4 Miles

We were looking at a farm animal book. 

me: "Alex, what does a pig say?"

Alex: "Dank you!"

• Yesterday was my first day not working. It was odd, but nice to be able to relax and read during the kids nap time. The rest of the day was spent doing laundry and cleaning (that's how I could justify the relaxing then!).  Will couldn't wait for Daddy to come home–I think in hopes that he would play with him. 
• The "Not Working" didn't last long, they just sent me a project they need done.  Um, ok.  I guess I'm just not guaranteed the consistent hours as I was in the past.
• Weight loss continues to be slow but I'm still losing.  I lost 1 pound in the last two weeks. My official weigh in is on Monday. Both last week and this, when I weighed myself on Monday I had only lost about 0.5 a pound. Yet at other times in the week (like today), I'd lost two pounds.  Crazy.  I guess I need to stop "using up my points" over the weekend!
• I did reach my personal mini-goal of earning activity points.  Most of it was from walking around various places or swimming with the boys–they're the best kind, I feel…I have family time plus get the points.
• You know the funnel cakes that are almost mandatory eating at the State Fair? One HALF of one is 12 points. To put that in perspective–if I'd have eaten the entire thing, that would have been the TOTAL number of points I can have in one day! And that's why that is a once a year treat!  And it kind of negated all the Activity Points I got from walking around the fair for 3 hours!
• Yesterday Alex woke up and was saying "nging". It took a minute for me to realize he was telling me it was RAINING. This is the first time we've had rain in a LONG time so I was surprised he knew what it meant and was able to tell me it was happening. 

Let's start with the positive: 

Good news:  James fixed my camera!!!

Actually, he thinks it dried out and is now working. But he kept trying and praying over it, so he gets credit for fixing it. We're not sure how long it will last, but I'll enjoy it as long as I can.

Bad news: Work isn't going very well.  This whole slump in the mortgage industry/problems with the sub-prime market mean mortgage brokers aren't doing well. If they're not doing well, they are waiting until the last minute to get their education (companies don't want to buy education for people they are not going to have working for them at the end of the year). Since they are not buying education, James' office is not doing well.  If they aren't doing well, they can't afford to pay people. At this point, I have no new projects–meaning once I get done with the one I'm working on, I'm done.

James thinks business will pick up soon and they'll be bringing me back.  But until then, the budget is tight. VERY tight. And suddenly I have all this free time. What will I do?  I was thinking "I could get caught up in my scrap booking–but I don't have the money for supplies! I could start working on my continuing education for my license–oh, no money for the courses! All those things I don't get done usually? Like working out and cleaning the house?  Stink."

Tina was out for the evening so I let the Tort have ice cream.  He decided that he wanted two scoops and was very determined to make sure I gave him exactly two.  Since mom wasn't home I offered some toppings:

Me: "Would you like cool whip?"

TT: "Yes"

Me: "Would you like chocolate syrup?"

TT: "Oooh, yeah, I LIKE chocolate syrup."

Me: "Would you like ketchup?"  (he LOVES ketchup)

TT: "No, Silly Daddy, Ketchup is for chicken nuggets and vegetables."

Whew, glad we cleared that up.

Last night I got to buy this:

A disposable camera, if you can't tell. The answer to my questions in the previous post ("Could a new camera be considered an emergency?") was a loud "NO!" as James read the post.

I realized I need to readjust how I take pictures.  No three or four shots until I get the exact one I want.  No zooming in to get closer.  I need to remember I'll need money to see how these turned out–not just to print the best off for scrap booking.

Will wanted to use it and I had a hard time explaining to him why he couldn't.  You see, this camera uses something called film. We can't see the pictures right after we take it, we have to have the film developed.  Each picture now costs money to see… You can't just take one and then take another. Mommy has to pay for each picture and I don't want them wasted on missing something. He just couldn't understand that.  We went to the zoo today and I let him take a picture, and he didn't understand why he couldn't see it right after he took it.  It's hard growing up the digial age and then having to revert back to the "dark ages"!

This afternoon we went to the State Fair. We also took the State Fair Train to the fair. It was a fun time. I'm having a hard time sharing about it because I'm sad, I broke my camera there.  So give me a moment to sigh over that.  <sigh>  It was a good camera, lasted almost 3 years.  I'm blaming Will's cheap water bottle (the one I bought with you Shari–but I don't blame you, I'm just going to throw it out and look for another one) …it leaked water into my bag and onto the camera.  When I went to take a new picture, the camera opened and locked up. And never restarted.  Now we're in a pickle. I had hoped to upgrade that camera in the near future (if the house sold)…and now I'm stuck with no camera, no money to get the camera I want, yet not wanting to spend the money to replace the camera I had (knowing I'd want to upgrade in 6 months to a year). One more time, humor me… <sigh> Is a broken camera considered an emergency?  Can we break into the emergency fund?  Since we have family out of state/country and this is our only way to keep them in touch?

Anyway, back to the fun topic… James took the afternoon off, Alex took and early nap and we rushed to make the 2:45 train (they recommened being there 30 minutes early). James dropped me and the boys off to get the tickets and went to park. Will was so excited to go in this building and see a picture of a train! Then I told him to go look out the door–there was a REAL train!!! When I asked him if he wanted to ride it, he was SO excited! It was hard for him to wait the 15 minutes we had left for the train to start.  Yes, that was a big hit.  Both boys were glued to the window the entire time.

Once we got to the fair, the boys loved seeing the tractors. We waved at the tractors that pulled cars with seats (people movers? We called them tractor trains–here's a picture from last year) around the fair grounds.  The boys got to pretend to drive tractors out on display. (Will wanted to know why he couldn't REALLY drive them or use the digger on the small digger/front end loader.  Hmmm…I wonder!)  We had fun in the FFA building that is for kids–Will got to play with James on the miniature golf course and Alex got to play with the dump truck, run around, go up and down stairs and look at a motorcycle.  Then we started to hunt for food.  We ended up getting fair favorites (James: Gyro, Me: Lamb kabob, Boys: hot dogs, James & I: Funnel cake) and then realized we could rush to make for the 6:30 Fair Train back or wait for the 8:00 train. Considering the boys were already getting fussy, we opted to rush. This meant we didn't see many animals (just a quick swing through the cow barn) or other things on display. But, we had gotten two free coupons for admission to get in, so we were fine with the three hours we spent there and headed back to the train station.   On the way home Alex was a bit antsy and not as interested at looking out the window.  It was nice to get back to the car and strap him into his car seat. 

We ended up going on the coolest day of the month. We got sprinkled on a bit, but the clouds and breeze kept it cool and beautiful–yet they must have scared off enough people that it wasn't too busy.  It was a great time. 

Some of you know that we, along with 5 of our neighbors, are in the process of negoiating the sale of our land to a developer. And if you didn't know–you do now!  We live behind a rather busy road and I'd like us to live in a neighborhood with kids and sidewalks.  This is me giving just a few of our for reasons selling land to developers…I'm not sure why I feel the need to justify it. We don't like this house and never planned to stay here long term. The entire two years here we've debated over whether we should fix/update things for our enjoyment + resale value, or will we end up being able to sell the house to developers (thus the house will be torn down) so doing things would be a waste of money. We ended up doing a kind of mixed bag…a little fixing up at a time. And I feel the things we've done, (such as add a door, put in the deck,) have made it a much nicer place to live while we were here so I don't think they were a waste of too much money.

Anyway, we are now two months into the process and are waiting on two neighbors to come to an agreement on the purchase price. Part of the purpose of this is to ask you to please pray with us that a deal can be met. We'd REALLY like to be able to do this! Also, I thought it would be funny to document the list of things we have NOT been doing that were on our To Do List this summer:

• Paint the garage door
• Paint the shutters
• Paint the shed out back
• Stain the deck
• Landscaping the area that was torn up when work was done on the well. (Oh, looking at that post made me realize I didn't update you on that–insurance covered the cost of the well being repaired and the side walk being fixed, but no landscaping. So we have a lovely patch of weeds in front of our house right now.)
• Fixing the 2 cracks in the ceiling in the hallway
• Painting all the ceilings
• Repainting our bedroom
• Painting the kitchen cabinets white  (Yes, lots of painting. No one here seems too sad that we're waiting on this.)
• Putting a door knob in the door for the play room/Guest room (this do hasn't had a door knob the 2 years we've lived here, I'm embarrased to share…something about the hole not being standard size. When that room was Alex's nursery, it was great, I could check on him without him seeing me!  Now that it's back to being a guest room, I think we should try to find one to fit. But why spend the money now, if the house won't be here in 6-9 months?)
• Buying/Hanging up towel bars for the bathroom (Again, two years later and we're still using the hooks in the closet and on the back of the door. But I want one for a hand towel and the boys towels.  But I couldn't make up my mind on what I wanted.)
• Clean all the windows inside and out

Let's just say if the deal falls through, we're going to have a busy fall!

The previous four weekends we've had people visit us (mostly family).  And it was fun to have them visit us, we didn't have to drive out to see them and we love seeing family and friends. But by week #4, I was getting a bit tired of cleaning up the house to get it "Visitor Ready", washing the guest sheets and remaking the guest bed again (the futon in the playroom) and getting all the toys out of the playroom to make it a guest room. (It's our Room of Requirement, changing as our Requirements change.)  So this last weekend, our first weekend of 'freedom', we celebrated by leaving! Saturday we drove up to Upland to visit my parents and some old friends.  It was a wonderful time.  I also had a weekend of baby showers, one Friday night and one Sunday. By the end of the second shower I was ready to have Baby #3.

Today we were blessed with a cloudy morning.  The rain that was in Chicago fell apart before we got any (and we really need some) but the clouds have kept the temperatures down and it's been down right pleasant!  Of course the sun is coming out now, and I'm sure it'll heat up just as we head out to the State Fair–but we'll still go. I can't miss my chance for funnel cakes and other Very Bad Food! I showed Will pictures of him at the State Fair the last two years and now he's looking forward to seeing all the tractors.  And the Farris Wheel. He has never been on one, nor did he see pictures of the one at the fair, but at some point in time he saw one on Dora and was talking about it this morning–how there's "…this circle that has lots of seats and goes around and around". Once he said that I remembered he'd been really intersted in the one at the Fair last year and we said "Maybe next year".  While I'm sure he doesn't remember that, I am guessing he's going to ask to ride on it when he sees the one at the State Fairl.  I'll let Daddy handle that issue!

So trying to stay cool has only been part of what has been keeping us busy.  I've also been busy with things for my MOPS group. I agreed to do publicity this year–which I am enjoying a great deal. But most of what I do is right now.  Want to see our website/blog?(I decided that would be easier to update then a tradational web site. Plus we have a basic web site at our sponsor church but they won't let us do much more because what we do isn't up to their "graphics quality", so we're doing our own thing on the side. And I know it doesn't look that great, but it works for what we want. Hmmm, defensive there?)  Want a flyer? (I can mail it to you!) Want the registration form or letter? (Also can be mailed.)  Now I'm working on compliling everything for the welcome folders we'll hand out opening night.

The theme for MOPS is "The Home Factor" and has a special logo (you can see it here if you're intersted). Last week I got a magazine from MOPS in the mail. Will saw that logo and said "Mommy! That's the same picture that's on your computer!"  Um, I guess I have been working on MOPS a great deal during his afternoon time of watching Clifford!

It has been really hot here, so we're finding all kinds of ways to stay cool.  Last week we went to a friends neighborhood pool and the boys DID NOT want to go in. If they did, they were clinging to me and WOULD NOT get in a floatie.  So I've been trying to find ways to cool off and get them a bit more used to water outside of the bath tub or the hose in the backyard.

Yesterday we joined people from our church at a play date at our favorite "Tractor Park", a park with fountains and a "dry river" (or a fake river in concrete and a few rocks). Will started tentative (hardly even walking in the water without me) but was running around in the fountains (even getting his face wet!) by the end. (After someone turned the shower on him in the bathtub, he's been afraid of water falling on his head.) Alex wasn't as interested in the water, he wanted to play on the tractor. All the other kids knew it was too hot and were playing in the water, so he didn't have to share the tractor with anyone!

Today James took the afternoon off work and we visited the new local "waterpark". It's nothing like the water park I worked at during High School, but it's a fun small place to cool off. They have a kiddie pool for little kids and then a larger kid area with fountains and a slide. There was a lap pool, a lazy river and a few water slides. We spent most of the time in the kiddie area–and I'm sad I only got two pictures in before my camera batteries died.  Once again the boys started off tentative, but by the end Will was going down the kids water slide over and over and over.  Alex had discovered he could walk in the foot high water without falling (most of the time), and didn't panic when he did. We took the boys on the lazy river. James had to pick Will up and force him to ride with him on the tube, Will was so sure he wouldn't like it. Then he decided he liked it–but not as much as the slide. It was a fun, relaxing afternoon.  Tomorrow? ANOTHER play date (Shesh, where were these in July when I was looking for things to do?) with my MOPS group at another park with fountains (I showed you pictures here). Then James will take the boys to his Boss' house for a swim party while I'm at a baby shower.  Saturday? We're up to visit friends in Upland and swim in Taylor Lake.  If they don't have gills by then, I'll be surprised!