My mind is all aflutter

I'm not sure if this is a good thing or not, but have you discovered the joys of igoogle? It is your own Google home page, and you can add all sorts of your commonly checked stuff - like your email, your facebook, your favorite blogs, etc. I'm glued to this, and 2 blogs I added to it. Those would be Stockpiling Moms and Simple Mom. What seems like an innocent couple of sites with fabulous ideas has been haunting me! Probably in a good way, mind you, but my mind just won't quit. Way too many ideas and goals, and tools for said ideas and goals. Between that and all my deal finding, I can hardly keep up with myself!

Excitement surrounds the Sizzix eclips

Okay, I am basically posting this so I don't forget about it. If you are a scrapbooking nut, you will want to check this out. I've been debating about die cut machines forever, and I am hoping this one will be the answer to all my wants and needs. The Sizzix Eclips machine will be for sale soon!

Excitement surrounds the Sizzix eclips

Man vs Nature -- Score one for Man

So, I was going to dump the kiddie pool today.... Seems innocent enough. Right. I thought to myself, boy all that water just sitting there - I should at least use some of it. I grabbed my watering can to fill it in the pool and water plants before emptying the pool.

Low and behold, to my surprise, this was the sight awaiting me!

Don't worry, I didn't fill my watering can. Instead, up and down the streets of my town was heard OH. MY. GOSH.



Now, to give you some history and to give this a little poetic justice, my husband and I have had several issues with squirrels. A family of them resided in a former attic of ours. We waged war on those suckers, including live trapping.... (as illustrated below...lovely) Law prohibits you from just shooting them, and we had limited funds, so this was our option. Apparently if you take them 15 miles away or across a body of water, they won't find their way back. We did both, and loaded up several squirrels and headed across the river to a neighboring town. We DID let them go in a nature preserve, so you can stop with your animal cruelty thoughts already.

Finding a squirrel drowned in my kids' pool wasn't ALL bad, considering the history.

Did you know squirrels float? And did you know squirrels can't swim? Apparently they're totally helpless when confronted with water. Consider that a word of warning to parents and squirrels alike.

Oh, if you're wondering what happened to the squirrel and the kiddie pool, ummm, yeah. I scooped it out with a shovel and into a garbage bag. It now resides in my garbage can. That'll smell great by Tuesday. I hope nobody saw me, because I was way beyond a girly level of grossed out. YUCK.

Today, I thought to myself as I was eating a delicious strawberry as big as my hand that "this is the biggest strawberry known to man." After all, I could barely hold on to it as I took a bite... It got me thinking....

hmmm.... i wonder what the biggest strawberry known to man really is. This is one of the first images I found...

I lead a very exciting life. This was the real thought process in my mind.

Strawberry Point, Iowa, you win! Congratulations!

I am in love

with October Afternoon!

What does your family culture make you do?

I've been reading a book by Tim Stafford called Never Mind the Joneses. I've really only started, but the introduction talks about how each family has their own family culture. And your family culture includes anything and everything, down to your basic Saturday morning rituals. It begs the question to be asked, what is one thing your family culture makes you do?

For me, since I am going to Sonic for lunch, I am thinking about a Sonic family culture experience. And just like the book talks about, this type of experience really has been passed down through generations. From back to my Grandpa's day of taking his family to the DQ for ice cream cones in their pajamas, to my mom taking us to a drive-thru and parking by a lake somewhere to eat it, now I have carried on the tradition. I have done the drive-thru to the lake routine several times, but last summer we took it to a new level when the first nearby Sonic opened. Since we had a 1-yr old, it changed the experience a bit. We loaded up and headed to Sonic. We placed our order and then shifted the kids to the back of the jeep. We quickly folded down the seat, set up a portable high chair for said 1-yr old in the back, a TV tray for the 3-yr old (to save any spills, of course), and then we crammed ourselves in back with them. To me, this seemed totally normal, but that doesn't explain why cars driving by were amused by the scene - I mean really amused. To the pointing and laughing extreme. I don't think they were laughing at us, but they were laughing. I thought it was great fun!

May I continue passing down my bizarre fast food traditions from generation to generation. I sure hope Grandpa was watching us that day! He may have started all this business.

So what does your family culture make you do?

I am so looking forward to reading this book, which seems to first help you understand what family culture is, identify your own family culture, identify what you want in your family culture, and figure out how to nurture it and let your family thrive within that culture. I am hoping it is one of those life changing books you just have to read. If it is I'll let you know.

I love...

I love smiley face fries, macro setting,

and I love love LOVE little boys in basketball class, which we started going to tonight. The way to a boy's heart is through sports!