Our Weekend

I can't believe another weekend's gone by! Friday I had a cake to deliver in Germantown, one of my favorite neighborhoods in Nashville. Chris worked Friday night, and the boys pretty much spent the entire day playing outside in the tree that fell down. Who knew that would be so much fun?

Saturday I had another cake to finish and deliver in the morning. After that, my mom and I took David and Henry to the circus and they had so much fun! They ate lots of cotton candy and ice cream, got to get ridiculously over priced light up swords and spinner things, and ride an elephant. I was SHOCKED that they wanted to ride the elephant instead of the little mini-horses, but they were adamant that they wanted to ride the elephant. I was very nervous that I would pay the $7 per person and they'd get up there and be scared, but they weren't. They loved it! They crashed hard in the car on the way home and slept from 4:30 last night until this morning. They didn't even wake up in their beds when I changed them out of their clothes. The tree guys were here when we got back from the circus to evaluate the damage, clean up, etc. The tree that fell is one of a clump of three trees, and they all need to come down. Obviously the one that split, but the other two are full of TERMITES! YUCK! It seems like a huge job to me, but they didn't seem like it was. They'll bring a crane in to do it, which D&H will love. I almost be sad when the mess is gone, because they've had so much fun playing in it!

We had a pretty lazy morning today. The boys played outside (surprise!) and Chris and I read the paper and picked up a little. Then I went grocery shopping. I abhor grocery shopping, so it's always a HUGE chore (and expense!) when I finally get around to doing it. Today was no exception. When I got back the boys were really excited to check everything out and pick what they wanted for lunch. It doesn't take much to please them! After lunch Henry took a nap and David and I went outside to put some Halloween decorations out. It's so nice out, and he wanted to ride his tricycle, so I decided to clean up the highchair we got for Jack. I busted out the Murphy's Oil Soap and cleaned that up. Then I felt like I should keep going, so I brought all of our kitchen chairs out and the boys' small table and chairs and did those. Bringing them all back in, I decided I wanted to scrub down the walls, baseboard, and chair rail in the kitchen. Then I cleaned the table with the Murphy's and took the leaf out. It looks and smells so much better in the kitchen! There are some spots on the wall that we need to touch up because of stains or marks that I couldn't get off. The paint on those walls frustrates me! I think tomorrow I'd like to do all of the doors, baseboard, and trim in the house while Henry sleeps. I have some cleaning bug apparently.

Tomorrow morning I have another appointment with my OB to check on Jack. I'll have an ultrasound again because he wasn't very cooperative last time, and we were unable to see his face. I hope we can get some better photos this time. And I'm also going to double check to make sure he's really a boy!!! David has school, and Henry will hang out with Chris. On my way home from the doctor's I'm also going to pick up the bedding for Jack's room. It's a cute animal pattern from Pottery Barn. I'm excited to get going on his room. We need to move the office stuff out first, which will probably happen next weekend. Our anniversary is on Tuesday, and our gift to each other will be a new computer armoire. David and Henry are spending Friday night at my in-law's house, and I think we'll take advantage of that time to get the armoire all set up. MUCH easier to do that without little helping hands! And once that is all moved out of Jack's room, we can decide on paint colors and get going on that. He'll be here before we know it, and we have lots that I want to get done before then!

TIMBER!!

We had some crazy weather here last night, and this is what we woke up to in our back yard this morning. David loves it and says it's like a jungle. He's been playing in the yard for over an hour in his pajamas!

Dirt

David and Henry have been playing outside by themselves a lot lately. Don't panic - our yard is totally fenced in, and it's safe for them to be out by themselves. I don't want any blog comments about how they're not old enough to be out by alone. They're not playing in the street.

We have a plethora of things to do in our backyard. A swingset, slide, teeter totter, playhouse, sandbox, water table, mini trampoline with a safety enclosure, basketball net, and tricycles. What do they spend the whole time out there doing? Trucking sand from the sandbox over to their picnic table to drive their trains through. Or digging up the dirt around our tree to "look for bugs". Here are the results of Henry's time outside. That would be dirt all over his face, mixing with the red crayon he ate. I guess that explains why he didn't want dinner.

Happy Birthday Gigi!

OK, so this is way late. My mom's birthday was last week. Her birthday lore from the Old Farmer's Almanac is:

Your mind is not an analytical one, but you are seldom misled by following your keep intuition. You are prudent, thorough and accurate, and positive and assertive, and like to have a prominent part in whatever you do. You are happiest in pleasant surroundings.

Who isn't happiest in pleasant surroundings?! We celebrated her birthday Monday night with her, however, so here are some pictures from that. We had a delicious dinner and a yummy cake. Big surprise that my children have no shirts on. It wouldn't be a party unless a Simpson child disrobed! HAPPY BIRTHDAY MAMA!

Privatization

I started this blog as a way for our family and friends to keep up with the daily antics here at our house. I can't imagine why people who don't know our family would want to read about Henry peeing on the floor, David eating paper, or my parents' anniversary. It's not like I'm writing about anything thought provoking or exciting. I'm a freaking housewife! I've decided to make the blog private. If you want to keep reading it, I'll have to add you to the list of people who are invited to do so. Please email me or put your email address in the comments section so I'll know to add you. I don't even mind adding The Girl Who Doesn't Know me but Stalks my Blog. . . I just want to know who she is! Seriously, I don't care if I don't know you and you're reading it. However, if you want to continue to do so -- and I know you don't want to miss a minute of Henry's potty training, David's naughty antics, or an inch of my growing girth -- tell me who you are. We'll be goin' private Friday October 19.

To: Stranger Girl Who Loves Her Husband's Job

Normally I would shy away from calling out someone I don't know in a public forum, but since you essentially took me to task in the comment section of my last post for "making everyone think that our husbands have sucky jobs," I don't have an issue with it. Let me re post here what I said about Nissan:

"Chris has been working overtime like a madman every week for the last month. I hate that he's been working so much, but how can we complain when just six months ago there was the fear of layoff?? We're very fortunate that he's got a job that allows me to stay home with the monkey boys, so I am really trying not to be a whiner about him not being home!"

You posted in the comments, "Nissan has never had a layoff and never will." OK, as you can see, I didn't SAY there was a layoff. I said there was FEAR of a layoff. Clearly two different things. The company asked for people to voluntarily buy out -- known in some circles as a voluntary layoff. Was there fear? You bet there was! In this house anyway, and I'm sure in others. I think it's great if you had no fear of your husband losing his job. With two small children, one of whom was incurring several thousand dollars of medical bills for therapy at Vanderbilt and knowing we were trying to have a baby, hell yes I was nervous that he would get laid off. I wasn't necessarily nervous about him losing his salary. Would that have sucked? Big time! I haven't worked in almost four years because my husband's salary at Nissan allows us to have me stay home with our children. Another point I made in my last post. However, if I had to because my husband lost his job, I am more than capable of going back to work and earning just as much money. I was nervous about losing the health benefits. I don't know anyone else who pays $100 a month for their family contribution to health insurance, and that doesn't even speak to the amazing coverage we've got. And seriously, how do you KNOW they will never have a layoff? You don't. Nobody does.

You said, "Nissan is the absolute best company to work for in Middle Tennessee, and anyone who begs to differ can f-off..." I certainly hope you weren't implying that I should "f-off". If that's the case, hop on over to another stranger's blog and stalk them. I don't disagree that Nissan is the best company to work for in Middle Tennessee. They value their employees, compensate them well, provide excellent benefits, go beyond anything they "need" to do by providing things like Family Day, the vehicle purchase program, extending a discount to friends and families of employees. . . obviously I am a fan. As anyone who KNOWS our family has heard us say time and time again, my husband and I are thrilled that he works for Nissan. I never implied that "our husbands have sucky jobs" in that post, and I don't really know how that was interpreted that way. I even used phrases like, "how can we complain," and "we're very fortunate," as well as pointing out that Nissan provides the FREE family day every year and "it's a great day".

If you thought I was complaining about Nissan, you were mistaken. If you want to read about me complaining about something, keep stalking the blog. I can certainly assure that it will happen soon enough!

From: Girl You Don't Know But Love to Stalk

Some Things I Forgot

• Henry is seriously the sweetest child I know. Since Jenna's (or Jetta as he calls her) birthday party yesterday, he's been wanting to sing Happy Birthday. Any chance he gets. Except we change the words. I have to sing "Happy Birthday to you. . . . . Happy Birthday my baby Henry. . . . " and he sings "Happy Birthday my snuggle mama, happy birthday my snuggle mama, happy birthday my snuggle mama, happy birthdaaaaaaaaaay my snuggle maaaaaaamaaaaaaa! Because I love you!" And we try to blow out imaginary candles, then hug and he says, "I love you so so much snuggle mama." I WANT TO EAT HIM!
• David taught Henry how to ride his tricycle. "Because brothers learn each other stuff." Seriously, two parents in their thirties couldn't explain to him how to do it, but David taught him in about 20 minutes by saying, "Run on you pedals Henry! Run fast on them!" David was so proud of Henry when he did it for the first time. It was so cute to see.
• David and Henry are thinking they don't need naps anymore. I think they do. David went to bed at 5:15 yesterday and slept all night, and tonight they were both asleep in bed by 5. By their own choice! I know it will bite me tomorrow morning, but I've gotten so much done tonight! I ate my dinner in such nice quiet, all in one sitting, without having to get up sixteen times for something. I was even able to read the entire Sunday newspaper without interruption. I mopped the kitchen floor (my least favorite chore, but I love the results) and have started to fold the six loads of laundry I did today. I baked a cake and organized some baby clothes. After I finish the laundry I'm going to start cutting some material out to start some burp cloths for the baby. They're my favorite baby thing to make! Pray for David and Henry to sleep AT LEAST until 5:30 tomorrow!!! I'm going to be preemptive about it and go to bed early myself, just in case!