Wednesday, December 28, 2005

Christmas

Wow, what a great Christmas we had! We all got great stuff, but most of all, it was fun watching Riley really get into it. Last year he understood it and had fun, but this year he REALLY got it, finally understanding about Santa and all that. I've got video of him Christmas morning when he was opening presents, he was sooooo excited. I'll try to get some pictures posted soon, and maybe some quick video.

Sunday, December 18, 2005

SNOW!! (and ice)

Today it started raining ice, then snow, then ice, then snow, etc. We were on our way to Marci's work to get her bosses phone number so she could call her and let her know she might not be into work Monday (mainly because my Mom is sick and can't watch the kids). When we were almost there it started raining ice. While we were waiting in the car for Marci to get back with the phone number, it rained a LOT of ice, and even snowed some, I mean this thing came in fast. Took us almost an hour to get home when it should only take about 15 - 20 minutes. At least everyone we saw was going slow and taking it easy. Well, everyone but the moron behind us who just HAD to tailgate us. We're doing like 35-40 and he's probably 6-10 feet away. What's up with that?! I was sitting in back (Marci drives in this better than I do, and with less stress) and motioned for him to please back off, but he didn't want to do that. Some people.

Once we got home, we still had to get diapers for Riley & Maddie. So I put on my boots and warm clothes, and walked up to the store and back. On the way, I took several photos:

The walk wasn't bad, I actually got a little too hot. The walk there was easy. The walk back was harder. The wind was blowing in my face, and a few times so hard I almost couldn't walk, and it was raining ice pellets, which did NOT feel good when they hit my face. I had a baseball hat on, a stocking cap over that to cover my ears, my scarf to cover my face, and sunglasses to cover my eyes. Trouble was the heat from my breath kept steaming up my sunglasses so it was hard to see. They say it'll be freezing rain in the morning, so I'm going to work from home. It's supposed to be better sometime Tuesday, then actually fairly warm and raining for Christmas. Let's hope so, I don't like snow and ice.

Sunday, December 11, 2005

Tall Girl Maddie!

Maddie went in for her checkup and we found out - other than she's 100% healthy - that she's 27 inches long, which puts her off the charts for her age! At this point Riley was in the top 5 or 10% for height for his age. Maddie just might be taller than Riley. Poor Marci, everyone around her will be taller than her - but don't even THINK about crossing Mom! haha

Thursday, December 08, 2005

Smoke Alarm Update

I found the website for the company that makes the smoke alarm. Called them and they gave me the local rep. Looked up the rep's website and found a contact person, so I emailed them. Got an email back quickly - they are going to mail out a new one FREE! WOW! Very cool! That means more money for us to spend on Riley. :)

The Smoke Detector from Hell

Oh man, what a night! Riley crashed shortly after getting home, which was nice. I was really tired and went to bed with him around 7:45pm. At about 10:15pm our smoke detectors started going off, kinda, like they were low on battery or something. It was really short, so I wasn't able to figure out which one was going off. I walked around the house to make sure nothing was wrong, the stove wasn't on, etc. I fanned the alarms, about 15 minutes had gone by, nothing, so I figured all is ok and went back to bed.

At 11:05pm one started beeping. This time it definitely was those three beeps saying the battery is low. Again I went to the hall to listen for it to do it again to see which one it was, couldn't figure it out because it wouldn't go off again. I waited for almost 30 minutes, but nothing. Went back to bed.
A little later it went off again, don't remember the time. This time I was sure it was the one in Riley's room, we've had troubles with that one in the past. I got a new battery and as I was getting ready to replace the old one, it started going off. Yep, this was the problem one. Quickly replaced the battery and it seemed to stop.

Then it beeped again and stopped. And again and stopped. It did this several times, sometimes one beep, sometimes several. As I grabbed the detector it would go off or on, depending on how I held it. I guessed there must be a short in it somewhere - as I said we've had troubles with this one before. I left it dangling and it seemed to be fine, so I went back to bed saying I'd look at it in the morning. It went off once more, just a few beeps, then nothing.

Finally, around 1:20am, it went off and just wouldn't stop. I tried using duct tape to hold it in a certain position, but that didn't work. Well, it did for a few minutes, then didn't. Both Marci and I were very frustrated cause we didn't know what to do. Marci called the non-emergency number, I talked to the lady and she said she'd send a fire engine over. I asked her to please tell them not to have lights or the siren going - there isn't a fire, it's a faulty smoke detector and we just don't know who to call. She said not to worry and laughed.

They showed up - looking tired, I think we got them out of bed - and looked at the detector. Fortunately, it's doing it's crazy thing, which is always nice when someone else is looking at it. Then he unplugged it from the house. I was shocked the other alarms weren't going off! I asked, "Doesn't uplugging that one make the others go off?" He said no, and that we have a faulty smoke detector, to just get a new one.

I was SURE if you unplugged it the others would go off - I know it does when you take out the battery. Talk about feeling stupid! I apologized and told the guys I felt bad for getting them out here, they were really nice and said no problem.

So finally at 2am I got back to sleep and got up at 5:30am, and surprisingly, I feel really good. Now I just have to find a new smoke detector.

Oh, and through all of this, Maddie stayed asleep. ;)