April Fools!

Rob set up this joke for the kids’ breakfast. We never have these “sugar” cereals in our house, so everyone was very excited to have breakfast today. The kids busted in a little early, and Hunter came into our room holding the white slip of paper reading, “April Fools” and said, “Emma wants to know where the real Cookie Crisp is!” I have a feeling she wasn’t the only one wondering. We were amazed when Hunter barely flinched at getting tomato clam juice instead of what he thought was ruby grapefruit. Emma took a nice big swig though and gave us a great reaction, “I don’t like this! What is it??” So fun for Mom and Dad, not sure if we’ve been forgiven yet though…

Recycling

Save the water from washing your clothes to flush the toilet.  Great idea, but do you think it would really catch on?  I know that I would end up dropping a sock in the toilet when I emptied the washer.  But then I guess it wouldn’t matter too much because that’s the same water the sock was just rinsing in. Ew, weird.

Yogurt cups that snap together for playtime after lunchtime. Clever.

After you open up the computer, the box is ready for play time. Instructions come inside the box for turning it into a house, rocket, etc.  And no cutting or extra work for the parents. My kids already make forts out of cardboard boxes, so they would love this!

The Spider Hunt

It’s about 1:00 am and I’m sleeping on the couch. Not because I’ve had a spat with my beloved, but because I always fall asleep on the couch. It will be around 11:00 pm and Rob will still be wide awake and settling into an episode of the Simpsons or How It’s Made, or he’s in the office on the computer and I’m trying to read on my own… I just can’t make myself go to bed even when I’m tired. I think it’s a weird sort of guilt I have because it seems wrong to go to sleep before Rob does.

Anyway, so Rob comes to wake me up as usual and we head upstairs. Our living room is open to the hallway that leads to the bedrooms. The kids love it because they can sneak out and watch TV if they’re really quiet (but we usually catch them), or throw things down to the living room from the railing like little toy parachute guys or dirty laundry.  As I walk across the hallway to check on the kids I notice that there is a creepy black spider on the far wall above the windows and mention it to Rob. He immediately concocts a plan. “You throw some socks at the spider to knock it down, and I’ll stand in the living room with a wad of toilet paper ready to scoop him up when he hits the ground.” I’m so tired, but I say, “ok” because he is already grabbing socks from his drawer and rolling them into tight balls. I take a practice shot at the opposite side of the wall so I can see how to best get the little guy. It bounces off the ceiling before even hitting the wall. This makes me start laughing, and Rob is down in the living room going, “I think a practice shot was a good idea.” I give up on practicing and just start lobbing sock balls at the spider. He’s just a few inches down from the ceiling, so I can’t use an arc, it has to be a straight shot. This is harder than I thought. After several rounds of misses I am laughing so hard at my terrible aim that I’m not even hitting the wall anymore. Rob and I agree to switch posts. He remarks, “I wish we had our own videographer.”

He comes upstairs and hands me the five squares of toilet paper for the squishing job. I say, “I think I would have gotten a bit more.” But I don’t get more just to show that I’m as tough as my husband. He takes a few shots and misses too. I throw the socks back up to him for another round, and this time on the second shot he knocks the spider down. I run for the spider after watching it land on the carpet. I’m thinking, “I should have put shoes on! This guy is fast.” I start yelling, “He’s so fast!” And Rob yells, “Don’t go straight up and down, smear him!” Then, after a long three seconds, I successfully smoosh the spider without smearing him into the carpet, and show Rob my handiwork. Finally, I flush the remains and we both head upstairs back to bed and I say, “We could have won $10,000.00 if we had that on tape.”

Top O’ The Mornin’

Happy St. Patrick’s Day!  Hunter brought in a project to school he has been working on for a while.  A leprechaun trap!  I can’t wait to see how it went over.  As we unloaded it from the back of the van his friends were all so curious about this contraption he was bringing to class.  He built it from cardboard boxes, bits and pieces of things around the house and a few Irish decorations he bought at the craft store.  Very fun!  Hunter loves building things and for a while he wanted to do a breakfast making machine.  As he was describing what he wanted it to do, I had a flash of familiarity and we went to youtube to watch this classic sequence from Pee Wee’s Big Adventure.  I don’t know how my kids had gone so long never seeing it, since it is quoted so often on their Dad’s side of the family.  After seeing this clip we dug it out of the dusty VHS cabinet and watched it after homework the next day.  They loved it, and are starting to work their favorite quotes into everyday conversation.  Just like their Daddy…

I Get Paid for Blogging

You may have noticed a new addition to my blog. The big ad banner on the right… Yes, I am now a member of BlogHer, a directory and community of bloggers with an emphasis on blogs written for and by women. I earn a sort of commission based on the number of page views and clicks my blog receives. Rob has been helping me with getting the ad situated. Let me know if things look crazy on your computer. We’re trying to get it so that it sits to the right and doesn’t interfere with the links and things in the column next to it.

Back to my Small Town Roots

I heard this song on the radio, International Harvester, and it really brought me back to my high school days… Driving past the dairies and being stuck behind a tractor on a long stretch of road with a solid yellow line… Those farmers pluggin along looking oblivious to the line of cars behind them… It makes me smile now.