Ramblings: Random Junkity junk junk

Random Junk #1 

I'm in the process of deciding which child to sell into slavery to cover the cost of having our heating fixed upstairs. After we moved the little boys up there, we started realizing how absolutely freezing it was up there at night with the doors closed. Especially in Alex's new room (a.k.a. the Guest Room or Uncle Greg's old room).  After the first night up there he said he thought he might die in his sleep. Jeremy joked that we shouldn't fix it. Heat is highly overrated--just ask his sister. Her family lives in Buffalo and they keep the thermostat at a chilly 60 degrees all the time. Hi Kashann! We love you! Are you frozen solid yet?

The unit up there works fine, it just turns out that the nitwits that built our house didn't route the heating ducts correctly or something like that. Anyway, we had to have them redo the routing of the heat to the three bedrooms upstairs to the tune of $900. I know, right? It seems like way too much ....they were only here for an hour and a half when they came to fix it but they did have to crawl around in alot of insulation and tiptoe around on precariously perched 2 by 4's up there. And they do get bonus points for asking to borrow Tyson when they were done so they could vacuum up some insulation that had fallen out of some of the vents.  I value cleanliness. Especially regarding insulation since the time I caught the boys trying to eat some after we had been bringing Christmas stuff down from the attic.  They thought it was cotton candy. Talk about an itchy throat. 

 

But I HATE when I feel like I don't know enough about something to know if I'm getting screwed or not. I might start going to night school to learn about heating/AC units for any future needs. When it came down to it, 900 bucks seemed like it would be way cheaper than the hospital bills that were sure to come from amputating off the frostbitten fingers and toes of the four crazies. And we have noticed a huge difference because the rooms are actually staying warm all night long now. And Alex doesn't talk about death anymore when I wake him up for school. 

Random Junk#2 

Maddie and I went to run some errands today and out of the blue she says:

M: His boots?

Me: Huh?

M: His boots.

Me: Ummm....What are you talking about?

M: Is that what it is?

Me: I really, really have no idea what you're asking.

M: (totally frustrated that I'm not getting it) Is that what it is? His boots?

Me: (nothing. I have nothing to say to this. I'm clueless as to what she's referring to...I just shake my head in total bewilderment.)

M: Is that what's lost?

Me: (suddenly realizing that Bono is on the radio singing "And I still haven't found what I'm looking for...") Yup. That's got to be it. If he's looking for something, obviously he must be searching for his favorite pair of boots. (And then I laughed for about 8 minutes straight.)

Random Junk #3

We took the kids bowling today. I know. Really ambitious of us. It was actually ok. We started at a mini-bowling lane they had for kids with tiny softball sized balls. The twins loved it. Avery thought he was so awesome. He'd throw it and then say "Nice Shot!"

 

But then we moved to the real lanes and it got more interesting. The boys each tried to shoot an 8 pounder like a basketball and when they finally realized that wasn't the idea, had fun attempting to roll it down the lane. Except that it rolled so slowly that they had lost interest by the time it hit the pins. Maddie threw one ball, proclaimed that she hated bowling and would hate it forever, and then took her bowling shoes off and threw them on the floor. And that's how she became the official iphone photographer since my camera battery was dead. Alex loved every single minute of it. But we'll have to break it to him one day that the goal is not to see how many times you can pinball it off the bumpers before you knock the pins down. Even though he got really good at it. One time he ping ponged it back and forth on the bumpers so many times, and with such force, that he managed to get a strike and the teenagers bowling next to us starting cheering. They were quite impressed. Jeremy and I proved, yet again, that the bowling class we took together in college was a complete waste of time. Both of us got worse throughout the semester and even now every time we try to do something we "learned" in class, we screw ourselves up even more.  No professional bowling leagues will be leaving messages on our answering machine anytime soon. 

    

But the  amazing part of the event was watching the teenage girl in the lane next to us. She had this contraption sticking out of her hips that looked like something from the movies. It was obviously some type of medical pin/screw device attached at her hips and connected with metal rods across the front of her abdomen . And she was bowling. SHE. WAS. BOWLING. With metal pins and rods sticking out of her hip bones. She'd sort of waddle up there, squat, then fling the ball from about two feet above the floor. I don't care if you LOVE bowling. Even if you feel you are destined to bowl. And even if it is your soul's grand delight. When you've had an accident or surgery or whatever it is that necessitates hardware being implanted into your hip bones with giant metal screws, maybe taking a break from the lanes for a couple of months ain't such a bad idea. For real. Couldn't squatting and flinging around a 12 pound ball do some damage to that metal contraption that is, after all,  CONNECTED TO YOUR BONES? I really wanted to catch a picture of her up there squatting and flinging, but I couldn't do it. There was no nonchalant way to take a picture of that freaky looking sight. 

Random Junk #4

Aidan has several favorite words. Words that he will say at random, out of context, and without rhyme or reason. And for whatever reason he finds them hilarious. They are: hot dog, cowboy hat, basketball team, and diarrhea. 

Lately I've been hearing him practicing counting. When Jeremy got home from work on Friday, I told Aidan to count for him. He said, "One, Two, Three, Hot Dog, Five, Six, Seven, Basketball Team, Nine, Ten, Cowboy Hat." So I said, "What about Diarrhea?"

 "No say diarrhea mom. We go to Time Out." So they DO listen. Sometimes. 

The diarrhea related time out happened after a trip to Home Depot when they totally embarrassed me. An older guy that worked there came up and started playing and talking with them. When I decided it was time to leave I said, "Ok guys. Say goodbye now." They turned to the guy, waved and then Avery said, "Bye bye Boobie" and at the same time Aidan said " Bye Diarrhea."

I've got my work cut out for me.