Multi-tasking

August 28, 2008

I walk with a friend on Tuesday and Thursday mornings during the time that the kids usually wake up.

C.W.’s Hebrew class includes an assignment of watching instructional DVD’s outside of class.

So.

I came home from my walk this morning to the three of them sitting around the breakfast table eating breakfast…..and watching, on C.W.’s laptop, Dr. Fuller demonstrate how to write Hebrew letters on a white board. I have to say the kids were pretty intrigued.

A Mother’s Prayer: "Dear Lord, please allow our children to grow up in our household without being too weird. Amen."

Posted by Emily at 9:13am
2 Comments »

The zoo and a new friend

August 16, 2008

We love the zoo! "Cheese" smiles. Who ever thought that saying the word cheese would produce an authentic looking smile? They were way wrong.

Joseph….shhh. I have the urge to do something similar occasionally.

The backpack was permantly affixed to her back during this trip. At least I got her out of the princess dress.

Anything big sister can do…..

This is our new friend Katie. She is even cuter from the front. The girls here are checking out the gorillas.

Katie is the sweetest little red head in Louisville. No contest there. Brenna is a year older than she is. Doesn’t my girl look so big?

Posted by Emily at 2:49pm
1 Comment »

You may have noticed…..

August 12, 2008

that lately the pics of Brenna have shown her sporting her princess wear. During her waking hours at home it has become difficult to pry her little body out of dress up clothes. Pajamas are, of course, still acceptable.

I am not sure what exactly was going on in these pictures. She definitely was on some sort of mission, but I tried to not ask questions while snapping pictures so as to not interrupt the preciousness of her pretend world.

Note: Rocky baby, pictured here, is practically a member of the family. Don’t the strap-on sunglasses really make the outfit? I think so.

The backpack too. A girl can’t play pretend without her backpack. I love it.

The pledge of allegience?

Then she stood watch for quiet a while.

Our Joseph….a plain joe next to little miss dress up.

But really, who needs a fancy dress when you are this cute?

This one is, by far, my favorite. I think that I have seen that frown somewhere before.

Posted by Emily at 3:31pm
2 Comments »

Hey, Look at me…..

August 06, 2008

in my new big boy bed!!!

Posted by Emily at 2:23pm
1 Comment »

work, work, work

August 05, 2008

Hmm…..if she can fill ice trays, what else can she do around here?

Posted by Emily at 2:14pm
1 Comment »

Mom’s workout

August 01, 2008

15 minutes - push 70 lbs of children and 10 lbs of stroller to the park at a brisk pace

6 minutes - use the stairs on the playground apparatus like the step in a step class….until the kids decide they want to swing

15 minutes - push kids on swings using big arm movement and doing squats or leg lifts with each push

10 minutes - back to my "stair master"

I should be fitting into all those pants hanging in my closet any day now.

Do the best you can with what you have! That’s what I say.

Posted by Emily at 1:38pm
2 Comments »

Three year olds say funny things: Episode 3

July 31, 2008

(Brenna and Joseph in the back seat chanting various words over and over. Loudly.)

Brenna: (in a serious tone) Oh Joseph, we better stop saying all these words. We might make someone feel annoyed.

From your mouth to God’s ear child.

And because I like you people, here is a photo…..

The princess on her motorcycle.

Posted by Emily at 8:43pm
1 Comment »

Why not?

July 30, 2008

Why not have some M&M’s for a Wednesday afternoon snack?

So good….it hurts a little.

Predictably, they ate the M&M’s first, then licked the peanut butter off the crackers. I ate mine all together, just for the record.

Posted by Emily at 8:34pm
3 Comments »

How to Spend All Day Moving a Couch

July 10, 2008

Here’s some background:

–Moving in, we had one minor glitch…the stairway to our bedroom was too narrow for our box springs to fit. It just wouldn’t bend around the tight corner it needed to if it was going to support our cushy mattress while we slept soundly in our new home. The stairs to our basement are identical. Keep that in mind.
–Our basement is quite large & pretty well finished, so we decided we’d get our TV out of the main living space & put it down there. This meant we needed another (cheap) couch.
–Our first Sunday here, we visited a church we’d heard about from some friends. During the post-worship social time, I overhear someone mention that a family recently moved away & left their couch & loveseat in the church’s basement for anyone who might want them. Hmmm. "Anyone?" I ask. Sure enough, anyone. And they even met with Emily’s approval. Score! Two free couches! And the big one is even a sleeper, so we get additional sleeping space for nephews!

And now the story really gets good.

I ask around, and find a new friend with a truck. Wouldn’t you know, he’s even a Texan! So last Saturday, our schedules align & he agrees to help me move these couches into our basement. The loveseat goes in without a hitch, but thinking back to the box springs fiasco, I wisely measure the back stairway into the basement & realize that won’t work. I also measure the main basement stairs, and it’s tight, but I think it’ll fit.

Let me tell you, carrying that sleeper sofa through the four doorways & the hall between our front porch & the basement was a nice warmup for the basement stairs. And, you know what, I was right…it was a tight fit down those stairs. Too tight. That bend was killing me.

And here is where the Faulkner in me kicked in.

I think, "If we just take it back up and out of two doorways and back down the hall, we can flip it 180º, and that might just do it." So I say to my new friend (who I’ve know for all of a combined eight hours), "If we just take it back up and out of two doorways and back down the hall…, are you game?" I think because we met at church, and he knows he’ll have to see me again almost every Sunday, he agreed.

So we lifted it back up the stairs, out two doorways, down the hall, turned it 180º, took it back down the hall, through those same two doorways and started down the stairs again (did I mention it’s a sleeper sofa? Man those things are heavy!). Halfway through that process, Emily says, "You know, it might not be worth it." "It’ll fit," I replied ~~confidently~~ foolishly.

It didn’t fit…almost, but not quite. I mean just barely, and I was so sure it would, and it was free, and we’re going to have to move it back to the church, and then we’re going to have to pay for a couch…so I yanked on it, hard. And this is the result:

You can’t quite tell, but that couch twisted about 15º and lodged right there, stuck tight.

My friend goes home to eat lunch with his wife.
And I? Well, I head to the garage for my toolbox, and start making plans for how on earth I’m going to unlodge a 75 lb., dark blue sleeper sofa from my stairway.

Over the next several hours, I pulled staples, peeled back upholstery, pried up nail plates, and removed the board that runs along the front of the couch. All this while Brenna and Joseph periodically sat at the top of the basement stairs and asked questions like, "What are you doing?" and "Why is there a couch on our basement stairs?" An excellent, infuriating, humiliting question.
Fortunately, the only cussing was in my head.

Eventually I got that board off, pulled a little, pushed a little, and voila!

Now for redemption! I tried very hard to take the couch apart so I could put it back together when I was done. And unlike my powers spatial reasoning, this plan actually worked!

Here’s a before & after shot of the joints.