...about a booger update.
Yesterday as I buckled Rachel into her car seat, I noticed that the one of the top side parts looked a little dingy. I looked more closely and had to ask:
Mom: "Rachel, what have you been doing with your boogers?"
Rachel: "I don't want to tell you."
Mom: "Have you been putting them on your car seat?"
Rachel: "I really don't want to say."
Mom: "You can just ask for a kleenex, you know."
At least she's not eating them... this is a good thing, right!??!
Friday, July 31, 2009
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
A Rachel-ism
We often try to find things to talk about at the dinner table. Tonight Ben suggested a topic of conversation but then somehow got sidetracked. A moment later, Rachel asked him, "Daddy, aren't we going to be disgusting that?"
Anna figures it out
It's so fun to see Anna and Rachel learn to play together. Tonight in bath Rachel was "styling" Anna's hair and Anna just loved it.
Anna has figured out who is most likely to help her out of situations that she doesn't want to be in. The other night, we had put her to bed in her crib. A little while later, she started to cry in protest. Then we heard the following:
"Rachel!!! Rachel!! Daddy!! Daddy? Mom???"
We can only assume that she thought her best chance of escape was her sister, followed by Dad and not likely to be Mom. So true...
Anna has figured out who is most likely to help her out of situations that she doesn't want to be in. The other night, we had put her to bed in her crib. A little while later, she started to cry in protest. Then we heard the following:
"Rachel!!! Rachel!! Daddy!! Daddy? Mom???"
We can only assume that she thought her best chance of escape was her sister, followed by Dad and not likely to be Mom. So true...
Friday, July 24, 2009
That's our girl!
A conversation between Ben and Anna this morning as they approached the fridge:
Ben: "Anna, would you like some milk?"
Anna: "NO! Coke!"
Every time we've let her try coke (always from a straw), she splutters and makes an awful face, but apparently it's still had a positive impact on her.
And no, he did not give her any coke at breakfast.
Ben: "Anna, would you like some milk?"
Anna: "NO! Coke!"
Every time we've let her try coke (always from a straw), she splutters and makes an awful face, but apparently it's still had a positive impact on her.
And no, he did not give her any coke at breakfast.
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
Adventures in airing out the laundry
Ben called Kenmore yesterday morning only to find out that they do not make 3-pronged dryer plugs. Thus our only choice would be to rewire the outlet. Since neither one of us was really relishing the idea of going "bzzzzzzzt" after playing with electricity, Ben called an electrician who agreed to come out and give us a free estimate.
The estimate was $179. I kindly told the electrician that Ben would call him later about it.
I then looked up dryers on Craigslist. By 3:30 yesterday afternoon, we were $125 poorer and had a 2-year-old Whirlpool dryer plugged in upstairs! Our dryer is taking up space in the ridiculously oversized master bathroom. We'll sell the Whirlpool dryer when we move next year and at least partially recoup the money. That's more than would happen if we'd paid to rewire a rental house!
While this dryer drama was going down, I was eagerly (and hungrily) awaiting the arrival of our fridge. It was initially supposed to come between 11:30-1:30. At 11:30, I got a call saying they were behind and it would come between 1-3. This would have been fine except that I was hungry and wanted lunch. I couldn't leave because I was still waiting for the electrician, and Ben was out with the girls so that I could unpack and organize in relative peace and quiet.
The fridge didn't end up coming until 4:30, the same time as Ben got back with my lunch! (He was going to bring me lunch, but Anna fell asleep on their way home and drive-through options here are McDonalds, McDonalds or McDonalds. Then he had the dryer adventure and I couldn't leave because Anna was asleep in the crib and we were still waiting for the darn fridge!)
So by last night, the only thing missing from our happy home was air conditioning. The guy came by yesterday morning but had to come back today because the system was iced up or something technical like that, and a fan had to run to melt the ice. I don't speak "technical stuff"!
Ben told me that the a/c guy had another job this morning (Tuesday) and would be at our house by lunchtime. He took Anna out on some errands and I started the laundry. Since I really had nothing to wear, I was wandering around in my pjs. And if you think that's the climax of this story, hahahaha. If only...
By 10 a.m., I had the first load of laundry out of the dryer (yay, it works!) and finally had clothes out for myself. I told Rachel that I was going to have a shower and to come get me if she needed anything. I decided that taking a leisurely shower and also shaving my legs made sense since Rachel is pretty self-sufficient and I had nothing pressing to do. I had just lathered up my legs when I heard a most horrifying sound...
"DING DONG!"
Yes, yes. The doorbell was ringing. "Crap," I thought. This is not good. I hollered down to Rachel not to answer the door (as if she would have anyway!). I had to think quickly, because I was reasonably certain this was the a/c guy and I sure didn't want him getting away before fixing our system. Seeing no reasonable solutions, I wrapped a (thankfully large!) towel around me and headed downstairs.
I opened the door a crack, stuck my head out and apologized to the nice old man who was standing there. I pointed him toward the basement and said I'd be back in 5 minutes, apologizing all the while. I got back upstairs, only to notice that my legs were totally covered in shaving cream. Oy.
I called Ben, who is fortunate that he was still out, because he was killing himself laughing at my predicament. Men.
But at the end of the day, I have clean clothes, cold food, and a nice, cool house. Who could ask for anything more?
The estimate was $179. I kindly told the electrician that Ben would call him later about it.
I then looked up dryers on Craigslist. By 3:30 yesterday afternoon, we were $125 poorer and had a 2-year-old Whirlpool dryer plugged in upstairs! Our dryer is taking up space in the ridiculously oversized master bathroom. We'll sell the Whirlpool dryer when we move next year and at least partially recoup the money. That's more than would happen if we'd paid to rewire a rental house!
While this dryer drama was going down, I was eagerly (and hungrily) awaiting the arrival of our fridge. It was initially supposed to come between 11:30-1:30. At 11:30, I got a call saying they were behind and it would come between 1-3. This would have been fine except that I was hungry and wanted lunch. I couldn't leave because I was still waiting for the electrician, and Ben was out with the girls so that I could unpack and organize in relative peace and quiet.
The fridge didn't end up coming until 4:30, the same time as Ben got back with my lunch! (He was going to bring me lunch, but Anna fell asleep on their way home and drive-through options here are McDonalds, McDonalds or McDonalds. Then he had the dryer adventure and I couldn't leave because Anna was asleep in the crib and we were still waiting for the darn fridge!)
So by last night, the only thing missing from our happy home was air conditioning. The guy came by yesterday morning but had to come back today because the system was iced up or something technical like that, and a fan had to run to melt the ice. I don't speak "technical stuff"!
Ben told me that the a/c guy had another job this morning (Tuesday) and would be at our house by lunchtime. He took Anna out on some errands and I started the laundry. Since I really had nothing to wear, I was wandering around in my pjs. And if you think that's the climax of this story, hahahaha. If only...
By 10 a.m., I had the first load of laundry out of the dryer (yay, it works!) and finally had clothes out for myself. I told Rachel that I was going to have a shower and to come get me if she needed anything. I decided that taking a leisurely shower and also shaving my legs made sense since Rachel is pretty self-sufficient and I had nothing pressing to do. I had just lathered up my legs when I heard a most horrifying sound...
"DING DONG!"
Yes, yes. The doorbell was ringing. "Crap," I thought. This is not good. I hollered down to Rachel not to answer the door (as if she would have anyway!). I had to think quickly, because I was reasonably certain this was the a/c guy and I sure didn't want him getting away before fixing our system. Seeing no reasonable solutions, I wrapped a (thankfully large!) towel around me and headed downstairs.
I opened the door a crack, stuck my head out and apologized to the nice old man who was standing there. I pointed him toward the basement and said I'd be back in 5 minutes, apologizing all the while. I got back upstairs, only to notice that my legs were totally covered in shaving cream. Oy.
I called Ben, who is fortunate that he was still out, because he was killing himself laughing at my predicament. Men.
But at the end of the day, I have clean clothes, cold food, and a nice, cool house. Who could ask for anything more?
Sunday, July 19, 2009
While we're at it
I suggest scrolling down to read the previous post first. Otherwise this post might confuse you.
We are in love with the new house. Although it has more insect friends than I would like, it is basically clean, spacious and cheaper than the other house! (We are ignoring the complete and total negation of savings due to taking this house before the other lease ended. We are also ignoring the savings the development company offered us to stay in the other place.)
However, I am still Jane. Here is a short list of the fun things we've dealt with this weekend:
1. The air conditioning isn't working. As I type, it's about 82 upstairs. No wonder I'm not exactly motivated to get things unpacked and put away.
2. The gate we have for the top of the stairs had to be mounted a few inches off of the ground due to the location of the bannister. This may or may not prove to be a problem. I don't think Anna could get her big head under there, but she could potentially get stuck. We'll likely have to go check out Babies'R'Us to see if there are any gates there with different mounting options. We love our new walk-through bottom-of-stairs gate though!
3. The dryer plug from our dryer does not match the dryer outlet. Oops. Ben went to Home Depot and bought a new plug on the advice of the salesperson there. He got it home and discovered that while the plug would now fit into the outlet, the connectors would not connect the cord to the dryer. Back to Home Depot he went, only to find that Kenmore has unique "quick connectors" and so the cord he bought will not work. I see a visit to Sears in our future.
4. Because we moved so quickly, we hadn't yet arranged for a fridge. We've been making do with frequent trips to the old house and lots of ice in a cooler to keep some milk overnight for a certain 17-month-old. This morning we went up to Nebraska Furniture Mart (the local equivalent of IKEA) and bought a cheap Frigidaire that will be delivered TOMORROW! We didn't see the point in spending a lot of money on something that we'll just sell next summer when we move again.
Now for the good things:
1. We're all done moving for another year or so!
2. We now have a separate office so I can actually get stuff done and not have to put away all my paperwork at the end of the day!
3. Ben's a whopping 2-3 minutes closer to his job in Warrensburg!
It's been a great weekend, wouldn't you say?
We are in love with the new house. Although it has more insect friends than I would like, it is basically clean, spacious and cheaper than the other house! (We are ignoring the complete and total negation of savings due to taking this house before the other lease ended. We are also ignoring the savings the development company offered us to stay in the other place.)
However, I am still Jane. Here is a short list of the fun things we've dealt with this weekend:
1. The air conditioning isn't working. As I type, it's about 82 upstairs. No wonder I'm not exactly motivated to get things unpacked and put away.
2. The gate we have for the top of the stairs had to be mounted a few inches off of the ground due to the location of the bannister. This may or may not prove to be a problem. I don't think Anna could get her big head under there, but she could potentially get stuck. We'll likely have to go check out Babies'R'Us to see if there are any gates there with different mounting options. We love our new walk-through bottom-of-stairs gate though!
3. The dryer plug from our dryer does not match the dryer outlet. Oops. Ben went to Home Depot and bought a new plug on the advice of the salesperson there. He got it home and discovered that while the plug would now fit into the outlet, the connectors would not connect the cord to the dryer. Back to Home Depot he went, only to find that Kenmore has unique "quick connectors" and so the cord he bought will not work. I see a visit to Sears in our future.
4. Because we moved so quickly, we hadn't yet arranged for a fridge. We've been making do with frequent trips to the old house and lots of ice in a cooler to keep some milk overnight for a certain 17-month-old. This morning we went up to Nebraska Furniture Mart (the local equivalent of IKEA) and bought a cheap Frigidaire that will be delivered TOMORROW! We didn't see the point in spending a lot of money on something that we'll just sell next summer when we move again.
Now for the good things:
1. We're all done moving for another year or so!
2. We now have a separate office so I can actually get stuff done and not have to put away all my paperwork at the end of the day!
3. Ben's a whopping 2-3 minutes closer to his job in Warrensburg!
It's been a great weekend, wouldn't you say?
We have moved.
Or so it seems. On Thursday, I asked Ben to call a moving company to get a rough estimate and find out when a good time would be to move. We ended up booking with them right away since they were guaranteeing a price (and trust me, we have enough stuff that a known maximum is a good thing!) and were available soon. We initially set up for the movers to come on Monday.
A short while later, it ended up changing so that they would both pack and move us on Friday. Yes, less than 24 hours after making the phone call. We figured that spending the extra money to have them pack would be well worth it since realistically we'd have had to hire a sitter to watch the girls while we packed. (Yes, I suppose we could have packed the entire house at night but we get little enough sleep as it is!)
The movers arrived an hour later than we'd thought and we were greeted by the comment, "There's no way we can move all this today!" Um, yes you can. That's why we booked you!
I will concede that these movers were awesome with our furniture. Other than shrink-wrapping our bookshelves WITH OUR BOOKS STILL IN THEM, I had no real complaints. I was amused that they were lifting our solid maple armoire with all of our music in it. They looked horrified when we told them that unit was going upstairs in the new house. Apparently it became much lighter once the music was all taken out. Go figure.
We were less than impressed with their (lack of) packing skills. We requested that only items from the same kitchen cupboards be packed together (kosher kitchen). Yet when I unpacked one box, I was astounded to find my toaster oven along with half of my Pesach dishes! (There was packing paper dividing them and yes, I possess a sense of humour.)
After the movers had been at the old house for a couple of hours, one of the men went upstairs to start packing our room. That's when he told us that we should get a marker if we wanted to label the boxes up there. WHAT?!?!? Yes, that's right. They packed our things and labelled NOTHING. Not one single box was labelled.
Wait. It gets better. Not only did they label nothing, they put all of the boxes stacked 5-6 high in the front playroom of the new house. And since our bananas were no longer on the counter at the old house, deductive reasoning informed me that they were somewhere inside one of those boxes. Fun times, I tell you.
One of the movers asked me if it was a problem for us to move some of our own stuff, ie. clothes, toys, etc. Um, yes. That's why we hired YOU. I was assured that they would come back for a second load. Yet when they finished unloading at the new house at 2:30 on Friday afternoon, they had us initial that everything was off the truck (well, it was), called in our credit card, and left. I hadn't been there the whole time so I was unaware of how much had been left behind. Ben is not confrontational by nature (I think that might be my biggest understatement of the year!) so the end result was that we had the equivalent of probably 6 vanloads of things still at the old house.
Full-service move? I think not. We told them how much stuff we had. It was not our fault that they didn't bring a big enough truck! In fact, unless we get rid of a lot of things (furniture included), we can't ever move ourselves again because we rented the biggest U-Haul they had last summer and our things barely fit!
After several irate phone calls, we have been assured that we did not pay the full price that we were initially quoted. I will believe it when I see it come through on my credit card.
So my summary of this moving company is:
*Furniture moving skills - honestly, excellent
*Packing skills - non-existent
*Manners - alternately rude, stupid, funny and entertaining
*Price - you get what you pay for
But now it is Sunday evening and here I sit in our new house surrounded by mystery boxes. Could life get any better than this?
A short while later, it ended up changing so that they would both pack and move us on Friday. Yes, less than 24 hours after making the phone call. We figured that spending the extra money to have them pack would be well worth it since realistically we'd have had to hire a sitter to watch the girls while we packed. (Yes, I suppose we could have packed the entire house at night but we get little enough sleep as it is!)
The movers arrived an hour later than we'd thought and we were greeted by the comment, "There's no way we can move all this today!" Um, yes you can. That's why we booked you!
I will concede that these movers were awesome with our furniture. Other than shrink-wrapping our bookshelves WITH OUR BOOKS STILL IN THEM, I had no real complaints. I was amused that they were lifting our solid maple armoire with all of our music in it. They looked horrified when we told them that unit was going upstairs in the new house. Apparently it became much lighter once the music was all taken out. Go figure.
We were less than impressed with their (lack of) packing skills. We requested that only items from the same kitchen cupboards be packed together (kosher kitchen). Yet when I unpacked one box, I was astounded to find my toaster oven along with half of my Pesach dishes! (There was packing paper dividing them and yes, I possess a sense of humour.)
After the movers had been at the old house for a couple of hours, one of the men went upstairs to start packing our room. That's when he told us that we should get a marker if we wanted to label the boxes up there. WHAT?!?!? Yes, that's right. They packed our things and labelled NOTHING. Not one single box was labelled.
Wait. It gets better. Not only did they label nothing, they put all of the boxes stacked 5-6 high in the front playroom of the new house. And since our bananas were no longer on the counter at the old house, deductive reasoning informed me that they were somewhere inside one of those boxes. Fun times, I tell you.
One of the movers asked me if it was a problem for us to move some of our own stuff, ie. clothes, toys, etc. Um, yes. That's why we hired YOU. I was assured that they would come back for a second load. Yet when they finished unloading at the new house at 2:30 on Friday afternoon, they had us initial that everything was off the truck (well, it was), called in our credit card, and left. I hadn't been there the whole time so I was unaware of how much had been left behind. Ben is not confrontational by nature (I think that might be my biggest understatement of the year!) so the end result was that we had the equivalent of probably 6 vanloads of things still at the old house.
Full-service move? I think not. We told them how much stuff we had. It was not our fault that they didn't bring a big enough truck! In fact, unless we get rid of a lot of things (furniture included), we can't ever move ourselves again because we rented the biggest U-Haul they had last summer and our things barely fit!
After several irate phone calls, we have been assured that we did not pay the full price that we were initially quoted. I will believe it when I see it come through on my credit card.
So my summary of this moving company is:
*Furniture moving skills - honestly, excellent
*Packing skills - non-existent
*Manners - alternately rude, stupid, funny and entertaining
*Price - you get what you pay for
But now it is Sunday evening and here I sit in our new house surrounded by mystery boxes. Could life get any better than this?
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
Rachel is clearly our child
Today she amused herself in the car for hours making Diana talk and sing. (Diana is her first Build-a-Bear stuffed elephant.) Diana has a very distinct voice and laugh.
Diana decided to sing "Head and shoulders, knees & toes" for us, but for some reason she felt it necessary to sing, "Head, shoulders, knees & nuts" instead. Once Ben and I stopped laughing, we asked Rachel why Diana would sing "nuts" - apparently that's the elephant-style way of saying "toes".
She even completed the song by singing down the octave, "You're all muxed ip!" (Ben taught her "muxed ip" for "mixed up" as a joke and she loves it.)
Oy.
Diana decided to sing "Head and shoulders, knees & toes" for us, but for some reason she felt it necessary to sing, "Head, shoulders, knees & nuts" instead. Once Ben and I stopped laughing, we asked Rachel why Diana would sing "nuts" - apparently that's the elephant-style way of saying "toes".
She even completed the song by singing down the octave, "You're all muxed ip!" (Ben taught her "muxed ip" for "mixed up" as a joke and she loves it.)
Oy.
Our trip in review
*23 days
*10 states, 2 provinces
*16 get-togethers with friends
*2 cancelled get-togethers
*numerous family gatherings
*3 business meetings
*1 week of string camp
*1 week of art camp for Rachel
*2 gigs
*1 forgotten house key
*1 locksmith
*2 overtired girls
*2 overtired parents
*1 hard-working air conditioner
And now I shall look forward to hopefully at least 6 hours of sleep!
*10 states, 2 provinces
*16 get-togethers with friends
*2 cancelled get-togethers
*numerous family gatherings
*3 business meetings
*1 week of string camp
*1 week of art camp for Rachel
*2 gigs
*1 forgotten house key
*1 locksmith
*2 overtired girls
*2 overtired parents
*1 hard-working air conditioner
And now I shall look forward to hopefully at least 6 hours of sleep!
Some vacation...
When we left 23 days ago, our garage door slipped off the track on one side as we went to close it. Undeterred, Ben got it back on, tightened the bolt, and off we went. We figured that we'd forget something, because we always do. It's not a vacation without an emergency run for something, right?
Fast forward to today. We made great time on the road and got back to town shortly before 6 p.m. We decided to go to CiCi's for dinner (super-cheap pizza buffet - the entire family can eat for $13.96!) and then to the grocery store before going home. We never do this. Usually we pull into town at some ungodly hour and then I leave Ben with the kids while I do a grocery run or something like that.
I was just going to buy essentials, but then figured that I might as well just get everything I thought we'd need since the kids were happily running around the front of the store with Ben.
We got back to our house at 7 p.m. We opened the garage door with our handy-dandy remote, and I got out of the car. As I got out, I said to Ben, "Hey, Ben, I need your keys because my house key is still sitting on the counter from when our friends stayed over a few weeks ago."
To which he replied...
Wait for it...
"Um, Jane, I gave my key to L so she could check in on the house for us."
Oops.
We drove right over to L's house, but found a babysitter there. "Hi," I said cheerfully. "L and A aren't home, are they? Oops. Um, well, would you mind looking to see if there's a key around that says 'Jane and Ben' on it?"
Nope, no key. And since our friends were at the opening of the new Harry Potter movie, we weren't about to try to interrupt them!
We drove back home and knocked on a neighbour's door to get a phone book so that we could call a locksmith. Although many things about this house were poorly constructed, apparently the builder got the locks right because our lock was quite difficult to pick. I was unsuccessful despite previous experience opening backstage doors with credit cards, and the locksmith really had to work hard to get it to open.
Thankfully, he was able to open it and by 9 p.m. we were in the house and our groceries were mostly put away. I will confess to cooking the half-thawed pizza and possibly consuming some of it during the typing of this post. No, it is not possible to have too much pizza at a time like this.
Of course, after the locksmith arrived and had already started working, it occurred to Ben that we could have just left our groceries with neighbours and gone to a hotel for the night for considerably less money than the locksmith cost! Oh, well.
All's well that ends well? At least we got through Iowa unscathed.
Fast forward to today. We made great time on the road and got back to town shortly before 6 p.m. We decided to go to CiCi's for dinner (super-cheap pizza buffet - the entire family can eat for $13.96!) and then to the grocery store before going home. We never do this. Usually we pull into town at some ungodly hour and then I leave Ben with the kids while I do a grocery run or something like that.
I was just going to buy essentials, but then figured that I might as well just get everything I thought we'd need since the kids were happily running around the front of the store with Ben.
We got back to our house at 7 p.m. We opened the garage door with our handy-dandy remote, and I got out of the car. As I got out, I said to Ben, "Hey, Ben, I need your keys because my house key is still sitting on the counter from when our friends stayed over a few weeks ago."
To which he replied...
Wait for it...
"Um, Jane, I gave my key to L so she could check in on the house for us."
Oops.
We drove right over to L's house, but found a babysitter there. "Hi," I said cheerfully. "L and A aren't home, are they? Oops. Um, well, would you mind looking to see if there's a key around that says 'Jane and Ben' on it?"
Nope, no key. And since our friends were at the opening of the new Harry Potter movie, we weren't about to try to interrupt them!
We drove back home and knocked on a neighbour's door to get a phone book so that we could call a locksmith. Although many things about this house were poorly constructed, apparently the builder got the locks right because our lock was quite difficult to pick. I was unsuccessful despite previous experience opening backstage doors with credit cards, and the locksmith really had to work hard to get it to open.
Thankfully, he was able to open it and by 9 p.m. we were in the house and our groceries were mostly put away. I will confess to cooking the half-thawed pizza and possibly consuming some of it during the typing of this post. No, it is not possible to have too much pizza at a time like this.
Of course, after the locksmith arrived and had already started working, it occurred to Ben that we could have just left our groceries with neighbours and gone to a hotel for the night for considerably less money than the locksmith cost! Oh, well.
All's well that ends well? At least we got through Iowa unscathed.
Thursday, July 02, 2009
Night
Rachel has been having a lot of trouble getting to sleep at a reasonable hour on this trip. It doesn't seem to matter when we put her to bed. The good part of this is that she's been sleeping in until 8:30 almost every morning! The not-so-good parts would be that she's been staying awake (even in bed) until 9:30 or 10 p.m., and that art camp starts at 9 a.m. next week.
The other night, Rachel got out of bed and came into our room at about 9:30 p.m. I took her to the bathroom and told her it was nighttime and she really needed to go to sleep. "What time is it?" she asked me. I told her that it was 9:30. "Well, how much longer is night?" she wanted to know. "A very, very long time. Go to bed, Rachel."
The other night, Rachel got out of bed and came into our room at about 9:30 p.m. I took her to the bathroom and told her it was nighttime and she really needed to go to sleep. "What time is it?" she asked me. I told her that it was 9:30. "Well, how much longer is night?" she wanted to know. "A very, very long time. Go to bed, Rachel."
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