Pet Store

I can’t explain it.  A year ago I'd never believe the things I’d be doing.  Yesterday, for the first time, I walked into a pet store.  It was a new and eye-opening experience for me.  People actually take their pets into the store with them.  I find this incredibly interesting and confusing at the same time.  I can’t help but wonder if these people have other errands to run with their pets or if this is their big outing for the day.  There was an entire aisle designated for pet sweaters and costumes.  I guess I didn’t realize how big the pet sweater/costume market had become.  I steered clear of that aisle and went straight to Nature’s Miracle Urine Destroyer section- another huge aisle full of products I never knew existed.  It was fascinating.

 

Let me start by saying Kratt is not peeing in the house.  He is however treating an egress window-well as an outdoor litter box.  I wouldn’t have noticed if the egress window was not 100+ years old and actually worked, but it doesn’t and therefore I’ve discovered our basement starting to smell like cat urine in a particular area.  I also discovered Kratt has been getting on my kitchen counter to sit behind a plant by the kitchen sink when I’m not watching. My kitchen is off limits. This is war.

They say tin foil helps deter cats.  Whatever it takes.

I’m proactive by nature which explains how I ended up in the urine-remover section of the pet store. I removed the urine-soaked leaves from the window well and saturated both the inside and outside of the window with Nature’s Miracle Urine Destroyer.  I followed up by lying tin foil inside the window well and shoved a wire-border fence against the window to block it.  I take these things very seriously. 

 

This is supposed to be the best.

 

My next step was to contact the ARL (Animal Rescue League) which was another new experience for me and found out they have cat counselors- can you even imagine?  I talked to Veda regarding the kitchen counter situation and she was able to give me some fresh ideas for keeping Kratt off the counter.

I have a Cat Counselor Contact in my phone... go figure.

 

Meanwhile, it’s a snow day in Winterset.  We’ve had a Little House on the Prairie Season 1 Marathon going on all day.  No one can put the little stressors of life into perspective like the Ingalls.

 

Hair, Hair, Everywhere

Conversation with Ross

 

Ross: Mom, why do grown-up’s have hair on their balls and she-shes?

Me: I don’t know, I suppose it’s a protective mechanism from prehistoric-cavemen days.

Ross: Like, for germs?

Me: Yeah, just like how eyebrows and eyelashes protect your eye’s, any opening to your body has some way to protect it from germs.

Ross: Why do armpits grow hair then?

Me: Good question, that is really weird.

Ross: I bet I know why.  When someone is lifting weights and a germ falls into their armpit, as soon as that person lowers that arm, then lifts it again, the hair shoots the germ right back out. 

Me: Possible, I suppose.

Ross: But I still don’t get why people get hair on their chests?

Me: Well, our genetic make-up is very similar to apes and gorillas, of all the animals we are the most similar to them.  Maybe that’s why.

Ross: What? I always thought we were closest to dolphins?!

 

 

Youch

Maisie was so excited to walk home after school Friday that she practically skipped the whole way.  We have concrete steps off our driveway.  She must have forgotten...

 

She was more concerned about a small scratch on her finger than she was her face. 

I told her she needs to pay attention to steps.  The first one can be a doozie.

You Tube

Not sure whether you’ve seen it or not, but there’s a you-tube video of a dad putting his daughters’ hair into a ponytail with a vacuum hose.  Monday morning Maisie didn’t want her hair done. 

 

You may think, ‘no biggie, how bad could it be’, however if you combed through her hair you would notice the hair she chews on, the hair she twists into a sharp point and sticks up her nose, as well the tacky hair in the back that I’m guessing is dried egg.  Thank heavens for hair de-tangler spray.  Not as much for the detangling powers but more for the fact that it’s wet and helps to “refresh” her hair in the morning.  Aka: dilute the other unknown stuff.

 

However, Monday she was fighting us even brushing her hair.  Mike recalled the you-tube video we watched over the weekend and decided to give it a whirl.  I was concerned about the film of drywall dust lining the inside of the vacuum hose, but realized it wouldn’t really matter anyway. 

 

Through the process Maisie giggled, Ross analyzed, I worried and I’m guessing Molly was just grateful her hair is barely long enough to brush... let alone vacuum.   We determined Maisie’s hair isn’t thick enough for this maneuver to work correctly.  Mike gave up while Maisie, feeling as though she just stepped off a roller coaster was able to start her week off in better spirits than she woke up with. 
 

 

Who knew a vacuum could do that?
 

 

 

 

Autograph

Ross brought home a "weekly reader" type paper from school yesterday.  It was all about

Barack Obama. 

 

Ross: "You'll never believe this mom.  Wait until you see what's inside of this book.  Whatever you do, do NOT throw this paper away.  The president actually SIGNED this for everyone in my class."

 

Me: "Your right, we better hang onto this one."

Sunday Smiles

First comes work...

She multi-tasks like her mama.

Then comes play...

Then comes rest...

Sweet, sweet rest.





 

Ross Update

An update on Ross

 

As you may recall from my previous post, Ross threw-up early Monday morning.  Mike stayed home with him that day.  I received a call at 9:00 a.m. that Ross had taken a nasty poop and was feeling better.  Later in the day I receive a text from Mike:

Mike to me: Ross said he has hot burnin farts

 

Tuesday: Ross wakes up with a fever.  I stayed home with him.  He didn’t move from the couch all day.

Wednesday: Ross wakes up fever-free and reluctantly goes to school.  Wednesday evening I unpack his lunchbox and notice he didn’t eat his chocolate pudding or Oreo’s.  Not a good sign…  Moments later he’s barfing in an empty ice cream bucket.  He doesn’t tell stories while barfing this time, only answers my questions during the event.

Me: “Ross, did you swallow some gum this afternoon?”

Ross: “No, I don’t know what that is”

 

Me: “Ross, did you drink all that purple Gatorade?”
Ross: “yep”

Meanwhile, Maisie knowing he’s nauseous at the sight of food makes sure to sit in front of him with an ice cream sandwich, ramen noodles, bananas- basically anything to make his situation worse.  Molly walks around with her head in another ice cream bucket mimicking Ross’ barf sounds. 

What would the world be without sisters?

 

 

Sunday Night

Sunday night, once everyone had gone to bed, I heard plotting.  Sure enough, Ross had convinced Maisie to sneak out of her room and into his bed.  They planned a slumber party.  Mike and I told them ‘not on a school night’, to which they obliged… until the lights went out.  Mike and I pretended we didn’t hear them.  Choose your battles, right?

 

Fast forward to 11:00 p.m.  Molly wakes crying in her bed.  I cover her up and shove a ‘nigh-nigh’ blanket in her face.  She’s good.

 

Fast forward to 12:30 a.m.  Molly’s crying in her bed.  I tell Mike, “your turn”.  He rolls out of bed and does whatever he does to get her to stop.  She’s good.

 

Fast forward to 2:00 a.m.  Ross walks into my room saying he can’t find Maisie.  She’s not in his bed or her own bed.  I help him look. We turn on lights and she is nowhere to be found.  Feeling a little panicked, I climb up to Ross’ bed to feel around; nothing.  I wake Mike to tell him about the vanishing when I hear Ross announce that he found her.  She had squirmed herself to end of his bed and was buried under a sea of blankets and a herd of stuffed animals.  Luckily for us, she slept through the entire search and rescue mission.

 

Fast forward to 4:00 a.m.  I wake up to the sound of barfing and splashing. I walk into Ross’ room to see him barfing over the side of his bed.  Keep in mind his loft-bed sits 6 feet off the ground and he just lets it fly like he’s yacking off the side of a boat into an ocean.  As I look at the carpet, he assures me he didn’t get any on his herd of animals or blankets.  Meanwhile, Maisie moves back into her own bed. 

 

Fast forward to 4:30 a.m.  I hear more barfing.  By this point I make a mental note that plastic baby-wipe containers make excellent puke buckets.  Ross, who is a talker by nature, is able to talk even while barfing.  Mike and I are both surprised and impressed.  Ross feels the need to give us the play-by-play on how each hurl feels and how his puke didn’t fly nearly as far as Kelsey’s did at school last week. 

 

 

I finally get up for the day and give thanks that Maisie wasn’t kidnapped through the night, Ross will start to feel better, the carpet will come clean and I can sleep Monday night.  No bigs.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Slumber Party

Ross spent the night at Grandma and Papa Boyd's Friday night, therefore Maisie and Molly had their first slumber party in Maisie's bed. 

 

There were dreamlights, songs, prayers, giggles and whispers. I couldn't help but regress to the day's of sharing a room with my own sister.  I told them stories about floss-snacks, hysterical crying/laughing sounds and rescuing babies who had fallen off the boat and into the ocean. 

 

At one point I broke into song: Hush Little Baby, Don't Say A Word... but I used dramatic hand gestures and closed my eyes.  It was riviting.  The girls were captivated.  I'm sorry you missed it.

 

Once we said our final 'goodnights', the slumber party ended in less than 5 minutes.  Molly wanted to sleep in her own bed. Oh well, you've got to start somewhere.

 

In the cookies of life, sisters are the chocolate chips. ~Author Unknown

Pancake Flipper

Mike and I decided to reclaim our lives.  We explained to the kids they came into our lives, not vise-versa.  We also explained that as long as they continue to drop their coats/boots/gloves/backpacks (aka: gear) on the floor creating a “gear” path leading to the snack cupboard, I will be collecting those items and charging a 25 cent fee to return them.  Effective immediately.

 

 

Last week, I taught Ross how to make his lunch for school.  We went step-by-step on how to spread mayo, how to arrange meat and cheese to create maximum coverage, how to cut a tortilla on the diagonal and how to layer the items in a lunch box from most to least heavy.  We closed the lesson by discussing the importance of storing the lunchbox in the refrigerator overnight. 

 

 

Last night after the ‘reclaiming-our-life’ discussion, I asked told Ross to make his lunch.  He fought me on it.  The situation became heated and before long we ended up with a broken pancake flipper…all the wooden spoons were in the dishwasher. 

 

 

Believe it or not, this isn’t a Debbie Downer story.  Here’s the good part.

 

Throughout the entire ordeal, it was Maisie who lined-up the kitchen stools creating a shield around Ross. It was Maisie who tried to yank Daddy away from Ross when Daddy spanked Ross with the pancake flipper and then carried him to his room.  It was Maisie who sat with a sobbing Ross under the dining room table, threatening anyone who came near him with her evil eye.  It was Maisie who became her brothers’ protector.

 

Later, at Maisie’s gymnastics lesson, I sat with Ross and explained what Maisie had done for him.  I don’t think he realized it until that moment.  He smiled as he watched her straddle jump and giggle on the trampoline. Watching him watching her, gave me that darn ball-feeling in my throat.  I successfully willed it away… I definitely didn’t want to start bawling at Maisie’s gymnastics lesson.  Can you imagine what the instructor would think? 

 

 

In other news, Maisie now wishes she had gotten Molly’s Dreamlight for Christmas instead of her own.  She said the “indigo” color of the Butterfly Dreamlight is just so beautiful at night.



Ross freaking out about having to make a lunch.  Snapping photos of him seemed to escalate the situation. Tough luck.

Maisie climbed into the fridge to retrieve the ingredients for Ross' lunch.  She was going to make his lunch for him.

 They decided to work together.

Maisie explaining that she wouldn't let his bag of chips get smashed.

 Molly waits patiently in her booster seat.  Just another day in paradise.




 

Hair

Maisie dolled herself up this morning.  She came up with the headband/flower hair accessory combo on her own.  Look out 4-H Fashion Review, one day this girl's gonna blow you away- if I can learn to cut her bangs straight.

Molly did her own hair today too.  I'm pretty sure celebrities pay big money to achieve this look.  It takes a great face to pull it off. 

She pulls it off.

 

Break Up

3-1/4 years ago, we fell in love with the charm and mystery of a 110 year old house.  Oh, it was handsome alright, but like all great ones, needed some tweaking.  In those 3+ years, I can't even begin to count how many times I have cussed this place.  To be fair, I have not only been verbally abusive but physically abusive to this house.  I'm not proud of that, but in my defense the house has been a jerk-face.  A small 20-minute fix usually turns into something like this.

 

 

I can hear Mike cursing the "plaster" in the living room. I walk in to find this...

Oh, and I'd better not leave out this one either...

 

Let's just say the honeymoon is over.  The house and us; were breaking up.

 

Rockin' In the New Year

We spent New Year’s Day Rockin’ out with our favorite groupies.  They  could only stay for the day so we went all out. 

Let’s just say Christmas Break got a little too lengthy.  Everyone needed an escape.  The kids took the emotional escape route and chose alternative personalities.  Everyone seemed to get along better that way. 

Meet Ross' twin sister, Rachel.

On a side note, Ross’ new word is “literally”.  He literally has no clue what it means or how to use it.  Last night Molly was running around the living room naked. 

Ross: “Is Molly is ‘literally’ naked?”

Meanwhile, I literally adore him.

Green Bean Juice

 

Quote of the day from May May (aka Maisie): "When all the green beans are gone, I'm drinking the bean juice, nobody else can have it".

 

This is Maisie wishing you all a Happy New Year!