What a week

 

It’s been quite the week in our world. There won’t be any pictures in this post. You will thank me later.

We started the week with Mike going in for a hernia repair (see, aren’t you glad no pictures?). It was supposed to be an in-and-out thing, no problems, no issues, home-again-home-again-jiggidty-jig.

9.5 HOURS later we were still at the hospital! If any of you visit the ambulatory waiting room anytime soon, you will see a permanent imprint of my butt in one of the waiting room chairs.

I guess there was some kind of issue with the instruments. Everything went fine with Mike’s procedure, it just took much longer that they thought it would. Well, as a result of being under anesthesia so long, Mike was one sick buggar! He was so nauseated and had such a hard time coming out of it. I finally asked at about 5:30 what the chances of us staying overnight were! We did make it home, thank goodness. He needed to be in our bed, his back was killing him in those lovely hospital cot-like things. Horrible.

We spent the next days taking it easy and trying to get back to normal. It took him a good two days to actually be able to stay awake all day and he still walks awkwardly and has trouble getting comfortable, but I think the worst is over!

The funny thing is, my mom had a procedure the same day as Mike so I got to visit with them while Mike was being prepped. Then my dad had a procedure a day later and I picked them up from that because mom still can’t drive. Needless to say I know exactly where to go, what to do, and who to ask for in that department!

I made all the sickos cheeseburger soup last night. Poor things needed nourishment.

Mike went back to work today and the kids and I had such a productive day. One of the BIG things I wanted to tackle this summer was the toy room. Up until today that room was a windowless room with shelves FILLED with Tonka trucks and diggers, Thomas the Train track, trains, and paraphernalia, TONS of games (all missing pieces) and puzzles (also all missing pieces), match box cars, and 100 other miscellaneous toys. The boys no longer use this room nor do they use any of the toys in it. The Nintendo is set up in there with a full sized couch (it’s a decent sized room just has no window so can’t be considered a bedroom) but the kids only use the Wii anymore so they rarely go into this room.

Today (while Noah mowed in this horrible high heat) Connor and I started heave-hoing that room. I threw away so many toys. I still feel guilty about it, but I was not going to go through and find homes for every little tiny piece that was randomly thrown around that room. I saved nicer things and bagged them separately and may put them out for a charity that goes through town every other month or so and picks up things from the ends of drive-ways. I think we will hang onto the Thomas the Train stuff for our grandkids, and the rest is being disposed of.

I refuse to have a garage sale. I have only had one in my whole life and it may go down as the worst experience of my life. The amount of time put into getting ready for one of those events is just not worth it to me. I KNOW we could have made some money, but that would have required lots of organization and I was just not up for it. So a charity can benefit from my lack of love for garage sales and the garbage man will hate me.

The plan is to paint that room (it’s bright blue currently with 3478 nicks in the walls) a nice neutral color, put the big screen TV from the living room down there (imagine OLD….with a huge back on it so it comes out 2 feet from the wall) and entertainment center that goes with it into that room. Then we will move the Wii into that room and get a flat screen and smaller TV stand for out in the living room. It will open up our living room quite a bit, which excites me. 

I may tackle the paint tomorrow. We will see. It would be a nice job to have done.

This weekend is the Twins game! We are all very excited. Seems like we have waited forever. This heat is supposed to be gone for the weekend so that makes this woman very happy. I do not do well with heat, so the thought of sitting in it for 3 hours was not exciting me. Even if it was to see the Twins.

Hope you have a super weekend!

LB

Indiana 2010

I just returned from my trip to see my BFF Tammy and her terrific husband, Paul.

 

This will always go down as the “Year of the Hummingbirds” to me. Let me set this up…..

 

Tammy and Paul live in the sticks country and are surrounded by trees. They have numerous wild animals that visit them regularly and, as you can imagine, birds are commonplace.

 

Recently Tammy removed all the bird seed from the feeders she had and only left the hummingbird feeders out. Doing this made her yard a virtual “hummingbird airport” (as Paul perfectly described it).  Seeing ONE hummingbird is THE BEST! I call the kids over the window, I grab the camera, we tip-toe around so as not to scare the skittish rare animal away.

 

The number of hummingbirds flying around these two feeders was amazing and I have seen things I have never seen before.

 

 

I had never seen a hummingbird land. Never. Isn’t it the cutest thing ever?

 

Tammy said that when the feeders are low, the birds flit and fly in front of the kitchen window while she works in the kitchen to let her know to get her butt out there and replenish the supply! Can you imagine?

 

 

I have 100 pictures just like these. I could not stop myself.

If I lived there, I am not sure I would get anything done! I think I would find myself sitting outside for hours. So amazing!

She also has a large vegetable garden. She has one side of it that she planted with zinnias. Boy, do butterflies love zinnias! Of course, they made amazing photo opportunities.

 

 

 

And who could forget Stella? She’s such a sweet dog and joins us on our walks. I will miss someone being so excited to see me each morning!

 

 

 

We had such a wonderful time. The highlight of the trip was going to Jersey Boys. Although we were the youngest in the arena, we still loved it. We weren’t too young to appreciate that awesome music. You could tell the people from that era, it was like they had a hard time not clapping and standing up and cheering! Except it was a play so you weren’t supposed to interrupt at the end of every song. Kind of cute.

It’s sad to think that was our last trip of the summer and now it’s a downward spiral to school starting. We have a Twins game we are all looking forward to and of course, the fair, but August certainly starts my head filling with curriculum and lesson planning. Like it or not.

Thank you Tammy and Paul! SO GREAT to see you both. I miss my morning coffee friend already. Smooches!!

Love,

LB

Stuff

Trying to milk every last second out of summer before it ends is not an easy task. One thing I had hoped to accomplish this summer is getting slightly more organized. With two kids, organized is a relative term and I am not fooling myself into thinking it can ever REALLY be accomplished with so much testosterone in one house…..but there are a few areas that have been driving me crazy.

 

One being this one…….

 

 

This is one of the cupboards in my kitchen and could quite possibly go down as the most poorly designed cupboard in history. It’s deep, dark, has no pull-outs, and things simply get lost in the dark confines of this crappy hole.

 

 

It goes wwaayy back and actually runs the whole length of the breakfast bar. There is no “back access” like some designers with half a brain cell provide and so I usually have to crawl inside of it to get to things and it’s usually a disaster.

 

One of the blogs I frequent posted about this very cupboard. Amanda has this same cupboard in her house and she obviously felt my pain. When I saw what she did it to, and saw that she got the organizational gadgets at Wal-mart…….I was all over it.

 

 

The new and improved cupboard:

 

 

I am so excited! Look how that gizmo in the back houses all my covers, cutting boards, racks, etc (all those skinny things).  How awesome is that? Although I love the frying pan thing, I think that thing in the back might be my favorite. I couldn’t believe how many things I could pile into that. I know Amanda showed it even housing her muffin tins and cookie sheets. I was able to put THREE pots in there that otherwise I was storing in another cupboard in the kitchen because there wasn’t enough room in this one. Hallelujah.

 

 

Next week on the organizational list….boys closets. If anyone has any ideas on what to get to organize those without costing an arm and a leg…..I would love to hear about it. Right now there is a regular wire rack for hanging clothes and then another down lower to store things on. I am willing to part with that one. I would take a picture of them to show you just how desperate I am with these closets, but it’s just too offensive.

 

Crazy days is this week in town. I usually never shop retail downtown because it’s just too expensive. I just don’t spend that kind of money on shoes and clothes. But, this year I decided to go down and take a look and found this little number……

 

Isn’t it dreamy? I just love it. It’s perfect for work and I just love the colors.

 

 

I love the detail on the sleeves and I can’t wait to wear it this fall. Gives me a little something to look forward to in an otherwise sad time (going back to work).

 

 

You wanna know the best part? It was $12!! Can you believe that? I was very happy.

 

I am gearing up for my summer visit to Indiana. Just me, by my lonesome. My friend is worried I will swelter in the heat, but she doesn’t realize the kind of MN summer we are having. It’s been hot and humid here so I can take it. BRING IT ON! Plus, there is always air conditioning. Ha! We are going to see Jersey Boys, drink martinis, enjoy lazy days together, and relax. I can’t wait. Wish I was there now.

 

Happy weekend everyone,

LB

The Lake

My kids don’t swim in lakes. They boat in them, fish in them, throw rocks in them…..but they don’t swim in them.

We own a boat. We have offered to buy the kids a tube to pull behind the boat. Not a single wee one was interested.

This past Sunday we went out the “the lake”. Mike’s aunt and uncle own a cabin on St Olaf Lake just a short 30 minutes from our home.

 

There is the cabin! That building right in the center. I haven’t used the map feature on here in a long time…thought I would give it a whirl. Always feels like quite the conquest when I can actually locate something.

 

 

Mike’s aunts, uncles, cousins, cousin’s kids, sister (and family), and mom were all there. We enjoyed a nice lunch and then out came the boat.

 

I looked out of the corner of my eye to see my kids’ reaction. I knew tubing was on the agenda. Noah has always been scared to ride on the tube and Connor is scared because Noah is scared.

Because Noah’s cousin was first to request a ride….Noah agreed to ride too and THIS mama went to get the camera.

Getting on the tube and starting wasn’t too big of a deal.

 

 

 

 

 

  Looks like they are having a good time.

Then I started getting nervous. I wondered how Noah would survive falling off the tube into that big lake. Even I get a little squeamish thinking about the weeds and fish and SHARKS.

Oh no….starting to fly up a bit!

No worries. They actually flipped themselves off.

Noah is pretty darn happy with himself!  See him waving at me!

 

 

 

Then is was Connor’s turn. Again, my stomach turned. This could go VERY well or VERY badly.

 

 

  Connor looked thrilled from the minute he got on that tube.

He had no trouble falling into the water.

Connor thought it would be faster to just drive off the boat and swim to the dock! Until I told him to get his butt back in that boat.

The kids played by the dock and completely ignored any weed, stick, or rock. They didn’t seem to miss the chlorine from the pool at all!

 

Baseball can be played anywhere, ya know.

 

 

 

 

  This is my gorgeous boy winking at his mama. Yeah, that’s what I keep telling myself.

 

A great time was had by all. It was a perfect ending to a hot steamy weekend.

I guess our kids aren’t the pool snobs we thought they were……

Peace,

LB