Where I've been

I've had no internet access for an entire week. It's been very difficult to handle. Fortunately, I've had plenty of other things to keep me busy. Namely cleaning up this mess.

Our basement flooded a couple of weeks ago after 6 or so inches of rain which translated into 16 inches of water in the house. So here is our basement spread out all over the yard. My favorite is the Christmas tree standing in the middle of the backyard. Can we say redneck?Thankfully, most of our things were saved. And despite replacing the motor on the dryer, all the appliances survived. There was some damage to the drywall and the doors in the new bedroom, but hopefully not too much.

I truly appreciated the clothesline and 80 degree weather while we waited for the dryer to be repaired.

The funny thing is, after all the cleanup I did, I managed to have a lot of the basement, at least my part, much more organized than before. And that feels great. Sometimes you just need a little push to get something done.

Another long weekend and a few more ballgames

We had another Rodie softball game on Friday night, it didn't start until 8pm after our already long day of movie watching and cousin playing. So Saturday morning we got a very sleepy start. Kevin's hip was hurting after the game Friday so he didn't get around to doing much. He won't even turn 30 until later this year, but you'd think he was already an old man. Chloe and Micah and I went down to Michelle's house with her and the girls Saturday afternoon. She and I spent about 4 hours painting her living room a dark red color. Although its kinda like the "horse of a different color" from The Wizard of Oz because it sometimes looks orange and sometimes maroon and sometimes really chocolatey. Whatever color it is, its really pretty and I can't wait to check it out when the room is put back together.

Anyway Saturday turned into another late night for the kids, so Sunday morning I actually had to wake Chloe up for church. We were only a little late(about 20) minutes. But that's what usually happens when Mommy has to get 2 kids a bath and dress the 3rd one (besides getting herself ready) so we can leave by 8am. I've not yet figured out how to do that when Kevin has to be at church at 7:45. Maybe someday we'll make it on time. But someday certainly didn't make it this week.

After church and a run to Menards, because we didn't have quite enough paint to cover the whole living room twice, we headed home to get ready for two more ballgames. Kevin and Chloe went down to the games early with Kevin's dad, while I stayed at home to let the boys get a nap in before the 3 o'clock game. Micah had a little difficulty going to sleep(maybe if he had stopped kicking the wall it would have gone a little better) but eventually all three of us drifted off, and didn't wake up until after 4. So much for game number 1. We did make it in plenty of time for the 5 o'clock game, which they won by 10 in the 5th inning(Way to go Tyler!). Then off to DQ for dinner and Aunt Shelly's for swimming. The kids had a great time in the pool and even JJ got in for a bit. This time, as soon as Micah got in he was ordering Kevin to "LET GO DADDY, LET GO!" Yay, Micah!

As fun as the rest of the day was, with ballgames and ice cream and swimming, the highlight of the day came as we were getting ready to leave. Kevin and the kids were in the kitchen and found a bug crawling around on the floor. It was only about 1/2 inch long and started jumping about 8-10 inches in the air! It was pretty funny, but what was even funnier was the crowd of moms and dad and kids all watching and laughing at this tiny little bug as it ran around the kitchen bouncing all over the floor. Jadon and Micah in particular got a great kick out of it. Who needs cable? We've got bugs. So when we were all bugged out, Kevin looks at Micah and says, "you wanna kill it?" Of course he does. So my question for you is this, "Is it wrong that it made me a little sad?

Go outside and play!

I never thought the day would come that I had to order my kids to go outside to play. Boy was I wrong. Monday was one of those days. After a very long weekend of late nights and lots of fireworks I was exhausted and the house was a mess, so I attempted to send the big kids outside while I cleaned up the house. Usually I have them help, but that actually takes longer so I wanted to do it myself. They both whined like I had just told them to go teat their liver and onions. It wasn't that surprising from Chloe, but Micah usually jumps at the chance to go outside. Chloe's arguement was that she would go out after lunch. Right.

So, since Jadon didn't seem too interested in naptime yet, I told the big kids to get over themselves and all four of us went outside to play in the yard. They got pretty excited when I offered to play croquet with them. They're actually getting pretty good. Micah is somehow able to hit the ball squarely and send it the right way, even when he swings his mallet like a baseball bat. I'm not sure how he does that, but it's pretty funny to watch. And did you notice the path BJ mowed through the yard the other day? If that doesn't say lazy redneck, I don't know what it says.Jadon had to get out his own mallet and ball and play with us. For a while, he was content to wander around hitting the ball and playing near us. But then he decided he wasn't hitting as well as he could, so this is what he did.

A Very Long Weekend

This weekend I attendended Mom 2 Mom summer leadership retreat and I had a great time. The purpose of the retreat is mainly for planning next year's M2M, but it was also a great time for us to get together and relax and have some fun sans children. We had three whole meals that we each had to dish up one plate only (our own) and no one else was begging for our food or complaining that they didn't like their dinner. We didn't even have to fix it ourselves. Thank you so much Marianna! We got lots done and had a blast at the same time!!

Too bad that retreat didn't last longer because my husband and his brother butchered a beef while I was gone. Fortunately that was done far away and before I came home, unlike the goings on from a few months back on Jody's blog. But my sister-in-law and I still spent the better part of the last three days packaging up the meat and trying to pretend we didn't know where it came from. Ahh... the things I never knew about until after I married into this family.



On a different note, Micah's ear infection is doing much better, but we haven't been able to get a second opinion on the whole throat thing. Right now, we're seeing the pediatrician and the speech pathologist/feeding therapist regularly, hoping that they can take care of the problems and avoid surgery entirely. So keep praying for us.