This Was Only A Test

So, tonight I told the boys that if they got their chores done in a reasonable amount of time, I would take them on an outing (yes, as with lots of "good" mothers I know, I am not above bribing the children to make my life easier, more peaceful, etc). As we got ready to go, I told them it was to the local ice cream shop. As we hurried the boys out the door - not an easy task - Mike began to play mind games, and began to move the car like we were going without them. They were running behind, determined to not miss out on their treat, when he finally stopped to let them in. Off we went and even got a good place to park- it's always extremely busy there. As we got to the window, I realized we had not brought Sadie with us for her vanilla cone. Then I realized we also had totally forgotten about her and not put her in her crate before we left. OOPPPPS. She still chews alot, gets into the trash can and runs around grabbing the socks the boys always seem to have left laying around to chew on. We ate our cones and then came home, wondering the whole time what we would find. We have such a good girl - no messes, no chewed up stuff, no potty accidents. It was a good first run to see how well we can trust her home alone.

The summer is moving right along. I can not belive June is almost over. The boys are our mowing the yard here at home today. Later we go up to the rental - checking for storm damage from last night's high winds. I am amazed there was nothing here, winds were bending the trees way over, so I thought we would wake up this morning to snapped trees. The next couple days will be spent at the rental - carpet was laid yesterday and it is SUCH a big difference. We need to finish up the last few things then it's good to rent.

Our Sale

It took us 3 days to get the garage sale set up and ready to open bright and early (8 AM) Friday morning. It also took a bit of schedule juggeling - it was the week the boys had summer band camp with their new instruments. Mike was able to talk to his boss about re-arranging his break to take the boys to band at 9 (so I could open the sale on time) and his lunch to bring them home (so they did not have to walk 4 miles home since I would be running the sale alone). The day started off looking like scary weather was on the way but turned out beautiful. Since rain was in the forecast, we had to make sure everything could fit inside the garage, so we were jam packed with stuff. We could not even put it all out for Friday morning - not enough room. When Mike got home from work, he and the boys pulled out more stuff, like the Queen bed we had extra - it sold within 15 minutes of pulling it out of storage. The guy really needed a bed but it would not fit in his SUV.......Mike quickly offered to deliver it since he lived right in town - my job was to order the pizza for him to pick up on the way back - no wasted trips for us!! I ended the day with a pretty serious sunburn (darn my fair skin) and have been trying to stay away from sun for the last few days. Mike ran most of the sale on Saturday while I took Sadie to her first obedience class - a great investment when you will have a 150 pound dog. We sold most of the good stuff and decided we felt good about takiing the rest of what we had to Good Will, and off to shop with our garage sale money - I get a garage door opener out of the proceeds!! Home with our purchases, and I looked for a place to set the intercom system we bought for the house and see.... "Oh, no, Mike!! We forgot to take out the entertainment center to the sale!!" Looking around there are a few more things we should sell. So, next week on Tuesday and Wednesday (big days to have people on the road around here) we will have another sale to try to clear out more stuff before our Good Will run. All in All, a very sucessful weekend!!

One more day until the garage sale. Mike has been a huge help these last 2 nights getting things ready. The only trouble I have now is not enough room in the garage, since the weather man is calling for rain both Friday and Saturday. I have a sectional sofa to sell that won't be able to come out until there is room in the garage, so we need to sell, sell, sell tomorrow. Mike is a bit surprised with the low pricing I am using, but with a lot of neighborhood sales, we will have a lot of traffic through and I want them to buy from us. Mike is even timing his breaks and lunch tomorrow to be able to run the boys to band and home so I can man the sale. Saturday Sadie has her first obedience class, so Mike will man the sale so I can take her to that. Why, oh why is it that I can go for days without plans, then everything always needs to be done at the same time on the same days?

My Garage Sale

Yesterday, while I was painting trim up at the apartment house, I got a call from Mike letting me know there will be a neighborhood garage sale this weekend, since I haven't had mine yet, let's get in on this one. It's for the lake nearby and the surrounding area - which includes us!! Great. We grab some dinner and Mike tells me he will help me start to get the sale set up. Wow, I've never had help with that before, I just spend about 3 nights in the garage laying things out and priciing it. Mike helped me set up 3 tables, swept out his side of the garage, put a couple of big TV's on a sturdy table, then disappeared. Oh, there he is, going through his shelves looking for things to sell. HMMMMMMM, as I look at the 20 boxes on my side that need to be unpacked and layed out- in fact, everything on my side of the garage other than one utility shelf and the rake/shovel rack is garage sale stuff. After the sale, I get to park my car inside!! "Honey, are we pricing things tonight?" asked Darling Husband. "NNNOOOOO, first we need to unpack everything to see what we have so we can make sure that similar things are priced similarly." "Oh, OK" and back to his shelves. Yeah, help. I'm heading out now to work on setting up my sale before hubby comes home to look through his shelves again.

Everybody loves a puppy! Especially when she's such a lover herself!
Our lap dog - only 15 weeks old. Mike may have troubles when she is full grown!

Sadie has become a valued member of the family. The boys fight over who gets to play with her. She loves to greet whoever is coming home by standing on the porch to wait for them. Such unconcitional love!! It makes you feel good all over.

The Selfish Parents

As parents,we agreed that since this fall the boys don't have to get up until 7 AM their school bedtime will be 9, so this summer they could stay up until 10. Luckily we had not told them this, and sent them down to bed at 9 tonight. After the last of my darlings was down the stairs and off to his room, Mike got a twinkle in his eye......"Wanna go for ice cream?" Especially devious since just this afternoon Pete had asked me if we could bike up to Yups for ice cream. Of course, being the good, kind, loving mother that I am who always puts the needs of her children first, I said "Let's go!" We stood in line, giggeling, wondering who would be more upset when we returned home with our cones - boys or puppy (afterall, she thought the vanilla cone we got her a couple weeks ago was the best thing EVER). We decided the boys would. As we pulled in the driveway, I asked Mike if he thought the boys had noticed we were gone and would be waiting in the living room to ask us what we had been doing. Mike said if that was the case, he would say we went for ice cream and I was to just answer "Yup"

My Gift

Last winter, before we moved into this house permanently, my wonderful husband gave me a gift. Since I was leaving the house that I bought only a few years ago and that I absolutely loved, to move into the house that was HIS dream and he built, I got to pick out a new kitchen. New cupboards and appliances and light fixtures. Ok, all the appliances except the stove, we decided that could wait until this spring (what was I thinking? Get all the bright, shiny, new kitchen stuff at the same time!!). Well, things do have a way of working out, the final apartment we are getting ready to rent is in need of a stove. My old one from here will go there, and my new stove was ordered last week and should arrive next week. Kind of like when we decied to use the old fridge as a spare for the appartments, and in March ended up needing to use it when the rented apartment's fridge went out. Thank goodness for that spare, it was only 3 hours from the tenant's call to Mike's getting another one in there- he got to be the hero for a pregnant lady - can't get better than that. Only one TINY problem has come up............all my new appliances are Maytag. I have absolutely loved my dishwasher so I picked a Maytag stove too. But then came those Maytag diswasher recalls ....... YEP, mine is one of those. No Biggie, it's only a SERIOUS fire hazzard (yes, the word serious was stressed), and the recommendation is to turn off the breaker on the dishwasher until it is repaired. Oh the horror of having to wash dishes by hand again. Thank Goodness, I gave birth to 2 little dishwashers!! If only they were as quick and efficient as my dishwasher. And worked as well. And cleaned as well. And as quietly. Oh, man WHEN will I have that dishwasher back???? Luckily, a tech comes out to the house to fix it, and we are scheduled for ours later this week. Considering the first day of the recall we tried to get on line to see what Maytag was offering as a solution, and the site was so busy we could never connect, I was amazed that we were able to schedule it so quickly. We were even offered a choice of 3 different days for OUR convience ....... customer service? From such a big company? It makes me glad I went with the Maytag stove now, I was a little worried when the recall first happened.

It seems like my blog is changing as fast as I change my mind lately. A couple of my readers told me the other one was too hard to read with the white print on the magenta background, I found this one last night and like it - green and pink - my two favorite colors!! I had a heck of a time getting this one down loaded. We changed internet providers yesterday, my computer loaded right up and took the mobile hotspot. Mike's was not going. He kept rebooting the hotspot while I was surfing looking for my new blog. It seemed like everytime I found what I liked or was getting ready to download it, I would get kicked off the web because of his rebooting. I finally had to theaten him with bodily injury if he re-booted before I finished loading my new page!!!

The things I do to keep my children occupied!! I have my first entire summer home with the boys this year since I am not working and we also have 2 long car trips coming up. I have been scouring the stores looking for things to do. I have even pulled out an old book from my childhood with children's activities to keep the days filled. It's too bad they don't get along better, Steven never likes to play with Peter anymore. We will become regulars at the library this summer. My list making has also begun - what will Steven need to take to summer camp, what will the family need for our vacation. Mike laughs at me for it......Oh, well.

We've had two bon fires now with the wood from the renovations on the rental property. The boys are loving doing stuff like this, since a bon fire in the city limits where the old house was would have been a call for the fire department to come and the police to give me a ticket. There are some great things about country life.

I took a sleeping pill last night. I don't like to take them, but every now and then I go so many nights sleeping badly, that I have to. These pills generally don't work well for me, and not more than one night, two max. Someone suggested I try one of the Motrin or Tylenol PM's, they work as well, but for me, no go. The one I have found lately does work once, as long as I don't use it often, but the thing I really hate about these pills is once in a while there are side effects. I have never stayed in bed so late as I did this morning. I just couldn't get moving. I even got up once, ate breakfast, but had to return to bed. Once I was finally up, I stayed lethargic and had no motivation to do anything. In the afternoon, I needed a nap. FINALLY, about 4 PM the effects wore off and I got the energy and motivation to get moving and get some things done. I'm afraid now that I won't sleep well tonight since I was so tired all day, but it's 10 PM and I'm yawning and getting sleepy. I have to go now, the puppy wants to go outside before bed and I am going to try to sleep while I feel that I can. Good-night All

It's Not Just For Cats Anymore

Sadie is constantly exploring and discovering new things. She has been with us nearly 4 weeks now. She is 15 weeks old and about twice as big as she was when she came home. The other day she discovered that we keep the kitty toys inside the kitty perch in the living room. And that her head fits inside the toy storage area. And that catnip is good for dogs too!! Friday she spent the afternoon going to the perch and pulling out a cat toy. She would play with it for awhile and then take it back to the perch, leave it beside it, and then pull out a new toy. The ones with feathers on them were the biggest hit. Of course, those are the ones that Fiona likes best too. I owe FiFi a couple of new ones. But the catnip mice have been a favorite throughout the whole weekend. It is so funny to see her walking around with a blue fuzzy mouse in her mouth!!! I guess we have 3 mousers in the house now.

That Stage (for all of us)

We are getting to that stage in Sadie's housebreaking where she is going potty outside because she knows she should, not just because I spend half the day out with her. Unfortunately it is also that stage where she asks to go out to play. We are trying to bell train her - basicly she rings the bells hanging on the door handle when she needs to go outside. Last night for the first time she rang the bell on her own to go out - yeah!! Today she is asking to go out to play or roll in the grass, just as much as to go potty! I can't not take her out - that would set back the training terribly. But I have other things to do besides watch her play!!

I am getting old. Oh, I know by the calendar how old I am, but my body is beginning to tell me too. I am having hot flashes. I'm not even 40 yet, and I've been having them all year. We took Steve bowling last weekend while Pete was gone to a picnic and I had to have Mike bowl a few frames for me so I could go splash cold water on my face and wait for it to pass. Another this morning while I was trying to put on my make up. UUUUUUGGGGGGHHHHHH.

Pete is gone with his class today on a field trip to Chicago, they are going to the zoo, and the Museum of Science and Industry. I wanted to chaperone, but was not chosen. It turned out to be a good thing, I got a call last night that my sister is having surgery today, so I will be able to go for that. I'm glad for that.

A Bit Of This And A Bit Of That

I've been trying to get back to blogging every day. Some days the ideas flow so well I write them down for inspiration on the days I can't think of anything to say. I know, ME...without something to say? Well, at least nothing I think any of you would be interested in. Today I just have bits and pieces for ya all....

I got a call from the boy's doctor's office today. Both boys went for well-child visits last week - Pete was due because of his birthday and Steve needed to go so she would sign off a medical release for Steve to go to camp this summer for other kids with similar health issues. I had gotten a letter from Pete's school a couple weeks before that he was due for 3 immunizations to bring him up to date for middle school. When the doc checked what was needed, he had had one of them already, school just made a mistake. Another he COULD have according to the accelerated due date, but really was not due until 2014. The last was for meningitis (sp?) which is usually a "before you go to college" shot, although it's becomming reccomended for high school, but not required. The doc would check into this, maybe Indiana requirements are different and she operates out of Michigan. So the office says that he does need 2 shots, Indiana requires these for middle school. Pete HATES shots, I will have to take him to get them in about a week and a half. Steve is exempt from these new rules and gets to skate on not gettting them since the rules have just changed for this year.

Mike made the boys very happy over the holiday weekend. He hooked up the big, flat screen TV, and bought "Avitar" from Pay Per View and we spent Sunday night watching it. Funny, Mike wanted to take the boys to the theater to see it and they were not interested. Now they are raving about how good it was. I saw it and thought that the story line is not so original. It's like "Dances With Wolves" in space. Without the benifit of getting to look at Kevin Costner. Military man goes on a mission, man goes to live alone with the natives, man falls in love with a native, man marries native, military comes back into the picture and fights against man and natives, man gives up life as he's known it to stay with the natives. There was even the hunt scene, only instead of hunting Buffalo with the braves, it was a drangon like thing to ride with the other men of the tribe. It was a good movie-afterall, Dances With Wolves is one of my favorites- not just the big original story I anticipated.

The boys only have a few more days of school. I have picked up a few things to do for car trips - it sure was easier when they were little and a $1 bag of plastic animals and a coloring book would amuse them for a while. We have a tip to Macinaw planned for the summer and that is about a 6 hour car trip each way. Pulling the camper will probably make it take longer. Plus there is a long drive to take Steve to camp this summer - maybe there will be a grandparent available for Pete to stay with for that drive.

A Day In The Life

Mike has decided that he likes that I am not working now, staying home, able to keep the house clean, meals prepared, and laundry done. I like it too. Lower stress than being "The Boss", home when the boys get home from school, able to potty train the puppy easier. HOWEVER....with working on the rental, it has not been happening that way. I've really had to scale back my time at the rental so I can be home more. So, what are my days like? HMMMM
5:45 AM (or thereabout) the puppy begins barking for me to get up and take her out to potty
Make sure that Pete is out of bed and getting ready for school
Get Pete out the door to the bus stop and make sure that Steve is up and take the puppy out
again
Get Steve out the door to the bus stop, pack up the puppy, and leave for the rental
Meet the people we hired to do the work, give them their task for the day and I work on the stuff I
am working on. Take the puppy out several more times. She does have a tree she likes to lay
under, so she has a chain on it so she can spend time out there - one of her favorite nap spots!
Lunch time - make sure the workers are set for the rest of the afternoon and head home.
Grab lunch "to go". Put the puppy in her crate to nap away the afternoon and I have a couple
hours to get some housework done, and dinner started.

Unfortuantely, Mike and the boys are having to pitch in on the chores the way they did when I worked full time. I consol myself with the idea this will be over soon - the upstairs will be ready to rent soon and our days will begin to return to normal. The downstairs will be done about a month after the other one. Things are definately begining to look like we are getting close to the end. And I am ready for that!!