I hate the sniffles

2-7-11




Stupid cold. Seriously, if it wasn’t for these sniffles, I would feel pretty good this morning.



My weekend was fantastic aside from the sleeping factor. But we will get to that.



Friday evening was super pleasant. We went to dinner at TGIFridays. I really enjoy their food and it is one of those places where the kids can have a good time as well. I was most impressed with Bobby at dinner. He decided to be all brazen and make sure the waitress took care of him.



He started with the demand for her to send the balloon guy over to our table. Mind you, we didn’t tell him to ask her. He took it upon himself. Then, once we got our food, he made a comment to us that the fries tasted funny. When the waitress came over, he actually told her. It was awesome! He told her something else at some point, too. It was cool. I was so impressed.



The boys were so tired. Dax even fell asleep on the way home. Yet they didn’t sleep great. Dax woke himself and Bobby up with a crazy coughing fit. It actually scared Bobby. He was cool about it, but I felt so bad for him. He was up late. Thankfully we didn’t have to be anywhere in the morning, so he got to sleep in till about 9, which was great.



I spent a lot of time Saturday prepping Valentines for the boys’ classmates. I made goody bags and addressed ones to Dax’s class (Bobby is going to do his own). I also filled them out for family for us to mail this week. With only about 5 to go, I ran out of one of the items needed for the bags, which meant we needed to head back to the Dollar Tree.



Ken had noted that there was a McDonald’s with a bigger playground out near the Fox Hills Mall, so we decided to take the boys there for lunch and then we could do a couple of more errands, including the Dollar Tree run. It was good, except Dax did have a little meltdown in Target when I told him he couldn’t have an Icee.



On the way back, we drove the coastal route. It was beautiful out. Bobby really wanted to go play on the beach. So we stopped near where they do hang gliding lessons. We walked down to the water, and played down there for a while. Dax fell in at one point, but shockingly, it did not keep him from enjoying himself the rest of the time. It was a good visit. But man, walking in sand is no easy feat!



That night would be rough.



Between leg cramps, Dax being up, things that go bump in the night, and everything else that could go wrong, we were up a lot. Then, at 5 am, the house went black.



Power outage once again in our little quadrant because of what appeared to be a blown transformer (we went looking for it later) knocked out power. This meant our house was dark, and loud. All of the UPS’s beeped and yelled and hollered at us. It was awful. Especially since I had just fallen asleep. I had to be up at 5:30 anyway, but still.



We were going bowling yesterday, which is why I was going to be getting up early, anyway. It meant we all got dressed by lantern light. Man, those LED lanterns that we picked up a couple of years ago have totally paid for themselves.



Bowling was fun. I didn’t bowl. I prefer to watch these days, and I was tired and sickly so I had an excuse. The bowling crowd was excited to see the triumphant return of the brothers Brenan. My mom had planned out a thing for them, too. They had these cute little bowling trophies and arranged for the guy at the front to announce the “winners of the tournament” which was just on our lane. He said their names and they were so excited. My dad took them up to get their trophies, and as they walked back to our lanes, they got applause from the rest of the bowling peeps. It was cool. They even took a bow and held the trophies up high for everyone to see. Mf folks took them to the other side on the way out, and they showed them off to the people there, too. I have not seen kids so proud!



After bowling, we went to Wilson Park where we got to bowl the kids. My parents had not seen the giant balls they had got them for Christmas in action so this was a good time. The boys really do love those things, which is cool. It is a tiring adventure, though, and with all of us on limited reserves, we didn’t stay too long.



When we were driving home, we noted a yard sale outside this house at the end of our block. There was this gorgeous bed in front. So we parked at our house and walked down. Turned out there was a new family moving in, and there was a crap load of stuff that was left behind, including the bed. There was another bedroom set, also beautiful. We assumed it would be like $200, but when she said $50, I couldn’t resist.



Thank goodness I have Ken. This bed had to be transported home (another prior purchase of our wagon proved to be a great investment) and built. Not only did it need to be put together, but it needed to be modified since our mattress was not as big as this frame. Yes, we had a bed frame before that was not only too big for our mattress but our room as well, and I opted to trade it out for one 3 inches longer? Sheesh. I am complicated.



Ken made new internal framework and got it all set up so that it would function. It will be an even better bed once we move at some point and get a room that is bigger.



One of the other interesting things about it how much taller it is. When I am in the bed, I no longer can see the floor unless I sit up. It means a bit of a jump to get in, and a little more tricky of a dismount when getting out of bed. At first I couldn’t do it, but thankfully I figured out a good technique and it worked ok this morning.



The other thing that is different is we no longer have the railings around it. This isn’t a big deal in terms of aesthetics, but it is where we tend to put our hangers when we are doing laundry. I will need to get one of those rods for the door to be able to hang stuff, but on the plus side, it means I will be more inclined to not leave stuff there. This is a good thing.



Getting a new bed also inspired a lot of cleaning in our bedroom since even though 3 inches doesn’t sound like much, when it comes to spacing issues, it is huge. We needed to make sure all aspects of our room were not cluttered as much so that we had room. There is still some work to be done, but we are getting there.



This weekend is my last run of cleaning for Bobby’s party in 2 weeks. It means I will be uber cleaning the playroom (probably not having the boys help with that one) and getting things in the house to a point where getting to the bathroom isn’t offensive to anyone. Thankfully most of the festivities are outside, so it won’t be too bad. I need to reserve the bouncer, get out invites and clean. Then next week will be shopping trips to Costco to get buns, the cake, etc. I also will need to keep up with the house being good. I also need to make sure the yard is prepped. I think poor Lycos will need to stay inside, but I think Luna will be fine. It is a lot of kids, so I don’t know the plan just yet. I know Bobby will want to bring kids into the house to show them his room and stuff. Let’s face it, these are his new friends, and he will want them to see all the stuff. Hopefully some parents will also feel comfy with our house and maybe Bobby can have some friends over from time to time. As much as it is a lot of work to be grand central station to my kids’ playdates, I would much rather have them at home then to send my kids out into the world.