Christy by Nicky

Alex plays Bocci Ball

Memorial Day weekend

The weather has been gorgeous! I even got to spend a few minutes out in it. I had to work for 4 hours yesterday. When I got home I found Kurt in the garage sorting and pitching. He really knows how to turn a woman on! I pulled up a chair and a trash can and started to help. We now need a dumpster for all the trash. I need to go down and fill the Wonder Twin's garbage can, too.

We are having a garage sale on July 9 to get rid of some of these treasures. I figure the valuable stuff that doesn't sell can then be ebayed. I can not believe how many toys the kids have. I sorted thru a bunch of really disgusting boxes. I'd find dinosaurs, legos, sprocket thingies, a filthy sock, some petrified French fries, and then some other piece of crapola. Then I'd open another box and do it again.

Fred sorted thru a couple of his boxes and designated some stuff for garage sale. I'm so proud!

Sunday we had a really nice BBQ at my parents. Marn and Todd were up and Grandpa was over. We had awesome burgers and slow roasted weinies and brats. I took a ton of fruit and raw veggies. I think Nicky must have eaten his weight in the stuff. My dad took 3 of 4 Hansens to Osborne. There is a wildlife display and visitors center there. They also went thru Backbone State Park. Nick and Christy filled up the memory card on my camera. That's never happened before!

We left the farm around 5 and came back here to go to a house warming party. There were a lot of kids there. It was great for our kids to be able to interact and socialize with other kids and adults. Someone brought Bocci balls so Kurt and the kids were playing that while I played with my favorite baby girl, Alytha. Her mom, Korrena, is one of my best friends. I also got to hang out with her 2 year old son, Sam (who now sports a mohawk). Nicky continued to fill up on fruit, cheese, and veggies at this party. When it was time to go all the kids disappeared back in the house. I thought they were using the bathroom. In fact they were grabbing one last scotcheroo!

Single Motherhood

I got my first "single motherhood" experience yesterday. BTW let me reiterate how this was going to be our weekend alone. Well it would have been alone all right...Me alone by myself with four children.

Kurt and I spent a productive Saturday morning working in the garage. I liberated 5 (albeit small) rubbermaids and Kurt threw out 3 boxes of papers. I'm glad the weather is warm enough for us to start pitching stuff again. We had a quick lunch and left enough food for the one child that had to go to market with the PP. We have to pick up the kids by 1 pm.

Kurt called me part way to pick up the kids. His boss called. One of their clients (the same one that kept him out past midnight two nights in a row) was having problems. We had a graduation party to attend in the afternoon but now he had to work. We decided I would get the kids showered and presentable then the 5 of us would meet him at the party. Phone call #1. A few minutes pass and I get phone call #2. "The kids haven't eaten". NONE of them. Great. We are at the end of the groceries. Ok, I'll make lunch. I'll shower while they eat and then start getting them thru the shower. I go out to the garage to get some more accomplished. What's that ringing noise? The neighbors sure have a loud phone...ooop nope wait that would be......Phone call #3. I don't even remember, but he keeps calling me on the house phone. I'm getting annoyed. I have a cell phone!

By the time the kids get home it's 2:30. They haven't had any food since supper the night before. I made a pound of spaghetti and a pot of broccoli. It got devoured. Jelly sandwiches for some of them as well. Ridiculous. It takes more to be a parent that to give birth.

I made 2 of 4 kids change clothes once they put on their clean outfits. Clean also would need to mean NOT stained and they don't have a lot of that. Fred put on khakis as a preemptive strike. He knew I'd make him change too. I hear screaming in the basement. Christy has soap in her eyes. I try to help. She's crying. The shower curtain is half open because she keeps sticking her head out and wiping her eyes. There is water everywhere. Nicky is irritated because I make him change clothes. Christy proclaims "well at least my eye is clean". I ask if we need to get her a shower visor, baby shampoo, or if she'd like to shower with her swim goggles on. She replies, "No, I just won't open my eyes again."

Finally at 4:30 we start to load. The party is an hour away and started at 4 pm. Nick is going to navigate. He did pretty good, but he's usually a mile too late. We zipped down to the party in no time. Kurt said he was 10 -12 minutes away. Yeah right. I let the kids play on the cool playground equipment admonishing them not to get dirty, rip anything, or run over smaller children. I just stood there with the card hoping I was at the right party since I knew no one. Finally the host recognized me from the pictures in Kurt's cube and came over. Kurt arrived shortly there after.

The party was very nice. Met lots of Kurt's co workers. A couple of the kids need to work on their public behavior, but they are never in social situations so I'm impressed they did as well as they did. While at the party the client called back. The system still wasn't working. So the kids and I loaded up and headed for home via a different route. We got some money from Kurt and got the Lemony Snickets movie. Of course watching a movie entails snacks, then someone needs to use the bathroom, and then of course drinks are needed. It was 8:30 before we even got the movie started. It was a late night for us. Kurt finally got home around 1230 am. I'm glad we had this holiday weekend to be alone together!

How quickly we Forget

I can't sleep. I just spent the last hour trying to figure out what my ex husband's grandparents' and sister's names were. Why I have no idea. I finally managed it though, which is pretty much the only thing I accomplished today. I guess I had a nap and I washed a load of dishes, too.

My friend Denice's husband, Brian, died in a freak accident on Sunday. Kurt and I went to the visitation tonight. The funeral is tomorrow. It was changed from the Methodist church to the Catholic church because a huge show of law enforcement is expected. Brian was a county deputy. Brian and Denice's 15 year old son, Adam, were fishing when their boat capsized. Both were wearing life jackets, but only Adam survived. I don't see Denice much, but I hurt very much for both of them. I can not imagine what they are going through. She and Brian have only been married since '99. He made her incredibly happy. I was supposed to be in their wedding, but I had a contract to photograph another one. That wedding cancelled and I was at least able to attend theirs. Maybe I'm feeling my mortality and that's why I can't sleep. I can't imagine how my life would be without Kurt and the kids.

I realize my blog hasn't been very amusing lately. Hopefully that will change! We didn't think we had the kids this weekend, but found out we do. So much for our weekend alone. So much for our plan to not have to buy groceries. I think we'll manage though. We have a graduation party, and a house warming party (free food for 6!) as well as a family cook out at my parents. Hopefully, my mom will make too much food as always!

Strep Throat

I have strep along with 100 degree temp. I never have a fever that high. Kurt decided to take the kids home early to minimize their exposure, however, right now he and Fred are at urgent care. I'm starving but my throat is beyond swollen.

We called my parents because they and my grandpa were up here for Kurt's birthday party last night. I hope I didn't infect them at all.

I'm a tired tired tired of lying down, but I better go do it some more.

Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday Kurt! I love you babe!

Met my sister in Marshalltown today for lunch and scrapbooking. Lunch was blah, but the scrapping was good! The store is huge. It used to be a restaurant of some sort. The tables are set up in the glassed in bump out part. It was a beautiful day, too. I got 6 pages done. Marn got considerably less done.

On the way home, I plotted out what to make for dinner since we have Fred on Tuesdays. I'd left chicken out to thaw this a.m. When I got home Kurt had dinner already to serve! I'm so lucky! Plus it was good. I spent an hour or so outside planting Columbines, Iris, and Sedum that we brought home from his parents. I did some weeding, too. Later we went to Home Depot to get a trellis for my out of control stolen rose. Now I need to untangle roses and move trelli (the plural of trellis) around. Hopefully, it's nice tomorrow a.m and I can do it before work. I'm so happy I dropped my summer classes.

OH, I got my grades last Friday. 2 A's and a B!!! I have a 3.6 GPA woo hoo. I'm impressed. It's a HUGE improvement over the previous semester.

Addlepated Dumba**es

That would be Kurt and myself. We have had the most unbelievable weekend. Seriously. We survived Friday the 13th just fine. Saturday the 14th however.....good grief!

Friday night we went to Northwestern Iowa for a graduation party and then to stay over night at Kurt's parents. It's about 3 hours from here. (As a side note, Kurt has been sick with a horrible cold all week AND he hasn't had much sleep because of that and work.) Anyway back to the point. Kurt's parents have retired to South Dakota and are in the process of moving. We borrowed my Dad's truck (and left my car at their house along with my dog.) The plan was to collect the car and the dog Saturday afternoon once we got back from Kurt's parents. WAS of course is the operative word in that statement.

Also we had to be home to pick up the kids by 1pm on Saturday afternoon.

So anyway (there are going to be a lot of those in this entry). We left Friday afternoon and drove to Fenton. There is A LOT of water between here and there. Normally there is not. They've had 8 in of rain in the past few days. Water was lapping at both sides of the highway in many spots. The reason we took the truck was to bring back a queen size bed. The truck is a stick shift. I can drive stick shifts. I just don't do it often nor do I do it in traffic. People felt the need to pull out in front of us all weekend. Stuff was flying everywhere. One guy didn't receive a piece of my mind (and it would have been COLORFUL) merely because Kurt was on the phone with a client.

We got to his parents alive, we went to the party, we ate a lot, and met (at least for me) lots of relatives for the first time. I only got called by his ex wife's name once. So that was nice. Kurt's two brothers, their wives, and their 5 kids (ranging from ages 17 to 3), and the two of us were all staying at his parents' house. Which is great, but as I mentioned, his parents are in the process of moving, so there are 2 beds left in the house. Airmattresses all around. Kurt and I decided the closer you sleep to the ground the more you have to pee. It was a long night.

Saturday morning rolls around. Kurt was still sick. He doesn't think clearly when he is sick. We loaded the bed, removed a chandelier from Grandma's house, and I dug up plants. The boys loaded the bed and his parent's big screen TV. Of course the best method for removing these things from the house was to go out the window. I missed most of that process luckily. I was getting covered in mud as I attempted to wrestle what I believe was a sedum from the ground. The move was causing high stress in the house. Kurt and I needed to leave by 9:30. We were out of there by 10:30 so I thought we were doing great. I forgot a tarp but we had a drop cloth we strapped down. It looked like rain all the way home. It rained a couple of times. There were 40mph winds with bigger gusts. The plastic was about to blow off, so Kurt ripped it off. I dropped my diet coke on the floor filling my shoes with soda. People again tried to kill us in Ft Dodge. Kurt yelled at the stupid *@#&**#*#ers. We called the kids and told them we'd be a little late.

We get to Dike (with in 1/2 hour of home). Kurt asks if I put the laptop in the truck. What? NO. Great. It's his work computer. We call his parents. We arrange to meet one of his nephews on their way back to Rochester. That is going to add 4 hours to the trip. No problem. I call my parents and ask them to bring the truck and the dog to us to save driving. I will go fetch the computer and Kurt will take his car and get the kids. We drive another 20 minutes. Medicine Head says to no one in particular "the keys to the car are in the laptop bag". No problem we have a spare, I think. Next statement is "the spare is in there too, I think". Great. We can't fit the kids in the truck, my car is at the farm, the Impala keys are somewhere between here and Minnesota, and the tranny is out of the Wonder Twins suburban. Maybe we can borrow his Maxima to get the kids. He calls his sister in law about the pick up arrangements. We're going to meet them in Mason City which i think is about 1.5 to 1.75 hours away. We get home. The Maxima is gone. No luck. Call the kids tell them we are having vehicle problems. We use the bathroom and head north. Put another tank of gas in the truck. We get down the road about an hour and I remember my parents. Crap. I get the machine. I hope they haven't left for our house. Oh well. We arrive in Mason City, put another tank of gas in the truck and head for home. By the time we get home it's 430. Kurt heads down to get the kids. I start making supper (hoping the kids have had lunch) and clean out our room to make way for the new bed. As I move furniture in the living room. I find the spare keys to Kurt's car. Joy. I call my parents, tell them we are home. Mom says we need a travel planner.

Kurt and the kids get home. They get the bed moved in. My parents and the dog arrive. They stay for supper. Mom and I are looking at pictures on the digital camera. She sees a "Risky Business" type shot of Kurt. I was laughing so hard I was crying. Kurt and I are exhausted. Mom and Dad get ready to take the truck home. Yep. That's right. We've lost the keys. Kurt says "I put them on the hook". They're not on the hook. He keeps saying it. They aren't there. Then he decides he put them on the table in the garage on this picture we got from grandma's house. It's of the Pope. " I put them on the Pope. I know I put them on the Pope." I said, "5 minutes ago you insisted you put them on the hook." Mom and Dad are shaking their heads at us and laughing. Mom has a key to the truck. I had no idea. They leave. Kurt and I are going to bed. The kids will have to fend for themselves. We walk in the house and I find the truck keys. We are a bunch of addlepated dumba**es.

As Alice Cooper says.....

SCHOOOOOL'S OUT FOR SUMMER! I'm a big slacker-never-gonna-graduate-girl but I don't care. I dropped my summer classes. I may take a correspondence course (but I'd have to pay cash for it) so probably not. I'd rather go on vacation! Of course, we need two vacations, too. One with the whole famdamily and then one where I can relax for Kurt and myself. It's looking like Sioux Falls is the big vacay for the whole family. The we might be able to get one room and park two kids with Kurt's parents! It's all part of the evil plan.

I spent my first morning of summer vacation chatting with the WT for 45 min. We have identical back pain in our right shoulder blades today FYI. Then I mailed a present to my future niece or nephew, bought some stamps, cleaned out the car, and recycled. I need to drop 3 bags of "treasures" off at Goodwill on my way to work at noon.

For my first mother's day, I got a nice card from Kurt, a card and a bag of chocolates from Rikki, and I made child #3 cry (again)(this would be week #3)(I REALLY am the evil step mother)(joy) Needless to say, it wasn't the best day ever.

Kurt and the kids spent part of yesterday in the State park while I went to work. I felt badly about that too. I hate working on Sundays. I'd much rather be home with them.

Feliz Cinco de Mayo!!

I am celebrating by doing dishes and laundry. A house spousal equivalent's work is never done (especially when one has been sick 3 days and the other one has been working late).
Kurt has some big project to get ready so he won't be home until 10 or 11 tonite. I may go out for a margarita (and hopefully some food) with Rikki and Amy.
I opened at 7 am this morning so I'm about to have nap...which means the dog will want to play tug o' war. Somethings are VERY predictable.

Brrrr!

It is incredibly cold here. I think my clematis made it through the night. It's supposed to freeze tonite again, too. I'm sick and I've lost my voice. Fred, the number 1 silent son, is here today. So resting my voice today won't be an issue. He isn't what I'd call a brilliant conversationalist. I got up to drop him off at class. I have a project to finish (start) for class. Then I will be done until fall. I'm going to attempt to hook the laptop up in our boudoir and write the paper between naps.

UGH

I took vacation today as it's our last full weekend with the kids. We go to summer custody next weekend. However, it appears that I am sick. My throat hurts and I'm pooped.
We worked on the yard yesterday. The Wonder Twin bought a new mower and we are going 1/3 in on it (on payments of course!). Kurt mowed, Fred picked up debris and cut out saplings, while Christy and I weeded. My "stolen rose" is climbing all over the fence. I think Christy is impressed that I can actually grow something. She found a bird's nest within the brambles.
This afternoon we are planning biking, hiking, and skating. Christy wants to take pictures of eagles. I'm not sure if she'll be able to find any this time of year or not.
Friday night Kurt and I went to a combination divorce/going away party for one of my co workers. We were out til 1 am...and we didn't turn into pumpkins! It was amazing. My how my life has changed in the course of a year.