weather | The Angel Forever

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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 Sad that with all of the taxes we pay nothing is done to fix this outdated system that is not working.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

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.

Categories:
house jsl laughs nhl photos weather

Lightning strike 3 and silly boys

Posted on July 22, 2008 10:44 pm by TheAngelForever

Before starting my main post, I would like to wish my little brother a very happy birthday. I hope you had a wonderful day . . . even if you worked all day. With any luck the day went by quickly.

This is Uncle I back in 1985 when he was about the same age as NHL. Hard to believe that now he is married and the father of my beautiful little niece S.
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This afternoon we had yet another thunderstorm head through the area. At one point the lights flashed on and off and I quickly grabbed the boys. I turned off my computer, made sure we had a flashlight and sat with NHL and JSL on the couch to watch Blues Clues. All of the sudden there was a loud clap of thunder and a big crash outside. I honestly thought nothing of it.

Fast forward to when JL came home from work. He announced that the tree next door had huge chunks of it on the ground. I quickly grabbed my shoes and went outside to take a look. Sure enough the tree was struck by lightning. For those of you keeping track this would be the third lightning strike on our block (in a 5 house stretch no less) in just about 13 months. Strike 1 was back on June 27, 2007 and the second on July 10, 2007.

I e-mailed my neighbor assuming that she knew about the damage. I was wrong, it was the first she heard of it. Now we have to try to get the city to take down the tree because it is in really bad shape and not safe with all of the kids around.

Let me tell you I cringe now when I hear storms are coming in since our neighborhood seems to be a lightning magnet . . . . literally!

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This morning before JL went to work both of the boys were entertaining Daddy with their antics. Perhaps they were extra silly thanks to being up at 4:00 this morning. Either way they had a blast making us laugh.

First up is NHL showing that he can make the letter "P" with his body. Of course I really think he was trying to get away with using potty talk and was just clever to come up with this cover.

Next up JSL firmly believes that he has a wonderful new hat. Please look closely and see what he is chanting "hat" to in the photo. If you look closely you can also see his new molar that FINALLY is out. Now two other molar points on the top at working their way through his poor gums.

Finally NHL wanted to put on two pairs of his glasses. He thought it was hilarious and called himself "Four Eyes" while asking for a photo.

These are the moments that remind me why I love being home with my boys. I try to remember these rather than the ones of them screaming and trying to avoid the new afternoon rest time.

Categories:
interesting jsl milestone nhl photos teething weather

Get Snow & Give Thanks

Posted on March 28, 2008 8:46 am by TheAngelForever

Please note that the getting snow and giving thanks have NADA to do with one another. Sure I may have the flu and have been stuck at home with a sick child all week, but I am not that delusional!

Now that that is cleared up here are some photos from outside just minutes ago.

it is SPRING!!!!

Clearly someone did NOT get the memo that it is SPRING already. Hello – stop with the cold, snow, ice, and other non-spring precipitation and weather patterns. Sickies are done with this garbage and have put it out on the curb with the rest of the trash that went out last night.

Thanks for letting me vent!

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Now onto the good stuff. I would like to send out some thanks for some packages that arrived here this week from giveaways that I won.

First up is MissAKit:

Prize from ~~All Day Night~~

I won this from Candi at ~~All Day Night~~ as her entry in the Ultimate Blog Party. Thank you so much Candi – I love it and it will come in handy in my diaper bag for emergency Mommy situations! The Ultimate Blog Party was so much fun. I was lucky enough to find Candi’s blog and am now a daily reader. She is the Mommy of two little boys who are very close in age to my little guys. Stop over and say hello to Candi when you have some time.

Yesterday as the boys were getting antsy another package came. Inside was my giveaway from Momsational: I had won a set of fair trade Peruvian Finger Puppets from Inca Kids. They are absolutely amazing. I can not believe that people and not machines knitted these little guys. Here are a few photos so you can check them out.

Here is one side on my hand. . .

Garden Animals - front view

And now the other side. . .

Thank you again to both ~~All Night Day~~ and Momsational for the fun giveaways!!

Oh and please tell the snow to GO AWAY and take the sickies with you.

Categories:
contests photos weather Web business web fun

Visit to Bubbe & Grandpa – Day 2

Posted on January 4, 2008 1:01 am by TheAngelForever

Monday morning we woke up and went to have breakfast. My father-in-law went to get bagels and made anyone eggs that wanted them. I had a lox in my eggs and it was very good. While waiting to eat I decided to call my father to find out how much snow we got at home. As I previously noted in part one, when we left we were only supposed to get 3-5 inches. My father answered the phone with the following:

We got at least 9 inches!

I thought he was kidding and did not believe him. UGH! Now what were we supposed to do? There was no way that our neighbors should shovel what we later found out was 11 inches of heavy, wet snow. I made a bunch of calls to neighbors, my father, and our friends to try to find someone to plow us out. JL then decided to call his boss. He owns several rental properties near us. He called us back as I was still in the process of calling people. He said he would plow us out. The nicest part – he said there was no charge! Thanks to him and our neighbor’s doing the walkway and sidewalk we were in good shape. The problem – storm two was heading their way AGAIN with 3-5 more inches the next day. YUCK!!!!

Once this was taken care of we all took turns showering and eventually made it out to lunch. JL and I insisted that we have lunch at the amazing Greek restaurant that is located there. We have no good Greek places here that are close enough with good parking, so this is very important to us. We had an amazing lunch and took leftovers back for the next day. After this we stopped back at the house quickly to put food away and head over to Radio Shack and Trader Joe’s again. Yes, we had to head there again. I wanted to get some gifts for people that were helping us out with the snow removal.

Next we decided to head back home for a little while before going to Chuck E Cheese (wanted to change diapers and nurse JSL). NHL wanted to take Bubbe and Grandpa there to play. We were not too sure about this since he has been very skittish there in the past (thanks to the costumes). Unfortunately, he did not do well this time. We used a coupon and had 100 tokens and barely used any. NHL was very upset that this Chuck E Cheese was not the same as the one at home. *sigh* He started to flip out quickly and we finally left. Here are some photos from the few things that we did while there.

After we got back from Chuck E Cheese JSL fell asleep from all of the fun and excitement. Not to worry it did not last long. Soon after this he was up and eating dinner with everyone else.

After the "fun" at Chuck E Cheese we went back home and ordered Chinese Food for New Years Eve. My in-law’s friend S came over and once the kids were in bed we started to watch a movie. JL and I were left at about 11:00 and we were not able to finish the movie. JSL kept waking up crying. The poor little guy just could not catch a break.

JL and I watched the ball drop and then we were up for a while after taking care of JSL and listening to illegal fireworks that were shaking the house.

Day 3 and the return trip home coming soon.