Weekend Adventures, Part 2

Last weekend, Mr. T and I went to Grandma and Grandpa T's house to help them with a garage sale.  They had tried to have a garage sale before, but for one reason or another there wasn't much traffic.  Last Saturday happened to be the big city wide garage sale, which would certainly prove to be more successful.  The only problem was that Grandma and Grandpa T had important out of town plans.  Thus, Mr. T and I stepped in.  

We arrived Friday night, baby and dog in tow.  Annie loves Grandma and Grandpa T's house.  They have long, carpeted hallways that she can zoom up and down.  You've never seen a happier dog.  She's a hilarious sight to behold!  

Grandma T is a master garage sale setter-upper.  Everything was organized perfectly.  All we had to do was open the garage door and welcome people in.  In anticipation for an easy morning, we put Tidytot to bed and Mr. T and I snuggled in to stay up late watching episodes of "Bear Grylls, Get Out Alive".  

About 10:00 pm we heard a rapid knock on the door.  We got up to answer it.  "I need you to call 911 and report a fire next door!"  I grabbed my phone and did just that.  Mr. T handed Annie to me and made his way into the smoke filled night to see how he could help.

Another knock.  "Can my boys stay at your house?"  And in they came.  A few only stayed a short while before they were invited to stay at other friends' houses.  The youngest boy opted to stay by himself with me.  I thought this quite unusual at first, thinking that most children would not want to stay by themselves with someone they didn't know.  I soon discovered that this little guy was absolutely terrified of the smoke and wasn't leaving the safety of the house under any circumstances.  

So we sat in front of the big dining room window, watched the fire trucks, read Button Soup, and talked.  

"Can the smoke get in here?"

"No sweetheart, you are safe in here."

"What about my stuff?  Will the smoke get to my stuff?"

"I don't know."

"What about my tiger?  I left my tiger in there!  Or my TV?  Oh no, we just got a new cat!  Will my cat be okay?"

"I'm sure everything will be fine."

"Hey, is your dog a boy or girl?"

"She's a girl."

"So she can have babies!"

"Well, she can't have babies.  Sometimes you can make it so dogs can't...er...um...have babies...um...I guess.  I don't know."

(confused look)

Soon Nana came to the door to take the little guy to her house.  

"Nana, our house is on fire!"

"I see that." she said.

"The cat did it."

We both laughed.  She carried a crying boy through the scary smoke to the safety of her house.  Mr. T came in from his heroic escapades and I sent him to shower off the smoke smell while I stuck his clothes in the wash.  

The next day was full of garage sales and junk food.  All in all it was a pretty relaxing day given the previous night's adventures.

In case you're wondering, the cat made it out just fine.

Grandma S is coming to stay this weekend.  We'll see what adventures unfold while she's here!

Weekend Adventures, Part 1

Two weekends ago Mr. T and I volunteered to help out The Delightful Scollards by staying overnight with their 7 lovely children while they snuck away for the weekend.  We went Friday night to supervise supper and then proceeded to do what all good babysitters do...watch a movie!  Then jammies went on and teeth got brushed, prayers were said and off to bed they went.  After all the little ones were tucked in, Mr. T made a bee line to WalMart to secure some much needed ice cream.  Ice cream and coffee are two gifts straight from heaven for tired grown ups.

We got ourselves ready for bed and our heads had just hit the pillow when my phone rang around 10:00 pm.  "Who could that be?" I wondered.  

"Hi, it's me.  My water just broke and my husband is out of town.  Can you drive me to the hospital?"  How do you say no to that?  "Absolutely!  I'll be right there!"

I threw my clothes back on, nursed the baby, grabbed the thermos full of coffee Mr. T had just made and headed out the door.  A series of twists and turns landed us in the hospital where I did my best to entertain her three cutie children in the waiting room until Grandma and Grandpa arrived.  I was armed with only a colorful carpet, used to play a version of "Twister" and a boring book filled with words I couldn't pronounce, as much of it was written in Spanish.  Although I know a little Spanish, my skills start to get a little rusty after 11:00 at night.

Grandma and Grandpa arrived and I headed back to the Scollards and stumbled into bed about 1:00 am and endured the next 5 hours of restless sleep.  (Too much coffee perhaps.)  The next morning we took 7 Scollard children and our 1 baby to the park and responded to innumerable, "Watch me!" and "Spin me!" requests.  Then lunch, rest time and, of course, another movie.  Next supper and then we were on our way home, where I fell asleep on the couch at 8:00, went to my bed at 8:30 and sleep like a rock until 7:00 am.  

It was an adventure.  And unbeknownst to us, the following weekend would provide another exciting evening.

Oh, and that sweet little baby made it into the world just fine.  Mamma did a great job and Dad made it in the nick of time to welcome his new daughter!  

10 Months Old

Mr. T and I have been working out every morning.  Well, every morning for the past two days but who's counting?  Tidytot is normally still fast asleep, so we have to wake her up with a cheery "rise and shine"!  Not really; we are all still tired so early in the morning.  Getting up from nap time, however, is a different story.  I'm usually greeted by a cute baby standing up in her crib.

  

Our morning exercises sometimes include a little dancing.  Here Tidytot is showing Mr. T her salsa moves.

 Then it's time for breakfast.  The picture below is not of breakfast.  I don't have the energy to tackle the adventure of feeding her tomato based products first thing in the morning.  Mr. T and I have learned a few tricks to make the eating process a little less messy, but sometimes you just gotta go hog wild!

In our free time, we monitor Tidytot as she climbs the stairs.  Never fear onlooking maternal types; we are getting spindles in that opening next week.

Month 10 was actually a little challenging.  Mr. T had a bad cold for about half the month and Tidytot may have caught it.  For a time she seemed more fussy and a little more opinionated about her food.  She has a very sophisticated palate and will one day be a famous chef.  You can pre-order her cookbook if you like.  Actually, she pretty much eats whatever we set in front of her, with a preference to all things "meat and potatoes".

It won't be long before this little girl is walking all around!  She's cruising around the house and wants to be vertical every chance she gets.  Although, her favorite place to be is in dad's arms.

My, how they grow up fast.

Spiderwoman

Sunday night we were invited to dessert and coffee with some friends.  The coffee, unbeknownst to me, was not decaf.  Therefore, I was up until after 12:30 reading The Pioneer Woman's Black Heels to Tractor Wheels.  It's a good read, but slightly saucy (you've been warned).  Mr. T was sawing logs next to me, as he had been fighting a sore throat for several days, along with an overall feeling of sickness.  

It was because of said sickness that I decided not to wake him, even though I desperately wanted to, for I had just glanced at the ceiling and saw a spider crawling across it.  Fortunately, there was a point in time not too long ago that I had the foresight to stash several flyswatters around the house for just such an occasion.  I crept to the bathroom closet, retrieved the flyswatter, returned to our bedroom, and ended it's life - all while Mr. T slept away.  I felt very, very accomplished and powerful - and a little bit like there were spiders in my hair.  Seeing a spider always makes me feel like they are crawling on my head, even long after they've been squished.  Do you feel that way?

Anyway, I felt so good about my brave, brave, brave victory that I found it hard to celebrate alone.  I lightly tapped Mr. T on the chest until his little eyes opened.  "I just wanted you to know that I just killed a spider by myself.  It was on our ceiling.  It was a BLACK one," I whispered.  "I didn't want to wake you." 

Mr. T just smiled at the irony of the situation.  He gets me.

On a different note, that Pioneer Woman book is all about how her and her husband met and the time they spent dating.  It got me to thinking that I should write out our dating story.  There are some entertaining segments, to be sure, but mostly I don't want to forget that year of our lives.  Does anybody want to read about that?

Candy Crush Saga

Well, it happened.  Mr. T and I joined the ranks of millions who became addicted to Candy Crush Saga.  That innocent little game started out so fun.  Crush those little candies, break up all the jelly, keep the evil chocolate from spreading, and what's better is that we were working together to jump from one sugary level to the next!  

At one point I asked Mr. T if he would like to play a board game or something.  He replied, "It seems better for our marriage if we are working together on a game than playing against each other."  So true.  There have been many a game played in our house that have ended in me trying to climb out from under a mountain of depression and regret.  "If I would have only played the 'X' in that double word score instead of trying to hold out for a triple word score, I would have won that game of Scrabble!!!"  It's terrible.  Games started in the name of fun end with me stomping up the stairs leaving Mr. T left alone to clean up the kitchen by himself. 

Anyway, Candy Crush was different.  We weren't playing against each other.  In fact, I experienced a new level of grace from Mr. T.  There were times when I played a move too fast and missed an opportunity to line up 5 candies to make a sparkle donut, and if you know anything about Candy Crush, you know how important the sparkle donuts are!  And Mr. T would forgive me.  We were quite the team.  If not for him, I would blow through all my moves without strategizing and never get anywhere.  Without me, Mr. T would stare at the game for hours and never make a move.  It was the perfect picture of what God intended marriage to be.  Oh, except that we were staring at a screen for hours instead of doing something that really mattered.

At first we were in denial that we were addicted.  That is until I found myself thinking things like, "I don't have a problem," and "I can quit anytime."  Well, I did have a problem.  Mainly, the problem was that we finally reached a level that we couldn't get passed.  Regardless, today I pulled the plug and deleted it.  I've never felt so free!