10 Year Old Honey-Do-List

Front window replaced. Check.

I can't fault my lovely husband for the whole ten years. It did take me the last 3 months to actually decide on the window itself. He got so fed up with me changing my mind, I had to go to the store to order it all by myself. 


Before:

During:

After instillation, before trim:

After:

It's funny when you can get so excited about something as simple as opening up a window. I am so ecstatic with my new window I had to share. I can actually open up the front window. The only down fall is I have to now make a huge decision about the color of the trim on the outside. You may notice the green trim color in the before picture. Changing trim color is not as simple as I want it to be. I will now have to change all the other trim around the windows, doors and roof. I don't know what I would do if I had to actually make quick decisions while building a house. It takes me forever to decide because I know I will have to live with it for 10 or more years. Now my irises might take ten years to rebound, but at least I can feel the nice lake breeze through the house.

Enjoy the summer!

Explaining the Crunch

Wife asks while on the phone with her husband, "Do you want the good news or bad news first?"

Husband replies, "Bad news first."

Wife sighs, "Really! I was hoping for the good news. Well, I pulled a Jimmy."

Husband asks, "What's that?"

Wife responds, "You know, several years ago when your dad came over to watch the kids and we were late for our appointment for closing on a duplex at the title company."

Husband hesitantly says, "Yeeaahh."

Wife continues, "And we got into your truck, you revved the engine and stepped on the gas while in reverse. Only to end up slamming into your dad's truck behind us."

Silence

Wife expands, "Well I did that to your truck today. It's not bad. The hitch on my truck dented your bumper and my bumper is a little pushed in. No big deal. You wanted to buy a new truck anyway."

Husband confused, "I left my truck on the opposite side of the driveway than yours. How is it possible you backed up into my truck?"

Wife cheerfully replies, "Well honey, I moved your truck behind my truck for the birthday party so the kids wouldn't play in between the vehicles and forgot it was there."

Silence.

Wife continues, "The good news is my brother got a new job and is moving to Bozeman, Montana. He is very excited. I am happy for him. We'll have another excuse to go out west again."

Silence.

Crunch Time

Ever since we've been back from Disney, I've been disorganized. With the end of the school year, multiple field trips, the end of soccer season and everything else that goes with daily life, I've been way too busy. Maybe even a little distracted.

Of course, I have to go one step further and make it even more complicated. I throw a six year old birthday party on the last day of school. To top that off, the hubby is out of town for the week. Why you may ask? Well I have several reasons. On the girls last day of school, the school district was kind enough to give us a half day. So I thought what a great way to have some of the kids come home on the bus with Child #3. That way some of the parents that work full time don't have to worry about finding places for their kids to go. Then I thought it would be better than trying to reach all the kids during the summer, you know with vacations and activities. The only problem was I forgot about sending out the invitations. It boiled down to me calling several parents the week before and praying a few kids would show up.

It ended up turning out very well. I had a total of fourteen children including my three to watch at the beach swimming. Granted, my ever so gracious sister-in-law always helps me out so at least I had her. She is always awesome with helping at parties so thanks sis.

Anyway, the party was a success. All the kids were picked up by 5:30pm. Child #3 was ecstatic and grateful. But I couldn't breath yet, I still had to feed my children dinner. And I still had a appointment for our rental house to show at 6:15pm. I figure I'll jump in the truck and take the kids to Subway and bring the sandwiches back to eat at home so I can be there for the appointment (rental house is next door to our house). No problem. Kids are in the car, I have my purse, the car is started. I back up.

Crunch!

The girls asked, "What'd you hit mom, the scooters?" At this point, I have no idea. So I jump out of the truck and take a look.

Yep. I backed into my husband's truck. I didn't even see the truck in my review mirror. Distraction might be an understatement at this point. I had moved the truck behind mine so the kids wouldn't play in between the vehicles. Oh well. My husband needs a new truck anyway. This might be a little incentive for him to get on that.

Hot Temp

When it is 90 degrees, everyone gets a little irritated. But when it's 90 degrees and there's no air conditioning, everyone gets a little hot (pun intended).

So our central air kept running, but nothing was really coming out of the vents. Of course, I shut it down and consulted the fix-it guy. Well the fix-it guy comes home and messes with the thermostat. Suddenly, the central air unit won't even turn on. Now the fix-it guy is not just hot temperature-wise, he's hot temper-wise. And when the fix-it guy is hot temper-wise, look out. We will call it mildly frustrated. I tell him to let it go and I'll call someone on Monday. Yeah, no. He can't let it go. He calls several friends to help him troubleshoot the problem. Nothing.

Next morning, he gives it one more shot and turns the air on. Miracle of miracles its starts. Then he shuts it off and tries it again. Nothing. This is where I begin to tell him our house is haunted (I've known this for years, but that's another story). I push on the thermostat and it starts. Something is wrong with the thermostat, which is weird because we just replaced the thermostat a few years ago. He rips the unit off the wall (literally) and hard wires the two wires that make the air run. Apparently, heating and air conditioning are a simple system. It's the computerized thermostats that have made it complicated.

Basically, I get to turn on the air conditioning with a simple twist of a wire nut holding two wires together. Then when I want to shut it off, I will have untwist the wire nut. Fun.

The fix-it guy went out and got a new thermostat. Yeah the air is back on and working. Just in time for Tuesday's cool 70 degree weather.

Where Magical Dreams Come True...

It happened. After some maternal grandparent brow beating, we broke down and took the kids to Disney World in Florida. Now James and I've never been to Disney World and we turned out okay (I know some might differ on this, but for the most part we are productive people in society). I didn't really see the need to go, but with some outside influence I booked the trip. 

I went into this trip knowing my children would only be able to handle so much. The trip was planned for six nights. Three parks and two down days. First night, we settle into our hotel and swim in the pool. First day, Animal Kingdom. Second day, Magic Kingdom. Third day, down day at the beach. Fourth day, Universal Studios. Fifth day, down day to swim or do whatever we feel like. Sixth day, we fly home. Knowing everything might not go as planned, I didn't have that high of expectations.

Overall, everything went fairly well. The only thing I didn't expect was the how extreme Child #2 was going to complain. Now I definitely expected some complaining, but she was down right horrible. Screaming at us on how she didn't want to go to Disney and how we made her go. She hated us for it. All she wanted to do was go swimming. Granted, it was hot, but we had been in air conditioning for several rides and shows at the Animal Kingdom. Thank God, we went early and had gone on most of the rides and seen most of the shows. At this point, I said to her that she will be banned from any future family vacations. She will be staying with one of her grandpas next year. The funny thing is she agreed to this (of course, the next day she denied that she agreed to it). Child # 1 and #3 were much more grateful. I'd say Child #1 was definitely the most mature.

By the end of the trip, Child #2 had lost her Birthday party that we were going to have in the summer. I have to say I am definitely running out of threats. So next summer, we might become a family of four on our family vacation. We'll see. Though Child #2 did apologize several times for her behavior. The problem is that the behavior continues to be the same just on a different day.

So what did I learn at Disney World? I learned that I can't stand people. I realized that I use all my patience up on my children  and I have nothing left for other people. Disney is not my cup of tea. Give me a mountain to hike or a trail to ride or a road to run on any day. I'm glad the girls had the opportunity to go. It was a one (one and only) in a life time chance.

On the happy side, we did have fun. Child #2 got better as the trip went on. Several rides, we had a blast on and went on more than once. They will have great memories and pictures to remember the trip forever. Thank God it is over and we are home.