Who's hungry?

We were sitting at the dinner table tonight, happily dining on grilled brats and corn on the cob when Nolan extended his index finger.  There was a small, orangish blob on his finger tip. 

"What is this?" he asked me. "I just pulled it out of my ear."

Mmmmmm. Yummy. 

On a less disgusting note, this morning, Sam was asking about the evolution of the washing machine. He always wants more information than I have. 

Motorcycle safety tips from Nolan

We are currently heading to our downstate house from our UP house. A groups of motorcyclists just passed us. Nolan was quite impressed with this group. They have matching leather jackets and seem to be pretty serious about their biking. As we watched them go by, Nolan commented, "You know one thing you should never be doing on a motorcycle? Sleeping!"

We laughed and then I told Nolan about a lady I used to work with. Trilby and her husband would take out-of-state trips on their motorcycle and Trilby told me she had successfully learned to nap while on the bike. So I shared this story with Nolan and he was fascinated. He said, "Was she the one DRIVING?!"

His innocent comments just crack me up. 

The magic house

We are at our U.P. house again this week. We figured there was no better way to spend the last week of summer. I can't believe school starts next week!

I have found a flaw with this house. The rest of my family is under the mistaken impression that it is a magic house. Why else would they:

*Put empty ice cube trays in the freezer, waiting for them to magically refill

*Leave their dirty dishes scattered all over the dining room table, waiting for them to magically put themselves in the sink or dishwasher

*Leave their dirty clothes in piles on the floors of the bedrooms, waiting for them to magically transport themselves to the laundry basket in the bathroom 

*Drink every last drop out of our Brita-type pitcher and then put it back in the fridge totally empty. This one really kills me. Bill is concerned about lead in our water pipes, so the kids are not to drink the water out of the tap. Water must filter through the pitcher first. So if someone puts it in the fridge empty, it means the next person has no drinking water. 

So either everyone thinks the house has some magic qualities or the only reason they bring me along is to play the role of the Maid. I need to retrain them, and fast, before I hurt someone. 

A few other tidbits. Sam is fascinated with the radiators here. He wishes it was colder so we could run them more. He thinks they are beautiful.  He also thinks the ladder that goes up to the third floor is beautiful. 

I put new Jamberry wraps on tonight. After I finished, I noticed they coordinated perfectly with the toilet. I'm so stylish!

Two for Tuesday

The boys were full of it today.  Nolan had one of his moments where he was deep in thought and had an epiphany. "Mom, Wednesdays are really busy for me! I have therapy AND I have to take a shower! That's a lot of stuff!"

While I was chuckling over this, he suddenly looked stunned. "And tomorrow" (which, yes, is Wednesday), "I also have to play at the campground with Grandma. An even busier day!"

My parents are camping this week just a few miles from our house. So the boys have been playing at the lake right by their camper. They love it. But boy, it sure is filling up Nolan's social calendar!

On the way home from the campground, TJ said to me, "You know Mom, I have a lot of imagitivity."

I'll let you ponder that one. 

Perpetual Project

So, we bought a vacation house in the Keweenaw. I'm sure it will go down as one of the craziest things I did in my lifetime. 

The house is over 100 years old and it had been vacant for the past three years. The previous owners were elderly. The wife died first. Three years ago, the husband moved to a nursing home. He passed away last year so his children finally put the house on the market. We got a great deal on it. 

But you must remember...very old home, owned by aging people who were in poor health. And it hasn't been lived in since 2011. So it has tons of things that need updating, repair, or replacement. 

*The ceiling in the half bath off the kitchen is cracked. Bill thinks it's due to the...

*Fact that the house needs a new roof

*The full bath upstairs was originally a bedroom. So it's pointlessly large and everything in it is blue. EVERYTHING--the door, the toilet, the tub, the radiator...it's so bad it's comical. Bill replaced the toilet seat, so that's white, but now it's even more hideous. 

*The carpet in the master bedroom is the color of newborn baby poop. 

*There isn't carpet in the other two bedrooms. It's linoleum. And it's lumpy. 

*Electrical outlets are at a premium. The smaller two bedrooms each have a pair of outlets. They splurged in our bedroom and gave us two pairs. But the bathroom only has two outlets. We have to get creative, especially when we are trying to work remotely. Hard to plug in all of our electronics in just two outlets. And the wiring is a bit sketchy. 

*The wood floor underneath the carpet in the front hall and the dining room buckled in two spots. I have tripped over those lumps more than once. That's one of the first things we will have repaired, but it does involve pulling up a lot of thick, early 80s carpet. 

*The basement is scary and unsafe. I haven't been down there since we walked through with the realtor. I get a kick out of watching Bill go down there. He hates it. He has to psych himself up to go down there. 

*There are a series of ancient cupboards lining the narrow staircase to the basement. My mom and I made the mistake of opening them. We quickly closed them. We will deal with that trash some other day. 

*We bought new mattresses for this house. We have since discovered we can't get the box spring for our queen bed up the stairs. Bill is going to have to remove some trim and perhaps part of the wall so we can get it upstairs. In the meantime, we got the mattress upstairs and that's working just fine. 

Lest you think I'm miserable and resentful, let me assure you that I find most of these problems highly amusing. The house has so much character and it's in one of my favorite places in the world. We just need to be patient and tackle these projects one at a time. And Bill keeps telling me how happy he is. Even thought many of these projects are going to fall on his shoulders!

Here are a few pictures, for your viewing enjoyment.