rain on tulips

This afternoon, EK had had her diaper changed, and the diaper was left sitting on the floor next to the couch while we found her dry clothes to wear. I forgot that the diaper was there.

Until, about 15 minutes later, I saw CC pick up the diaper and start to walk away with it. Needless to say, I was a little concerned — he’s not exactly discerning in the things that might wind up in his mouth!

So I watched him. And, that little imp took that diaper, walked through the living room, through the kitchen, looked at me, smiled, and dropped the diaper into the kitchen garbage can!

How do they learn these things!? How do they grow up so quickly!?

Of course, I told the kids that from here on out, we have to check the garbage and recycling bins before we dump them to the outside containers, to check for ‘extra’ stuff that he may have added!*

I’m so not ready for these kids to be so grown up!

*I was right! 20 minutes later, CC walked into the kitchen and dropped his bowl of apples into the recycling bin! Oops! So much for knowing that the tv remotes and my keys are really in the house, huh??

I fell asleep at 1-ish.

CC woke up screaming at 2:30.

EK woke up crying at 4. CC was still awake and unhappy.

EK fell asleep again around 4:30.

CC gagged himself and puked — on all my bedding and me! — at 5.

CC fell asleep at 5:20.

I fell asleep at 5:40-ish.

My alarm went off at 6.

Fuul dragged in (more bugs in the last project he’s supposed to be done with) at 6:30.

I told Fuul that today was going to be an entirely unproductive day…

…except I’ve already run two loads of laundry (can you blame me?), a load of dishes, dressed and fed two kids, picked up the living room, and am finally getting a moment to sit down and get my second wind… so I can get GC off her bus, feed three kids lunch, get EK to speech, get DA to his Wrestling Banquet, help DS finish painting and ‘wheel-ing’ his pinewood derby car, and get the whole family to the pinewood derby tonight. Oh, and fit in lunch somewhere in there… and maybe a shower??

So, as I was saying… “Urrrrrrr…..”

(Filed again under things I’ve learned)

When you count rows in knitting, its easy: count the ‘v’s, and thats how many rows you have.

But, when you are doing stripes?? Count the ‘v’s, then add one… because the stitches on the needle will add one more row of color.

(I’m working on some toe-up knee socks for EK, inspired by this pattern but varied to fit her foot and the yarn I had on hand, all done in pink and green stripes! I’ve got enough done to try it on her, and they look like socks! Always a good thing when you’re sewing!)

I just pushed that final button on the tax-filing program… all my ‘paperwork’ is flying over the wires to the government processing place, hopefully to be quickly rewarded with the return of my over-payed taxes.

At least its done, and I can rest easy for another year… knock on wood!

In the category of “Things I’ve learned” that I didn’t necessarily need to learn! LOL

At the end of a couple of weeks where, mostly as a family, we’ve watched all the episodes of Firefly on DVD, and are preparing to watch Serenity, DA made an interesting discovery:

Joss Whedon was a screenplay writer on Toy Story.

Wow.

Never would have guessed. (Even went so far as to say he must have seen the screen wrong when he was watching it the other night with EK). But, no. He was right: I saw it myself tonight when the opening credits were on.

Nothing like making me question the entire fabric of the ‘verse! (And, yeah! No wonder I like both of those shows/movies so much! Such great writing! LOL)

Brisk

Describes both my weekend, my day today, and the breeze flying in through my open windows*.

Fuul, DA and JS went on the Merit Badge weekend campout Friday afternoon — JS managed to get his Disability Awareness merit badge, and finish the last things he needed to do (save maybe one?) to get his First Class rank before he turns 12!

Since I was without my truck on Friday night, and the elementary school auction was going on, I had three very disappointed kids here at home. AE was supposed to be at the auction to perform with the choir, so she called a friend and arranged a ride there and back, so she wouldn’t miss out. Spurred on by her success, GC called a friend and got a ride, and then DS did, as well! In the end, it was me at home for the whole evening with just EK and CC.

DA came home Friday night, rather than stay over, because he was scheduled to participate in the Regional Wrestling Championship/Meet — an all day event on Saturday. He was 7^th seed in his division, and wound up finishing 7^th overall — so he held his own! It was double elimination; he lost his first match, got a buy on his second (another player injured?), and held his own through all three periods of the semifinals, but lost on points. For a first year wrestling, he did a great job! (One of the boys from church that he rides home with every afternoon took 2^nd place overall!)

Fuul came home early Saturday so he could go to the wrestling tournament, and brought an entire truckload of wet, muddy clothes, sleeping bags, tents, and tarps. I spent three hours while he was gone doing laundry and trying to air out wet gear. Ewww! So not my favorite part of having scouting aged boys!

JS dragged in, wet, muddy, and worn out, around 7 Saturday, and as soon as he was showered and his clothes in the laundry, Fuul and I ran out to rent movies and pick up take-out Chinese. When we came home, we put the kids to bed and sat, exhausted, on the couch for the rest of the night!

JS gave a talk in primary on Sunday — if not for General Conference, next week would be his last week in primary, so the Presidency was trying to take advantage of his being there! — and I wandered the halls with EK, whose runny nose prevented her from going into nursery.

And today? So far, I’ve driven Fuul to the shuttle for work, taken EK to school, picked up GC, done the shopping at Target**, mowed the grass front and back, and opened up the house to the brisk spring-ish breeze. And had lunch. And fed the kids. Never a dull moment!

And now I’m off to briskly straighten up the kitchen so I can run and fill Fuul’s prescriptions as soon as DA gets home from school***!

_{*We finally have a sunny day here in the northwest, so I’m taking advantage of it by having all the windows in the house open — getting quite a brisk little cross-wind going on, but I know that the house always feels better after a good airing, so this is it!
**We managed to run out of baby wipes this weekend, and nearly ran out of milk as well! My regular planning and shopping were all superceeded by the camping and wrestling!
***Yeah! Wrestling is over, so I can finally count on my babysitter coming home right after school, so I can return to being able to run quick errands after school sans kids!}

Fuul accepted the job offer this morning — signed the papers and everything! The new job starts on 4/16.

This is the whole reason for the transplant; its finally all coming together!

But, we are still in a state of transistion, now with a new job! Always something, huh?

I finished another thing! (OK, granted, I started and finished it yesterday — threaded the beads mostly while I waited for the dryer delivery guys to get her, then knit the whole thing in about an hour — but it counts, and its useful, as my old watch band was on its last legs, and the temporary stretch elastic one I was wearing wasn’t up to supporting the weight of the watch itself!)

The entire thing is knit in garter stitch, with beads added to every stitch on every other row. It sits a little lower on my wrist than I would have ideally liked it (probably could have stopped about two rows earlier) but its not too bad: looks more like a wide bangle bracelet, the way it sits. And the necklace? Just the extra beads I had already strung (had to prestring the beads onto the cording); hated to let them go to waste, so they make a nice doubled strand of beads that match my watchband! OOhhh! All Matchy-Matchy!

Object: Beaded Knit Stretchy Watch Band, and beaded strand necklace
Start date: 19 March 2007
Finish date: 19 March 2007
Yarn: Stretch Magic Cord, .5mm, clear
Needles: US4 straight needles
Beads: ?? Large seed beads - glass?? in clear an a green & blue mix
Size: approx. 1″ width by 5″ length
Pattern: cast on 7; knit in garter stitch 3 rows. Begin adding beads to every stitch (7) on each right side row. Continue to desired length. Finish with two no-bead rows garter stitch. Bind off.

I know they don’t look like much there, but I’m so excited that my washer and dryer are here!

I thought that as soon as they were installed, I’d rush right out and throw in a load or two… but to be honest, after taking EK to school this morning, and cleaning out the garage for half a day… well, I’m thinking that laundry can wait a day! (At least now I only need to plan a couple hours ahead to have clothes ready, instead of more than a day for drying!)

Ohhh… the lure of fluffy towels!

Update: OK, I lied. I ran two loads, because I had leaky-diaper-clothes on two kids that really needed to be washed right away! Ah, the warm laundry! Ah, the fluffy towels! Ah, the laundry done in an hour, rather than a day! I could become accustomed to this kind of luxury!

My Grandma T called me this morning, while I was out rearranging the garage in anticipation of the new washer and dryer being delivered this afternoonn! It was so great to hear from her, and to get to fill in all the details that kind of get skimmed over on Tulips!

Glad to talk to you, grandma! I’ll keep posting if you’ll keep reading! LOL

My teen at work… filming his younger siblings outside in the welcome spring sunshine!

Wordpress has finally put together a centralized list of plugins, with ratings and comments! Woohoo!

Thirteen years already!? How on earth does that happen!

I’ve been trying to find a good hospital photo to put up here, but my scanner is in another room from my laptop right now, so it will have to wait!

But, oh! It can’t possibly have been thirteen years already!! (At 6:01 this morning, if you’re wondering!)

Happy, happy birthday, Bender-Boy!!

I’m feeling rather useless today… tired and just oogie feeling.

Fuul’s not home yet; he’s usually here just after six.

The kids had ham sandwiches, and I’m seriously considering calling that dinner.

I should be cleaning out the garage so the new washer and dryer can be delivered on Monday, but I just don’t have the energy for it right now.

I’m tired of kids ignoring me when I ask them to do things. I’m tired of yelling every time it happens. I’m just tired.

… that just because your kids are quiet, and obviously happily engaged in drawing…

…that you shouldn’t check on them every 30 seconds anyhow!

(Trust me: your kid will thank you. Your tub — the one with the blue cast to it now — will thank you. Your television. Your television cabinet. Your carpet. Your kitchen floor. Your couch. All of them will thank you.)

_{This photo was taken AFTER I washed her down repeatedly with baby wipes, but before I tried soaking it all off in the tub. The results are not much better, though the casual transfer of color to every surface she comes in contact with seems much improved. Never boring!}