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Fall, where are you?

Posted on October 21, 2008 5:15 pm by TheAngelForever

Depending on where you live you may have noticed that fall seems to be quickly slipping away. The signs here are all there:

Leaves almost all off the trees

Frost outside in the morning – sometimes enough that you have to scrape it off the windshield

Temperatures barely making it to the 40’s or 50’s during the day

Temperatures below 30 in the night

Frozen fingers

Toescicles on the bottom of your feet

When all of this begins you start to think about heat. Will it kick on when you test it out? And, of course, the biggest question of all. . . . when do you finally give in to the numb feeling in your feet and hands and turn on the heat?

For us the answer was checking things out a few weeks ago when the temperatures started to dip. Thankfully everything went on with no trouble. Our thermostat is set at 62. The heat will only turn on when it goes below that, or when one of the kids has a tub and we turn it up slightly.

Yesterday morning it was below 30 outside. I had to take NHL into school to bring his antibiotic eye drops in. It was bone chilling outside and I know it is just the start of things. When JSL and I arrived back into our 62 degree house it seemed toasty warm. Goes to show it is all a matter of perspective. Right after JSL went for a nap it was time to put the all important flannel sheets onto our bed.

Let me tell you those were quite welcomed last night when I put my purple and blue toes into bed. Silly me, I was working on something in the living room and did not wear any socks. I think I learned my lesson. Now I just need to convince another little someone that going sans socks is not a smart thing to do for at least another 5-6 months.

While I am at it, I suppose I should tell him that includes stripping his socks and shoes while out and about in the car, restaurant, mall . . . . or anywhere these days!

BTW – Quick update on the potty kid. Yesterday our #2 did a #2 while sitting on our throne!

Categories:
house jsl milestone sarcasm weather winter

Summer sunflower success

Posted on August 25, 2008 12:05 am by TheAngelForever

For the last two years the boys (NHL and JL) have tried to grow sunflowers. Each year something has happened to squash my little guy’s dreams of planting a seed to watch it bloom into a flower. First it was bunnies that ate them as they came out of the ground. Last year horrible hail storms crushed the poor plants. This year when we knew a storm was coming we pulled the sunflowers into our porch out of danger. Eventually they grew big enough that we thought they would be safe in the elements.

Just before NHL’s birthday our first sunflower finally started to come out. We were all quite excited and had to take photos of the baby sunflower.

If you looked down at the plants growing you could even see many others that were getting close to blooming, like this one.

Up close they looked like this:

Growing up I was always fascinated with sunflowers. My best friend/neighbor growing up had monster sunflower plants in her yard. I remember her father planting them, caring for them and securing them because of their size. I think this is partially why I always wanted NHL to grow some for us. Although these are nothing like the ones Mr. D had grown, they still remind me of sweet summers of my child years.

This is a close up of the flower that is now fully out from the other day.

Saturday we noticed that two or three more were almost opening up. You could already see the yellow starting to play peek-a-boo with us. The picture below is now quite dated. I hope to get a few photos of the new flowers soon before the rain threatens them.

With any luck the birds that are attacking our roses and already claimed our gorgeous new lily plant will stay away from the sunflowers that are doing so nicely. Perhaps we need to make a scarecrow for a project this week!

Categories:
house jl nhl photos summer

It’s raining, it’s pouring . . .

Posted on August 9, 2008 8:18 am by TheAngelForever

my kids are not snoring – through the night at least!

Clearly the two boys have a deal between them to have Mommy and Daddy up each and every night. Typically this is between 12-2 in the morning. Most nights it seems to be a certain 14 month old little boy. NHL has slept the past two nights since he gave us the big scare. Thank goodness since I do not think my heart could take that again.

Thursday afternoon we had a horrible storm come through the area. In addition to the thunder and lightning, flooding rains joined in the fun. The city received over an inch of rain during the first burst in less than an hour. I often complain about the threat of floods in my basement, but we were lucky nothing happened here. We think it was thanks to DGS coming that morning and cleaning out the sewers. Perhaps they were admitting to a problem, but I am sure they will never fess up.

Sure we lucked out this one time, but others did not have this fate. Other parts of the city turned into lakes. Cars in parking lots in certain sections floated away as people were stranded inside buildings. One woman had to be recused from her car as a sewer suddenly started to spew water and form a lake around her. Her car could not be opened since the power system failed and she was trapped. Along with this other parts of the city had the pleasure of finding raw sewage in their lawns and basements. The city of course is claiming little or no responsibility, like when it happened here. Sad that with all of the taxes we pay nothing is done to fix this outdated system that is not working.

During the rain on Thursday I went outside on our porch to get some photos. You can barely see that the street in front of the house was a quick flowing river, but it was.

Yesterday was a lazy PJ kind of day here in Angel Land. I was beyond exhausted from no sleep and did not want to fight more rain storms with the boys. We stayed in during the day. The boys were bouncing off the wall. The little munchkin learned how to scare Mommy some more. Sorry no photos of this trick with no hands, I was too busy stopping him at the time!

Not long after this JL arrived home from work. I went to swap the cars around for the weekend. I knew the sky was quickly getting black. Of course as I moved the first car out of the driveway the sky started to dump more rain. I was soaked when I came into the house. A few minutes later I had an idea. It was raining, but no thunder or lightning. NHL needed to run and this was the perfect chance to test our the cowboy rain boots that Aunt L bought him years ago. I quickly put shorts and boots on him and took him outside to puddle stomp. When we first went out it was lightly raining, so I snapped a few quick ones. Then he found some giant puddles in the back of our driveway and was soaked from splashing up a storm. It was fun to watch his reaction when I told him to go and jump in a puddle, something he is always told to avoid.

Today we hope to catch some rays from the sun before the next few days throw even more rain on us.

Categories:
house jsl losing my mind milestone nhl photos sleep weather

Happy B-day to the Geek of my dreams

Posted on August 3, 2008 12:05 am by TheAngelForever

Today is JL’s birthday and I wanted to take a look down memory lane at my amazing hubby. This is the man that swept me off my feet, taught me how to keep a kosher kitchen, made me a mother, stayed up late with me when I graded papers, built me several websites, cooks us dinner almost every night and above all is the most wonderful daddy to our boys.

This is what a little geek looks like when he is approximately five months old.

Fast forward approximately 24 years later to the time we met in 1999. JL showed my family just how caring a person he is. After we met in person for the first time, I went back home with my friends. The trip was almost two hours and he knew this. I had no cell phone, so he called my house. He asked my parents if I was home. I was not. My friends and I decided to shop a little longer before heading back. JL continued to call my house until he finally heard that I had arrived safely several hours later. He instantly won the hearts of my parents who were impressed. Little did he know that I was in trouble for that one. Yes, at 22 years old my parents scolded me for being inconsiderate to JL. *sigh*

Our long distance relationship days were horrible. Finally after we were engaged JL was able to get the company he worked for to let him telecommute from home. Soon after that division of the company that he had worked for since he graduated from college closed. Here he was in a strange city looking for a new job while planning out wedding. Luckily many places were looking for a webmaster and JL got a job. My entire family embraced JL from the start. Here we are on Mother’s Day 2001 just a little over a month before our wedding.

Here is my happy groom dancing away on our wedding day. He never stopped smiling the entire day.

JL also knew that my birds were very important to me. He quickly was able to make even the feathered members of our family like him.

Here he is with my feathered angel Moose.

Both of our lives changed in December 2002 when we found out that we were expecting our first baby. Exactly two weeks after JL’s birthday our first son NHL was born. Together we entered into the world of parenting together. We both learned how to survive on little or no sleep together.

The following April we jumped into home-ownership learning together that owning a house is not all it is cracked up to be. JL worked his rear off painting and getting things ready for us to move in while the contractors did the rest. So many memories of us inhaling BIN and trying to figure out who to call since the landlord was no longer an option.

JL is a kid at heart and loves being a daddy. He lives through experiences that we have had over the last five years with NHL. Whether this is going to the zoo and feeding giraffes (July 2005), protecting NHL from costumes (July 2005), or being brave and going on a ride that the little guy asked for (August 2006).

Sesame Place costume protector

Brave ride time at Hershey Park

In May 2007 the two of us became parents again. Our second son, JSL, joined our family and once again my husband was able to rise to the occassion. JL does an amazing job splitting his time between the boys, making special memories with each of them. He helped to decide that it was best for me to be a SAHM and put my teaching career on hold for now to be with our boys. JL has never once made me regret this decision.

JL, happy birthday. May you always know that you are truly the geek of my dreams. I love you now and forever and cherish all of the memories that we have made together. Here is to many more years of making memories together.

Categories:
birthday family house jl looking back my boys photos

Human ducks, flooding basement and naps

Posted on July 24, 2008 5:22 pm by TheAngelForever

Please cue up the song "Be Like a Duck" by Sandra Boynton from Philadelphia Chickens!

This is the song that Nana, NHL, JSL and I were singing on our way home from BJ’s this afternoon.

Nana had the day off and watched JSL this morning when I went to take NHL to school and a doctor appointment. We all went to pick NHL up from school. We decided to go to BJ’s to get a few things. After we had checked out we heard what sounded like a herd of wild beasts on the roof. When we got to the door we knew it was not good.

The sky had opened up and the entire parking lot was a lake. The rain was coming down so heavy it was unreal. My mother and I decided to let NHL finish eating a pretzel. Then she got another box to put everything into and we decided to make a run for the car. I went first with JSL in his stroller.

Before I was even half way to my car I was soaked. Poor JSL was being sprayed and was crying. Finally we arrived at the car and I had puddles of water pouring off my head. JSL was now laughing as we were in the car. As I was putting the stroller away Nana and NHL arrived at the car. I put NHL in his seat while my mother loaded the boxes in. Then we all were in the car.

Imagine two adults, an almost 5 year old and a 14 month old sopping wet and laughing hysterically. That would have been us. As we drove home my mother was trying to get the boys to quack since we felt like ducks all wet. I decided to be a sport and put on "Be Like a Duck" and we quacked all the way home, carefully maneuvering by flooded roads.

We managed to make it back to my parent’s house and went back through the rain. Once inside we decided that we had to strip everyone of their soaking wet clothing. JSL had a spare outfit. I found a long t-shirt to wear as a dress that had been left in my old room. NHL had some clothes that were in the car and I was not going back out so I found an XL t-shirt that I had never worn and put it on him.

Voila . . . a dry little guy!

We are finally back home now and I cringe at going to the basement. JL went down there this morning and we had water come up again after the night. I can only imagine how horrible it will be now thanks to the last downpour.

This weekend we HAVE to buy a new dehumidifier – any suggestions out there? Our LG one did not last very long, so I doubt I would invest in that again.

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Update on nap time:

We started using a pom-pom behavior/reward system with NHL. We changed it up from last time when he had to fill a container. This time it is a lot more interactive for him. One of the items that helps him to receive pom-poms is the mandatory afternoon rest time. His "job" is to go into the boys room and rest on his bed. If he is in there JSL will calm down and rest on his pillow after 5 minutes or so. The result is a napping baby, proud big boy and relieved mommy.

Now I am off to sulk about a lost post that I started writing yesterday on a serious topic. I am so ticked off that it only saved the title and nothing else that I had written. Oh well, I will have to redo it again in the future when I calm down about it.