Unexpected road trip.

     Monday the twentieth of June was a good day. We went on a family bike ride and enjoyed a nice supper. At twenty past seven central time, Mr K recieved a phone call from a family member who lives up in North Dakota. It was his dad, and he was letting K know he was being evacuated due to flooding of the Mouse River. K asked four or five time if he wanted us to bring the pick-up to help move out the stuff. My father-in-law repeatedly said no thanks, he would be pkay. As soon as he got off the phone, we talked and decided we HAD to go help. And we did.
     We packed up both our family van and his pick-up to make sure we had a place to sleep in the event that there were no beds available once we got to Minot. Mr K, A, and myself all piled in for a long drive overnight from Monday night to Tuesday morning. We set out at 9pm, drove with frequent stop in order to make ourselves wake up, stay comfortable, attempt a nap, get gas, and generally make our way for this fourteen hour drive. Arriving about mid-day, we immediately began loading and unloading furniture. By the day's end, it was still light out at nine pm, twenty four hours after beginning our trip, thirty seven hours of being awake, and we crashed on the sofa still at my FIL's home. The next day we moved the rest of the items out and the last load was being put on the truck as the civil service sirens went off.
     The home was empty, we were out of there. One more night in Minot spent at Mr K's uncle's home and we went over to visit my MIL in another part of the state.
     What a crazy crazy week! We arrived home Sunday night after being in ND since Tuesday morning. I think we will be happy to not go anywhere for a while yet.

Meh Monday

     Father's day was yesterday and we held true to our plan of me not asking Mister K to do anything he didn't wnat to do, therefore we sat and watched many episodes of Battlestar Glactica, with breaks for some Gran Tourismo and finally a little grilling for supper.
     It was a beautiful day, sunny and in the 80s. Today, however, it is rainy and not nearly as pretty out. I had planned on the grass getting cut, and pulling out the wading pool for A to splash in.
     Meh. I'll be inside playing with Tyrant and the animals, sipping my coffee and figuring out where to get the motivation to get anything productive done for chores. I may be back later to edit and add something, for now, Baby-love-me-lots is beckoning me with a grin.

I really do love my job.

Mrglmrglmrglmrgl!! Wahh!
*Cracking an eye open*
I see it is 6:24 am. Thinking I dreamt the sounds of a murloc coming from A's room, I close my eyes briefly and doze off.
MRGLMRGLMRGLMRGLWAHHHHHHHH!
*Eyes both pop open*
6:25am.
Nope, not a murloc. Just my daughter, face smooshed into the mattress, pacifier an inch away from her mouth, alternately yelling/fussing/talking to someone (me, herself, her daddy?). She is ardently vocalizing the fact that she is unhappy with her current situation. There she lies, adorable footed pajamas with little flowers printed on them, soaked from shoulder to knee. That is the hazard of a baby who sleeps for nine hours without waking. Soaked everything, you know.
I walk in, see all this, pick her, smelling like the urine soaked diaper wearing baby that she is, cradle her to me and whisper "Good morning tyrant, I love you!"
Change her diaper while she smiles and kicks, then rolls away from me. "Hun, no you need the butt covering on, Mommy gets tired of cleaning up after the dogs and cat, she does not need you to contribute to the messes, thankyouverymuch." Wrangle diaper onto baby, get her dressed and fed, then playing happily with her feet, and the next thing I know I am face to face with a pee covered crib. Oh joy - notice that did you? The sarcasm that was darn near dripping from my words? Ha!
Muttering to myself...'Oh Booger, this is why you have a dry diaper all night long. It stays as fresh all night as it did when  first put it on you at bedtime. The minute you wake up, the floodgates open. and you secrete about a gallon of liquid from your well trained bladder, fill the diaper, the sheets and anything else that is in the crib.'  I pull a hamper close, drop in every last item she slept with, her sheet, the receiving blanket she was covered with, her woobie (blanket and Winnie the Pooh combo toy tihngamajig), and Eeyore all go in to the wash.
In less than two minutes, your bed has been stripped wiped down and remade. Mommy's plus 10 to haste buff is on, go me!
My dear daughter is now jabbering at the dogs while banging a rattle on a caterpillar. She sees me, I smile and walk to the kitchen to nuke cold coffee (yes the coffee was from yesterday, no I don't care, and plus it is not wasteful and the stronger the better :-D  ). Her look says "Um, Mom? WTH woman?! I am sitting here, the least you could do is drop everything and entertain me! WAH! Ooh, soft, cat fur!"
It is now 8 am. Mommy is normally just now waking up, hearing a soft cooing from A's room. This up extra early thing is not for me. We *did* have a routine just this past weekend. However, Mr K's job decided he was going out of town this week which left me with no relief pitcher in the 9th inning. No, my go-to guy is lounging in a hotel room this week. I am the on call parent at night and first thing in the morning. We (Boog and I) are not used to this. We are used to going to sleep in Daddy's arms, him putting the Tyrant to bed because the daddy-daughter time is just awesome for all three of us; him being the one up bright and early (Thank you Navy for training him well here) and doing the first morning hour thing while Mommy tries to go from zombie stumbling and mumbling "caaaafffffffeeeeeine" to human mommy. We miss The Daddy.
Despite this temporary burp in our routine, we are getting along. I get extra cuddles in the evening and see that glorious happy grin first thing when she rolls over at the sound of a voice, sees one of us and all is wonderful in her world.
Those things, you see, are what make: the screaming for an hour because daddy is not there, or grunting at me because 'Hello Mom! I made stinkies over here, I need a clean butt now!' and the fact that Mommy never gets to bed early, it's not genetically possible for me, those things make me adore my job as maid, cook, housekeeper, laundress, busboy, bellhop, slave to a Two Foot Tyrant "Mommy". Each smile, every game of "Where is she?, THERE she is!", each yank on my face, finger in my eye, every last gaze into those sea colored eyes every last bit of makes it awesome. It totally makes up for all the sleep missed, the pukes, poops, pees, spit outs, raspberry drools, don't eat the cat furs, the dogs' rawhide is not an acceptable teether, honey that is a cell phone-NOT a baby toy, I thought you swallowed the sweet potatoes ten minutes ago?!

We have plants!

The mister and I wanted a garden last year. The only problem with the pan was the fence that took 9 weekends to put up. We had to work in the heat and battle queasiness from Anna floating around unhappy with the temperatures, K's broken toe, and waiting for rainwater to dry up. So it took nine weekends, totalling about 90 working hours. That stole our gardening time, energy, and money.
This year, we had a deck to stain, we still have wood trim to paint, and we have a roof that is in dire need of fresh shingles. Today though, K worked on the box garden. He had previously built the box but today our wonderful neighbor came through on his offer to till the dirt. Suh-weet! Off to buy plants and back home in an hour, go me! (I am so bad at stopping and looking at stuff that this is an amazing feat.)
 We managed to plant about twelve different things for food and I got some bulbs, 'cause they were pretty. It's been a few days and the plants are still alive (so far).  Some of the bulbs are beginning to sprout. We shall see how this goes.

What a weekend!

I have been assimilated. Into the car club loving world. I am an American woman who has always liked the looks of American muscle. When I met Mr K, I learned he had a 2002 Camaro. I then became involved in learning about the wonders of a 6-speed V8.
The Mister belongs to a car club of F-body style. There is an annual get together at a lake in the Ozarks, which the club refers to as LOTO. This annual LOTO rally was this past weekend. When the Mister lived in Missouri, this was a two hour drive for him, but now that we live north of the area, it is a six hour drive. Despite the fact that these glorious muscle cars are not meant for long distance driving, we made this trip. With a baby. It was not nearly as bad as it could have been. Did you know you can manage to pack quite a bit into the hatch of a two door sports car? You can also safely use a cut up pool noodle to assist in the safe installation of the car seat. Also, did you know a woman who weighs anywhere from 125-135 any given day at is 5'2" in height actually can maneuver around the inside of a Camaro at 65mph in order to feed an infant? Because, despite the very dangerous aspect of it, it is possible, but never, ever advisable.
We manage to get to the lake, get checked in at the hotel and begin swimming by 9pm. The infant, Little Miss Shy One, decided after the first splash she was not having anything to do with the pool. She went to bed shortly after, we hung out near the room and talked til bedtime.
Saturday, we managed to enjoy a breakfast after my handy dandy brand new insulin pump got locked accidentally then unlocked despite no help from tech support. We enjoyed a long leisurely breakfast, then got to the park where we were to have a barbecue. Talked more, played with little ones and ate some burgers and hot dogs. As we left, we all decided to go back to the hotel and cool off at the pool. It was hot and sticky, so the pool was just the thing. Little Miss decided she'd rather nap than go to the pool with us so we compromised. She went to nap and we swan, with frequent checks, it was a success. Little did we know, one of our own members had gone back to the park to check on the stragglers who were behind, and as he was leaving, some minister lady was heading to officiate a wedding and either didn't see or was not paying attention and made a left turn into a church just as our friend was going along with traffic, not speeding (Thank God), and T-boned into to her. She had two other passengers in the car, and everyone made it safe with minimal burns from the air bags. He is fine but his beautiful Sebring Convertible was totaled. We are thankful as well that his own Camaro was out of commission for this rally, because he'd have surely died in that car if it were the Camaro in the wreck.
After he came back to the hotel, we went out for dinner at a local restaurant, then split up where some went back to talk and BS at the hotel while others went to the local downtown strip of hokey but awesomely fun shops. Then the group met up, talked more, and hung out til bedtime.
Sunday was when the fun ended, some went home early and others ate breakfast at a buffet. We left and arrived home at dusk, exhausted from our relaxing weekend.

My new pump did not make the cut. Yes, it is waterproof, but there were just too many other issues and it is locked away in a box to be brought out only in case of dire emergency.

In other news, A. now knows how to sit up, and she is eating solid foods. We are working on her reaching and her pivoting while on her belly. She is rolling like nothing else and will be crawling soon, if her kicking motions are any indication.