Who Moved My Calgon?

It's not quite 10:00, and as soon as I finish typing this, I am going to bed.

I worked all day. Things were fine until I came home. In no particular order, here's what happened this evening:

**TJ fell
**Sam fell
**Nolan fell
**Sam cried because it hurt to remove his Band-aid (although he was fascinated to learn he had hair growing on his legs, thus increasing the pain from Band-aid removal)
**Nolan needed to rest on the couch, complete with a blanket, his buddy, and Nick Jr. from the pain of barely scratching his left knee
**TJ was 50 minutes late coming home from the neighbor's house. We ate dinner without him.
**TJ couldn't understand why he lost outdoor privileges after dinner. "I just lost track of time" wasn't good enough for his parents and somehow "I was stuck in a pricker bush" just wasn't believable.
**Sam bit his finger not once, but twice(!) while eating his fajita. We typically don't encourage self-cannibalism at the Baron household.
**Sam had a mini temper tantrum when the sprinklers were not turned on immediately after dinner. He couldn't understand why his parents were choosing to deal with another crisis first.
**TJ informed me that he didn't think I was his mother. I told him I was fine with him calling me "Mrs. Baron". He then decided I might be his mother after all.
**While working on the laundry, I expressed frustration to TJ that he somehow covered a brand-new tank top in mud after wearing it just one day. I have soaked it, scrubbed it, and washed it four times and cannot get all the stains out. His response? "You should have used Oxy Clean." For the record, I did.
**We had multiple episodes of burping and passing gas, followed by hysterical laughter. Ugh.
**TJ claimed the big TV was broken. I took a look at it and was tremendously grateful to Bill for putting a password on the pay-per-view channels. TJ was trying to find "Wipe Out" on ABC and very nearly ordered a movie that I would never let him watch. The satellite finally locked him out for incorrectly entering the password too many times. Whew!

Please note that all of the above happened between the hours of 5:45 p.m. and 8:00. I managed to fold the laundry and do all the ironing after the boys finally went to bed.

And since I can't get Calgon to take me away, I'm going to sleep now.

Busy, Busy, Busy

The past few weeks have just flown by. I have lots of material to blog about, but no time to do it!

One funny item from each of the boys:

TJ--The other night we lost power after a storm. When we lose power, it almost always means a solid 24 hours before it is restored. One of the first things we did was remind the boys that when the power is out, it means we have no water, so they can't flush the toilet after every use. However, the nice thing about summer is the pool is filled with 7,000 gallons of water. As Bill was cautioning the boys about water conservation, I excitedly pointed out to Bill that there was lots of water in the pool to use in the toilets. TJ looked horrified and said, "We have to pee in the pool?!" We laughed and explained that Daddy was just going to fill buckets of water from the pool to flush the toilets with.

The down side of that method is you wind up with leaves and feathers in the toilet!

Sam--Sam has just been full of it lately. He still spends most of his time outside, watching our sprinklers or checking to see which neighbors are watering their lawns. Today, it was his turn to come grocery shopping with me (this is a big deal for the boys and they thoroughly enjoy one-on-one shopping with Mom). He chattered non-stop through the store, making all sorts of wise observations. Toward the end of our trip, I stopped and picked up a twin pack of charcoal (2 20-pounds bags wrapped together. It was about as much as I could manage on my own). Sam watched me struggling to stick the bags in the bottom of the cart and observed, "Mom, tonight would be a good night to cook on the girl." It becomes extremely difficult to maneuver bags of charcoal when you are laughing. Later, as we were checking out, Sam once again referred to the grill as the 'girl'. Poor girl!

Nolan--Nolan also has been full of it lately. He is very dramatic and loves to put on a show. He was in the pool with TJ for awhile tonight, and he was the first one I plucked out to get ready for bed. I wrapped him up in his towel and carried him upstairs. He looked like a cute blue bean, so I said, "Are you my bean?" He said, "No! I'm a berry!" That's a strange response, so I repeated it. "You're my berry?" At that point, he gave me the 'Mom, you are so dumb' look, and said "NO! I'm your baby!" Oh. Maybe Mommy's ears don't work so well...

Bill and I got a rather exciting letter in the mail on Friday. It was from Cookie Speet, the director of children's ministries at church, informing us that TJ made a first-time commitment to Christ at Vacation Bible School this week. Bill and I weren't totally shocked. When we've read the Bible and had discussions around the dinner table, TJ does seem to grasp the basic concept of salvation. It was just exciting to hear that he's ready to take that understanding and commitment public. I'm so proud of him!

Obsessed

Sam's obsession with sprinklers has stayed with us this year. I thought maybe it wouldn't be as bad as previous summers, but as soon as he saw the neighbors turning their sprinklers on for the summer, that was all he wanted to talk about. Now that our big yard projects are done, ours are running too.

Sam isn't naughty with the sprinklers. He primarily just stands there and watches them. Every once in awhile, he will adjust our sprinkler heads. If Bill has broken or excess sprinkler parts, he will hand them over to Sam, who likes to bury them and 'make new sprinklers'.

Tuesday night, Sam ate quickly and asked to go back outside. He said Ashley's sprinklers were on, and he wanted to go watch. Ashley lives right across the street, so I figured he'd stand out by our mailbox to watch. I was right...at first. Sam was so mesmerized with watching the sprinklers that he wasn't paying attention to what he was doing. I glanced up from washing up the dishes and was dismayed to see he had moved from beside the mailbox into the middle of the road. I don't even think he was aware he had done it. Now, we live on a very quiet street, and I highly doubt any of my neighbors would run my son down, but that doesn't mean I want him standing in the middle of the road. Bill happened to be heading outside when I saw this, so I asked him to get Sam out of the road. Bill was able to quickly accomplish this by turning on our sprinklers. Sam immediately migrated back into our yard to keep an eye on them.

Sam's birthday is next month, and I'm already agonizing over what to give him. He so rarely plays with toys! I wish someone sold a make-it-yourself sprinkler system for kids. He'd be in heaven!

It's the thought that counts....right?

On the last day of school, TJ spent part of his afternoon off playing outside. At one point, he came in with a handful of wild daisies that he had picked for me. He knows I enjoy having fresh flowers in the house, and I definitely prefer daisies over the dandelions the boys usually bring in. I admired the flowers and TJ asked if we could put them in one of those glass containers (otherwise known as a 'vase'). I said yes, but he needed to be patient for a few minutes while I finished up what I was doing. A short time later, I walked into the dining room and saw this:


Yes, that is my beautiful crystal vase. It is the most expensive decorative vase in my home, and was a wedding gift. TJ got it down, all by himself from the cupboard above the microwave. Wayyyy up here:


I am so, so glad he didn't break it, but even more glad I didn't see him climb up there and pull it down. I'm sure I would have had a heart attack on the spot. Even Bill, who so rarely gets riled up, was a bit upset when he heard who got the vase down.

But, it's the thought that counts, right????

Water in the pool!

We finally have the pool fully assembled and filled with water. TJ got in it before Bill was even done filling the pool. The water was COLD, but it was over 90 degrees outside that day, so TJ thought the water felt good. Now that the pool is completely filled, the saltwater system is functioning, and the water is clear, the temperature has cooled off significantly and no one wants to swim. We haven't hit 80 degrees in days, and the pool temperature is a chilly 63 degrees. Figures.
I hope the water (and the air) warm up soon! I'd like to try out our new pool and also work with TJ on learning how to do some basic swimming.

You sound like your mother

Dinner is usually a chaotic time at our household. Bill and I are trying hard to keep the boys in line. The other night, though, TJ was really pushing our buttons. At one point, Bill lost his temper and said to TJ, "You are cruising for a bruising, mister!"

I started to snicker. Then Bill started to laugh. He commented that him mom always used to say that. I thought he sounded exactly like my own mother. TJ had no idea what that phrase meant, or why Bill and I thought it was so funny, but at least it distracted him for while.

The very next day, I was folding laundry and listening to Sam and Nolan play. The play turned fairly quickly into squabbling. Nolan wanted something and Sam wouldn't give it to him. Sam seemed to be taking pleasure out of torturing his little brother. Eventually, I intervened. Or...was it my mother?

I told Sam, "You don't like it when your big brother treats you that way, so you shouldn't treat your little brother that way. Treat others the way you want to be treated."

Ugh. We've both become our mothers!

Cutest boys in the world

I still can't figure out how Bill and I made such beautiful children. But here's more proof:


These pictures are in the hallway leading into the family room downstairs. Patti Goosen from Patti's Photography took the pictures. I couldn't be more pleased with how they turned out! You really have to see them in person to appreciate how cute they are, so feel free to stop by! You can look at my patio too. :-)

What a difference a week makes!

We finally had a week without torrential rainfall. Rich got right to work on the patio and it was poured by last week Thursday.



He didn't stop there. He brought his tractor over and helped Bill tremendously by digging a trench (Bill would have been doing this by hand otherwise). In addition to that, he brought over his laser level and made sure the sand (which goes under the pool) was perfectly level. No tippy pools this year!!

By Saturday, Bill got the pool up. As I type, it is being filled by the garden hose. We tried to get a truck to deliver water, but the guy didn't call us back and TJ CAN'T STAND WAITING ANY MORE! Ha ha. So we decided to save money on the water and just run both the old pool's filter and the new filter in the pool to get the extra iron out. Hopefully, the water won't be yellow for long.

Here's Bill admiring the first inch of water in the pool:

Sexist hummingbirds?

I love hummingbirds. I was overjoyed to discover they liked us too, and faithfully return to our yard every spring. They drink quite a bit during the summer, so I am often in the kitchen, making up a new batch of sugar water for them. Nearly every time I look out the kitchen window, I see a hummingbird. Sometimes two, or three, or even four hummingbirds will be zipping around the feeder.

I let the boys take turns telling me what color the sugar water should be. TJ went first this year, and selected blue. I made a big batch of it up (I refrigerate the extra, and warm it to room temperature before serving it to the birds. Works great!), so we've had blue food for awhile. Here's a hummingbird about to dine on TJ's blue food (look closely...it's to the left of the feeder):


I asked Sam what color he wanted me to make next and he immediately responded with "Purple!"

TJ was horrified. He said, "Sam! If you do purple food, only the girl hummingbirds will come to our feeder!"

Really? Are hummingbirds sexist? Can they even see color???

I laughed and told Sam that purple food was just fine and informed TJ that we couldn't tell the boys from the girls anyway, so what did it matter?

Goofy things guys say

In the past half hour, I have heard the following comments from the males in my home:

Nolan: "Mama! You know what we saw? An airplane parachute!!!" There was an ultralight flying over our house. We see them often in the summer, but this was the first one for this year. Nolan was practically hyperventilating, he was so excited.

Sam: "Hey, TJ, do you know what the radio station is saying? It's saying the power went out!" Yes, an unthinkable tragedy. Bill's radio station was off the air. Apparently, our power blinked out today and it messed up the radio station. Bill had to reset it when he got home from Detroit. I hope none of his listeners were frustrated. Oh, wait. He only has three listeners...

TJ: "It was 84 degrees. Now it's 82 degrees. It fell two temperatures outside."

Bill: "I don't want to work hard and make big money. I just want to make big money." Go for it, Honey.