#421 - Lanterns

Our house occasionally has power outages, most famously on Thanksgiving Eve a few years ago (leaving us with a houseful of people and no way to cook the food we had purchased!). Thinking ahead, my fabulous in-laws gave us two lanterns, the kind you would take camping with you. So last night, with our 6-hour-blackout, we used our lanterns for the first time! They are Rayovac 18-watt twin tube lanterns, and they worked great. Our power stopped at about 8:30, as I was typing up the lemonade entry for the blog... TLG was still awake and it was a little spooky for him. We got him settled in with his flashlight and got the candles lit downstairs, then set up the lanterns! They put out a lot of light, and we ended up having one downstairs and one up. We set the upstairs lantern near the stairs to use as a nightlight for anybody who needed it, which really helped all of us (since none of us slept well). The power came back on about 2:00am and TLG got up to ask for more batteries for his flashlight. This morning's "Arthur" program on PBS featured a storyline about a blizzard where the electricity goes out, and TLG knew exactly what they were talking about. Then he saw the lanterns sitting in our kitchen, and he wanted to figure out how they work. Very timely program, and what a help those lanterns are!

#332 - Home Improvement Project

My wonderful hubby and his dad have been working on a big home improvement project, and today it was time to paint the walls. The little guy has never been allowed to paint on anything except a piece of paper, so when I suggested that TLG be allowed to help paint the walls, WOW! You'd have thought I suggested we go to Disneyland! So we found some old, mis-matched clothes for TLG and sent him in to learn how to use a real paintbrush and a roller brush. He did seem to really enjoy working with his daddy and Grandpa, being a part of this special project. This big project is coming along amazingly well and I can hardly believe what a great room this will be when it's all done (and it won't be long now!). Thank you, everybody, for all your hard work on this room.

#316 - Economics Astound Me

We went to the bank today to learn about how to refinance our house. My fantastic hubby has been through all this before, but I'm a "newbie" so I was interested to learn what all this might entail. The good news is we can refinance now as long as we stay within our own bank. The bad news is that because of the economy being the way it is, it would cost us thousands of dollars to refinance now, and while our payments would go down in the long run, it's an unattainable amount of money that they want. So we will just have to wait for now.

#292 - Weeds, Weeds Everywhere

My amazing hubby does the lion's share of the yard work around here, but tonight I learned how to use the weed-killer sprayer tool. When we went to Branson a few weeks ago, the lawn went unchecked for longer than usual, and these terrible weeds sprung up all over the front yard (not to mention the dandelions running rampant in the backyard). We had a professional hand-pump type of sprayer for weed killer, which I purchased last week. Once my hubby filled it up for me, he turned me loose. Of course, TLG wanted to help too, so he grabbed on to the handle of the bottle and together we toted it around the front yard while I was spraying. I do hope this stuff works, because these weeds have been bugging me.

#259 - Dino Sprinkler Set

To beat the heat, this afternoon we set up a new sprinkler set in the shape of a dinosaur/
dragon/
something like that. The little guy LOVED it. Our backyard is a great place to run around anyways, but sprinklers on a hot day - who can go wrong? The tail is stationary, and the middle section is a great place to run through - even our dogs enjoyed that part of the sprinklers. The head of the dino turns around in a circle, spraying water all the way around, and my favorite photo from this adventure is when the head stopped turning and TLG wanted a drink:


When TLG was too cold to run around anymore, we wrapped him in a towel, handed him a piece of watermelon to nibble on, and quick made some sausage sandwiches and corn-on-the-cob on the BBQ for dinner. It was a perfect evening for a picnic in the backyard, and we enjoyed every minute of it!

#201 - Just Like Stanley Steemer Would Do

Today I learned how to use a carpet shampooer/wet vac. This being my first house (as an adult) with carpets I care about, I've never had the occasion to try this type of machine before. My hubby (who's a pro at this sort of thing) helped me mix the solution, pour it in, and hooked up the hand-held attachment so I could practice on the stairs before I go too crazy in our house. We had to clean the carpets because one of the doggies got sick in the living room yesterday (long story) and we're hosting a party this weekend... not to mention it's been two years since we steam cleaned them. (Has it really been two years since we moved here?!? Amazing!) Turns out, I'm not bad at using the attachment tool, the stairs look much better.

#183 - Slides, Swings and Rock Walls, Oh My!

The swing set is done! Hooray for Daddy and Grandpa (and Grandma, too!) for all their work to get it constructed. While I didn't help at all with the construction, I can say how excited TLG was to see the big slide when he woke up from his nap today. We had so much fun climbing up, sliding down, and swinging. What an amazing addition this is to our backyard. Here's a photo of me with TLG upon the completion of the construction phase:

#182 - Spring Cleaning

TLG helped me with some spring cleaning today (the photo is of the two of us using Simple Green to clean the door from the garage into the house). I've definitely never let TLG help with chemicals before, but he loves to help and he was enamored with the spray bottle, so why not? While my wonderful hubby and his dad worked on the infamous swing set all day, Grandma and TLG had a wonderful time playing outside. As for me, I worked all day cleaning the kitchen, doing laundry and some dusting. It was a very productive day all around.

#137 - A Sad Post

Today I found out how I work under extreme emotional stress. After a night of not sleeping well (thanks to TLG who is quite unhappy with his post-surgery situation), everything came to a head when my dear hubby found our beloved older dog had passed away in the night. When he woke me to tell me the news, I was surprisingly calm... for about 30 minutes. I had good suggestions and was strong and decisive, and then after that I just couldn't hold it together anymore. I hope that in any future crises I will show the same fortitude. But as they say, it's alright to cry. C.J., we love you and you will be missed every day.

#126 - Fixing and Patching

This afternoon, during the Super Bowl, I helped my father-in-law and hubby patch two holes in the wall and hang a new coat rack. I've never been one to complete major house repairs, and while this wouldn't be "major" for either of the men I was helping, it was for me! We used a putty knife to patch the holes (which were from the coat rack pulling out of the wall a week or two ago)... this was the first time I've used anything other than toothpaste to patch a wall. (An old college trick!) Once that dried, I got to use a cordless electric drill/screwdriver to hang a fancy board my father-in-law had prepared for us to reinforce the wall. Then we screwed in the coat rack, and we were all done! It looks great and is much stronger than it used to be.

After patching the holes, it looked like this:

and then we hung the board and rack, and it looked like this:

#96 - I'm A Lonesome Polecat

The title of today's entry came from a song in "7 Brides for 7 Brothers" where the brothers are out in the snow, chopping firewood and acting all dopey in love. While we don't act dopey anymore, our little family did spend lots of time in the snow today. We had about 18 inches piled in our backyard and in the street when we woke this morning, so we bundled up and headed out. My wonderful hubby broke out the snow blower, and I was hoping the little guy would want to play. Twas not to be today, though TLG did want to help me shovel for a little while. This was almost comical, as the shovel is taller than he is, plus the wind was blowing and it was so cold neither of us could stay out very long (I'm a wimp, and I guess TLG takes after me). I do need to remember to buy him a snowsuit next winter so we'll be ready for days like today. Before too long, we gave up and went inside to drink hot chocolate instead. Aaaaah.

#83 - The Circle of Life

NOTE: If you are an extreme animal lover, please don't read any further (AW, this means you!)

Last night, around 11:30, I was sleeping when one of our dogs came noisily into our room. When the noise didn't stop right away, I opened my eyes to see our puppy near my side of the bed, holding something in her mouth. Being somewhat blind in the dark without my glasses on, I couldn't tell what it was... and even after she put it down and turned on a light, I still couldn't tell. I summoned my wonderful hubby from downstairs (where he was watching football on TV) by telling him I thought she had brought in something from outside. Ew, ew, ew, she had brought in a rabbit, which was in fact, already deceased. (Some facts to note: we have a lot of open space near our house where wild rabbits play, the puppy is a notorious "mouser" much like a cat, and my hubby said earlier this week that he thought there might be a bunny around.)

Being an entirely new experience, I froze up. I couldn't help my hubby with anything because I felt like I might lose my dinner. I just stood out in the hallway, where I wouldn't see anything. It was awful. Once my fabulous hubby was done, I tried to go back to sleep... and couldn't. Ugh, I know the circle of life exists, but it was slapping me in the face. I'm sure the puppy didn't mean to do anything - probably, she wanted me to fix her friend so they could keep playing. I've been thinking about this little creature all day.

#78 - Pillow Fight!

It's getting close to Christmas and today I went out to try to finish my shopping. I went to buy one thing for my sister, and ended up leaving with about $250 worth of other stuff for us! I was at a home furnishings store, and I should mention that I'm not really one for decorating my house. A good portion of the stuff at our house arrived "accidentally" (hand-me-downs, etc.) and so we don't really have a theme, other than "comfortable." Today I bought some great oversized throw pillows and a new blanket for our t.v. room that actually match the couches, and are quite comfortable, to boot. I think I was just so pleased that they spruced up the room that I forgot all about what it all cost! Now if we can just find a better way to organize TLG's toys and books so we're not tripping over them all the time...