April 28, 2008

Happy Monday, y'all. Except for Friday, we had a very boring weekend. Friday's ski trip went pretty well. Ellen watched Adam for me and I took Ted and Alex up to A-Basin. Or, I should say, I took two Ewoks up to A-Basin. For a spring skiing, it was not a great day. It was cold, which meant the snow never slushed up nice and it remained hard pack. We only did two runs (the first of which Alex fell several times and got very frustrated) before the boys were ready for lunch. After lunch we did one more run before Ted was complaining of cold and wanted to be done. Luckily we were at A-Basin so I had the car at the bottom of the bunny hill and Ted stayed in the car and Alex went up and down the bunny hill by himself. This was a great confidence builder for Alex, he was not doing well on the lifts in the morning but by the end of the afternoon he had it down pat. He probably did that little lift 15 times in a row.

Here's Ted and Alex on the little lift in the morning:



All and all it was a long day. I was pretty exhausted from being so unnaturally selfless. I drove 3 hours and took two kids skiing with no hope of doing a fun run myself. Selflessness is hard work.

7:15 Drop off. I made pancakes for breakfast and Ariel heartily approved.

8:00 Did not take Alex to school. The boys do not have school today or tomorrow. Happy-happy Joy-Joy!

I spent the morning refereeing various fights among various children and doing chores. I ran a few loads of wash in my finally installed new washer and dryer. Which we had original purchased President's Day Weekend but with installation issues and back orders we only got done last Friday.

So, Judy and Crissy, here it is:



The dryer vents out the right side into a proper ventilation hose. It has a special clamp so we can remove the hose and clean it ourselves without hiring special vent guys to do it. I am very optimistic that our house will not burn down in a tragic dryer fire now. And the washer is all hippy dippy energy/water saving. My only disappointment is that Jeremy claims that due to cord lengths and a drain on the closet floor, the units have to be in the middle of the closet. I was really hoping to have them off to one side and building a custom drying rack on the other side. I think I need a second opinion on this, sometimes Jeremy gives up to easily, especially if it means getting out of more work.

The first load I did was Alex's wash, which just went out on the line to dry:



For the second load I ran towels and was AMAZED that they dried in the dryer in 1 hour. With the old dryer I had to run towels through two 90 minutes cycles. And, when they were done today, the laundry closet wasn't swampy at all.

While all this cleaning and laundry was going on, the kids got out their musical instruments:



The LOLcat caption on this one would be, "You're doing it wrong."



Also during the morning, Ariel decided to pee in her underwear. Twice. But at least she pooped in the potty.

11:30 Lunch - mac & cheese and cheddar bunnies. Her request. I didn't have much to offer, Monday is usually grocery day. And I did not have it in me to take 3 kids to the grocery store. Not on Monday.

12:00 Nap. During this time I put Revenge of the Sith on for the boys and did more cleaning. I got through the bathrooms and then scrubbed all the lint off the washer/dryer closet and surrounding areas. I really wish I had taken a before picture, or even a during picture when they removed the old appliances. It was quite spectacular. And fire-hazard-y, as Crissy and Judy will attest. And thanks again Judy for speaking to your son about it, my gentle nagging was getting us nowhere but Jeremy actually listened to you.

3:00 Ariel woke up. She watched the end of the movie and then ate some more cheddar bunnies.

4:00 At Alex's request, I read almost our entire collection of Dr. Seuss. It won't be long before Alex is reading some of the easier books. He's doing great and if he tries can sound out new words but it's slow going.

4:35 Pick up.