Ben is in Dallas for a couple of days without a phone (we couldn't find it last night-- it is turned off so no way to call it either!), so if you read this, Ben, I hope everything is going well and I'll see you tomorrow night.
The weekend was a pretty busy one, as usual! On Friday there was no school and so we went to the zoo (I think I mentioned that?). It may well be our last visit to that zoo, so we walked through the WHOLE thing. It was a long day, but the boys were extremely good sports and didn't get too cranky or anything, although Joseph and Mosey were both asleep before we got back on the Turnpike on the way home. We went with the Curtises as well, and it was fun. Crowded, though! It's finally cool enough and not so humid so that going to the zoo was pretty comfortable, and I guess with the day off of school everyone else was thinking the same thing. We were there for most of the afternoon, and actually got to see some of the more exciting animals in action. The lions were out and about-- they're usually sleeping on this big stone thing in the middle of the enclosure. The elephants were walking around and eating and standing very close to the front of their enclosure so we could see them well. I will miss this zoo a lot. The nearest zoo to Austin is in San Antonio, so we probably won't be going as often.
On Saturday I went to Rena's baby shower which was really nice. I had worked hard all last week getting her pictures edited so I could order them on time to be shipped here by Friday. Then Friday night and Saturday morning I worked on getting them all matted and in a couple of photo albums for her baby shower present. During the shower, a lot of the husbands went to Rena's house to help them move to their new house. They had been living in a teeny tiny condo with 2 bedrooms, and when they found out they were having twins, they put it up on the market, sold it, and finally were able to move into a 3 bedroom rental with way more space last weekend. Crazy to be moving with 2 week old twins, but luckily Russell (Rena's husband) has been able to take a few weeks off of work to help out. Rena seems to be doing really well with the twins so far.
On Sunday Ben and I had to give talks (topic was Christlike love) in church, so Saturday night and Sunday morning we were busy preparing. I had also been asked to play the violin, so I was frantically trying to pull something together. Thankfully at church they announced there would be an intermediate hymn, so I got off the hook for playing my piece. I wasn't really ready with the piece I had chosen, so it was just as well. I think our talks went well, although both of us were somewhat distracted with the boys during each other's talks. Joseph and Mosey in particular were pretty irreverent. Both of them had stayed up till VERY late 2 nights in a row and it was catching up with them.
At home again I attempted to get the house cleaned up a bit. With all the stuff going on with the kitchen and then a busy weekend, the house was pretty messy. I had folded massive amounts of laundry on Wednesday which I STILL hadn't put away, and so the living room was pretty much unnavigable. I dont' think that's a word, but oh well. So I did get that put away and then a few other things straightened up after the boys went to sleep.
This morning we were ON TIME to school (a big deal since we were late EVERY morning last week, which was very bad, but also the first time we had ever been late). Mosey ate candy (still working our way through the Halloween stash) while I paid bills and attempted to purchase plane tickets for Christmas. It was very complicated. I was trying to buy several different tickets-- a 3 way ticket for Naomi from D.C. to Ft. Lauderdale, and then from L.A. back to D.C., and then another 1 way ticket from Miami to LAX which she will take in escorting my kids to LA. For the boys I had to get a multi-city ticket from Miami to LAX and then from L.A. to Austin. I had to get a round-trip ticket from Austin to LA and back. But I had to make sure I was on the same flight as the boys on the flight from LA to Austin, and I had to make sure Naomi was on the same flight as the boys from Miami to LA, and I was also trying to minimize costs because the cheapest multi-city flight for the boys did not correspond to the cheapest one-way ticket for Naomi or the cheapest round trip ticket for me, so I had to figure out which combination of flights would give me the cheapest overall amount. It took me more than 2 hours to figure all this out, and it was complicated that partway through Orbitz did a price shift on all their flights, so I had to basically start over. And then a hold was placed on my debit card so I had to call and wait on hold for MORE THAN 40 MINUTES to talk to someone at Bank of America and prove I am who I say I am so they would take the hold off. And then of course when that was done and I went back to Orbitz where I had been in the middle of purchasing my final tickets, I had been idle too long and the website logged me off and so I had to start ALL OVER AGAIN. AAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!! Everything is just so complicated right now.
But I did get the tickets purchased. I'm still not convinced I got the absolute best price, but oh well.
After I got the boys from school we did errands-- I went to a tile store and ordered tile for our kitchen backsplash and for the floors in 2 of our bathrooms. We went to Home Depot and I got a cord kit so I can wire up and plug in our new oven. I went to Walmart to get a step-ladder and another p-trap kit. Took the boys to BK for dinner and FHE. They played with a couple other kids there and had a great time. Then went home, gave Mosey a bath, put the boys to bed, wired up the oven, worked on the sink, gave up on the sink, and here I am!
The story on the sink is that my original p-trap actually stopped leaking, so that was good. But in looking at it I realized I still had it wrong. There are actually 2 separate drains for the 2 sides of the sink. I had hooked up both sides to one drain, which would have been fine, except that it is at a higher elevation than the drain pipe into the garbage disposal, which means that water would always be backing up into the garbage disposal which would be yucky. So I disconnected it all and started on getting it re-plumbed, only to realize that I am missing 2 key parts, 1 for each side of the sink. So now neither of the drains are connected, and it's too late to go to Home depot and besides the boys are asleep, so I guess I work on it more tomorrow morning.
Doing home projects like these makes me appreciate living close to Home depot. I am running there 2 times a day it seems.
A few tidbits about the boys.
Joseph: Had to move his monkey for the first time last Thursday... He has a little friend named Sumid (the cutest little kid-- he is a Seik and wears a turban and doesn't eat meat and Joseph thinks all of that is very cool), and I think they get into trouble together. Both of them ended up emptying the playground sand from their shoes into a pile on the carpet where all the kids sit for story time and stuff. So both had to move their monkeys... They have little paper monkeys with their names on them, all hanging from branches on the class tree on one of the walls. When they misbehave they have to move their monkey to a lower branch. Joseph had been so proud that he hadn't had to move his monkey, but that's ok. I told him that was all right and I'm sure he learned to not dump out his shoes at school anymore! Today Joseph told me that he *almost* had to move his monkey. I asked him what happened and he said that Sumid wanted Joseph to try and pick him up to see how strong he was, so he started to pick up Sumid but he saw that Mrs. Vitale had a mad look on her face so he stopped. I told him he was very smart to pay attention to the look on his teacher's face. But you know, I'm happy he is getting into trouble over stuff like that rather than stuff like being mean or rude or disobedient or something, you know?
Brigham: On the way to school he said to me, "I wonder why yesterday isn't in the days of the week song?" I asked him what he meant and he said, "The days of the week song has Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, but no yesterday!" HA HA HA HA!!! I love how 5 year olds think.
Mosey: Sunday morning when Ben and I were both working on our talks, the boys were out riding bikes and playing in the greenway. Mosey got into a fire ant pile and got all bit up. I noticed the redness and swelling at church, and by last night it was pretty bad. By this morning all the bites had begun to blister up, and by this afternoon some were bursting and weeping and poor little Mosey was in a lot of pain. He wouldn't let me put any cortizone cream on the bites, but he did take a very long soak in the tub and fell asleep ok. The boys were talking about how there wouldn't be any fire ants in Texas, and they were disappointed when I told them that no, in fact, there are lots of fire ants in Texas!!
I took some pictures of his poor little leg, the one that's the worst bit. He got sporadic bites all the way up his leg and even some on his belly and back. Ben says he didn't hear him cry out there (he was outside, I was inside), and I believe that. Mosey is one incredibly tough kid. Fire ant bites hurt like the dickens, though, and stay hurting for several days. Nasty little things.
I also took some pictures today of some funny faces Brigham and Joseph were making. Joseph was showing me his "bat face" (the one with his eyes open real big), and then a Christmas face. Brigham showed me his "Thankgiving face" (I guess thinking about lots of yummy food), a Christmas face (anticipation of presents), and a Halloween face (the scary one). You'll see those pictures in that order below.
Ok, off to bed for me. Lots to try to get done tomorrow.
Mosey's owie fireant bites. Ouch!!!
Joseph's "Bat face"
Joseph's "Thanksgiving face"
Brigham's "Thanksgiving face"
Brigham's "Christmas face"
Brigham's "Halloween face"
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