Army Guy, Monkeys, and Single Motherhood

So this week, Jeremy has been gone...he suddenly had to go to Portland for his uncle's funeral. I got a taste of single motherhood while he was gone--and realized that I'll take him and his laundry on the floor any day! Here's some of the things I did this week:

1. Took Sam, who "wants to be an army when I grow up" to VBS--the theme was Boot Camp. Here he is in his flight suit and my dad's old army hat, with Evan trying to get in on the action.
2. Worked in the garden...it feels like such a battle against the sun, dryness, bugs, weeds and budget. When I wasn't working in the garden, I was often thinking about the garden, or driving around looking at other people's gardens.
Here's a "before" photo.

3. Thought of middle names for the baby
4. Went to McDonald's with a friend and her 2 boys. While eating in the play area, smoke and dust and dead bugs began raining down on us. Evan had 2 dead gnats on his french fry...I picked them off when he wasn't looking. I went to find a manager, but not surprisingly, no one ever came to offer an explanation or apologize or attempt to wipe the area down. Because I am so principled and will not stand for such a lack of customer service...we stayed for another hour and a half (because when do two moms of preschoolers get to have uninterrupted conversation?). I didn't have my camera, but here is a picture of what the boys looked like when we left.

5. I spent a lot of time lying on the couch and trying to make the boys have "quiet" time, because here is an example of what those two monkeys were doing at all other possible moments:
(Not pictured: spitting, spitting on each other, fighting with swords, fighting with guns, fighting with sticks, spitting into their yogurt, making sailboats and rocketships out of their sandwiches, jumping off of the bunkbed, throwing dirt at each other, and waking me up way too early)
6. Thought some more about middle names for the baby.
7. Watched a movie every night...and I'm not even ashamed of myself! Here are the ones I have watched so far.





I also have Kit Kitteredge in my "queue" (that just means it's sitting on top of the entertainment center) but I don't know if I'll get to it.
8. Went to the park (I met some friends there), the library (friend was there), drove around to garage sales (kids were trapped in the car, therefore not able to make a mess in the house), and the Aquaplex (needed to tire the kids out for an early bedtime).
9. Finally decorated my room after living here for 2 years. I got this great chair on craigslist, thinking I would use it to nurse the baby in, but Jeremy has claimed it as his new "homework" chair and I am beginning to wonder when I will get my first turn to sit in it.


10. Thought some more about middle names, went to a baby shower and doodled baby names instead of playing the baby shower games, and watched the entire credits of each movie, looking for inspiration for baby names.

Jeremy gets home tomorrow, God willing, and life will be back as it should be...if only for a few weeks until we add a whole new person to this mix!

More Events and Comments About Sweets

Last week, I really got a "hankerin'" (I just wanted to write that) to have some friends over. After multiple unreturned phone calls or polite declines, I tried not to get my feelings hurt. I regrouped and tried again for Tues.--and then had quite a houseful of guests! The snag in the night's plans came when even John Coe came inside saying that his toes were cold--I had planned to eat outside, have a fire, play ping pong, and just let the kids run around in the yard. Instead, we had 10 kids and 8 adults trying to eat simultaneously inside and I think every toy out on the floor by the end of the night. But, I had fun hostessing, and my guests seemed to enjoy themselves. We had Chicken-Stacky-Uppy, a Kaufman family tradition.



Wed., I took the boys to the teddy bear picnic downtown and Sam got a dinosaur painted on his face.
Sam was still reluctant to approach the person dressed in the teddy bear costume, but Evan went right up to him/her. I had another hankerin'--this time for ice cream--but Samuel disobeyed and so I said no ice cream, but I really wanted some. So, I took the kids for a long drive...to see a gold-mining submarine in Baderville (but that's a different story) and waited till they fell asleep in the car, and then quietly went through the Dairy Queen drive-thru. I truly glared at the flamboyant 18-year-old worker who handed me my blizzard (upside down, of course) and exclaimed "Have a nice day!" I didn't want anyone waking up and asking for a bite.

Today, the boys and I went to Beaver Creek with some MOPS friends. I had one picture with me in it, but it had to be deleted because the lighting, angle, swimsuit, body, etc. were just all wrong. I'm beginning to daydream about exercising again. We had fun, and I was actually the cool mom who packed pudding. I guess it was out of a guilty conscience from the day before.
(Thanks for the cute suits, Aunt Kendra)



Now, Jeremy and Sam are off on Sam's first mountain biking ride...I thought about packing a first aid kit for them, but knew Jeremy would leave it on the driveway. And we already had Frosties today, so there won't be any chocolate to give to Sam if he comes home with an owie. He'll just have to be a tough guy. See his tough guy face in the picture? So convincing.

Marsh the Mallows

We've had some really good times as a family lately...Jeremy has had more free time with only one class this summer. I love watching him and the boys together--they love him so much. Their favorite thing in the whole world seems to be "wrastling" with him on the bed. Here they are putting together Evan's new tricycle that he got from Gamma and Pa J for his birthday.
Evan calls it his motorcycle and I am wondering how I am going to remember to put it away every night to keep it from being stolen!

Sam's been drawing on the driveway a lot recently, and I discovered that he did this all by himself:
Jeremy took some high schoolers camping over the last 2 days and the boys and I joined up with them when we could--we had to work around a doctor's appointment for me and cooking dinner for a family of 11 who just had a baby. I think we drove 2 complete circles around Mt. Elden on Tues. and then drove another 9 miles on bumpy roads in the woods yesterday. I suppose that would put some women into early labor, but it seems to be a traditional part of pregnancy for me--with each child, it seems I have ended up bouncing down a dirt road and thinking, "Should I be doing this?" We joined the group for dinner and marshmallow roasting (or as Samuel called it, marshing the mallows). (Look at the girl's legs behind Evan...what???)
This was a sweet moment...til Jeremy told me that later that night the guitar got broken by a stump...now it is a bittersweet picture to look at.

A couple of the students were making "bombs" with plastic bottles and acid and foil and after a couple of them exploded near Evan, he had post-traumatic stress disorder and wouldn't uncover his ears the rest of the time we were there.
The next day, we joined the group (see, we conveniently missed having to actually sleep in the woods) at the Lava River Cave. Evan burst into tears when he saw the cold, dark, rocky entrance, but Sam waited for Jeremy to take him in and had a lot of fun. Evan ended up climbing in as far as we could go without a flashlight. While the students were in the cave, Jeremy had them turn off their flashlights and told them the true story of our friend, Tennessee Dan, who went into the lava tubes and his flashlight broke. He was in there for at least a day and a half, thinking he was a dead man, until someone happened to come in and help him out. Jeremy talked to them about how we sometimes feel like we are groping in the dark, but that God is near, etc.

On one of Jeremy's walks with the boys in the woods, Evan suddenly looked up and exclaimed, "Tree, see Daddy, right der, tree, tree," like he hadn't noticed that there were trees all around him the whole time.

Sam rode on the fun bus for one part of the day and Evan's heart was broken that he didn't get to ride it until I put on the Veggie Tales CD for the 100th time and found the last piece of cookie for him to have.

When we got out of the car at the lava tubes, these underwear were laying on the ground, and as a joke, said, "Sam, did you leave your underwear here?" and then turned to get Evan out of the car. When I turned back, Sam was holding them sheepishly and said, "Well here, Mom, can you just put them into the car for me?" Poor little guy, trying to be such a good boy! I can just imagine the mom whose kid had an "accident" there in the woods and she didn't want to bring stinky underwear all the way home in the car and just decided (like we all have at one time or another) that it would be easier just to abandon the soiled underwear and not think about it again. But at least she could have buried them or something.

Then we headed up to Snowbowl, where if you brought 3 cans of food, you could ride the ski lift for free. I had another, "Should I be doing this?" moment, but didn't want Jeremy to have to deal with both of our kids on the lift. So I went, and then just sat on a picnic table at the top while everyone else explored. It was cold but beautiful. Then our kids had a snot blowing competition with each other on the way down.

Family Fun and Medical Maladies

Okay, that is totally the cheesiest title for a blog post ever, but once I wrote it and looked at it in horror, I just couldn't erase it. So there is how the dorky mind of Kaci works--finding small pleasure in alliterations and puns and corny jokes (but just my own, I think other people's are...well..dorky). My college roommates (pictured in a previous blog) visited my middle school classroom when I was a teacher and I was saying that I didn't have my "thing" that made me a memorable teacher (like a crazy wooden platypus for a hall pass or a weird ritual to do before tests) and then they heard me laugh at my own puns in front of my class and assured me that I had my "thing."

We went to Phoenix this weekend and stayed at a hotel with Jeremy's parents and brother to celebrate Evan's birthday. The hotel was not a resort like it had been rumored to be, but definitely was cute in a kitschy sort of way. The gang of "regulars" that were poolside when we first got there were a little sketchy, but we enjoyed the pool, spa, and down comforters. And, of course, it had the standard hotel air conditioning controls--freezing cold or stuffy sauna being the only 2 choices of settings. I had a rough night of Evan waking every hour or so and having to pee 17 million times (I think the change in elevation made me retain water) but that is bordering on too much information (but half of the title of this post is "Medical Maladies" so it fits, okay?). On Monday, I visited my friend in the NICU at Phoenix Children's and was able to see her baby, Leah (so cute) and hear how things are going. It was emotional for me to just be there for an hour and a half, I can't imagine what it's like for the family to be living it. Pray for them more if you think of it!

After that, we went to Makutu's Island--which is a indoor playground thing in Phoenix with slides and tunnels and cargo nets and a zipline.


After fun times in Phoenix, I had to take the boys to Evan's doctor's appointment (2 year well-child visit...which is ironic because every time I actually take my children to their "well-child" checkups, they end up leaving with a prescription for antibiotics--Evan has ear infections in both ears, which would explain the inconsolable crying on the way down to Phx and back up to Flag and the night wakings) and then Sam's dentist appointment (an hour wait in the waiting room and then found out he had at least 6 cavities). So we were back again today for him to get them filled--I was nervous but he was happy as a lark. I couldn't be in the room with him because of the laughing gas and pregnancy, but I could hear him chattering away and wondered what sort of crazy things he was saying while under the influence. Everyone in the office fell in love with him and they took care of all of his cavities because he was so good, so we don't have to go back again like they thought--yeah! Here's a picture of him with his funny mouth.
(Notice further proof of me teaching them at a young age that chocolate makes everything feel better.) Now it's off to bed for me where I will lay awake despite being desperately tired, thinking of middle names for the baby like "banana" and "eunice" and doing weird math calculations to try to make the next 7 weeks seem to go by faster.