It looks like I’m going to be teaching A&P again this Fall and Winter. It will be fun to teach a course that I really like a second time, since I already have done the initial course prep. This time I’ll be able to add in more of the ‘fun stuff’. I found a blog written by an A&P professor from Missouri that looks like it will be a good source of little clips, fun anecdotes, and extra activites. Check it out at http://theapprofessor.blogspot.com/ and let me know what you think.
We went to the Rush Fire Dept for their Stories and Sirens event today. The draw is that kids get to try on the firefighting equipment, crawl all over the firetruck, and even use the hose.
Bailey was excited, so he quickly put on his own fireman gear from Halloween.
The “real” firehat had a cool halogen flashlight attached. I picked up the ‘real’ firehose nozzle and was surprised that it weighed about 10 pounds. The backpack supplemental oxygen was about 40 pounds, and the ‘real’ firesuit was also super heavy. I can’t imagine how hard it would be to walk around with all that stuff, not to mention fight a fire…and how HOT it would all be!
Bailey is ready for the call to come in, he’s on the back of the firetruck.
Sammy is excited when it’s his turn to ‘drive’ For a gadget addict, all the buttons and knobs in the firetruck were pretty cool.
Sammy tries to decide which is more important, touching the pedals, holding the wheel, or seeing the road. He can’t do all three at once.
This was the one moment when Sammy actually aimed the hose at the burning building, but he really felt it was a lot more fun to try and turn the hose around to spray the inside of the firehouse and all the people.
Sammy gives up. It looks like Mother Nature is doing a fine job fighting this fire.
Jeff was on service all week, which leaves both he and I burned out. At the end of a week of mommy daycare, the minivan is all clean–carpets washed and exterior sparkling. However, the rest of the place has suffered. There is an overturned geranium on the deck, the dog cage is broken, and the kids found a wet paintbrush and painted half of their John Deere Gator car white.
We decided last night was “Do whatever you want Friday night!!!” and had a family party. Jeff and I both had a considerable number of Margaritas and the kids were still up at midnight running around clamoring for glowsticks. Around 12:30 I declared that the party was OVER. We briefly tried to all pass out in our big bed, but with two adults, two kids, and three pugs there was no settling down.
I awoke in the morning to the crash of Sammy heaving one of his toys down the stairs, and am a little bit overwhelmed by the aftermath.
I see the chair pushed up against the sink and just hope that none of the Tequila went into the sippy cups last night….but I can’t be sure.
Maybe we should replace the photos of our house for sale with some of these? That way folks could see how much fun you can have living here?
Hopefully, today will be “Clean it up Saturday” and not turn into “Throw up your hands and do whatever you want Saturday” cross your fingers.
We are so in love with Mendon Ponds Park this Spring. It is only a few minutes from our house and such a great place to take the kids on the endless stream of Mommy Days.
We discovered the beach area a few weeks ago and have been back many times to wade, run and down the hills, and visit the playground. Each time we drive home we pass kids fishing at a smaller pond in the park…so we decided to give it a try.
We picked out fishing rods at Kmart last night, and they were banned up to the closet just a few minutes after opening the boxes back at home. Both were are tangled and a mess after the swordfight. I seriously second guessed going on the fishing trip when I thought of the equation: 2 preschoolers + fishing hooks = Emergency Room. We decided to give it a try anyway.
We spent a few minutes in the morning collecting worms from under the rocks in our backyard, then headed to the park. We spent the first half hour of the trip having a picnic at the playground while I took apart each rod, fixed it, and added the bobbers and weights from the tackle box. Bailey practiced casting a few times, and we decided to go ahead and move to the fishing pond.
Once there, I hoped that Sammy wouldn’t be astute enough to realize that his rod had only a bobber and no fish hook. I put a small hook on Bailey’s rod and we speared the first worm. Sammy decided that more fun could be had smacking a giant stick into the water, so I only had to deal with one fishing preschooler—Phew!
I knew that Linda had taken Bailey fishing in Florida and he had actually caught fish, so he was quite the old sage. Despite growing up on the water, 90% of the times I’ve been fishing I spent an hour or two throwing a line in the water to no avail and then giving up. I was skeptical of much fun this would be, and Bailey was skeptical too…you see, we were supposed to use shrimp for bait he informed me. I was surprised to find that as soon as we cast our line into this pond, the bobber immediately disappeared, making it fun to reel the line right back in. No worm. Wow!
We fed the fish dozens of worms in exactly the same manner, in between lengthy times where I had to solve the Sphinx’s tangled knot puzzle and get the rod working again after Bailey’s failed casting attempts. We started to devise smarter ways of putting the worm on the hook–impaling it lengthwise with the tip just above the hook’s barb–hoping to create a situation where the fish would really have to eat the hook to the worm.
And then, one time, it worked!
I quickly handed the rod to Bailey and he reeled in the fish. It was about 4 inches long. “Wow! I caught a Big One!!!” he exclaimed. He insisted that we take him home and eat him. Sure, why not. There are about a hundred of these little suckers in this pond, the food chain won’t miss him, and I thought a lesson in ‘where your fish sticks come from’ would be good for the kids.
We fed the other fish the rest of our worm collection with no more luck, and then Bailey suggested we try one of the crazy orange plastic lures from the tackle box. I thought that was pretty dumb. Ain’t no fish stupid enough to try and eat a piece of orange plastic from Kmart. But, always a fan of child ingenuity and exploration, I baited it up. We had already thrown the line out and back for nothing 50 times, what’s a few more? I cast the line (Bailey had mostly come around that when Mommy casts, there is no 10 minute delay of fixing the rod). Instead of popping underwater immediately, the bobber sat there for a minute….as expected, no dumb fish. Then the bobber disappeared! Huh? I started to reel the line it…there was something there! Bailey was excited yelling “Sammy! You’re catching a fish too!” and we pulled in the second, (cough) keeper of the day. Back at home, I made the boys stand on chairs by the sink to witness scaling the fish, seeing if fish have blood (they do), taking out the guts and making the tiny filets. I heated a pan and we fried them up. I was pretty sure that Bailey would announce “no thanks” as usual when presented with any food other than broccoli or candy and I had prepared a speech on the seriousness of taking a life and the food chain. Instead, he quickly devoured every little piece. (Then insisted that he’d had all his dinner so he deserved a sucker). Here’s the clip. (Next time I’ll try harder to get him to put on some pants)
Bailey is into numbers and counting–his favorite number is fourteen. I introduced him to playing Solitaire on the computer last week, but really, I thought that it would be beyond him. How do you explain what a jack is? Or that a black seven can accept a red six but not a red eight–and yet you can pick it up (and all the other cards in its stack) and play that on a red eight? Or that when putting cards on the scoreboard the colors don’t matter anymore and they just get played by suit in sequence?
We played a few games together and he seemed to get it. Today, though, was the big challenge. He wanted to play Solitaire solitaire while I put Sammy down for a nap.
I came downstairs and found this.
I was particularly impressed that he knew to put the two of clubs on the ace on top, and that he understood the relationship between the king, queen, and jack.
This kind of stuff goes a long way to relieve the guilt from allowing him to play video and computer games. It’s hard to know what is a good influence for you child. Computers–perhaps okay. But his Dad, for example, I’m not so sure about. Bailey just came downstairs and announced “Mom! You work at the Klassy Kat…ha ha ha ha!!!” (a local strip club)
This week I took some random pictures of my boys. It’s Spring, and we’re starting up the same old Spring things—going to swing at the playground and blowing bubbles on the porch—that we’ve done the last few years. Some of the photos I took reminded me of older days where we were in the same place doing the same thing. I looked back through the older blog posts and realized just how quickly these guys are growing up. Ack!!
A Spring day on the deck in 2007–Bailey is 2
Same deck, same kid. 2009, Bailey is 4.
His precious little face, age 2
My self proclaimed “medium-sized kid” at age 4
My happy baby Sammy in a swing on Mother’s Day 2007–just 6 months old
The same little monster enjoying the same park swing–age 2+ 6 months.
It amazed me to see their faces change. The gradual appearance of angles, more teeth, and fading of the innocent round baby smoothness…but the same happy smiles for Spring fun.
On Saturday, I woke up early to find an Easter Egg Hunt to attend. I love Easter Egg Hunts, especially with my boys at ages 2 and 4. I chose one that started at “10am SHARP!” and set about getting my crew in gear. We pulled into the venue just minutes before 10am. It was packed, and we were parked in the back.
And Sammy decided to poop.
Bailey and Jeff sprinted off, and made it just in the nick of time. After a quick change, I was pushing Sam in the stroller at top speed toward the crowd. My watch said that we still had two minutes to spare, but from across the field I hear “Go!!!!!”
I get to the starting line a few seconds later, but the whole thing is over.
45 seconds after the hunt started. All eggs are gone and 99% of the kids have left!
Bailey was proud of the six eggs he found—until he tried to open one for the candy and was introduced to the concept of hard boiled eggs.
I was actually really sad to have missed the annual tradition of a local easter egg hunt. But! There was another one at a hotel at 11am. I hadn’t pre-registered the day before, but who is going to turn away two little boys from an egg hunt? We hopped in the car and on the way, I called to register. The receptionist said “No. It’s too late. Pre-registration closed yesterday.” I pressed. But she absolutely refused to allow my guys to participate. I was crushed.
Jeff saved the day for us. He drove to the hotel anyway, and there were hundreds of plastic candy filled egg littering the grounds. He walked into the lobby and met the woman with “the list”
“Burdett” he says. (shuffling papers) “Jeff Burdett” (he waits) “I don’t know why it’s not there, I called yesterday” (She apologizes and writes “Burdett, 2″ at the bottom) We were in!
I was very proud of Jeff for breaking commandment #9 so our sons could participate in a real easter egg hunt this year
HUNT #2:
This hunt was the opposite of hunt #1. The hunt start was delayed by 5 minutes—three times—to be sure that all the kids busy pooping in their cars at 11am would be able to make it. It was bitterly cold, and by the third delay, we went to wait in the car. When the whistle finally blew, Sammy was no longer interested in getting out of the warm car. I cajoled him to at least pick up a single one of the hundreds of glittering eggs, but he was not interested. He could not understand why we wanted to pick up somebody else’s trash on such a cold day.
Bailey was a star. Having learned his hard lesson at Hunt #1, this time he shook each plastic egg to make sure that it had candy inside before putting it in his basket. He deftly threw back the green one he found that only had a ticket inside it (for a fabulous prize inside). Instead, he found one with a genuine nickel AND a piece of candy, what a score! That’s okay, I’m sure one of the kids who actually pre-registered enjoyed the complimentary night’s stay at the luxury hotel.
This is picture says it all:
I’m carrying Sammy’s basket, with the one egg I put in there to demonstrate.
Bailey glowing over his successful egg harvesting efforts.
The most exciting thing for Sammy is the clod of dirt he found.
DYEING THE EGGS:
We’ve yet to begin really. Notice, however, that Sammy himself is already yellow–even on his back. He’s already spilled his cup of yellow dye onto the floor and then managed to fall into it.
We got the whole $1.99 of fun out of Paas this year. We made letters with the crayon, we used the little skins that you have to melt on by heat, we did the stickers, we did the paper egg rings—and we even cut out and played the little game!
The masterpieces, including the token ‘brown’ egg by Sammy.
EASTER MORNING:
My easter season was profoundly touched by Saturday afternoon spent at the celebration of the short life of my friend Christy’s child Will. The news of Will’s death earlier in the week was devastating, and there wasn’t a dry eye at his funeral. I was so impressed, though, at how Christy and Steven used the funeral as a way to help us all to know fragile Will and hear the message he embraced:
If you feel good today, that is enough reason to celebrate!
If you don’t, then just be patient, you will feel good again later.
Life is short, so get all the joy you can out of the good times.
The death of someone else’s child is powerful in healing all the silly bumps and bruises in an ordinary family and bringing us all a special appreciation for one another.
We had read the Children’s Bible story of Easter several times and talked a lot with Bailey about how Jesus dying on the cross taught the people of the world to love each other and be kind. He knew that Easter was a day to celebrate because Jesus came back to life. We decided that church wasn’t as good a way to celebrate as candy and just being together on a rare sunny Spring day…so let’s get to it!
I made Pillsbury cinnamon rolls for breakfast–Jeff’s favorite. In fact, I’m pretty sure Jeff ate 6 out of 8 of them.
Our backyard, after the Easter Bunny had hopped through. You can see Bailey’s basket in the distant tree, and a few eggs here and there.
Here they come!
Sammy realizes these plastic things are filled with candy! He wishes he’d been aware of that yesterday.
Now they are BOTH finding the eggs!
Sammy finds his basket first.
Now match Sam, Bailey and Pug with Joy, Envy and Indifference
The sly Easter Bunny left Bailey’s basket up in the tree!
Sammy, I’ll trade you two Robin’s eggs for….anything you’ve got. anything.
A warm ray of sun on a chilly day brings a snooze to a tuckered boy.
We rounded out the day with a nap for mom and Sam, and a grueling afternoon of manual labor for Jeff and Bailey. Finally the Giant bags stuffed with dead rose bushes we brought with us from Hilltop lane are no longer languishing in bins behind the shed. Our old woodstove from Baltimore with its broken glass has been put on Curbslist—and found a taker. Now It’s official. We have finished moving in.
We couldn’t stomach the thought of food shopping when we were all sick last week, so I didn’t get an Easter ham. Instead, for Easter dinner I whipped up a Burdett special; cubed tofu with asian noodles and veggies in a peanut-soy sauce. I’m not sure I’ll be allowed back on the Eastern Shore anymore.
Now my little Sammy is in bed upstairs crying with a new fever and constant thick cough—I’m so glad we had as much fun as we did on this Easter Weekend. I appreciate all the hard work my Jeff has done and is doing on this house. I cherish all the little moments of the sweet happy smiles of my boys today. And I hope that we can all just be patient through Sammy’s sleepless screaming times until we’re all well again.
Wait…this isn’t it. This is the before picture. In fact, Jeff just looked at this picture and said “Oh my God Jessa. This is….This is…This is…World’s Dirtiest Jobs. This looks like foul people living in some ghetto.”
At the risk of irreparably grossing out Cindy Collins—this is the state of our stove prior to two days ago.
“After” This is our wonderful ‘new’ Jenn-Air range.
We’ve hated our “fancy” Jenn-Air stove for years. First, the Jenn-Air griddle and grill burners create such a huge mess that we never use them—leaving us only two burners. The 15 year old ‘euro style’ solid core burners were rusted on top. Of course, didn’t even know about the ‘grease trap’ until it overflowed with barfy old grease everywhere, yuk!! The fan switch melted and broke off, then the inner oven glass cracked and broke a few years ago–we had no idea how to fix it so we’ve just lived with it.
A few times over the years we’ve gone out to look at new stoves. The problem is that the old stove is a slide in model (expensive) and it has the unique Jenn-Air downdraft venting system. The fumes are exhausted (assuming the blower fan works–ha ha) down into the floor, across the basement, and out. So in order to replace it, our choice is whittled down to basically another Jenn-Air slide in, which are in the $2000 range of ranges. After two of our Realtors told us that the stove made our otherwise okay kitchen look dated, we trekked out to Sears again. 10 minutes later we were back in the car, dejected, it was still the same story. No way were we going to donate another 2 grand to the next owners of this old house.
Time to fix it myself.
I discovered Appliance Parts Pros and Repair Clinic.com and was able to find and order the replacement window glass, and a replacement oven door gasket as well. While surfing around learning about Jenn-Air ranges, I realized that part of what makes them ‘fancy’ is the ability to switch in and out burner ‘cartridges’
Is it really that easy? I went to our stove and pried up the rusty burner cartridge from its ring of baked on grime. Wow, it lifted up, no tools necessary. I pulled on it a little and the whole burner cartridge came out, leaving behind the pan it sits in and a Jenn-Air outlet.Excited I hit the internet again, and found that you can order new cartridges that fit this old stove! I ordered two glass topped Ceran burner cartridges. On a roll, I added a new fan filter and 3-way toggle fan switch.
It only took two days for the big boxes to arrive. In the meantime I made friends with our mother’s cleaner—ammonia, straight up. I can’t believe how much money I’ve stupidly spent over the years on wimpy name brand cleansers. The ammonia is amazing, not only does it magically lift away years of thick grease and blacked baked on crap, but the fumes also exfoliate 5 layers of your face and nasal passages at the same time!
This morning the first box arrived. I was able to deconstruct the oven door from the outside in using the diagrams on ApplianceRepairPro.com. Who knew the door had four layers! There are actually 4 pieces of glass that you are looking through in order to check on a cake. With my ammonia in one hand and screwdriver in the other I spent the morning taking that thing apart and cleaning each layer of the door. I replaced the old cracked stained oven glass with a shiny new one, and tucked in the new gasket. After a few hours of work, I put the door back together and managed to remember where each one of the dozens of screws went in!
This afternoon, the second box arrived. Remembering my regular project mantra “nothing’s ever easy”
I doubted that the new burners would fit, or work with this model, or….
After opening the box, I popped the new ceran burner cartridges into the now shiny stove. They fit! Excited, I filled a pot with water and turned on the stove. A bright red glow lit up under the pot briefly, and then clicked off—damn!
A quick look at the manual revealed that “the burners will cycle on and off in order to maintain the correct temperature” Back in business!
So far, so good. We have a shiny stove, working oven with new glass and gasket, four beautiful working glass-topped burners and a new fan filter. I can’t believe it took us this long to do this!!!
And now, I just got a reply on the message boards sending me the wiring diagram for the hard part–replacing that toggle switch. Wish me luck!
Update: I got the stove latch assembly put back the way God meant it; which means our self-cleaning cycle will work now. And I got the toggle switch wired correctly–then I spent 30 minutes getting these funky little rivets to work to clamp it together. Once in place and the electricity hooked back up I realized that the switch is upside down, so if you turn it toward “light” the fan will come on. Oh well. C’est la vie. After reading the online manual I’m sold on the whole downdraft thing. If I put a pot on the vent grate, the downdraft will cool it, and it will suck up raw onion smells if you leave it on while chopping….
Final verdict: Range repair is definitely a doable do it yourself project, and, it turns out I LOVE MY JENN AIR RANGE! Because they are so easy to fix and ‘upgradable’ and the downdraft is cool. I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I will probably want to buy one for the next house!!!
Bailey has become quite the little clothes horse. His favorite outfit is his Transformers shirt–the one with the button that makes the shirt talk, and his red ‘bulldog’ pants. A typical morning scene in our house involves me coming to tell Bailey to get dressed. I’ll bring a perfectly nice outfit which he immediately rejects. He then gets 10 minutes to go off to his dresser and pick out his own outfit and dress himself.
On this morning, Bailey has disappeared for his 10 minutes of outfit seeking. I hear some loud cries of “Mommy! Mommy!” and this is what I found:
So Jeff got me a new computer for my birthday–yay! Obviously, I’m thrilled to have back the usage of the comma. My old computer suffered a terrible mutilation over a year ago—I won’t relive the gory details, let’s just say that non-pareils (of chocolate non-pareils) can wreak some havoc on a keyboard. You’ll notice that you can substitute the comma’s closest relative; the semicolon; for a comma without too many folks noticing. (You can read all the posts from the last year and play ‘find the semicolon’ if you’re bored waiting for the Easter Bunny.)
Anyway–my new computer also has a card reader, which hopefully will make it easier to blog! So here is the first post in the category of “things I’ve been meaning to blog”
Jeff’s LL Bean hat. Great for Rochester Winter. Also great for Crusty the Clown impersonation.
