Cerebrate Good Times

I love the variety of life. It’s fascinating to me how many different ways there are to keep me from sleeping at night. Sometimes I’m sick, and there’s an endless variety of symptoms that can keep me awake, from a cough to congestion to a sunburn. Sometimes, as was the case last night, I’m perfectly fine but everyone else is sick and the kids wake up every ten minutes. Sometimes they just don’t go to bed until really late. Sometimes the neighbors’ dogs won’t shut up. Sometimes there’s a thunderstorm. Sometimes I can’t get the temperature right. I really am amazed at the sheer number of possibilities, and sometimes I just laugh at whatever it is on a given day.

I'm sure this exists, but I'm afraid to verify it. I'd like some measuring spoons with flat bottoms, so I can rest them on the counter, pour in the vanilla, and leave it there until I'm ready to pour it in.

Saturday was a weird day. I ran 17 miles in the morning. Then I mowed our lawn for the first time ever, which was kind of an interesting experience after all the work I put into things. Then I took Sam to the park for a while. Then I had a bunch of bricks I bought to edge the flower bed in the front yard, but I decided to take them back and get something different. So I loaded them up and went back to the store. Then I had to load up the new blocks, of which I needed twice as many. Then I had to try to push that huge cart with 400 pounds of stone on it, and it was unbelievably hard. So I had to push it around the store and then out to the car. Then I had to load them in the car (I nearly bottomed it out, which I’ve never done before), then I had to unload them again when I got home. Then I spent a while leveling the dirt and laying out the stones. I honestly don’t know when I’ve been that tired.

Last week I was reading this book to Sam, and he made a brilliant observation. I've pointed out before that Sam is surprisingly insightful for a six-year-old. In this case, he very intelligently pointed out that, "There's no problem in this story." He recognized that there's no conflict in this book, unlike most books that we read. I probably would have been in high school (if not college) before I could have made that observation. The kid is pretty amazing.

Last night I dreamed that I was in a Chinese restaurant. It was kind of like a four-sided deli counter, with a space in the middle that was filled with water and a large alligator. I remember it was very aggressive. I was with several people who had ordered and were waiting for me. I was trying to decide but couldn’t. I asked the man working the counter where the sign was that had listed the daily lunch specials, because apparently I had been there before. He showed me the sign, which was on the opposite side of the restaurant from where I remembered it. The special that day apparently involved whole ducklings served in some kind of sauce or soup. I decided to pass. Then, at a different point in the dream I had a pet tiger. It was more or less tame, but I was still very nervous around it and was trying to figure out how to get rid of it. I was going to call a zoo up in Idaho, which for some reason I thought might be interested. I also dreamed that I was involved in the production of a ...

Monty has been biding his time. For two and a half years now, he's been planning this, exploring every inch of his cage, delicately probing at the lid. And Sunday night he decided that it was time to go. Somehow he pushed the lid up and got himself through the opening in such a way that it fell back into place. Then he presumably spent some time exploring, before settling down in the nice, cozy spot behind Allison's dresser. Now, a couple points here. Ball pythons might seem intimidating to people who aren't big into reptiles, but they are super gentle and harmless. If they are bothered they don't bite, but curl up into a ball (hence the name). So nobody was in any danger here. As far as I have been able to determine, there is no record of a ball python ever injuring a human.

It was a pretty busy weekend. Saturday was Allison's birthday, so we finally went out on Friday night to get her some gifts (we're so organized). Then on Saturday we had an Easter egg hunt outside. When we went out, Sam said the weeds in our yard looked bad, and that we should pull them. He went back inside the house to put some gloves on to get working, but we finally prevailed upon him to just do the egg hunt. (I sprayed the weeds later that day, okay?) Just being two, I'm sure she didn't really get the whole birthday thing, but she did catch on to the egg hunt. And she even tried to blow out her candles. On Sunday we were stuck in the church parking lot for a while, so we decided to take a couple pictures. I was trying to get one with both kids, but this other random kid came and was trying to get in the picture.

Last night we dyed Easter eggs together. Sam was a little too anxious, and of the 16 eggs we had, he used at least ten of them. Then, when we had colored them all, Allison started putting them all back in the dye. So we ended up with some interesting-looking eggs, one of which was super awesome: The one with all the eyes and tails and whatnot is Sam's.

Last night I dreamed about an Asian family, the father of which had invented a method for time travel. But his home was attacked by some bad guy, and all he could do was send his son back in time 90 minutes to warn them all that it was going to happen. The son was successful, and then I don't remember exactly what happened, but in the end both the father and the bad guy agreed that time travel was not a good idea.

I haven't posted anything for a while. So here are a couple pics of the kids. [caption id="attachment_1737" align="aligncenter" width="502" caption="Buckets of fun"] [/caption] [caption id="attachment_1718" align="aligncenter" width="502" caption="She likes Sam's sunglasses, and she prefers to wear them upside down."] [/caption]