Tim and Liv

Pinewood Derby 2011

2011-04-25T14:18:00.006-06:00

"Flame Insane"

This was Andrew's last year in cub scouts and therefore his last year doing the Pinewood Derby.

Every year his cars have been silver and this year was no exception. He is definitely a creature of habit. I made a flame stencil for him with my vinyl cutter and he did all the painting. He named it "Flame Insane".

He came in 2nd at his pack race and qualified for the city wide District Race at the mall the following month.

Districts 2011
Anxiously watching his car race down the track with his best friend, Ben.

Andrew's car was doing really well at districts. At the district races the last couple of years, there have been two unbeatable boys that have always taken first and second. You just can't beat them. I noticed that Andrew's car was keeping up with theirs pretty well, so when his name got called to go into the semifinals I was pretty stoked thinking he could get third or fourth.

In the semifinals, all the other cars started to slow down a bit but Andrew's never lost any steam. So I figured third would be a piece of cake.

After the race when they started handing out trophies I was totally surprised when they didn't call his name for third...or for second! He got first place! It was a pretty major upset in the world of Pinewood Derby here in Missoula, Montana. It was a proud mommy moment.

Elwood

2011-03-30T13:39:00.000-06:00

On the way home from Discovery, we stopped by to check out Elwood the Donkey. Tim had read a newspaper article about him and how he's kind of a mascot for some of the regular skiiers that pass through on their way to and from the mountain. His pasture is right next to the highway so people stop by to feed him carrots and other goodies...he has a weakness for doughnuts. So on our way home, we picked up some grapes and powdered doughnuts and swung by to see Elwood. It's probably going to become a tradition.

Discovery March 2011

2011-03-29T21:29:00.001-06:00

This was our last ski trip of the season. We hadn't been to Discovery in a couple of years and I'm so glad we finally got over there. I forgot how much I love Discovery. It's my favorite! We didn't have huge expectations for the snow conditions but it ended up being gorgeous. The best snow we'd skiid on in a long time. When we got there it was a white out, then the sun came out, then it would dump snow again, then the sun would come out...it did that all day long. Yummy!

Andrew and his cousin Jackson

Motherload

Lunch time...camera a little fogged up.

Last chair...one last quick run down Berkeley on some very tired, well used legs.

To be continued...with Elwood the Donkey.

Girls Night

2011-03-13T15:49:00.003-06:00

Summary: Girls night/hotel sleepover planned by my sister for two of her daughters' birthdays + some preteen friends + mom and I + I had to drag Andrew along = 7 females and 1 poor, vulnerable 10 year old boy.

One smokin' hot grandma and Kelsey

Madyson and her friends

Andrew

We had been mildly joking with Andrew that we were going to paint his toenails when he fell asleep. He was pretty nervous. Girl stuff is not funny to him...at all. I had no intentions of actually doing it because I have witnessed the wrath of Andrew many times. But I made the mistake of telling my sister that Andrew is a verrry sound sleeper. So, once he fell asleep all heck broke loose on my poor kid. A bra may or may not have been strategically placed on him as well.

Other than taking pictures and laughing, I was NOT involved.

Unfortunately Andrew woke up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom and discovered his nails (and he may or may not have found a bra). I heard him sobbing. I got up to find him trying to rub the finger nail polish off with toilet paper and water.

I felt terrible.

Mostly because he woke me up so early.

No seriously, I felt terrible. I helped him get the nail polish off and tucked him back in bed...and I haven't heard the end of it since.

Blacktail - March 2011

2011-03-12T17:08:00.000-07:00

My blog is the same every year - skiing, lake, skiing, lake, skiing, lake...

We're boring.

Anyway, more ski pictures. This time from Blacktail, featuring me and Andrew, Kelsey and Maddy, and Kelsey's boyfriend Carson.

We had debated where to go that day and chose Blacktail because they had nearly 150" of snow. Unfortunately it was set up like concrete so it wasn't a very good ski day. But skiing is always fun with my beautiful nieces and the traditional Dairy Queen fest that always accompanies a Blacktail trip!

Cars, Andrew, Mads, Kels

Grandma Sue

2011-02-25T15:17:00.005-07:00

My mom came to visit us in February.

Later, I found these web cam pictures on my computer.

Apparently she and Andrew were having some bonding time that I was unaware of. I don't know why these pictures are so funny to me. I guess if you really truly know my mother, you know that she is a tad bit insane. She has such a great connection with all her grandkids. She is sooo much like her dad, my grandpa :)

Lookout Pass

2011-02-21T14:58:00.000-07:00

Just some skiing we did when my mom came up to visit from snow-birding in Arizona...

Tim and my mom

Maddy and uncle Timmy

Grandma and Mads

Where are Andrew and I?

Oh yeah, he insisted that I stay on the weeny runs with him alllll day long.

10 Years Old

2011-01-09T21:58:00.001-07:00

Andrew turned 10 years old on Jan. 3rd. That's so insane. 10 years old???

He's not my cute little baby anymore, that's for sure. He is a kid hanging in limbo somewhere between that cute little boy of years past and an obnoxious teenager. He smells, refuses to take a shower, hates getting his hair cut, or even combed for that matter, constantly talks about farts and poop, and loves to eat his boogers. And yet somehow, we do love him.

We had a party just the 3 of us on his actual birthday...

Andrew loves infomercials. He had been begging for the Sobakawa Cloud Pillow for a verrry long time. Whatever floats your boat kid.

That weekend he had a bowling party with friends and cousins.

Andrew and Ben...best buddies.

12 Years

2011-01-02T22:47:00.003-07:00

It's been 12 years of marriage for us. I'm not a mooshy person, and am getting even less mooshy the older I get...if that's even possible...so I have nothing mooshy to say. (Tim just walked in the room and read this and was totally flabbergasted. He demanded that I write 12 mooshy things about him for the 12 years. Whatever).

I do love him dearly if that counts for anything ;)

He is my best friend. Ever. Period.

Cats 101

2011-01-01T12:48:00.001-07:00

I think cats are smarter than we give them credit for. Their main purpose in life is to annoy us, and they know exactly how to do it. In the morning, every single morning while I'm still in bed, Squirt (who weighs 20 lbs) likes to climb all over me, particularly my bladder, knowing full well that I'm desperate to get up and pee. Or, if you're wearing light colored clothes, our black cat likes to rub up against you and if you're wearing dark colored clothes, all of a sudden our white cat, Squirt, wants to be your best friend. And the laundry. It doesn't even have to be warm out of the dryer for them to want to snuggle into it. They just know that it's clean and it needs cat fur all over it. I'm telling you, they think these things through.

December 2010 - Blacktail Mtn

2010-12-27T13:12:00.000-07:00

This was our first family ski trip of the season, just a couple of days after Christmas. Somehow I didn't manage to get any outside pictures.

Christmas 2010

2010-12-26T13:39:00.000-07:00

One of our most pathetic looking trees to date. But he served us well.

Squirt looooves Christmas. He loves to attack the glass ball ornaments on the tree and watch them break on the floor. And of course he loves the wrapping paper mess.

What more could a girl ask for than an air compressor, nailer and a Kindle? Life is good. (Maybe next year I'll ask for some non-'white trash' pajamas)

Nap time.

Sledding at Grandma Lola's until dark...

Then back home to play. Andrew didn't last longer.

The end.

Christmas Eve 2010

2010-12-25T13:10:00.000-07:00

We were milling around the house on the morning of Christmas eve not really doing anything. Tim was in the office tying flies or something and Andrew and I were out in the living room. Andrew plunked down in front of the tv bored out of his mind. I told him if we were going to have the tv on on Christmas eve to at least find something 'Christmasy'. As he was flipping through the channels at man-speed, I caught a quick glimpse of The Nutcracker and told him to go back.

For the most part, I actually hate the Nutcracker...having danced in it myself more times than I care to remember...the music kind of grates on my nerves.

Anyway, Andrew verrryy reluctantly changed the channel back to the ballet.

It was the Sugar Plum pas de deux.

Seeing a guy in tights is no big deal to me at all. I grew up with men in tights. A guy in jeans, a guy in sweatpants, a guy in tights...it's all the same to me.

But something about this particular Sugar Plum Cavalier was more than a little eye popping. Lets just say he was very genetically blessed.

I just sat there watching the tv trying to concentrate on the dancing. Then I peeked over at Andrew. He was literally frozen in his chair, staring at the television with a look of pure disgust, confusion and dismay on his face. I was hoping it was just because of the simple fact that I was making him watch ballet and not for the other reason mentioned above. But no...

Without taking his eyes off the tv, Andrew scrunched up his face even further than it already had been and said in the most horrified voice,

"Did that guy stuff something down his pants?"

Ahhh, priceless.

Thanksgiving 2010

2010-12-15T12:46:00.003-07:00

We spent our Thanksgiving with my sister and her family in Plains this year. Nothing much to report other than the usual...like too much food and that kind of boring stuff. We always have fun going over to visit them. They have seven kids so it's a lot like going to the circus.

We spent a good part of the day sledding down their road. In need of more sleds, Tim and Sam looked around and realized the kids' plastic fort had some panels that would work perfectly, so apart came the fort. Boy Scouts sure paid off for those two.

Go Lilly!

Halloween 2010

2010-12-13T16:23:00.000-07:00

Andrew absolutely loves Halloween. It comes a very close second only to Christmas in his list of favorite days of the year. This year he found a great costume...so perfect for his personality.

It dawned on me one morning before school that his costume might not be entirely appropriate for the school Halloween party the following day. You never know who you're going to offend these days. So, as I was scooting him out the door for school, I told him to explain it to his teacher and make sure it would be alright to wear.

When he got home later that day, he was really excited because apparently she said;

"Yeah, I don't see a problem with it...let's just hope you don't make any noise when you sit down."

What a great answer.

So, the next day...

We tried stuffing it with balloons for the church party. It was a little awkward.

Unfortunately, Andrew got sick the night before Halloween. He did the rain bird sprinkler style vomit all over the bathroom in the middle of the night - partly my fault, trying to make him turn around off the toilet. Anyway, he tried trick or treating with his best friend Ben but only lasted about 5 minutes and came back home. (I have NO idea what Ben's costume is supposed to mean by the way).

Birthday Girl - October 7, 2010

2010-12-12T14:17:00.001-07:00

So, I'm getting pretty old these days. The big 3-4. Eek. I'm not sure why I'm even doing a birthday post because it's been so long ago I don't remember anything about it. I think the three of us went to dinner and came home and had cheesecake. Pretty exciting. We're livin' it up these days. But honestly, that's all I care about. Get me my cheesecake and I'm a happy camper.

Andrew helping me sing 'Happy Birthday'

Garden 2010

2010-12-11T13:55:00.001-07:00

I love having a garden. We got tons of the yummiest tomatoes last fall, along with a few other things, but home grown tomatoes are my favorite.

I even grew some boy ones...silly me, I didn't know you could do that.

Squirt's Chair

2010-12-10T14:35:00.001-07:00

And my personal favorite...it doesn't look very comfy but he sat in this weird position for a really long time without moving a muscle.

In hind-site, I'm thinking he was probably stuck.

Flathead Lake - August 2010

2010-12-09T15:45:00.000-07:00

We had such a cold, wet summer that we really didn't get up to the lake nearly as much as we normally do. I think if you added up all the sunny, warm days, we maybe had a total of 3 weeks of summer weather. So sad. But now that we are in the dead of winter, I would do just about anything to be in the middle of a cold, wet summer right about now. These pictures make me miss the water something fierce! Seriously, who needs some big, schmancy, expensive, exotic vacation spot when you have this at your fingertips...or toetips?

Wow, sometimes these old farts look like they actually do like each other ;)

Kelsey and gramps...

Andrew

Madyson

Andrew and cousins Bailey and Maddy

Bayzilla blowing bubbles with nothing but dish soap and her hands. Quite the master.

Pretty 'Maddy Patty Duke'

Bailey

Andrew LOVES to snorkel

Smokin' hot Grandma Sue

And a smokin' hot Grandma Sue skiing

Ringing Rocks - Aug. 2010

2010-12-08T13:47:00.017-07:00

On our way home from the caverns, we stopped at the ringing rocks...one of just a couple of places in the country where the rocks do this. It was pretty interesting. Some of the rocks don't have the bell sound at all and the rocks that do are all a little different tone. It was pretty cool for a while but I got bored a lot quicker than the boys and really had to pee. Anyway...

L & C Caverns trip part 2

2010-12-07T13:09:00.006-07:00

Just some more random pictures of our little trip.

We headed back to our cabin and had some lunch and then packed up.

Naturally Tim was itching to fish the Jefferson, so on our way out, we stopped along the river for a little bit.

Andrew played with an orange he found floating in the river.

I don't think Tim ever figured out what they were biting.

Next stop, Ringing Rocks...

Lewis & Clark Caverns - Aug. 2010 (part 1)

2010-12-06T14:24:00.000-07:00

Tim and I realized that although we've both lived in Montana our entire lives, neither of us had ever been to the Lewis and Clark Caverns. It's vaguely familiar that maybe my parents took me and my siblings there years ago but who knows. So anyway, I got online to look things over, decided to rent one of their little cabins, threw some things in the van and off we went. Yippee!

We got in later than planned and I was very glad to not have to set up a tent in the dark and the rain. Even Tim, uber-outdoorsman that he is, was perfectly happy to just walk into a cabin and turn the heater on. Man we're getting old and lazy.

We brought our things in, made some hot cocoa and got ready for bed. The MOST uncomfortable beds on the planet! Yeah, we're getting old. Andrew spent most of the time up in the beams.

The next morning we got up and did a little hike around in the hills, then went back because it was so flippin' cold and wet. Then we headed up the mountain for the cave tour. The nice thing about the crappy weather and going on a weekday, was that our tour group was tiny...us and like 5 other people.

As we got closer to the top, with the fog and the stone steps, it felt a little like we were headed into Mordor.

At the entrance...

And inside...
Our tour guide was a bat nut. She gave us a big lecture on not disturbing any bats we saw, and then once inside she kept stopping us and pointing out every freakin' bat she could find and making us stop to look at them. Seriously, one bat looks just like the next. She got a little mad with us with the first bat she found because we bypassed it without noticing it, so she whistled and called every one back to admire the thing. Freako'...

To be continued...

Paintball - August 2010

2010-12-04T11:46:00.001-07:00

Tim and I have a new obsession...paintballing. We were able to get out a few times this year and even convinced my nearly 64 year old mother to tag along one night. She totally rocks!

Skinner refuses to wear long sleeves and then gets mad when someone makes him bleed. Cover your skin! Duh!

Some more first timers...Sue and Kim had a blast!

Squirt

2010-12-03T11:37:00.000-07:00

One day I found Squirt asleep in Andrew's bed, like this...

I'm not sure where the rest of his body is.

Summer Fun - August 2010

2010-12-02T11:25:00.000-07:00

I don't care who you are, that's funny right there.

Diesen Family Reunion July 2010

2010-12-01T15:41:00.006-07:00

We had a long awaited Diesen family reunion in July. Everyone was able to make it except for Mike and Amy and their kiddos...and Lori's husband and their older, married kids. What can I say...it was amazing! We played hard on the lake, played some goofy board games, got served breakfast every morning by my dad playing chef in his new outdoor kitchen, and sat for hours talking and laughing around the camp fire.

Several people are missing from this picture but this was the night we were all first assembled in the yurt.

Joe and dad in his outdoor kitchen and some other random stuff.

Eatin'and chattin'

Grandma Sue getting bombarded by grandkids wanting a ride.

Andrew and Tim sailing on the Escape.

Timmy and some of the boys fishing.

Chillaxin' on the dock

Suzy style snorkeling.

Some of the kids got to learn how to load and fire a potato cannon.

Andrew burning ants.

Rachel

Anni

Mya

The stupid dog had a field day licking Aaron's armpit. Yummy.

Aaron and Crista's beautiful handstands...and a cool picture of Kelsey.

Tim

Aaron

You can't go to the lake and not expect some nudity. (Lilly)

My cute daddy...

...and in his kitchen again.

Finley the dog was sooo sad to see Morgan leave. He had found a new best friend!

Moi

The girls...me, Lor, Suzy, Nik

And last but not least, although my parents have had their wave runner now for several years, no one has ever actually read the warning label. It totally gave us the giggles. "Severe internal injuries can occur if water is forced into body cavities as a result of falling into water or being near jet thrust nozzle. Normal swimwear does not adequately protect against forceful water entry into lower body opening(s) of males or females." What?! I don't even want to know how something like that happens.

Dogsitting 101

2010-10-06T13:19:00.027-06:00

A few months ago my sister and her family packed up for a big vacation over to Missouri to see some of her husbands family. They couldn't take their dog, and had just planned on leaving him at their place and have some friends check in on him daily. I was like, 'Oh that's silly...just bring him here and we'll watch him.' Uggghhh. I'm such a moron sometimes.

Finley the dog is a big time country dog. My sister lives on 5 acres, and surrounding that five acres is just more and more acres. Finley is used to running wild and free...and he's used to the attention of my sisters' 7 kids. I live in town, on a tiny lot, surrounded by other houses where dogs are either fenced in or on leashes...and I have 1 kid. We don't have a fence, so to keep him from running off...which he wanted to do badly...we had to keep him tied to the trampoline or stuck inside my house...where it became evident on my new floors that he is a constant drooler.

The very first thing he did when he got here was wander into my backyard and plant the largest, and unfortunately softest, dookie I have every seen in my entire life. I think he was nervous about his family leaving or something because he emptied the entire contents of his lower intestine onto my lawn. It was about the size of a large serving platter...not a regular plate...a serving platter...and about 8 inches high. I honestly had no idea a dog could have that much poop in him at any one time. Sorry...but it was amazing. Anyway, I paid Andrew 5 bucks to clean it up because there was no way I was going to be able to do it without losing my cookies. Andrew will do just about anything for money...but when he started dry-heaving about halfway through the job, I think he realized he got the raw end of the deal.

The first day we had him, I think Andrew took that stupid dog on about 27 walks. The novelty of having a dog! We took the dog over to one of the parks in the neighborhood that has a little hill we sled on in the winter, and Finley started running down it. Andrew held onto his leash for dear life...then he tripped...and kept holding on as Finley drug him down the hill at a full run. It was classic.

Aside from the poop, Andrew had a lot of fun with Finley. Andrew's best friend has a beagle, so the boys had a great time walking the dogs together.

Finley is a ridiculously sweet dog but I wore out fast. My new floors were covered in dog hair and drool. When he was outside he had to be chained to the trampoline as we don't have a tree in the back. If you've ever chained a stupid dog to a trampoline you know that they are constantly getting tangled in the many trampoline legs. To let us know that he didn't like being chained he was more than happy to share his annoying high pitched squeaky style bark...nonstop.

On day 3, we were all going a little stir crazy. For Andrew, the novelty of entertaining Finley was starting to wear off, and poor Finley was feeling cramped in town. So we packed up in the car, and drove up to Rock Creek for some fishing and swimming. It was glorious. The only snafu was when the dog decided to swim directly into our friends' fishing lure and get his leg hooked. He was oblivious though. I don't think he felt it because he just wanted to keep swimming.

The original plan was to dogsit for a week and then take him up to the lake and let my mom watch him the following week, after which my sister and other siblings would be showing up at the lake for a family reunion which I'll get to in another post. I couldn't last another minute. So, four days into it, I grabbed Andrew and his friend Ben and Finley and we headed up to Flathead. We spent the day swimming, canoeing and visiting with my parents and then I quite happily went home dogless. That silly dog loved being at the lake...no barking problems...no running away problems...and my parents have no idea where he was pooping because they have yet to find so much as a pebble.

Grandma

2010-09-16T23:04:00.033-06:00

My grandma turned the big 9-0 on May 1st. Woohoo! We had tried planning a huge blowout with tons of family coming in from all over but it just didn't materialize. Some family came up and spent her actual birthday with her. Andrew and I made it up with my sister and her family and my parents over mothers day weekend.

Because there were so many of us...mostly my sister's small, screaming children, we were in no way going to all be able to fit in grandma's house to spend the night. One of my uncles was already staying over with grandma as it was. So my uncle Roger loaned us his very cute, very small, very rustic, true Montana style lake cabin. It was pouring rain outside and crazy cold. We had a great time. We stuffed some of the kids up in the loft, scattered some on the floor, and the adults stayed up into the wee hours of the morning playing the train game...and a few of us didn't smell so good, if you know what I mean...not a good thing when you're all crammed in a small space.

Grandma with her four kids, including my cute mommy.

Random pics...unfortunately I didn't take many pictures.

Going to church with grams. She loves taking family to church with her.
(What little sun there was, was sure blinding all of us. Look at poor Turner!)

On the way home, we came upon this rainbow over the lake. It was a true double rainbow...which you can't really see here. It's not a great picture. It was raining hard and I was trying to not get hit by a car so I just snapped quick. It was so close...just sitting there in the water right off the shore. As we rounded the corner it moved with us for a while and then we drove right through it and it disappeared over the top of the car. Rainbows are cool but rainbows over Flathead Lake are fabulous.

And grandmas are especially fabulous.

Spring Ski 2010

2010-09-13T11:19:00.004-06:00

We are a ski family. Unfortunately we didn't get nearly as much skiing in last season as we would have liked...not because we couldn't go but because there was just so darn little snow. Did that just rhyme? Anyway, we always have a blast when we do get out and we're always sure to do at least one spring ski. We did a trip last March...the three of us, Andrew's cousin Jackson, and a friend of Tim's came along as well. We had a lot of fun. I think they were having Hawaiian Days or something if I remember correctly. Down one of the runs, they had a big bbq going on with hot dogs, hamburgers and chips and drinks. Most of the liftees and ski patrol were in hoola skirts, coconut bras, that type of stuff.

It was a seriously gorgeous day.

Below is Jackson's 'yard sale'. Tim let the boys take turns with the GPS so they could see how fast they were skiing. If I know anything about boys...you give them any opportunity for competition, especially involving speed, they're going to get a little crazy.

28.9 mph and crash.

And then there was this guy.

Ahhh, wuv...twuu wuv.

Rumor has it we're going to have a good snow year...fingers crossed!

One day back in April...

2010-09-12T07:30:00.000-06:00

I came home to find the cats had somehow confiscated the cat nip...bit through the packaging...dumped it all over the floor...and were having some serious fun.

The black cat was so doped up and spastic that I couldn't get one non-blurry picture of her.

Hmmm...

2010-09-11T14:31:00.006-06:00

I found this piece of paper on the coffee table today depicting our cat Squirt.

New Floors - After

2010-09-11T14:27:00.005-06:00

So, in reading back through my neglected blog, I was going to post some after pictures of the floor project. Not that interesting but I love them!

Another cute comment...

2010-06-10T13:24:00.004-06:00

It has been super rainy here. We've pretty much had crap weather since...ummm...like October - with the exception of literally just a spattering of sunny days here and there. This last Tuesday was one of those rare, sunny days. So, with more rain in the forecast, Andrew decided to make the most of it and set up the sprinkler under the trampoline for some fun in the sun.

Andrew's little friend, Jillian, had come over to play with him. He asked her if she wanted to run back home and get her swim suit so she could play in the water with him. Jillian lives just across the street so of course she ran home excited.

I was doing who-knows-what around the house and after a while I went outside to check on them, assuming Jillian was already back.

When I got outside, Andrew was jumping on the trampoline all by himself...no Jillian.

Me: "Andrew, was Jillian going to come back and play with you?"

Andrew: "Oh yeah, it just takes women a long time to put their swim suits on."

Women???

Jillian is 8.

And besides, he better get used to it. We women take a long time to do just about everything.

Cute Comment

2010-06-01T01:09:00.004-06:00

Andrew has some really great neighbor friends. Seriously great. Two of his best friends are a brother-sister duo, little "Gracie" and "Brycie". Bryce is considerably younger than Andrew but Andrew just eats him up because it's like having a little brother around...something he has desperately wanted for a long time.

Bryce is an adorable little man, with big eyes and squooshy cheeks and such a cute little voice. A couple of days ago he was over at our house with his sister and they played and played for a good part of the day. I desperately needed to get to the store to get a few things for dinner, so I let Andrew know that we would need to send the kids home in a little bit and run a few quick errands. He whined and grumped like a typical 9 year old and, with his head back and his eyes rolling upwards, said..."I dooooon't want to go, why do we have to go?"

Before I could say anything, little "Brycie" walked straight up to Andrew, looked up at him with his puffy cheeks and big eyes and said, very matter of factly..."because your mom said so."

He took the words right out of my mouth.

Quote of the Day by Andrew

2010-05-21T09:28:00.005-06:00

Disclaimer - this entire conversation was a little inapropriate...fair warning.

The other day, Andrew and his dad were throwing a small, rubber bouncy ball back and forth to each other in the living room. On one of the throws, Tim wacked Andrew on the upper part of his leg...not too far from you-know-where.

Of course, Andrew did the normal man-flinch reaction when flying objects come any where near there.

Andrew's eyes got big and he smiled and said:

Andrew: "Whooooa, that hit me on the leg!!"

I leaned over to Tim and said under my breath...

Liv: "Good thing it didn't hit him on the third leg."

I didn't think Andrew could hear me. And certainly if he did he wouldn't get it, right? Sometimes I forget that he is 9 years old now, and he can process things in that brain of his.

Of course, he did hear me.

Tim rolled his eyes at me in disgust for saying such things with small ears in the room.

We waited...trying to pretend I hadn't said anything.

I looked up at Andrew and could see the wheels turning.

Then his eyes got really big...the light bulb had gone on.

Andrew: "I think the third leg isn't even long enough to touch the ground."

Bingo.

New Floors

2010-04-21T07:00:00.009-06:00

Before

While Aaron and my mom were here in February, I got a major hankering to tear my nasty green carpet out. My mom was supposed to be on vacation and I think she started panting and hyperventilating when I mentioned my desires to her. Aaron is super mellow and just goes with the flow so I don't think he cared what we did. They were both super good sports though and helped me with the tearing out...sort of.

It was a bigger job than I had anticipated, even for a little house. So we got the carpet out, went on our ski trip and left it at that for a few days so they could enjoy the rest of their vacation.

After Aaron had gone back home, we got started on the new flooring. We got the dining room in pretty quick with the help of my brother in law, who just happened to be in town for some grocery shopping or something like that, and Tim was home so there were lots of extra hands. After that, it was pretty much up to me to finish the job...my mom headed back up to Plains to make the most beautiful prom dress you've ever seen...and Tim, well he works like 27 hours a day so he helped when he could...

Progress

I kind of prefer to work alone anyways. It's just really exhausting putting a floor in by yourself. Lots of up and down, up and down, down to measure, up to cut, down to lay, uuuggghhhhh. I don't think I will be doing this again anytime soon.

But seriously, who could bring sexy back better than me with this getup?

Notice the duct tape on the knuckles?

Next project...painting my kitchen cabinets. I can't wait!!!

PS. I still do not have any official 'after' pictures. Coming soon.

Ski Day

2010-04-20T07:00:00.002-06:00

Back in February my brother, Aaron, came out from Seattle for a visit. My mom, who winters down in Sierra Vista, AZ, also came up. She was actually up for about a month housesitting for my aunt and uncle. Anyway, our grand plan...to do a ski trip! We didn't get crap for snow this year, but it was still fun. Seriously, it's impossible to NOT have fun when you have Uncle Aaron and Grandma Sue around. Tim had to work, the poor sucker. So it was just me, Andrew, mom, Aaron, and we stole Maddy away too.

And it's tradition whenever we go to Blacktail to hit Dairy Queen at the bottom of the mountain. Mmmmmm...blizzards.

Just chillaxin' at my aunt & uncles house in Plains the next day...

Uncle Aaron and Lexie

3 of the 6 siblings...Aaron, Nikole, me

Pinewood Derby 2010

2010-04-18T23:26:00.008-06:00

Andrew had his Pinewood Derby back in March. He came in 1st place at his pack meet this year! How cool is that? Even cooler is that his cousin, Jackson, came in second place.

(What the heck? Did I actually let my child go out in public with his hair like that?)

Then he got to go to the district race at the mall the following weekend.

Andrew named his car 'The Flame Mobile'.

He came in 8th place at Districts. Not too shabby! He had a great time this year. Last year, he didn't understand the concept of competition and that other kids might actually beat him. This year was a lot better for him, knowing what to expect and understandning that, yes, it is fair if someone else kicks your butt.

Best Friends

2010-03-20T15:02:00.003-06:00

I love it when two best friends have a conversation kind of like this on a beautiful, sunny afternoon...

Ben: "Hey Andy, do you want to go burn ants?"

Andrew: "Sure!"

Ben: "Can I run home real quick to get my own magnifying glass? Do you want to burn stuff at your house or at my house?"

CLASSIC!

Saturday Morning in Andrew Land

2010-03-13T23:28:00.009-07:00

This morning I really wanted to sleep in for as long as I wanted.

I've been working out religiously each morning Monday-Friday and I just wanted a good ol' Saturday morning to veg.

Andrew is old enough now to understand the value of sleep. So, last night as we were tucking him in bed, I explained how Saturday morning was going to go.

Me: "Andrew, you don't have school tomorrow. You can sleep in as long as you want. I'm going to sleep in as long as I want. If you want to get up early to watch cartoons, that's fine, just don't wake me up....unless the house is burning down, then you can wake me up."

Andrew: {smile} "Okay!"

You would think with just one child, an older child, this would be possible.

Early this morning I could hear him in the living room with the tv on.

It was a little loud.

No biggie.

I kept sleeping as best I could.

Then I got startled awake to something like this:

Andrew: "MOM, MOM!!! YOU HAVE TO COME SEE THIS! IT"S THE SWIVEL SWEEPER! IT HAS SIX GREAT FEATURES!"

What? Can't my kid just watch Saturday morning cartoons like normal kids? What's up with the infomercials?

He ran into my bedroom to tell me all about the Swivel Sweeper and it's six new amazing features:

1. Touchless dirt tray
2. Back saver elbow joint
3. New and improved super sliders
4. 360 degree swiveling
5. Magnetic storage latch and space saving design
6. Non slip rubber tip

I was still half asleep and my eyes were heavy and he kept telling me to "LOOK, LOOK!" as he talked with his hands, physically reenacting the infomercial so I could see exactly all that the Swivel Sweeper can do.

The whole sleeping in thing was worth a shot.

But it was officially time to get up and make waffles.

Sledding...Montana Style

2010-02-01T14:38:00.001-07:00

I grew up sledding. My parents were always throwing us down mountains on inner tubes, toboggans, whatever. So I pretty much thought I knew everything there was to know about sledding.

On Christmas day, we got together with some of Tim's family to go sledding. Tim's dad had scoped out a spot for us earlier, so we designated that as our meeting place and Tim and I took off ahead of everybody.

We started up a logging road and then Tim stopped the van and said, "This looks good."

I looked up the mountain and saw nothing but heavy brush.

I said, "What are you talking about, there's no place to sled".

He got out of the van and started hiking up the logging road a few yards, then plopped on his sled, slid down the road and confirmed it was good.

I thought it looked dumb.

What I didn't understand up to that point was that Tim's dad would be shuttling us as far up the logging road as was humanly possible in his 4x4 truck, dropping us off, and letting us sled all the way down. Then shuttling us back up, sled down, up...down...up...down.

Pure brilliance, if you ask me. Pure brilliance.

It was like an Olympic luge run...except Montana hillbilly style.

Ok, so I guess I didn't get many sledding pictures that day, mostly just standing around pix.

Careful where you point that thing, Tim.

On our way home, Andrew and his cousin sledded almost all the way out to the the main road.

Then we got back home to our Christmas mess and did this to our cat.

But we had so much fun, we headed back up a few days later with some friends of ours.

The corner just above where Tim is coming down was the hardest one to make. I almost launched myself off the mountain right there.

The End

Christmas 2009

2010-01-30T18:23:00.049-07:00

The problem with being a procrastinator is that I put off and I put off and then I forget what it was I was putting off.

I do remember that we did have Christmas...I have pictures to prove it...but I don't remember much detail. If it weren't for pictures, I wouldn't remember anything at all.

So beings that it is almost Valentines Day, I'd better get our Christmas documented before my brain is a complete fog.

Lets see...

So, we actually got our lights up nice and early this year, just shortly after Thanksgiving, thanks to the weather.

Then we got our standard, tall, skinny sub-alpine tree.

I love my 'subbies'.

Fake trees are not allowed in our house...ever.

What's the fun if you don't have that tree smell...and sap and needles all over the place?

And besides, for a short period of time, the cats get to pretend that they are rugged, outdoor, hunter cats...instead of the fat slob indoor cats they really are.

Barbie made an appearance on Christmas Eve, courtesy of Andrew to his dad.

Then...after Andrew was tucked in bed...Santa re-gifted her.

Christmas morning...

...gotta love the matching penguin pants and robe.

My sister thought it would be funny to get Andrew a friend for Barbie...

...it didn't go over too well.

She redeemed herself by also getting him a 'Dr. Fart' pen and a whoopi cushion.

I asked Santa for a Beater Blade...I like it...I'm still trying to decide if I absolutely love it.

(God bless black and white for early morning, no-makeup pictures)

Timmy got some fancy new ski goggles with fancy hinge thingies so they stay sucked to your face even when worn over a helmet...

Andrew looooooves Calvin & Hobbes...thanks to ebay, he scored 12 Calvin & Hobbes books.

All done...time to go sledding...

The End

Video of the Day

2010-01-27T16:25:00.003-07:00

This is probably one of the funniest videos I've seen in a while.

"MONKEY"

PS. I love the kids' reactions in the background.

Sunshine

2010-01-26T08:32:00.000-07:00

I just came across these pictures of Andrew and his little next door neighbor girlfriend (shhhh...don't tell him I just said that), picking carrots out of our garden last September.

Green stuff...and sunshiny stuff...ooohhhh how lovely.

9 Years Old

2010-01-03T13:47:00.004-07:00

Andrew turned 9 years old.

He requested:
1.) Homemade cheesecake (that's my boy!)

2.) Cupcakes (for the kids who "don't like cheese in their cake", an issue from birthdays past - little did they know the cupcakes were topped with cream cheese frosting...suckers!)

3.) Red balloons and footballs

Every year, I tell myself that I'm going to tell people not to bring gifts but I always wimp out. I would love to have a party with no gifts (a.k.a more clutter). Maybe next year.

Playing with the Hot Wheels color shifter cars in the bathroom.

Cousin Tanner was, as usual, more interested in the vaccuum than anything else.

It was a pretty eventful day. We ended up with a firetruck and ambulance in front of the house because one of the little boys is apparently severely allergic to cats and was really struggling to breath. I'm so glad my sister-in-law was there because she's the one that noticed...I was busy dishing up cake and ice cream. Apparently, his parents had just recently found out he was allergic to cats but had no idea it was so severe so they hadn't thought to ask if we had any when they dropped him off. Fortunatley, he was alright. It was just the suckiest birthday party he'd ever been to I'm sure.

Other than that, it was a fantastic day with cousins and friends and lots of yummy sweets.

Happy birthday, buddy!

11 Years

2010-01-02T15:24:00.006-07:00

I've spent 11 years of my life with this goober named Tim...

...and I've loved every minute of it...

...most of the minutes anyways.

Happy Anniversary Poo Poo Face!

A Christmas Miracle

2009-12-22T22:33:00.008-07:00

A couple of weeks ago, my reindeer van shed one of its antlers. I was sad.

Tim didn't care - he thinks they're stupid.

Then I realized I had made a bank deposit earlier that day and it most likely popped off when I had rolled down my window at the bank drive-in. Maybe it would still be there?? So I went back to the bank at about 10pm that night, looked around, but alas, no antler. I was sad again.

I've been driving around town for the last two weeks debating about whether or not to just take the nose and lone remaining antler off, because it just isn't right without the other one.

Yesterday, I needed to make another bank deposit. I rolled up to the drive-up sucky machine and, after waiting a minute or two, the teller came on the little tv screen.

She said, "Hello".

Then she smiled really big and said, "Are you missing an antler?"

I said, "Yes".

She said, "We found one in the parking lot a while ago...I'll bring it down to you."

Seriously? Who finds a stuffed antler in their parking lot and keeps it for two weeks in the hopes that they might find the single-antlered vehicle roaming around?

It made my day.

Quote of the Day by Tim

2009-12-13T08:05:00.001-07:00

The other day Tim and I were talking about some of our friends and their characteristics and comparing ourselves and how pathetically mellow we are, almost to the extreme. And the conversation ended like this...

Liv: "Well, you do have a little bit of a grumpy streak. Especially when you've had a bad day at work."

Tim: "I know! I hate being grumpy, it makes me mad!"

I almost peed my pants. Not so much what he said but because it took him a second to realize what he'd just said. It's my new favorite quote.

Haircut

2009-12-12T14:30:00.007-07:00

I haven't had my hair professionally cut in probably 16 years. Mainly because my hair is fine and flat and crappy and I could never find anyone who could figure out what to do with it. And also because I don't really care. I'm not a girly-girl by any means. But recently my hair had gone beyond frumpy, even by my standards, so I decided I needed to take better care of myself. My sister in law had recently had her hair cut super-duper cute by a childhood friend, Sarah, so I decided to give her a shot. I LOVE it! It is sooo easy to style and the messier it is, the better. I finally found someone who knows how to cut my hair...and she informed me she is moving to California in April. CRAP!!!

Not the best front shot, it looks pretty standard, but trust me, it's CUTE!

Seriously, my hair has never looked this full in the back!

Thank you, Sarah!

Quote of the Day by Andrew

2009-12-03T10:19:00.004-07:00

Last night, Andrew was laying in bed telling me about sliding down the stairs at his friends house. I told him about the big house I grew up in that had lots of stairs and the plastic mat we would use as a taboggan to slide down and crash into the wall at the bottom. And the banister we would slide down. We compared stories and reminisced. I smiled and said, "I wish I was a kid again."

Andy: "Why?"

Me: "Because it's a lot more fun."

Andy: "Oh yeah...you have absolutely no idea how fun my life is."

I wish you could have heard his intonation and seen how big his eyes got when he said that...it was priceless.

Craft Fairs

2009-11-22T01:49:00.003-07:00

I've been super busy crafting lately and have completely flaired up my carpal tunnel syndrome. It's definately a love/hate thing - this crafting business. Anywho, you can find me at a couple of up and coming craft fairs in Missoula.

Saturday Nov. 28
City Life Center
1515 Fairview Ave (near the Fairgrounds)
9am - 3pm

Saturday Dec. 5th
Hellgate Elementary School
2385 Flynn Lane
9am - 5pm

I will have lots of super cute Christmas items so be sure to stop by and get some of your Christmas shopping done!

Look for 'Knick Knack on Wood'...that's me! Hope to see you there!

Magruder Corridor

2009-11-08T07:00:00.001-07:00

Back in August we did a car camping trip with some friends of ours. It was great fun, especially since Mike and Jessica did ALL the cooking. Tim and I had our first experience with bacon spam...not too bad, I must say. And beings that we had 3 proper English folk with us, well, that just makes it even more fun...the accent and all. We made them take turns telling the nightly campfire ghost stories because it's just way cooler with the accent. And we learned the difference between a 'crumpet' and a 'bit of crumpet'. There's a big difference.

The first day, we stopped for lunch at this bridge near the ranger station.

Thanks to my mom and dad for letting us borrow their truck. It wasn't much of a mini-van road.

Our first campsite.

Tim gave lessons on how to start a fire without matches. He's such a good Boy Scout...

and a cute one at that.

Speaking of fires...this one must have been super hot. It burned several years ago and there was still absolutely nothing growing.

The guys, sans Paul...not sure where he was, maybe nature called

Speaking of nature calling...

(it looks like a cliff but trust me it wasn't steep)

Our first camp site had been super dusty. The second camp site was GORGEOUS. We had two crystal clear creeks on either side of us and it was so lovely to get in and clean up.

Mid-air high-five...

Ghost stories...

Driving out...Andrew was pooped!

We spotted this very cool rock formation on the way home.

To be continued...next stop, Weir Creek Hot Springs.

Halloween 2009

2009-11-07T17:56:00.012-07:00

Making creepy apple heads...

Carving pumpkins...

School party...

Trick or Treating with cousins...

Eating...

Letting Tanner clean up...because he had asked me about a dozen times if he could play with my vaccuum...

You have to know him to understand.

Trying to teach an 8 year old boy the delicacies of women

2009-10-21T13:44:00.007-06:00

Last night, the three of us were wrestling on the floor when Andrew said,

"Hey mom, you are a big whale and you need to sit on..." Tim promptly cut him off.

Tim: "Andrew, there are a few things you never call a woman. A big whale is one of them. Women don't really like to be called animal names unless it's like 'fox' or 'chick' or 'ski bunny'.

Andrew giggled.

Five minutes later...

Andrew: "Mom, you're not a big whale, you're a pig."

I don't think he gets it.

Strange things

2009-10-12T12:22:00.004-06:00

Yesterday, my sister became a grandma. Which makes my mother a great-grandma and me a great-aunt. I mean, I've always been a great aunt...fabulous, in fact...but now I'm officially great. Anyway, where has the time gone? When did we all get old? And seriously, do I have to relive the '80's again. I saw stirrup pants at the store the other day...for cyring out loud, STIRRUP PANTS!

PS. Congrats Chris & Michelle! It's freakin' me out, but congrats.

Quote of the Day by Andrew

2009-10-07T21:40:00.005-06:00

Tonight, Tim was complaining about some tiny little red bumps on his arms.

Andrew: "Dad, can I see?"

Tim showed Andrew his little red bumps.

Tim: "I must have fleas. I probably got them from your mom. Did you know your mom has fleas?

Andrew: (without missing a beat - but with a BIG grin on his face) "Yep, that's because she's a flea-male."

A story for Monday

2009-09-28T17:35:00.005-06:00

I'd been noticing a squooshy wet spot in my neighbors lawn adjacent to my garden.

It wouldn't dry up.

Last night I told Tim we should go over to her house and let her know she probably had a leak in her underground sprinkling system.

So we did.

We asked her if we could dig for her and try to find the leak.

She said "please".

So we did.

We found a sprinkler line running directly under the squooshy spot but oddly it was in perfect condition - no leak.

It got dark.

We postponed our investigation.

This morning our neighbor had to go to work.

Tim had the day off so he put on his camouflage clothes and went to Walmart. (Don't ask).

I decided to resume the dig on my own.

I found the leak.

A weed paper stake had worked it's way through the MAIN...I repeat, M-A-I-N...sprinkler line.

And I rediscovered my knack for saying a few choice words when it's appropriate for the situation.

THE END

Quote of the Day by Andrew

2009-09-20T13:48:00.004-06:00

Andrew: "Mom, what are those things called that old people wear in their ears?"

Me: "Hearing aids?"

Andrew: "Oh yeah, those. I want some for Christmas."

Me: "What?"

Andrew: "When I go to Ben's house, and Kayla (Ben's sister) starts talking it's really annoying and I could just turn the sound off."

Priceless...

Diet Coke and Mentos

2009-09-04T14:31:00.003-06:00

We've been wanting to do this for a long time.

Very cool but not quite as cool as this.

A cowboy of sorts...

2009-08-28T01:09:00.010-06:00

Andrew disappeared into the office the other day for quite awhile. He was dead quiet. He likes to go in there and steal all my computer paper, staple the sheets together and color the pages. I was busy in the kitchen and just figured he was in the office making a book.

Then, several minutes later, I heard him wrestling with his dad in the other room and he was laughing hysterically. Tim and Andrew wrestling every night is pretty much tradition so I didn't think much of that either.

But then he comes around the corner and approaches me in this get-up...

He looks at me and says, word for word...

"Hello, I'm Cowboy Barbie and I hate to tell you this but I just kissed your husband."

Tim and Andrew have a long running Barbie war going on...but seriously, where does this kid come up with this stuff?

Huckleberry Heaven

2009-08-18T16:19:00.005-06:00

Tim and I thought we missed out on the huckleberries this year. Thanks to a diligent sister-in-law, we can stuff our faces with all things huckleberry for quite a while. Karla found a great spot ridiculously close to town, that's just covered with berries. Red ones, purple ones, blue ones, fat ones...pure heaven!

The kids each picked about 5 berries before they got bored and decided to catch grasshoppers instead. We had sandwiches and roasted hot dogs and marshmallows and came home nice and stinky and purple. Lovely!

Even more Flathead

2009-08-16T08:00:00.001-06:00

Do we do anything other than go to Flathead Lake in the summer? Not really.
Another trip up to the lake, this time with sis Nikole and her kidlets. I'm just trying to get through my July pics. Almost there.

This little boy is never happier than when he's fishing

Does Lilly ever NOT have boogers in her nose?

Andrew chillaxin
Us ladies posing with our legs - for my sake I just HAD to crop it!
Grandma Sue giving rides

I caught Turner using grandma & papa's pot lids as shoes. LOVE IT!

More Flathead

2009-08-15T09:50:00.016-06:00

Andrew and I went up to the lake last month with Tim's sister Karla and her kids. She's got some adorably quirky little people.

This little guy, for example, just might be my favorite little person on the planet right now (except for my own son, because that just wouldn't be right, right?)

Tanner is soooo cute! He's obsessed with vacuums. The first thing he asked me when he came in my house was:

Tanner: "Do you have a vacuum?"

Me: "Yes"

Tanner: "Can I see it?"

Andrew's got a room full of Hot Wheels and trains and this kid wants to see my vacuum.

Then when we got up to the lake, he walked into my parents yurt and after a few minutes he spotted my moms vacuum. He shrieked!

"A VACUUM!!!"

Too cute, I tell ya. My mom was quite taken with him as well. He kept asking her, "Can I play with Harold's vacuum?"

Then there's Lydia. She has the most indescribably cute little voice. Plus she likes to play with my hair, which I looooove.

Then there's cousins Andrew and Jackson. They're just plain ol' 8 year old boys so I'm not quite sure what to say about that. Except that together they make 'Andrew Jackson', our 7th U.S. president who's portrait is on the 20 dollar bill. Okay, that was stupid.

My mom likes to torment little children. She has a tradition of telling any unsuspecting child that they can push her in the lake, but when they get close enough, she grabs them and pulls them in with her. The poor sucker this time was Hans.

Thanks, mom and dad for another great weekend!

Lolo Hot Springs

2009-08-08T08:09:00.000-06:00

A while back, we got a wild hair to go to Lolo Hot Springs. It was a totally random day trip. It was raining and freezing cold that day so we didn't stay long. Andrew is a fish though, and could have stayed forever so we had to practically drag him out of the pool.

On the way home, we stopped to roast some hot dogs and boil up some ramen for dinner

Tim roasting dogs on his fancy camp stove

Me & Andrew trying to stay dry
Tim was very proud of the fire he started with completely wet wood
(actually, if I recall, I was the one that got it going after his went out...hmmm...why am I not in this picture instead?)

Tim is incapable of stopping by a creek without fishing

The End

Tape Buddy

2009-08-07T08:07:00.001-06:00

Andrew invented these...he calls them "Tape Buddies". He's made three of them so far. This is his most recent. He made it for his Great Grandma's birthday to go in her card that he also made for her. Quite creative if you ask me. But then again, I'm the mom.

Cat fart at the computer...

2009-08-06T08:02:00.001-06:00

Do I need to explain this picture?

Temple Trip

2009-08-05T17:10:00.007-06:00

Okay, I'm really behind posting stuff. After the 4th, Tim and I went over to Spokane for a little temple trip, just the two of us. What did we do with Andy? I honestly don't remember. I think he stayed with Grandma Vickie? Anyway, we had a nice little road trip together. Tim shaved his head almost completely bald right before we went over. It was pretty SHOCKING. I usually cut his hair for him but he was getting impatient and did it himself and wouldn't take my advice on what size comb to use. Oh well.

My bald guy is still pretty cute

Then we were off to Applebees after our session for a bite to eat before our 3 1/2 hour drive home.

A nice day for just the two of us.

A HaPpy 4th

2009-07-19T14:41:00.034-06:00

Continued...

We spent the 4th up at the lake...of course. Tim, Sam, Maddy and Andrew showed up after their hiking trip in time for some grub and then fireworks.

Grub
oooohhhh...fireworks

Fortunately there were no fire incidents this year...ahem, cough, Aaron...

And of course lots and lots of time on the water...including my annual 'GTR' {Giggly Tube Ride} with Aaron. I apologize for all the pics but I just LuV this family!

Kelsey, Maddy, Suzy
can't kick off the weekend without a little crack
~Lilly~Lexie~Turner~
Moi
Bailey, Lexie, Andrew
good thing we rescued this jogoline from the dump
Beautiful Maddy & Kels
Even dad got in the water, wearing a swimming suit and everything!
Aaron and Nikole

Plenty of Fun Pops

Aaron and his girl, Crista
and a silly grandma and a jogoline

Enough with the freakin' pictures already!

Pre-4th Chillaxin'

2009-07-15T01:27:00.010-06:00

Andrew and I headed up to the lake the weekend before the 4th.

Going down to the fire pit to make some yummy smores
mmmm...
Lexie was shaking and shoving this thing in with both hands.
ummm...gross, Maddy

Then Andrew and I headed back home on Tuesday to catch up with Timmy.

Tim and I played some paintball with some friends and family Wednesday night and got plenty bruised up.

Then Tim and Andrew had a backpack trip planned with Sam and Maddy and met up with them in the mountains on Friday.

Much to my delight, no one got eaten by a bear. Then, Saturday afternoon, all four of them rode over to meet the rest of us at the lake just in time for some dinner and fireworks.

To be continue...

Slowly but surely...

2009-07-08T15:49:00.007-06:00

I desperately need to get back to blogging. We had a fabulous time up at the lake for the 4th and now I'm sawing, painting and sanding like crazy for the Saturday Market coming up, well...this Saturday. So I guess when I have more than a few seconds I'll get back on here and post some pictures of what's been going on around here lately. In the meantime enjoy my new favorite joke courtesy of my witty brother, Aaron...

What's red and smells like blue paint?

Red paint

Squirt the Cat

2009-06-12T08:08:00.001-06:00

Oddly enough, this is the only position Squirt will allow you to hold him in. If you try to hold him any other way, he'll bunny-kick you to death.

Last Day

2009-06-10T23:40:00.006-06:00

Today was Andrew's last day of school. FINALLY! This year drug on forever! I'm sure in a few days I'm going to be wishing he was back in school though. Anyway, last week his school did their annual Governors Cup race - 3 miles. Andy came in 11th place which is pretty amazing considering how many kids ran.

Then on Monday, his class did a play for the parents. Andrew was Boris the Bush Pig. You have absolutely no idea how excited he was to get the part of Boris.

Just try saying 'Boris the Bush Pig' without smiling. I bet you can't do it.

Bye-bye 2nd grade!

Home Sweet Home

2009-06-07T19:28:00.012-06:00

Holy cow! I just noticed my childhood home is on the market. My parents sold the house about 7 years ago and I swear it was the worst day of my life! It's funny how we get attached to houses. It took me awhile to realize it's not the house itself that I missed, it's everything that happened inside. And I can take all those great memories with me anywhere I go. Still, I've had recurring dreams about going back and sneaking into my old house and just looking around. Now that it's back on the market, I can take a peak back inside. It was weird enough emptying the place out when my parents sold it but it's even weirder to see other peoples stuff in there.

Some things the next buyer does not know:

- The house is totally haunted (I SWEAR!)

- Buried outside the kitchen window are: a bunny rabbit, my dog 'Midget', and I don't even know how many cats.

Liv, Mom, Midget

- Somewhere in the walls of that house there is a dead boa constrictor, several pet mice, and maybe a lizard or two.

Aaron, Nik and the boa

- The house was painted with cheap child labor (only after said children scraped off the old LEAD paint with blow torches and scrapers. I think I was six when I was handed my first blow torch. Aaahh, those were the days).

- The kitchen sink has seen it's fair share of naked butts (okay, this particular sink was long ago replaced but I couldn't resist this AdORAbLe picture of my bro).

Aaron

I really don't miss the old house anymore. I had a fabulous childhood and have a ton of memories from inside those walls. But I've realized, especially since I've been married, that your home isn't the house itself, it's wherever your family is. Cliche, I know, but so true.

Brownie Points

2009-06-04T17:20:00.004-06:00

We were playing Uno the other night when out of nowhere Andrew says, "I'm not sure if I want to get married when I grow up."

Tim said: "You have a long time before you have to worry about that."

Me: "Yeah, your daddy didn't really want to get married either."

Andrew: "But then he found a perfect woman."

...good boy ;)

Random

2009-06-01T10:38:00.005-06:00

If you're in the mood to try something stupid, try this...it's pretty amusing. For a specified amount of time, say like for a whole day, you have to communicate by singing like they do in operas. No regular talking whatsoever.

We only lasted about 20 minutes.

(Aaron, I know you're up for this one)

UP

2009-05-30T10:36:00.008-06:00

We went and saw UP last night. Oh my heck, what a great movie! I laughed, I cried, I laughed, I cried...it was good. Apparently not too many people know about snipe hunting though, because Tim and I seemed to be the only ones that laughed at that part. I guess there weren't any other former scouts or girls campers in the crowd. Anyway, go see it!

To grandmothers house we go...

2009-05-29T12:30:00.007-06:00

We headed up to visit my grandma for Memorial Day. Her 89th birthday was on May 1st but with my parents still wintering down in Arizona and other family not able to get together at the time, we decided to wait and throw her a big birthday bash on Memorial Day.

On the way up, we stopped at my parents' place on the lake...spent the night and had some yummy smores...A LoT of yummy smores. Uggg, I'm still stuffed.

We continued on up to Eureka where Jax Cafe had been rented out just for our fam damily. My parents, and all my moms' brothers and their families were able to be there. I think we wore my grandma out, which was kind of the plan! Funny stories were told...good ol' fashioned reminiscing. Then a few of us headed back to grandmas. My camera was working only intermittently so this is all I've got.

the Birthday Girl
Lilly and Kelsey

Lexie 'Looney Bin'
Tim and Uncle Fred
Kelsey and her daddy Sam
Lilly

The entire 3 hour car ride up there, Andrew sang to us, 8 year old opera style. Kelsey can attest to that because she got to ride with us. It was fun, wasn't it Kelsey?

On the way back, we stopped at my grandpa's grave site in Kalispell. We had grabbed some lilacs from my grandma's yard and put them on my grandpa's grave...along with some jerky from M&S Meats. We would have put some cheese curds on there too but Tim had eaten them all by the time we got to the cemetery. If you knew my grandpa you would totally understand the jerky and cheese curds.

There's nothing quite like family and I am so grateful for all the crazy people in this one! We love you grandma, Happy Birthday! And grandpa, we love you and miss you terribly!

Lemonade...50 cents

2009-05-16T20:01:00.007-06:00

Andrew has been dying and I mean DYING to do a lemonade stand since the middle of winter. Yes, winter. I kept having to remind him that not too many people are walking around the neighborhood in 5 degree weather, and even if they are, they're not looking for lemonade. So anyway, fast forward to Saturday, May 16th. FINALLY a gorgeous day!!! Every year, the third Saturday of May, our neighborhood does a big garage sale and there are a ton of people out and about milling around the neighborhood. Andrew's dream of a lemonade stand finally came true today...and business was goooooood!

He could not have been happier. He is a true salesman, just like his daddy! And it didn't hurt that his best buddy in the whole wide world was able to help out. (Ummm...time for a haircut, Andy).

The boys only lasted two hours before they got tired and decided to pack it in but they each worked really hard, made some good money and had a GrEaT TiMe.

Paintballin'

2009-05-13T23:57:00.005-06:00

Okay, this was the most fun I've had in a long time.

Dressing up in full camo, full face mask, heading out to the woods and crawling around in deer poop trying to avoid getting one of these...

Tim and I went paintballing for the first time ever. Quite exhilarating for these two boring thirtysomethings, I must say. It's the most stupid thing to go out and shoot each other with pellets of paint traveling at 300 feet per second. A game thought up by men, that's for certain. But it sure as heck is FUN! There was only one other female there and we ended up on opposite teams. Needless to say, we couldn't shoot each other. I did end up taking a couple shots at my own teammates though. It took a while to figure out who was who in those crazy masks. Basically, if you shoot at someone and they don't shoot back, that might be a good indication that you're shooting at a teammate. Oops. Anyway...I did have a couple legitimate hits once I memorized everyones clothing and started shooting at the right people. I'm sure when we do this again, no one is going to want me on their team because I'm such a bonehead. Anyway, it was fabulous fun and not nearly as painful as I had anticipated. This side shot had a pretty good sting, and getting nailed in the back of the head was no picnic but I was envisioning myself waling on the ground in pain or losing an eyeball. It wasn't so bad. I think we just might have a new hobby.

Yumalicious

2009-05-08T14:55:00.004-06:00

This here is my favorite food blog for recipes. They have some fabulous stuff on their website. I was sick earlier this week and hadn't eaten in a few days. Yesterday my appetite came back rather voraciously. I got on the website and printed off recipe after recipe and got started on dinner. It was YuMmY. I was desperately in the mood for Mexican so I chose some of their Mexican recipes along with the Brazilian Lemonade. It should be called Brazilian Limeade but never mind that. You MUST try it. And follow her directions to a tee - including pouring it over ice because for some reason it was a hundred times better in a glass of ice. The recipes I chose last night were a little on the heavy side for my still slightly squeamish tummy but it was a verrry good dinner. And holy cow, their desserts look devine! I'm trying really hard to control myself!!

Speaking of yummy things, apparently Tim's head tastes like bacon...

Overloaded

2009-04-23T09:54:00.008-06:00

Tim went out fishing this morning. On his way he saw this...

A big 'ol truck and lowboy trailer. No big deal. But then he realized it was hauling something.

Isn't that TOO CUTE!!

Crafty Crap cont.

2009-04-22T17:50:00.005-06:00

I actually got my crappy camera working. Just needed to be opened up and jiggled around a little. So here's a sampling of a few things so far. I've already got several items up at the store which I didn't get pictures of because the camera was busted at the time. I guess things have been selling pretty well. We'll see how it goes! Welp, I need to go figure out what the heck to make for dinner.

Neglected

2009-04-17T00:10:00.005-06:00

My poor little bloggy woggy has been so neglected since my camera bit the dust. I'm just so uninspired without pictures, even if they're terrible. Actually, I remembered that my video camera takes still pictures but I just haven't bothered with it yet. It's a bummer too. I've been hard at work on my crafty crap and have got a few things in a little store up where my sister lives. No pictures...so sad. My sisters got a friend who just opened up a store and she wanted some of my things so I thought I'd try it out. I don't think it's a great market up there for this kind of stuff but we'll see. It's looking like things aren't going to sell too well unless I mark everything down ridiculously low. I asked my niece and her friend what they would pay for a certain item and they were both like, "oh, 50 cents...a dollar." They were serious. They almost got slapped. My stuff doesn't come off a conveyor belt from China!!! For crying out loud, my once lovely long fingernails have almost all been shaved off by the belt sander. Oh pity.

I'm having FuN regardless. Kind of. I'm really tired and my back hurts. And I'm not only neglecting my blog but I feel like I haven't seen my family for a while. I don't think Andrew could care less. As long as I'm there for him when he gets hungry (which isn't very often), that's all he cares about. Other than that, he'd much rather be off riding his bike around the block with his buddy (speaking of which, Andrew recently got a bike with pegs, and watching him and his friend give each other rides on the pegs reminds me soooo much of Napoleon Dynamite - ie: "you've got shocks, pegs...lucky." It's very funny).

Where was I?

Oh yeah, neglecting my family. Beings that it's after one in the morning and I chose to catch up on my blog rather than go to bed with my neglected hubby - does that make me terrible? Probably. The poor guy. It's time to sign off and go snuggle.

Random Andy

2009-04-06T02:28:00.004-06:00

Andrew informed us the other day that there are more children on the earth than people.

Don't think too hard about that one.

Ski Day

2009-04-02T15:27:00.006-06:00

We just got back from most likely our last ski trip of the season. So sad. It was fabulous fun. We spent the night with my sister and headed out early the next morning with a couple of Andrews cousins, Maddy and Kelsey, and went to Blacktail. The snow was beautiful and the weather was perfect. Andrew had a great ski day. We never know what kind of attitude he's going to be in when we get on the ski hill. He usually picks one run that he likes the best and that's the only one he wants to ski on all day long and he won't have it any other way. Stubborn little bugger. Uggg. Yesterday he was all over the mountain. He had a blast! It's a great mountain for him. (I think it had something to do with the two gorgeous blonds we brought with us). Tim had his GPS with him and stuck it in Andy's pocket. Andy would zip down a run and then stop and want to check the GPS for his speed. His top speed was 24.5 mph. Not too bad for a little guy.

There's something about Blacktail that just gives us bad luck though. We always have car problems after skiing there. I won't get into details on that because it's boring. Let's just say it's kind of scary to come down a hill with no brakes.

Anyway, I have no skiing pictures. (Kelsey, email me some pictures quick okay!) I dropped my camera on the basement floor at my sisters house. It's an unfinished basement, therefore concrete. The camera hasn't worked since. I couldn't be happier. It was a piece of crap. Now I have a perfect excuse to start looking around for a lovely new camera. The only problem is, I just recently bought that silly vinyl cutter (which I love and caress often) so there's no way Tim is going to be in the mood to spend moolah on a camera right now. Oh yeah, and then there's that brake issue with the van. I might not have pictures on my blog for a very long time.

To etch

2009-03-17T09:09:00.001-06:00

Andrew is like Buddy the Elf on the etcha sketch. It's really quite amazing to watch. So far he's etched his name in cursive only he made it look like a roller coaster...and trust me it looked just like an "Andrew" shaped roller coaster, if that makes any sense. Then a couple weeks ago at church he etched Calvin of Calvin and Hobbes fame in a matter of minutes. Unfortunately none of these lasted long enough to get a picture. One day Tim and I jokingly told him to etch a chess board and shade in every other square. (He loves to play chess with his daddy if you can believe it.) He was like, "okay." And he did it...very quickly.

What's so amazing, besides how fast he is, is that he does all of these in one shot...no shaking and starting over. I'm trying to figure out what kind of life skills he could develop from this or if he just really needs to get out of the house more often.

TIME ME...with nickels.

2009-03-16T09:29:00.002-06:00

We were timing Andrew to see how long he could do a head stand.

Mom: "That was about 4 seconds, Andrew."

Andrew: "More like 4 and a quarter seconds...or 4 and 5 nickels."

Pinewood Derby

2009-03-15T15:48:00.007-06:00

Andrew got to experience his first pinewood derby on Friday. He had a blast. We were a little worried because being the master procrastinators that we are, we didn't get the wheels on until the night before. The wheels are the most important thing. Tim had sanded the wheels and nails smooth to get rid of burrs a couple weeks earlier and they seemed great. But once we got around to putting them on the car we noticed a wheel was out of round and not spinning well. I'm not sure how we didn't notice that earlier. And we're not sure if Tim sanded it out of round or if it was just a bad mold to begin with. Not that that matters but I like to blame things on Tim whenever possible. Anyway, there was nothing we could do since we can only use specific BSA wheels and there's no place to just go buy them. And it's just a kid race after all, as Andrew kept informing us. (I can see how parents get really obsessed with these races and completely take over). So we stuck the wheels on and graphited the schnock out of them. His car did great, bad wheel and all, good enough to go to the big race next Saturday. I was actually secretly hoping that he would do good but not good enough to move on to the next race. Ugghhh. Am I a terrible mother? Don't answer that.

Andrew designed his car all by himself and drew it out on the wood block on his own. He used a couple of his hot wheels cars for inspiration.

Craft crap

2009-03-10T17:43:00.003-06:00

This is my first vinyl project with my new cutter. I finally got some rolls of vinyl in the mail yesterday and whipped these blocks out. I'm not a big pastel person but it's been so dreary and cold here I wanted some cheery color. I thought the yellow was a bright enough shade for the white letters but the P and N are a little washed out. Oh well. I'm having A LoT of FuN figuring out what this little machine can do.

Squirt and the manila folder

2009-03-08T16:54:00.025-06:00

I apologize for another cat post. I'm really not a crazy cat lady. At least I haven't started wearing kitty cat sweaters...yet.

Anyway...

Squirt regularly annoys me when I'm trying to work on the computer and usually tries to lay across the keyboard like this...

So the other day when I was trying to get some work done he jumped up on the desk as usual but instead of going for the keyboard he eyed the folder next to the monitor. He opened it up with his nose and pushed out all of my papers.

Then he settled into the manila folder and tried to get comfy.

This wasn't comfy...

...but this was.

I guess it was just the site of an overweight cat so determined to fit in a folder that was so amusing to me. Dumb, I know.

Squirt & the butter box, part 3

2009-03-03T11:06:00.001-07:00

The black cat has been curious about all the excitement with the box and finally tried it out herself. She likes it. It makes Squirt jealous.

The butter box is almost completely gone on the two sides. We need to turn it around and see if Squirt will start chewing on the other sides. But I almost think he's been chewing it down like this on purpose. I think he has a plan for just exactly how he wants his box to end up.

Fat and happy...

Random Andy Quotes

2009-03-02T08:00:00.003-07:00

The other day I was looking through some of the piles of paper that have accumulated in the office and I came across a small collection of scratch papers with funny Andy quotes on them. You know, when your kid says something cute, and you write it down on whatever you can find so you don't forget. I'm so glad these didn't get thrown out accidentally. Unfortunately not all are dated but they're fun nonetheless. Here are some of them.

04/08/2005, age 4. Tim called from work and we were talking. Andrew picked up the phone in the other room and said "Hi". His daddy asked, "What are you doing?". Andrew answered matter of factly, "I'm talking to you."

08/15/2005, age 4. "Tomorrow I want to be bigger...yeah, I want to be taller."

08/15/2005, age 4. "I want to grow up to be a white kitty cat."

08/19/2005, age 4. "Momma, I'm going to be small today." (first thing he said waking up in bed).

Not dated: We were sitting around the table playing a board game with my parents. Andrew pointed at each of us individually and said first to me, "That's a star", then to Papa Harold, "That's a moon", then to Grandma Sue, "That's a sky", then he pointed to his daddy and said, "That's a toilet paper."

Not dated: Andrew was spending the night with his cousins and his grandma. He popped awake in the morning, seemed really relieved about something, and very jubilantly said, "I'M ALIVE!"

02/25/2007 age 6. "When I grow up like a human, I can work there." (as we drove by his grandma's place of employment.)

08/07/2007, age 6. I was cropping a picture of me and Andrew riding the waverunner on the lake, a dreaded bathing suit picture. I was trying to crop my arm out of the picture because it looked fat. Andrew asked what I was doing and I told him I was trying to get my fat arm out of the picture. He said, "It's not a fat arm, it's just getting old."

08/07/2007, age 6. Editing more pictures. I'm not sure what picture this was in reference to but he said..."mom, you look aweful in that picture."

03/01/2009, age 8. "I wonder what the Chinese are doing right now."

Mr. Bean

2009-03-01T13:17:00.004-07:00

We had a horrible nights sleep last night. All thanks to Mr. Bean.

Tim loves Mr. Bean. I'm not nearly the fan that he is. Tim has been craving Mr. Bean lately and decided to introduce Andrew to him. So they got on You Tube last night and watched clip after stupid clip of Mr. Bean. I had better things to do with my time and left the boys to do their thing. I smiled at each belly laugh that erupted from the computer room.

Then it was time for bed and we did our normal night time routine. As Tim crawled into bed he mentioned that Andrew thought Mr. Bean was really funny at first but then he started to "creep" him out. I was like 'oh great'. I know how Andrew gets when something creeps him out. Sure enough we didn't sleep at all last night because Andrew kept waking up with Mr. Bean nightmares. (No, I have no idea what a Mr. Bean nightmare would consist of). Being the gracious wife that I am, I just laid in bed and let Tim deal with the freaked out 8 year old all night long - it was, after all, his fault. (I know, I'm a terrible woman). Finally, Andy ended up in bed with us, which is always great because he emits so much heat when he sleeps that steam rolls off of him. And the last time he came into bed with us during a night of nightmares I got slapped...HARD. Andrew was slapping a bad guy in his dream and didn't realize that I got the brunt of it in real life. So I've learned when Andrew's mind is going wild in the night you don't really want to be too close to him. Luckily, I didn't get beat up last night but we sure didn't sleep well. Who would have known Mr. Bean could have such an impact.

Valentines Day

2009-02-26T09:14:00.006-07:00

I'm just now finishing up getting all my programs loaded back on the computer and realized the computer was down over Valentines and I hadn't posted anything.

It was really no big deal. Tim and I aren't the goopy romantic types. But we did decide that whatever we ate that day had to be heart shaped. This was our dinner:

Andrew and I made a big heart shaped cookie. He wanted to leave it as is, no adding red hots or anything to make it red. This kid likes things basic.

Then we made one of our family favorites, homemade pizza. Of course we had to make those heart shaped too. One pepperoni and cheese, just the way Andy likes it, and one with pepperoni and lots of veggies for me and Tim.

This is about as 'into' Valentines Day as we get. But it was fun. Maybe we'll make it a tradition.

Irksomeness Finds Happiness

2009-02-20T11:39:00.008-07:00

It's sad how plugged in we are these days. My computer pooped out on me and left me for a week with hardly a thing to do but mope around and sometimes spout a naughty word at my hard drive. Thanks go out to my computer savvy bro Aaron who put up with my annoying phone calls for help. Even he, the genius of the family, was stumped and I resorted to wiping out my operating system to start anew. Luckily I was able to get into safe mode and back everything up beforehand.

Anywho, I've been really bored this past week without my beloved internet. No offense to my sister and her fam damily, whom we visited on Monday. That was fun. Other than that short stint of happiness, I had no idea what to do with my spare time. How pathetic.

This past week has made me realize that I need a project badly! Fortunately, just before my computer went haywire I purchased a vinyl cutter online which is now in my hot little hands. I've been wanting one for several years. Now I will be in project mode from here on out. YiPpEe! Don't tell Tim. He still doesn't know I bought one. Even though it's been sitting right here on the desk for 4 days. I figure it'll take him at least two more weeks to notice it. And then he'll ask me the dreaded question of how much it cost. We normally discuss large purchases together before the purchase actually takes place but to be honest I got a little carried away on ebay one night with the adrenaline and all...and accidentally won it. Aaahhhh, it is what it is! My sister's got a friend who'd like me to sell my little crafty doo-dads in her store when they open up in a couple more months so hopefully I can bring in a little dough with my new gadget. I'm going to pick me up some wood today, put on my sexy protective goggles and fire up the miter saw and start making some lovely vinyl signs. I love working in the shop - actually it's an over-crowded garage with a smelly cat box in the corner but someday I'm going to have a beautiful shop. Someday...aaahhh. I'm totally rambling. The moral of the story is that I really missed my computer but now I'm happy. Later.

Update

2009-02-08T18:24:00.009-07:00

So here's an update on THE BUTTER BOX. I know this is totally pointless but we've been entertained by it.

This is about where we left off

A couple weeks later...Squirt slowed down about this time and I thought he was losing interest. Then things picked back up again.
Caught in the act

I can't find my camera but the cat is currently working on the R in BUTTER. I also kept finding the box moved over, completely covering the heat register. Naturally I blamed Andrew only to find out one day when Andrew wasn't around to blame that the cat has been moving it. Sneaky little bugger hogging all the heat.

Some Time Away

2009-01-29T15:59:00.016-07:00

So we're back from our little vacation and boy was it nice to get away. We just took it easy and had a nice relaxing time. It was very cold and makes me want to move some place warm like southern Arizona like half of my family has already done. But we do like it here even with the nasty cold winters. Anyway, we stopped at the Sweet Palace because we've seen so many commercials for it - advertising is the darndest thing. We actually drove the long way to our destination just so we could check out the candy store.

(Tim pretending to be Master Shifu)

We spent way too much money there and then set off for Fairmont Hot Springs. Andrew was so excited to go swimming in the warm water.

Doesn't that look inviting?

It was about 5 degrees outside. They also have an indoor pool but that's no fun when you can swim in 5 degree weather. We'd get out and make snow angels and then jump back in. I don't think that's very good on the heart but it was fun. Our hair didn't take long to freeze and turn white and we had to constantly dip our heads in the water to keep from getting an ice cream headache. The warm water sent up so much steam into the cold air you couldn't see very far ahead. The pictures don't look that foggy but it was pretty dense. Now, that slide doesn't look like much but it's screamin fast. I managed to bruise my hip and twist my ankle. I don't know how you twist an ankle going down a waterslide but I did. We swam until we were pooped (and a little sea sick from the vertigo inducing fog) and went in and changed for dinner.

The next day was our ski day and I forgot to take pictures. Just a couple of after pictures.

The snow was hard packed but not icy - great for cruiser runs. There was a big warm up in mid January that melted a lot of our mountain snow but the conditions were better than I expected at least (I'm sure this isn't the least bit interesting). On our way home we stopped at this little gas station/restaurant that clips your ski ticket in exchange for a free drink - we always stop here after we ski, it's tradition. So we went and had some yummy free hot cocoa and stayed for dinner.

Fun stuff.

Playin Hookie

2009-01-25T14:21:00.004-07:00

Okay so that last post was a little weird and apparently freaked some people out. Moving on...

Tomorrow we start our little mini vacation. We were planning on going skiing and then spending the night at Fairmont Hot Springs, then skiing again on Tuesday but the snow conditions aren't all that great. So instead, we're going to hit this place on the way up, then spend the rest of the day soaking in the hot springs, then of course still ski here on Tuesday. There's nothing like skipping school and work for some good family time.

Man Stench

2009-01-22T14:04:00.006-07:00

What is it about men and boys that makes them smell bad...particularly when they sleep? Years ago when I was still working, I had this conversation with a coworker, so I know it's not just Tim and Andy. (Andrew used to smell absolutely yummy as a baby but he is eight now ya know). We discussed how our husbands leave greasy marks on their pillows and how they just kind of smell weird when they sleep. My head gets greasy if I don't shower for a week but even then I don't know if it would be enough to smudge my pillow case. Hmmm...I really have no idea where I am going with this post. All I know is, last night I needed to get some laundry and dishes done so I let Andrew snuggle up with his daddy in our bed. They drifted off into dreamland as I finished up the housework. When I got done I headed down the hallway to my room where the two male specimen were fast asleep. The closer I got, the more it started to smell like a fish tank. I was confused. I don't have a fish tank in my room. I don't have a fish tank anywhere in my house. Could it be the cats? No, they smelled surprisingly non-smelly. It was definitely those two sleeping things in my bed. I don't know what happens when they go to sleep but apparently when you combine them it can make an entire room smell like a fish tank.

I'm not really sure what my point is except that maybe I'm really glad I'm not a smelly man. Yeah, maybe that's my point. I love men dearly but I'm sure glad I'm not one of them. I'm pretty sure when I sleep I smell like vanilla, or buttercream or maybe even pumpkin spice (shut up Nik, I'm sure your out there somewhere laughing sarcastically). I sure hope there are other smelly husbands and little boys out there making all you women a little more glad to be a woman.

Or it's just our family, and I've just completely embarrassed my two boys.

The Entrepreneur

2009-01-18T08:05:00.002-07:00

Andrew came home from school last Monday asking for a box about "this big" - motioning with his hands. I said we probably didn't have anything but to check in the garage. So we went to the garage and he points at the cooler and says, "that will work". I had no idea what he was up to. He then disappeared into the office for awhile. He came out with six "deasine books" that he had made and was determined to sell them to anyone walking by. They were just a stack of white computer papers stapled together with a cover page he'd drawn.

He got his little fold up chair from his closet and headed toward the front door. My mom was still here with us and offered to buy one. Andrew was going to charge her an inflated price of $5 and then offered one to her for free because she is after all grandma. Then he headed out the front door with his chair and cooler and set up shop next to the sidewalk.

Mom and Tim and I sat inside watching him, feeling sorry for the poor little bugger. Not only is it the dead of winter and the chances of anyone just walking by are pretty slim but most people aren't in the market for a "deasine book".

So we just might have had something to do with this...

...a good sport of a neighbor who just happened to be walking by at the perfect time and just happened to have a 5 dollar bill to snatch of the remaining 5 deasine books. Hmmm...how lucky is that?

After selling all of his books to one customer he immediately said, "I should have made ten!" So now every stinking day after school he has come home and set up shop on the sidewalk. I can't bribe all my neighbors so I just decided to let him get a taste of what selling is all about and just let him do his thing without parental interference.

Day 4...

To my surprise...an extremely nice lady who was out walking, saw the blue cooler and turned around to see if this little boy was selling lemonade. When she saw what he was actually selling she immediately pulled out a dollar bill and said "he should be rewarded for his ingenuity." What an angel!

I guess he's on to something.