Handy Mack

When the Scout Master travels, I always cross my fingers and hope that there are no issues with any of our major appliances while he's away.  Our garbage disposal has been temperamental since we moved into this house.  It works, but sometimes it sounds like it's not going to be working much longer.   So, this morning at 6:00am, when I flipped on the switch and heard nothing...and saw no water draining...I realized that the time had probably come to replace the garbage disposal. 

The Scout Master is, of course, out of town, so I texted him in HOU and said, "Well, the disposal officially died, I think." (with a little frowny faced guy next to it.)  He texted back, "That's bad timing.  Is there any way you can wait until I get home to get it fixed?"  I couldn't.  I was frustrated about the disposal, but I was more frustrated that I had standing yucky water in my sink and that it might be there until Friday morning!  I would have called someone right that minute to come and fix it, but it was only 6:45am. 

The kids gradually wandered into the kitchen to get breakfast, so I warned them, "Please don't run the water in the sink.  It's not draining.  And the disposal isn't working."  Since Mack was standing nearby, and since the words "not working" pique his interest, he decided to check out the problem.   

He looked in the sink and said, "Mommy, is it because there's a cup in there?"

 can you see that green cup in there?  yeah...I couldn't either. 

It turns out that those little plastic cups fit right down into the drain of my sink, but not ALL the way down, and if there's water in there already and the cup happens to be dark green, you really can't see it.  And a cup in the drain muffles the sound of the disposal just enough that it sounds like it's not working, and so you just assume it's dead.  

Apparently the expertise of an observant eight year old was all I really needed to avoid my frustration this morning.  I'm glad to know that I don't have to cross my fingers anymore and hope that nothing will break while the Scout Master is traveling.  I can just have my handy little Mack fix it for me.  He got plenty of hugs this morning and high fives for being so awesome!

Ducks

This afternoon while driving all of my children all over Allen for various sports, parties, jobs, etc., I saw this in front of my van...

A mommy duck and her little babies were making their way across a 4 lane divided highway!  Fortunately it was not a busy traffic day, so I stopped my van in the middle of the road and waited for them to get safely beyond any of my tires.  

There's something about watching a little duck family that just melts my heart.  This mommy duck was quacking a little and looking back every few seconds to make sure they were all still following.  TCD's friend and I watched from the window of the van as they made it safely across the other two lanes and up to the curb.  One by one, the ducks hopped up and over the curb where their mom was impatiently waiting.  Finally, the last little duck was the only one left.  It couldn't hop high enough.  It couldn't quite make it up onto the curb no matter how hard it tried.  So then it just sat there quacking little pitiful quacks, until finally the mommy duck let out one really loud "QUACK!" and that baby jumped right up onto the curb and walked into the field with its family.  (I wish I had that kind of effect on my family just with one really loud QUACK!)

Those little ducks totally made my day today.

SOLD

I have bittersweet feelings about this day.  (Mostly the bitter...only they're not really bitter...mostly just sad.)  Sometimes there are things you love that you have to say goodbye to.  I absolutely HATE goodbyes...even the short ones.  Unfortunately this is a permanent one.

In March, we put our Mendon house on the market.  Within a few weeks we had a couple of offers.  Today we officially signed the closing documents.  Someone I don't even know is going to move in this weekend.  

I love that house.  

You can read the details of all the things I love about it here.  But this morning I was thinking more about all the stuff that happened while we lived there.  Birthday parties, holidays, remodeling, kids learning to ride bikes, piano lessons, Settlers of Cataan tournaments, playdates, chickens, barn cats, canning, finding treasures in the back yard.  It's overwhelming to think of the memories we made in that 100 year old house.  But even though the house no longer belongs to us, the memories still do.  We were so fortunate to be able sell it so quickly.  And we were even more fortunate to own it for as long as we did.  I hope the new owners will love it as much as we did. 

Unexpected Stuff

Don't you love when you see something totally unexpected that just makes you smile?  This afternoon I was crazy busy.  I had just dropped Spell Girl off at a bass lesson and had barely enough time to run over to Wal-Mart for two really quick things.  And as I rushed through the parking lot focused on the broccoli and bananas I needed, here's what I saw...

 ...so I stopped and took a picture of it and decided to post it on here to remind me to stop rushing around and just smile.  I love the guy who drives this car.  And I love that he left his companion in it while he was shopping today. 

Activism

Yesterday and today the 7th graders at Ereckson took a statewide standardized test.  They've been preparing for this test and talking about it for months, so on both days, I made sure to arm Spell Girl with a really good breakfast and extra healthy snacks to ensure the best possible brain capacity.   

When I picked up Spell Girl from school, I expected to get a full report about the test and how she felt about the day.  Here's what I got instead...

Me:  Hi Girlie!  How was your day?  

SG:  Mommy!  I got SOOOO mad today! 

Me:  At who? 

SG:  Well, not at a person.

Me:  Uh oh...not one of those injustices to mankind again?

SG:  YES!  Mommy, don't make fun of me.  This is totally serious.  We need to DO something!

And then for the next 20 minutes she launched into this tirade about the excessive use of paper by the State of Texas and how outraged she was that they only put ONE question on some of the pages.

SG:  Mommy!  There was ONE question and then the rest of the page had NOTHING ON IT!  What are they thinking??  Do they realize that if they just increased it to TWO questions on a page, they would still have room for working space and it would cut down on the paper.  The books would be lighter so the teachers wouldn't have to carry all those heavy test booklets.  The test would look smaller and be less intimidating for the students.  And less paper means MORE TREES and MORE OXYGEN.  DO THEY NOT KNOW THAT WE NEED TREES FOR OXYGEN!  

She also mentioned that every time she turned the page, she got more and more upset...

SG:  Every time I turned another page and saw all that blank space, I just wanted to write all over the bottom of it...WHAT A STUPID WASTE OF PAPER!  SAVE THE TREES!!

You would have to live with my little Spell Girl to understand why this is so humorous and endearing.  She is the most mild mannered, peaceful, compassionate little thing.  She loves animals, teachers, children, and flowers.  She is infinitely patient and gives everyone the benefit of the doubt.  So to hear her enraged about anything definitely gets our attention.  I just let her go on and on about her horror at the carelessness of the government...because really, there wasn't a lot I could say to change her mind.   

I don't know where she gets this activism streak in her personality.  It certainly doesn't come from me or her dad.  But it's so exciting to see her passionate and moved toward a purpose.  I'm not sure if she's planning to write a letter to the test assessors or if she'll skip all the little people and go straight to Governor Rick Perry, but I guarantee someone's going to get an earful.  

I look forward to many more years of tree hugging, trash picking, recycling movements from this  girl!   What a total joy it is to have all these different personalities in my house!

Good Hair Days

This is so totally and completely vain, but every now and then the planets align and a picture turns out better than I expect it to.  The sun was shining.  There was good light in the bathroom.  I was having a good hair day.  And I thought I'd try to capture it on film.  It worked!  It might not happen again, so I'm posting the proof!  :)

Raspberry M&M's

Did you know that these existed??  I didn't!  So they must be new.  And if they're not, then someone should have told me because they are so delicious!!  

I took TCD out of school early today for an eye doctor appointment and on the way we made a quick stop at Target and happened to see these!  Everything about these called to us!  The size of the bag...not too big, not too small!  The color of the bag!  And the word RASPBERRY written across the top!  In fact, this bag of M&M's called to us so loudly that we couldn't resist and we bought it!  (And some of us who just got iPhones like to take pictures of EVERYTHING and then immediately download them onto FB, so we took a picture of the bag, too.) 

Guess what!  They're ALL pink and red.  And they taste like those Pepperidge Farms Raspberry Milano cookies that I can't live without.  Super yum in a bag that is big enough to provide HOURS of deliciousness.  They are my new favorite thing and I foresee many more of those little M&M's in my future! 

wiifm

We have the BEST Gospel Doctrine teacher in our ward.   We actually have two of them, but one of them is fairly new and I haven't had the chance to go to any of his lessons yet.  I'm sure there will be future posts about his awesomeness, but for now, I'm just writing about Sister Bailey.  I totally look forward to the weeks when she teaches.  And even when I walk into that room feeling less than overwhelmed by the Spirit, somehow she manages to help me find It.  

Every week that she teaches she writes this on the board:

wiifm

It stands for what's in it for me?  Every week, she asks us to use the little excerpts we discuss in class to launch us into our own personal study of the rest of the scripture, and to figure out what part of it is relevant to our lives at that moment.  Because that always changes, you know?  Every time we read the scriptures, no matter how many times we may have read them previously, they say something different.  Depending on the circumstances, or my mood, or my calling at the time that I read, I can find something that I didn't find before.  The scriptures are amazing that way.  For me, that makes them more real and personal. 
 
Today Sister Bailey's lesson was on Mosiah Ch. 1, 2, 3 (King Benjamin's speech)  There is so much meaty stuff crammed into those three chapters that I would have had to have been comatose to not feel some kind of inspiration, but once again she managed to help me think of something NEW!  I LOVE that.  I have read this part of the Book of Mormon A LOT!  We studied it last year in Institute.  I have heavily marked my scriptures with little notes everywhere regarding various insights that I've received or been taught.  I LOVE King Benjamin.  And I know him pretty well.  But today, I heard things in a different way than before.  What was "in it for me today" was different than I expected and different than it was the last time I read it.  And I loved that.  


There are some teachers who just make you see things more clearly, and for me at this time, that's Sister Bailey.  I love the way she thinks.  And I love how she makes me want to dig deeper for more insight.  I'm so grateful for Gospel Doctrine, for people who enlighten my mind, and for the scriptures that are so readily accessible to inspire and uplift us. 

Muckdogs Baseball

A few months ago we got an email from the coach of the basketball team Mack was on last winter.  He was trying to pull together a baseball team for the spring.  At the time, Mack wasn't involved in any other activities and since he had had such a great experience with basketball, we thought it would be great to have him associated once again with this group of boys and coaches.  So, we signed him up!

Let me just mention that baseball, even for little boys, is a significant investment.   After registration, uniforms, equipment, and sliders! we have determined that Mack will be playing baseball for the next several years (or at least until he grows out of all that stuff) so that we can get our money's worth out of this. 

Other than a few surprising experiences with baseball underwear, though, this whole baseball experience has been awesome.  Last week we had a practice, and two games within three days.  By the last game of the weekend, the boys were really starting to gel as a team and feeling much more confident.  They won their first game of the season and they were thrilled.  We are so grateful to have these amazing opportunities that our kids can be involved in, awesome dad/coaches who volunteer countless hours of their time, and supportive parents who show up to all the games and take pictures that they share!  I love this place!

 

Touch

There's this really intriguing new show on FOX called Touch.  Kiefer Sutherland is in it, which was the initial draw for me, but the more episodes I watch, the more it's securing its place among my favorites.  This is definitely NOT a Jack Bauer kind of show, though.  In fact, his character doesn't really say or do a whole lot.  He just sort of gets dragged around following the whims of his son who hasn't spoken since his mother was killed in 9/11.  But where those whims take him is really kind of a cool thing.   I like stuff about how people are all intertwined...that nothing is an accident...that all these people who cross our paths in a lifetime serve some purpose.   And then there's all that number sequencing, not-so-random pattern stuff in there, too.  Pretty fascinating show.

This was the narration at the beginning of last week's episode, which I just watched the other night thanks to the miracle of the DVR...

490,000 babies will be born today, each of them unique.  And each one of them a link in the greater human chain.  And the moment their umbilical cord is severed, they’ll become their own hopes, dreams and desires.  Every dream you attain, every desire you fulfill has an impact far greater than you can imagine.  At least that’s how it looks from where I’m sitting.  The threads that connect us are not bound by space and time.  What seems to the individual like a twist of fate, from another perspective is simply one of those threads pulled tight.  What should have been all along.  And even when those threads seem irreparably frayed, they never break. Not completely.  But sometimes the most important connection is here and now.

Makes you want to watch it, huh?