Maybe it's more like a "rant" or "long, boring story" than a "pout", but alliteration won over precise word choice. It's also lost some of its steam in the five days I've had this post sitting here, unfinished. It's the story of my Wednesday, which had about as much action as I need in a month of Wednesdays.
Wednesday, despite the fact that I still wasn't feeling much recovered from my bronchitis, I forced myself to get all the kids fully dressed, hair done, teeth brushed, etc. I was very glad of that when I called my doctor at 10:00 to tell him that I had finished my bronchitis medicine, but was still wheezing. The nurse told me I definitely needed to come in, and could I be there by 11:00? I grabbed Lincoln out of his crib where I had just put him down for a nap, got a snack in the kids, made sure everyone had gone to the bathroom and had shoes on, and we headed out the door in a hurry. I was congratulation myself on getting out the door fairly quickly, but then I looked at my van, which was parked in the driveway-- between the garage door and my father-in-law's large-and-in-charge pickup truck. The pickup that my father had taken the keys to when he went to work with Evan that morning. My van also didn't have Cheyenne and Elliott's carseats in it, because they had driven out in Dana's truck. I raced into the garage and scaled mounds of stuff to find one extra booster seat. Thankfully, Evan called to tell me that Dana had put the carseats on the corner of the porch. Lincoln's carseat wasn't fastened in, either, because Evan had taken him somewhere that week. After fastening three carseats into the van, and backing and filling very gingerly about 20 times to avoid hitting Dana's truck, we were on our way, only about 10 minutes late. The doctor's appointment went easily enough (the doctor put me on steroids and another antibiotic), and then I decided to stop at the grocery store. The kids did fairly well in there, although their empty tummies turned them into total goofballs that raced up and down the aisles, earning me disapproving looks from the non-moms in the store. Then, I stopped at McDonald's to buy the kids lunch. After pulling over and divvying out all the food, we had a quietish 15 minute ride to the drugstore. As I was pulling through the drugstore drive through, we went over a bump and the van immediately started making a terrible noise, like something was rubbing on the tires. I pulled over and checked all under the van, but couldn't see anything wrong. I called Evan, and he told me it was probably fine to drive the three miles home, and he would look at it that night. Then, for the final stop at the library. We spent a few minutes in there, with the kids checking out books. They were definitely showing the effects of being out and about all day and approaching nap time. Lincoln chose that time to fill his drawers in a spectacular fashion. After we finally got everyone's books sorted out and checked out, and were heading out the door, the children's librarian came hurrying over to tell me that a children's program was starting in 15 minutes. I told her we couldn't possibly stay, thinking to myself, "If I am not laying down in 10 minutes, I am going to perish of exhaustion." We drove homeward, the tire definitely not right, and just as we turned into our neighborhood, the tire popped. I was thankful that it wasn't while I was on the main road, but it still was a little distance from home. Thankfully, I had my big double stroller in the back of the van, so I sorted through the groceries to get the perishables out (regretting the large watermelon purchase) and crammed the stroller full. There was just enough room for Lincoln. Then, with Rilla wailing that she COULDN'T walk, we marched through the hot sun to our house. It took AAA 2.5 hours to come, so I couldn't even sink into a nice oblivious nap.
It turns out our van's coil spring had broken, so after a chunk of cash, it's back in action. Saturday morning, I brought the four kids up to the farm here, leaving Evan home to work. We're going to be up here for a week, so the kids are having a glorious farm summer. We watched the cows get drench de-wormed last night-- I took lots of pictures, but haven't downloaded them yet. So here are lots of outdated pictures, but they're still full of cute kids!
This is the presents I gave Cheyenne's teacher and bus driver at the end of the year-- homemade freezer jam in a cooler. I didn't think it was a bad gift, considering I didn't think of getting presents until 8:00 the night before.
Cheyenne, on the last day of first grade!
We had some company-- always enjoy that!
Cheyenne's new shoes-- for once, I wasn't Fun-Sucking Mommy, and bought her the cute, slightly unpractical shoes.
Self-satisfied Rilla.
Rilla with two French braids. I think I produced less noise giving birth to the child than she did while I braided her hair, but they were cute.
We headed to the Oswego County Fair 4th of July weekend. A family that was heading out gave us their unused ride tickets, so the kids got a free ride!
Proud of himself, with his helicopter up in the air!
Marilla, over on the other side of Cheyenne's helicopter.
Rilla was very unsure of sticking her head in here.
This looks pretty realistic, but we might want to start saving for our daughter's plastic surgery on her ears.
He's not comfortable in his own skin-- he's trying to crawl out.
At the young farmer booth.
I remember this helper from last year-- she takes her job VERY seriously.
Searching for the requisite number of eggs.
With their farm bounty! If this is the Future Farmers of America, agriculture is going to be the cool thing to do! This booth was pretty cool-- once the kids were finished, they were given vouchers for free pints of white or chocolate milk. They kids sure enjoyed them in the heat!
Cheyenne checking out her horse twin-- they have the same hair color.
She drew the line at letting him sample some of her hair, though.
Cheyenne's red tongue, after Grandpa Dana spoiled her by buying her a strawberry smoothie.
Someone in the county has too much spare time-- this cow and farmer was constructed out of old milk cartons!
Lincoln in the Cool Kid's seat.
He enjoyed sitting on the tractor, too!
Driving with lots of evil chuckles.
It didn't take Cheyenne long to fall asleep on the way home!
Then Rilla needed me to take a picture of her from the front seat!
And this little boy thought it was funny to peek over his carseat.
The new window in our room! We're finally finishing up the siding project we started two years ago. We ripped the siding off the back, then tore the drywall out of our room so we could frame in new windows and insulate the walls. This nice new window lets in so much more light, it's like a whole new room. I can't imagine how nice and bright it will be when we get sheetrock and paint in there-- or how nice it will be to have it insulated so it's not cold in the winter and hot in the summer.
Lincoln likes to stand on the bed.
What a grin!
Someone snuck Mommy's iPod Touch when Mommy was busy taking pictures!
This blurry picture was taken in the middle of an elaborate family drama involving Care Bears and Cabbage Patch Dolls. I love listening to the way she makes them talk.
Auntie took this picture of a cute little boy!
I'm finally feeling a bit better from the bronchitis, so I am looking forward to a week here at Vaughans'! Of course, my kids are ecstatic to be seeing their cousins and getting to "help" with the farm. We love summer!
