Saturday Mornings

I love Saturday mornings, as of late.  Sleeping until I want.  Then I usually spend hours alone in my room.  Cleaning. Straightening.  Organizing.  Bathing.  Moisturizing.  Reading.  Thinking.  Planning.  Ironing. Stretching. Updating.  CMTing.  Moving slowly.  Catching my breath.

Grammy and Papa

Please excuse the frighteningly large size of this photo.  I just wanted to make sure you could read the photo we got today.  "I love you Grammy & Papa."  "I love you more."  Cuteness!

For Your Information

The Groupon Guide to: Sleeping Problems

Each year, the average person swallows 46,000 spiders in his or her sleep, meaning that, statistically speaking, you currently have 12 spiders in your mouth. But unintended nocturnal arachnid consumption isn't the only nuisance you might encounter in your sleep:

Restless Leg Syndrome: Doctors sometimes refer to the subconscious kicking experienced during sleep by bicyclers as "night dancing" or "bottom-arm move around." To prevent it, sufferers should sleep with their legs caught under a toppled bookcase.

Sleep Apnea: Nine times worse than its medical cousin, awakey breath, sufferers of this condition experience gaps in their breathing, as if watching a movie with a particularly shocking dance sequence. Though incurable, you can nullify sleep apnea's effects by breathing through your ears—stop breathing through your nose and mouth and eventually your ears will take over.

Snoring: Even the softest snore is a sign of impending death—the death of a good night's sleep. Luckily, snoring is incredibly easy to cure—simply alter your current sleep pattern by replacing your normal resting hours with an unending nightmarescape of insomnia-induced vacuuming.

One Up, One Down

Grace is back to school, making up her 7 days worth of missed work.  She is being diligent.  She has to be.  Missing a week of high school is not easy on your grade point average.

David, on the other hand, started the week off, well, weak.  He and Jim went skiing on Monday morning, only to return by noon because David was feeling to weak to ski.  He went to bed.  Jim went back up the mountain.  Dave has missed two days of school this week, but went Ridging tonight, so may be back in school tomorrow.

Less than two weeks until we leave for the Middle East.  We need to be well for our journey!  Be gone, ye nasty germs!

Sheetrock Saturday, on the Inside

 While the men were busy sheetrocking, the rest of us were plenty busy inside.

Vacuuming.

Doing laundry.

Cleaning bathrooms.

I made five beautiful loaves of bread and some burger buns.

These loaves were more beautiful before I took them out of their pans.

These were fabulous after the pans.  Thank you Pampered Chef bakers!

The bread was sent home with the sheetrockers as a "Thank You".

("So you're saying that guys came and spent a day at your house working hard, and you paid them in bread?")

It's really good bread.  Trust me.

See the mess it made?  Seriously good, mess-making, delicious bread!

This is Maddy and her brother, Chase.

Their dad knows sheetrock.

They get to play with me when their dad is helping our addition.

There is no bleeding lip in this photo.  Chase thought it would be fun to write on his face with a marker.

  

This is what I drink a few hours into it to keep up with these cuties!

Maddy drew a picture of her dad. She did not write on her face.

Chase took a two-hour nap.

Dave came in for a bit of a break.  See, he was at a sleepover last night, but they forgot to actually sleep.  So he basically pulled an all-nighter, then came home to an all-dayer.

Emily was around to help with the entertainment.  She looks much more enthralled with this scene from Monsters, Inc than Maddy does.

And in the midst of all this, Grace had a Geometry tutor stop by (with her cute-as-a-bug's ear baby) to help her get caught up with the seven (7!) days of Geometry she missed while being deathly ill this past week.

My kitchen survived the day: one pan of gingerbread, five loaves of homemade bread, lunch for the workers, sloppy joes made for Sunday lunch, countless sippy cup refills, finger snacks galore, and one dinner of Gourmet Baked Potatoes (I sprinkled Kosher Salt on them).

And these two survived of day of sheetrocking.  Although you must know they both fell asleep after eating said Gourmet Baked Potatoes. 

It was a great, thoroughly exhausting day.  At one point I stopped and looked at Emily and said "Hey, I can still multitask!"  That brought a smile, and I would like to tell you that at the end of the day I collapsed in my easy chair with a satisfied sense of accomplishment.  But that Via is still running wicked through my energized veins, so I need to go do another load of laundry, or something!

Sheetrock Saturday

This Saturday began early, at 8:00am with a crew of volunteers traipsing through our house.  It was Sheetrock Saturday, and these were the men that answered the challenge to give up their day for the sake of sheetrock.  Menly men.  

 My little man...well, my 5'10" little man.  

First time sheetrocking!

I am so proud.

 I can't even imagine how hard this was.

 David learning new skills...

...and posing for the camera.

 Should he be standing on a balance beam with an electrical something so close to his head?  I am pretty sure he has a license to do that...Jim, does not.

 The Commander!

 Chase did not come to sheetrock.  

He came to keep me company.  

And to fall asleep on the couch.

Gracie Girl

Grace was in bed most of the day today, until we asked her to join us in the living room for a bit of Idol.  She is eating bits of rice and the tiniest apple slices.  Still has stomach pain, and has lost some weight.  But I do believe the color is coming back into her cheeks a bit.  Good rest tonight may mean fresh strength tomorrow.  Good night, Gracie!

Sickness

Just seems we can't all get well at once.  Grace is having a terrible time with an ear infection plus "the crud".  She missed school last Wed and Thursday, drug herself to school Friday, stayed in bed most of the weekend, went to school yesterday for an hour before she called in pain, went to the dr to find she has a "whopping ear infection", finished the school day with one dose of meds, came home to bed and a nearby trashcan, and has been in bed for 15 hours.  She is missing school again today.  I guess you just can't hurry a whopping ear infection or a good case of the crud.

Winner, Winner Chicken Dinner Answer

So, the answer to the trivia question is "Cavities".  Interestingly everyone I asked the question to here, said "siblings".  So guess what I won?  A box of chocolates from Norie's Candies.  Very fitting.  And I will pick it up today, and hide it until Valentine's Day or eat it all while no one is looking! 

You must know that I called Bethany accusing her correct guess to asking a MT Keena, but I guess she just gets it from me.  We are great trivia winners!

Winner, Winner, Chicken Dinner Part 2

After dropping David off at school today, I again was listening to Dean and Dave, and was delighted when I heard one of them say "Today we have a prize for our Trivia Question winner."  Yep, I grabbed my phone.  A real prize?  You betcha I was going to play.


The question:  In the 1940's children had an average of 11 of these.  Today they have 3.  What is it?

I dialed, I pushed CALL, and I was the first caller with the first guess.  I got it!

What do you think it is?

More Afters

 I've slowly been working on my "Befores" from last week.

Under the kids' bathroom sink.  Before.












After.







Remember my jewelry box that was overcrowded
with my recent fascination with dangle earrings?  My first fix was this cute basket.  I could hang a hundred pairs of earrings off this basket if I had to.  Don't worry, I won't have to anytime soon.  And I liked that it could hold bracelets, too.  Unfortunately I knocked it over the morning after I arranged it, and earrings went flying hither and yon.  I needed a Plan B.

 SB had seen my post about my earring overgrowth, and brought me this.  A coffee-bean sizer, or something of the sort.  It hangs safely in my closet with my earrings dangling to their little hearts' content.  Perfect!

Christmas in February

It was such a treat last night to go out to dinner at the Rib and Chop House in Livingston.  We dined with a gift card that we received for Christmas. 
Merry Christmas to us!

I think you would call it casual dining. 
At least I hope so the way we showed up!

This place has a reputation for great food, and the crayons and
paper tablecloth are great entertainment.

They have several sauces you can add to your entree.  

We thought this was the right one for a photo of Jim and I.

Emily ordered a rack of ribs.  Be assured she did not eat all of this alone.

There were, however, none left on the plate when we left.

Grace ordered a "Baseball Steak". 

My Cedar Plank Salmon.

For some reason we did not get photos of David's New York Strip or
Jim's Chicken Fried Chicken.

Nor did we get photos of us rolling out of the restaurant,
filled to satisfaction, and then some!

Please Pardon the Screen

This was the view from my bedroom window when I got home from work today.

1.  There are loose shingles on our roof.

2.  There is a dumpster outside of our garage.

3.  There is a boom-truck in our driveway.

Can you say "New Roof!"?

Strength

Lately I've needed it for doing taxes (read "finding every last receipt!"), chatting with the school principal (read "complaining"), walking/riding for an hour of aerobic activity (read "my knees are burning!"), confronting someone (read "I hate confrontation!"), diligently continuing a study I've committed to (read "I'd rather take a nap!") and overcoming a little rejection (read "I'm such a baby!").

Strength.  Glad it's written on my right hand.  (Read "Well, it's written on my ring on my right hand!")