And I Thought Craig Was Bad

When we would be visiting Kent's parents in California, Kent's brother Craig and his wife Nicole would come over. Taylor LOVED his Uncle Craig. That's because Craig would throw him all over the place. I just knew that Taylor would end up with something broken as a result of "pwaying with Uncle Cwaig."

That being said, I surprised myself by coming up with this totally awesome (and completely un-original) idea of sledding down the stairs. So we put all of our couch cushions at the bottom of the stairs and tried it out. Taylor loved it.

This is about the moment when I realized that it might not have been such an awesome idea.

After much coaxing, I finally got Kent to try it.

After a couple of times where the sled caught a stair and Taylor went head-first down the rest of them, it's amazing he didn't break anything- like his neck or any other limbs. I could just see how a trip to the emergency room would go:

Dr. Hills (Chris or Chad): "Uh, what exactly were you doing that caused his femur to break?"

Me: "Well, I thought it would be really fun if we went sledding down our stairs."

Dr. Hills: "Um, okay." Wow, what an idiot.

.

Me: "It was actually fun, until the sled caught on the stair and Taylor tumbled downstairs head-first." Wow, that would really suck if he called CPS.

.

Kent: "It was Steph's idea." Wow, she's an idiot.

I think I'll stop freaking out when Craig throws Taylor around on the couch.

One Of These Things Is Not Like The Other

It was love at first sight... okay, maybe at second sight after we had looked at all the other couches first. But it was second sight at least. We found our sectional at Costco Home which, by the way, is totally awesome. It's a Costco specifically for furniture. There are only two in the country- Kirkland, WA and Tempe, AZ. Anyway, we ordered it, and we got it around the end of June or beginning of July- something like that.

So why am I making a post about our awesome sectional that we got delivered 4 months ago? Take a look:

See anything suspicious? If not, look again.

Kent was vacuuming the other night and that's when I saw it- the sections to our sectional are not the same! One has those big brads all along the bottom and the other doesn't. We usually have a big ottoman in front of it, so I guess that's why I never noticed. I called Costco today and asked them what could be done. So Costco is going to call the furniture company that we ordered it from and try to get us a replacement.

I love Costco.

Epiphany

It's funny how you can hear something a thousand times, thing you understand, and realize that you really don't understand until you really do understand. Yeah, okay, that sounded a little confusing.

You hear from everyone to enjoy your kids when they're young because they grow up too quickly. A mom of one of the kids on Taylor's soccer team told me, "Yeah, my house is a mess. I've decided that there will always be laundry and dishes to do, but my kids won't always be here forever." I can guarantee you that my house is not all that clean. There are always dirty dishes in the sink, clothes on the floor, laundry to be done, floors to be swept, etc. And I've always thought that I understand the whole idea that they won't be here forever. Until the other day. The boys were asleep and Kent was working overnight at the hospital. It had been a long day, and the part of the day that I did spend at home was spent cleaning and getting frustrated with Taylor. So I was cleaning up in the kitchen and went to put something away in my pantry and saw this:

My initial reaction was to grab them and toss them in the toy basket. I get miffed when Taylor goes into my pantry and plays with my cans that I just organized according to content (yes, yes, I'm sometimes highly anal). He also brings his cars and toys in, and sometimes I step on them (it's a wonder I haven't broken anything yet). So I was about to put them in their appropriate place when I had an epiphany; holy cow, sometimes I'm way too anal. I'm a control-freak. Everything has a place and I like organization. That's not to say my house reflects that philosophy. But I do get frustrated and stressed when my house is messy...

And I finally realized that no, my boys won't be here forever. They're going to get older. I'll get to the point where there are school assignments scattered everywhere instead of cars, and then college applications instead of school assignments. They'll get to the point where they won't think I'm the coolest person in the world- in fact, I'm certain they'll eventually be embarrassed by me. They just simply won't need me in the ways they do now.

So there the cars sit; still on a shelf in my pantry. Taylor hasn't played with them in a few days and has probably forgotten that they're there. But they remind me to not be so anal and to enjoy my boys while I have 'em.

On a brighter note, for those of you that are married, does this look familiar?

That's right: it starts early.