Guinea Pig Show-N-Tell.

 

McKenzie's been bugging me all year to bring her guinea pigs to school for show-n-tell.  Her teacher gave her permission many months ago that it was ok but I've been procrastinating on this one.  Tomorrows the last day of school and her teacher said it was ok to bring them in today.  They spent a good part of the day in the office because I had to take Callie to swim lessons.  I don't think the little critters would have appreciated waiting in a scortching hot car while Callie finished her swim lesson and to be honest with you, I don't think they really appreciated waiting in the schools office in the confined comfort of a small laundry basket that I had provided for them during their transport.

 

McKenzie did a great presentation and all the kids enjoyed getting a turn at holding one of them.  I had provided some lettuce and each child had the opportunity to feed one.  It was a huge hit.  What child doesn't enjoy feeding a cute little critter?

 

They arrived safe-n-sound and are resting peacfully in their home now.  I rewarded them a bowl full of fresh lettuce for doing such a great job.

 

 

Swim Lesson.

 

I took Callie to her second swim lesson today and she loved it.  She got herself completely submerged accidentally and she wasn't really cool with that.  She climbed out of the pool crying and walking towards me.  I scooped her up and told her she was doing such a great job and that I was so very proud of her and wanted her to get back in the water.  She did just that surprisingly. 

 

Afterwards, I let her eat the cheese sandwich, cookie and juice I packed for her snack in the YMCA lounge area.

Helping Hands.

The girls wanted to help Daddy in the green house this afternoon, but by the looks of these photos they had other plans.

McKenzie said she was trying to make a fossil by burying a stick in the mud and then stomping on it.

Callie just enjoyed making mud mounds and playing with the water spout.

Happiness.

 

Happiness is when your great-grandparents arrive at your house and set up their trailor for the summer.

 

Happiness is looking forward to the both of you spending lots of summer fun with your great-grandparents.

 

Happiness is when your great-grandmother makes you pancakes for breakfast at 8am.

 

Happiness is looking forward to your last soccer game of the season.  (lost the game but had lots of fun.)

Just An Ordinary Day.

I just love these yellow flowers and couldn't resist snapping a few shots in this field I found. I even got McKenzie to snap a few shots with my camera. She's going to be quite the photographer someday.

On another note, after I picked McKenzie up from school we got some icecream at a place called "The Roasting Co." and then we hit one of my new favorite vintage shops called "Vintage Goods." I saw this pretty white wicker basket with a lid and saw a very large lizard sitting on top of this white wicker basket. I'm thinking... that's kinda strange to have a fake lizard on top of this white wicker basket inside a vintage goods store and I'm also looking at this lizard thinking... that is one real-life-looking lizard. As I'm just about to investigate the pretty white wicker basket and take off its lid, that real-life-looking lizard blinked its eye at me and I let out the biggest scream that I think anyone within a 2 mile radius could have heard. This was not just an ordinary lizard I have seen in my yard basking in the sun, this was the biggest lizard I have ever seen. McKenzie came to investigate and said "I'll catch it!" and I said "Oh no you don't! A lizard of that size might bite!" The lady working at the store apologized and said it's a crocodile lizard and it just came in through their front door while they had it open. So, I never really got to investigate that white wicker basket that I was going to put Callie's new wooden train set in that I picked up a few weeks ago at another vintage shop.

Ok, so now I'm home and finally recovering from the lizard incident and Jasper has left me some of his poop on the living room floor. Of course Callie runs over to investigate and I tell her "don't touch that." So, if you tell a child not to touch something, I swear it just makes them want to touch it more. So she picks it up and I'm yelling "Callie, drop that disgusting poop of Jasper's on the floor!" I'm then rushing her into the bathroom to wash her hands and saw more poop on the bathroom floor but this time it came from Callie. I stripped her of her clothes and tossed them in the utility room sink, plugged the drain, poored a little spray-n-wash in the sink and ran some cold water. Meanwhile, I got Callie cleaned up and put her in the bathtub for a good scrubbing... got her cleaned up along with a bath for McKenzie. Ok, so now for the good part... are you ready? I heard this dripping coming from the utility room so I went to investigate and there was water everywhere... you guessed it... I had forgotten all about the water running in the sink and it completely flooded the laundry room. I'm thinking... "Oh my god, where do I start?" I pulled the drain, opened the back door and started sweeping the water out the back door. Then Callie starts chanting "I whana come out now!"... remember she is still in the tub. Well, I did get the water cleaned up and the kids feed and ready for bed. Here's to another ordinary day in my life.

Memorial Day.

Today is Memorial Day, the day we have set aside to honor by remembering all the Americans who have died fighting for the thing we like the most about our America: the freedom we have to live as we please.

 

No official day to remember is adequate for something like that.  It's too formal.  It gets to be just another day on the calendar.  No one would know from memorial Day that Richie M.. who was shot through the forehead coming onto Omaha Beach on June 6, 1944, wore different color socks on each foot because he thought it brought him good luck.  No one would remember on memorial Day that Eddie G. had promised to marry Julie W. the day after he got home from the war, but didn't marry Julie because he never came home from the war.  Eddie was shot dead on an un-American desert island, Iwo Jima.

 

For too many Americans, Memorial Day has become just another day off.  There's only so much time any of us can spend remembering those we loved who have died, but the men, boys really, who died in our wars deserve at least a few moments of reflection during which we consider what they did for us.  They died.  We use the phrase "gave their lives," but they didn't give their lives.  Their lives were taken from them. 

 

There is more bravery at war than in peace, and it seems wrong that we have so often saved this virtue to use for our least noble activity - war.  The goal of war is to cause death to other people

 

Remembering doesn't do the remembered any good, of course.  it's for ourselves, the living.  I wish we could dedicate Memorial Day, not to the memory of those who have died at war, but to the idea of saving the lives of the young people who are going to die in the future if we don't find some new way - some new religion maybe - that takes war out of our lives. 

 

That would be a Memorial Day worth celebrating.

 

(the following is a weekly 60 Minutes commentary by CBS News correspondent Andy Rooney.)http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/05/60minutes/rooney/main697964.shtml

There is no one quite like you.

 

Callie enjoying her favorite sandwich, peanut butter and jelly.  Her second favorite is a cheese sandwich with a little butter.