Uh oh... what is this stuff?

Okay... it wasn't intentional... but I'll enlighten you with the fun time we had two nights ago.

I've been waiting for some nice day to go out in the garage to finish our new table. The beautiful new (unfinished) table has been sitting in our garage for a few weeks now, and I've had a few too many things on my mind lately to go out there (i.e. China)... that, and the fact that I can't deal with 40 degree weather for long. I need a nice day.

I have managed to stain the two leaves for the table... and we all agree that the Cherrywood stain on the alder wood table is beautiful. (Even my woodworking dad thought it looked great!) I even bought the polyurethane so that I could apply several coats to the table. Well, since purchasing it, I've just left it sit in our laundry room. I thought it was on the dryer. Whoops! Wrong.

We have a front-loading washer. Perhaps ours is out of the ordinary, but ours shakes like crazy when spinning. We've learned over the last year that you do not set important things on top of the washer. From time to time, we hear crashes while the washer is spinning... boxes of laundry sheets, detergent bottles, and most often laundry baskets. It's a normal occurrence in our home. There just isn't enough room to hold everything in there without using the washer as a shelf. :-) So the other night (Monday), when we heard a big crash and Mike asked what it was, I simply said, "Oh... it was just in the laundry room."

Well about a half hour later, Mike went into the laundry room to get the clothes. He immediately yelled, "What is this? Chris... you need to get in here. I have no idea what this is, and it isn't good." Sure enough... it was the quart of polyurethane. Boy, that sucker must've hit so perfectly on a corner or something and popped the top (which, I had NEVER opened). YUCK! Our new linoleum (installed last year after a 3-story flood... another long story there) was now a shiny glossy puddle of polyurethane. How does one clean this!? Well, we learned...

We sopped up what we could, and tried our best with a concocted mopping-sopping-thing (mop handle wrapped in various towels) to get under the drawers and between the two machines. We sprayed Windex Multisurface so much that the bottle was getting sticky from our hands. But it seemed to work (since the polyurethane was NOT dry). That and Goo-gone. Our laundry room is so small, it holds two machines... and that's it. Both doors leading to the room swing INWARD too. So, it's always tight. What a pain. I must have been a riot on my hands and knees with my feet up in the air (trying not to get the shoes in anything) and twisted at the waist to get back between these machines. I think we removed most of the polyurethane from the surface (though it's not perfect). I was desperate to keep our clothes clean and the wood floors from getting polyurethaned in the process. My only concern is that we may have polyurethaned our machines to the floor! Well, fortunately for us, these machines shake so much, I think they'll wiggle free from any adhesion. ;-) I did notice though, as I pulled out the bottom drawers of the machines, that there are tears in our linoleum back in the corners. Ha... bet those installers never figured we'd see that! (It's not a big deal.)

But now when you enter our little tiny laundry room, you get a blast of mmm mmm mmm.... polyurethane odors! Blech.

Guess I gotta go buy some new quarts for the table now. What do you think? Satin or Gloss?

1/2 Raspberry, 1/2 Lemon

Tonight, we celebrated my father-in-law Dave's 17th Heart Day (a few days early). For those that don't know what that means, it has been 17 years since his heart transplant! (See Lulu.com for his book.) He had a heart transplant on Easter Sunday in 1991.

Every year we have a heart cake of some sort. This year was a nice white cake with 17 hearts. When my mother-in-law described it, she said that half had raspberry filling, the other half had lemon filling. When we all dug in, we realized that wasn't entirely true. Apparently somewhere in the translation from Sylvia to order-taker to cake-maker, the message got mixed up. They mixed up the raspberry and lemon fillings and spread it over the whole cake. So EVERYONE had raspberry and lemon fillings mixed! So... technically it was 1/2 raspberry, 1/2 lemon... but they mixed them together! Who does that?? Well, regardless, it was yummy!

Happy Heart Day, Dave!

The Leprechaun

When Ben was in kindergarten, he came home from school talking about the leprechaun and all of his crazy antics. We weren't sure what exactly he meant until after St. Patrick's Day when we found out about all the mischief the leprechaun caused at the school and at friend's houses. Mike and I had never known about the leprechaun before. The following year, we once again didn't realize that the leprechaun had quite a presence in our neighborhood... until after St. Patrick's Day when we once again learned of all the mischief he caused.

So, last year, the leprechaun visited our house on the eve of St. Patrick's Day. He did little things (turned the sofa around and moved the coffee table). But, unbeknownst to Mike and I, he even left snow tracks! There were tracks leading from our neighbors' house to our back door and then on to the next neighbor's house (a rabbit??) The kids were convinced. The leprechaun MUST have hit our house.

This year, the leprechaun hit again. Amazingly, he did everything while I was typing on the computer that evening. He flipped the coffee table upside down, moved the dining chairs into various parts of the main level, put beanbag chairs at the dining room table, swapped out several pieces of artwork, rearranged all of the kids' quilts (Ben had Tommy's, Tommy had Reagan's, Reagan had Ben's), and switched out the kids' rugs. Oh, and later in the day we saw that he even replaced my candles on their sconces with Campbell's soup cans and put Tommy's firetruck in the fridge. That naughty leprechaun.

We celebrated St. Patrick's Day with some green angel food cake that night. It took a long time convincing Ben that it was indeed his favorite cake. They thought it must be mint.

She's not my friend; she's my sister!

If you keep up with the OurJourneytoFour blog, you'll know that our family is one step closer to gaining a new member!  We learned today that we received our Letter of Approval.  That's about 1-3 months faster than we were being told.  We were thinking our travel would definitely occur over summer vacation.  Nope... now it looks like we'll go during the school year.  Maybe May!  I'm personally hoping for early May in the hopes that my dad can travel with us.  

Today was a busy day of doctor visits (CT scan for me trying to figure out my mysterious abdominal pain and a doctor checkup for Reagan).  During one of the long driving trips today, I was talking to Tommy.  I said, "Tommy, did you know that we are going to go get Gracelynn soon?"  (Bad idea... 3 year olds have no concept of time and thus "soon" means today.)  He responded, "We go get her today?"  I told him no, not for a few weeks, but it's much quicker than we thought.  I tried once again to get him to understand that this little playmate is here to stay and will live with us.  So I said, "When she comes to live with us, you two can play games together and go on the playground out back."  He got excited about that.  Then I said, "You two will be good friends."  He said, "No mommy.  Gracelynn not my friend.  She's my sister."  :-)  

A New Clubhouse for the Kids

Well, with the arrival of our tax refund, we quickly ordered a new dining set. We have owned a This End Up (remember them?) table, chairs and bench since we were married, and it's served us quite well. However, with the addition of every new child, our non-extending only table has become more and more difficult to deal with when we have company. It's going to become our craft table downstairs now. We ordered an unfinished "farm table" that can seat up to 10 people when fully extended. Our dinner group will enjoy dinners much better using real chairs and not benches and folding chairs, huh? Wish me luck on figuring out how to properly stain and paint it. Rather than order chairs unpainted, we went ahead with slightly bigger, slightly more expensive, but fully painted chairs. :-) They arrived on Wednesday when the kids were all home from school (icestorm caused a school cancellation). However, they arrived smack in the middle of our blackout. No electricity. I know there is a way to disconnect the garage door from the opener, but I couldn't remember. So, when the UPS lady carefully approached our door on the icy porch, I told her the boxes all had to come in the front door. She looked at me a little funny and said, "There are 8 of them, and they are big." In my mind, I was picturing 4'x2'x8" boxes (big, but thin). I said, "Oh that's fine". I went upstairs to get on some shoes (since it was freezing out and I was in barefeet). I came down to see that she already brought in one of the boxes. It was HUGE! I am so used to buying cheap assemble-yourself furniture, I was expecting these chairs to be Ikea-style in flat boxes ready for me to assemble. Nope. They were assembled and in VERY large boxes. Say... 4'x2'x2'. By the time she was done, our foyer (which I always thought was a decent size with a double-door closet and hallway)... was PACKED. OH, but the joy that sprang onto the kids' faces!!! WOW! EIGHT HUGE BOXES! Each box could even fit all three kids inside. They immediately moved the boxes into a circle-like shape and threw some cardboard over top. They didn't care that I hadn't removed the chairs yet... they were having a ball with the boxes. I didn't think anything of it. Till I later saw Tommy coloring on them with a green Sharpie... over our new hardwood floors. I freaked out just a little. :0)

So, I went ahead and removed all the chairs... and saw that the kids had even posted "flags" by poking pencils into the boxes and hanging paper off the pencils. Cool idea... fortunately they never "hit" a chair with those pencils. I then explained that their new clubhouse could not exist in our foyer, taking up all available space with no room to walk. So, I threw all the boxes into the basement (imagine the pileup that occurred on the steps...LOL). Our rec-room is filled with huge boxes now, but it's mostly the kids' room anyway. Now if they could only agree on the best arrangement...

As for the chairs themselves, we love them. (Can't beat Amazon, eh? Real hardwood, nicely constructed and FREE shipping!) I checked on the table. It's not to arrive for another 3 weeks, and then I need to stain and paint and polyurethane it. So... maybe by the time Gracelynn arrives, I'll have it ready to use??

Mr. Roboto

As many may know after reading our adoption blog, Mike fell a week ago and broke his arm. We had a small ice storm, and when he went out to check the roads (which were fine), he fell full-force on his arm on the sidewalk in front of the door. Amazingly, he continued onto work and went through the whole day (including making a couple of stops and attending a going-away luncheon). On his way home, he had his fingerprints taken at the Sheriff's office (adoption requirement), and then stopped at the ER just to check out the bones and make sure nothing was broken. Sure enough... 3 fractures at the elbow.

Our small group was canceled that night as Joanna (neighbor) and I had to go get Mike and take home his car. They simply put the arm in a splint/sling. He went in to see the orthopedic specialist on Monday. I dropped him off at the doctor in the next town and went flying back to the kids school to get them when school was let out. Dummy me... it was Monday, which meant they were in Chinese class after school. So I made an unnecessary trip. (Sorry... wasn't thinking clearly that day.) I came back to get Mike, who had already finished at the doctors and was waiting at the California Tortilla. Expecting to get a hard cast, he instead learned something new: Surgery was needed.

So, on Thursday, Mike had a small titanium screw implanted in the bone to hold things together. I believe the doctor mentioned even putting some mesh at the end of the bone where he "crushed" it. I don't trust what I remember from that conversation, so Mike will have to see what he did when he goes back in a week from Tuesday.

To say the least, things have been nuts around here. We're working on getting things done for our adoption and homestudy (getting TB tests on Friday, having paperwork filled out, etc.), we're working on a care package to mail to Gracelynn (we have our pre-approval now!!), we're spending our income tax refund (already been deposited... woo hoo!) and inheritance money on necessary furniture and new camera and adoption, rearranging our house to be ready for another family member, collecting quilt squares for the 100 wishes quilt, not to mention just carrying on with our normal lives with school and sports.

Mike fortunately had a great neighbor, John, take him to work the two days this week that he went. Next week we'll have to wait and see.

So, I apologize for a recent lag in posts. We've been a little busy around here. In the meantime though, when you turn on your XM 80's station or (if you're like me), turn on your iPod and hear "Mr. Roboto", think of Mike and say a little prayer for his quick recovery.

Wonder how many airport Xray machines he'll throw off in his lifetime now? :-)

Pirates Day

My parents left for home today. So since we were all home due to Martin Luther King Day, we went to the movies. First we stopped by California Tortilla (which I just LOVE). The kids did so well there. Definitely a restaurant to remember. We're now rating restaurants on "4 child friendliness". This one had large booths for us adults to block in the kids, and they easily fit 6 people. Plus Reagan and Ben loved the cheese quesadillas, chips and cheese dip. Ben even ordered a second. (Uh oh... almost time to skip the kids' meals with Ben!) Tommy ordered an "unassembled burrito" plate where everything was separated (sheer genius idea for kids, if you ask me!): plain chicken, plain shredded cheese, rice and tortillas (which they forgot to give us, but he wasn't as hungry as the other two kids). Not to mention all kids get a brownie to boot... which means Mommy gets one brownie (Ben hates chocolate). :-) They even had a low-fat burrito that I love: Havana Chicken Burrito. MMMMMmmm. Today was their lowest profit week, too. Which means they had a cool deal. Reagan got to shake up the magic 8 ball to reveal our prize. We got a Buy 1, Get 1 free coupon for burritos the next time we come. Woo hoo! We must go back now. BTW, for those unfamiliar with California Tortilla, get onto their email list. You'll learn of all their cool monthly specials. For example, one month they had free Poptart day! The kids loved that one!

After our long lunch, we headed over to the newest theater. We saw "The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything". I was a tad disappointed with the movie. VeggieTales usually have a Biblical story-basis or at least a Christian value being taught. The movie was just a movie about Pirates (who weren't really). Mike says there is a definite God symbolism in the father character. I couldn't tell... I think I was sleeping during his part (seriously). The plot was a little dry. Mike and I were unimpressed. Granted, it was a KIDS movie, so they weren't aiming for us as a target audience (but usually I LOVE Veggie Tales... gotta love Larry the Cucumber!) Ben and Reagan were pleased with it. Tommy was 50/50. On one hand, he didn't have a complete meltdown or anything, but it obviously did not catch his attention much. Fortunately with stadium-style seating, his walking back and forth between seats didn't interrupt anyone else's view but OUR own. He seemed a little bored though. I don't blame him, in a one-hour, 26 minute movie... I dozed off half a dozen times. :-) I woke up once to see him leaning over the chair in front of him, looking down at the child. Whoops! Oh well, at least the two older kids had a blast, and Tommy still felt special going to the movies. Besides we got to see the new theater and shopping plaza in our county... pretty cool! I found a bunch new restaurants to visit!