Ten for Tuesday

1. Basement photos!

2. Missing something? "Yup, my front tooth." Finally! (He wiggled that one forever.)

3. When S. went on a field trip to a plant nursery and grocery store her bus drove past new(ish) Chuck E. Cheese restaurant. It's only seven minutes from our house. She doesn't know I've purposely been avoiding car trips to that part of town for months.

4. I'm loving the warm weather, but our yard doesn't exactly get the attention it needs from me and Ben. I really should teach the boys lawn-mowing skills. I put on a construction mask and mowed some of the lawn the other day with a minimal reaction (I wasn't trying to amuse the neighbors, just very allergic to grass and dandelions). And poor Ben's got no time to mow with his night shift work schedule--on good days he has almost enough time to sleep and eat, though.

5. R. ran in a 3-5th grade race at school and came in 10th! He could have been faster, he says, but someone punched him in the stomach right before the race. I don't know about that, but he enjoyed himself and the whole family was there to cheer him on. Daddy got off in time to watch, then he went home to sleep.

7. I posted about thumb-sucking earlier, but C. has started incorporating a new element: Belly Buttons! She sucks her thumb and puts her finger in her belly button. If I see her walking around like this, I know she's tired.

8. We got a new table. (yard sale $40). Now to update our chairs. . .

9. Ben won his Biggest Loser Finale at work and used some of the money he won to buy an outdoor basketball hoop/stand for their work parking lot.

10. We moved the saw horses out of the basement and the kids turned them into goals. We have become the most popular house on the block. Every kid on the block has been over to play, several of them come every day after school. They play, among other things, "Baby Soccer" a crawling game they made up. I'll have to remember this for the next time my kids beg for an expensive toy.

Excuuuuuuse Me

So I've just been reprimanded by a member of the blogging community because it's May 18th and my only post in May is three words long.

The thing is, I promised basement pictures. But I haven't taken any. You see, the camera is upstairs. The basement is downstairs. And I'm tired.

We aren't putting up much drywall these days anyway.

Ben started his night shift today. He'll work five days a week from 6:00pm to 7:00am. And in an effort to make his weekends family friendly, we decided to tweak our family's bedtime. The plan was to have long daily afternoon siestas and then a midnight bedtime. The plan didn't work for two of us. The baby can't stay asleep longer than an hour in the middle of the day. And J. ended up being late for school. (R. and S. were awake at 7:00am, but I didn't have the heart to wake up poor J.) Come to think of it, the tweaked bedtime didn't work for three of us. When babies wake up, their lucky moms get to wake up too.

So basically, I'm too tired to take pictures of the basement. Not just the basement though. I thought about taking pictures of C. under what she's nicknamed "The Bugga Bugga Tree" (a blossom-covered apple tree humming with "Bugga Bugga" bees). Gorgeous white blossoms, darling, awe-struck baby, but again, no pictures. Probably because we were outside and the camera is inside. Does your picture-taking go in bursts? I'm good about taking lots of pictures sometimes and other times I go weeks without taking any!

I hate drywall.

Today's Etsy Pick

Esty seller GootchieGoo makes these black and white prints. I love it. So now I'm trying to decide which would look better: a print of the word "Family" in, say, a black and white guest bedroom or the boys' names for their bedroom. What other word could I do? Amy--you could do something cool like this with your photography skills!

Working It

My neighbor and I are both certified teachers, but she babysits. I don't have a job right now, but will babysit twins this fall. We love our children, but staying home does nothing for our slender pocketbooks. We were talking about the quandary of getting a teaching job when you have little kids. Sure, we like kids, but I have a feeling that dealing with kids all day as a profession would be a little. . . redundant. Did I say redundant? I meant noisy. I really should have majored in something that'd get me a job working at a tranquil spa or at a monastery.

Then I came across this on Facebook. Cheesy, but funny. It seems I'm not the only one searching for employment:

My first job was working in an orange juice factory, but I got canned because I couldn't concentrate.
Then I worked in the woods as a lumberjack, but I just couldn't hack it, so they gave me the axe.
After that I tried to be a tailor, but I just wasn't suited for it. Mainly because it was a so-so job.
Next I tried working in a muffler factory but that was exhausting.
I wanted to be a barber, but I just couldn't cut it.
Then I tried to be a chef--figured it would add a little spice to my life but I just didn't have the thyme.
Finally, I attempted to be a deli worker, but any way I sliced it, I couldn't cut the mustard.
My best job was being a musician, but eventually I found I wasn't noteworthy.
I studied a long time to become a doctor, but I didn't have any patients.
Next was a job in a shoe factory; I tried but I just didn't fit in.
I became a professional fisherman, but discovered that I couldn't live on my net income.
Thought about becoming a witch, so I tried that for a spell.
I managed to get a good job working for a pool maintenance company, but the work was just too draining.
I got a job at a zoo feeding giraffes but I was fired because I wasn't up to it.
So then I got a job in a gymnasium (work-out-center), but they said I wasn't fit for the job.
Next, I found being an electrician interesting, but the work was shocking.
After many years of trying to find steady work I finally got a job as a historian until I realized there was no future in it.
My last job was working at Starbucks, but I had to quit because it was always the same old grind.
You have any ideas for a job? Maybe you have something that Works, because I don't.

Simple Joys

The conversation with our five-year-old that ended ". . . you mean I can even flush the potty and wash my hands?!?" actually began yesterday when Ben got home from work. We decided to spend a few minutes before dinner putting up plastic sheeting over our newly-insulated laundry room ceiling. As Ben picked up the long box, the roll of sheeting fell out. On its way to the ground it hit the nozzle at the bottom of the water heater, cracking it off. Let me try to put a positive spin on this next part: our laundry room got a pampering most laundry rooms only dream of--a drenching, actually, in 50 plus gallons of hot water and the pore-refining steam that comes with it. If only laundry rooms had pores! We shut off water and started researching on-demand/tankless water heaters. Then we headed to Lowes and Sears where we found none in stock. After talking with a Home Depot guy for a while we decided trying to fix the nozzle on our water heater was the way to go if we wanted any hot water in the next 21 days (the timeline for a special order and installation).

The next several hours played out like a game of Mouse Trap as we fixed the water heater. The nozzle didn't crack off neatly so we bought a gizmo to insert into the plastic broken threading. The gizmo didn't work, so we got out our dremel to grind out the plastic threading (because apparently dremels aren't just for shaping pinewood derby cars!). That went well, but the replacement nozzle we got wasn't quite long enough to fit into the water heater, so it was back to the store to get some extension pieces. While, there we got some more copper piping and a shut-off valve cold water line above the water heater so we could have running water even if we couldn't get the replacement nozzle part figured out (and because the Home Depot guy tells us it's a smart idea to be able to shut off water to your water heater). Then we came to the conclusion that now is as good a time as any to move the water heater since it was empty and relatively lightweight. So we built a wooden 20" x 20" platform (out of treated lumber) for the water heater to sit on. Then we skootched it up tight next to the drywall so our half wall next to the dryer can run the full length of the wall. I finished the cold water supply about the same time Ben finished putting in the new drain nozzle. What's gonna work? Team work! It was at this point that we prematurely declared ourselves victorious and turned on the water. We found one leak, turned off the water, tightened up a loose fitting, and turned the water back on. Could have been worse, right? We came upstairs to proclaim true victory over our 16-year-old water heater that will probably last another year or two. And that's why S. was so excited about being able to flush and wash her hands! Sometimes it takes 50 plus gallons of hot water on your laundry room floor to really appreciate the simple joys in life. Indoor plumbing is truly lovely. And I'm declaring it right here in this very post: whoever invented being able to flush your business away--TOTAL GENIUS! Did I forget to intertwine into my plumbing play-by-play dinner, taking the boys to scouts, bedtime, Ben calling in late, getting the kids off to school, and S. coming home from preschool? Nobody claimed we work faster than plumbers, just cheaper!


Now where were we? Oh yeah, putting up plastic sheeting. . . maybe that can wait until tomorrow, I need a nap, wait, no, I need a hot shower. My pores could use some refining.


A cute story: On the way out of Sears, Baby C. was walking toward the road. I decided rather than scoop her up I'd teach her to stop at the curb and look both ways. She is 22 months old, after all. So as she approached the curb I called out "Stop!" Without missing a beat she picks up her knees, sticks out her elbows, and with the boogie-woogie rhythm of a toddler, proceeds to "Stomp!" out into the road. Look both ways before you stomp across the street!

May's Book Club

I'm now heading up our ward's R.S. Book Club. The blogging world is cordially invited to read with us. For beautiful blogging friends in our ward, please consider this your invitation to join us on Thursday, May 14th at 7:00pm, location posted in the bulletin.


We're reading Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver.


It's a great Spring read. When Kingsolver and her family move from suburban Arizona to rural Appalachia, they take on a new challenge: to spend a year on a locally produced diet. "Our highest shopping goal was to get our food from so close to home, we'd know the person who grew it. Often that turned out to be ourselves as we learned to produce what we needed, starting with dirt, seeds, and enough knowledge to muddle through. Or starting with baby animals, and enough sense to refrain from naming them."

What an interesting, well-written book! Imagine sustaining oneself the way our ancestors did--without Doritos. Happy Reading! This book inspired my inner gardener and made me hungry for good, healthy food from my local Farmers' Market. Happy Reading.

Post a comment if you've read it and write your own review!