Wishing I was outside

There are no pictures of today's episode, and I will claim that any and all security videos must be doctored fakes. The whole family was able to attend the banker's 3rd floor office today, as Lisa and I wanted to discuss our options. The kids and I meet Lisa there, in hind sight I realize this was her plan so she would have a get-a-way car and could deny knowing us or "them." In preparation for the meeting I made sure that Merrick was changed and had clean cloths on. Both kids grabbed a quite toy on the way out of the house, Merrick grabbed board book about trucks and Sophia grabbed a dry-erase board and marker. I thought this was a good sign as the toys were both educational and quite. Given last night's rain and my children's attitude towards picking up their toys outside, the sidewalk chalk was still all over the patio. Merrick thought it was great fun to stomp, squish, smear the sidewalk chalk all over the patio on the way to the truck. I didn't know he was doing this as I was helping Sophia (a.k.a Imelda) try on her third pair of shoes. Due to the construction season in GB it was almost impossible to get to the meeting but alas we arrived right behind Lisa. Everything started off fine, although my fate had been dealt and determined 20 minutes earlier. The kids were on the floor at my feet in the lush carpeted and posh little office. Sophia was practicing her words on the white board and Merrick was flipping pages in his board book. Sophia is a very thoughtful child so not only did she bring a marker for herself, but also had provided her brother with one as well. Of course I did not notice this until Merrick had traced figure eights around his body with his marker. I retained my horror and carefully slid my foot out of my shoe and tried the ol' sock mop--it didn't work. It actually got worse after that. Merrick was squirrelly as only a two-year old Y chromosome can be. Lisa put him on her lap to help keep him in check. By this time however the sidewalk chalk (yup, remember the sidewalk chalk) had dried enough in the treads of his shoes to start falling out, so all around lisa chair starts to look like a rainbow of dandruff. This sleet of chalk is not limited to her chair area as it is impossible to keep merrick still and trails start to form in the deep blue carpet of the office. Meanwhile Sophia has switched to working on her numbers and the Banker has even been so kind (and short-sighted) as to get Sophia a chair so she can sit at the ladies desk to write. Sophia is getting sleepy and continues to rest her head on her outstretched arms. I prevented it for the first three times, but eventually I started to pay attention to fixed loans vs. arms and 15 years compared to 30 years and should I consider buying some points--thats is when it happened I lost my focus and Sophia's outstretched arms clean all of the stacks of files off the ladies desk. It was a 17 inch high stack of manilla folders, paper clips, post it notes etc. It would of course by hyperbole to suggest that is was a file cleansing larger than Enron, but it was close. At this point the lady gave the kids some pens and tablets to write on, because her computer had crashed, twice, continuing the agony and embarrasment. Merrick had his pen for about 2 minutes before he tore it in half and sent the spring mechanism fling a twitter around the office. I think it got better after that, it may not have I know I eventually found myself in the elevator heading out of door only to load up my kids in the truck just in time for them to hang out the window and holler obnoxiously at a different banker returning from lunch.
As it turns out (to nobody's surprise) we did not sign all of the papers that we were supposed to and the banker called later in the day and as expected offered to come to our house and Lisa's work to get the final signatures.

A Pretty good Weekend

The weekend was busy but good. We started off right away on Friday night, by heading down to Astor Park so Sophia could run in the Bellin Kid's Run. Her race was a quarter mile jaunt and she was just getting warmed up when the finish line showed up. It is a wonderful family event and we were back at it early the next morning. I tossed both of the kids into the rickshaw and was able to weave an 8 mile run on a 6 mile course. The walkers preceded the stroller division so with my cheering kids in tow we 'zigged and zagged all over the roads. It was their job to watch for water, as residents along the course attach thier hoses to ladders to shower the runners. With almost 17,000 runners that is a lot of water. At one of the shower stations both kids erupted into infectious giggles in voice pitches that only excited childern can reach, this sent a ripple of laughter through out those around us and I would like to think a little energy as well. Not only do the kids want to talk to me during the entire race but also control my speed and continually tell me to go faster, speed up and ask me why so many people are passing us--it is imperative to check the ego when pushing kids in the race. After a brief nap at home we headed over to a birthday party for some friends and had a delightful evening chatting with adults while the kids splashed in the pool and played soccer. Sunday morning was another beautiful day and Merrick helped me transplant some flowers for our butterfly garden and all three of us tried to catch a baby bunny that had busted back into the garden. Sophia spent some time cutting up carrots in hopes of luring the rascal back into the yard after we finally chased it out. Meanwhile Lisa laid down some lawn-toupees and planted a new tree. After a brief lunch a surprise hail storm hit and Sophia and I were able to collect some of the marble sized hail. The evening ended as all evenings should brats on the grill, and a walk to the ice cream shop.

More Janus than June

Janus was the two-faced Roman God that saw into the future as well as the past, today had the same type of day. It started out as a cool (albeit early) sunny day and progressed into a drizzle that was just heavy enough to ruin outdoor plans and not hard enough to deposit any significant moisture for the garden. With the gutters cleaned I turned my attention to the developing rabbits in the garden saga. I was outside by a little after 5 am and the mother rabbit that normally tends to developing clutch of 6 bunnies in my garden was unable to get through the fence this time. She just sat in the drive way and waited for me to open the gate for her. That is correct the same rabbit that found a way into my 'rabbit-proofed' yard and then continued to navigate the concertina wire around my garden birthed a whole warren fill of plant eaters in my garden, and yes now she waits for me to open the gate. This mornings task was to create another (this is the third) layer of chicken-wire around the warren and segregate the bunnies from my garden plants. As my recent history has shown I am very successful with creating chicken wire barriers. I know it is more politically correct to call it poultry-netting so as not to offend the foul, which makes me wonder how they feel about being called foul.
With a load of lumber I was already home from a Home Depot run before eight oclock and updated a junction box in the attic and then Merrick and I headed to the garage for some remodeling. He and I tore out the old door frame and replaced it with all new lumber and gave it a quick coat of primer before the forecasted rains arrived. While wearing his safety glasses he only stopped pounding on the nails long enough to put a solid coat of side-walk chalk on my grill--he was very proud of his art work. I also suspect that the neighbors were ok with the hammering hiatus given the hour of the day, but as Lisa plans on moving us out of here anyways Merrick and I figured we didn't need to concern our selves with the beauty sleep of the other Coolidge denziens. We cleaned up the old lumber with the aid of a back yard fire and then it was time to treasure hunt. Not geochacing this time but thrift saling. Sophia grabbed her purse, coin jar and shopping shoes and we loaded up the truck anticipating the junk of others. It was mostly junk but Sophia did score a sweet deal on two new matching berrets for her and her mother. Sophia was very excited to to pay for them with her own money and she looks cute (biased fater statement) in the new lid. Merrick didn't buy anything as he was generally too busy stealing the hearts of every female we encountered, the boys charm and flirting was a sight to behold. At one point he even gave two older women a head tilt, mischevious eyes and a slight tounge in his smile--he was pulling out all the stops. If only there was something at that sale that I wanted to get a deal on. We were home in time for lunch and a nap and awoke to the rain--the day has been less enjoyable since then, but there is the hope for tomorrow--was that Pandora?

Irish I could do it again

The first day of the weekend found us in Oshkosh at the first annual Irish fest. The weather was windy but beautiful temperatures clear skies and just enough crowd to make it feel festive without being 'crowded." The auditorium was a really nice venue and the bands played enough jigs and reels to keep everyone entertained. The kids were able to roam a little in the sparse crowd and even try their own 'riverdance." I pretty much laid on grassy slope and drank tappers of dark beer keeping my eyes on the stage so I didn't catch any number of traditional kilt wearers on the windy day. The kids slept on the way home and were ready for a grandparent visit on Sunday. The backyard became the standard hide/seek, basketball court, hockey rink, baseball field but this time the grandparents were their to do all of the hard work and even topped of the day with a little "car ice cream" from the musical truck that wanders the neighborhood on most sunny afternoons. All in all in really good weekend.

Little kids on the Prairie

We loaded up the family buggy and headed to Holmen for a visit with Lisa's inlaws. The are really some of the nicest people that I am related to and we always have a good time. Showed up to the new place late on Friday night and then proceeded to stay up even later, but finally Molly agreed that I could sleep next to her for a couple of hours before the kids woke up and we headed off. Brad had heard about a sand prairie not to far from the house and all of the kids had some extra energy to burn off--carbon credits be damned. It was really a nice hike with the summer prairie flowers starting to come into bloom including some blue lupin. We were able to spy a couple of Karner blues and a viceroy (or maybe a swallowtail) and a familiar black butterfly that I can never recall the name of. The ticks were pretty thick and initially the kids were turned off by them but as the hike grew longer and the ticks more common all of them down to the youngest become nonplussed by the little blood suckers. The ticks were prevalent enough that the kids just took turns picking them off each other. Merrick and I brought up the rear for most of the hike as Merrick had a lot of sticks to carry through the woods--they apparently don't grow on trees. Tick checks went on through out the remainder of the weekend with most of the them standing out like a turd in a punch bowl when those little blond heads got wet in the shower/bath. The kids got a long quite well and Sophia and Jacob now fight about 'fair turns' that their little brothers are getting--so I guess that is a change. We were able to get some 'definite maybe tentative plans' penciled for a midweek camping trip in the next few weeks so I am looking forward to seeing the gang again real soon. Maybe then the horseflies will be out that will be so much more exciting than just ticks and mosquitos.