My Boys Work Well Together

My son is just like my husband.  They could both spend their days inside an Ace Hardware Superstore and never get bored.   They love power tools and cars, and fixing anything they can get their hands on.  In fact, my son will take something apart just to see how it fits backs together.

When our water lines broke in the house we used to live it, Ryan was right up under Junior's skin, watching everything he did to fix the problem.  They even shopped for Discount Plumbing Supplies together. I love that Junior is patient enough (most of the time) to let Ryan watch him fix things, and ask questions.  It's a great way for him to learn.  There was a saying I learned while working my first job as a teenager, and it was, "Tell me, I'll forget.  Show me, I'll remember.  Let me try, I'll understand.".  Junior has no problem letting Ryan work right beside him, and help as much as he can.  In fact, Ryan can now change brake pads and do other minor repairs on cars, all because Junior took the time to let him learn from him.

Ryan has also helped Junior do a lot of work around my mom's house.  He has assisted in the cutting down of trees, the running of water lines and electrical outlets, and all kinds of other things.  Last weekend, he cut my mom's grass for her.  As a thank you, my mom is going to buy him the Wolverine Work Boots he has had his eye on.  

I know that this time spent with his dad means a lot to Ryan, and I hope someday, if and when he has a son of his own, they will have the same kind of relationship.

Cabana

My mom has this little lean to shed in her backyard that was attached to the fence that goes around her pool.  I think it was probably built to protect a riding mower from the weather, because it didn't have any side, just a roof.  When she opened the pool, she needed somewhere to keep all the chemicals and pool floats, so she had Ryan and Junior enclosed the lean to, to build a cabana of sorts.  I took this picture while they were still closing in the sides...doesn't it look great?  She wanted lattice originally, but when she saw these fence slats, she fell in love.  The finished product looks awesome...I will have to remember to get a shot of it the next time I am over there swimming.

A Unique Little Elephant

Junior knows that there are two things that he can bring home from the store that will make me very happy.  The first, is chocolate.  he gets extra points if there is peanut butter in it.

The second is an elephant.  Now, it is hard to find unique elephants that I do not already have, but he does surprise me every now and then.  Sunday night, he ran to Lowe's with Ryan, and the girls and I stayed home.  While there, they found this little guy.

I don't think you can get any more unique!  The elephant is a hollow container where I can grow grass, which will look like his hair.  I love it!

Decorating Junior's Birthday Cake

The girls and I baked a cake for Junior's birthday last Sunday. I know it's weird that a grown man's cake is pink, but his favorite cake is strawberry, so it is what it is. Brandi wrote on the cake...I'm not too sure why Kasi didn't help...and it came out great. It was delicious, too, or so I was told. I don't like strawberry cake, so I didn't have any myself. It's Tuesday, though, and there is only one small piece left, so I guess it was pretty yummy...

Between 9 And 11

I love my husband. I really do. But he has a tendency to break things.

Tonight he broke my cable box.

He broke it bad enough that they couldn't troubleshoot it over the phone, so I have to have a technician come out and look at it tomorrow.

He'll be here between 9 and 11 am.

When I am normally sleeping.

Hopefully he will show up closer to 9, and I can still get a couple of hours sleep before the kids get home from school.

Electronic Cigarettes

Have I told you guys how proud I am of my husband? A few months ago he quit smoking, and as far as I know, he hasn't been cheating too bad. I had been after him for years to quit, but it took a raise in cigarette prices for him to finally do it.

I am just glad he doesn't know about Green Smoke. Green Smoke is an electronic cigarette, and from what I understand from reading a Green Smoke Review , you are smoking vapors, not smoke. They come in eight flavors and five different nicotine levels, so you are sure to find one that works for you.

Check out other electronic cigarette reviews before deciding which one to invest in, because they are a bit pricey. But, compared to the price of real cigarettes these days, you will save money in the long run.

Mr. Handy Man

The other day, Junior decided to move the television in the girls bedroom. He moved it to the other side of the room, and of course, the cable wire wouldn't reach that far, so he had to go buy the compression connectors to make the wire longer. Compression f connectors from ICM are easy to install, so he had no problem once we had the right supplies. I love that my husband is handy enough to fix these problems. This saves us lots of money on repairmen. Although, I do pay for the inside wire maintenance every month on my cable bill, so maybe this would have been covered. I will have to call and ask the next time we need to move things around.

It's Been A While

Junior and I have therapy today. It's been a month since we have gone. Last session the therapist got sick and canceled, and since we go every two weeks now, it's been four weeks since we've been. I think Junior is doing great. Every since he dad moved his girlfriend into his house, he hasn't been in Home Depot at all, so Junior is less stressed. At least he's less stressed about his dad.

Now if we could just get him less stressed about money.

Junior And His Bi-Pap

Junior and I have no slept in a bed together in about eight years, maybe even longer than that. It's not because we are having marital issues, it's because he snored. He snored loud enough that I wasn't getting any sleep. He was working third shift at the time, and the night he worked I slept great. The nights he was off I would be up all night, shoving him to roll over so he would stop snoring for just a few minutes. Then one night he fell asleep on the couch, and I left him there. The next morning he said he was comfortable sleeping there, so that's where he ended up.

Eventually we decided to talk to the doctor about having a sleep study done, to find out why he snored so bad. Turns out he has sleep apnea. When they were doing the test, they had him hooked up to a lot of different machines. One of them was one that measures your oxygen level. His was so low that they thought the machine was broken, so they woke him up to switch it out with a new one. The readings were the same. His oxygen level fell to 46 while he was sleeping.

Normally they send the results to the doctor, and you go into his office to get the results a week or so later. In Junior's case, they called the doctor to come to the hospital. He sat down with Junior and told him that he was lucky to be alive, and that he didn't know how Junior hadn't already had a stroke or a heart attack in his sleep.

Junior came home that night with a sleep apnea machine. It's called a bi-pap. Most people with sleep apnea use a c-pap, but Junior needed constant air pressure while sleeping, and that is what the bi-pap provides. He was told that he can not even take a nap without wearing it, or he could die in his sleep. This becomes a problem when the power goes out. We are looking into getting one that can also run on batteries. That would also make it easier on us when we go camping. Right now we can only go to campsites that have power hookups.

I am so thankful that he went for the sleep study when he did, because if he hadn't, he might not have lived much longer.