The Sound of Silence

This is what it LOOKS like






BamBam left at 8AM this morning for an overnight camping trip.
















Thumper left at 10am to head to the beach with his grandparents. We follow tomorrow with BamBam when he returns.


Can you tell that my children are two COMPLETELy different people?

Yeah. me too.

And thank God for that.

Dang it is REALLY quiet around here.

Want to know

where to hide your precious private stash of food stuffs?

where the menfolk in your house will NEVER find it?
(those are my lovely peppers and sausages by the way...destined for pizza night on Friday)

third shelf

on the left

at the back

Because......(drum roll please)

The male species is physically, mentally and socially incapable of bending over and MOVING an item in the front, out of the way, in order to SEARCH for an item at the back!!!

You can submit my name for the Nobel any time.

As long as it's not the one for the Nobel Peace Prize

Because I swear

if one more male in my house asks me where the mayonnaise is in the fridge, while staring DIRECTLY at it, in the SAME freaking place it is ALWAYS located

I won't be responsible for my actions.

sound of crickets

dreadfully warm weather we're having..... yes?

Eating Machines

I know I have addressed this before but it SERIOUSLY bears repeating.

BamBam and Thumper are eating machines.

Almost of the scary biblical proportions of those locusts in Moses's time.

If the creek in my back yard turns red I am ringing up Captain Kirk and booking the next Expedia.com flight out of Dodge...that's all I'm saying.

Case in point.

We went blueberry picking on Saturday and managed to bring home eight pounds of delicious, heady, winey blueberry goodness.

Two thirds of which is now safely stored in my big standing freezer in the basement. HELLO winter offerings of pancakes, waffles, muffins and coffeecake!

Of course there might have been ANOTHER 8 pounds if the stinkers had actually managed to put half in their buckets of what they put in their mouths.

AND THEN

THEN.....after the picking and the consuming of the berries by the boys, we went and ate at a huge southern country buffet.

And not one of those half baked chain offerings either.

Oh no, we went to a real deal, family owned 60 year old establishment and hellsbells if those stinkers didn't knock back three full plates of food plus cobbler

WITH homemade ice cream.

I love them. But my envy of their metabolism gives me a bit of a pause.

stinkers

Double Digits

Dear Thumper

10 years ago you came quietly and easily into the world three weeks earlier that expected.

And you were all of 6lbs 9 ounces and 20 inches long.

I do suspect that if you had managed to delay your entry by just a week or two you would have matched your older brother in weight and size.

But you didn't and for that my 37 year old body at the time thanked you!

I guess you were impatient and eager to make your debut and those personality quirks are still with you today my boy.

When you find something that you love, you EMBRACE it fully and without hesitation and you absolutely will brook no delay in exploring EVERY single aspect of your magnificent obsession!

You are also my watcher. The one who doesn't miss a single detail or nuance.

And my shadow.

Even now, you are still happiest when you are by my side, snuggled in close for movie night or at my hip perfecting your biscuit making skills in the kitchen.

I don't know if this innate in your personality or the result of me wearing you in a sling on my body for the first two years of your life to keep you safe from the completely unintentional but nonetheless dangerous crashing about of your older brother BamBam.

So you are the jelly to my peanut butter.

And I love you my Thumper.

Every day of these past 10 years with you has been and continues to be a wonderful affirmation about all that is good in my life.

Love

Momma

Flower or

serving plate?

You choose

DUHAYAM...that's a big honkin "little shop of Horrors" sized flower. It's not in my yard. I spied it on the way back from the pool after dropping my kids off and torturing them by taking pixs (heh)

Speaking of which!

look here's Thumper aka Mr. GQ






And here is "Helio Boy" aka BamBam

Doesn't he look like he is free falling? I very much like the whole tongue hanging out of the mouth action. He kind of resembles Jake the Wonder Dog. They're both blondes.





What?

YES

They ate three popsicles at once.

WHY

Because I was trying to get a cool artsy shot.

No worries. They didn't go to waste.

You do not want to be behind me in the grocery check-out line

Little Shop of Horrors?

Yeah that's code for my weekly grocery bill

When one thing is not like the other

"Seeing is believing"

is it the same as

"Believing is seeing"

HA! How's that for turning a paradigm on it's ass?

********************************

Seeing is believing
For me? It's passive. easy. rote.

Believing is seeing
That's engaging. makes me stretch rusty old muscles in my brain.
You know the ones I'm talking about...the ones that JUST want it handed to you on a platter.

*******************************

WHAT am I seeing because I believe?

Aye...there's the rub.

Summertime and the

livin is easy

Part DEUX

I do NOT feel guilty in the least that we hit our neighborhood casa tonight for some chips and drinks and dinner.

Cause as we say down in these parts

"If Momma ain't happy...ain't NOBODY happy"

quid pro quo peeps!

4 on the Fourth

I have a confession to make.

We are weird

Weirdly traditional.

I know it's kind of hard to wrap your brain around these two seemingly oxymoronic (is that a word???) words.

But we are.

When it comes to the 4th of July celebration...we have to have four elements. Now the FORM that these four elements take on is completely open to interpretation and varies year to year...but they are kind of sort of set in stone.

ONE - Speech

Freedom of speech bellies up the bar in mayn forms.

Parades are good. So are skits. And speeches. Music and dancing are always the crowd pleaser. We are a free nation my friends...and if freedom of speech to you is an old pink cadilaac with beverage of choice in hand (as long as you aren't the DD??) I say get your freedom ON!




TWO: Water

I don't care if it's a lake for boating. Or a river for rafting. Or a pool for swimming. Heck even a sprinlker works. But I REALLY like a pool.









THREE - Smoked Food

Living down South we like some good ole fashioned pulled pork BBQ and chicken with all the sides. Of course burgers and dogs on the grill are traditonal go to. North...South...East....West? Go Grill! Go Meat!







Four - Fire!

Fireworks baby. The fat lady hasn't sung until the percussion in your chest from the thundering display has only been trumped by beautiful lights in the sky!



That's what I call a perfect 4 for 4!

Still like that old time rockn roll

That kind of music just soothes the soul
I reminisce about the days of old
With that old time rock n roll

This photo?

Drop that jukebox into "Dad's" an old hamburger joint in Southern Illinois circa 1970's and you have my childhood summers in a nutshell.

Coming home on a late Sunday afternoon from the lake with my folks after Dad finished a regatta. Stopping to get a bite to eat. All his other sailing pals bellying up to the bar, placing orders for their families.

"Daddy? Daddy! Can I have some money for the juke box? Puuhhhhleasse! (some things never change)

A pool table next to the jukebox.

"#5 in the left pocket"

Trying to flirt at the age of 11 (and failing miserably) with the "older" boy who was all of 13

Wide, well worn, soft as sand, plank wood floors under bare feet that had lost their flip flops under cover of a 4-top table.

Juice from REAL flame grilled burgers, dripping down your chin.

The smell....slightly damp from the lake, dank and smoky from the grill and the cigarettes our fathers indulged in, while waiting for "orders up"

I took this pix today on a family outing to a small town diner

And lord...if those sweet, sweet memories didn't come flooding back in spades.

This used to be my playground

This is my newly rediscovered happy place. My playground really.

It has been languishing for the past two years while I sorted out things going on with my family and my oldest in particular.

But things seem to be back on track. And so am I..in a lot of different ways.

Hello my lovely...I missed you.

I probably need to put my "action" pants on underneath my jumper and see if I can do a flying knee drop from the high monkey bar!