Walking across the carpet, feeling the water squish between my toes....

Alternate title "I love the smell of rain in the basement in the morning"

or

"Does anyone have any hip waders I can borrow?"

First of all, I want to thank all of the de lurkers who left me comments yesterday. If you didn't see, I have some pretty famous people reading my blog. Mario Lopez wants to show me his pecs and I got a marriage proposal from Orlando Bloom.

Sorry Orlando, I'm already taken, and besides, my husband is like 3 feet taller than you.

The comments on my last post really made my day!! I learned a few things too, like who General Larry Platt is, and why he left the comment about pants on the ground. Unfortunately, we missed that part of American Idol. I did manage to find a clip on Youtube, and it was really funny!

Max saw it too.

Max has been singing the "pants on the ground" song, All. Day. Long.

He does the dance too.

I can't get the song out of my head.

Thanks A BUNCH to whoever left that comment.

Seriously folks, I don't think I've ever laughed that hard while reading my comment box. I might just decide to make "leave a random comment as a famous person" day a regular feature here. (besides, I didn't get any comments from Tiger Woods, and I really thought he might stop by.....)

Thanks for De-lurking and commenting!!

OK, now back to our regularly scheduled whiny post.

This week we had a flood in our basement. I have to tell you that having my husband wake me up at 5:00 a.m. to tell me that we were having an emergency is really not my favorite way to start the day, because;

#1. I'm just not a morning person.

#2. Nobody likes to see water pouring out of their basement ceiling at any time of the day.

#3. Did I mention that this was at five o'stinking clock in the a.m. and I'm not a morning person?

So, the first thing I do is think of the children, sleeping soundly in their beds, just down the hallway from our new indoor swimming pool. I didn't think that it was fair of them to miss out on all of the fun, so naturally, I went and kindly woke them up by yelling "HEY GUYS, THE BASEMENT IS FLOODING! GET UP AND HELP!!"

My husband had already turned off the source of the water and we started hauling things out of the family room. The best part was how we were in the process of cleaning out and rearranging the storage room, so half of the contents of the storage room were in the family room, right under the waterfall.

AWESOME!

We spent the morning hauling our soggy belongings out of the flood zone and mopping and moving furniture.

The professional clean up guys came and ripped up the carpet, tore open the bulging ceiling (causing one guy to get an unexpected dousing) and vacuuming up water.

We now have a grundle of industrial sized fans scattered throughout our kitchen, laundry room and basement, running 24 hours a day, drying out our house.

They are loud, and they are freaking out Max. We told him not to go near the fans, because we like all of his cute little fingers to stay on his hands, but then he saw Brielle and Aaron touch a fan and he says to me "They touched the fan, and they still have ALL OF THEIR FINGERS!"

Actually, he won't go anywhere near the fans, he has spent the last several days in his room. We've been delivering his meals to him.

The fans are loud.

The fans are driving me batty!

Sure I could have a really bad attitude about this whole thing, however, I've decided that I'm going to look on the bright side.

So here it is, the TOP TEN BEST THINGS ABOUT HAVING MY BASEMENT FLOOD!

#10. I finally have something to blog about!

#9. The basement family room is finally clean!! (and when I say "clean" I mean that the only things there are the fans drying the walls, ceiling and bookshelves and the videos on the bookshelves) (Yes, we still have videos, we are that old)

#8. We hadn't taken our Christmas decorations back downstairs yet, so none of them got soaked, and now we get to enjoy them for a few more days! (Hey, don't judge us, we're just extra festive around here)

#7. We have raised the thermostat to a balmy 78 degrees to help the walls dry out faster. When I stand in the kitchen with the gale force winds from the fans blowing through my hair, if I close my eyes, I can almost imagine being on vacation on some tropical island somewhere. Or standing on the bow of a cruise ship in the Caribbean........Not that I need a vacation or anything.

#6. In order to fit the fan in the laundry room, we had to disconnect and move the washer and dryer, so I don't have to worry about doing laundry for a few days! However, Max is down to one last pair of clean underwear, and we won't be able to wash again until Monday. Sunday will be interesting.

#5. The treadmill is now stashed behind a bunch of stuff, so I have an actual legitimate reason not to use it!

#4. Due to the loudness of the fans, the children are unable to hear each other, and this has cut down on the fighting. Or maybe they're still fighting and I just can't hear them, either way, it's still good, right?

#3. Naughty bird, naughty frog, naughty rabbit and naughty reindeer are afraid of the fans too, and have made themselves scarce (Have I told you about naughty Reindeer? He showed up around Christmastime, and believe me, he's been a barrel of laughs! We can't seem to get him to go back to the North Pole where he belongs, but I'm thinking that Santa doesn't want him there either)

#2. I got to spend the day with my husband because he stayed home from work to clean up the mess!

And the number one best thing about having our basement flood.....

(drumroll please)

NEW CARPET!!!

So Join me in the following weeks for our new adventure "Shopping for carpet with Jill who can't make up her mind about what kind to get!!"

(Maybe I'll just put the choices up on the sidebar for everyone to vote on so I don't actually have to make a decision)

I know you are out there. Identify yourselves!

It has just come to my attention that today is National De-Lurking day.

I have a stat counter installed on this blog, and I see that many people are reading, however, only a few are commenting.

Perhaps you are shy?

Perhaps the "A" key is broken on your keyboard and you aren't able to write a comment using only the other 4 vowels?

Perhaps you came here looking for ideas for show and tell at preschool, decorations for a garbage truck birthday party, or funny potty training quotes.

Perhaps you are working in a law office in Lincoln Nebraska, and you only have a few snippets of time each day to read a blog without being detected by your boss and so you don't have time to comment?

So now I say to you, dear blog lurkers, DE-LURK! Leave me a comment! (pretty please. I'm having a monumentally bad week and I could sure use some nice comments)

If you don't want to use your real name, sign in as your favorite famous person. This way, it looks like I have a bunch of famous people reading my blog.

If you don't know what to say, leave me some sort of random comment such as......

"The moldy bird flies at midnight"

"Purple porcupines with rabies attack me in my sleep!"

"Target hates me!!"

"Uninsured drivers who back up into the side of your car should be covered in honey and forced to sit on top of an anthill!"

Yeah, pretty much any random comment will do, keeping in mind that my kids do read my blog, so anything you write should be appropriate for them to read.

If you really want to make my day, sign in as somebody famous and leave a random comment.

Thank you.

Happy commenting!

Four going on fourteen

Today Max was wearing a new pair of pants that he received as a gift for Christmas. They didn't have an adjustable waistband like his other pants do, so they were sliding down a bit. As he walked around, he was holding them by the sides to keep them up.

"Hey Max," I asked "Do you want me to take in those pants for you and make the waist smaller so they fit better?"

"No, they're OK" he said as he hiked them up again.

"But they're falling off of you."

Then he says to me "NO they aren't, if they were falling off of me then I would look LIKE A TEENAGER!"

It's a bird, it's a plane, it's a toaster!

Max has a new obsession.

Bill Nye the Science Guy.

CJ found a few episodes of BNTSG on Youtube, and Max has memorized them. His favorite episode is the one about simple machines. He learned about pulleys, ramps and levers and his most favorite???

The catapult.

He is fascinated by the catapult. In the episode of BNTSG someone even tosses a piano with a catapult.

Apparently, the producers of this program didn't think of what would happen when a 4 year old learns how to catapult things. To them I say thanks. A bunch.

Max doesn't have a catapult, so he just throws things and says he's catapulting them. We have daily discussions about not catapulting things in the house.

This morning during breakfast Max asked "Would our toaster stop working if we catapulted it?"

"Yes, I'm pretty sure that it would stop working, and I like our toaster." then I added a new rule "No catapulting the toaster!"

Then Max says "But we could buy a new one!"

"I like this toaster, it works just fine, I don't want a new one. We will not catapult the toaster."

"Because it will break?" he asks?

"Yes," I agree "And I really don't want it broken."

"But I still want to catapult the toaster!"

"MAX, we will NOT catapult the toaster! It will break the toaster, and it might hit someone and they could get hurt."

Then he says "But what if we took it to that catapult place downtown?"

So, if you are just walking around, minding your own business, and suddenly a toaster comes flying past your head, you'll know why.

Max in space!!!! An interview with an astronaut

Last week we took the kids to the planetarium and saw two shows.

Max was fascinated. He was particularly interested in the huge models of the planets they had on the wall outside of the dome theater. All he talked about the next day was the movie that we watched on the ceiling.

He has spent the last two days drawing multiple pictures different planets and moons, and has them plastered all over his bedroom walls and ceiling.

Brielle and Aaron remembered that we had some glow in the dark stars and they dug them out of the storage room and put them up on his walls in between his planets.

Max then turned his bed into a spaceship. He put sat his Lightning McQueen chair on the bed then stuffs all of his stuffed animals in his headboard. He sits on the chair and shines his flashlight on one of his planets on his wall and ceiling and then travels to that planet.

I decided to ask him about his adventures, and so here is the interview that I had with Max the Astronaut.

Me: "What planets did you go to today?"

Max the Astronaut: "All of them."

Me: "Which planet was your favorite?"

Max the Astronaut: "The moon."

Me: "Why?"

Max the Astronaut: "Because I like that planet."

Me: "But the moon isn't a planet."

Max the Astronaut: "I know it's not a planet, some people didn't go to Mars but I went to Mars."

Me: "What was it like on mars?"

Max the Astronaut: "Weeeeeeeelll, I didn't get off the ship when I was on Jupiter."

Me: "Why not?"

Max the Astronaut: "Because it's a gas planet."

Me: "What would happen if you got off of your spaceship on a gas planet?"

Max the Astronaut: "I would sink through the planet if I got off the spaceship on a gas planet OK? that's why I don't get off!"

Me: "Which planet did you go to after Jupiter?"

Max the Astronaut: "I don't know, what planet?"

Me: "Did you go to Pluto?"

Max the Astronaut: "Yeah, it's a teeny, tiny planet."

Me: "How small was it?"

Max the Astronaut: "Very small, it's the same size as the moon."

Me: "What color was it?"

Max the Astronaut: "Silver."

Me: "Did you go to the McDonald's there?"

Max the Astronaut: "No."

Me: "Why not?"

Max the Astronaut: "McDonald's is big. Bigger than pluto."

Me: "Is there a McDonalds on Jupiter?"

Max the Astronaut: "No, McDonalds is bigger than Jupiter."

(At which point Aaron says "No wonder everyone is obese.")

Me: "What about Wendy's, do you eat at Wendy's in space?"

Max the Astronaut: "No!"

Me: "Why not?"

Max the Astronaut: (rolling eyes) "Because the people that builded Wendy's didn't want it to be there!"

So there you go, McDonald's is bigger than Jupiter and there are no Wendy's in space.

My obligatory New Year's resolution post.

I hadn't planned on making any new Year's resolutions, mostly because, like everyone else, I will forget about them in about a day and a half.
However, I'm feeling a little bit left out, because it seems like everywhere I go on the internet, people are writing about all of the wonderful goals that they have for the year.

I'm a list maker. Every morning* I like to make a list of the things that I need/would like to accomplish throughout the day.
I LOVE crossing things off of my lists! I love it so much that sometimes if I do something that isn't on my list, I will write it down on the list just so I can cross it off. (lame, I know, but I like to be able to look at my list and feel like I've actually accomplished something during the day)
so it really shouldn't be hard for me to make a list of goals that I would like to accomplish this year. So, here it is, my New Year's resolution list!

1. Shave my legs. **
2. Put my ironing board away. ***
3. Attend more blogger lunches.

I can't think of another one, however, I do reserve the right to add more things to the list at a later time.****


I will keep everyone updated to let you know how things are coming along.








*OK, so not every morning, every other morning, or once a month or whatever.
**No, I will not tell you how long it's been. Don't judge me, it's cold here, and I'm grateful for the extra warmth.
***It's been sitting in my kitchen for a few days now. However, now that I think of it, maybe I should just leave it up, it could add to the counter space.
**** Later time = after I've already done something, I will add it to the list.

Do you think that maybe the kid has been watching too much TV today?

All day today, Max has been going around saying.....

"NOTHING DOWN AND NO INTEREST UNTIL 2011!!!"