Delia, our Rudolph

Delia and Joshua were walking around our tree in the backyard (notice the newly planted geraniums!).

There are paving stones surrounding the planter.

Delia fell off of the planter and her little nose landed right on a paving stone.

THANK YOU!

Sundays are usually my busiest days. Church is at 11:00, and I haven't found anyone to help on Sundays. Since we were full last night, things were even more hectic than the normal hectic Sunday morning pace. Mr. Innkeeper and I got up to make breakfast and the kids slept in until about 8:20 which makes things a little lot easier!

I stayed in my grubbies this morning because I was going to clean while Mr. Innkeeper did breakfast. I was heading upstairs to clean a room when four of our guests came down and just when Joshua and Delia were waking up. Mr. Innkeeper went in to take care of the kids, and I was left there in my pajamas (gasp!) to welcome the guests to breakfast. Hopefully no one could tell they were my pajamas! I made eggs for all four of our guests (which brings me to another question - if I were to offer you eggs in the morning, would you ever say "I think I'll have pancakes... No, I mean, uh... Oh, I don't know what I was thinking... I'll have french toast, thanks?" - Well, it happened. Two mornings in a row.).

Mr. Innkeeper got the kids calmed down, and I cleaned one of the rooms upstairs, then tried to clean up breakfast, prepare a lesson for Sunday school, take a shower and get ready for church, and be out the door by 10:30. Oh, and Mr. Innkeeper had a lesson to prepare as well. (Luckily, he was up at 5:30 this morning to shower and shave.) We were on time for church, my lesson went well, Delia went to Nursery (it was her first week), Joshua had some issues with his new Sunbeam teacher (Mr. Innkeeper was his teacher, but was recently called to be YM President), Mr. Innkeeper had a great lesson with the YM, but I actually attended a portion of the Relief Society Meeting today!

Anyways, the point of the post is thank you to Dad and Ellen. When we came home from church the house was much cleaner than when we left it due to the efforts of my father and his sweet wife. It was so nice to come home to a clean, clean house!

Our clean kitchen and Joshua

There were a couple of American Sailors visiting at church today and Mr. Innkeeper wanted to invite them over for dinner, I said of course, but wasn't sure how I was going to get the house clean, clean the other room that had to be done by 4:00 pm and make dinner. We feel truly blessed to have such great helpers in our lives. I also called to invite my neighbor and her family over for dinner, and she said that she had already made dinner and dessert and that there would be enough for everybody, so she would bring it over! Delia fell asleep on the way home from church, so Mr. Innkeeper, Joshua, and I cleaned the green room in record time and I had enough time to post before dinner. What an incredibly good day!

And thanks to my wonderful neighbor for the delicious chicken and

the yummy cake!

A Day Off & Bad Things Come in 3's

We had an easy day today. Only one couple for breakfast, young honeymooners from Manitoba. They were so nice. We were supposed to have another couple staying with us, but when they showed up last night they said they couldn't stay with us because our house smelled of paint.

I am trying to make a piece of artwork for our bedroom and I smelled up the house a little bit with oil paints. Our B&B is scent-free and is usually a safe place for people with chemical sensitivities. Our guest hadn't told us that she was chemically sensitive (they usually do) and I didn't know the oil paints would smell so bad (I had never tried painting before), so put that together and you end up with unhappy customers.

They said they were going out to dinner and then would come back to see if they would be able to stay here. We took the painting out of the basement and put it in the shed, opened all the windows, turned on some fans and voila - in 30 minutes no smell. But they didn't come back - they called at 10:30 pm and said they found another place to stay and would stop by here today to check on "the smell." They were going to be our only guests tonight so I have been waiting at home all night for them, thinking that they most likely are not coming, but waiting to be sure. So, our first night off since May 23, but I'm not sure if it counts if you have to stay home all night wondering if the people that said they were going to come actually do.

Sarah told me that bad things happen in sets of threes, so I figure I should be done for a while:

1. I almost burned down the B&B last Thursday. I turned the frying pan on and poured some oil on for stir-fry and then Joshua made a run for the front door telling me he wants to go pee outside. We run a business from our home on a busy road - there will be no peeing off of the front porch we tell him.
We were willing to let him go out back and tried to encourage him to do so, but that wasn't what he had in mind. There is kicking, screaming, and biting (all from the 4 year old!) and we had guests upstairs. We make the trek to the basement, so the battle is inaudible to our paying customers.
Everyone is finally calmed down and we head upstairs to a kitchen full of smoke. Mr. Innkeeper grabs the flaming pan, he runs it outside and we are shaken, but safe. Then the smoke detector starts going off, which causes the alarm system to go off. Our guests come out of their bedroom and ask in their English accent "Do we have to evacuate the building?", and then our guests from Mexico arrive home, and then the firetrucks arrive (courtesy of ADT) and my Dad (courtesy of ADT). Turns out ADT tried to call, but Mr. Innkeeper was on the phone taking a reservation, while the alarm and smoke detector were going off, and since ADT couldn't get through they sent reinforcements. Our Mexican guests still enjoyed their stay with us - see here.

2. The next day the washing machine flooded. I tried to wash my mattress pad (because Delia's diaper leaked during the night) and it was a little too big for the machine!

3. On Sunday I almost hit Joshua with the van. I had to leave church early and so I said good-bye to Mr. Innkeeper and the kiddos, but Joshua started running up to the van as I was backing up - so scary. I miss being car-free.

I will try to post the positive things that are happening as well. My life is full of them.