So Anthony where would you like to go for your birthday on Wednesday?

"HOLLYWOOD!"

Spicy water soup

I invited mom and dad over for dinner tonight as I had made a HUGE pot of vegetable soup that the kids are just not into.  Addison tried everything in her power to not eat it.  She looked over at dad and said with a spoonful of broth pouring it back into the bowl.  "I just don't like the spicy water in it!"

Going over the plan

Early this morning I am up and planning my day. Vicki came this morning to take Victoria on a road trip to Vincennes to see her family.  She came out of the bathroom to find me packing a bag.  She looked at me cross eyed and said "Umm am I going somewhere?", kind of in a "Are you kicking me out?" sort of a way.  She was excited when she heard about the trip. I have the kids help me whip up a batch of cornbread to go with my awesome crock pot full of vegetable soup.  The kids are getting a kid out of using the corn meal they watched being made at Spring Mill.  We stick it in the oven and I go on with my morning.  I hop on FB to see what is going on in the world and am reminded that the Sellersburg Celebrates parade is this morning.  I look at the clock it is 9:30 and I can totally make it.  I yell for the kids to get dressed and I start to throw something on myself.  We run out to the car and the kids are chanting "parade! parade!"  As we are driving I am letting the kids know the plan for today.  "Alright you two this is what we are going to do today.  First we are going to go to the parade.  We are going to have to hurry so we must make sure that we have on our listening ears and do what mommy says so that we are not late to the parade.  We are going to watch the parade then we are going to come back home and have lunch and a quick nap.  After that we are going to head to church and go to Large Group and come back home to eat some of that awesome soup mommy made and the cornbread.....CRAP the cornbread!"  It's still in the oven! 

I whip my car around on Grant Line Rd and head back to the house, fast!  I swing my car into the driveway dodging the cars in the road for the yard sale across the street and tell the kids "Do NOT take your seat belts off.  Mommy is just going to get the cornbread out and I am back in the car."  It takes for ever waiting for them to buckle themselves in.  :) I walk in and check my microwave timer and see no smoke.  This is a good sign!  I have 15 minutes left on my cornbread and the parade starts in 4.  Hmm think think think.  I turn the oven off and leave the cornbread in the oven run out the door as all of the yard sellers are kind of looking at me wondering what the frantic woman across the street is in such a hurry for.  I get back on the road and find a parking spot and we speed walk a block to where the crowd is. 

I hear the sirens and Anthony is in superhero mode with his eyebrows down knees bent running low and fast to the noise and Addison my sweet prissy Addison has her hands out palms up with her Patton leather pink flip flops that she outgrew a few months ago working overtime.  Her face is serious with a touch of I should have worn different shoes but at least I look good mixed in.  Somehow we make it only missing one fire truck.  Not sure how but after my Redbox movie I rented last night I think it had something to do with the Adjustment Bureau. lol!  The parade was really cute and the kids enjoyed running to grab candy off the street but when they saw a float throwing out rubber duckies they lost their mind.  They both were able to grab one. So great and an American flag to go along with it.

We head home I check the cornbread and it is PERFECT!  I don't know how I pulled that one off a parade, cornbread and I didn't burn my house down.  We get our naps and then off to church.  After church we come home to eat then back to Northside to get Grandma and Grandpa with the bonus of Uncle Rick and Aunt Betty!  We drive off to Sellersburg Celebrates.

We decide to park in the fire department parking lot and follow the crowd.  The crowd is heading in a direction that doesn't seem to make sense but we follow anyway.  It does lead to the festivities but it also leads through what I like to call the tunnel of death.  A narrow path that cuts through some woods in the back part of the carnival area and across two sets of railroad tracks.  Standing on the tracks are some teenagers that look like they are up to no good and about 10 down the tracks is a group of teenagers that look like they are up to even less good.  A bit creepy as I am reaching in my purse for my pepper spray.  Glad I asked the parental figures to join me.  I was freaking out a bit. 

There we are in the crowd.  Looking for anything that looks like a hot hair balloon or even a stage.  No luck as we are surrounded by slides, swings, and mini roller coasters.  The kids are jumping all over Grandpa beginning their begging and we give them a firm no. Carni rides are not mom's favorite.  We stop by Crissy's booth to see how they are doing and then on to the hillside where we see lots of vans with trailers behind them.  Balloons!  We also find the stage where the Louisville Crashers are to perform.  Great everyone will be entertained.  I have been waiting to see them perform for quite some time as the lead singer used to be worship leader at church and is incredibly talented!  They did not disappoint, but my sweet Addison did!  As I am up by the stage with Anthony dancing away my dad taps me on the shoulder 4 songs in and informs me that Addison is falling asleep.  I turn to find my mom shrugging her shoulders holding my fading flower.  Arms are limp, legs flopping and eyelids slamming shut.  Mommy's night out with the kids is cut short as Addison is reaching her curfew.

We walk back through the tunnel of death safely and warn two girls to take a different direction that are heading in.  Was a great night but was so sad it ended at 9:14.  I was in for the long haul and the kids usually are too.  I grabbed a Redbox movie and headed home to get a snack and hang out with the kids.  Anthony fell asleep after inhaling a cup of chips and my little "We need to head home because Addison is falling asleep" stayed up until 11:30.  Little stinker!

God is in the raindrops

Doing dishes in the bathtub is no easy task but I am lucky to have a tub to go to and not taking our dishes to the creek somewhere.  I am trying to keep this in perspective.  I bought a large bucket usually used for toys or storage today so that I can wash dishes in it.  I placed it in the bathtub and filled it up with water and soap and got to washing.  I rinsed  in the tub and then laid out a towel on the vanity to dry.  I did one tub full at a time bringing them in from the kitchen into the bathroom, placing them in the tub, washing them and then laying them out to dry.  I continued this process until I finished the 5 days worth of dishes in the kitchen waiting on a plumber.  btw spaghetti was a horrible choice last night as far as dishes sitting and draining in the bathtub.  You can only wipe so much off with a towel ya know?  I finished and dumped the dish water in the bathtub and then wiped it down.  I filled it back up with some Cascade ( a old salon trick that we used to clean the jets in the pedi tubs) so that I could clean out any food that splashed up in the jets.  The phone rang, and about a half hour later I go in to turn off the jets only to find that I never turned the water off.  The tub has something on it where it will catch the water to keep it from over flowing in the bathroom but only catches so much before it starts to leak in the basement.  I fly downstairs hitting about two steps on the way down as I am in warp speed only to find that my utility room has water all in the middle of the floor going straight on my pile of dirty clothes (see this is why I let it pile up).  I do have water that I need to wipe up with my squeegee but all in all manageable.  The water is raining down from the rafters.  I mean RAINING!  I grab a bucket to catch what is still coming and start a load of laundry what else can I do.  I think back now to moving the pile of clothes when the plumber was here to the exact place that the water was coming down so that he could clean out the pipe.  I stand there holding the trash can over my head waiting for the flood.  Little did I know that was all in preparation for the flood that was coming a day later from my own hand.  Funny how God works that stuff out isn't it? 

Everything but the kitchen sink

Oh how I wish that this post was about Ben and Jerry's everything but the kitchen sink ice cream.  Unfortunately it is not!  Plumbing!  I am not a fan of plumbing!  Been having trouble with the kitchen sink since we have moved in here and paid close to 200 to get the pipe snaked for a clog.  He told me that there was no guarantee as the pipe had no steady pitch and was level in most of the exposed pipe with the added bonus of going uphill in some areas.  He said if that is what is exposed in the pipe that he hated to think of what was in the drywall.  My sink worked for about 2-3 weeks and now won't drain again.  James mechanic's son's best friend (you following that?) is a plumber for the city of Sellersburg and was willing to help us out for a fraction of the cost.  Super sweet guy and was going to charge us less than half of what the other plumber charged to snake the pipe.  He came by yesterday and checked out the situation to make sure he had the equipment to do the job.  He cut one piece of pipe and created more of a pitch in the exposed plumbing.  He said he would come back today and finish the job.  No problem one more day without a sink and dishwasher.  I can do that right?  He came today and snaked the pipe after cutting and fitting a new pipe under the sink.  He ran the water in the sink and things were looking good for a while until water began to rise yet again.  He turned off the water and we headed downstairs to run the snake backwards from the basement.  I held a trashcan over my  head where the clean out was and prayed that the pipe would open and not on my head.  He warned that this could get REALLY nasty REALLY quick and to just hold the trash can up right by the snake.  Fingers crossed eyes closed and praying for my life I held the trashcan over my head until my knuckles were white.  He snaked it and got no where.  We called James as he had just taken off to get his load to California to get permission to cut into the drywall.  Two cuts into the finished basement and he was scratching his head.  He found another clean out that was hidden in the ceiling of the basement.  It is pointing sideways and he is unable to get it without cutting a much larger section of drywall out and even then if that is where the clog is and it breaks free we have a huge mess on our hands and it would dump water into our ceiling in the basement.  He was reluctant to move on and talked to James saying that he wasn't comfortable moving on in the job until James was home to give the ok to move further.  He would be able to fix it but didn't want to tear any walls down without James supervision and "in person" permission.  I couldn't blame him really.  Problem is that James had left about 2 hours before the plumber had gotten here and he was on his way with a two stop load to California with a back haul to Michigan not due to be back until next Friday.  So I am without kitchen sink and dishwasher for a total of 13 days (including the time I have been waiting on the plumber to be called) when James will be home.  If anyone needs me I will be washing my dishes in the fountain in our front yard.  I am sure it will give my nosey neighbor a good story to spread.  Heck I could put a dish drainer right beside me and grab a scrub brush and finish off my dishes from dinner with a bath for myself.  Maybe shave my legs?  I'm so tempted.  :)

Observing the change

This morning Victoria takes off out of the door to the bus and immediately comes back in to say that Bonnie my "favorite" neighbor across the street told her that the bus had already come.  This was at 7:15 when the bus comes at 7:30.  Interesting, that is pretty early.  I told her that I would take her to school no problem and started to wake my crew up to get them ready.  Then she jumps up from the kitchen table and says "There are kids from my bus waiting outside".  I tell her to hurry up before she really does miss the bus and send her on her way to the driveway.  They wait, and wait and wait and I go outside to sit on the porch.  Victoria stands there with 3 other kids and waits with me.  I then hear Bonnie my "Springer" neighbor yell across the road "The bus already came!"  I walk over to the road to hear the story.  "Didn't you get a call and note from school about the bus route changing?"  I respond "Nope, not a word."  Her eyebrows raise "Well the kids brought home a note last Friday saying that the bus route changed and that they were on the blue route instead of the gold now.  I saw Victoria come out and the other kids that were on the bus waiting and thought I would just sit and watch what happened with them."  Really?  It is now about a quarter till and the woman that is more than willing to let anyone know what is going on in the neighborhood from two doors down the divorce that is going on due to financial trouble to us leaving a hutch in the back of our truck when it was raining can't spread the word that the bus changed.  Seriously, Vicki was over one day when we got a computer armoire from my buddy Crissy.  It began to sprinkle and Vicki's phone rang "Viiicki? ( I so wish I could get the whine in her voice) You need to tell Jamie to get that furniture inside it's starting to rain."  On the outside that sounds very sweet and neighborly and like someone you would want to have for a neighbor but these are the same people that I sat on my front porch and watched as her grown sons in their 30's chase each other across the yard with a 2X4 in a fight.  Classy!  So Victoria was late to school I made sure that the other kids at the bus stop had a ride and all of us parents that were not notified marched to the office to find out what was going on.  The ladies in the office are SO sweet!  They must have been having a rough morning too as I thanked them and the secretary looked up to see someone else walking in and looked me dead in the eye and said "Oh please stay please stay! You said you had a question???"  I caught her desperation of not wanting to deal with whatever problem she saw walk in the door and I chuckled and offered a couple more questions to by her some time.  Rough way to start a week off.  I'm already ready for Friday. 

Mommy's date

I got the thrill of time alone tonight.   This has been James second weekend not home and it is wearing on me a lot.  I can't tell you the last time I had a night to myself.  I remember one time James arranging a night by myself and I didn't know what to do with it.  I was going to paint back when we lived in the trailer but ended up staying in and not doing much.  I vowed that tonight I was going to take full advantage of it.  I got fixed up, put makeup on and even put on my wedges.  I wanted to look good for myself ya know.  :)  I headed over to La Bocca on Market St.  I sat outside on the sidewalk patio and had an appetizer, salad and even dessert.  I washed it down with a glass of wine too.  Was fun sitting by myself watching traffic go by.  After dinner I took a stroll down the sidewalk and headed into a place that is a new all time favorite called Dandy Lion.  It is located on bank street right off of Market.  I felt like I was in the Highlands (Which I LOVE!).  It is a little store that is all vintage/handmade goods.  Some really quirky stuff and it totally inspired me.  I wanted to go straight home and paint!  I roamed around and took it all in and then headed to the movies.  I saw The Help and laughed and cried through the whole thing.  Such and AWESOME movie!!  After the movie I headed straight to Meijer and bought the book to read along with some shoes and a new purse.  I found the cutest purse there and even though it was a bit more than I was wanting to spend on a purse it made me smile and will daily remind mommy of her night that she had to recharge her batteries.