Mother's Day is speeding up on us. Just three days left. For the Spin Cycle We are supposed to share what we really want for Mother's Day. I have a few things I'd love to get:
I lost the Mom pendant the boys got me a few years ago. I'd truly love to have another:
Any of these would be wonderful.
I would love to spend the day as I wished. However, Nick's brother is coming to town to visit and plans are being made. We are being roped into said plans, but we really don't know what those plans are. I'm not overly thrilled.
Going for a drive in the mountains sounds fun, but the weather is calling for rain and/or snow.
A day of peace and quiet--no fights from the boys, no annoying moments, just peace.
Someone else does the dishes, makes the decision for what to eat, someone else does the vacuuming... What I really need is a someone else to do all the stuff I normally do to keep the house running.
Lots of hugs and snuggles. The boys are getting bigger. Snuggles are getting fewer and farther between.
Motivation, for lots of stuff: exercise, scrapbooking, activity. My motivation levels have been dropping recently. I need to find it again.
Well that's some of what I want for Mother's day. Some of it I'll get, I just have to wait and see what comes. What do you want, or what will you give to the mother in your life?
Spin it up and link up with Gretchen and Ginny Marie, they would love to have you!
Some wordless (sort of) Wednesday pics of the stove change over.
The old stove
Adding the gas line.
The new stove in place.
Cooking with gas
Nick did a fabulous job putting it in.
We can even use a griddle!
So yeah, just a bit excited to be cooking with gas. Nick even likes the good Cuisineart pans my mom got us when we got married. Things don't stick in them now. On the electric stove, Nick couldn't cook anything without it sticking horribly. He loathed those pans. Now they work beautifully for him.
OK, maybe not Rocking but definitely enjoying the random. Tuesday, you just aren't appreciated:
Let's Random:
Turbo has bounced back from his crash this weekend. His elbow still looks pretty nasty, but he's healed up pretty well everywhere else.
I'm loving the gas stove. Pictures tomorrow, but everything is cooking well--even the baking is turning out fantastically. I really didn't realize how tired the old oven was getting until using this one.
I have a final today. I'm not really worried about it, well except for the part of my brain that is freaking out over a TEST!!!! I'm not concerned about the grade--I wanted the information, but I'm not going to go after a masters so the grade really doesn't matter.
In signing up for the class, I had to apply for admission to the university. I am therefore classified as a Non-traditional student. They evidently don't differentiate between employees taking classes and real students. I am an employee taking a class, not a true student at the university. They do have quite a few more perks for non traditional students now though.
A thought:
So last week we got new phones. The magic of a phone that holds a charge, does what you want it to, and for Nick, doesn't have work email is amazing.
Our weather is going to pot again this week. They are even threatening the snow stuff. I knew spring was teasing us last weekend.
So, what's your random? Go link it with Stacy! She who is now Random Queen, or our fearless leader of the random!
Well, mostly. We had some great times this weekend and didn't really leave home to do it.
Saturday was a really nice day for us, even if the wind blew. Nick and Bruiser hung out in the back yard while I went through the clothes we are storing for Bruiser to grow into. In the process I found some that Bruiser can wear:
Nick snapped a picture of our country bumpkin.
Yes that is hammock strung up behind him. The pergola Nick put up is perfect for hanging the hammock and kicking back.
Turbo was feeling better, he had a cold the end of the week that kept him home. He was getting antsy about being home, so he went out for a bike ride. Came home after a crash. He turned his elbow into hamburger and got his hip and knee too. Poor kid didn't move off the couch much the rest of the weekend.
Since Sunday was May the Fourth (Be With You), we did it up right and watched all the Star Wars movies. We borrowed the first three and watched most of them. The third movie gets a bit intense for kids. Turbo wants desperately to watch it, but Bruiser is not ready for it. We then watched the "Original" three movies. The best in my opinion.
During all the movie watching, we made breakfast--alien arms (breakfast burritos)-- Star wars pretzels (well I tried to make the pretzels start wars shaped). The light sabers, Leia and Yoda heads came out the best.
Speaking of light sabers, Bruiser spent most of the day recreating the light saber battles he saw in the movies with a paper towel roll.
Overall it was a good weekend. Oh Man, I haven't even talked about the new stove. Might have to save that one for Wordless Wednesday.
On to MMMM:
The theme this week is brass--lots of it or Jazz. I'm not much of a jazz fan, but lets see what we can come up with.
First up: Henry Mancini Pink Panther Theme:
Kind of Jazzy: Audrey Hepburn with Moon River:
The Great Ella Fitzgerald with Let's Do It (Let's Fall in Love)
May. The month of Mother's day, Birthdays, Cinco De Mayo and May the 4th be with you. It's a busy month for us. This year, since May 4th falls on Sunday, we will be celebrating May the 4th Be With You!
There will be the original trilogy or episodes IV, V, VI or what ever you want to call them.
If I get really ambitious, I may make a special dinner. Not exactly sure what a Star Wars themed meal is, but I can come up with something.
And the next day is Cinco De Mayo. We live in a college town, where any excuse for a party is celebrated. We won't do much, but Chicken Enchiladas and Margaritas for the adults will probably be on the menu.
After that is Mother's day and Nick's mom's birthday--all on the same day this year. We will do something that day, a small get together if nothing else.
Then the next big thing is Turbo's 11th birthday over Memorial Day weekend. We have not yet figured out plans for the occasion, but we will do something (just not camping, that never works out well for us).
May brings more unpredictable weather and at least one if not two more appearances of the white stuff. We would like it to rain more, but snow comes with living here. We will be working in our gardens and enjoying the outsideness of it all before we have to start sporting eu de bug spray to keep the mosquitoes from trying to carry us away.
What does May say to you? What will you be doing? Spin it up and link up with Gretchen and Ginny Marie, they would love to have you!
Starting next month Turbo is taking on a challenge. As anyone who knows a 10 year old kid must know, they love video games. Turbo is no exception. The kid would happily while away hours, days, weeks playing video games if we let him.
Nick came up with a challenge for him a month or so ago. Could Turbo go 30 days without video games? If he does he get $100 to do with as he pleases (within reason and mom and dad's approval). Turbo thought about it and decided he would like to try. He thought that it would be better to do it while school was in session, so he didn't have as many ours to fill during the day--less temptation. He has plans to read both with me and on his own--he has discovered that chapter books aren't so scary. The weather is warming up (not that you'd believe it today) so he will be able to ride his bike and take the dog for walks. He has Legos and music in his room to hang out with. He's really looking forward to the challenge.
The one exception day is his birthday. Nick allowed that one day to give an exception to the no video games rule.
So starting tomorrow, the xbox, wii, playstation, and games on his kindle are all off limits. We shall see how this goes. I'm hoping that unplugging Turbo from the video games doesn't drive us all nuts. I think he can do it, he just needs to keep his eye on the prize.
OK, so Monday sucked. It was truly a Monday in every sense of the word. I am ready to move on to better days of the week. That said let's random:
We have depended on the grandparents to help with kid care since Turbo was born. We are in the home stretch--just another 4 months and Bruiser goes to school and then it's only after school care we will need from them. We appreciate everything they have done for us. But they do have their moments.
Yesterday afternoon we had to go rescue my mom on the interstate. She had run out of gas. In getting her back to the auto garage, she went through 8 gallons of gas. It was 15 miles at most to travel. We aren't sure what broke on her car, but something did. The car is only 16 years old, and has something like 200,000 miles on it. She finally admitted she needs to get a newer car. She is just resistant because cars are so much more automated than the one she has now. She keeps claiming she doesn't want a car that's smarted than she is.
And to make the evening even more fun Nick's dad dropped a bomb on us about taking care of Bruiser. It was such a fun evening. Nick and I are scrambling to figure out a solution. More discussion with Nick's dad is in the future.
Four months and Bruiser is in school and so many of these worries will be minimized. We really have been lucky. We haven't had to py tons for kid care, but I really wish Nick's dad was a better communicator.
In other news, I get a gas stove on Friday! AND I will be learning how to cook all over again. The last time I cooked regularly on gas was 1995. There will be something of a learning curve. I'm looking forward to it, even if I burn a few things in the process. Nick is way excited about gas. He will be doing more cooking now.
It will have a convection oven--baking will be better. I will totally be getting my bake on this weekend. I'm almost looking forward to trying to make cookies and bread and brownies. My hips will hate me, but the guys will love me.
We have had snow off and on since Saturday night. Winter can go suck and egg.
So how is your week going? Got any random? Go link up with Stacy!She who is now Random Queen, or our fearless leader of the random!
Not dreaming of Monday, but dreaming of a better day of the week. Or maybe location to spend Monday. Monday on a beach somewhere would be fantastic.
Where to begin with this weekend? One thing, we got this kid back:
His selfie on the bus returning from his trip.
He had a fabulous time at the Teton Science School. He was however, ready to come home.
Saturday was a fairly normal day--laundry, clean house and such. Nick brewed a batch of beer, The kids went to Papa and Nana's house to help plant some stuff in their greenhouse, and I got a nap.
After my nap I prepped and put the pork loin roast in the oven. We were all looking forward to having some. I was doing some dishes up and Nick asked what was on fire in the oven. It is an electric oven, there should not be fire. Well, we had sparks, fire and a dead element when it was all said and done. Nick and I took this as a sign. While we were not planning to replace the stove this quickly, we were planning to move to gas in the near future. It just happened sooner than we expected. My new gas range will arrive Friday. This give Nick time to run the gas line up and a outlet down for the new stove.
Sunday was quiet, the boys gamed out and we went to buy the new stove and arrange for delivery and disposal of the old stove. Thullee wanted out mid afternoon, so I let him. Nick had closed the gate to the front yard and after a while I thought he had been out for quite a while without wanting back in, so I went to check on him. This is what I found:
Poor dog was stuck. He got up, but couldn't figure out how to get down. Oh, and yes we did have snow off and on all day on Sunday. Our weather is being brought to us by Sybill. It was 60 degrees on Saturday.
So with the weather in mind I am spending part of today dreaming of summer activities.
MMMM is a freebie, so since I want summer and the fun it brings let's find some summer songs:
Summer Girls by LFO:
Kid Rock, All Summer Long:
Rascal Flatts: Summer nights:
So, I'm dreaming of summer fun. Camping, get togethers, easy summer evenings hanging out outside, the smell of sun screen and bug spray. It's so close but so far away still.
