July 13, 2008

Well what a busy week! I am happy to announce that after 3 years living here, we FINALLY had the gutters cleaned!! Josh and I have been arguing for 2 years over whether he would hold the ladder while I climbed up there. He said he should be the one to get up there, I said he's be better qualified to hold the ladder than I am. And so it went for 2 years, taking a break in the winter of course. You could say neither of us were particularly motivated. Meanwhile a small world grew there, complete with life forms, trees, and of course plenty of yuck. Finally one day last week, Josh picked up the local paper out of the blue and called per an ad that he found, and voila - Monday 2 guys showed up and scaled the house! While there, they also sold Josh on a power washing for the house, also desperately needed, and so that got done too. yay!

Tuesday Jocelyn had her first play group at the library with Miss Dana. Josh said there were 2 little boys there too - a little older. Miss Dana emailed me later and said Jocelyn was quiet at first but then warmed right up and certainly didn't take a back seat to the boys. Hee hee - no surprise there!! When I got home I asked her what she learned and she screamed "the letter A!!" it was cute. She couldn't remember the boys' names but Dana emailed them to me so we'll practice before this week.

Wednesday the new couch arrived - yay again! It takes up significantly less space than the old one and really opened up the room. And bonus - it's not ripped up and falling apart and smelly (yet)!

Yesterday I needed to know what building Dr. Seuss was facing from the exhibit in Springfield for a scavenger hunt that I'm doing at work (teams of actuaries, students, and interns running around CT!) so we all hopped in the car and took a ride. The exhibit is on the lawn in between the Science Museum and Fine Arts Museum. There are a variety of metal sculptures of Dr. Seuss characters - Thidwick, Thing 1 and Thing 2, etc etc and then Dr. Seuss sitting at his desk among them. It's neat. I took a bunch of pictures but my .Mac account is having issues and I can't get them posted! I emailed customer service, so I hope they get back to me soon! Anyway, Dr. Deuss is facing the Science Museum, so I got my answer. The museums were closed by the time we got there, but I think we may go back some time (if anyone wants to meet there - let me know!). The price is pretty reasonable there are actually 4 museums and it's one entrance fee - $10 for adults, $5 for kids, free for kids under age 2. That's less than we spent to get into Kidcity last week!

When I got home from shopping today, Josh was cleaning the kitchen so I decided to clean my office (needed to find room for all the way too many school supplies I bought at Walgreen's!) and then decided to get out the chain saw and cut down a birch that was starting to look not real sturdy and leaning in the back yard. It was my first time taking down a tree. I want to say it went so-so. Well, the good news is no one got hurt and the chain saw is fine - but Josh had to come help me out a little and the so called 'stump' is about 4 feet high. Hmmmm. Anyway, once I had the chain saw, decided to also take down the overgrown rhododendron out front. We had started putting mulch down in the side garden yesterday but our 12 bags didn't make it too far. So as long as we're going to have to get more, might as well clean everything out and do it all at once! I took out 2 bushes that I totally thought were weeds on my way to the rhododendron, but Josh informs me they were not. Oh well! Then I got the rhododendron down - holy moly it was HUGE! Took me about 15 trips to carry the parts out back. Then Josh joined me and we pulled out some of the prickly ground cover that had been right in front of the rhododendron. There is still a lot more to clear out, but that will do for now.

Jesse has started referring to us as "guys". As in "hey guys?" haha. Jocelyn has taken to telling elaborate stories that make no sense, go on forever, but mostly have a funny punch line at the end - something like "and I said, are you kidding me??"

Morgan had a good week at school. His eyes have been watering so I gave him claritin again and it cleared it up pretty well, but then I forgot tonight. His behavior has been fine at school so I had stopped, but looks like he's still allergic to something out there.

Timothy's friend from across the street has an above ground pool - so we haven't seen much of Timothy this week and he has permanent marks on his face from the mask!