Tongue Tied

I'm thinking of embroidering this on a pillow. My in-laws are visiting, and the other night we were enjoying some old home movies Seth's mom has been transferring to her computer. There was one of Seth's tee ball game from millions of years ago. We all sat around and laughed our heads off because of the frequent "cup adjusting" that was going on. "Those things are weird!" he tried to defend. "And uncomfortable!" We laughed all the harder. There were several "cup" jokes. We also laughed when a runner slid into home base and took one of Seth's legs (he was the catcher) out from under him till he was nearly doing the splits. Overly dramatic child Seth spent a few moments blowing out big breaths of air and "cup adjusting." The next day, Seth texted me to pray for him because he was having a bad attitude at work. Things weren't working, schedules weren't being kept. And he was annoyed. Before I even thought about it, ...

1. One month till school starts. I'm not sure how I feel about this. Sometimes I'm enthusiastic. Sometimes I'm filled with dread. Sometimes I'm overwhelmed. Sometimes I'm hungry. So I've been gathering materials, books, supplies and lesson plans. And participating in frequent snack therapy. First grade, here we come. 2. I've been ignoring my writing habit because I'm consumed with my photography habit. Taking, editing and posting pictures on flickr tickles me so. At the expense of my blog. Poor blog. 3. I have lots of strawberries in the fridge. I just imagined dipping them in Nutella. Oh my. 4. I've been asked to construct a tent. Because that's what bunkbeds were designed for. 5. Speaking of bunkbeds, my sister and I used to pretend ours were apartments. And boats. And mountains. And diving boards. (I don't recommend that last one.) 6. There was a baby shower for a friend last night. A baby girl. I oohed and ahhed at the cute little dresse...

Seriously, I had no idea. From the time I was a small child, my family had minivans. And we loaded them up with our stuff and schlepped across the country in them. I have spent countless hours of my life looking out the window of a minivan and watching countryside go by. I've seen mountains and prairies and cities and three legged deer (thanks to our minivan) from the inside of a minivan. So naturally, when I grew up and began birthing humans, I decided my husband and I needed a minivan as well. He agreed. So we bought our 2000 Toyota Sienna five years ago (and just paid it off!!) and have put it to great use. We are totally " The Swagger Wagon " couple. I like it. It's roomy inside, but not too big of a vehicle that I have trouble driving it. It's convenient, what with the automatic sliding door and the captains chairs and the 8,000 places to hide gum wrappers. Its leather seats are easy to wipe child goop off of. I can listen to my MP3 player through the sound s...

To compensate for all the whining I did yesterday, here are ten things I love. It's all about balance. The universe makes sense again. I love... 10. Air conditioning 9. My bed. Gotta give a shout out to The Original Mattress Factory for this one. I love my bed so much, I have a very difficult time getting out of it each day. I've complained to customer service about this, but he just reminds me that I lost "Rock, Paper, Scissors", so would I please get my rear out of bed and go change that diaper we smell. 8. The smell of Play Doh . Makes me feel five years old again. And I can mentally taste it. (You know you just did too.) 7. Minivans. Yeah, that's how I roll. 6. Museums 5. When my kids smell like sunblock. 4. Rainy mornings when Thing Two sleeps in till 6:47 instead of 6:46. 3. Road trips with my men. 2. That satisfying feeling of dumping out huge clumps of dog hair from my vacuum canister into the trash. 1. Tweezers. Probably the single most important inventio...

I don't only have ten pet peeves. I have zillions. So many that I really can't be counted on to keep track of them. Maybe if I organized them into categories, such as child-rearing, housekeeping, yard work, traffic, and so on I'd have a better handle on them. There would need to be a sub category just for washing dishes. Here are today's: 10. Toddlers covered in wet sand prancing around my kitchen. 9. When people say "I'm not allowed doing that" instead of "I'm not allowed to do that." 8. When my computer freezes in the middle of watching something. 7. Two words: Dog hair. Dogs should be hairless. Like fish. And The Observer . 6. When drivers go against traffic laws to "be courteous", such as waiting for you to make your left turn out of Tim Horton's parking lot before they left turn into Tim Horton's parking lot, meanwhile motioning to you obnoxiously that they want you to go first (because they're polite) and then ge...

I haven't blogged in nearly nine days. NINE DAYS people. I have no idea why. Maybe it has to do with the fact that I have nothing witty to say. Or the fact that I had a witty idea, but then found that I'd lost the pictures I was going to use, so it went out the window. Or that I've been reading an interesting book (A Proper Pursuit, Lynn Austin), or that I've found three new blogs that are updated nearly every day that amuse me very much ( this one , this one and this one ). Not to mention all my regularly scheduled time on this one . I heart blogs. I wish I could say that I haven't blogged because I have a life...but we all know that's not true. My random news of the day: My bedroom is clean. There is a brisket in the oven. ( oooh yeah ) Thing One is taking a rather noisy bath. Thing Two is taking a blessedly peaceful nap. We're having a family reunion tomorrow. Hence the brisket. My kitchen is NOT clean. (Some things never change.) I'm really antsy...