Click below for more useless babble :o
Ian and Aimee traveled 17,585 miles during their 12 day excursion to the Outback. I only managed to log about 1,145 but I was lacking jet propulsion (really could have used it ;) I'll have her fill in the trip details later as soon as I convince her that blog is not a four letter word... From the tales I hear from Ian, they hung out with violent crazies, had cute animals killed and ate them, made absolutely sure
everyone's shoes were well broken in, and supported kangaroo castration. GOOD TIMES!!!
As for Avyrlie and I, her feelings about the experience were summed up the day before Thanksgiving. Prior to that day she had spent twice as many nights away from home as she had in her own bed (which is also my own bed...). I had planned on dropping her off with Kim and then picking her up early on Thanksgiving, but when I asked her if she was ready to go see Kim she looked up at me with tears in her eyes, not crying but very sad, and said, "I just want to stay at my home. I just want to watch my movie and stay in my own bed. Can I just stay at my own home with you and Linna and Triela?". She had pleaded her case well (even if I was on par with the dogs) and it was an argument I was happy to lose.
I called up Kim and asked to bring Avyrlie early the next morning. I started with 4AM in mind, but she negotiated 'early' clear to 7:30 (pretty sure she had a PM number in mind ;) Avyrlie was happy to go see Kim the next morning after spending the night with dad painting and making pies (yes, I choose my activities in order by letter and it was 'P' day. Images of dogs...)
I'm always torn a bit about Aimee heading out of town. My life becomes insanely busy, my work schedule is bizarre, and dogs and Ian transform into Cerberus (with the chaos of Aimee's absence they seem to guarding the right entrance at least (-_-)'
On the other hand, even with the demon creature(s) present, I get the best sleep ever. I like quiet, dark and hot. Aimee of course likes noise, enough light to see, and cool feet (there are therapy books written solely about her fan disorder...). Three hours of the Super Sleep every other day, and I'm happy as a clam. Probably shortens my life span as well, so maybe it's good that Aimee makes me get more anyhow :(
Avyrlie is the super trooper when it comes to just going with the flow. We found her breaking point this last week, but it took a lot. She had a ton of fun playing with cousins, grandparents, aunts and uncles and was well behaved and helpful. She adapts and finds things to love and enjoy wherever she is and is never without friends. At home she loves to help with anything you are doing even if it is just to give a 'Great Job, that makes me so Happy!' pep talk.
During the last couple weeks we both did a little breaking in at the Home Depot. I spent a fair amount of time there getting materials for a slight kitchen tweak. Of course this involves many 'emergency' trips for us amateurs who lack construction planning skills (or construction skills for that matter ;) The 'Orange Store' has never been an exciting trip for her. She either can't touch things because they're dangerous, or she's not interested in them (see the correlation...). In a moment of weakness or because I felt sorry for her being stuck with dad for so long, I gave in to her request to ride in the 'big cart'.
If you ever push one of these three seat extended behemoths around a store, the first thing you realize is that it is exactly three inches too long to turn around in any isle without making a sixteen point maneuver (thank goodness Home Depot has prybars...). The second, and most destructive discovery, is finding that the steering was designed to mimick Lagoon's Wild Mouse ride. One second you are saying hello to some guy with his kid as you pass them in the gardening isle, the next second you have run over the kid and tipped a shovel display onto his dad. Now I understand all those 'Clean up on aisle 3 and bring a first aid kit' announcements...
Quickly we learned to venture only into uninhabited aisles and avoid ones with freestanding displays.
After one too many medical mishaps with the 'Big Cart' I finally said No, stayed tough through the puppy-eyed protest and made it into the store with Avyrlie riding almost happily on my shoulders. I had no idea why I had won the cart battle until reaching the trim and molding section. Avyrlie demanded down from her perch and took off running toward the dowels, shouting in her sing-song voice, "I'm going to make my musgick! I'm going to make lots of musgick!". Yes, music is one word she cannot seem to master...
She proceeded to visit the slot for each size dowel and pull three of them out, leaving them protruding about 12 inches. All the time she was telling me about how beautiful the musgick is and how she has to make it so the kids and her friends and her girls and her boys will be happy. I have no idea where she got this idea, or what wooden dowels have to do with musgick, but she now loves trips to the 'Orange Store' with dad because she gets to make her Beautiful Musgick.
My slight kitchen tweak didn't turn out quite the way Aimee had envisioned. In her mind she pictured the end result looking something like this:
Unfortunately, I couldn't find any palm trees so the end result may differ slightly from Aimee's ideal remodel ;) I'll put up some pics in a separate post, but it's turned out pretty good so far. Having the bar in place of the cupboard is an amazing difference. Tons easier to fit people comfortably and it feels much more open and social. I'm saving the boat dock for last ;)
So thanks to everyone who helped with Avyrlie and we're glad Grandma Sutliff is back in the states! I'll sign off for today with some oldie/goodies that I browsed through this morning:
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