Not Me Monday

Joining in with MckMama's fun:



I did not stand idly by this week while HokieHusband allowed our HokieChildren to swim in our very green pool. I would *never* allow the pool to get/stay green, much less allow children to swim in it.

I also did not have contractions on Tuesday that got regular in the evening and then go to the hospital where they decided to stop. And I was not told that I was dehydrated. I drink tons of water daily and take plenty of time for myself throughout the day to prevent such things from happening.

That said, I did not take my HokieChildren to see Monsters V. Aliens knowing full well that HokieGirl would probably be afraid of the movie. And she most certainly did not spend most of the movie in my lap complaining about the "bad robot" and how this was a "bad movie." I would never take her to see a movie I wasn't positive she would like.

And at the YMCA, I did not sit in a lounge chair while someone else's mommy and daddy played with my HokieChildren, and even if I had I would have made sure they were parents I knew.

Oh yeah, and today I did not entertain myself on the internet while the teenage girls from World Changers played with my kids all afternoon.

Birthday in Ptown

My little HokieBoy turned 5 on May 29th. Crazy. I think that particular birthday was pretty difficult to believe. After all of his issues in the hospital at birth, not a soul could tell today that the doctors and nurses weren't sure that he would live.



And live he does. My HokieBoy is filled with energy and spirit. He is love and sweetness. Oh, he whines with the best of them, frequently when HokieGirl is annoying him by messing with his toys. But he knows how to push her buttons, too, so I guess what goes around comes around.

Each year before his birthday, I remember the events leading up to it. His debut was such a shock to us all that Saturday morning. Friday night I was laying in bed reading, having given myself my nightly anticoagulant. It was about 11:45 and I was finishing a chapter. I wasn't terribly sure, but I thought my water broke. (Well, it was either that or I had just had an accident!) We went to the hospital, and to make a long story much shorter, HokieBoy entered the world at 7:06am May 29th. All this despite the best efforts of myself and the entire team at Mercy Hospital in Pittsburgh. The shock is because HokieBoy was not supposed to come out and play until July 20th.

So Happy Birthday, my darling little HokieBoy. And now I can look back on those long days of being home while you were still in the NICU and be truly thankful for all my many blessings.

Someone's in the kitchen in Ptown

Mother's day our little family could be found picking strawberries in Pungo. I think the farmer's need to weigh us before and after we pick, since HokieGirl and I probably ate several pounds of berries between us! We picked almost $40 worth of berries! My mom took some and we gave some to my sister, but we had a table full of berries when we got home. I now have 14 12oz of strawberry sauce (it didn't gel into jam, so I'll reprocess it), and 4 quarts of actual jam. There are also about 4 quarts of capped berries in the freezer. That's a lot of berries, people!

In other news, things are winding down around here. For a family with no school-aged children, our lives sure follow the school year. Bible study has ended until September, and MOPS is winding down. HokieBoy will not have speech tomorrow because of SOLs, nor will he go the following week for Memorial Day. June 1st we go for his IEP, and I have no idea what happens next. I will say I am looking forward to not having real commitments for a little while.

We're leaving Ptown this week for a visit to Pburgh. We haven't been since January and snow. I think we are all really looking forward to a trip. Next month we'll go camping in West Virginia.

I have a visit to the OB Tuesday. Maybe we'll get to find out which gender Hokie-Baby-To-Be is and I can actually work on the name list. Maybe then I'll feel like knitting something special.

As I'm sitting here on the chair in the living room, I hear a very manly belch. I'm thinking to myself, "nice rip, HokieHubby," but he's not home today. As I peer over the top of the screen I here a sweet little giggle and HokieGirl's voice says, "excuse me!" She'll be burping the alphabet in no time.

Cottage in Ptown

Not much interesting on the knitting front. I started my February Lady and was totally not getting gauge. I decided to keep going without checking gauge, even though I knew it was working to be too big. Reckon that was knitter's denial, as I made it through a skein and a half before deciding to measure gauge. Now I have a small swatch going and hope to get going on actual knitting again soon.

Now for what has really been occupying my time these past few days. My cottage. We have gotten so much done in our yard! I think it's absolutely beautiful! I never thought that a few flowers could make me as happy as they do. I now totally understand my mother in law's interest in beautifying her home on the outside.

Also, HokieHubby installed not one, but two beautiful ceiling fans in our living room! Now we can actually spend time in the house even when it is hot outside! Hopefully, this means we'll be able to hold off on installing the window units for a little while.

Now that our yard is great and our living room is cool, our house is falling apart again. This time, there is no tree causing obvious damage. This time, it's small stuff that is causing major issues. There is apparently a small leak in the roof of our breakfast room that allows a bucket of water to fall onto our table. HokieHubby needs to go up onto the roof and investigate. Hopefully it will just be a quick patch job.

But that's really small potatoes compared to the broken sewer pipe under our house. For a couple of weeks now we've noticed a rather foul smell coming from under the house. HokieHubby opened up the crawl space and noticed some dampness under the shower that we were planning on removing anyway. He thought that maybe the water was from the shower. So we stopped using the downstairs shower and switched to the tub upstairs. Sure enough, it seemed to get a little better. For a little while. We decided to go ahead and rip out the shower and see if we could get a better look. Turns out the pipe that carries water from our kitchen sink/disposal, dishwasher, and clothes washer is broken.

Grr. HokieHubby is at his second home the hardware store to get items that will hopefully at least temporarily fix the issue. We'll see.

Mornings in Ptown

When I am awake enough to witness them, this is mostly how the morning in the hokiekids' room goes:

645am: Hokiegirl's eyes open slowly. She stretches. Suddenly, her eyes POP open. She is awake, and there is no turning back. She hangs out on her bed for a few minutes, rolling around and playing with various animals within reach.

700am: Hokiegirl climbs up to Hokieboy's bunk. Sensing her presence, he opens his eyes and growls, "Hokiegirl, get off my bed! I'm trying to sleep!" She ignores his demand, telling him instead that the sun is up and it is time to wake up.

Now, here the routine varies. Typically, Hokiegirl pesters Hokieboy with hooting noises that are exactly the right pitch to sink into my marrow in the other room. Some hollering usually ensues between them, with Hokieboy still trying to fight Hokiegirl off so he can sleep. Today, however, Hokiegirl quietly removed herself to her own bunk and played with a bear. Hokieboy apparently decided he was not interested in sleeping and played with a book. This morning there is singing instead of hooting coming from their room. This is a wonderful thing. It is beautiful.

My only question is, WHY do they do this kind of thing only when I am already awake and not on the days when I want to sleep in???

Overheard in Ptown

Me: Did you need to go potty? The bathroom is free now.
Hokieboy: No, my pen1s changed its mind.

Apparently, they get their own mind early.

Easter is coming! What do you do?

When I was a little girl, Easter was pretty much the same every year. On Saturday night we would have a family dinner, usually a cookout or spaghetti, and dye eggs. And not a few eggs! We would dye dozens of eggs, at least 10! Mamaw had to have some with all of her church ladies' names, my mom took some to work, and all the family members had their names on eggs, including anyone who might randomly show up on Easter Sunday! It took hours! The kids would get bored after the first few dozen and then the grown ups would have their turn.

Easter morning, my sister and I would wake up and find Easter baskets in the hall outside our bedrooms. Oh, the candy we would find! There was always a toy of some sort, but as I got older it became a cd. We would put on our Easter dresses, usually with warm tights and sweaters, and head out to church. Ever notice how Easter around here is unpredictable, but usually cold?

Then to Mamaw and Papaw's house for our Easter feast! Ham, potato salad, collard greens, pickles, beans, the spread left little room on the table for our plates! After the kids finished eating, we would run around asking when the grown ups would finish eating so we could go find eggs! We were more than a little obnoxious, I'm sure. We would be herded into the living room and watched carefully to be sure nobody peeked out the windows. After what seemed like hours, we were finally allowed to go hunt eggs, by age order though, so the littler ones would be able to find the obvious eggs. I was the oldest, and it seemed to take forever to get to my turn!

Eggs were all over the yard. We would find eggs in the strangest places, and after we thought we had found them all, Uncle Larry would tell us there were more. He would have riddles ready to help us find those last elusive eggs. That was the best part. All of us kids would stand around and beg for more clues. One year, even he forgot where he hid a couple of eggs, and Papaw found them a month later doing maintenance on the house!

Now, all of the grandchildren are "grown" with the youngest in college and I have my own children. So the traditions are beginning to be passed down. Easter dinner is still at my Papaw's, but the fare has gotten simpler and easier. My mom, uncles, and aunt still buy the eggs to dye on Saturday night, but I no longer get to hunt the eggs. Now, my husband and I hide eggs for our children. And the Easter bunny at my house has a lot to learn about planning ahead so the kids have baskets with the right balance of candy and toys.

Easter has always been a family day for us, but you might have noticed just the passing mention of church Sunday morning. Now that I have my own family and my own faith, I get to build my own traditions. This year, there will be Bible readings in my house and stories read to my preschoolers before Easter morning. At my weekly Bible study, the kids heard the Palm Sunday story straight from the donkey's mouth. Next week they'll hear the Easter story from their teachers and again from me. I hope that my children will enjoy Easter for all of the fun things like egg hunts and baskets, but I want them to know the JOY that comes from the knowledge that Jesus is alive.

Please share your family traditions!