Neighbour Girl

This is our neighbour girl.  She's four and adorable.  She regularly comes to play with the Girl.  They play babies -- in the playhouse, or spread out on blankets under the shade of one of the big trees. 

The thing I love about NG (neighbour girl) is that even though she is small and angelic-looking, she knows her own mind.  This is a good thing because the Girl is also head-strong. NG does not let the Girl push her around, and vice-versa.  Sometimes that means one goes home early, but usually it means they find a compromise.

NG calls the Girl by her first name, but she refers to my son as "Boy."  She knows his name, but she calls him "Boy" regardless.  You often hear her yell to her mom, I am going to play with Z and Boy.  It's hilarious. 

I changed my blog posting from referring to my kids as DD and DS (dear daughter and dear son) because NG inspired me.  Girl and Boy work well -- and sometimes, depending on the post and my mood,  the "dear" was a stretch anyway.

sunflower

There is a field on the edge of town that has caught my attention this summer.  Caught my attention because of lone sunflower in the field of beans.  In my idle times I wonder how it got there.  I wonder what it thinks of being surrounded by beans. I wonder if it thinks it's a bean.  I wonder if anyone but me stops to look at it.  I wonder if it thinks I'm nuts for thinking such thoughts.  In my more lucid moments I do.

Rocky likes to get into things....literally

helping to load the frig.... (It's really hard to see him in this photo 'cause he's so well camoflaged...)

okay, now you can see him

keeping an eye on the the Girl's babies

Did I mention that not only does he "hide" in stuff,  he's also so very, very helpful.....

Just sayin'

This represents about 2/3 of the line of  "coloureds" that I hung out yesterday. 
I do a load of laundry a day, roughly, so this is less than a week's worth hanging from my clothesline.
If you look closely you will see that of the 23 pieces of laundry, 17 belong to the Girl.  That ratio seems off to me....
Didn't, apparently, seem odd to her, but I can't fathom how a person can dirty 17 pieces of clothing in 4-5 days. 

In her defence, I must say, that had the load been a load of whites there would have been nothing representing the Girl on the line.  Since the great spaghetti disaster of 2007 she's been banned from the whites club.

The whites club consists of DH and the Boy.  Their work t-shirts are all white.  You see, their logic is that.....  Well, I don't know what the logic is.  Grease shows up better on white, perhaps? 

Laundry is the bane of my existance.....

no mercy

NO PHOTO AVAILABLE
(and be grateful there isn't)


I am nearly 40 years old and I've never had a cavity before.  Well my crooked dentist said I had one and I got it filled today.  Never having had to get a filling before, freezing is a relatively new concept to me.  On the way the to the dentist the Boy filled me with dread.  The needle is soooo big.  They stick it all the way down to your jaw bone.  And the Girl said things like "I hope you won't cry mommy."

Well, it was a relatively painless process.  Nothing hurt except my pride (I"ve NEVER had a cavity before, you know.)

The dentist told me I'd be frozen for about 3 hours.  After 1 1/2 hours my children were STARVING.  Dying of starvation, possibly.  We went to Crabby Joe's for lunch.  I figured a bowl of soup would be okay, but the Girl really, really wanted to share natchos, and the boy wouldn't split anything with her (except hairs.)  So, I figured I could just chew on the other side of my mouth.  My children promised me they would tell me if I was drooling or if I had spoogy stuff on my face. 

Part way through the natchos I said "my mouth feels funny inside, did I bite my lip?"  Boy looked and said "a little bit, but it's small like a cankor."  I kept eating.  A few minutes later I asked the Girl "is my lip okay, it feels funny with my tongue."  I curled down my lip and she said "yep, you've bit it, but it's not bad."

Now, had I been looking at her, and not the plate of natchos I might have seen a "look" pass between my peeps....

When we got back to the Jeep I looked in the mirror.  My lip was swollen.  Swollen like Popeye's, but with no pipe.  I looked inside.  An area the size of a quarter was chewed raw and was bloody.  Had that happened to one of the kids I would have ordered them to stop eating, found ice to put on the swelling, and cuddled them telling them it would get better soon.....  But no they let me go on, and on....

"Hey," I said, "I thought you said there was a small cankor.  That it wasn't too bad?  It's bad, people.  It's bad.  I have a GOITER on my lip.  I can 't feel it, but I can see it!"

The look passed between my peeps (like the one I missed earlier, I'm sure.)

Boy said, "you can't feel it can you?"

"No, because it's still frozen!"

Shrug of shoulders.

No mercy.  My peeps show no mercy.

Mercy me.

once, again, stumped on a title for this post

Conversation with the Boy:

Boy:  Mom, I just ate a LOT of jube jubes.

Me:  Uh huh

Boy:  I mean A LOT.

Me:  Uh huh.

Boy:  If I were to have a poop right now, it would be multi-coloured.

...and you know what my thought was?  I'm glad he used the word "poop."   Yep, right there, that's mother-or-the-year thinking, folks....

Macro images

Morning Glory buds

I decided to haul my Canon (point and shoot) camera out of the closet because my usual SLR is sometimes cumbersome to carry around.  The p and s has a neat super macro option that I'd forgotten about.  I went out early this morning while there was still dew on the ground to get some close ups (and also to show DH that I do get up while there is still dew on the ground -- it's not all sleeping in and bonbons while he's at work!)