Sugar Savant

I really like having a sister-in-law that works at the school and who happens to be two doors down from my son’s classroom. That way I get to hear about all the things he does. Like today when he told the teacher:

“I can’t have strawberries for snack because I’m allergic to them…unless I can dip them in sugar.”

There is no denying this boy is smart! Being 4 and already able to manipulate his way into getting extra sugar. He’s definitely my child! He has to do some refining on his technique but I think he’ll be just fine!!

A good life lesson

Mom Lesson # 64

Your naked (because she took off her own clothes and diaper) 1 ½ year old will jump down four steps nearly stopping your heart as you look on in horror as everything happens in slow motion but she’ll learn her first lesson on rug burn and how it’s not fun to have it on your butt! Then she will laugh and ask for an ice pop.

(She is going to be trouble! Mark my words!!)

The aftermath

I was very proud of myself on Monday being able to do all that snowblowing. Now I’m not so sure if proud is the right word since I’m still sore and can’t lift my left arm much higher than my shoulder without it popping. What’s that all about? I eat whatever I want and don’t work out a lick. How am I not in shape??

The good news (for me) is that I’m faring better than the snowblower. It died last night. At least I survived!

Snow fun!

We got buried in over 2 feet of snow yesterday! (The forecast of 7-9 inches was a little off base.) It just didn’t stop snowing! Being that my husband works for the highway department he was out from early morning (4am) until dinner time (about 15 hours). As for me, the University delayed opening until 11 (and later closed) but we already had 18 inches in our driveway by 6am so I needed to get out there early so I could clear the driveway and get my car out. I’m not a fan of machines I don’t know how to use so I planned to shovel my way out. That was until I opened the garage door! I laughed and called my husband to learn how to run the snow blower. I didn’t time myself but it took maybe an hour and a half to get my side of the driveway cleared out. I was pretty proud of myself. It was a lot of manual labor considering I was using a machine but thankfully my muscles haven’t atrophied completely and I was able to get the job done. Afterwards I called my husband to give him an update and I told him that the hardest part was getting the blower back up the incline part of the driveway. It was slippery so I didn’t have a lot of traction and pulling that big heavy machine back up took a lot of effort. He asked me why I didn’t put it in reverse? WHAT?? There is a reverse?? “Yeah, that’s what the R is for” he said. If I could have smacked him through the phone I would have! That little nugget of info would have been helpful about 1 ½ hr earlier!!!! (I went back out later to finish his side of the driveway and let me tell you, that R is a fabulous thing!!!)

Big kudos to my mom for keeping an eye on the kids while I snowblowed. NO WAY could I have done that if she wasn’t there.

And a super big kudos to my husband because I have a much greater appreciation for what he does all winter long. Working all day (a loooong day) and then coming home and snowblowing some more, and then waking up at 3am to get back out there again. I didn’t have to work yesterday but snowblowing the little bit I did was more than enough to make me thoroughly exhausted!

Spring? Can you hear me? HURRY UP!!!!

That's me hanging on for dear life!

The view from my front door at 6am!

Beware the potato!

Bud won't eat potatoes. He just won't. He liked fries until he found out they were really potatoes. We couldn't figure out what his hang up was. That is until the other day. We were eating dinner at my in-laws and when he was offered potatoes he refused. Then he very casually, almost wistfully, said "I wish something else grew out of ears." What?? Then it dawned on me. Whenever he has wax in his ears we tell him he has potatoes growing out of his ears! He literally thought potatoes grew in ears! My mind is racing but he continues. "I wish carrots grew out of ears instead." Hold on. Bud, potatoes don't really grow out of ears, they grow in the garden. Remember, you helped Grandma pull them from her garden this summer? He just looked at me skeptically and still wouldn't eat them. Last night we had potatoes and he's still very hesitant about them. Maybe this summer when he sees them in the garden we can finally convince him. For now though he's sufficiently scarred! Good job Mom!!

Whoa!

Have you ever looked at your kids and lost your breath? All of a sudden it hits you how much they have grown and you don’t know how that happened! When did he start looking like his father? When did she become old enough to understand what I told her to do? He has the most perfect little lips, but they aren’t so little anymore! She has a way of looking at you that shows wisdom way beyond her age!  How did that happen?

The unluckiest man alive

My husband has the worst luck ever. If something can go wrong for him it will. He is looking for a new job. He has been unhappy in his current position for years but recently has stepped up the search to a more active level. He’s applied to several jobs at the college I work for with no luck. One in particular had me in a tizzy! He had literally EVERY qualification and he didn’t even get an interview! Not even an interview!! He doesn’t have a bad reputation, we just can’t figure that one out! He’s taken civil service exams and hasn’t gotten anywhere. Most recently he’s been completely screwed over. He took the Sheriff’s exam in November. We expect his scores any week now but at this point that doesn’t matter. He got a letter in the mail last week saying that he neglected to attend the mandatory physical agility portion of the exam. OK, except that he was never NOTIFIED about the physical agility portion of the exam!! He would have divorced me if it meant making that part of the process! Nothing would have stopped him from going! He called the personnel department right away to see if it could be rectified but the devil lady said he was out of luck. She said that she can’t be held responsible for the mail and if he didn’t get the letter notifying him about the agility portion he’ll just have to take the written test again, when/if it’s offered again. After that lovely conversation he called every person he’s ever known to be connected to the Sheriff’s office, he even called the Undersheriff! Everyone feels incredibly bad for him but no one can do anything. The Undersheriff said he has no influence over the personnel department and his friends are all too low on the ladder to make a difference. He had a meeting with the devil lady’s boss and he’s going to look into it but we don’t have a lot of hope. So because the post-office didn’t deliver one piece of mail his fate is decided for him! I’m not a conspiracy theorist but my God I just might be pushed into being one! How can so much go so wrong for one person?

I have been consumed by this. I don’t do anything without thinking about this. I couldn’t even post anything here yesterday because this was all I could think about (which is why I’m writing this now, to get it off my chest). Is one lucky break too much to ask for? Anyone want to hire a hard-working, unlucky man??