Young Darth Vader Had A Farm

Please, if anyone has ever seen Star Wars (is there anyone left who hasn't?? That's a question for another post) and you like kids (is there anyone who doesn't? Really? That's also a question for another post), please go here:
http://cohenhouse.blogspot.com/

Scroll down until you get to "Young Darth Vader Had A Farm" and listen to the next Alan Silvestri/John Williams/Tim Rice team sing an oldie that is Light Years away.
Guaranteed to put a smile on your face and want to watch Star Wars. All at the same time. :D
And it makes you think: what a great dad! How cool is that?! Then you can hire the dad to do the music for your wedding, etc if you live in Florida.
Okay, now I have to spiel....you can mosey on over to Charis Entertainment (see the lineup on the side there <-----).
I don't care what you do, just listen to this song. ;)

My Own...My Precious

haha. Did you get that? Uh...that's a Smeagol quote. Gollum to most. Okay, then. I guess I'm not in a Tolkien crowd. That's okay. Papaw will get it. He usually does.

So today was Ian's last Walmart trip for quite a while. It was also one of his last days to sleep in, go out to eat, etc. Because, ladies and gentleman, we are different. This is not always a good thing. But I definitely have more respect for law enforcement, firefighters, doctors, pilots, stormchasers and anyone else who lives according to their radio/pager, etc. I am at the whim of the pager as well, since I stay home and take care of everyone. Our scheduled 'weekends' are now Thursday and Friday. Unless my HC gets to be chief, which he doesn't want, he will probably never get Saturday and Sundays off. This presents a challenge to everyone else that has a normal job that goes from 8-5, M-F. It also presents a challenge when the kids start school.

Because now I have to spin two different plates at the same time. On one hand, we are quiet while my HC is sleeping because he went 4 or 5 hours late on his 3-11 or 6-2am shift. We do our own thing on the weekends because except for church and bank and post office closings, they are like every other day to us.

Now, my life also has to revolve around school drop-offs and pickups and days off. Poor Ian won't get to see Daddy on Daddy's days off, though Daddy will probably have fun picking him up from school. And on Ian's weekends, Daddy will be sleeping or working or getting ready to do one of the previous.

You get it.

Either way, we will adjust to walking to school at 7 something (!!!) in the morning. This means I have to be presentable and able to walk and obey pedestrian traffic signs! And have Ian ready for school and Erin too! Argh! Wait, what time will I have to get up? I guess it's time to figure all that out. Sheesh.

Anyway, Daddy has the first day of school off, so we will all be walking Ian to school with the baby in the stroller.

Then I can just come home and....sit. I know I'll have no trouble getting used to it and I'll have special time with Erin, but still....it's a moment.

I'm That Kind of Rain

Today there was rain. Lots and lots of rain. I even got to take a nap to that rain, which was oh, so sweet. And then it kept raining. It is Still raining, which is wonderful because today was Cruze Night. That's a contradiction, but that's what they call it and it starts at around 2pm with a car show. Then there's Cruze time (yes, that's how they spell it) and then there's a Burnout competition, where people from all over come and pay to see how much tread they can leave on one of our town's nicest roads. This competition goes on for hours. Until dark, because no one seems to get tired of trying. People bring lawn chairs and sit on the side of the road to watch. There are Trophies. Yes, I said trophies. For the winners. Someone gets out there with a roller measurer and measures the tread marks. The car that leaves the longest gets the biggest trophy. It costs $5 a turn and the town makes hundreds of dollars. There are also concessions that come to take advantage of the spectators. But today it rained. :)

I don't like Burnout because these noisy engined cars and trucks have to use our street to go back to the Start line. They speed and peel out at our stop sign. It is hard to hear anything inside of the house over this racket.

The crowning part of today, however is fireworks. They have been setting off blanks all day for some reason. I think they just wanted to wake up every napping baby in town. I'm sure there is a purpose somewhere, somehow. Maybe. They keep telling us they will start at dark, rain or not, but it is 9:15 and just a drizzle. Ian keeps asking me every 5 seconds when they will start. I am trying to be patient, but....it's hard when you don't know the answer. Thank you Lord for a PBS channel that does kids' shows around the clock. Who knew that Bob the Builder came on at 9pm??

They've started!

Well, that was nice. It lasted for 25 minutes. Ian really enjoyed it. He really knows his colors now. Erin did not wake up, for which I am grateful. Last night's debacle with the fuse box did not send her into dream land, so she is really tired tonight. Whew!

Buddy was made hysterical by the booming of the fireworks and escaped the fence. My HC just brought him back, fussing at me because I had been on the phone with his parents and didn't take his call. What can I say? It just takes some people a long time to say goodbye.

Everything is back to normal and the kids are in bed. Finally. Quiet. At last.

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.

Hace Mucho Calor

It is SO hot. (or more correctly translated: It is very hot.) It was 102 today and I don't care where you are from or how hot it is where you live: it was HOT today. See the heat waves??

Yesterday, I blogged about how our AC has misplaced its purpose in life. Last night, Ian woke me up because he was scared and he heard a noise. I put him back in bed and crawled in next to him until he went back to sleep (an easy thing because he has a Great fan in his room that points straight into his bed tent and just waffles around in there because of the bed tent material. Wonderful.

So he fell asleep and then I heard a noise. I got up to investigate and there, where our AC had been at bedtime, was a big gaping hole. I could see outside. I could hear outside. And it sounded like gigantic truck engines. I went to the kitchen door to see who had the misfortune to steal our ineffective AC (good riddance!) and it was Brian's wrecker parked on the street that was making the big engine noise. There was also a cop car in our driveway. Maybe Brian (the mayor and owner of B&G's Wrecker and Recovery [B is for Brian and G is for Girric, his 5 year old son]) decided to steal our AC. But why? He has central at his house. And it works.

Then I see that my HC's unit is home as well. And then I hear voices laughing and talking and notice that the garden hose is in the front yard and not where it usually is outside Berry's dog kennel. Upon further investigation (in other words, I looked out of every window in the house), I could not locate the source of the noise. So I got a drink and checked on the kids and then there was a louder laughing and carrying on sound. I looked through the AC hole and inadvertantly scared 4 men with my eyeballs peeping out (I was on my tiptoes). I found out that they had decided to clean out the AC (you're supposed to do it every year??) and all the gunk that accumulates. They thought that it had never been done. There must have been a lot of nasty in there. Then they decided to replace it back into the hole to see if it worked any better.

I didn't care if it did or not, as long as they turned it back on. They did and it wasn't. I went to bed.

This morning, I got up and went into the kitchen. The counters were a mess. Everything was rearranged and out of place, but the kitchen felt very very good. Then I noticed the window unit that someone had stuffed in the window. Turns out we do have a window in the house that is big enough for that window unit. Thank You Lord! So the kitchen, rather than the living room, has been the heart of our home today. The little window unit has been kicking the pants off of the gigantic wall unit in the living room. It really should be embarrassed, letting a little midget like that show it up. But it's not.

I don't even know what the heat index was today, just that my HC told me to keep the kids inside, since there was one 911 call of an 11 year old needing EMS due to being outside too long and getting heat stroke or heat exhaustion or something. So we stayed inside and ate popsicles and didn't turn any lights on and didn't wear much either.

It got a little too yucky, so we decided to go to Harp's, our local grocery store. For bananas. Well, we're out and Harp's has a great AC and freezer section.

Uncle Steven decided to get us some steaks for dinner, too, so it was a great idea. He even volunteered to grill them for us. He made baked potatoes and didn't char them (I should have taken a picture of my poor mummified, dusty potatoes).

It was great.

Now we are waiting for the bedrooms to cool off enough so I can put the kids in bed. So far it's 8:30 and it's a no go. So Ian is playing his earned 30 minutes of video games and Erin is playing, not yet in the tired/cranky stage. Which is a nice change, because she's been lodged in hot/cranky for a few days now. I am just ready to stretch out and dry.

But when it comes down to it, I'm not missing the microwave all that much. I had to give up the microwave plug-in to plug in the window AC in the kitchen. Good riddance to that too. I'll haul the microwave to the bathroom if I have to use it that bad.

Don't worry, I'm not that desperate yet.

Hot Poop

Well it's hot. Hot hot hot hot hothothothothot. I signed up for weather advisories from our closest tv station (it's the only one that actually focuses on our area; Tulsa weather doesn't do us much good here). I've been getting 3 to 5 emails a day warning me of a heat advisory. It gives specific times that the advisory is in effect. I also got one severe thunderstorm warning, which didn't make any sense because when it listed the times, it said Clear after it. So I guess the storm won't hit us after all. Too bad, because we could use a breath of relief. On top of that Augustine blessing (for those of you that don't get that, it's August. So there.), our air condition is feeling its age. I'm guessing it's at least 30 years old, or pretty close to it. It is running up the bill without running down the temperature. Which means heat rash for everyone. Ian has his own ceiling fan as well as his own floor fan to blow on his bed. The baby has her own fan to blow on the crib and we have a piddly little ceiling fan that you can hardly feel, because it is too small for the size of the room. There's also a big oscillating fan in the hallway opening that's supposed to blow the cool air from the living room into the hallway. Well, it was working a month ago, but our poor AC has some kind of dementia because it has forgotten what it's supposed to do.

So we are praying for a new air conditioner. Someone told us about this great AC someone else is selling for a fraction of the price. But....it's for central heat/air. So the price plus the freon service plus the duct work plus everything would be over $1,000. Great, I know, for the price, but not exactly something that's realistic for us right now. Unless we could put our AC on Antiques Roadshow; prepare to be amazed.

So everyone is overheated and cranky. I fried some eggs this morning at breakfast time, but opted not to cook anything hot for supper. My poor HC was wilted when he came home for his dinner break. That Kevlar vest is not made for 100+ heat. And tomorrow is when the Real heat advisory starts.

So the kids have been running around in their underwear for most of the day, not allowed to go outside because of the heat, and I've been trying to keep up with messes and sooth little raw tempers. Too bad my own needs a couple hours of subarctic to help it.

And I found out today that I need to take Uncle Steven back to the airport on Tuesday because his plane leaves at 8:10am. My HC is working an overnight, so he won't be able to come with us. With check-in time and driving time together, I have to get myself and the chillens up at around 4am. Believe me, we are coming straight home for everyone to have a recovery nap. But it's going to be at least 4 hours in the car AC, so that's not so bad. And gas is down about 20 cents from when we picked Uncle Steven up at the airport, so the blessings are stacking up some.

Now to the other part of the title. No, I wasn't being crass. The kids were in the tub yesterday, playing. Erin likes to stand up and walk along the sides of the tub. She likes to throw everything out and yell until I fetch. She also likes to dump cup-fuls of water out of the tub and then yell when I take the cup away. And she likes to laugh at Ian, who will do almost anything, even knock himself out, to make her laugh. I had turned to tidy the sink and grab a fresh towel when all of a sudden Ian came shooting out of the tub yelling. I don't even think any water got on the floor. I don't even think he touched the floor. One second he was playing in the tub and the next second he had teleported to the other side of the bathroom under the towel shelf. "Ewwwww! Eww! Eww! Ewwwww!"

"What?" I asked, baffled. "What's wrong?"

"Ewwwww!" He turned horrified and disgusted brown eyes to mine.

"Baby girl POO-POO in the tub!!!!"

Sure enough, when I went to investigate, there were several articles in the tub that had not been there before. One of them was being chased by a tiny hand. Ugh!

I checked to see if she was done and swooped her out of the tub. Ian couldn't stay away. He gingerly crept forward and craned his neck to see, now that he was a safe distance away. It really didn't help matters when he spied a recycled grape. "What's that grape doing in there?" he asked. Uh oh. "Uh...that's a poo poo grape," I tried to explain.

---Today at snack time, he had some grapes (brave soul), but told Erin "you no eat grapes, Erin. Baby girl no like grapes today, Mommy." I guess he figured she'd had enough. So she got peaches. Back to our story (A good title: She Poopeth in Still Waters. har har har).---

I pulled the plug and put all the toys back in the tub basket for later bleaching. I stood Erin on the outside of the tub to watch. After some grunts and pleading, I got all the offending articles down the drain and rinsed out really good. I took out the mat and stood the kids back in the tub for a quick stand-up bath. Ian had to inspect the tub really well before he would get in and kept warily glancing at the baby's bottom like it was Mt. St. Helen's.

Soon after I had everyone clean and the tub full of bleachy water and the bath toys all in it, happily disinfecting.

Tonight, Ian remembered to tell Erin before we got in the tub. "Baby girl, NO GO Poo Poo in the Tub. Okay?"

She just grinned.

Cheese and Salsa

Tuesday we had the kids' pictures taken. We were late for our appointment and it was given to someone else who walked in, so we had to wait until they called us. I was aggravated about that; I hate being late, but sometimes it just cannot be helped. Especially when you live 20 minutes from anywhere.

When we got down to business, it was...educational. Erin wasn't so sure about all the fuss and cooing and coaxing to smile. She thought the photographer (can you call them photographers when all they do is punch a button??) was weird. I think she was in a bad mood that day (the photog, not Erin, she was just sleepy, I think). Either way, it was a good thing her assistant was there to play with the kids while she stomped and sighed and took crooked pictures. Hopefully the photo printer person will fix it.

It's a good thing we have photogenic kids. Erin was quickly fussy and wanted to get off of that podium. Every time we let go she tried to crawl off. She didn't like the positions she was forced to hold and didn't like not being held. Ian, on the other hand, is a ham. And no, I don't know where he gets that from. He thought it was funny if he made faces and stuck his tongue out at the last minute. There were a lot of retakes for him.

And then there were the packages. The cheapest package is $80. Or you can get the CD for $99 and print off as many pictures as you want. Sorry, give me a couple of backgrounds and I can do just as well with my own camera. But we were happy with what we got; now we have to wait until the cows come home to pick them up (they will being coming August 13 unless they come early. ?!).

Other news of the week: someone is interested in buying our house and is currently trying to get a loan. We don't want to get our hopes up, but the people in question keep calling us and asking us questions that make sense. We are happy to help, if it sells our house.

I did a lot of canning today. Well, it felt like a lot of canning. Only 6 jars of salsa this time, but I dejuiced and seeded tomatoes for hours today. My fingers are still a little pruny. My HC says that this skill is useful just in case I ever get sprayed by a skunk. Naturally, this made me feel oh so much better.

Ian had a friend over to play today. His friend, G, brought over a couple of toy trucks to play with. After an hour, he asked that they be put on top of the refrigerator to keep them safe (he is 5). Ian told him to leave them here when it was time to go home. G did not feel that it was necessary for him to do so and took them with him. I think Ian missed the toys more than he missed his friend, who has the tendency to choose watching tv over playing.

We are counting down to the "Meet Your Teacher" day at school. It is the same day that Uncle Steven will be going back to Florida. I'm sure he will be glad to sleep on anything other than the couch, especially if there's an air conditioning that works in the house.

We are in a heat advisory for the next several days. It has been topping 100 and is nasty outside. We are staying as close to our not-so-cold air conditioner as possible. I keep telling Ian that if he would sit still, he wouldn't be so hot. He does not agree.

Erin is getting that other top tooth in, finally. It is taking forever to break through and she is fretful. With the arrival of August, we are finished with her First Year calendar. I had so much fun writing everything down as she learned to do things, as well as big days for our family. I guess I'm going to have to figure something else out. :D

(Don't you just love the Tigger hat? We got it from Disney when Ian was 3 months old; they both look so cute in it.)

I don't feel as interesting today as I normally do. I spent a lot of time in the kitchen today with those tomatoes. I really hope the salsa turns out to be yummy. I'm not sure how I'll feel if it's nasty or no one wants to eat it. Oh well, we can always use it for Christmas gifts. Is it tacky to ask for the jars back?? Probably, but man, those jars are expensive!!

Now that it's August, I'm finally figuring out how to do things around the heat. Baking and cooking are best done in the morning, when the house is still cool. Unless you are canning, then there's no good time, it just makes everything hot. I am glad that our garden is not going to waste though. But now I am out of canning jars! Now, of course, is the time for someone to give us 10 lb of okra. I have everything but jars and hot peppers. Our local grocery store is not carrying them until the salmonella ? scare is over. I guess. I think. Because what other reason do they have not to carry them. We live in OK! There are ALWAYS peppers. Until now.

Another thing. My birthday is a week from Saturday. I feel like I need to make a list or something. My friend Rachel is a compulsive list-maker. Neat, right? No, the neat thing is that she actually DOES the things on her list. Crazy. I love to make lists too, but I end up doing other things and then putting them on the list so I can mark them off. Does anyone else do that?

Anyway, when you start not making sense it's time to go to bed. The best kind of people take their own advice. The End.