Short Weekends

Until November 15 or when it rains (whichever comes first), Dave will be working Fridays since they are busy with logging operations. His activities vary from cutting branches off of felled logs, making roads, putting chains around logs, or operating the skidder. As long as he's safe and happy, I'm okay with whatever he does.

It does stink that he has to work Fridays, though. That makes it so he's only home with us two days a week instead of three. That may not seem like much--only one day--but trust me, it is a lot. I keep doing rain dances but so far they've not had a serious downpour to halt operations (shhhh, don't tell my father-in-law, he'd be mad if he knew what I were up to!).

For the last month we've been working weekends at Cassie's house, helping with renovations of the detached garage to turn it into the new preschool room. When she toured the property, it looked to be a complete room. But once she moved in, she realized that the rental company had torn out EVERYTHING because it had been college student style construction (i.e., a few sheets of drywall quickly nailed to the uninsulated walls, carpet thrown down on top of rotting wood and cardboard, and no power in the room). Another dad named Mark has been leading the way with all the construction. I'll be SO GLAD when it is done. Then we can have our weekends back. I'm apparently unable to not help with things like this. When good people need help, we help. It's that simple.

On Saturday Dave had to go to do annual maintenance on a rental property that we manage for someone. We get paid hourly and Dave likes doing home repair so it is a good deal for us. I decided that since he was busy anyway, Eddie and I would go to Cassie's to help move furniture into the preschool room. I was under the impression that the baseboards and carpet had been finished so all that was left was furniture. Wrong! She and I ended up installing the carpet padding and carpet. I tried to put in the baseboards, but didn't have the right saw with me. Eddie wouldn't nap at her house for some reason so I took him home. Poor kiddo fell asleep in the bike trailer. He wouldn't nap at our house, either, but I left him playing/reading/singing in his crib for an hour hoping he'd surrender to much-needed sleep while I showered and laid down for 15 minutes. My back hurt, my knees were bright red from crawling around on the indoor-outdoor carpet all morning, and I was exhausted.

Once Dave got home, he got cleaned up, and we went to the park with Eddie on our bikes. The little stinker never wants to ride his bike home from the park so we end up carrying it home on the back of my bike. We got home in time to make a bunch of pizza dough for Leila's half-sleep over party that night. There was a swim party beforehand, but since Eddie didn't nap I didn't want to wear him out too much for the end of the party. We dropped him off and Cassie scooted us out the door. We didn't have to come back to get him until 10pm (we came around 9, though). What an AWESOME party for all of us! The kiddos made personal pizzas, had cupcakes, and got to watch movies outside in a tent using a projector screen. The party favors were these pre-packaged backpacks with a flash light, water bottle, and sleeping bag. Eddie was completely passed out in his sleeping bag when we got there. He didn't wake up until we put him in the car. I've never dealt with transferring Eddie straight to bed from the carseat at night before (since we never go out late at night), but he did fine and slept until 8am.

While Eddie was partying, we went to get some delicious spicy food and cocktails at a place called Red Noodle Bar downtown. Then we saw Crazy, Stupid Love since Moneyball was sold out. Our movie was cute and we both enjoyed it. It was so nice to have a date and we didn't have to pay for childcare! Woo! Plus, we got to have our celebratory post-exam drinks now that I have a renewed license. Dave took his water distributor exam the week before. (The night of my qualifying exam we tried to go out for drinks but the bar tender realized that my license had expired back in March. Oops! And funny, since I know I've been buying alcohol other places the whole time and no one noticed.)

Sunday morning we had a big breakfast of sausages, eggs, toast, OJ, and delicious Sharlyn melon slices. Then Dave and Eddie worked on the dishwasher while I cleared out all the dead vegetation from the front yard. It was a cool, overcast day and it even rained a little. I was in heaven. Regarding the dishwasher: we thought the food residue on the top rack dishes was from a bad impeller but once we bought a replacement, it was clear that wasn't the issue. Dave took apart some other things but those all looked fine, too. So we made sure to level it since the ball valve requires it to be perfectly leveled in order to get top rack water sprayer to work right. Throughout the day, we ran it about five times with vinegar or lemon juice poured in to remove some of the hard water crust. A bowl set upwards in the top rack collected black and white powder each time. Sigh. At least the bottom rack still gets clean. We'll continue to use it to see if the acid improved it or not. If not, we'll break down and buy a new dishwasher.

While Eddie napped we super-trimmed the honeysuckle in the utility yard. There is a HUGE pile of yard debris in front of our house this week! We kept all the dried leaves from the vines and made two new compost piles in that yard. For the last several months we've been throwing all our veggie/fruit food waste out to the chickens. But when I go out there at night I can see way too many cockroaches also eating the food. I'm okay with most bugs but NOT cockroaches. So our food waste will now go into a proper compost pile or into the worm bin I finally got around to finishing. Sorry, chickens....you'll get worm treats soon, though.

We went downtown after naptime to get yogurt and to buy some more winter veggies and flowers from Ace. Eddie also got his very own leaf rake. Dave was going to cut down the handle for him, but he seems like like it long. Once we got home I planted the seeds I started inside a few weeks ago into the beds in the garden. And I tucked some bok choi, green cabbages, and Brussels sprouts into the front yard beds. I'm hoping to get the pansies planted that I bought, too. For dinner that night we tag-team cooked steaks and Brussels sprouts while alternately cleaning the garage and watering the newly planted veggies.

It was a great weekend (especially all the family time on Sunday) and I can't wait for this coming weekend! We are planning on having a wienie roast over the fire pit for dinner one night and fondue the other night--both meals that Eddie is SURE to love (which is why we're doing them).