"It was bound to happen...

...last night it did!" And to be honest, I am surprised it hasn't happened before- especially with Annie. But it wasn't Annie, it was Katie. First let me set the scene. Here is a recent picture of Katie.

Fairly cute, right! The outfit is a bit suspect- although that will be gone into at a later date. But the hair is in a bob and pulled back out of her face. I grew out her bangs last winter and when she does let me do her hair , it can be quite cute. But most days she looks like a rag-a-muffin because she won't let me comb it. Between her mismatched clothes and her hair in her face, often she looks like she doesn't have a mother. But she does- albeit one who has given up fighting with her about her appearance. Which is why she has been seen with cowboy boots on at church or wearing pink corduroys in 90 degree weather. Again- this is material for a whole 'nother post. So Sunday evening she comes running up to me and says, "Mom, look what I did!" And if you haven't figured it out by now- here is another clue.

That's right- Katie decided that with the change in season, she also needed a sassy new do! This is what she came up with.
To get the full effect, of course you need to see the side views as well.

As you can tell she is quite proud of herself. When I told her we would have Baylee- the girl who normally cuts her hair- fix it. She looked at me puzzled and said, "Baylee doesn't need to fix it. I like it." Well that makes one of us! I have decided she was going for one of two looks. Either she is single-handedly trying to bring back the Dorothy Hamill do, which truth be told was my hairstyle of choice in the late 70's and early 80's. Or she is going for a lady-style mullet. Maybe we could call it a mulleta. But when I asked her why she cut her hair she said because it was in getting in her face. I guess I can't fault her for that. That is one of the reasons I cut my hair short too. And who knows maybe she has found her calling in life at 3 years old. She really did do a good job of making a nice line from her bangs down to the back of her hair and on both sides too. And today she hasn't had any hair cutting remorse. She still loves it!

Lunch, anyone?

This story really isn't mine to tell, but it is such my humor that I couldn't help but share it. Plus the family whose story it is doesn't have a blog so it is up to me to share it with the blogging universe!

My sister-in-law and brother-in-law, Becca and Curtis, bought a cow. No, they don't live on a farm or plan on starting one. They are going to have it slaughtered in the fall and have it made into all kinds of tasty things like roasts, steaks, stew meat, ground beef, etc... But for now it is alive and kicking and getting all meaty in a field close to their house. They have 3 kids and will sometimes take them over to feed grass to their cow. The kids like doing this, but Becca and Curtis didn't want their kids to think the cow was a pet or get attached to it, so they named it "Lunch." So come next winter when they are enjoying a juicy roast and they kids ask about ""Lunch", they can say, "You're eating lunch." And it will all make sense. Now that's good thinking and good eating, Becca and Curtis!

Just in case you were tired of looking at our bums and were wondering what we look like... and yes- we dress like this every Sunday- everyone coordinating! If you think that is true- you must not know me very well. This pic was taken at my sister's wedding- about the only way I can get Eric to wear a pink tie!

Where did this kid come from?

I know I have blogged before about my oldest and only son- Finn and what a good kid he is. With 3 active, willful younger sisters, he can really be a saving grace to me at times. I have to be careful though because he is so responsible and I don't want to take advantage of that and expect too much from him. He still needs to be a kid and be able to whine, complain and mess up like the rest of them. But often he does things that surprise me. For example, we have a "bread" store right down the street that just carries bread products. Sometimes I will run out of bread or need buns for dinner and I will send Finn with a couple of bucks to the bread store. This is one "chore" he loves doing- I imagine because it makes him feel older- something only he can do right now. So today I was making BBQ chicken sandwiches, but didn't have any buns. I gave Finn $5 and asked him to go to the bread store. He asked if he could get a small treat if there was any money left over. I said yes and off he went. About 15 minutes later he comes home with a loaf of bread. I thanked Finn for the bread and asked him if he remembered that I wanted buns. He smiled and said, "Oh yeah." Then I was looking at the receipt and noticed he had bought something else besides the bread. I asked him what else he bought- fully expecting him to show me some package of donuts or cookies. But this is what he lifted up instead:

I couldn't help laughing and ask, "Why did you buy that?" He responded, "Because I could carry home the bread easier and then I can use the bag again." Well now- not only is he responsible, he is also environmentally conscious! I did have to send him again with another $5 to buy buns. This time he came home with this:

Okay- so he's not perfect! He gets the idea of a reuseable bag in theory, but not quite yet in practice!

You Know it's Summer When...

Today is the first official day of summer and I really wish I could be like those mothers who love having their kids home all summer, but unfortunately I'm not. I'm trying really hard to enjoy them and not get too caught up in all the messes they create constantly. So in honor of my trying to turn over a new leaf and live in the moment, I have made a "You Know it's Summer When..." list so instead of bottling up my feelings of frustration, I am expressing them through writing. (Look at all I am learning through therapy!:)) Here it goes:
You Know it's Summer When...
*You get to enjoy the aromatics of sweaty, stinky boys in your basement.
*the scissors are constantly sticky from cutting open "Otter-Pops."
*The front door, back door, garage door and basement door are all open at the same time. Do we really need to cool the whole outside too?
*At any given moment there are 10 plus cups sitting on the kitchen counters from kids getting drinks and feeling the need to get a new cup every stinkin time. Where's my sharpie so I can label cups for each kid- for cryin out loud?!?
*Every TV is on, but no one is watching.
*Piles of stuff everywhere- shoes, wrappers, balls, towels, hair bows, stickers, books- whatever!
*You find a sundry of mysterious sticky spots on your floor no matter how many times you clean it.
* Bedtime is whenever your kids fall asleep while watching a movie.
*You clear the neighborhood pool because your 1 year old threw up in it. This may not be a benchmark for summer for all of you, but it was for me today. My sister and I have decided to get a membership to the neighborhood pool and take our kids a couple times a week. We tried to start the summer off right by going today. After much "herding of cats" (i.e.- getting a combined 13 kids to the pool with the appropriate paraphernalia-towels, bathing suits, swim diapers, snacks, money for snacks, sunscreen, goggles, swimsuit cover-ups, etc.) we finally get in the pool with the babies. I found out today Suzie is a pool kamikaze. She just went wadding into the water up to her eyebrows with no thought at all. Everytime I pulled her face out of the water- about 20 times in the first 5 minutes- she came up smiling and laughing. Unfortunately one time she was laughing at the same moment water went into her mouth and she started choking, then coughing, then hurling. ("If you're gonna spew, spew in here." Name that movie!) Despite my sister's suggestion to "just swirl it around", a lifeguard also caught this and the pool had to be closed for 30 minutes while they cleaned it up. Annie of course started announcing to everyone that it was Suzie who threw up. I told her to simmer down. We didn't want to start a lynching! But it all turned out fine and if this sounds like fun to anyone else- you are welcome to join us!
*Your kids can be entertained by the silliest things... for example today my kids and some neighbors took a bucket and filled it with water. Then they swung it around and around and released it. The other kids tried to catch it and thought it was hilarous to get wet.
Ok- so they're not all bad. I realize that kids need this time to unwind and relax. I think I just need to find a way to do the same. I am getting better though. But I did have a Shel Silverstein moment today. I love Shel Silverstein poems and think there is poem for every childhood moment. Here is the one I related with today:
There's too many kids in this tub.
There's too many elbows to rub.
I just washed a behind,
that I'm sure wasn't mine.
There's too many kids in this tub.
I was giving Katie a bath and noticed how red her back was. I could have sworn I put sunscreen on her. But I asked her if I had. She said, "No. I wasn't listening to you and just went in the pool."
There's too many kids to lotion up.
There's too many elbows to rub....

So Many Firsts. . . (Beware- this is a long one!)

Well it has been over a week now that I have been home from Cancun ( or as Katie calls it "Cocoon"), and I figure I better write about it before I forget it all. My short term memory seems to be getting smaller and smaller these days. This trip encompassed so many firsts for me... my first passport and thus my first time out of the country, my first Sudoku puzzle-pesky, addictive little buggers-, my first time doing a zip line, my first time snorkeling, my first time parasailing, my first time being solicited to bribe a police officer- by the police officer,... I know that one got your attention, but you'll have to wait for it. Eric invited his two employees and their spouses to go with us. One of his employees is my cousin- Andrew and he and his wife are a lot of fun. It was a good group. Although we baffled many a waiter by refusing both alcohol and coffee. "You don't want to have fun?!? was asked often. They would walk away shaking their heads- "Crazy Caucasians." But I am happy to report we did have a lot of fun and even better- we remember it!

One of my favorite new experiences was snorkeling. It was so fun to feel like you were in a giant aquarium. I can imagine that scuba diving would be even better and before I was married, I started to get certified but never finished. I think that should be a new goal for me.

I also really enjoyed the zip line. And of course I have a funny story to go with this experience. Our guides were harnessing us up and giving instructions. They were talking so fast and I couldn't catch all the steps. I would turn to ask someone what they were saying and by the time I figured that step out, I had already missed another one. So as we climbed the 100 foot tower to the top of the zip line, I was a bit nervous. The wind was blowing hard at the top and you could feel the tower sway a bit. Two people went in front of me- one being Eric- and then the guide pulled me up. I stood on a wood bench as he hooked me up to the line. The bench wobbled a bit and I muttered something about it falling apart. The guide responded: (Now read all parts by the guide with a Mexican accent) "That is how to know it is safe. It didn't fall apart." Oh that's comforting! Then he tells me to step off the bench where there is nothing between me and a 100 ft drop. Here is how the rest of our conversation went:

Guide: Ready?

Me: Wait! Let me practice. (Practice applying the brake.)

Guide: (waiting patiently, but probably really irritated by this wimpy gringo, while I go through the proper brake application.) You ready?

Me: (With legs and arms visibly shaking) Yes, but I'm really scared!

Guide:Yes, it's normal. Shove.

And off I go screaming like my mother.

But I liked it enough to go three more times. The "yes, it's normal" became our mantra for the whole trip. Anytime something happened that didn't seem quite right or a bit unusual we would just look at each other and say, "yes, its normal." -obviously with appropriate mexican accent. And if you have ever been to Mexico, their standard for "normal" is a bit different than ours. Like when a guy approached us after dinner asking us if we wanted any coke or marijuana or when the staff at "Carlos and Charlie's" did a conga line right around our table with a bullhorn blaring in our ears. It was all normal.

Another fun experience was parasailing. Eric and I got in the basket to take off and I looked for a bar to bring down on top of me- you know silly me I wanted some sort of contraption that would prevent me from falling at 200 feet in the air. I even signaled this to the guy helping us, but he just waved and smiled as we took off. I swear he was saying, "Yes, it's normal" as we were taking off!

Here are some more fun pictures from our trip.

What happens in Cancun, stays in Cancun!

Ok-you've read enough to get to the best story from our whole trip. One day we rented a car to drive to Chichen Itza- the Mayan ruins inland. It took us 3 1/2 hours to drive there because for once in our life we decided to be frugal and take the free "highway" instead of the toll road. Well we found out there is a reason it is free. It takes a lot longer. Anyway the ruins were fascinating and we got to hear a lot of "Hey, lady. This statue almost free you know." or "A deal for de honeymooners."

But our story picks up when we were coming off the toll road into downtown Cancun. (Yes, we wised up and took the toll road home.) We were cruising along keep level with another car when we get pulled over. The uniformed police officer comes up to our window and starts speaking Spanish until we are able to communicate that we don't speak much Spanish. So he begins again in English. Here is the transcipt- from my recollection-

Officer: You were going 80kph in a 40 kph zone.

Eric: Oh, I didn't see any sign showing a change in speed limit.

Officer: I need your driver's license.

Eric hands it over.

Officer: This is what we do. I take your license and you can pick it tomorrow at the police station on Tulum Avenue and you pay a 1000 peso fine.

Eric: Ok, where is the police station?

Officer: It is on Tulum.

Eric: Ok, but where on Tulum?

Officer: It is just on Tulum.

Eric: Do you have an address I can write down?

Kari: Or a piece of paper saying we got a ticket?

Officer: Ok, this is what I do. This be between you and me. You give me what you think is fair and I give you your license and we forget the whole thing.

Eric: (a bit taken back) What is customary for you to receive?

Officer: Oh. no. That is for you to decide.

Officer goes back to his motorbike to get his ticket book and Eric looks for the smallest bill he has- besides one dollar. Officer comes back and Eric hands him a twenty which he takes under his ticket book, then gives Eric his license back.

Officer: (With hand outreached) We friends- between you and me. (Well, now between Eric, the officer and anybody who reads my blog!)

Eric: (Shaking his hand)- Yes- we friends.

After getting over the shock of being solicited for a bribe by a police officer, we all laughed and decided having the story was worth the 20 bucks. And just in case you were wondering, "Yes, it's normal!"

"We've been accepted into the neighborhood!"

Well- actually we've lived in our neighborhood for over 5 years and if they haven't accepted us by now that's too bad and its wasn't my neighbors who did this-well to be accurate it was one of my neighbors and her crazy posse. But that is what my grandpa said years ago when his family got toilet-papered. So when I woke up this morning to my kids cries of disgust over our newly remodeled front yard, I knew we were a loved family. Toilet-papering is a completely foreign idea to my kids and they just couldn't understand why someone would do this. I tried to reassure them that it was okay and that it was my friends who did this. But this backfired on me when Annie went out to inspect their work and I told her to start cleaning it up. She retorted back, "They're your friends, you should clean it up." Well isn't that a big dose of your own motherly medicine given a bit too early in the morning! You may be wondering what weird friends I have that would do this to show love. You'll have to visit Julie's blog to get the full details and to see the culprits in action. But in their defense I was invited on this excursion and when I wooseed out because I was too tired, I knew full well that I was a prime target. I even had a dream that my yard was toilet papered and they had put all the neighbors' garbage cans in my driveway. Now that would have been a good idea. Its no wonder they wanted me to come with them! :) Here's more pictures from my fun morning surprise!

Did I mention it rained last night? Nice! Next time you guys want to show me you love me- why don't you just come in my house and dump out all the cookies and crackers out of my cupboard and then step on them. That's what Suzie does to show her affection for me. Plus it would have been easier to clean up!