This Week

This week, I wrote a bunch of posts in my head. But somehow, I never got around to actually posting them here.

There was one called "Old Friends" that came to mind after I saw a friend from high school. It was a really good post all about having shared history with a person and how easy it is to talk to someone you've known for over 20 years. (Hi Amy!)

There is one in my drafts box about our Seaside trip, which will get posted as soon as I stop being so lazy about uploading the pictures my mom took.

I "wrote" one about why Fall is my favorite season while I was driving to my mom's one day and noticed the leaves starting to change.

One called "Skinny Jeans" about how my daughter is becoming a fourteen year old girl right before my eyes.

I wanted to write about the boys' trip to the Wallowas with my dad and how different Josh's experience was this year. That post would have been a testimony to the power of a good children's counselor. I'll probably write that one someday because it's important.

I also wanted to write down some of the funny things the kids have said. Like this one time that my mom said that the guinea pig had "wet his pants" (because she hates the word "pee" and I hate the words "little" and "number one" even more.) And then my three year old nephew said "The guinea pig is wearing pants?" And we all laughed so hard we almost wet our pants.

But, you see, I had to finish reading The Help. And then I had to finish reading Mockingjay. Actually, now that I think about it, my lack of blogging this summer can be blamed solely on the 34 books I've read since June. (Well, the books and my quest to get the high score on Where's Wacky in Webkinz World. It seems easy....until you get to level fifteen, and you are trying to beat that other dorky mom pretending their four year old can complete a memory game with 60 matches.) Anyway, somehow, I am hoping that even though work and school and soccer and piano and dance and meetings are starting up, I'll actually get some of these posts written down on my blog.

Self Confidence

Abby is definitely not lacking in self confidence (although she has picked up the disturbing habit of telling me she is fat, while pinching some deliciously soft part of her body--grrrrr.) I was reading a blog the other day where the author wrote about lack of self confidence. She had been asked to come up with seven strengths and really struggled with it. The author had asked her own six children to do the same thing, and found that the younger the child, the easier it was for them to do it. So, after dropping off the boys last night for their big camping trip with Grandpa, I surveyed her in the car on the way back. The results were pretty funny. I typed her answers into a note on my Blackberry, so the order is unchanged. I asked for seven, but she had a LOT more than seven......she would have kept going if we hadn't pulled in the driveway where she spied her cat waiting to be tortured. Here is her list, as she gave it....

• Screaming (true)
• Laughing (also true)
• Picking lunch places (third on the list?? Really?)
• Catching farm animals (I thought that John might drive off the road he was laughing so hard at this one. WHAT??)
• Getting trees down (Never, ever, not once, has she even had an opportunity to get a tree down)
• Being shy (hmmmmm.)
• Popping balloons (if this is a strength, then she definitely has a talent)
• Making signs (paper signs not gang signs)
• Being polices (if this means tattling, it should be number one on the list!)
• Talking (or maybe this one should have been number one)
• Doing this: makes an annoying sound with her mouth like sucking on her tongue
• Blinking the lights off and on (um....)
• Picking my nose.....I'm REALLY good at that (true story)
• Making posters

We were dying laughing. I am amused that she didn't come up with anything that I would consider a strength of hers. I would have said that she is loving and a good friend and funny and smart and a good dancer and a good singer and a good writer, but....I guess catching non-existent farm animals IS a pretty good talent.

Just a day

We just got back from the beach, and I'll have a post about that soon (as soon as I get pictures from my mom--I didn't even pretend that I'd take photos this time and left my camera at home,) but in the meantime.....

We did absolutely NOTHING today. No unpacking. No cleaning. Not even vacuuming up the Goldfish crackers that got knocked over this morning. And then stepped on. We did go out for breakfast (Starbucks, where we had the good fortune of running into Judy and kids for a few minutes) and lunch (Quizno's, where the girl insisted on giving us extra discounts that resulted in our bill being only ten dollars for four people even after I stupidly argued with her about it) and we did interview a new piano teacher for Josh. He liked her and enjoyed their interview while I almost had to resort to beating James and Abby. ( I would never. But I did do a fair amount of hissing out revoked privileges like a really mean, grouchy snake as they whined and fought and complained for twenty straight minutes. James did point out that they did those things in a whisper. True, but I think it might be MORE annoying in a whisper.)

The kids jumped on the trampoline, read for while, Abby snuck in a nap after being sent to her room screaming about nothing in particular. Late in the afternoon, I heard a lot of giggles and whispers, which usually means something is up. And this is what was up.....

Guinea pig mobiles.

This kept them busy for almost an hour.

Oreo enjoyed the ride.

Frankie...didn't. He is in there. I promise.

Abby meanwhile "snuggled" with her cat while watching Camp Rock for the 97th time this summer.

Doesn't Littlefoot look like she is enjoying herself?

Look how much the cat LOVES this plan.

We rounded out our day by having delicious Mexican food and getting some new school shoes. I am already regretting not buying the brown suede boots I tried on, but I did get new running/walking shoes. Rather than try them out tonight, we got Mini-Blizzards. See also: top 100 reasons that I am rapidly approaching my nine-months-pregnant-with-James-weight. Despite a frustrated mid-day Facebook status update indicating otherwise, it was a nice lazy August day.

Not Much to Say

I haven't been blogging this week because I have nothing to write about that would fill even an uninteresting post. We've been hanging out all week, getting lots of doctor's/dentist's appointments in before school starts, and enjoying the ability to do nothing at all. Here are a few things that are worthy of a bullet, but not a post....

• We got another guinea pig. Her name is Oreo, and she is LOUD. She squeaks and hums and yells on occasion. James is in love with her, and the boys have spent hours sitting and holding them. They are actually pretty good pets--they can be left completely alone, or they can be played with for hours. That is my kind of pet.
  

James with Oreo, Josh with Frankie. The guinea pigs are tired out from being played with; the boys are......lazy

• Abby has re-named the cat about 18 times and drags her around the house by her head. The cat looks permanently irritated.


• James and Abby both had sleepovers earlier this week and have decided that sleepovers are THE BEST THING EVER. They would like to have one every single night.


• Josh is getting braces on September 9. We had a consult with the orthodontist, thinking he would say to come back in a year. Instead, he said "This is the perfect time to start. We'll see you in a few weeks." Josh is nervous; John and I and are still in sticker shock. With two insurances, our portion will still be over 2000 dollars. YIKES.


• James gave me one those horrible parenting moments this week. He had cavities and needed sealants replaced or placed, so we went to the dentist on Monday morning. He spent the entire forty minutes quietly sobbing and gagging while I cheerfully told him to "breathe through your nose," like that is somehow helpful. It was awful; I almost had to cry myself. It does give me endless opportunities to remind him to floss, though.


• We leave tomorrow for our annual beach trip. Days of relaxing and walking and jumping in the waves. It's supposed to be over 80 there this weekend, so we'll have to get in the water to cool off!

Kind of Ridiculous

We are a Webkinz family. We all like the games on their website, and the kids LOVE to collect the stuffed animals. They are very harmless--fairly inexpensive and very family-friendly. Although Josh is starting to grow out of them, they have been a great thing for them to collect. At every gift giving occasion, we can always fall back on whichever animal they currently want to add to the collection. A lot of their friends collect them too, and even the big boys can be found "playing Webkinz" from time to time. The Denney girls are big fans as well, and many happy hours have been spent creating Webkinz Olympics or Webkinz Carnival or Webkinz Store. It is something that all six of them can do together.

Yesterday, the girls were over playing and they brought all their Webkinz with them. I had to smile when they decided to have Webkinz weddings, and I heard Laura call out "I'll be the priest!" (None of us are Catholic.) After a while, I heard whispered plans and lots of giggles. Soon enough, I was called to "come see! come see! come seeeee!!!!"

This is what I found.

To be fair, James is under there (which caused the hilarity) but that is a PILE of Webkinz.

Laura and I are really similar in a lot of ways, and we are bottom-line kind of people. So we added up the Webkinz, multiplied the cost of each and discovered something pretty embarrassing: When you combine all the Webkinz that they each have, our two families have spent over 1500 dollars on Webkinz over the years. Granted there are SIX kids. (I also used this rationale when I realized they had eaten an entire package of cookies--there are SIX of them, so that's not too bad.) And some of the Webkinz were purchased during a special sale promotions. And this won't make Teresa feel any better, but Abby only has six, so our family is not as far into the Webkinz money pit as hers is!

They do love the Webkinz, and I'd say that they have gotten more play time out of them than anything else they own. But. Still. Kind of Ridiculous.

Camping

One of our newer family traditions is camping at Beaver. This was Year Three, and once again, we had a big group! Although some people only came for a day, at one point we had thirty two family members all together! My grandma has one brother, and save for a few missing twenty-something cousins, ALL my grandma's family and ALL my great-uncle's family were there. The kids rode bikes, played football, made friends*, and had a great time!

We had a bit of excitement this year when a (VERY) surprise thunder storm rolled in! There was no mention of it in the forecast, so when we saw the storm far off in the distance (about nineteen miles according to the seconds between lightening and thunder calculation) we just enjoyed the show. The kids have only seen lightening maybe twice ever, so they were amazed to see it. Soon though, it seemed get a little closer. Still sure the storm was not headed our way, we started to get out S'mores supplies and look for roasting sticks. But then, the first drop splattered down. Then the second. And then, suddenly, the storm was right over head. As everyone scrambled to find flashlights, cover things up and put up rain flies, my children became MUCH less enchanted by the lightning and even less enchanted by the thunder that was literally shaking the ground. We made for the bathrooms (conceding to use the outhouses right near our tent rather than walking the distance to the flush potty) and made a break for the tent. James and Abby were TERRIFIED. Once we made it to the tent, I finally got Abby to stop crying and we got out of our wet clothes and tucked in for the night. The thunder and lightning stopped about 30 minutes later, and after convincing Abby that rain is NOT scary, the kids were out for the night.

It rained ALL NIGHT LONG. I know this because I didn't fall asleep until 5:30 am. By the time I woke up two hours later, the rain had stopped and by lunchtime, it was sunny and warm enough to go creek wading. (PS Two hours of sleep is not enough. Neither was the four hours I got the next night. I haven't been that tired since I had a nursing baby!)

I almost didn't post this one because it features me in my lovely skirted swimsuit and sweatshirt ensemble, but it does give an idea of a camping day. We were catching minnows in this shot, I think.

The cousins. From left: Natalie, Abby, Katie (good thing I have their swimsuits memorized!), Lacey, Henry, Josh, Trevor, James.

Attack of the butterfly. This one loved Josh's red shirt and spent a long time trying to land on him--my cousin Jenn said it was like a Disney movie.

Portrait of a seven year old boy: dirty, stick in hand, scabbed up knee, bicycle helmet just in case. Sigh. He melts me.

He spent at least 3o minutes out alone on the "dam," exploring and watching the water. Such a loner this one is.


Sweet, sweet girl. She wore her swimsuit all day. Even when it was dark and cold.

The rest of the trip was uneventful and fun. Lots of food, a beer tasting (not even kidding--we are just classy like that), lots of family, some creek wading**, lather, rinse, repeat.

* On Friday night, I didn't know where Abby was. My cousin's girls are 11, so I didn't worry too much about her wandering camp with them. But, it had been quite a while since I had seen her. The campground isn't huge, but it does take a good 5 minutes to walk the circle, so I started to walk, not knowing where I'd find her. Imagine my surprise when I found her and her cousin Katie in someone else's camp! Playing a board game with them! I had spoken to them throughout the day, but they were still another family, Abigail! I said "Abby, I didn't know where you were" and the mom (a nice lady named Jennifer) said, "Oh, I'm sorry, I thought Katie told you guys where they were." They knew their names! As the weekend went on, people at nearly every camp spot called out "Hi Abby!" to her every time we went walking.

**Funny story (maybe only to me): The creek is very slick and rocky, so you really need sturdy wading shoes. I took the kids to Wal-Mart to see if they had water shoes. They did, but even better, they had clearance tennis shoes for three dollars! (I don't really want to get into the company practices that allow them to sell shoes for three dollars. Seriously. I don't even want to talk about it.) They were sort of the sturdier Converse style, so Abby's red ones were super cute. James black ones were vaguely cool. My blue ones were OK. In Josh's size, they only had white. He wasn't in love with them. I have to admit, they did kind of look nerdy. But. THREE DOLLARS! Anyway, we bought them, with me assuring him that they were fine. His response? "Yeah, fine if you're Great Grandma." He continued to make little side comments about his grandma shoes while wading in the creek and pointing out that I was wrong~they weren't looking cooler as they got dirtier. But the best part was when Great Grandma showed up on Saturday wearing almost the exact same shoes. The look on Josh's face was PRICELESS.

Selling Lemonade

(Updated to add that all pictures are from my mom. Pretty much, if I didn't steal them from Sarri's blog, my mom took them. The end.)
My girl is turning into quite the entrepreneur. Her business sense goes a little something like this: Hey, look how cute I am! Buy something from me for a HUGE mark-up so I can go spend every cent on stuff I don't need. Sounds about right for corporate America, huh?

She got her start at our garage sale earlier this summer. (A friend, when she heard about this, said "I bet she makes a ton of money. She could sell ice to an Eskimo." Too true.)

Last week, she and the adorable Brooklyn took it upon themselves to set up a lemonade stand while the grown-ups were packing for camping. Despite being on a cul-de-sac that maybe eight cars drive down a day, they each made about 8 dollars.

Pouring and Posing.

These girls love each other soooo much. They were giggling about something when this shot was taken. As usual. And don't you love the sign "Lemonade Eor Sale."

Yesterday, while playing with Mary and Laura, she was at it again. Check out Teresa's blog to see her cute little pig-tailed self turning on the charm.

At first, I thought that she wasn't getting a great sense of how commerce really works. I mean making all that money on a product that is barely worth a quarter? But then I realized that she just has it all figured out a VERY young age. Cute, charming girls=big sales.....Yep, that's just about it.

PS James and Dallas weren't about to let the girls get all the action. A few days later, they had their own sale. They each made five dollars on that same quiet cul-de-sac. Who could turn down those toothless grins???

Such funny boys. The little red cup says "Tips." Ha!

Typical Me

If you've spent any time around me, you know that I often do klutzy things. I trip or drop something or say, open a heavy door right across my big toe. The thing is, just like when I say something I shouldn't, I just don't always take the time to think things through. Abby and I are a lot alike that way. Of course, she is four.

I went to a baby shower last night for my friend Carrie (who will delivering a baby girl in just a few days) and at the end, there were cute little party favors to take home. (I thought they were particularly cute since CB, James and I made them.) The favor was two tea light candles wrapped in a tulle, with a bow and a sweet little pacifer charm. I took two because there were extras, and as soon as I got home, I set out all four and lit them. I didn't take the time to find tea light holders (and if you think you know where this is going.....) and just set them on the entertainment center.

When I went to bed, it was late (going to bed after midnight is my favorite thing about summer!) and I was worried that the smoke would set off the smoke detector. Which doesn't make any sense because never, ever, not even once has a blown out candle set off the smoke detector. But still, it was late, and wouldn't that be a pain to have the whole house up at 12:30? I blew them out one at a time and then fanned at the smoke spastically. (Getting a better picture of where this is going?)

As I started to fan cute little tea light #4, on the "backswing," I basically scooped tea light #3 toward myself. Guess what? Tea lights actually have A LOT of wax in them. And guess what else? Melted wax is REALLY HOT! It spilled all over the top of the entertainment center, but don't you worry--there was still plenty more to get on me, my favorite black summer dress, down my bra, on my left arm (my whole left arm), and best of all, in my hair.

It hardened instantly, so I spent a few minutes trying to pick it off before giving up and heading to bed smelling like a sugar cookie. Sigh. How typical. When I woke up, the wax was gone (in my bed? absorbed into my skin to probably cause a tumor or something? Who knows.) but if anyone knows how to get wax out of fabric rayon rosettes, let me know. (I have no idea if rosette is a word or if it is the right word. The dress has these fabric rose things on it. They are currently full of lovely smelling wax. Grrrrr.)