Oh...this is definitely NOT ME Monday...Sickness, Toddler Meltdowns, and Cat for Sale Version

It's been a while...but this has been a week of wishing it was "NOT ME!" who experienced several things. You can read about my non-adventures and then if you want you can check out some other not me's here:





If you happened to be at Merril Park pool in Concord, NH last Monday...despite what you may have thought that you saw...it was not me who was repeatedly pulling my not quite 2 year old up out of the water, saying "You don't know how to swim yet!  Let Mommy hold you!  Listen to Mommy!"  And it was not my almost two year old who responded with squirming, pushing, crying, shouts of NO! and whatever other dramatic response you could think of...resulting in repeated time outs.  And after a whole whopping 15 minutes at the pool, it was not me that you saw carrying a screaming kicking toddler under one arm and all the other pool goods in the other out of the pool area and straight to the car.  And it wouldn't have been me and my cherub of a tot standing in the parking lot screaming bloody murder, stomping, kicking, and yelling NO! while I tried to strip off the wet bathing suit and swimmy diaper... what a show that would have been! 

(time-out # ?)

And it was not my family that left our outing to the farm in a similar state.  As you can see we always have a smile on and are completely cooperative!

It was not me who, while suffering from a sudden summer cold, propped my daughter on my bed with my laptop and several kids DVDs while I laid down next to her and kept falling off into a slumber.  I am always vigilant about the amount of TV Tobi watches and even when I'm sick I always muster up enough energy to care for my child properly. (No pictures here!)

And lastly something that DID NOT happen to me this week...because if it did happen I surely would not be sleeping in my own bed anymore.  Tuesday at 2:40 am I was not woken up by our cat meowing in a completely strange way only to feel him jump up on the bed and then hear some squeaking noises.  I did not immediatley freak out, wake Ben up only to hear him say "UGHHH...".  To which responded "WHAT???WHAT??? - IS IT A MOUSE...tell me it's NOT A MOUSE."  That cat most defintely did NOT drop a severely maimed mouse on Ben's bare chest only for him to feel it go under the sheet next to his body.  If that had happened I'm sure I would not have balled myself up on the furthest corner of the bed with my head buried in my pillow saying "Where is it?  Oh my gosh, get it out here!!!! Please!!!"  And most definitely I did not hear Ben say "Good Kitty!" as he scooped the mouse up off the floor.  Seriously, that would be crazy!  Why would anyone give a cat praise for dropping a half dead mouse in your bed????  Wouldn't that make him think you wanted him to do it again???  I'll tell you what though...if I ever do hear some crazy meowing followed by high pitched squeaking in my bed you will probably find me climbing the walls hanging on to the ceiling with my nails!! 

Good Kitty?  Hmmmm...

Summertime...and the living is easy

Week 2 without Ben...hopefully the last for a while. We decided (I always say we, but it's not like Tobi has much say in the matter) to head down to visit Grandma and Grandpa. 

 

Monday we headed out to visit Mema.  I'm not sure who is taking who for a walk here.

Tuesday we all went to Ogunquit Beach.  Beautiful day.  Some people thought it was chilly but Tobi wanted to run up and down the beach and play in the water.  She is turning into a beach-loving toddler.

Friday we had another beach day with Sarah and all the cousins who are officially out of school!  What a gorgeous day at the lake.

Ben came home Friday evening.  We quickly jumped in the car and headed out to the shore for seafood at a favorite spot, Petey's.  It was too beautiful of a night to waste.

Then Saturday we headed back to the beach.  This time with Ben.  I think everyone had the same plan on such a hot summer day.  Our first attempt was a failure as the parking lot was so full they wouldn't even let you wait for someone to leave.  So we headed back to another favorite spot, Plum Island.  We had a lovely time...and Tobi even managed to take a nap in my arms (I think we must be wearing her out with all this activity).  We stayed until 6 and stopped at a favorite BBQ place, Goody Cole's, on the way home. 

Sunday was Father's Day.  (I think we'll claim Saturday as the real celebration).  Swedish pancakes, hash browns and bacon for breakfast.  I'd like to say Tobi was excited to do something special for Daddy, but she was mostly concerned with where "Tobi's plate" was.
 

Ben spent the afternoon "catching up" around here since he's been gone so much lately...mowing the lawn, caulking the tub...you know all the fun father's day activities.  At least Saturday was fun...

So thankful for Ben and what a great dad he is.

Thankful for my dad and what an example he has been to me over the years.

Oh, and while I'm being thankful...I'm thankful for the example I have in my parents of a loving committed marriage.  Sunday was their 40th wedding anniversary...and they are celebrating in Hawaii!!

Always a week behind....

So last week, while Ben was in Fort Wayne, we still managed to have some fun.

On Tues. we went to the beach with some friends.  It was a beautiful day at the beach, until this pop-up storm came out of nowhere.  We had no time to gather our belongings and run to the car, so instead we grabbed the beach umbrella...turned it basically sideways since the rain was coming in at such and angle, and 4 adults and 4 kids tried to huddle under it.  We watched as our belonging were getting soaked and then we noticed something white falling on the sand....HAIL!  This cloud had a hail storm in it... I couldn't believe it.  I don't think I've been caught outside in hail before (except, once on bike in Japan with Pella)...I've hardly even seen hail...never mind being out on the beach in it.  It was crazy.  At this point we were all trying to kneel behind the umbrella while Bethany sacrificed her own dryness and tried to cover us with towels.  Suddenly the hail stopped, then the rain stopped then the wind died down, and we slowly crawled out from under the umbrella.  As we began to assess the damage, Tobi, who had been eating her lunch when all this happened, let out a big cry "MY LUNCH!".  This apparently was her biggest concern...not that everything was soaked and we had just been pelted by hail...but that her lunch was seriously interrupted and may have been ruined!  That's my girl!

Running in the water.

Before the storm, enjoying her lunch.

 Then this popped up.

And left the beach covered with this...

 But it passed and the sun came back out and we stayed the rest of the afternoon, watching storms pop up to the north and south of us but never directly over us again.

 Tobi girl LOVES the beach!

Last week was also my birthday.  My mom and Sarah and I went out for Japanese food, which was delicious!  Ryan single handedly watched all the kids since my Dad was in Haiti and Ben was in Indiana.  (Thanks, Ry!) And then we all shared this delicious cake (made by Kayla, with some help from Sarah :))

Ben did come home for the weekend (yeah!) and since no week would be complete with out some kind of bubble activity we had a back yard bubblefest...

 Whew...that was last week...now it's mid-week into this week and Ben is back in Fort Wayne (wah!).   So...we are keeping busy, having fun, enjoying summer... and trying to avoid hail storms!

Memorial Monday to Monkies in Museums

Last Monday we had a little Memorial Day celebration with my parents and a few of our friends.  Ben kept tradition alive by smoking meat (brisket that took almost all night, literally, to cook), making way too much food, and scaring me (and my Dad) by shooting off little firecrackers near our very dry woods-with promises that nothing will happen...which it hasn't (minus that one wayward ladybug firecracker last year).

Tuesday was Ben's birthday.  Tobi and I went down to Nashua to take him out for lunch.  I'm so thankful for Ben and the wonderful husband and father he is... we are so blessed.

On Friday we took a quick trip down to the Children's Museum.  Two of Tobi's current obsessions are bubbles and Curious George.  Since the museum had exhibits of both those things (and George left on Sunday) we thought we'd take a little family trip before Ben left town for work for a whole week.


As we suspected Tobi was in a state of pure delight when she saw a whole room for making bubbles.  Ben was also pretty entertained and inspired - once he got over his initial disgust over the condition of the bubble residue covered floor.  (On a side note, I'm pretty sure Ben used to belong to the circus.  He has so many of these little performance talents i.e. juggling, balancing almost anything on his nose, making bubbles...he had a little gathering of people watching his impromptu bubble pefromance). 

The only way we could convince Tobi to leave the bubbles was to convince her to go look for George.  And when she found him she was beyond excited.  He got all kinds of kisses and hugs (and I decided to look beyond the fact that he probably had received lots of other kisses from all kinds of little George enthusiasts, and let her show her deep affection!)

Fun week -  but we are already missing Ben...and he only left this morning.