I Can't Even Go to the Bathroom!

Before you get the wrong idea from the title, let me explain. It's 2:00 and Hannah and Logan are all ready to go to Hannah's well child check at 2:30. I went into the bathroom to finish getting ready. When I came out, I realized that it was very quiet in the house...too quiet. You know what that means. My first thought was that they had escaped out the side door, but was relieved to find the door still locked. I thought, maybe every thing's okay... until I saw these little footprints on the carpet leading to the back porch.Oh boy. They had dumped out a bag of potting soil and several of the little seedlings we had been growing out on the porch. They must have dumped it on their heads and rolled in it too, because they were COVERED head to toe! I had to take these pictures to keep from strangling them! It's a pretty good parenting strategy, I've found.

Isn't she adorable. Keep in mind that this was 15 minutes before we were supposed to be at the pediatrician's office. Lovely.

Potty Animal

Does this picture make you cringe? Yeah, me too! This is Hannah's favorite place to play. What is it with toddlers and toilets? I turn my back and a minute later, and I find Hannah splashing with glee. ICK! What's the draw, Hannah?! It's not like she can open the door herself though. I've hounded and hounded the boys a million times to, "PLEASE CLOSE THE DOOR WHEN YOU'RE DONE WITH THE BATHROOM!" But apparently that's just not possible.

This afternoon, Hannah decided to bring the phone along. It went for a swim. It doesn't work now. This is the downside to having only a cell phone. We are going to let it dry out a few days and see if we can get it working again. Until then, if you need to reach us, email will probably be your best bet.

Oh no...I hear splashing...gotta go!

What Have We Done?!

On Saturday, Bryan sent me to the store to pick up some light bulbs. When I returned I found...well... I'll just let the pictures do the talking on this one...

Bryan claims he had no intention of demolishing the bathroom when I left the house. Hmmm...

In his defense, we did talk of maybe updating the bathroom when we saw how how well his sister, Deb's, bathroom remodel turned out. Well, I guess we're committed now.

During the demolition, Logan came to me and said, "What is that noise?! IS THE HOUSE FALLING DOWN?!"

Nope. Just the bathroom.

Dr Seuss Would Be Proud...?

As you may know, I babysit part-time for two of the sweetest kids you'll ever meet, R & G. I mean, I am really lucky to have these two! When they come, I try to always have a craft to do with all the kids. This week to celebrate Dr. Seuss' birthday, we made Cat in the Hat hats. I was pretty excited about this one, so I took pictures.I started out by cutting out the center of a paper plate for the hat brim. I then cut small slits in the top of a paper lunch sack, put it through the paper plate, and taped it to the plate for the top of the hat. I stuffed it with newspaper to hold it's shape, and then let the kids go to town with the red paint (I gave the littlest guy red crayons instead).

As always, the kids were wearing big old paint shirts to protect their clothes, but sweet R reached down under the shirt and wiped her paint covered fingers all over her darling, brand new BabyGap khakis and white socks.

Okay, this is the part where I made a really stupid mistake. I picked up Hannah in one arm and sweet R in the other arm, made sure the other two were safely and contentedly playing, and then dashed down to the laundry room to try and save the pants! The bottle of red paint was up on the counter, out of reach of little G, but apparently not out of reach of Logan. When I returned from cleaning up the first disaster, I found the second one.

The story from Logan went something like this: After I rushed out of the room, Logan decided his hat needed more paint, so he reached up for the bottle of paint, squirted some on his palette, and then set it down on the table. Little G then grabbed the bottle and squirted it all over the kitchen floor. When I found him, he was sitting in the paint (also dressed head to toe in BabyGap, mind you), driving a Hotwheels car through it. Pretty ironic that gave him crayons instead of paint to color his hat to avoid the mess, huh?!

Now that I think of it, it's really quite appropriate: "Thing 1" and "Thing 2" making a crazy mess in the house while the mother is away. Hmmm...sound familiar?

I ordered the kids into the living room, and Hannah screamed in her high chair, while I wiped down little G and the kitchen. This time, I dragged all four kids with me to the basement to wash G's clothes. All I can say is, thank Heavens for washable paint! With a lot of Spray-n-Wash, scrubbing, and a trip through the washer, everything came out (I think. I still need to scrub my floor with bleach. Pink grout just doesn't look that great in my kitchen).

When the hats were dry, we glued strips of white paper around the hats to complete the Cat in the Hat look.

Logan insisted on making this face in every picture!

The hats turned out pretty cute and the kids seemed to get a kick out of them, but I'm not sure they were worth the aggravation. I think we are going to take a break from the paints for a while.

AAAAAAAAUGHHHHHH!

It's 2:00 AM, and I just ruined the 24 beautiful Valentine cupcakes I made for Andrew's class party tomorrow...I mean, today. I just finished putting the last candy heart on the top and was carefully carrying the pan to the dining table, when one tipped over. It was like a horrifying slow-motion domino effect and they all came crashing down.

I'm going to go cry now.

Part II - Curse You, Ohio Winter!

The fun continues!

So...Bryan was driving the van to work the other day...wait, let me back up a bit...

Bryan was driving home from work in the Escort last week, when he hit a GIANT pothole. Ya know, the ones that could almost swallow your car whole - Cleveland roads are famous for them! He wasn't able to swerve because of the cars on either side of him, so he hit it hard and knocked the wheels out of alignment, or something. Now it makes a lovely knocking sound when you drive.

SO...not wanting to drive the injured car until we could get it fixed, Bryan drove the van to work (the day after the whole gutter incident, by the way). On the way down the hill on our street, he hit a slippery spot and tried to brake, but van didn't slow at all (Did I mention that the van is in desperate need of new tires? We've been putting it off and putting it off for a couple months now)! He hit head-on at full speed into a large snow bank, and smashed the front bumper (that's not gonna be cheap)! He was also hopelessly stuck in the snow.

While trying to dig the van out, a truck pulled up and the man inside asked Bryan if he could use a hand. He gratefully accepted, and the man helped tow the van out of the snow bank with his truck. Bryan surveyed the damage on the fron of the van and then thanked the man for his help.

Man: "You're welcome. Do you have anything to tip me with?" (what?!)

Bryan, a little surprised: "Um...I'm sorry, I don't have any cash with me."

Man: "I'll take a check." (WHAT?!)

Bryan: "I don't have a checkbook with me either."

Man: "Well, you said you lived close by, right? You could go home and get me some money." (Are. You. Kidding. Me?!)

Bryan, being the sweet guy he is, came home, found our last $10 bill (the one we were going to buy toilet paper with), and gave it to the man. When Bryan told me the story, I was floored! I know times are tough right now; maybe the guy really needed it. If so, I'm glad we could help. But whatever happened to helping out your neighbor and random acts of kindness? I don't know. Maybe I've got it all wrong.

P.S. Now, nobody go out and buy us toilet paper! We just got our tax refund and Bryan's paycheck comes this week, so we are fine!

Curse You, Ohio Winter!

Have you ever had one of those days where things just don't go right, and then, just when you think it can't get any worse, it does, and then it does again, and then it does again? That's how yesterday was. Well, I guess it actually started the day before yesterday.

Summer and I had just laid down to bed when suddenly, there's a loud scraping coming from up on the roof. In Utah, I would have been worried, but out here it's a normal occurrence once or twice each Winter as the snow that has piled up on the steep roof finally breaks loose from the shingles and slides down onto the ground. The first year we lived here, the snow broke loose and caught the heavy, ice-filled gutters on the front of the house, ripping one side away from the house and down. The gutter subsequently swung out away from the house, and then back like a giant pendulum, slamming against the front side of the house and missing the front bay window by just inches. That repair cost over $500, and that's with me doing the work myself. Anyway, this year, I thought the snow had just come down and I didn't worry much about it - at least not until the next morning.

During the night, I hear Logan crying, so I get up to find Summer bathing him in the tub. I look at my watch to find it's 3:00AM, and I shoot her a perplexed look. "He threw up" she tells me, "all over. EVERYWHERE." (Summer says,"Memo to me: In the future when your child is crying for a hug in the middle of the night, check to see if he is covered in vomit BEFORE hugging and kissing him on the head! Just, eew!)

Later that morning, Andrew is also sick, throwing up multiple times, and both Summer and I feel nauseated most of the day. Oh, I almost forgot, Logan and Hannah both had several blow outs each during the course of the day.

Anyway, back to the story - I got up and looked out the window only to see our rear gutters demolished across the back lawn. "How can this story get any worse," you might ask yourself. Well, as the ice-filled gutters fell from the back of the house, they fell right onto the power line supplying the house, ripping the large metal conduit from the electrical meter, bending the meter housing, and strewing a live power line across the driveway. As a little added bonus, it broke the lines going to the garage, so that the garage no longer had electricity. We called the city to come shut off the power, but they said that these repairs would be the responsibility of the homeowner, and that the city doesn't cover any of it. Great!!

I'm no expert, but I'm pretty sure those power lines are not supposed to be laying across by backyard!

(sarcasm implied). So while we're waiting for the power company to come, I figure I'll just get some of the ice/snow moved away from the gutter so that we can get them off the power lines once the electric company comes. I stayed three or four feet from the wires at all times, but began shoveling some of the snow away from the gutter. After about 10 minutes of moving snow, I stuck my shovel into the snow to move another load and several sparks fly up into the air. Luckily, my hands were holding the fiberglass handle of the shovel and I didn't get shocked, but it was enough to convince me to rethink my plan to remove some of the snow.

After three or four hours, the power company showed up and shut off the power. I went out and started yanking on the gutters, trying to get them out from underneath the heavy snow and ice. In the process of yanking them out from the snow, my left hand slid along one of the aluminum edges, slicing into the finger. I started dripping blood across the driveway, examining the wound as I went inside to get some gauze.

It looked fairly deep, and I felt it would likely benefit from a few stitches, however I didn't want to pay the $50 copay to spend 4 hours in the waiting room for a resident to throw a few stitches in my finger. I dug into my first aid kit, pulled out some betadine anti-microbial wash, some lidocaine, and some suture. Then, I washed it out, numbed it up, and put in a couple of stitches. It should be good as new in a few weeks.

After the finger incident, I got back to work cleaning up the mess. After removing the gutters, I ran to Home Depot and blew $180 buying supplies to repair the mess. At around 8 PM, I finally finished replacing the conduit & wires, and re-wiring the garage. ("I held the flashlight!" - Summer again.) By then, we had been without power (and thus heat in the house) for several hours, and the kids were freezing! We called the power company to come flip the power back on and they tell us they can be there at around 12:30 AM. Again, GREAT!!!

I go in the house to rest... in the dark.... and wait... and wait.... and wait. Just before midnight, the guy shows up, takes a look at the box, and tells me he doesn't see an inspection tag on the electrical meter. "I'm not supposed to hook you back up until you get the job inspected" he tells me, matter of factly. I explain that we have a 11 month old baby inside that's not only cold, but sick, and that there's no way we'll be able to get an inspector out after midnight. Fortunately, he had a little sympathy, and he reconnected the power. We talked for about 20 minutes while he reconnected everything, and he turned out to be a really nice guy. I'm just really grateful that he turned the power back on. It was a life-saver!

Anyway, I still need to put together and hang a new set of gutters for the back of the house, but at least we have electricity. After all the drama, I guess the old adage still applies, "what doesn't kill you makes you stronger." If that's the case, I'm I freakin' MUSCLE MAN!!!