March 20, 2008

The Last Entry

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-The Management

Posted by Kevin at 10:44 PM | Comments (0)

March 17, 2008

It's as bad as...

After shopping at IKEA this weekend we now have a new definition of bad.

It's no longer as bad as, a "poopy diaper." Now it's as bad as an "IKEA pizza pocket." They were wickedly bad. And I mean that in a literal sense. The whole grain crust was thick, leathery and yuck. The processed meat thing inside was even worse. Take my advice and stay with the meatballs and cinnamon rolls. Those Swedes can make good, cheap furniture but they can't make a pizza pocket.

At least we have a new definition of bad in the McLaughlin house now.

Posted by Kevin at 05:08 PM | Comments (1)

Busy Busy

Let's see. Where exactly did this weekend go? On Friday, I got a tooth yanked that was abscessed. It hurt. The drugs really knocked me out for the rest of the day which was ok except I totally forgot that Grandma Vicki was coming down for the weekend to visit the girls. I was pretty out of it all weekend so I'm not sure what they did. Me, I mostly just slept and tried to recover. Thank goodness for pudding is all I can say!

I did manage to drag my sorry self down to IKEA with Kevin on Sunday and we ordered the rest of our kitchen cabinets. They are arriving on Wed. Yikes! Once they are here we will have no excuse left. The thought of tearing up my kitchen makes me break out in hives but I need to keep looking at the big picture, right? Out with the old and in with the new!

Posted by Chrissie at 04:37 PM | Comments (0)

March 10, 2008

Really?

It was a perfect weekend for the coast. The beautiful spring weather held for us all weekend. I'm so glad to hear that Kevin managed so easily without me. All this time I've been hesitant to leave fearing that he'd be in over his head. Now that I know he has things so very well under control? Well, let's just say that the mommy going away weekend once every year is definately going to increase. Yes indeed.

Over the weekend I finished a very cute quilt top that is, unfortunately, earmarked for a family Christmas present so I have to pictures I can post here. We also discovered that the cute local quilt shop was having a going out of business/retirement blow out. It was a little bittersweet. One the one hand, the prices on everything were phenominal. But on the other, that meant no more quilt store in Lincoln City. Sigh. Ah well, I guess that means next time we'll have to try somewhere new.

I wonder if Kat is free next weekend...or do you think that's too soon?

Posted by Chrissie at 04:09 PM | Comments (3)

March 09, 2008

Day 2 and beyond...

Day 1: The night went pretty smooth as well. Leina took her scooter on the walk and thus so did Kulia after a moments reflection. Now I wasn't about to let this turn into a "dad lugs the scooters all the way home trip" but Leina is really good at her scooter now so it wasn't a problem. Both she and Kulia zipped all the way down our hill with only a few falls and no tears. Unfotunately both of them used my leg as an emergency break several times so I'm still feeling the walk 12 hours later.

FYI - the TV bribe still works like a charm. Must remember to continue paying the elctricity bill...

Day 2: We head to Papa & Manny's for dinner tonight so I only have to make it to nap on my own. Only ~6 hours to go, no problem. Strange, the laundry still hasn't taken care of itself? I'll have to ask Chrissie how it goes from upstairs to down, then back upstairs all neatly folded in my drawers. Maybe I need to change the batteries in the laundry basket?

Posted by Kevin at 08:43 AM | Comments (0)

March 08, 2008

Day 1

Ok, this day has been cake. I think I could do this full time ;)

7:00am - Leina wakes me from a deep sleep (too much Mythos last night)

7:05am - got both kids, we're all snuggling in bed watching TV (see the previous post). Well, two of us are watching, one of us is sleeping - you can guess who.

7:30am - more snuggling

8:00am - think about getting up. Decide on more snuggling...

8:30am - ok time to get up.

8:45am - Kids are changed and/or dressed, we're out the door heading to our favorite breakfast spot: Shari's - aka Molly's after our favorite waitress (that's another story).

8:50am - we arrive at Molly's and I realize I haven't actually showered yet. At least I'm not still in my PJs.

The kids were fantastic at breakfast. I had forgotten how slow an eater Leina is though. Kulia and I had finished our breakfast and were busily coloring and Leina was still grazing. She'll take a bite, look around, talk, ask a question, ponder the universe, then take another bite and do it all again. I swear she'd still be eating breakfast now if I hadn't prodded her along. I'm in charge of getting her breakfast in the morning but that's where my responsibilities end. I go clean up while Chrissie takes over and actually makes sure she eats something before school. I'd forgotten what a chore that could be.

Kulia was something else though. She's been branching out in her food choices more and more lately. It's not longer just, "nuggets and dip dip (aka Ranch Dressing)." This morning she wanted pancakes - just like Leina (at this rate I hope Leina never decides to jump off a bridge, but I digress). The 'cakes came with bacon, which she tested but was not too thrilled with - we have bacon at home. I thought she'd go for the sausage links, like last time, but she told me in no uncertain terms those were, "too spicey." So it was my ham she went for. She devoured it like it was the last pig on earth. I'm always amazed at what she'll go for somtimes. She polished off my whole slice and asked for more. When I told her we didn't have anymore she just said, "ok, can I nuggets now?" You can lead a horse to water...

Still the girls were fantastic. Energitic, cheerful and polite. The trifecta of behavior highlights.

Next it was Home Depot and home. They then played quitely by themselves while I cleaned the kitchen (see previous post). I suspect Chrissie's trained them not to bother her while she's cleaning, 'cause they kept to themselves almost the whole time. Rarely did they make a fuss or argue - maybe it was the power breakfast? Still, I was in awe of how smooth the morning went.

Then it was lunch - I went for the nuggest and soup, why press my luck? Then bath, since we've got another dog walk post dinner and I figured we just get it out of the way. Once again the TV bribe worked and they went off to bed after a few books. They're now watching the bribe after a restful and uneventful nap. I hope the electricity never dies though - I don't think I want to put these kids to bed ever again without the TV bribe.

We'll see how the night goes, but I'm telling you I could do this full time. Hmm, I wonder when that laundry is going to wash itself?

Posted by Kevin at 05:45 PM | Comments (0)

She's Off...

Well, Chrissie's made it to the coast. She's out of town for a weekend craft-a-way with Kat. They'll be knitting / Sewing / Quilting it up at the coast from Friday Night - Sunday so I have the kids this weekend.

Everything went easy Friday night. After dinner out, where Chrissie and Kat left to the beach afterwards, we came home, walked Artie (in which we go 1/2 as far but it takes twice as long as a normal walk) but on the PJs, read books and it was off to bed. I'll admit to bribing them with "morning" TV if they went quietly into the good night. This was quite devious of me since I was planning on snuggling in bed and doing "morning" TV anyway but I figured a good lever shouldn't go to waste.

I was amazed at how little I cared about the schedule when I was running the show. On a typical night I get home from work, we eat dinner, have some playtime then go PJs, books, bed - bing bang boom. I'm usually watching the clock the whole time. "can't play too long if we have bath," "gotta get Leina down so she's not grumpy in the morning," "need to get this done tonight."

But last night was very strange. I guess I didn't care about the time 'cause I knew, with the dog walk, I was going to blow the schedule anyway. It was very liberating. I let Leina put on her own PJs (at her own schedule), we read extra books, sang extra songs and it was all ok. I knew I didn't have anything to do Friday night except goof around online - I couldn't work in the shop since I had to be available for emergencies - so I didn't really have to a keep to a schedule. Only once Leina was down and put to bed did I realize it was 8:30pm - 1/2 an hour past the routine bedtime! But the kids didn't have any ill effects this morning and the world didn't end. Maybe well make Friday nights a traditional "stay up and smell the roses" night?

Of course, in all my activity last night I forgot to do the dishes. There they were waiting for me in the morning, all crusty and gross. Ugh. How could my wife have left without cleaning the kitchen? Sneaky dear, sneaky ;)

Posted by Kevin at 10:42 AM | Comments (0)

March 06, 2008

Projects

We've been busy here at Casa McLaughlin. Must be the spring weather making us buzz about like bees with things to do and places to go. Has the urge to spring clean hit you yet? I'm beginning to look around and notice the dirt and clutter more and more every day. Poor Kevin. I forsee lots of furniture rearranging in his future. Hee hee.

Anyway, I finally finished up two more identical skirts for the girls. Remember the twirly skirts? Here are their cousins, the button skirts. I cut the fabric a good two months ago and it languished about on my craft table. It was moved and buried and pushed around most rudely until I finally decided to sit down and finish it off. Just like the twirly skirt, it was a snap to sew up and I'm so pleased with the results. Leina? Not so much. She has decided she will "most definately not ever" wear her skirt and threw a fit when I dared to hang the offensive article in her closet. Kulia, of course, decided to take the exact opposite reaction and loves hers. Don't worry, I fill force Leina's unwilling body into her skirt if it kills me. I'm seriously thinking I need to start sewing for myself because trying to guess the reaction of a very extremely tempermental 4 year old is wearing me out.

Anyhow, I am not the only one creating. My girls are both crafty chicas extreme. They love paint. I'm not so hot on them painting. We compromise with dot paints. Who ever came up with dot paints should be awarded some sort of mommy nobel peace prize. All the fun of paints without the horror. So here they are, my crafty chicks.







This snail caused them to go into fits of laughter. Why? Because they thought the snail's tail was poop. Snail poop! Could anything be funnier? Um, yeah. I'm so not looking forward to the whole "poop humor" phase but it seems we are there. Sigh. I can only hope it passes very quickly. Of course, I understand after poop humor comes fart humor. Things to look forward to. Lucky me!

Posted by Chrissie at 10:40 AM | Comments (3)

March 05, 2008

Collision Day

Yesterday everything that has been circling around us decided to collide. At one. It was crazy.

A few days ago, the frame on our sofa broke.

A few days ago, Kevin wrote a check on an account we had closed to Costco.

A few days ago, I noticed Artie had a tooth that looked wrong.

A few days ago, Kevin ordered a new video card for our computer.

And then, yesterday, all of the above were fixed and/or updated. It was a wild ride that went something like this.

Woke up and took Artie to the vet for an 8am exam. He tried to eat everyone he saw even though he was muzzled. Unsurprisingly, the vet didn't really want to try and open his mouth to take a peek at his teeth. I do not blame her. Artie really does not like strangers prying around his mouth and he has very large and mean looking teeth. So they decided to sedate him and take a look. 20 minutes later I learned that he had two shattered teeth. Poor thing. Image the pain of two shattered teeth! The vet said there was no emanel and she could poke right into the nerve. Yikes.

So I left Artie there for some emergency dentestry and headed home. Kev took off for work after dropping Leina at school. This meant I had to pick up Artie myself. Well, myself and Kulia. Imagine, if you will, the joys of trying to get a very drugged out dog and a two year old across a parking lot and into a car. It was not fun. Threw Artie at home, picked up Leina from school, ran home for lunch where I got a call from Costco saying our check was returned and we needed to try again. Yeah, decided to leave that mess for Kevin. Also found out that our broken sofa was still under warranty. Yippee! New sofa section is on it's way. Also arrived in the mail, the new video card which Kevin kindly installed so now I can play my computer games without a lot of awful lag. Another yippee. But by the time we crawled into bed, we were wiped. All the odds and ends we were trying to track all week landed at our feet yesterday.

The up side, of course, is that our to do list is strangely empty. Which is good because this weekend is my big coast vacation with Kat. So I can leave worry behind me. Thank goodness.

Oh yes, and Artie? He looks a bit like a hobo with two missing front teeth but he appears to have fully recovered. At I write, his is curled up gnawing a bone quite happily. I can ony imagine he's relieved we finally notice that fact that his teeth were killing him. Poor old man.

Posted by Chrissie at 03:08 PM | Comments (1)

March 03, 2008

Leina's Song

Here she is, with her own very important message for you.

Be nice.

Posted by Chrissie at 09:29 AM | Comments (1)