The Things You Do For Those You Love

What a strange weekend. Ken actually had the whole weekend off, and it was weird having a man around the house again! He managed to do a lot of little projects and even helped me with the lawn. Of course the kids didn't seem to notice Ken's presence, all weekend long it was, "Mom... Mom! Hey, Mom!!!"

This evening I drove us all over to Frosty's for some ice cream and the whole way there it was, "Mom? Mom. MOM!" Finally I asked the boys if they realized that their father was in the car with us, and since I was trying to drive, would they mind directing their comments to Dad? That worked for about a minute, and then we were right back to, "Mom?"

Ken decided that he would take care of this conversation. "Daddy's been home all weekend and nobody wants to spend time with him. All you want to do is talk to Mom," he observed.

"That's not true, Daddy, I played with you yesterday," somebody said.

"Yeah, well when I asked which boy wanted to go to Home Depot with me today, nobody wanted to go! I had to go all by myself," was Daddy's dejected response.

"Well we just didn't want to go right then at that moment," was Riley's reply.

My turn. "You know, when you really love somebody, you take the time to do things that they want to do when they want to do them. Before you guys came along, I spent lots of time doing things that Daddy wanted to do."

"Yeah," said Daddy, "and I always had to go places Mommy wanted to go."

"Like where?" questioned the kids.

"Like shopping. All the time," I answered. (BS, I hate shopping, but oh well, it was my turn to exaggerate.) "You know," I continued, "we'd walk throughout the store and your Daddy would chase me around with small kitchen appliances!"

"Really???" exclaimed Riley.

"No, but it sounded fun," I replied.

Roku

We've been finding symbols like these all over the house, usually made from pillows, toothpicks or tinkertoys. From what I understand, this is roku, the japanese 6. But you'd have to ask Corey to be sure.

Conversation

This morning Ken and I were discussing the value of the work that each of us do, which is something we discuss often. Although Ken wouldn't have it any other way than to have me home raising the kids, it's not uncommon for him to tease me about how little I do compared to him.

I can't win an argument regarding the monetary value of what I do, so this morning I tried a different tactic.

"Okay, Ken, let's say you go to work everyday and you just do your job with minimum effort and what happens? You still get your paycheck and the cereal still gets made, right?"

"Right."

"So imagine if I woke up every morning and decided to do MY job half-a**ed. The outcome would be a little more serious, right? We'd end up with messed up kids! Kids that... Kids that are like..."

Cue children screaming and fighting running upstairs to tattle. Hmm. Kids. Like. MINE.

Yeah, I kinda lost THAT argument.

10 Questions (Because I Don't Have the Energy for 20)

#1: Why haven't I blogged in ten days?

#2: Why did my husband leave me a note telling ME to pay his $167 speeding ticket?

#3: Why can't my kids pick up the playroom in the basement like I asked?

#4: Does Riley REALLY want to have a slumber party Saturday night?

#5: If Riley did want to have a slumber party, wouldn't he PICK UP THE DAMN BASEMENT?

#6: What was I thinking when I said Riley could have a slumber party Saturday night?

#7: Will the basement bathroom still be clean by the time Saturday night gets here?

#8: Why do little boys always want to poop in the bathroom that you happen to be cleaning?

#9: Why do little boys always pee all over the clean toilet seats?

#10: Why don't I just go take a nap and forget about cleaning for the rest of the day?

Sunset Beach Vacation

We had a great week in North Carolina, but dang it's great to be home. Here's how it went:

Ken and I LOVED the beach. So we made a big heart.

We also spelled out the consequences. (K + C = three boys.)
The boys played in the sand.
Corey kept cleaning the sand off of himself.

I was nice enough to crop the scariness out of this picture for you.

When the weather wasn't too great, we headed to Myrtle Beach for some fun.Riley is the speck in the sky, Shannon is in the foreground.
All my boys liked the go-kart park.
Things got a little hairy with the boys, but we stopped short of actually doing this.Every time we said, "Let's go to the beach!" the boys cried, "Let's go to the pool instead!So, yes, even though we have a season pass to our local pool, a LOT of our vacation was spent in this one.