Chapter 27

Day 127

The kiddos were up bright and early, but I slept in late after my night out.

It was rather late when I rolled out of bed. The first thing I tackled was the laundry. Ugh! Teenage slob sons are the worst ever. There was stinky laundry all over the house!

There was so much laundry that it took most of the early afternoon to complete. Dakota texted and wanted to go to a friends house after school. I told him, "No." After spending the whole flippin' day picking up his nasty, stinky clothes off the floor, he is coming home to help me out! Dakota worked with Preston, while I worked with Perry.

While teaching Perry to talk, I suddenly started thinking about Matthew ;-)

Colton and Cody came home from school; they both made the honor roll. Way to go, boys!

We are not adopting a stray cat, Colton!

Then we celebrated Dakota's birthday. Dakota is now a young adult and his new trait is: Never Nude. His Lifetime Wish is to have the Perfect Private Aquarium.

So glad you're a young adult now. Momma's not doing your laundry anymore!

During our birthday celebration, Keely turned into an elder horse. I knew this time was coming, but that doesn't make it any easier.

*sigh* The dishwasher broke again. While I repaired the dishwasher, Colton (my fabulous, neat child) did the dishes at the sink. I worked on upgrading the dishwasher to unbreakable; I got about 50% complete with that endeavor. 

This is Dakota NOT helping with the dishes!

Then the boys' bathroom sink broke and I had a bit of a momma meltdown facing that repair.

Day 128

Today is graduation day for Dakota. After our breakfast cake, we headed out for City Hall.

Dakota graduated with highest honor and was voted "Most Popular" by his classmates.

I ran into Jason after Dakota's graduation and I invited him to come over. I felt torn between talking to him and telling him I just wanted to be friends or seeing if things could work out between us. When we arrived at my house, I decided to try for the latter.

Things were starting to heat up between us, but then I discovered he now has a girlfriend! It appears to be that same woman he was flirting with at his party. Well, with that news I wasn't waffling about where we stood anymore. I told him that I just wanted to be friends. I guess his ego got the better of him because he did not take it that well.

Men! He goes and gets a girlfriend, but gets angry because I don't want to be his romantic interest on the side? For the sake of our sons, I didn't react angrily, but instead I made it a point to be the mature one and smoothed things over with him before he left.

Thankfully the boys were so engrossed in their game of dominoes that they didn't hear what was going on.

I potty trained Preston and worked on his walking skills.

Then it was time for Colton and Cody's birthday celebrations. Colton aged up to a teen with the new trait: Photographer's Eye.

And Cody aged up with the new trait: Easily Impressed.

Yeah, still not doing the dishes.

Then it was time for Dakota's graduation gift and good-bye hug. Sometime when a child leaves the nest, a parent is filled with bittersweet sorrow. And at other times they feel a bit of secret relief. This was one of those occasions where momma bird was pushing her baby out of the nest yelling, "Fly, baby, fly! Go and NOT do the dishes somewhere else, sweetheart."

Dakota said he was thinking about a career in sports, but he wanted to take some time to decide. He moved into an old Victorian home that had been turned into apartments. Once he left I went back to toddler training with Preston and Perry. And we all had a quiet evening at home.

"Slobs stink!" Well, Perry IS a perceptive child!

Cody and Miska

Day 129

Colton went outside first thing after his breakfast (in his jammies and bare feet, no less!) to help me with the horses.

After a breakfast of cake and spending quality time with Miska, I got to work on toddler skills with Preston.

My little monkey man!

Momma needs another cup of coffee.

By the time Colton and Cody came home from school, both Perry and Preston had all of their toddler skills.

Then it was time to celebrate Perry and Preston's birthdays. Perry aged up with the trait Hydrophobic. That ought to go well with the Neurotic trait he already has. *sigh* 

Next up was Preston. His new trait is Shy. And he is already a Clumsy Slob. Poor child.

Now that I have four boys sleeping in beds and only three beds available for them, I enclosed part of the attic and put a set of bunk beds for what will be the teen boys room. *ugh* My bank account looks really empty now. In the midst of our celebrations, Shanda shows up to visit. One of the boys let her in but instead of joining us, she went out in the back yard to play with Miska. Maybe she was looking for Dakota? I went and spoke with her briefly before I asked her to leave.

After Shanda left, I changed clothes and headed out for the karaoke bar. The first thing I spotted when I arrived is Matthew Paseiko shooting pool.

Look at the guns on that man!

Matthew is single, Flirty and has a Good Sense of Humor. And we clicked almost immediately.

As soon as I was sure the boys were asleep, I invited him to come over to my house.

Soon we moved into the house for a bit of bedroom sport.

Day 130

Dawn arrives and I am exhausted. I went to sleep, but not Matthew. He strutted out of my bedroom like a peacock and then strutted right out of my front door. Next he strutted through my pasture (in his underwear) and into the greenhouse to play in the sprinklers!

After he was tired of the sprinklers, he tried to make friends with Dixie Dust. She didn't think too much of that. Meanwhile I was still snoozing and dreaming the morning away.

I got up, ate, showered and go then went back to bed. But Mr. Energizer Bunny was still going. He chatted with Cody and then played pool with him. 

Did you hear the one about...

Yeah, I'm hot and I know it.

Thinking of me :-)

I woke up in the early afternoon feeling a bit queasy. I couldn't believe Matthew was still here. Doesn't that man ever sleep? Perry and Preston were in the game room playing.

Colton and Cody had set about doing their own thing. So I slipped into my swimsuit and went down to the recreation room to see if Matthew wanted to get into the hot tub. 

Things heated up between us and we were headed for my bedroom when BAM! out of the blue the queasy feeling turned into full blown nausea. I raced for the bathroom to hurl. Real mood killer, that.

Guessing that Matthew must be getting pretty tired, I extended to him the invitation to stay the night. He accepted my invite, then promptly helped himself to leftover spaghetti, cleaned up after himself (be still my heart!) and then crawled into my bed and went to sleep.

A man who does dishes <3

Colton and Cody hung out in the rec room. I continued running for the bathroom. I was wide awake from sleeping so much of the day, so I decided to garden. I discovered a toy horse outside of my greenhouse. And the toy dog has moved to the putting green. Odd little things they are. After some time, I was finally tired enough to join Matthew in bed.

I was out for the night, but Matthew woke up about 2:30 AM and went outside to play golf in his underwear in the dark!