Susiej

“Mom, my hair is turning colors… it’s turning blonder.”

“I know… it’s because of the sun.”

“No, it’s this color even when I’m in the shade.”

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Is a frog.

Still, you need about 22 of them to be effective. They caught the biggest part of the batch at night, and stored them in an empty wine glass box. When the box started to move from all the jumping, I did freak out a bit.

So they moved the frogs to an empty cooler, provided water, bugs, grass and weeds.

Later, they expanded the frog’s home to the canoe.
Still, the day was filled with frog jumping games, and races. Lots of re-catching of the frogs, as well.
So, you might want to watch where you step the next time you go for a canoe ride… especially at night.

Still, I was able to get some painting done with all this activity going on.

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There are countless uses for vinegar in the laundry room. However, none quite matches vinegar’s amazing ability to eliminate wrinkles, eliminating countless wasted hours behind the ironing board.

Use scented (with 20 drops of essential oil), or straight distilled white vinegar. Simply mix 1 part vinegar to 3 parts water in a spray bottle.

Spray the vinegar on dry clothes and most wrinkles will disappear as the vinegar dries. Keep a bottle in your closet, as well as by the dryer, and spray away the wrinkles as you need. If using the oils, this is a great way to scent your clothes, and your closet. Shake the bottle each time before use.

For heavy duty wrinkles, you may have to break out your ironing board. If that’s the case, keep a spray bottle of equal parts water and vinegar (and essential oils) to use as a spray starch. The vinegar helps you make sharp creases and crisp lines in fabric.

Now, for the monster part:

This spray also does double-duty as a monster spray. At night, when someone has nightmares, this spray has an amazing ability, especially when mixed with lavender oil, to soothe little ones back to sleep. The “mediciney-yucky” part of the vinegar, assures the little ones that yes, the monsters are all gone now, and the spray has done it’s job.

And, don’t you love it when a GREAT FAMILY, rated G Movie hits the theaters? There’s one coming, August 15, Fly Me To The Moon. Watch the trailer, here.

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I’m searching the yellow pages for a taxidermist. My husband caught an 18″ bass, with all four boys in the boat, and it’s something everyone says, “The kids will remember for the rest of their life.” So, with a tiny bit of stalling and pondering about where the bass will hang, I’m searching the yellow pages for a taxidermist, in unknown lands and small towns that I really know nothing about, while my husband is off at work this week.

Most of the numbers are disconnected. I finally “catch a live one on the other line” (I’m so clever.) And the guy explains,
“You can come over, but the place is a mess… you see we’re doing a renovation on our third bedroom… and…”

Nevermind all of that. The fish is in my freezer, wrapped in newspaper, mucking up smells on my frozen berries.

“Where do you live?” I say.

He describes the address… I’m following it OK, it’s pretty far… as he describes each and every curve, and then another curve, and then past a house on the curve on the road, and then a trailer, and then, there’s his place.

“What’s your address.”

“Well, if you want to see the address, I’ll have to go out and chop down the weeds around the mailbox so you can read the numbers.”

He continues. “My mailbox got knocked down… so you know those plastic kind of mailboxes? Well, we have the post for that, but the mailbox is actually metal, and it’s tied on with a bungee cord.”

I scrawl down the number on my directions. But I’m thinking, based on the trailer, the bungee cord mailbox and the weeds, I can find my way even without the number.

“How much does it cost to mount an 18″ bass?”

“$170″ he quickly says.

I hang up the phone. Hmmmm. That’s about $9.44 an inch. There is no way I’m driving 40 miles, with four boys, to go visit this guy with a dead fish.

Still, that fish is mucking up my freezer.

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Easily… with a dab of Ammonia. Cloudy or clear… either one works.

Just thought you’d want to know.

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With our eyes glistening with the ideas what we could accomplish in the lake house if we just moved a few pieces of furniture – OK, actually, EVERY piece of furniture, I walked
across the mushy grass on this rainy Saturday morning and asked cousin Ed and his son Matt if they would come over and help us move some furniture. They didn’t jump up out of their seats right away, so I added, the words, “After you’re done watching your fishing show.” And then I added, “There’s a stack of pancakes with raspberry syrup in it for you.”

I went back to our place and waited. My Diva friend and I began to move the furniture around that we could lift, but still, there was this one particularly massive piece of furniture that we had to get rid of. “We can just have them move this into the guest house,” I said.

“No. This must go. It won’t even work in the guest house.” I knew she was right – we had discussed this very thing the last time my husband was up here. But how? How do you get rid of stuff like this, out in the middle of nowhere?

First let me say, that this massive piece of furniture is a good piece; and in the right room it will sparkle and glow. It wasn’t the piece that was bad – it was the combination of this piece in our lake house that was bad.

I was tempted to just have Ed and Matt carry it up by the road, with the word “Free” on a cardboard sign, hoping someone might just pick it up – like someone did when we got rid of our old grill. But it was raining.

Soon, Ed and Matt were on their way over. We could see them walking up the deck from the window. I showed them the massive piece of furniture, and Ed’s first response was, “Where are we taking it?”

“You have to move it to the…” and then I stopped, because an equally massive brilliant idea hit me. Maybe Ed would want the piece to take back home. I looked up behind the hill – and sure enough Ed had his truck. Matt did too. Hot dog! Not only were we going to get it moved – but
also it would soon be gone!

“Ed, if you want it, you can have it.”

He didn’t jump for joy or anything. He simply said, “I’ll just have to talk to the wife about it.”

A tad desperate and worried that his wife would say No, I added, “Maybe your cousin Mike would want it… you know, he just bought that new house.”

He left, and we waited. Soon, he was back with Matt, and they were ready to move. They got the big piece out the door, and I started moving ahead of them to push stuff out of their way. Except, they didn’t carry it up the hill to his truck… they carried it down the steps of the deck, and right into Uncle Bud’s cottage.

At that moment, I looked up at my Diva friend – we were both struggling at the guest house door, carrying a big chair, and we watched that big piece of furniture move off the deck and straight into Uncle Bud’s front door. Our eyes met and locked, and we busted out laughing, dropped the chair, and gave each other a high five. Our problem was gone.

I not only got it moved, but I got rid of it forever, while Ed, Matt, and Uncle Bud couldn’t be happier.

This put a smile on my face all week. My 10-year-old said it best. “It looks great at Uncle Bud’s, because he already has ‘every color.’”

And all it cost me was a stack of pancakes with raspberry syrup.

Now all we need are a few more BOARD GAmes. Check out the Hasbro Toy Event here. Hasbro — the toy company that escaped the lead pain fiasco!

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