Family Feeding Frenzy

Happy 45th B-Day Craig!

I fixed a gaze clockward a few times early Sunday morning. I knew that I had to be up no later than 7am if we were to make it to the Wright family breakfast by 9am. In the end, I was up at 6:55am beginning my day. I made coffee, took my vitamin and anti-inflammatory, and then quickly moved to my sit-ups.

By 7:15am, Ykraps and I were walking the subdivision. It was another lovely morning. The temperature was already in the 30’s while the day’s high was expected to near 55. Spring was definitely in the air. Mindy made inference to being up at 8am. For that reason, I left her sleep while I carried on with my morning routine until about 7:50am when I delivered her coffee and then dressed and left for a run. While running, I listened to the 3rd CD of my newest audio book, The Third Jesus. Most interesting. The run was effortless. I was back by 8:25am. I could hear Mindy & the kids upstairs. I went for a shower a couple minutes later.

I was ready to go by 8:45am. Just before leaving I put all of my soiled running clothes in the washer. We arrived at Bob Evans by 9:02am. The others arrived just ahead of us. We waited for about five minutes before our table was ready. There were eleven of us. We had a dandy time sharing vacation stories. Dad shared stories of his visit to south Florida with Uncle Kenny, and we shared stories of our ski trip.

As often happens, dad received mixed messages about Glenn’s latest employment dilemma. Not sure if he was purposefully mislead or simply misunderstood Tommy. And I guess that there’s an outside chance that Mindy & I misunderstood. Doubt it, though. I could see worry in dad’s eyes. I reckon that Glenn will find something even more financially rewarding given the fact that his current income is far lower than his education and talent warrants. The trick, of course, will be finding something that he truly enjoys.

We parted ways and left Bob Evan’s around 10:10am. We made stops at CVS & Lowes before heading home. Mindy picked up a prescription and I bought the stuff Ashley needed to attach her washer & dryer.

We were home by 11:30am. I was feeling tired with all that food in my belly. I laid down on the couch and fell asleep. I slept for nearly an hour waking around 12:30pm. I called Ashley to make sure that she’d be home and then gathered the necessary tools to complete the washer & dryer install. I left just after Jimaken left with the kids. I asked Mindy if she wanted to go along. She opted to stay home in peace, and I can’t say that I blame her.

The drive to Ashley’s is almost all freeway. It’s only about nine miles and goes really fast. I wasted little time getting busy, but did take a few minutes to greet Olivia who was having her lunch with her momma. It was a comforting feeling seeing her and Olivia alone in their own apartment. This should allow Olivia to get a lot more undivided attention. I think that’s good. She looked happy as could be.

I changed the dryer outlet first. That took only fifteen minutes. Next, I installed the two new washer hoses. The 90-degree angle connectors made all the difference in getting them to thread up in the tightly confined water box. I knew enough to test both. They both leaked. I re-did both a second time a smidge tighter. They were fine.

A test of the washer revealed I had more work to do. The water valves were reversed, which meant that it sent cold water out while on the hot water cycle. Who’s the moron that thinks red is cold and blue is hot? Geesh! I switched them around and retested. Worked fine! I leveled the washer and then placed the dryer into its final position. I then realized that we didn’t have dryer venting attached. Oops! I’ll have to stop and get some. I was running out of time so I told Ashley that we’d address that yet another day. I took care of a couple other tasks for her too. I cleaned her filthy microwave and reattached a loose hinge on her closet door. While there I couldn’t help but notice a number of things she could use to make life simpler, neater, & easier.

I left around 3:30pm. Mindy was just finishing some cleaning when I arrived home. The house smelt really clean. Mindy had windows open allowing in the warm fresh spring-like air. That was nice. The kids arrived minutes later. We didn’t have much time before were jetting off to Minelli’s for Sunday dinner, which is just right up the road. As a change of pace, we were meeting the family there instead of Gloria’s house. We would be celebrating Jodi, Craig, and Mindy’s birthdays. After our dinner we planned to drive to Gloria’s for dessert.

There were 17 of us – a boon for Minelli’s. We had a splendid time gorging on spaghetti, pizza, and subs. Gloria unexpectedly picked up the tab. I felt bad having ordered an extra- large pizza for Bella and I. After a fun dinner, we loaded into our cars and drove to Gloria’s for birthday dessert. We hung out in the lower level, much like at Christmas. After some social time we gathered for singing happy b-day and cake. There was cheese cake, butterscotch pie, and Boston Crème pie. Yum-yum. I had only one piece!!! Despite warnings against it, Jacob was acting up. He was pushing lots of buttons, much the way I did as a kid. Still, from this vantage point it was annoying and almost embarrassing. Mindy did her level best to keep him in check short of a beating! He just gets carried away.

We left at 7:15 with the aim of being home by 7:30pm. I walked Ykraps immediately. Mindy readied the kids for bed. Tuck-in time came around 8pm. Mindy and I returned downstairs to relax. Jacob woke just a few minutes after going to bed to throw-up. And man did he ever throw-up! It sounded like the tub was running at full tilt during three different thrusts. Strangely, I didn’t hear any accompanying grunts or moans, though. Just as I was going to call for Mindy, she must have heard it too from her perch on the PC. She raced upstairs to address the situation. Seconds later I heard her let out a sigh and then she call for my help. Ugh! What could she possibly need me to do, I wondered. She certainly didn’t want me to clean it up, or did she?. That couldn’t be the case, especially after she just recently, although in a humorous way, defined certain chores mine and others hers. And as I recall, cleaning up puke wasn’t one of mine. Sorry!

Still, I responded to her beckon. I was brave enough to peer into the bathroom where the event took place. The one good thing is at least he had the wherewithal to find his way to the bathroom and raise the first seat. But when it came to placing it strategically into the commode, well, let’s just say he was a miserable aim. There was puke everywhere in the near proximity of the toilet. It was on the floor, wall, toilet, and shower curtain. Mindy doubted that he was even fully conscious, because after he barfed he half smiled at her with a barf covered face and started back off to bed. Thankfully, she quickly intercepted him and wiped the barf from his sweet little cheeks. The best help I could offer was being her gopher. What can I get you, I uttered? She wanted more paper towels and Pine-Sol. Coming right up, honey! Anything to avoid the unenviable task of wallowing in the yack. Mindy wanted the blue Pine-Sol, not the regular. I willingly went back for the other.

Mindy sensed my avoidance and uttered a few unpleasantries my way as I snuck off to bed. She joined me in bed a few minutes later. I was going to make a joke about her smelling like puke when she insisted on cuddling but thought better of it. After all, this was a woman who just spent the last 20 minutes cleaning up barf. Good money said she wasn’t going to be her chipper self.

After an episode of Family Guy we fell asleep.