Hairy Chapstick

Leave it to 5th graders to relieve a parenting issue I came across. You know that song, sung by a girl, that says, "I kissed a girl and I liked it; the taste of her cherry chapstick..." Well, my kids heard that in the car and before I could switch the station, of course, zeroed in on many questions about what it meant. Then, the next time it came on I switched it again. That wasn't before Evan said, "I think that means they are gay." I almost hit a tree! Ok, who the heck has he been talking to??? In comes the 5th grader part. One of the kids came up to me on the playground and asked if I'd heard that song, "I kissed a girl..." you know. I hesitantly said, "Ahhhh, yeah." Then he went on to tell me the new version. It goes something like this...I kissed a squirrel and I liked it; the taste of her hairy chapstick. NOW I know how I should be singing it! Then I had a flashback of riding in the front of my Grandparent's truck and camper. (Sorry Elisa, I'm throwin ya under the bus here) Picture my little cousin sitting next to me with her headphones on and a tape going. Grandma is sitting next to her peacefully riding home. Then Elisa starts singing a particular Madonna song, out loud. It goes something like this, "Like a version, touched for the very first time." Wait a minute...It was at this point Grandma stiffened, and looked my direction over Elisa's head to see if I knew about her "interpretation" of a particular word...Yeah, I did. Still makes me chuckle. I guess each generation has their "Madonna" song to deal with.

Top of the morning to you!

Evan lost his top tooth! Finally! It was hanging on for quite a while. I got home about 9:30 last Wendesday night and Chris told me the tooth fairy was going to need to stop by that evening. Shoot. Can the tooth fairy find gold dollar coins at 9:30 at night? I think the tooth fairy will now be keeping a stash of them for events like this. Evan lost his 2 bottom teeth while camping last summer. Safeway came through in both instances...even at 9:30 at night! He has always been my challenging kid...sigh. On another "top" note, the top of our house was honking the other morning. We have quite a few Canadian Geese that have taken up residence in the pastures surrounding us when it rains. They love all of the new grass coming up in the puddles of water. This particular goose was calling all of his friends for quite a while. They finally showed up and away he flew. You could hear him running back and forth on the roof.

Valentine's Wrap Up

Valentine's Day came and went in a relaxed pace this year. I made it pretty easy on Chris. Instead of going out I told him I wanted a Beach Hut Deli sandwich. They rock. I highly recommend the "Shark Bite." Chris's parents invited us out to breakfast Saturday morning. The kids made lots of Valentine's for us and Evan couldn't wait to give me a present he made me at school. It's a clay heart magnet. I LOVE it. He was so proud of it. On Sunday we had our friends up for dinner/dessert/brithday wishes for Sean. Marcy and I disappeared for a couple of hours to get a pedicure. THAT was Marcy's idea and really let the guys off the hook for what to get us this year. We told them they didn't have to do anything but watch the kids while we go. What a great Valentine's Day gift! Good idea Marcy! She also made a killer cheesecake that I'm still recovering from. All I can say is Brownie crust and caramel swirled through cream cheese and chopped up snickers bars. YUMMY!!! I realized my short hair cut does something else for me. You see, I have to get it cut more often when it's this short or it doesn't work. That means Marcy and I will have to hang out at least every 4 or 5 weeks. I think we'll have to have a standing latte/haircut day every few weeks. It was so nice to have girl time without interrupted conversations and bickering! I hope you had a great Valentine's Day with the ones you love!

Free to a good home.

What do you do when your friend at work says they are moving and needs to get rid of her daughter's Chinchilla? And then she tells you she is going to take it to the SPCA or some other shelter that will take him, and then that little voice inside your head tells you that you've always wanted a chinchilla but your kids have guinea pigs so you really shouldn't, but you love chinchillas...Meet Buddy. He is one year old, crazy, and very nocturnal. He doesn't like mornings, loves to dust himself, and loves his new cage. What did you say??? You thought I mentioned he was free??? The cage they had him in was NO where near big enough for him. Chinchillas love to climb and need levels to their cage. I remember my parents getting a free boat once...I also remember my mom saying something about it being the most expensive free boat on the lake too. I guess I'm just a sucker for animals. Please don't tell me if you're getting rid of any animals! I can't take it!!! I'm a big sucker.

The long...well, just the short of it!!!!

I finally snapped. My hair was short when Chris met me. I mean really short. He, of course, like most men, like long hair. I was not blessed with the long hair genes. I look HORRIBLE with long hair. I get lots of, "You look tired." type comments when my hair is long. My hair is really fine as well, so I have to use a ton of product or get a perm. Yuck. Anyway, after toying with many hairstyles over the years, I gave up this past week and went back to short. REALLY short. It's quick, it's easy, and although a little hard to get used to, I like it a lot! My rockin' hairstylist and best friend always tells me I look better with short hair. She was MORE than ready to cut it all off for me. It was getting pretty short over the past year anyway. So----without further hairdoo...(my attempt at humor this morning) here it is. I'll probably have it like this for a long time. I like not thinking about it! Wow! Now I really look like a mom. I have the classic "mom cut." Oh well. It fits me.

Timberrrrrrrr!

My husband is playing lumberjack/Paul Bunyun this month. When we moved here, there were 5 Monterey Pines that were dead. About once a month or so we have tree specialists stop by and tell us how much they'd charge us for removal of the trees. I stand there, acting ignorant, listening to their shpeel, accept their card when they hand it to me, and stick it on the fridge with the rest of them. The cards always appear to have ridden around in their back pockets for the past 6 years. The trees are suffering from the drought and beetles. We treated one of them and it's still not doing well. We think we're losing our little pine tree forest. We'll be replacing them with some more drought tolerant trees at some point. For now, we just cut them down as they turn brown.



This one was a pretty good sized one. It makes me kind of nervous watching Chris cut them. He's not had much experience cutting down big trees.



He seems to enjoy it. Must be the powertool thing going on. That and the beer he got with his chainsaw to drink AFTER he uses the dangerous equipment. Hey! I have to bribe him somehow to do it! Those tree guys cost a fortune!




Cheap chainsaw, $200. Beer, $15. Firewood for the next year???? Priceless!

Happy Friday!

I found it! I lost my mini quilt Karen made me and it's taken me a month to find it!

We are preparing for Valentine's Day around here. I don't really have many Valentine's decorations besides my little quilt, and I keep it up all year until Christmas comes around. I've always relied on the kids to decorate the house in February. They've always brought home crafts from school. Guess what? I don't think they are doing that anymore. Waaa! I guess they are too old for that. I'm sad! They are still in the spirit at home because they made me this...

It does spruce up my 1970 fan and wood paneled room, doesn't it? I used to hate this fan. Now we decided we are going to challenge this fan against the fans we've been installing all over the house. My guess is it will outlive them all. It's made to last, unlike the junk you buy now. In our last house we put in ceiling fans. A couple of them only lived 3 years. Very annoying. So, we've decided to just keep this one until we get around to replacing it. That might be a LONG time. We have updated it with fluorescent bulbs. I dusted it too. There she is...all perty. Good job fannie!

Happy Friday!!! Have a great weekend!

ohhh!

Lookie what we got! My MIL is a big time quilter. She makes beautiful quilts. Those of you that sew know what that means...oodles of fabric in her quilt room. You also know what that means...sometimes one has to purge her scraps. You also ALSO know what that means...you don't have the heart to just throw it out and therefore you pass it on to others who might be able to use it in a little project or two. Guess what? We got first dibs on the bag of fabric before she took it to her quilting group! We were very excited. Amanda took more than I did! She loves fabric. Gee, I wonder where she got that from? Both grandmas sew and so do I. It's in her genes.


We set up a little table in her room and away she went. She is just playing right now, but at some point during the summer, I'd like to have her go to sewing camp at the shop here in town. I'm not one for patterns, unless it's simple and doesn't take too much time. I tend to wing it or improvise or change up the pattern here and there. I dislike basting if a pin will do and don't really know the "rules" of sewing. I just learn as I go or when I get frustrated and have people go, "Ah, didn't you know you were supposed to do that?" Ah, no, cause if I did I wouldn't be complaining about it, right?

I wonder what kind of sewer Amanda will be? Will she follow patterns? Will she be more creative? Will she like to make clothing? Or will she be more of a craft sewer like her mom?

Molly doesn't care. She just likes it when the sewing machines are going and usually finds some way to get into trouble. Here she is sleeping in Amanda's sewing machine cover. You see, she had worn herself out snarling up my nice folded stack of fabric and needed to take a break. What is it with cats and fabric? They can hear me on the floor cutting out my fabric from a mile away.

Or is this why she's tired? Meet Mr. Squirrel. He has taken up residence in our back yard and Molly spends a lot of time stalking him. What shall we name him? Everything here gets a name. How about Grady? Time to go get another squirrel feeder. I should go take the one down from the tree in the front yard of our old place. They still haven't filled it up. Can you imagine??? Me in black clothes sneaking into their front yard to steal back my feeder? I'd probably get arrested knowing my luck. "No officer! It's mine! They aren't using it properly! They've probably killed a squirrel that was relying on them to feed him! They are the bad guys!"