Quote of the Day by Andrew

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

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

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

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

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

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

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