Monsoon season

We had a little rain the other day. 

And this ditch of ours never ceases to fascinate me. 

The neighbor's across the road is dumbfounding.

A Little Rain

On a normal day, you can see the culvert in our ditch. 

On normal days recently, you can't see the culvert in our ditch. 

The neighbors seem to have a lake. 

But all this weather makes for amazing sunsets.

This was all pre-Isaias hurricane.  We'll see what happens today.

You Clean Up Pretty Well

You can hardly tell that we spent most of the weekend knee deep in mud trying to fix my fence-line. And the remaining part: painting, changing a faucet, trimming trees when it wasn't raining and sometimes when it was, cleaning, clearing out my attic, and chasing kids.

We Will Laugh, Some Day, I Say Through Gritted Teeth

Packed in like sardines last night after accomplishing our entire bedtime routine in the laundry room as the sirens went off.

Once the sirens were over, the weatherman said be prepared for it to be a long night. Boy he wasn't kidding. Five and three quarters inches yesterday here.

I should know by now, that the South really does have monsoon season.

Monsoon Season Has Begun

This picture this morning as I left my sliver of bed with four feet in my back.

Let's Continue The Theme of Miserable

In order of appearance and performance at the dentist 7:30 Monday morning during the monsoon.

Nicholas.

Volunteered to be first. Total compliance.

Yeah, that front tooth is a mess, but we'll leave it alone until it falls out.

Alida.

VERY unsure of what she was about to do, but willing to give it a try.

Pretty full compliance.

Ben.

Dear Ben. Refused. Complained. Fussed. Screamed. Wriggled. Clamped his mouth shut.

I had to leave the room to take a girl to the potty, and they tell me he calmed down.

Then on to X-Rays for him. Refused. I had to crank his mouth open to allow the woman to get the film in his mouth.

Since he refused to bite down, the x-rays were awful. They didn't even review them.
Nearly zero compliance.

Meanwhile the other three had figured out they got stickers out of this mess. Nicholas and Alida were walking around with their stickers, which put Elaine in an uproar because she had yet to earn her sticker.

Elaine

Last to go.

Had to hold her on the table.

At least she was screaming so loud the entire time that the hygienist had no problem getting the polisher into her mouth.

Negative compliance.

After that we had to all get checked by the dentist. At that point we had experienced total breakdown, and I don't even know what happened there. And the final moment--they all fell-out upset that it wasn't still raining when we left because they didn't get to use their umbrellas.

Oh It Was Silly Alright

Bedtime.

Take away all the toys that are going to keep them awake and annoy me time.

Debate about whether the gifted Silly Bandz need to be banned time.

Too tired to fight it time.

And Nicholas, the boy who destroys all things, went to sleep with one of those yellow bandz wrapped around one of those green bandz.

Then the storm came through because it is still monsoon season apparently.

On came their lights because it is so much easier to watch a storm out the window with the lights on...

I talked to a friend on the phone; I took a bath; I was consumed with the book I'm reading; I was lining up things for the morning.

And around 9:45 I decided to put a stop to the party in the boys' room.

We re-tuck and good-night again while I showed an unusual amount of patience taking into account the shock I was in that the girls weren't running around screaming due to all of the thunder and lightening. And then I find out why they had the light on.

"Mommy." (as I click off the light) "I have something in my nose." (gigantic sneeze from Ben)

"Feel better? Good night boys."

"No, mommy! I have something in my nose!"

Click light back on. Inspect nose. Blood.

"What's in your nose?"

"Something."

Nose Inspection, nothing. "Okay, blow." (total disregard for what I'm about to discover.)

"No, Mom. It's a Silly Band," from Nicholas.

"What?"

"Yeah, mom. I put a Silly Band up my nose."

Argh.

Go get a flashlight. Can't figure out how to get the batteries in, fumble. Can't find the tweezers, dig. Drop the Kleenex on the floor; why am I so sore all the time?

Upstairs. In the boys room. Flashlight hanging from my mouth. Benjamin's head cranked back. I start inspecting. Nothing.

"Son. I don't see anything. Did you get it out?"

"No."

More cranking. More flashlight. And there it is--yellow Silly Band I can only see if I pull his nose open in a particular way and flash the light as deep as I can.

Tweezer time.

I maneuver the tweezers about a foot up the boy's nose and pull out a yellow Silly Band, broken, about three turns of the yellow one above.

Nicholas: "Mom! You look like a doctor."

Me: "Well I'm not, so let's not do this foolish stuff anymore so I don't have to pretend that I am."

"Okay mom."

Benjamin: "I'm just so sorry mom."

Yeah, I'll bet you are buddy.

Every Weekend?

Must we have this beginning on Friday evening?

Time to pop up the princess castle from Uncle Curt.
And there they played for hours.
And a new love affair with the second floor of the house began.

Waiting...

Beautiful weekend.

Beautiful kids.

Frustratingly long assembly.

I believe they are in the rain working on this right now trying to finish it up.

Weekend Mission Success

Saturday morning the sirens were going off in our little part of the world at 4:30 in the morning.

We were on the road before 8 during a lull in the storms.

As we hauled over the Mississippi River, I kept looking at the traffic backed up on the other side because of an accident going East into town. Whew, so glad we aren't stuck in that! We barrelled on a few miles, so GLAD we aren't stuck in that. Then Elaine had a melt down. I pulled off to rearrange and figure that out--making sure her appendix wasn't bursting. We went to get back on the Interstate and there was no West-bound ramp.

Yep. We had to head East-bound, back into Memphis to turn around, sucked into the whole traffic jam. By the time we made it back across the river, rearranged again, and got ourselves re-buckled, the sirens were going off in town.

We hit the road and made it North to St. Louis, where the weather was perfection.
And they ran off for the park, and Ann and I were able to sit down and have a conversation.



And then we played and ate and played.

And walked the dog.

Alida is a bit in love with Ranger.

And Sunday afternoon, when it was time to head South, the kids didn't take it all that well.

It was likely our last visit to our friends in St. Louis since next time we'll be visiting them in Dallas. We can't wait and wish them well with the move.

Weekend Monsoon Season

Wherein we smear lotion on the walls.

And spread-out.

And mess up this room,

in reaction to me cleaning up this room.

So I think we'll maybe ditch this place.

Can't decide. I like that I can't decide--it means I don't have to obsess for 2 weeks prior every time we consider going somewhere.

Hard To Believe

There was no Saturday outing because it RAINED, a lot.

They are actually not playing in the sand; they're playing in the water...

Sunday however, there was a bit of a ladies day at my house that I was not invited to.

Emily and Jennifer came over to watch the girls for a couple of hours and

Nanny Jenny and Anna came over to fold my kids laundry.

This freed me up to take the boys to a movie. This was the first time I've ever done this, and it was so fun to have an afternoon with them.

Thank you.

And I'm pretty sure I can guess what is happening above--Alida is either a dog or a cat and Elaine is leading her around by the collar. This is the new game. Recently they've thrown horse in to the mix, but it usually isn't as subdued when they are neighing.

I think the ladies had a great time.

Anon-No-More For Sure

JB-Anon came by to visit on our rainy Sunday afternoon.

She brought our new favorite cereal along, and Alida sat down and ate bowl after bowl for the entire visit. It was nearly embarrassing how much cereal these kids ate since it looked like I don't feed them. When JB asked what they had for lunch, Ben piped up with "crackers." Made me look even more like mommy-of-the-year. We all know full-well that those kids got all the mac-n-cheese they could eat just prior to her visit.

And in one of those why-didn't-I-ever-think-of-that-moments, she had an umbrella tent up for the kids within about 30 seconds of entering the house.

Group picture time turned into a melt-down of people scrambling to take pictures with my camera. So this was as good as we got--me with my mini-me's.

We loved it, and the proof is in a smile from Benjamin.

Anyone that can tease that out of Ben is welcome in our place any time. Now that she knows how to find our house (we think she can find it again, we're not sure...), we hope she visits often.

The Year In Review: 2009

We started with a bit of snow early in the year. Little did we know it was the pre-cursor to monsoon season.

We took you for pizza on those cold days. We are usually pretty good through the appetizer bread sticks, then it's time to go.

Valentine's Day: you began sneaking to the counter to sneak food.

Your daddy had laser eye surgery and at the follow up visit, you all did really well when we had to take you with us because no one else was around to drive him.

And the boys three-year-visit and the girls 18-month visit was dispensed with all at once. Yikes.

The boys got actual beds.

Ben seemed a bit unsure of it at first. Many nights these days he sneaks down and sleeps on a couch in the middle of the night. No idea why.

The Radio Flyer Wagon. One of the best gifts we have ever received. And it was put to use the second the weather started to clear.

We loved playing with daddy's uniform at the beginning of the year.

And we stayed outside as much as possible even a bit before it was warm enough probably.

The girls couldn't wait to become stuntmen though.

We "celebrated" Easter.

Grandma and I made a trip to Texas with everyone to see Aunt Lori and Uncle Brian and grandpa while Patric was at a long training session.

But daddy always came home. We always loved seeing this uniform show up.

Because it meant there was another workhorse in the house.

Sometimes the kids would make their own rocket ships though.

And sometimes they even played with their toys correctly.

Grandma and grandpa came to visit a lot.

And in May, daddy took all the kids to Kansas for a week so mom could have a little surgery.

And they traveled pretty well on the long solo trip with dad.

Elaine--you were the one that started to hop out of cribs.

The Kings spent a lot of time with us clicking pictures of children.

And then we found Nancy with a pool and no one to swim in it. We were happy to make the place look lived in.

I tried Alida. I tried to get a good picture of you this year.

You played in the pool as much as you could.

Daddy was here for the Fourth of July and we spent it at a fireworks show--the boys loved it; the girls not-so-much.

And we celebrated the girls' second birthday--already?.

Since daddy was at National Guard so much, we just went ahead and followed him there one weekend and had a great time at the hotel pool.

And then monsoon season set it. And we went outside anyway.

And we made a visit to Shiloh National Park, where we read on the way out, you aren't supposed to climb on those...

Member night at the zoo was fun.

And the boys started wearing uniforms...in preschool.

Whatever.

There were two days that mommy had to be out of town , so daddy saddled up the crew and took them swimming with Aunt Cynthia.

We visited everyone in Minnesota.

And learned about making fires.

And gave Aunt Lori a workout.

All made possible by our current favorite method of mass transportation: Amtrak.

We used our imaginations: when I took away their Transformer toys, they just made themselves into Transformers.

Grandma Montana came and visited.

And this happened more nights than I would have liked this past year, but they just keep piling in sometimes. It's really not as efficient as it looks now that they're bigger.

And all I remember about this picture is that it was an VERY long weekend that ended in five minutes of world peace that amazed me.

Grandpa and grandma came to town a lot to wrangle children.

And I made my first solo outing with the kids to public places. And we lived. And we'll do it again.

And we attempted a family photo...

And the girls were not terribly excited about their toddler beds.

I tried Alida, I really did.

And daddy always came home after being away. And it was always a wonderful reunion.

Elaine grew by like 5 years.

Ben got six stitches that didn't hold the skin together after they were taken out. So it popped open anyway and it'll leave a mark.

Ah, Halloween. You wanted to quit after two houses.

And grandpa airplane flew you off with daddy for a last day together on December 1.

That was right after the Thanksgiving weekend emergency room visit for Ben, who turned out to just be really sick.

And we did a lot of passing our time with new activities this year.

And daddy came home for Christmas. And the last time we saw that uniform at the end of vacation, we all knew that we were tired of what it meant to us.

But we are proud for what it means to the world.

So, off we go.

2010 awaits us.

Daddy will go for one big, long time this time. And then he'll be back and we can close that chapter for awhile.

Daddy has likely changed his last diapers.

Lucky.