Apparently I should house clean more often...

While the little ones and I were enjoying a play date this afternoon, Husband was home slaving away working on the bathroom. No, it's not completed yet. Geez, it's only been five months, that's like a nano second in geological time. We're on opposite schedules with two very demanding little ones. But we're getting there.

Anyway...we came home to freshly primed bathroom walls. And plaster dust. Everywhere. So I go in and start cleaning. Then I notice the baseboards in the hallway. And those get cleaned. And the wall where someone dripped something. And then moved on into the dining room. The chair railing was dusty. And those baseboards. Oh, and sticky fingerprints on the wall going up the stairs. Aaaand that was about the point when Husband asked me if I was pregnant.

No, I'm not! But, apparently I'm a fairly lax house keeper.

Rated PG for Scary Moments and Mild Language

No matter how many times one flips the switch of the garbage disposal and it doesn't work the first time--it will not work any of the other times. File that away in "Things We Have Learned Today".

Sooooo, new home improvement project. Replacing the garbage disposal. The only picture I managed to get of the old one was once it had been chucked in the trash can. As you can see--it was Kenmore's prototype of that kind of machine. Lucky us.

The box the new one came in was smaller than the old disposal. Hmmm...the ability to store items under the kitchen sink now that the entire space isn't taken up by a disposal. What a concept.

Daddy had a lot of help. Wanted and unwanted.

Oh, and the Scary Moment? Despite flipping all kitchen circuits to "Off", apparently there was one little one labeled, "Garbage Disposal" that didn't get flipped. There was enough juice coming through those wires that the hair on my arms stood up three feet away when Husband's screwdriver touched them. Good thing we have that current meter in the tool box--sitting right beside him. And then the Mild Language came into play.

Meanwhile, Kyleigh was working on their kitchen.


And then, this morning--having abandoned the project last night due to wiring frustrations and my intructions/request that he not attempt any more re-wiring while everyone else was sleeping--more help from Jacob, and we have a brand new, working, garbage disposal. Whew. Because this family produces a lot of garbage!

Can't we all just get along?

Fortunately, our multi-racial family gets along a little better than this (maybe because the PowerMac is more indimidating than the iMac)! Though, Husband did just trade some gun parts for a PC laptop--tipping the Mac/PC ratio 2 to 3 in his favor.

We're like a small scale model for world peace--a world where Steve Jobs and Bill Gates skip through the daisies holding hands. Awwww.

Here comes the sun...

All is well. The sun is shining. Not a single puddle to be found in the yard--one would never guess that the skies dumped 6 inches of rain on us Saturday! Husband only had to spend 16 hours at the racetrack yesterday instead of 20. My children are destroying the living room and play room--so life is back to normal!

Looks like we're in for stormy weather...

While Hanna is no longer projected to hit us as a hurricane, she is projected to dump a lot of rain right over top of us. The gov'ner declared a state of emergency yesterday in an effort to get all of the emergency ready teams on the alert and, um, ready.

However, as of noon today, Nascar officials declared business as usual and the race will go on--for tonight at least. The county's finest--that would be my dearest husband--is out in force to ensure peace and tranquility among the drunk rednecks with nothing better to do than watch cars go around in circles...really fast.

For those keeping track--that means I am, once again, home alone and woefully outnumbered by short ones and animals. Oh yeah, and there's a hurricane/ tropical storm coming through. Don't worry about us though. We're survivalists in this house! There's gas for the camp stove and enough staples in the pantry--including boxed milk--to keep us all (animals included) fat and happy for a week or two should we find ourselves trapped by the raising flood waters. I even managed to clean up the backyard so we don't get killed by a toy dump truck crashing through the dining room window. Can't do anything about the 150ft oak tree right that's aimed right over our bedroom. It's held for over 80 years--it can hold for one more storm.

A couple other folks right in Hanna's path--Melanie, Tina, and Amy--stay safe and I'll see ya'll on the flip side, if not sooner if we somehow managed to escape losing electricity.

Deep down, I'm a delicate flower--truly, I am.

Over the years, every now and then, I have been drawn, roped, corralled, into helping someone plan their wedding. And then they quickly go find another friend who just might have a clue. The conversation usually goes something like this...

Doey Eyed Bride to Be: "Remember when you were a little girl and..."

Me: "No"

DEBB: "Seriously, when you dreamed of..."

Me: "No."

DEBB: "Come on, every little girl has an ideal..."

Me: "No, they don't."

DEBB: "Seriously? You never thought about your wedding?"

Me: "No. I wasn't going to get married so why would I plan a hypothetical wedding?"

DEBB: "What about baby names?"

Me: "Why? I wasn't going to reproduce either."

And then I'm lucky (?) to get invited.

Not too long ago I had a male co-worker who was getting married. His bride-to-be wanted the whole entire fairy tale wedding. And spent a lot of money getting it. Two weeks before the event he was looking a little stressed. I asked how the whole wedding thing was going and he was all, "well, you know--you're married." And then I was all, "um, no I don't know." Then he was all, "but you're a girl." *sigh* Don't they ever learn?

All right, I'll admit there are two exceptions to my "I didn't plan my wedding and I never thought of baby names" bit.

I have always had a sore spot for traditions. Not necessarily the traditions themselves, but more the fact that people followed them like sheep or lemmings without knowing the background. I needed to know why something was a tradition before I could decide if I wanted to follow it or not. Example...For years after I left home I wouldn't put up a Christmas tree because the tradition of the evergreen tree being brought indoors in the winter was started in Germany as a means of warding off evil spirits--the evergreen remained green in the deep of winter so it must therefore be Good. But then I married a man from Colorado and he just really enjoyed the smell of the pine in the house. So now we get a live tree every year because it makes the house smell incredible! And keeps out the evil spirits. It's like a two for one sale.

Anyway--I seem to recall making the statement at one point that if I was ever to get married, I would not, not, wear a white dress. I would wear color. And I did--I wore a blue dress and black boots.

The other exception--the baby name. In primary (elementary) school, there was a girl named Kylie. She was sort of odd, just like me--the only other girl to wear shorts under her school uniform for one thing--and she befriended me just as I was. I loved her name as well. As I got older I decided that if, maybe, one day I was to have a little girl then I'd like to name her Kylie and use my mom's middle name, Gray. Then, wouldn't you know it--along came a little girl who needed a name. The different spelling was her daddy's idea and that kind of makes it that much more special, don'tcha think?

My daughter better like trucks!

Last week's adventures included a quest for a birthday present for a 4-year-old playgroup friend. Jacob suggested a bug vacuum. A swell gift for any age!

Jacob usually gets to pick out a new book whenever we go to this particular store and that day was no exception. I was able to steer him away from the Disney princess book but not away from the other books that make noise. He relented and picked out the Wall-E robot book with sound effects. Wrangling two children in a store distracted me from testing the book to make sure it worked before we purchased it and went home with the promise of reading it before nap time. The sounds didn't work. The story was good, but we have loads of silent books and he wanted one with sounds. Sigh.

So, finally, a couple of days ago we had the opportunity to return the book and get one that worked. Silly me was just going to exchange the robot book for a working robot book. My son, however, went in with an agenda. He wanted the princess book. The one with the star.

Really? Because that star looks like it could get really annoying. Nope. No other book would do. Compromise? If I have to listen to this "magic wand" star making it's "magic" musical sounds then I get to take pictures and show them to your friends when you're 15. Deal? Deal.





You know, the child is reading. I really shouldn't be concerned with what at this point, should I? *heavy sigh*