2013 isn’t off to a bang!

So far I’m not that impressed with 2013. It doesn’t have much to do with the actual year, more like what is happening in the new year.

I guess this story starts in 2012, right before Christmas. As I might have mentioned, we had big plans for the holidays. Elaine and I were going ice skating with the twins and Ivy. Well, everyone but me was going ice skating. Truth is, I have never been on ice skates and I can’t see a reason to get on them now.

I might have enjoyed playing hockey when I was younger, but that ship has sailed. At this point in my life the only thing I want to do with ice is put it in a glass.

Sorry, somehow this story started being about me. Before I get back on track, I should tell you I haven’t been skiing either. OK, I have been cross country skiing and snowshoeing (I own equipment for both), but downhill skiing must not have been for me. Why am I still talking about me?

A couple days before Christmas, Elaine and I started getting that little tickle in our throats. By Christmas morning, it evolved into a full fledged cold. Just getting up to see what Santa had brought the twins was painful. It took a couple hours to get all the packages opened before I could go back to bed.

The twins got tablets from Santa. I might have had a little to do with that. Boy Twin has a tendency to resist reading for fun. I suggested to Santa that maybe a tablet would increase his time spent reading.

I guess these tablets are really cool. As a parent you can buy your kid a book for about ten bucks. Or you can get a tablet for a couple hundred dollars and then buy a book for ten dollars and download the book on your tablet. Holy cow, I just realized these tablet things don’t really make economic sense. I’m really glad they came from Santa.

Elaine’s birthday is New Year’s Eve Eve (December 30th). We were still feeling horrible. We had planned on doing the birthday thing big. Upscale restaurant, cake, present; we had big plans. We ended staying at home and getting to bed early.

After New Years we started to feel better, not good, but better. We decided to let the twins have a sleep over to make up for the crappy holidays. This was one of our more brilliant decisions.

Girl Twin invited over a nice little schoolmate. They started the sleepover playing, watching movies, and Girl twin teaching her friend to knit. (You see, I haven’t wasted your time, this is a yarn store blog.) Then Boy Twin’s friend arrived.

I knew we had made a mistake when I heard Ivy tell the twins and their friends, “You cannot climb out the windows, STOP CLIMBING OUT THE WINDOWS!” The kids were playing hide-n-seek. They got into the laundry room and tried to hide in laundry baskets. I had a load of my clothes in the dryer. Boy Twin emptied the dryer and tried to climb inside.

I need to stop and remember the kids of today are not like the kids of my childhood. If I would have tried to hide in our dryer, when my mother stopped spanking me, she would have run me through a couple dryer cycles.

Actually, Elaine and I didn’t spend as much time with the twins and their friends as Ivy did. Elaine and I were lucky enough to work in the store for eight hours while all the kids were at the house. Of course, for Elaine and I we felt the excitement in the first 10 seconds after returning home. Driving down the driveway in the dark I noticed something.

Me: Someone is parked at our house. Elaine: No, someone must have moved your truck. Me: I don’t think so, something is up. There is someone sitting in car by the house. Elaine: I think you might be right.

Girl Twin’s friend’s mother was in her car, waiting. Waiting for what you might wonder? Me too!

Me: Hi J%^^, what’s going on? J&^^: I’m shining my headlights into the field, so the kids can see! Elaine: What are they doing out there? J%^^: They are looking for one of the dogs. One of the kids opened the door and it ran away.

Out in the pasture I could see a single flashlight at least a 1/4 mile away. I grabbed a heavy coat and a flashlight and headed out in the pasture to find the dog and the kids. I got about thirty feet into the pasture and I heard Elaine and J%^^ talking.

J%^^: Girl Twin tripped on a rock and her arm is bleeding. Elaine: Where is she? J%^^: Somewhere out there with the rest of thr kids. Elaine: Which dog are they looking for? J%^^: They called for Lizzie. Elaine: Lizzie is laying here next to your car.

A quick count of the dogs. One. two, three, four. Every dog is home. Now I need to find the four kids and Ivy. As one would suspect they were easy to find. Just walk to the flashlight. I brought Girl Twin back to the house to have a look at her bleeding arm.

Maybe I’ve been in the mountains a little too long, but I would not have considered her arm bleeding. She had a little scrape that I couldn’t find a Band-Aid small enough to use on it.

Girl Twin: You are not going to put Neosporin on it, are you? Me: I can’t find a place to put it.

The dogs and the kids spent the rest of the night in the house.

I don’t know why they call these gatherings sleepovers. They should call them stay up all night overs. The kids were still giggling at 2:00 AM. I’m sure they thought something was funny, me not so much.

The adults survived the sleepover. The kids played outside the next day. Elaine and I are getting over the coughing. I think our sleep over obligation is over for the year. It has to get better from here.

Our crazy lives!

Monner