Turning the Page

Wanna know something I have never done?
I have never walked inthe snow with my flip-flops on.
Until this past weekend, that is.

It was gorgeous outside and while we have many acres of nonsense to rake, blow, re-soil, mulch, prune and plant, I took great pleasure in cleaning out our little flower garden out front.

After trimming the Ornamental grass and raking all the dead leaves and grass away I had to put it somewhere.  In order to put it in the woods I had to walk to the woods and guess what?
There's still plenty of snow in my front yard.

Way back there, behind the boy, you can sort of see the Compost Bin where I had to get to!

And just like before this past weekend I had never walked in snow with only my flip-flops on, I had also never cleaned out a flower bed while there was still snow in my front yard.

Sundress & Rain Boots - Check.
Snow in the yard while it's warm enough to wear only sundress & rain boots? 
Check Check!

I shoveled a lot of snow here at 131 this winter.  And I will gladly - with great joy, pride and delight - rake, prune, blow, soil, plant and mulch for 131 as well.

 Remember these shots?  Feels like a lifetime ago!  I forgive you, Winter...

 But freaking LEAVE already!!

***

Just a quick little  B&A for ya:

Before:
After:

A little closer - before:
After:
I think I've earned a night out with my BGF:

So I put Brooke down. I couldn't take anymore. I read Tori Spelling's book and I loved it. She was so funny and the way she wrote it was like I was chatting with a friend. Very informal, very funny. Brooke's style is similar, but not funny at all. Even when she's clearly trying to be, she's just not. She's a nerd. A big, fat dork.
So, I'm done. I didn't make it halfway through.

We are heading to the beach tomorrow. I made 3 sandwiches, 2 pb&j, 1 just J. As I was putting things into the beach bag (my ADD got the better of me when I was done cutting the sandwiches, I moved on) Pete moved in. That fat bastard ate all 3 in record time. And when I yelled at him, he wagged his big, furry tail and asked me for a glass of milk.
Fucker.

I went to bed last night, before 10pm. And I slept till 7. I woke up feeling like a Million Bucks! It was a great feeling. And with that, I decided to avoid Facebook and Pirates today. I know how pathetic that sounds, but let's be honest - we've all had our moments when the obsession of something new overrules our normal good sense. For me, my most recent nonsensical addiction is Pirates.
And I miss it, don't misunderstand me. Right now, I could do the math and tell you that since I logged out this morning, I have earned approximately $300k per hour which is just piling up in my bank, unprotected by me, likely being looted and plundered and pillaged while I "unplug".
Or, I can remind myself that I hung out by the pool with my kids today - giving them my full attention. I finished moving that pile of gravel that has been a part of our driveway for too many months to count. I was outside all day, after we shopped at both BJ's and Ted's.
And let me tell you - I shopped like a mama on the path to a fun-filled summer vacation.
I had a full, refreshing, satisfying day.
Another huge part of my fabulous day?
It was SUNNY!!!! There was no rain!!!! It was HOT OUT!

Man, I love summer!
I love summer with my kids!
I love the beach, the pool & bike riding!
Wyatt spent the better part of this afternoon in just a swimmie-diaper & bike helmet. How stinkin' cute is that?! And by the time those kids went into the tubbie tonight they were both covered with suntan lotion, ketchup (from their hotdog dinner) and bomb-pop drippings.
If that doesn't spell summer, I don't know what does.

Moving right along on the mulch:
If you need to see what I mean, review this previous entry.

After I finished the last garden within the yard today (only the top of the driveway left to go - yeehaw!) my back ached, my hands were raw and I was swearing at all things garden-ish.
I have been BUSTING my HUMP around here lately.
But it feels really good. Really good.

For a few reasons but the two biggest reasons being
1) it eases my husband's mind to know that the yard and house are not falling apart around us because he is working 16 hour days and
2) I truly, deeply and madly love working in the yard. The instant gratification that mulching brings, for example, is something I have missed over the past few years when tiny babies needed my attention too frequently for me to really get into a project.

But, I'm almost done and the more creative stuff will be next and that is so fun, too.

And when I think "just one more project and I will be DONE and I can sit back and ENJOY it!" - the weeds have already begun to take over where I started and the cycle begins again.
Then the Fall Planting starts...
Man, I love "outside". And I love having all 4 seasons to enjoy it in.

Later in the afternoon our girl, Stina, came down and I went out for a wax. Not just any wax, my friends. I had my armpits waxed.
"Why? Did you run out of things to do?" was my husband's reaction.
No, I am just very "pro" hair removal and I wanted to try it.

A little history here shows a happy, confident young Liz blissfully unaware of hair removal products or why anyone would bother with them.
Then, one dark day in the high school hallway one well-intentioned - albeit misguided - friend told this blissfully ignorant girl about her mustache.
One thing led to another and 20 years later, there ain't a product out there that I haven't tried. So, young ladies out there - take it from an expert - "There ain't no shame is being hairy, that's your genes. But there is shame in not waxing it. That is within you control!"

And wax it. Really - nothing else, short of laser hair removal, works.

Every woman waxes her eyebrows.
Right?
Come on - if you're a woman reading this right now and you don't wax your eyebrows,
Stop Reading My Blog.
I can't relate to you.
This is 2009. You gotta wax those things.

So, today I waxed the pits.
And it hurt, folks.
It hurt like hell.
And right now, as I sit here typing, when I shift a little bit - they still hurt.
And it was expensive!
It cost more than a bikini wax!
I took $100 out of the ATM today and came home without enough to pay my babysitter!

So, I'm glad I tried it and I'm glad I will have a few days (ha!) of hair-free pits but I can honestly say "never again". Growing out your pit hair is NO fun. (No, I didn't take Before & After pics.)

Tomorrow is the lottery drawing for the kids that will get into the Public School Pre-K Classes.
I am so excited! I have been waiting and I am such a planner that even though school is 3 months away, it is killing me to not know what our schedule will look like!
Oh man, I am sure I will be Blogging non-stop about pre-school so I will spare you now but I am so excited for tomorrow, it's ridiculous!!!

I am going to copy Cilla with this entry and just make a list.
Sometimes you need a list to put your mind at rest. Sometimes, when my head is swimming with ideas and to-do's and goals and wants and needs, I write a list and that helps me catch my breath.
And sometimes, you really do need to "count your blessings".

So, here is a list of things that made me very happy today. Just today.

• Cleaning up and Turning Over the Vegetable Garden.
  And leaving it ready for planting for my husband's pleasure.
• Walking into my bedroom to find my son playing with a toy car with full sound effects, totally lost in his own imagination.
• Hearing my daughter speak to her "babies" with so much love and sweetness
  that I am moved to tears.
• Seeing that tooth #13 finally cut and #14 is really close and
  knowing that my son might let me shower in peace soon.
• Getting lots of yard work done including moving lots of mulch & rocks
  and splitting some perennials.
• Ordering PeaPod for morning delivery knowing that I have nothing to do tomorrow at all.
• Knowing that with nothing to do, I will get lots more yard work done.

Summer Haircuts, Hooray!!

And, while this mulch pile in my driveway is still very large today,
it is not as large as it was yesterday:

See?

You know the little programs you get at church? (Is that just a Lutheran thing or does everyone get those?) You know them - you follow along through the service, it tells you what song is coming up, what page to refer to, how much longer you're gonna be sitting there... And then, in the back pages, it lists what's going on in the church that week, and the following week. You need it during the service. But then what do you do with it? Some people leave it in the pew. I bring it home. I like to make sure I know everything that is going on. But now what? Well, I throw it out... but is that wrong? Am I supposed to be saving them? Should I pack them up for my eventual trip to Heaven? Is it like saving the top portion of the bill that you send in? If I save the church programs, do I show them to God to prove I went to church?

We need to buy a new grill. We wanted a new one, anyway, the burners were not functioning properly and the grates were burnt or worn out or whatever. I don't know, but Jay said we need a new one. Then, this winter, a small field mouse family took up residence. Jay was willing and able to evict the little guys but Abby & I pleaded for their lives so they stayed. Now - we reeeallllly need a new grill. No amount of scraping and fire is going to make me NOT taste mouse poop with each burger this summer. So - we're buying a new grill. Soon. I can't wait. But...

I'll miss cooking over the coals in the front yard. If you've been to our house then you know that the back yard is a slant, all downhill, no flat area. The front has a flat area before it slopes, also. Our gas grill (with the mouse family) resides on the deck, which is off the kitchen, in the back. But when you cook with charcoal, the open flame is a bit much for the second-story wooden deck. Why do we have a charcoal grill, you ask? Because we found the mouse family about an hour before we needed to use the grill for a dinner party (yes, we grill all year long, just not as consistently in the sub-zero temps). Jay jumped to the rescue and headed out to buy a grill. What can you buy quickly and easily and cheap-ly? Charcoal. Anyway - the charcoal grill is in the patio/walkway area out front. We have spent many an hour out there this week. The weather has been gorgeous and the coals have been fiery. Nothing smells better and nothing tastes better than beef on charcoal fire.

Our lawn guy still hasn't come. Every Spring and every Fall, I wait. Patiently. Impatiently. Bitchily and Crazily - I stare out my window and up my driveway, waiting to see him making his way down, blowing, mowing and raking his way down the hill to do the yard. Everything waits on his arrival. I can't mulch, I can't plant, I can barely trim and prune - I need winter to be cleaned off the yard first. And when I tell you that this guy (who's in-laws live across the street, does a great job when he does get here and charges next to nothing) has done every other house on my street already- I am not kidding. It's almost funny, if it weren't so frustrating. I have seen him do my neighbors house directly next to us, and at least a half dozen other houses right around us.

I need to order mulch for delivery. Nothing makes me happier than a fresh layer of mulch on a perfectly planted garden or a neatly trimmed border. Is there a more cleaning feeling than that? We figure we need at least 12 yards to start. Then we'll need topsoil the, probably, more mulch. I love spring.

It's been too hot for April. I love hot... in the summer. Because in the summer I can shower in the morning, sweat all day, hop in the pool periodically to cool off and then jump in my pool in the evening, after bed time, maybe with a cold glass of Crystal Light and relax with my husband. When it's this hot in April, all I can do it bitch about it and keep showering.

My son is a charmer. But let me tell you - he's a handful. He stood in my bathroom this morning as I was showering and just cried. He cried and called for me like I had just dropped him off in the woods and ran off leaving him to fend for himself. Never mind that I was 4 inches away, talking to him the whole time. He wanted me to pick him up. And even if I had, he likely would have wanted me to put him back down, then pick him up again... He is also a meat eater. Steak, hot dogs, ham with his eggs - you name it, he's eating it. And he only has 9 teeth (tenth one's on it's way as we speak). If he could have milk in a (very well pronounced) "bot-tle" and steak all day, every day, with a lollipop or banana her and there - he'd be set for life.

My daughter is perfect. Except that she has taken to talking back to me. When you consider that she's only 3 and she has been talking in full conversations since she was 1, it's hard to determine what is "not knowing it's fresh" and what is "knowing exactly how fresh it is but waiting to see what you'll do". That is a very difficult line to draw. If I say "it's time to brush your teeth and get ready for your day" and she says "in a minute, mommy" then I say "no, not in a minute, right now" and then she says "but I really don't want to" and then I say "I'm sorry to hear that but you have to, now let's go" and she says "I have an idea. I will not brush my teeth today, I will have the stink-breath all day"... seriously. I can go on like this for 98 more posts. She can talk all darn day. And she will debate you until the cows come home. (She gets that from her father.) So, I am trying to put my foot down immediately to end the debate before it begins. Really, there should be no debate. Mommy said it, now do it. And if you ask my husband, he will tell you this has been coming for a year, but I really don't see it. I don't want my kids to feel like they don't have a sya in their lives. They do have choices and they can compromise and ask questions and push back when they want or need to. But sometimes, SOMETIMES, it's just because MOMMY SAID SO!!! But she is so smart. And so clever. And so stinkin' funny. It's hard. How do we reign in our fabulous daughters without crushing them? Will I struggle with this for the rest of my life?

All in All, Life is Good. Vacation is less than 2 weeks away. Everyone is healthy and happy. I thank God for my life and our happiness every day. And, clearly, He hears me. (psssst - God? I am recycling the programs after I read them, I don't just chuck them!)