Wednesday, October 22, 2008

Catching Up Again

Oh, it's been so long since my last post. It seems like just a few days ago. Things have been going well for us around here. I just really do like this life.

The Phillies are in the world series this year. That is John's favorite team. He's been loyal to them since he was just a little guy. I remember when we were early married they made it to the world series and won. But that was a long time ago. We are rooting for them big time in this house.

Ethan has just finished doing his homework tonight and it is shortly after 9 p.m. He had church tonight, and we decided to let him go even though that homework wasn't done. I'm really not sure what to do with days like this. He was feeling pretty overwhelmed and on the verge of a meltdown. I knew he'd be up late, but I also thought he needed a break. I really think he has a hard time staying focused on schoolwork sometimes after a long day. He had spelling, math (tons of it) and social studies and reading. That's a big load. We settled on doing the social studies during the lunch hour tomorrow and tackling the rest tonight. I was just finishing getting Gertie into bed, way too late, by the way, but she had church too. Anyway, Ethan wanders up with a big smile and a ho-ho in one hand and a fist-full of peanuts in the other. Oh, my word. He was so glad to be finished. Conquerer. I just love that boy. But he's got to get organized....

I don't know if I hit the nail on the head with the low blood sugar, but I've been trying to make sure Gertie has a bit in her belly before each nap and so far, so good. We've had a good week, and I'm enjoying that girl. The other day I was snuggling Ethan (yes, he still likes to snuggle) and Gertie was jealous. I was telling her it was his turn. She could join us, but I wasn't ousting him. She really wanted me to herself. She fussed, and then cried, and then gave up on that. After a bit she said to Ethan, "I know, Brother, you can go over on the couch and I'll have this side of Mom." She was proposing it like it was a great deal for him. He didn't fall for that. She fussed a bit more. Finally went to sit with Dad (who is great, but obviously not as great as me) and after a bit, she said to Ethan again, "Brother, you can drive my car if you want." I just loved how she was trying so hard to coax him away. Very manipulative. He let her have me at that point. Loving brother.

My Dad is coming in the morning. I am excited to see him. I think the weather is going to be poor, but I guess we'll just have to cozy up. I'm just looking forward to having him around for a day.

And my automatic van door has been very testy for a very long time. It only sometimes works, usually when it's warm. And if it's cold out, there isn't much hope. Well, it's gotten to the point where if you have to manually open it, it is so hard. The kids can barely do it. It's really bad. I took it to our car place, and they said, it's fine. By this point the day had warmed up and it worked fine for them. Then one cold morning I was so irritated that I drove over to the car place unannounced and said, "Come out here and try to open this door. It's impossible." Well, I wouldn't recommend that tactic. Two guys come over, open the door, stare at my like I'm a psycho (which I kind of am at this point) and say, "Well, it's tough, but they usually are when you open an electric door manually like that." Very maddening. So at least another month goes by and I get so mad the other day again (not to mention that John and Gertie and I had had a lunch date before John had to go back to his office. He left us at the restaurant and Gertie was wanting a sugary donut from the buffet. I was telling her that she needed to finish her chicken first. She screamed at me! Very loudly. I just picked her up and walked out. She was screaming and kicking and fighting. Ugly. Please have sympathy for the next mom you see this happening to. It just isn't right. ) Well, I digress. I fought Gertie into the car seat knowing my next errand, Target, wasn't going to work with her in that state, so I decided to take the van to the Chrysler dealer and let them look at the door even with a screaming toddler. I was preparing to say, "Just don't mind the screaming toddler in the back seat." She actually calmed down by the time we got there. They said they knew just what to do and I could bring it in tomorrow morning. Woo hoo! I'm so excited to have this fixed. And then the icing on the cake is that they called today to tell me that we are still under a service contract (that we had no idea about) for about 400 more miles and this is a covered repair, as well as a bearing that they is--suddenly I don't know what would be wrong with a bearing, but whatever it is, they're going to fix it, and that's covered too. So now I'm racking my brain trying to think of anything else that's wrong with my van that might be covered as well. He said he'll look it over real good and fix whatever he sees. How could we have not known this? I guess I need to just be happy to have found out now.

I'm having a home date with my husband tonight. I love that guy. But he doesn't love that the date is beginning with a long and boring and unneccessary blog entry. Not really dating material. Although the Phillies and the Rays isn't really dating material either, right?

Hope your days are fine.

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