We Just Had To Laugh

This has been a horrible year for ants.

Beneath our plum tree is a very active anthill with tiny little sugar ants. They looove plums, apparently. That one we can't do too much about, as any chemicals used to eradicate them would eventually wind up in the fruit. So, while harvesting the fruit we must stomp our feet to keep the little buggers from crawling all over us.

We also have a red ant hill which the boys know to stay away from, as bites from those ants will make you miserable for hours.

But this was our first year to have large black ants in our yard.

Judah, boy that he is, has a 'pet' black widow which lives on a web on the fence in our front yard. He routinely catches bugs which he then goes and 'feeds' to the black widow, by sticking them carefully in the web so that the black widow will come out and wrap 'em up for later.

One day he came running in the house, shaking his hand wildly and saying, "Ow! Ow! It hurts so bad!"

"What hurts?" I asked, thinking it was probably a splinter or thorn from something out back.

"Da black ant bit my thumb!"

I examined his thumb, and sure enough, it looked as though two small rows of teeth had clamped on the pad of his thumb pretty good, though for his sake I was glad there was no blood.

"Well, how did the ant get on your thumb?" I asked, wondering.

"I picked it up to put it in my jeep (to take around to the black widow, I'm guessing), and he bit me!"

Well what did he expect, lol?

:: :: :: ::

The other day, Jeff took the boys into a local fast food restaurant that had an attached playground.

As they walked inside, the place was packed and there was the usual hum of chatter, particularly from a table filled with young teen girls near the door.

Jeff said he knew the moment Jericho had finally made it through the doors, because the conversation from the girls table stopped suddenly as they turned to watch the cute teenage boy walk past their table.

Totally oblivious to and unaffected by such things still, Jericho called out, "Hey, Dad...can I take Judah to the playground?"

Uh huh. Yeah, sure, Jericho...Judah wants to go to the playground, lol.

:: :: :: ::

While in a bookstore the other evening, we picked up a cute Little Golden Book for Judah called, Doctor Dan The Bandage Man.

It's a cute little story originally put out in the 1950's and has darling vintage illustrations to go with the story of a boy who hurts his finger and runs home, and whose mom puts a band-aid on his 'injury' which (as we moms know) makes him feel all better.

As a result, whenever anyone he knows gets a boo boo, Dan doctors them up with band-aids. Even the family dog. As a result, his dad gives him the nickname, "Dr. Dan the Bandage Man".

In a stroke of pure brilliance, the publishers include a couple of brand new band-aids affixed inside the front cover of the book so that any little kids reading the story and needing to fix their own real or imagined boo boos have their very own band-aids at their disposal.

Judah spotted those immediately, and like Ralphie dreaming of his Red Rider BB Gun, he, too looked off into space, eyes aglow with all the possibilities of where he could use them.

I just looove those moments where you can totally see the wheels turning in their little minds.

But why is it that I can practically guarantee I'll find them stuck to a wall, or a fridge or grandma's bathroom door?

:: :: :: ::

For Jeff's birthday yesterday, I baked a really decadent birthday cake.

First, I baked a dark chocolate fudge layer cake. The filling was a homemade ganache or hot-fudge type mixture loaded with macadamia nuts, and the the cake was frosted with homemade chocolate caramel icing and garnished with even more macadamia nuts. Yummo.

It sat under the glass of our cake platter all afternoon, taunting us as we waited for the family dinner and dessert later that evening.

When I went to put candles in it later that evening, however, I noticed two very narrow prints on the outer edge of the cake...where one very little finger had gouged out a couple of samples of icing.

Hmmm...wonder who that was?

Here We Go Again!

Our family loves dogs. Loves them.

Were it up to our boys, we'd probably have our very own pack of dogs running around out back wreaking havoc and digging up the garden.

Every person peddling pups outside of WalMart or the grocery store probably thinks when we stop to croon over their puppies that we'll take one off their hands cave and adopt one of their (usually) pit-bull mix or Chihuahua mix puppies.

Not so. We've stuck to our guns.

Which, when Judah looks up with big pleading brown eyes and says, "When do I get my own puppy?" is a very hard thing to do.

We were suckered into fell for a cute puppy once, and found that (with that litter in particular, anyway) it just wasn't a good fit for our family.

The cute little puppy we enjoyed so much grew big and ornery and began to hurt our beloved Sharpei, Raisin. Literally nipping patches out of her fur. He'd also grown ungainly and routinely knocked Judah off his feet.

Our love of dogs prevented us from heartlessly dropping him off in the desert or taking him to the pound, so we found him another better home. One where he was spoiled rotten and actually grew to learn to do things like retrieve balls and obey commands, and lived the high life indoors on sofas and everything. What more could a dog ask for in life, right?

To help our boys adjust, they were granted visitation rights.

And when his new owner was away, Jericho even got to go take care of D.O.G. again.

It was really win-win for everyone involved.

The boys gradually grew to accept things and moved on.

When D.O.G. and his new owner moved out-of-State a couple of months ago, we thought that would be the last we'd ever see of him.

Perhaps I should clarify that I hoped it would be the last we would ever see of that dog. (I'm still suffering from a combination of mom-guilt and dog-guilt, for having found him a new home after the boys got so attached).

**sigh**

Well, to my dismay the kids delight...he's baaaaaack!



Temporarily.

Supposedly.

Need I say, hopefully?

It was a long sad story, but suffice it to say, one of their new roommates was mean to D.O.G. when the owner wasn't around. Abusive, actually.

To the point where the poor dog now cowers around males.

Even I, who was so happy to see D.O.G. go, can't abide cruelty to animals.

Though it was probably mostly due to the fact that the new owner, who regards her dogs more as children than pets, was so grief-stricken (teary eyes will get me every time, I'm afraid) at having to find a safe-house for her beloved dog.

She made the long drive back here to farm out her two dogs to those who she knew she could trust to care for them while she finishes her lease and finds a suitable place of her own.

And so, for now, D.O.G. is back with us once again.

Aside from the fact that he sneaks indoors every chance he gets and has to be put back outside each time...things are going pretty well so far.

Raisin is enjoying the change of scenery in the front yard, where she reigns as queen of the soon-to-be grass-covered (it's newly planted and growing in quite nicely) yard, which she gets all to herself, only occasionally working herself into a lather barking at her nemesis through the dividing fences, and usually then only when one of us gets too close to 'the enemy'.

Sharpei's are fiercely loyal and protective of their people.

The boys, of course, are thrilled with our yard guest. They are no doubt already getting attached to the cur all over again, because in spite of D.O.G.'s fear of men, he still still trots happily around behind his old buddy Jericho. Just like the old days.

(Oh, the guilt!)

When Judah exclaimed to D.O.G.'s owner, "Thanks for giveen him back to us!", she replied rather defensively, "not forever...just for a little while!"

And those words are what I'm clinging to. That all this is just for a little while.

:: :: :: ::

Edited to add that D.O.G. only ended up staying with us a few days.

His owner found them a new home right away, and he is now ensconced on his sofa once again.

However, not even a week later, we found this little guy taking refuge under our truck.



He shied away from us, and in the 104 degree hot summer sun that day, I decided to just let him be, as he needed the shade and a cool spot to rest his paws.

After he'd had some food and drink, he moved along of his own accord to another lady down the block, who managed to reunite him with his owners.

All's well that ends well, as Ma Ingalls used to say.

It's My Birthday...It's My Birthday...

Hey, in case you missed it in the title of my post...IT'S MY BIRTHDAY!

Pretty subtle, huh?

I had to post real quick because I still haven't heard from my mom and thought I'd razz her a bit. She, of all people, should remember this day which occurred nearly 4 decades ago, lol.

Anyway, just dropping in to let everyone know that I'm sort of in unplugged mode (by default, as my computer has crashed). I have only very limited access to my husbands laptop. I'm not able to load or access photos on it so the posts are picture-less and thus rather lackluster for the time being.

I'm getting desperate enough that I may just have to tutor myself on how to set up the whole mobile phone-to-blog posting option. Any advice on this would be ever-so-gratefully accepted, as I'm having serious blogging withdrawls!

I am still taking lots of photos and have a whole slew of posts planned for the days when I get my new computer up and running...which I hope is very soon.

For now, we're just enjoying some relaxing low-key family time while the fam is off-track from school. Our neighbor was kind enough to give us a standing invitation to use her very infrequently used pool any old time we want, just letting ourselves in the side gate. In 108 degree desert temps, this is a real blessing!

Hope to be up and running normally around the 23rd or so!

Well, I'm off to blow out my many candles...let's hope the place doesn't go up in smoke, lol.

Oh, and here I was at my birthday lunch with friends, holding our friend's cutie-patootie little baby Micah. He is the HAPPIEST little baby ever...always smiling, cooing and giggling. And so squeezy.

Update Haiku

Computer has crashed.
Photos unavailable.
Need paycheck to fix.

In midst of projects:
Jamboree renovation,
Furniture redos.

Taking lots of pics.
Hope to be back soon with posts.
Soooo many projects.

Triple digit temps.
Heat makes me kinda cranky.
Thank God for A/C.

Putting in a lawn.
Sprinklers were a big fat mess.
Can't wait for green grass!

Niece staying with us.
Getting my 'girl stuff' fix.
Beading is her fave.

Big brother fourteen.
My birthday coming up soon.
I'll be twenty nine.

Garden growing well.
Waiting for some zucchini.
Tomatoes on the vine.

When camper is done
We're gonna go to the beach.
For at least a week.

17 Years Ago Today...

• I had to send a message to the groom's changing room to warn Jeff not to put my wedding ring all the way on my ring finger. I'd accidentally snipped it open in the early hours while finishing up my wedding flower arrangements. It was a gusher. Lovely.
• The reason I'd done my own flowers was because my very talented florist, who was also one of my bridesmaids, had just had a baby 6 weeks earlier and that baby had a frightening allergic reaction to her formula that evening which involved a trip to the ER.
• Thankfully, her baby recovered just fine on her new formula. However, this bridesmaid's mother had made her dress months in advance of the wedding. A dress which beautiful but a size too small in the bust post-baby, and required emergency last minute alterations (literally sewing her into the dress and praying that it held up during the ceremony).
• Have I ever mentioned before here the whole 'meet everyone' BBQ for the families of the Bride and Groom which took place a couple of days before our wedding? A neighbors goat followed my sister-in-laws back from a walk down my mom's country lane, and was mingling with the guests in my mom's yard for who knows how long before my sister noticed something was amiss and hauled the beast back down the street to it's home.
• The goat got out a second time and came back to the party (a true party animal, lol)...at which point it walked up the deck steps, and right into my mom's kitchen. My mom was just pulling a big veggie platter out of the fridge when she saw the goat, shrieked, dropped the veggie platter, and cauliflower, cherry tomatoes and olives went rolling across the floor. The goat had the audacity to take some for the road before being chased out of the kitchen by shrieking women, lol. My sister, bless her heart, hauled the goat back to it's pasture again and made some much needed repairs on the neighbors fence to ensure he wouldn't be back.
• We very nearly found out the hard way that there is a weight limit for second story decks. Our guests had to be asked to stay off the deck on one side of the house because it had began to shimmy under all the weight.
• I was running on about 2 hours of sleep for my big day.
• The ceremony went off without a hitch. Not counting our getting hitched, that is.
• There was an uninvited guest in attendance. One day I'll have to post the clip from the video my uncle took in the reception hall, where this person was skulking around amongst the guests in filthy, straight-from-work clothing.
• Our wedding photographer was very short. I have nothing against short people, but this was an important detail that none of the wedding planning books ever mentioned. Most of the photographs he took look up everyone's noses. From our photographers vantage point, the pews were visible in most every shot, as were the knees of the pastor who was watching the whole proceeding in the front row.
• We bought only the book of proofs, which had the photography logo stamped larger than life in the corner of each photo and came with a pre-printed note that contained legalese which warned against making copies of his copyrighted photos.
• The photo in this post was taken on a disposable 35 millimeter camera by my mother-in-law as we finished up the wedding photos, and is probably my favorite one of the entire day, even if my bangs were a bit short.
• Somehow, all the disposable cameras we purchased for tables at the reception were left in a box in my changing room. Which actually turned out to be a good thing, because we were poor college students at the time, and I probably wouldn't have otherwise had any photos of our first year to scrapbook without them.
• A dear lady I used to babysit for in high school had offered to make the cake as our gift, knowing we were on a shoestring budget. She was 7 1/2 months pregnant at the time, and was ordered to bedrest a couple of days before our wedding. She said she could still decorate it, but we'd have to do the baking.
• Jeff and I baked our own wedding cake (with her pans) the largest pan of which barely fit in my moms oven. The oven door had to remain open slightly, which drastically increased the baking time. It took all day long. Months later, I learned that my sister (the same one who wrangled the goat back to it's home) and who was something of a nanny for that same family by this time, had actually done the honors.
• Our ringbearer, who was about 3 at the time, heard that they were supposed to throw rice on the bride...and hurled the whole decorative bag of it at my face moments before we got into our getaway car.
• Much to Jeff's dismay, I fell asleep on the ferry which took us to our honeymoon on Vashon Island.
• The kind proprietess of our Bed & Breakfast heard we were college kids and gave us a huge discount on her usual rates. We returned for our 10th anniversary, and she remembered us and again gave us a discount.

• Though the fiasco was all very real and somewhat stressful then, we've long since been able to look back on all that and laaaaaugh. It definitely made for a memorable day.
• The best part of all, however...I married my best friend.

I ♥ you, Jeff!!!

We're Expecting!

Hope I didn't give y'all heart attacks, but perhaps I should have stated that a bit more clearly.

I'm referring to our garden.

As in we're expecting quite a garden this summer! (Sorry, mom.)



Yes, we finally got the garden fully planted and wonder of wonders, things are beginning to grow!

I've hesitated to say much about it before now, because last year's attempt at gardening in the desert didn't produce a single, edible thing. We learned a bit too late in the season we just weren't watering our garden enough.

Yeah, it turns out that plants need enough water to grow. Duh!

A thorough soaking every morning might be fine in Western Washington where I grew up, in the arid desert climes of the American Southwest, twice or three-times-a-day soakings are a necessity. It gets hot here.



So far, the squash, pumpkins, beans, cantaloupes and corn are all coming along nicely.

Judah excitedly dragged me outside to show me that we've even got dahlias about to bloom. Woot! Woot!



I think someone else in the 'hood has been after the pesky ground squirrels besides just us, because they have disappeared completely.

The squirrels I used to see sunning themselves atop our neighbors block wall? Gone. Every single kernel of corn that was planted? Knee-high stalks! And I couldn't be happier.

Providing things grow well this summer, we may also add a few more raised beds for next year's garden. We'd like a tomato/pepper bed, a berry bed and a salad greens/cilantro bed. Oh, and one for root veggies and green onions.

Did I mention that we've already harvested some lettuce?



This was the first one. We made P.F. Chang style chicken lettuce wraps with it. Yummo.

So far, so good...and a very satisfying endeavor for the whole family.

Frump Family Randoms

While cleaning out our Jamboree the day after we got 'er home, I found these:

The ones pictured at top are dated April of '09, the ones below were of unknown factory origin.



The hot dog buns were hard as a rock, but still looked exactly the same as the day they were bagged up.

I was thinking that the old 'sliced apple in the bread bag' trick might just bring those babies back to life.

Totally kidding.

But it just goes to show what a person is putting into their systems when eating starchy white, over-processed bread. Still not broken down after a year! It might as well be wallpaper paste. Ugh.

The hamburger buns...well, they, too, were hard as a rock, but covered in a greenish-black powdery mold. Yum.

Hamburgers, anyone?

:: :: :: ::

Oh, and while speaking of the Jamboree...see the lovely dent?



See the fallen roof tiles?



See the corner of our roof?



Oh, yes...I did.

However, upon inspecting the roof from a ladder, I found that no real damage had been done. Nothing to file an insurance claim over or anything. Just a small split in the facia board.

Plus I found a dead baby bird up under the roof tiles that simply must be disposed of.

So see? We wouldn't have known about the decomposing baby bird had the little snafu with the Jamboree not occurred, and we simply can't live with a decomposing animal up under our roof tiles, so I'm pretty sure it was destiny.

At least that's how I have chosen to look at the whole incident.

Well, that and reviewing some the First rule of camper ownership: NEVER back up a camper without first pulling back all curtains so that one can see where one is going.

Second rule: NEVER back up without first adjusting all mirrors for best view.

Third rule: NEVER rely on taking your (four-year-old) son's word for it (while he watches out the back window of the Jamboree) to be sure you didn't take out the heavily fruited plum tree nearby.

Yes, my bloggy peeps, whilst backing up the camper for the very first time, I took off a couple of corner tiles in our roof...and didn't feel a thing! Seriously...no bump and no scraping metal sounds or anything.

In my periphery I just suddenly saw something fall and thought, "Hmm...what was that?" and stopped to look.

My heart pretty much plummeted to the bottom of my stomach when I realized it was roof tiles.
It didn't help matters that when Judah heard my exclamation, he came running from the back to the cab of the camper to look out the nearest window and said, "You broke da house, Mama!"

**cringes**

I'm still not entirely sure what happened exactly, because I'm really a very excellent driver.

:: :: :: ::

Some of our Awana and youth group kids were showing livestock in our county fair's livestock auction this year.

We hadn't ever been to an auction before, rounded up the fam and headed down to watch.









It was a lot of fun.

Judah was thrilled to see so many people he knew there.







And of course the animals.







When it got to the poultry portion of the auction, I got a real kick out of how this farmer was holding the turkey to hand him over to his daughter who was trying to keep her pristine 4H uniform nice and clean until just before it was time to make the sale.



Later, when some friends from church showed up in the back of the arena so that their children could get a feel for what belonging to 4H or FFA was like, Jeff tossed a wave their direction.

Their son was making a goofy face at us which was why I took the following photo.



The father (seated on the straw bale in white) waved back.

And suddenly, the auctioneer shouted, "300! Do I hear 3 and a quarter? Three twenty-five? Anyone for $3.25?" along with a bunch of that whole stuttering kind of mumbo-jumbo they do in between.

My mouth dropped. Did I just see what I thought I saw happen?

Our friends eyes went wide.

There was a sudden moment of panic and confusion in which he shook his head and did a frantic (low) shake of his hands as if to say, "No, no...there's been a mistake!" His wife, too.

When I glanced at Jeff I saw that his hand had covered his own mouth in a big giant, "Oh, NO!" kind of a motion...and I knew...it was all true.

Yes, my friends, and if that wasn't bad enough, the amounts they were calling out were the price per pound one would have to pay for the animal being shown...currently a 300+ pound hog!

Um, can we say, "Ooopsie"?

Fortunately for them, just then from further back in the arena, someone held up an actual paddle and the auctioneer said, ""3.25! Do I hear 3 and a half? Three fifty? Anyone for $3.50?"

Immediately our friends rushed over to where we were standing and we all laughed in relief as he said, "You very nearly cost me a $1,000!"

Yes, we newbies learned a very important lesson at that livestock auction this year...NEVER ever wave (or even raise your hand) during an auction!

:: :: :: ::

While finishing up breakfast one morning recently, Judah called to me, "Mama...lookit! My toast looks like a animal!"



And by golly, it does! Move over Texas Toast...Buffalo Toast is in the house!

:: :: :: ::

We had our end-of-the-year Awana Carnival recently.

I was responsible for the face-painting booth. For boys, we did mostly snakes, lizards and spiders.



For girls, we did butterflies and flowers.





We also painted hands and arms, because some children opted to come back more than once.





At one point I had to put up my paintbrush for a time as I was locked into the jail.

As were several of our other Awana kids and leaders.



Jeff, too. For a very long portion of the day, I might add. Someone was totally gunning for him.

Judah, however, refused to go, cleanly evading the authorities.

He's been on the lam since, though on-site cameras did catch him at a watermelon eating contest around 1:25 that afternoon.





His brother, too, was said to have taken 2nd place in the contest with 7 large slices of watermelon.



:: :: :: ::

On his last day of school, Jeff always does some wild and crazy haircut.

He'd been growing his hair out since February, and this year decided to go with a mohawk.

He really wanted Liberty spikes, but his curly hair made that a bit of a stretch. Even with toothpaste as his styling medium.

We've since learned that Elmers glue works best.

On the teachers last day of school (the day after students are out for summer), the teachers children are allowed to come to work with them.

Judah couldn't have been more excited about going to school with daddy.

To do so, not only did we decide to cut Judah's hair to match daddy's, but he had to look all official and carry a backpack and everything.

But alas, it is hard to look appropriately tough and intimidating when one wears a "Lightneen MaKeen pack-ack".



Or later, while sitting in time-out for whining about not getting candy.



Really, if you ask me, neither one looks too terribly intimidating.





Somehow, I'm thinking that a guy who wears a GI Joe t-shirt doesn't pose a serious threat to anyone.

Did I mention that he also won Teacher-of-the-Year for his school?

AND that he's in the running for District-wide Teacher-of-the-Year.

You da man, Jeff!

**Ahem**

Now we're off for what I believe is the last thing on our list before our summer officially begins...a college graduation ceremony for our friend Lo.

Congratulations, girl! We're so proud of you!!

Oh, and lest I forget, I must give a congratulatory shoutout to her parents, our friends Steve & Chrissy as they have just celebrated their 25th Wedding Anniversary!