In case of a Traffic Jam…

I’m thankfully not one of those people who get caught in traffic jams very often.  But when I do they don’t annoy me too much.  Here’s why.

My kids are I try and make a game out of finding funny license plates.  Or we make crazy saying out of the letters we spot on those plates.  For example UFG could be turned into “Unidentified Funky Grandma’.  No offense against Grandma’s out there.  But I intend to be a funky lady myself someday.

Couldn’t help but smile when I saw this blue-greenish car the other day.

So many thanks to the totally cool driver who helped put a smile on my family's faces while waiting in traffic.

Pollyanna Moments

I loaded Hope into our family gas sucker today to take O.Z. to the airport and she asked if we were going swimming at Grandma’s house. She has asked me if she can go to Grandma’s house every time I’ve loaded her up for a drive for the past week.

I can’t believe how quickly that two weeks flew by. We are really going to miss O.Z. I’d show you how exhausted he looked from several all nighters in a row but my camera’s batteries bit the dust when I went to download the pic’s. After two weeks with us he may need some therapy. I think Post Traumatic Stress Disorder may be a reality in his future after witnessing Hope’s Striptease Act a few dozen times a day. But I think he will survive.

So anyway, back to a few weeks ago while we were at Gran’s house, I had my girls watch one of her oldie but goody movies that I don’t happen to have – Pollyanna. And gosh darn-it those glad moments have been happening left and right around our digs as well. But Pollyanna’s crystal producing rainbows have nothing on Lea’s skylight CD ultra-color Rainbow.

I almost want to invent a CD encrusted floor that reflected this brilliance on the walls and ceiling daily. It would make Hope’s artwork pale in comparison and eliminate the need to paint color on the walls. It would make our three weeks of sun during the year quite the extravaganza.

My other glad moments were getting rid of the rest of the garage sale items as they went to the thrift store.

I did send a few a my nicer things to Smilie’s house since she is having a Bust-It-Out-Of-The-House money maker herself this weekend. Good-bye extra clutter – and good riddance.

And another summer dream was fulfilled today. I achieved that most elusive of all running dreams and ran a mile in under 9 minutes. Well, 8 min. 56 seconds to be exact and 1 ½ laps were even done in lane 2 at the track. I know a 9 minute mile isn’t a land speed record but it’s huge for me. HUGE BABY! Those Olympians should just watch their backsides because at the rate I’ve been improving I’ll whoop all of them in four years.

I just love these Glad moments.

The Darling Dasher

Here is our family's version of a famous magician. We'll just call her

Hairy 'Hope' Houdini.

Remember the whole discovering the world outside the door adventure we went through last week.

The Curly Catapult tries to hurdle through the upper lock barrier.

Elevated Escaper... Using a counter high kitchen chair.

Foiled by the camera wielding mom she makes a dash for the back door. Since we haven't installed an upper lock on that door we have a tempory makeshift barrier. But can that stop her?

Here she is pulling the plastic storage bins away from the back door. That bottom box is chuck full of legos so she has to be packing some little pint-sized muscles, too. She foiled us again.

We will have to go back to the drawing board because she has figured out how to undo every silly door lock we have.

My darling wonderful husband came upstairs the other night asking me if I had just heard the front door open. I replied no and he had this huge grin on his face.

'Please don't tell me you oiled the hinges,' I pleaded.

'Well, yes,' he replyed a little deflated by my reaction.

'I thought you had been reading my blog, remember how I said I loved the mystery theater creak to the door. I use it as a child escape alarm.' I reminded him.

Apparently he had missed that blog or skipped over the paragraph where I mentioned the door. Poor guy doesn't get a break. He finally fixes something that's been needing to be fixed for years and get's his head bit off by me.

The Darling Dasher has freed herself from our home no less than two times today alone.

Fortunately, she still hasn't discovered the world outside our yard. I give her a week, Tops.

She also figured out how to open the car door while I was doing 60 down the interstate the other day. Thank you Childlock doors. I almost forgot you were there. Now I'm going to rely on you with a vengence no matter how loudly the teenagers complain about being trapped inside the car with little screamin sisters.

I Wish I were an Enchantress

It seems that I have been more busy than usual lately. This week have had multiple Dr. appointments, emergency vehicle repairs that couldn’t wait, and neighbors that need help in the next minute kind of stuff. So in order to take advantage of the best time for me to teach my girls, which is morning, I’ve had to assemble a School-on-the-Go-Bag for the car. Usually I throw it together as we are running out the door but I’d like to take it to the next level and have some activities prepared ahead of time. Quiet activities, however have eluded me so far.
Lea does great with reading in the car, which amazes me because I am one of those people who if I glance at a book for longer than a minute, I have to roll down the window for fresh air or pull over and lose my cookies. In my case it would probably be a Chocolate, blueberry, Peanut Butter Protein Breakfast Shake. Rolling down the window in winter however might mean a face full of water, especially with all the rain.
For some reason Lea’s slow, though emotional rendition of her story fails to grab the attention of her two sisters. Princess points at passing signs and giggles with glee when she can spy the alphabet letter she is learning. Hope just babbles… constantly, I might add. If she is lucky enough to have a toy in her clutch, then it’s the toy she is babbling too. If she is pretending that the toy is talking, then her voice goes all squeaky high. If she doesn’t have a toy then she is trying to confiscate Lea’s reading book. And since she’s two, if she doesn’t get it then you certainly hear about it in a not so nice way. So imagine all three noises as the same time. I try my best to listen as Lea spells out a word she just can’t quite get. I help her sound it out.
“Mom, did you see the D? There was a D on that sign. I didn’t know McDonald’s had a D in it. Mom there’s a D in McDonalds.” says Princess about six times before I can say,
“Yes, honey, now see if you can find a J.”
“I forgot. What does a J look like?”
“An upside down candy cane.”
“I want a candy cane.”
“We don’t have any right now, maybe closer to Christmas”.
“M, Y, S, T, E, R, I, O, U, S, what does that say?”
“When is Christmas”
“Next month, sweetie. Mysterious”
“Why is Christmas, Mysterious?”
“It isn’t honey, I was just helping Lea with a word”
“Waaaaa”, from Hope who is trying to get out of her seat belt again and has her arm caught.
“Are you stuck?”
“I suck” says Hope who obviously doesn’t know how to pronounce the T sound.
“Hahahaha,” from both sisters,
“Don’t laugh. It’s not a nice word.”
“I suck, I su…….(well you know what Hope keeps repeating until I can pull over, re-belt her and try and get Lea and Princess back to their activities. It takes some patience and a change of subject, by then Hope is squeaking at her toy, Princess find a J on the Jiffy Lube sign and Lea is spelling E, N, C, H, A, N, T, R, E, S, S. Sometimes I wish I were an Enchantress and could make sense of it all. It is still fun and I wouldn’t miss it for the world. And they say that driving with a cell phone in your ear is distracting. Try driving with kids.