Almost birthday

The twins' birthday is tomorrow, and I have been just a barrel of nerves about it, as I always am, every year. Last year I threw out my back the day before their birthday, while trying to put my pants on standing up (i.e., the way everyone puts on their pants). Ever since that day, I have put on my pants while sitting on the bed -- I am so afraid of throwing my back out when there is no Rocket Boy around to take over. I am pretty sure my back wanted to go out again this year, but because I am THWARTING it by putting on my pants sitting down, I instead developed an awful pain in my lower left abdomen. It started last Wednesday, and Thursday I was really in a lot of pain, but by Friday it seemed to be subsiding. Yesterday and today, though, it's back again -- not terrible anymore, but a dull ache, sometimes worse than that. The lower left abdomen is a likely site for diverticulitis, but I have never had that. I do have irritable bowel syndrome, though, and this is probably just IBS flaring.

Anyway, other than my body playing not-fun games with me, it's been a relatively decent week. We got about four inches of snow last Monday, on top of all the snow that was already all over everything, but then it warmed up and melted. We also had some very high winds (excellent for removing snow and ice), on I think Tuesday and Thursday, which blew the tarp on our porch roof out from under the bricks holding it down (fortunately the bricks themselves didn't blow off). For a couple of days the tarp made a very loud obnoxious sound while trying to get out from under its bricks. Then on Thursday morning I was creeped out to get up and see through the kitchen window the tarp hanging down, sort of like a tall blue ghost. We couldn't fix it right away because it was still a little too windy to climb a ladder, so it just hung there, bothering me.

Today, finally, the twins climbed on the roof and put the tarp back up and fixed the bricks to try to keep it in place. Kid A also asked me to give him a broom, and he swept a lot of branches and leaves and dirt off the roof -- onto the patio and the bushes near the patio and the cellar door, but oh well, it'll all blow away soon anyway. Kid B didn't particularly want to go up and help, but I don't want the roof to be only Kid A's territory. I want them both to know how to do the work. So Kid B reluctantly put on his flip flops and went up the ladder, and then had a good time walking to the front of the roof and waving at people out walking their dogs down our street. That used to worry me, when they were small -- I was afraid people would call Social Services and report small children on a roof. But now that they're almost 12, I figure I won't get in trouble. I paid Kid A $2 and Kid B $1 for their efforts.

You can tell by Kid B's lack of outerwear that it was a warm day today -- in the 60s, lovely. Pie Bear went out and ate some grass, then came back in and vomited it onto two different rugs, so that was special. Chester went out just briefly, only onto the patio, and I took the opportunity to brush him, since he's so dreadfully hairy and his hair gets on everything. I got a lot off his butt -- maybe he can't reach back there very well, I don't know. Now it is all over a juniper bush, looking a bit like patches of snow.

Well, I think I'll stop here -- obviously there's much more to write about the birthday, but since it hasn't happened yet, I don't have photos. I've bought some presents, which have yet to be wrapped, but I don't have a cake yet or anything else. By tomorrow night everything (except the parties, sigh) should have happened, and I can report on it all next week, or during the week if I get inspired. Oh, one thing we did do yesterday was go to LaMar's in Louisville to get a dozen doughnuts, their favorite thing to have for a birthday breakfast. Of course, they ate 8 of them yesterday, so there were barely enough for breakfast today, and there will be none for tomorrow. But they were glorious while they lasted.