Getting Ready for a Hurricane

Kyla's Hurricane Preparedness Check List:

-Find Flashlights
-Test Flashlights
-Put Flashlight Batteries on Shopping List
-Wash Hair
-Shave Legs
-Pick Up Generator from Mom's House
-Go To Walmart
-Wish No One Else Was at Walmart*
-Buy More Batteries
-Buy Lamp Oil
-Buy Chips
-Buy Extension Cords
-Set Up Generator
-Buy Gas for Generator
-Buy (more) Gas for Car
-Buy (more) Chips
-Consolidate Freezers
-Add Bags of Water to Freezer to keep frozen food cold longer
-Wash Dishes
-Load Dishwasher
-Vacuum Floors
-Wash 8,000 Loads of Laundry
-Curse Small Child who keeps making more laundry
-Give Husband and Teenager Hair Cuts
-Do All Office Work
-Print Out Homework for Week
-Eat All Sweets in Fridge that could go bad without power
-Blog, because the power is going to be going out for a while...


*Just a thought Walmart: perhaps if you had a smaller "lounge/sleepwear department" less people would actually wear "lounge/sleepwear" while shopping at your store.  I have, in fact, seen a woman wearing two piece pink floral pajamas while shopping at Walmart.  With slippers.  And a purse.

A Quiet Little Wednesday

Well, I did some counting.  And I'm not going to make my goal for the year of reading 100 books.  I was off to an amazing start, but the addition of a second part time job and then school has crippled my ability to read anything.  Which is very frustrating.  I also set the goal to read five Jane Austen books.  I've done three so far, and while I probably could read two more, I'm not exactly sure that's how I want to spend my precious reading time for the next couple of months.

So frustrating. 

I spent the day at home today with Ben who has a cold.  He's not that sick, but I didn't want to send him to daycare to cough on all the other kids.  Plus I don't like it when he's sick, and I want to be the one taking care of him.  Since it was a very laid back day, I managed to get quite a bit of my homework done.  So much, in fact, that I've found time to write this blog and contemplate starting a book.

Unfortunately I still have roughly one million things on my to-do list for today, so starting a book is probably not going to happen quite yet.  But while I've been thinking today, I've also been thinking about my blog.  Next month is NaBloPoMo, (National Blog Posting Month) which I participated in last year.  I really, really enjoyed it last year.  But last year I was only working one job and I wasn't in school.  I just don't know if I have enough hours in the day to devote a piece of each day to writing on my blog.  I know I'd like to.  Last year I felt pretty proud of myself after making it to December 1st having written something each day.

So I don't know, I'm still thinking.  Should I do it, should I skip it?  I just hate to add one more thing to my list of "Didn't quite happen this year."  But then, is it better to add something to that list than to the "Man I wish I'd tried that list?"

Hmmmmmmmm.

How Did the Dog Turn on the Shower?

Today hasn't been a stellar day.  Ben woke up too early and didn't feel like going back to sleep so laid in his bed yelling MOM until I came in and unearthed his special blankie from beneath the covers.   Five minutes after that, he had to pee.  I gave up on getting him to go back to bed and hauled him in bed with me to snuggle and watch cartoons.  Well, he snuggled and watched cartoons.  I passed out and felt like a horrible person when I woke up later to realize that I had been ignoring my kid.  Oops.

After an argument over underpants with the little guy I made the amateur mommy mistake of letting him go commando under his jammies since he'd already pooped.

You know where this is going.  He pooped.  And I had to clean to floor.  And the kid.  And the jammies.  Damn it.

After successfully completing the large list of chores I had lined up for the morning, Ben and I celebrated with a picnic lunch.  It was PB&J in the middle of the driveway, not exactly glamorous, but it was so nice out!

After lunch I dragged Ben in the house, up the stairs and to his room where I had to wrestle with him to get a diaper on so he could take a nap.  He didn't seem to think he needed a nap.  He was wrong and I'm bigger, so I won.

While wrestling him back into his pants I heard a strange noise.  How did the dog turn on the shower? I thought to myself.  FYI: Dogs can't turn on showers.  They can sound like a shower as they pee while walking down the (carpeted) stairs, through the dining room to the front door. 

Who doesn't love a urine trail?

So I kissed my kid, stuffed him in his bed and used half a roll of paper towels to soak up what must have been 5 gallons of dog urine from the carpeting on the stairs and the rest of the trail leading to the front door.

Like I said, it hasn't been a stellar day.

Blabber Mouth

Have I mentioned lately that my kid is adorable?  He's turned into quite a chatter box (wonder who he got that from...oops!) and as a result is pretty damn funny to listen to.

He talks to his trains:

"Uh oh Thomas, Percy bump you!  CRASH!  Oh no!  Don't worry Thomas I save you!"

He talks about his friends:

"Mom, Baby Logan loves me."  "He does, why?"  "Because I'm his friend, Mom."

He talks about monsters:

"Mom, there's a monster on the house."  "There is?"  "Yup, it's a green-blue-red one.  It's a red one."

And then he just talks:

"Mom, don't worry about me, I ok."

"WAIT A MINUTE!  I forgot my vitamins!"

"WAIT A MINUTE!  I show you something mom."

"Ben it's time to eat dinner."  "Mom, I caaannnn'tttt waaaannnntt to eat me dinner."

"Mom, it stinks in here."  "I know buddy, it's a bathroom, shhhhh."  "Mom it stinks."  "Shhhh."  "Mom, you pee?  GOOD JOB!!  You want a jelly bean?"  (This conversation took place in a very PUBLIC bathroom.)

"Mom, I'm not handsome.  I'm Ben."


Ok, so I understand if you don't find all of the above the most hilarious things you've ever heard, but I'm telling you, my kid is a riot! 

Yesterday we took him to the Fryeburg Fair to see the animals.  He was pretty excited and pretty impressed.  He loved the cows and the draft horses, he liked the sheep and goats, thought the chickens were cool, but noisy, and loved the little bunny rabbits.  Then we waited for a very, very long time in the line to go in and pet the baby animals.  Which was probably the high light of the afternoon:

 

As you can see, he had a great time!