Apparently I could not live in Seattle, because I have been extraordinarily happy about the sunshine this week. Weeks and weeks of rain is not my jam.
1. Remember how much I dislike March? And then this year I was all like, "Oh! March wasn't so bad!" Well, March decided to make up for it in May. This May has kicked my butt, and I fully blame March for that. I'm glad to see this month go.
2. Our Memorial Day festivities consisted of a walk around the lake at Clement Park. There were so many people there walking their dogs and witnessing us dragging a screaming toddler around the lake. There was no peace there for that hour. Bria wanted to walk when she was in the wagon, and then if she walked she wanted to be in the wagon of course. And then there was the idea she got in her head that we would be going IN the lake, and the world knew of her displeasure when she realized that we would not in fact be going in the lake. I can't decide if we don't do things because she's difficult, or if she's difficult because we've always just stuck close to home. And we also can't decide if we should just suck it up and stay home because she's difficult, or suck it up and deal with a screaming two-year-old and force her to go do things with us. Ah, the joys of a two-year-old.
The post-walk pass out
3. Of course God can take ALL things and work them out for the good, even the trivial things like flooded basements. Our carpets are finally dried, cleaned and freshly padded, so all that is left is putting things back together. But we're taking this opportunity to paint and organize in ways that we've always just put off before. Lee painted our smelly storage room, and the change has been dramatic. So much so that we have to stop calling it the Smelly Room. (That will be a hard habit to break.) We plan to build shelves in there, but we have family coming into town in a few weeks, so for now we're just stacking things again, this time in a much smarter way, with only plastic tubs touching the floor. Next step is to paint the whole basement, which again is a job we've been putting off, but since the furniture is moved out of the way anyway...
4. Our family crossed something off our bucket list this week: Cleaning Gum Out of Hair. Alaina's gum accidentally fell into Joya's hair. Joya was NOT pleased. But the peanut butter trick worked like magic, and no scissors had to be involved.
A very reluctant/forced thumbs up
5. I finally decided that Alaina is old enough to make her own breakfast. All the breakfast stuff is out of reach (and needs to be thanks to a Food Sneaker in our house) so I still have to get down what she wants, but she is capable of preparing it. For her first ever breakfast she chose to make peanut butter toast. So she did. Both she and Joya were giddy with the idea that she was actually cooking. I look forward to her getting faster so maybe this can be her chore even during the school morning rushes. But she IS almost seven!
Coming up next week: Alaina's 7th Birthday Jubilee!
Remember when Colorado had mountains? I haven't seen them in like a week. Someone with faith as small as a mustard seed must have moved them.
1. I forgot to show Joya's contribution to Mother's Day. Mostly because I had left it at church because it was totally wet when I picked her up from class, and I have a rule about not bringing papers with wet paint into the car. But here it is:
2. This water-logged month hasn't slowed us down (much.) On Saturday we went to my niece Naomi's dance recital, which was SO MUCH BETTER than last year, thanks to better organization. Naomi killed it, and we were out of there in a little over an hour. Joya LOVED the costumes and the dances. And we got to take a new way home from the Springs, since 1-25 was backed up. Highway 83 is beautiful, even in the rain.
3. Monday night was fun. (Did you read that sarcastically?) I mentioned to Lee before bed that we should check the sump pump because it had been raining all day and we need to keep an eye on it. It's a good thing I did (thanks, Holy Spirit!) because it was NOT working. The sump pump pit was full. All it took was a bit of adjusting and it started working again. But then Lee set his alarm to wake him up every two hours just to make sure, and sure enough he had to adjust it at midnight and at 2:00. Then he found the sweet spot. But that was a night of very little sleep. We are now the proud owners of a new sump pump, which is on standby, because the one in there now will work if it is JUST SO. So we'll let it be just so for awhile. And hopefully the rain will become more Colorado-like soon.
4. Today is the last day of school! I'm glad Alaina is excited about it, because I feel like I haven't had the chance to properly be excited about it because it feels like early April, not late May. The last week of school should be full of warmth and sunshine and short-sleeved shirts, not coats and long-sleeves. But such is life, and I'm happy today was the last day I'll have to wake up at 5:30 for a long while.
5. And just because the girls have been in rare form cute-wise, here are a few pics to get you through this long weekend:
1. Well, we had a lovely Saturday. We spent the day at my parents' house so my sister and I could go to a Mother's Day luncheon with my mom. It was nice. Not a lot of food, but still nice to have a few hours without crying and screaming. We saw a fun fashion show and I sat next to a lovely 71-year-old lady who offered me a Cuban cigar. (It was an empty offer; they were a gift for her brother, but she had them in her purse and thought it was hilarious.)
2. Then the earth opened up and swallowed our basement with water. Okay, fine I exaggerate. It was only half of our basement. Just our laundry room, our storage room and half of the carpeted area. Thankfully my parents came to the rescue to watch the girls while I helped bail out water. Then Lee, my dad, and our good friend Travis monkeyed around with the sump pump and got that working, which drained the water like magic. So we used a shop vac and a Rug Doctor to suck up the rest of the water from the carpet. It took us a few days to clean out the storage room and NO we weren't smart enough to have our stuff in plastic tubs or off the floor, so we did lose quite a bit, including a box that had all my treasured projects and awards from my school years (goodbye high school newspapers! goodbye collages I made in Mrs. Powers' class! goodbye 6th grade Outdoor Lab project!) And my box of girlhood journals also got soaked, but I'm still trying to dry those out because I cannot bring myself to throw them away.
3. I suppose I DID get a Mother's Day present that was not a disaster; Alaina made me this candle at school. The tissue wrap was put on backward, but I still love it. P.S. The presentation you see here was completely Alaina's doing.
4. Anyway, back to the carpet. Our house now has a horrific odor. We've been running fans 24/7 since Sunday, but the carpet is still slightly damp. Which probably means we have mold. Which probably means we're going to have to replace the carpet, which was not an expense we had planned on. Supposedly a guy is coming over today, but as I told them on the phone about the smell all they could talk about was mold. We're trying not to despair.
5. The bright spot of the week was Alaina's music program. Well, not the fact that the school told us it was the K-2 music program, and then snuck in the beginner band, the concert band, the choir and the dancers. But the K-2 program was so fun. Alaina even got a speaking part, which she rocked, of course.
I love May, because the grass and mountains are actually green, and not brown like they are the rest of the year.
1.
I've always wondered what it was like to live in Seattle. I think now
we know. On one hand I love it, because it rarely rains for a full
week. But on the other hand, I'm like "Oy with the rain already!" My
big planter in the front is FULL of water. Will I even be able to plant
anything in it this year, or am I going to have to dump out the sludge
and start over with fresh dirt? And I had no idea we had so many worms
and slugs around our house. Lee picks up the huge worms off our patio
and puts them in the garden, and Bria learned a new phrase: "Don't step
on the slugs!"
2. For over a year now Alaina has
been asking for a wagon. It's perpetually on her birthday/Christmas
list. So I thought I should probably buckle down and get serious about
searching for a used one, even though I'm now thoroughly freaked out
about Craigslist (the woman stole a baby out of the mother's WOMB for
goodness' sake!) But then a guy I work with at church mentioned he was
getting rid of some of his kids' stuff, and lo and behold on the list
was a wagon! A good one too; the kind with the panels that flip up so
there are seats. Alaina wasn't as thrilled as I thought she'd be,
because she immediately deduced she'd have to share it with her sisters,
but such is life. I'm pretty stoked. Thanks Jason!
3.
The girls participated in the AWANA awards ceremony this week, with
both of them getting ribbons for finishing their books. They are so
proud and they treasure those little ribbons. I'm torn between letting
them cart them all over creation all day and putting them away in their
keepsake tubs.
Robert TOTALLY hijaked this picture. Oh well, he's only three.
4.
Sometimes when your husband works from home, you decide to make BLTs
for lunch. So you go to the store and come home and realize you forgot
to buy a tomato. So instead he makes bacon burgers. For lunch. On a
weekday.
5. Joya has taken to doing concerts
a lot. Usually after Bria is in bed. She also wants us to video them
and send them to Gramma and Grammy. So you might see those pop up on
Facebook A LOT. The other day we were driving home from the store, and
she said that she had gotten to talk to Gramma on the phone. I asked
her what she talked about, and she said, "Oh, all the delicious meals."
Apparently she can spend a lot of time waxing eloquent about the joys
of Cinnamon Toast Crunch.
I love May, because May is when you can FINALLY breathe and celebrate that you made it through the winter. I do NOT love May, because every single person and their mother has an event you need to go to. So I guess I should say May is here...ready, set, GO.
1. Alaina did great at the Run 4 Funds thing. Last year she ran 8 laps. This year she had a goal of running 10. How many did she actually run? 33. The track was 1/16th of a mile, so she ran just over 2 miles in 30 minutes. She must get that running prowess from her aunt Carolyn, because I am NOT a runner. Thankfully no one sponsored her per lap, because they would have been surprised, especially when we were telling them she would probably run 10 or 12 laps.
2. Lee completed one of my Dream Projects this week: the painting of the wall in my bathroom. Of course I saw this on Pinterest, but it translated quite well to real life, I would say. He and his dad built the shelves last year, and now it complete. All we need to do is jump on the crazy $150 rebate Denver Water is giving out for new toilets and that little portion of this house will be all set.
3. On Sunday we gave Alaina the news that her wonderful teacher, Mrs. Casassa, had to move to California this week. She would teach them on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, and then the sub that they have had a couple of times in the last week would be their teacher for the rest of the year. It's so sad that Mrs. C couldn't stay for these final three weeks, but sometimes things are beyond our control. So on Wednesday I took Joya and Bria to the school to have lunch with the class as part of her farewell day. The moms brought in fruit and pizza, and we all ate outside. My plan was to play for awhile, then get a picture of Alaina and Mrs. Casassa before taking the little girls home for a nap. BUT THEN I saw one of the moms RUNNING inside, telling the aide to walkie-talkie to the office that Mrs. Casassa had broken her arm. The aides jumped into action, blowing the whistle and whisking all the kids inside. I grabbed Bria and Joya and made my way back to the tree where we had been eating. Mrs. Casassa was sitting on the ground holding her wrist in her lap, with a mom behind her supporting her back. Someone asked her a question and she said, "Oh, it's broken." She lifted up her hand and I saw that her wrist was bending and pointing in ways that God did not intend. They called 911 and a mom called Mrs. C's husband. I felt like an idiot not knowing what to do, with Bria screaming because I wouldn't let her go on the slide anymore. So I cleaned up all the trash and just quietly took my girls home. I think I was the only one traumatized by this series of unfortunate events. I cried all afternoon, thinking of Mrs. Casassa and how she and her family planned to leave on Thursday morning to start their big move back to California, and how a move and a drive would be so difficult with a broken arm. I also cried every time I thought about how Mrs. Casassa might not make it back to school in time to say goodbye to the kids. Well, she DIDN'T make it back in time, but the kids seemed unfazed by this. And Mrs. Casassa seems to be in great spirits on Facebook, so I'm thankful for that. She and her family did leave as planned. And Alaina likes her new teacher. Anyway, we loved Mrs. Casassa. She was a dream teacher, and I'm sad that Joya and Bria won't get the chance to have her.
4. Every night I get to snuggle Bria for a few minutes before I put her to bed for the night. She usually asks me to sing her songs, so I sing a couple. For awhile I sang "Jesus Loves Me" and "Hairy Little Monkey." But this week her song of choice has been His Cheeseburger from Veggie Tales. Yes, I know every single word.
5. I'm trying to make it a thing to go to Sprouts on Tuesdays for fruits and veggies. This week Bria immediately spotted a couple of balloons they had inside the store and of course she could NOT. STOP. TALKING. about them. So a lovely employee gave both her and Joya each a balloon. It was the highlight of their life. Except the thing is, I despise balloons. My girls still use every toy as a lollipop or chew toy, and those things are going to pop and get jammed in their throats and they will die. Not to mention Bria did not want to eat her lunch because she wanted to hold her balloon. I managed to get a few bites in her before she declared that she was done and wanted down. So I did the unthinkable and popped them and threw them away. You can't imagine the wailing and gnashing of teeth. I'm the worst mom in the world. You might be surprised to find out, though, that the cure for wailing and gnashing of teeth is jelly beans. I brought out those and all was forgiven. The moral of the story is, you can give my girls balloons if you want, but please ask me if I have jelly beans first, because I WILL pop those balloons.
I'm a wife, a mom, so-so housekeeper, full-scale homebody, fledgling writer and mediocre musician. I'm a big fan of reality TV and trolling other blogs for ideas that I might adopt as my own.
