some fun things

Clare and Lance at Wild Animal Park


The beach...
Calvin's swim suit doesn't fit very well. But he was super excited about boogie boarding. He has become a really good swimmer this summer. He got pretty sunburned on his "lower back" since his pants slipped down after we put on the sunscreen.

Alexey is enjoying watching instead of sleeping when we go out and do fun things.



Also, we did a treasure hunt with Calvin for his patch, compliments of my friend, Jill. We are going to do it again in a couple of weeks if he wears his patch really well at school. In one week he'll get another map and then the following week we can do another hunt. For every day he cheats we push back the events by 1 day.

checking out the map (sorry about the blurry part--I was holding a baby toy in my hand along with the camera)


X marks the spot!

new calling

In my church a person can be asked to help by doing a specific job at church. Some are asked to teach classes, others do secreterial duties such as record keeping, others oversee an entire organization such as the youth. I used to be the secretary in primary. It was a great calling. I loved interacting with the other members of the presidency and I also loved being in primary. Children are darling. Another great thing about this calling is that it is pretty easy....take roll, pass out talks, help with routy or crying kids, make copies, etc. etc.

This week I got called to be the laurel advisor. Basically this is a job to teach, love and hang out with the 16-18 year old girls. I am very excited! It will be fun. I am also overwhelmed thinking I don't really know any more than a 16 year old. It will be more time intensive becuase there will be activites during the week and I will prepare lessons for the sunday meeting. It will be great!

Calvin is doing well at school, having a good time and surviving the full day. He is happy.

quirky kids

-Clare loves to go pee in the pool. I know she holds it until we get to the pool and then run in and go pee first thing.

-A few days ago she said "mom, I need to go potty" I didn't see where she went but a few minutes later I found her outside peeing in the bushes. (doesn't this sound like boy behavior to you?) (she has been great at potty training and never has accidents but it seems like some of her planned potty breaks are a little ummmm unique)!

-Calvin does not like underwear. Actually, I think he does like underwear but he is too lazy to put it on when it is his choice. I have been trying to enforce the underwear thing lately because I do think he should wear it to school.

-The kids think it is THE FUNNEST thing in the world to go skinny dipping.

-Calvin won't eat dinner unless it is in a plastic bag. He has always preferred to snack rather than eat a meal. I have learned to call everything snack, even if it is lunch or dinner. Some of his favorite plastic bag meals are plain pasta, apple slices, crackers, cheese, cereal...

-The kids can go through a big costco sized box of tube yogurt in 2 days. (32 yogurts)

**I should add that these children aren't completely parent-less and this stuff doesn't happen all the time..just funny little things I've seen over the last couple of weeks i'm putting all together here!

Calvin and school

I did sneak a picture of Calvin on the first day even thought he didn't want one. Maybe sometime in the next week or so he'll smile and take a nice back to school photo. He had wanted to make a hat that morning ... so we did.

For most of the summer Calvin has been getting up around 6. Maybe a little earlier but most days I didn't hear him until around 6. Since school started he has been getting up at 4:30 again. This is so lame! I don't even let him sit down when he gets home from school for fear he'll take a nap and then for some reason he is getting up extra early. He hasn't done that for months. Hopefully it's just nerves or excitement of the new school year and he'll do a little better.

He does like school and does well there. He has the same teacher that my brother (Uncle Dan) had in Kindergarten.

One of my friends bribed him with a fun treasure hunt if he'd wear his patch all week. He seems to think that is pretty cool and did wear it quite a bit at school. So sometime this weekend he'll get to do a pirate tresure hunt with a map and everything. It was nice of my friend to come up with this good idea. She will do it again next week if he wears his patch next week as well. She is actually going to bury a treasure in her backyard and make him a map. Pretty neat!

not much time...

but I wanted to say that yesterday was the first day of Kindergarden for Calvin. He didn't want his picture taken. This year, our district started full day K so Calvin goes from 8:50am-3:15pm. It is a long day. Yesteday after he got home he said, "mom, I was at kindergarden for a long time, huh?" Yes, he sure was. It sounds like he had a good time and made a new friend who wears glasses like he does and his teacher is very nice. He has a batman backpack and a black camo lunch box. That's all for now.

lots of pictures of Alexey

Alexey is 4 1/2 months old and the sweetest, smileyest, most wonderful baby!

things I love

~The sound of the washing machine running. {Dave and a friend from church moved it from the dining room back to the laundry room and hooked it up last night}

~Calvin wearing his patch and watching sat. morning cartoons.

~Sat. morning sleeping in. Calvin got up at 7. Clare at 8. Alexey 8:30.

~School starts on Tues. Calvin is super excited and I am too. He'll love it.

~R&M Construction. The construction company I hired have been great so far. They are easy to work with, nice, and on time for phone calls and appointments. We have to order the windows since they are not just the regular 4x4 windows for our little remodel and that will take 2 weeks. So, for the next two weeks there won't be much going on except I need to choose paint and tile for the kitchen. My hope and prediction based on what everyone has told me is that our house will be all done by the end of September. Just in time to get fumigated during Dave's week off. It might work out just right and we can spend some of that week getting put back together and organized. The reason we picked that week in October is so Dave is for sure off and can go to the Miramar air show (to see the Blue Angels fly) with us the first weekend in Oct. We are pretty much functional with the floor in the kitchen looking like this and all of our furniture piled into one room.

CALVINNNNNN!!

Yesterday I was so frustrated with Calvin I could just scream...or cry. The reason why. Glasses and patching. My lifes biggest challenge (yes, that is above and beyond having 3 kids and no washing machine, no kitchen table, no husband, and our home improvement project growing in a big $$$ way).

Summer is a super hard time for glasses because we swim, play in sprinklers, go to the beach, sweat a lot and do other activities that make it hard to wear glasses and patch.

Some of you might remember a few months ago my post about taping his hands behind his back. Well, yesterday after playing all day w/o the patch we came home in the afternoon and I decided that instead of swimming I would tape up Calvin and make him have some patch time. This is a sacrifice for all of us -- Clare and I had to miss our fun in the pool too. Anyway, long story short. Calvin can take off his patch even with his hands taped. (cry long enough to get it wet and un-sticky it'll come right off with some face wiggling) So, I tried the next thing. Reinforce patch with duct tape. He got this off too by crying and then rubbing his face on the floor. Who knew tantrums could be so helpful?



After discussing this with dave we thought we might have to go to the next frontier... tape him to a chair or duct tape all the way around his head so he cannot get the patch off. I was concerned this was too mean but dave assures me they put duct tape on people's heads ALL THE TIME and it's no big deal even if it does hurt a little and some hair is lost when they pull it off!

I really really hope he wears it at school (he did for preschool). Then he'll get plenty of patching time as school for us will be all day (9-3).

soccer!

I play soccer once a week. Tuesday night from 9-10pm. I am not a night person, and most nights I am in bed by 9 but it turns out that 9 is a good time to slip away b/c the house is quiet and nobody misses me at 9pm. I love soccer. I love competition. I love exercise (but not in the gym). I love to win. It is fun to play even if we don't win.

Today I was having a grumpy day for not really any reason except that I am high strung but playing soccer made that all better. I had to pay a babysitter to come stay with the kids while I went tonight since dave is on call but it was all worth it and so kind of my friend to actually drive her daughter both ways to babysit since I couldn't go get her. I am rambling and let me warn you. I will continue.


Last night I woke up twice in the night to see dave. Once after I went to bed to say hi when he got home from work late and then again when he left early early this morning. I should not complain since I am the one who is getting sleep but I do worry for his safety driving and health working so much and sleeping and eating so little. During Dave's first year of med. school I told him he could not be a neurosurgeon (dave does not listen). The reason why is because when Calvin had his surgery the neurosurg residents taking care of us were grumpy, tired, not clean shaven and obviously over worked. I figured whatever they were was not good. Now he looks just like that resident. But he is having a fun time doing what he likes and learning a lot. And I am glad for that. He is taking a week off the first week of October. It will be a much needed break and rest for all of us! The last time he had any vacation was November last year. It is a long time to go without more than a weekend off (and even when he's off for a weekend the pager keeps going, hopefully this will be a real break)!

false alarm

we decided not to get fumigated this weekend -- it would have been too stressful so we'll save it for a few weeks when dave is off and dave can help with the kids.

what termite eaten wood looks like...see the little tunnels? this was under the kitchen floor.


Sweet smiley Alexey!


This is for dave's mom. I guess dave used to suck on his lower lip. Of all the kids Alexey looks most like Dave as a baby.


I wish this was centered a little more on Alexey. I was the one holding the camera so I guess I'm lucky I got it at all!

blessings

well, my blog is looking like a long list of whining and that is not what blogging is about. We've had lots of great things going on too that I just haven't had time to talk about with all the crazy stuff going on. Here are some blessings/fun things we've had the past few weeks.

-today Calvin didn't burn the house down. he only burn a hole in the rug about the size of a silver dollar when he left his lamp on and it had "fallen" onto the rug.

-a few days ago when I was agonizing over a decision (which contractor to choose -- Randy or Duke). I dreamed all night about a certain person who was mostly make-believe but happened to be named Randy and happened to be a general contractor and was practically a super hero in the dream. I woke up feeling great about Randy as a choice and was so grateful for that help in chosing him.

- I have been so busy worrying and planning and doing house stuff that I haven't missed Dave as much as usual. He has been working like crazy! He is having a lot of fun and is happy to be doing neurosurgery full time now.

- Calvin loves TV. He thinks the greatest blessing of all is that we got cable turned on so that we can watch the Olympics and then football and PBS kids. Before we had cable Calvin liked to watch movies. Lately he has been saying "pause" when he wants us to wait. Here are two examples, "mom, pause the book, I need to go brush my teeth" and "mom, pause swimming, I need to go potty." He is a funny boy. I sure love him. He starts Kindergarten very soon. Aug 19th.

- We have had a lot of great workers in our house. Last Sat. one guy came over (and these people don't usually work Saturday) to move some stuff so that we could have access to the washer and dryer over the weekend. That is just one example. Overall, people are being very kind and making every effort to keep us as comfortable as possible and trying to get us back to functional -- especially since we have kids.

creepy, but true

Termite queens can lay an egg every 15 seconds.
(from terminix website)

Drywood Termites live entirely in dry, sound wood. Unlike subterranean termites, they require no connection with the soil. These termites attack the structural wooden frames, as well as furniture, hardwood floors, and wooden articles of many kinds. Colonies are small in comparison to subterranean colonies, containing only a few thousand individuals. Because of this, infestations are often localized in areas such as door and window frames, a piece of furniture, or even a wood picture frame. Multiple colonies may be present - up to several dozen per structure.

Apparently we've had termites for a LOT of years and apparently they have been supre happy living in the subfloor of our kitchen. Oh, and it's not very localized. They've been there a long time and have had time to move around and spread out their territory!

Friday we move out for the weekend to be fumigated.

post mold removal, pre window project

It would take way too much time to catch up on what's going on but for the few who have been on the phone here are pics of the kitchen window area. Accepting a bid tomorrow morning and hoping they can start work ASAP.

It's like "if you give a mouse a cookie...." here it goes.

If you have a water leak it will get the wood floor wet.
Then, someone will suggest calling the insurance and filing a claim.
If you file a claim, the insurance will send service master to dry the wet spots.
If they need to dry wet spots they will tear up baseboards, drill holes in the wall. If you drill holes in the wall and tear up baseboards you will find mold.
Since you have mold, it is from a leak.
You decide to fix the leak which of course involves tearing out a wall, a ceiling and some windows.
When you hire someone to remove the mold they will see termite damage.
.....to be continued.