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.

Muddling Through

For big, happy announcements, Saturday was Anniversary Day for me and my HC. 6 Years! Crazy! On Friday we had an appointment to have the kids' pictures taken, for a Child Abuse Task Force fundraiser. Antiquities: Unique Portrait Fundraiser. They dressed the kids up and had the neatest props. Got some really sweet pictures. For our $10 donation, we get the sitting and a free 10x12 of the kids posed together. Then for an extra couple hundred dollars, you can get all the poses and a few pictures. But they are really wonderful pictures; just wish we could justify the expense! I'll be going back on the 30th for our "portrait selection appointment."
Since we were in town for the portrait sitting (my HC met us there in his unit), we decided to have our night on the town a day early and save some gas (Tahlequah is a 45 wind-y, long drive from home). So we went out for Chinese! Woo hoo! It's been a Looooong time. It was a little tricky with the kids' allergies, but Ian loves boiled shrimp and fruit and rice, so that what he loaded up on. I couldn't peel shrimp fast enough for him. Erin was not hungry, having enjoyed her Burger King french fries from earlier that afternoon. Ian was too busy on the playplace and the slides and tunnels to think about eating, so he was ravenous for dinner. (We can't go to Tahlequah unless we stop at the BK play place; it's a Rule. There will be mutiny otherwise and who can pass up a chance to expend all that energy?)
So we had our chinese....mmmm.....culinary delight. My HC took cranky Erin out, so he didn't get his seconds, but it was good enough (and inexpensive enough) that we have plans to return. High praise indeed from the selective HC. I love chinese food....sesame chicken. Mmmmm. And the dumplings with spicy sauce.
Then I got to pick out my anniversary present: a new sewing machine! Woo hoo!



Had an old one, but with bobbin case difficulties. Ended up being unrepairable. So I've been diddling with my new machine. HC got a new drill, so the loose siding is fixed on the house and some other odds and ends on The List are taken care of. Who knew all we needed was a drill to complete these onerous tasks?
Meanwhile, we are proceeding with our homeschooling plans for next year. We've checked the state laws (surprisingly lax, compared with Florida), perused curriculum, and will start homeschooling this summer (lightly, don't worry) when kindergarten is finally over. I am optimistic and confident about our educational future.
My HC is also looking at pursuing a degree as well. We are currently talking to admissions, etc, trying to see if it's something that's realistic for us right now (or should I say, him, since he'll be doing all the work). We are grateful that he has an employer that is excited and very encouraging about further education and is willing to work with his employee/students. HC was very impressed with a coworker in his 50s who just completed his Bachelor's degree.
My HC is taking it slow. No commitments yet, but we're just checking it all out.
Prayers would be great, especially about finances. I am hoping for a bunch of student aid, since he's working full-time and we's po'!
Still waiting for house to sell, though there is genuine interest from people moving due to road construction and widening. The gov't is buying their houses to tear down for new lanes and they are relocating, hopefully to our house! But first they are waiting on state to pay before they can buy. Who knows how long that could take? But it's good enough to keep our hope alive!
That's about it. We are pottytraining at our house. Having graduated the dog, we are working on the ErinNoodle.

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.

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...

Tasks Long Undone

Today was a pretty busy day for me. I got some unlooked for motivation and tackled some tasks long undone. Those little things that you never seem to want to do, or want to do at the wrong times. Case in point. Today I took down all the curtains and washed them. And let me just say, the ones in the kitchen? Yuck. Seriously. Yuck. They've only been up for a year. Where did all that dust and greasy film come from? I think I'll stop before I make everyone think that my house is a cesspool of nastiness. Now it's a bit cleaner. I finished in time to get the kids' curtains on their windows before it got dark. Score! That took all day and was a complete pain in the butt to rehang all the curtains on those confounded curtain rods. No, I wasn't frustrated at all; I kept a cool head every time the curtains snagged on the rods and the rods bent while I was putting them up and the brackets came out of the wall. Even when I hung up curtains that were backwards or with mismatched curtains. Yeah. Cool head. Uh huh.
We also got some little details taken care of (translation: I reminded my HC constantly until he got out from in front of the computer and got it done). We got the portable AC out of Erin's room, since it was 45 outside at 2pm. I guess we figured we didn't need it anymore. And it was a great way to get window shut all the way and the cardboard blocker thing above the AC vent tube out of the picture. And we got a couple more things hung up. And some trim put back on in the kitchen that was never reinstalled after we got the dishwasher. Someone put the whole 8 feet of it on top of a curtain rod and forgot about it. There were nails still in it. I found it rather quickly when I was taking the dirty curtains down. Yup.
I also got the last of the little baby toys and burp cloths packed away so I can quit shifting them from one side of Erin's room to the other. Still have not gotten everyone's warm weather clothes squared away, but it might help if I had some boxes or something to store them in. The kids are really hard on those Tupperware storage boxes. Ian has the tendency to jump up and down on them or play fort in them until they get cracks and get a blowout.
The kids got up superearly this morning (Erin was up at 6:30), so I was kind of tired while waiting for the last load of curtains to dry. I lay down for a couple of minutes and didn't wake up until it was time for my HC to get ready for work (work was at 6 tonight!). No clue how I managed to fall asleep with all the racket and goings on. I guess I must have found my earplugs in my sleep and put them in, because they were wedged in my ears when I woke up. Hm. When I woke up it was dusk, all cold and gray outside, so I rushed to put up the curtains.
It's supposed to be in the 20s tonight. I really need to find a box to put Ian's summer stuff in so he'll quit begging to wear his flip flops everywhere. He didn't feel like putting on warm clothes today, so I sent him in short sleeves, with one flip flop and one bare foot, out the door and down the driveway to see for himself what the weather was like. It started out nonchalant, but ended up with him hippity skipping his cold-toed way back to the door. He changed his mind about going outside.
Berry is moping because my HC's unit blew its transmission last night. Therefore, Berry can't go to work (no dogbox in the backseat). He is upset.
I made pumpkin spice cake with cream cheese icing. No one is eating it. So much for variety. I guess everyone just wants pumpkin pie until they get burnt out on it. Maybe I should have just made the caramel apples instead. They were supposed to be for Halloween, but we were in the hospital so it got put off.
Hark, I hear strange bumping noises and a large crash. Sounds like I need to go clean something else up.

Trusting

Right now, everyone in our family would rather be doing these things (together, of course).




And I'll tell you why.
Ever get one of them days where darn near everything is going wrong???
Well, my poor HC is having one of those weeks. I am too, indirectly, but I just feel so BAD for him. Right now he is at his workplace working on our only vehicle, who decided to give up its will to live this morning when we were ready to go home. But let's back up. Last night was night #5 of Erin's Phlegm, a Lifetime original. So she gets coughing fits and needs to be held upright to hack it up. This requires walking on my part and interrupts my HC's sleep (Erin is very noisy about phlegm hacking). He has been sleeping on the couch. At 3am, he got bad news about work and couldn't seem to get back to sleep after that. At 7:45, I got up. Late. School starts at 7:55, ya'll! So we did a flight of the bumblebee and got everyone dressed and out. Chris had managed to fall back asleep and stumbled around drearily. He had an important meeting at work at 8 about a complaint being made on him (which was groundless, as usual). Gustav, now a tropical storm, has hit us and we are getting massive rainfall, flood warnings, etc, so we drove to school today. I got reamed by the crossing guard/school security about the Jeep sticking out in the road (he was trying to drive over to get me and I guess he was blocking traffic? uh....). I told Chris and he stopped and had it out with the security guard (in a small town, everyone knows everyone and I think the guy was having a bad day too), then drove us to the 'office' for this meeting. We were late. We waited and waited for the chief to get done talking to this complaining person with the law-breaking 17 year old. Turns out my HC wasn't even needed; the chief handled it and sent the complainer on his way. My HC had 2 fillings fall out and has had trouble eating. One filling on each side, top plate. And then we got in our car and it wouldn't start. Everybody groan.
Great, it's the corroded battery cables. We had this problem last time we went to Fayetteville, when we went to Golden Corral. But just a tweak and a ping on the cables and we made it out of the parking lot and back home. Today was not the case. After new battery cables, it still wasn't starting. To make a 5 hour fix-it job short, we had to get a new starter. An expensive starter! I am thankful that it wasn't anything major, but it was a whole lot more expensive than we are comfortable with!
It's just rough to have all this added to near-sleepless nights with sick kids and problems at work for my HC. Everything just builds up and feels like one big throbbing...something. So I stopped and had a talk with God and felt better and now I'm waiting to see how we're going to get through this. And I'm trying to convince my HC not to cancel his dentist appointment.

Fuse Box Olympics

We are having problems here on the homefront. Now that the heat wave is over (thank you Lord!) and our heat rashes are getting better, something else has Come Up. Yesterday I smelled a weird burnt kind of a smell and assumed it was our borrowed portable AC that we had in our bedroom. I have to say, it is a luxury to be cold enough to use the covers at night. I think it's the first time I have used the comforter since May or June. Erin didn't like it, since she was cold and needed to be under the comforter too, but after her feet were thawed out on Daddy's warm back (it was his tummy, but he squealed and turned over...hehehe), she felt better.

Back to the funny smell. We turned off the air conditioner to let it cool off a bit. Today the smell was back and we warily went about our business. This evening, after bathtime, the portable AC quit. I called Chris in to look at it. Uh oh. The living room had quit too. And the kitchen. And the bedrooms, bathroom, etc. Uhhhhhhh.

Chris grabbed a flashlight and we gingerly approached the fusebox. Our house was supposedly built in 1960. It was also wired electrically by someone who was alive before electricity was invented. Nothing in the house is grounded. All the outlets only have two prongs. When the extra room was built onto the house, another more modern fusebox was added to the outside of the house. The add-on, with washer and dryer are on this box, as well as the electric oven and dishwasher, added by us. Oh, and the broken AC, which is working better now that it's 20 degrees cooler outside.

But the refrigerator and room fans were not working. Aaah! So he opened the fuse box and thought that a fuse was blown. After some hunting, my HC got a hold of the owner of the town hardware store and he made a special trip to open his store and provide us with this fuse (a product that Walmart does not carry, nor does anyone else in this country. Except maybe one of those leftover bunkers from WWII. They may still have some of these ancient breakers in there. )So he met Mr. B at the hardware store and brought back two choices. I held the flashlight while he took out the little scary looking black boxy looking thing (notice that I was not the one fiddling with it; I was proud of my light holding abilities). The baby woke up and started screaming. Uh oh. The fuse was messed up, yes, but remember that smell? Something had melted in there. Oh, so that's where the smell came from. Yup. Well, it was going to take more than a fuse. My HC called Mr. B back and they went back to the hardware store, black flat box thingy in hand.

So the burnt cylinder was replaced and the fuses. That's when we discovered that the black box thingy was messed up too and wouldn't go back in its spot. Nobody, even Mr B, carries those black box thingies any more. But he thought he knew of someone who might still have some. He'd call him tomorrow. But if he didn't have any, we'd have to put in a new breaker box. I abandoned my light holding talents for my 'quiet the baby' talents. She was soothed back to sleep and my HC tried and tried and tried to get this broken box back into the slot. Then I had my light bulb (ding!) and reminded him of the things that didn't go off of the broken breaker. We found an extension cord for our refrigerator and ran it to a working outlet (thank you Lord!!!). Ian was happy to go to sleep with his little lantern and a candle, though how he fell asleep with the bright lantern an inch from his eyeballs is beyond me.

Meanwhile, my HC kept trying new ways to get this black box thing to work. He tried Play-Doh, but that smoked and burnt (more bad smells and more crying baby). While I was taking a dark shower (the hot water heater was on the bad breaker....), HC figured it out. Elmer's glue! He also took the guts out of the spare black thingy that was just sitting there but wasn't being used and transferred it to the broken one. I won't confuse everyone by trying to explain it (since I was savoring my Last Hot Shower), but he did it and it worked and now I'm online. We have to keep looking out for any weird smells or smoking, but hopefully that will hold us over until we can either find a replacement or (please Lord) come up with the money to get a new breaker box.

But I think my HC gets a gold medal for his electrical brilliance. An electrician he is not, but he usually gets the job done.

Mondays for Cops

This entry is courtesy of Chris's Educational MySpace. This is what he was doing while we were frolicking at the park. Please note that names are edited to protect us from being sued.


Me and another officer were serving Westville warrants in a nearby town. We had just attempted to serve a warrant, but no one was home so we left the residence. We started driving away and passed a vehicle that pulled into the driveway that we had just left. The other officer backed the unit up and drove back towards the residence. As we approached the residence, the driver approached us and I observed the passenger door open. I then asked the driver where the passenger was. The driver replied, “I don’t know, [the passenger] just took off on foot.” I ran around to the back yard and observed the passenger of the vehicle running across the field, approximately 100 yards away. At that time, I began to chase the subject, ordering the subject to stop repeatedly, believing the subject to be the subject of the Westville warrant. The subject did not comply and continued running. At that time, I and the other Officer called in a foot pursuit. I and the other officer continued to chase the subject for approximately 1.5 miles, over barbed wire fences and through woods and heavy brush. There were also sections of barbed wire fence lying on the ground, camouflaged by leaves and debris. These booby traps worked great as deterrents and were conducive to nose plants and/or chin skids. (Note: we were in a holler, so everything was on a slope.) The handheld radio did not work because of the mountain, so I was running while yelling into my cell phone. Me and the other Officer repeatedly ordered the subject to stop, but the subject continued to run. I ran back to the unit (approx .25 mi in a straight line) to drive to the other side of the holler while the other officer continued chasing the subject. As I approached the other side of the holler in the unit, the other Officer had the subject detained. The subject, who was not wearing shoes, had bruised and bloody feet and the clothes were torn from running through the barbed wire, rocks. The subject was identified and wasn't even the person we were looking for, but was found to have a warrant non-bondable through Sheriff’s Dept. We were not looking for this subject! the subject got a charge of Attempting to escape detention or arrest. All we got was bloodied hands from going over the barbed wire fence, paperwork, and screaming muscles. And a good story.Moral: don't run unless you are sure you are the one we are looking for. Save us all a lot of trouble.

As a postscript, we are very interested in hearing the story from the Other Officer's point of view, since he did about 1/2 mile more than Chris and actually caught the 19 year old shoeless jackrabbit (rabbit can be omitted for another noun in light of the circumstance). It can also be added that both officers were in dire need of a drink and a long break to recover. It's not easy to run up and down a mountain with all that extra gear. We would also like to add that the area officer who came to assist was a 300+ lb woman who didn't look very excited about running. Both of our officers have recovered very nicely pending a hot shower and a long night's sleep.

Love Is....

• Love is going out to the dirt pile in the backyard at 8:24pm in the freezing 18 degree dark to retrieve your 3 year old's newest shiny red Hot Wheel because he just can't sleep without it. And, incidentally, giving it a bath in the sink because it's "too dirty."


• Love is also pampering your husband because he got two wisdom teeth pulled out in the past week. One on Monday and an emergency one on Thursday. Poor guy. Tooth pain is nothing to mess around with.


• Love is also sharing your toys with your baby sister, even though she will most likely either chew on it or throw up on it.


• Love is a box full of fuzzy pjs and new socks from Gramma.


• Love is also giving away your favorite hoodie when it is too small, just so God can bless you with another one in your bigger size (Ian's Cars hoodie, also in the box from Gramma, with matching pants).


• Love is sneezing with a big mouthful of baby cereal and then laughing at Mommy when she makes funny noises about her new hairdo (Erin).


• Love is knowing that one day (sooner rather than later) your best friend will have her own little bean to spit cereal all over her.


• Love is sitting in the parking lot of the library with the kids in the car when your gum is bleeding from tooth removal while your book crazy wife says she'll "only be a minute." When has she EVER only been a minute in any sort of book gathering place??


• Love is chocolate chip pancakes on a chilly Friday morning when you heard Daddy offer Ian nuked leftover french fries....


• Love is changing the really really gross diapers that lead to emergency laundry and NOW baths.


• Love is finding ANOTHER long red hair in your sock and only mentioning it a few times before realizing that you don't do the laundry anyway, so why does it matter?


• Love is also finding a long red hair that is itchy inside your pants and trying not to get it out in Walmart and then feeling bad that you gave your husband such a hard time about the one in his sock.


• Love is one more glass of milk before bed even though you know that you'll be changing the sheets and pjs later.

• Love is reading a blog after waaaaay too many bullet points. Happy Friday night, y'all.

Back Seat Driver

Well, the war of the fleas continues. Part 3 of the Flea War started today when we let off Bug Bomb #3 and headed off to Fayetteville to pass away the time. Chris had the day off for sick time because he had a wisdom tooth pulled yesterday. Now we just have three more to go. Two of the three left in his mouth are fractured. The one that was pulled actually came out in pieces. It had a nerve showing, thus the pain from my caramel apple pie and everything else he ate after that....whoops. So he was banned from work for 2 days and was 'forced' to use some of his accumulated sick time....hence the 4 day weekend and Chris not being able to drink from a straw. It almost made me glad that I had my wisdom teeth removed while unconscious. Especially when I saw the copious amounts of blood that Chris kept spitting up. I found him a teabag to jam in there to stop the bleeding after the 6th or 7th gauze pad was hocked out sopping. Well, the teabag was too big (picky) and gagged him. Well, all I had left was my little mini teabags of spearmint tea, so in it went and the bleeding stopped (magically, I'm sure, because Chris didn't like the taste). Anyway, we decided to go on a relaxing trip to Fayetteville (relaxing for Chris: I had to drive) while the bug bomb raged. This time we got 2 packages of bug bomb.

We had decided to go see the new Veggie Tales movie for Ian, but there was the inevitable baby issue, the cost issue for all of us to go, especially if one of us had to keep leaving with the baby, and the fact that we didn't know how to get to the movie theater and we would have to wait 2 hours for the next one to start even if we did find it. So we moved to Plan B: Food!

We decided to brave Golden Corral with the kids and it was Mmm Mmm Good! Can anyone else taste the warm, yeasty rolls, where the steam breaks out as you bite into it?? And the honey butter they give with it??? And the sweet tea! Oh yes, folks. Mandi hit the buffet. And what was that? It's 3:53? And the steak breaks out at 4? Mandi had some steak too. Oh Yeah.

After dinner and dessert, in which Ian smooshed a bunch of M&Ms into a really delectable piece of gooey chocolate cake and then pulverized it all with his fork, eating a bite or two but mostly just mangling it, Chris decided to try Ian out with his first ice cream cone. Well, Ian slipped off of his chair after a few licks, nibbles and brain freezes, and smashed his cone all along the side of his face and onto his collar. The look on his face was priceless, but it took a long time to get him unsticky. After that he didn't want any more ice cream. :)

Then we hit Old Navy because there were huge 75% off signs in the windows. I love Old Navy sales. Then we hit Target (was this a good day or what?) to walk around and look. Then an unsuccessful trip to Lowe's. Tomorrow is probably going to consist of another visit to our local Lowe's for partition doors to our laundry room. If the house is going to sell for good $$, we've got to whip it into shape...and whip it good.

Back to the part about the title (Back Seat Driver), that would be Ian. I don't know how other kids usually are when they are riding in their car seat in the back on the passenger side, but Ian is intensely concerned about my driving skills. He wants to "catch" the truck 1/2 a mile in front of us. I must go faster if we are to do this. He doesn't want to wait for our turn at the red light or 4-way stop, he wants to go now. "Green light!" "Oh no! Red light! Stop! Stop! Stop!" When he is tired of straining his eyes to see ahead of us, he starts looking to the side, trying to see the bit of road visible out of his window. "Oh no, Mommy! Don't hit the tree [insert: cone, hole, puddle, other car, stop sign, curb, bank drive-in, etc]!" I spend most of my driving time tense from the screeches of "Oh no!" something-or-other coming from the back seat. Chris thinks this is grossly amusing. It just makes me nervous. What will I do if Erin turns out to be the same way??? I guess it will be time for the full-time car DVD player.

The Best Guy in the World

I would just like to take the time to officially announce to God and the world that I have the best husband in the universe. He works the evening/night shift as a police officer in our tiny town. We had an appointment in town today and he didn't want me to go alone with the kids so he roused himself out of the bed and went with me. He let me go into the appointment alone and kept the kids in the car. It lasted almost an hour. He went to Wal-Mart afterwards (he would rather have his toenails removed without anesthesia than go into Walmart) with us and strolled with me as I looked. There was a problem with Ian's chocolate milk (it didn't have a bar c0de on it) so I had to wait in the line for help and keep waiting as the employees had to do who knows what to figure out the problem. Half an hour later, he picked me up almost at the door as I exited. He took me to the library and let me go in there alone as well. Our kids are 3 and 5 months. They are not thrilled to be patient and stay in the car. The most amazing thing is that Chris did all this while he was tired!!!! When we got home, he had a little down time then put a million pieces of track together for Ian to play trains and played TickleBug with Erin so I could clean up the kitchen. Thank you Lord for giving me this amazing man!! I know that it's hard to tell those closest to us how much we appreciate them, but now everyone else at least knows how much of my slack that Chris picks up.
As a side note and update to the New Year's post, the bug bomb did not conclude the problem. Tomorrow we are bombing again, with some bigger and hopefully better bombs. If this doesn't work, Buddy may have to be an outside dog. Oh no!