Ladder Back Chairs

I had a mountain of laundry to wash and fold yesterday.  While I folded clothes and made nice stacks on our bed, a voice whispered in my ear to quick check craigslist on my phone for dining chairs.  I found them!  I found them!  I fell in love with two groups of chairs which I thought would go well together and would be a great match for our soon to be new dining table.  I sent a text to Cesar about finding some chairs I liked to warm him to the idea of discussing chair options once home by my side.  It worked!  Cesar like them too!  I made a call to hold the group of four ladder back chairs for Cesar to pick up today.  Lucky for me, Cesar had only a location scout in Jersey for his commercial next week so he had time to play delivery man for me.  The poor guy drove all day long.  Down to Jersey, out to Long Island for the four chairs and over to Westchester for the two end chairs and finally home.  I was very excited to see him pull up the drive!  I ran out to the truck to help carry them inside.  My smile reached from ear to ear.  A few need new rush on the seats, but with littles in the house, I think the chairs will do as they are for a long while.

I also made a Malotov for dessert.  Thinking of you Momsha!

Anniversary

Someone, who will not be named, but is not me, forgot our anniversary. And it was our fourteenth (14) anniversary.

I could feel it coming, the Someone's not remembering I mean.

Cheery Cheerleader whispered sweet nothing's in my ear of how Someone had ignored me at Christmas, but not to fear, Someone was sure to come through on our anniversary. Someone would make a surprise of it! Someone would call a sitter! Someone didn't really mean for me to play Bingo at The Elementary for two whole hours in the evening of our fourteenth anniversary surrounded by K-5th graders who were selling baked goods to earn cash for their end of year field trip. "Or did he?" piped up Nagging Nellie. Cheery Cheerleader quickly said "Your Someone wouldn't forget" "Or blow off! Ha, ha, ha!" "Shhh! Nagging Nellie!", Cheery Cheerleader scolded before she continued, "I just know Someone wouldn't forget your anniversary which actually falls on a Friday night this year and which Someone will actually, actually be home for. Really, he's got it all planned out!  Have no fears and go get yourself all dolled up!", sang Cheery Cheerleader in my ear.

Well she was all wrong.

My Someone only figured it out because I put sparkling cider on the table before dinner. Someone said that when he saw the cider he ran through a list of possible holidays in his head. Nope, not one of those... Then Someone actually admitted to the thought of "We weren't married in January!" popping into his head.

Those words to this romantic girl =

Knife Through My Heart

Someone hurried into the kitchen where I was preparing the last of our meal and asked, "Is it our anniversary?" or was it... "Did I forget our anniversary???" Oh, who cares.

I'm mad. I'm hurt and I'm mad. Mad, mad, mad. Nagging Nellie won.

And today at lunch, I didn't make Someone a sandwich and Someone wondered if I were trying to tell him something. "Yeah! We're out of cold cuts!"

Chainsaw Time

Our Labor Day weekend began with yard work.  Cesar chopped up the fallen tree and in the process decided to cut/hack/wack and chainsaw a path through the wild rose hedge to the neighbors.  It was a big job.  Hugo and his little pal Sevren have been running the long way around the yard to play with each other.  I'm a tad nervous that the girls have a new escape hatch out of the safety of our yard, but we'll see how it goes.  Next summer we are putting up a fence for sure, Miss Trouble and Troublette will be running major circles around me I'll bet.  Please pray for me.

While Cesar worked, the rest of us played, and we played for most of the day in our jammies!  But as the day progressed, and it was time for me to start dinner, the girls were all up in my hair being whiny and slap hitting each other (Marlo is Queen of Slap Hitting and Sabine is a Biter.  Lovely times, lovely times.)  Outside I went to plead with Cesar for back up.  He said he needed to finish his work cleaning up the tree mess.  I wanted to cry, I was burnt out.  And then my sweet husband offered that if I would let him finish his job, and give him time to shower, he'd take us all out to eat at Mrs Lucy's.  Done deal and it was yummy in my tummy and just the change of pace I needed.

Eating out with the girls is an experience.  Both girls need highchairs, of course.  But one of those highchairs must have a working buckle lock or we might as well just order take out and call the evening quitsville because Sabine is a Houdini wanna be and will be out of her highchair in mere seconds and off and running.  Tonight Hugo and Sabine were angels and Marlo was twisted.  In the end, she settled and all worked out.  I even finished my steak.

Papa Coming Home!

Cesar is due home and I can't wait to see him.  The fridge is full, yummies have been baked.  Bags are packed for a day at the beach tomorrow.  The kids are pumped!  Our sheets are clean.  And it will be sunny and warm.

Got Milk?

Before heading to the pool this morning, the kids and I stopped at Subway for sandwiches and drinks.  I don't know what it is about eating tuna fish made by someone other than myself, but I sure do find it tasty, so I got a 6" tuna while Hugo and the girls split a ham & cheese.  The idea of Subway stuck in my head as I began to pack our lunch cooler.  I had filled up the girls sippy cups with ice and water and reached for my trusty Ragu jar (I swear I am not suddenly pushing product placement here on the blog) to fill it also with ice and water to be chilly chill later on.  Think I sound a bit odd with my homemade thermos/water bottle?  Well, it works awesome!  I can stuff tons of ice in my Ragu wide mouthed glass jar, we aren't supposed to have glass containers at the pool, I live real dangerous.  As I reached for my Ragu jar I discovered it to have vanished.  I remembered putting it on the lower shelf of the lazy susan, underneath the breakfast cereal, but it wasn't there...  Cesar!  Cesar did it!  I didn't even have to call and bug him to find out.  I knew with every fiber of my being that my husband Cesar was the culprit, that he had thrown out my beloved jar thinking it to be trash.  It's glass!  It's reusable!  What was I going to drink my icy water from at the pool?  Subway it was.

Hugo's face is white not from drinking milk, but from downing a vanilla ice cream cone.  He asked if I knew why we had tongues.  When I replied no, he told me that, "We have tongues to clean our faces."

Sabine disappeared on me in the yard.  I noticed the front door had been left open and hoped she had drifted indoors.  Upon entering the foyer I called out her name, "Sabine, are you in here?"  Nothing.  Then I had a spark of motherly inspiration and called out, "Sabine, want a cookie?"  Instantly I heard, "No." followed by a scrambling sound and then running feet exiting from Hugo's room.  These days, the word no covers all the bases.

Since returning home from vacation I've been bitten by the must make bug and I've been knitting, knitting, and knitting.  I've missed it.

A Date

Our day was full with lawn mowing, a friends birthday party for Hugo, and a date for Cesar and I.   I think I vibrated all day long as I counted down the hours to our date night.  And boy was there a lot to do to have the house and children ready for the sitter.  Whew!!  We are waaaaay out of practice in the date department.  (Sssshhh!  This past February marked two years since our last evening out, without children.  Can you believe that??  Me neither!)  How did the date come about?  I texted Cesar Friday afternoon, informing him that he was taking me to dinner and a movie Saturday night and gave him a choice between 3 sitters for the kids.  I even pulled off the wall, a long overdue gift certificate for dinner which we received when we purchased the van, back in 7/09!  When I called to make reservations, the gal had to check with the owners to see if our certificate was still good.  Dinner was delicious and beautiful and then I made Cesar suffer through the movie Water For Elephants.  It was a wonderful night.