Library returns

Today I took M and H to the library to return a movie and a book and also to get a movie and let M pick out a new book for the week. In the library there is a conveyor belt that you put your items to return on. M put both items on the conveyor belt and H felt a little left out but he was happy after I let him hold the new movie to check out. We got our items and were heading out the door--M was first and a bit ahead of H and I so I tried to hurry and catch up to her before she got to the street. I figured H would be right behind me but when I got through the first door I glanced back and saw H making a detour to the conveyor belt. I told M to stay and ran back but just as I was getting to H and our movie, H turned to me with a big grin on his face and was waving goodbye to the movie on it's way up the conveyor belt. What a happy little boy he was. I quickly informed one of the librarians that our movie we had just checked out was unintentionally returned this very moment. She was nice and went to get our movie but it had already been checked into the system again and was going to be sent to another person requesting it so she had to re-check it out for me and do whatever she did so the other person could get it again and all the while H is just happy that he got to put something on the belt and see it go up.

Typo

I recently had to renew my driver's license. Technically I had until January but I needed to update my address on it and I had already done it once before (about 7.5 years ago) so there wasn't room to do it on the back and since I needed a new one and they said you can do it up to six months in advance, I thought I'd take them up on that and kill two birds with one stone because they fewer trips I have to make with M and H, the better. So the three of us went down to the DMV, filled out a form, stood in line then waited in some chairs and about 15 minutes later my number was called. I gave the man my old license so that he could do what he needed to do--he looked at my license, then looked at me and then looked at my form. He started to laugh and said that for the past 10 years I'd been bald. Bald? He said that a typo had occurred and that the last person who'd entered the info had put in BLD (bald) instead of BLN (blonde). So now I'm officially a blonde again. Not that I have anything against bald people because technically the DMV had me down as bald for the past 10 years. And it only cost me $25 to get my blonde hair (and a new license).

10 and counting

We still don't know a lot of girls to ask to babysit and since we had promised the girls to take them "camping" in the tent in the backyard on Friday and then we realized that it was our anniversary. We figured it was more important to keep our promise then it was to celebrate so we went camping and had fun with the kids. We cooked hamburgers on the grill and then roasted marshmallows on the coals afterwards. We watched the movie, Race to Witch Mountain and then had lemon-blueberry bundt cake for dessert. We were having a great time and were heading out to the tent when T tells us, "Thanks for the great anniversary!" You're welcome T and it was a pretty great anniversary. I even got flowers and despite H not wanting to sleep and then having an accident so Steve took him in around 4 and then the tent falling down on the girls and I at 6 at which point we took everything in and I decided that I had better take the tent completely down before it really started to rain and having the wind blow the tent away, it was a pretty fun time.

Reaction times

Moving into a new house necessitated new fire procedures so that all would know what to do; however the more we practiced different scenarios the more the girls cried and by the end of the night, E and T were hysterical and thought they'd die in the basement and be trapped if they couldn't make it upstairs and had to retreat back to the room and go out the window. M was crying and sobbing that she didn't want E and T to die. We have since added a ladder to help them climb out of the window well to help alleviate the fear that Steve wouldn't be there in time and when we added window well covers E and T once again thought they'd be trapped until I told them that they could push them off. It has been a struggle to get them to understand that we will not leave them down there and that it is Dad's responsibility to get them out while I get the two smaller ones upstairs. Each night their prayers include the desire that no fire should come to our home or to anybody else's home in the world and that tornadoes, hurricanes, earthquakes or burglars will not come either. T quite literally jumps if she hears the smoke alarm. Now I'm not the best cook and sometimes the smoke alarms go off when I'm baking and without fail, E and T will run up to the front door if they hear it and ask me what's wrong. They are prepared to leave the house if necessary with M and H right behind them. A few days after we practiced our initial fire drill the girls were taking showers. One of the smoke detectors downstairs is very sensitive to the steam emitted from the bathroom downstairs (we're working on that problem) and I hear one of them go off. I'm about to head downstairs to check everything out when E comes running up the stairs and right behind her is T fresh from the shower with soap still in her hair, dripping wet, and no towel. She had heard the alarm and knew she had to get out of the house. She was ready to run outside to our meeting spot before I stopped her and grabbed her a towel and told her and E to wait with M and H while I checked things out and then if need be we'd exit the house. Steve told me later that we need to talk to them again and I said we would but that wasn't it great to see such great reaction times from everyone.

It was almost like the time shortly after we moved in and I hear "Fire in the bathroom!" from E. I'm thinking, "Fire in the bathroom? Is it an electrical fire?" Then I hear again, "Fire!" I know that E is going to the bathroom and now there is a fire with her. I run downstairs as my first thought is get the girls and get out and I yell back questioning what I've heard, "Fire?" Again I hear, "Fire!" I'm now rounding the hallway and can see the bathroom but there is no smoke or smell of smoke. I keep running and when I get there, E shouts out, "It's in the tub! The SPIDER's in the tub!" Oh spider, not fire. Then I see Steve running with the fire extinguisher. He heard all the "fire" yelling and wanted to put out the fire. See his first thought was save the children and put out the fire where as mine was just save the children.

Just remember that you really shouldn't yell "spider" in the house because it can sound an awfully lot like "fire" when you're in the kitchen and to have an extra towel ready just in case someone needs it during the fire alarm.