Party Pictures

My  mom posted a comment on my last post reminding me of how I had absolutely no trouble breaking her window with a 2×4 several years ago.  To that I say, Mumsey I am so glad you no longer live in the house because I would really question how safe you were with such weak window glass.  I am still sticking with my story, even though it is becoming quite the conspiracy theory that I didn’t even try to break my own back door.  You weren’t there people! You have no idea how hard I tried!!!!! At the girls’ birthday party the following night, I could see everyone spying my door suspiciously, and I knew exactly what there were doing…..wondering if given the opportunity could they break the glass.  I have caught Brandon, several times, with a hammer in hand ready to take a swing.  Now, it doesn’t matter that I saved us all sorts of money and worry and stress over fixing one old window pane.  Now, who cares about the mess we were spared from, let’s see if Kaylee really is that weak.  I tried to reason with him that its possible that God was fully aware that He would be sending the plumbers so he prevented me from being able to break the window at that time.  But if I were to try it again, I would have no problem……….

For Reese’s party this summer, I think we all know what our entertainment is going to be.

But while we are on the subject of the girls’ party, lets get to some pictures.

Octohummus

I was pretty happy with my mermaid “scale” wall.  It took me half a season of Parenthood to make and here we are just a few days shy of March and I still have it up in my Dining Room.  We are having an Under the Sea themed Easter this year.

And once again, Christina Boyd made us a fantastic cake, exactly as I described to her and probably even better.

Brandon and I got the girls these fun “Blankie Tails” cozy blankets made to look like mermaid tails.  It was the closest thing to buying my daughter a mermaid tail that she could wear that I could feel good about.  I am speaking about the eldest daughter here, a girl who actually slammed her door on me and yelled through the wood, “You just don’t understand me!!!!” when I told her I would not condone her using her savings to buy a mermaid ensemble to wear at the beach last summer.  And I can’t even tell you the anger, the hulk-like anger that came forth from her tininess when her dad started to giggle.  But a mermaid tail inspired blanket, that I am fine with.  I’ll even buy two…….and that’s what I did.

So here is Lila showing off Mattie’s awesome new tail.

And then we realized that Auntie Jessica’s sequiny shirt and stereotypical mermaid red hair were just too coincidental to not make her wear the blankie tail, too!

And here we are, probably the first and last time I will even have them share a birthday party.  If you could see the video, you would see that Lila is loving everything about her party.  Mattie on the other hand……does not enjoy having the birthday song sung to her paired with another person’s name as well as her own.  She is a “Happy Birthday Dear Mattie” kind of girl.  Maybe a Mattie Belle, but the only other name better also be on her birth certificate.

So for the final time of the year, Happy Birthday sweet girls of mine.  I love you so, so much and if you ever wonder just how much, try counting all the waves in the sea.

Its Good To Have a Responsible Plumber

I’m developing a bad, new habit of only writing once a week (give or take 3 days either way) and about events that happened in my life about 2 weeks ago.  At this rate, this blog will self-destruct in about 2 months.  *This is completely random, but the latest James Bond is currently being watched here in the living room by my husband and Nana, and all the octopus love going on in the opening credits is super disturbing.  If you haven’t seen it yet, just prepare yourself.*

So, the events of about two weeks ago.  On Sunday, the first one of the month I think it was, I took the girl to her basketball practice and when I left the house all was as it should be.  When I returned, Brandon very nonchalantly mentioned that something was weird with Cybill’s nose.  Because I am a good mama, I immediately looked outside at the dog and saw that her nose looked ridiculous and almost exactly like the dog from Up!.

Dug the dog

What in the heck had they done to my dog in the two hours that I was gone?! And why did no one else seem to care? Even better, why had no one taken her picture because this was crazy! I’m guessing that the little girlie had been stung by something, poking around the way she does where she doesn’t belong.  We got a letter in the mail a bit ago from our behind the house neighbor letting us know that Cybill had been making calls through some broken slats in the fence.  They didn’t seem bothered by her regular visits, she hadn’t appeared to have destroyed any of their property and since the letter was just a folded up piece of notebook paper, I don’t think they were looking into taking any legal action for any injuries she may have caused.  We fixed the slats, so I think it’s safe to say she wasn’t poisoned or shot at due to activity in someone else’s yard.  But I’m still very curious as just what caused her afternoon of balloon animal nose.  We were out for much of the evening and when we came home, her nose was about 80% normal.  Weirdest thing! So if your dog’s nose gets lumpy, don’t fear, it just seems to be some sort of nasal allergy thing that lasts for about 12 hours.  It doesn’t appear to affect people, but if it did…….that would be hilarious.

*********************************************************************** Something else that happened about two weeks ago now was that I got locked out of my house for about the 200th time.  I haven chosen to blame this on a very kind and generous action by my friend Julie.  She was very gracious in taking my kids to school on a Friday so that I didn’t have to wake Lila up and mess with all that fun.  This was back while Brandon was vacation, excuse me, attending a very important conference in Boston and all hell was breaking lose with my house.  Being a caring friend and because we completely believe in the whole theory of “it takes a village……and maybe a sister wife”, Julie was helping me out on what was going to be an especially busy day of party prep for the girls birthday celebration the next evening.  I had the kids ready right as she pulled up, right on schedule, and really felt like I was on top of things.  I was going to conquer this party, I was owning it.  I was still in my robe and drinking coffee with Lila not even awake yet, but I could feel that this was going to be a super productive day.  I was in party planning beast mode.

And then I took the dog on a walk.

No good deed goes unpunished……….and physical fitness is a horrible idea.

With Brandon gone, I had been extra careful in locking everything before we went to bed.  It even occurred to me that maybe I should lock all the bathroom doors that have windows, just as a deterrent to anyone thinking of using those an an entrance.  My habit had been to lock the door that goes between the house and the garage at night, then when I left and took the kids to school in the morning, the door would lock behind me.  This was fine because I had my keys and then when I returned from dropping the big ones off, I just unlocked the door for the day.  But when Julie came by and the kids left from the front door, my whole little routine was blown.

I realized as soon as I walked up to the door with a hungry girl and a worn out pup, probably even before I tried the door, what I had (not) done.  And so began what would later become a hilarious story to share at parties, but is still a little too fresh for me to find the humor in quite yet.  Well, what do we do now? We get in the car of course.  I had no keys to actually turn it on and go anywhere, but it was cold and this seemed to be the logical thing to do.  The little girl and the big dog got in and had a fabulous time just crawling around and getting into things……and I began going through my phone calling all those friends that we gave copies of our key to.  Turns out we have reclaimed several of those keys in the almost 4 years that we have lived here…….turns out we need to make new copies.  It also turns out that the neighbor who we gave a key to shortly after we moved in, likes to pretend that she isn’t home when I can clearly see her car and hear her dog.  Five times I went over and banged on the door, even calling her name.  At least we know now, thanks to my daytime non-emergency test run, that this is not our best bet for a safe house. So that wasn’t going to work and the only keys that I knew their whereabouts were in my house and in Nashville.

Now what?

Thankfully, even though I told her that I didn’t need anything, my friend Jessica came straight over and ended up taking Lila with her.  Now it was just Cybill and I in the car waiting for the lock-smith to show up.  He would be here in 10 minutes.

Thirty minutes later, I called the lock-smith back and asked where exactly he was.  He showed up ten minutes later.  Mr. Lock-Smith walked right up to my door and proceeded to break his knife in it.  That should have been my clue that this was going to be bad.  I should have told him thank you and insisted that he leave immediately at that point.  But instead I watched him to continue to do who knows what to my door, but absolutely nothing that looked like lock picking.  Aren’t there usually little tools that they put in the lock to tinker with the parts of the lock? He had no little tools, just this now broken pocket knife and some inflatable blood pressure cuff looking thing.  After about 5 minutes of fighting with my door, he asked if I had any other doors.  Why yes, I live in a home of many, many doors……take your pick.  But turns out that Mr. Lock Smith can’t actually unlock doors, and deadbolts he won’t even bother to walk over to.  Rather than being a locksmith, he and his company are in the business of lock removal.  That was his solution for my problem, to drill holes in my back door and remove the lock.  Then he would go and get a new lock and put it on for me for a quick and easy $180.  I told him absolutely not.  There would be no holes drilled in my door.  There would be no re-locking and I certainly wasn’t going to be paying almost $200 for this.  More importantly, it was getting closer to time to get my other two kids from school and I wasn’t quite sure how that was going to happen.

Cybill was also still hanging out in the car.

I told me new friend who had absolutely no future in his present career that I would not be needing his services and he should just go.  He said he would call his boss and see if he couldn’t figure something else out.  This is when things got really exciting.  The phone was handed to me and the owner of this fine business asked me what the problem was.  I let him know that the fact that I was still hanging out in my garage  was my primary complaint.  He seemed surprised that I wasn’t happy at the idea of paying $200 for my door to be destroyed and then proceeded to ask me how old I was.  This annoyed me. And I told him that was none of his business, but that I was in my 30s.  He then went on to say that if I said that this was my mother’s house, he would grant me the senior citizen discount.  This just made me mad…..and I told him so. If he was capable of granting a discount, why did I need to lie about who owned the house? I am no saint by any means, but I try really hard not to lie and I REALLY don’t like it when people ask me to do so.  I’m also pretty sure that what this business man was asking me to do was fraud.  I was also still upset that I had to wait 40 minutes for his service tech to show up when I was told 10 and that he seemed to have absolutely no clue how to unlock a door.  And the fact that this business man seemed to think it was no big deal at all for a strange man to show up to a woman’s house in an unmarked car and suggest that he take the locks off her house (while she leaves to go get her kids) leave and then come back to re-lock this house…..just baffled me.  And I told him so.  Would he ask his wife, daughter, mother, girl friend to do such a stupid, stupid thing? There is a reason that my doors were locked in the first place! I also let him know that my mother wouldn’t be old enough for his senior citizen deal anyway. Next year, but still, she has another 10 months.

I was hot now. Livid. And the technician man, whose phone I was using, seemed to be getting more and more uncomfortable.

Business owner man now seemed to be getting ticked as well.  “So you’re refusing services?” he said. I let him know that I wasn’t refusing services because I hadn’t had a service provided for me.  I needed someone to unlock my door and that is why I called a trained locksmith.  I did not need someone to disassemble my door and that was what he was offering me.  Yes, I was refusing whatever it was he was offering.  Fine, but I still had to pay the service fee. To this, I asked how exactly he expected me to pay for this because everything was clearly locked in the house that the service tech was unable to unlock for me.  I would be more than happy to pay…….if he had unlocked the door. And then the business owner man got ugly. And I got MAD.  And the service tech started making gestures for me to just hang up the phone. Lock-Smith Man apologized for the whole ordeal, his jerk of a boss and drove away…..leaving me feeling completely hopeless and helpless.

I got back in my car…..with my dog……and called Brandon.  I may have cried a little, too.

It was decided that I would break into our house.  After speaking with our handy man friend and confirming that the little glass panels in our back door would be relatively inexpensive and easy to repair, it was decided that I would just break in.  Contrary to how it might look on the outside, our house is a fortress.  History would be completely different if the Texans had taken shelter in my house as opposed to the Alamo.  I don’t know how often you readers try to break into your own or other people’s homes, but it isn’t as easy as one might imagine. It’s especially hard when you are trying to do it without your neighbors thinking you are robbing yourself………or without hurting yourself.  I used a hammer, a crowbar, and eventually a baseball bat.  I think I could have eventually done it had I not feared getting shards of glass in my eyes.  Maybe if I had more preparation, had a ski mask or safety goggles, or done a bit more weight training I could have been successful.

I can’t tell you how much of a loser you feel like, what a failure you determine yourself to be, when you have to walk back into your garage dragging your burglary tools and then get back into your car with your dog to call your husband and tell him that you can’t even break into your own house.  I called my mom and cried.  Two weeks removed from the situation, I can look back and see that this was probably one of those phone calls that my mom will tuck away, funny moments of parenting Kaylee file #36.  Consoling your child as she cries about not being able to break into her back door.  I imagine as my children get older, I will have several of these such calls in my future.

I was pretty invested in my crying at this point, planning to continue for at least another 10 minutes.  Another wonderful friend had picked up my kids from school, so at least they were fine. I had no idea what my next move was going to be, but I was definitely going to finish up this cry.

And then my angel showed up.

Not many people get to meet their guardian angel in person, but I am 100% certain that on that particular day, mine was a plumber named Jimmy and his apprentice…..who’s name I did not catch.

Remember a bit ago how I told you all about my our plumbing woes? Well, it ended up being a rather big deal (that we still haven’t finished dealing with) and there were all sorts of complications and problems and cables left in drains and blah, blah, blah.  So Friday afternoon, before heading back to the shop for the weekend, some of Draingo’s best decided to stop by and try their hand at freeing this cable our pipes were holding captive.  And that’s how they came to find me sitting in my car completely devastated and praying for a miracle.  Jimmy asked how I was doing this afternoon and through my tears I asked how he felt about breaking and entering.

They tried to attic first to see if there was a way to get in. Nope.

We moved to the backyard and I was carrying my bat, ready to be of any service I could to aid them.  But because these men are actually professionals and intelligent and many other things that my lock-smith tech was not, they looked all around to see if there was anything else they could try first before shattering my back door.  Turns out we had a living room window unlocked.  This window also happened to be painted shut, but my plumbers apprentice happens to be Macgyver so he had no problem getting through that.  The window still wouldn’t open but with a little help from the crowbar, he finally pried it up about 8 inches…….but the plantation shutters were in the way.  Our sectional is backed up to the windows in our living room.  It covers just enough of the window to make it difficult to open the frame of the shutters, but to freely open the slats. At this point in my day, I was ready to bust through that wooden shutter.  But apprentice said his mother would kill him if he let me do that, plumbing can me super costly but everyone knows that you don’t mess around with plantation shutters.

He opened the slats just enough to be able to fit his arms through up to about his wrists and then gave the sectional a good solid push. It moved about 6 inches and then he stopped for fear he would knock over the side table, which would knock over the lap.  This guy was not only breaking in, but he wasn’t actually breaking anything!

Feet finally back in my house

You can see my tiny little crawl space…..but I made it in!

After 6 hours, I was finally back in my house……..thanks to my plumbers who “just happened to stop by”, I don’t believe that for an instant.  I have no idea why God needed to keep my “grounded”for the day.  I had a gazillion and one things that needed to be done for a party that meant the world to my girls, but I spent the whole day either crying in my car, yelling at con artists or cheering on strangers breaking into my back window.  I was frazzled and completely lost when I did finally make it to Costco, but at the same time very grateful for whatever it all meant.  Not everyone believes in God and angels and whatnot, but through every wacky thing that happened all day, I knew that I would be fine.  This was going to be an ordeal, but I would be fine.  And I also knew that there was a reason for all of this.  I still can’t make any sense of it all, but I don’t really think the answer to why is all that important.  But it is very obvious to me that God didn’t want me to leave and go somewhere that Friday.  It is also obvious that I have lovely friends who are there for me, even when I say I’m fine.  Also, from now on, everyone I know has a key to my house…….and Julie knows to not take my kids unless I have first unlocked my door.

 

 

My Preschooler Doesn’t Go To Daycare, But Occasionally, My Dog Does

I took my dog to daycare yesterday and I haven’t figured out how I feel about that.  Technically, I took her to get a bath and then after they were finished, the put her in the in-house doggie daycare …..but still.  When I went to pick her up, the front desk lady said, “Oh she’s having such a great time, she’s not going to be happy about leaving at all!” For a moment there, I wondered if we were talking about the same creature and if I was in the right place.  I half expected them to bring a 4-year old child out to me, not my overgrown infant lady dog.  I don’t know what it says about me or the world I live in that I’m actually taking my dog to daycare.  She has a whole backyard to do whatever she wishes in, yet its not enough….she needs to be socialized with other canines.  Also, are we so absorbed in other things that all three of my kids combined can’t tire out one pup? Do I have nothing better to spend my money on than play dates for my labrador?  But friends, she came home and she chewed up nothing.  She brought me a pair of plastic scissors from Lila’s doctor kit, but then just sort of tossed them at my feet.  There was no chasing her around the house and then the usual tug of war.  It was more like she felt forced to swipe the scissors, but her heart wasn’t really into it.  The kicker came at bedtime, when Cybillion followed the kids upstairs.  If she goes up stairs, it is in more of a stealthy manner, usually without any of us actually witnessing it.  But this time, she clambered right on up, making up the rear of the parade and when they reached the top and parted ways to their individual rooms, she paired off with Reese and then climbed right onto his bed.

Like this was completely normal.

It was a perfect example of that old saying, “Just act like you know what you’re doing and no one will be the wiser.” Only I was definitely the wiser.  The dog has slept every night since she arrived minus that first one, in her metal kennel which keeps her contained and from eating all of our personal belongings.  This tromping upstairs and cozying in the boy’s little twin bed was completely out of the ordinary and out of the question.

Or was it?

He is always cold and always wants someone else to sleep with him.  He is scared of nightmares and we have to go through a whole bedtime ritual that often includes quoting special Bible verses and saying special prayers and promises that if he has scary thoughts he can come get into bed with me…..which he does at least once a week, bad dream or not. But maybe the furry heater with a tail could help some of these problems.  So we tried it for the night and after I kissed them both, we heard nothing for the rest of the night.

This morning, when I went to wake the boy up for school, they were both completely sacked out.  Cybill, who is usually very eager to leave the confines of her kennel really couldn’t be bothered with getting up.  Even after Reese was up and getting dressed, she continued to lounge, stretching occasionally but making no sort of efforts to get up and start her day.  It may have just been the exhausting day at doggie daycare, or it might be that Cybill is developing a soul and a heart and some manners – either way, this might be the start of something wonderful.  When we bought 3 year old Reese those bunk beds, I had always envisioned him and his little friends having sleep overs or maybe even some sort of unity developing between him and his sister where they would want to “camp out” together.  I had no idea I would be buying a bi-level bed for he and his canine companion to share.

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In other news, I feel like I have failed Lila.  Not only did I completely forget (not so much forget, just not bother) to blog about her birthday, but I realized I stopped writing anything in her baby book about 5 days after she came home.  Mattie had mutiple sources citing the events of her first 3-5 years.  Even Reese has a pretty good history saved up in written form.  But Lila………………well, I started a blog little lady so that’s something.  I might not have any idea when you said your first words or what you weighed when you were two, but I probably have pictures of you doing something embarrassing around that time so that’s saying something.  So with out further ado, lets go back in time to two weeks ago when my Bird turned 4.

She began her day with her breakfast of choice.  This girl, being the last of 3 has learned a thing or two from her siblings, the main thing being “You never get what you don’t ask for and the worst that will happen if you do ask is that you will be told no.” So while the other two ask for special breakfast cereals that I rarely ever buy, this genius went straight for the good stuff – Gibson’s donuts fresh off the press.

She also asked for a friend to spend the day with her – because apparently I am not friend enough.  I am still part of the squad, but I am no longer the squad.  So we kidnaped Layla for the day.  I guess you can’t really call it kidnapping if you planned it with her parents and a special drop-off location was settled on and she brought a jacket.  But we definitely busted her out of preschool and gave her a real Ferris Bueller-esque experience.  So Lila Bird welcomed her birthday morning with donuts and a celebratory cheers with her bestie.

Then she got dressed wearing her new 4 t-shirt which proclaims that she is 4 (because no one guesses that seeing as she is the size of a 2 year old) and features a mermaid, which seems to be our spirit animal for the year.  For some, this is the year of the monkey, for my family it is the year of the mermaid. Let me also take a moment to say that the girl joy of getting ready together seems to start very early on.  This girl was SO EXCITED to have her friend sitting next to her while she got pig-tailed.  It was especially awesome when friend turned on the water unexpectedly.

Then, because it’s her birthday, I said yes to a little jumping on the bed.

 

And then they played.  They played for a good 2 hours completely independant of me.  It was amazing!  I did things, I cleaned things, I even watched a few things on Netflix.  I have all manner of children in my house, but none of them are particularly fond of one another or close in age.  But this, this playdate thing, with two kids the same age and they like one another…..this is pure genius!

We then headed to this new indoor playplace that caters to the 5 and under set.  They seemed to be tiring out so I fed them so ice cream.

Eventually, it was time to pick up the bigger kids from school and take Layla back to her mama so she could go to ballet class.  We headed to 5 Guys, Lila’s traditional Birthday dining location (doesn’t everyone eat a burger, fries and a large coke an hour after giving birth?) and had a lovely dinner and then it was time for bed.  Little did the Bird know that we had a big surprise for her.  The other kids all moved out of the crib at the age of 3.  Mainly, the got their big kid bed because there was a sibling on the way who was going ot be needing that crib.  But also, the other two were crawling out by that point and it was more of a safety thing.  Reese was so bad, we eventually took the bottom springy mattress holding part thing out and he just had a mattress on the floor held in place by the sides of the crib.  There was no rush for Lila and the crib to part ways, no new tenants arriving and though she tried to crawl out once, when she fell and hurt herself that put an end to that.  I think we were all pretty set on the idea of her just hanging out in that crib until at least kindergarten.

But then suddenly it became not okay.  She didn’t want to sleep behind bars and I suppose I can understand that.  We talked about converting the crib into the toddler bed, but even that seemed to have already passed it’s prime.  It was decided that we would just go right for the full-size.  The youngest, the smallest, would have the largest bed of all the kids……and somehow that only seemed right.

Brandon got home before we did and had the bed and frame put together. Her sister ran her a bubble bath to buy me some time while I attempted to carry her new duvet up the freshly painted stairs (yeah, we just happened to decide to have our stairwell and upstairs hallway de-popcorned and painted this week, too.  We like to see how inconvenient we can make things for ourselves.) and make her bed.  Her reaction was precious and I think she was really happy with her big girl bed.  The best part was about 5 minutes later, after she was tucked in and surrounded by her “stuffies” when she said in a very shocked little voice, “This is my baby crib!” Mind blown! How in the heck had mom and dad turned her crib into a full size bed.  Magic, pure magic Bird.

I have to say, though I am always sad that they continue to grow, I had a real moment of happiness and contentment watching Lila loving her new big girl bed. I bought that bed the spring after we bought our first house.  I knew that we needed to have a guest bed and I had heard about cribs that could convert into a full size bed.  I knew we planned to have kids eventually and that seemed like a great, money-saving idea.  Little did I know that it would only spend about a year actually made out as a full-size bed.  I figured we would have many years of it as a bed before it cribbed out babies.  And here we are 13 years later and that guest bed has been a baby crib for most of it’s life.  And little did we know, when my brother (who is gone now) and Brandon converted it the first time back in 2005, that it would be the bed that I brought 3 little ones home to.  I had kind of a magical moment myself, getting to lay in this bed with my two girlies.

It was a pretty fabulous birthday Birdie Beth, pretty darn fabulous.

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One last little bit of random, Mattie found this book the other day at the library and it is everything that I have been having nightmares about for years.  I realize that college is not for everyone, but I really would like for my children to at least consider going and if not that, maybe try out a trade school.  But the cover of this book is exactly everything that Mattie is hoping for the future, including the jeep and what appears to be Africa.  See if we ever go to the library again!

Reese also discovered that there is a whole section of his level non-fiction about sports, bugs, animals and anything else his young boy mind could wonder about.  And in this non-fiction section, there is a whole shelf devoted entirely to NASCAR.  So maybe he can go back to the library, but not Mattie.

Down The Drain With the Mermaids

He does this every year, goes off to his annual meeting of the minds.  It’s at the worst time possible, too.  It’s always some where far, far away in a very expensive hotel that requires lots of schmoozing and pricey dinners.  One year it was in Hawaii and I was pregnant at the time.  Mattie broke out in chicken pox while he was gone – that was super fun and then about 6 hours after he returned home (from Hawaii) he started vomiting.  I can’t say for sure, but I think that forever long flight home during prime cold and flu season was to blame.  I felt bad for him, I really did – but it’s hard to play nurse when your patient just flew in from a week in Hawaii while you were home alone with a poxed out 3 year old and pregnant.  I try not to think about that very often because it would appear that I am still bitter.

The girls’ big mermaid party is this weekend, so I have been super busy trying to get ready for that and also just trying to prepare myself for being the only parent.  This might be really hard to imagine, but I tend to be quite the procrastinater.  It is not uncommon for me to send my husband out to buy all of our party food just an hour or so before the event.  Knowing that isn’t an option has me a bit anxious right now and I’m highly considering serving just cake and possibly cold cereal.  That would be really weird but also kind of novel and I think the kids might really like it.  The dining room is all decorated (and it will be staying that way for the rest of the year – fish-themed parties for everyone in 2016) and I have the cake ordered so at least it will look good……until people realize there is no food.

Being nervous about getting party food isn’t calmed any by the fact that I can’t get out of my driveway and it doesn’t appear that I will be going anywhere any time soon.  We have a cranky bathroom.  Since we moved in almost 4 years ago, the bathroom in the newer addition has acted finicky.  Things will go along draining smoothly and then all of a sudden, the shower starts burping.  Guests would take a long, luxurious bubble bath in the soaking tub and when they drained the water, the toilet would start belching and bubbling.  I know nothing about plumbing, but I am almost 100% positive that those things should not be happening.  We have called out a plumber before, which turned into have several come visit, because they all had crazy different diagnoses for what was going on.  In the end, we decided to do nothing and things seemed to work okay for awhile.

But the issues have returned.

A few weeks ago, we had company and as soon as they arrived, the bathroom seemed to reject their presence.  This was terrible timing because one of them was also dealing with quite the stomach bug, so having a feisty toilet that might flush (and might not) was not exactly welcoming.  It was a nasty little game of toilet roulette.  Brandon and I made plans to call the plumber and get this all figured out, but then one of our kids locked the toilet room door (with the light and fan on) and we weren’t able to get in there for about 2 weeks.  I have no bobby pin lock picking skills and Brandon was busy getting ready for his yearly expedition so it kind of got forgotten.  Out of sight out of mind was definitely in effect with this one.  We completely forgot we even had that whole section of the house.  But then he went on a raging “honey-do” rampage before he left and that door was unlocked, revealing a mess that couldn’t be ignored anymore.  So the plumbers are here today.  They told me they would arrive sometime between 8 and 1,  but it appears they will actually be staying for that entire window of time.  They will also be taking the kids college fund.

It seems as though we have a collapsed sewage line and when they snaked their plumbing wire thingy down into the line, it further collapsed trapping their line.  There are now three Draingo vans parked in my driveway and several men swearing in my front yard because my faulty drainage system has taken their expensive piece of machinery hostage.  I don’t blame them at all…..but I really need to leave and go buy croissants and Pirates Booty from Costco!

I also need to take a shower, but I think that would be a little inconsiderate seeing as they are all crowded around our drainage pipes and probably wouldn’t appreciate the sudden gush of water.

***********************************************************************In other news, I completely neglected to blog about the signifigance of a week ago today. She can’t get mad at me for it, because I was spending the whole day with her and have been working on her party ever since, but last Thursday marked the 4 year anniversary of Lile Bird Baughman arriving into our lives.  That’s not completely true, she arrived about 8 months before, making her presence very known to all around me.  But it wasn’t until January 28th, 2012 that we really saw what we were dealing with here.

She arrived with a flurry of excitement and lots of exsessive drama.  Personally, I think it was all a little over the top, but having known her for a while now, her birth seems very fitting.  It’s funny, this little person that was the last to arrive, our youngest and smallest, completely runs the show.  Well, I don’t know about that, her sister has been pretty tyrannical as well.  Anyway, she has never been the bonus child, that quiet little extra tag-along.  She came in like a wrecking ball, letting us know that she would not be overlooked and would be hangin’ with the big kids from day one.  Lila Bird, with your super-sized bows and goin’ somewhere outfits even when we are just hangin’ out at home, you live life to the fullest.  Each day finds you exhausted because you have put so much into it – which makes sense because you have had to run two times faster, pushed and shoved for your turn and yelled at the top of your voice to get your opinion stated.  I don’t know that all of that is always necessary, but you do it anyway nonetheless.  When I think about you sweet Birdie, a song comes to my mind :

They said change your clothes
She said no I won’t
They said comb your hair
She said some kids don’t
And her parents dreams went up in smoke

They said you can’t leave
She said yes I will
They said don’t see him
She said his name is Bill
She’s on a roll and it’s all uphill

She’s a wild one
With an angel’s face
She’s a woman-child
In a state of grace
When she was 3 years old on her daddy’s knee
He said you can be anything you want to be
She’s a wild one
Runnin’ free

She loves Rock and Roll
They said it’s Satan’s tongue
She thinks they’re too old
They think she’s too young
And the battle lines are clearly drawn

She’s a wild one
With an angel’s face
She’s a woman-child
In a state of grace
When she was 3 years old on her daddy’s knee
He said you can be anything you want to be
She’s a wild one
Runnin’ free

She has future plans and dreams at night
When they tell her life is hard she says that’s alright

She’s a wild one
With an angel’s face
She’s a woman-child
In a state of grace
When she was 3 years old on her daddy’s knee
He said you can be anything you want to be
She’s a wild one
Runnin’ free

She has yet to bring home “Bill”, but I can definitely see it in the future without even having to squint up my eyes very much.

You are our little wild one Lila, but you do it with such a pure heart.  You carry around a wooden box with 6 wooden eggs that you have painted pink.  They are your babies, each of them named and they even sleep with you at night.  You love to sing and dance and hold my hand.  Spontaneously, you will go up to your big brother and wrap your arms around him, look up and tell him that you love him.  You save the last graham cracker in the box to feed to the birds outside and you leave your favorite “stuffies” in my bed so that I can cuddle them, too.

How such a big personality can fit in such a tiny body is beyond me.  I have loved every second of each and every year.  Though I will be honest, I get sad thinking about you growing up, mainly because it means we only have another year and a half left together here at home.  You are so much company and I kind of hate the idea of missing out on so many of the funny things you do and say.  Happiest of Birthdays Bitty.  May you always march to your own, very determined little drum.  May you never be content to do just the options given, but always seek out the real desires of your heart, even if they aren’t obvious. In his famous book, “All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten” Robert Fulghum tells a story about a group of children playing a game – Giant, Wizard or Drawf.  It is a form of tag and the kids are to pick which one they want to be, a giant, wizard or dwarf.  At the beginning of the game, after the kids have divided into their choices, Mr. Fulghum feels a tug on his pants leg.  It is a little girl asking where the mermaid are to stand.  He repeats her question back to her, almost as a question to her or why is she asking such a question.  She responds back, “You see, I am a mermaid.” She didn’t identify with the other 3 choices, but she didn’t want to not be a part of the game. He continues, “What was my answer at the moment? Every once in a while I say the right thing. “The Mermaid stands right here by the King of the Sea!” says I.  It is not true, by the way, that mermaids do not exist.  I know at least one personally.  I have held her hand.”

I, too know a mermaid Mr. Fulghum, and I have also held her hand.  I pray that she will stay true to her mermaidness even when it becomes easier to just be a wizard, a dwarf or a giant.  Happy Late Birthday Lila Bird! Daddy and I love you so much.