Daily Five

This week sort of flew by but nothing felt accomplished. On more than one occasion, my kitchen looked like this:

Sometimes it feels like all you do is clean up meals and then prepare for the next one. So, I left breakfast sit, and lunch sit, and then by about 4 pm I decide to clean it all up.

Doesn't help when the boys play like this:

Sort of adds to the "messy" look of the kitchen. But I had to be quiet, the "guys" were all taking their naps, so, oh well, guess I can't clean the kitchen up yet.

Plus, the floors always look this this:

from all the in and out going on all day.

So, I must say, nothing close to even a Level One achieved this week.

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I saw a bumper sticker this week that said:

I ♥ my wife

and, I had to think to myself, how badly did this guy have to screw up to be asked to put this bumper sticker on his truck?

Is this sort of the Scarlet Letter of the 20th century?

Mmm hmm, baby, that's right, you gonna put that bumper sticker on that truck so EVERYBODY know who you comin' home to at night. Uh huh, you know that's right.

Kinda makes you wonder how that conversation went down.

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Sort of on this same note, I noticed several people this past weekend (like 4) who at first glance seemed quite conservative, but upon further observation, had either an earring in (man) or a tattoo (woman). Conservative, as in, old man wearing velcro shoes and those thin twill dress pants, yet has a diamond stud earring in. Or, lady with him sporting a tattoo on her leg.

I don't even know what the tattoo was of. It doesn't really matter. All I am saying is, once you see those items, you automatically think that despite their outward appearance, there is a bit of a wild child or a rebel hiding in there. Or, at least that's what I thought.

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I am so excited that Jack is making real progress towards learning to swim. While he isn't brave enough yet to jump into the deep end and swim to the side, I know he could if he'd just build up the courage, so that's what we are working towards now.

I just have to keep focusing on the fact that he's doing things now that he wouldn't have done 6 months ago so we are getting there. Just have to keep up on those lessons and go to the pool more.

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Rob was a project fool this weekend. He worked on this today:

This room, which is in the basement, formerly had those green stick on squares, so we are putting a new floor in, which while also "stick on", looks a whole lot better in my opinion.

He also landscaped a whole new area in the backyard near our bedroom windows, but by the time I sat down to write this blog, it was too late to take pictures, so more to come on that.

After all of that, he dumped in a heavy duty bleach mixture into the well to try to kill all of the freakin' bacteria which according to a water test have set up camp in there. Hope this works.

So, all work and no plays makes Rob a tired, tired boy. He's collapsed on the couch now and probably will be asleep by the time I make my way out there.

Hope you had a good weekend too.

We're baaaaccckkkkk

Once again, we are back.
Another trip bites the dust.
1800+ more miles on the van. (FYI, we bought that van just over 2 years ago and will hit 60,000 miles here in the next month or so. Drive much?) 
(FYI squared: Today when we were running errands around town, Luke dropped something he couldn't reach in the van and asked us if we could just pull over to a rest stop so he could get it. Is this a problem?)

We just returned from a trip to the deep south--Kentucky and Tennessee. And lemme tell you, it was DAMN hot! But so much fun.

First, we visited my dad and his wife, Donna. They put so much effort into making our trip a fun one; there were humongous meals cooked, fireworks, smores, fishing, a pool, and a trip to a cave. The boys had a blast—so much fun they even forgot to fight! Here's a few pictures from that part of our trip. My camera (or is it the operator?) is a POS but you get the idea.

The big backyard

Fishing for that elusive big guy

Making sure Luke doesn't drop his pole into the pond

The pool was loved by all

We attempted a playground, but were all sweating like pregnant nuns within 5 minutes so this was short lived

Inside Diamond Cavern

Outside the cave

Thanks D&D for a great visit. It's so nice to see the kids having fun and falling into bed exhausted at night, my husband able to chillax from his stressful job, and for myself to feel totally lazy and lethargic.

Next we were off to Nashville to visit my brother Sam, his wife Sarah, and their 3 kids. I was neglectful with pictures to capture this leg, but it is always so good to hang out. You can rest assured that movie lines were heavily quoted and there was lots of laughter—there always is. The twins are growing like weeds and it's so awesome that even though we see them as infrequently as we do, they are still so willing to crawl into your laps and give you some lovin.

We capped off our trip in Memphis, to visit the Butlers. Memphis was so smokin' hot all I wanted to do was leave an air conditioned car and get into an air conditioned house. Liz and I decided we must have been high when we thought us visiting Memphis in July at 98 degrees every day was as good of an idea as them visiting us in December when it was negative 10. What were we thinkin'? She swears their car rebelled for at least 3 months after that visit. Anyhoo, we always have a blast and laugh our bojangas off when we're with the Butlers and this trip was no exception. Liz is a born storyteller and tells her stories with such physical comedy she could be talking about cutting her toenails and it would still be a funny story. We got to eat an awesome Puerto Rican lunch made by Liz's mom, went out to eat with just the adults, took a tram to visit Mud Island, and celebrated Isabella's 5th birthday with her. Here's the measly few and often blurry pictures from that:

The kids thought this tram ride was the cats meow

Mud Island. Rob is famous for Where's Waldo pictures, and although that wasn't my intent for this photo, can you find him?

Luke and Isabella are only a few weeks apart

The birthday party-Jack's in orange climbing

Crappy photo but can you see his face? So happy.

I am so thankful to have great friends, who like us, have moved around from place to place but we still stay close. Damn you Liz, I curse you for moving 650 miles away! But being around her awesome creative scrapbooking and crafty talents have left me feeling, as Napoleon Dynamite says, that I need some skills.

What do I mean, you ask? 

You know, like nunchuk skills, bow hunting skills, computer hacking skills... Girls only want boyfriends who have great skills.

So, what are you gonna do, you ask?

Whatever I feel like I wanna do. Gosh!

If you are not getting the above humor, you must see Napoleon Dynamite. And, you must watch it, like, 4 times before you will fall deeply in love with it as I have. Or maybe not. I just have that kind of humor.

But, I was maybe thinking more like canning, or crocheting, or baking awesome decorated cakes and cookies or something like that. We'll see. And unlike the "we'll see's" of our childhood, this one might actually grow up to be a "yes" someday.

So, to conclude, we had a great week. We visited all laid back, easy to be around people who like to laugh, and that, my friends, makes for a very relaxing week. Thanks to all for puttin' up with us. Any damages that might have incurred will be deducted from the security deposit we leave wherever we go. (This is normal, right? We all leave a security deposit for damage that might happen to property during the stay, right???)

Love ya'll. G'night.

Produce--real produce!

I made food! WOW! I actually grew stuff we can eat. I am so excited!

Here's what we have so far....

Romaine lettuce mix, green beans and more berries. So far I've mad 7 1/2 jars of jam. Mmm mmm.

Daily Five

*Rob and I had a date last night. A flooring date! Just the kind of thing that would be a nightmare to take the kids to. We shopped Home Depot and Lowe's for hours trying to determine what kind of carpet and laminate or other flooring we wanted to put in the basement. Our brains were fried afterwards. But I SO enjoy spending time alone and getting to have conversation—uninteruppted! So it really doesn't matter to me what we are doing as long as we are able to get out and have some time alone.

*Between coming home from that date, and taking the babysitter home, I saw 15-20 frogs. WTF????? I don't know if I have ever noticed even one frog in the road before, let alone 15-20 separate incidents. I must have missed the memo on whatever convention they were all attending last night.

*Word to the wise. NEVER put "weed garden" on a to do list. I LOOOOOOVVVVEEEEEEEEE lists but the love is in the crossing off, and this one is uncrossable. It's like putting "be a good mom" or "read books" on a to do list. Impossible. Never done and never can be crossed off.

*At the store the other night after seeing the fish for sale in fishtanks, Jack said, "Mom, I think if I was a fish, every day would be the worst day ever."
"Why's that?"
"Because you'd never get to go ANYWHERE, you'd just have to swim around in your jar all day."

Every statement is always so extreme with that one.

The legs of summer

Skinned knee from baseball? Check

Rugburn from bouncehouse? Check

Bruises from falling down constantly when deliriously tired? Check

Mosquito bites itched till they bleed? Check

Looks like summer is going just as planned here on the Miller Plantation. Hope yours is too.

Endless summer nights, Ode to a rainy Sunday

Happy 4th of July!

Yesterday was a perfect summer day.

We started with Luke's birthday party. No pinata injuries; a successful party!

Aachoo~'scuse me. So who wanted that first piece of cake?

PS This is the ugliest cake in history. It was supposed to be Batman and it cracked all over the place so it was renamed "The Blob" cake. Luke was not amused at  having a Blob themed party.

Then, we were invited to a cookout at a friends house. They had a huge bouncehouse for the kids,who emerged from the bouncehouse periodically red faced and sweaty for a drink of water. We had cold drinks, great conversations, and tons of delicious food. The weather was hot, humid and just right for a summer cookout.

We headed straight from the cookout to go see fireworks. Since we are often in the country in Wisconsin for the 4th, we haven't gotten to go to a real fireworks show in a few years, so I was really anxious to go. We headed to a nearby town we'd never been to, and followed the crowd. We threw out our blanket on the hill, surrounded by dozens of other families doing the exact same thing, and listened to music while we waited. The night couldn't have been more perfect. The warm breeze blew on our faces, the kids were exhausted and laid on the blanket with their glowsticks, and the patriotic songs they played made me realize that I really couldn't ask for more, and life is so very, very good. The fireworks were awesome, the kids were amazed, and I felt so happy. It really felt like we were in the heart of America.

Today I was thankful for a rainy Sunday. Because, well, if it's not raining, there's just so much work that needs done outside.

Now, don't get me wrong. I love that we have what we have. As they say, "I love it to death, but..."

Have you ever noticed that when someone is telling a story, and they say, "Don't get me wrong, I love her to death, BUT....", they are almost NEVER talking about someone they really DO love to death. It's just padding words to soften what they are going to say after the BUT... But I digress......

BUT, there is always lots of mowing/weeding/transplanting/log cutting/stick pick upping to do all of the time, and you are never caught up. So, it is really nice every now and then to just have a really rainy day that gives you just the excuse that you need to sit inside all day. So, we went to see Toy Story 3 (SO CUTE!), read the newspaper, played Lincoln Logs, cars, farm, and laid on the couch. We had a nice dinner and watched the end of Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.

It was a great weekend.

Happy Birthday Luke!

The little guy turned 5 today. I just can't believe he's five years old!
I remember his birth as a stark contrast to my first birthing experience. As before, I woke up in the middle of the night with the contractions. I paced around for about 1/2 hour, and I remember tapping Rob's head with a pencil to get him with the program since he kept drifting in and out of sleep, saying "I think we need to go to the hospital." I took a shower, and still had the wherewithal to stay calm and take pictures of myself and my big ol' belly before birth. Luckily, Rob's parents were there overnight, as I was scheduled for a 7 am induction the very next day, to ensure Rob would be in town for the delivery since he was traveling. We headed to the hospital around 3:30 a.m., and I remember what a crisp, clear night it was and taking it all in on the way. Once we arrived, I made quick note that I would like an epidural please!!! so as to avoid my last experience. They checked me, said I was already 5 cm, and I could have it now. WOW did that make the whole birthing experience more pleasant. Thank you God! And, this big 9 lb 14 oz guy came out at 6:15 a.m.

Here's what he looked like his last night of being 4:

And here's what 5 looks like eating requested breakfast: Cereal AND waffles:

You can tell he likes being king.

Then we went to the park with his best buddy and Jack:

This tire swing was the favorite

Then, this other family sat down to picnic, and when I saw this bag they had with them, it hurtled me so violently back to the 70's and some distant memory that I had to take a picture. We had SOMETHING with this pattern on it. A toybox, tupperware container, I don't know, but I know this looks like something from my childhood. Mom, I hope despite the picture quality you can tell what it is. Orange and yellow mushrooms. Of course, why wouldn't that be popular?

So this picture is me covering for the fact that I was taking a picture of this lady's family. Look at her in the background. I think she's on to me that I just took a picture of them or their stuff.

Then, we headed to see a juggler and have pizza at the grandparents house of a friend of Jack's. These people are amazing. Each year, they host all 9 of their grandchildren for a WEEK of fun filled activities. They even have a printed out brochure with the daily schedule of events and rules of the house. And this was the night that each one gets to invite a friend, and they have a special guest perform and have pizza and baseball in the yard afterwards.

Jack being jugglers assistant

Finally, this is what a very pooped but happy 5 year old looks like right after catching a bit of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and heading up to bed.

AAHHH, the life of a 5 year old.

Thank you Lukie for being my son. You are sometimes sweet, sometimes sassy, always unpredictable, and definitely one of a kind. You make us laugh sometimes and pull our hair out with frustration at other times, but I am so glad God chose me to be your mommy.