is a month after the first and the third is five months after the second and we definitely do NOT plan to be here still in five months. Please Lord! I do not know what the future holds, only that God has it in his hands. But I really really want to be settled in with the new job and house by the kids' birthdays! That's July 23, 24. Either way, whatever happens, it will be interesting to see how it all comes about.

Well, Erin is up from her evening nap. The picture, by the way, is from middle school. I think it was 8th grade at Busch Gardens, Tampa. With me are my best friends Heather and Christine. We still talk. Happy Spring!

4 years ago today...

...Chris and I were on our honeymoon, freezing away in Cedar Key. Eating some REALLY spanking good seafood and getting great views of the Gulf. And freezing. And nibbling on great leftovers from the wedding supper. And freezing some more. But it was beautiful and one day we will go back when it is not freezing and do all the fun things that we would have done had it not been 35 degrees the whole time. Like chartered boats and fishing and lying on their beach in the sun. Sigh!

Still hoping for nibbles on the house so we can experience that chilly Florida brand of winter (if we were to go today to that same previously chilly weather, we'd probably BE on the beach because it wouldn't feel that cold to us after all this time in OK).

But our big anniversary fun was grilling some steaks (even though it was 20-something out), sticking Ian in bed early and watching Mr. Bean's Holiday (Erin didn't feel like going to bed early). We laughed and laughed and laughed. I really like Mr. Bean.

Chris got called out this morning to assist with a pursuit; so much for sleeping in.

As for anniversaries in general, I had always thought that it was between the married couple unless your kids throw you a 25th party or 50th or whatever else. I cannot tell you how many MySpace comments and emails and phone calls we got yesterday (yes, phone calls!) to congratulate us. So far we have not gotten any cards yet, but we got 3 last year. I am still mystified about this. This is clearly a "Dear Abby" question that has yet to be addressed.

And for the curious, Chris got me a waffle iron (chill out, I asked for it! I LOVE waffles!). Because now is not a good time to get a dishwasher...he he. I asked him what he would like and he answered very simply, "Waffles." Men are so funny.

Chris's hours are changing again, due to some upheaval in the department. One officer is going to CLEET (we'll miss you Jeremy!) for 3 months and another officer is pregnant and on dispatch until who knows when. So we are down to skeleton staff AGAIN and Chris will thankfully be going to straight 3-11s. We are not complaining (much). We are too grateful that he's not being stuck on night shift again. Our friend Google has been promoted from dispatch and Reserve Officer to Full-Time and we are all happy for him. Since he was already a dispatcher, he does not have to take a paycut to $7/hour (the norm for uncertified officers), so he is happy about that.

And me? I am busy trying to keep the house clean to Get Outta Here! But until then, we are enjoying life and love and the pursuit of pottytraining. :)