Science Project

Baylee wanted to have tomorrow free to play with her public school friends who haven't started yet, so she did her school work tonight.  One of the things she did was a science project called "Everything Is Matter".   It's meant to teach that every single thing out there, whether it's solid, liquid, or gas, is matter.  Here are some pretty self-explanatory pictures.  You should note, though, that she very scientifically dotted all her i's with hearts and wrote smiley faces on the label cards.

Bargain Finds

I had several errands to run this morning, so I decided while I was out to stop in at Goodwill and just see if I could find something for the wall over the piano.  I didn't have high hopes, but I was happily surprised.  Not only did I find a picture for that spot, but I found one for another wall of the house, and an end table all for $25.  Yay!  Here are some pics.


There's the new end table beside the couch.  Isn't it cute?  I think it needs a lamp now.

I also bought that wooden plaque beside the bookcase.  (That's our home school bookcase, by the way.  Every kid has a shelf for their schoolbooks, and the top shelf is for supplies like paper and pencils.)  Maybe if you click the photo you'll see it better, but the plaque says "Bless This Home" and has a simple country scene on it.

Finally, I picked up this one.  I like it!  It reminds me of my grandma's farmhouse.

Slowly but surely I'm getting this place decorated.  We won't talk about the curtain purchasing disaster, because I'll be returning those to Target tomorrow.  It'll be like the whole thing never happened.

Sunday Stuff

Well, I spent all day yesterday dreading meeting those people, and it turns out we had a great time with them.  Len and Monique were interesting, funny, musical (Drew loved that part the most.  Len even got out something called a penny whistle and played it for us.  He was amazing!  He sounded a lot like the Irish music on the Titanic soundtrack.), and excellent cooks.  It was embarrassing how much we ate, but they seemed to get a lot of joy out of our...well...joy.  A good time was had by all!

Zach wanted to have Jacob spend tonight and part of tomorrow over here, so he decided to do his one school subject today.  That way it wouldn't be hanging over his head.  He chose biology and it went well.

Can you see his teacher on the screen?  She's a bird expert, I guess, because they brought her in just to do the unit on birds.  A different lady teaches the rest of the year.  It's fun to watch, because she's got a couple birds in cages in the classroom and a giant stuffed eagle.  (Now I'm wondering if they change the animals with each new unit.  Like when they do amphibians do they have an aquarium full of frogs?  Hmm.)  It's also cool because it doesn't always focus on the teacher.  Often it shows National Geographic-esque videos of birds out in the wild, demonstrating whatever it is she's talking about at the time.  After Zach watched the lecture, his textbook assignment flashed on the screen.  It said he had to read a few pages in the biology book and answer 52 questions.  (That sounds worse than it was.  Some of the questions were matching, some were multiple choice, and some were fill in the blank.  Only a few were long answers.)  The whole thing took about an hour.  Perfect!

I just took cinnamon streusel bread out of the oven.

Too bad that picture's not scratch-n-sniff, because the real thing is making the whole house smell delicious!

Random Musing

"Ugh.  We have got to get rid of that chicken!  It's making the whole refrigerator smell like Dexter!"

Yes, I watched one episode of that show, because someone on a forum I read said she really likes it.  Have you heard of Dexter?  It's a show about a guy who, during the day, works for the police analyzing blood spatter patterns in order to solve crimes, but during the night he's a serial killer.  His target is the other serial killers (You know, the ones without the virtuous motives.) that the police can't seem to catch.  Oh. My. Goodness.  I had nightmares all night long.  For real, I woke up in a cold sweat. I do not recommend this program.  It did make for a good smell comparison, though.

I decided to start school on Monday instead of Wednesday.  It's just time.  We all need the structure again.  I'm still going to do the slow start:  one subject the first day, two the second, etc.  Oh!  And I came across an idea that looks fun.  A group of home schooling moms decided they would all blog about a day in their life in real time.  Every hour or so they got online and updated, sometimes adding pictures.  I really liked what they each had to say.  I'd set it up differently, though.  It wouldn't be in real time, for one thing.  I'd just keep an entry going as a draft, and then post the whole thing at the end of the day.  I think I'm going to do it once we settle into a routine.

We found a great place for Baylee to continue learning to act, since the children's choir director at our church decided to take a break from doing plays, at least for this year.  It's called Taproot Theatre Company.  It's a Christian organization, and from what I understand it's not set up as a community theater.  In other words, the average Joe can't go in and audition for a play.  You have to be a professional actor, and if you get the part they pay you to be in their production.  (That's kind of a bummer, isn't it?  I miss Master Arts Theater back in MI.  A lot.)  Anyway, they have 8-week classes for kids and adults, and at the end the participants get to put on a performance.  It suits our purposes perfectly, so hopefully we'll get Baylee into something in the fall.

We're doing my least favorite thing in the entire world tonight:  Having dinner with people I don't know.  I'd rather have dinner with people I do know and just don't like.

Thank You, Patty!

We finally got the curio cabinet!  Isn't it pretty?  It used to belong to Mike's Great Aunt Margaret, who was a career Navy nurse and a commander.  She gave it to Mike's mom, and Patty gave it to us.  I never really felt a need for a curio cabinet before, but now that it's set up in the dining room I find that I love it.  I even found a few things to put in it.  Here it is!

Public Service Announcement

Every one of my kids is now old enough to have stinky friends.  I mean, what is it with pre and early teens?  Blech!  It's the reason I've become a shower Nazi.  Zach takes one every day (With no prompting from me.  He's old enough now to care on his own.), and Drew and Baylee are bullied cajoled invited to scrub off the funk every other day.  There is NO WAY my kids are going to reek on my watch.


Today one of the kids had a friend over who made the whole house smell like The Stinky Cheese Man.

I had to open every window.  I hesitated in Baylee's room, because she recently rearranged her furniture and now the gerbil's cage is on a desk which sits right under the window and its drafts, but ultimately I decided Ginger was just going to have to take one for the team.


Please, people!  Cleanliness is next to Godliness!  That's in Hezikiah. Look it up.

I Thought I Was Being Such a Cool Mom (aka No Good Deed Goes Unpunished)

"I'm just calling to let you know that your dog is driving me in. freaking. SANE!"


"What's he doing?"


"He's standing by the back door barking to be let out, but as soon as I let him out he barks to be let back in.  And as soon as I let him back in he wants to go out again."


"Well, he doesn't feel good.  He had diarrhea this morning, you know." [accusatory pause]


"Oh, fine.  But you have no idea how annoying this is.  Seriously.  Okay, love you!  Bye."


---------------------------------------------


The diarrhea may or may not be caused by the copious amount of non-Neutonian fluid Gibbs licked up off the floor and counter yesterday.  Personally, I think it's a total coincidence.


Got to go.  The dog wants back in.

Dear Grandpa

Yesterday Mike's dad, Wayne, who lives in Idaho, walked in the door of a bar to do their bookkeeping and then collapsed.  He had no heartbeat and wasn't breathing.  Luckily someone there knew how to do CPR and Wayne suddenly revived, making jokes and saying he couldn't go to the hospital because he had to go feed his dog.  They took him in an ambulance anyway, of course, and then someone called to tell us what happened.  We worried, called the hospital and got very little information, and worried some more. And we prayed.  And then we found out Wayne's going to live and he's getting a pacemaker.  Thank you, Lord.

In the meantime, Baylee cried and wrote this letter to her grandpa that she loves.  (He's the one she talks to using yahoo IM video chat, and chases the dog around with the computer for, so that he can see how much Gibbs is growing.)

Dear Grandpa,

I'm really, really, really worried about you and I'm super, super, super, super glad that there was someone in the bar to help you.  I hope you get well soon and hope the Lord will help you.  I already lost my gerbil and I'm about to have the feeling of losing a person, not a gerbil.  I'm very sad and if you die my tenth birthday will be ruined.  I miss you a lot and hope you get well soon.  Please write or call or yahoo me back so I know you're ok.  I really wish you would live to be 900 like in the Bible.  I hope you get well soon!

Love,

Baylee

Non-Neutonian Fluid

I keep running into non-Neutonian fluid references.  The first time was on Myth Busters.  Then I saw that my friend Jenny had posted pictures of her kids messing around with it.  Finally today I followed a link posted by my sister-in-law to a video showing what happens to non-Neutonian fluid when you put it on a stereo speaker.  That was the last straw.  We had to try this ourselves!  (Not the speaker part, though.  Mike would kill me.)

It's simple.  You mix cornstarch with water until it forms a thin paste, then you play with it!  It's called non-Neutonian because it's a liquid until you apply pressure.  Then it's a solid.  In other words you can scrape it together and as long as you continue to squeeze it'll be a solid ball in your hand.  If you let go it'll run out through your fingers.

The kids loved it.

I think I earned a jewel on my home schooling crown for this.  Although I did make the kids clean it up as best they could.

Free Form Poetry

The thing about getting into the habit
of blogging every day

(NaNoBloMo, I have you to blame for this!)

is that if you miss a day you start feeling uncomfortable,

and if you miss two

(heaven forbid!)

you begin to wonder if

you'll post again.

Ever.

Like maybe you've dried up.

Become an empty husk.

Ironically,

you try to repair the situation

by blogging about not having anything to blog about.

 But then a realization:

Your attempt is even lamer

than if you would've stayed quiet

in the first place.

Because at least with silence you may have cultivated an

air of mystery.

"I'm too busy doing Very Important Things,"

your lack of entries would announce.

And its voice would probably be sort of

sepulchral.

  A nice thought.

Followed quickly by the memory

of writing on Facebook

that you spent your afternoon watching

School of Rock.

And you know.

It's useless.   

Fame Was More Fun

Yesterday Baylee and I hung out together grocery shopping, going to the library, baking brownies, and watching the remake of Fame.  The males of the family, on the other hand, did this:

Blobbed

Remember how Zach went to camp awhile back?  Well, I sent him with a disposable camera and, of course, he didn't take a single picture.  Luckily a man from our church named John went along with the youth group for the week, and he took hundreds of pictures!  Here's a series of Zach being blobbed.

Recommendation

I'm halfway through a novel called The Book Thief, by Markus Zusak.  It's about a young girl in Nazi Germany, but it's told from the point of view of Death.  It's a compelling story with humor and sadness and...just...humanity.  I was thinking tonight that it reminds me a lot of The Grapes of Wrath, not in content exactly, but in the feeling it gives me.  Like I'm reading art, and it's so beautiful and hopeful that it hurts a little.  

One of my favorite things about The Book Thief is that the author speaks in pictures.  That is, he describes an action or an emotion by comparing it to something completely different and unexpected, yet you're left thinking, yes, that's exactly how it is.  Here's a scene where the main character, eleven year old Liesel, finds out that someone has lost a child, and she tries to respond to the woman's grief:

...two giant words were struggled with, carried on her shoulder, and dropped as a bungling pair at Ilsa Hermann's feet. They fell off sideways as the girl veered with them and could no longer sustain their weight.  Together, they sat on the floor, large and loud and clumsy.

*** TWO GIANT WORDS***

I'M SORRY

      

                                                              The Book Thief, pg 146

I really love this book.

Things That Made Me Laugh in the Last 24 Hours

I've been watching Gordon Ramsay's Great Escape over the past few weeks.  It's a show on the BBC about how master chef Gordon Ramsay (from Hell's Kitchen) goes to India to learn to cook their food and to experience their culture.  I can't help it; I like Gordon Ramsay.  Listening to him talk is like taking a brain beating, but he's funny and sort of sensitive in his own way.  Anyway, on last night's episode Gordon went to an ashram to learn to cook vegetarian style from a famous guru.  The guru wanted to give Gordon the full ashram experience during his 2-day stay, so right away he had Gordon doing all sorts of stuff, from touring the grounds to eating on the floor in total silence while sitting Indian style (Oh, so that's why they call it that!) to going to bed early.  Then in the morning they took him to a "sacred" pool where people were standing quietly in freezing cold water, meditating.  The guru told Gordon it would do him some good to get in there, too, so Gordon, game for just about anything, did.  It looked at first like he might get used to the cold and then settle down somewhere, but nope.  He started doing laps!  In a sacred pool!  With people standing around trying to meditate!  There he was, plowing up and down doing the crawl stroke.  The guru actually laughed, and so did I.


This morning Drew got into an loud argument with Baylee and Rachel in the TV room.  I went in to break it up, and since Zach was standing nearby he followed me in there, too, out of curiosity.   After figuring out what they were fighting over, I told Drew to go to his bedroom and stay there until I gave him permission to join the family again.  Drew walked away quietly and shut the TV room door on his way out. There.  Done.  Control restored.  Then I tried to leave.  That little bugger had locked us all in!  We stood there shocked for a second, then the girls burst into laughter, Zach calmly walked over and sat on the couch, and I started banging on the door.  "Drew!!!  Get back here and open this door right now!!!  Drew!!!"  In his defense he didn't wait too long.  Within a minute he opened the door and stood there grinning, the naughty little stinker.  I managed to not laugh long enough to escort him to his room, where he stayed for a good hour.  

Drew's Magic Trick

Despite the booing, this was actually a pretty good trick!

Make video montages at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Mostly School Related

Yesterday I got the rest of our curricula in the mail, and realized after staring at it for about ten minutes that I ordered ALL the wrong stuff for Zach.  See, in order to afford his high school courses I'm buying everything in increments.  (The Lighthouse Christian Academy is set up so it's easy to do that if you want.  Each subject is split into 12 parts, which you can buy together or individually.)  I have no idea why, but the website I bought the program from has their 9th grade material listed out of order.  I wasn't paying any attention, so I ended up choosing from the middle of the year in every subject.  It took me awhile to figure it out, too.  I was like, "Weird.  I wonder why New Testament Survey starts with Romans.  And, huh, Algebra seems to assume the student knows a lot already.  And why does the biology textbook not match the DVD series?"  Dang it.  Anyway, I ordered what I really need, and I'll save this stuff for later.

Speaking of school, Baylee got her things in the mail, too, and last night she looked it all over and decided to get started on a couple subjects.  Isn't she cute being all studious in her jammies?

This year she's using Accelerated Christian Education, because I love ACE for 4th grade.  It's gentle, yet thorough.  Plus I'm very familiar with it, since I used it for the boys.  Baylee gets to start doing fun science experiments at this level, as well as social studies projects.  She'll be learning about different countries of the world by studying missionaries who worked in them.  She'll be reviewing multiplication and getting a good handle on division.  She'll be studying the parts of speech.  She gets to read six books, one of which is Charlotte's Web.  Besides that, she'll continue on with the Pioneer Girls program at church, and possibly get involved in drama classes for kids somewhere in the city.  We're looking at Seattle Children's Theater and a Christian place called Taproot.  All in all I think she's going to have a great 4th grade experience.

And here are two other random pictures:

The girls playing with dollhouse stuff yesterday afternoon.  Rachel's starting 4th grade this year, too, so she and Baylee have a lot of the same interests.

 And here they are playing Monopoly this morning with Drew.  It'll be strange when school starts and we don't have extra kids around all the time.

He's Reverting

This morning Mike was telling me about where he took the dog on a walk.  "We went to a park that had two big pawns out in the woods."

"Pawns?"

"Yeah, twin pawns.  Gibbs loved it."

"..."

"And then we..."

"Hold on.  Pawns???  Like a chessboard?  Two giant pawn statues out in the woods somewhere?"

"No, not pawns!  Pawns!"

"Pawns?"

"P-O-N-D-S!  Pahhhhhhhhhnds!"

 "Hahahahaha!  Oh!  Ponds!"

 Sigh.  I'm married to such a foreigner.  Three and a half years back in his home state and he's reverting in a most disgraceful manner.

In other news, isn't this a cute picture?  

Games on a Summer Day 

Nothing Says Old Lady Like...

"Honey, I'm planning to fill my new curio cabinet with little glass animals."

[This is an inside joke referring back to the worst play I was ever in.  The whole experience was so bad that I wish I could wipe it from my memory.  Just thinking about it makes me cringe between my shoulder blades.]

"Ahh.  Your menagerie."  [See?  He got it right away.  He's good like that.]

"Exactly."

"The first step on the road to spinsterhood."

"Which?  Owning a curio cabinet or the glass animals?"

"The animals." 

"Well, it doesn't matter anyway, because I was just kidding.  I'm actually filling it with Precious Moments figurines!"

[Umm...no.  But he knew that.  Many years ago I went into a bachelor's pad expecting it to be sort of stinky and gross, but found instead that it was spotless and filled with doilies and Precious Moments figurines.  It was so bizarre!  It looked exactly like an old lady's house, and not the comfy kind of old lady that bakes cookies, either.  I told Mike all about it the minute I got back home and we had a good chuckle.]

The truth is I have nothing to put in my new curio cabinet.  It'll be devoid of curiosities.  How sad is that?  On the bright side, it's comforting to be with someone for so long that you have shared memories going back as far as 19 years.

Simple Woman's Daybook

For Today ~ August 17, 2010

Outside my window... it's been in the high 90s for days.  I guess a couple heat records were even broken this week, but I've thoroughly enjoyed it.

I am thinking... about how we got the first new piece of curriculum in the mail yesterday. It's the ACE biology course on a set of DVDs.  I watched bits of the first one, including the labs, and I'm impressed!  The rest of our schoolbooks should be arriving in the mail tomorrow.

I am thankful for... all the cool opportunities the kids have had this summer.  Last night Zach got home from the camping trip to Mount St Helens.  He had a GREAT time!  He said they walked the entire length of the Ape Cave lava tube, which runs along underground for 2 1/2 miles.  He said in some spots he had to get down and crawl, and in others it opened up into a huge space.  I couldn't do it; my claustrophobia would never let me.   Or maybe I could do it, and then they'd lead me out the other side drooling and babbling.

From the learning rooms... School begins for us on September 1, but we're going to do a staggered start this year.  That is, we'll do one subject the first day, two the second, and so on until we're running at full speed.  Public schools around here don't start until the 7th or 8th, so it works out about the same.  This will give us a little time to acclimate to the shock, and it will make it so all Zach's tests don't fall on the same day.  

From the kitchen... I have no idea what we'll have tonight for supper, except that it will be diet friendly. I'm back on the Weight Watchers wagon after several weeks this summer of trying to be an "intuitive eater."  That's a fancy way of saying "eat when you're hungry and stop when you're full."  I'd love to be able to do that, but what I discovered about myself is I need more boundaries.  I need a good solid fence around me telling me exactly how many points I can have in a day, otherwise I start feeling anxious and deprived.  That's weird, isn't it?  Too much freedom makes me fretful, whereas I can relax into a stricter system.  There's some sort of fascinating psychological phenomenon going on there, I'm sure.  Maybe something Freudian!  My college Psychology professor did tell me, because I couldn't stop chewing on pens and pencils, that I'm stuck in the oral stage.  Anyway, like my friend Melissa said, "Intuitive eating is a great idea, but if we could do that we wouldn't be overweight in the first place."

I am reading... right now I'm reading a mystery.  The Book Thief is at the library, though, waiting for me to pick it up.  Oh, that reminds me.  The other day I bought one of my very favorite books from childhood for Baylee.  I loved it so much when I was around her age that I read and reread the cover right off.  It's called Yours 'Till Niagara Falls, Abby. 

I am hoping...that the refrigerator repairman who's coming today to fix the ice maker does his job quickly.  I kinda hate having repairmen in the house.  They're always nice, it's just I don't know them.

I am hearing...kids playing.  Baylee has Rachel over and Drew has Doctor. 

Around the house...it's tidy because I spent yesterday cleaning the huge mess leftover from the busy weekend.  It was worth it, though.  We had such a nice time hearing Drew play on stage on Friday, going to Ocean Shores on Saturday, and then spending Sunday with Patty that it almost felt like a mini vacation.

Here's a picture thought I'm sharing...

Hartstene Island, 2009

 

To see the Daybooks of others, go here.

Almost That Time

I don't think there's any more big summer events on the agenda, so now it's time to start getting excited for what fall will bring:  School!  I've order the curricula, gotten our shelves cleaned off and organized, and now it's just a matter of time.


I already shared what Zach's 9th grade year will look like.  Now today I'll tell you what Drew will be doing.


Drew ~ 7th Grade:


Grammar:  Easy Grammar Plus.  I really like the way this series teaches the parts of speech.  For instance, it tells the child to identify and block off prepositional phrases first before trying to find the subject and verb.  Stuff like that is so useful, and yet so few grammar programs teach that way.


Spelling:  Sequential Spelling.  We own this on DVD, so I'm not the teacher.  Yay!


Literature and Writing:  Accelerated Christian Education's Creative Writing and Literature.  This is a great program that uses books the child reads throughout the year to teach literature and writing concepts.


Math:  Teaching Textbooks 7.  I used this for Zach and loved it.  Besides, I already own it.


History:  This year Drew will be doing two different things for history.  First he'll be doing a semester of "career study," which isn't really history as much as social studies.  He'll read about lots of different jobs out there, and what sorts of personalities and talents a person might have that would lead toward various careers.  I think he'll enjoy it.  Then in the second semester of the year he'll study Washington state history with a DVD-rom I'm planning to buy.


Science:  Apologia General Science.  Drew will do the first half of the program, which is Earth science.  


Also, Drew will start Jr high youth group at church and he'll continue his music lessons on the guitar.  Hopefully we'll add piano lessons at some point, too.

Sunday with Family

Today we went to Patty's house to meet her 15 year old exchange student, Umi, and to relax and enjoy family.  Baylee really took to Umi (who's from Japan, by the way), playing all sorts of games with her and pretty much talking her ear off.  It was a really nice afternoon.

Baylee and Umi playing Mancala.  It was the game of the day.  I think everyone played a round or two.

Beautiful Patty.

Mike thowing food for Gibbs to catch.  It's the only trick he's really good at.  I mean Gibbs, not Mike.

Mike and I playing Mancala.  He didn't know how so I taught him, but I kept leaving critical pieces of information out by accident, then filling him in just before I took a bunch of his pieces.  "Oh, by the way..."  Finally I just let him know that I teach games on a need to know basis.

Baylee showing Umi how to play hopscotch.  Umi was a really good sport, especially considering it was in the high 90s outside.  

PS:  Drew was there, too, but I didn't end up getting a good picture of him.  Zach's away on that camping trip.

Impulsive

Yesterday, totally spur of the moment, we decided to take a 2 hour drive to the ocean. We packed some picnic stuff, got bathing suits on, and off we went!  I've said this before, but going to the beach in the Pacific Northwest is a completely different experience than deciding to hang out by Lake Michigan for the day.  Here things are wild, cold, foggy, and beautiful in a different way.  And Ocean Shores, where we went today, is especially different because cars are allowed to go right down by the water.  I think part of the beach is actually considered a road.  Plus there are horses and mopeds and weird car-like things you pedal.  It's a fun time.


Now I have to get in bed (It's 1AM on Sunday morning.  I'm not tired because I slept in the car on the way home from the beach.), since Zach's leaving for his camp-out on Mount St Helens (They're going to explore something called the Ape Cave Lava Tube.  Doesn't that sound exciting?) really early in the morning, and I want to get up and give him a big hug before he goes.  Night!

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Call Me Ishmeal

Tonight, to celebrate Drew's concert, we all went to a restaurant here in Seattle called Casper's.  Drew requested it because it's the place to go to get fun, weird Southern food.  They have ribs, red beans and rice, fried catfish, sweet tea in Mason jars, alligator, sweet potato fries, and frog legs, among lots of other things.  Last time Drew got the frog legs and told us they tasted like a cross between fish and chicken, and this time he was hoping to try another strange dish.  After studying the menu awhile he made his decision.


"Mom" he said, "I want to try the fried whale."


"What?"


"The fried whale.  Look here!  It says fried orca."  He scooted his menu toward me, pointing.


Oh dear.  "Umm...that says 'fried okra', buddy."


After we laughed our heads off Drew admitted his thought process in making that meal choice.  He said since whales are on the endangered species list he was hoping to get a taste "while they still last." 

Rock Band Camp Concert

This was so much fun!  I couldn't be more proud of Drew.

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Tired

Last night at about 11:30 or so, when everything was calm and quiet and all the kids were in bed, something slammed into the glass on one of the French doors in our bedroom. And I mean slammed.  My first thought was that it was a rock, but then I decided it sounded more thuddy than a rock, maybe it was a baseball bat.  As soon as it happened I froze for a second trying to decide what to do, then I grabbed the phone and called Mike, who (of course, because all bad things always happen when he's gone) was away on an overnight business trip to Portland.  While I had him on the line I got up the nerve to lift the blinds and see what was going on in the backyard, and I discovered that part of the window and a little section of the house was covered in...I couldn't tell.  Something juicy with chunks.  Tomato?  Some other vegetable?  Zach's the one who figured it out.  He came out of his room to see what all the fuss was and immediately solved the mystery:  Apple.  There's an apple tree in our backyard, which right now is filled with big, beautiful, delicious apples.  Someone picked one from the tree, or more likely picked one off the ground, and threw it at the house.  Hard.  I'm shocked it didn't shatter the window.  Mike wanted me to call the police, but I just couldn't see myself dialing 911 and talking about apples.  (Yeah, I know, I should've.  Mike's already told me so and so has my friend, Melissa.)  Anyway, nothing else happened all night except I was really scared and couldn't fall asleep until about 4am.  We're pretty sure it was a weird, random thing probably done by teens.  There's a high school right by our house and students often hang out there, even in the summer.  We've never had any trouble with the school before, but who knows.  I'm just glad Mike's coming home tonight.


Sue


PS:  On a much more fun note, there's a bottle of Axe shampoo in our shower.  Just this morning I was looking at it and I noticed it says "Get girl-approved hair!" on the label.  I didn't think about it again until a few minutes ago when Zach walked up to me, arranging his bangs, and said, "Hey, Mom?  Would you say my hair is...approved?"  LOL!  I told him it is.  

I'm Still Bedraggled

I had just been thinking that I was almost done with my work for the day.  The house was clean, supper was in the oven, all the kids were home.  I even went so far as to ponder what I was going to do with my free time.  Then I looked out the window into the backyard and saw a huge dirt tornado.  See, we haven't had much rain lately and our forest-like grass-less yard is BIG TIME dusty.  Zach must've noticed this and said to himself, "You know what would be fun?  Twirling around in a circle, dragging a broom in the dirt, stirring up clouds of dust!"  So that's what he did, while Drew and the dog danced and played in the billows.  By the time I realized what was going on it had become a towering wall of floating filth, about 20 feet high and 30 feet around.  I'm not proud to admit it, but I became that mom.  I'm talking about that mom the whole neighborhood hears.  "What are you doing?!  Stop!!!!!!  STOP!!!!!!!!!!!  Oh my gosh, I'm so mad at you guys!!!!!  Get in the house!!!!!"  All three of them, black with dirt, slunk inside.  Well, the dog didn't exactly slink.  The boys slunk in and took showers, while the dog happily trotted in and managed to walk over and lie on every square inch of the carpet before I could capture him and give him a bath.


Did you know washing a dog isn't as easy as one is led to believe?  Mike said when I called him (Here's how that conversation went:  "I need to give the dog a bath.  Don't even ask why; I'm too mad to talk about it.  Is there anything I should know?") that the dog would hop into the tub by himself and then stay there until the bath was over.  He lied.  By the time it was all said and done I was filthy and soaking wet; the bathroom tub, walls, and floor were spotted with mud; there were damp, dirty towels laying in heaps; and I'm not even sure the dog got all that clean.


Calgon take me away.  But in somebody else's tub.  Mine's still a disaster, along with the patio, the barbecue, the windows, and the entire backside of the house.

Just Family

Since last we talked about the Double Rainbow video, I've forced my entire family to watch it.  The one who enjoyed it the most was Zach, the 15 year old.  He laughed through the whole thing. This might speak to the level of my own sense of humor, or it could mean Zach is very sophisticated.  Yeah, I think it's the latter.

I just finished a great book.  It's called Mimus and it was originally written in German.  The translation was flawless, though, as far as I could tell.  It didn't feel clunky at all.  Set in the Middle Ages, it's the story of two warring kingdoms.  Early on in the book one kingdom deceives the other and manages to capture its king and prince and hold them as prisoners.  The bulk of the 400 pages is about what happens to the captured prince, who is forced to become a court jester as an insult.  It was such a great story of the depth of people, how there's always more to someone than meets the eye.  It was one of those books that made me lose sleep because I couldn't put it down at night, and now I'm in that little grieving process that comes when you finish a story you love and there's no more.  The author is Lilli Thal.

Yesterday when Mike got home from work he laid down on the bed to chat with me while I sat here at the desk, and within two minutes this happened:

Daddy's home! 

Time to get some housework done before I have to pick up Drew from camp.  Hope today was as fun for him as yesterday!

Drew's Big Adventures

This weekend Drew and Mike went to a free Seahawks practice and had a great time.  Drew said all the players were like Superman in their ability to kick, catch, and tackle.  "And you could hear the tackles, Mom."  Eww.  

Make video montages at www.OneTrueMedia.com

And today Drew started rock band camp at the Seattle Drum School of Music.  He goes all week from 9am-2pm.  I love that it's a day camp, because it means I get to hear about every new day right after it happens.  Today he told me that the school divided all the campers up into three different bands, one made of older teens and the other two made up of everyone else.  Drew's band has 3 drummers (They must have a surplus.), 1 singer, 1 bass guitarist, and 1 lead guitarist.  Drew's the lead guitarist.  They spent most of their time writing an original song to perform at the concert on Friday.  Drew played what they've got so far and I think it sounds pretty good considering it  was written by a bunch of 12 year old boys!  What's cool is that Drew has a real voice in the group.  I can tell because the intro to that song is something he came up with here at home several months ago.  I guess the group decided to start with that and build the entire song around it.  To be honest I'm surprised at Drew's ability to jump into a situation like this...one in which a teacher is saying stuff like, "So we  have these bass notes, now what can you play to go with that?"...and he can actually do it.  I can't really even wrap my mind around it.  Anyway, I'm pretty proud of that kid.  Here's word-for-word one of things he said to me about today's experience:


It's fun, you know why?  Because you're doing the thing you love the most the whole time.  And other people are doing it with you. I can't wait to go back tomorrow.