Happy ComFest!

This is always one of my favorite weekends of the year - - Community Festival! Well, this year was a tad different...

I had to travel for work on Friday. I offered to drive everyone in my new car. We were returning back to Columbus and I was hurrying. Our sitter, Chris, had taken Jimmy down to ComFest earlier in the day and I was rushing to get back home. I hit something... I thought it looked like a previously smooshed animal. Not pretty, but no big deal, right? WRONG! It made a bad noise but I didn't really notice anything. Then another driver pulled next to me and motioned for me to pull over. That would have been because I had a flat. Luckily Traci and the others with me had experience changing tires because I have never had to change one before. They asked if I had a spare. I don't know! I didn't check when I bought the car?!? I did, thank God!

We got the flat changed. Then I started driving home but I was freaking out over having to drive the rest of the way on the doughnut. We used Traci's GPS to find a place to patch the bad one... Well, thank goodness we decided to that because I had gotten the other tire on the same side and it was only a matter of time. One new tire and one patched later I flew the rest of the way home to Columbus.

I dropped everyone off and went straight to ComFest. I was so afraid it was going to rain and even though Brian had already headed down he wouldn't have had any way to get Jimmy home since he only had his van. It did rain - and pretty darn hard - for some of the way home but it completely skipped downtown. We, of course forgot the camera, but still had a great night. Jimmy insistently tried to rush the stage during Happy Chichester's set. I got to show him off to lots of friends. I wasn't too worried about the camera because I figured there was the entire rest of the weekend to get ComFest pics...

Not so much. We made it down Saturday after his nap to get caught by the torrential downpour. It was fun for a minute but when I was losing my skirt because it was sooo heavy from rain water, I was over it. We left... We were going to head down again today but once again it started to rain. So one of my favorite weekends of the year wasn't really a weekend. What are you going to do?

We have decided to attend COSI's team party for Red, White and Boom. It may be too late. It may be too loud. We'll find out. Luckily for me, I don't have to pay for parking. I don't have to fight the crowds too much since we will be in a fenced in area. And once he is in his car seat I am sure he will fall asleep. If it doesn't work we can always head home early. No big deal. Last year Brian and I watched the fireworks from our garage roof and we talked about how once he was home we would have to try Red, White and Boom. We are usually heading out of town but since we are going to be here, this is the year to try!

We are also getting very, very close to Brian's birthday. Many of you know that I have been scheming for his 40th bash for quite awhile. I have MadLab stuff that whole weekend but I am hoping the gift of all gifts will make it okay that I have to be gone so much. For those of you that don't know what his present is... Well, you'll just have to wait to find out! Too big to put into the blog until the time has come to give it to him! Very excited!

The camera has been an issue. I shouldn't really blame the camera. My misplacing the software to download the pictures and video has been an issue. We think we finally got it installed and I can download stuff tomorrow. But don't hold your breath. All of our efforts to get the software of the internet hasn't worked so far. I have an email into Sony and maybe I can get them to send me another copy if this doesn't work. So, check back for pictures and hopefully video!

Miss you all.

Its been so long I almost forgot my password!

The last several weeks have been nuts! The grandmothers came down and whipped everything into shape. They got the boys on a great schedule and they are both napping solidly throughout the day. We are so lucky to have had them around.

We went camping for the first time with Jimmy and our friends. It was a great trip though it was cut short by the terrible storms... Which also destroyed our security system and fried our modem. One of the reasons I haven't been online for awhile.

We found a new sitter. Our dear friend Chris is taking both the boys. It is the perfect arrangement. She started with the boys today.

And we got a new car! We took my Isuzu in for repairs and the mechanic refused to do work on it because it was in such bad shape. We traded it in and got a new (to us!) Ford Freestyle. My brother recommended we check one out and we really liked it and got a great price.

So it has been crazy! Today is our first day back on line and Brian is going to get the camera all ready so we can finally download our pictures from the last several weeks. I will try to post pics later tonight.

Miss you all!

Sitter Drama...

I figured it would be hard to find a great sitter, but man, oh man! Jimmy has been spending his days with Julian, their nanny and her daughter. It was working out alright and the kids had definitely formed a bond with her. Was it perfect - - no. Not by any means, but we were willing to work through it because the kids were attached and it is hard to find someone you really like. All things told though we were headed for disaster. Missy and I have had to adjust our work days to be home early enough for the sitter to leave on time. We have both missed numerous days because of her conflicts... and then to add insult to injury... she quit and gave us one weeks notice!!

Bah!!

Luckily Missy's Mom is retired and mine is on summer break so they are both willing to be available for us. We are posted on Craig's list and had our first interview tonight. We have interviews scheduled through the rest of the week and on Sunday. We hope to have someone lined up pretty quickly... And we think we have really good prospects (probably better than what we were finding the last time around). And we have certainly learned lessons from the last situation. Missy and I are both pretty assertive people but for whatever reason we were pushovers with her and we were signing her paycheck every week!

So long and short, both of us have turned everything upside down to make room for these interviews and we're scrambling to find someone we really like and trust and think will be at work every day! Fun, fun!

Jimmy, Brian and I had a great weekend. We went hiking and driving around on Saturday (we tried to do a little too much and all ended up a little crabby at the end of the day, but for the most part it was a blast.). Sunday we stayed here at home and played. While Jimmy napped we got the front yard all cleaned up. It is looking really nice. We lost steam and didn't make it to the inside of the house, but I have Thurs/Fri off since I am working the weekend and it will keep until then.

While we were hiking we broke our camera. I think I can still get the pictures off, but haven't tried yet. The video camera Judy bought us takes stills so Sunday I played with it. We hooked up the sprinkler for Jimmy on Sunday and it was so funny. It takes amazing photos! Now I just need to figure out how to download them...

I promise to post new photos very, very soon.
Miss you all! Happy summer!