Four Little Ones and more Birthday

Jacob, Bella, Kaileigh, and Rocky (2 times). Rocky in Ykraps' bed Ashley acting pregnant Kelly cutting her lawn Once again, I was worried that I wouldn’t feel too well come morning but that wasn’t the case at all. Lindsey had spent the night since she baby sat the kids the night before. She got up early with all the kids and went to Bob Evan’s to buy pancakes for everyone. That kept the kids busy while Mindy and Snuck in a late snooze. We didn’t get up until 9am. More importantly, I woke feeling no worse for the wear. I made my way downstairs and made some coffee then took to exercising. The kids were insistent on treating me like a jungle gym. They were climbing all over me while I cranked out my sit-ups and push-ups. To my surprise, of them all, Bella was the only one that could do real push-ups. Good form, Bella! Sometime after coffee I went for a run. I’d guess it was close to 10:30am. We were expecting Kaileigh sometime after church, or close to noon. I had made arrangements with Shelly and Joey the day before to spend the afternoon with her. For that reason alone, I was excited. Shortly after my run, Mindy and I loaded up the kids and drove to Bob’s to pick-up the Trooper. The kids rode back with me. Soon after we got back Lindsey returned with Lil’ Rocky, and a few minutes later Kaileigh arrived while I was doing some organizing in the garage. But I can’t recall who arrived first. Soon after everyone was present, Mindy warmed some wings and then had the kids sing me happy birthday. Mindy was planning to go shopping while I stayed home with the kids. I was looking forward to spending some alone time with my grandchildren along with Bella and Jacob. I was happy that Lindsey opted to go with Mindy. I wanted to see how Rocky behaved in her absence. They were gone for about two hours. During that time we watched a movie, played, tumbled, and eventually went to the park. They were all four pretty well behaved. Nothing I didn’t expect. Mindy and Lindsey were already back after we returned from the park. By then I was ready for a nap. Those darn kids wore me out. I went to my bedroom and closed the door to lessen the noise and fell asleep until about 3:35pm when I woke for a shower. By 4pm I was ready to head to Gloria’s. Lindsey had already headed back to her mother’s. The rest of us loaded in the Trooper and headed to Gloria’s for Sunday dinner. It was a smaller than normal gathering. And come to think of it, it was the first time in a long while that we had Sunday dinner at Gloria’s, and probably only the second or third time since June. We had pork chops and stuffing- one of my faves. And for my birthday, we had chocolate pie. It was to die for! It was nice to have all that special treatment, and equally nice to have my grand daughter Kaileigh there too. She is so well behaved and very sweet. She plays well with Bella and Jacob. We left just after 7pm since we needed to take Kaileigh home and drop Lindsey’s bedroom fan by Kelly’s house. While there I would also look at Ashley’s car since she reported having problems with her transmission. First stop was Kelly’s. Lindsey came out to get her fan. I had her get her sister, Ashley. Ashley came out, gave us a hug, and demonstrated the trouble with her car. Her and I together took it on a ride. But not before I snapped a couple pictures of Kelly cutting the grass ( for this she wasn’t too pleased – Kelly that is). Yup! Ashley’s diagnosis was correct. Her transmission is in fact slipping badly. When we returned, we checked the transmission fluid. It was almost empty as best I could tell, but we weren’t checking it entirely properly either. That’s when she pointed out hat something’s been leaking for awhile. I told her that I would pick-up some transmission fluid and come by again tomorrow to look at it further. Before leaving, I went back and talked with Kelly to share thoughts regarding Lindsey’s living arrangements. It went OK. We headed home and were there by 7:45pm. This was a work/school night for Mindy and Bella, so she was eager to get the kids bathed and in bed. I have tomorrow off so I was still in weekend mode. I listened from afar while Mindy battled with Bella over bathing and tooth brushing. She was not a happy camper. After things calmed I went upstairs to tuck the kids in bed. It was time for Sunday night football, the Manning Bowl, when I returned downstairs. I poured myself a glass of Barley’s IPA and kicked back in my reading chair to enjoy the game. While watching football, I rubbed Mindy’s back and talked. She ended up going to bed rather early – about 9:15pm. I stayed up for another beer and more football. After my second beer my eyes got really heavy. I dosed off a few times before heading upstairs for bed myself.