"This is the {post} that doesn't end, it just goes on and on, my friend..."

"...Somebody started reading it, not knowing what it was, and now they keep on reading it forever just because... it's so freaking awesome!"

One of my friends (who has a food blog here), made mini bastillas just like our Moroccan restaurant downtown P-town. She sent me the recipe she used, but it looked too involved, so I found a simplified version online and it turned out pretty wonderful. To my surprise, it wasn't any more time consuming than assembling a lasagna and the kids even ate it. Hylton is our pickiest eater by far and he was literally sucking the flaky pieces of Phyllo dough. ...Could have been because it was entirely covered in cinnamon and sugar, but whatever...




The day before Sterling started Kindergarten, Michelle and I took the kiddos to the Zoo for one last Summer fling.


Hylton loved the Sea Lions and all the kids were barking at them.


Sterling & Evie started soccer. Despite the fact that she could actually kick and pass the ball (pretty well for a 4-year-old), Evie quit the first day. Just not for her right now, I guess.


I love these action shots of Sterling. It makes it look like they are playing a knock-down, drag-out game of soccer, when in reality, they are mostly running aimlessly across the field, tugging on eachother, oblivious of the ball.










We finally got some ripe plums (a month later than last year due to El Niña); not many at all since we severely cut both trees back too late in the spring, but a few.


Speaking of El Niña, this is the day last week that we got torrential rain (1" in under an hour) and this is how our "rigged" downspout drain worked:


It's a little hard to tell in the movie, but the water is flowing right back toward the house, along the foundation and around the crawl space blocks so that it looks like we were trying to create our very own, personal moat...


This is how it was supposed to work, in theory (ie, still attached to the downspout, water flowing away from the house...):

Yes, that is packing tape...

On Sterling's first day of school, I was a little disoriented. I wasn't quite sure what to do with myself, so I pulled out some material and decided to try to make Evie a pair of pajamas, which she needed in a bad way since she's been wearing pajamas 2 sizes too small for a couple of months now.
Hylton and Evie happily fell into the flow of a different kind of day together without Sterling:

With them playing so nicely together for the most part, I was able to make a nightgown in about 2 hours.




She was in love with them. She modeled them for me and then proceeded to chassé and pirouette around the living room in her new, twirly Hello Kitty pj's.


It seems like all our projects around here take us forever because life happens. Things are constantly creeping in to replace the things that really need to get done (like the gutter drain). One of those things was the East hedge of Arborvitaes that were easily 24' tall. My Dad was going to come take his power trimmer back, so we needed to get them wacked down to size.





Doug cut them down to 8'. Our next door neighbor who has lived here for 20 years says she has never seen them so short.
Unfortunately, we didn't take a picture of the before, but I have one from last winter so you can see how tall the hedge was compared to our Magnolia tree.


Sterling celebrated his 6th birthday last Monday, so we had a family gathering for him on Sunday. I decided not to do cake this time, but made fruit salad instead and put his candles into ginormous marshmallows. There were a few complaints, but Sterling was happy.


The boys- Papa Jack, Papa Larry, Uncle Scottie, Papa Scott, Sterling


Grandma DeeDee and Hlyti, Evie


Sterling showing Grandma and Grandpa his "thousand dollars" (actually $15 in ones) that came out of his card from Papa Scott.






Grandma Bobbie gettin' down with Bocce in the front yard


These pictures crack me up because there's absolutely no way you'd ever guess we were related (sarcasm alert).




Sterling in his new Mario jammies from Aunt CC.

Running With the Big Dogs

When did my baby get so tall and handsome?! He was so proud and excited to be going to school with the big kids today. Doug worked very late last night, so he wasn't able to give Sterling the customary father's blessing for the school year. He went into work late this morning so he could give one to Sterling before school, but Sterling didn't want one, so we just said a little family prayer instead. I imagine he'll change his mind when the excitement has settled, though.


This guy is such a little ham- I hope he behaves himself in class. He really loves to do silly things to make people laugh (much like his father in a classroom of people). Entertainers...
Check out those rockin' tennis shoes that Sterling picked out. They are Iron Man and they light up when he walks. I swore I would never buy character shoes that light up, but alas, here we are!


Sitting in his assigned seat with the breakfast the school provides. He met a little boy (Caleb) while we were waiting in line to get checked in and he happened to be at the same table (on the end). Sterling was really good about me leaving; he didn't seem at all concerned. I was so proud of him. His teacher is in the top left corner. She seems really excellent and we are so pleased to have her.


As I drove away from the school feeling like I had left part of myself behind, I felt some pre-cry tingling in the back of nose, which I was not expecting. But being dead inside, like Doug says I am, I choked it down. Crying is for babies. However, the Mommy in me left this note in his lunch like my mom used to do, and I left a kiss on top (a chocolate one). So hopefully, if he's sad in the middle of the day (full day Kindergarten- every day!!), he'll feel better when he sees this.
....or it'll make it worse... I dunno... :)

A Cautionary Tale

A day like today doesn't happen too often, but when it does, I really begin to commiserate with Job (Old Testament "Job", not Arrested Development "Gob"). The days when we really need a little extra R&R, or smooth sailing, is nearly always the day we get our test in patience... and nearly always the day The Daddy is working late... Why is that??? (I throw my hands outstretched to the universe here.) Who prayed for patience? 'Cause I'm certainly not that dumb... Okay, maybe I'm that dumb. Either way, I had to exercise great personal restraint several times today. And failed miserably several times.

I was having one of "those days." Hylton began the day by playing in the toilet again. Despite my best efforts to keep the door closed, the kids invariably leave it open so I get to fish things out and clean potty water off the floor and all other nearby bathroom surfaces and then disinfect. So, to rebel against this day, I sat in my pajamas until 4pm. Yes, four o'clock P.M.... That's when I decided I should start dinner. Unfortunately, I didn't get the memo about soccer starting today, so when my friend called and mentioned it, we flew into high gear. Dinner prep hurriedly put away, showered, makeup, hair, clothes, kids clothes, kids soccer socks/shoes, folding chair, umbrella, purse, keys. Keys? Keys? ARGH! Frantic searching for the missing keys ensues. Under pillows, blankets, couches, in toy boxes and garbage cans... Eventually it occurs to me that I let Hylton unlock the front door yesterday and he likes to carry the keys in and hang them up, but I had my hands full and now I don't know where he put them. (This being Hylton and all, I check the garbages again.) Then I say, "Hylton, (dearest) where did you put Mommy's keys?"
"Keys," he says and toddles around behind me with his Crusoe in hand, occasionally repeating the offending monosyllable while I continue searching. No help whatsoever.

Doug is on his way home but won't be home for another 45 minutes. Much too late to get us to soccer on time. We have no spare key. Seriously. I finally spy the keys through the car window on Sterling's seat. About this time, I hear a wail from the backyard where the kids have been looking for the keys in the corn patch since this is where Hylton likes to hide sometimes. I come around the house corner to find Hylton sitting in a pile of mud 6" deep. His shoe (church shoe, mind you) is suctioned in place, his stockinged foot covered in mud as well as Crusoe and his clean, new clothes. Strip him down, clean him up, start on dinner yet again.

Finally Doug arrives home and wonders if I let the kids move the downspout because there is a huge section of mud there. (&*%$@!) 'No, dearest," (through gritted teeth now). The avid Church Family blog follower may recall that said hubby removed said gutter drain to replace it and, alas!, it has not been reinstalled. When the forecast predicted impending moisture, aforementioned hubby "rigged" up a temporary solution. I wish I had a picture, I may have to post one later. Needless to say, the "fix" created a large and lovely section of glorious, gloppy, squishy, tricksy mud.

Anyway, back to gritted teeth; he wonders also if I mind that the kids are using our brooms to sweep the mud. Right on cue, Evie enters my line of sight from the kitchen window covered in mud, holding a very muddy broom. Sterling is in a similar state of dishevelment. I feel I just cannot cope with this new state of affairs while I am boiling noodles and frying chicken in hot oil. So they remain outside, cold, and covered in mud while I finish dinner. When dinner is ready I open the door and ask Sterling if he thinks that what they've done is okay. He replies, "But I just forgot to not play in the mud, Mamma..." Somewhere, long, long ago, he must have gotten out of trouble by saying he "forgot" to do something, or "it was an accident" because these are his two standard excuses. They don't work anymore. Haven't for some time. I am still so far from coping that I give them their dinner outside and a bowl of water to wash their hands in. I sit down to eat for a peaceful dinner, though somewhat marred by the incessant door tapping and whimpering and pleading looks from the dirty children. Doug has just enough time to scarf dinner and leave for a meeting.

After cleaning up the greasy mess that dinner made, I go outside and turn the hose on to clean the caked-on mud from their clothes and shoes and, finally, from them, which Evie endured quite well and Sterling not at all. Amid crying (from the eldest, mind you), I send them inside to get into the tub while I finish cleaning up the clothes outside. Evie is not even inside the door when she screeches that Hylton (who has been left inside alone for 3 minutes) is spraying her. I tell her to take the water bottle away (which is the usual culprit) when she comes out with the Wet Swiffer in her hand saying, "No Mom, Hlyti was spraying me with this and made a big mess in the kitchen." In the kitchen, I found puddles, upon puddles of Swiffer Wetjet cleaner. Half a bottle's worth, in fact. And Doug's golf umbrella sitting in one of the puddles.

That is when I decided that I was done with this day and washed the kids and promptly put them to bed.

The End.

Moral of the story: Don't pray for patience. It's overrated.

PS. I should mention that, despite the messy prep, dinner was by far the highlight of my day. Thai Chicken and Noodle Salad. So good... Check it out.