Homer moments

Have you ever had a moment where you felt like Homer Simpson? DOH!

I had one of those this weekend. Ok, if I was completely honest, I probably had about four of them.

Ever worn Crocs (or any flipflops) and walked across a wet concrete floor? Ummm, I don't recommend it. I did that this weekend. Guess where I ended up? On my butt.

I wasn't even graceful about falling down. I was in a hurry and walking quickly through the garage to grab something out of the house. The floor was dry, but I guess there must have been a spot where water had dripped from the car's air conditioning system. Of course - my foot found that very spot. One leg went forward, the other went backward, my arms were flapping everywhere, and I crash landed. DOH!

I started giggling as I got up. Jim had that 'Oh my God, are you ok?' look on his face, and then he astutely looked away like he hadn't seen me fall. Which made me laugh harder. I announced to the world "DANG - DID YOU SEE ME JUST BUST MY ASS??? WASN'T THAT HYSTERICAL?!" He rolled his eyes and grinned and told me to hurry up.

Or how about this one? We were at the park because of the whole hide a letterbox promise. We found the perfect spot under the roots of a tree, on an embankment, slightly off the paved trail, with lots of natural cover. I was hiding the box and Jim was getting rocks to cover the hiding spot. He had climbed down the embankment to get a couple of rocks from the creek and tossed them up to me (of course I MISSED catching them.) Anyway - he got the rocks and then climbed back up. I'm trying to keep my balance and shift the rocks into place. (Did I mention the rocks were the size of my HEAD???)

While I'm manuevering the rocks, I feel something shift in my pocket. My cell phone chose that moment to make a break for freedom. I watched my phone bounce merrily down the embankment, do a couple of really cool looking layout flips in the air (flip phone and it OPENED itself up), and make an awesome dive into the creek. While open. And on. DOH!

I looked at Jim and gave him my best puppy-dog eyes and asked if he would please retrieve my phone from the creek. Amazingly, he had missed the whole thing. He went down the embankment again - grabbed my phone and popped out the battery. I wanted to do the whole "here he comes to save the daaaayyyy" singing thing - but I was too bummed out.

Lucky for me - I had a happy ending. I took the phone completely apart (those little screws are a pain!) and took the hair dryer to it. I made sure it was absolutely dry then put it all back together. Popped the battery back in, said a few prayers, waved a magic wand, sprinkled fairy dust, etc., and turned it on. It WORKED!

WOO-HOO! Now I just need donuts and I'll be completely Homer-ized. Except I won't be bald.

learning new stuff

Today I'm learning a few things. First - I'm learning how to create a codex binding for a book. Yeah, I know - what the???

Blame it on letterboxing and my brilliant idea to plant a box ourselves, which thrilled the kids. Once I mentioned something about us creating a box - that was all she wrote. Since then, I've had to figure out how to hand-carve stamps. (I made a frog for Conner and a ladybug for Alicia. I'm still working on the lion for Caleb.) Hand-carving stamps, hand-making books... I almost sound crafty or maybe it should be crazy...

So Conner calls me this morning. She asked what I was doing, which wasn't much since I had just gotten home from checking on a friend's dogs. She asked if I would plant her froggy letterbox today. Of course I fell victim to the whole divorced-parent-guilt and said sure I will.

Thus, I'm learning to make a log-book. I can't keep it simple and go buy something. Noooooo. I have to make it 'special' and do it by hand. I followed the instructions on Atlasquest.com and SUCCESS! Step-by-step instructions that I can actually follow - and they worked!

The other big thing I've learned today - patience. Glue doesn't dry instantly so DO NOT MESS WITH IT until it is dry. *sigh*

Here's the end result - hand carved stamp and hand made journal.

20 years ago (almost)

Got an email earlier this week about my high school reunion. I cannot believe it's been almost 20 years. There's a website set up to help get everyone back in touch and I have to admit I've been looking at it daily. (Sometimes more than once a day.) Which is weird because I didn't like high school when I was there. I did everything I could to NOT be there. But it's fun to see pictures and read about what everyone has been doing. I've known some of these people since grade school!

Ever watched that High School Reunion TV show? I was flipping through TV channels the other day and stumbled across it. I have no idea what channel or anything - but I started watching. Here were all these adults, 20 years later, talking about what they were like in high school - and how much has changed. Then after the commercial break, when they were actually together as a group - OH THE DRAMA!

The 'fun guy' was divorced because his wife (who was the 'drama queen') had cheated with his best friend. So the fun guy shows up first, then the ex-wife/drama queen, and THEN the guilty best friend. (who everyone else wanted to beat up) It was better than a soap opera.

I was going to get more flood photos last night, but I did something funky with the camera battery. First - I forgot the battery but remembered the camera. Went home and got the battery. Made a stop at Barnes and Noble, then went to the levee to get photos. Popped the battery in the camera and... nothing. I don't know what the heck I did - but the battery wouldn't work. Took it back home and put it on the charger. One minute later - it was working. Explain that one! I'm going to try again this afternoon. It's really incredible to see so much water.

Hoping to get some aerial shots soon. Jim knows someone who took some and I hope he'll let me post them.

Got a new washer yesterday. It has a see-thru door on the front. I think I hypnotized myself watching the sheets tumble around last night. Doesn't take much to entertain me!

The Smile Game

We met my mom yesterday to pick up a part for the washer. It's amazing how fast laundry piles up when the washer doesn't work. Anywho - Caleb asked if we could play the Smile Game while we were at McDonalds. We had to explain the "Rules" to everyone (meaning Conner, Alicia, and Mom).

The SMILE GAME

Rule 1 - You cannot leave the restaurant until you see someone smile. They don't have to smile at you, they just have to be smiling.

Rule 2 - You can smile at people but you can't tell them about the game (at least not until AFTER they smile back.)

Rule 3 - The person you see smiling can be anyone - someone in the drive-thru lane, an employee, etc. People on tv do NOT count.

Rule 4 - If only two people are playing the game, both people have to see the smiling person. If more than two people are playing, then at least two players have to see the smiling person.

Rule 5 - The game works best at fast food places, the mall, big stores like Wal-Mart, etc. Any place will do, but some places will take longer than others.

Rule 6 - No matter what - HAVE FUN and spread some smiles!

That's it. Caleb and I created this game one day while at McDonalds. I made an observation that it seemed like we were the only happy people there. So we started people watching and made it into a game. Would you believe it took 30 minutes before we saw someone smile??? It was INSANE!

Luckily, it only took five minutes yesterday. Guess it's hard not to smile back when you have three kids and two adults smiling at you.

Go ahead - I double dog dare you to play the Smile Game.

We also created a new word yesterday. The word for the day is:

REMEMBERIZED: (Noun) when someone tries to remember something they memorized.

leapin lizard

Went letterboxing again yesterday. Found a lizard along the way. He ran up the tallest thing he could find - which happened to be Jim.

Floods and photos

Jim's been busy working some extra hours, but got some great photos of the local flooding. Water has started coming over one of the levees here. There is a secondary levee which is a really good thing in this case. But a lot of wildlife has been displaced. I uploaded the photos and they can be found here.

We've done some more letterboxing and I'm learning how to carve stamps so that we can start planting a few boxes. I've got a whole series created - now I just have to figure out where to plant them. I have ideas - I just need to go find spots and work on my clues.

Neighbors got home from vacation - YIPPEE! I've missed them and I know Caleb has too. He's been overwhelmed with too many girls and needs his guy time again.

We're off to the grocery store to restock tonight. I swear three growing kids can eat more than a herd of cattle.

Smile!

Took the kids letterboxing last week - just to make them get outside and stretch their legs. It was hot and humid, but I sorta got them to smile for me. And we found the letterbox and even saw some familiar names. I'm ready to go seek a few more!



Now I just have to convince them to play along. I know they enjoy it when we are actually hunting for a box, but getting them in the car to go look is the hard part. I think they must be part hermit. Or maybe they just don't like the heat. So what if it's 100 degrees outside? Wimps.

We are going 'back home' on Sunday to spend the day with my parents. I know a bunch of letterboxes were recently planted, so maybe I can sweet talk everyone into hunting for them with me. Then again - since it's Father's Day - maybe we'll do what Dad wants. What a concept! (smacking self on the head) Geez.

can I get fries with that?

So much news to catch up on...

Caleb got the Presidential Award for Academic Excellence at the awards ceremony at school at the end of May. That was really exciting. Then we spent part of that weekend in Jeff City for my nephew's birthday. The last day of school was June 2, which was a field day. It was warm, but the kids had a great time.

Now we are officially in summer mode. Kids running in and out all day long - me trying to work. (actually, they have been really good so far) I set some ground rules and everyone is working within those for now. I'm sure by the end of summer they will be pushing the limits, but I try to bend enough that they don't feel too restricted.

Caleb has been in football camp this week in the afternoons. He also started working out in the mornings with weightlifting. He's decided to become more active and get fit - which has in turn inspired me to start walking again. Conner is in a longer gymnastics class one day a week, but she is so active the rest of the time that she never gains weight. Alicia is active too - so between the three kids - they should help keep me motivated.

They've been swimming at Jim's sister's quite a bit and playing with her new puppy dog. Conner has been begging to get a dog here, but we just aren't quite ready for it. We did some dog-sitting for a girl-scout friend over this past weekend. She has two big German Shepards and a smaller mixed breed. Her dogs were so much fun and very well behaved. Hopefully she will ask us to dog-sit again because we had fun playing with them. Amazingly - she gave us a sno-cone maker as a thank you - so of course the kids are thrilled with that.

We have a pair of doves living in one of the plants on the front porch. I love to listen to them coo at each other. The cat likes to watch them. He makes weird chirping noises and his tail twitches like crazy. If I don't raise the blinds so he can watch them, he gets mad and bats at them. Then smacks my leg with his paw. Not that he is spoiled or demanding.

I know I haven't mentioned everything, but it seems like summer is flying by already and I need to find more time to post. We're off to football and gymnastics this afternoon/evening - and a soccer game too. Don't even ask me how I'm going to work dinner in around all this stuff. I'm thinking it might have to be a fast food night. We haven't done that in awhile, so I won't even pretend to feel guilty. If I walk while Caleb is at football practice - then it won't matter if I have fries. Right?????