New tunes

I heard these songs last night on the way home from shopping. I have always loved both of these songs. I hope you enjoy them as well.

Upcoming Birthdays

August is full of birthdays. We begin with my mother-in-laws birthday finishing up the month of July and everything snowballs from there. My dad's b-day is 8/10, father-in-law 8/16 & Kyle's the 22nd. Josh's swings in right at the beginning of September. Needless to say there is an endless supply of parties & birthday cake this time of year. This is a big year for us as Kyle turns 16! Apparently time flies when your having fun!!!! So last night I was alone at Wal-mart and decided that this was a good time for some birthday card shopping. Now for some folks I just pick one of the first ones I find and move on.... but not when it comes to my Dad. No then I must take the time to painstakingly find just the right card. My family and I have a strange sense of humor and just anything will not do. So after 20-25 minutes of reading card after card, I found it. You know you've found the one when you laugh so hard you almost pee yourself in the aisle. In fact I giggled throughout Wal-Mart at random times. I would think back to the punch line and giggle some more. I even did well with the card for my father-in-law. I wasn't so lucky finding a good "Sweet 16" card. I suppose I will hit the Hallmark store and search their shelves for the hit of the year.

I scream, you scream, We all scream for Ice Cream!

Who doesn't love a bowl of ice cream. I came in from mowing the lawn simply craving my favorite ice cream. I was parched after all. I needed something wet & cold to rehydrate me. Yes, I know I'm simply coming up with excuses for busting my diet yet again. Anyways, I sat with my bowl and flipped through my magazine. Lo and behold Ben & Jerry's is coming out with a new flavor. In honor of Sir Elton John they are now making a peanut butter ice cream called "Goodbye Yellow Brickle Road". This pays homage to one of EJ's best selling albums "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road". Great songs came off of that album in 1973. My dad owned that album that was actually two albums in a split jacket. The "collector of all things" probably still has it in his possession. I placed a few songs here from that special album for your listening pleasure. Sit back, relax and enjoy the ice cream.

King of the Belly Flops

Our little man looks like a flying squirrel jumping off the side of the pool while belting out the words "Belly flop". As he surfaces, I inquiringly ask "Doesn't that hurt?" Too which he replies with a big grin "Nope". Looks like it should , but to an energetic 5 year old it's the greatest trick. After 100's of belly flops and a few hundred trips down the water slide he approaches us with vigor and pride. Here he announces his intentions of jumping off the diving board with his big brother. The kid literally just started really swimming in deep water last week and now we are already attempting the diving board. While he was cautious and a bit scared he decided to take the plunge. Nothing stopping him now. After that we couldn't peel him away from the diving board. Now all three boys are great swimmers. This just gives hubby new ammunition for reasons to put in a pool next summer!

Still awake....

So I'm still awake and the movie marathon has continued. I just finished watching "The Notebook". Yes, I know what planet have I been living on. Seems like every woman on Earth has watched this movie except for me. Well I now can hold my head up high and pronounce that I too have seen this movie and cried. What a beautiful love story.

However along with watching the movie I am again back to plotting my scheme to kill those dang snakes. So as I sit in the quiet of my home a familiar scripture comes to mind. I grab my bible off the nightstand as look it up quickly:

Genesis 3:14-15

The Lord God said to the snake,

"Because you did this, a curse will be put on you.

You will be cursed as no other animal,

tame or wild, will ever be.

You will crawl on your stomach,

and you will eat dust all the days of your

life.

I will make you and the woman

enemies to each other.

Your descendants and her descendants

will be enemies.

One of her descendants will crush your

head,

and you will bite his heel."

So the Lord God commanded it.... I shall crush his head and pray to God he does not bite my heel. I sure hope the local hospital keeps plenty of anti-venom on hand.

Insomnia

Yes, it's 4 am and I am awake. I wrestled around in the bed trying to fall back asleep with no luck. So here I am on the computer researching snakes and blogging. Yesterday while mowing the grass I discovered that we had two snakes residing in our front flower garden. I can't stand snakes and with two living just outside my front door....well YUCK! By my findings on the Internet they appear to be Northern Copperheads ( a venomous snake). When I called my father to tell him of my dilemma and ask for a solution I was told to buy a mongoose. You know that ferret/weasel like creature that likes to eat and fight snakes. Thanks for the advice Dad but I think I will try the new snake traps they have out first. Who knew they had snake traps. These cardboard box traps work like the sticky mouse traps only on a larger scale. Now they suggest a catch and release method but the directions indicate that to release you must spray the box(with snake) with a vegetable spray. I'm thinking more of the catch and chop it's head off route. Sounds easier and safer to me.

This insomnia thing had better not last long. I can only do so many things in the wee hours of the morning. In fact I'm not used to seeing this time of the morning. I'd watch T.V but I'm sure its littered with infomercials. That's an idea..... they may actually bore me back to sleep. Here I come salesman do you magic.

Movie Marathon

Since the kids are at "Camp Happy Grammy" (my mother kindly corrected me of the name from a previous blog) I have been a bit bored. Yes, I said it I'm bored. While I can always appreciate a break from the munchkins I certainly miss them while they are gone. Yesterday I was able to hang with one of my girlfriends and visit my favorite store (The Christmas Tree Shop). She also allowed me to take some videos to watch while the boys were away. While we had just watched "The Wedding Singer" Monday night we dove into the movies borrowed last night and watched " The 40 yr. old Virgin". This morning I got right to work and mowed the lawn, plucked the weeds, cleaned the basement and still was able to squeeze in "Little Children". Which was a twisted movie. Definitely an "R" rated film. Although twisted I loved it. It kinda reminded me of "American Beauty". Tonight I took in "Juno". Another great film. I'm on a roll. I'm not usually a movie watcher. Unless it's a kid flick and then I'm bound to see it 100 times. However "Surf's Up' always makes me smile. ;-)

HAPPY 4th OF JULY!!!!!!!

Just wanted to squeeze in a big happy 4th of July greeting before all the festivities begin. The boys are looking forward to seeing a reptile show tonight downtown. Tomorrow we'll be watching the local parade and then hanging out for the fireworks. I'm sure at some point we will squeeze in a dip at the base pool. This weekend will fly by & then the boys will be off to Camp Grandma for the week (3 more days but who's counting). :-)

Lots of Great things happening

A lot has happened this past week and I apologize for the lack of postings. First and foremost we are happy to announce that hubby is being promoted in his job. Yeah! Secondly, the school board called and said that the state budget cuts will not affect full day kindergarten. Yeah! That saves me at least $200 in daycare costs a month. So great things have been happening around here. The little guys and I left for my parents on Sunday. My middle guy was due at camp Monday morning and my parents live about 40 minutes away from camp, whereas I live about 1 1/2 hours away. Since the camp is still only a mini-camp (Monday-Wednesday) for grades 2 and below it made sense to stay close and save gas. Here are a few pics from camp we received. Yes the frown on the face for the cabin shot was planned. He had a great time and cannot wait to go back next year for the full week. It's a great Christian camp that our oldest went to for 6 straight years. This was middle man's second trip to summer camp.

Last but certainly not least. Our youngest is officially a sea turtle. He has learned to swim under water and in deep water. In fact I no longer need to catch him at the bottom of the water slide any more. So the old running joke between me and my swim friends will no longer exist. So you will no longer find me planted at the bottom of the slide any longer. :-) I will be able to enjoy adult chit chat poolside. YEAH!!!!!