The Rains Came Down and the Floods Came Up!

         There is nothing as fun in this world as walking into your house from shopping to see your house starting to flood. Wahoo! Today was the second time this wonderful event has occurred in my home. Stepping into the house today, I was greeted by puddles in the kitchen and water slowly flowing from underneath my cabinets. After my moment of confusion passed, I pulled out the towels and soaked it all up. Maintenance brought a fan, ripped up part of the carpet and cut a few holes in the wall so we are good to go…I’m crossing my fingers!
         This is not the 1st time we have experienced flooding so I was actually calm this time, I just started laughing. Last time this happened I was a couple of months pregnant with Annie(SUPER SICK). We lived in a half-submerged basement apartment so the water came down the stairs in waterfall fashion(I always wanted a water treatment in my living room). Needless to say, I was up to my knees in dirty rain water scooping it out by the 5 gallon bucketful, while trying to tell Hudson to stop splashing in the filth. The whole time I kept telling myself that we had all been praying for rain to end the drought so really it was an answer to many prayers(The irony kills some days). I removed over 40 gallons of water before Will got out of class and the landlord came. The landlord never really did anything about it and we could never get the water all out so it started to rot and stink! Within the week I had my bags packed and we moved to a condo in Springville!

FYI: I didn’t take the photo

Mom, the Lady on the TV Wants to Talk to You!

We did away with our cable recently to more fully enjoy San Diego and everything that it has to offer.  Hudson has gotten into watching cartoons on PBS in the mornings, as a result.  A few days ago, Hudson calls me into the living room, telling me that the lady on the TV wanted to talk to me.  I asked him for more details and he said that the lady had told him to go get his mom and dad so he could still watch his cartoon.  You have got to love telethons.  I told him not to worry about it and that I wasn’t planning on calling her this time.

Yesterday morning Hudson comes into my room asking the location of my cell phone as well as reciting numbers under his breath.  I tell him where it is and decide to trail him.  Sitting down on the couch he flips open my phone and begins calling the PBS 800 number to give a donation.  I told him that only parents were allowed to call.  He was fairly distressed, still thinking that they wouldn’t let him watch cartoons anymore.  I assured him that everything would be okay.  I never imagined my children would be so persuaded by a telethon.  I am thankful that maybe one day he will be an avid supporter of public broadcasting.

Crib Today, Gone Tomorrow!

It was with mixed emotions that I pulled Annie’s bedding out of her crib last night.  I guess it is one of those milestones where a mother wonders, “Has my baby girl really become a toddler?”  I remember searching high and low for the perfect little crib set to welcome her into her first room.  I painted the dresser a light pink and the walls a vibrant, bold green.  Will teased me that the green on her walls gave off a strange glow making the room look like an alien had puked. 

Annie has been having a tough time in her crib lately so Will and I made a collective, executive decision(Is that really possible?) and moved her out.  We figured we didn’t need a bed frame quite yet considering how far off the ground she is on just the mattress and boxspring.  We learned the hard way with Hudson when we moved him into a big kid bed.  We bumped him to a bed to free up the crib for Annie.  When Annie finally arrived and was waking up every few hours, we found that Hudson was doing the same, due to the fact that he couldn’t stay on his bed.  He was constantly rolling off onto the floor and waking up with quite the roar.

I haven’t had a chance to look for bedding yet so we got her some winter flannel sheets for the time being.  Annie loves penguins and consequently refuses to have anything covering her new sheets.  So we are leaving her bed half-naked.  I tried to put a plain down comforter on and she ripped it right off, crawling up on the bed, giving me a VERY pouty look and saying, “No Mommy, my pengins (it’s not a misspelling, that is how she says it.)”  She wouldn’t even let me fold it up and lay it across the bottom of the bed.  I’m calling this battle her win so I can find a way to win the war.

Close Encounters of the ER Kind

We landed ourselves in the ER exactly 2 weeks from the last time we were there.  We are wondering if they will name a room in his honor or try to arrest us for being bad parents.  This time I took Hudson and left Will and Annie at home.  We had thought he broke his arm a few days prior after being pushed off a slide so when Will was wrestling with him on Sunday and grabbed that same arm Hudson just crumpled.  After lots of tears and a call to the, “Ask a Nurse” we headed to the ER.  My poor little Hudson!

Unfortunately, his memories were still on the surface and extremely vivid so he lost it the second we walked through the doors to the ER(They let him watch his finger getting sewed back together last time.  He remembers the shots).  After signing my life away on the marked “x,” they took him back to a room.  We had to pin him down just to get his pulse.  Oh how thankful I was for the Jolly Rancher and the stickers in my purse to quiet him down(The stickers were from the last visit and said things like, “Close Encounters of the ER Kind” or “My visit to the ER was just Ducky”).  I’m sure the nurse was wondering how he got all the ER stickers plastered to his shirt.  Note to self: Maybe I should clean out my purse more often.

The x-rays show no sign of breaking, but Hudson has walked around the house the last two days with his left arm limp at his side.  It hurts my heart to see him like that.  Bumping it is enough to get tears.  I am thinking I will take him back into the Dr tomorrow if he still has, “noodle arm.”

Of course on the way out the doors to go home Hudson comments to me, “Mommy, I think I can go back and wrestle with Daddy now.”

Here was the last time he broke his arm.  Notice his expression.  It didn’t seem to slow him down in the least.

Size Doesn’t Matter…Right?

I channel my Greek heritage every year at Christmas time. It always results in Baklava and a few trips around the kitchen table doing the Kalamatianos(You should have seen us at my sister’s wedding). I used to make it with my mom every year growing up. It was a fun tradition and one in which I intend to carry on in my own house. I don’t have to worry about any of the neighbors duplicating my Christmas treat, because when I mention it, most people stare and say, “Bach a what?”
I chose to put them in little carry-out boxes this year.  Apparently, I’m not so stellar at picking sizes.  They looked cute in the store, but when I got them home, I realized they only hold 6 pieces at most…oops!!!  There goes my plan to take over the world by fattening up the neighbors…maybe next year.  I love sparkly things so I was ecstatic when I found the tags.  And well, you just can’t give a box without fun ribbon.