Cherry Lives On!

LD:  Mom, what do you want for your birthday?

Me:  I just want you to LISTEN THE FIRST TIME.  That’s it.

LD:  Hmmm.  I don’t know if I can do that.

He can’t do it.  It is not in his nature.  LD requires you submit a formal request 18 times before he will actually do something.  It is endearing.

The kids went in on this super cute necklace for me:

It is hard to see in the photo, but it has K H C C, which is the first letter of all the kids’ names.

Kate, Hadley and the Dudes.  Gasp!  Now you know the dudes have names that both start with “C.”  Use that knowledge with discretion, please.

My phone somehow got onto Do Not Disturb mode, so I never know if someone is texting or calling.  I keep forgetting to seek help from my teens.  And I keep missing calls.  It is hard to be old.

Speaking of old:  I turned 39 yesterday!

The day was fine and dandy.  I had to take the dudes to the dentist.  Miraculously they still have not had a cavity.  They eat a LOT of sugar and don’t have the best dental hygiene practices.  Their mother should really get a handle on that.

Then we had a big, fat work party at the rental.

We had to do another hour or so of sanding.

David:  We are done sanding.

Me:  Great!

David:  But we still have an hour or two left of sanding.

Me:  Great!

Taylor.  Not knowing what is going on with David since 1998.

Apparently we had to go over the floors with finer sand paper.  I don’t know.  I just obey.  Then we had to sweep and sweep and sweep.  For some reason we have two brooms and zero dust pans at the rental, because we like to keep ourselves on our toes.  We worked it out.  Then it was time to stain the floors.  If I ruled the world,  I would not go with the cherry stain again, like we did in 2004.  BUT.  I had zero desire to sand the staircase and the whole upstairs and refinish those floors too just to change the color.

Cherry lives on!

Here is a pic of David and the fab four staining.  From left to right:

LD, Hadley, HD, David, and Kate.  Look at LD.  He looks like he was busting out of his clothes.  And he was.

Staining goes much more quickly than sanding.  Sanding is horrific.  I do not recommend it.

Poor LD.  He struggles with listening, as you are all aware.  His sisters were being the boss of him and he was feeling over it.

Girls:  YOU ARE NOT USING ENOUGH STAIN!

Girls:  YOU ARE USING TOO MUCH STAIN!

LD:  First you tell me not enough!  Then you tell me too much!

All.  Night.  Long.

It is hard to be the youngest.  But everyone is highly sensitive and does not want this to get messed up.  Let the records show:  NO ONE WANTS TO SAND AGAIN FOR ALL ETERNITY.

As we stained the floors, we worked our way out of the house.  We ended up on the back patio.  I snapped this photo:

We poured the concrete for the patio probably in 2008 or 2009.  From left to right is David’s hand, then mine, Kate’s, and Hadley’s.  The boys were too little to use their hands and so we did their feet.

I made LD put his foot by his baby foot.

In retrospect, I should have probably swept or something so you could see the actual footprint better.

But it was my birthday!  And we were going out to dinner!

I asked David to snap a photo of me and the Fab Four.

LD, Kate, Me, HD, and Hadley.

I got my favorite:  COBB SALAD.  I get it everywhere we go.  Everyone knows to just keep feeding LD.  He ate the rest of Hadley and Kate’s hamburgers, David’s fries, and my salad.  He is always just so so so so so starving.

Happy Wednesday!