Conversation With The Snake

The Setting: We are sitting at church and three young men come sit down in front of me and my three boys after having just passed the sacrament.

Snake - "Mom! That boy has bug bites all over his face!"

Me - "SHH....

the rest of the conversation is in hushed whispers

Me - "They aren't bug bites. They're zits."

....

Snake - "Mom?"

Me - "What?"

Snake - "Whats zits?"

Me - "Your body changes when your a teenager and you can get this white stuff under your skin. When you squeeze it really hard it will shoot out of your face like a rocket."

Snake - "Cool."

Me - "Ya."

.....

Snake - "But Mom?!?!"

Me - "What baby?"

Snake - "Do zits hurt?"

Me - "Ya"

.....

Snake - "Mom?"

Me - "Yes"

Snake - ".... I don't want to be a teenager."

Secret Agents... Poolside

These are the members of the C.I.A. Child's Intelligence Agency.

Ever since their special training academy has been out on summer break, these special agents have been toiling tirelessly to keep the neighborhood pool safe from evil terrorist villans. Who seek to destroy freedom, happiness, and fun.

Every evening after dinner, WITHOUT FAIL, these agents drag their poor mother the block and a half from the house to the pool. TWICE on Saturdays.

Here is agent Brain surfacing after successfully retrieving a sinister looking green tube. Could have been a bomb you know.

There's millions of these little green bombs at our pool. This requires help from agent Bro. The agents are worried they won't be able to diffuse them all in time.

Agent Noodle isn't worried though. She knows that as long as she keeps that grin (which is a mile long) across her face no evil doer would dare come close. Agent noodle also has the ability to morph into a shape that strongly resembles a drowned rat... This agent is fierce.

Here agent Snake is rescuing agent Fingers from a sinister trap. These agents don't work alone. They are a team!

The world is safe again thanks to the members of the C.I.A.

... for now

a swimming agent's work is never done.

Perfect

"Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, God hath shined."

-Psalms 50:2

I think if Zion can be found in our hearts... it can also be found in my humble little garden.

Catch Up Countdown

Who isn't playing catch-up these days? So here is a little count down to let you know what we have been up to the past month or so:

10 - (well technically 11) weeks of Summer Vacation. The kids will be happy to find out that while they were gone this weekend I figured out how to get Netflix to stream stuff on our Wii.... so they can watch Phineas and Ferb to their hearts content. All summer. Here we go.

9 - as in the age of my oldest child. Wait, I have a nine year old? When did this happen? Sigh, I feel so old.

8 - petunia plants planted under my front window.

7 - special orders for a special ice cream day we decided to have last Saturday. Any kind of ice cream treat, from any store in town. Ever sit in Dairy Queen's drive through ordering 4 ice cream desserts while licking a double decker Baskin Robins waffle cone with Love Potion 31, AND Razpberry Cheese Louise? Ya, me neither.

6 - hours of sleep... a day... see #4

5 - kids sleeping in a tent in the backyard

4 - days a week. I've been working the "noc" shift (because calling it "grave yard" doesn't sound very nice in the health care industry) as a CNA since I'm not in school right now.

3 - weeks of special family home evenings. These FHE's were each dedicated to a special Book of Mormon Character that shares a name with a special little boy I know. They each got to open a present that was their name sake's action figure and learn all about their new BOM hero.

2 - as in Alternate #2. But I got a call a week and a half after I got my alternate letter... letting me know that there was an opening for me in the program. I'm proud to announce that this fall I will be a baby nurse (nursing student) at Linn Benton Community College.

1 - gallon of snot. I did not know that the human face was capable of producing that much fluid. Thank you Willamette Valley or as I like to call it ALLERGY VALLEY, for the Anatomy and Physiology lesson.

A Day Out

A few Saturdays ago we decided that since the sun was shinning (which is rare where we live) we would take the kids... to this place we rarely go... it's called :

Outside

First stop, The Farmer's Market

Where they got to play with Bees

Then we went to the park, which led to the river, which led to clothes being taken off.

And half of the Willamette Valley caked to The Snake's backside.

Maybe we should just stay home.