Puppy Love

I got home from work today and the house was empty, dog and cat were there, but no people.  That counts as "empty".  This is a rarity so I did a little "yippee" dance and went in to start making chicken soup from scratch and embrace the silence.  I was chopping carrots when I heard Dave pull into the driveway so, since I think I'm hilarious, I waited by the door with a butcher knife in my best threatening pose.  I raised the knife as he opened the door and there he was, goofy grin on his face, holding the sweetest little puppy ever (well, at least since Scout was a puppy, anyway)!  I ran to the kitchen to put the knife away (please don't lecture me about running with knives...I know, I know), and ran back to get me some puppy love.  Delicious!

Scout is beside herself happy with the "gift" we gave her.  The boys are absolutely delighted.  And, I'm not usually one to like surprises, I prefer things to be highly predictable, but Dave totally rocked it with this one.

And, I don't think he even noticed my little butcher knife routine.  Good.  I'll save it for next time.

A little "empty" house bliss.

Impersonal Shopper

I had a dream that I was at a thrift store where they offered "personal shopping" services. Can you imagine? I woke up all out of sorts because, seriously folks, what's the point of that?!?! Personally I love the quest that thrifting is. The challenge is at least half the fun, right? In my dream I was just waiting in the dressing room (which was delightfully funky, of course, gum on the walls, graffiti scratched into the mirrors, a lock on the door that I didn't trust one little bit and just knew someone would open the door and I'd be seen standing there in only my underwear). The personal shopper was bringing me items to try on and taking my rejects away, which was everything because she was clueless about what little style I can call my own.  She was also a little too "put together" and sure seemed like she'd be better placed at Anthropologie (which I also love!).

Anyway, I ended up giving up on my thrifting because I simply wasn't having any fun.

Lucky for me it's discount day at the thrift store tomorrow and I'll have some time to get my fix and satisfy my challenging quest need while I wait for the big guy to get out of drivers ed. Me? Yeah, I'm goofy excited!

It's not Rocket Science (OK, actually it is)

Spent the morning in Hutto, TX today launching rockets. I tell ya, if you want your kids to grow a love of science, this is the way to go. I mean, what's not to love? It's permission to "play" with explosives. It's loud. Sometimes things accidentally blow up (a little sad, yet totally awesome). They go really high. The parachutes are super cool. You get to learn lots of multisyllabic words like apogee, waypoint, etc. It's a cutie-pie dork fest. This mom is in heaven! Oops, forgot I was talking about the benefits for kids.

Anyway...

My dad launched a large Marge of a rocket today. It was an amazing launch and little guy and I had the pleasure of retrieving it once it landed. It was a bit rough as the main parachute didn't deploy. One of the fins snapped off, but, other than that, it was in fine form.

My little guy launched two rockets. One had a camera and a GPS as payload. It was a beautiful launch, too. Here's the video from the camera. Beware, you'll get dizzy! It's upside-down on the ascent, then right-side up on the descent (Notice those two fabulous scientific words I just used in a sentence?).

His second launch was also pure perfection...it kept going up and up and up and then the chute deployed. Turns out he had put a way too big parachute on his rocket. The wind caught it and off it went...and went...and went...and disappeared from sight. This rocket did not have a GPS as its payload. Rats! We had some good data though for the waypoint (Yup, using those big words again! Check me out!!). Good-ish data, anyway. We knew the line upon which it landed, but we didn't have any data for the distance. "Approximately" one-and-a-half miles-ish. So, we loaded up the car and made the trek...some serious "over the river and through the woods" action. With binoculars, an electronic gismo in hand, and a slight fear in our hearts that we'd get shot for trespassing, we searched up to the point where the woods started (I know, "gismo" is not a scientific term). That's where we abandoned our search as chiggers and ticks have a particular love for my blood and I'm no fan of them.

It's all OK, now we get to make another rocket! Yay for science!!!

Let me know if you ever want to go to a launch!!

Out of the Mouths of my Wacky Babes

Got a call from my big guy this afternoon 15 minutes before I was set to leave work. 

Him:  "I'm sick, I think I have a fever, come pick me up NOW!"

Me:  "I've got a few things to do and then I'll ride home and get the car and come get you."

Him:  "You don't care about me...you love your work MORE than your own son!"

Geez!  Following was some boring back and forth conversation about me saying he's just slowing me down.

Let me be clear right now that I absolutely love my kid a ton more than my job (which I love a lot).  But, seriously, it's no contest, kiddo.  You win!


Then...as I was driving out to my dad's with my little guy so we could work on his rockets for an upcoming launch he tells me I could never handle his days at school, not mentally, not physically.

Me:  "Really?  Why do you think that?"

Him:  "There's the football practice, the laps, the sprints, the push-ups, and the classes, history, language arts, [and on and on]."

Me:  "Well, you could never handle my job either."

Him:  "I could, I just wouldn't like the stinky factor and the annoying noise factor."

Me:  "What's stinky, and what's noisy?"

Him:  "You know, poopy diapers.  And you have a lot of toys and equipment that make annoying noises and the kids make noise, too."  (This from my kid who makes annoying noises CONSTANTLY, often unconsciously, and not just from his mouth.)

Me:  "I hardly even notice the stinky diapers any more."  Appalled look from him.  "And I want my students making noise, that's communication."

Him:  "You must have permanent poop lining your nostrils if you don't smell the dirty diapers."

I'm pretty sure this makes me tougher than him and I totally win this argument (if that's what we were having).

Winter Coat

I have to say that I'm not a fan of the colder weather. I, probably the only one around, rather loved the 100º+ days. I was comfy, what can I say. So, I'm going into the frigid season lazy style. Cutting back on washing my hair to every other day and washing it at night rather than the morning as I can't bear riding my bike with wet hair in the cold. I've also been admiring my beautiful cat, Pug, whose hair is ever thickening and SO luxurious. And I'm thinking he's on to something. Makes me wonder if our body hair thickens in the winter, too. Well, in the season of jeans/pants/leggings I think I'll do a luxurious legs experiment. Sorry Dave....

Oh so distractible....

I cannot take my eyes off of the guy standing in front of me. He's got big brown Birkenstock sandals on, khaki pants, a grey shirt, a dark baseball cap, AND a band aid on his right big toe that has day-glow hearts and stars all over it.  The band aid, not his toe.  It's flapping in the wind (again, the band aid, not his toe), hanging on by only half the adhesive.  So, I'm sitting her, admittedly with some anxiety, wondering if it'll stay on or not.  Particularly wondering if, as he paces back and forth in front of me, if it'll fall off and a gust of wind will lift it up and carry it in my direction and, gag, hit me in the leg or something.  Or will it fall off and end up in some creek and flow down to the Gulf of Mexico and end up an accidental meal to some poor, unknowing fish?

OK, whew, he's walking away so I can sort of concentrate on my kiddo's scrimmage...ay-yi-yi!

Haste makes Awesome

In Parsons tradition, we didn't decide if we were even going to dress up for Halloween until the night of. Well, with the exception of my little guy who brought home his football helmet because he thought he might want to use it as part of something.

Dave and little dude: "We need costumes!!!" Gee, turns out I'm the "go to" girl for such things.

Dave was first. "Well, do you want to wear some of my belly dance stuff?" His enthusiastic response lead to a sequined bra top, socks to fill said top, a veil as a skirt, a wrap around the veil to snazz it up, and a hip skirt on his head. Voila! He's was GORGEOUS! Well, sort of. Lots of complaints about sequins being scratchy and such (I get it, I can't handle womanly clothing like that either) and suddenly the outfit was off. Thankfully not until after I'd taken some pics and posted them on facebook. :-) OK, back to the drawing board. He pulled out a red and gold vest that used to belong to his grandfather. I was asked to find what else would go with it. Um...OK, back to the belly dance chest for some purple velvet leggings that were losing their elastic so I didn't mind him stretching out and ruining. I must say, here, that he looked pretty hot in them! Shoes? Well, cowboy boots, of course. Duh! He thought it was still lacking something, so we added a lovely fuzzy scarf of mine and his amazingly long elf hat. Ta-da!!! OK, Dave's finished, check! I think we spent about 20 minutes on each outfit, but I'll only count one because that's all he used.  And what was he?  A "Ballet Parking Attendant," of course!

Little dude was next. OK, well, just what goes with a football helmet? Hmmmmm... Well, maybe a cape? "No." Maybe a clown outfit? "OK." Yay, we were getting somewhere, and fast! I pulled down the bag of clown outfits my mom made or bought for me as a kiddo. First one was WAY too small. Second one fit, but, I must say, it was slightly rude to his hind quarters. He went for it anyway. OK, little guy was finished, check! That only took about 10 minutes! I was rockin' it!  The Football Clown was in the house!

Me. Jeez! I went to my closet and stared. Nothing! I pulled out some overalls just to see if something came to me as they've been the "go to" base of many a costume over the years. Idea!  I ran to my computer and googled pics of Pippi Longstocking. OK, I had a mission! I dug out my two pairs of striped high socks, put on one of each. I tried the overalls and it just wasn't right. Back to staring at my closet. Ah ha! A dress I had grabbed at the elementary school's clothing swap. I had never even tried it on. Happy to report it fit and it was just good enough to fly as Pippi's dress. I slid on my black Ropers and looked in the mirror at my limp pigtails. They were in serious need of Viagra. I found my fix in a wire coat hanger. A little shoving, a little bending and I was seriously rocking some amazing Pippi braids. It took me about 20 minutes. Whew!

So, in under an hour I had us all looking Parsons fabulous! I love Halloween!!!