Where Are You? Part 2

I knew something was amiss when my dear husband starting describing the city we were moving to for the season. I may not always be the sharpest tack in the box (I have twins), but when the fact that there's a dog kennel next door is one of the most positive things he can come up with, we're in trouble.

Then he pointed out that players wives could have a free gym membership - with childcare.

That sounds lovely, but the last time I exercised on purpose was a spinning class that resulted in my inability to sit without wincing for nearly two weeks.

No thanks.

Okay, he says, but the local grocery store has babysitting too.

Huh? Doesn't anyone in this town take care of their own children?


Okay, maybe I could use that one. Especially since I have to drag the recycling into the store before the shopping even begins.

Oy.

But ultimately it wouldn't matter where we laid our heads at night, there's not a whole lot this mama can do with an overly talkative 3 year old and two nearly 18 month olds who can leap tall buildings in a single bound.

Okay, that's an exaggeration, she doesn't talk that much.

I digress.

This town has a plethera of very tall trees, which I love and for the first month we were here it did this weird thing where puffs of cotton seeds would fly all over the place, making it look like it was snowing.

Speaking of snow, get a load of this.....



Okay, that's a fire hydrant, you're thinking. What's that got to do with snow?

Notice the white pole with the red stripes at the top?

That's so the firefighters can find the hydrant.

IN THE SNOW.

Let's all take a moment and thank the Lord that Andy plays a summer sport.

Because in this town, along with the Bisons there's also a hockey team and an NFL team.



Just down the road, there's a great little shop that has local produce, deli meats, and sweet treats. We love to get our blueberries there, and the ice cream is delicious.

So I've heard.



On every corner, there's a Tim Horton's which seems to be the go-to for coffee around here. They also carry really yummy donuts.

I mean, that's what someone told me.

We've been to the children's museum twice and there were a few rainy days where the best option we had was Chuck E. Cheese.

Don't knock it, until you try it. Five dollars in tokens can last a really long time when your children don't even know they aren't playing the games.

But I must say that our favorite place to go in this lovely city is the zoo. There are several reasons for this,

The first being that the elephants have good balance.....



The alligators (crocodiles?) are small....



The chickens don't peck.....



It has the bear necessities...



and of course, the team mascot.



In the end, it wouldn't matter if we were living in Timbuktu, because right now, this is where our Daddy is. And being together is so much better than this.....

Where Are You? Part One

Most seasons we get at least one visit from the in-laws, out-laws, grandparents. This year is a little different in that almost all of them started new jobs. Along with the blessing of new employment comes the bummer of no vacation time. Which means no visits. Which also means, no break for the mama.

No worries. I have everything under control.



So for the grandparents I'm going to post a three part series entitled

Where Are You?

You heard it right. A series. Don't get too excited. It probably won't ever happen again.

It's just a fancy way of saying I-know-I-can't-fit-it-all-in-one-post-because-nap- time-can-only-last-so-long.

Speaking of naps, Lainey is totally outgrowing hers. She's "resting" in our room, but as I write she's gone from singing Jesus Loves Me to a school yard chant about Michael Jackson coming to town and Pepsi-Cola burning him down.

A huge thanks to the Cousins for teaching her that one. Oh wait, here comes my favorite part,

Lincoln, Lincoln, I've been thinkin', what on earth have you been drinkin', is it whiskey, is it wine, oh my {gosh} goodness it's turpentine.

I may have to start considering home schooling.

And I really need to get on with this post before she launches into a mash-up of Gold Digger and How Great Thou Art.

This is a view of our joint from the road.



Wow, you're thinking, that looks small. There are two reasons for that. One being that the property we're on is a very narrow rectangle so the townhouse sits sideways on it and the other is well,

it's small.

Here's the front/side.



And here's the back/side. The shared laundry room is through that door at the top of the steps in the middle.



The first few weeks we were here I really enjoyed that little path to the laundry room. Even if I was carrying my load in the girls baby doll bed because I forgot a basket. It was peaceful and lovely.

Until The Incident.

One afternoon I went to let the dog in and there was a snake. On my peaceful path. Not only was he slithering around and being all snake-like, he was eating his lunch.

Which was still alive.

For the rest of my days I will never forget that poor little frog with his back legs caught in the vice of the serpent's mouth. He was giving it all he could to hop away, but the snake just kept pulling him back.

Of course, I saw all this in a matter of 3.5 seconds because I RAN back into the house, forgot the dog, ran back out to get him and then ran back in all the while fussing at Andy to save the frog.

SAVE THE FROG!

He said

Do you really want me to mess with nature?

Yes, yes I do.

And what should I use?

We have a broom.

A broom, you want me to save a frog's life with a broom.

Um, yes, yes I do.

And so, because he loves me with all his heart, Andy grabbed the broom and claims to have rescued the frog by shooing away the snake. In my mind all of Frogger's little froggy friends came to get him with a little froggy stretcher made of bark and took him home to recover.

In reality, the snake probably came back and ate him because really, how far can a frog hop without back legs?

Not far, I tell you. Not far at all.

Moving on to the inside.

You've already seen the living room, the dining room and the kitchen. If you could find it in all the mess. I took that shot sitting on the love seat, and here's the view as I turn to the right.



And that concludes our tour of the inside.

I'm just joshin'. But really, that's about it. So here's a view from the kitchen back to the couches.



That thud you just heard? All my friends with good taste who just looked at the windows and fainted. Because who puts a white panel followed by sheers in varying shades of blah? And then, because they think it looks great does it to the next window, in the same order?

I don't know people, I just live here.

Here's the master...



Nothing says romance like a shiny bedspread and garbage bags on the window.
And yes, that is Lainey tackling Anna Grace. I think she was forcing her to smile and then just decided to body slam her.

You know, the usual.

Here's the girls room, complete with garbage bagged window. The Nester would not be proud. For the record, Andy did it. He enjoys his sleep.

I can't really argue with the effectiveness, or the price.



Here we have the lovely bathroom. That's Emily who took it upon herself to brush her teeth. It's totally adorable, aside from the unfortunate fact that she's using someone else's toothbrush.

At least it's not mine.



Finally, the most important feature of this home, according to Lainey.



That's Willie, the miniature horse that lives right behind us. Lainey thinks he's the best and wants to feed him apples and carrots nearly every day.

And so we do.

That concludes this riveting tour of our current home.

Stay tuned for part two of the series which I am calling

Where Are You? Part Two.

Originality is one of my gifts.

A Request

Today in my email there was a prayer request from a fellow baseball wife. Friends of hers from back home were in the hospital with their 18 month old daughter, Preslee, as she was fighting for her life after falling into a canal at her grandparents home and drowning.

After the game tonight when I checked for updates I learned that she got her healing.

One hundred percent.

In the arms of Jesus.

What I am asking of you is this, please pray for her parents, Patrick and Ashley. I don't really have the words to express what they may be feeling. Pray for her grandparents, as they were babysitting when this all happened.

And tomorrow, when you're about to pull your hair out because your children are driving you batty....take a deep breath, thank the Lord that they are healthy and give them an extra squeeze or two.

That's what I'll be doing.

http://patrickandashley.blogspot.com/

Someone to Watch Over Me

One day last week I was reorganizing our Hymnal for Worship & Celebration while sitting at the dining room table. Actually, I was putting it back together, all seven hundred and twenty pages of it, because my budding musicians, Emily and Lainey "accidentally" dropped it while they were pounding playing the piano.

Seven hundred and twenty pages.

Loose sheet music. Out of order.

Once I started getting it back together and into the binder I noticed that one end of the table was seriously smudged. It looked as if I had slathered the girls hands with peanut butter and told them to go nuts.

Although some days do get a little chaotic around here I don't recall doing such a thing. But maybe?......

Upon closer inspection I realized that these prints went too far into the table to be my little people.



Then someone pooped, someone got stuck under a table, someone else needed a snack and I forgot all about the smudges.

Until tonight.

While the girls were playing outside with Lilang and the neighbors, I came inside to clean up a little.

It was then that I spotted this.


I am partly to blame. For two years after we moved into this house I put a dining room chair next to the window with the blinds turned so that Buike could see when we were coming and going. Then when I was pregnant with the twins we started contemplating selling our house and I moved the chair back under the table to avoid weird carpet marks by the window.

Apparently our poor little buddy was missing his perch.

And he takes his job as guard dog very seriously.

So when I said to him

Buike Green, what do you think you're doing?



He gave me this look that meant,

Oh, good. You're here. Do you think you could move that chair so I can keep a better eye on my girls?

And so, after my heart melted just a bit, I did.





Neighborhood Watch has nothing on him.