This is my first full day on the job of keeping Stone and Cade and it started pretty early. Not with them - they both slept until about 7:30 am. But I'm an early riser so my day started when I opened my eyes at 3:40 am.
First, though, I woke up at 10:40 pm (Stone and I went to bed at 9:00 pm), thinking it was at least midnight, by a loud screeching sound and I thought it was Cade. I made a mad dash for his bedroom and there was total silence and he was breathing smoothly so I thought it must be something outside. This morning when it became slightly daylight outside, I saw that Bodie, their cat, had thrown up a fur ball, thus the screeching sound.
Now to one of my most blond moments (I've already called it so nobody needs to follow up, thank you very much.) Not being familiar with the sounds of Dori and Chad's neighborhood, this morning after I got up, while it was still dark and about 5:00 in the morning, I started to hear a steady stream of traffic outside. This being Sunday I wondered after the first 3 or 4 cars passed by what in the heck was going on. Then after 10 or so cars I finally got fed up, thinking there was no way a funeral procession could be going by at that time, and I proceeded out the back door (much safer than getting caught in my pajamas out front.) Almost the second I stepped out I was hit in the face and body by a blast of water, soaking my hair and clothes . . . it was the water sprinkler which is obviously set for around 5:30 to come on and squirts the yard and the side of the house, ergo, the sound of passing cars.
To be continued . . .
Sunday, June 21, 2009
Saturday, June 20, 2009
Sitting
Dori, Chad, Pearce and Cole are on their first vacation roadtrip together and their final destination is Ouray, Colorado, and all the fun things around that part of the country. They'll be gone from Saturday to Saturday.
At first we were going to split the week up with Chad's parents, but Chad's Mom had just been here all the way from northern Arkansas to help Dori through an extremely painful kidney stone trauma (we had already been gone about 3 days on a camping trip to the Clinch River in Tennessee) and to take care of Dori's 2 youngest. So as a tradeoff, Donald and I are sitting those 2 youngest.
We started out by meeting halfway in Canton because we were going to keep Stone and Cade at our house. Our air conditioner started acting a little weird and not getting cool enough so even the first half day, Donald and I were not so friendly (heat remember!). Our air conditioner couldn't cool our house below 82 degrees. That was yesterday, Friday, June 19. Last night we called Dori and Chad and asked if I could bring the kids back to Arlington and keep them there and leave Donald at home so he could get the AC working (with a little help from the AC guy.)
So we got here about 2:30 today and I've decided to put my 2 precious grandsons on a grandmother (Muddy) schedule. This would be for my sanity. Donald was a huge help this morning by picking up a couple of prescriptions for me and grocery shopping so I wouldn't have to take the kids out if I don't have to. It's 7:00 pm and Cade is sound asleep and Stone asked if he could watch Lion King in his room. It's so much nicer to be in an air conditioned house (Chad, I hope you don't mind that I set it on 70.) Just kidding!
I'll actually be better off here in Arlington alone because I won't run the television so less chaos among the chaos. Cade seems to be very clingy so I'm sure he misses his Mommy. At least they're not old enough to argue like Pearce and Cole do. And Stone is extremely lovable even climbing into my lap which is less independent than he usually is.
Today when I was just getting here and had Cade under one arm, making sure Stone got into the house, some refrigerator and frozen food under the other arm and Stone insisting on doing the latch on the door, then crying because I was just trying to get in the house as my cell phone rang (which was Dori), me hanging up on her somehow [probably with one of Cade's feet] and then when she called back I told her I totally understood the clamor I was hearing on her end of the phone call when I called her, she just laughed! She is going to miss her babies but she is going to love her vacation!
At first we were going to split the week up with Chad's parents, but Chad's Mom had just been here all the way from northern Arkansas to help Dori through an extremely painful kidney stone trauma (we had already been gone about 3 days on a camping trip to the Clinch River in Tennessee) and to take care of Dori's 2 youngest. So as a tradeoff, Donald and I are sitting those 2 youngest.
We started out by meeting halfway in Canton because we were going to keep Stone and Cade at our house. Our air conditioner started acting a little weird and not getting cool enough so even the first half day, Donald and I were not so friendly (heat remember!). Our air conditioner couldn't cool our house below 82 degrees. That was yesterday, Friday, June 19. Last night we called Dori and Chad and asked if I could bring the kids back to Arlington and keep them there and leave Donald at home so he could get the AC working (with a little help from the AC guy.)
So we got here about 2:30 today and I've decided to put my 2 precious grandsons on a grandmother (Muddy) schedule. This would be for my sanity. Donald was a huge help this morning by picking up a couple of prescriptions for me and grocery shopping so I wouldn't have to take the kids out if I don't have to. It's 7:00 pm and Cade is sound asleep and Stone asked if he could watch Lion King in his room. It's so much nicer to be in an air conditioned house (Chad, I hope you don't mind that I set it on 70.) Just kidding!
I'll actually be better off here in Arlington alone because I won't run the television so less chaos among the chaos. Cade seems to be very clingy so I'm sure he misses his Mommy. At least they're not old enough to argue like Pearce and Cole do. And Stone is extremely lovable even climbing into my lap which is less independent than he usually is.
Today when I was just getting here and had Cade under one arm, making sure Stone got into the house, some refrigerator and frozen food under the other arm and Stone insisting on doing the latch on the door, then crying because I was just trying to get in the house as my cell phone rang (which was Dori), me hanging up on her somehow [probably with one of Cade's feet] and then when she called back I told her I totally understood the clamor I was hearing on her end of the phone call when I called her, she just laughed! She is going to miss her babies but she is going to love her vacation!
Clinching
Donald, myself, Vic (my brother) and Barbara (his wife) just completed a camping and fishing trip to the Clinch River in Tennessee. It's listed as one of the 100 best trout streams in the United States so it sounded like a good destination for a camping trip together. Donald and Vic both love to fly fish and Barbara and I love to relax, tour, read, hike and other things that keep you happy.
We all decided to travel a day and camp 2 nights so we had a couple of days at each park to explore before we reached our final destination. Our first campground was Lake Chicot State Park in Lake Village, Arkansas, which is on an oxbow lake and very pretty. I had read that there was a great place to get down home cooking (one of them being in the book Roadfood and website Roadfood.com) called Rhoda's. As we were passing through town and by Rhoda's and I knew exactly the address of the place my first exclamation was "Oh my God!" because I caught a glimpse of it after the fact and I thought nobody I was with would follow me in there. But like troopers, we all went there the next day and had the best soul food in a hovel/shack one could have. My 3 companions all said it was the blind leading the blind. I've had experiences similar to this in my travels by myself but never when I was responsible for 3 other people and their opinions. I felt really good as we all sat around a tiny table and the only white people there with only the words "UM!" coming from our throats.
I think the next night we had steaks that Vic cooked and delicious veggies that Barbara made.
The 3rd night was spent in a state park just minutes away from Huntsville, Alabama, and there is an outside mall there that would blow your socks off only because Huntsville isn't even that big. But we did have dinner at p.f. chang's only about 5 minutes from where we were camping. Talk about a life's journey from only 2 days before.
When we finally reached our destination at Norris Dam State Park where the Clinch River flows, we were glad to be settled for several nights even though our campsites were'nt that ideal. Barbara and I spent a day exploring some historical sites around us and a couple of little towns. On one of the days, the 4 of us took about a 2-hour drive over to Biltmore for about 5 hours of tours and wine-tasting and then 2 hours back. That was a great day!
Donald and Vic didn't have quite as much luck fishing for giant brown trout. I think their buttocks were doing more clinching at the small fish they were catching - maybe that's where the river got its name. They say they had fun though so that's all that counts.
We played lots of cards, grilled outside, laughed a lot, and generally just had a good time.
We all decided to travel a day and camp 2 nights so we had a couple of days at each park to explore before we reached our final destination. Our first campground was Lake Chicot State Park in Lake Village, Arkansas, which is on an oxbow lake and very pretty. I had read that there was a great place to get down home cooking (one of them being in the book Roadfood and website Roadfood.com) called Rhoda's. As we were passing through town and by Rhoda's and I knew exactly the address of the place my first exclamation was "Oh my God!" because I caught a glimpse of it after the fact and I thought nobody I was with would follow me in there. But like troopers, we all went there the next day and had the best soul food in a hovel/shack one could have. My 3 companions all said it was the blind leading the blind. I've had experiences similar to this in my travels by myself but never when I was responsible for 3 other people and their opinions. I felt really good as we all sat around a tiny table and the only white people there with only the words "UM!" coming from our throats.
I think the next night we had steaks that Vic cooked and delicious veggies that Barbara made.
The 3rd night was spent in a state park just minutes away from Huntsville, Alabama, and there is an outside mall there that would blow your socks off only because Huntsville isn't even that big. But we did have dinner at p.f. chang's only about 5 minutes from where we were camping. Talk about a life's journey from only 2 days before.
When we finally reached our destination at Norris Dam State Park where the Clinch River flows, we were glad to be settled for several nights even though our campsites were'nt that ideal. Barbara and I spent a day exploring some historical sites around us and a couple of little towns. On one of the days, the 4 of us took about a 2-hour drive over to Biltmore for about 5 hours of tours and wine-tasting and then 2 hours back. That was a great day!
Donald and Vic didn't have quite as much luck fishing for giant brown trout. I think their buttocks were doing more clinching at the small fish they were catching - maybe that's where the river got its name. They say they had fun though so that's all that counts.
We played lots of cards, grilled outside, laughed a lot, and generally just had a good time.
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