An Explanation of the Male Brain

Tonight my husband explained to me how a “man’s” brain works. Keep reading, this only gets more interesting.

This afternoon while talking with our plumber AH mentioned how he would be home early on Friday. I look at him with raised eyebrows and respond with, “You’ll be home all day. I’m leaving for the beach at 8:30am.” “You didn’t tell me that.” he says. Oh yes I did.

After the plumber leaves he says, “So I’m supposed to take Friday off? I thought you were leaving Friday afternoon.” Of course my reply was, “I told you when I made the plans that you would have to take Friday off. That it was a long weekend away, which I am sure you will be taking one or two of this winter so you can go skiing.” End of subject, or so I thought.

When I got home tonight AH finds me and takes a moment to explain to me how a “man’s” brain works. He tells me it was my duty to remind him several times of the plans and because I didn’t do this it is not to be expected that he will remember. Essentially he cannot be expected to remember the plans, even though they didn’t change at all from what I originally told him, because he’s a man. (These are his words – which he repeated several times) Forget that for weeks I have been talking about this trip, planning the details and that it is on our family calendar. Apparently it is a woman’s responsibility to remember everything the first time and a man has to be told repeatedly before he is to be expected to retain any of the information (per AH, literally).

My response? Honey, I am sorry the male brain is inferior to the female but you still have kid duty all day Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

(Wait till he remembers there is no school on Friday - ouch!)

Code Adam

I forgot that today was Veteran's Day and so I hadn't planned any activities to keep my kiddo's entertained. However, I did luck out that my mom decided to pay us a visit and showed up on Monday and left this morning. Of course the kid's were excited to see Grandma but even more excited to have her dog, Paddy, come along too. Poor Paddy (a teacup poodle) was chased, grabbed and held so much he was completely exhausted by the time the kid's went to bed.

The excitement of having the "dog" visit carried over to this morning and so my mom and her pup were out the door early on to visit their next friend. This left me the rest of the day to keep these two very excited children busy. What to do? Head off to the Seattle Children's Museum!

This was a great plan. I even timed it so that we got there at lunch hour hoping the masses would be out eating followed up by napping. This left only a few hundred kids to wade through to have our turn at the Mr. Potato Head exhibit.

Mr. B spent all of one minute trying out the MPH exhibit before passing it over in lieu of the fire truck and gear. He planted himself there for most of our three hour visit.

Now anytime you go to a place this size with children who are younger but not young enough to want to hang with you it is very hard to keep track of them both. I definitely make it a priority to keep a close eye on Mr. B but it was Beeb who I lost . . . first. It took me about 5-7 minutes of walking around before I spotted her. The first couple of minutes I wasn't too worried but after I checked every place and didn't see her I felt that little bit of panic induced adrenaline hitting my system. I was greatly relieved to spot her and have no idea how I overlooked her the first time.

At this point I decided the kiddo's would both have to stay near me despite their independent nature. Quickly Beeb was bored and so I thought a change of scenery necessary. I gave Mr. B his two minute warning that he would have to leave the fire truck (much to his resistance) and we moved over to the Cogs and art area.

These areas seemed perfect; smaller rooms and only one exit. Mr. B immediately got past his whining when he saw the cogs and headed in to take it over (literally, the poor kids inside didn't stand a chance to have a turn). Beeb explored it for a while and then fluttered around me before I directed her to the art studio to paint. This gave me my first opportunity to sit down on the bench directly in front of the cog area and work on making a hat (with the circular loom - so easy!). Beeb soon called for my assistance and I was gone for about 90 seconds helping her get paper on her board so she could paint. When I got back to my post Mr. B was gone. I didn't panic at all because this is Mr. B and whereas I panic over Beeb, who doesn't find trouble on an hourly basis, Mr. B does and so my response rate is much slower (hoping someone else will find the mess first and clean it up before I get there).

I figured he either went back to the firetruck or would come running by momentarily. After a few minutes Beeb finished her art and we went in search of her brother. After going through the entire museum I started to get a little worried so I enlisted the aid of the staff. I really like their system. You tell them you need help finding your child, they take the child's description and radio it out to the other staff and then you get to sit on a bench lounging while you watch all these adults with hand radio sets run around for you.

Of course during all this you want to appear to be the worried parent so I decided it would be a dead give away if I continued to work on my hat. Every few minutes someone would come by and assure me that they would find Mr. B to which I would reply, "You might want to check any area that is off limits." only to be assured that everything was locked up or had an alarm. Yeah right.

It took about 20 minutes and six adults but he was finally located in a restricted area that was pitch black dressed as a fire fighter. Ah yes, who knows best? That would be "MOM". You could see the relief on all the employees faces. They actually thought they might have "lost" one, which made me giggle. Mr. B wasn't going anywhere and there would have been one heck of a fight if anyone tried to removed him from his precious fire truck before he was ready. As he told me repeatedly, it was his "job" to keep the girls away from the firetruck.

Pineapple Express

Today I got a call from AH at about 1:30pm with the news that he was headed home early from work. Was he sick? Not physically, just sick in the head.

You see, he came home early so he could clean the gutters out. Last night on the news they talked about the 3-10" of rain we are expecting over the next couple of days and it must have just bugged him all morning (while it was a raining buckets) to know his gutters were potentially over pouring. So he lost the battle, packed it in and headed home (his dad will be so proud - seriously). AH spent from 2:00pm - 5:30pm with the pressure washer cleaning gutters, decks, patios and our driveway. When he was done he was completely soaked down to his ankles. Luckily he has really nice Sorrels that kept his feet dry.



He is one tired hubby tonight. Good job babe!

A Procrastinator to the End

Yesterday I realized that I had better tackle Mr. B's October homework. Even though I didn't look at it until last night we luckily did his homework assignments without realizing it. Yeah for kindergarten simplicity. Whew!

I also decided we had better do better this month since his folder came home stuffed with things due in November. So for FHE we decorated, as a family, his paper turkey with feathers, pipe cleaners, colored pasta and of course colored it with markers. It was a fun little project and it isn't even due until this Friday!

This morning Mr. B and I filled out his chart about himself since he is being honored as the student of his class all this week. Of course I misread the original letter and sent him to school yesterday with nothing but the teacher politely sent the reminder back to us again. So today he and I picked out pictures, wrote in his favorite ___________ where appropriate and drew a picture of Fort Casey (his favorite place) and a motorcycle (if he could have one wish). Only a day late, not too bad!

Next we have to work on writing the letters they are studying this month and read for 400 minutes so he can earn the Mariners Pencil Pouch. The reading is cake, we do that every day. The writing will be a challenge since he hates it and I hate fighting with him over it.

Going Commando

Every man will appreciate this post. There's nothing like going commando for Halloween. :-)



Happy Halloween!!!

A Moment With Beeb . . .

Here's a recap of a conversation I had with Beeb last night while getting her ready for bed.

Beeb: "Mommy on my next birthday I will be five. Can I get bathtized?"

Mom: "You have be at least eight to be baptized."

Beeb: "I want to get bathtized so I can live with Heavenly Father again."

Mom: "That would make Him very happy."

Beeb: "When I get bathtized Heavenly Father will be happy and if I don't get bathtized He will be sad."

Mom: "That's right."

Beeb: "So that's why I am going to get bathtized."

What Happens When I Get Dressed

The other day I was telling some friends about how my kiddo's decided to make themselves "mummy's" while I was getting dressed for the day. They used three rolls of toilet paper in the process. I received a little lecture when it was revealed that I didn't take any pictures. For me these events are daily, if not several times a day, so I didn't think to capture the moment forever for you all to enjoy as well. I've learned my lesson (bad bad girl) and so here is what happened this morning while I was getting dressed:







Do I care about this mess today? Not really. Why? Because my new kitchen floors are finally in and they look fabulous! :-)

An Unexpected Sadness

I had an unexpected bout of sadness last night as I drove home from a friends house and realized there would be a good chance that our 19 year old Mazda B2600 truck would not be in the driveway when I arrived.



Now that AH has purchased a new truck and with some of the issues that the old truck is having (needs a new catalytic converter, rotors, brakes, and it just started leaking oil) it was decided that we should sell little blue. I was somewhat surprised since I thought we'd always keep it as a work truck, but we aren't interested in sinking anymore $$$ into it only to have it sit most of the year.

Onto Craig's list it went and AH received his first response no more than two minutes later. Of course even with its issues it was a screaming deal. We had the engine rebuilt when we took ownership of it and it has low low miles on that new engine (plus its been well maintained since). Needless to say it sold to the first person who responded.

What surprised me was how sad it made me to know it was gone for good. Don't misunderstand me, I hated driving that little truck and would put up a fight anytime it was "suggested" that I drive it to do my errands. There was no head rest (so your head goes through the back window if ever in an accident), the driver seat sagged and of course it had no amenities (AC, cruise, etc). But it was the only vehicle we've owned for our entire marriage and it used to belong to AH's Grandpa C and it was a hard working little truck.

So cheers to you little Mazda - you were a darn good truck for us.

9 for 9

In 9 years of marriage we have now officially owned 9 vehicles. After years of driving Grandpa C's old Mazda pickup (while drooling over owning a new truck) AH came home today with this beauty (only in light grey and with the chrome package):



Obviously we have a thing about cars. . .

Kitchen Progress Update

Well it's been a while since I've written about the status of our kitchen remodel. After AH finished installing new lighting we had the drywall crew come in and put up new sheet rock on the kitchen ceiling as well as having them smooth out the sweet 70's textured walls of our stairwell and upstairs hallway. It looks so much nicer now!

The AH and our good friend and neighbor Don, who built my office desk and bookcase (all build-ins), got all the lower cabinets installed and part of the upper cabinets in with the rest to be completed over the next week or two.

The kiddo's building their beds in the cabinets tonight after dinner.


The new counters and under mount sink went in this past Monday and look beautiful! Some day, hopefully soon, my floors will be put in (for the second time) and then the plumber can do his job.

Our original floors were falling apart as they were installed and after a three day struggle we gave up and returned them (with some hassle but AH put his foot down and got a full refund). I selected a new floor and now have to wait for the installers to become available again (a long long delay to which I am not patient).

I have the appliance installers coming next week, the plumber on call for next Thursday (should my floors actually get installed before then), two guy's coming out to give bids on the wainscoting, the new front door should be in any day (though it may not get installed until next month) and I'll order the tile for the back splash next week as well.

Tonight AH said, "I am tired of hand washing dishes." I was delighted to tell him that his dish-pan-hands will get a much deserved break next week when the dishwasher is reinstalled (if everything stays on track).

I think I can finally see a light off in the distance of this long tunnel we call a full kitchen remodel. Woo hoo!

No Time For Flash Cards

This is one of the best parent/child activity blogs I've ever discovered so I thought I'd better share:

NO TIME FOR FLASH CARDS

I love her songs!

Melodies About Me

This morning I dragged my kiddo's on a bunch of errands, one of which was the craft fair at Vasa Park Lodge. I didn't see much that jumped out at me until I got to the back of the building.



Sitting beneath a banner with her laptop and printer was a nice lady playing music on her computer speakers. Mr. B immediately started dancing to the cute tune so I asked the lady about her product. It is a CD of music written by her and some other family members that incorporates your child's (she can do multiple names per CD instead of just one name) name into each song. She asked Mr. B if he liked pirates and then played Pirate Adventure with his name in the lyrics. Then she did the same for Beeb. These little tunes are very catchy, a good quality recording and I actually liked them so we left with an individual CD for each kiddo and jammed all the way home. (my favorite is Purple Sock Blues)

It was fun to see their faces light up when they heard their name in the songs and especially with some of the silly lyrics. They giggled and danced in their booster seats until we got back to the house.

You can visit the company website Melodies About Me to hear samples and/or order your own CD. Great for your child or as a gift.