Walking Accessory

The boys and I walked to the Post Office to get the mail.  The postman only delivers to some of the houses in town and it's a mystery to me who gets that service.  So as we're leaving our yard he decides he needs to bring...

the wheelbarrow.

This is in our side alley and fortunately a truck had been through and Rube was able to walk in the ruts.

Reuben's mission is complete:  Candy from the Post Master.

We call him Mark.

He knows everyone's address or box number.

Here we have a sad, abandoned wheelbarrow in too-deep snow.

This is when Mom takes over and gets to carry it home.

He changed his focus to icicle hunting.

That's not a cigarette.

 Do we look like we're advertising for U-Haul?

I like the bright orange so I can find the boys easier.

And they're comfy.

And we have several of them.

Need a truck?

Rent U-Haul.

Support the fam.

House For Sale

This very antique house is going to be auctioned tomorrow.

Can houses be antiques?

This one was built in the early 1900s and is displayed prominently on our Main Street.

Can you tell it's 3 stories with a wrap-around porch?  Some friends of ours walked through it and said it's lovely - beautiful inside.  Can you picture the grand staircase?

Carly, the outside is purple!  Just thought I'd mention it.  Chase, think Anniversary present.

Rumor is the current owners bought it for $80,000.

California family:  $80,000 for a 3 story historic treasure. 

This is your chance.

Who's moving?

Paper. Work.

She said I would feel overwhelmed.  She said to read and reread it and call with any questions.

OH.  MY.

Overwhelmed.

Tense.

How is this ever going to get put together?

The Dossier.  Have you ever had one?  Me neither. 
Now I do.

According to the Costco dictionary my mom bought me in 1994 right before I wooshed off to college, a dossier is "a file of documents containing detailed information about a person."  Detailed, yes.  Seriously.  Wow. 

As a kid I often thought I'd love the job of a secretary.  I thought filling out paperwork all day would be so much fun.  Well, here's my big chance.  45 pages, plus a supplement for our particular state.  The hard part is that it's not just me filling out the forms.  We have to get people from all over the country to cooperate EXACTLY how the particular paperwork requires.  And it all has to be notarized, most State-Sealed.  We have to take a notary to the doctor's office.  How does one do that?

We've already adopted once, we should have expected this, right?  Uh-uh.  No dossier last time. Wasn't required for that country.  Can you feel my stress?  Paul thinks it's no big deal.  "You'll do a great job, dear."  But ask him if he's read the dossier packet yet.  He hasn't.  I need a full time assistant.  Anyone?  Bueller?

Just to clarify.  I'm not complaining.  Really.  This is all very exciting, especially as I remember the end goal.  Just full of temporary overwhelmedness.  Oo, temporary.  That's a good word.

Resemblance

I thought I'd seen that face before...

Peter the Mummy-Fighter looks a lot like Pete the Pirate.

This was January 2009, when pirates came ashore.

Peter was 5 and Reuben 2.

Mummies

A little known fact about our small town of a thousand...  It's teeming with mummies.  It's true.  Peter and Reuben have been fighting them for weeks.  Great progress has been made in the last 3 days, since their new mummy-fighting equipment arrived.

Headlights!

Granny and Granpa must have heard about our mummy problem because they sent the boys these headlights.  Now they can fight the mummies without having to hold a flashlight!

Apparently the mummies come out when it's dark.  So all the curtains get closed and the lights turned off.  Then the flashlights come on and the weapon of choice is chosen.  Peter likes to use Bruce, the stick horse.  And Reuben is using a dowel here.  The required darkness makes it hard to photograph, thus the grainy pictures.

Getting the mummies behind the couch.

This is all the mummies see.  Streaks of light.  So you can imagine they're terrified.

Just another night of mummy-hunting.

Thanks, boys, for protecting our home.

And thanks, Granny and Granpa, for the 'equipment'.

Nothing

Nothing.  That's what's going on here. 

Well, we DID have the best made-from-scratch macaroni and cheese for lunch.  Definitely a keeper recipe.

And, I did mail a second big envelope to our adoption agency this morning.  That felt great.  Paul called and scheduled our 4 doctor appointments for our adoption physicals- we all got in next week.  Super.

Paul and Pete are headed to the library, Reuben's headed to a nap, so that means me all by myself.  Aha!

What are you doing today?

Chopsticks

Reuben declared this dinner to be worthy of chopsticks, so out they came.

I got these 'cheater chopsticks' at a Korean Day Camp that Peter and I went to earlier this year.

 

And of course, they can also be used as a gun.