The days are long, but the years are short

We had a good morning.  My mom came over and we traced the kids with chalk.  I went to Lowes and got a few flowers to plant on the hill in front of our yard and we played a lot of My Little Ponies.  

Levi's chalk body

looks just like him

now it is time to trace grandma

get grandma

i should save her but it is kind of funny :)

After Levi's nap we went outside to try to burn as much time as possible before complete darkness set in.  We noticed that our neighbor's garage door was open and walked down to hang out for a bit.  They were putting up their Christmas lights and turned them on for a while.  The kids all ran around and had fun.  Katie spun until she fell over (don't tell the doc- I'm sure that's not okay) and rolled down the hill.  Levi marveled at all of the lights.  By the time we got home Katie was crying because she was itchy, her arm hurt, and her burnt finger hurt.  The only tylonel I had was the icky stuff she doesnt like. She had to down it quickly and then drink some milk.  Then Levi wacked her in the mouth with a wooden spoon.  that really helped her demeanor.  I heated up some leftovers and tried to convince the kids to eat.  Katie had to go potty and cried because she didn't think she could get her pants off fast enough with one hand :( :(  :(  She is so frustrated.  Neither kid really wanted to eat anything.  I even gave them applesauce for dessert and they still didnt want anything.

Then we played playdough dresses for barbies.  Katie usually loves this game but she was so frustrated that she could do anything with one hand.  She couldn't roll the playdough or pull it out of the cookie cutters or even open the package.  She was so sad.  I tried to help her do it but I was also trying to keep Levi from eating it all.  She finally decided it was too hard and we played a little. 

trying to work the cookie cutters

stamping play dough

 I was going to open a book that Dan had read when he got online and tried to talk to her.  She didn't want to talk and just cried a little.  It was horrible.  She is having such  a hard time with not being able to do anything and missing Daddy.  Ugh. I hate it.  I don't know what to do for her.  By that time everything was going wrong for her.  It tried to get them to the bath.  She didnt want to trashbag over her cast because it smelled funny- she didnt want to stool to rest on- her legs were itchy- snow white fell in the water- she wasnt done in the bath- sleepy elles cast was uncomfortable to cuddle with- she was cold- she didnt want to sleep with levi because he was too crazy- she didnt want to sleep in her room because she would be lonely.....


 I feel very overwhelmed.  I just want to get through the days but what a terrible way to live.  By the time Dan gets home, Katie will be almost 4 1/2 and Levi will be 19 months old.  And they plan to do this again in 2016. Tomorrow I am going to try to take the kids to Sunday School.  It starts exactly when Levi expects to take his morning nap and he cries if I leave him :(  Maybe I will put up my Christmas tree or something.  Seems like lights tend to make everything seem more merry. 

Living with a Cast and Police Helicopters

If you haven't figured this out, I pretty much only blog when I am away from Dan or my parents to let them know what's going on around home.  Mundane stuff.  

Katie has been getting used to life with a cast.  She can get on the toilet with a little help but can't rip the toilet paper off the roll yet :(  She did actually carry a stuffed animal with her cast hand today which was great for her.  She is having a lot of trouble eating with her left hand so I have to cut everything up really small and give her a sharp adult fork and still feed her a little.  It is quite a challenge feeding two kids and trying to eat myself.  We were very lucky that our awesome neighbor Lexi brought us a lasagna, bread, salad, and brownies so I didnt have to cook anything today.  Hopefully soon we can get back into a normal routine.  In the bath we wrap her arm in a trash bag with duck tape and she rests it on one of her stools.  We went to Target today to get some more Tylonel.  Apparently the stuff from the pharmacy tastes terrible.  We also got pens to sign her cast and tried to find Disney Princess movies with the free digital download (not easy)  When I went to give her the medicine tonight apparently we did not buy it :(  Not sure what happened.  It was in the cart but I didnt pay for it.....  Guess we will be back tomorrow.

 

Katie and Sleepy Elle are twinsies with matching casts now. 

When we got home from Target we drove by cops cars. As I was entering my neighborhood there were two helicopters circling giving us the description of a man they were looking for and oh by the way my garage door was wide open. WTF?!?!?  I drove to my neighbors house and had her watch my kids while I went inside to see if some creepy white dude wearing all black was in there.  Luckily I didn't find him.  Why does this stuff happen?  For some reason now that Dan is gone Katie doesn't want to sleep with Levi anymore even though she has been for the past few months :(  I need them to sleep together so he doesn't cry all night and I actually get to sleep.

Before Katie went to bed she listened to a story that Dan read for her.  Levi walked in the room and said, "Da Da!" looked around and then ran to the garage and started knocking on the door looking for him :(

Now, if the kiddos will actually go to sleep I will consider today a success :)  Everyone is still alive and more or less in one piece!

The Deployment Curse

It never fails that the stuff hits the fan as soon as your husband leaves. This time we got a jump start on it. Four hours before Dan was supposed to be at his deployment Katie did a backflip off the changing table while Levi was getting his diaper put on. Her elbow bent back all weird and she screamed and wouldn't stop crying even with pain meds and princess Sofia. We knew it was bad. I tried to hold her still and corral Levi while Dan frantically packed the rest of his stuff up.  We had planned to put the kids to bed and finish packing and hang out leisurely.  Instead we dropped Levi off with my dad and headed to the emergency room on base.

Thankfully the medicine eventually kicked in and she fell asleep. Dan got to stay with us after his report time and got to hold her while they put the initial cast on. After saying goodbye to daddy we still had to wait for the doc again and visit the pharmacy. We made it to my parents place around 2 am. She was scheduled for an appointment at 9 am so we all woke up early for that. Levi stayed with my parents and I took Katie to get her cast since she broke her elbow. She picked pink and purple. 

The novelty of having a cast has already worn off and she is realizing that she can't do what she wants to do. No more ice skating or swimming or sand or biking.  How in the world do you keep an active kid occupied without those things?  And the cast is heavy. She goes back in six days for another X-ray and four weeks to check it. Thank God I have my parents here to help. She can't even go pee by herself yet. I hope she gets used to it soon and can get back to herself. 

I figured this has to be the whole deployment curse, right?  Well when we got back to my parents Levi slammed their fireplace door shut and broke it spewing glass EVERYWHERE!!!!!!  Prayers please!

Starting up the Fall Kid's Garden

How is October almost over?  One more day and then the dreaded calendar month flip...  We decided to plant a Fall Kids Garden for Katie and Levi to 'take care of' while Dan is away.  We went to Lowes and picked out brussel sprouts, purple Kohlrabi, and Cabbage.  Not sure that I will do with that but the options were a bit limited and Katie was quite insistent on those choices.  A little digging and planting and covering with leaves and we are about set to go.  Dan is going to put in some drippers so I don't have to water everyday. 

getting the soil ready

lots of little plants

Katie is spreading leaves for me

Using front year leaves to help keep in moisture

Guess we will have to post pictures to keep Daddy up to date on how things are growing and if we get any delicious crops.  I think this is a pretty good area.   Our Summer Garden had tomatoes growing higher than me!  One idea for Kohlrabi suggested slicing it with a Mandolin slicer thing.  maybe Santa will bring me one :)

Magic Erase My Grout?!?!

I have a lot of hideously dark grout in my house that I have been trying to clean since I moved in back in September of 2011.  I searched and search on pinterest for ideas.  I tried a lemon baking soda mix, looked everywhere for oxidized bleach, and sprayed (waited for and hour) then scrubbed and scrubbed my grout with a toothbrush- then repeated.  I finished about a quarter of my grout with this last method before giving up.  It was 2 hours a night every night with little to show for it.  

On Saturday we moved a piece of furniture and it left a scratch on my tile so I busted out my trusty Magic Eraser to see if I could wipe it off.  It worked.  My hands strayed a bit and I rubbed it on the grout to see what would happen.  I quick little rub and what do you know?? My grout magically got cleaned.  Are you kidding me?  Was it that simple all along that I could have just been magic erasing it?  Why didn't I think of that 3 years ago?

What else can I magic erase?

Katie's Garden in July

Katie's garden is growing great.  We ate tons of sweet peas and have had lots of summer squash.  Her tomato plants are getting huge and we've gotten one red cherry tomato off her plant.  The purple tomatoes and orange tomatoes have blooms but no fruit yet.

Purple, Orange, Cherry from back to front

squash girl

 In the back we have patio corn growing.  Here is it when we planted it and today.

June

July

 Our grapes are producing like crazy too.  They are getting sweeter everyday.  Although Katie and her friends seem to eat them before they can get all the way ripe

Our project for the day today was trash can sweet potatoes.  We had a sprouting sweet potato on the counter so I cute it up and threw it at the bottom of a trash can that I poked some holes in.  I also threw in one red potato.  Hopefully we get some yummy potatoes in a few months :)

Lastly we have some squash plants sprouting up all over from our pile of compost.  :)

Katie's Garden

I was trying to clear out some weeds to expand Katie's garden when apparently I broke a sprinkler and didn't even know it.  When we got home today our neighbor told us he had shut off the water because the sprinkler was going crazy.  Luckily a gardener was around and fixed it for us.  Then I hired him to finish clearing the evil weeds and mow our lawn :)  It looks really nice and I hate doing it and Dan isn't around much.  Then we planted three tomato plants.  Katie picked out purple tomatoes, orange/ yellow tomatoes, and cherry tomatoes.  We even put them in little cages.  Then we planted some carrots in a box.  She already had sweat peas, summer squash, and basil growing.