And now the house is clean

One sure way to get the house cleaned is to invite people over for dinner. Not just any people but people that you husband works with. Last week my husband mentioned that he would like to invite some people over from dinner. There are a few people visiting from London and they would likely have one night free. On Monday he said the day was Thursday and there would be 5 or 6 co-workers coming over.

It is normally not a big deal, but we have, actually had, so much junk lying around our house. Not really junk but items that we are no longer using. For example, we took down Tee's crib several months ago and it has been sitting in my living room. I have been trying to find a organization who will accept cribs and the only one I can find is about an hour drive from my house. We also had a high chair and several other items we no longer use. Then the old gas range top was sitting in our sun room. It really was overwhelming. And now everything is in the storage area in the basement. It feels and looks so much better in here now. It will be another day when we clean out the storage area and find a place where we can take all of our donations.

Back to the guest of honor. My sister in law is part English. I wonder if that is correct way to say it. I am sure she will correct me. I told her we were having a guest from London and she quickly informed me on the correct way to entertain an English man. The first thing I was to do was to offer him a cup of tea. I told her that I had a honey green tea in my pantry and asked her if that would work. She told me best not to even mention it and he would think I was just a typical American Host. She also told me to have coffee but I don't normally have coffee because I don't drink it. Her last piece of advice was to just make sure I had plenty of alcohol for him to drink. Luckily I had that taken care of already.

The Londoner was very proper. He came in and kissed me on the cheek and brought over 2 bottles of wine. I didn't waste any time in asking him jut how improper I was. His response was that he does not like tea or coffee and never drinks either one much to his Mother's dismay.

Dinner was very casual and nice. We were able to sit outside and enjoy the weather a bit. It is still a bit humid but there was a bit of a breeze that made it feel nice.

The kiddos went with my niece to chick-fil-* for dinner. They had a blast.

And yes now I have a clean house......but I still have lots of stuff in the storage area.

A tale from the toy store

I am the worst when it comes to buying gifts. I admit it. I love to give gifts but unless I know what you want I am not very good at it. I do get lucky every once in a while!

The boys have a birthday party tomorrow at a laser tag place. After my workout this morning, the boys and I stopped at the mega toy store. I asked the Mom for ideas but she did not give me anything to go on. I insisted we go around and look and then ended up back in the Lego section of the store. It seems like those are such popular gifts to give. My boys still have some they have not opened.

One more loop around the board games and Jay decides he has to use the bathroom. We find the restroom and Jay and Tee get their business done. The boys are ready to go so we head to the check out line at the front of the store. Tee has decided he will now walk. Not a big deal, we are close to heading out anyway.

We go get in line and I turn around for one minute to grab a gift card (darn the store for not having these in the checkout line). As I return, I see the cart falling on Tee (he was standing on the side of it like he does when we leave the grocery store). This can't be happening is all I can think of. I immediately grab the cart and get Tee off the ground. He luckily did not get hurt and he kept his head up. There was an employee checking out in front of me. She gave me a very nasty look, like don't you watch your child lady. She called over the manager who was very kind and asked if I wanted to fill out paperwork. I refused. I knew that Tee was shaken up more than anything. I think we will spend the rest of the day just chilling.

The Happenings

We are fortunate to have a State Park and other hiking areas so close to where we live. We have been here for so long and we have not explored any of them. We finally decided to change that last weekend. We live within walking distance to the Patapsco State Park . Every day we see cars parked along side the rode. Visitors to the park of course. Many ride their bikes and some are just hiking (with or without their dog). Last Sunday, we walked up and took one of the trails. We didn't research any of the trails we just picked one. It just so happened that on that day there was a bicycle race. As we were taking our not so relaxing walk, we had to jump out of the way when we heard the riders coming our way. They were coming from both directions. We also noticed that the trail was getting a little harder as we continued on. Tee did a great job he was walking very slow. I had him on my back for some of the time but he was insistent on walking. We were gone about 1 1/2 hours. Not too bad for Tee's first hike.

The boys and my niece.
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I never included a picture of our first real day in big boy pants. Tee took his first #2 in the potty and we celebrated. The toy was his prize.

He is doing well but still having a hard time telling me he has to go potty before he wets a little in his pants. If I get him on the potty at regular intervals then there is no problem. He loves to announce to everyone that he has "pooped on the potty". Who would have every thought that would be music to my ears.

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Tee loves to do whatever his brothers are doing. He adores them so much. One day I caught them on the steps and they were all reading. Well, let's pretend EE is reading.....I actually think that he may be playing DS.

Tee is starting with the Junie B. Jones series. A great choice. I do like those books but the incorrect English and grammar are a bit much at times.

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Speaking of our gaming systems, my neighbor gave me a great idea. I was having a hard time trying to figure out how much time the boys could play their games (WII and Nintendo DS). It is not easy for me to monitor the time for each of the boys. We purchased timers and they are allotted 90 minutes a day. This has worked out so well. There is no arguing because once the minutes are gone they are done.

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My garden has really taken off, well at least the squash and cucumbers. We have eaten squash for the last 3 weekends. The first couple of times I baked the squash with olive oil. It was very good. Last night I decided to try something a little different. I made this squash and onion casserole. It was very good but I think next time I will leave the mustard off.

Here are the first squash I picked.

I have about 8 cucumbers growing in the garden right now. I guess we will be having lots of cucumbers very soon. The green beans are not doing well because they are shadowed by the squash plant. The corn is not sturdy enough and the carrots are still very small. We are working on a plan for next years garden.

Next up we will plant our pumpkin seeds. The boys enjoyed watching our pumpkins grow when we did it a few years ago in NC.

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We don't have much planned for next week as of yet. All of the boys will be getting swimming lessons for the next 2 weeks (3 days a week) at our house. I found this instructor through my neighbor who used her at the gym we belong to.

The boys also have a birthday party to attend this week. They love going to laser tag parties. Other than that I believe our week will be filled with hanging by the pool.

We both almost messed this one up!

It seems like I have less time now than I did when the kids were in school. I have been working on some house projects but those seem to be going slower than planned. But I guess any progress is good.

The boys have been in baseball camp this week. It is for 3 hours a day and it is at a park that is close to the house. They have had a good time especially because they know some kids.

Now to the real story of how we messed up but got it together in the end. Jay has been working on his tooth for the last week or so. His two front teeth are coming in so crooked and I think they have pushed the teeth next to them out. Last night right before dinner, Jay asked me to pull his tooth out which I did and then handed to him.

Let me stop for a moment and explain last night. We got home around 6:45 from tennis. I thought we would be home sooner so I did not give my niece instruction on all dinner preparations. I came home and it was a mad dash to get it all ready. In the midst of all this is when Jay asked me to pull his tooth. Yes, I am trying to make excuses.

As we finished dinner I was picking all of the crumbs off the table cloth as we sat around the table talking. The boys had been finished for a while. I distinctly remember picking up something hard and putting it on my plate. Never crossed my mind that it was Jay's tooth.

We had started to clean up and Jay runs to the table to get his tooth. As he is running over there I knew what I had done. My solution was to write a nice note to the tooth fairy. We put it under his pillow before he went to sleep. One problem solved.

I ended up going to bed before my husband. I remembered as I was brushing my teeth that I had not taken care of Jay. I called down to my husband and reminded him to take care of it. He said ok. I thought I would hear him come to bed and make sure he really took care of it, but my head hit the pillow and I was out.

At 3am this morning, Jay comes into my room complaining of his nose running. I think he was a little stuffy. I ended up putting saline drops in and that seemed to satisfy him. He had mentioned that the tooth fairy had not visited him yet. I told him he needed to go back to sleep so that she could visit.

As I laid back in bed, I asked my husband if he had taken care of it....I knew the answer but I wanted to know how to rectify. When my husband got up this morning at 5am I heard him do what he needed to do. Jay ended up needing help to find his reward and he was happy in the end. When do you stop losing teeth?

Thanks to the Good Humor Man

Just about every night during the summer, the ice cream man rides along our neighborhood. We can hear the music in our house. My kids know better than to ask me if I will buy them an ice cream. My practical side says that I could buy an entire box of ice cream goodies for what is charged for one treat. I don't feel like my kids are missing out on anything and I hope I am teaching them how to watch their dollars.

I mentioned that my husband installed our new dishwasher a few weeks ago. I listed the old dishwasher on Craigs List. I listed for $35 but when my husband thought we should ask for more. I changed the price on it to $50. We did not get one inquiry on the dishwasher so I started looking at other ways to rid ourselves of it. The Habit*at restore will not accept them as is the case with many of the other places I researched.

I really wanted this heap of junk out of my garage. My neighbor mentioned putting it out on the driveway with a sign that says "free". We tried that on Saturday. It was after dinner and we thought we should go ahead and bring it in for the evening since no one took us up on our offer. As we were headed down the driveway who do you suppose drives by? That is right the ice cream man. He slowed down and looked at it. My husband offered it to him and assured him that is was free and in good working condition. He parked his truck and took it away. The funniest part was that he didn't even offer my husband a sweet treat from his truck.

The bizarre, the frustrating and other stuff.....I will let you decide

My friend and neighbor (NA) ran into another neighbor, the husband, (NB) at the grocery store yesterday. They were in line and NA was trying to make small talk. It is not easy to strike up a conversation with NB. He had a bag of ice and a cooler in his hands. She asks him if he is getting ready for a cookout, logical question based on what he had in his hands. His response was that their 21 year old cat passed away that day. His wife was out of town and coming home the next evening. He needed to preserve the cat until she got home so they could bury in their yard, probably next to the big lump in their yard where their dog was laid to rest.

I don't think I have mentioned that my niece has been with us for a while now. She followed us home from the beach vacation. She is still on her quest for a job. It is very hard for someone who has no real experience to even get an interview. She finally got a call today and has set up an interview for Monday but it is a telemarketing position. We (her Mom and I) keep telling her to keep her options open at this point. She also needs to get experience interviewing. We are hoping she finds something. The boys love having her around.

The husband has not been home before 8pm any work night for what seems like the last 2 weeks. It really is probably closer to 9pm before he gets home. It is their busy time.....I am not sure when it will end. I supposed I should keep this blog more up to date so that he can know what is going on around here. I am sure he won't think that is funny. As he walked in from work the other night, I told him that I was beginning to think there was another women.....he got a laugh out of that one.

Tee had a great day today potty wise. I took the boys to the child watch at my gym. I was a little nervous that Tee would have an accident. He would not be able to get to a potty himself and it tends to get busy in there that I don't know if he would be able to get the attention of a worker. I ended up putting a pull-up on him when we got there. I had to hurry home (more on that later) and wasn't' able to take the time to get him back in his underwear. I was so pleased when I got home and noticed he was dry.

I believe I mentioned that when we purchased our new appliances we also purchased a drop in gas stove top. Last Friday, I had a plumber come to give me a quote for removing the old and installing the new. The quote was unbelievably high at least double what the appliance cost. When I called my husband he told me to pay my $19 fee and escort him out the door. Next we called a home company to do the installation. I was very clear in what I wanted in my phone call. The plumber was set to come out this afternoon. He called at 10:15 and wanted to see if he could come at 11. My niece was here to get his call and told him I would be home around 11:15. This is why I had to leave my workout class early and rush home. The plumber gets here only to tell me that he doesn't do the installation of the new appliance, only the gas hookup. He was very nice and told me to contact an appliance store and ask them who they use. I finally got through to a company and they will come out on Wednesday to give me a quote. The person I spoke with said they may or may not be able to do the job that day. I have to pay $35 for the quote and I am not even sure they will deduct that from the total if I hire them to do the job. Who thought this would be so difficult?

Speaking of the gym. I attend a barbell strength class on Tuesdays and Thursdays. They are given by 2 different instructors and are structured differently. Both instructors tend not to do much, if any, ab work. One totally focuses on planks, which I understand are good but really would like some old fashioned sit ups. The other instructor may do a few minutes of ab work in addition to planks. I look forward to the regular instructor coming back from maternity leave because I know she will work those abs for us.

Tee decided not to nap today. He came down around 45 minutes after I put him down and said he was ready to swim....so we did. Bad that I didn't get any down time and good because it meant that all the kids get to go to bed early. The last few nights have been later that I would like. Tee and EE got in the tub and I sent Jay to my room to get in the shower. I went to check on him shortly after he "supposedly" got in the shower only to find him done. I made a comment about being done so quickly and told him I was going to smell his head. His head was not even wet yet he tried to get me to believe he had bathed. He was made to get back in the shower to try again.

The fun days of summer

We have not done much this week. I purchased workbooks (math and reading) for the boys and they have been working on those. We have been in the pool a lot this week. Each afternoon we have been outside. They swim a little, they play out of the pool a little and then go back to swimming a little. Tee loves to swim in the pool.

Today we took a walk (with Tee's buddy and his Mom) into the wooded area (a park) around our neighborhood. I guess you could call it a mini-hike. We walked to a little stream. The older boys found a salamander. The younger boys picked up rocks and threw them into the water. By the end of our visit Jay and EE had fallen in and gotten wet. Tee got a little wet as well. It was a nice morning walk.

Jay and Ee started tennis lessons last week. They have a practice during the week (Wednesday afternoons) and then practice on Saturday morning. A friend's Mom is the coach and their friend is in the class. They have done well and are enjoying something different for the time being. Tee would also like to play tennis. It is a must to bring his racket with us.

An update on potty training. I remember way back when I trained the twins, every time I mentioned they were doing well we would have an accident or two. It seems to be the case this time as well. Tee is still doing well but not always telling me when he has to go. He can and does hold it in for a long time. Yesterday after swimming he had 2 accidents (an accident is defined as me having to clean pee up off the floor). He probably drank too much pool water.

After dinner last night, I went down to clean up the pool area. It was probably 7:45. My neighbors down the street (green lady and her husband) came over and wanted to talk to me about our pool. I have heard that they have been talking about getting a pool for years now. I tried to answer as many of their questions as I could, but I am new to this pool stuff. I had to listen to him tell me that our pool was going to get damaged because we are on a salt water system and that the company who put our pool is was not a good one etc. Really people....it is late and I need to get my family ready for bed. But it went on until it was interrupted by Jay telling me that Tee had pooped in the tree house. Yuk! It was all over him and the slide and in the tree house. I had to hose him down and poor Diego ended up in the trash. In Tee's defense I think that pool water tends to loosen the stool. I do think he is doing well. He has no problem sitting on the potty when I ask. I will continue to tote around the potty for as long as I need to.

No more diapers

I finally did it. I have talked to Tee about saying goodbye to his diapers for the last month (except for nap and night time of course). I knew once I started there was no looking back. I believe in going straight to underwear while trying to train. I think it can be confusing when you start putting kids in pull-ups.

I have heard that you should wait until the child is ready. Well, I knew Tee was ready. He would tell me when he went pee (or poop) in his diaper.

Tee knew exactly what was going to happen and he was very excited about wearing underwear and being more like his older brothers.

I spent some time getting ready for this adventure. I purchased underwear with his favorite characters, Elmo, Thomas the train, Diego and Spiderman. I had a lot of underwear. I also purchased a few prizes and candy.

The start
I started Thursday after Tee woke up from his nap. He wore his underwear and insisted on wearing shorts as well. There were no accidents on Thursday but I would put him on the potty at regular intervals.

Day 1
Friday morning it became the real deal. He woke up and on came the underwear. He sat in his booster seat at breakfast and told me he pooped. Sure enough he pooped in his underwear. I had to say good bye to that underwear. I have something against cleaning underwear that has mushed gooey poo in it. He went on to have 2 other accidents on Friday morning. The rest of the day went well.

Day 2
I was still working with him and asking him if he had to go. He went poop on the potty and was very excited about it. He had a few accidents in the morning. His accidents are more of him peeing a little and then stopping himself and then telling me. To me this is a huge success. I always take him to the bathroom and he will finish his business.

Tee got a little mad at me on Saturday evening because he wanted a drink of water in which I got him a cup. He didn't want that cup and hit my hand almost spilling the water. As you can probably guess he didn't get any water that evening. Instead was told to go upstairs (we had been swimming and he had no clothes on) and get in the bath. Upstairs he peed on the carpet we feel on purpose.

Overall
I think he's got it. He will poop in the potty. He may wet his underwear a little before he figures out and tells me he has to pee but that is ok. He has also been waking up dry from his nap.

I remember how kids tend to regress on their progress. I am keeping my fingers crossed that he manages to not have that many accidents in the future. He has really been easy to train. I attribute most of this to him watching and wanting to be like his 7 year old brothers.

But just maybe this is my free pass since I had to train EE and Jay at the same time. I remember it NOT being easy in the least bit. It took Jay about 3 full days to get it and EE about 5 days. It was even longer to train them on number 2. EE would hide and go in his underwear. Jay ended up getting constipated and having to be on Miralax for a while. Oh the good times.

Who knew that I could get so excited talking about bodily functions!

Home improvements for sure

It was definitely worth the wait. The bathroom is finally done and we absolutely love the way it turned out. It was nice to have remodeled a bathroom prior to this one. It is very similar to the one we did in NC. Here are a few pictures of the old:





As you can see in the picture on the right, the mold was behind that entire area.

We has a really long counter, 120 inches to be exact. The vanity section was never used.

Here are some pictures of the new:

We added a lined closet and many more drawers. I don't like wasted space.


We increased the size of the shower and we put in 2 shower heads. It makes it very nice for 2 people to be able to shower at the same time. No changes were made to the tub. It is a huge tub and if anything I would have downsized it. But it works just fine (I have never used it) so it stayed put.


We made a few changes in our kitchen as well. I guess my husband was tired of my complaining about the refrigerator and dishwasher.


The water dispenser area on the fridge was really rusted. There was a shelf in the freezer that when pulled out would come all the way out. I never liked the dishwasher. Every time I closed the bottom shelf the dishes would move all around. The water pressure would send my small kids cups flying all over leaving them full of water on their side.

So we got these to replace:


I love them both. It makes the kitchen look so much different. I am still getting used to the bottom drawer freezer but so far it has been good. I also got a new drop in gas stove top that will be installed tomorrow. My husband wanted to try to install but I nixed that after talking to the plumber working in my bathroom. Whenever gas is involved you need to be really careful.

A whirlwind

It has been non stop ever since we got back from the beach. I haven't had a chance to sit down much less sit, think and type. But tomorrow is the day. I plan to work on the tasks that I need to get done and also update what we have been up to.

A few quick notes:

The boys played in the July 4th tournament and practiced 5 nights prior to the weekend. They lost all of their games, but what an awesome experience.

Our neighbors (Mom and the twin boys who are the same age as my twins) that used to live across the street are visiting from California. They came over Sunday afternoon (yes I had to do a mad dash around the house to clean it up). Then they were over Tuesday afternoon for lunch and swimming. Then on Tuesday night the ladies went out to dinner. We saw them for the last time this afternoon as they are headed to their grandparent's house tomorrow. It as a nice visit but has certainly put me behind in my housework.

The shower is completed. The painters came last Thursday to do some touch ups and now we have a functioning bathroom. It turned out so nice. Pictures will be posted tomorrow.

The boys are in vacation Bible school this week. They have had a good time and they actually know people there which always makes them feel better.

Friday is the day. I am going to start potty training Tee.

I have so many stories to tell that I hope I can remember them all.

A few notes of our travel

When on a rode trip I am not one who likes to stop often. And when we do make a stop it is a quick, get food or gas, use the restroom and be on our way. My goal is to get to our destination as soon as we can. On occasion one of the boys will have to use the bathroom at a point where we are not ready to stop. This is when my empty water bottle comes into play. The child with the weak bladder will stand up in the car and pee in a bottle. This worked well on our trip home when Jay had to use the bathroom two times while we were driving through traffic.

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We managed to have no incidents during our trip except on the very last evening. Everyone had left and we were picking up when we noticed it. The glass coffee table had a large crack going through it. I came to realize that Tee had picked up my glass and when he put it down rather hard it must have cracked the glass. It made me think about why you would even have a glass coffee table in a rental. It doesn't seem like a good idea to me at all. There was also a glass dining table. Other than a bunch of fingerprints and food smeared all over it, it was ok by the end of the week.


Here is the crack. We took a picture to have for our records. We have yet to hear from the property manager. We called him that evening and he said he would be back in touch with us. I finally emailed him today and got a response. The double beveled glass is too expensive to replace. I believe they have decided to replace the coffee table with one from a second hand furniture store. He will be back in touch. I am hoping it won't cost us more than $100 but my husband thinks it will be more. Ugh!