Over the past 14 days we've been dealing with quite a few problems at our house. There have been a few days when the basement floor was dry but not very many because we keep getting more rain. Yesterday we were back up to 2 inches of water in our basement. I went to a hardware store on Wednesday, and one of the things I bought was more tubing so Paul could have 4 pumps in the sump hole. Thankfully we don't have anything on the floor down there that can't get wet. We've learned the hard way. Our furnace has been turned off for 2 full weeks. It's been rather warm the last few days (in the 80's) so actually I've missed the air conditioner. The ceiling fan in our bedroom has helped a lot. Today it's much cooler, and I'm missing the heat today. If we turn on the fireplace tonight that will make it better tomorrow. Hopefully our gas bill will be lower than usual. Our electric bill was more than double what it was for this month last year. I guess running all those pumps and dehumidifiers really has used a lot of electricity. It isn't because we've turned on the central air because we haven't used that yet this year!
Wednesday night my choir director dismissed us 30 minutes early because of a tornado warning. Paul and I woke up around 3am to a horrible storm. As I left the house at 8am for Hershey, I noticed Nadia's trampoline was missing. I called Paul, and he went looking for it. Our 12 ft (diameter) trampoline had been lifted up over our fence (taking off a few fence post caps and opening the gate) and went across the street and landed on some trees in a Christmas tree farm. Thankfully it didn't hit any of our neighbor's houses. It took Paul 3 hours to unassemble it and put the pieces in the garage. The next time we assemble it, we'll make sure there's no way it can go up, up, and away. It hit one of our neighbor's recently planted saplings. They were really nice about it. Hopefully the people who own the tree farm will be reasonable about whatever we owe them for the damage done to some of their trees.
We also discovered some ants this week. They seem to be coming in through the dining room. At the store on Wednesday I bought various things to combat the ants including this stuff that looked like fertilizer that Paul put around the edge of the house as the man at the hardware store recommended. So far they haven't gotten into our food. Praying the spray, pellets, bait, etc. does the trick and we don't see any more of these little ants in our house. You can tell I've been stressed out lately because for the past week I've been waking up once each night in a panic about something. Last night I was hollering about ants. Paul reminds me that I'm dreaming, and we go back to sleep. One night I clobbered Paul and screamed that he was on top of Ian. Poor guy! Ian was of course in his own bed, not ours.
Ian had three days in a row (Saturday through Monday) where he got up sometime between 6:00-6:30am. I was so thrilled! Unfortunately the past four days he's awakened sometime between 4:50-5:30am every morning. I let him cry. Some mornings he went back to sleep for a little bit (or at least was quiet for awhile). Other days (like this morning) he just cried until I finally got him. I am even more inclined to do this now that he can't have a sippy cup in my arms right after he gets up. Many mornings he fell back asleep in my arms after his first sippy cup and slept until 7am. Since that won't be happening any more, I really am not inclined to rescue him from his crib earlier than 6am. Let me say that Ian wasn't the only one in tears this morning during his first feeding. I treasured those snuggling times with Ian, and they're now over. Giving him his sippy cup is now a stressful time for both of us. I'm praying it doesn't take him too long to transition to the new "system." Even though I know it's the best thing for the long run, it's really hard right now. Well two feeding battles are done for today. Only four left to go. Toys are pointless. He's too upset to play with anything. He just threw any toy I put on the tray right off the highchair. Singing to him was the only distraction that was at all effective today.
During Ian's 2 hour appointment Paul's parents took Nadia to Hershey's Chocolate World (free tour) and McDonald's. They had driven down separately and met us at the doctor's office. After Ian's appointment, we all went to the Zoo at Hershey Park. They only have North American animals there so it's not a very large zoo. The weather was perfect (about 77 degrees). The kids enjoyed seeing the animals. It's so cute to watch Ian get so excited. He was sitting in the stroller and would start squealing and kicking his legs and waving his arms in excitement when he'd spot an animal. His favorite was the ocelot who came right up to the glass. Ian was trying to touch it. Nadia was scared of the black bear. The first two pictures were taken at the black bear's habitat (there were fish in the water in his habitat). The kids slept almost the whole way home. That made the return trip go rather smoothly, and I managed to stay awake although I admit that again I was rather tired and could have fall asleep rather easily. When we got home we walked to the park and then had dinner. Dinner took 90 minutes for Nadia. She ate one periogi rather quickly, but it took forever for her to eat a few bites of grilled chicken and green beans.
Wednesday night my choir director dismissed us 30 minutes early because of a tornado warning. Paul and I woke up around 3am to a horrible storm. As I left the house at 8am for Hershey, I noticed Nadia's trampoline was missing. I called Paul, and he went looking for it. Our 12 ft (diameter) trampoline had been lifted up over our fence (taking off a few fence post caps and opening the gate) and went across the street and landed on some trees in a Christmas tree farm. Thankfully it didn't hit any of our neighbor's houses. It took Paul 3 hours to unassemble it and put the pieces in the garage. The next time we assemble it, we'll make sure there's no way it can go up, up, and away. It hit one of our neighbor's recently planted saplings. They were really nice about it. Hopefully the people who own the tree farm will be reasonable about whatever we owe them for the damage done to some of their trees.
We also discovered some ants this week. They seem to be coming in through the dining room. At the store on Wednesday I bought various things to combat the ants including this stuff that looked like fertilizer that Paul put around the edge of the house as the man at the hardware store recommended. So far they haven't gotten into our food. Praying the spray, pellets, bait, etc. does the trick and we don't see any more of these little ants in our house. You can tell I've been stressed out lately because for the past week I've been waking up once each night in a panic about something. Last night I was hollering about ants. Paul reminds me that I'm dreaming, and we go back to sleep. One night I clobbered Paul and screamed that he was on top of Ian. Poor guy! Ian was of course in his own bed, not ours.
Ian had three days in a row (Saturday through Monday) where he got up sometime between 6:00-6:30am. I was so thrilled! Unfortunately the past four days he's awakened sometime between 4:50-5:30am every morning. I let him cry. Some mornings he went back to sleep for a little bit (or at least was quiet for awhile). Other days (like this morning) he just cried until I finally got him. I am even more inclined to do this now that he can't have a sippy cup in my arms right after he gets up. Many mornings he fell back asleep in my arms after his first sippy cup and slept until 7am. Since that won't be happening any more, I really am not inclined to rescue him from his crib earlier than 6am. Let me say that Ian wasn't the only one in tears this morning during his first feeding. I treasured those snuggling times with Ian, and they're now over. Giving him his sippy cup is now a stressful time for both of us. I'm praying it doesn't take him too long to transition to the new "system." Even though I know it's the best thing for the long run, it's really hard right now. Well two feeding battles are done for today. Only four left to go. Toys are pointless. He's too upset to play with anything. He just threw any toy I put on the tray right off the highchair. Singing to him was the only distraction that was at all effective today.
During Ian's 2 hour appointment Paul's parents took Nadia to Hershey's Chocolate World (free tour) and McDonald's. They had driven down separately and met us at the doctor's office. After Ian's appointment, we all went to the Zoo at Hershey Park. They only have North American animals there so it's not a very large zoo. The weather was perfect (about 77 degrees). The kids enjoyed seeing the animals. It's so cute to watch Ian get so excited. He was sitting in the stroller and would start squealing and kicking his legs and waving his arms in excitement when he'd spot an animal. His favorite was the ocelot who came right up to the glass. Ian was trying to touch it. Nadia was scared of the black bear. The first two pictures were taken at the black bear's habitat (there were fish in the water in his habitat). The kids slept almost the whole way home. That made the return trip go rather smoothly, and I managed to stay awake although I admit that again I was rather tired and could have fall asleep rather easily. When we got home we walked to the park and then had dinner. Dinner took 90 minutes for Nadia. She ate one periogi rather quickly, but it took forever for her to eat a few bites of grilled chicken and green beans.
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