Beach Day!

Yesterday actually...

Trouble

As a kid I was always a rule follower, especially outside the house.  In elementary school I only got in real trouble once.  (Mom, if you're reading this, it's new info.  I figured it was in my best interest back then not to tell you and Dad about it.)  When I was in 6th grade I was provoked by a mean girl one day at recess, so I said something unkind back to her.  She pushed me down.  I got up and pushed her, and suddenly...we didn't get into a fight.  Instead, a large hand clapped down on my shoulder.  The recess monitor, a big man, had both of us in his grip, and he marched us to the principal's office.

I remember the wait was just about the worst part.  We had to sit on a wooden bench outside the office for so long that the other girl and I, even though we didn't like each other, started to make small talk.  Another thing that happened while we waited was the school secretary looked at me and shook her head sadly.  She said something like, "I'm so surprised and sad to see you here.  This isn't like you at all."  Ouch!  But she was right.  Like I said, I was a rule follower and a teacher's pet.

Finally the principal called us into his office.  I was nervous, because this was back in the day when they did school spankings.  In my mind that would've been the most mortifying thing that could possibly happen.  Sure enough, there was a paddle hanging on the wall behind the desk.  The principal started out by asking us to explain why we were there.  Pam, the other girl, went first.  Her version was more than a little slanted in her direction, but she didn't tell him the exact thing I called her, so I made an on-the-spot decision to leave well enough alone.  When the principal asked me for my side I just meekly told him that Pam got it right.  In the end he simply talked to us for a bit about getting along in the future, and he made us shake on it.  Pam, who was a hefty girl, squeezed the living daylights out of my hand.  I kept smiling and didn't give any indication that she was crippling me, and then we left.

The only other time I got into a bit of trouble was in college.  I went to a small Christian Bible college where there were rules and consequences for breaking them.  When I was a junior Mike and I were caught making out behind the gym one night.  That's all we were doing!  Just kissing.  But that type of public display of affection was totally verboten.  (It wouldn't have been public if it wasn't for that pesky night watchman who stumbled upon us, but what are you gonna do?)  I was an RA at the time, too, so that made it especially bad.  I was supposed to set a good example.  I can't remember what happened to Mike, but I was talked to by the women's RD.  Maybe there was some sort of discipline beyond that, but if there was I have no memory of it.

I brought all that up because something (kinda minor, but still) happened last week with one of the kids, and it wasn't in our home.  (Something, that is, besides the coloring page incident.)  Maybe I'll talk about it at some point.  It got me thinking, though, about personalities...about what we pass along to our children and what they are all on their own.  Long, roundabout story short:  Parenting is hard work, isn't it???

 

 

This and That about the Boys

We got the proofs for Zach's senior pics and we're really happy with them!  Now to choose which ones we like the most.

Drew played a couple songs in church this morning as part of the worship team.  He did a good job.

The boys are going to camp today!  They're packed and they have their costumes for the theme dinner/contest at the end of the week.  The theme this year, by the way, is "outer space."  Drew and his friends Ethan and Nick put hours and hours of work into making their combined costume.  It's the Starship Enterprise.

Zach didn't put quite as much work into his.  He's going as a black hole.  LOL

The only problem with today being camp day is that Drew has come down with a really bad cold.  I almost feel like I shouldn't send him, but hopefully he'll be okay.  This was him as of a few minutes ago.  We got home from church and he fell asleep on the living room floor among the suitcases and sleeping bags.

In other news, unrelated to camp, Zach has a new bike!  Actually, it's Mike's old one.  Zach outgrew his, which we bought for him when he was 14, so he sold it, made a nice profit, and used that money to buy this one from Mike.  Then he took it to the bike shop and paid to have it completely fixed up and fitted to him.  He's excited to be able to ride again.

Weather Predictor

A couple evenings ago we were at the VBS picnic and the people at my table were talking about old wounds that now act as weather predictors.  Like one of the women said that the arthritis in her knees flairs up before big temperature changes.  Anyway, it reminded me of a story I've never told here.  (It seems like I've been doing "tales from the crypt vault" a lot lately.  I hope you guys don't mind.)

When I was 12 years old my brother, sister, and I had a babysitter one day.  Now this babysitter wasn't some teenager, but an older woman who was a friend of my mom's.  (Her maturity comes into play later.)  At some point that afternoon she must've been distracted by my toddler sister, because my 9 year old brother and I were fighting like cats and dogs, and she wasn't doing anything to stop it.  It got to the point where Eric decided to lock me in my bedroom.

The problem was that the solid oak door didn't even have a lock on the inside, much less on the outside, so he had to improvise.  I sat across the room on my bed and watched as he took his belt off and tied it to the doorknob.  His plan, I guess, was to hold the door shut by pulling on the belt.  To make it especially dramatic, though, he thought he'd slam the door first.  He got the belt securely around the doorknob, gave it a massive tug, and...chopped his own finger off.

Without realizing it he had his other hand wrapped around the hinge side, so that when he pulled the belt and slammed the door it acted like a guillotine.  It didn't take off the entire middle finger, but it removed a large section.  I remember seeing it on floor.  It was very white.

Our babysitter should've won some kind of award.  She kept her cool, wrapped Eric's hand in a cloth, picked up the finger and stuck it in a baggie of ice, and took him to the ER.  The doctor there was able to sew it back on and all's well that end's well, although that finger, which should be the longest, was and still is shorter than the fingers on either side of it.  And, to tie in with my original point, it hurts him when the weather gets cold.



PS:  Right after it happened my parents, of course, wanted the whole story.  I told them I was on the other side of the room, sitting on my bed, watching Eric do this to himself.  (Although I didn't realize what was going to happen.)  I never wavered from that, because it was the absolute truth of the matter, and eventually my mom and dad accepted it.  Years and years went by and all of us kids grew up.  One holiday we were all sitting around talking about old family stories, and Eric's finger catastrophe came up.  I can't remember if it was my mom or dad, but one of them said to me, "Okay, what really happened???"

I was like, "Wait, what?!  I already told you!   I was across the room, sitting on my bed, and he chopped his own finger off."  Tsk!!!  Sheesh.

Tired

Whew!  VBS is finally over!  That was utterly exhausting, which is why when I got home today I fell back into bed and slept like the dead for 3 hours.  Working at VBS is just tiring, but it was worse this year because I got up at 5:30 in the morning every day.  That's the middle of the night, people, especially when you don't adjust your bedtime to accommodate it.  Ahem.  I got up then, though, because I wanted to give myself enough time to go over my Bible lesson a couple more times in the morning and have coffee, and we had to be at church pretty early for Drew's rehearsal.  Anyway!  The nap felt good.

This weekend is going to be about shopping for a few things on Saturday, so the boys are ready for camp, and then taking them to camp on Sunday.  They'll be gone for a week.

Oh, I just remembered something funny that happened today.  When we were leaving VBS Baylee and Rachel went out to the car first, because they were ready to go before Drew and me.  Finally we joined them with Drew's guitar and amp and all my teaching stuff.  Somehow in getting everything and ourselves situated, someone bumped the panic button on the key fob and our car started honking REALLY LOUDLY.  The thing was, none of us could find the key!  The girls had it, but they didn't remember where they put it, and whoever bumped it didn't know what they were doing when it happened.  We searched for that thing frantically for I'd say 3 minutes, which is a very long time when you're embarrassed, until finally I saw the key in a mesh pocket behind one of the backseats.  When I finally figured out how to make the honking stop the whole parking lot full of people whooped and clapped.

 

Parenting

I had one of those "I'm going to kill you" parenting moments today.

See, our VBS has a nice, quiet area set aside for leaders and other staff to take a short break.  There's food there, usually there are other staff to talk to, and it's just a welcome little breather.  My good friend Beth is running it this year.  On top of all the great food she's preparing, she also came up with the idea to have a table with coloring books and crayons on it, and to have a coloring contest.  If you want you can color a picture, then hang it in a special area.  I guess there's probably a prize at the end of the week.  Anyway, yesterday Drew and a few of his friends were sitting at this coloring table, and Drew decided to turn his picture into a flier for a medical marijuana clinic, complete with a 1-800 number.  (1-800-420-WEED).  Then he hung it up to be judged.

Today Beth found me and told me all about it, and she wasn't happy.  After listening to her and telling her how sorry I was that it happened...and feeling really embarrassed!...I went over, took it down, and threw it away.  Then I found Drew in the middle of the game he was leading, pulled him aside, and quietly laid into him.  I told him to go apologize to poor Beth, which (Beth told me) he did very contritely.

On the bright side, over the course of this week I've gotten several really nice compliments about him.  Other adult staff are telling me that he's doing a great job both in the band and as a leader of games.  That's good anyway.  Sigh.

PS:  When we got home from VBS I told Mike what happened, and he made Drew explain it all to him.  In the course of that it came out that Drew had taken a picture of his drawing with his iPod.  Here it is...

Supper Catastrophe

Let's see.  I don't have very much today, but I do have this...

And I've got a story:

Last night I made rice and orange chicken for supper.  That sounds fancy, but really it's chicken nuggets in an orange sauce, and you can buy it at Costco.  Anyway, so we were getting ready to eat, but I also wanted to catch up on a show, so I told the kids that we could have our meal in the TV room just for something different and fun.  I found a nice comfy spot in the middle of the couch and was settling in for some mindless entertainment, when Zach came over and asked to sit on the couch, too. He stood next to and kind of over me, waiting for me to scootch and make room for him, when suddenly and without warning (and I cannot stress the "suddenly" and the "without warning" part enough) he lost his grip on his heaping plate of piping hot food, and it dumped all over me.  For real, I had rice and orange from hair to socks.  I jumped up, causing chicken nuggets to fly, yelled at him (not proud of that part, but even Mother Teresa would've been hard pressed), and made my way toward the bathroom.  Not cool, man.  I had to take an entire shower.      

VBS

Yesterday VBS started, and Drew, Baylee, and I are all involved in it in some way or another.  I'm the Bible teacher for the really little kids, and then I stick around and help take care of them for the rest of the time, since the leaders in that area are a little shorthanded this year.

Drew is in the band, and after that he's a game leader.

And Baylee and Rachel are VBSers.

This has been totally different for me, because for years I was a skit person and had practically nothing to do with the kids.  Now I'm right in the trenches, so to speak.  I like it a lot, despite (or maybe because of) the fact that dealing with 3-5 year olds is like herding cats.  They're unpredictable!  If you don't watch them like a hawk, they go where they please, and they say whatever comes to their mind.  I had one little girl tell me that she visited her great-grandmother yesterday.

"Oh," I said, "I bet that was fun!"

"Not really."

It got me thinking about how embarrassing it sometimes is to be a parent of a child that age.  One of our kids spoke clearly and had a fairly large vocabulary pretty early on, and he was always saying mortifying stuff.  Like the time he was three years old and a Sunday school teacher had to pull me aside and ask me politely if I could please get him to stop using the word "anus" in class.*

Sigh.

Anyway, we're having a good, tiring week!



*The fact that he knew that word was totally my fault.  I taught it to him, but only because he blindsided me by asking.  I remember hoping he'd forget, but of course it ended up being one of those things that went straight into his long term memory.   

New Car

We got a new (to us) car!  It's a 2007 Honda Pilot.

It's our first SUV.  I told Mike that I thought it might be the coolest car we've ever owned, but he reminded me of the very first car we bought as a married couple, and he claimed that one was cooler.

I don't know if I ever shared our first car story here.  I don't think I have, because it makes me look awful.  It's the story of the worst disagreement we've probably ever had to this day.   And the bad thing is we were extreme newlyweds at the time...like practically still wearing the tux and wedding dress.

In a nutshell, we needed a car and Mike was the one to go to the dealership and pick it out.  I could've gone with him, but I just didn't have any preference, except one:  Before he left he asked what I wanted, and I said, "I don't care what you get, as long as it's not a stick."

Well, guess what.  He came home with a stick.  It was a textbook case of, "You had one job!"  The issue was that the salesman was offering him a wonderful deal on a great car...etc.  Anyway, I refused to learn to drive it.  We owned it for months and in all that time I never drove.  At first it was anger, but eventually it was fear.  I tried to learn from Mike, but that was a disaster.  He kept telling me stuff about what was happening in the mechanisms of the car, like when I pressed the clutch or whatever, and I couldn't grasp it.  Then I became afraid of stalling at an intersection, or, worse, rolling backwards into the car behind me.  Long story short, Mike ultimately sold that car and bought an automatic.

About ten years later he came home with another stick.  He said, "This is a stick shift.  I'll teach you to drive it or you can ask somebody else, but  you're gonna learn."  This time I accepted that, asked my mom for help, and she taught me in about an hour.  And she didn't tell me a single thing about what was happening under the hood.

Couple Little Things

Yesterday our family went to a graduation open house for some friends from church, and we ended up sitting at the same table as an older couple (not super old...we went to college with their son...but older than us) as we ate and chatted.  Oh my, that was one of the more crazy, macabre conversations I've had in a long time.  I have no idea how it started, but somehow we found ourselves talking about pets and other animals that died terrible deaths.  Of course, we had our hamster stories to contribute, and Mike had the one about the time he was on a riding lawnmower and he accidentally ran over a nest of baby rabbits, but our stories paled in comparison with Dale's.  Wow.  I may never get his chinchilla-in-the-fireplace tale out of my head.  And then there's the one he told about the tow truck driver who came over to his house to tow away a farm truck, and unknowingly pulled the truck right up on top of his sleeping dog's head...then stopped.  (The driver knew he hit something, so he stopped to see what was going on.)  That one ended well, though.  As soon as the driver bumped his way off the dog's head again, the dog shook himself and was totally fine.

In the comments on my last post my friend Kristi reminded me of something Baylee did when she was little.  One day, a long time ago, we went to the beach.  I had a 4, 7, and 10 year old, so my hands were full.  At some point during the day the 4 year old, Baylee, had to go to the bathroom, and I decided to just let her go by herself, rather than call the boys in from the water so we could all walk over to the restroom together.  I could see the bathroom clearly from where I was, and I figured it would be safe.  And it was!  Baylee walked over there, used the facilities, then came out.  The only problem was that when she came out she didn't have a stitch of clothing on.  Buck naked, holding her bathing suit in her hand, she nonchalantly threaded her way back through all the people on the beach.  Folks were giggling and pointing, but she didn't notice or care; she was just her happy self.  Finally she got back to me and I said, "Baylee!  Why aren't you wearing any clothes???"

"Because!" she answered brightly.  "I couldn't get this thing back on!"

LOL  Oh well.

Pictures Taken by Others

Zach and Drew went to a youth group event the other day.  These pictures of it weren't taken by me, but by one of the youth leaders, a guy named John.  He always takes tons of pics, which is awesome.  Here are the ones with the boys in them.

Zach and Drew are in the middle-ish.

That's Drew jumping.

And that's Drew sitting with some friends.

I got a letter from Baylee today!  She said that she's having a great time, but that Duct Tape Crafts is really hard and the cover she made for her Bible is hideous.  LOL  Today the camp had a few more pictures with her in them.  It looks like some of them were taken during Duct Tape Crafts, as a matter of fact.

The camp's craft shack is a yurt.  Seriously.

And this must've been taken during her fitness activity.

Very Scary

Yesterday I was driving through a narrow area of our church's parking lot after picking Zach up from a youth group function, and one of the teen kids in the youth group, being chased by another kid, ran from behind a parked mini van and right in front of my car.  You know how you always hear the phrase "darted out?"  That's exactly how it was.  One second he wasn't there (because he was completely hidden behind that van), and the next second he was.  I hit the brakes and, thank God, did not hit the kid, but it was close.  It took me the rest of the night to get over the shock of it. 

Blah

LOL  Duh.  They should know that's what blogs are for.

Speaking of:  I'm discouraged, but it makes no sense to talk about why, since this isn't an anonymous place.  I'll just say this:  Sometimes the secular world is a kinder, safer, more encouraging place than the Christian world, and that's such a shame that it makes me want to cry.  Actually, it makes me want to throw a huge fit and maybe swear a little bit...then cry.

PS:  I wish I could change the "or" in that meme to "and," because the way it is now is structurally incorrect.

Misc. Today

Something I learned about myself a long time ago:  I'm capable of staring into space and doing absolutely nothing for ridiculous amounts of time.  Along that same line, today as I was walking my 3 miles on the track it occurred to me suddenly that I...I kid you not...had been contemplating the show Big Brother for an entire quarter of a mile.  What does that say about me?  That I'm meditative?  Or maybe not.

Baylee is finally in a picture!

I also got a e-postcard from her counselor, telling me that she's "a joy to have in the cabin" and great at making new friends.  Woo hoo!  Music to a mom's ears, especially the mom of an unsocialized homeschooler.  lol  Also, the activities she chose to do over the course of the week are:  Duct Tape Crafts, Fitness, and Advanced Canoeing. 

Drew sliced open his finger trying to cut up a watermelon with a serrated bread knife yesterday.  For awhile I really thought I might have to take him in to get stitches...and the truth is maybe I should've.  It bled for a long time and completely trashed one of my washclothes, then later it opened up again and wrecked another washcloth, then after another few hours it did it AGAIN.  I think it's okay now.

I mentioned that Zach is doing an internship at the bike shop this summer.  Yesterday he came home from there in really good spirits, because he got to completely dismantle and clean 3 bikes.  He was totally greasy (not teenager greasy, but actual greasy) and he also cut his finger (it was "Hurt Finger Day" apparently), but he wrapped it in duct tape and kept working. 

At Mike's work they're doing a big project with a Japanese name that I can't remember, but it means something like "paring down."  They brought in a Japanese man who's an expert at helping industries cut waste, and is, in fact, considered a Sensei of this process.  Anyway, Mike's been really busy with this, but he said he's enjoying it a lot.   

Slugs and Stuff

I'm starting to miss Baylee like crazy.  It's like I have reverse homesickness.  I "liked" the camp's Facebook page, so I get little snippets of general updates here and there, and some pictures, but so far Baylee isn't really in any of them.  (I think I saw part of her face in one, and she's in the all-camp pic...kinda.)  Sigh.  Rachel's in a picture, though!

This was during a talent show.

 
And here's the silly version of the official camp picture.

Yesterday I woke up, opened the blinds, and saw this.  It's a giant mucus trail left by a slug.  Awesome.  Do you think he started at the top or at the bottom?

Alone At Last

I have the entire house to myself today!  Mike is working days this week, because there's a big project going on and he's a part of it.  Baylee's at camp.  Zach is at work.  Drew is spending the entire day at church, helping get ready for VBS.  In fact, he's going to be there so long that he's having both lunch and supper there.  So...it's just me!  I'm so lame, though, that all I plan to do is clean the house and maybe read a book in the nice silence.

For the past couple weeks I've mentioned to Drew every now and then that he needs to have all his VBS music basically learned by the first rehearsal.  He always told me some variation of, "I know, Mom.  It's fine.  I got it."  Then yesterday I informed him that the rehearsal was the next day and he'd put off learning (or even listening) to most of the songs until it was officially the last minute.  He smiled and said he had it under control.  Sure enough, last night he shut himself in his room, laid out all the music on the floor, cranked the CD of the songs they gave him (about 6 of them), and buckled down.  When he came out awhile later he was tired and totally sweaty, but the job was done!

Make a video - it's fun, easy and free!
www.onetruemedia.com

Camp!

Yesterday after church I drove two very excited girls to camp.  I hope they're having a wonderful time!

More Silliness

A couple days ago Baylee used a voice changer app to make herself sound like a boy.  Then, using that boy voice, she recorded half of a pretend telephone conversation.  Finally, she hit play and did the other half of the phone conversation live...but playing the boy's mother.

Was that really confusing?  LOL  Here it is.  It'll make sense when you watch it.  Just know that's actually Baylee doing both parts.  It's pretty darn funny and worth watching until the end. 

Make a video - it's fun, easy and free!
www.onetruemedia.com

Friday

This'll be short, because we're leaving pretty soon for a movie night at the home of friends.  I feel a little too busy to be honest.  I always feel that way every summer, so it shouldn't surprise me, but it always does.  The days go by quickly and the calendar fills up fast, and before I know it it's halfway through July.  You'd think things would be more leisurely now that we're not doing school every day, but somehow...  *shrug*  Anyway, here are some quick bullet points.

•  A couple evenings ago Baylee and Rachel did a youth group scavenger hunt at the mall, and their team won.  Afterward they all went to Coldstone.  Both girls LOVE youth group.
• Yesterday was Baylee's 12th birthday!  She decided to postpone celebrating it until her brothers are at camp in a couple weeks.  That way she and Rachel will have the whole house to themselves for a sleepover.  lol
• Tomorrow I'm taking Baylee and Rachel out shopping for camp stuff...toiletries, etc...because on Sunday they leave for a week!  They're very excited.
• Weirdly, all my bullet points have been about Baylee and Rachel so far.
• Drew's standardized test scores came in the mail today.  He did well!  He got "well above average" on every single thing except grammar, which he got "average" on.  I'm very pleased!  Sometimes as a homeschooling mom I can't help but wonder if it's really working, you know? That's why getting tests back with good news feels pretty wonderful.
• Yesterday these two posts, by two completely different people with totally opposite worldviews, were right next to each other on my FB page:

Proverbs 12:26, “One who is righteous is a guide to his neighbor…”

It's not always easy to hear the truth, is it? I know it's been hard for me to hear the truth at times. Sometimes, it means I am the one who has to change.

 That friend that speaks truth? Listen to her. Stay connected to her. Let her speak truth into your life even when you’re tired of hearing it. Stand in the shadow of her faith when you feel your own faith is weak. Let her lead you back to God time and time again.

Weird coincidence, right?

• I think that's about it.  I'm still walking.  I'm past only going 10,000 steps in a day, and now get between 11,000-12,000...and often over 12,000!  I'm pretty proud of that.  That's about 6 miles a day. 

Baylee's Movie

Just for fun Baylee made a "horror" movie in and around our house this afternoon.  She enlisted the help of both Drew and I (It was completely her thing, though, don't get me wrong.  We just said and did what she told us.), and we all ended up having a really fun time with it. 

In case it's hard to follow, here's the basic storyline:  A girl named Isabelle used to have a twin named Annabelle, but Annabelle disappeared a couple years ago.  Mysteriously, Isabelle starts seeing Annabelle again, and so she tries to discover what's happening by going to a bookstore and buying some books on twins.  She discovers some horrifying information and things get worse from there.

The movie is about 5 minutes long and it's a little clunky, but it's not bad considering it was the brainchild of an 11 year old, and some of it made me laugh out loud.

Make a video - it's fun, easy and free!
www.onetruemedia.com

Misc. Tuesday Morning

Man, I'm so sunburned from yesterday.  I took a picture of my bright pink legs, but then I decided that would be weird to post.

You know, coming home from a day at a WA beach is like childbirth:  You forget how bad it can be.  We had a wonderful time, but dealing with all the "sand" (what they call sand here is more like a mixture of rocks and dirt) on everyone's clothes and beach towels, in the cooler, in my purse (!), in our shoes, in our hair, and in every nook and cranny of our bodies is horrible.  Maybe I'm not remembering it right, but I swear the wonderful, clean white sand in MI was never this bad.

Our  cat's weird.  This morning I came across him sleeping against a wall.

Day at the Beach

A couple of my girlfriends and I decided a few days ago to take our kids and a bunch of their friends to Jetty Island today.  We all met bright and early, while it was still cold and a little overcast, and got in line for the little foot ferry.  After waiting...and waiting...the person in charge finally told us that the ferry had broken down and wouldn't be fixed for at least an hour and a half, if not longer.  Well.  Standing around wasn't going to happen, so we quickly came up with a Plan B:  Howarth Beach, which wasn't too far away.  I had my doubts at first because of the weather and the unfamiliar (to me) beach, but it turned out to be a wonderful, warm, fun day!  I loved hanging out with my friends, Bethany and Christie, and I loved seeing all the teenagers (and preteens) having fun together.

I had 7 kids riding in my car.  We actually have space and seat belts for that many, but it's a tight squeeze.  Zach and his friend Robbyn volunteered to sit in the "backwards seat."  (There's an area in our station wagon that can either fold down or become a backwards facing seat.  It sounds fun all the way up until you ride on it for awhile.  1.  It's very cramped.  2.  Facing the wrong way makes a lot of people car sick.

The Puget Sound was pretty warm today, which was unexpected and nice.  Everyone had a great time hanging out, eating, talking, and swimming.  They all said they want to do it again soon.

Saturday

For today I've got another fun app to tell you about called Timehop.  You link it to whatever you want:  Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and it will show you what you posted on those sites exactly 1, 2, 3, and so on years ago.  It's fun!

You know I've got this goal for myself to get in at least 10,000 steps a day, right?  Well, yesterday I took 14,662 steps!  That's the equivalent of 7 1/2 miles!  I did a three mile walk in the morning with Mike, I walked two-ish random miles in cleaning the house and stuff during the day, then I went to the track in the evening and walked two more.  BTW, when I'm actually out there walking, like at the track or around the neighborhood, I try not to amble.  I'm up to 3.5 mph, and hope to reach 4mph at some point.  (Just for a frame of reference, 5mph is like crazy-speedwalker-who-should-probably-just-take-up-jogging.)  I know people are probably thinking, "Yeah, big deal.  You walk.  That's not REAL exercise!" but I don't care.  I like it.  I like being outside for a part of everyday, I like seeing the neighborhood, I like spending time with my family who comes with me, and I like that my legs are getting muscular.    

Lax

Okay, wow, I've been totally lax.  I have no good excuse unless you count doing lots of reading, watching a bit of reality TV, going on walks, and generally loving summer.

Something I LOVE lately:  An online game called QuizCross!  If Tic-Tac-Toe and Trivial Pursuit had a baby, it would be QuizCross.  Rules:  You get 3 trivia questions to answer per square.  If you get even one of them correct, the square is yours.  If you get 3 squares across, down, or diagonal, you win.  But!  If you don't answer all three questions in a square right, your opponent can steal it from you by doing better.  There are catagories in science, geography, history, music, sports, and general trivia.  Fun, right?!  You can play with friends, family, or random folks.  Mike and I had a little competition going this afternoon.  The problem with us is that we're pretty equally matched (ie we're both geniuses).  He won one game, I won one, and we had a draw on the third.

Conversation Tonight...

Baylee:  Who wants to French kiss?
Family:  [crickets]
Me:  I don't think you know what you're saying.
Baylee:  Isn't it when you touch cheeks and go, "Mwuh, mwuh?"
Me:  No.  It's when you put your tongue in someone's mouth when you're kissing them, and they do the same to you.
Baylee:  Oh.  Eww!  No wonder no one ever wants to!  ...Have you done that?!

We didn't do anything much on the 4th of July, because Mike had to work the holiday and weekend, but we did have an amazing meal, which he prepared.  (I'm spoiled!)

The other day Drew was playing X-box Live* with a kid in Olympia, only they weren't actually playing a video game.  They were using the headphones and the mics in order to play chess together.  Each had his own chess board, they'd describe their moves to each other based on a labeled (with little pieces of paper) grid, then they'd move for each other.  It was neat!

We're making our annual pilgrimage to Jetty Island next week!  I'm excited!

*That's when you have a headset with a microphone, and you can play video games with other people around the world.  You see their character on the screen, and you can hear and talk with them.  Drew and Zach are very different in the way they approach X-Box Live.  Zach handles it like I would if I were young, male, and into video games.  That is, he has a small circle of friends that he knows fairly well, and he only plays with them.  Drew is much more open about it.  His favorite people to play with are from different countries.  He's got a group of boys in Scotland that he often has a good time with, for instance.  What's kinda cool is that while they're playing, they don't just talk about the game.  They talk about their different cultures, food, sayings, etc.  Drew's learned a lot.