Jul 16, 2017 | Uncategorized |
Thursday night I had an eye doctor appointment. As the receptionist walked me to the exam room she asked how I was. For a brief second I wondered how she’d react if I told her how my day had really been. What she was say if I gave her a complete rundown of my day? I didn’t give it to her so I’ll relay it here in painstaking detail.
First of all, all week we’ve been deep in the trenches of Operation Potty Training Intensive. The timer goes off every 20 minutes for AB to sit on the potty. We’ve had absolutely no success with anything making it into the potty. She had an accident while standing on top of her barn which resulted in the barn and all the animals having to be washed. We bring the potty, wipes, paper towels and dry underwear from room to room. It’s such an ordeal. Each day she’s had less accidents but since she isn’t using the potty I don’t feel like we’ve had much progress. I told her to pay attention to a feeling she might get in her belly. That means she needs to use the potty. After an accident I asked if she had the feeling and she said she did. I asked what it felt like and her response was “magic and unicorns and my heart beating feels yike butterflies.”
I woke up Thursday morning knowing it would be another long day of training. I was determined for it to be a good day! Positive thoughts! Fun times! Then I walked into the kitchen and the table was covered in ants again. We’ve sprayed multiple times but each time it rains ants make their way in. No matter how clean I keep the table they always come back. Later in the day I found a caterpillar on the floor by the sink. Our house is turning into an insect sanctuary city.
Between PTI and constant rain all this week we haven’t gotten out much. I have a few friends who take their children to the same music class we go to so we had planned on meeting at class that morning. It was pouring like I’ve never seen as we got ready to go. I hoped Shelley would text me to say she didn’t want to drag her kids out in the rain. I wanted to cancel but Annabelle was excited to go and she’s had such a good attitude about PTI that I wanted her to do something fun. If there’s one thing you need to know about me it’s that I HATE HATE doing errands in the rain. I do not like getting my clothes wet. I don’t like wet socks. I don’t like my feet getting wet if I’m in sandals. I don’t want to sit in the car or arrive at my destination in wet clothes. I love swimming and walking in creeks, but rain water is a different story. We got soaked getting into the car. We got soaked getting out of the car. We got soaked when Annabelle said she needed to use the potty (false alarm) and we made an emergency stop at Tim Hortons.
When we got home I went to look at a room in the cellar that sometimes gets a puddle on the floor when it rains. The entire floor was covered in water. I had to lug bags of Army gear, instruments, backpacks and boxes to the other room. I had no idea how to clean up the water so I did what I could and waited for the landlords to come and save the day.
Before music class I was in Annabelle’s room getting her clothes. The door hit the shelf behind it and a frame crashed to the ground and smashed into a million pieces. I did what I do best and shut the door to deal with later. When I finally vacuumed it up (after an accident and the flood) I saw that the picture inside was ripped. It’s a print of You are My Sunshine that Mom gave me after Grandpa died. He always sang the song to me so its a special picture. That’s when I gave up on life. Except I couldn’t because Annabelle refused to nap and I dropped my water bottle on the way out the door.
I thought about telling the receptionist my lengthy sob story but thought better of it. We didn’t have enough time to fully cover all the details.
Jul 14, 2017 | Uncategorized |
Last weekend we took a quick family trip to Kutzville, Pennsylvania. I was hesitant to pack up and leave home again, but with all our travels lately we haven’t done anything just the three of us. I’m so glad we went.
We found a pamphlet for a Pennsylvania Dutch/Amish festival on one of our day trips. Christopher researched it and we decided to go. I wrote “drive to Klutzville” on all our calendars. I thought the name was weird but there’s a Hell, Michigan and Looneyville, Texas. Maybe it was named by a group of clumsy people. The correct name is Kutztown. No wonder I’m bad with directions. I can’t even get the town names straight.
We didn’t know anyone who had been to the festival and had no personal reviews that it would be any good. We hoped it would be good after driving five hours and hearing the Pete the Cat audio book play 6 times in a row from the backseat. We arrived right when the fair grounds were opening and it was immediately obvious it was a popular place. It was so much fun. There were booths of gorgeous handmade items, foods, clothes and decor, primarily in Amish/country style. Annabelle’s personal favorite was a hammock.
Most of the festival wasn’t child centered and Annabelle did have a few small meltdowns, but overall she was a good sport. We forgot our wagon so she had to walk all day which didn’t help and she missed her nap but I think she enjoyed it. She watched a puppet show she loved and part of a flea circus show she hated. She got to play in the bounce house and inflatable slide (not genuine Amish activities) as well as ride on a house drawn merry go round.
We found the cutest souvenir but Christopher wouldn’t let us buy one. “Where would you put it? How would we travel back with it?” Details shmetails. I know a family of nine who traveled up the east coast with a couple of llamas in their van. I think we could handle one duckling.
We saw the most gorgeous quilts. I was so inspired to go home and whip together a quilt for our bed. I’m sure it will never happen. I’m better at buying fabric than sitting down and sewing it.
A quilt would have been the ideal souvenir since it requires neither feeding or a shelter, but I didn’t bring an extra $1,000 with me.
You can’t imagine the joy I felt when I saw a sign saying there would be an Amish wedding at 3:15. I assumed it wouldn’t be a real wedding but I love any wedding. I always try to crash join in on weddings we come across while out and about. He who shall remain unnamed doesn’t agree with my ideas of celebrating with a strange happy couple. Here was a wedding I was welcome to attend. I must say I was underwhelmed. The ceremony started 15 minutes late. The man acting as the preacher sat on the stage scrolling through his phone while Annie and Jonathan (played by Shawna and Eric) stood on the sidelines fiddling with their microphones. The ceremony finally started and not so much as a fingertip of touching happened between the two lovebirds. As the preacher said, “they had chores in the morning so there won’t be much time to celebrate.”
We left with a few not animal souvenirs, a sunburn and some good memories. Turns out Klutzville is a pretty fun place.
Jun 30, 2017 | Uncategorized |
* “Yook at my face! I yook so funny!”
* When Katie was over we went to Niagara Falls. We stopped at an ice cream shop and saw this sign taped to a mechanical horse.
In this time of race issues and riots I thought it was a little harsh to exclude Canadians from the ride, especially is such a public way. Then I realized it meant no Canadian money.
* I’ve been enjoying a few (or several) trips to Dunkin Donuts while we’ve been in the Land of the Pink and Orange Sign. It makes me so happy to see a DD on every corner. It makes me even happier that they know how to make the perfect medium regular ice coffee. You can see the rays of the sun in the picture below. The angels were shining upon my purchase.
* My absolute favorite picture from this month.
Jun 28, 2017 | Friends & Fun, It's all relative, Uncategorized |
Monday we went to the zoo with Mom, Grandma and Joanna. I liked that the adult/child ration was so high. Every so often when we’re out with other adults I forget I’m the one who’s supposed to know where Annabelle is at all times. (Don’t act like you’ve never momentarily lost your child. I know I’m not the only one.) One of these days I’ll remember I’m the parent in our relationship.
Two years ago we visit this zoo and fed the goats. Annabelle and her superb memory have never forgotten. She LOVES goats and seeing her with them is like watching long lost loved ones be reunited.
Everyone’s first thought upon seeing the goats was “look how pregnant they are! It must be twins.” They had huge stomachs and waddled around like a 10 month pregnant woman. There was a sign across from the pen that said “NO, the goats are NOT pregnant.” They can hold between 3-6 gallons of food in the stomachs which leads to their bloated look. For the one millionth time I’m glad I’m not a goat.
This sign made me roll my eyes. “Don’t climb on the zoo fence. If you fall, animals could eat you and that would make them sick.” I’m more concerned about not being eaten FOR MY SAKE not the animals, but that’s just me.
Four generations of meerkats.
Long arms and round ears run in the family.
Jun 27, 2017 | Friends & Fun, Uncategorized |
Normally when I have lengthy blog breaks it’s due to lack of action in our neck of the woods. This time we’ve had some much excitement I’ve been too busy to blog.
My very best friend Katie came to visit last week. We hadn’t seen each other in two years and four months. TWO PLUS YEARS. We used to be sad when three months went by without visits. Three months seems like nothing now.
The itinerary Katie emailed me said they were landing at 4:15. That gave me plenty of time to leisurely do all the last minute preparations, make muffins, change into a cute outfit and possibly take a short afternoon nap before I had to leave for the airport. I was feeling good about my great scheduling when I received a text from Katie at 2:13 that said “just landed!” After being stranded at the airport last month with no one to pick us up I was very concerned about arriving at the airport before them so they wouldn’t have to wait. Instead I had to get Annabelle up from her nap, put the second car seat in the car, leave the vacuum in the middle of the floor in multiple pieces and run out the door in my cleaning/gym/look like I’ve been exercising but really been watching shows clothes. I took this selfie as I was rushing out the door.
Most of the activities we planned for the visit were things we did during our sleepovers in years past. We watched movies while eating popcorn, did our nails and talked for hours. One day we went to Niagara Falls and another we replanted my garden. We took the girls to the playground and had picnics. It wasn’t quite like sleepovers of yore thanks to the constant demands of the girls, but it was so fun.
On Monday night Christopher watched the girls while Katie and I went out. A pottery painting studio near us teaches silver jewelry making classes and I signed us up for a class. The instructor kept telling us we had to work fast and once we did something it couldn’t be undone. “It will be garbage. Garbage. If you mess up I can’t fix it. It will be garbage. Work fast or you’ll have to throw it away. It will be garbage.” It wasn’t a very motivating pep talk. Things were going very well until Katie dropped her tool and cracked her pendant. Garbage Lady tried to patch it up but said we wouldn’t know if it was fixed until after it was taken out of the kiln. She came back a while later and said “The kiln gods have shone upon you! It’s not garbage!” I’ve heard of many different gods but never the a God of the Kiln.
I had to buy diapers for the 554th time so we swung by Target after our class. I always hope it will be my last time buying diapers but it never is. At this rate I’ll be getting her diapers instead of a crockpot for her wedding. Anyway. When we had sleepovers before we were married talked about fun things. This visit we discussed onesie styles and the different patterns on Honest Company diapers. How the times have changed. We did laugh just as much as we always have. We kept saying we need to have more visits so we can have these fun outings. It’s not fun living thousands of miles from your best friend.
The final stop on our moms night out tour was the Chinese restaurant. I asked the waiter if a specific meal was sweet or savory. He hesitated a minute so I said, “I mean, is it sweet or salty?” English was obviously his second language so I wasn’t sure if he know what savory meant. He replied, “Its more…tasteless.” What a rave review! I don’t know how the dish isn’t a best seller.
One day we we played in the river. It’s all peaceful and fun until you start floating down the river and your mom can’t get to you in time so Aunt Katie has to rescue you. Poor Annabelle was traumatized and has talked about it every day since. “I was foe-ting away so Mama telled Aunt Katie to catch me but Mama was too slow.”
My main goal is for Annabelle and Kezia be to best friends. It’s not going so well. They like each other part of the time but they’re very much 3 year olds. There was a good amount of squabbling and arguing over toys. We had many moments of drama and tears. Other times they played so nicely and I’d think for the 8,000th time how I’m so happy Katie and I both had girls.
Jun 14, 2017 | Sesame, Uncategorized |
Today was this little Mary Poppins wanna-be’s last day of Parents Day Out.
I went back and forth so many times about signing her up but I’m so glad I did. She had so much fun “wif da kids and snacks at school” and I loved the time to myself. I lived for Tuesday mornings. I could browse stores, take a nap, sew, read or do whatever I wanted for three hours. I felt like a free woman and it was glorious.
I will miss having a a morning each week when we go our separate ways, but I think we’ll have a fun summer. We spend 24/7 together regardless of the season but I’m going to make an effort for this season to be extra fun for her. I want to have lots of popsicles, set up teepees, go to the zoo and spend time at the pool and splash pads. I decided it will be the summer of low key meals and paper plates. I hope popsicles and popcorn are considered a well rounded supper.
