I can see the wood grain on my desk! I made some serious progress with the taxes today as the piles of paperwork began to disappear into the three inch binder marked “2008”. Hallelujah. I still have a couple tedious tasks before me, but I’m taking a break for a few days as I’m almost done and I don’t want to miss the last few days of summer. Besides, my butt is dead from all the sitting. I still have piles of paperwork on the floor that need to go into the three inch binder marked “2009”, but I am not even thinking about that now. The pressure is off so I can come up for air.
Kaleb woke up with ten pox this morning and by bedtime tonight, had a total of thirty. So it’s official – he has the Chicken Pox – woo hoo! He says they don’t itch, but rather, “sting,” so he’s not touching them. I don’t know how he could touch them anyway since both his hands have been wrapped around his Nintendo all day playing one of his friend’s games. He swears he’s “helping” him out by getting past a difficult spot in the game, but he was non-stop on that thing for 12 hours today and still hadn’t reached the spot. I only let him go so long because I needed quiet time and he wasn’t feeling well. Kory kept the DVD player occupied watching movies so my options were limited, but it worked and Kaleb never made a peep all day. He actually has more energy today than yesterday though, so I’m thankful for that.
Kory puttered around a little this morning and watered some outdoor plants, but then I think he felt he overdid it and was flat on his back the rest of the day. He did take the Lexus out of the garage though, only to discover the spot I feared was a mouse nest on the floorboard was just a pile of dried up pine needles all bunched together. Whew. I had draped the tires with Bounce dryer sheets before we left, as that is the best mouse repellant there is, but I worried it had failed me because it was on there so long, but apparently not. Mice hate the chemicals in the dryer sheets and even after a year, it seems they can still smell them, thank goodness. (We've had mice move into the Lexus before when it sat a long time so that's why I was so paranoid.)
Yesterday when I was in town I was looking to buy a few things we’d intentionally left behind in Norway. I had no luck finding most of the items because so many stores are no longer there, but today my brain came out of the fog and I remembered the beauty of internet shopping! We all left our Crocs in Norway (very comfy shoes that are nice to wear indoors on hardwood floors) and I was able to buy them cheaper from their website than if I’d bought them in a store, so now I’m glad I didn’t find them. Scratch that off my list. I also used a little time today to call Olympus and report my defective camera. I have been so bummed to NOT have a working camera. The one I bought in Prague goes into focus as I press down on the button, but at the last minute goes fuzzy. I haven’t been happy with any of the pictures from it, so they said I can send it back and get a new one – woo hoo. Things are looking up. And I even found a website where I ordered a few pieces of my silverware that went missing this past year. I think the forks and spoons ran away with the socks. Once I counted all the stray socks I had stuffed in the drawer, waiting to find it’s mate and there were 49 of them! When Kory folds laundry and finds stray socks he just bundles them up with other stray socks of the same color – never mind they don’t really match or that one might be mine and one might be Kaleb’s. I’ve even unfolded every pair of socks in all our drawers trying to find the mates, but no luck. Just where can 49 socks go, anyway?
I didn’t talk to Kory or Kaleb much today as I was so focused on getting the taxes done, but I did manage to cross off several more “to-dos” on my list. My count is now 43 completed and 42 to go (several things got added today). At least I’m over the hump and heading toward a less frenzied pace. Hopefully things will calm down next week.
I was only outside briefly today, which was too bad because it was such a beautiful day (see photo I took a year ago of Seattle on a nice day). I stretched my legs a few times and moved the sprinkler around the yard so our rhododendrons don’t all die. I lost all my biggest ones while we were gone – not sure if it was the cold winter or the hot summer – but I sure don’t want to lose anymore. I also made up the “Mole death mix” (equal parts of oatmeal, sugar and concrete). I put two little packets down two different holes and I’ll see if their tunnels grow anymore overnight or if they eat the deadly concoction and die a slow and painful death. They have been ripping up new sections of the lawn lately and really ticking me off – so I have passed judgment on them and decided it’s time they die. After doing taxes all day, I have no mercy.
Kaleb woke up with ten pox this morning and by bedtime tonight, had a total of thirty. So it’s official – he has the Chicken Pox – woo hoo! He says they don’t itch, but rather, “sting,” so he’s not touching them. I don’t know how he could touch them anyway since both his hands have been wrapped around his Nintendo all day playing one of his friend’s games. He swears he’s “helping” him out by getting past a difficult spot in the game, but he was non-stop on that thing for 12 hours today and still hadn’t reached the spot. I only let him go so long because I needed quiet time and he wasn’t feeling well. Kory kept the DVD player occupied watching movies so my options were limited, but it worked and Kaleb never made a peep all day. He actually has more energy today than yesterday though, so I’m thankful for that.
Kory puttered around a little this morning and watered some outdoor plants, but then I think he felt he overdid it and was flat on his back the rest of the day. He did take the Lexus out of the garage though, only to discover the spot I feared was a mouse nest on the floorboard was just a pile of dried up pine needles all bunched together. Whew. I had draped the tires with Bounce dryer sheets before we left, as that is the best mouse repellant there is, but I worried it had failed me because it was on there so long, but apparently not. Mice hate the chemicals in the dryer sheets and even after a year, it seems they can still smell them, thank goodness. (We've had mice move into the Lexus before when it sat a long time so that's why I was so paranoid.)
Yesterday when I was in town I was looking to buy a few things we’d intentionally left behind in Norway. I had no luck finding most of the items because so many stores are no longer there, but today my brain came out of the fog and I remembered the beauty of internet shopping! We all left our Crocs in Norway (very comfy shoes that are nice to wear indoors on hardwood floors) and I was able to buy them cheaper from their website than if I’d bought them in a store, so now I’m glad I didn’t find them. Scratch that off my list. I also used a little time today to call Olympus and report my defective camera. I have been so bummed to NOT have a working camera. The one I bought in Prague goes into focus as I press down on the button, but at the last minute goes fuzzy. I haven’t been happy with any of the pictures from it, so they said I can send it back and get a new one – woo hoo. Things are looking up. And I even found a website where I ordered a few pieces of my silverware that went missing this past year. I think the forks and spoons ran away with the socks. Once I counted all the stray socks I had stuffed in the drawer, waiting to find it’s mate and there were 49 of them! When Kory folds laundry and finds stray socks he just bundles them up with other stray socks of the same color – never mind they don’t really match or that one might be mine and one might be Kaleb’s. I’ve even unfolded every pair of socks in all our drawers trying to find the mates, but no luck. Just where can 49 socks go, anyway?
I didn’t talk to Kory or Kaleb much today as I was so focused on getting the taxes done, but I did manage to cross off several more “to-dos” on my list. My count is now 43 completed and 42 to go (several things got added today). At least I’m over the hump and heading toward a less frenzied pace. Hopefully things will calm down next week.
I was only outside briefly today, which was too bad because it was such a beautiful day (see photo I took a year ago of Seattle on a nice day). I stretched my legs a few times and moved the sprinkler around the yard so our rhododendrons don’t all die. I lost all my biggest ones while we were gone – not sure if it was the cold winter or the hot summer – but I sure don’t want to lose anymore. I also made up the “Mole death mix” (equal parts of oatmeal, sugar and concrete). I put two little packets down two different holes and I’ll see if their tunnels grow anymore overnight or if they eat the deadly concoction and die a slow and painful death. They have been ripping up new sections of the lawn lately and really ticking me off – so I have passed judgment on them and decided it’s time they die. After doing taxes all day, I have no mercy.
