One package of coleus seeds + one container of potting soil = coleus and mushrooms? I don't get it. How'd those guys get in there?
Thursday, May 28, 2009
How'd that happen?
One package of coleus seeds + one container of potting soil = coleus and mushrooms? I don't get it. How'd those guys get in there?
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
I gotta get me a crown
Because Rachel asked, here is the site I read this comic at daily.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/comics/Baby_Blues.dtl
Thursday, May 21, 2009
Summer's coming!
Summer must be on its way. I know this because of a very distinctive and dear-to-my-heart aroma I smelled last week. No, it wasn't lilacs (although they're getting close), it wasn't freshly mown lawn (although I have been enjoying that one too) and it wasn't newly tilled dirt (hopefully I will get my hands in some of that this week though!). Anyone have a guess? It was sunscreen!
The fabulous smell of sunscreen says "Summer!" to me like none other. Wade thinks I'm crazy. "It stinks!" he says. But to me sunscreen smells like the carefree bliss of summer vacation.
It's the signal that the thermometer on my parents' window finally hit 80 degrees, the designated put-on-your-swim-suits-and-run-through-the-sprinkler temperature. It's getting ready to take a boat ride or play on the dock at Ross Lake. It's getting pulled behind a boat on an inner tube at a church camp-out. It's playing on the beach. Sunscreen is picking blackberries in our backyard in Lynden. It's filling up the kiddie pool or hooking the hose up to the slip-n-slide. It's watering the garden. It's eating lunch at a picnic table. It's mowing the lawn. It's water-balloon volleyball. It's hanging laundry on the clothesline.
Perhaps it's not the most pleasant smell (that would be lilacs), but it's one of my favorites purely because of the treasure trove of memories it conjures up every time I smell it. So when my boys actually requested it this past week, I gladly slathered them up, even if it wasn't entirely necessary yet (though it certainly couldn't hurt). Perhaps one day when they are grown they too will catch a whiff of Coppertone or Water Babies and smile as a rush of summertime memories wafts through the air.
The fabulous smell of sunscreen says "Summer!" to me like none other. Wade thinks I'm crazy. "It stinks!" he says. But to me sunscreen smells like the carefree bliss of summer vacation.
It's the signal that the thermometer on my parents' window finally hit 80 degrees, the designated put-on-your-swim-suits-and-run-through-the-sprinkler temperature. It's getting ready to take a boat ride or play on the dock at Ross Lake. It's getting pulled behind a boat on an inner tube at a church camp-out. It's playing on the beach. Sunscreen is picking blackberries in our backyard in Lynden. It's filling up the kiddie pool or hooking the hose up to the slip-n-slide. It's watering the garden. It's eating lunch at a picnic table. It's mowing the lawn. It's water-balloon volleyball. It's hanging laundry on the clothesline.
Perhaps it's not the most pleasant smell (that would be lilacs), but it's one of my favorites purely because of the treasure trove of memories it conjures up every time I smell it. So when my boys actually requested it this past week, I gladly slathered them up, even if it wasn't entirely necessary yet (though it certainly couldn't hurt). Perhaps one day when they are grown they too will catch a whiff of Coppertone or Water Babies and smile as a rush of summertime memories wafts through the air.
Sunday, May 17, 2009
And I Quote..
"God is at the top of the food chain!" ~ Levi
"It would be handy-dandy if the force was real" ~ Isaac
"I'm going to try to be a hunter when I grow up." ~ Luke
"It's so HARD to concentrate when you have a kid-sized brain!" ~ Isaac
"When I grow up I'm going to be a worker that mostly builds pagodas." ~ Levi
"It would be handy-dandy if the force was real" ~ Isaac
"I'm going to try to be a hunter when I grow up." ~ Luke
"It's so HARD to concentrate when you have a kid-sized brain!" ~ Isaac
"When I grow up I'm going to be a worker that mostly builds pagodas." ~ Levi
Friday, May 15, 2009
Superhuman Mommy
... or perhaps Not-Quite-Human-Anymore-But-Still-Remarkably-Functional Mommy? Yeah, there are occasional days I know how she feels! Thankfully my faucets are no longer running which really goes a long way to restoring that human feeling.
Thursday, May 14, 2009
Let the suds fly
I know I've recounted this tale in person to some of you devoted readers (mainly my mothers), but I'm sharing it here again for those I don't often see in person... I hope you enjoy a little laugh, even if it is at my expense.
It was mid-afternoon and the boys were playing outside. I had just finished working out and decided to hop in the shower while the odds of being barged in upon by said little boys was low (there is a downside to not having a master bathroom door).
Just at the point that the shampoo was at its foamiest peak, I hear a blood-curdling scream. This is not the scream of a sad child, or an angry child, or an injured child or even a mortally wounded child. This is the scream of our children seeing a dog. I peak out the bathroom window, and sure enough, there goes Luke tearing around the back of the house screaming bloody murder while a neighbor's dog bounds happily after him, glad to have a boy to run with, I'm sure, but probably confused as to what all the screaming is about.
I grab a towel, then think, "I may want more coverage than this" and grab Wade's bathrobe instead. I jerk open the bathroom door (to the outside... like I said before there isn't an inside door) and holler "LUKE!" but he's already around the bend.
With shampoo puffs falling around me and Wade's oversize bathroom clinging to my soapy wetness I run to the front door, throw it open and shout, "LUKE!" but I'm too late here too. To the sliding side door, "LUKEY!" but he's already on his second run around the house.
Somehow Isaac and Levi managed to get their wits about them and run inside instead of doing laps around the house. I scramble back to the front door, slipping on the shampoo puffs dotting the floor and wait for Luke to complete lap two. At this point I notice Elijah standing terrified and sobbing in the driveway. I step out the front door (which, by the way faces the courthouse, sheriff's office and jail -- a very public place) only to have Wade's robe, which was never properly tied about me, nearly whip off in the incessant North Dakota wind. I can just see myself, kids and dog in tow, complete with shampoo and clingy robe, being hauled over to the sheriff's office, courthouse and eventually jail for indecent exposure. However, a mother will risk it all in a heartbeat in order to rescue her children, even if it is just from the neighbor's friendly dog.
Clutching the robe about me I traipse barefoot over the rocky driveway to rescue my baby. He literally climbs up me like a chipmunk and buries his teary face in my shoulder. When he comes up for air his face is covered with shampoo foam.
I drop him inside as Luke zooms past again. "Run in the door!" I call to him. At the side door he finally does run inside, slamming the slider closed behind him.
We stand there staring at each other for a moment, me sudsy and windblown, him white as a ghost, and he says, "I peed my pants!"
After a few hugs and kisses, reassurance that sometimes pee happens when you're scared and a brief explanation that the dog probably just wanted to play with them, I was able to finish my shower and rinse what was left of the shampoo from my hair. By the time I got out, Luke had changed his pants and informed me that he had gone back outside and made friends with the offending dog, even going so far as to let it lick his hand.
Wonders never cease.
It was mid-afternoon and the boys were playing outside. I had just finished working out and decided to hop in the shower while the odds of being barged in upon by said little boys was low (there is a downside to not having a master bathroom door).
Just at the point that the shampoo was at its foamiest peak, I hear a blood-curdling scream. This is not the scream of a sad child, or an angry child, or an injured child or even a mortally wounded child. This is the scream of our children seeing a dog. I peak out the bathroom window, and sure enough, there goes Luke tearing around the back of the house screaming bloody murder while a neighbor's dog bounds happily after him, glad to have a boy to run with, I'm sure, but probably confused as to what all the screaming is about.
I grab a towel, then think, "I may want more coverage than this" and grab Wade's bathrobe instead. I jerk open the bathroom door (to the outside... like I said before there isn't an inside door) and holler "LUKE!" but he's already around the bend.
With shampoo puffs falling around me and Wade's oversize bathroom clinging to my soapy wetness I run to the front door, throw it open and shout, "LUKE!" but I'm too late here too. To the sliding side door, "LUKEY!" but he's already on his second run around the house.
Somehow Isaac and Levi managed to get their wits about them and run inside instead of doing laps around the house. I scramble back to the front door, slipping on the shampoo puffs dotting the floor and wait for Luke to complete lap two. At this point I notice Elijah standing terrified and sobbing in the driveway. I step out the front door (which, by the way faces the courthouse, sheriff's office and jail -- a very public place) only to have Wade's robe, which was never properly tied about me, nearly whip off in the incessant North Dakota wind. I can just see myself, kids and dog in tow, complete with shampoo and clingy robe, being hauled over to the sheriff's office, courthouse and eventually jail for indecent exposure. However, a mother will risk it all in a heartbeat in order to rescue her children, even if it is just from the neighbor's friendly dog.
Clutching the robe about me I traipse barefoot over the rocky driveway to rescue my baby. He literally climbs up me like a chipmunk and buries his teary face in my shoulder. When he comes up for air his face is covered with shampoo foam.
I drop him inside as Luke zooms past again. "Run in the door!" I call to him. At the side door he finally does run inside, slamming the slider closed behind him.
We stand there staring at each other for a moment, me sudsy and windblown, him white as a ghost, and he says, "I peed my pants!"
After a few hugs and kisses, reassurance that sometimes pee happens when you're scared and a brief explanation that the dog probably just wanted to play with them, I was able to finish my shower and rinse what was left of the shampoo from my hair. By the time I got out, Luke had changed his pants and informed me that he had gone back outside and made friends with the offending dog, even going so far as to let it lick his hand.
Wonders never cease.
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
Birthdays and other news
On Friday and Saturday we celebrated the twins' 6th birthday... no, they weren't born on separate days, we just extended the celebration to include a visit from Grandpa and Grandma who arrived on Saturday.
Luke requested a dinosaur cake (a Stegosaurus to be specific) and Levi wanted a volcano "with lava shooting out!" Well it didn't spew lava, but it did smoke! I had planned to use dry ice to make it steam, but alas when I went to fetch the dry ice from the freezer, it had already dried up! All that was left were some empty plastic bags - sad! But Mom and I rigged up a little jar with some smoldering paper and such and were able to give the volcano a very active appearance.
We also took an outing to the dinosaur museum in Dickinson which the boys were VERY impressed with! Huge skeletons, fossils, minerals that glow under black lights, shark teeth, skulls -- it was a boy's paradise! And to make it even better, there were only two other people there, a mom and her young son, so we pretty much had the run of the place.
Another recent adventure was climbing a rocky hill not far from our house. Somehow in living here a year and a half we have avoided exploring this area. It was delightful... petrified trees, leaf fossils, a cave and enough cactus to keep us on our toes. It's also high enough to afford a beautiful view of the town, Mirror Lake and the surrounding plains, and we were blessed to be there at just the right time to watch the sun set.
In other big news, my sister Kristin is graduating from college this weekend -- Congratulations Kris!
Luke requested a dinosaur cake (a Stegosaurus to be specific) and Levi wanted a volcano "with lava shooting out!" Well it didn't spew lava, but it did smoke! I had planned to use dry ice to make it steam, but alas when I went to fetch the dry ice from the freezer, it had already dried up! All that was left were some empty plastic bags - sad! But Mom and I rigged up a little jar with some smoldering paper and such and were able to give the volcano a very active appearance.
We also took an outing to the dinosaur museum in Dickinson which the boys were VERY impressed with! Huge skeletons, fossils, minerals that glow under black lights, shark teeth, skulls -- it was a boy's paradise! And to make it even better, there were only two other people there, a mom and her young son, so we pretty much had the run of the place.
Another recent adventure was climbing a rocky hill not far from our house. Somehow in living here a year and a half we have avoided exploring this area. It was delightful... petrified trees, leaf fossils, a cave and enough cactus to keep us on our toes. It's also high enough to afford a beautiful view of the town, Mirror Lake and the surrounding plains, and we were blessed to be there at just the right time to watch the sun set.
In other big news, my sister Kristin is graduating from college this weekend -- Congratulations Kris!
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