Saturday, May 15, 2010

Some Legacy

Just now I was in my kitchen washing the dishes that were too large to fit in the dishwasher that I had just loaded. Isaac finished his lunch and brought his plate over to where I was standing and asked, "Should I put my plate in the sink or in the dishwasher?"

"Put them in the dishwasher, please." I answered.

Isaac loaded his plate and asked, "Why do we have a sink and a dishwasher?"

Before I even had a chance to open my mouth he answered his own question, "Oh. In case your mother dies. That must be why."

Monday, May 10, 2010

One For the Books

I had the best Mother's Day! The fun started on Saturday. Jeremiah and I worked on our lawn for a bit, which I actually love doing, and then we went to pick up our Bountiful Basket. While we were out Jeremiah said, "Let's go pick up your Mother's Day gift." So he drives us...straight to Wal-Mart. He had never asked me what I wanted for Mother's Day so I was pretty curious what we were shopping for.

Our store was just remodeled and as he walked I wondered if he knew where he was going. We walked past the clothing, housewares, toys...and then I thought, "Oh yeah, I've been talking about getting a new blender. He must not know where to find the small appliances." Just then he stops at the last toy aisle, right next to the bikes! I have wanted a bike for over a year and I was as happy as a kid in a candy store! I picked one out and gave it a test drive in the store. So I didn't just get a bike, I got to be a kid again! (Power play, Babe.)

We came home and got cleaned up, since we were all shopping in our yard work clothes, and headed over to my parents for a BBQ. We stuffed ourselves silly on some fat hamburgers and hot dogs, played some games and talked with family and the missionaries my parents are housing. We had a great time but had to leave a little early to make it to a graduation party.

As we were driving on the highway we could see a storm coming and it looked like the place we were headed might be the epicenter....it was. The party was outside on some undeveloped property but even with the wind we had a blast. We ate (again) and got to talk with Sean and Tammy and their families. The kids loved playing in the "forest" and I got to poke around in a campfire while Sean's dad wasn't watching. Isaac got brave and swung from a rope out of a tree while Kenley declared everything to be "Awesome!" Jeremiah and I even had time to enjoy ourselves as Jack and Hewitt slept in the van for about 1 1/2 hours after we arrived. It was a super great party and we're so happy that Sean is finally done with school...even if he's not a Doctor. :)

Sunday morning Isaac gave me the gift he'd made at school: a marigold and nasturtium planted in a pot he'd colored, some service coupons and a booklet in which he'd filled in the blanks about me. We enjoyed church and came home with some flowers. My parents came over in the evening and we had a BBQ. Dinner was delicious (baby back ribs, baked potatoes, corn on the cob, fresh watermelon) and then we had a terrific strawberry pizza for dessert. By the end of the evening I think we were all fat and happy. The kids sang a song to my mom and then Gammie and Bucka left. I took a quick ride on my bike (which was eventful enough to deserve it's own post) and then Nana and Papa stopped in. We fed them some dessert and the kids sang a song to Nana, too.

After everyone had left Kenley, Isaac and I found ourselves at the table. I absentmindedly began singing a mother's day song and then Isaac looked meaningfully at Kenley and prompted her to, "Come here." They went over to the piano, took down the children's songbook and Isaac said, "Mom, we've already sung to the Grandma's, but now we're going to sing to you." It was so cute! They sang "Quickly I'll Obey" and while I know they're more likely to quickly forget, it was the sweetest thing because I knew they thought of it all on their own. By the time the kids were all in bed I was pretty wiped out from all the fun. I fell asleep while Jeremiah rubbed my feet.

What a perfect weekend! I'm still smiling.

Friday, May 07, 2010

Holy Smoke

Jeremiah and I attended a fire safety dinner a few weeks ago. It wasn't a sales-pitch, but we did opt to have a representative come to our home for a fire safety evaluation. We ended up purchasing some new smoke/fire alarms, 2 fire extinguishers, a fire ladder and a carbon monoxide alarm. They were pretty spendy, but we really felt like it was a good idea, especially since only a couple of weeks before I'd had some thoughts about our fire insurance and came home to find our gas furnace on the fritz. When we had it fixed we learned that the circuitry had either caught fire before or was close to it when we noticed the problem.

Today I was outside doing some yard work and the kids were inside watching TV. The stinkin' trim line on the weed-whacker kept getting stuck. One of the times when I had to stop to fix it, I heard the smoke alarm going off. I ran in the house to find my kitchen full of smoke. I did a quick panoramic sweep of the kitchen and saw that it was coming from the microwave. I remembered I'd told Kenley she could make some popcorn while she and Jack watched TV. I'm not sure how long she'd put it in there for but 21:00 was left on the timer. I peeked through the door and saw that the popcorn wasn't on fire...yet. I told the kids to get out front and then I took the charred bag out of the microwave. Luckily, it never caught on fire and I was able to air out the house pretty quickly.

Here are some things I learned from this experience:
*The new alarms were a good investment. The old alarms that are wired in didn't go off at all . The new alarm that was sounding was placed right next to the original smoke alarm.
*Even though Kenley has made popcorn by herself several times, she really should still have some supervision.


*Hewitt will sleep through the smoke alarms. He didn't even stir and he was in the same room, directly under the blaring alarm.

*We need more fire drills. After we purchased the alarms we had a family night about fire safety and set off the alarm so the kids would recognize it and we practiced our escape routes. But when the alarm was going off Kenley and Jack sat firmly planted in their seats watching Jimmy Neutron.

*Burned popcorn really stinks.

*Ability to burn popcorn may be hereditary. Jeremiah set a bag of microwave popcorn on fire in Mexico during our honeymoon. The condo stunk so bad and we had to throw the ruined bag out on the balcony. I still tease him about it cause that's pretty much all I've got on him.