Catching up, again!

I'm so terrible! We got our computer back on the 12th, and I've been so busy checking and enjoying other people's blogs that I haven't done any blogging myself. So here's a little update on what's been going on in our lives.

The weather has been wonderful, now that the tornado warnings have passed us by. Not too hot, and with the recent rain our world is now green! green! green! Unfortunately, our weeds seem to thrive as well or better than our plants. Here's a picture of the kids loving getting out of the house. Addie loves to 'mother' Max, so she is pushing him on the swing.

We recently took a trip to Madison, the first time we've visited the capitol of our great state. We've driven by it umpteen times on our way to the Dells or to Minnesota, but we had to make a special trip to finally explore it. Pathetic, because it's only about 80 miles away. But we had fun!

Here's a picture of one of only three Thai pavilions outside of Thailand. It's pretty cool, and crafted by Thai artisans that put this together without nails or screws or any metal fastners and is covered with gold leaf. Cool, huh?

We went to the free zoo, and had so much fun. Corey was working on Addie's skills while I was trying to keep Max from getting too much sun.

A little mommy/daughter bonding, still at the zoo.

Here's Addie at the petting zoo feeding the goats. Yes, we're too cheap to buy the goat food so Corey is forced to pick through the debris on the ground. Okay, maybe we're not that cheap, we just didn't have any singles on us :)

We have another trip that I'll have to blog about another time... I'm tired! Thanks to all you that check our blog, even though I'm terrible at keeping current! Don't lose faith in us, we will eventually come through.

Still no computer...

So I called Best Buy tonight, with hope nearly overriding doubt that maybe I'd have my laptop back soon. No luck! They're still waiting on parts, and that's terrible for me because Corey's going on a work trip tomorrow through Saturday, and he'll be taking his computer... Crap!

Hopefully, I'll be bombarding you with pictures and posts soon enough. But for now, you'll just have to deal with me rambling and complaining. Yes, complaining, because I feel like I have a lot to vent about.

Starting with sick kids. I swear, having two kids you are exposed to 10 times the colds and viruses than when it was only one child to worry about. And it gets more interesting, like coxsackie virus (trashy name hand, mouth, foot) that we're experiencing right now. Max is suffering the most, poor guy, and I guess we picked it up from the ONE time I took the kids to the gym daycare! So we have to stay away from other kids for 5 days, and that's made all the harder by Corey being gone for 3 of these days.

Then, of course, there's the flooded basement we were dealt on Saturday. Addie actually started with her fevers on Saturday, while we were trying to have company over for a BBQ. I was almost grateful for the crappy weather that forced us to cancel. Almost. We were hunkered down in the basement because of tornado warnings, and Corey noticed water pouring in from our north wall. Then we saw it coming from under the stairs where the sump pump is located, so we ran over to find the water was coming in too fast for the pump to keep up with. Corey and I started bailing out the water as fast as we could, and we weren't making a dent! At least we were keeping it from overflowing, but it was daunting. I was forced to realize that I'm no good in an emergency situation like that. Remember that Addie was sick, so she was pretty tramatized and wasn't afraid to show it. So that was setting Max off (or maybe his sickness was just setting in as I look back on it). The weather started to calm down, so Corey sent me over to Sears to buy a shopvac and a couple fans. Now, Sears is literally across the street from our backyard neighbors, but by the time I got there, the rain was coming down so hard that I was dripping wet soaked by the time I ran into the store. I was one of several customers there - which surprised me - until I realized that everyone there was buying shopvacs and other clean up tools. I guess it's comforting to know that we weren't alone in our boat (ha ha).

I guess I didn't have as much venting to do as I thought, it's just hard to see when you're in the middle of dealing with it all.

I miss our friends!

We've lost some great friends the past couple weeks, and I'm seriously bummed. I feel such a loss, especially for my kids. Not only did we lose good friends, Addie and Max (okay, mostly Addie) are down 4 friends each! Trey and Jada, Matt and Wyatt, Cash and the twins, and Riley and Madison. Even Zander, Allissa and Brody will be gone all summer, and Madeline and Katherine will be going home again soon. Crap! And now that the weather is so great, it's the time that I like to get together with friends. Our house is so small that it's hard for me to enjoy extra bodies in my living room, so I rarely have people over. But we have a huge yard, and Addie loves to have friends come play with her. I shouldn't boob about this too much, we still have some great friends here, but even that doesn't make me feel any better about who we'll miss. I guess this post is just a tribute to all the great friends that we want to send our love out to, and we hope you all are able to find people in your new lives that love and appreciate you as much as we do (someone get me a tissue...)!

Okay, onto brighter subjects... Is there anyone else out there that loves yardwork as much as I do? Now, I'm not talking about the tedious weeding that seems to be like bailing water out of a leaky boat. That's not too fun, unless you get those really long roots. Or the ground is nice and soft so everything comes out with ease. I'm talking about watching the fruits of your labor (not literally, in my case, we only have flowers and a small veggie plot). I get so excited seeing green shoots coming out of the ground, and being to identify them and anticipate their arrival. And the sense of pride, knowing all our hard work is paying off with such rewards. Addie is such a great helper, she even has her own spade and gloves. She is also quick to remind me of all the flowers I mention to her -- showing me again and again that I need to constantly watch what comes out of my mouth. Last week, I was looking at our peonies and I mentioned to her, "these are getting ready to pop!" Ever since then, she talks about our popcorn flowers and to watch out for them popping! I love that funny little mind.

The best part of my week is when I get to mow our lawn! I know that sounds crazy, especially if you know our yard (we're on a half acre, and our house is so small that all that space is mostly yard). I love strapping on my mp3 player and rocking out for an hour of uninterrupted bliss. My poor neighbors are subjected to me singing along to my favorite songs, from Counting Crows to the Bee Gees, and Phish to Five for Fighting. I have no shame! I find it very theraputic... going back and forth, slowly but surely making sure all the grass gets my attention. I love it so much that I only let Corey mow the week after I delivered Max, but then took back the duty because I missed doing it. You should have seen me, 9 months pregnant, holding my belly on the bumpy parts of our lawn :) I'm sure our neighbors just loved watching that! I've even mowed with Max strapped to me (he loved it, it lulled him right to sleep)! My next door neighbor just laughed and laughed when she saw me!

I have to apologize about the lack of pictures on this post, our computer is being repaired at Best Buy. I dropped it off last Friday, and the pimply faced youth at the Geek Squad counter smiled at me when he said to expect it to take 2-3 weeks for repairs. Yikes! Do you know what that's like to a stay-at-home mom?!? Corey took pity on me and is bringing his work laptop home every night so I can at least check my email and do a little surfing and blogging. So, no pictures because no home computer. I'll try to make up for it in the coming posts.