he's five! no jive!

It hardly seems possible that it has been an entire year since I wrote about Jack's 4th birthday...

And yet, here he is...my 5-year-old!

More details to come about his fun day.  Hopefully tomorrow...after I've slept and have half a chance of forming complete, coherent sentences...

almost had to call the fire department

Doug's birthday cake!

Jackson:  "How old is Daddy now?"  

Me:  "He's 38!"

Jackson:  "Whoa!  That's a way bigger number than me!"

unreliable

So, yesterday I checked weather.com and there was a 100% chance of rain starting at 5:00 pm.  And guess what?  It didn't rain.

This morning, I checked weather.com and there was a 15% chance of rain at 10:00 am.  And guess what?  When I walked out of Target at 10:00 am, it was raining.

Weather.com Weatherpeople, you should not get paid for what you do.  

Your Spring/Summer Reading List.

     Hey everybody!! Ryan here. I know that I just guest- blogged, but while I was in Indiana, I got a request to do another reading list, so (drumroll please) here are the

TOP 10 READS FOR SPRING AND SUMMER.

10. Peter Pan in Scarlet, by Geraldine McCaughrean- Who knew there would ever be a sequel to Peter Pan? In this story, Wendy, her brother, ( notice I didn't say "brothers". If you want to find out why, read the book ) and the lost boys return to Neverland to find it horribly wrong, the effects of WWII. Can they save Neverland?

9. The Sisters Grimm Series, By Michael Buckley-  After Sabrina and Daphne's' parents disappeared, they'd been sent from foster home to foster home. Until finally their Grandma, who lives in a town known as Ferryport Landing, takes them in her care. The girls are shocked when their Grandma tells them that Ferryport Landing is a town filled with fairy-tale creatures and people. And that every fairy tale is an account of something that happened. 6 books in the series. First one is The Fairy Tale Detectives.

8. The Name of this Book is a Secret by ?????????? ???? -  Shhh! I can't tell, it's a secret!!

7. Swindle by Gordan Korman-  What would do if you found out you got swindled out of a 1,000,000 dollar baseball card that could solve your family's' financial problems? If you were Griffin Bing, you would recruit a team, and steal it back. Oh, did I mention that the card is guarded by a VICIOUS DOBERMAN, AN ALARM SYSTEM ONCE USED BY THE MARINES, and A SAFE?

6.The Wayside School Series by Louis Sachar-  This series is one of the wackiest series I've every read!  Wayside School was accidentally built sideways. Instead of a one story building with 30 rooms all in a row, Wayside school is 30 stories high with one classroom on each story. The builder said he was very sorry. Need I say more?

5. The Diary of a Wimpy Kid series by Jeff Kinney- Greg Heffley's life stinks. He can't work up the courage to talk to a girl, he can't even do a pull up in gym, all he gets for Christmas are sweaters, and embarrassing things happen to him at every turn! Hilarious book series!

4. The Regarding The... Series by Kate Klise-  Well, it all starts when principal Walter Russ of Dry Creek, Missouri writes to fountain designer Florence Waters for a new drinking fountain.  

 Dear Sir/Madam

    Would you please send a catalog of your products to our school? We need a new drinking fountain.*

And Florence replies...

 I'd be delighted... but please understand that all of my fountains are custom made*

Talk about custom made! She makes a simple drinking fountain a pool, complete with a water slide and ice rink! Florence remodels the fountain in Regarding The Fountain. She also:

Remodels the Cafeteria sink

Trims The trees on the school campus

Remodels the school bathroom

Adds a Bee farm on the roof.

3.The Percy Jackson And the Olympians series. by Rick Riordan- What if you found out one of your parents is a Greek God and that Greek Mythology is all real? And That your best friend is a satyr? And That Zeus' master lightning bolt is missing and if you don't retrieve it in 10 days, WWIII will begin? It all Happens in The Percy Jackson Books. The First book is called The Lightning Thief.

2.The Pig Scrolls By Gryllus the Pig by Paul Shipton- Gryllus the Pig was once a human turned into pig by Circe the enchantress. And he'd like to stay a pig. but when he's captured by a Junior-Assistant-Assistant- Pythia- in-training to save the world his life is turned upside down. Oh did I mention that Gryllus can talk? The sequel is The Pig who saved the world. But personally I think the first book is better.

And The Best all time series this year is...

1. The 39 Clues Series by Multi- authors-  When Dan And Amy Cahill went to her grandmother's funeral, they thought they would inherit her house. Instead, they and 38 others are given a choice: $1,000.000 or a single clue that will lead them around the world in treasure hunt. The Prize: something that will make you powerful beyond belief. If you're Dan and Amy, you take the Clue and begin a dangerous race. Many Authors write the books but the first one is by Rick Riordan and is called The Maze of Bones.

ENJOY!!!

** copyright  1998 by Kate Klise. All rights reserved

go ahead...try not to laugh

By the way...at about 1:50, when Ainsley turns her head away from the camera, what she's really doing is checking out her reflection in the over-flow drain thingy...she does that every bath time.  

and now they can cross "meet an olympic gold medalist" off of their life to-do lists

Ryan and Emily with gymnast (and Olympic Gold Medalist) Nastia Liukin.

the big reveal

Do you know what my least favorite household chore is? Cleaning the bathrooms. But a close second is LAUNDRY! I don't mind putting it in the washer, or putting it in the dryer for that matter.  But I absolutely despise the chores of folding and putting away. And because I know that a laundry folder doesn't come standard on some of these new model washers/dryers, I haven't been in that much of a hurry to replace the ones we have. However, it was getting harder and harder to deny that we needed to break down and buy a new set.

About two months after Doug and I started dating, he moved into an apartment that had a washer/dryer connection and so I went with him to buy this set...





...the basic Kenmore washer and dryer, no frills, just wash and dry the laundry. And really, considering we've moved this set 8 times AND put them in storage for a couple of years, they had held up pretty well. Until about 6 months ago, when the dryer started leaving brown streaks on things. And it started taking two cycles (three for towels!) to dry a load. Also, the start button broke a couple of years ago, and so the dryer would automatically run while the door was closed, but if you took anything out mid-cycle, you'd have to turn the dial to stop the dryer. And the door started not closing very well, so to close the dryer, I'd have to kind of lift up on the handle and push it closed with my knee. And then a couple of months ago, the washer would stop mid-cycle. It took a few days for me to figure out that the sensor was going bad and it wasn't recognizing that the lid was closed. So I would have to weigh down the lid with the detergent bottle to get it to run a full cycle. All of these things made doing laundry a little inconvenient, but the final straw for me was two weeks ago, when two kids were home with the flu and I was trying to wash a load of towels and the washer stopped. I thought maybe I had forgotten to weigh down the lid, but I hadn't. So I pushed down on the lid really hard and I heard a click and the washer started again. But then I went to do another load and it stopped just after the wash cycle again and no amount of weight or pushing down would work. As a last ditch effort, I jammed some scissors into the little sensor area and it worked. Of course, scissors made the lid open too much, so Doug came up with this solution...









It totally rocks living with MacGyver!!


Ahem, anyway...this was the final straw and I practically insisted that we go the very next morning to buy a new set.

(cue angels singing...) And now...

Aren't they beautiful?!

Yes, okay, I realize they are a bit...generic. I mean, have you seen the machines that are out there lately?? The bright colors, and the pedestals, and the remote sensors that tell you exactly what's happening in your laundry room while you're downstairs sipping coffee and looking out at your beautifully stained deck. And then there are the models with the gazillion buttons, that would require an advanced degree in Astrophysics to operate, that steam and sanitize and dispense laundry detergent automatically for 3 months! But here's the thing...I don't have an advanced degree in Astrophysics, nor do I have the bank account of someone who has an advanced degree in Astrophysics. And when it comes down to it, these basic GE machines do the one thing I need them to do...wash and dry the laundry. The doors open and close like they are supposed to, the buttons work, plus there is the added bonus of using less water and laundry detergent.

Now, this particular washer and dryer have presented a few challenges. Because of the way the house was built, the washer and dryer connections are backwards. In a perfect world, or at least a world where people aren't on drugs when they build laundry rooms, the connections would be reversed, and when looking at the washer and dryer, the doors would swing open and away from each other, allowing you to easily move clothes from the washer, over to the right and straight into the open dryer. But now, when I open my washer, I open it right into my hamper. And then I have to lean over the door and pull out the clothes and pivot back and to the left to put them in the dryer. So one of our solutions, in case you can't read the print on the photo below, is to install another, deeper shelf below the one that is already there, so I can put laundry baskets above the washer and dryer and get rid of the hamper. By doing this, I will be getting rid of the space where I hang clothes, so we're also going to hang a closet rod, perpendicular to the shelves, along the short wall of the room. And finally, we are going to pull the washer out a bit so that it is flush with the dryer, because I'm just a tad obsessive-compulsive. I'll probably post another picture of the finished room but I think you can kind of get the idea from this picture...

One other thing...other than the bit of vibration that occurs during the washer's spin cycle, these suckers are so quiet! Almost too quiet. Because now I can hear the weird sounds the refrigerator has been making all afternoon.