Easter Bunny & Egg Hunting

The Easter Bunny visited our house early Saturday morning. Spencer woke up earlier than everyone else, as usual. Once the girls woke up they all quickly discovered their Easter baskets on the dining table. Everyone seemed thrilled with the treasures that the Easter Bunny had left for them.

We then hosted Carie's family Easter celebration that afternoon. Everyone came up for lunch where we enjoyed some cheese fondue as an appetizer, smoked ham, macaroni corn casserole, broccoli casserole, and fruit for a filling and delicious lunch. It was kinda an odd menu in that it wasn't traditional for us, but we wanted to keep it simple and this seemed to work. It was also a good excuse to make all the really bad for you foods and not have leftovers! After lunch we decided to investigate whether or not the Easter Bunny had arrived, and he had. It was time to hunt Easter eggs! The kids were thrilled!

The afternoon was filled with relaxing, game playing, and napping for the boy. I again kicked some behind (LOL) in Monopoly! They might not let me play many more times.

It wasn't long before it was time to get food out again. For dinner we grilled up some hamburgers, made deviled eggs, had a 7-layer salad, and some more fruit. Later that evening after the kids got tucked into bed, Carie and I enjoyed a game of cards with Carie's sister & BIL.

It quickly became a very late night and we were now contemplating our Sunday plans. Given Ellie's illness, other potential illnesses, and our busy weekend we decided that we'd likely not make it to Church as we had hoped. The only way we'd be able to make it is if we went to the early service, which would have been quite the effort for us.

Sunday morning came and everyone slept in, even Spencer! While it was really nice to rest up, I did miss going to Church. But everyone woke up rested and feeling great! That was priceless. Once we were up and going we headed to Lincoln to celebrate the day with my family. It was pretty much the same routine from the day prior; lunch, egg hunting, naps, games, dinner, and then home for us.

The girls did get some outdoor playtime in. It was a little on the chilly side, but they didn’t care! My brother’s new girlfriend got each of the kids a couple small, and really nice, things for Easter. They had great fun enjoying those treats! Ellie then convinced Grandma to take the dog for a walk so they could go with her. That seems to be a special treat for them!

I found it incredibly hard this year to get pictures, any pictures much less good one’s, of them hunting for eggs. Everyone goes running in a different direction! Except when an egg is found under the van! The story is that it rolled there.

Egg Coloring

Our grand plan was to decorate Easter eggs on Friday evening. We even had plans to go to Lincoln to enjoy the activity with my brother, his new girlfriend, and his daughters. We wanted to get together with those nieces since they weren't able to be around the whole weekend. Unfortunately Ellie was feeling ill and it was best that we stayed home.

We gave the kids the choice of waiting to decorate eggs on Saturday, after all there was really no rush. The Easter bunny would just come after we were done. But they all were really jazzed up to do it Friday evening, including Ellie. While we got everything assembled Ellie "took a little rest" on our bed so she could "try to stay awake" to decorate the eggs. She was just so sweet.













Once we were ready for the real fun she joined us. I felt so bad for her. She really wanted to have fun, and I'm sure she did. But she was just so drained. I sat next to her and we worked as a team to decorate her carton of eggs.














Carie sat between Spencer and Abby and worked hard at keeping Spencer's cups upright. Spencer enjoyed coloring his eggs and quickly burned through 2 cartons of 18ct eggs, mostly colored in green. By the time he was all done his hands were as green as the eggs! They remained green through the weekend.
















Abby really enjoyed decorating her carton of eggs. She enjoyed writing on the eggs and decorating eggs for people we'd be celebrating with. She then took her time selecting which colors she wanted to use for each egg.















In the end there was one carton left to decorate but we kept that knowledge between us. We figured Spencer had done his share, Ellie wasn’t up for it, Abby didn’t know and she was perfectly happy with what she had done! After the kids were off to bed we finished up the egg coloring. It didn’t take us long and then we got everything cleaned up. It was time to prepare for the Easter Bunny and the full weekend ahead of us.

We had quite a few eggs on purpose! I figured that I wanted to have plenty for them to enjoy decorating them. I didn’t want it to be a 10 minute activity and have the kids bummed that we were done so quickly. Also, we weren’t doing plastic eggs for hunting and I wanted to make sure there were plenty of eggs for the 4 kids (our 3 & niece) to hunt. I didn’t want anyone to be bummed that they only “got a few” eggs! I also didn’t want it to be a big race or competition, just look for eggs and have fun. I’m also happy to say that the eggs aren’t going to waste!

Progress Report & Rewards

Progress reports were sent home from school a couple of days ago.

The next day A (a school friend who has been coming to our house after school this week) shows up with brand new shoes. Carie notices the bright, perfectly clean, and cute shoes. Carie comments on how cute they are. She replied that they went shopping for shoes the night before because she had a good progress report.

For some reason it just doesn't sit well with me. Keep in mind that A is the oldest of the 2 kids in her family.

We talk with the girls about how they are doing in school and how proud we are of their efforts and their accomplishments. They talk about how much they like going to school. We talk about specific classes, specific projects, specific events, and just day to day stuff. But we have yet to sit down with them and go over the 4 page progress report line by line. I think there will be a point where we should and will. Maybe we should be already, I don't know.

Out of curiosity I brought it up with the girls last night as we were talking about stuff. I asked them if they knew about their "progress report". They said no. So I explained to them what it was. They were so not interested and ready to move on! So I did.

I'm not saying that I oppose giving our kids rewards for their achievements... and having an incentive to achieve. But having materialistic rewards at age 5, in K? They already have a love for school and learning. They are already doing great things just for being who they are. Shouldn't that be what it is about at that age?

But then I know we have bribed our kids with rewards for other things and at much younger ages. Somehow this feels different. Something to ponder!

The Day After

As I spent some time playing with the boy this morning I had the notion that I'd really like to stay home today.

The boy didn't want me to go to work either. He easily convinced me to stay home with him while Mommy took the other 4 kids to school. He suckered me into a game of Hi-Ho Cherry Oh! and Candy Land, followed by cuddling on the couch watching a show. It was all wonderful and I didn't want to do what I needed to do. I then insisted that I must get ready to go to work. He cuddled up more, pointed to Mommy, and told her to go to work.

I explained to him that Mommy's work was to stay home and love him up! I also know that the minute she'd walk out that door he'd be asking where Mommy was and telling me about how much he misses her! Because that is always how it goes.

Happy Easter to all! We survived as did everyone else... if only barely. No one else is sick, yet. I'll hopefully be sharing Easter pics soon.

Almost Anything

The clogged toilet began Wednesday, I think. That is when we really noticed it and dug out the plunger. The plunger takes care of anything! Or, it always has in the past. But not now. What the heck is up, we wonder.

Tuesday night (or really, Wednesday morning), at 12:15 AM, we were searching high and low for a very important piece to Spencer's car seat. Long story short, it went missing in the process of cleaning it up... which was one task in a series of many tasks. Carie stuck the chest clip in her back pocket "so it wouldn't go missing". Yeah, we were both quite frustrated.

By Wednesday afternoon Carie had made the brilliant connection between our sudden toilet troubles and the disappearance of the chest clip. Totally makes sense to me! Because seriously, why isn't the plunger working?

Carie called the plumber Thursday morning to see what the options were. We didn't know for certain that the chest clip was stuck in there, but the odds were high. Oh, and we've both plunged the crap out of it so I'm sure it is lodged really dang good. I'm thinking that if the odds are high that we'll need a new toilet I'd prefer to have one ready for the plumber to install while he is there, instead of paying for yet another service call.

Their response... "We can get almost anything out". He sounded very confident that if there was something clogging the toilet, they would find it and remove it. Okay! Turns out, he has a guy that does just that. I don't know, I don't think I'd want to dig around in people's toilets all day long!

So he shows up. He gets his handy dandy tool out and does his thing. Then it is clear to Carie that his tool got stuck. It was also clear to Carie that the guy was momentarily panicked so she decided it was time to stop hovering over him. Somehow he got his tool unstuck and he got the chest clip out as well. Yay!

I'm quite amazed that this is the first time we've had to have someone fish something out of the toilet, quite surprised. I don't think Carie will be using her back pocket as a "safe place" anymore!

Our Welcome To Spring

It is the first day of spring. It should be a glorious day, right?

Our first day of spring was wonderful, in terms of the weather. In every other sense, it was downright crazy. Come to think of it, it has been a crazy week and I'm thrilled that it is Friday!

Thursday's top 10:
1) Provide dinner for a family (at school) who lost their mom in the mall shooting. We've signed up to take several meals, which is wonderful and generally no big deal. It is a true pleasure to help out in this way! Somehow though the timing this time around just wasn't great and it was stressful to pull off. Heck, we've had a hard time cooking meals this week for our family. Pulling it together and making an extra trip to school before preschool pickup was tough, but of course Carie pulled it off. She also managed to take care of snacks for both girls' classes while she was there.

2) Grocery store - not happening and it needs to. We are (supposed to be) hosting Easter tomorrow. It is also not happening today due to #10.

3) Main Toilet Clogged - Plumber on the way! The reason it is clogged is a story in and of itself.

4) Flooding Toilet - In the afternoon, prior to plumber’s arrival. The retention of an almost 5 year old isn't long enough to recall that they must use the upstairs restroom. Instead they flush, leave and the flooding is discovered much later.

5) Poop Explosion - Head to toe on the boy. Shower required for the boy. Mommy wanted to shower too.

6) Craigslist - Overall a really really good thing, but it just added stress today.

7) Treadmill - Have a potential buyer for parent’s treadmill. Discover that it first needs repaired. That is setup for next week.

8) 3 of the kids have big birthdays coming up - Oh my! Huge milestones are on the horizon, or it is the full moon, or both! The other 2 have a birthday shortly after.

9) Skate Party - Girls really want to go. The begging began shortly after getting home from school. We were prepared! The new challenge is getting dinner in before going to the party. Take out was the answer! Our kids have never skated before. The last skate party they played in the other play area. It has been a long time for the adults! Mommy is not allowed to put wheels on her feet, her back is still recovering from who knows what. We went, we had a great time. I think they'll want to skate again, and that is cool.

10) We get home from the skate party and Ellie went straight to bed with pain reliever, a bowl, and an ice pack. Poor kiddo, she was feeling quite sick. Fourteen hours later she wakes up feeling a little better but still clearly sick. Spencer is now saying his tummy hurts. Who knows what we are in for.

At the end of the day Carie broke out a bottle of liquid stress reliever. Bless her!

Almost Spring!

I really like these pics.

I'd really like them if they were in focus!















On one of our nice days we went down to the neighborhood park. The kids all rode their bikes while we walked and helped them with the tricky hills.

Pineapple

One recent morning the boy comes into our room and climbs in between us. He was ready to start his day, we weren't. It was a reasonable time, we were just begging for "5 more minutes".

He proceeds to yack it up and before long he was bouncing his fingers around. Everything is "blast off", "shooting fire", or "bouncing" with this boy. So he was bouncing his fingers off of most anything he could find and shooting them as high as his arms could reach, over and over again.

When suddenly he was all like "what is this?"
Half asleep I respond "that is a nipple".

With his head cocked and in an inquisitive tone he says "A pineAPPLE???"

Pineapple, pineapple, pineapple, pineapple...

Carie bursts into a controlled laughter.

Blog about that, she says. Okay, I'll take that dare!

Typical NE Weather Patterns

And I love it! I love that we have cold days, snowy days, sunny days, spring days, fall days, and all the days in between. I love that we have variety!

We've had extraordinary weather the past few days. It definitely felt like spring around here, one of my favorite seasons. The most exciting thing about the weather we've had is that it was a change from what we've had for months. It felt good to be outside without jackets on. It felt good to take in all that fresh air. It felt good to feel the sun. Just like we'll be excited for that first snow fall after we've enjoyed the summer sun.

I took advantage of the 61 degree weather yesterday and raked the yard, the entire yard. Well, all except the patches that still are ice covered! Yes, after 3 days of 60+ degree temps we still have mounds of ice in our front and back yard.

I wasn't sure I could get it all done, but I just kept plugging away. We have some neighboring trees that drop their leaves really late in the fall and right into our yard. After 2 solid hours of raking, the yard is in much better shape. My motivation was to get the leaves raked up before... it snows today.

If the weather report is right, we are supposed to get 1-3" tonight.

Gotta love it!

The Boy Is Noticing

I think the boy is starting to notice that the candy is gone. I guess Carie has found more and has pitched it. I don't even know what she found or where she found it. But it is gone!

Yesterday morning he started asking for jelly beans and suckers. I told him that we didn't have any, and understandably so he didn't believe me. He told me where they were, which is where they have been in the past. So I drug a chair over to get the baskets down. I was happy to show him that there was no candy in either of the baskets. All he found was glitter glue (yes, this must be stored up high!), bread, and lunch sacks!

He was totally okay with it. He moved on!

I love that all this is out of our home. So far we don't even have candy purchased or planned for Easter. At our house I think the plan is to dye a ton of eggs and skip the plastic eggs all together. The kids will each have an Easter basket, which may have a special candy item in them. But that is it from us. I have no idea what my parents have planned. It will be what it will be.

Silly Sleepy Boy

The weather is beautiful. For the 2nd day in a row we are in the 60's, with the potential of tomorrow following suit. It won't last for long as it is supposed to drop just in time for the weekend. But while it is here, we are enjoying it! The kids are especially loving the abundance of outdoor playtime.

You would think that all this running around and fresh air would tucker them out! That so isn't the case. I'm certain that the time change this past weekend isn't helping. I know that both Carie and I are still very much feeling it.

The kids laid down for their daily nap today, and all was good. Great even. Spencer laid right down and proceeded to talk and sing to himself. No big deal, except it went on forever.

After a bit Carie went in to check on him and remind him that it was nap time. As she opened his door he immediately scrunched his eyes shut. While he needs to work on his pretend sleep, it was really dang cute.

Carie whispers to him: "Spencer"
Spencer whispers back, with eyes squeezed shut: "yes"

The whispering and wrinkly eyes continue...

Carie: "It is naptime; you need to go to sleep"
Spencer: "Okay"
Carie: "I love you!"
Spencer: "I love you too!"

Then just like that he went to sleep.

There are so many reasons why I love this boy, and this is one of them. Sleep has never been a real challenge with him, even in the most challenging of times. Of course it is probably to his benefit that we had a completely different experience with his sisters'!

A Bit Of Morning Art

Crayola meets dryer.

Let's just say that making this discovery in the morning, as you are pulling your dress pants out of the dryer, is not a happy moment. Yeah, I was going to wear those pants today! I (thought I) needed those pants today.

And look what I found in the dryer, chunks of pink and yellow (a weird yellow) crayons melted into all sorts of fun crevices! There was some blue as well which mixed with the yellowish color made a pretty green. I never found the source of the blue. Let’s hope it isn’t hiding!

That would also explain the markings all over the pile of jeans that were on the couch. I thought I'd fold them as I waited for my dress pants to dry. And, well, the boy was looking for a place to sit on the couch so we could play his basketball game. It should have clicked right then and there that maybe I should have looked in the dryer. But no, the connection didn't come until much later. Oh well, I’m sure the damage was well done by then.

Hmmm, I wonder about the other load of darks that were waiting to be folded. I think I’m afraid to ask Carie which load came first!

This would be the only drawback to having a large capacity washer & dryer. If something goes awry, it affects a lot of clothes!

The upside? I didn't throw my entire load of dress darks in the dryer. This totally makes my day.

But now I’m thinking. Certainly we could design a toy out of this experience. Easy Bake Oven meets Spin Art. It sure would beat crayon shavings and irons!

The Great Candy Purge

Carie is the one who followed through on this one!

We've been talking and talking about ridding our home of the mounds of candy that seemed to be stashed in every nook and cranny. We aren't big candy connoisseurs yet it felt like we had hit the jackpot. All those holiday's and birthday parties that seem to come with candy and sweets attached are a huge source for this accumulation. In reality, I believe we have this mountain of candy because we aren't big candy connoisseurs and it has just kept accumulating.

Except, there is Spencer. He would gladly indulge himself in every last piece if we were to let him. When it comes to candy, he has no self control. Part of it is age, I'm sure. Part of it is just his natural interest in all things junk food. This is not something we experienced with either of the girls’, at least not to this degree.

So Sunday afternoon Carie just did it.

The boy was napping. I was outside with the girls putzing around. It was above freezing, if only barely. The girls were collecting and disposing of "litter". It was their own little idea and I thoroughly enjoyed watching them work together to clean up our yard and neighboring yards. I was raking and sweeping up the mounds of sand and gravel left on our yard and curb from the snow plows. Ya ya, it is likely going to snow again. Oh well.

Then suddenly Carie appears with this enormous bag. From a distance I could see its bulging sides. The way Carie was carrying the bag, it was clearly heavy. She tells me, in some sort of parental code, that this is it. This is all the candy that she could find. Wow! No way! We had that much candy in our home!?!?!? How in the heck did that happen? How embarrassing!

Now, what to do with it? Why can't throwing it away be an option? It would have been so physically easy just to open the trash can and drop the bag in. Why do we have such a hard time doing that? Why can't that be the option?

Instead it went into my car and got hauled to work. Now I'm still left with "what to do with it?" Thankfully I think I have an idea.

Later that evening we were getting ready for dinner. Spencer hadn't exactly noticed the missing candy. It isn't like he had an inventory or anything; he just had this uncanny knack for finding candy wherever it was stashed. His own personal candy radar! So what does he do? He opens the freezer and asks for the M's that he found. M's that have been in the freezer for months, at minimum. One bag being an "autumn mix". Who knows, they may not even be from this past fall! LOL

How does he do it? It isn't like he opened up all the cupboards searching for candy. He simply opened the freezer and found what was (hopefully) the last candy in the house. He was denied, of course. Most often his requests for candy are denied but I'm always amazed at how often he asks for it.

I'm amazed at how great his candy radar is!

Our Boy The Teacher

The boy has forever taken an interest in babies. There was a time when the "baby" often was older than he. But they were smaller than he was and to him they were babies.

Now he has a great grasp on what a baby is and his nurturing side is really shining through. He loves to take care of their baby dolls. He cuddles them, feeds them, rocks them, and all that good stuff. He's really gentle with them. Then he goes back to shooting fire out of sticks.

This morning he and Mommy were out running an errand and while at the store he spotted a baby. This baby (maybe 6ish months old) was in his stroller, just hanging out and gnawing on his paci. A paci that 100% resembled the paci's Spencer used to have. This could go a couple of different ways.

Thankfully Spencer remained composed and completely okay that the baby had a paci and he didn't. He didn't seem to mind at all and didn't even question the situation.

Instead he simply felt the need to teach the baby proper paci usage. The baby was perfectly happy gnawing on the hard back side of the paci, probably because (according to his mother) he was teething.

Spencer was all "hi baby, how are you?" and then tried telling the baby that he was sucking on the wrong side and that he should turn it around. The baby continued gnawing on the hard knobby part. Spencer continued to encourage the baby "turn it around baby".

Thankfully the other mother thought it was cute! She talked with Spencer a bit and asked him how old he was. He confidently answers "4"!

Maybe we are skipping over 3 all together!?

Go Away Bears

Last night Spencer found a paci. We knew one was on the loose but didn't know where it was. We also hadn't searched for it like we should have. Clearly if we would have just opened our eyes, we would have seen it right there in the middle of the room! At least that is where I think he found it.

He appeared with it in his mouth, all proud of such a find. I asked him if I could have it. He said no. I let it go.

Then Mommy appears and notices the boy's find. She attempts to remove it from him and he again wasn't giving it up, willingly.

I figured that he found it fair and square and we ought to let it go. By the look on his face I could tell that he was playing it up and we didn't need to engage in such a battle. While he was excited about finding it, he also clearly knew that he didn't really need them anymore. I wanted to see how confident he was, how sure he was that he didn’t need it. It wasn't long and he set it aside.

Bedtime rolled around not long after and he didn't mention his paci once - to either of us. He told Mommy that he wanted Momma, in that desperate whiny sort of voice. I had to go in to convince him that the bears were in their own homes and they were already sleeping.

Bears?? What happened to monsters?

Personally, I'll take on bears over monsters any day!

Sisters

This doesn't happen very often anymore...

This is what we found when we went to check on them.

Abby told us the next morning that she was on the inside (next to the wall) so Ellie wouldn't push her out of bed. Smart thinking!

They also have this thing about taking every pillow possible, arranging them just so, and then sleeping on the huge mound of pillows. The pillows, shams, and throw pillows have to be in a specific order! We resituate them when we check on them after they have fallen asleep.

They've been talking about bunk beds lately. I'm not sure where they got this idea, or how they've learned about bunk beds, or how they even know that it is possible for their beds to bunk. Mom - we just know!

So they've talked about wanting to bunk their beds, because it is a possibility – “someday” - and who will get to sleep on the top bed and who will get to sleep on the bottom bed. First I say, refer to the first paragraph. Abby has it all figured out. Then I think this picture is almost proof enough that Ellie should get the bottom bunk. Every night we check on them she has part of her body hanging out of bed, sometimes more and sometimes less. This night was less, way less. She is a crazy sleeper.

He Did It

Hallelujah!

Not only was naptime an improvement for the 2nd day in a row, but bedtime went really really well too. We aren't yet quite where we were prior to the disappearing paci, but it is all really good at this point.

The best part, he slept through the night.

Better yet, he was so darn cute and HAPPY when he came downstairs at 7:15. He was a really happy boy this morning.

While we have noticed a regression in some areas with the baby talk and grunting, we've also noticed a huge decrease in the whining. Seems like the paci may have been enabling his whining! This is a total bonus for all of us!

This is good, really really good.

Way to go son, way to go.

On The Descent?

Yesterday felt like we were peering over the peak with signs of heading down the curve on this no paci effort. But of course, we felt more optimistic than this in the first few days of this effort. If he had pitched a big fit, or even any fit, in the beginning I'm certain we wouldn't be where we are today. Thankfully, I guess, he didn't and we are now what feels like a great deal down the path of removing the paci from our home.

There are key times or triggers where we can anticipate him requesting his paci. We try to navigate around as many of those as possible. Unfortunately the nap time and bed time have to be faced head on. The "I'm proud of you" approach along with extra stories, cuddles, and new backrubs seems to help.

He is now waking nightly, a new thing since the disappearing paci. It isn't unusual for him to wake anytime between 2am and 6:30am, but generally speaking it seems to be closer to the 6:00 hour. This is not a normal morning hour for him as generally he'd sleep until 7:30ish. He doesn’t actually wake up, but he is upset and needing help to settle back down. This is the only time he has been getting a paci, which I'm sure is why he keeps waking. But he is so upset and so out of it, it currently is the best approach for us to get through. Carie offers the paci to settle him down and rubs his back. He falls back to sleep and the paci disappears again. Most often we are later greeted with a really happy boy with never a concern over where his middle of the night fix went. I’d say 99.31% (I like stats!) paci removal is a success at this point!

I was recently reminded just how important the girls' blankies are to them. Abby came to me the other morning because she couldn't find her blankie and she couldn't go back to sleep without it. The timing of it all was interesting to me. She had woken about the same time that Spencer has been waking. Coincidence? I'm not so sure. Spencer loves his blankies, but nothing is quite like his paci.

Carie tried offering a "broken" paci the other night. We hadn't taken that approach at the onset of this because 1) this disappearing approach just happened to happen and 2) we thought a "broken" paci would tick him off. The verdict, he was royally ticked off. We might have been able to reason with him a bit if he had been awake, but I’m not so sure there is much reasoning to be had with this boy and his paci’s. His passion would rule.

We are now hearing baby talk and seeing a recession in some areas. I'm sure it is normal and I know he'll come around. It certainly hasn’t stopped him from advancing in other areas, like burping on purpose. Unfortunately the other kids think it is hilarious and thus we have motivation.

I just hope that yesterday's steps forward are indicative of the days ahead. At any rate, yesterday was nice. If only I were feeling celebratory!

If This Is Any Indication

I'm sick, again.

I don't get sick very often (at least for the first 37 years of my life), but when I do it seems to attack my body and bring me down. I feel like such a big baby! My sinuses are raising white flags with body aches and chills thrown in for good measure.

Carie kindly turned our heated mattress pad on before I arrived home yesterday. She knew I was on my way and knew I'd be heading straight to bed, without passing Go or collecting $200 (I kicked ass at Monopoly Saturday night). I climbed into bed and burrowed into the heated bed and layers of blankets. It was nice! After hours of sleeping like that I suddenly became hot, really damn hot. Carie happened to be in the room and I asked her what setting she set the bed on. Her response, high! She had told me she turned it on thinking that I'd check it and turn it down before climbing in. Nope. But it felt great for hours.

Then I opened up the patio door because "I" thought it was hot inside. I did check the thermostat first and it was warmer than what we had the heat set at. Personally, I thought the nice cool breeze was refreshing! I was quickly informed that I was an anomaly and that "I" could go stand outside but the door wasn't to be left open. Thankfully my body temp evened out later that evening.

I do need to call and beg to get a refill on my cough syrup with codeine. That stuff is magic.

If this is any indication of what I have to look forward to this Spring, I retreat. I want our crappy winter back.