Sing, Sing, Sing (Or Not)

A recent conversation I had with Theron (my 12 year old) after he made a phone call to his friend:

Theron:"The reason I went into another room is so Aiden wouldn't hear you singing...no offense. It's just that no one else's mom really sings. Well, I guess except Nancy. She sings sometimes. I mean, not like a hobby or anything. She's not in a choir or anything. She just sings sometimes when she's doing stuff."
Me: "Oh, you mean like I do?"
Theron: "Well, sort of. But she sings way different songs than you."
Me: (curiosity piqued) "What kind of songs?"
Theron: "Well, you know: this-year songs... no offense."

...I've officially become uncool.

Wish List

Top three items on Vivian's wish list today:

1. A pink diamond
2. A pondo (condo)
3. Some pink silly willy (silly putty)

Eenie Meenie Miney Moe

Choosing a husband is pretty serious business, and Vivian has clearly been putting some thought into it lately. Her first hopes were dashed recently when she learned she couldn't marry Aunt Beccah - but she did get a picture with the bride as a consolation prize.

This afternoon while riding in the car, she was listing her choices and the boys were shooting her down left and right.

Dad? Nope, already taken. Plus it's illegal. And uncouth.
Hyrum? Nope, he's probably going to marry Mia.
Aiden? Nope, he's a relative. (Although this one actually could be legit, since they're like twentieth cousins or something.)

Exasperatedly sighing and rolling her eyes, she glanced out the window, pointed out a random jogger, and said, "Fine. I'll just marry that guy then."

Ummm...no rush, baby girl. You have plenty of time.

Crafty is Not My Middle Name

I'm not a natural crafter, but somehow I've found myself in charge of a few craft projects lately so I'm adapting. One thing I will say is that I'm very good at reading instructions. I can assemble a piece of furniture from the most poorly worded/translated directions and wield a keyboard and mouse with expertise.

Being the end of the school year, and having tapped the parents dry already for various school fundraisers and class projects, I needed to come up with a cheap but cool/meaningful end of year gift. I snuck into the school on a day the teacher was sick, snapped photos of the kids, and had each of them write a thank you note. (Some of the girls, inevitably more crafty than I, embellished their notes with rocks, feathers, beads, erasers, and other bits of flotsam they had in their desks. Presented a bit of a challenge in fitting them into an album, but we worked it out.) I planned to cover two pieces of cardboard with cute paper,  punch a few holes, and tie it all together with ribbon. At the last minute I decided to go for something cuter, so I bought some felt and embroidery floss, googled instructions for a back stitch and blanket stitch, and came up with this:

I'm not going to admit how much time I spent on it, because that would probably ruin my bragging.

In other news, I signed up to donate three cakes for the school carnival's cake walk. Three didn't seem like a lot at the time I signed up, but on the actual day of the carnival I found myself wondering what I had done. Rather than mess with success, I decided to just make three of my same cake from last year. I even used a little math, calculating the circumference of my cake pans, multiplying by 3 pans, then dividing by the length of a kit kat bar to determine the number of kit kats I needed to buy. See how helpful 6th grade math can be? By the time I was done, my kitchen looked like this:

















and the cakes looked like this:

They sold quickly - I guess you can't really go wrong with chocolate frosted chocolate wrapped in chocolate with extra chocolate poured on top. My condolences to the parents of the winners.

Anyway, there's my super crafty week in a nutshell. Thank goodness for google, and thank goodness for summer vacation.

In the Middle

It's a little bittersweet, watching your kids grow up. I guess Theron is either a big little boy or a little big boy these days. He seems so grown up sometimes, carrying on conversations and such; then when I check on  him at night before I go to bed, I'll notice that he still has little boys hands and sleeps burrowed down into a nest of pillows and his childhood blanket. It's an interesting mix, and one I'm guessing won't last too long. Today I offered to pay him to mow the lawn (he's saving up for a keyboard) and he just went right out and did it. He donned the safety glasses that came with a nerf dartgun (see - still my little boy!), got the mower out of the shed, started it up, and went at it all by himself. (I can see this being a very good thing in my life.) His wrists are sticking out of the sleeves of a shirt we bought two weeks ago and he still doesn't care much about brushing his hair before he leaves the house in the morning, but all signs are pointing toward the impending fact that he is growing up. I can't quite decide how I feel about it.

A Few thing I Love (AKA Smells I like)

For lack of a more exciting subject, and in an attempt to beat my all time blog posts per year record (a lofty goal, I know) I decided to let you all in on a few of my favorite things.

Thing # 1: Baudelaire Essence Sea Loofah

It's french triple milled soap (so it lasts forever) and smells great for guys or gals. Plus it has nice little scrubby bits of seaweed in it that will make your skin soooo soft.


Thing # 2: Restoration Hardware Meyer Lemon Vacuum BBs

You put a little handful of these in your vacuum bag and then every time you vacuum your house smells great. Since vacuuming is my favorite chore, these are right up my alley. They come in lots of yummy scents but the lemon is my favorite.

Thing # 3: Speaking of a delicious, lemony smelling house... Lemon Pledge

Need I say more?

Thing # 4 Aveda Caribbean Therapy Bath Soak

This stuff is apparently going out of production and I don't know why because it is the best bath product ever invented. The smell is so great, it makes me want to buy up all the remaining bottles in the world and horde them. So far, they're still pretty easy to find.

Thing # 5 Wild Violets

For the longest time I tried to find seeds for these and no one seems to have any. After some recent googling, I discovered that most people consider them weeds. Too bad, because they smell so good and it's like finding a perfect little surprise when you come across one. (At least it is for me. I guess it's actually like coming across a minor annoyance for lots of people).

Anyway, there's my ultra exciting post of some of the most delicious smelling things in my life. And the blog keeps chugging along...

Show Them you Love Them

I found this link on a friend's blog and loved the suggestions of simple ways we can show our kids we love them. Click HERE to read it.

                                       Me with my mom 1983-ish.