What's Your Favorite Candy?

High on my list are those yummy orange slices. I made some candied orange peels that taste exactly like those. Yummy.

Mistaquilla

That's what we should call my tortillas. You know, like mistake and tortilla. Ha!

I have made some really scrumptious and even classy dishes in my kitchen, but tortillas are not on that list. They might taste good, but they look terrible and fall apart. What is with that???

Lily, Get Out of the Trash Can!

Just so you know, if everyone in the house except Lily were to suddenly drop dead for some unexplainable, unforeseen reason, Lily would be able to forage for food and survive for months. She is a food hound.

Parental Puzzle For Monday

What is it about the laundry basket that no matter how many times you say "IT'S NOT A TOY, STOP PLAYING WITH IT" they still play with it?

The Modern Couple

I just had a very interesting experience. Let me set the stage for you...

The older boys had been put to bed, I was sitting on the couch nursing Andrew and playing on Facebook, and Jerry was in our bedroom on his computer writing a paper for school. Andrew had gotten to that very important stage of nursing where he was asleep, but almost done nursing so at a point where one false move will wake him up, but stillness and quiet will send him into a nice deep sleep. Suddenly, I hear Ethan from the bathroom yell, "Mom! I cannot reach the toilet paper!"

Uh-Oh. If I get up to help him, Andrew will wake. If I yell loud enough to get Jerry's attention to help Ethan, Andrew will wake. What to do? What to do?

Then it hits me - I'll Skype Jerry! I love Skype, but I usually use it to "call" my friend who lives in Germany so we can talk free of charge. I've never used it to "call" someone in my own house. But, tonight, it was just what the doctor ordered! I used a Skype chat and typed, "Ethan needs tp." Before I knew it, Jerry walked out of the bedroom with a TP roll in hand!

Whew! Disaster averted!

Air Conditioning the Neighborhood

If I have to say, "CLOSE THE DOOR" one more time today, I may lose my mind. And it's only noon.

Brain Dump

1) Need coffee. Must revitalize self. Dragging, dragging. Need sleep...or coffee.

2) I am learning to play the piano. It's fun.

3) While I was practicing the piano today I noticed a distinct lack of Lily; this is not good, especially as she had already come downstairs with a big box of Whoppers which means she had to scale my dresser and climb on top of it, grab the Whoppers, get back down to the floor and then meander downstairs munching on chocolaty, malty delights. So, I notice she's gone and go to look for her and she's has drawn herself a bath in my tub and is literally swimming in it. In her clothes and diaper. Must keep a closer eye on Lily.

We had a mini family reunion with two of my aunts and their kids and one husband andmy grandpa. It was fun.

4) Went to the beach Monday. It's beautiful. The water is so warm and it's shallow for a long way out. Unlike the Atlantic side where it's rather chilly and gets deep quickly. However, I got a very bad sunburn. The rest of my family though...Del got a nice deep brown and all the girls got tanner. Then the next day all their tans were almost gone. I'm still slathering aloe and getting pumped up for "The Great Peel". Whenever anyone touches my shoulders I go "ouch".

Lovely, dirty, messy, sandy beach.

5) Mom and Dad are in England. I'm jealous. They get to see my friend Tina.

6) I'm stalling. I'm supposed to be cleaning my cabinets.

My highly unsocialized, homeschooled children make friends with Katie at the beach.

7) I now have gray hair on the other temple, too. Del's got too many to count. I *love* that. I think it's so fun to grow older with him. Sigh. My tummy still does flips when I think of him.

8) Coffee?? Where is the coffee?

9) I still have 6 math lessons to do with Ella and the rest of OPG to do with Sarah but I haven't done anything this week at all. It feels nice to not worry about it.

10) I was really excited when I went over to Pioneer Woman Cooks to see if I won a mixer and saw my name. There it was. Joanna was a winner. Unfortunately it was someone else who'd been to New York before. I nearly cried. My poor mixer. I need a new one. For free. Because no one in their right mind spends that much on a mixer. Well, that's not true but still, we don't have the money for that so I'd like it for free. Hear that Ree?

Pointless beach photo, I just thought it was a cool photo.

11) I'm deep into the postpartum hair loss phase. I actually have nearly bald spots above my temples. Everyday I sweep huge amounts of hair off the floor and we're constantly cleaning hair out of the vacuum cleaner. It's never been this bad before. I wonder what the deal is.

12) I'm going to go make some coffee. Maybe a mocha. And then I'm going to clean my cabinets. We had some painted lady caterpillars and here we are letting them go after they had become butterflies.

13) Anna is teething. She is one cranky baby. I can see the little bumps on her gums. I hope they cut through soon because she won't nap she is so mad about it.