July | 2012 | No Whining Allowed

July 31, 2012 at 8:08 AM (Pinterest)

All Olympics, All The Time

July 30, 2012 at 8:02 AM (Family Life, Friends, Muggins Q. Mouse, Television, YouTube)

The Olympics are kicking my tail. Staying up until midnight and my internal early wakeup call are duking it out. How do you spell that? Spell check says nuh uh. Duke-ing? Dooking?

The Girls and I are thoroughly enjoying most every minute though. We are heavily invested in the swimming, gymnastics and beach volleyball. We still don’t quite get scoring for gymnastics and diving. We could care less about biking and basketball. We are looking forward to the running.

Because of Mousey’s swim history, we are especially involved with the aquatics. It doesn’t hurt that Ryan Lochte is not hard on the eyes. Along with a few others.

I leave you with one of our favorite moments of the games so far.

We had to rewind it several times! Enjoy!

We are getting together for dinner with our dear friends The Hostlers, so we can rest assured that the evening will be laugh filled. Have an Olympic Monday!

3 Comments

Potent Quotable

July 29, 2012 at 8:48 AM (Potent Quotable)

“Winning is great, sure, but if you are really going to do something in life, the secret is learning how to lose. Nobody goes undefeated all the time. If you can pick up after a crushing defeat, and go on to win again, you are going to be a champion someday.” Wilma Rudolph

This nugget will serve the majority of Olympians well. Not everyone gets a gold medal in life.

A Saturday List

July 28, 2012 at 7:35 AM (Family Life, From the Heart, Lists, This and That)

1. We got buckets and buckets of RAIN yesterday!!!

2. Kudos to Joyce for succinctly saying what so many feel. I hope people are flooding the Chick-Fil-A’s of America to show they don’t feel the same way. I would go myself but there aren’t any around here. Do you hear that Chick-Fil-A? South east Michigan is a wide open market, we would welcome your bigot self with open arms.

3. My first crops are in.

4. Girls Week has begun! We had parmesan chicken pizza for dinner and watched Project Runway on the DVR, then caught the opening of the Olympics.

5. What were everyone’s thoughts on that?

6. We thought the James Bond and the Queen part was cute, but the rest of it had me longing for China.

7. To quote Schmenky, good common sense!!

8. Today looms large and empty. The only thing scheduled is this evenings Olympic offering of swimming and gymnastics.

9. And I need to finish vacuuming.

10. Have an Olympic weekend! Olympic really is a strange word.

Gone Fishing

July 27, 2012 at 8:47 AM (Honey, Lists, Our Boy, Trips)

The Boys are off to The Great White North for a little fitchin’.

They have about 20 movies. Mostly Kung Fu nonsense.

They have lots of cords, to recharge their things.

We will be able to Skype this year for the first time!

They have the passports. Wouldn’t that be a kick in the head to get all the way up The Mitten to the Soo and have no pass-a-ports?

They have 3 coolers. The car cooler, the boat cooler and the worm cooler. Yuck. Hopefully, never the twain shall meet.

They have lots of fishing poles, including The Boy’s lucky pole.

They are going to stop for jerky and Pinconning cheese on the way up I-75. As you do.

There is something called worm bedding involved. I don’t want to know why.

They have their rain coats because it always rains once.

They have lots of band aids and antibiotic cream. Honey had a run in with a fish hook last year.

They have sunglasses, sunscreen and bug spray.

Mucho fitching gear.

A laundry basket full of snacks and fish breading materials. And oil. Or OL as they say in the south, land of my Peoples.

Have fun Fishermen!

Let Girls Week begin!

1 Comment

Work Weekend-Part Two

July 26, 2012 at 6:35 AM (Around Our House, Confessions, Family Life, Honey, Muggins Q. Mouse, Our Boy, Pretty Things)

Last year, when Honey and I began the backyard portion of our carnage, he had originally thought that we would take care of the area that I showed you on Monday and call it a day.

But I had turned my laser like attention to this eyesore.

We planted the Carl something or other grasses last summer after we pulled out the dying, ant infested, red twig dogwoods that had served us nicely for the previous 10-12 years.

That was when the dream was born. The dream to remove the stinky cat pee shrubs that threatened to take over the area. No cats tinkle in there, it is just their natural, stinky smell. I had trimmed them back, which only made them uglier. The hostas were dying a slow, crispy, death. Have I mentioned that we have a shade free yard? This is the shadiest area we own. Clearly not shady enough for the poor hosta. This picture was taken in happier times.

Because the area had been greatly disturbed with the last summer dogwood removal, it left plenty of opportunity for weeds to mosey on in and make themselves comfortable. They invited more friends as the summer went on.

We then needed to make a decision about what to plant.

I decided to throw caution to the wind and try my hand at one of my favorite plants, the beautious hydrangea. We will hopefully learn and grow together. I will be ever so sad if they quit me.

The reason that this day was harder was because, once again, there was rock removal involved. Mousey and I got out the trusty gloves, dust pans and empty cat litter containers to scrape up many, many, many wheel barrels full of rocks and redistribute them all throughout the front yard rock areas. You would think there would not be many rocks in such a small area. You would be wrong in your assumption.

After the rock redistribution, Mousey and I took our sweaty selves over to Randazzo’s to purchase the all the beauty.

Honey ripped out the bushes of stink, then he and The Boy worked at installing this border to, yet again, keep the mulch on the mulch side of the fence. We are bossy like that. A place for everything and everything in its place!

We already had the stones. They had been around the pool before we had the cement installed. It also keeps the brick pavers from sinking any more.

The Boy helped us plant Precious number 1,

Precious number 2,

and Precious number 3.

We then moved the rocks around because our one rock broke into three rocks. Then we mulched like sons of guns. Then we mulched again. If I see any weeds out there I am going to squirt them with weed killer right between the eyes, before I stomp on them. I might even spit in their general direction.

The other little area prone to weeds. Look out fellas, consider yourselves WARNED.

And THAT, my Friends, is the end of our work weekend.

5 Comments

Way Back When-sday Wednesday Hodgepodge

July 25, 2012 at 8:35 AM (Confessions, Family Life, Friends, From the Heart, Honey, Mr. Linky Things, Our Boy)

Hi Guys! Thank you to our question hunter and people gatherer Joyce for managing us for another week!

1. The Summer Olympics officially begin this Friday night…will you be watching? If you could see just one event in person which one would you pick?

Let’s break this down, shall we? We like all of the pool events, but in my experience, the pool area is muggy and or HOT. Track and field is nifty, but it is outside, and I don’t know about London, but it is muggy and hot around here. We really like gymnastics, and considering that it should be in a bone chilling arena, I will choose that option.

I am Capri Kel and I am hormonally challenged.

2.Do lazy days make you feel rested or unproductive?

Both. Sometimes you need the rest so we should probably be satisfied with that.

On the other hand, sometimes you just feel like a lazy bum, and that is not a good feeling. On occasion when I have ….unfilled days, I set little attainable goals, to make me feel less slothful. It’s good to be able to brag that I completed my to do list, even if it looked something like this:

Brush teeth-check

Unload dishwasher-check

Feed cats-check, check

Wipe counters-check, check, check

Put clean laundry away-check

Well, I don’t know about you but that wore me out.

3. July 25th is ‘officially’ Threading the Needle Day…can you sew? On a scale of 1-10 with 1 being not at all and 10 being Betsy Ross-like, how would you rate your skill with a needle and thread?

Calling what I do sewing would be a stretch, but I can mend. I mend by hand, anything requiring a sewing machine gets sent over to Capri Deb, who is a very accomplished seamstress. I give myself a rock solid 3-.

4. ‘Threading the Needle’ can also mean to walk a fine line between two things or issues (think awkward social situation). When was the last time you had to ‘thread the needle‘, figuratively speaking?

I have felt this way for the majority of my life concerning my parents divorce. Not with everyone and in all situations, but lots of times it was definitely the elephant in the room. There is a way to speak, some topics are not broached, some people do not go together, but these are fine. It was a carefully orchestrated dance at times. On this scale of 1-10, I get a solid 10. I see the line. I walk the line. The needle and I are one.

5. Kidney, pinto, black, or navy…your favorite bean?

Honey is not crazy about these beans so we don’t have them much, but we have had some black beans of late in Cream Cheese Chicken Chili. YUM!

6. Have you ever hosted a garage sale? Was it more success or bust?

I have. Our last house was on the corner of our subdivision, a prime garage sale spot! We had several, some with Girl Cousin Kay and some with Rae Babe. Fairly successful I guess. I sold a lot of baby stuff and a lot of unneeded stuff. What I remember most was it was a TON of work beforehand, but a lot of FUN hanging out. Of course the kids loved it.

7. What makes you roll your eyes?

You know when you run into someone you haven’t seen for a while and you ask them how they are and they start foaming at the mouth about how BUSY they are, they are SO busy, busier than bees AND beavers, and then they tick off their mental check list to TELL you of their great busy-ness, and they are SO TIRED from their busy, busy lives? Do you know those people? I feel like rolling my eyes and holding my hand up to their busy, busy, boring faces. Everyone is busy, does all this busy talk make you feel extra important, or special? Who is in control of you, GET OVER YOURSELVES!

I would never do it to their face though.

8. Insert your own random thought here.

Honey and The Boy are preparing for their annual Guys Fitching Week.

I found this picture of a very young Honey after another fishing trip, some place, some year.

OH.MY.WORD.

The Boy comes by that ginormous hair honestly.

Have a good week. Don’t be ridiculous with all your business.

11 Comments

Work Weekend

July 24, 2012 at 6:21 AM (Around Our House, Family Life, Honey, Muggins Q. Mouse, Our Boy)

Honey began telling us early last week not to make any plans, it was going to be a work weekend. Those words strike fear into the hearts of men, and women.

We have been thinking of doing this and doing that since we started on the back yard overhaul last summer. Because having our front yard a BIG, UNSIGHTLY MESS was clearly not enough carnage for us.

Remember this? Last year, finally getting our driveway back after the Sewer Debacle of 09.

Or the year before when we spent our children’s inheritance to replace the sewer line our builder and our city installed inappropriately?

Enough of these pictures, I am getting an eye tic and breaking out in hives.

The back yard destruction began last June with the breakage of our friend, Brad the pear tree.

When we called to have the rest of Brad brought down, Honey had the idea to have them take care of another area that was bothering him.

They hopped right to it.

It looked like this for the rest of the summer. Oh, it looked a little worse after a fellow came and ground the stumps. He had some difficulty getting back in the corner. Then he had a great deal of trouble getting back out and we seriously thought he and his grinding machine might both pitch right into the pool. It was also the hottest day of the year, so maybe that was his intention.

For the rest of the hot, h.o.t., hotty HOT summer, Honey, Mousey and I cleared the area of debris and rocks. One sentence can not convey the agony of the memory. The cement guys finally returned to pave the area in the fall.

It looked SO nice after they finished, which led us to ruminate endlessly as to WHY, for the love of all that is decent, did we NOT do this when we built the house????

Honey finally remembered it was because he didn’t want the kids to run around the pool. Honey, do you think it was worth this ordeal? DO YOU???? I, for one, would have been ok with a few more skinned knees on our children. Maybe even a broken bone. They would have learned eventually.

We just marvel how much better it looks out there!

After the concrete, Honey had a rock wall built to replace the aging, deteriorating railroad ties he had put in years ago. The back yard then settled in for the mildest Michigan winter I have ever known.

In early June, right before Mousey’s graduation, we planted a row of Wine and Roses weigelia, as per Capri’s Lis and Patt’s instructions.

They have purty pink flowers. I am a fan of the pink. This weekend, while Honey and The Boy extended the sprinkler line, Mousey and I mulched.

The cement fellows couldn’t cement right up to the fence, so Honey put on his thinking cap to devise a plan. This weekend he bought this composite stuff and screwed it on the big posts outside of the pool fence. In the center he drilled holes and used a zip tie. That ought to keep the mulch on the mulch side of the fence.