It Reminded Me of The Lion King

Tonight we drove home from Grandma's in the dark. Becky was suddenly really excited and said:

"Mom, I see the moon! It is a whole moon. It found all of it's pieces!"

Me, "Wow, that's really cool".

Zach, "Becky, that's not how it really is. The moon is always whole but sometimes we can't see it all."

Becky, "no that's not true"

Zach, "Becky! It is true! I learned about it in school!!!"

You Need One of These

Remember a while back when I posted an ode to my carpet cleaner? Well, get ready, here comes more:

I got a new toy today. It's a prize for completing my giant sewing project that I shouldn't have taken on. But my prize is totally making it better. (Maybe I should explain and post pics of the sewing thing...that's for another time, this is much more important).

Here it is:

Let's have a moment of silence to contemplate the majesty of my new floor cleaner...

Seriously, I am in heaven. We have a really lovely laminate floor that we installed a few months ago. We have it in the dining room, kitchen and family room. It's really pretty and really shiny. They call it a "piano finish". That piano finish means that every speck of water leaves an ugly water spot if you don't dry it up. So, cleaning the floor until today consisted of me on my hands and knees with a wet cloth and a spray bottle of Lysol. Then after a section was clean I had to dry it with a towel.

But now, all I do is use my magic machine. It takes a little longer than vacuuming carpet. It scrubs with magical brushes then is sucks up all the water and yuck. I don't have to do anything else.

Now I can be like those ladies who always seem to have a perfectly clean floor. Maybe they had a secret. Now I'm in on it and I don't mind sharing.

PS it was on sale at Kohl's for $150, then we had a 30% off coupon.

Crossing a River, Kindergarten, and a Fence

Zach wasn't in the water, but it REALLY looks like he is standing right in it. Just a goofy picture.

Kindergarten started a few weeks ago. So far Zach loves it. So far I love it. We were lucky enough to be at the only school in the district (as far as I know) that gives everyone full day kindergarten every day. I'm not complaining.

Becky and Dad were also there to see him off.

And then there's the fence issue.

Well, the story from the beginning: When we moved into our house there a fence in a small part of our back yard that cut into our yard. There was an old, yucky, half dead tree at the corner of the lot that someone decided to start on fire. It burnt the fence at the corner of our yard. Someone put up a new fence, but not in the original place. It surrounded the dead tree so you couldn't see the base of it, or the burnt up fence behind.



We cut the tree down for Mother's Day. That was my present.

Then we stacked the wood from the tree. We won't run out of wood any time soon.



But, here is the problem. The wood pile was exposed to the kids that walk past every day. There is a drainage canal behind our house and it is a great short cut for school kids of all ages. I was worried that some other intelligent kid would start that big wood pile on fire.

I got some old fence sections for free. My father in law helped me haul them to where they needed to be.

Then they sat there for a month.

Then I fixed the fence.

Or at least I tried to. This is how it will be until some muscles come and fix it properly. I bet you weren't aware of my awesome fence building skillz.

Family Pictures

Check out our family pictures taken by the lovely Olivia Langford of Creative Eye Photography!

Water Slide!

I remember wishing I could do this when I was a kid. And actually getting to do it a few times at my grandparent's lake. Becky is the primary captain of water pouring. And Zach will do it on his own if he has to...he pours then hurries to go down the slide. Please excuse my not-so-great camera skills. That's why my fabulous friend is taking our family pictures!

Time to Rake Again

Yes, this is me raking Zach's room. I do this on a regular basis, like all other chores. I'm sure it's not healthy for my children. On my most recent raking expedition Zach locked me in the garage when he saw me getting the rake. It was hot in there.

I can't stand the mess. I hate falling over stuff in the night when my kids need something. So, I rake. Any questions?

Oh, and in other news...the neighbors made a sand box for the naked kid. Just hold that image in your mind for a while.

Allium

I Want This Tree

Are You A Wait-er

Not waiter. But a person who waits.

My complaint today stems from another Walmart experience. Maybe I should not go there. It drives me crazy when people wait in the parking lot for a spot. It's a huge parking lot. Yesterday there was someone waiting, half way in the main road along the front of the store and half way into one of the lanes for parking spots. They were blocking traffic. That irritates me.

The worst is when a person stops cold because they see someone walking out of the store and toward a car. They wait while the car is loaded with a cart full of Walmart junk, then loaded with 3 crying kids. Craziness.

When people do that to me, I take an extra long time to finish. Then I sit in the car for a long time before pulling out. :)

Steamables

What is the deal with these?

Seriously!

I forgot to pick up frozen broccoli today at Samual's, so when I was at Wally's I figured I would run down the frozen aisle to get some. All they had were minuscule bags of frozen vegetables that you're supposed to steam in the microwave.

Now that's really cool that you can do that. There is even a video you can watch on the above website about "steaming technology". But seriously, you can just do it yourself. It's called watching the microwave so you don't overcook the vegetables. It's not rocket science folks. (And I know all about rocket science, people.)

So, how do you feel about it? Is it worth twice the money to you to not have to pay attention? Maybe it is. I'm wondering.

I guess I'm just irritated because thats all you can buy now. And it's all twice as expensive as just a regular bag of broccoli.

I didn't get any by the way.

Maybe I've Been too Harsh; a Naked Kid Update

Since we last chatted about The Naked Kid a lot has happened. For example, he jumped on the trampoline. He frolicked in the vegetable garden. But that's not why I'm posting. Today I observed the Grandpa chasing The Naked Kid down and helping him get dressed. You have all made good points, lots of VERY nice ideas on how to deal with it. Since I'm not Vern (translation: I don't have the guts), I think I will just hold off on saying anything for now. Maybe the child has some sort of disorder, like Turrets, except he takes his clothes off at random times. Well, maybe not, but anyway, I'm dealing with it. We'll live, and the leaves should be popping out of the trees soon, so then I won't have to see it. (Unless I am in my vege garden. But I will be fully clothed in MY vege garden.)

But I REALLY wish it was acceptable to photograph this craziness...it is HILARIOUS! You are really missing out on a good laugh.

The Naked Kid

Wow, posting two days in a row...craziness.

This is what I see out of every window in the back of our house. Out the sliding door, the kitchen window, the large dining room window and the kids' windows. It's not bad, we have space between us and the next house. There is a drainage canal between our fence and the people behind us, so there's space. I know it's small, but if you click on the picture it will get bigger for your viewing needs.

On any given day I might be innocently doing my kitchen chores and look out the window to see "The Naked Fat Kid". He has got to be at least 4. And he weighs a lot...like 50 pounds. I have no problem with the weight, but I don't like to see it un-clothed. This kid rolls around in the grass with the HUGE St. Bernard (You can see him in the pic), or rides his little red tricycle or runs around. ALL in the nude. I haven't seen him jump on the trampoline yet. I hope I never do. It's really weird. The mom is out there with him all the time, yelling at him about this or that. But she is there. And what's even weirder (apparently that IS a word because my spell check didn't flag it) is that I started seeing this kid naked in January. I know we have warm days in the winter here in Colorado, but even when it was only 45 or 50 degrees.

So, since I'm going to be here for a while, do I just deal with it or do I try and do something about it? Zach actually came in the other day and said "That naked kid is out there again." Now sometimes he has clothes on. But at least a few times a week he doesn't. What if he is in Zach's class at school next year?

It's just weird. I don't think it's NORMAL to let your kid run around like that when people can see. It's not like they live in a particularly sheltered area. He is just out there for all to gaze at.

Tell me your thoughts.

PS I DID NOT photograph The Naked Kid in action, cause that's just weird. But it is pretty funny to see. :)

Post 101

Has anyone noticed how RUDE people have been lately? Someone honked at me yesterday because I was going too slow for them. Granted, it was rush-hour. But I'm not a slow poke either. The biggest thing I've noticed though is women in their "Golden Years" seem to have no patience anymore. Well some of them...many times in the last month or so my kids have upset some random woman or another in a public place by simply being in the way! You know, kids sometimes don't look where they are going and dash in front of a person. I always apologize right away and they don't even acknowledge my presence. It's like they are too disgusted to even look me in the eyes. Irritating. Are we being hardened by all that's going on in the world? I thought that was supposed to help us be kinder, usually it does. But I guess people are crabby about earthquakes and giant waves and such.

Anyway, I took pictures. Not of rude ladies! Of stuff, life, the things going on here.

Becky turned 3. We ate pink cake.

While I was diligently not eating wheat (I regressed for a while...) I made this actually pretty tasty raisin bread.

Zach made Valentines for his preschool class. Sometimes I still find glitter in the kitchen drawer.

I found a caterpillar in our front yard while I was raking in EARLY March. First insect I had seen in months. Now we have lots of spiders in the basement again...they were gone for 4 or 5 months. It was nice.

My bulbs I planted in the fall started popping up.

Then they started blooming.

The biggest excitement of all came about 2.5 weeks ago when we started installing our floor. Yipee! No more CARDBOARD floor. (We put cardboard on the floor because we had painted it to seal everything (the bad junk) in but couldn't install the floor yet, so we were protecting the paint). Did you know cardboard doesn't clean very well? Did you know I have two small children? Those things really don't go well together.

This is how we kept the children occupied while we worked. There WAS a couch sitting at the proper distance from the TV, but obviously it wasn't good enough. PS can you tell me what movie they watched?

We are all on a NO SUGAR, NO GRAIN, HIGH VEGE and a little bit of fruit and dairy and meat diet. The reason why is for another post, but here is a yummy salad I made up. YUMMY.

Becky wanted me to take a picture of HER salad too.

THE END

I Keep Meaning to Take Pictures

I feel like I have to have a picture to document whatever I'm talking about. I think that's to try and make up for my mediocre writing skills. Anyway, I was asked after my previous post why I have to wear shoes in the house. Well:

• There are always random, possibly sharp things lying on the floor somewhere. (Insert picture of thumb tack sitting point-up on my kitchen floor. Thank you Zach.)
• Back when Becky was potty training, well, you get the picture on that one. (No picture needed.)
• People keep spilling stuff in the kitchen.
• Our carpet is super old/gross/creepy/hard.
• I need support.
• Sometimes I trip for no apparent reason, which messes up my ankle. Usually wearing shoes helps me avoid random tripping. (Insert picture of me flailing as I fall to the ground. I did this just a few days ago. Ryan thought it was funny.)
• I'm just used to it.
• I really like my lavender shoes. (Scroll down to re-view my lovely shoes.)

Other things I've wanted to/attempted to take pictures of that haven't made it to the www:

Becky shoveling snow in her swim suit. My caption was going to say "Only in Colorado."

The foot-wide swath of grass that was taken out of our front yard by the snow plow on Monday. Monday people. It hasn't snowed in a few weeks. The city was removing the ice skating rink that was in front of our neighbor's house. I was nice enough to chip away at the ice in front of our house many, many weeks ago. Why must we be punished?

The tulip/crocus/grape hyacinth bulbs that are coming up already. I covered them. February is just too early.

Zach's lightsaber.

I'm sure there's more, but that's all I've got for tonight.

If You Were Me and You Had to Choose...

Would you choose black rain boots or lavender?

Mine came in a lovely box with red circles all over it delivered by the UPS man on Thursday and I LOVE THEM! They are for gardening. They're a little tall, I kind of look like farmer McGregor in them, but I DON'T CARE! They are lovely! They make me happy, and they only cost $5 more than the black ones at the Big-Blue-Box store.


That leads me to some other lovely footwear that I received for Christmas. These ...are my house shoes. $75 house shoes. Crazy, I know. But I have to have shoes on in the house and since I spend most of my time at home it seems like a good purchase.


Are you seeing a theme here? Yes, I have a fetish. It's not a shoe fetish either. I've had this disease for almost 15 years. I just really like lavender things. Love the smell of lavender too.

What's your favorite color?

Can Someone Please Tell Me if This is Normal?

Things that come out of Becky's mouth on a daily basis:

"I don't want those socks!"
I go to put them back,
"I do, I do!"

"Not those shoes!"
I go to put them back,
"I do want those shoes!"

"I don't want that cup!"
pause
"I do, I do!"

"I want the pink teddy bear in my bed."
bring the bear
"I don't want the pink teddy bear in my bed!"

You get the picture. I'm spending a lot of time pretending to put things away these days. What is the deal! Is this normal?

Not Such a Bad Mood Anymore

My sweet friend Katie showed up at my house last night with a bag of wheat free goodies. Including these cookies. And they are really good! So, once again chocolate has cured everything!

My picture taking skills aren't quite as good as the internet picture, but you get the idea.

I'm in a Bad Mood

I'm in a bad mood because I am allergic to wheat and I've been trying to pretend I'm not and I really can't anymore because it is making me feel HORRIBLE all the time. SO DON'T BRING ME ANY COOKIES!


Don't these look delicious?