Keeping A Sense of Humor

Yep, you have to laugh when your children are smart alecs. They don't leave you any choice. Yesterday I was having a tiny tiny little bit of trouble backing out of the drive, and of course, Bobby and Brian happened to be in the living room, with Brian looking out the window. Bobby tells me that a certain someone told him that they shouldn't let old people drive. And you all thought Brian was nice.

Then last night Bobby and I got to watch Erin and Jill for awhile, put in a DVDfor them to watch, and couldn't for anything get the sound working. (there did happen to be a little mute button pressed on the remote that we didn't know about, but whatever.) We finally got some music going that we thought went with the movie, and were so proud of ourselves, when Jill and Erin were rolling hysterically on the couch, saying that's the CD, take the CD out, that's not the movie. We entertained them far more than that movie ever will.

Mark suggested we have them in bed by 8:30, maybe 9:00 since it wasn't a school night, and since Grandpa and Mimi were there. Well, we finally had them in bed by 9:45. They sure are good at stalling us, claiming they can't find the books they want to read, picking out the ones with lots of reading in them, Jill insisting on certain toothpaste that we never did find, and I finally told her she could use one of the toothpastes on the counter or brush without toothpaste (she chose without toothpaste). It will be my luck she'll have a cavity tomorrow morning. or rather Mark and Kim's luck. I let Jill have a chocolate chip cookie that she told me Mommy and Daddy let her have - Mark told me Jill would probably tell us she was allowed to have a pint of ice cream, too but that didn't make it so. But it turns out the chocolate chip cookie was allowed.
Erin couldn't find the green blankie she needs to sleep with every night, so the hunt was on. Never found it, but we found something else that worked. We thought we could have lights out before Mark and Kim came home, but they got to kiss Erin good night...or we could have told them she'd been sleeping for hours.

It was a very entertaining Friday evening and a fun Friday, smart alec Brian and all.

Quilt Block 11 and Small Talk

I completed this block 11 a few weeks ago, and also redid block one, some of it for the third time. And I am now happy with block one. I'm working on block twelve, and also have repair work to do to block two, then will start the border. I've also started another quilt, a rather time consuming project, which has little dolls on it wearing dresses, aprons and pinafores, with little sleeves and bloomers which I actually have to sew little folds into to make them a little puffy...a little time consuming, but fun. The little dresses get cut in half and re-matched to make them more colorful, so I'm going to wait until Erin and Jill are here for their help, thinking it's something they might enjoy doing since it's going to be a quilt they can use when they're having a sleepover here.

On another topic, two churches here in Louisville are merging - Shively Heights Baptist Church and St. Paul Missionary Baptist. One is predominantly white, the other black, and this made national news and was on Good Morning America this morning. I had to chuckle when the anchor guy announced it Shivly...with a short i...in Louisville, KY.

Bobby and I had dinner with Jean and Frank last night. We ate at Cheddars and had a chance to catch up a little and had a very pleasant evening.

Friday we went to the fair with Mark, Kim, Erin, Jill and Pam. First of all, Mark and Kim picked us up at the house, and they were on time. That really threw us off, we rushed out the door, and we went off without our camera, without a cell phone, I didn't have a chance to use the restroom, we neglected to turn off the television, we left the iron plugged in, the tub overflowed...well, I'm stretching the truth a little, but we really did go off without the camera. I mean, who knew they'd show up at 3:30. Really. So that's why I don't have any fair pictures. And yes, I know I'm being a smart alec.
We had so much fun at the fair. On the way there I asked Jill if she was going to ride the ferris wheel, and boy, in a loud determined voice she let the entire car know that "no, she didn't like ferris wheels." She did, however, ask me to go down this large slide with her, where you use this burlap bag to sit on. So we went down, Jill on my lap, and if you could have heard her scream..."Aaaaaaaaahhh"at the top of her lungs going down. I couldn't see her face to see if was fear or delight. I was told it was sooo cute, she was smiling big time. And Erin seemed to like just about everything. She loves to go round and round, going fast. She came down the slide by herself right behind Jill and me. And Erin got such a kick out of a little bunny that was bucking and kicking in it's cage..she just giggled while she watched it...so cute.

The concert at Willow Park has Blues music tonight, so we're opting out. But next week is Salsa music - can't miss that one.

celetrating Erin's birthday

On the afternoon of Erin's birthday, The Tablers came to our house because their air was out. So Erin opened a few birthday gifts at our house. You can see her holding up a skirt and a dress. The other photos are at the Spaghetti Factory later in the evening. The little doll is her new Groovey Girl Doll. And everyone in the party room sung happy birthday to her, and she ambitiously blew out her candle, as you can see. What a doll. What an angel. What a sweetie pie.

Erin, Jill and Kim spent the night because their air wasn't going to be repaired until the next morning, so Mark gave Judy a ride home, and he went on home himself. Mark claimed sleeping without air reminded him of the old days when he was a kid.

The next morning, Jill asked, "Mimi, will you fix me some pancakes?" Needless to say, I had those pancakes going in a flash. Afterall, this is the same little girl who says you get the best turkey sandwiches at Mimi's house.

So we enjoyed the birthday celebration that stretched into a sleepover. What fun.

Five Years Ago

Happy Birthday to the cutest, smartest, most adorable five year old on the face of the earth. I can't believe it's been five years. I spent so long in the delivery room, but close to delivery, it was requested that fewer people be present. Len and I were standing outside the delivery room door, and were told we couldn't stand in the hallway. I thought we'd then proceed to the waiting room, where Bobby was, but that isn't how Len was thinking at all. He said, "they didn't say we couldn't 'walk' in the hallway. So we paced outside the door. Everytime someone would come down the hall, we'd act like we were walking away, then would quickly make out way back to the door to listen. Finally! we heard a baby cry. Erin Rose Tabler.

Later --early morning hours, Judy and I went across the street to Denny's to get Mark and Kim something to eat, and I believe we floated across the street. I believe Erin has had us floating ever since.

I have a certain photo in mind of Bobby and I holding Erin in the hospital for the first time, and the smiles on our faces speak volumes. We must have known what a wonderful five years it was going to be. Can't wait for the next five, and the next five, and the next.....

playing tourists

When Bobby and I were downtown Sunday, we thought the stretch of Main Street we were on looked very touristy and pretty so we snapped some photos. The one of me with Daniel Boone is how we would have looked if it had been taken yesterday - we would have been floating on our sides right down the street. The one of Bobby is at Mrs. Potter's Coffee Shop. The little ironing boards are tables to sit and have your coffee, and the other spot is an area typical of a spot at each corner where you can wait for the trolley.

On another subject, Brother Ben called yesterday to see if the Goddard Hill had washed away. And Julie had been looking at pictures of Louisville flooding on the internet. That's two siblings heard from. I'm assuming Mark's head is also above water. Guess I'll give him a call today just for the heck of it.

Needless to say, Grandparents' day at the waterpark yesterday was a wash, but we got to spend the day with Erin and Jill anyway. Talked to Kevin - he was going by the softball field to check it out and had lots of phone calls to make, and we talked to Brian about the apartment fire so close to his apartment. I'm getting ready to read the other blogs - I know Mark has one on here I've not read yet, then it's on with my day.

Saturday with Erin and Jill

We asked Erin and Jill to spend Saturday with us and I'll fill you in on how a few things went. Of course, you already know we enjoyed it tremendously. We went to the playground down by the riverfront by Tumbleweed, and ended up staying only about 20 minutes because it was so hot, but had fun. We neglected to put sunscreen on the girls and didn't take anything to drink ( are we new at this or something?) so we had to come home and indulge in popsicles to cool off.

Erin taught us how to play the wally wallaby rhyming game. We were a little slow catching on, and I could see her little mind thinking, "gee, I certainly didn't get my intelligence from these two." But once the game got going, had a lot of fun with it. Actually, I think the problem was that we had a little trouble understanding just what she was saying. I'll go with that.

Jill placed a baby doll under her shirt and told us she had a new baby coming. Presto, the baby dropped to the floor - the baby had arrived. (no doula services were needed here, thank you)

When asked if the baby was a boy or girl, she had the same answer Erin had a year or so ago about knowing if a baby was a boy or a girl - she had to wait and see what kind of hair it had.

They were the perfect little visitors yesterday. I guess because they're perfect.

While writing this, I checked the dictionary to make sure I was spelling popsicles and wallaby correctly, because you know how when you look at a word and it suddenly doesn't look right, and wallaby is in this dictionary, but popsicle isn't. I think that's rather odd.