No Polar Bear Club for Me

Last week I got a nasty surprise. Our hot water heater was not working, so I had to think of some way to make my bath warmer. I boiled several pots of water. I succeeded in making the water slightly above frigid.

Thankfully, the pilot light had only blown out and the hot water heater has been working well ever since. Hot water has now been added to my list of things to be thankful for. :D

David Archuleta

Ok, I'm really excited that David Archuleta is now in the final two for American Idol. I normally do not get into "reality shows", but who couldn't help but love this humble guy. :D

Labyrinth Obsessed

You probably know by now that I love the movie Labyrinth. I told my husband that I wanted the new addition of the movie for Mother's Day. I opened it on Saturday, and we have already watched it at least 5 times. My kids love it! HeHe. My husband thinks that we are all weird for liking it so much. He teased us about it and then he sat down and watched the rest of it. LOL!

My son gets excited every time he sees Toby (the baby). He keeps pointing out babies everywhere that we go. His hints about how he would like to have one in the house are becoming more persistent. I guess he's tired of being the littlest one.

Baking Product or Shampoo?

Leaving two little boys alone for five minutes can lead to a very interesting adventure. This is the lesson that I learned yesterday.

I was watching my friend's son who is almost two years old for a couple of hours. He had been playing fairly well with my 2 1/2 year old son. I was looking up something on my computer and the boys had shut the door closest to me so that I could not watch them play in the playroom.

I heard the door open to the other side of the basement and I looked over to see my son completely covered in flour. Not a good sign! I opened the door completely and found flour all over the floor, the mats, the vacuum, and a very casper looking little boy. Sigh. There is no use crying over spilled flour right.

Well, I decided that the little boys were in desperate need of a bath. My friend's child had so much flour in his hair that you could not tell that his hair is brown and his scalp was completely caked in white flour. I'm pretty sure that my son had poured a lot of it onto his head using the cup that we use to scoop the floor out of the storage bucket.

The little boy did not take very kindly to get an impromptu bath. After my son joined him, he decided that maybe playing in the water was a better option than crying. My son, came clean immediately. I shampooed the other little guy's hair four times and then gave up trying to get all the flour out of his hair. The remnants had turned into paste. Grrrr!

I put them both in fresh clothes just in time for my friend to arrive. We decided that laughing was a much better option than crying. The moral of this story is, never leave two something year olds alone in the vicinity of a container of flour. It is not a good thing.

The Shed

We have been talking about building this shed for as long as we have been married (a little over 7 years). We've had a garage door without the hardware for it for about 5 years. Now we are actually starting to see it take shape.

This is what our back porch looks like right now. I discovered this picture this morning along with about 15 other interesting shots that our amateur resident photographer (AKA our four year old daughter) secretly took with our digital camera. By the end of June we are hoping to be able to use the back porch as an official back porch.

Ouch!

On Sunday, our little family went for a walk. I was walking our dog, Max. There were some dogs across the street that he wanted to go visit. I hanked on his leash to get him to heel again and then something happened. Somehow during all of the excitement, I dislocated my knee.

This is not the first time that it has happened. This is more like the seventh time. Thankfully my knee cap has always gone immediately back into place. I'm a little worried this time because it has rubbed more and it hurts more than it ever has before.

The knee brace in the picture is very similar to the one that I am wearing now. My daughter thinks that it would be fun to wear. Personally, I am excited for the time to come that I can put it back in my drawer and not use it again for a LONG time.

Gone to the Worms

Today we were working in our flower beds. I discovered a worm and showed it to my children. My daughter wanted to hold it and then my son wanted one of his own. Soon I was hunting all over the place for worm after worm. We talked about how important it was for the worms to not dry out, so we made sure that they were only out for a little while before we returned them to the dirt.

My son placed his last worm gently in the dirt and then said, "Bye, bye worm. I love you!" It was so sincere and sweet.

This whole episode got me thinking about worms and looking for a picture of one. This took my in a direction that I did not expect to go. Take a look at this clip and see if it brings back memories for you. I give you the worm from Labyrinth.

The Beauty of Bread

I learned how to make homemade bread a year ago. I had made several loaves previously in a breadmaker, but this was the first time that I had made it from scratch and baked it in the oven.

I am now hooked on making bread and eating it when it is still warm. There is something almost sacred about the process. No two batches ever turn out exactly the same, and you have to remember that you are dealing with a living thing. It can be harmed if you neglect it.

The smell of the bread bread baking will soon be permeating my home. I look forward to slicing it and enjoying a piece. I always make 4 loaves. Bread is always best when you have the ability to share it.

Piano in Time Out

First of all, this is not a picture of our piano. Ours is an upright, but sometimes I like to pretend that it is a baby grand. ;)

My children were playing the piano yesterday. At first it was rather pleasant, but progressively it became louder, and then it escalated to pure torture. I was in the kitchen when it happened, so I was not sure which child was to blame (most likely both). I decided that the only reasonable thing was to put the piano in time out.

This was the most recent of many inanimate objects that have received this "punishment". Neither child was singled out as the guilty one yet order was restored. Thank goodness the objects cannot yell, "Unfair!".

Painful to Watch

This little guy is my son. He is vibrant, fun loving, and my little cuddler.

Today his leg does not seem to be cooperating. Several times today he has been running and then his legs just give out on him and he falls. He fell down our little steps (3 steps) by our back door twice. He is not a clumsy child. Finally tonight he started clutching one leg and complaining that it hurts. There are no bruises or obvious scrapes. We gave him some tylenol before he went to bed. Hopefully his leg will be back to normal tomorrow. For some reason, I am really worried about it. :(