The Puddles

We are at the dinner table tonight eating our lovely chocolate cake for dessert (a rare treat) when I look over and see Ben licking his finger and wiping the plate clean.  I say to Ben, “Ben please stop.” No response.  “Ben stop!”  No response.  “BEN! STOP NOW!”  By this time, the whole table is looking.  Ainsley was helping mommy by yelling at Ben to stop.  Madie was looking at Ben with dismay. Chris was laughing hysterically which did not help at all.  The laugh was so contagious that the whole table was laughing except mom and Madie (way to go, Madie!!).  Then Ben thought it would be funny to start licking the plate.  It just went downhill.  Chris did not help the situation.  I had to get on to him for antagonizing Ben into worse behavior.  He kept saying, “But it IS so boy and so funny! And the cake was really good!”  Finally Dad told Ben that he and Ben were in the minority and it would behoove them both to start living by the woman’s rules in this house.  When it is just him and Ben, it would be ok to lick the plate.  Great!  Thanks, Dad.  You were doing good until the end!

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They do look happy!  I love you, Mom and Dad!

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Our tree.

Thank goodness for the help.

Teamwork!

He is our little "man of the house."

Not to be out done by her brother.

Anyone want to plant these trees!

We went to the event (eventhough I was reluctant because I had waaaay to much to do today, but there were tears . . . so we went) at our elementary school today.  It turned out to be a lot of fun.  The kids had a good time even if mom didn’t have enough coffee this morning.  We had not intended on planting a tree, but we just couldn’t turn down the opportunity once we got there.

Where was Dad when we needed him??!!!!  (at work, of course.) But Ben became the de facto “man of the house” and led us all!

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Don’t write notes on your hands if you ever intend to wash them.  It is lunch time and I just now realized that I still don’t have milk or bread.  I swear if I keep this up they will come to take my children from me!

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Is there such a thing?  I don’t know that there is.  I went last night (after all of the kids were in bed and all projects finished) to Walmart to just pick up a few things.  I went without a list  (Should have known better!) and late at night (another bad idea!).  Did you know that there are a lot of people at Walmart after 11:00pm?  Tons.  Mostly stocking shelves.  They are generally very helpful which is good because you can’t get down most of the aisles nor can you see the shelves because of all of the boxes.  So my quick trip took two hours and I walked out with a basket full of items.  But I forgot . . . bread and milk.  Not so smart.  I guess that I was lucky to get home with what I did and I’ll pick up bread and milk this morning.

Now I just hope that I don’t get written up by the mommy police for sending homemade peanut butter crackers (you know . . . saltines with pb slapped between them) instead of a real sandwich.  Don’t worry I wrote it on my hand to remind myself this time!  Bread and milk. Bread and milk.  Bread and milk.

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We just got back from the peditrician for the second time this week.  First with Miss A and now with BenBen.  The doctor thinks that Ainsley may be lactose intolerant.  She has been having bowel issues for a while and we have worked on resolving them.  This was a follow up visit.  And after lots of testing, we are now down to the food testing to see what is causing it.  We are starting with the dairy.  But after hearing the list of the things that her problem could be and what we would have to do to figure it out, I am determined that she will certainly be lactose intolerant.  I am finding the conclusion today.  I can’t handle anything else.

Second child . . . Ben. We just got back and the doctor is now sending us to have an entire series of tests done on Ben’s tummy. We are putting him on yet more medicine and changing up his diet.  The poor boy had to have a rectal exam today and he just cried.  I felt like joining him.  His heart burn is back, he is throwing up again, and he is having pains.  So we had to address it.  I get that. But seriously. Hasn’t the boy had enough?

I called Chris on my way home and told him what the word from the doctor was.  He just got quiet.  He says, “O.k.”  I told him that right now I just want to “c-r-y” (that way Ben doesn’t understand.).  I just don’t want to deal with any of this right now.  The world is hard enough.  Life is hard enough.  This feels like we are just adding to the sorrows. I am really not interested in adding anything else to the world right now except peace and love.  I just can not do it today.  Today I don’t feel like I can give anything else to anyone else.

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Picture taken by photographer from the Conroe Courier

Here is the link to the article:

http://www.hcnonline.com/articles/2010/02/17/conroe_courier/news/ash021710s.txt
Isn't she precious?!

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First of all, it is my parent’s 40th wedding anniversary on Valentine’s Day this year!  We children have much to learn from them and have already learned so much.  There are not many couples in their world today who have stayed married for so long.  So congratulations on my parents  for going against all of society’s  conventions and keeping it together through everything!

The most important rule that I have learned from them is that family is family no matter what.  It is ok to get angry with them (and boy do we get angry and annoyed with each other!) but you forgive them (and you work on the forgetting part) and move on.  You can’t just write family off.  You continue to engage them.  Trust me when I say that there are A LOT of families who do not function that way.

So on to the interesting part of this story . . .

We three siblings are not always the best at remembering important dates and such but between the three of us reminding each other we manage to not have too many mess-ups.  A month prior to the anniversary I finally did the subtraction in my head and realized that mom and dad had been married for 40 years (mom, please don’t kill me.  at least, I finally did the math!)  I quickly send out an email to remind the siblings about the very important upcoming event.  Of course, we are stumped.  What to do?  My brother has the great idea to send them on a dinner cruise (he was always good at gift giving!).  Our parents love the water and boating especially.  Throw an excellent meal and a romantic setting on top of their two favorite things and I believe we have a winner.  Boating was always such a huge part of lives growing up.  Mom would kick us out of the house in the summer and send us with Dad down to the marina.  While he worked on the boat, we played.  So a dinner cruise sounded wonderful.  After much searching an collaborating amongst the three siblings, we figured it all out, presented the gift to mom and dad, and me and the kids headed down to Friendswood to hang with Grandpa while the parents went out.

The day started with us leaving early for their house.  Even I was shocked by this occurence.  Turns out that was a good thing because the normal 1 hour and 10 min. trip took almost 2 hours to get there.  Traffic was horrendous, but we managed to get there. And we waved to Papa and Grandma as they drove out of the neighborhood headed for their dinner.  I had verified the reservation the day before, received all of the instructions,  sent the parents all of the info, and we were set.  They got to their destination on time and then they met the person that would set our evening into a tailspin.

One of the employees at the hotel, gave them the wrong directions and sent them to a different spot at the marina.  There they sat waiting and watching for the boat to come.  In comes a boat.  A party boat with interesting characters climbing off.  As my mother said, “we were worried that the young ladies were going to fall off the dock.”  Meaning . . . they were drunk.  My parents are probably thinking, “what have our children done to us?”  I get a phone call an hour after the time that they were suppose to be at the departure place.  “Where are we suppose to go?”  I am thinking . . . the boat already left half an hour ago.  What am I going to do?  I told them exactly what the company told me.  How had I screwed this up?  My parents are not happy with me.  I am thinking . . . if they missed the boat, I am leaving.  There is no way I am going to be here when they get back.  They are going to be livid!  I will never worm my way out of this one.  O.K. So after my slight panic attack is over.  I call the company.  Luckily the owner answered.   “Please.” I say. “It is my parent’s 40th wedding anniversary. I don’t know why they missed they boat.  They are old.  I don’t know what they were thinking. But this is going to be a disaster if they don’t get on.”  I said whatever it took to get my parents ON THAT BOAT.  The owner calls the captain of the boat.  He calls me back.  My parents are on the land line and the owner is on my cell phone.  I am trying to broker between the two of them.  The owner says that the captain is willing to turn the boat around and meet them at the end of the pier if they can be there in 5 minutes.  He says, ” I know your parents are elderly.  Can they make it?”  “Of course, they can they are not that old!”   My begging and pleading worked.  They picked up my parents at the end of the pier and announced them on the boat as the “anniversary couple.”  The night was saved.  My parents had a good time.  Disaster was averted.  Thank goodness.  All I can say is that we had better start thinking about the 50th wedding anniversary now. This is all way too stressful!

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The Girl Scout cookies have arrived!

Here comes the calvary!

Our little helpers

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Madie with her sister

The class

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