It's the little things that make me happy

I know this is silly, but when I went into the downstairs bathroom this morning and washed my hands, the "ghost" soap dispenser ran out of hand soap. Today. On the day after Halloween. That means I don't have to set it on the counter draining into the "fall leaves" soap dispenser, and then clean up the mess when it inevitably falls over. Yay. Made my day :)

Why friends stay friends...

The house phone rang at 7 something this morning, and caller ID said "cell phone" and displayed a number that looked familiar but that I couldn't immediately place. ( I was not yet done with my first cup of coffee; remember it was 7 something). I picked up and said
"Hello?" and heard
"No that's not going to work because I'm..." and I interrupted with
"Hello?" thinking I was overhearing a conversation that was to someone in the caller's house, and again heard
"I got your text. That's not going to work. I can't do that because I'm just now leaving..." so I again interrupted
"MARY, this is Lori and I don't know what you're talking about." pregnant pause...

"Wait, who's this?"

"This is Lori."

"Oh, how did you get on my phone?"

And this is why I love my friends. Just as I am feeling so frazzled like there is nothing I can do right (or better yet get done at all), I realize I am not alone in being overextended, overtired, overworked, and all those other adjectives! Thank you Mary :)

Things were going too smoothly...

So I woke up to Tyler knocking on the bedroom door and saying "Can we come in?". And in he and Evie walk, both grinning. Evie says "Do you notice" as I realize that she now has a vampire spike of hair in the middle of her forehead. She had asked for bangs, and we had not yet made it to the hair salon, so apparently she asked her big brother to help her out, and HE DID. When I asked what on earth he was thinking, he really didn't have an answer. But he was proud of his work, and Evie was happy with her bangs; it was just mom who was upset. (And by the way, dad was laughing .) So I cut off the spike at least, and we will see how long she is happy with this mess...

One more thing to ponder...

Gabrielle, Tyler, and their friend RJ have been talking daily about building their own lightsabers. I've been half listening to these rumblings, hearing talk about shampoo bottle handles vs sturdy cardboard tubing. Okay, I'm good with this so far.

Then Gabrielle started asking about cutting mirrors into strips so that the "light source" would shine through the "crystal" and reflect off the mirrors. Not liking the way this sounds so much, as this most definitely involves an adult (read ME) cutting these mirrors. Not to mention if the lightsaber does at some point fall apart, we have shards of broken mirrors to contend with.

As if that's not bad enough, today she comes home with a book: "Experimenting With Batteries, Bulbs and Wires". Seriously. She wants to build her own light source. Are you kidding me??! I was envisioning glow sticks, or flashlights. She's ten. And that sounds like PHYSICS. (Whose kid IS she anyway--doesn't she know I HATED physics? Grampa A if you are laughing at me from up there, YOU'RE NOT FUNNY!)

Does it make me a bad mom that I want to squelch the scientific experimentation and just go buy her a mini MagLite??

Live Free or Die

At the dinner table (Seems many of my posts come from conversations at our dinner table) we were talking about "mottos". I asked the kids if they knew the state motto for New Hampshire, where they spend a good amount of time each summer. They didn't, so I told them it was "Live free or die". They pondered this for a few minutes and Tyler said "That means they don't believe in slavery." And I explained that it was more than that, that they believed strongly in personal freedoms and they would rather die than have their rights taken away. They all looked at me kind of blankly, and then Gabrielle said, "That's harsh"!

One more thing AZ doesn't have...

Somehow, at the dinner table the subject of dandelions came up, and the kids asked what they were. Dennis and I described that they were a little yellow flower that was actually a weed, and when it went to seed, it looked like a white puff ball. Dennis made the comment that he loved to blow the dandelion seeds as a little boy, and his dad would yell at him and say "I told you not to blow those dandelion seeds all over the yard." (because of course this caused 25 times more dandelions to grow)

Tyler looked at Den and said, "If he told you not to do it, how come you kept doing it?" The look on Dennis' face was HYSTERICAL as he realized there was no good way for him to answer that question, and all of a sudden Gabrielle pipes up, "BUSTED!"

Happy Birthday Tyler!

Okay, so I am a week late with this blog, but it includes pictures, which I haven't done before, so I get credit for that, yes?

For Tyler's 9th birthday, he wanted to take some friends to Castles n' Coasters. The mini golf opened at 10 am, but the rides didn't open until 4. We decided to aim for leaving our house at 2. His friends got dropped off around 1:30 and we had cupcakes and opened Tyler's presents, then off we went. Temp was 101 degrees on the way there. I had packed water bottles for everyone, which were 50% gone by the time we arrived at the park... Did I mention it was 102 degrees on the way there?

We started our game of mini golf, which, btw has almost NO shade. 8 holes in, as I am looking at 4 boys sweating their tails off with bright red faces, I was wishing Tyler was born in March...
13 holes in, I was starting to hear some complaints, and even though they had finished their first water bottle, and we had refilled and most of them had finished that one too, I was getting nervous about heat stroke! We decided to stop, get a soda, and sit in the shade for a few.

By then the rides were open, and we took a vote if we wanted to finish mini golf or go do the rides. Jacob and I were outvoted, so off to the rides we went! The very first ride we went on was the Indy cars, which only one of them was tall enough to drive, and which ended with the pit crew steering the car back to the "garage", so we decided the boys wouldn't try that again!

Then off to the bumper boats, then the log ride, which were both a welcome relief from the heat! (Lots of splashing!) There was no crowd to speak of, and the boys never waited in line. Sometimes the ride attendant didn't even make them get off the ride and re enter, they just stayed where they were and started the ride again. Too many rides to remember, but the bumper boats, bumper cars, roller coaster, and log ride were definitely among the favorites (and I'm not sure why there are no pictures of these rides, except maybe that I was riding them too, and forgot my photography duties!!)I have to say here how much fun I had with the boys, and how well behaved they all were. I was impressed with their ability to compromise with each other when one wanted to do a different ride, I was surprised by their compassion if one got nervous about riding the "scary" rides, and I was shocked at how much fun I was having with them. (So much so that I brought them home 2 hours later than I had told the parents--but I did call or text them all to check that was ok!!) I'd take this group to an amusement park again any day of the week! Happy Birthday Tyler!