If you decide to buy one of those "pre-scored, easier to open" coconuts at the store...you still need to hammer that sucker open.  Just don't do it on a plastic plate, because the plate will break before the coconut does.

And if you ever are stranded on a deserted island full of coconuts, I hope you have a hammer to open those suckers.  Or at least a big rock. 

Wednesday, July 09, 2008 1:38:49 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)    Comments [0] 

I've been listening to the new Great Big Sea album, Fortune's Favor, in the car lately...cause I like it.  A lot.  The kids seem to like it too.  Miriam was requesting the "Yeah" song. 

But Collin is the one impressing me.  He has my ear for tunes.  The other day, we were listening to one song and later on I caught him humming it.  Today, we got home nad he was humming another song.  And he's hitting all the right notes.  I am totally geeked by this.  I love music and I'm so glad my kids are loving it too.  I would be the mom going "Why SURE you can start your own band!"  We've already bought Sean a guitar.  We just need to set up lessons (Josh...if you're reading...put this on your to do list please :)

And it does seem my master plan is working.  See, I want to make sure they have good taste in music, so we've been exposing them to what we like.  Seems to be paying off.  Collin listens to jazz on Josh's iPod.  Sean likes Great Big Sea and Flogging Molly and the like.  Oh sure, I caught Collin singing along to "The Scolding Wife" one day....nothing like hearing your 11 yr old singing "And if the devil would take her, I'd thank him for his pain.  I swear to God I'll hang myself if I get married again!" 

All this is being typed out on one of Josh's laptops.  See, last night, Maura accidentally spilled milk onto my lap...which was holding my laptop.  I don't think my laptop has been harmed but I'm not turning it on.  I'll let Josh do that.  Meanwhile, we're letting it thoroughly dry out.  So any opinions expressed here are solely mine and have nothing to do with Josh ;)

Wednesday, July 09, 2008 11:41:35 AM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)    Comments [0] 

I snapped this picture of Maura on the 4th.  Such a pretty girl!

Monday, July 07, 2008 8:42:32 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)    Comments [0] 

So, in case you thought I was whining for no good reason in the post about our home improvement fun, here are some pictures...

We had to remove the old closet...the kids loved this part -

This doesn't even show all the layers of wallpaper we were dealing with.  But it does show how the old plaster was coming off...

And the ceiling tiles that had to go away...

The kids were all excited about getting to do more demolition - Josh got them each a dust mask and protective eye wear.  Safety first!

Maura watched the proceedings from outside, in the fresh air.

Miriam of course helped out.  And note that we did get the old green carpet out too.  It's ironic to think all this happened because we didn't want that stupid carpeting anymore...

And finally, drywall!

The boys helped out a lot with the walls.  Special thanks to Josh's very tall friend Dave and our neighbor Aaron with all the cool tools, who helped out with the ceiling. 

Now all I have to do is tape and mud and prime and paint...and then maybe, fnally, possibly, we can put down floors?

Monday, July 07, 2008 8:40:35 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)    Comments [0] 

You may not fly the new hamster cage around even though it does sort of look like a space craft.

Monday, July 07, 2008 6:12:43 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)    Comments [0] 

...can't trust that day...

Okay, so today started off with me breaking it to Collin that Leia the hamster didn't survive the night.  And then after I got dressed, I got to bury the little creature. 

Collin was understandably cranky and moody.  We went to the coffee shop so he could indulge in a blueberry scone, and then let him play some Wii.  Later on we went out and we browsed through PetSmart, where another little hamster caught his eye.  We decided to just buy a whole new cage and stuff.  The new hamster's name is Zephyr, after Collin's favorite ship from his pirate ship collection. 

I have to admit, the kid picks cool names for pets.  Which makes me wonder how the dog ended up Fred...

Meanwhile, Maura's been a handful and a half.  I had to haul her about three different stores to keep her moving, and she pooped twice.  As in "OMG, I think my eyebrows just fell out" pooped. Ugh.  The child needs to potty train.  She has either wreaked havoc or leaned on me all day.  I wish she could understand "Dinner's almost ready" so she'll stop throwing granola bars at me when I say "No." 

Oh, and to add to the fun that has been today, someone didn't shut the freezer door all the way before we left.  sigh.

Okay, I have to go cut up the pizza like a good mom. 

Monday, July 07, 2008 6:10:17 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)    Comments [0] 

...that parenthood sucks.

After Lego the Hamster's demise, Collin decided that yes, he would like another hamster.  So we brought home Leia.  A feisty little female black and white dwarf hamster.  Yes, he named her after Princess Leia of "Star Wars" and no, I don't know if I'm spelling the name correctly.

Backstory - when Lego died, one of the kids talked about how there were bugs in the hamster's cage.  Sure enough, there were all these tiny bugs all over the cage.  We cleaned out the cage, disinfected it, went over it with the hot steam cleaner thing.  And then set that cage aside and put Leia in the small cage that we first got with the first hamster.

Fastforward to tonight.  The boys come down here with hamster in hand, talking about how she's breathing hard and has bugs.  My first thought was that they were over-exaggerating, that after Lego's demise, they're overreacting.  But as Collin handed me the hamster I realized quickly something was wrong.  She just laid there, definitely breathing heavy.

I just spent a good forty-five minutes using an old tooth brush to comb out some sort of litte buggers out of the hamster's coat.  She's not looking well.  She does have some fight in her and I've been praying that she makes it.  Yes,  I know God's dealing with war and hunger and all those bigger issues.  But three hamsters lost in five months just doesn't seem fair.  And my gut is telling me Leia won't make it through the night, though I will do my best to try to keep her going. 

Either way, I'll be calling that pet shop.  This is the second bug infested hamster we've gotten from them.  Pichu (our first hamster) was gotten at a different shop.  It just seems too much of a coincidence that both hamsters became bug infested in less than two months of getting them from that store. 

If Leia dies, Collin will be very sad.  As will Sean and Mim.  And I hate seeing my kids sad.  Especially Collin - he bottles it up, doesn't like to show his feelings.  It's hard to comfort a kid who doesn't want to be hugged. 

I'm stuffing my face with M&M's to compensate.

Sunday, July 06, 2008 10:01:40 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)    Comments [0] 

I do believe my brain is oozing out one ear at this point.  And it's covered in plaster dust.  But, Josh has one new wall up.

New wall?  you ask.

Well, last weekend, we were going to put down new flooring in the new living room.  No big whoop.  We did have to take out the closet that was built in.  No problems.  We have sledgehammers.  And I thought "Well, we should paint before we put down the new floors, so we don't get paint on them."  Josh agreed that made sense.

Now we both believe I am a moron who should have kept her mouth shut.

Painting meant tearing down wallpaper.  Which meant scraping 7 layers of painted over, plastered over wallpaper.  Which meant the old plaster was coming down as well, as apparently it was held up by the 50+ years of wallpapering.  So we decided to just rip it all down.  Plaster, lathing, the works.

And Josh thought "Well heck, now that we have the walls open, I might as well run a couple of new outlets in that wall, for lamps and laptops and such."

The good news is that only two walls need to be redone.  The outer two are drywall.  Oh sure, it's drywall over the old plaster walls, but we don't care anymore.

Did I mention we have to redo the ceiling as well?

Today I should be sitting in my pretty new living room with the nice bamboo floors.  Instead, I went to Lowe's yet again for paint remover for the baseboards. 

woo. fun.

Wednesday, July 02, 2008 2:02:36 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)    Comments [0] 

I was joking to my friend Sue about how locked up our house is these days because of Maura's tendency to escape.  And laughed about the fact that we have baby gates in the girls bedroom window.

Sue told me I should post about that, as it might help someone else out.  I agreed.  So here it goes...

The girls bedroom windows are low, just a few inches off the ground, and open both from the bottom and from the top.  This wasn't an issue the first summer in the house, as Maura didn't have the strength or know-how to open the windows wider.  As long as I kept them staggered to a degree, we could have the windows open.

Last summer however, Maura nearly gave me a heart attack one day.  I was outside doing yard work as she napped.  I heard her cute little voice, looked up and saw her standing on the windowsill, having pushed the top part of the window down, and she was banging on the screen.

I grew up in Chicago.  There were always stories about kids falling out of windows.  Heck, my cat fell out of my second floor bedroom window when the screen popped out. 

Yes, I ran upstairs and got Maura and then started looking up window safety gear.  But it was going to take a couple weeks to ship, not to mention pinch the finances as that stuff is expensive!  Josh said "Well here, let's put a baby gate up for now."  Then stuck one of the adjustable baby gates in the window to block her a bit.

Hmmm...

The next day I went to Babies R Us and found really big baby gates.  I bought two and stuck them in the window.  They're great because they're tight enough that Maura can't move them, but if there's a fire, an adult or even Miriam, will be able to pop them out if need be.  They don't cover the entire window, but enough that the windows are no longer a danger to Maura.  And it allows me to rest a little more easily at night.

Tuesday, July 01, 2008 10:16:20 AM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)    Comments [0] 

Okay, so I have established that I am a 10,000 Maniacs/Natalie Merchant fan.  So it's been playing in the car a bit.  I love this song, and now Maura loves this song.  At least the Mtv Unplugged live version.  But I couldn't find that one.  So this one will have to do.

Song of the Week - "These Are Days" by 10,000 Maniacs

Sunday, June 29, 2008 10:31:56 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)    Comments [0] 

Sean and Mim were outside and I went out to check on them.  I told Collin to keep an eye on Maura, who was watching Spongebob and therefore, not really going anywhere.

Chatted with my neighbors for a bit, shooed kids inside for dinner.  Maura met me at the door....where I noticed she had something tied around her waist.

Collin decided to put a "tracking device" on her - aka some of the spy gear Sean was playing with today.  He tied it on with some holiday garland, which I'd been making fun little headwear for the girls with.  Since he didn't have scissors, she had it trailing behind her.

In a sense, it was quite ingenious.  All he had to do was push a button and she'd start beeping.  But I don't think he's quite up to actually babysitting her yet....

And for the record, she thought it was great.  A fun accessory that made noise.  As the second picture shows, it made her giggle. tee hee!

Monday, June 23, 2008 10:57:55 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)    Comments [0] 

Only the adults get to use such things as the chainsaw and the sledgehammer.  We are thrilled you children want to help with renovations, but we'd like everyone to come out of it at the end with all their limbs and digits.

Sunday, June 22, 2008 1:53:35 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)    Comments [0]