I'm back

It's Wednesday and I have some time to use the Internet again. My friend flew back home yesterday afternoon. Now I need to get caught up on everything I ignored during her visit. I haven't seen much of the Internet in a week, I have piles of laundry, and I'm afraid in a few places around my house, all it needs is seeds and water and I could start an indoor garden. I need to vacuum!

We had an excellent visit. Years ago we'd go out to the bar when she visited, but that hasn't happened since I married. We did make it to a couple restaurants for lunch while she was here, though. One had Vietnamese food and the other Mexican food. Both are places my family wouldn't want to go.

Sadly my friend is in the early stages of getting a divorce (hasn't seen the lawyer yet) so she worried about that a lot. We are hoping things will go quickly and uncontested. Fortunately she has no kids. When I took N and J to the dentist, she had her first experience alone with a baby (Kate).

Mr. K and I placed an offer on a four-unit apartment building (quad) in a up-and-coming area. We were countered and we countered back. Then the owner came back with a higher amount than their first offer so we gave up on that property. If it's still on the market in another month and if we haven't found anything else, we may run our original offer again.

Meanwhile, we hope to see some other properties this weekend.

It's Friday!

I'm not sure how much it matters that it is Friday. Mr. K won't be home much tomorrow, I don't imagine.

I had to get up early this morning (which wasn't too bad) and get my kids up early (which was very difficult) so I could take N and J to the dentist and get back before N's school bus arrived. My friend who is visiting watched K so I didn't need to bring her along.

I got gas in my car. I "only" paid $2.03/gallon so the price is coming down a lot from a few months ago. I'm glad; I do a lot more driving during the school year than I do in the summer.

Some time today I'm going to drive past our rental to show it to my friend, and then we are going to drive by a couple places near it to look at houses for sale in hopes of finding our next rental.

I can't think of one

My friend from Omaha got in yesterday afternoon as planned. She's still asleep. She's a night person, not a morning person, and she's from a time zone an hour behind ours. She'll probably be out for a while.

N and I are going out to wait for his schoolbus soon. I'll feed K her bottle while we wait on our bench. It's sort of cold this morning (in the 50s) so I'll probably need to wrap K in a blanet as I feed her.

If I have time, I'll write more later today, but I'm not expecting to.

Tackle!

Tackle!
Originally uploaded by greycharleigh.

Kate is five months old in this picture. She "tackled" Jessica this morning in our kitchen. Jessica insisted upon having their picture taken. Sadly, Kate didn't get to remain in her cute outfit all day because while we were at the doctor's office, she had one of those awful, explosive poops that messed up everything (probably one of the top five nastiest poops I've ever seen, but certainly in the top ten). By the time the doctor came in to see me (the doctor that delivered Kate), I had her in an ugly old onesie that used to be Nick's. I had hoped to show her what a cute baby Kate was. She still looked cute, but like a cute boy baby.

What's for dinner?

Well tonight it was a broiled top round steak in a garlic/lime/honey/mustard marinade with packaged thai-style noodles, and cooked frozen corn mixed with asparagus and red bell peppers. Mr. K and I ate it; N and J didn't finish theirs (barely started it) even though Mr. K offered them a turtle (pecan, cashew, caramel, and chocolate candy) if they finished. N and J pretty much hate everything I make for dinner.

Last night was thin, boneless pork chops, mashed potatoes and gravy, and steamed Swiss chard stems. Once again, only Mr. K and I ate.

When N and J refuse to eat, they are onlly allowed Cheerios and healthy food I am trying to get rid of (such as hard boiled eggs) for the rest of the evening. I wish I owned stock in General Mills cereal.

First week of preschool

Today was J's second day of preschool. She's been happy with it, and so have I. Yesterday I went to the gym after dropping her off. Today I went to a New Balance shoe store (at the recommendation of my podiatrist's nurse), and got a new pair of shoes that seem very, very comfortable right now, especially with the very well padded inserts I bought at the podiatrist's office last time I was there. As far as I know, my orthotics still aren't done. Tomorrow will be four weeks since my appointment, and he told me it would be two to four weeks, so I'll call and see what's up.

I've got my annual gynecologist appointment this Friday. I'll be there since I'm addicted to birth control pills. Perhaps in a year and a half, I'll get sterilized. I probably think about it at least once a day. While I was pregnant for K, I probably thought of it at least ten times a day. I can't think of any better way to engage in marital activities without risking another pregnancy. The pills haven't failed me yet, but they have failed others.

The last couple nights I've been "watching" the ABC movie The Path to 9/11. Actually I have so many things to do with the kids and things, I had to keep walking out of the room, but I did enjoy what I did see of it. I had read the part of the 9/11 report that described what had led up to the attacks and included a pretty much minute-by-minute report of what happened that day. I got that the day it came out at the bookstore a couple years ago. From what I remember of that report, the movie stuck to it closely. The movie was very well done. Perhaps it will be on DVD one day, and maybe on the tenth anniversary of the attacks, I'll have time to watch it again. It was nearly five hours long, and President Bush interupted it last night for about a 20-minute speech (great timing for those watching the movie). It had no commercials.

Oops! It's time to start the pork chops and rice pilaf!

Some time at the computer

I've got a little time at the computer. K is asleep, and N, J, and Mr. K have gone down the road to see the creek.

They just got back from shopping for my birthday present. I turn 37 next Saturday. I made Mr. K a list. It wasn't quite clear enough, though, because he had to call me from (I assume) the bookstore to ask me who wrote Anne of Green Gables and Anne of Avonlea. I forgot to include the author's name. I figured he would know since they are classics (though perhaps only in my world), and if he didn't he'd ask a clerk. My copies of those two books are in many pieces (too much use over too many years), and I'd like new ones so I can dump the old.

Last night we had a great time. J had been talking about wanting to go camping and having a campfire. Well, we aren't going camping, but I bought some Hershey bars, graham crackers, and marshmallows at the supermarket yesterday evening, and we had a campfire and s'mores in our yard. We got it started at dusk, and it was dark by the time it was ready for marshmallows. Our neighbor (the one who always has a beer in one hand and a cigarette in the other), saw the fire and commotion and came to the fence, so we invited him over to roast marshmallows. I don't think he actually ate any, but he came over for a visit. I think I ate two s'mores and a lot of chocolate. I think both kids had as much as I did. The kids are a bit young, but Mr. K and Mr. T (the neighbor) sort of pretended "The Grey Guy" was around. Mr. K left the fire for a bit and sneaked back, pretending to be "The Grey Guy." Unfortunatley J cried and cried because she was so scared. She got over it, though.

We had a battery-powered lantern near the food, and it kicked out enough light that we had shadows on the side of our shed. I was holding Kate in a lawn chair in the dark, but everyone else did shadow puppets, shadow dancing, and shadow boxing. It was pretty funny.

It got dark early enough that the kids were only a few minutes late to bed. Even K seemed to have a good time, although I notice a couple mosquito bites on her in the morning.

In the morning, I found Mr. T's beer can by the lawn chairs. I chucked it back over the fence for him. He collects his cans and then sells the aluminum.

We also made a second batch of mead yesterday afternoon. It has quite a bit more honey in it than the last, so we expect it to be sweeter. It will be next summer before the mead will be ready to drink, I think.

School started

N began school this morning. We waited out in heavy rain for the bus. N climbed aboard, laden with a wet backpack full of school supplies. He's due home in another hour.

J, K and I went to two banks this morning, and then went to the gym so I could work out. Then we had lunch. Then I took J shoe shopping for new Stride Rite tennis shoes. Finally, we came home and the three of us played tea party and then hide-and-go-seek. K merely played with a spoon during our tea party, and I had to haul her around and hide with her for hide-and-go-seek, but she didn't seem to mind; she liked the attention.

Friday J's preschool has an open house in the morning, and all three of us will go to that. I'll have a parents' meeting there the evening before. Monday J begins preschool for the year.

Yesterday was Labor Day. J was so excited. I could hear her yelling about it before I got up in the morning. Sunday she had mentioned her Labor Day party and Labor Day cake (I've never heard of such a thing). I thought that was cute so I made her a cake (from a mix) with frosting (not from a mix) yesterday so she'd continue to be happy about it. I've never been all that excited about Labor Day one way or the other, so I'm not sure what J's excitement was about, but she just loves any excuse to get excited about a holiday.