Seems like we have a lot going on lately. Nothing fun and exciting, just stuff to occupy my mind. We had fun at the beach Friday (ok, that was fun and exciting!) and a quiet day Saturday, then Sunday headed down to visit the Johnson family. While we were there we got a call from our neighbor saying a huge limb from one of our trees had fallen on their garden, smashing their archway and damaging their cars (cosmetic damage only, luckily!) They have a “tree guy” friend who came right over to cut the limb up so they could get their cars out. We asked him to check out the rest of the trees on the property while he was there. Turns out the two pines in front are rotting on the inside and need to be taken down ASAP! We also have a maple in front with branches touching the roof. We had to trim them back when we first bought the house because the insurance company wouldn’t insure us otherwise! Seems the tree is thriving and needs another good trim. Sadly insurance won’t cover any of this. Turns out our “tree removal” coverage only covers trees already fallen. The nice insurance adjuster agreed that a little preventative coverage would make sense, but alas, it’s not offered. She also pointed out that now that the trees are a known liability, we may have trouble filing a claim involving them in the future. Great! So we will be having some serious tree work done around here ASAP.

There used to be a limb there.

There is a hole between the other two big limbs, behind this gaping hole, that is quite deep and has almost a foot of water pooling in it. Crazy. And scary!

The two pines on the left and the limb the furthest to the right in the picture all will be coming down. Our lawn will have a sunny new lease on life!

Here are a few more pictures from playing outside yesterday. The forecast called for rain all day, but it ended up being warm an sunny, which was a pleasant surprise.

The kids had fun playing with a ladybug they found. Not sure how much fun the bug had. Eve had it crawling all over her.

We finally got a sunflower blooming!

The sunflower house has grown so tall! I'm excited to finally get a bloom. I have to go out in the morning soon and get a picture of the morning glories. There are lots of them.

A quick chat while riding bikes.

Some of you may also have heard the saga of our washing machine lately. Something is wrong with it and it’s been making black, greasy streaks on the clothes. It started awhile ago and I thought maybe we left a crayon in a pocket or something, but it has progressively gotten worse and worse and now we are getting giant black smears across our clothes. I’ve tried everything I can think of (and Google for), but to no avail. Today we paid the Sears repair man to come out and take a look. Turns out there are parts behind the tub that are breaking and release grease into the machine. Good news is that it’s fixable, and one of the parts is even still under manufacture warranty… bad news is that it still costs a ton and won’t be fixed for two more weeks. I’ve been taking the clothes to the laundry mat for the past week or so and it looks like we have a few more weeks of that. Sigh. The kids think it’s a great novelty, but I suspect even they will be tired of it by the time we’re done!

Eve was fascinated and very much wanted to help the guy do his work. She even offered him a piece of pretend cake. We had friends over at the time and I think she thought he was just another playmate :)

Hmm… what else. Grocery shopping the the rain today. My kids used to be a joy to shop with but now they are just obnoxious. I’m not sure what went wrong. Instead of walking along nicely or riding quietly in the cart, they run around like crazy people, play with everything they can get their hands on, beg for stuff, etc. Last week’s trip ended with Lex pinching and hitting me while I was paying and then I had to carry him out, screaming and crying, while a nice store employee pushed the cart with Eve and the groceries. That was annoying. We had no fights at the store today, but I came home exhausted. I think I’ll be doing my grocery shopping while they are in school from now on!

This weekend we are going to a Blue Angels air show. That should be interesting. Then Monday is Lex’s first day of school. Oh, and this Friday is his kindergarten open house where we’ll get to meet his teacher and classmates, see the classroom, explore a school bus, etc. I’m hoping to get a school calendar and lunch menu as well. I was talking to Lex last night about buying lunch at school and he gave me this amazingly awesome look. A combination of disbelief and skepticism and amusement.. I don’t even know. Alan and I almost fell over laughing. I’m not sure Lex fully comprehends the duration of his school day. I suspect around lunch time he’ll be asking to come home. I hope it goes well!

While I’ve been writing this book blog post, I have also been up and down the stairs a dozen times dealing with Eve, who is giving me a fight like never before. Kicking, screaming, hitting, flailing, etc. She got no stories, no bath, no dinner… ugh. Maybe grocery shopping is just suddenly too stimulating for them or something. It was a fight on par with what Lex used to give us, but new for her. I hope this phase passes quickly!

Ok, this has gone on long enough. To end on a good note, here is a (somewhat blurry) picture from our rasslin’ match this morning. The kids were antsy so we had a good half hour of rolling around on the floor. At one point Lex noticed his reflection in the TV and said “this would make a cute picture.” Then he got up and go the camera!!! He giggled himself back into a similar pose and let me take a picture. Cool, huh?! Cute anyway :)