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Oh the irony…
Posted by: | CommentsAs part of my ground breaking mowing event (see previous post), I had several tasks to get the lawn mower ready. I changed the oil, got fresh gas, and of course I sharpened the blade. While sharpening the lawn mower blade with the bench grinder, both of the boys were dazzled by the sparks it generated. Sam wanted to touch the sparks and I warned him that would be dangerous. I then went on to explain the dangers of power tools and how they can hurt someone. And just at that moment I accidentally ground the skin off my knuckle.
Yes… I injured myself with a power tool as I was explaining to the boys the dangers of power tools. I think the fact that Holly said she wasn’t surprised I injured myself hurt just a little more than my knuckle did.
A first in my life…
Posted by: | CommentsIt’s March.
It’s been warm.
And I mowed my yard…
Now I know that isn’t earth shattering news, but looking back at the past 25+ years of doing yard work, I have never mowed a yard in March. I didn’t even mow the yard in March the couple of years I lived in Cedar Rapids. So now I’m going to do the next best thing to assure a snow storm within the next 2 weeks – take the snow blower off the lawn tractor so I can thatch and fertilize.
At the rate spring is coming, I’ll be watering by mid-April. Nice.
Entertaining the kiddies…
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This is one way to entertain a dozen 7y old boys for the afternoon. Having 70°F weather in mid-March doesn’t hurt either.
Holly is still gushing…
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We, ok Holly, finally got one of her top projects knocked out. The fire place upstairs got refinished. This picture doesn’t do justice to how spectacular it really turned out. No matter how much Photoshopping you do to a picture, bad light is bad light. Look for some better pictures later this weekend.
Moving to a big boy bed…
Posted by: | CommentsWhile Holly and I had the weekend off from the boys, so we spent some time trying to find a new bed for Evan. Well the mattress was an easy find (there’s a whole other story with that). The bedding showed up next (see below). Evan was so excited to get to sleep in his "big boy bed". The big adjustment will be when we get the frame next week. Evan’s room is small, so he’s getting a bedframe with drawers underneath. This means the top of the bed sits quite a bit higher than his old bed, so he’ll have to use a stool to get in/out of bed for a while.
The first night he has to get up to go to the bathroom will be interesting.
I’m sure Holly is muttering the actual name of the style of bed Evan is getting as she reads this.
Sorry honey.
And to top it off…
Posted by: | CommentsEvan was going on and on about how fast he is. So I asked if he could clean really fast too. He said he was the fastest cleaner in the whole world.
So now Evan is showing me how fast he can clean the toy room. Sweet!
Taking charge of a situation…
Posted by: | CommentsSometimes when you wake up in the morning you find little surprises of what happened while the rest of the house was asleep. Holly continues to get up extra early for work so she’s usually the one to find these surprises first. Lately it’s been a dog had an accident, so she hasn’t had any ‘good’ surprises until this morning. Holly normally checks on the boys before starting work and this morning she found a pile of clothes in the middle of Evan’s floor. She felt the clothes and they were wet – it appeared Evan had an accident over night.
Really? I didn’t go in to help him. Holly didn’t know about it until she literally stumbled on the clothes in the middle of the floor. She found Evan sound asleep in his bed as if nothing was wrong. Huh? So what happened? We’re guessing that Evan had an accident, woke up from the accident, changed his pajamas, climbed back into bed and went back to sleep. And he did all of this without saying a word or making enough noise to wake anyone else up!
Now that’s the kind of surprise every parent needs now and then.
Found this while cleaning…
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Amazing what a person can find when doing a little cleaning. I found an old camera while cleaning my office and took a quick peak at the CF card inside. I’ll post a couple more later this week.
Fall colors from Mankato
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The maple tree in our front yard gave us quite a color show this fall.
I wish I had my camera…
Posted by: | CommentsThe weather was so nice tonight that I had the windows open. This meant I could hear birds, the crickets, and the police cars zooming by on the street behind us. And it was more than one!
I went outside to see what was going on and then saw two police cars go down the top of our street. Then I saw one more on the street behind us. Ten seconds later I see all three coming right in front of our house as they are chasing a guy on a four wheeler. Lights a blazing and sirens on full volume.
They all turned the corner and headed back towards Monks Ave and into the adjacent neighborhood. I could hear tires squealing and a couple bangs like cars hitting cars. The sounds continued to move away from our neighborhood.
I really wish I had my camera.