Hot Tamale

I came home the other day with a small bag full of my parents garden goodies, a few tomatoes, a few green peppers, a few red peppers, a few hot chilli peppers. All the goodies were laid out on the counter full of bright and dark reds colors. I planned on making some fresh salsa.

After the girls came home from school, I noticed Child #2 couldn't keep her hands off the merchandise. She must've been attracted to the colors. While touching and feeling the different textures of each veggie, she kept asking what was what and if they were hot. I told her some of the peppers were hot. You could almost see what was going through her head when her eyes bulged out. The peppers were just tempting her to take a bite out of it.

The next day, she couldn't keep her hands off of one of the large red peppers, continuing with her questions about how hot it would be and what it tasted like.    

Finally I said, "Take a bite."

Eyeing me up suspiciously, she replied, "It's going to be hot."

"I will give you a dollar if you take a big bite out of it."

"Really?"

"Yep."

Hesitant at first, but Child #2 went in for the big bite. She chewed it and swallowed it.

"Mmm. This is good." And she took another bite.

I knew the red pepper wasn't hot, but I wanted her to stop bugging me about the peppers.

A few hours later, I was folding clothes and a bolt of lightening streaked down the hall into the bathroom. Child #2 was holding a half eaten red hot chilli pepper in her hand.

She says with her tongue hanging out fanning the heat out of her mouth. "This one is hot, mom."

I busted out laughing. She couldn't take the suspense of not trying all the peppers.

Welcome Back...Blisters

I don't know what I was thinking when I put on my new running shoes on and went running. Man, I have the blisters to show for it. I'm not sure what was more painful running the last two miles in the half marathon I ran earlier in the spring or these blisters on my heals. Normally I would've worn the shoes a few times walking around before I put them on to go running, but apparently my lack of judgement yesterday was enticing me to a week of pain.

I was blessed with the last two pairs of shoes I purchased that never gave me blisters. Unfortunately, when I went to purchase the same shoe that style didn't have my size anymore so I had to go with same shoe, but newer version. I hate that the shoe manufacturers always have to update their styles. When I find a good shoe I usually buy 2 to 3 of the same shoe at a time (I usually have to buy new running shoes every 3 to 4 months. I know that's a lot, but I put a lot of miles on my shoes. Have to keep the joints happy.) Well I went through those pairs so now I'm back to square one. Now off to the store to buy more band aids.

Holy Terror 7

I'm not sure why the terrible 2's were such a big deal. I've discovered that the age of seven for Child #2 has become a holy terror between the back talking, teasing her sisters, yelling, fighting with her sisters and the sneaky, conniving, devious, trouble making crap she pulls. Hence I am coining the phrase Holy Terror Seven. This definitely goes back to my theory of every child is born with their personality. I'm not sure parenting has too much influence anymore.

After this summer, I'm not sure if I will be willing to take my kids on a vacation next year. I love traveling and I want my children to experience great things about the world outside of our little town that is just a spec on the map. Unfortunately, their behavior this summer was extremely disappointing. It has almost drove me back to getting a job. Interesting thought. I will sleep on that one. Thankfully school starts in a week and the life sucking world of club soccer has begun. We will be back in top notch shape. Maybe my memory of this summer will fade like the memory of pain from child birth. Who knows. Happy new school year everyone! 

Snakey Canoe

On our annual camping trip with my Aunt Marty and Uncle Tom, I wanted to take the girls out canoeing on one of the lakes at Warbler's Cove Campground. We pack up the golf cart with towels and life jackets and headed down to the lake. I didn't even forget the ores.

This was exciting, I hadn't taken the girls all together in one canoe before. I proceed to flip the canoe over.  To my surprise, a big fat garter snake is slithering around at the bottom of the canoe trying to get out. My first reaction is to grab it by its tail and get it out of the canoe, but as I'm approaching the snake I make the mistake of saying, "Oh, there's a a garter snake in the canoe." Then the one and only Child #2 starts an ear piercing scream that startles me and the snake. The snake slithers into the boxed in area at the back of the canoe. I couldn't get it out. It didn't matter anyway Child #2 refused to even get within 20 feet of the canoe. At least Child #1 and #3 were calm and reasonable through the whole ordeal.

Well my next option was the paddle boats, but the boat was kind of dirty and I didn't want to spend time cleaning it out. The third option was a row boat. Now this is something I've never experienced. Yes, I've never rowed a boat before. I've canoed and kayaked, but not rowed a boat.

I love trying something new. After the snake incident, Child# 2 didn't have all that much confidence in me. It took me a few minutes to get the hang of it, but I managed to get us around the lake without any other disasters. Child #1 and #3 tried out rowing for a few minutes each. Child #2 refused. At least the boat didn't sink. We had a great afternoon rowing all over the lake.

Captain Saves the Day!

Planning, starting and finishing a road trip is an exhausting adventure, though extremely fulfilling and exciting all in one. Our big 2012 road trip this year was kicked off with driving down South of Chicago to take my Grandma out to lunch.

It had only been the third day of over 100 degrees. Not exactly great conditions, but it was a great break in our annual drive to Michigan. Plus my grandma was able to see her great-grand daughters before we left for a few weeks.

Lunch took a little longer than expected so I was a little off schedule, but not by much. No big deal. As I'm getting my grandma's walker out of the truck, the girls jumped out, I dropped my keys, and then slammed the door. Funny the door didn't close all the way so I tried opening it again to re-close it. 

Yup. You guessed it. The door did not open for me. At the time I thought I'd dropped my keys on the ground and Child #2 had picked them up. I put the walker down for my grandma and the girls already started walking her into her building. I yell for Child #2 to give me the keys, but she doesn't have them. I look into the back door and there they are inside the truck.

All I can do is laugh otherwise I might cry. I walk into the building and ask the security guard if he knows anyone who could open my door for me. His response is to call a locksmith, but that will cost a lot of money. His next suggestion is to call Captain Dubish (now as he says the name, the light bulb hits peak brightness, my Uncle is the Police Chief for the city that my grandma lives in). I smack my forehead and hustle grandma up to her room to call my Uncle Phil.

Uncle Phil makes it over to my truck within five minutes and has the truck unlocked within fifteen minutes. He doesn't unlock cars very often anymore so he said it took longer than his officers do. I was so thankful he saved the day.

Phew. I was sweatin' bullets for awhile there, but we made it to our destination in Michigan before dark. We still made pretty good time. And Child #2 didn't even complain once on the ride (it was a miracle).