GRRRR!

Lincoln is in that stage that he wants to be held or upright all the time; time for the jumper. It's HOT, HOT, HOT, I just couldn't hold him anymore. I'm jealous that he can be naked and look so dang cute! I got the little light music thing opened and put batteries in it. IT DIDN'T WORK. I was so annoyed...as you will soon see we have a lot of broken things around here right now, I thought this was going to be one more thing to add to my list. I let out a grrr and tried again, it started working that time. The darn thing knew I was too hot to be messed with. Lincoln loves the little jumper thing! I'm glad to have something fun for him to use.


This is our lovely living room ceiling fan. Looks nice doesn't it? Except it ALWAYS quits working during the monsoon. You know that nice time of year when you really need a ceiling fan. You maybe thinking just adjust the air conditioner to compensate. I would love to do that...oh, but wait....I only have a swamp cooler, a 30 year old swamp cooler. It's pretty worthless during this time of year which is why this thing shorting out right now bugs me so much. On a side note I noticed spaghetti sauce on the inside of the light cover this morning. It's on Gabriel's side of the table, he said Dad did it. Hmmmm, sounds suspicious. The best part is the light shorts out too, which means we have no working light in this room till the humidity goes below 10%. I sure hope it starts raining on our side of town soon, I could use a break from the sunny, humid heat.

Stephen says I can't post this picture because you can see how dirty the fan is and THAT'S embarrassing. The ceilings are really high and the last time I climbed up to clean it I almost broke my neck, so now it's a man job ie. Stephen's job. He's a busy guy and only gets to it once a year; so you have to love me anyway. This fan works, actually it is on high in this picture. My impressive little camera, whose battery only holds a charge for half a day, yep one more thing that is broken, took this. This is our kitchen fan. I enjoy the air it moves in the hot kitchen, however, the CONSTANT squeeking drives me bonkers. TOO much noise....kids crying, fans squeeking, dogs barking, the little window AC blowing for dear life, noisy toys...I just might have to be committed by the end of the summer. The two fans have been on our replace list for several years now. Every time we think we can go get new ones something else breaks, like a toilet or the pipe in Gabriel's wall, or the duct work for the worthless cooler disintegrates in the attic, so every year the squeaky thing runs day and night with not a second of rest.

Meet Ameda, she's my pump. We've spent many hot days, and freezing mornings together. She joined our family at the same time Gabriel did. I knew I only had 12 weeks off after his birth and was bound and determined he got nothing but breast milk for the first 6 months of his life. That meant I needed to get a serious stock pile of milk put back. She worked hard to make sure he had all the milk he'd need. I would pump 8 ounces out of each side every morning then nurse the rest of the day. When Garrett came along timing was much better. I took off an entire semester and had summer break so he was almost 6 months when I went back to work. Ameda and I only spent a few hours together that time. Lincoln's birth had similar great timing, but circumstances are VERY different this time around. I've had to start picking up work when it was available much earlier than I wanted. Out came Ameda to get a stock pile for Lincoln. My little of stock milk was almost ready; then I planned to cut back and just replenish it as needed. I'd finished 5 ounces of a 6 ounce bag when Ameda just quit. I couldn't believe it, we paid a sizable amount for her and she just quit. I'm not sure what I'm going to do now, but we'll have to come up with something. We're watching for a really cheap used one that I can cannibalize the motor from. Grrrr!

This is our swing, well kind of. When Gabriel and Arianna were born we got a swing, they got a swing, and my mom got a swing. Our swing did well with Gabriel and Garrett, then it was time to bring it out for Lincoln. It wouldn't work. We borrowed my mom's, it didn't work. So, we borrowed the third one. It finally worked, but is only crippling along at this point.

Not pictured is the infant bathtub that cracked after only two babies and had to be replaced. Luckily we found one at a yard sale for 3 bucks.

I've uncovered a conspiracy....the baby equipment makers make everything well enough to last for two kids and no more. That way you have to replace it! If this stuff had all quit when Garrett was a baby I could've replaced it and still have good stuff for Lincoln. Now we're tight and I'm just down right irritated about haveing to figure out a way to replace it all. Grrrr! Graco, Evenflo, and Fisher Price I'm on to ya....I know your sneaky plan.