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.

40

Somebody turned 40 around here today. The boys wanted me to put paper 40's around the kitchen, as I do for every birthday, but I decided one large number was sufficient.

I think it gets the point across.

Ken didn't get the party he wanted for numerous reasons, but he did get a spectacular birthday 'cake.' I kid.

Okay, last minute idea after I baked them.

The boys thought it was great and they were great sports while I took pictures of them with their dad.

My boys.

Even though Ken got his 48-inch birthday present a few months ago, I felt bad about not throwing him a party. So yesterday I grabbed myself, I mean KEN, a new iPod Touch and loaded it up with all kinds of goodies for me, I mean KEN, to play with. Overall, I think we had a great birthday.

Rough Start

It's going to be a long day. I won't go into detail about what precipitated this note; suffice to say that it would just lead you all to think I'm a crappy Mother. Anyhow, here's a note from Riley, folded up into airplanes and sent sailing up the stairs after he was sent to his room for the day:

Mom,

I might kick myself out of the house! I bet it would be a MUCH better world without me!

From Riley

P.S. I will not tell you where I am!

Test

Under Pressure

Wow, what a strange night! At about 10:00 PM this evening we had a front coming through, so I let the boys camp out in the basement for the night and finally got a chance to head out to the garage for a break. I had the small back garage door open so that I could watch the storm, and the big garage door down to keep out the rain coming straight out of the west.

Out of nowhere, the wind kicked up so hard that I thought the garage door was going to implode, so I hurriedly shut the back door of the garage and went to go into the house. Just as I opened the screen door, the door to the house slammed shut on me. It literally took me 30 seconds to get the door to open using every muscle in my body.

Once I got through the door and into the kitchen, the door slammed shut behind me and I ran to the front door of the house to shut it, as the wind was blowing the rain horizontally into the house. Too late, the pressure caught the front door and slammed IT shut too.

I yelled down to the boys to ask if everything was okay down there, when Riley let out a long piercing scream. I ran down to the basement and tried to calm him by explaining that the wind had just blown the doors shut when he yelled, "Mom! I'm scared and my window is broken!" Crap!

I go into Riley's room and this is what I find:

The wind had sucked the egress window, frame and all, right out of the wall and into the window well.

Ken was still at work so I called our neighbor Matt over, and just as we were getting the window well protected from the outside, Ken drove up. After Ken STOPPED AT THE MAILBOX TO GET THE MAIL, (I kid you not,) he came to help Matt and I, who were working in the wind and pouring rain. Immediately Ken sized up what we were doing and determined that he had a better idea. This is where I gave up and went in the house.

Ken and Matt got to work on Ken's plan, and I went into the basement to take pictures. Just in time, I caught this little mishap:

Ken falling into the window well.

He's going to be a little sore tomorrow with a good gash and bump on his shin and a twisted ankle, but he's lucky because he should have broken his leg. Anyhow, Ken limped back out of the window well, and when I asked if everyone was okay, I got this response:

Along with Ken yelling, "And she's taking a damn picture!"

Shannon and Riley were watching the big guys work from the basement, and they were very excited to notice the wildlife in the window well. Shannon corralled some and I got this picture:

Frogs. Big confused frogs.

Anyhow, we set the frogs free, secured the window well from both the outside and inside, and the storm quickly blew over. It has since been determined that this was all my fault. Apparently, I should have either A) had the rear door of the house open to avoid the pressure buildup or B) stayed in the garage until the door would easily open instead of forcing it open. Me and my great big biceps getting me in trouble once again, I just don't know my own strength.

Writing on the Wall

Knowing there would be trouble if Mom saw that he referred to Corey as the 'S' word, Riley ammended his comment...