Not my day

What were YOU doing at 7:30 this morning?

This is how my day began. Two boys up at 5:30, chomping at the bit to play with their brand new basketball hoop. 5:30.

Mike and I have been wanting to get the boys a hoop for a while. They have the little adjustable Fisher Price one in the back, that falls over each time there is a slight breeze, but Ryan has really been wanting an honest to goodness full sized basketball hoop. He loves basketball and is quite the little charlie hustle. I don't have the heart to tell him that his little pipsqueak sized body will most likely not make him a star center, but this does seem to be his sport of choice right now.

Getting a new one was out of the question. If I have a spare $300 to spend, it is certainly not going to be on a basketball hoop. I'll get my antique chicken incubator before that ever happens. Mike has been watching Craig's List, but even the used ones have been pretty pricey. Until yesterday when he found one for free. It's fairly weathered and the net was missing, but who cares! So last night Mike and Ryan picked up the world's heaviest basketball hoop and brought it home at 9:00 last night. We got our neighbor, Keith, to help get the 200 pound base out of the van, and then Mike and I were left with the disassembled pieces and one antsy 8 year old.

Ever tried assembling a full sized basketball hoop in the dark? Whatever you are imagining, that is about how well it went. I am always so careful with my language around the kids and last night Ryan heard words from Mommy that he has never heard her utter before. And I'm surprised he didn't repeat any of it when we explained that we would have to wait until morning to finish putting it together. So at 5:30 this morning both boys were out of bed waiting to play. At 7:00 Mike decided it was time to finish the job, so he turned to me and said "going to teach Eric any new words? He missed out last night".

It's done, they're happy, and now I have to spend the rest of my summer sitting on the front porch watching the boys play basketball.

Today was also the day I decided to start painting the boys' bathroom. I primed it a couple of weeks ago and I have this uncontrollable urge to finish the job. Because I want them OUT of my bathroom. My beautiful chocolate brown and linen white bathroom with all the matching fixtures except for the towel rack that they keep pulling out of the wall and my special jetted tub that is suppose to be just for me. About a month ago their 125 year old toilet broke and, since I'm in the middle of painting, I've declare the whole room off limits until I finish. But I want them out. It is suppose to be my room. In fact, the only reason I allow Mike in there is the fact that he paid for it. But it's mine. And now have I have towels everywhere, little dirty footprints, Spiderman underwear on the floor....I want them OUT. I want them out as badly as I want the moles and deer out of my backyard. The moles who have left about 20 craters in the lawn the the deer who came and nibbled all of my rose bushes last night. All of them. But I digress.

I had the paint all picked out. I was going to use the leftover paint from our halfway remodeled downstairs bathroom, just to get the boys BACK IN THEIR OWN BATHROOM WITH NO MORE HANGING TOWEL RACKS. And guess what. No paint. Empty paint can. Can of paint with no paint inside. More bad words.

I guess I'll spend the rest of the day knitting. The rest of this long day in which my husband, who brought a basketball hoop home to me, will not return until 8:00 tonight. A day in which Ryan and Eric cannot seem to keep their hands off each other. A day in which I have not been able to complete a single solitary task without "Mom.....". It may be a blessing in disguise that I can't paint since I have 3 hats to finish for Willow & Bloom, a pair of custom baby socks to complete by Saturday, and I need to learn an invisible cast off for 2 x 2 ribbing for my sweater.

With all this time on my hands, perhaps I can find a way to train the deer to kill the moles. Kind of a wildlife whack-a-mole. Fun AND functional.