No Words Needed

(Random, I know. We went to the wax museum in Newport and this photo just kind of cracks me up.)

Size 8

Well yes indeed - I do wish that was my size but alas, it is not. It is the new under.wear size for a certain 4 year old girl. Yes. I said 8. What size should she really be wearing? Six. She has been wearing size 6 for about a year now but lately she has been complaining that they don't cover her backside well enough for her liking.

Hmmm.....they look fine to me but then, I am not the one with sensory issues when it comes to my clothes. Call me silly but I like my clothes to fit and not hang off me.

This morning I requested that she put on her under.wear so that we could go out and meet up with some friends. This seemingly innocent request was met with a full on meltdown because the "one pair that fits" was in the washing machine. Oy.

I agreed that today would be the day we went shopping for a bigger size. During our playdate she would come up to me periodically to remind me that we were going to be going shopping today. In fact, she shared this info with everyone. I guess when you are four years old new under.wear is a big deal. For me though? It's a lot like looking into term life insurance. Necessary but hardly the highlight of my day.

After we left our friends we drove right to the mall. Kaylen is now the proud owner of size 8 Dora and size 8 Princess under.pants. I'm sure when she reads this when she is older she will be rolling her eyes, groaning and saying "Moooooooooooooom! How could you write this?!?" Well my darling girl - it's because it's moments like these that I don't want to forget. You being so very excited about new under.pants. Talk about simple pleasures. :)

And for those of you waiting for beach photos - they are coming. I have some good ones. Be patient. :)

The News

WOOOOOHOOOOOOOO!!!!

I am insanely proud of her!!!

We were at the beach Friday when the results were posted so she called in for them. Let's just say a lot of people stopped and smiled at our family of four jumping up and down and hugging. One person turned to her friend and said "Oh my gosh - she just passed the bar!" and then they called out "Congratulations!!"

It was a great, great moment.

I am really, really proud of you, Dakota. This is a HUGE accomplishment. Love you to the stars and back a zillion times. :)

The Climb

Saying Good Bye....

...to another piece of my childhood kind of sucks and as much as I don't want to do it - it's time.


See this great tray? I've had it since the early 1970's and have loved it. When my parents moved from my childhood home the tray came to live with me and I have really enjoyed having it. It reminds me of being a kid...and my kids have loved being able to use it to eat on the couch or in our bed. It's been used often in the years I've had it. Probably more often than in my entire childhood.

A few months back the tray was covered in food and I was short on time. Thinking nothing of it, I tossed it in the dishwasher. I really, really, really should have thought something of it. Really.

When the dishwasher finished its cycle I opened it to unload the clean dishes and.........found that the heat of the dishwasher has peeled away paint from the tray.

It flaked off freely and if there is one thing I am almost certain of: that paint probably contained lead. It was the early 70's....everything contained lead. I never really worried about it because the kids weren't chewing on it and it wasn't an issue. Until now.

Clearly I couldn't let them use it anymore. But I couldn't stand the thought of throwing it in the trash. It was part of my childhood and I don't have a lot from my childhood.

It has been sitting in the cabinet, unused, ever since.

It's time to throw it out. And it makes me sad. Probably more than it should.

Another Sunday

It's Sunday. The last "officially summer" Sunday of the year. The neighborhood is alive with noises of people working. I have laundry going and the kids are happily playing. I've tossed around the idea of going to feed the ducks but since they are happy and quiet - I think I'll save that for another time.....or for 20 minutes down the road when they *aren't* playing nicely. :)

Yesterday was a rainy strange day so after grocery shopping we rented a couple movies, put a pile of blankets and pillows in the floor and snuggled up to hang out, eat candy, popcorn and nachos as we watched Space Chimps and Hotel for Dogs.

They were cute movies and it was a good way to spend a family day. Way better than paying bills, doing laundry, washing dishes or looking into an auto insurance quote.

Kaylen was positively certain she would "hate" the movies. Certain enough that throwing a fit in front of the Red Box seemed like a perfectly good thing to do. As it turns out, she loved both movies and is still talking about them. I will admit that Hotel for Dogs was a bit intense for her (though it ended happily so that was good) but she still loved it. (And umm...we didn't realize before hand that it was rated PG. Oops! Bad parenting on our part.)

Kelton loved them both. Which was no surprise. As it turns out, his surprise came on Friday when we watched "The Parent Trap" during our Friday Night Movie and Pizza Night. A huge fit on his end before the movie ended with him saying how much he LOVED the movie about 30 minutes into it.

Kids. They really do need to trust us a bit more when it comes to movies we think they will like.

When it is kids finally think their parents know more than they do? Oh right. When they are grown ups with children of their own. Guess I have a ways to go for that to happen. :)

Fall Clean Up

It's that time of year. Time to start cleaning up the yard and getting it ready for winter. We still have our pools leaning against the side of the house (though honestly it's 84 today and it still could technically be pool weather. I'm kind of over it for this year but I'm just saying - it still *could* be. :)) we have plants that are dying off and desperately need to be cut back. The lawn could use a mowing. The leaves are falling faster every day.

I can no longer hear the cricket at night (though between you and me, I think the poor thing drown in the big rains we had a few weeks ago) and the neighbor has cleaned out his pond filters and drained the pond.

And yet - it's hard to buckle down and get to the fall clean up when it's supposed to be in the 90's next week. So umm...maybe I'll wait another week. :)

Ducks Rule

This is mostly for Uncle James. :) As you can tell, your nephew is ready to go to a Ducks game...or to just watch one on TV with you. :)

This was his idea last night....isn't he cute? :)




Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing

Down another 2 pounds

I have to say - this acid reflux stuff isn't *all* bad. Yeah yeah - it's not fun either but I dropped another 2 pounds in the past 6 days. That's 14 all together so far. Maybe they should re-commercialize acid reflux as "how to lose belly fat". No longer would people say "YOu have A/R? That's awful. How are you feeling?" Noooo...instead they would say "Lucky! That is like the easiest way EVER to lose weight. How'd you get it?"

:) Ok - not likely to happen because let's face it, have A/R isn't a walk in the park but this is one time I've had a medical thing that actually worked out in a semi-positive manner.

I'm just saying.

Sunday Afternoon

After spending time at Target on Sunday (see below) we started to head home but the last thing I really wanted to do was just hang out at home so as our exit approached I said "I don't want to go home."

Out came the GPS and we devised a destination: Battleground Lake. We stopped at a grocery store and picked up the makings of a picnic lunch and then headed out of town.

It was nice to get out of regular life for a few hours. I definitely need more getting out of regular life.

Sunday Fun

Who says you can't have fun at Target?










Come on - you know you have always wanted to do it. :)