Lots of Excitement

Okay, so brace yourselves...I've got LOTS of ground to cover to catch up!

And none of it's knitting!!!

It has been so busy here, getting ready for summer! Some of our summer residents are trickling back, we've seen the Bonds, the Mancusos, and the Bakers. The Hasals came today. It finally feels like Spring. My tulips are looking lovely! I need to look back at the past few years' pictures...but I do believe that this is the most bulbs that have ever come up, which gives me hope for the garden this year. 

Dudes, the weeds are there for naturalizing. Lighten up.

The Post Office is getting spruced up for the summer season, as well. I've requested unloved plants to liven up our small space.I can't wait to see what we get! 

anyone else thinking 'plant morgue'?

Tammy is getting ready to open her store! She is planning what she will offer, and we are organizing the space together (I LOVE to organize). She is as giddy as a schoolgirl, it's so fun to watch her!

I took the kids back to Boston again, for nephew Brendan's First Communion. It was a quick trip, lots of fun. He's so cute!

He's the dude in the middle, looking all holy-like.

Here are Things One and Two dressed for the Communion, and of course, posing for the camera. Wouldn't want to give Mom a picture she could actually frame or anything...

Do I even have to tell you what it took to get him to wear the jacket? His nickname is Panama Jack...all he wants is shorts and flip flops, no matter the weather. It's a joy.

So, we are home for a good 6 weeks; time to get the garden started, get done with school, and get ready for the short summer. We finished the school budget yesterday, coming in with a 4.3% increase at 164,400. Not too shabby, and I'm sooooo glad to have that behind me!

Tomorrow is a Mother's Tea at school. We must attend dressed to the nines (what the hell I'll be wearing is a complete mystery, at 12:15am it's also slightly troubling...). I was at school tonight for art class and saw a silver service set up. I had one of those Raven premonitions of me knocking over the entire table and spilling the hot tea all over the Mothers in their finery...should I bring the camera, do you think??

What else....oh yes...my kids tried to kill me today...

Thing One and two of her friends made lunch today. They made  PB&J and were having a picnic on the back deck (77 degrees out there today!).

When I walked into the kitchen, I smelled a smell. (I ALWAYS smell a smell. Husband goes CRAZY trying to sniff out the smells I smell. Did you know that's a sign of a brain tumor? He reminds me constantly.)

The kids, naturally, smelled no smell. I was all over my kitchen trying to locate the source of the smell. Had my head down the sink drain...it had all the markings of rotted food and I thought maybe something was stuck in the drain...

I checked the trash...

I bleached down the countertops...

I washed the floor in front of the dishwasher where we're prone to spill food...

Still smelled it.

So I decided that either something fell into that crack between countertop and stove and was rotting in the nice weather, or something furry had died under my stove. Either prospect made me wish (yet again) for that level 4 bio-hazard suit (with its own air supply)...and I wondered briefly about the prospect of moving.

With all these darned kids in the house, I had to deal with the problem. So I got down on the floor and pulled out the little drawer under the stove, fully expecting Ben or Willard to greet me (You'll have to be my age to get that rat reference).

Nothing there.

(ok, some dust bunnies. Shut up, you haven't cleaned yours recently either.)

I put my hand upon the stove to get up from my kneeling position....and saw the high output burner on my gas stove turned on and filling the house with gas.

I grabbed all 5 kids with one hand and ran out the door... an acrobatic feat I did not know I possessed the talent to pull off, I might add.

One of the older kids had leaned against the front of the stove and the knob turned. It happens to me all the time when I put dishes away in the cabinet over the stove.

I have ordered the safety thing that covers the knobs from One Step Ahead.

My kids are 5 and 7 and I'm still babyproofing.

Can you believe I didn't recognize that smell?? It really didn't smell like gas (I've had gas stoves for 16 years, wouldn't have any other), I know that smell well. But this smelled just like rotting food.

So I set the kids practically in my neighbors yard (which is pretty far away) and went back in to open all the windows and doors. Thankfully it was really nice out, and we stayed outside for the rest of the afternoon.  I can almost feel my feet again, and my heart has settled back into my chest; I'm sure I'll be okay by tomorrow.

But all of my wine is gone.

It's going to be a long week.

BTW, I really feel that I should receive some sort of recognition for not losing control of my bladder during that whole event. My kids get into some fairly hair-raising situations, and I'm not always so successful.

Also of significance this week: it was Thing two's birthday last weekend. He's five, as he will inform you if you even look in his direction. He's been telling everybody he sees. I can't remember what it's like to be so excited about a birthday.

"I'm five, did you know I turned five, I did, and now I'm five, and I get to go to BIG SCHOOL,'cause I'm five, five, yeah, I'm five, oh yeah, oh yeah, that's right, I'm five......"

This was what he got...a hand built bunk bed...and his own room. My kids have been sharing a room since birth. We knew we'd split them up as they are boy and girl, but it involved moving somebody to the very very small room downstairs that we have been using as The Toyroom.

Now.

I don't know what y'all do, but I'm so not into having my kids on a different level of the house than I am on. I have 3 doors! To outside! He's 5! How's this gonna work?!?

And this room is right off the kitchen! There are knives there! Look what happened with the stove, for God's sake! Am I supposed to leave him down there all alone?!? What if he decides he wants a snack, and goes and gets some food?!? What if he chokes?!? I need to be there! Who will do the Heimlich? Whose idea was this?!?

Surely we need to move, or add on to the house.

We discussed options. We fought. We cried. oh. that was me.

And in the end, we moved the boy down into his own room, and built him a bunk bed. It's nailed to the wall, and rugged enough to hold a sumo wrestler.

He absolutely LOVES it. He slept the whole night through without incident, and even Thing One, who I was afraid would pull some drama at being left alone, slept peacefully through the night; she is even excited to 'girlify' her room, now that he's out.

And I have a video camera watching his every breath.

ahem. you know damn well I was outside his door until 3am his first night down there...and my husband can't figure out why he woke suddenly at 4:30, and couldn't get comfortable, causing him to eventually get up and go downstairs for coffee. In my defense, he's a lobsterman, and usually gets up at that time. Which is why I set my phone to vibrate at that time and kept nudging him when he looked like he might roll over and fall back asleep.

lack of sleep is the reason I have no knitting to show. All my feeble brain can pull off is to float around Ravelry like a ghost. 

Speaking of Ravelry, I joined a swap group, and got a message from my partner today.

I'll have to whisper, 'cuz there's a good chance that she may take a peek here to see what I'm about...but shhhhhh...she seems pretty cool.

Don't tell her, I've already started putting things together to send her. 

Oh, nooooo, it's after 12:30.....and I have to go try on half the clothes in my closet to find something to wear to "The Tea" tomorrow. (only half, 'cause I already KNOW the other half doesn't fit...)

And I think I WILL bring the camera!