The disaster formerly known as our backyard

Several weeks ago, I mentioned that we had widened the driveway. Here are a couple pictures of the boys watching that happen:


The plan was that we were going to get a patio poured in the backyard the very next week. But the weather has not cooperated. We have had a ton of rain the past three weeks. For every dry day we get, we have two wet ones. The result has been standing water in the yard, along with incredibly deep mud. Rich (our neighbor and cement man extraordinaire) has tried a couple times to work in the back, but nearly got stuck more than once. So, he's waiting it out. There's a possibility that this coming week might finally be dry enough for him to prep the yard.

The annoying thing is that we can't put up the pool until the patio is done. So the boys are growing antsy while we wait. Bill is way past antsy. He's practically pulling his hair out.

Here's the mess:

Bar Stools

For the past ten years, we have owned two bar stools. They are too tall for our kitchen counter. That's my fault. I picked out the wrong ones. And we have three children who like to eat at the counter, so this has been a source of contention for the past couple years.

Yesterday, I finally went to Broene's in Allendale and bought THREE bar stools. They are the right height, and they are Mission style, so they finally match everything else in our house.

The boys were extremely impressed with me. I got several compliments from them.

And finally, all three boys can eat breakfast and lunch at the counter, while either watching PBS or the radar. I'm pretty sure Bill banned the radar this morning, since they have on PBS. We both get a little tired of how wound up they get watching the radar (they are always convinced a tornado is coming).

They insisted I take a picture of them 'being weird':

Fountain

I have always wanted a water feature in our yard. Bill's long-range plan is to build one along the west side of our house. But in the meantime, he bought a small container fountain and put it near the front door.

Initially, it was a fountain with stones lining the bottom. But the boys wouldn't stop playing with (and throwing) the stones, so this spring when Bill got it out, he simply put water in it. No stones. But the boys still couldn't leave it alone. They kept using the fountain to refill their squirt bottles, and we had more than one incident where a child mysteriously 'fell' in the fountain.

I think this may have been the last straw. My mom sent the boys home with a large bottle of bubbles. Sam decided to see what would happen if he poured them in the fountain.




I no longer have a fountain in the front yard. It has been filled in and replaced with a pot of geraniums. Maybe next year the boys will be ready to handle something as fascinating and tempting as a fountain. I hope.

My companion

I've spent the better part of the last 8 days in bed. I'm very tired of looking at my bedroom walls. I am feeling a bit better today, and am going to try and work short days tomorrow and Friday. Apparently, I had a reaction to some medication, and I had an inflammation of my gall bladder, and I have been getting horrible headaches and no one knows why. I see a neurologist in a couple weeks about those. I wonder if he'll find anything??? (ha ha ha)

Anyway, Katie the Cat really seems to understand that I have not been well. Bill is absolutely convinced that cats can pick up on when people are unwell. She has been a faithful daytime companion. The first few days, she would actually climb right on my chest and sleep. Since she's not heavy, she wasn't pressing on my gall bladder, and I didn't have the energy to protest, she stayed. Then she spent a couple days sleeping beside me. Today, she stood guard right outside the door. Bill's new theory is that she was giving me space, as I was feeling better. Maybe he's right.

Here she is 'hunting' something out the window. Her tail was frantically twitching. Whatever creature was outside should be very, very grateful that a window separated the two of them!

Sick

I'm sick. I've spent the last four days in bed, and I haven't been feeling well for a week. I have the worst headache I've ever had in my life. It makes being upright pretty difficult. And I have a terrible pain in my side, which makes it painful to breathe. Apparently, my gall bladder is acting up. I have an appointment with a surgeon tomorrow to see how quickly they can remove it.

In the meantime, I've been sleeping a lot and watching the occasional movie (cannot thank Bill enough for signing us up for Netflix, which I can access on my iPad). I haven't been reading much, since that hurts my head.

Bill has been a tremendous help. He postponed his trip to Detroit since I can't care for the boys by myself. He did the grocery shopping today and his doing his best to handle the cooking.

The boys make frequent visits to my bedside. They seem fairly accepting of my condition. Sam, of course, has the most questions. I'm actually considering asking the surgeon if I can have my gall bladder after surgery, so I can show it to Sam.

Nolan was just in here visiting me. He is excited that Daddy is taking him, TJ, and Sam out for ice cream after dinner. I asked Nolan if he knew what kind of ice cream he was going to get. He thought about it and asked, "Do they have black?" I explained that chocolate (brown) was as close as he could get to black. Then he asked if they had white. I said yes. He followed that up with, "How 'bout banilla?". Not sure how white and 'banilla' are different, but he probably knows. I just hope Daddy remembers to bring a sundae home for me!

Weather radio

Last summer, we had a night with severe storms. At one point that night, we lost power. I was concerned that we might have a tornado warning. We couldn't find a functioning battery-operated radio and we cannot not hear tornado sirens out here in the country, so we brought the kids downstairs, just to be safe. After that night, Bill and I had the brilliant idea that we should own a weather radio, so Bill asked for (and received) one for his birthday.

So now we own a weather radio. I hate that thing. First of all, it seems to have no idea that we reside in Ottawa County. The other night, it went off because there was a thunderstorm watch in the counties south of Kent and Ottawa counties. So it didn't affect us at all. Yet it went off. When it goes off, it is extremely loud and gets the kids all worked up. Awhile later, it went off again. There was a special marine warning over the lake. Last time I checked, we lived on dry ground, and a good 20 miles from the lake. So why was it going off?! About an hour after that, Ottawa County had a thunderstorm warning. And the weather radio...did nothing. Argh! So, when we have a warning that affects us it stays quiet. How exactly is this thing helping to keep us safe?

Bill found his wind-up radio and we are trying to keep that in a handy location, in case the power goes out during a storm this summer. Between his radio and my iPhone, we should be able to keep updated...since the weather radio seems to be dumb and possessed!

Quick post

I know it's been a week since I've posted. It's been a busy week! And I tried to post last night, but Blogger was down. Nice.

This spring, my boys have been convinced that any flying bug is a bee or a wasp, capable of stinging them. Unfortunately, last weekend, when we were all at my mom's celebrating birthdays (Amanda, Miles, and Sarah) and Mother's Day, a wasp got in my mom's dining room. I'm sure a child let it in, since they are forever opening the slider door.

I was in the living room and TJ came and sat very close to me. "I'm really worried about the swap, Mom." I looked at him for a minute and said, "What swap?" He looked annoyed (because his mom is really, really dense) and said, "The swap that flew in the dining room." Oh, a wasp! "That's what I said, Mom. A swap!"

Nolan is now joining us for the first part of church. Some weeks are better than others, behavior-wise. Last week Sunday was a rough week for all 3 boys. I finally got Nolan settled on my lap during the congregational prayer, closed my eyes, and was attempted to pray along with Pastor Greg when Nolan turned and loudly whispered, "Hey! Mama, wake up!"

I'm quite certain I recall Sam doing the exact same thing a couple years ago. I was not asleep!

Earlier this week, we had some cement poured alongside our driveway, so we can park the Lancer out of the way when the Saab is in the garage. Before, we parked the Lancer behind the Saab and had to do some jockeying of vehicles just to get the convertible out. So, Bill wanted to widen our driveway using some of the funds from our tax return. It's really hard to say who has been more excited about this project---Bill, or the boys. While the guys were out there pouring and smoothing the cement, all four of my boys were out there watching. TJ followed the workers everywhere, asking a million questions. Nolan was excited and jabbered a lot about what he was seeing. Then there was Sam. He was in awe. He said very little, but took in everything. I'm pretty sure if I gave him a cement truck, he could pour a driveway by himself. In fact, Sam was so absorbed with watching them work, he forgot the cement was wet and stepped in it. He was devastated and sentenced himself to watching from his bedroom window, even though I repeatedly assured him no one was angry with him. He's such a sensitive little guy.

ouch

Bill has been slowly transferring family movies from the small videotapes on to the computer. That way, they can be preserved forever, and the kids can watch them whenever they want.

And do they ever! I have seen the same family videos so often that I have them memorized. Tonight, Sam and Nolan were watching clips from Christmas 2004, when TJ was 13 months old. I was busy putting away laundry while they watched the video.

After awhile, Nolan asked me, "Mama, why are you so fat?" Ouch. I looked at the video and had to admit that I was out of shape then, and probably 20 pounds heavier. Sam said, "Mama isn't fat. I am in her tummy." Nope. I wasn't pregnant then, and his comment didn't make me feel better either! I started to explain to Nolan that I wasn't exercising back then, and that it had only been a year since I'd had a baby when he cut me off.

"No! Why are you so fat now??" Ouch! Time to hit the elliptical!

Cat invader

Awhile back, I mentioned how proud I was of Sam for getting up by himself at night when he needed to use the bathroom.

Then Katie the cat came. Katie hides a lot during the day (you would too if you lived with TJ, Sam, and Nolan), but the moment the boys are in bed, she pops out of her hiding place and turns into a very silly cat. She runs, she plays, she uses her scratching post, she does a terrifying tightrope walk on our banister. She usually settles down and sleeps with Bill and I, but if someone gets up to use the bathroom, she gets all excited, thinking that the tired person is up just to play with her!

Sam does not want Katie in his room, which is fine, because I'm trying to minimize pet dander in there. Sam also does not want anything to do with crazy 3 A.M. Katie. This means he will no longer go to the bathroom by himself at night. Nope. He makes me get out of bed for the sole purpose of keeping an eye on Katie and making sure she stays out of his room. And I don't know if he's going through a growth spurt or something, but he's been getting me up almost every night. He gets me up, I shuffle out in the hallway, hold the cat, escort Sam back into his bedroom and return to bed. Then spazzy cat jumps on me and wants to play. Ugh.

A lollipop with a garbage thingie

Sam's last day of preschool is next week Thursday. This year has absolutely flown by! It just occurred to me over the weekend, that his teacher (Mrs. Stegenga) had said at the beginning of the school year that children with summer birthdays could pick a day during the school year to celebrate. I always felt like kids with summer birthdays got gypped, so I wanted to make sure Sam had his opportunity to celebrate. And here we are with two weeks left, and I had forgotten all about it. Oops. I asked Sam what he wanted to bring for a treat and was given the vague response of 'something with chocolate'. He's easy to please. I picked up a bag of Kit-Kats and he took them to school yesterday. Much to TJ's delight, and few extras came back home with him.

In addition to the leftover candy, Sam came home with a very cute lollipop on a loooong stick. It was his treat for 'having a birthday', a mere 2.5 months before the actual event. He was excited to eat it, but he saved it until today. He cleaned up all the outside toys without arguing, so I let him have the lollipop. Of course, he waits until the exact moment I need to use the bathroom to try and open up the lollipop. He was frantically banging on the door saying, "Mom, I need your help! This lollipop has a garbage thingy on it!"

In case you were wondering, a 'garbage thingy' is more commonly known as a twist-tie. I never ever use those on our trash, but that's what he calls them.

Totally innocent, but sounds inappropriate...

A few weeks ago, I got an iPad. My goal is to get the desktop out of our bedroom. It hasn't happened yet, but it will. Bill is on the lookout for a desk we can put in the Florida Room, and we will move the computer out there.

I love my iPad. It's a bit tricky to type on, but I plan to request a keyboard for my birthday. For now, I can tap it out slowly. :-) TJ loves my iPad, particularly the crazy Photobooth app, and the web camera function. I have the iPad locked, so you need to type in a four-digit number in order ton use it. I've done that so TJ can't play with it unless he has permission. But he can't seem to remember that it's called an iPad. Instead, he calls it "The big thingy". Several times a day, he will say "Mom, can I play with your big thingy?" It just sounds very inappropriate....

A big fat fellow

My boys still think that afternoon snack should be a smorgasbord. This is a fairly typical afternoon snack:

TJ: one package of fruit snacks, some peanuts, some cereal marshmallows (I have bags of marshmallows that look like Lucky Charms marshmallows. Keep 'em in the fridge, and they have an awesome crunch to them!), one or two big marshmallows, and perhaps a small piece of candy.

Sam: peanuts, a small handful of Cheeze-its, and some cereal marshmallows. It's a rare day when he wants fruit snacks and he hates regular marshmallows.

Nolan: Maybe fruit snacks, maybe not, NEVER peanuts, a small handful of Cheeze-its, some cereal marshmallows (they are quite popular with my kids), and as he puts it, "A big fat fellow." He can't quite say "a big marshmallow'. But I suppose if you compare it to the little cereal marshmallows, 'a big fat fellow' is a very accurate description!

Coupled together

I apologize for my long absence. Life has been crazy busy lately.

Nolan loves trains as much as his big brothers do. He often makes the sound of a chugging steam train as he walks along (he gets some strange looks, but I think it's cute). He also uses lots of 'train lingo'. Did you know that 'coupled together' means two train cars that are connected? Nolan knows this!

This morning on our way into church, Nolan turned to me, held out his hand, and said "Mama, couple together with me." That's his way of asking me to hold his hand. What a sweetie!