4 Miles

This last week it seemed we had a vacation without leaving home. Well, we did leave the house, we just didn't leave the area. Much. 

Our extended holiday weekend started Thursday night. My brother surprised my parents by driving out from AZ to visit for my dad's birthday. And because he's a grad student with the summer off and has nothing better to do. (He has a job, it starts later.)  He and my parents came down and my sister drove in from St. Louis and we all met at our house to celebrate dad's birthday by him taking us out to dinner (Aren't we thoughtful?). We hired a sitter for the boys and that made the event even more nice. They enjoyed the cake and ice cream once we got home–which really is the part they cared about the most anyway! 

Aunt Heidi stuck around that night so she could meet up with friends on Friday. Will enjoyed playing with her Friday morning and then we went to the park, we once again we did more exploring of the woods then playing on the playground features.  And that made me very happy!  The rest of Friday was spent cleaning since I knew we'd be gone all day Saturday.

Saturday we drove up to my parents house and had a cook out and a marathon session of games. Dad enjoys playing them and we didn't have time to do any on Thursday night, so we had to make up for lost time. We finally got to play the games I got for Christmas!

Sunday James went to the Indy 500 with my dad and a friend of my dads.  The rain held off enough they were able to get over half the race in before the first major rain delay. They decided to come home (which made me very happy) and he got home just a big before his brother and his family arrived.  That's when the fun really began! (Not to imply my family isn't fun, they are, but we see them much more often then we see the other side of the family and my side doesn't have any cousins yet for the boys so it's a bit trickier to keep them entertained.) RD&S have a little boy (the Micah mentioned in a previous post) who is a year younger than Will. They get along very well and seem to make each other braver.  Each did things he would normally not do if he was just with Mom.  They also have a cute 4 month old little girl.  We had fun letting the boys play, eating, talking and playing more games.    Monday we had our big cookout.  Tuesday we took them to the Children's Museum. Between the trails we have near our house, the Museum and the lower cost of houses here in the Mid-west compared to the Philly area, we almost have them convinced to move out here! ;-) 

Sadly, they had to leave this morning.  It was a great deal of fun having them and now I feel like we're having a post vacation let down, even though we didn't go anywhere! We also have all the laundry you have from vacation and some very tired boys. 

Also, we're still having camera problems. I promise I'll get pictures up soon for the Grandmas!

This evening I left to go do some dress shopping without the boys. Will was sad he couldn't go. "I want a dress!" he whined said. I told him dresses were for girls, and he wouldn't have fun going with me anyway.  A few moments later he declared, "When I turn into a girl, I will have a dress!"

This week I didn't lose any weight. I MAINTAINED–that sounds a bit better, right?  I have to admit that actually isn't too bad. When I think back through the week I haven't been that good. I've tried to have portion control, but the portions haven't been the best choices most of the time.  I did work out three times last week, but not the 5 I was aiming for. And no weight lifting was started.

So we start a new week, full of positive vibes.  The next three days I hope to get back on track. Right before our anniversery trip.

Yea! Cousins are here!  James' brother & sister-in-law and their two kids (Micah & Serena) are here. We're having fun catching up and the boys are having fun playing. James is having fun holding a baby and passing her off when she's fussy.  We had to laugh at this converstaion between Micah & Will last night:

Micah: Do you like PB & J?
Will: No, I like peanut butter and jelly.

…too bad they haven't made it to the computer.

First, we're having a problem uploading pictures.  Somehow the USB port no longer recognizes my camera. And I never think to ask Tech Support about it when he's home.  So this doesn't allow me to show you pictures of our Best Garage Sale Finds of the last two weeks (and they are some good finds–how's that for a teaser?).  Nor can I show you the pictures of our hike in the forest yesterday. (Ok, it was really a small wooded area near the playground area of one of the parks, but we'll take what we can get, ok?) 

Second, there is the time issue. The last few weeks I have been working like crazy to get extra hours to pay for extra things not in our budget (like curtains! or flowers for the yard!). When not working, we have been outside playing or planting said flowers.  So now our house is a mess. Not just cluttered (which, sadly, is pretty common) but dirty + cluttered. A bad combination. So the last few days I've been trying to balance playing/watching the boys play in the afternoon with cleaning. We'd play a little, clean a little, play a little, clean a little. (Play, play, play! Clean, clean, clean!…sorry, I got caught thinking of that song from the Music Man "Pick-A-Little, Talk-A-Little".)  

Why am I cleaning so much? Just for the good of our family, right? Um, no. We're having my parents, sister and brother over tonight to celebrate my dad's birthday.  (My sister is coming in from St. Louis!!! My brother drove from AZ for this–and to see all of us!!!)  Heidi is spending the night (so no scrimping and skipping on cleaning the guest room/play room).  Then Saturday we're going up to the family homestead for a day of picnicking (Oh, I didn't realize that added a "k" when going to the -ing form! Learn something new everyday.), hanging out and playing games.   Sunday, James' brother and his family are coming out to visit us for a few days.  I'm really looking forward to all the fun times we're going to have this long weekend.  But I still need to give the bathroom a GOOD cleaning (not the quick cleaning it's been getting the last few weeks). And clean off the desk. And maybe even clean out the fridge. 

So, happy beginning of summer everyone! 

This week I lost 2 pounds. Actually–on Friday I was down four, but I didn't do well this weekend (stuipid company picnic!). 

I feel really good about this last week though. I have discovered that evenings after supper are a better time for me to work out (then first thing in the morning).  I enjoy it more and feel I get a better work out in.  Plus, now I know if I didn't get up early to work out in the morning, all chances are gone.  I've had several good walks and a "soccer game" with the boys.  My goal is to start getting weight lifiting this week and to get back to the eating patterns I had during the week last week, NOT the weekend.

A MSNBC article tells about a brood of cicadas that are expected to emerge this month in part of the Midwest. I found this quote really funny:

An Illinois company that provides ice sculptures has turned down several outdoor parties over the next month. That’s because of what happened when Nadeau Ice Sculptures owner Jim Nadeau delivered a swan statue to a wedding in 1990, during the area’s last emergence of the periodical cicadas.

“We put our tray down and immediately the cicadas came off the ground and attacked the ice. Literally, it was a moving sculpture, this big black ugly mass of cicadas constantly moving,” said Nadeau.

“I don’t want to talk myself out of work, but that was just too gross,” he said.

On Saturday we went to the company "Family Fun Day" that was hosted out in the country at "Jarod's house". (Jarod is the son of one of the partners and Will likes to play with him.)

Me: Jarod and his family moved out to the country.
Will: What's it's name?
Me: What?
Will: What's the name of the country?

+ + + + +

Will has developed a bad habit of saying "Me first" when ever we're doing something like handing out vitamins or lunch.  Today I told him when he said that, he'd go last. He asked "Why?" I said, "Because you're being selfish and only thinking of yourself."  He told me "I'm not thinking." 

Again?!?  What does he mean by "AGAIN"?

Today we decided to venture over to Lowes from some Jimmy Johnson saturation.  Okay, so it had nothing to do with JJ.  We just needed some home improvement supplies.  Flowers for Tina, a spool of weed-eater string for James and a smoke detector for ALL.  ( I realized last week that the smoke detector in our house was attached to the security system that is unplugged.  OOOPPPS.  Only took two years to realize that one.)

The boys were hungry and tired so they got to sit in the cart.  We checked out and loaded up the car with our supplies.  I began to walk the cart back to its intended location with both boys in the cart.  Just a little joke I like to play.  As I was walking away from the car, pushing the cart, full of boys, The Tort blurts out "Don't leave us again, Daddy." 

For the record, I have never left my sons in the cart.  Don't call child protective services.  I have taken them home with me after EVERY trip to the store.  I promise. 

Of course Tina was a little concerned with the "again" part of that statement.

The only explanation I have is that he remembers the one day I pushed the cart into the cart return and pretended to walk away.  Must have traumatized him I guess.  I didn't even walk away.  I just turned around.  And The Otter wasn't with us that time.

I guess I should be more concerned about the 'us' then the 'again.'

Thanks DAD.  Look what you've started.

On Thursday morning, a beeping sound started to sound in our house, about every 30 seconds.  I could not figure out what was causing it. It sounded like a smoke detector when the batteries are dying, but I already knew our smoke detector was unplugged.

I finally just turned up the music and tried to ignore it while I was working.  Then it was time to pick up Will from preschool. We came home for lunch and I warned Will about the beeping and I didn't know what it was, so there was no way to stop it.  Will then chose to point out to me each time it beeped. So imagine this lunch time converstaion:

<Beep>
"There it is!"
<Beep>
"There it is again, Mommy!"
<Beep>
"There it is, AGAIN!"
<Beep>
"There it is, Mommy!"

I have yet to decide which was more annoying.

But the combination drove me to find out the cause of the sound. Our old Carbon Monoxide detector we bought for our old house. I had stashed it in our junk drawer.  The batteries were low. And now they are gone.