The Wisdom of Cindy

So here are some of the latest silly things that Cindy has said or done.

I explained to her the other day about car alarms and the fact that sometimes mean people try and take our cars when we go shopping. Therefore, we put alarms on them to try and scare them away. And then she told me "Yeah, cuz those Lamanites wait until you are in the store and then they try and take your stuff!" Thus, I have tried to tell her that there are not really Lamanites anymore like in the Book of Mormon, but she is adamant that they are still around and lurking about waiting to do bad things to us.

She was begging me to come outside and watch her ride her bike (named Daisey, of course). And she kept saying "Do you wanna come out and watch me?" "Do you wanna come out and watch me?" over and over. And I just kept not responding, thinking she would not ask me anymore, but then finally she said, "Mom, do you wanna come out and watch me? And then you say to me "Sure!" and then you come out and have a fun time!" Her persuasion worked and I did have a fun time.

We had a picnic in the garage the other day while Luke was napping. And who came, you might ask?? Well, Snow White (Cindy), Sleeping Beauty (Mom), and her three friends "Miguel, Tarzan and Daisey (her bike)." ???

Memorial Day Happenings

So we definitely used our time off for Memorial Day weekend to do a mighty work in our garden. We replaced the wood plank garden boxes with some sweet landscaping timbers. The left side picture is the old, the right side is the new. We ratcheted them together with some very industrial screws and so hopefully, we won't have to a garden box do-over any time soon. It was a long day of cutting, drilling, tightening, squatting, bending, and using muscles I haven't felt in many, many years. But the finished product was great. One step closer to canning our own Sweeney's Pride Salsa (the brand name I just invented). Now we just need about 2 yards of potting soil and a whole bunch of seeds.

And after working for two days on that project, Cindy and I went swimming at Grandma Sweeney's house Monday afternoon. We found a lovely little surprise on her Cinderella kickboard. Cindy was not that scared of the baby racer snake, but Daddy was our knight in shining armor and released the big brute into the backyard. We had a pretty mellow evening after that and were in bed by about 9:30. Yardwork (or homework, as Cindy calls it) is after all, WORK. So if you have a small yard, or no yard at all to maintain, give thanks!

At the bottom of the Laundry Basket- Duh!

I went thru the whole house again looking for those cursed remotes and did find the one to our bedroom television! It was in the bottom of the laundry bin for our white clothes. Seeing as how I get around to doing my least favorite chore of laundry once every month or so, we would have waited about another 2 weeks before I found it in there, so that saved us from suffering that much longer. I am so talented.

If you were a remote control, where would you be?

We have now been missing the remote to our main television for almost 3 months. We have absolutely no idea where it went, but curiously we believe Luke had something to do with it. Yesterday the remote for our bedroom television went missing and a complete upheaval of the entire house has yielded neither remote! This is crazy! I am however, quite proud of the fact that we can survive without remotes. This is a testament to the little amount of television we do watch. We do not have cable, only broadcast stations with a pair of rabbit ears. So when that whole new DTV switchover comes in February 2009 and you are asking yourself, "Who still uses a television with Rabbit Ears???!!" You will know one person that does. But back to the search...I have looked in toy boxes, closets, drawers, and pretty much any place that is about 2 and a half feet off the ground. It is baffling that we can't find anything! Of course, maybe it went in the toilet. After all, that is where my cell phone was the last time I could not find it. I know we get along fine with the remote to the main TV missing, but the bedroom TV is ten times worse because we mounted the tv in the upper corner of the room, just in case we were going thru withdrawal not watching tv in the doctor's office waiting room. So there is pretty much no way we are going to get up OUT OF BED and change the channel. So sad. We were going to fashion a very long wooden dowel as the channel changer for the main TV because the sofa is only about 4 feet away. However, we would need some sort of mideval javelin to reach the tv from our bed. And so the search goes on. Was it in the trash? Is it long gone by now? Should we just go and get the "universal" remote and end our misery? Never!!! I don't want to live a world where a one year old has that much power over people thirty times his age.

Good to Leave Ya, Shelda!

Shelda was looking a little on the thin side, so I had mercy on her and trapped her in a CD holder. This event was the source of MUCH joy and hilarity to Cindy. She laughed her head off as Shelda jumped from limb to limb, and finally onto the floor and then into the trap. We released her to the giant oak in the front yard. I then pictured the ultimate irony, which would have been Yoshi running in and eating her 5 seconds later, but Shelda disappeared into the Bromeliads and is hopefully full of mosquito mousse by now.

I am still in traning for my try-athlon. Here is a lovely map of the theme park where it is going to be held. Well, at least the swimming and the running part. The park is called Cypress Gardens and has been around forever. They have roller coasters, gardens, shows, now a water park, and water skiing shows are their claim to fame. And when I finish that morning killing myself at this thing, I get free admission to the park for the rest of the day! How nice.

Good to meet you Shelda!

So that is the name that Cindy gave the lizard in the tree. Of course it needs a full name, so Shelda Trellis Hayward now shares our living room (and a piece of my heart. No, not really). As you can see by the picture, it is one sweet looking lizard. Our own personal mosquito trap, you might say. Cindy loves to throw things at it, and the one day she hits it and it falls out is going to be priceless. I am off to write a top ten list. I'll keep everyone "posted" on that. Ahh, my first blogging pun! :)

A Fun Online Game

If you need some time to kill online and want to play a relatively easy puzzle game that will challange your mind a little, try "Blocky". Here is the link

http://www.shockwave.com/gamelanding/blocky.jsp

Simple concept and highly addictive. They also have "Blocky 2" if you need more variety. Just so you know....

The Lizard Saga Continues...And so does the Training

So, that lizard is still in my fake tree. We pretty much have decided to do nothing about him and think that one day he will just drop dead and then we can toss him out. That's the way we do things around here in Vermin Pansie-ville.

On a different note, I am still very earnestly training for my Sprint Triathlon on October 11, 2008. I have a 13 week plan that I am sticking to right now. It is all based on increasing the number of minutes you do for each activity, so for this week, I did the following: Monday- ran 20 min and swam 15 min, Tuesday I biked 30 min, Wednesday was an off day- but I did do my good ol' 8 Minute Abs and Arms- yep, still have it, still doing it. Today is another run for 20, Friday is swimming for 30 min, and Saturday is biking for 45 min. Jacob has full reign on my dad's mountain bike now that my dad had knee replacement surgery and is out of commission for a while, so we go together on Saturdays. Since I will never catch him on that bike, it is great training for me. Plus, I train with my old mountain bike carrying a child seat, so it is gonna be sweet to finally (maybe) get a real bike that is 25 pounds lighter! I will be like a feather, floating on the wind, without a care in the world....Except the care of making sure I don't die of exhaustion, dehydration or simply getting hit by a car. The one thing I will say is that I fall asleep faster at night than I ever have in my life. It is very draining to demand this much of my body. I did purcase some swim goggles yesterday. Can't wait to try them out tomorrow!