What a difference a week makes. From Sunday through Sunday, it sure took a twist.

This past week started out beautiful. It was warm and sunny. We spent most of our days outside. Little Man learned how to play hopscotch and we worked on numbers and letters in the backyard. He doesn’t quite understand what the letters and numbers are, but he still had a ton of fun walking down the sidewalk and hopping in the different boxes and bubbles I had drawn with chalk.

As the week wore on, it got chilly. We drove out to the lake with Nanny and Papa on Friday, and continued the fun outside Saturday. Yes, it was cold out, but we still managed to continue the outdoor fun. Nanny brought Little Man to the giant pile of leaves Uncle Sheesh had made. A certain young man had so much fun picking up armfuls of leaves and throwing them around himself. In the meantime, we wanted a fire, so I picked up an axe from the garage and headed to the woodpile. Note to self: I am HORRIBLE at chopping wood with an axe. I tried, I really did, and I was able to split one smaller chunk of wood into slivers. The fire we got started on Uncle Sheesh’s news fire pit was amazing. It lit immediately, and it kept burning; boy did it burn.

A certain young man had a great time with Cousin “Dowie” Saturday night. Nanny, LIttle Man, and Mummy drove to the other side of the lake to visit with my cousin. Her daughter had driven back from school in Ohio with a few college friends to help out with the herd check. We had not seen Cousin “Cow” since early August, so it was great to be able to spend some time with her. Little Man started saying “Dowie” while we were there, to my cousin’s delight.

This week, he has really expanded his vocabulary. He can tell us the colours Blue, Red, Yellow, Pink, and Purple. Little Man also says “Pease!” and is super close to “Thank you.” I love seeing this growth. Each morning when we wake up, I wonder what his new word, or words, will be that day.

Sunday morning, well, Sunday morning came and it was like everything changed. My parents dog had been sick since Friday night, puking several times a day. She had puked twice on one large rug, and in the morning, we realized she puked on another one. Cue my entrance to make sure all rugs were picked up, and if they had puke, that they were hung over the railings on the deck, to let the rain clean them as well as possible. BUt, this was not the only issue.

Waking up Sunday morning, Little Man walked out to go see Nanny and Papa. I slowly started to get dressed and found myself racing as I head “Oh no! Tent! Boke! Oh no! Oh no! Oh no!” Running out to the kitchen, I found my father trying to pull a jacket on. “The damn carport has blown off the concrete pad,” he told me. A quick glimpse at the thermometer showed me that it was barely freezing outside. I grabbed the keys to the UTVs and lawn mowers, and ran out once my boots and jacket were on. I wiped a gloved hand across the seat of the smaller red UTV and climbed onto the seat. That was a mistake – it was so cold and wet, even though I Had wiped of the majority of the water. I managed to pull both UTVs and one lawn mower up to the driveway. The second mower needed the tires to be refilled. Neither my brother nor I could push it, or get it to start, so tires got inflated and we were golden.

The tent, however, was not doing so well. We managed to flip it right side up,and moved it on to the stone patio we have at the back of the property. Happy with our work, we went inside to warm up and have breakfast. Little Man and I were sitting int he three seasons room a bit later and hearing the wind pick up, i looked out the window, just in time to see the carport flip over again, this time impaling itself on a t-post, ripping the roof of the building. Back outside for my brother and I. This time, we managed to pull it up and remove all sides.

Later in the afternoon, my brother was picked up by our cousin to drive to the farm, so he could bring the farm truck back, with some attachment to the Bobcat in the back. Well, he drove back, and our cousin drove the Bobcat the 11 miles from the farm to the lake. My brother will use it to move this giant pile of dirt around this next week, using it to fill in the dips and divots in the side lot that have been washed away by all of the rain. A certain young man was quite enjoyed to see the big machine as it was driving off the road and into the back yard.

We finished off the week with Nanny making cinnamon rolls. My brother said he would like them with a cream cheese frosting on top, so I started to make one. I had the butter and cream cheese creamed, and went to grab the powdered sugar…Only there was no powdered sugar in the entire house. Shenanigans. Luckily, I found online that brown sugar can work as a substitute. Let me tell you, these rolls were delicious even with the not quite right frosting. Keep an eye out for the recipe, I’ll add it to my the “In the Kitchen” page in the next day or so.