Summer Bucket List

I decided that it was high time that Cindy jumped off a real diving board.  In her short 8 years on this planet she had yet to do so, and seeing as how she really is part mermaid, it seemed a little wrong.  On Thursday we headed to a local rec center to remedy this sad situation.  To be honest, I didn't know what to expect.  Cindy can sometimes be incredibly brave and yet other times she has the courage of a hamster.  (And not the ones in the Zhu Zhu pets "Quest for Zhu" movie.  Those things were incredibly intrepid!)  

Back to my story. Cindy was a champ and went off the board without fear!  

Camera phone pictures. Sigh.  Not the best in the world, but better than me trying to draw this from memory in Microsoft Paint.   (Or is it????)

She caught on really fast and was a diving maniac!

Luke was unfortunately not allowed to jump off the board.  Non-swimmers are shunned from partaking in its glories.  I told him that after Aunt Linnley teaches him how to swim in Utah in a few weeks, we would come back. No pressure, Linn.

Eventually Cindy started doing dives and front flips.  I was a little worried when her rotation got a little slower each time, but thankfully she never fully experienced a full back flop.

Then it was my turn to dive....

It had been a while, but as you can see, my form was still amazing!  My 1 1/2 backward with a half twist totally impressed all the little kids in line behind me.  Okay, all kidding aside, yes I DID go off the diving board.  4 times.  (Twice for pure height, once for a toe touch, and once to see if I could do a dive and then catch my sinking headband with my hand-like toes.)  And secretly I kinda liked being the oldest person in the diving board line by at least 20 years.  It gives ample time for stimulating conversation about SpongeBob Squarepants.

When The Moon Hits Your Eye

In my never-ending quest to reveal too much information about myself, I will now tell you another one of my guilty pleasures.  Bring on the judgement!

Especially this:

The Bavarian Dessert Pizza.  I don't care what poor quality ingredients it might be made from, how unhealthy it is or even if it is an official snack of the ghetto- I love it! And I don't care who knows it!  Next January, this is going to be my cake. Or tomorrow when I go back to Cici's and buy one for dinner.

Megamind

Just got to give a quick shout out to my brother Brian who non-surprisingly found out he aced the MCAT.  He is the king of humbility and would die a thousand deaths if I told you his actual score, so I will simply leave it at the fact that now he can pretty much hand-pick the medical school he would like to attend.  Way to go Brian!  You are living up to all of my expectations.  As long as you cure cancer, walk on the moon, and develop the world's first comfortable bicycle seat- all in the next five years- you will be batting 1,000!  Now get to work :)

Brace Yourselves!

You are about to see something that will blow your mind.  Something so rare and extraordinary you might need to sit down.  I am now going to show you.....something I pinned on Pinterest....AND THEN ACTUALLY MADE.  I know you could be knocked over with a feather right now, but you gotta stay with me to see it.  My friend Davina pinned an idea the other day that I had to try.  It was a solution to the age old problem of your kids getting out 717 different cups in one day and then having to load all of them into the dishwasher while thinking of evil ways to make their lives miserable.  The basic idea is to make a coaster for each member of your family, glue them all to a wood board that stays on your kitchen counter, and then each person's cup has a home from breakfast to bedtime! It's so genius.  So after really thinking hard about what to make for our family, I came up with this bad boy:

Totally still trying to convince Cindy that she is the stormtrooper with a bow.  She is not buying it AT ALL. But for Pete's sake, it is about time I get to be Leia while Jacob is Han!

Plus, it looks even nerdier- I mean, COOLER when the cups start showing up....

  (And In case you were wondering, I used an old Star Wars paper calender for the pictures and did a little Mod Podge magic on the ten cent tiles from Lowe's.  And if you REALLY want your mind blown, the wood board is not actually wood, it is wood-shaped tile.  Yep, you read that correctly, it is a long ceramic tile that is shaped and textured to look like wood.  Coolest thing I have ever seen since this blog post.)

Those Times With Which Moisture and Mondays Occur Always Cause Me Melancholy....Exclusive of those in Sweeneyville!

Wow, we haven't seen the sun since Thursday here in Sweeneyville.  Tropical Storm Debby has absolutely brought a deluge of rain upon us.  Probably had at least 8 inches since this whole thing began.  But that's great news for all the pyros right before July 4th!  My neighborhood will not be burning down due to the carelessness of a neighbor this year!  And also, guess who's computer is back in the shop again? Based on the messages from the myraid of blue screens of death, this time I think we need more memory. Although, I can't think of why we would need more memory, it's not like I am saving thousands and thousands of funny memes on the hard drive so I can show them to everyone on Mondays or something.

Okay, okay! He's right, I totally do! I am guilty as charged.  But speaking of Monday, it's time for some memes! And today we shall delve into the world of French portraitist Joseph Ducreux. Use this self-portrait of this fancy-pantsed Frenchmen to translate any commonly used pop culture phrase, especially song lyrics, into fancy, old school language that only someone in the 18th century would use or understand. This meme is very popular with hip hop lyrics, but since hip hop is stupid, I will stick to things that everyone will actually appreciate.  Halt and cast your eyes about these fine visuals! Canst thou excavate it?

And Jacob thinks this one is totally awesome:

Sur-prise, Sur-prise, Sur-prise!

There's just nothing like a good top ten list. And this is nothing like a good top ten list, because there are actually eleven! I have to give a huge shout out to my mom who was totally clutch in helping me finish this list while we were driving around today. Together, we present....

TOP ELEVEN SIGNS YOUR SUMMER CAMP SUCKS

11. Day 1 begins with an invigorating 147-mile hike
10. Swimming hole is actually just a giant hole
9.  No canoeing or crafts but plenty of beet farming
8. Scary campfire stories all center around Obama's successful reelection campaign
7. "S'mores" taste suspiciously like two Triscuits and a tootsie roll
6. Your counselor is Jerry Sandusky
5. Shorts aren't allowed but skinny jeans are mandatory
4. "Exciting daily field trips" turn out to be canvassing with the Jehovah's Witnesses
3. Do-it-yourself infirmary
2. Your tent mate is really protective of his bath salts
1. Three words: Kaazam movie marathon

Cleaning Out My Phone

The folder on my cell phone that holds all my pictures is full, so I thought I would do a little purging and see what I need to put on the blog before I erase everything.  Let's see what's on this thing, shall we?

Luke eating some free donuts today.  All hail Cindy's report card!

Luke with a parakeet on his head and shoulder.  The flea market totally delivered yet again.

Cindy got a medal for all her hard work this soccer season.  Oh, she gets a medal? Well on second thought, it was totally worth it.

Cindy chilling in an inflatable lobster....

Luke using his extra hand while dominating Uno.

Cindy's cat face.

Luke in the most comfortable sleeping position ever.

Luke likes to occasionally take a rest on the back of Rocket with an eye mask.  So?

Cindy with amazingly good form on a front flip.  Degree of Difficulty: 8.9

Cindy LOVES to bowl.  She told me she wants to be a pro bowler when she grows up.  

Good thing she has her soccer skills to fall back on.

Here is Cucuface with a headless squirrel.  Yes, she ate it.  Sorry.  But at least this shows you why I don't feed her on a regular basis.

 

My dad in a lovely hat.

And a poorly lit camel.  Why not?

I'm Lovin' It

So after spending some time with my tablet computer for the past few days, all I can say is I AM IN LOVE!  I think my decision to avoid anything tethered to iTunes was a great choice, seeing as how my iPod touch is headed in for a repair tomorrow.  I had to do a factory restore on it and it completely took away my wi-fi.  That's like paying $200 for a regular MP3 player!  LAME.  But at least that warranty plan I bought with it two years ago makes me look like a genius right about now!  It better be back by the time we leave for Utah is all I can say...


In other news we spent almost two full days doing house projects and de-cluttering like fiends.  Kinda hard to get rid of so much stuff but it feels awesome!  And we finished tiling the patio:

Still needs to be mopped about a thousand times to get all the grit up, but Cindy already took a book out there "just to read." Whaaa?

Monday, Monday

Today's meme is that of "Philosoraptor."   Use this picture of the puzzled dinosaur to ask a philosophically stupid question and get a laugh.  Thus, he muses things like.....

OR...

Or my personal favorite...

This is only a test...

I just bought a tablet computer this week and I am trying to see just how useful it might be.  So here is a test of trying to take a picture on the tablet and then posting it right to the blog...

Did it work?

How I Spent Flag Day

I know everyone else out there probably spent the day reading about Betsy Ross, making flag fruit salad out of strawberries, jicama and blueberries and then singing You're A Grand Old Flag with all your neighbors at your annual Flag Day Block Party.  But we had other things on our agenda...

First, I scraped lots of glue off of the cement on my patio in order to begin laying tile. (Don't get jealous on me now...)  And why can't there ever be a summer where I DON'T have to lay tile? Hmmm?  Rosa is now in the backyard and in the next few weeks this room will actually be used for something!  

Yes way, Ted!

Then we all  had lunch at Firehouse Subs and this sandwich was awesome.  Go eat one as soon as you can.

Then we watched Spain beat the tar out of Ireland.  4-0 doesn't adequately express how awesome Spain is.  And I am not just saying that so Brian will send me the money he owes me.

Then we celebrated Jacob's birthday with a chocolate chip, Kit Kat, Ho-Ho cake.

(or Flaming Bonfire of  Flourishing Trumpet Torte as I like to call it...)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, JACOB!  You are such a stud :)

And then I decided to make this patriotic rag wreath thingy.  Because I'm crafty like that. 

 And my laundry room door was naked.

And since you are all on pins and needles wondering what I did yesterday, well, we went to a reptile show and saw a 15 foot Albino Burmese Python named Jessica.  This fact was found to give great amusement to my children.  Me, not so much :)

Delaying The Inevitable

I hate to say it, but I just can't keep up with writing top ten lists on a regular basis in the summer.  It was hard enough during the school year, but for right now, I think Meme Mondays will have to suffice for a regular feature around here.  And speaking of memes, I have a bonus meme for you that describes my yesterday.

After I took the kids to see this:

It was time for this:

Alright, STOP. Bubble Time!

School is out and summer has begun!  This year I decided to be a little more prepared.  Instead of letting it just "happen" every day (and probably being a little boring), two weeks ago I started making a list of things to do.  Big whoop, right?  But then I went a step further and printed out a calendar and started to actually schedule things.  It's incredible!  Then you just wake up and do what it says! I'm a flippin' genius!

So yesterday we were to make GIANT BUBBLES!  It took a little while to get the hang of it, but after ten minutes or so everyone had it down.  This cornucopia of summer delight took place, of course, after watching two more soccer games for UEFA Euro 2012.  I am loving this tournament! Takes me back to World Cup summer two years ago.  Such good memories :)

Cindy doing her best Sandy Cheeks impression

Cindy, Luke and "Caty From Down The Street" as we call her.

Luke found out that blowing them worked alright for him.

Caty From Down The Street didn't do too bad either!

Cucuface is not impressed.  Were you expecting her to be?

Now THAT'S a big bubble!

I love this picture!  Look closely and you will see the exploded bubble soap still hanging in the air from when Luke just popped it with this finger.  Kids sure make summer fun :)