Los Cumpleanos

 

See that lady.  She's my mom.  And she's awesome.  Who else could raise eight girls and a boy and still keep most of her sanity?  : )  I think we turned out pretty well.  My mom hit a decade marker earlier this month.  And my sister Mallory also hit a decade marker.  A celebration was definitely in order.  We planned a birthday party at our regular family gathering spot, my sister Lorre's house.   I took the boys with me.  They love going to Grandma's house.  They play with all of our old toys, drink grape soda, stay up late, and eventually go to sleep in my old bedroom.  I stayed up until almost 2 am watching Olympics and talking with my mom. 

My brother-in-law cooked a wonderful beef tenderloin.  It was so good that it was my primary focus in selecting leftovers.  I took some green bean casserole and scalloped potatoes, too, just so I wouldn't look a crazy meatatarian.  But really I made sure I had enough for lunch and dinner the next day.

And of course there was cake.  White with chocolate icing.  Chocolate with white icing.  White with white icing.  The boys who inherited some recessive chocolate loving gene, were very happy and they took some leftover cake home.  They said it was for Adrian but I know there was an ulterior motive.

 

 

P.S. Today is another sister's birthday.  She's not hitting a decade marker this year.  In a few years she'll be celebrating the one that rhymes with dirty.   It's funny how all these people keep getting older and I'm staying the same age.

Random Notes

• Do they have to tear down a whole acre or 2 or 3 just to build us a new Whole Foods?  I liked those trees.
• Elijah Wood has gone down hill career-wise.  Doing the puppet master dance on Yo Gabba Gabba.
• I watched (listened technically since it's audio only) KD Lang sing Hallelujah on YouTube.  It's from the Olympics opening ceremony, after I fell asleep.  I've always liked that song.  Cry every time.
• Laid down some of my old knowledge on what Mardi Gras really is.
• And who was the grand marshall of the Bacchus parade in 1993 - Jean Claude Van Dame.
• I need to write my thank you notes from Christmas.
• My new favorite inspirational quote - courtesy of New Balance: "You may not be faster than a speeding bullet, but bullets don't go 26.2 miles."

Roses and Hearts

 

I got this beautiful long stem rose when I crossed the finish line of the 30th Annual Run for the Roses on Sunday.  I attempted to beat my personal record of 30:06 set in the fall of 2003 (pre-kids).  It was a nice course through an area near downtown that I had never been through.  There was one minor hill and then in the last mile a ridiculous hill that went around a sharp curve.  Adrian and the boys were waiting by the final stretch.  He told me to gun it because I was close to the record.  I thought he was telling me to beat the guy next to me.  So I did that.  And came very close to my record at 30:20.  I will try again to beat it and I will make sure the course doesn't have a ridiculous hill.

 

 

Later that afternoon I made our annual Valentine's cookies.  I should look into a standing mixer though.  Using a hand mixer for the egg whites and sugar makes my arms want to fall off.  Meringue cookies are worth it to me.  They are so similar to astronaut ice cream the way they melt in your mouth.  I promise you that in previous years the cookies looked better.  This time they ended up looking like pink heart-shaped turds.  But they are still delicious. 

 

We Did That

I am so sorry the original frosted glass shower walls and door are not in this photo.  You are really missing out.  They had this really neat floral pattern in the middle.  And the brass framing was out of sight.  And it was that framing that was root cause of our water leakage issues.
During one of our bi-annual caulking sessions, we found there was icky mold growing behind the vinyl walls in the corner.  We decided this was finally the time to do the project.  We had sought out estimates a couple of times before but never followed through.  Something else always came up, a new baby, a roof, etc.
We decided to do a good majority of the work ourselves.  The shower will need a professional.  Someone who is confident and capable of installing a beautiful, non-leaking masterpiece.
The shower was considered out of service around Thanksgiving.  We have been using the tub shower in the boys' bathroom.  Yeah, the one with the non-slip rubber duckies.

The tearing out commenced.  Adrian is a man of many talents.  He disconnected plumbing and ripped out everything.  After discovering the extent of the water damage under the vinyl floor, he replaced the subfloor in that half of the bathroom.

I had the grand luxury of removing a wallpaper border (I thoroughly despise wallpaper in all forms).  And I picked a paint color to go with the tile.  We laid the backerboard on MLK day while the boys were at school.  Adrian and I worked surprisingly well together on that effort in such a tight space.

The next weekend I began the unenviable task of laying tile.  I invented a couple of new curse words unnecessarily.  In hindsight no one will ever see the tiles around the toilet drain.  But at the time it was crucial to get it right.

I laid the rest of the floor as I backed my way out of the bathroom.  And you see that one tile over in the bottom left?  New curse words there too.  That's the crown in our floor and it was a royal pain to get it down level with its neighboring tiles.
I took a muscle relaxer and went to bed.  Laying tile is no joke.  I was sore in places I didn't know could be sore.  And running 6 miles the morning of the job may not have helped.

And then the next weekend I grouted.  That wasn't so bad physically.  It was nerve wracking.  I kept worrying that I had mixed it too wet or too dry, or that was I wiping off too much.  It sat for the required 48 hours and then we sealed it.  Handy husband stepped back in from his childcare duties to reinstall the toilet and sink.  I didn't keep track of how long we all shared the boys' bathroom and I don't think I want to know.  We are two-thirds of the way back in operation in our bathroom.  Of course there's still a way to go.  I can't get towel rods that fit the previous mounting hardware.  So I'm frustrated about filling holes and painting.  And then installing new mounting hardware in the right places.  Finally there's the hiring of someone to install an awesome perfect shower.  But for now I am content and proud with what I do have.  It's definitely a massive improvement from the days of orchid walls and vinyl floor and shower.   Yeah, we did that.

Itchy and Stuffy

We're all snowed/iced in here in NC.  School was closed today and probably will be again tomorrow.  But work must go on!  So picture me trying desperately to listen to a conference call, sending instant messages to a co-worker so she could speak for both of us, and having to change a dirty diaper.  (Yeah, my SuperMom cape is at the dry cleaners.)  As I'm changing Travis' diaper I notice a huge welt covering the top of each thigh and another on his calf.  My first instinct is to not put him back in the pants he had on, just in case he was allergic to cotton flannel all of a sudden.  After my call ends, I contact the doctor.  With the weather they don't have much else going on apparently because there was an opening in 20 minutes.
I glide my low profile tires through the slush out of our neighborhood.  I park the car, hopefully between two correct lines.
The doctor says it is probably an allergic reaction, but not a contact reaction.  So the cotton flannel is probably okay.  Who knows what he didn't like.  His diet has been mostly bland since the stomach bug is still mildly running its course.  We may never know.  Or it could even be a reaction to the virus that was the stomach bug.  Fabulous.  She suggested a course of Benadryl every 6 hours - which could make him drowsy or off the walls bonkers.
Since we didn't have any children's Benadryl on hand and I can't pass up a Target opportunity, off we went to the magical store that has everything.
We glided back home through the slush.  I made it into the driveway and spun my tires.  I backed up and tried again.  Then I phoned my Yankee husband to pull up the driveway for me.  Driving in winter mess is one of his strengths.  He was determined, seriously.  20 tries at least.  Up, back out, try again.  Sometimes starting further down the street to build up speed and try a new path.  My car is almost in its spot, but not quite.
Travis took his first dose of Benadryl and was down for the count in less than 20 minutes.  Hooray - no off the walls bonkers reaction.  He napped for a couple of hours and woke up with more hives.  It spread to one arm, and his lower back.  The one on his cheek makes him look especially pathetic.  He'll get another dose at bedtime.  According to my mother and the internet, this could go on for a while.  And can go away and come back whenever it wants.
Not to be outdone, Nicholas wants people to know his nose is stuffy and hurts.  So to be fair and equitable I had to tell you about that too.