The Story of the Squirrels

My dad has a way of telling a story and this past week he sent me a story about his opinion of squirrels and how they mess with us. I hope you enjoy it.

We all know that squirrels are having a joke on the human race. We see them in the roads most of the year, crossing right in front of us as we are driving along the roads. This causes many people to hit their brakes or get mad at the poor little rodents ... they’re only squirrels after all.
However, you must pay attention. We all know in the very depth of our minds that they are waiting for us, testing their skills at getting across the street without being squashed! They wait by the curb, jumping back and forth with excitement, pretending they don’t know what to do. Then they rush forward at the last minute, stop halfway across the street and then madly dash the rest of the way. I know, that as these devilish creatures careen before us, cheating death, there are other squirrels on the side of the road cheering them on and giving them high fives when they reach safety. I am even of the opinion that there is always one squirrel nearby that wears a checkered vest and cocked hat who lays odds for the other squirrels and has a large bag of acorns for pay out or pay in.

The other day I was driving up the street on the way home and there was a squirrel further ahead of me in the middle of the road, coming towards me. I think he was challenging me, coming forward, stopping, coming forward again; straight down the middle of the road. It was like he was scoffing at my manliness, at all humankind manliness. I was having none of it! I would not chicken out ... my hands tightened on the wheel as my breath quickened. I did not slow and steered straight down the middle of the road. He continued forward ... was he really that tough? I could feel the perspiration on my brow, and then at the very last moment, even as I expected to feel a bump beneath my tire, he darted to the side of the road, to safety!

I was relieved, but I know that briefly out of the corner of my eye, I saw the flash of a checkered vest and two squirrels behind a shrub cheering .

Did someone say Easter?

Oh right, that was today. Since we just came home from Disney last weekend we decided to stay home for Easter. Just the four of us and our day. I made baskets for the girls with the requisite piles of candy and some things to play with outside. If they're going to eat their weight in candy today they may as well have a way to work it off, right? Sadly, after that it was just like any other day. We went to the movies to see Horton Hears a Who and I hope to actually see it one day. It was too "scary" for Natalie so we left halfway through. There was the usual amout of bickering between the little people and after Alyssa was up from her nap we had an egg hunt in the back yard. Then we had dinner, watched some TV, then bed.

It all made me a bit sad. I remember growing up and being almost as excited for Easter as for Christmas. I remember the excitement of seeing the basket waiting for me in the dining room and how special it felt to get dressed up for church. We had a lot of family nearby and many years we would go to big egg hunts or have dinner with family. A big departure from todays trip to the movies and CVS. Now our nearest family is four hours away and Easter has become a regular day.

I wonder if there is a way to make this Holiday special again. I wonder if that feeling of specialness is just one of those things we lose as we pass into adulthood. Next year I will try to make it special again.

Saturday morning

Our neighbors put together an egg hunt for this afternoon where they hide 400 eggs in the yards on our street and all of the kids in the neighborhood are welcome. Even though they are only 2 and 5, my girls really look forward to it. Anyway, I thought it would be nice to contribute something so I did one of the things I do best and made chocolate chip cookies. Oh, by the way, I make the best chocolate chip cookies in the world.

Seriously. I wish I could sell them somewhere because they are so good and I love to make them. Now this isn't a recipe I invented myself (as if). You can get it online as a matter of fact. Actually, you can get it here. One thing I never understood about recipes and cooking is that you can give two people the exact same recipe but the finished product won't necessarily be the same. My mom always used to tell me what a good baker I was and I would say "but I just followed the recipe". She would then say that not everyone can follow a recipe but seriously, these cookies are so easy even a baboon could make them (no offense to the local baboon population). Just be sure to take them out of the oven as soon as they start to turn brown at the edges. They will look under done but once they cool they will be perfect.

I do have a warning though. If you have little people living in your house be prepared to see something like this at your feet the moment they come out of the oven.

Ummm...thanks?

Today we received and Easter package from my mother in law (who I love, in case you were wondering). The girls could hardly contain themselves while I was opening it and I thought Alyssa was going to lose her hand because she kept sticking it right in front of the scissors in an effort to rip it open herself. I finally got it opened and it contained Easter candy and some books for the girls. I don't really think they noticed any of that because my mother in law used Easter grass as packing. You know, the God awful grass that sticks to everything and you continue to find strands of it right into the summer. As soon as they saw it they started throwing it all over the living room and at each other. It's a good thing I'm medicated or I would have had a stroke. It actually wasn't too bad to clean up but Alyssa had a fit when she woke from her nap and saw that it was all gone. Maybe the Easter bunny should skip the goodies on Sunday and just bring them big baskets of grass. Or maybe we'll do that next year when we're at grandma's house.

"Must have the Precious"

"We wants it, we needs it. Must have the precious". I know exactly how Gollum was feeling. I have been lusting after this for months now. It is expensive (to me anyway) but it is oh so....precious. Every time the catalog comes I turn to the page and gaze at it. I occasionally pull up the website to see if the price has been reduced. I look everywhere for coupon codes but there aren't any. I scrounge for and save every little bit of cash that comes my way hoping to one day have enough to buy it. That day is today.



Yes, it's a platter. I bet you thought I was talking about something exciting like a great purse or pair of shoes. I have discovered, in my advanced age, that a great platter to hang on my kitchen wall can be as exciting as a great purse or pair of shoes. Besides, my next precious is patiently waiting for me at the Coach store...don't tell Scott.

We're Back!

As much fun as we had in Disney World it's great to be home. Our trip got off to a rocky start as our flight was delayed by 2.5 hours and we didn't arrive at our hotel until more than 2 hours past the girls' bedtime. Natalie was all but begging to go to bed when we got there and Alyssa had simply barrelled through the wall of exhaustion and was running around like a maniac. Add that to the two hours during the night when Natalie was screaming from the pain of an ear that needed to "pop" and you can imagine how we all felt Tuesday morning. I do have to give a shout out to the hotel. The Manager on duty opened the hotel shop at 4am to bring us some Tylenol to hopefully relieve some of the pain. Everyone was so willing to help and we are beyond appreciative.

Anyhoo, the first item on our agenda once everyone finally woke up and ate was to head to the Magic Kingdom. We had a 12:15 reservation to have lunch at Cinderella's castle and boy did the girls love it. They had their picture taken with Cinderella and Natalie even went back to give her a hug. At lunch the girls also met Jasmine, Snow White, Belle and Sleeping Beauty. Natalie was wearing her Sleeping Beauty gown and was just so happy to meet her.

Among other things they got to pretend to be deep sea divers...

Meet Jojo and Goliath (for all of you with preschoolers)...

Meet June from the Little Einsteins (looks kind of scary, don't you think?)...

And even get out of the stroller long enough to have a picture in front of Cinderella's Castle...

This is Minnie's house. Don't you wish your house looked as cute as this?

One thing the girls really loved was the pool. We don't have one and they love to be in the water but what made this particular pool so great was that it was between two and three feet deep and the bottom was covered in sand. It also had a "beach" that ran half the length of the pool through the middle of the pool. If we spent every day there they wouldn't have given the parks a second thought.

All in all it was a great vacation and we can't wait to take the girls back in a few years. Now Scott and I just need a vacation to recuperate from this one.

It's like the Fountain of Youth

We're leaving for Disney World tomorrow and are we excited! I'm not just excited about going away on vacation (and certainly not about the flying), I'm excited that the girls are excited. Everything about this trip will be a new experience for them. They have never been inside an airport, on a plane or seen a Palm tree and I can't wait to see their reactions to everything new. It's funny how that once you have kids, everything is suddenly more interesting. Ten years ago if I saw a caterpillar on the sidewalk I would have walked right on by. Now? Now I would have to stop and yell for the kids to come see or save it for them in one of their beloved "bug boxes" until they got home/woke up. I actually notice Robin's in the spring because I know my 5 year old is waiting for them and if I see someone walking a dog in front of the house we all have to watch from the window and comment on how cute the dog is. Somehow I think people would be happier if they all took the time to stop and really look at the things around them. I know it makes me happier.

Muffins, Mmmmmm

My kids love blueberry muffins and they love to bake so I thought I would let them help me out. They actually do a pretty good job. They gently pour ingredients into the bowl and they have learned to stir in such a way that most of the batter stays inside the bowl. They can even fill the mini muffin cups with minimal mess. But after the muffins were out of the oven my girls stood watch at the counter waiting for them to cool off like they were the Crown Jewels. In the process they managed to cough on, sneeze on and otherwise contaminate Every. Single. Muffin. I don't know what's worse, the risk of salmonella from eating uncooked batter or eating one of these cooked muffins with who knows what kind of germs now crawling all over them.

Crazy Weather

Today we were outside riding bikes and blowing bubbles in the balmy 50 degree weather. This is what we were doing just 5 days ago....crazy I say.

Question of the Day

5yo: Mommy, why do I always clog the toilet?

Me: Because you poop like a truck driver sweetie.

Really, what else is there to say?