Quick Update

Yea, I know, there are still no "catch-up" posts. We've had a house full of sicky germs. The boys came down with a nasty cold last week and now Anna & I have it. But I have still been busy cleaning out my kitchen cupboards. It has only taking me three, going on four days to finish. I don't know why it has taken me so long, other than I haven't felt good and my children are major distractions. I have wiped them all inside and out and re-organized. It was overdue. I cleaned out the fridge yesterday, wiping it all down. I have one more cupboard to go, then I need to oil the outside of the cupboards with orange oil. I cleaned out my oven, which is easy since it is self cleaning, but when I was wiping down the door inside and out, a piece of a sponge fell into a vent hole on the top of the door and I could see it through the window. I tried to bang on the door hoping to dislodge it out of sight, but no luck. This thing was going to drive me crazy every time I looked at the door. I had no choice but to take the door off, which took awhile to figure out how to do, directions and all. Then I had to remove the screws holding the door together so I could get to that sponge. That accomplished, I put the screws back in and had trouble doing that. Although all the screws appeared to look alike, they weren't and I of course put the wrong screws in the wrong holes and couldn't get the last screws to go in. So I had to unscrew them all and redo that. This all took way more time than I had expected it to. But my kitchen is feeling good now. I should say, I am feeling good in my kitchen. I can ignore dirt for awhile until I can't stand it anymore and I don't feel "good" in a room with all that dirt that I know is lurking. Dom has this same problem although he can not ignore it as long as I can. I'm good at procrastinating, like right now, I should be emptying the dishwasher and wiping out that last cupboard, but I'm writing in my blog and drinking coffee instead.

The kids are so excited about today being Halloween. They have been counting down the days and can not wait to go trick-or-treating tonight. I hope Anna and I are feeling up to walking around. Hopefully it won't be too cold. We've had a cold snap this week with it getting down to freezing at night. It's nice to have a change of season compared to living down in Melbourne where you don't notice the change quite as much as up here in North Florida.

Dom's parents are coming for a visit and will be here next week. It is a nice motivator for me to clean those things I like to ignore, like kitchen cupboards. They will be here for Ethan's 5th birthday. Dom will be having surgery while they are here, so it will be nice to have babysitters available for me to go visit him in the hospital. I don't know if he really wants me to broadcast his surgery, but prayers for his well being are appreciated and if I didn't tell you about it, then you wouldn't know to pray. ;)

Well, I guess that is all for now. My cupboards are calling. Until next time.....

Momentary Insanity

Did that title get your attention?


I'm doing better, it's only been 4 days since my last post. I know that I need to do "catch-up" posts, but this isn't one of them.


This one is about my momentary insanity. You see, I have this cute little 7 year old boy. Pictured here.

If you notice he has a butterfly (a real actual living butterfly) on his head.

Well, he loves animals, all shapes and sizes, even the butterfly variety. He has been wanting a bird now for a couple of years and we have this wonderful porch on the front of our house, that for some reason attracts birds. A week or so ago, a bird flew onto it and got trapped as usual, and of course my sweet little boy wanted to keep it. He even called his dad at work to ask him to bring home bird seed for his new found pet. Well this poor little wren didn't last long, only a couple of hours. Unlike the times Quinn has caught hummingbirds in the same manner, trapped on the porch, whom lasted a least a day.

Here is one he caught. He made this elaborate "cage" for it from a sheet attached to his bedroom ceiling.

So, after this little wren died, I told Dom that I think we need to let him have a bird so that he will quit harassing the wildlife. Dom then told me that someone offered him a couple of gerbils that day at work, cage and all. I was thinking, "hmmm, maybe that would sustain his love for creatures for a little while and, better yet, they're free." So I said to Quinn and the other kids, "how about some gerbils, instead." Alex was all excited about the gerbils, he definitely wanted those. Quinn wasn't so sure. He still really wanted a bird. So, being the clone that he is of his father, he came up with this idea. "How about I get the gerbils, keep them for 10 days, then sell them and get a bird," he says. Anyone who knows Dom, knows that sounds awfully familiar and at the same age, no doubt. (Dom & I have this running joke where everything he did as a child, he was 8 years old. Because when he would tell stories about his childhood, he would always say that he was 8 years old, and I would say "oh, come on, you couldn't have always been 8." So now, it is a joke between us.) Anyway, Quinn still really wanted a bird, and now Alex really wanted the gerbils. So what are we, as parents, to do?

We let them have both. See my moment of insanity! I had a bird as a child and I always told Quinn, "no, you can't have a bird." Not because I don't like birds, but because I don't like the mess that they cause. But I just doubled my mess. Two cages, two sets of messes to clean up. What was I thinking? I know, I was thinking that I love my children and I want to give them some pleasure and memories in their childhood. I guess I will survive the mess.

BTW, the two gerbils have been named London & Maddie (think Disney's Zack & Cody show) and the birds are Bella & Bud.

I'm Baaaacccckkk!

Did you miss me, again? It wasn't my "fault" this time for not posting for so long. I have been without internet for about three weeks now. I really missed my web during that time. It is amazing how we get so used to something that is not a necessity of life, but seems like it is when it's not around. How many times did I think, "I'll google that," but I couldn't. I survived though and I wanted to send out a post letting you know that when I said that "I would do better about posting," I meant it.

It all began when our phone company decided to turn off our long distance. We had unlimited long distance, but they said we could not use it for our dial-up internet. Well, we didn't think we were dialing a long distance number for our internet. They said it was a "local" long distant number. HUH?! You see, Ethan loves to download games on the internet, but with dial-up, it takes forever. So we were connected for long segments of time and it must have flagged our account with the phone company, because all of a sudden, we couldn't dial-up anymore. What other options do we have for dial-up? None. There is no "local" number to call and we are not about to pay long distance charges to google something. So, we went back to our satellite service.

In some ways that is nice, but our satellite provider has the worst customer service, ever! Dom was on the phone with them practically every day for a week or two, before they finally reactivated our account and sent someone out to re-point our dish (it must have moved in the year it was turned off). The guy who came out to our house to reconnect us, was at our house for about four hours. He left and said we were up and running. Great, but when I went to the computer to check my email, it wasn't working. Not great! So back on the phone Dom went to talk to someone who could "help" us. Hah! Nothing they had Dom do was working and they said they would have to send a technician out again. Well, we knew how long that would take, forever. In the meantime, Dom kept fiddling with things trying to figure out why it was working, only to stop. My Knight in Shining Armour came to my rescue yesterday, and got me reconnected with my 915 emails. Isn't he smart? Yes, he is. He figured it out, and when I asked him how he did it, he said, "I can't explain it to you." And that is fine with me, as long as I have my internet. It had something to do with polarity? Enough said. So, you mothers out there, if you have children who want to take things apart to see how they work, let them. That is what Dom did as a kid, and it paid off, he can fix things, a great asset.

Stay tuned for "catch-up" posts.