According to Dr. Phil

I just overheard one of my children lecturing another one saying, "Dr. Phil says that when you use the word 'but' you are really saying ignore everything I just said, now I'm going to say what I really mean."

It's true. So true.

Inter-sibling conflict management, compliments of daytime TV.

It Wasn't In The Drawer

The answer to the question: "Where's the scotch tape?"

Cover Your Eyes

Jack finds a tiny, slimy, sluggish type creature and brings it, teetering on the edge of a piece of bark, for me to inspect.

Jack: What is it? A slug?

Me: It looks like a snail without it's shell.

Jack: So it's naked?

Surprise Lily

Lycoris squamigera:

Other common names: hardy amaryllis, magic lily, naked lady, (or the one I prefer) resurrection lily.

From my Midwest gardening book: "Surprise lilies really are a surprise in the garden. Just as everything around you seems to be going dormant, great stems burst from the ground and unfurl into beautiful nodding trumpets."



Jeremiah 33:3 "Call to me and I will answer you, and show you great and mighty things, which you do not know"

Verse 10 "Thus says the Lord: 'Again there shall be heard in this place of which you say "It is desolate"...(v 11) the voice of joy and voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, the voice of those who will say:

"Praise the Lord of hosts
"For the Lord is good,
"For His mercy endures forever"

Just when things are most desolate, if we call to Him, He surprises us with great and mighty things.

Beautiful things.

Resurrection.

Adventureland

Fellow Midwesterners, sing with me.

"Come on over to Adventureland, you're gonna have a fun filled day!"

We pulled our old faithful trick that we love to pull on the kids. We woke them up and told them to get dressed because "WE'RE GOING TO ADVENTURELAND TODAY!" We love to not tell them until the day of. It's funner that way. And then we don't have to listen to the whining about "how many more days?". We were excited because Nate's long lost sister (who moved to the east coast) and our nephews and niece, and Nate's mom were all going too.

We had good times. Jack was finally tall enough to go on the Outlaw.
Remember last year? Well this year he rode that old wooden roller coaster and loved it. Gemma really, really wanted to be tall enough. Sorry Gem.



This is one of my favorite things about the trip. Old time photos. Oh my gosh, it was a riot.


Much fun was had by all but I think the funnest, most bestest, most awesomest thing of all was the Banana's Foster pancakes I had at IHOP on our way home. I took a bite and then went straight to heaven. No, that's not butter, it's.... ice cream. Pure genius.

It's Always A Nature Lesson of Some Kind

I give you the rare Roof Frog in it's natural habitat. Very elusive and not often seen by human eyes, this species was literally "launched" into existence.

I Was So Surprised

So, two night ago I had a celebrity parked in front of my house. They even stayed over, sleeping out at my curb in their rig. I'll give you three guesses.

Nope, not Hannah Montana.

Wrong, it's not Motley Crew.

Sorry, no, not Josh Groban.

It was Sara, Matt, and Bella from the Live Lightly Tour.

Sara and I went to school together back in the day. When she moved away, the distance couldn't separate our friendship and we have kept in touch ever since. Sometimes more than others. They are done touring for awhile and were passing through on the way to visit family.

When I looked out my window and saw a small house (pretty much) rolling up in front of my house, I did a double take and then wondered, "Could that be Sara?!" Yes. It was. I went screaming and running out the front door to greet them. I only knocked over one of my kiddos on the way.

They stayed overnight and even went to the pool with us the next day before hitting the road again. It was so good to catch up. I miss her.

And she even made the infamous "green smoothie" for all of us. People. It was ridiculously yummie. Don't believe me? Let me give you this one piece of evidence: Jack ate it. That is all you need to know.

Isn't the straw cute?

Thanks for stopping by Sara and Matt! It was fantastical to see you again.

I'm In Denial

I haven't been around much because I'm clinging to the last bit of summer with everything in me. I don't want it to be over yet. Most years I'm shooing the kids out the door to school as soon as I possibly can, but not this year. Summer went way, way, way too quickly.

School starts in one week. I suppose I should go shopping for school supplies.

Eh, I'll get to it.

Eventually...

A Proactive Approach To Monday Morning

Sing with me: "The best part of waking up is Folgers in your cup ginormous Reeses mug."

This is what I'm talkin' about.

Thanks Ann for knowing me so well that you brought the perfect gift.

"You silly sleepy head, wake up."

(ten points to the person who knows where that quote came from)

What I Did on Summer Vacation Besides Go To The Pool Everyday

Did you think I've been stuck up on the roof this whole time?

I promise I'm here, it's just been busy. Nate has been out of town for the last two weeks and you know how I don't like to announce that he is away. The axe murderers are more apt to attack when I'm home alone. Or so I've always assumed.

Of course while he was gone I had to do some "while you were out" type projects like I always do.

You already saw the painting-from-the-roof project. I guess that piece of wood has a name. Fascia. Don't say you never learned anything from reading the Laundry Pile. So the update is that yes, it was paint that Gemma smeared all over the permanent siding. And yes, I got it off. And no, I will never paint fascia again. Never. And yes, I know that they make metal fascia that doesn't need painting. Don't rub it in.

I also painted my front door yellow. It was previously purple. I picked out the paint color and brought it home and quickly realized that it is almost exactly the same color as my living room walls. I wonder what that means, besides the obvious fact that I'm right smack dab in the middle of a yellow phase right now.

Um, what else? Oh. I spray painted the mailbox. That was fun.

Now that all that's done, we are in full Olympic mode.


It's good times. Except when the kids get a hold of the remote, they keep turning it to the sci-fi channel. Or as they call it, the "sky-fi" channel. I don't bother correcting them because it cracks me up.

She Just Wanted To Help

While I was doing this:

And this*:

She was doing this:

And this:

Isn't that precious?

*If you look closely in the second photo you will see a wasps' nest up in the peak of the garage roof. As if hanging over the edge of the roof with a paint roller in my hand wasn't dangerous enough, I added hornets to the mix. Living on the edge. Literally.

Marathon Training: Half Way There

We are halfway through our marathon training. It's been such a gradual process that all of a sudden I realized, "Wow! I'm really doing it!" I never would have thought that running seven, eight, and even nine miles on regular old weekdays would feel normal. That weekend runs would all be in the double digits. That running out and back on our local bike trail wouldn't be long enough, we'd have to add on more miles. It's crazy what can be accomplished in nine weeks. Now on to the second nine.

Merry-Go-Round

They can remove all of the teeter totters and replace the hot metal slides with ones made of colorful plastic. They can even lay down safe shredded rubber instead of cement slabs under playgrounds nationwide.

Just don't mess with the merry-go-rounds.

It's Time To Act Like A Grown Up

This morning dawned cloudy with a looming dark sky, threatening rain. The forecast for the rest of the day looks like clouds and 74 degrees. I muttered to myself "It looks like we won't be going to the pool today." In that very moment, I think I heard my house whisper a sigh of relief.

Yesterday I was out of town from about 10 am until after 9pm. Nate called me mid day in a bit of a panic. "How's the house?" I didn't understand what he was asking. "What's the state of our house? Is it a disaster?" I was three hours away from home and was trying to remember how I had left it. We had left in a hurry and I was pretty sure it wasn't good. I asked why. So and so was stopping by and Nate was on his was home with this person right behind him. No time to tidy. When I found out that the person coming over was a dad with seven kids to his name, I breathed a sigh of relief. "It's fine Nate. He'll understand." And he did. And it was fine.

But today, I hang up my bathing suit and I'm going to try to get some stuff done around here. Wish me luck. It could get ugly. I hear the dust bunnies are restless. Maybe even rabid.

They Taste The Same

I've said it before and I'll say it again:

Desperate times call for desperate measures.
Like roasting mini marshmallows because we are out of regular ones.

Walmart's Shelves Have Been Lined With School Supplies For Two Weeks

Our school district hangs in the balance of old school and up-to-dateness. Just a couple years ago we were still marching into the high school gymnasium with all the kids in tow, just to sign all the papers and write a check to register everyone for school. We are not quite to the point that we can register online, clicking our children into school. As it stands, we receive all the necessary forms in the mailbox. They can be filled out in the comfort of my own home. In my pajamas. While drinking coffee. No children need to be dragged across town and made to sit in plastic molded chairs, waiting for me to update their information while twiddling their thumbs.

So this morning I filled out all of the necessary papers. Pink papers. Green papers. Carbon copy papers. Right in the middle of it all I came across the question that makes me chuckle every year. Times four. Four of my kids are headed off to school. Four times I laughed at this question. It's an insignificant little check box right in the middle of a bunch of other check boxes. Asthma? no. Heart problems? no. Blood Pressure Problems? no. Hearing Difficulty? *chuckle*

I am tempted to include a short paragraph when I send the registrations back in.

To Whom It May Concern,

Please note that I did not check either the yes or no box concerning my child's hearing. The test results have been inconclusive. Even contradictory. When the words "(insert any of my children's names), time to clean your room!" are yelled at the top of my lungs, three inches from their ear, no response. Completely deaf. On the other hand, when I whisper "(insert any of my children's names), do you want some icecream?" from the kitchen with the dishwasher, air conditioner, and oven fan running, through a closed door and while they are listening to their iPod, they respond within 3.45 seconds. Thus, I am unsure which box to check. Do with it what you will.

Sincerely,

Heth of the Laundry

Marathon Training: Day Forty Eight

New territory.

This morning we ran 14 miles. That is .9 miles more than I have ever run in my life. In fact, at 13.2 we let out a "hooray!" because each step was new distance. Training for and running a half marathon in 2006 took us to 13.1 miles and this morning we exceeded that. From here on out it's new ground.

And also, I am very sweaty.

TXT ME

How do you know you are too old to be texting?

When it takes ten minutes to send a message to your husband because you are using full punctuation and words like "casserole". Casserole is not a word that is meant to be texted. Is texted even word? Like I said....

Too old.

Updates

Since this blog has been mostly silent with the occasional post about vacation, I will update you on some of the goings on around the Laundry Pile this summer.

• First of all, the pile of laundry is fairly large right now. I'm hacking away at it one load at a time. That is when we are not at the pool.
  
• Toby learned to walk while we were on vacation. He's in that stumbly, out of balance, but still trying phase. It's completely adorable and I want to gobble him up.
• Jack is now 5. He had a birthday on the very day we were driving home from Northern Minnesota. I decorated his car seat with green balloons and streamers in an effort to win him over from the worst birthday situation possible, a whole day in the car.
• The kids just got back from "Grandma camp". They spent three days and two nights at my parents' house and we were childless. They made tie dyed shirts, played Frisbee golf, had a campfire, made a pinata, slept in a tent, and who knows what else. Nate and I went to a local water park without them and ate out as much as possible. Lots of Starbucks was consumed.
• I also took the child free opportunity to do some gardening. I made a new flower bed behind my garage. It was quite a sight, a crazy sweaty lady digging up her lawn. I do what I can to provide entertainment for the neighborhood.

In summary. Summer is good and I love it. Lots. Favorite season of the year hands down.

Not Just Any City. The Treasure City.

Words cannot even begin to capture the experience of a visit to Treasure City. Last year I mentioned it briefly. It is a whole 'nother level of shopping.

Are you in the market for an alligator head? They've got it.

Is that one too big? Are you living in a tiny little apartment and you just don't have the space? How about a mini? They are fun sized.

Where else can you find a row 'o horses?

I will warn you though. Once you are face to face with this much selection, you will have a hard time making up your mind. For a long time.

I wonder where they get it?

Whoever said the money can't buy happiness has never been to Treasure City. Because when Nate opened his white butcher wrapped, $4.99, "surprise package" that turned out to be a caller ID box, we laughed harder than we have in a long, long time.

Good bye Treasure City. See you next summer.