Busy, busy, busy

The Husband is officially on vacation until Jan. 2 - and his cardiologist is on vacation all next week so hopefully we won't be summoned to the hospital til after New Year's.

I ran out to Michael's this afternoon to return a few things. I shopped around with a 40% coupon and a $10 gift card in my wallet and didn't spend a thing. I even gave my coupon away. Then I got to my car. No keys. After a few minutes of panic and a call to The Husband I spotted them in the car. I have OnStar but Hubs came down to open the doors since he was coming that way anyhow. I took him to lunch and spent the $ I had gotten back from the returns.

While I was waiting I wandered into Barnes & Noble, a place I seldom go because Amazon and Half.com are so much cheaper. I need to do that more often because I sat in the magazine section and read all of their papercrafts magazines (they have at least 30 now) so now I don't need to buy them. And while I didn't see MAKE magazine, they did have Make's new sister publication, CRAFT. At $15 an issue I'm not likely to subscribe, but it's definitely fun to read (and I'll be at B&N when the next issue comes out). One of the interesting articles (that isn't on the website) was about an artist named David Cole who knitted a Ginormous American Flag using two excavators holding light poles. His yarn was 18" wide lengths of felt. I have no plans to take up knitting on that scale at any time soon.

Older daughter and I finished up her friend's gifts this afternoon - we made 50 'pots' of lip balm in various flavors, and we're getting most of our family Christmas project painted tonight. Tomorrow I'm expecting the last Amazon.com shipment and I have some ornaments to finish up. I might actually have most everything done before 2007! It'll be really nice to be able to enjoy the church services on Christmas Eve. The church is having a Love Feast at all the evening services and The Boy is excited about getting to have a snack in church.

Twisted Sister goes caroling

Trees

This is one of the deformed giant trees at the first tree farm we visited last week. Fortunately, Older Daughter spotted another tree farm over the ridge and we managed to find our way over to it. Younger DAughter in her Elf hat. Can you guess what she wants for Christmas? The school nurse pulled her loose tooth last week when it wouldn't stop bleeding.

Here's the tree we picked. Apparantly we had to sell our son's winter coat in order to buy it.

The final cut:

Dr. Update

Sorry - I couldn't post last night and today we've been out Christmas shopping (almost done!!).

We left the hospital together yesterday - and before 5pm. It was probably one of the shortest visits ever, but it helps that they're consolidating some of the services that we used to have to run all over the hospital for into one area.

The Husband came home with a Holter monitor on (24 hour EKG) so they can see how his rhythm is over time. We'll get the results from that on Tuesday. Meanwhile the Cardio is consulting with the Arrythmia specialist to see whether another ablation procedure could feasibly help. Stay tuned.

The Boy's first concert

Second row, green shirt. He started playing violin in September. They played Jingle Bells and Good King Wenceslas very nicely.

One of our straightforward road signs:

Dr. update

The appointment was moved to Thursday so I went shopping instead :o)

Done!

The van finally fits back in the garage! We couldn't believe that we got it done this afternoon. The Husband and I did a lot of it by ourselves while the kids dealt with cleaning up from a sick dog. Better them than me...

Tomorrow is Tree Day. It's 'supposed' to be 50 degrees and sunny out -- time will tell.

Monday, if you're keeping track (JG) The Husband has a cardiologist appt in the afternoon, meaning we'll probably be heading out of the city between 5 and 6 - my favorite drive time on the GW Bridge!

Jenny -- sorry I haven't called you back about your email -- I haven't had a voice all week (the one person I had to call kept calling me "Mister"!). And I updated the post below for you :o)

Searching for charity

Searchkindly.org is a site that launched in October. It is powered by Google and they donate all of their Google AdSense revenue to charity. The current beneficiary is Invisible Children. Thus far they've raised $370 since they launched, but they're hoping to spread the word and be able to make "significant" donations in the future.

FYI, The Boy is fine. A day or two of rest and some Aleve (and a negative x-ray) and he's back to tormenting his sisters.

I keep finding dead leaves in the house. At first I thought they were blowing in with the wind, but today I noticed that when Wilma chases leaves she doesn't leave them outside. So now I have to check her mouth before I let her inside.

We got some chores done on Sunday, despite The Husband's raging cold (which I seem to be getting now). This morning I slept in. Around 8:30 I heard a scratching at the headboard which woke me up real quick! I sat still listening for awhile until I heard a thump and then felt a rabbit jumping up onto the bed. Guess who escaped and came upstairs for a visit? So I got up and took all the animals downstairs (since there was no chance of going back to sleep with 3 dogs and a rabbit on my bed...) and let everyone have the run of the downstairs until the kids got home.

Gotta run - it's hard to blog and watch Heroes at the same time.

So much to do...

I've been hit HARD with fatigue lately (sleeping as much as 12 hours a day and being groggy and listless most of the rest of the hours). We had grand plans for this past weekend, of which very little actually got done. I was hoping to get outside Christmas lights up while it was 60 degrees out instead of later this week in the rain. I just checked and Thursday's highs are supposed to be in the 60's - I'll keep my fingers crossed that I'll find some energy that day.

We're working on a family Christmas gift project involving wood and saws and paint and woodburners. We managed to get much of the wood cut and some of it sanded, so at least we're making some progress.

I make Christmas ornaments every year with the kids photo inside a glass ball. I've also started making them for my sister to give as gifts and some as gifts for friends (if I have a pic of their families), plus I've sold some. I've managed to make a dent in my sister's and some others, but we haven't even gotten a photo of our kids yet. We also need to take a Christmas Card photo - I have the cards halfway finished but the photo is part of the design.

The Boy woke up this morning with a very painful spot on his thigh - barely able to walk on it. The Husband has him at the Doctor as I type this. And he just called and they're going for an x-ray. The Boy couldn't pinpoint any injury or anything. But he is a member of the familly of medical mysteries...

It's 5 o'clock - I guess I should start thinking about dinner. Crackers and popcorn are currently at the top of the list.

High-speed videography

53 degrees

I can't believe that kid's father let him out without even a shirt on....

RIP Ben the Hamster

We had a bad weekend. Friday it was discovered that Ben the Hamster (Habenero, officially) had gone to that Great Hamster Wheel in the Sky. It has been a very emotional weekend here as a result.

Interment took place in the backyard under a pine tree out in the "Back 40". The Boy, in particular, was instrumental in the final arrangements.


Unlike certain other people who shall remain nameless we don't leave our dearly departed in a brown paper lunch bag in the Arizona sun for the pool installers to trample. We do things differently in Pennsylvania. Just sayin'...

I'm not bragging or anything...

Your Vocabulary Score: A

Congratulations on your multifarious vocabulary! You must be quite an erudite person.

How's Your Vocabulary?

TODAY ONLY 11/20

Giveawayoftheday.com is a great site that I discovered recently. Every day they give away a different piece of software. The catch is that the download is only available for 24 hours and you have to install it in that 24 hour period.

Today's download is Photo Toolkit 1.5 . It adds functionality to Windows Picture and Fax Viewer that allows you to do quite a bit of photo editing. I've been editing some photos this morning and the only thing I needed Photoshop for was to make the background transparent - everything else I could do right in Win Pic/Fax Viewer.

Go! Now! If I have to reformat my computer and lose this software I will definitely buy it.

Here's the garden, Jenny. We still have a little green - Italian Parsley and a second (tiny) crop of Cilantro. I'm sloooooowwwwly cleaning it up...

Cousins in the leaves

The two little ones are my sister's boys

Just a pretty picture

I thought of you, Jolene, when I took this photo:

Scary

After posting the pics in the post below I thought that YD looked really familiar. She turned 7 in October. Here's a pic of my 7th birthday many, many Octobers ago... Can you figure out which is me?

Pictures

This year's Jack O'Lanterns. Younger Daughter cut most of the mouth of hers; OlderDaughter spent mucho time cutting her cat out; and The Boy cut the skull.



Younger Daughter's last soccer game two weeks ago -- and her first lost front tooth, just in time for Halloween!


















j

The Husband remarked that I haven't blogged in awhile, so I am at least dropping in to say hello.

I have a backlog of photos in my camera that I need to post. Fortunately I remembered this before I did laundry this morning (bear with me - this will make sense) . Our desktop computer is having issues and needs to have Windows reinstalled. We haven't been able to do that because we need to find the driver for the hard drive (and The Husband just picked up the phone to call the Computer Store to get that! Yay!). So since that computer is mostly non-working - none of the USB drives will work - I can't use my camera dock. So last night I took the card out of my camera to take upstairs to my laptop. For some stupid reason I put the card in the little watch pocket of my jeans so that when I emptied my pockets I didn't pull out the card. The jeans then went into the wash. Something made me remember the card this morning.

Maybe I'll find time to post some photos later - right now I'm scrambling to figure out dinner and I'm going to a Pampered Chef party tonight, not to mention that Jericho and Lost are both on tonight (both of which are mind-blowing shows that one needs time to process so they shouldn't be on consecutively. I really wish we were a Nielsen Family - they NEED to know my opinions).

This...

...is what the world frequently looks like to me. Give it a minute and you'll feel nauseaous :o)

If blogging seems light lately

it's because my Mom took the kids apple picking last weekend and they picked 70 lbs of apples! So I'm spending my days looking for apple recipes. We had baked apples and apple pie. Tomorrow is apple cake and I'm considering apple pancakes for dinner...maybe some apple chip cookies or macaroni and apples?

My total

at the grocery store this morning was $50.00 even. Shouldn't I get a prize or something?

Take Me Out to the Ballgame

Gametime was 4:05 yesterday. We got there early, with plenty of time to watch batting practice. We even managed to randomly pick the parking lot nearest the gate that was nearest our seats.The street crossing signs have cute little ballplayers:




Boy is Yankee Stadium high! We were in the next to last row! The air was mighty thin up there - we were actually looking DOWN on the Foul Pole!
But we had a great view of everything





Oh yeah - the Yankees lost to Toronto 5-4. This was the 4th game I've been to and they've lost every one.

Mmmmmm...bagels......

They were yummy with Lignonberry jelly, but by themselves they needed more flavor. I think I'll use the dough to make pretzels next because the cooked bagels had a "crust" like Auntie Anne's pretzels (and the salt should help the flavor).

Recipe from The Bread Machine Cookbook by Donna German

In the bread machine:
1 c water
1 1/2 T honey
1t salt
3 c bread flour
1 1/2 t yeast

Let the machine knead the dough once and allow to rise for only 20 minutes. Divide dough into 12 pieces. Roll each into a rope and form a circle, pressing ends together with a little water to seal. Place on a well greased cookie sheet , cover and let rise 20 minutes. Bring 2 inches of water to a slight boil. Carefully lower 3 bagels at a time and boil 30 seconds on each side. Drain on a towel and return to greased baking pan. Bake in a preheated 550` oven for 8 minutes.

Nothing to report

Same old stuff going on here. Soccer, baseball, riding lessons and other activities keep us hopping. Speaking of hopping, we've been letting Neo out of his cage more often. He now spends most of the afternoon free and he loves it. He and Wilma play - really roughly sometimes, but they both instigate it. Neo has tried playing with Shadow this week but Shadow has turned into such an old man in the past year (he's around 7 or 8) that he just grumbles and moves away.

We have tickets to see the Yankees play on the 30th, thanks to Daddy's recent bonus. We're getting a little nervous, though. We bought the tickets in late July. At the time this was the only game that we could get 4 tickets together at (Younger Daughter will be spending quality time with Grandma). Problem is, the time of the game was "TBD" and we didn't know if it was day or night (we're hoping for day...). Well as of today the game time is still TBD. And it's the ONLY game on the schedule without a time. Arghhh.

Older Daughter's birthday is this coming Saturday. We'll be spending the day at my sister's house for my nephew's 4th birthday (which was Sept. 2, but somebody couldn't pick a better day for a party..., at least it's also Town-Wide yardsale day in their town). OD is turning 12 (yikes!).

True Confessions

We've been watching this.

Not only have we been watching it, we actually look forward to it!

I'm so ashamed

The Husband thinks Lucy Lawless looked better brunette. I didn't recognize her as a blonde but I think she's far more attractive on Duets then on Zena (not that I watched Zena!)

Another Thursday and more rain, so I'm guessing that soccer will be cancelled again - which is fine because we also have 2nd Grade Open House tonight.

I've been managing to get some small projects done of late - I have an art swap to get in the mail tomorrow and I have MUCH junk to clear out of here (as usual), but we did manage to put up curtains around the pantry shelves so I don't have to look at the mess all the time. Someday it will be a real pantry...maybe.... I had to do some pantry cleaning because when I wanted to make cinnamon rolls yesterday I discovered that my yeast was dead and my flour was infested with Indian Meal Moths. Ick! And when one dry good is infested it's a good bet that the others are too. So I need to head to Sam's for yeast and flour and buy more of the Lock 'n Lock containers that I LOVE to store dry goods in. We still need to retile the empty space in the kitchen floor but otherwise the Kitchen is more or less under control. Younger Daughter has a corner of the Living Room for her use since her bedroom is so tiny and that has been slowly getting cleaned up and she moved her 'desk' so that she and her Sassy friend can play school (they're in the same class this year and enjoy doing homework together).

We went to a new church last Sunday and The Husband and I both felt at home. We'll be back this week to hear the sermon since Sunday's sermon wasn't really a sermon - it was the (new) pastor's vision for that church, which was pretty much the vision that every pastor (and Christian) ought to have for every church. But both the choir and the congregatonal singing was AMAZING! The Husband, who has a wonderful singing voice and usually sticks out in any congregation, was able to sing loudly and not be obvious. Even the hyms sounded like they were being sung by a full choir, not the anemic, half-hearted singing we've been hearing at other churches. Just a few days earlier I had ordered some Traditional Hymn CDs from CBD because I missed them, but this church could easily fill that void and we hope it will fill some others. If you know me in a churchy way then you won't be surprised that I have chancel issues about this church (there's no cross at the front, only a denominational seal!). Sighhhhh. Maybe the new pastor will address that at some future date.


So I was looking through my photos from Maine in August and noticed that I didn't take very many - and there are even fewer that I really like. The two girls below are Younger Daughter and her cousin "Gwen" (Girl Who Eats Nothing !) who lives in Maine.

Trying to catch up...again

Things are plodding along here. School's in full swing - next week will be the first FULL week of school since they had last Friday and Monday off for Labor Day. Both of the older kids are in Middle School now and they only have one Back-to-School night for all grades, so we'll only have two to go to this year instead of 3.

The Husband is swamped at work, unofficially managing a project and a moderately clueless consultant. When he was working from home yesterday he ran some stuff by me to try to figure out if the problem was in his explaining or in the Consultant's understanding. Well, since I understood it pretty well I'd say it's not the explaining...

We've had lots of rain and it mainly seems to happen in late afternoon so soccer has been frequently cancelled. They had pictures last night (but no practice), and The Boy has a baseball game tomorrow morning (they've also been rained out a lot so this will only be his second time at BB since it began in August. Also tomorrow Older Daughter will be starting Horseback Riding Lessons, thanks to her wonderful AuntL who is not only paying for lessons but also transporting OD along with CousinS to the barn every Saturday. Thanks AuntieL and family!

The garden is horribly overgrown but I'm harvesting mucho tomatoes and basil. There are a few eggplants and peppers holding thier own and I picked (well, I accidently mowed over the vine) a watermelon today that's the size of a cantaloupe. That's bigger than last year's which were the size of tennis balls! The Boy ate both in one sitting.

Rain

It hasn't started yet, but we're supposed to be getting buckets of rain this weekend from Hurricane/Tropical Storm Ernesto. It's nice and cool so since the kids are off today and Monday we'll probably do some baking. Older Daughter has a friend who spent the night and The Boy has a friend coming over later, but Younger Daughter's friend couldn't come over which left YD crabby (surprise!). I have her reading right now but I only have about 3 pages left before she whines again.

This is what happens when you want to go canoeing and a cloud breaks open just as you're getting in the boat. The Boy made a break for the house while OD and Dad pulled the boat up onto shore. I think they were glad that they hadn't left 15 minutes earlier.

Yaayyyy!!

The school busses were rolling this morning and all 3 kids left on them. Unfortunately only two will be coming home on one because The Boy is having a bout of Swimmer's Ear and The Husband took him to the doctor at 10:30am.



It's been quite a week (again). We got a call from the State Dept. of Health about The Husband's lab results. He did battle with Campylobacter - and we had to retrace our meals in Maine, including reporting the chicken barbecue at Dad's church....

Speaking of places we ate, this was one of them:

Big G's makes their own bread and the slices are HUGE! The photo below doesn't do the sandwich justice. This is Older Daughter with half of her half-sandwich ( IOW, she's holding 1/4 of a sandwich. The husband and I split a sandwich and still took home leftovers).



We also ate at Olive Garden one afternoon. Older Daughter ordered chicken parm and I ordered eggplant (which the girls and the Husband refuse to eat. The Boy will eat anything). After helping younger daughter I cut into my eggplant and it seemed unusually firm, so I asked O.D. if she had gotten her chicken. She had taken a bite and declared it good and fine and wonderful until I pointed out that she had my eggplant. Maybe if I cover food in sauce and cheese and tell her it's chicken parmesan she'll eat it...

Mary's Violet Eyes Made John Stay Up Nights...

...Pacing. But we no longer need to remember "Pacing" because Pluto has just been demoted and is no longer a planet.

In case you didn't learn it in school, the title is a mnemonic device used to remember the names of the planets in order -- Mercury, Venus, Earth...you get the picture.

Catching up

I tried to post a few times but Blogger wouldn't behave. Let's hope today's the day!

I finally pulled pictures off my camera. I'll post vacation pics in a later post. But here's the pic of my basement ceiling for Jenny.



You're looking at the bottom of the original kitchen floor and the plethora of nails and screws holding various subfloors onto it. Hence the reason we will be installing Pergo at some point in time instead of refinishing the original wood.


Oh, and directly under this portion of ceiling is my washer from which I extricated an ankle sock from the pump. Everything seems to be back in working order (well, at least the as far as the washing machine is concerned).

And...

the washing machine chose today to stop draining. Sassy Neighbor, if you're reading this, I'll be spinning a load of clothes dry at your house tomorrow :o) and we took the Birthday banner off your front porch.

Yes, we're home

and mostly alive.... It was quite a trip home. I slept through much of Saturday (packing day) so The Husband and kids had to go it alone. They did an ok job - it got done at least, even though it took hours longer than it should have - but now I can hardly find anything!

We left Maine at 7am instead of the intended 3am and arrived home at 4:30pm after a really long trip that included several unscheduled stops for dog cleanup (Shadow does not travel well!). As we arrived home The Husband immediately headed to the bathroom then to bed. Tuesday I took him to the doctor and antibiotics have helped but because of his heart issues they're running all sorts of tests on him. He's still not up to par but he has managed to work from home yesterday and today.

More about the trip later and I'll post some pictures when I find my camera...

Hi adoring fans...

Today's blog is coming to you from Dad's basement in Maine - it's wireless and everything! The weather is great although it's a little too cool for me to swim (but the kids and dogs have been in the lake every day).

This is just a quick check-in...maybe tomorrow I'll post some pictures but we've gotta get down to the cottage ("Camp" as they call them up here) for supper.

HOT!

104F at Walmart today. On the highway it dropped to 100, then to 94 at home. We've been living in the bedrooms (they have AC) - including eating dinner. The kids' third soccer practice in a row was cancelled - once for thunderstorms and twice for excessive heat (I know - you Arizona gals are practically freezing when it's below 100!).

We're making progress with the treadmill - it's out of the garage and in the house. Now it needs to get upstairs and then get assembled. It's probably not going to sprout legs anytime soon, huh?

Jenny - this is why we can't strip the kitchen floor down to the original wood. This pic is of our basement ceiling and all those nails are holding down two layers of subflooring :o( I suggested to The Husband that we bring down the flooring from the attic but he thinks that sounds like work. So we'll do Pergo.
THIS PIC WILL BE ADDED WHEN BLOGGER DECIDES TO PLAY NICE

We did manage to get the downstairs bathroom fully operational once again! You can replace a closet flange on your own if you know where to get the hinged flange from (it was no small feat! I only found one retailer online for it).

Blogging will be light or non-existent next week.
And I'm gonna post this asap because the power is flickering again (more thunderstorms)

Happy ...

System Administrator Appreciation Day

It also happens to be The Husband's thirty-somthingeth birthday :o)

We spent yesterday running around searching for soccer cleats for younger daughter. Walmart, then Dick's Sporting Goods, then Kmart with no luck. Then Sassy Neighbor sent me back to WalMart and had me ASK someone this time. Not only did they have cleats, but they had PINK cleats.
And after all that a thunderstorm cancelled soccer practice last night.

Wilma insisted on being in the picture:

Update - Part 2

If you haven't read the beginning - scroll down to the previous post before reading this one.

So we went to bed on Tuesday night with a leak somewhere above the dryer in the basement. Overnight our 2 gallon bucket was filled with water and we *thought* we knew from whence the leak sprung. We were wrong.

Wednesday, The Husband went to work but he sent his parents over to help me out. Grandma kept the kids out of my hair (thank you, thank you, thank you!) while Grandpa helped me trace the leak. Well we discovered that it wasn't coming from the pipe that we thought. It appeared to be squeezing out of the floor and onto the pipe. Yes, really.

So Dad and I continued to try to track down the source. The dripping in the basement was now taking place nowhere near any pipes. And no, there are no pipes in the floor because the basement is unfinished and you can trace all of the pipes, yet we had a 6" circle of wet in the 100 year old hardwood.

Well, on top of the wood is asubfloor, then two layers of linoleum, then another subfloor then ceramic tiles. We wondered if the dishwasher might be leaking and pushing water out from between the layers of linoleum over to this spot in the floor two feet away (which, by the way, was literally spraying out of the floor and onto the pipe). Let's pull out the dishwasher and take a look. Great idea except we could only get the dishwasher out halfway (because the "hole" that it sits in is on the first layer of linoleum, a good 3/4 of an inch below the current floor). Now what? I know! Cut a hole in the cabinet so we can look behind the dishwasher! Umm, no water there. Now what? I guess we need to pull up the flooring down to the original hardwood.

So I pulled up the tile and Dad pulled up the top layer of subfloor and two layers of linoleum. That was the easy part because there was a piece of plywood almost the size of the stove so we didn't have to cut the plywood, just pull up the 27 nails. The lower subfloor was a different story. So I pulled out the Roto-Zip and started cutting. Slowly. Because I kept breaking bits. Then I picked up the saw and the bit fell out. For those of you unfamiliar with spiral saws (Sassy Neighbor...) that's not a good thing.

So I started calling neighbors looking for another one to borrow. Nobody around here seems to be home during the day.... Fortunately Builder Neighbor was home! And he has a Roto-Zip! And he agreed to take a look at mine. So I went over and related the story, including the part about how I thought the house was haunted by a water-dripping ghost. Well, not only did he come over to see for himself (and he agreed with me about everything - except the haunting part - but with him shining a flashlight at the leak and me looking at it from a different angle I finally spotted it - a pinhole leak in a pipe 6" below the wet floor. I thaked him profusely for his advice and time, but then he proceeded to replace my subflooring under the stove, replace the stove, push back the dishwasher and reinstall it. Then he apologized for not having his plumbing equipment at home (that's ok - The Husband needs to have some part in all this).

So as a 'thank you' for folks like that I usually make a loaf of beer bread or give them the mix (it's from Tastefully Simple and it's really good), but Builder Neighbor's wife is the consultant I buy it from so it probably wouldn't be the most thoughtful idea.

So here's a photo, per Jenny's request, of the mess in progress. I was going to take a few photos of the lovely holes I cut and the floor I was attempting to destroy, but Builder Neighbor got the kitchen cleaned up before I knew what happened! I still have to replace the tile in front of the refrigerator and thaw out the big ice dam inside that is the reason for that leaking. Oh, and The Husband still needs to fix the leaky pipe in the basement so that we can turn the hot water back on.

Update - Part 1

It's been another eventful week and everytime I wanted to blog something we were offline. Our internet seems to be back finally - I think it's because Sassy Neighbor called and yelled at them :o) . Supposedly they've been upgrading our service - but after two weeks of upgrading (and a lot of down time) so far I'm not impressed.

I fell down about 5 stairs last week, but we're pretty sure I tripped on something and it wasn't an MS-related thing. Fortunately I didn't go through the plate glass door at the bottom of the stairs, but I was amazingly sore for a few days.

The Boy and Younger Daughter started soccer this week. We weren't impressed with the organization or communication! I had to email them to find out when it started and I later found out that the coordinator gave me the wrong time. Sassy Neighbor was never contacted, either, so it's not just me. Anyway, we have soccer Tue and Thurs until mid-October.

Our kitchen tile has been inexplicably cracking - particularly in front of the refrigerator. When I cut my foot on a piece of tile I decided it was time to pull it up and investigate. The subflooring was wet from water dripping out of the freezer. So I pulled about 12 tiles and we're planning on moving the fridge so I can pull up a few more then replace them with cheap tiles until next year's tax return arrives and we can put down Pergo.

The next day as I was working on the tiles some more, Older Daughter wend downstairs to reboot the laundry and came back with the news that the basement floor was wet. So I headed down to investigate. I located the leak (or so I thought)in a pipe above the dryer. I went upstairs to try to figure out if the leak was coming from higer up the pipe. In order to accomplish this I had to pull out the stove from it's corner and cut a hole in the wall. Fortunately, this was one of the few drywall walls in .the old part of the house (the rest is plaster). At this point The Husband returned from work and was greeted by children gleefully bounding out of the house with cries of "Hi, Daddy! Mommy's cutting holes in the kitchen wall!".

This story is so long I'll have to post more later... All you need to know right now is that we have no hot water - but it's much easier to deal with now when it's 90 degrees out then it was when our water heater broke on a Friday night during a blizzard.

Unplugged

It's been a fun week so far -- our phone line is out so they're sending a repairman on Thursday (so call our cell phones in the meantime), and our Internet has been sporadic (first available appointment is August 1st, but we ascertained that the whole neighborhood was out so they had it fixed today - as well as Sunday. Hopefully this repair will "take"). So I've felt a bit disconnected for the past few days.

Monday morning we took the kids to swimming lessons only to find out that it isn't swimming lessons.... Instead it's the summer recreation program. So they're doing that this week (9-12 every morning - yay!!) and two weeks from now and we still have to find swimming lessons.

There is yet another thunderstorm rolling in. Last night we lost power for 10 minutes and had a brownout later on (necessitating once again resttting all the clocks). I hope this storm will break the humidity, but somehow I doubt it. Sunday we actually had 100% humidity - I didn't think that was possible unless it's raining.

Is there a VW Bus Renaissance going on that I'm not aware of? [yes, I know I ended that sentence with a preposition, deal with it!] I hadn't seen a single one in years but all of a sudden I've seen about eight in the past week. Weird.

Anybody want a dog?

I hurried the kids through supper tonight and then ran out the door to get them to VBS at 6pm (I still haven't decided if I like it in the evenings or not...). In the rush there was no time to clean up the table.

When I returned there was half a bratwurst missing. And the macaroni salad looked like it had been rifled through.

As I cleaned up the kitchen Shadow wandered in and stood at my feet (he likes to watch my feet when I'm in the kitchen in case I drop something). I looked at him and asked, "Did you eat my dinner??". He looked back and burped.

Home!

We survived the annual extended family trip to Knoebel's Grove Amusement Park. At first we were afraid of what the park was going to be like as they were flooded by a tropical storm a week before we left. Here are some photos taken by an employee of the flooding.

The floods happened on Wednesday and by Friday night they reopened. We were there the following Friday and if you didn't know there had been 4 feet of water over the entire park you wouldn't have guessed! They did an amazing cleanup job. One Kiddie ride was out of commission and the big pool was still muddy, but you could barely tell what had happened.

The campground we usually stay at was flooded as well but it didn't recover as quickly so two days before we left we had to find another campground with enough room for the InLaw's Fifth-wheel trailer, which meant being an hour away from the park. But it all worked out well.

Wilma came with us for her first camping trip (she did well in the tent and at the Amusement Park) and the other two dogs went to my sister's house. Wilma also got to visit with her previous family (my SIL's family who raised her) and was very excited, but she seems to know that she belongs with us now.

At the moment it's really icky out - 90 degrees and there are thunderstorms on the way (I know - you Arizona gals would kill for only 90 degrees!). I've been trying to do laundry from the trip but it's so humid that nothing will dry.

Making Stuff

All 3 kids have made or helped make something this week. Older Daughter made Lemon Chicken for dinner tonight (yummy) from a recipe she found in one of her magazines. Earlier in the week, while we were looking through 'Taste of Home' magazines, Younger Daughter found a recipe she wanted to make - Cheesy Chili Bean Bake - or something like that - which was *really* surprising since she won't eat chili or beans and that's what it was for the most part. She had a blast helping to cook and she loved the food (so did Daddy - both dishes are in permanent meal rotation now).

Then earlier today The Boy handed me a pair of earrings and I told them that they weren't mine they were Older Daughter's (she had been making jewelry earlier in the day). He informed me that he had made them for me! And they're beautiful! I'll upload a pic soon - Blogger's being stupid about uploading and we have yet another thunderstorm coming and my connection is getting intermittent.

Edited to add picture:

Update on The Boy

For all those who asked in the comments - his face is back to normal after the line-drive, but the first day of baseball camp he was playing first base and got run over by a high schooler (he's 9). He came home with an ace bandage wrapped around his waist to hold the bandage on the 2" square abrasion on his waist. But he kept playing and has been practicing sliding along with everyone else all week. He's much toughter than his little sister who needs a band-aid if she even thinks about blood!

Slowly....

Very slowly getting back into the swing of things. It's been such an mild spring then last week summer hit and my MS took a hit along with it (causing mostly tiredness and "bugs" - random itching all over).

The boy had baseball camp this week and Older Daughter has been taking a babysitting class at the YMCA, thus leaving Younger Daughter more bored and whiny than usual.

We've also made several trips to the vet - Holly had to go to the Animal ER after she and Wilma got into a tussle. We're positive that Wilma was trying to play and Holly didn't want to , but it's happened 3 times and it sounds fierce! Wilma flips Holly over on her back and then Holly snarls and yaps. That first time Willy sank a tooth into Holly and the vet wanted to put in a drain to prevent an abcess. We declined and instead kept it clean and put warm compresses on it every 3 hours for 5 days and it has healed well. Shortly thereafter a cyst on Shadow burst - another trip to the vet and an estimate for surgery (and more gross wound cleaning that Older Daughter handled amazingly well.

Next week is planned as Quiet Week -- the only trip planned is to the Library, otherwise we're going to hang out in the backyard and splash in the pool and have picnics for lunch. Come join us!

Guess who caught a line drive?

With his face!!

They took him out of the game to stop the bleeding and ice his face but he refused to stop playing, so he finished up the game playing first base.

The worst part of the experience was when he got home ( I wasn't at the game) and his mean Mom kept making jokes that made him laugh (ow!). He had soup for dinner but by the next morning he felt fine.

comic

Blogger *refuses* to let me upload the comic strip I want to - so here's another one.

Little Boys and their Toys

Today is my sister's birthday. She has two boys and the 3 year old has always had a fascination with trucks to the point that you had to correctly name the truck before he would relent (lest you go insane). Now he's getting into trains - just try to remember that *that* black train is the Pennsylvania 4-6-2 Pacific steam locomotive! Fortunately for him his Grandpa runs a train store and can actually name them for him. I'd link to the shop website, Dad, but it doesn't seem to be live at the moment. Here's the link to the "Made in Maine" episode in which the shop was featured.

Anyhow, the reason for this post was to upload a relevant comic strip but Blogger won't let me so I'll try again tomorrow...

This is the Sport that Doesn't End...

...Yes it goes ON and ON my friend...

We have gotten some much needed rain during this, the last week of baseball and softball. However, it has also caused several games to be rained out and postponed until this weekend or next week.

Blogging has been and will continue to be light until next week. MS has knocked me down and I'm sleeping 12+ hours a day. The hours that I'm conscious I've been wrestling with my laptop which is going to be getting a clean install of Windows this weekend - just as soon as I back up 25 GB of data....

In other news, Merck's cervical cancer vaccine was approved by the FDA

All-Star Games

The Boy was voted onto the Baseball All-Star Team. There are four All-Star teams at his age in the league. Yeaterday The Boy's team got off to a rough start. I missed the first 2 innnings but evidently the other team (Blue) did some damage early on. But The Boy's team (Red) hung on and pulled ahead in the 5th and 6th innings (they play 6 innings)to win 17-10. The boy pitched the 6th inning.

Today's game was between the Red team and the winner of the other game yesterday (Brown). I stayed home with younger daughter, who's feeling icky, and just picked up the phone to check in. It's been cold and rainy - they had taken a rain delay around 4pm and at one point they were behind 7-0 - and I was wondering how things were progressing. It was the bottom of the 6th with 2 outs and bases loaded. The winning run was on first base. Now my ear is bleeding because of all of the yelling into the phone when the winning run was batted in.

Go Red!

Goings on

Bought a treadmill that needs to get moved upstairs. Bought a big air conditioner for the bedroom so the aforementioned treadmill can actually be used in the summer (and so that we don't melt...) which needs to be moved upstairs. Are you seeing the trend here?

Planted two of the garden beds finally and I have the sunburn to prove it :o( The dumb bunnies ate half of the peas and most of the spinach. I tore out the peas to plant tomatoes but the spinach is rebounding. Tomorrow I want to find some eggplant seedlings (which the dumb bunnies also ate - before I even got them in the ground!) and plant the sage that I bought today. I also have some jalapeno peppers that I'm going to plant in pots on the upstairs deck - it gets so hot that they did great the first year when I grew them up there. Last year I planted them in the garden and got 3 whole teeny peppers.

We spent Saturday installing 900 feet of radio fence wire for the dogs. We haven't tried using the collars on them yet but I suspect Shadow is going to need the "Stubborn Dog" collar. I accidently shocked myself with the regular collar and I doubt he would even be annoyed by it.

The Boy will be playing in the baseball All-Star game next weekend (he's *slightly* excited about that) and both he and Younger Daughter got signed up for soccer which starts in July (ugh!).

Only 3 more half days of school left. Pray that I don't go insane before August 28th...

Oh, and I'm playing around with HTML...

Awwwwww!

My studly husband

Here he is showing off one of his many talents - catching quarters off his elbow. He's such a Potsie [bonus points if you get that reference!].

Fortunately I am not related by blood to this lady...

A children's trowel is not the choice that I would make for moving 6 cubic yards of topsoil. But to each his own....

Tonight

The Two-hour LOST finale starts at 9pm AND we have no ballgames to get to. Woohoo!

Quick! Get me a padlock!

Report Card Time!

The kids will be getting their report cards on the last day of school which is (gulp!) June 2nd!

But guess who recently flunked out of Seeing Eye Dog School? Wilma! So we have yet another addition to our Menagerie (and we have reached animal saturation!).


The Husband and his sister went to get her yesterday and last night we let her up on the bed with the other two dogs. Now she thinks she owns it and doesn't wait for an invitation. She woke me up this morning by sitting on my head (she thinks she's a lap dog...and a head dog).

Everybody is getting along just fine. Willy and Neo really like each other but Willy is a little too exhuberant for a 2 lb. bunny so until she calms down a little she stays on a leash when Neo is out of his cage.

Anyone want to come over and help install radio fence wire???




Does anyone else see the resemblance?