Horses Sweat, Men Perspire, Women Glow

Yesterday we had another flood in the basement, so my dad came to the rescue with a big shop-vac and a big fan. He stayed and hung out with us and did a lot of the clean up for me, for which I am very grateful. I tell you there's nothing quite like stepping out of the shower to the sound of the flood alarm and running into raw sewage wearing nothing but a towel. Caden and Lincoln were so helpful - they turned the TV up so that they could hear their show over the shrieking alarm. SO HELPFUL.

Caden's been riding a little bike that he's had since he was three and the training wheels needed to be adjusted, so my dad my hero, took the bike and the two boys to his house to fix them. Then he took us all out to dinner - wahoo! (I love to eat out - I have a very unhealthy relationship with food = treat, anyway...)

This morning I adjusted the seat on Caden's bike, and even all the way up he couldn't extend his leg out to get enough power to ride on the grass. Since I am such an awesome mom I said, "let's go get a new bike." My kid actually complained about this for five minutes. I had to convince him that he would like a new bike as much as the old one, that as we grow we need bigger things, blah, blah, blah.

We hop in the car and go to Toys R Us and he picks out a bike that he can live with (and more importantly, that we can afford - ha!), and we get training wheels, the bike assembled, the whole shebang. We pay, get out to the car, and the stupid thing won't fit into the back of the car. I tried everyway I could to get it to fit, but short of laying the backseat down (which I can't do 'cause of the three kids sitting in it) the stupid bike is not going in.

But I'm resilient, I figure it will fit in the front passenger seat - after all, no one's sitting there. I finally do manage to wrestle it in there, never mind that it's halfway in the drivers seat. I go around and get in the car and Lincoln says I haven't buckled him. Back around I go and buckle him up. Have I mentioned it's like 10:30 am and boiling outside? I'm glowing like a pig. Okay, so we finally get going and I manage to get us home.

By the way, ALL of the roads around my house are torn up and closed off because they're putting in sewer lines - so we have like a 9 mile detour to get anywhere. I'm not exaggerating - 9 FREAKIN' MILES!

We get the bike out and I'm handy, so I'm putting together the training wheels and then go out to put them on the bike, and I can't make them fit. I called my dad - Hero Extrordinaire. He comes over and he can't make them fit either (which made me feel a little bit better - it wasn't just me).

WARNING: Do NOT buy a chinese bicycle and american training wheels; they are NOT compatible.

I got ready to take the training wheels back to the store and try to find some others that would fit, when Ryan called. He said Caden doesn't need training wheels, so we went over to the church to give him some space to practice - Caden needs training wheels. I take Aile and do the running around. By now it's about 3:00 pm, I'm sticky with glow and the kids have been driving me crazy, traffic's a witch with a capital 'B', and I'm hanging by a thread.

I finally get home, my dad put the new training wheels on (which still barely fit), Caden got to ride his new bike, everything worked out great. But the process - HOLY COW.

It may be my own fault though, I think I prayed for patience when Ryan left.