Cerebrate Good Times

This little lady just turned 9. She can make any outfit work. Allison has always been the most unique one of our kids, beginning with her entry into this world too quickly for Katie to get any anesthetic during her birth (we were barely in the hospital). She is the one with red hair when the rest have the sandy blond color, and is much more average in size instead of being tall and lanky like the other kids. I picture her being the feminine, elegant one when she's grown up with Clara being more athletic and tomboyish. But we'll see. Allison is very much into the things we typically associate with femininity, like clothing and jewelry. She likes to carefully match her clothes, including her socks. She's currently petitioning us to be able to get her ears pierced, which will probably happen sometime soon. (It's a new experience for us, since even Katie doesn't have pierced ears.) She's really sensitive to sounds, from the cats fighting to the fire alarm at

I remember this brief glimpse of a dream last night. It's sort of a little video I was watching. A couple with a young teenage son was in a car similar to a newer VW Beetle. The husband had been driving but gunned the engine to sort of crest this hill on momentum (but it was airborne) while he got out and walked (somehow) ahead of the car, allowing it to come to a stop at the top. He was making some kind of joke to the "camera" that I can't quite recall. The mother was in the passenger seat drinking apple juice from a sippy cup, and the son was in the back. The really weird part, however, was their hair. The wife had her long, curly blond hair piled on the top of her head with the sides cut really short. The dad had long darker hair that was swept up and forward and really looked ridiculous. But the worst was the son. He also had blond hair, but it consisted of bangs and two pony tails in back, and the rest was buzzed. It was absolutely bizarre.

I've probably mentioned this many times, but I'm not super handy. I enjoy trying to fix things when I can, but overall it's not a skill I have. Still, I occasionally make a minor repair to the car, glue broken toys back together, or sometimes just take things apart and put them back together to see if they are fixed (this has actually worked a few times). A few weeks ago Katie noticed that our washing machine was leaking a little water on the floor. It's an old unit, but we had been told before that this model lasts forever, so we've never been inclined to replace it. I opened it up and as far as I could figure it was just a hose that was leaking. I ordered a news hose and put it on. But it was still leaking that little bit. I did more investigating and found that it's the "siphon break" which is a piece that attached the drain hose inside the washer to the one on the outside. So I ordered that as well. The next day the new hose slipped off the pum