my children, the hole diggers

so last night at about 6PM, I walked outside to tell the neighbor boy that it was time to go home and that it was time for dinner for J & E. I see one of our neighbors (she lives on the next street, but her backyard and our backyard touch at one corner) standing at my fence, waving at me to come over. I tell J and E to go inside with L and I walk over to her. apparently, she has a big hole in her yard and she saw J, E, and neighbor boy with shovels. I apologize profusely, she is very nice about it and I say that I will make it clear that they are NOT to dig in other people's yards, etc. so I spoke with all 3 of them(neighbor boy was still inside the house when I came back), they all said they were sorry and would not do it anymore. this morning, neighbor husband comes over. he asks me if I have seen the hole. no, I just talked to his wife about the hole, I did not actually see it. I walk out back and walk over to his side yard and there is this hole that is about 1 foot in diameter and at least 4 feet deep I kid you not, E could probably stand in the hole and her head might be even with the ground. I apologize even moreso. I am so embarrassed. I ask him if he will leave it alone and not fill it in yet, so that the kids can do this for him when they get home from school. he says that is not necessary, but if that is what I want than he will not do it. E got home from school, I talked with her. J gets home, I talked with him. I got the wheelbarrel and J held 2 shovels and off we went. E was pushing L in the swing in the backyard, that was her responsibility...to keep Luke happy while we filled in the hole. 2 wheelbarrels full of dirt and the hole is no longer there. then, I watched as J & E scooped up the dog poop in the backyard together. then, E Windexed the sliding glass doors and J put away his laundry. we are walking over after dinner so that they can apologize in person. I have no freaking idea how 3 kids dug such a deep hole. and not one of them was dirty.
J did say when we were filling it in that they were on the lookout for bones...as in dinosaur bones.
so at least it started as an educational destruction of property?
there's always a bright side.

it had to happen, right?

I thought I had gotten off without going through the Barney phase. nope, the baby has discovered the big purple dinosaur. and he loves him. a lot.

I actually just dvr'ed some Barney episodes to have on hand. you know, just in case we have a Barney emergency.

he just finished watching an episode and actually clapped. oh, this doesn't look like it's going to be a quick phase.

if my posts start sounding a little too sing songy and happy happy, this is why. I'm surrounded by Max and Ruby and Dora, that chick that sings the ABC ChooChoo Train song, and Noddy.

next home project? watch out Bob Vila!!!

well, the dollhouse is still sitting in the exact same spot it was from my last post. this does not mean, however, that we have not been working on something. I decided Martin Luther King weekend was the perfect time to...tile the kitchen.
all of the tile is now on the floor. half of the kitchen is grouted. walls have been painted. a new stove is arriving tomorrow. I'm hoping by the end of the week I will have a fully functional kitchen again.
on a side note...the knee pads would have helped, a lot. my knees hurt. my back hurts. my rear end hurts. my hands are all dry and I had mortar in my hair.
the man and I only yelled once at one another. there were many entertaining moments, though. I really think we should have filmed it and sent it in to Bob Vila or Ty Pennington or something. there used to be a show on called Hometime. not sure if it is still around or not, but we loved that show. it was a man and a woman who did home projects and they used to fight like cats and dogs about every 3 episodes or so.
hmm, I guess I'd better go grout some more.

the dollhouse from Santa...again

well, this picture is so deceiving. to look at this dollhouse, you would assume, "hey, it's almost done. it looks great!". yes, the door won't stay closed. we're going with the assumption that the family that lives here is very friendly and welcomes guests at all times. but, there are like a hundred pieces of wood still to be used and a bunch of steps left in the instruction book, so maybe the door can be closed at some point.

we've been working on this since the day after Christmas. it's now January 15. what's left to assemble? the porch roof, the ladder, the upstairs railing(can't have any dollhouse family dolls falling overboard) and the furniture.

the instruction booklet did not say you needed to have a general contractor in the family in order to assemble this thing. damn liars.

to be continued.....

I love Saturdays

I get to sleep in...until 8AM. but hey, that is sleeping in to me! I pretended to be in a dead sleep while I listened to the baby babble happily from the monitor, until the man got up and took care of breakfast for them both.
yes, he works all week. but, he can do kid duty once a week. that's not a lot to ask, is it? Saturdays I get to get up, have coffee, take a shower by myself...possibly shave my legs without anyone asking me why my legs are prickly and why do I have hair on my peepee.
this makes me happy.

you think you've got your schedule all together and then... BAM!

I've mentioned my son takes karate classes. he is an orange belt now and has been going to classes on Mondays and Wednesdays from 6:45-7:30PM since the school year began. apparently now that has changed and no one told me.
we showed up on time(or so I thought) for his class tonight, and I see a class in progress that has a lot of familiar faces in it. in fact, all of the kids in the class are from Jack's class. one parent whispers to me, "class starts at 6 now." uh, huh? so after I processed that there was only about 5 minutes left of the class, I told Jack to just wait and we'd talk to the Sensei after class. so then I asked him how he knew about the time change, and he says, "oh, I asked a bunch of questions after the last class before the holidays". great. wonderful. I am the loser parent who just assumed classes would remain the same after the holiday break. I mean, far be from me to assume that maybe the school could have written an email(they have my addy) or maybe put a notice into the mail or something? I guess I am not the only parent, though. one other Mom walked in and found out and her reply was that her ex probably had the schedule and just didn't tell her the time change so she'd look bad.some issues there, I guess.(closing my eyes and whispering....never getting a divorce. never getting a divorce. never getting a divorce.)
so, now our schedule has changed. (I really hate changes like this.) off to re-do the weekly planner now. grrrrrrrrrrr

Santa was on drugs when he gave this particular gift to my children

so...Santa. Santa is great, isn't he? I absolutely LOVE to see the excitement of Christmas and Santa in my children throughout the season. especially Christmas Eve and morning. but, here we are at January 6th and 1 present that Santa gave us is still in about a million pieces spread out all over my kitchen table.
Santa brought them a log cabin kit. it's sort of a rugged dollhouse. Jack and Erin are both excited to play with it when it is done. yes, Santa brought a toy that needs a frickin general contractor to put it together. it even has a video for instructions.(not that the man has watched said video....no, far be it from my manly man to succumb to (gasp) directions!
so, we have worked on this thing quite a bit, yet it does not seem to have put a dent in the pile of wood that is still there for parts. it even has furniture that you have to put together. and a gabled roof. and you have to cut stuff, too. oh, and the best part of this kit.....none of the pieces of wood are marked or labeled in any way. yeah, so you have to measure and find each piece and there are pieces that are only 1/8 inch in difference. good God, I may just have to put this thing on display by the time it is finished, because I don't know that my heart could take it to see my children do something like stand on it. (they climb/stand on everything. I thought it was a passing phase, but the 8 yr old still does it, so I guess it's genetic.)
so, upon completion of the Shenandoah Log House, there will be a party. in my kitchen, using the kitchen table once again for something other than a sawhorse.
to be continued......

we're freezing in sunny Florida

yes, that is ice. in Central Florida. and yes, that is the Elmo sprinkler that was turned on for a bit so that my children could see what ice on the yard looks like. poor Elmo.
so, I'm just not cut out for cold weather living. in theory, I think that snow is beautiful. the crisp, cold air is invigorating. the clothes are kinda bulky, but if everyone is wearing a parka, than it's OK to wear a parka, right? however, these past few days of unseasonably cold weather here have waken my ass up about cold weather. I hate wearing layers of clothing. I hate needing to wear shoes for the purpose of keeping my feet warm, not just to keep sand out of my toes. I hate having to dress my children in layers of clothing. especially the baby. he hates socks as much as his Momma does. and the fleece outfits(actually they are sleepers, but who cares, right? if we're inside the house and he is warm, than a sleeper can serve as an outfit for a 9 month old).
my feet are cold. I think my blood is cold. my body feels cold and it is 50 something outside. I walked out to get the mail and had to have a cup of hot tea when I came back inside.
and people live in this frigid condition for months on end? good God, give me my flip flops and sandy toes any day. if you're reading this, please send warming vibes to Florida. this Momma needs it to be at least 70. soon.

Happy New Year (and yes, I know it's the 2nd)

well, better late than never, right? I spent the majority of yesterday taking advantage of(err, loving his company)my hubby. we got all of the Christmas stuff down(well, the lights are still on the swing set...the kids love that)and up into the attic once again. some spell was cast upon hubby and he decided all on his own to clean out his side of the closet. gasp. now, this does make me happy, however it also means that I now have to do the same on my side. can't have his side looking more organized than mine. no no no.













we did some sparklers and some legal(boring)fireworks in the backyard. drank a bottle of champagne and rang out 2007 with a little zing zing.(I say we closed out 2007 because the man was fast asleep and snoring by 11PM) I, however, decided to stay awake until 1 watching some shows that have been on the dvr forever. I am now all caught up on Nip/Tuck..love that show!
then, at 3AM, Luke decided it was time to start the New Year...still sick:( I let everyone else sleep until 9 and then passed him off to Daddy and went in for a shower and nap. I wish I could be a nap person. it never works for me...either I sleep way too long and am then awake too late that night, or can't sleep and just lay there thinking that I am wasting my nap time by not sleeping. ugh. so, I rested for an hour or so, but since the baby was crying and obviously not happy with whatever Daddy was doing with him, I got up. what was Daddy doing? watching football, i.e. ignoring everyone else in the room.
OK, off to Walgreens yet again for the latest Rx for Luke. now we're trying liquid Albuterol. we'll give each and every drug company a fair chance. thank God for insurance, we only pay $9 per Rx.