Week in Review, 6/22--6/29

Yay

1. We had a busy but fun weekend. We went to the kid-friendly waterpark with our church’s children’s ministry on Friday night, Justin worked some on Saturday after we went out for breakfast, then his mother, aunt, and niece went out to dinner with us that night. It was a nice visit and they had a lot of fun talking to my chatterbox kiddos. Then a nice dinner after church with friends; a trip to the grocery store for me because I’ll do anything to go without the kids; and finally dinner at my friend L’s house and a swim in their subdivision’s pool (this time she didn’t lock us into the pool area.) Mr. Blue loves the water now, and it looks like Miss Pink will be part fish by summer’s end.

2. So far this part of the summer has been a nice mix of lounging around in our PJs, going swimming, to the gym, and to playgroup, and at-home art and make-believe projects. Miss Pink has started a “school project” to give her kindergarten teacher. It’s a list of all Miss P’s favorite things, because apparently that will make her teacher “feel welcome.” So I am spelling things like “sunflower” and “couscous” all the time.

Nay

1. My plans to eat a) healthier and b) less were completely shot down this weekend. (Notice all the times I mentioned we ate out? Yeah.) But I did only have one dessert. Okay, two if you count the package of cookies and I guess I should.

2. I get songs from Blue’s Clues stuck in my head far more often than is healthy for an adult.

I Was Going to Post Today...

...but then we went swimming all morning, and we're going to our Sunday School's party at the kids' waterpark tonight. My mother-in-law is coming into town tomorrow--and for some reason I get this urge to clean the house more thoroughly than usual when that happens. I mean, I doubt she'll look in the master bathroom linen cabinet--but what if she does?

So I'll be cleaning for the next few hourstaking a nap. And cleaning tomorrow, when I panic and start slavedriving everyone to help me. Won't that be enjoyable!

Have a fun weekend!

The Blessing

I once heard a speaker say that our children have an empty cup that they carry around with them. If we don’t fill the cup with words of encouragement and love, they will do whatever it takes to get their cup filled.

When I heard that, I took it to heart. My dad is an encourager, and I knew it made a difference in my growing-up years. With my own children, I tend to compliment often, and to say “I love you” and “Good job” a lot. But what could I do to make my praise more specific, more targeted to a child’s good qualities and strengths, and less outward-performance-based? These were all good questions, and I mulled them over, then promptly forgot about them, probably because I had to change a dirty diaper or something equally urgent.

Some months later I read a book called The Book Of Jewish Values: A Day-by-Day Guide to Ethical Living. In it, Rabbi Telushkin shares that he spends time every Sabbath evening blessing his children, the way the patriarchs did in the Bible. Only instead of waiting until the end of his life, he does it every week! I decided my husband and I would start doing this on Sunday evenings with Miss Pink (Mr. Blue is too little to understand much, but I do give him a little blessing after I’ve sung his songs to him and tucked him in). We all look forward to it every week—if we forget, she reminds us, “Don’t forget my blessing!”

I try to share something specific from that week that has made me proud of my daughter or that I have enjoyed about her. It’s always something that reinforces our values—in other words, telling her she’s pretty wouldn’t fit the criteria (trust me, she hears that enough already). This last week I told her I was proud of her for facing her fears of swimming to the waterfall and proving to herself that she could do something she didn’t think she could do. Other blessings we’ve shared are times when she was kind or generous or tenderhearted, or the way she loves to learn…the possibilities are endless, really. And Justin adds his blessing in there, too. She soaks it in like a sponge!

In the middle of all the tasks that must be accomplished and the mouths that clamor to be fed and the messes that must be cleaned up, it’s good to take time to tell our children what’s good about them, what we LIKE about them, what makes them the very special people we couldn’t live without. And that’s what works for me.

For other ideas, you can go here.

Adventurers

The kids decided they were going on an adventure. Well, Miss Pink decided. Mr. Blue agreed.

They filled up their backpacks and set up a "car" in the hall. Miss Pink claimed the driver's seat and Mr. Blue didn't like that. (Men!)

Finally they decided they had reached the jungle. The only problem: they were hungry. So they came into the kitchen and asked for some chickpeas, and each received a bowl. Back to the jungle.

Now they were thirsty. Back for some water, which I even brought them.

It must be nice to go on an adventure without leaving the comforts of home.

Week in review, 6/15--6/21

Yay

1. Swimming lessons are over. A huge relief for me, but it was worth it. Miss Pink is doing well and can swim across the pool—and even to the Waterfall of Doom—without any problems. Mr. Blue—well, he got through it. The last two days were a little less screamy. He does like to pretend to dunk his stuffed dog (fortunately not anywhere near real water like, say, the toilet). Mr. B says, “One two three,” then hugs the puppy and says, “Good job, puppy! It’s otay.” I guess the bajillion times I said those words did sink in on some level.

2. Some money we were waiting for, from leasing our mineral rights, came through. Have y’all ever had a bank draft? They’re a pain in the tookus. You take it in to the bank and fill out a bunch of paperwork, and then wait 30 banking days, which is like 45 calendar days. After that, when the money hasn’t been deposited in your account, you call to check and it turns out that the issuing bank, which has been holding the draft, has to mail the draft back and that takes over a week to arrive. In the electronic age, I ask you, what is the freaking point of this rigmarole? Couldn’t they just cut us a check? It’s not like the gas company doesn’t have enough in their account to cover it. Anyway, it’s there now and we are going to use it to build a playroom onto the back of the house. Stay tuned for more details; I’m sure y’all will enjoy hearing about how WELL I handle a remodeling project going on in my house.

3. My parents went to visit with some friends, and the woman owns a children’s boutique. My mom, who considers it her personal mission to shop for her grandchildren’s clothes, bought the kids a couple of adorable outfits each. I am very blessed to have such generous parents.

Nay

1. I always wanted Miss Pink to learn to entertain herself some of the time. I did not realize that would mean she would take every single toy out of her room and move them into other rooms to “decorate” them.

2. I regret the day I got the idea to let Mr. Blue watch monster truck videos on YouTube. Now it’s all he wants to do, and he throws a hissy fit when you tell him no. We still tell him no a lot, because there is only so much time we want to spend playing new videos for him (or the same one over and over) even though it makes him happy.

3. I’d like some better shows on TV, or else that Justin and I could get the kids in bed early enough to feel like watching a movie. The last one we watched was The Bourne Supremacy, which we kept for two months before we sent it back to Netflix. That means it cost us $10. I hope it was worth it. I wouldn’t know because I fell asleep during the middle and never did catch back up on the plot.

Operation Slim Down

So I'm making an effort to lose a few pounds. News flash: it's NOT ALL THAT FUN. But then, neither is not fitting into my pants. It really wasn't an option.

I've never had to diet before. I mean, sure, I've thought it would be nice to drop a couple of pounds, and I'd decide to do it by eating less and not drinking Cokes, and then the weekend would come and I'd eat my weight in Mexican food and chocolate, and I'd forget about getting smaller because (another news flash) FOOD TASTES GOOD. Fortunately for my undisciplined self, my metabolism would keep me about the same size I've been since high school. (Please do not throw things. I know I am lucky.)

And yes, I know dieting doesn't really work. I'm not on anybody's specific diet, but I know what to do. Eat more fruits, vegetables, and whole grains. Eat less sugar, refined carbs, and meat. And the portion sizes. Dear God, the portion sizes. How I miss the days when I could eat a slab of steak that covered my plate, plus a baked potato with cheese and a salad and several pieces of bread spread with butter. My beloved late FIL used to say he'd never seen a little gal eat so much. (In my defense, he always saw me eat when we were visiting Louisiana, and I adore Cajun food, so I ate more there than usual.)

So now I am plugging what I eat every day into sparkpeople.com, which says I need to aim for 1100--1300 calories per day. When I started last week, I was hungry. I mean, go-to-bed-hungry, think-about-food-as-I go-to-sleep, wake-up-starving hungry. (Hunger does help the cardboard cereal taste better.) I hadn't really thought I was eating that much more than recommended, but I must have been wrong. I think the problem is that I graze off the kids' leavings--eat a handful of goldfish crackers, polish off the remaining few bites of mac & cheese. It adds up. Plus, I tend to think of unhealthy food as a reward. I ate my veggies--now I want dessert! It's the weekend and the kids are still alive--ice cream for everybody!

Here's something I found yesterday--a link to a basal metabolism calculator. It tells you how many calories you'd burn if you did nothing but lie around in bed all day (where do I sign up for that gig?) That gives you an idea of how many calories you need to eat once you factor in your level of activity. Mine was 1330--hey! Since I'm only eating 1200 a day, plus I am WAY more active than lying down all day, SURELY I will conquer the battle of the bulge in this brave new world of my thirties.

In fact, I will probably be forced to eat a milkshake every now and then to keep you all from being afraid that I have anorexia. I'll do it for my readers, so that you don't worry about me. You're welcome.

Isn't Swimming is Supposed to be Fun?

I didn't do a Week in Review post for last week, partly because we were so busy this weekend and partly because it would've just been about swimming lessons, because THE LESSONS, THEY HAVE EATEN OUR LIFE. So of course I'll tell you about it anyway.

The first few days, everything was peachy. The kids were excited about being in the pool, and Miss Pink remembered last year as a good experience--despite the fact she screamed during every lesson in the first week, she settled down during the second week. The thing about her, God bless her, is that she gives everything her best even when she is totally freaked out. She'd be screaming and the teacher would hold on to her and tell her to kick or whatever, and she'd do it, crying the whole time. So even though she didn't like it, she made good progress, and was ready for Beginner II this year.

She's still like that. As I said, no problem the first few days. Then they wanted her to swim further--and her goggles kept letting in water--and she just HATES swimming with her face in the water--and it's just TOO FAR to swim to the waterfall--and she's SCARED, Mama. While I'm sitting there murmuring words of encouragement and thinking, This is MAH BABY. How can I make her get back in there and try again?

Yesterday was the worst. She screeched like a possessed banshee because they wanted her to swim to the Waterfall of Doom and neither teacher could calm her down. She bolted for me and I held her and we talked a while and she went back to swimming to the side, with the caveat that the waterfall was a goal she needed to try for by the end of the week. I will buy her a blue swimsuit or gymnastics leotard, her choice, if she keeps trying and swims toward the waterfall with her teacher beside her. Am I bribing her? Heck, yes. There are plenty of things I wouldn't do without a big incentive, and she deserves one if she conquers her fear.

Mr. Blue is in the Waterbabies class. It's a Mommy and Me class. He liked the first few days and was a star at kicking, holding on to the side, and blowing bubbles in the water. Then he had to go underwater. Now he holds on to me the whole time, saying, "I don't want to go underwater." He still kicks and is even using his arms a little while I hold him, but he HATES going under and (you guessed it) screams. Also, guess what? He is the only baby there who cries anymore. Super fantastic. I mean, I can't blame him for being upset because that's just how he feels, but it sucks to be the only one whose kid is yelling and refusing to cooperate. The other moms are very nice about it, but I'm sure they're secretly relieved it's not their kid having such a tough time.

It goes against everything in my nature to do this, to ask my kids to do something they fear even though everything I'm telling them is true: they are fine, they are doing a good job, the teacher is right there. I like that the teachers are gentle and encouraging but somehow get the kids to keep trying, mostly through just waiting and asking them to try. I try to be relentlessly positive, emphasizing how well they're doing, giving them big, bright smiles, and a hug whenever it's needed.

Today it worked for Miss Pink. She swam almost all the way across the pool without stopping for breath, and didn't cry at all the whole time. She's very proud of herself.

Of course, we'll see how it goes when the Waterfall of Doom is mentioned.

How to Break a Husband From Ignoring Your Calls

A couple of weeks ago, during gymnastics class, I had a conversation with the woman who spends mega-bucks on her teenage daughter’s highlights. And no, we didn’t talk about beauty procedures (good thing, because I don't know all that much about them).

I’m glad I didn’t avoid her, because she’s not as shallow as I’d first thought. For example, she is a part-time reading tutor, and she obviously doesn’t need to do it for the money. We talked for a while about that (I’d love to have a job like that again, when both kids are in school) and then she mentioned that her husband works long hours and travels a lot. Then she proceeded to tell me a story about how he used to be too busy to answer her calls.

(Notice I said “used to be.” We English majors call that “foreshadowing.”)

(Oh, and you have to imagine this story being told by a typical Texas lady-who-lunches with perfectly coiffed hair, manicured nails and a Tiffany silver necklace, with a small, slightly breathy voice, just a tiny bit reminiscent of Minnie Mouse. Somehow that adds to the drama.)

The minivan this lady drove started having transmission problems. She told her husband about it, and he said he’d arrange to have it fixed, but he kept putting it off because he’s so driven dedicated. Then one morning after she dropped her younger daughter off at school, the minivan gave up the ghost and she ended up in the ditch. As you might expect, she called her husband. He didn’t answer his phone. Some Good Samaritans came along and helped her get the van home. It took a couple of hours, during which she called her husband several more times. He still didn’t return her calls.

At home, she wondered what she should do and decided to call her parents, who live out of state. Her dad looked up the blue book value of the van and told her it wasn’t worth much with a dead transmission. To make a long story short, our heroine remembered that she liked the Nissan Pathfinder that she’d seen on commercials for a local dealership, and she called them. They told her to have her van towed to a gas station next to them, but to get in it and coast into their driveway. If she drove it in, they could get her $1000.00 on the trade-in, as opposed to almost nothing if it was towed in.

So that’s what she did. She negotiated the deal, got a couple of thousand off the asking price, signed the papers, and drove her new car to pick up her daughter from school. Her husband had still not called her back, even though she’d tried him several more times during the process.

At 5:45 he finally called her back. “Honey, what were you calling me about at eight o’clock?” he asked. (Can’t you just hear the false innocence in his voice?)

“Sit down, because it’s going to take a while,” she told him.

He started to get mad that she had bought a brand-new vehicle without his approval, and she said, “Hold it right there. I did what I had to do because you wouldn’t answer my calls. So I’m going to hang up and you’re going to think about what happened today and call me back when you’ve calmed down.”

He called her back an hour later and said, “I’m ready to see the beautiful new car that you’ve picked out for our family.”

Now, she says, when she visits him at work, his coworkers point her out as the woman who makes $35,000 decisions because her husband didn’t take her calls.

Now, she says, he is much better about calling her back.

Someday She'll Make Her Husband a Happy Man

Besides the kids' shows on Noggin and nature documentaries, Miss Pink has a couple of other shows she loves to watch with her daddy: Trick My Truck and Ninja Warrior. That last one involves young Asian guys attempting to do physical feats of strength in a timed competition.

For a girly girl, she's got some unusual interests.

Her comment: "You just never know what grownup shows I'm going to like!"

Week in Review, 6/1--6/7

I wasn't going to do a review of this week, but once I started posting, I figured I might as well at least do a short update. I'm glad to be back!

Liking
1. My MIL has a 12-week-old miniature schnauzer puppy, and my SIL got his sister. SO CUTE. Miss Pink was crazy about the puppies--she's never met a dog she didn't like. Mr. Blue has been scared of dogs lately, so he didn't want to be too close to Jacques and Molly at first, but after a couple of days he petted and even held them.

2. The kids started swimming lessons today and they did great. Mr. Blue whimpered at first but then rallied and was kicking up a storm while I held his arms. He likes it and wants to go back--a relief after he kept telling me all morning he didn't want to get in the big pool. Miss P was a trouper, too. Last year she screamed nonstop the entire first week. What a difference this time.


Not liking
1. Justin and I went out for our anniversary. Rather than go to a romantic, dimly lit bistro, we went to one of our favorite places--a loud, boisterous seafood restaurant with rolls of paper towels on the table to mop up juice from the boiled crawfish. We had fried popcorn shrimp and shrimp pistolettes--which is a small French roll fried crisp and stuffed with shrimp etoufee. Mmmm-MMM! So why is this on the "bad" side? Apparently my delicate digestive system did not like my food as much as my taste buds did and I spent most of the night in the bathroom. Justin was fine, by the way. Jerk.

2. I'm tired today, and we have two more weeks of driving 30 minutes to swimming lessons, two hours of lessons, one of which I have to be in the pool for, then back home--not to mention schlepping all the towels and stuff over there. And the house is a mess. /end whine.

3. I tried on a pair of shorts that fit last year and...they don't fit well. I can button them, but the rear view is frightening and they are WAY too tight. Justin and I are going to have to start watching what we eat--not a diet exactly, but smaller portions, less Coke, fewer treats. What works for me is recording everything I eat and staying in the recommended calorie range most days. I'll be back in the gym when the swimming lessons are over, but I've been working out for months and my butt still grew too big for my britches, so clearly it does take diet and exercise. Who knew?

SITS Contest: Make Your Blog Beautiful

I am having so much fun reading all the featured bloggers on SITS. Plus, they are having another great contest. This time, Shannon from eightcrazydesign.blogspot.com is offering a blog makeover --either a custom banner or one of her pre-designed templates for your whole site. I went to look at the options and was blown away. They are so cute! I NEED a blog makeover; mine looks so plain compared to all the pretty ones out there. So I hope I win!

If you want to enter, post on your blog about the contest and then comment on eightcrazydesign to let Shannon know you've entered. The contest is over Thursday the 12th and will be announced on Friday.

Happy Anniversary to Us

Tomorrow, June 7, will be our eleventh wedding anniversary.

Put like that, it seems impossible that so much time has passed since we said, “I do.” On the other hand, I feel like I hardly know that girl, who was so happy to have found the love of her life after she’d thought she might have to give up on love—at the ripe old age of twenty-one. (Snort.)

Specifically, I wonder, What was I thinking?

The plain facts, without the gloss of romance to soften them, make me shudder a little, imagining how I’d feel if my daughter got married ten months after meeting a guy. In fact, we didn’t tell our parents, but we talked about marriage after only a month of dating. After we got engaged, I asked Justin when he wanted to get married, and he said, “As soon as possible.” Since he’s seven years older than I am, he’d been dating long enough to know what he wanted: “And I want you,” he said.

He could have been a murderer, an abuser, or a garden-variety jerk who ignores his wife’s needs. So much could have gone wrong. And yet it didn’t.

Because, despite my naïveté and impulsiveness, I chose well. There was an inexplicable feeling of rightness that everyone who knew us sensed, and I think that’s because my husband is a man of great integrity. He is who he is. Like the Bible says, there is no guile in him.

Here’s the kind of guy he is.

He doesn’t begrudge me anything. If I say I need it, it’s mine. (Luckily for our finances, I don’t take advantage of his generosity.)

The night I met him, I thought, “This guy couldn’t tell a lie to save his life.” And I was right; he’s a man of his word. I can always count on him.

Every evening when he walks in the door, no matter how hard his day was, he gives me a hug and scoops the kids up and plays with them. He supplies all the physical fun and games that I’m no good at. He’s such a good father.

Before Mother’s Day, he got some extra money and instead of following my instructions to get me something under $20, he remembered that months ago I had mentioned in passing that someday I’d like a strand of pearls. More than the pearls themselves, the fact that he remembered was the sweetest thing.

He is an optimist and a dreamer—which balances out my Chicken Little tendency to think the sky is falling at any given moment. Amazingly, thanks to his hard work, the dreams are starting to come true.

He is not a pushover. Although he listens to my opinion, he doesn’t let me--or anyone else—steamroll over him. In fact, I appreciate his decisiveness because I am capable of waffling over any issue, including where we should go out to eat, which drives him crazy.

I could go on and on, but I think it’s clear that I married the right guy. As my own mother has said, no one else could have put up with my emotional roller coaster for this long. Justin has stuck by me for better or for worse, in (mental) sickness and in health, for richer (which hasn’t happened yet, but he says it will and I’m starting to believe him) and for poorer. I wouldn’t trade anything for the past eleven years, because even the hard times have brought us closer together. The girl standing at that altar wouldn’t have believed she could love her groom more than she did at that moment.

But I do. Happy anniversary, honey.

Stand By for Technical Difficulties

My husband's laptop is annoying the crap out of me today. Actually, it's not the computer--it's the security program he downloaded onto it last night. The problem is that it's TOO secure--it blocks every single site I try to visit and makes me put in a password, sometimes several times. Apparently the program thinks I am a teenager out to find nasty pictures on the World Wide Web. I tried to convince it that that's SO far from the truth, with no luck (I am borderline computer-illiterate) so to get it fixed I will have to chat online with tech support, and we all know how fun THAT is. I think I will just let my husband deal with it and wait to read your blogs until I get home.

All that to say--if I don't comment on your blogs for a couple of days, that's why. It's just taking too long to get to everyone's site. I'll catch up as soon as I can, I promise.

Also, if anybody asks me a question, like when Sandi asked which book Twilight is, check back in the comments for my answer. I can't access my gmail account either (stupid Internet Explorer, this time). If you emailed me...well, you get the picture.

Where in the World Is HairlineFracture?*

So I forgot to tell y'all that we were going to Louisiana to Justin's mother's house, so he can finish the remodeling on her house. If you're a new reader, here's the short version: her house was damaged in Hurricane Rita, which happened right after Katrina, by a gigantic tree falling on her roof. It's taken this long to get it all finished because she decided to remodel the whole house (instead of just the damaged part) and use Justin to do a lot of the work whenever he could come here to save money, and of course he couldn't just take off for a couple of months to finish it all. So. He just has the master bathroom shower left to do, and we'll be here until Saturday. It's a little disorienting for me since I don't really have anything to do. I KNOW! I should be grateful. And I am, for about two days--until I start missing my house and my friends and my routine. Did I mention I'm a homebody?

Fortunately, I have Justin's laptop and books. I just started Twilight and it is every bit as good as those who recommended it said. I will have to pace myself or I'll read it all today and have nothing left to read.

Enough about our trip. I have a couple of things to tell you about. One is a new site called The Secret is in the Sauce.


It's a really cool idea--they are going to feature a different blogger every day and all their readers will visit that blogger and give her big smoochy comment love. AND they are doing a fantastic giveaway--seriously, you won't believe how fabulous it is, so check it out for yourself. You just go there and comment on the contest link. There are more chances to win if you comment every day--but I'll let them explain the rules.

The other thing is that I won something on this here Internet thingy. I was shocked. Remember when I said I was featured on Blogtations? Well, the site's owner had a contest for the quotes featured in each month of the year so far, and I won! She'd told me I could vote for myself, so I have a sneaking suspicion that maybe it was me and one other person who voted for me, but that seems a little rude, to suggest she has so few readers. I'm sure that's not the case, or it shouldn't be, because it's an awesome site. So if you voted for me (I didn't even mention it here, thinking it was hopeless), thanks! And vote for me at the end of the year for the Best Quote of 2008! (I hate self-promotion, but I'm trying.)

I'll be around for the next few days. Wish me luck in the Swampland of Humidity. We are having chicken and sausage gumbo for dinner, which is a huge plus.


*Do y'all remember Where In the World Is Carmen Sandiego? I don't actually remember it all that well, just the name. I am terrible at geography or any kind of directions. Seriously. I'll write about it soon.

More about Reading and Week in Review, 5/25--5/31

First of all, I feel bad that some of you said you felt ashamed, or words to that effect, about not reading much, and I felt like maybe it came across that I was boasting or something. Please remember that the only reason I read as much as I do is that I am not gainfully employed, and that I have a messy house most of the time. I COULD have a neater house and read less, but I doubt it would benefit the children, because I would be unhappy without my books, and as you know, IF MAMA AIN'T HAPPY AIN'T NOBODY HAPPY.

Anyway, if I had an actual paying career, and children on top of that (but how could children be on top of a career?), I bet I'd only read a book or two a month. And then only because I'd be antisocial at lunch sometimes and read in my office. So if you're just too busy living your life to read much--maybe it's just where you are right now, and you'll read more later. Or maybe you won't, if it's just not your thing.

Also, I read those books in a month in which Miss Pink was in school three mornings a week. I guaran-dang-tee you I won't read that many in June. Two kids = MORE than double the interruptions.

You probably didn't care that much about it. Let's move on.

Week in Review, 5/25--5/31

You know, this week I wish I could do two parallel columns so you could look across to see the irritating aspects of even the positive things. I guess I'll do them right after each other.

Liking

Mr. Blue is obsessed with monster trucks. He makes us look up monster truck videos on YouTube, and I bought him a small one that he can push around--and does he ever. He takes it to bed at night.

Not so much
His daddy can't wait to take him to a rally when he's older. It's safe to say I will not be attending. Oh, and Mr. B throws a fit whenever I tell him he can't take his "moh-stah twuck" into restaurants or places where he will lose it.

Liking
2. Miss Pink wants me to read Bible stories to her every day. Since we happen to be Christians, it's nice to see one's child becoming interested in the book we try to live by.

Not so much
However, this particular Bible story book is a little weird for me. It's very sanitized for little ones. No mention of any of the gory details that might disturb a child. I mean, I know that a child doesn't need to hear about Tamar being raped by her brother or anything, but I remember hearing as a child that David cut Goliath's head off and my only reaction was, "Yeah! Serves him right!" It reminds me of the way they have sanitized the old Grimm's Fairy Tales, which were pretty darn violent. It seems to me we rob these stories of their power if we take away the ugliness they contain. Okay, I think this needs to be a post of its own.

Liking
3. Miss P has the cutest bathing suit: green and white stripes, with a flouncy skirt. It is so sweet it makes my teeth hurt for a minute when she wears it. I wish mine looked like that.

Not so much
Of course, I wouldn't look as cute as she does if I wore a larger-sized version of her suit. (Freakin' cellulite!) But the skirt would help. I will surrender and get a suit with a skirt next year.

Liking
We have some new friends who we met through Miss P's school. (She's the one who inadvertently got us locked in the pool area.) She and I have really hit it off, and Justin likes her husband, too. She had said she really needed a cabinet for her laundry area but couldn't afford much, and Justin told her he had leftover cabinets all the time and would give her one when he had one. This weekend they went out of town, and when they get back, they will see their brand-new, custom-designed cabinet that my sweet husband built just for them and conspired with her brother to have installed for their return. It's so lovely to be able to do something nice for someone.

Not so much
There really isn't a down side to this one.