Little Cruisers

A couple of months ago, Mom and I were out shopping and saw these outfits at Gym**bor/ee. I really wanted them! They're adorable, and most stores have cute clothes only for girls. The boy clothes are sport or super-hero or auto related--yuck! But I saw these, with little felt monkeys riding bicycles below the words "Little Cruisers" and wanted to get them. Problem was, I couldn't reconcile paying $26.50 each. Especially when they will only wear the outfits one season. So we left the store without them, saying to each other how ridiculous it was to charge that much, and so on, but all the while we have thought of those outfits.

Last week she was at a different location and lo and behold, they were on sale for 60% off, so she got them. Woo-hoo! Good eye, Grandma!



I love this picture of Lm. So serious!

Hi, Lk!

Lm loves to sing...

One of the trees felled by the tornado was our apricot tree. Here are the remains...

In this picture, Lm really looks a lot like Lk!

A close up of the outfit. Fitting for my two monkeys.

When Email Does Not Work Either...

Me: The bulletin is coming from B, but KP is supposed to be working on, as he is the writer.
My boss: The one from B is the one from KP.
Me: Right…I thought KP was submitting that one?
My boss: B works for KP.
Me: I thought KP was responsible for it though, as writer.
My boss: He passed it to B.

Me: I am putting these in Ready to Post.
My boss: I would not put them in Ready to post since they've not been signed off on. How about we send them to KP?

(I am banging my head against a wall as I know what is going to happen…)

Me: {Attached bulletins to KP}
KP: for 003 I would use the language from XXXX (see bottom). if this is just an FYI it should be titled something similar like "XXXX" for 004 you need to update the existing bulletin (XXX) and add a section for the XXX machine.
Me: ??--Please make edits on the actual docs or in Word.
My boss: You need to use Word.
KP: I need the original word docs for the published bulletins below.

Three days later…

KP: are the word docs (from the original bulletins) on the way?
My boss: Theresa, did you send these to KP?
Me: Here is the link to the bulletins...
My boss: Theresa, he can't get to them. Can you either send them or place a copy in your everyone folder and let KP know where they are? Thanks.
Me: I've created this directory he can get to:
KP: I need XXXXXXX also.

Hours later…

Me to my boss: Is there any hope you have this bulletin? S___ and I cannot find it to save our lives. We’ve been searching two hours.
My boss: I can't find the source doc, but here's a pdf.
KP: I found a copy of the original doc.
My boss: For future information, where'd you find it?
KP: I had not deleted the old copies we maintained.
My boss: Where are they? Can you point them to us?
KP: I gave them to you in Feb.
My boss: Yes, I know. But as you know, J was responsible for filing things … and she's gone (left the company). So, if you would, please point us to the location of the bulletins so we can make sure we have them. Thank you.
KP: you don't have access and it will take weeks to copy (if it finishes).

My boss comes around the corner and goes, "Let's have a Meeting To Discuss It. We'll go through our matrix line by line..."

A Tale of Two Rednecks

Rita and Frank had to leave this weekend. Before they went, we celebrated her birthday early. The twins and I got her a shirt that says, "Got wine?" along with a Sudoku book and some other things.
Grandma, always spoiling her grandsons, bought these onesies for them. They showed them off this weekend!

Lm has the most adorable expressions, if I say so myself. He just looks so matter of fact.

Yesterday was a special day, as it was the first day we managed to get the new swimming pool up and running. I bought it as part of their early birthday loot along with the swing set. It was tougher to assemble than I imagined! I had to drain it twice before finding a level spot. Then we had to use Dad's air pump, fill it with water and let it warm for hours before getting in.

Grandma feels the water with her hand to make sure the water is right for her grandsons!

Lm was so excited by the pool! He could not wait to get in, and had a blast.

Lk was more hesitant...

They wore special disposable swim pants that cost about as much as the pool itself. I don't think they made these when I was a toddler back in the olden days (the 70s).

Lk held on to my shoulders for a long time until he got used to the water. Lm immediately started splashing around.

I got their ball out and they played catch with it for awhile.

They got thoroughly soaked! Sometime after this last picture, Lm got a little wild and fell headlong into the water. He got some in his nose and cried, poor bird! So he played in the yard with Grandma for awhile and Lk stayed in with Mommy until dinner.

F-Day

Sunday was the dreaded F-Day. Actually I had a fine time that day, it did not bother me, and I instead focused on my dad and our surprise gift for him. I also bought my BIL a bottle of wine from a local vineyard for being the twins' godfather.

My sister and her family flew out from Arizona, they are here for the week. She has 2 kids, Sophia who will be 3 in Sept, and Lauren who will be 1 in Aug. L&L turn 2 next month. So all four kids are close in age and had fun playing together.

Lm wanted to go down the slide while my sister pushed the other kids on the swings.

Here is my BIL, Frank, multitasking.

Lk loves his new orange water shoes. Lm's are red.

Hi, Sophia!

Here's me with my goddaughter, Lauren. She is borrowing Lk's hat to keep the sun out.

She wants my dangly earring.

Rita's on the left. She's 3 inches taller than me, so people have always thought she is older even though I have nearly 3 years on her. Fine by me!

All 4 kids together on the swingset.

Hi, Lauren! She has chubby cheeks like Lm. I've always thought Lk and Sophia look more alike than either do with their siblings.

With all the excitement, Sophia didn't want to take a nap, but she finally succumbed.

Mr. Serious and his cracker.

For my dad, we all pitched in to buy him a deluxe John Deere riding mower. I didn't even know they made mowers this expensive! But it has more features than most cars.

We arranged so that Frank and Mom would just disappear after lunch to get the mower, and then Rita and I would bring Dad outside so he could be surprised when they drove up with it. It's not easy arranging a surprise for my dad, who wants to know where everyone is at all times. He was really shocked, though. Here he's reading the card we all signed explaining his gift.

You would have thought he'd just seen the beatific vision when he beheld this sight in the driveway...

While the guys unloaded the precious cargo from the truck, my own precious cargo (L&L) found a mud puddle that they just HAD to sit in, despite our trying not to let them do that. Funny how my neices had no desire to roll around in the mud, but my boys did. I had to extricate them, and got all muddy myself, so later I filled the bathtub and all 3 of us got in.

But, before that, we watched Dad bask in the glory of his new toy. This thing even has 3 cupholders on the right side. If my dad were a beer drinker, he could drink beer while mowing.

At any rate, my dad really loves the mower. He stayed outside with it through the evening hours, and probably dreamt about it at night. He watched the DVD that came with it and read the manual cover to cover. He's learned all the new features on it. So last night when I came home from work and saw the freshly cut lawn, I asked him how it went. But here's the kicker: he said he used his old mower and is afraid yet to use the new one! I guess he wants to admire it for awhile yet first.

Cat /fighting, Part II

Nope, it was not me. While I love to watch Alexis and Krystle, I do not want to be Alexis or Krystle, no matter how much I am baited.

So, apparently there is someone else out there in cyberspace who thinks that picking apart a pregnant woman would be considered catty behavior. This must come as a terrible shock.

Really, aren't you like 50 years old? Even Krystal and Alexis had brought their claws in a little by that age.

Happy Birthday, Mom!

If you see my mom today, be sure to wish her a happy birthday! She turns 71 today. I don’t know what I would do without her. She means the world to me.

A couple of other random things:

I won’t be on email or the board until Monday, as I still have no home internet, despite numerous phone calls to Microlink, and am taking tomorrow off for a doctor’s appointment. Here’s hoping he can find the reason I’ve had terrible headaches for the past three months. And that the service call that is supposed to happen on Sunday, happens. Feels like living in the dark ages with no home internet. “I haven’t had internet service for over a week!” I wailed to the service guy on the phone, my voice filled with the urgency of someone in the dead of winter with no working heater.

On a totally different subject, I received this hilarious clip of a SNL skit with Steve Martin and Amy Poehler, called Don’t Buy Things You Cannot Afford. It’s so funny that I had tears from laughing so hard; it is a scream! It’s a husband and wife sitting at the kitching table wondering how to get out of debt, and lasts about 2 minutes. Definitely the funniest thing I’ve seen in awhile, and I wanted to share it with others!

http://consumerist.com/consumer/clips/snl-skit-dont-buy-stuff-you-cant-afford-252491.php

A New Building in the Storm

Yesterday Lky and his grandpa built this Lego building. The twins are at an age now (gonna be 2 next month!) where they love to stack things and build high towers, then knock it all down. I captured this picture before they had a chance to tear it down.

Saturday was a hard day. It was super hot and humid. I could not get our new pool up and running; I did not realize how large it was until I got it out of the box. I'd meant to just buy a kiddie pool, and this one is larger with a filter and everything. Toys R Us will not take it back, even though it's unused, because I opened the box. Then, Lm especially was super clingy all day to me. He wouldn't even let me go to the bathroom and be away from him for 10 seconds. Nothing would make him happy until after his afternoon nap, and when Lm is not happy, neither is his mother.

I spent their nap time shoveling dozens of dead, rotting birds over the fence and working outside with my dad to heft large tree limbs onto a trailer bed so they could be hauled out. No one offered to help, and my dad and I would rather die than ask for it. But he should definitely not be doing this kind of work at his age, and he won't listen to reason. I was seriously worried about him out there. So I hired a tree service behind his back--I was crying and just had to do something to get us out of this vortex of fatigue and despair--and they came out Sunday to estimate a bid. $200/hr which I thought was very reasonable for a crew and the machinery, but when my dad came out and saw us talking, he was apoplectic. Slowly, though, he came around to reason and agreed it is necessary.

Yesterday was better, I spent the whole day playing with the kids. They are so much fun! I love to get down on the floor with them and we tickle each other and I spin them around; sometimes they like to just dive on me. We play a lot of hide and seek. I have separate little games with each of them. Lm loves it when I crawl toward him and use a funny voice to say, "I'm coming for Lm! And I'm a'comin'!" Then he runs and I grab him and he's shrieking with delight while I flip him upside down. With Lke, I'll pretend to come in the room and not know where he is. "Where is Lk?" I'll say. "I don't see him. Where IS that little boy?" Then he ducks behind something and I look everywhere else for him, then finally, "THERE he is!" and he shrieks and throws his arms around me.

Last night after they went to sleep, as usual I went to check on them. Here is how Lm often looks, with his blanket wrapped around his head and no blanket on the rest of him.

I gently rearranged his blanket to that below. My nickname for Lm since he was born is "Bird." Because to me he looks like a bird in a nest when he is asleep, doesn't he?

Then I went to Lk's room. He was sacked out from a day of running around.

I love their new striped sleepers from Grandma!