Toasted Toaster...

There are so many titles I could give this blog. But since Jonathan cooked my toaster this morning, I decided on this title. My guilty cook has a pretty serious face in the picture below. I actually took this picture of him right after I took the picture of the toaster. The toaster isn't in the exact same spot I found it, I had actually tampered with the evidence a little bit to see what the exact damage was.

This morning I got up and had some phone calls to make. After I got off the phone, I went to check on the kids and change Jonathan's diaper. As I was changing him, the central heat kicked on in our trailer. I asked the kids, do you smell toast? They all agreed. They said it smelled good and wanted toast for breakfast. I wasn't planning on making toast but I was curious what would cause the smell.

I had Joshua check inside the vent in the kitchen. One disadvantage to central heat in a trailer house is it's easy to get crumbs in the vent. I thought that was where the smell was coming from. But he didn't see anything cooking inside the vent. So we didn't worry about it.

After I got up from changing Jonathan, I decided it was time to fix some oatmeal for breakfast. I started the water boiling when I felt heat beside the stove where the toaster was. The levers weren't pushed down on the toaster, I had seen that earlier, but I realized that the griddle had been plugged in.

When I came out of my room, I had seen Jonathan doing something in the kitchen but nothing seemed amiss. I didn't realize he was tall enough to reach the plugs above our kitchen counter. I had placed the toaster on top of the griddle yesterday after making the kids some peanut butter toast before bed. Jonathan had seen the cords this morning while I was on the phone and decided they needed to be plugged in. He just forgot that he's not allowed to touch them.

I'm just glad I found it when I did. The bottom of the toaster was melted to the top of the griddle. Even the toaster's plug was scorched. We had a fire hazard on our hands, but thankfully I was able to unplug it before any real damage was done. I called and told Scott about it, and he just laughed. He said that Jonathan must have wanted to fix us breakfast. The only problem is your not suppose to toast the toaster. But that's okay, Scott never really liked our toaster anyway. This will just give him a good reason to get us a new one.

And the lesson I learned from this: Never underestimate the height and abilities of a two year old. As Scott told me on the phone, "Nothing's safe now!"

120 Hours Worth of a 24 hour Virus

Your probably wondering how we managed to make a 24 hour virus last that long. Well, when you have 5 people that catch it, it adds up. We started with Ruth and Hannah getting sick Sunday night. They were sick all Monday. Hannah has deemed "spit-up" as her least favorite word and if anyone says it. She grumbles. I went ahead and took them with me to my doctor's appointment hoping that they were getting over it. Hannah wound up spitting-up in a bucket she brought with her in the car.

Then Tuesday, they were feeling a bit better but Jonathan got sick sometime Tuesday night.
So I had more sheets to wash on Wednesday.

Then Wednesday night Joshua "spit-up" in the bathroom sink. Then that night he spit-up in his bed which meant more sheets for me to wash. Also on Wednesday night Jonathan "spit-up" in his car seat. Then once we arrived home, he spit-up on my lap and on the floor at my feet. I'm not sure if he was more disturbed at spitting up on me, or just the fact that he "spit-up".

The kids were starting to feel some better on Thursday, but then sadly it was my turn. Thankfully I never did spit-up but I had another problem which lasted through Wed. night and all day Thursday. My stomach was in such sad shape that I couldn't eat much of anything. We all knew once we got to feeling better we'd be starved. The kids were perkier on Thursday, but I had to sleep the whole day, with brief bathroom breaks and breaks to solve problems for the kids. They got to watch a lot of veggietales. I was too tired to make them do much else.

Today, I woke up and told Scott, "I'm hungry!!" I was so happy to be feeling better. I'm still tired but I hadn't had the stomach troubles I had yesterday. The kids all greeted me with the same excitement this morning. "Mom, I feel much better!" Then came all the requests for all the foods they thought they could eat for breakfast. I decided to go easy and fixed them Cinnamon Toast.

Wednesday night, I called my Mom to thank her for all the times she cleaned up after me and my brother, and sister. If you haven't called and thanked your mom lately you should.

We're on the mend now. I just hope it ends here and that Scott doesn't have to go through it.

It sure has been a long week.

Snowy Day

The kids and I have been enjoying our stay with Papa and Nana. We will be going home soon, and I wanted to post their snowman picture.

We bundled them up pretty good this time. My Mom got out all their gloves and hats they had in a box in her room. They were a bit big on the kids but it kept the kids warm.

I'm looking forward to getting home. Scott will be there before us. We're getting a late start. We wanted to get all the kids clothes and shoes dried out before we take off.

We have a busy weekend. We'll be decorating for our "Love Your Neighbor" banquet. We'll also need to start cooking the brisket and side dishes for the dinner. I hope we have a few visitors come.

Now it's time to get packed and take our things out to the car. I'll try to post again soon. I now have batteries in my camera so maybe I'll have more pictures for my next post.

Peanut Butter and Gum in the Hair

Yesterday evening, Ruth had gum stuck in her long blond hair. I finally got a chance to test the remedy I had heard from a few people that using peanut butter will get the gum out of hair real easy. It took quite a bit of peanut butter. Well, maybe not as much as you would use on a sandwich, but enough to make a greasy mess in her hair. But it worked! She gets to keep her beautiful long blond hair.

She was near tears when she told me that she had gum stuck in her hair. She must have thought I was going to have to cut it out. Which would have probably been my normal answer. I just had her wash the peanut butter out of her hair afterward with shampoo. She came out happy that her hair was still in tact. Of course Hannah made a lot of wierd faces about me putting globs of peanut butter in Ruth's hair. I usually get onto her and Jonathan for making a mess like that. I just had to explain that this was for a good cause, "Ruth gets to keep her hair."

We've been so busy, I've missed a lot of posting. We had our Keepers of the Faith meeting last Friday. My parents came for a visit. My Dad spoke to the Contenders for the Faith which is the boys class. He was very impressed with the boys. They are all homeschooled children and very attentive and polite. Most people imagine a room full of 15 boys between the ages of 5 and 14 as chaos, but these boys are very well behaved and well mannered. They really enjoyed my Dad's presentation on hiking. They asked a lot of very good questions. They sat in the class for about an hour and a half before we broke for refreshments. Even remaining quiet for the prayer my Dad gave at the end. Then they played kick ball for the remaining half hour after refreshments.

Saturday, we had a Mom/ Son night with the Contenders for the Faith group. We had 5 pairs of Mothers and Sons meet at a restaurant and then another mother with two of her children came for the Live Concert we attended at the Liberty Opry. Everyone seemed to enjoy the Country Kidz Show. The singers were all young people under the age of 16. They had some amazing voices for being so young. They performed to the live music of the Liberty Opry band. Joshua enjoyed it so much that when some of the others were planning to leave after the first hour when they had a break, he wanted to stay. So I bought him a bag of popcorn, a sprite, and some M&M's and then we went back in and watched the rest of the concert. The Concert ended at 10 p.m. As we went home, I stopped at Jack-in-the-box and bought Joshua and myself a milk shake.

That was a night he'll never forget. Which was what I wanted for him. He got to order anything off the adult menu he wanted. It was a Mexican Food restaurant and he got excited over them having Cheese enchiladas. It didn't take him any time to make his selection.

Monday, I had a Doctor's appointment and our baby has turned head down. Jonathan was funny Monday night at home. In the evenings after one of the children gives their devotional, I sometimes let them see the baby kicking. Jonathan went right up to my tummy and yells, "WAKE UP, BABY!" Then he just cackled at himself. I just hope Jonathan doesn't wake the baby that way once he's born.

Tuesday, was our homeschool park day. It was very cold out that afternoon but we braved the weather. My daughters braved the weather more than I did. We arrived at the park and they informed me that they both forgot their coats. I had announced that they needed to remember them before we ran out to the car. But they forgot them anyway.

I loaned an extra light weight jacke I brought to Ruth and Hannah told me her Keeper's of the Faith teacher was going to bring hers. I asked Hannah what she would do if the teacher had something happen and couldn't make it. She could have worn one of her other coats. But thankfully her teacher came with her children and Hannah's coat.

We had fun despite the cold. The kids all passed out valentines and one of the mothers brought cupcakes for the kids to ice and decorate.

Then we came back home where we took a short break and then left for the kids' Karate Class.
Saturday there were belt tests. Hannah and Scott both tested. Hannah earned a yellow stripe for her belt. Her Karate teacher put her stripe on her belt at Tuesday's class. Scott will get his yellow belt next week. My digital camera had run out of batteries, so I couldn't get digital pictures of her getting her stripe but I did have a disposable camera and need to get the pictures developed sometime.

Today the kids and I plan to go visit my parents. Scott had a business trip this week and is at a Technology Convention. I sure miss him. I had nightmares Monday night, which was the first night he was gone. But then last night I tried putting some happy sounding music on and my dreams were much nicer. Okay, I was dreaming of Cinderella. LOL So you know the music had to be real calming. Cinderella dreams are much better than nightmares any day. I was almost afraid to go to sleep last night until I turned the music on repeat.

Hopefully a change of scenery at my parents will help the time pass a little quicker. I'm looking forward to Friday. We will be heading home and Scott will be heading home as well.

Then Saturday we'll be getting prepared for the "Love Your Neighbor" Banquet we've planned at the Church. I hope we have a few new visitors come. But it should be good even if they don't. It's the effort that counts. I made up invitations for our church members to give to family and friends. In the note I mention that this is our way of showing our appreciation for our neighbors in the community.

Well, I better get things ready for us to head for my parents. I just wanted to throw out a quick post before we leave. I need to get some more batteries for my camera so that I'll have some good pictures for my next post.

Mark 12:30-31 And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this [is] the first commandment. (31) And the second [is] like, [namely] this, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these.