The cake contest

Mullet cakes, squished cakes, burning cakes.  This is the annual 4th of July cake contest!

Welcome, welcome to the annual Family 4th of July cake contest.  For the last number of years, Molly, her mom and her siblings (and their spouses) have taken part in this tradition.  This year was an especially good year.  The best so far.

First we have the " 'Merica Mullet" cake.  Liberty in the front, Freedom in the back!  Yeah, baby!

Next we have Big Tex.  For 60 years, Big Tex stood in the heart of Dallas Fair Park, welcoming all who entered the huge state fair.  Sadly, last year, his 60th birthday, he burned to the ground.  Here is a cake honoring the great Big Tex.

"Houston, we have a problem."  No, it wasn't Neil Armstrong who said that, but you know he wanted to when he saw Darth Vader pop out from behind his space craft.  "Houston, we've got an alien with a mask and a red pointy light standing next to the rover!" 

Next we have a homage to a great American tradition - hot dog eating contest.  Looks like he had a few too many.

And finally we have the beloved Texas road kill - an Armadillo.  No trip through Texas is complete without seeing one of these babies on the road.  No one in Texas has ever actually seen one of these things alive.

And that's it, folks.  Which cake will win?  Who do you vote for?

Smart vs. Beauty OR Mom vs. Too-Smart of a Four Year Old

My soon-to-be 5 year old is smart.  She knows she is smart.  But, she loves to hear me tell her how smart she is.

She comments on how she was a smart baby. She requires that I agree with her.

She comments on how she is smart now because she can do _________ (fill in the blank with anything she knows how to do.)  Once again, I am required to agree with her or she will say it over and over again until I do.

She asks me things like, "Am I smarter than Sister?" to which I usually end up replying, you are both smart, but Sister is older and knows a lot more than you do.  And then she reminds me how smart she was as a baby.

She will announce to me some reason of logic she has come up with.  You can't tell her it is anything otherwise, even if her logic is completely off.  She will simply say, "I know, but___ (and restates her own logic.)  Arguing with her on this point is futile. I just smile and nod.

I didn't want my daughters to grow up with the idea that they should only be beautiful (even though they both are.)  I once read an interesting article written by a Dr. Mom in one of those highly over-priced parenting magazines that:  If we only tell our daughters how beautiful they are, they will think that beauty is the most important thing and they will not work to learn, go to school, or do anything of value with their life.  So, throughout their lives, I've told my daughters not only how beautiful they are, but how smart they are as well.  I've encouraged them to learn anything they want and become whatever they want because they are smart enough to do so.

I think I've created an overly-smart-smarty-pants of a four year old monster.

Texans Talk Weather

Texans love to discuss the weather.  When we greet each other, it goes something like this:

"Howdy, Buddy."
"Howdy, Joe."
"Quite the weather we've been having."
"Yep.  It's been nice today.  I'm glad it got up into the nineties to melt all the ice from yesterday's hail storm."
"Did you hear there is suppose to be a tornado tomorrow?"
"Yep.  Got my storm gear already set up in the bathroom."

Texans will even discuss the weather when they aren't in Texas.  I live in Virginia.  My grandmother lives in New York.  We are both Texan, born and raised.  When we talk on the phone, we take the time to discuss the weather in our states.  Then, we discuss the weather in Texas, where my parents still live.

When I talk to my dad, he will ask, "So, y'all been having some weather?"

I think Texans fascination with the weather goes back to when our lively-hood was depended upon the success of our cattle herds.  A close eye had to be kept on Texas's highly variable weather to ensure the safety of the herd.

"Hey Joe, did that tornady cause you any problems?
"Well, the house is gone, my wife was found in a tree two miles away, the barn is destroyed, but the herd is safe."

"Thank goodness for that."

Perhaps Texans discuss the weather because it can change from day to day, even hour to hour.  I remember, my childhood home faced north.  We would get these northern cold fronts and more than once, I watched storms as they approached the house.  You could stand on the door step, feel the wind pick up and watch as the storm travelled down the street towards the house.

"The storm is at Lizzie's house," I would announce to my mom.  "Now it's at the Johnsons.  Now it's two houses away.....  and now here it is!"  Cold wind and rain would rush through the door.

"Molly! Close that door.  You're letting the storm into the house!"

When I started driving, I had to drive my brother to an activity one summer afternoon.  It started pouring rain and rained so hard, I couldn't see the car in front of me.  The rain pounded on the car's roof, deafening in its noise.  I drove quite slowly, watching for the red lights of the car in front of me.

Texas weather.  There is nothing like it and Texans love to discuss their beloved insane weather.

My mushy memory and the Titanic

When I'm at home, I'll think, "OK, next time I'm at the store I need this and that and a new whats-it."

Then I go to the store, walk in and think, "What am I here for?"

I try to write lists, but sometimes, I think of something and by the time I made it to the kitchen where my pen and paper are, I've forgotten.  My brain is like mush.

It goes the same with my blog.  I think of terribly clever things to talk about, but by the time I sit down at the computer, I've forgotten them.  Mushy, mushy, mushy brain.

Oh well!

Today I unpacked the girls room and I put away all the bathroom stuff.  That was fun, let me tell you.

Something I found amusing while driving across America last week:

The year 2012 is the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic.  A reason to celebrate, right?  I heard about a company that is charging $8000 for people to go on a cruise ship and re-enact the Titanic experience.  How many people are jumping to be first in line for that?  Then, as we were driving through (I think) Tennessee, I saw a large billboard.  Now, I was passing it at 73mph, so I only caught a quick glance, but this is what I saw:

A woman dressed in a maid outfit with a huge smile on her face.  She is holding one arm up in the air as if to say, "Come on in!  Welcome!"  Behind the smiling maid is a large black ocean liner.  The billboard says, "The Titanic, a family experience."

Words failed me.  I laughed.  I had to.  What else are you suppose to do when you see something this ridiculous?  Any thoughts on "The Titanic, a family experience?" 

To top it all off, why is the family Titanic experience in Tennessee?  I don't think they launched the Titanic from there.  I mean, unless they sent it sailing down the Mississippi River first.  So, why Tennessee?

I would be most interested in any insight you might have.

OK, I found a link to the Tennessee Titanic enthusiasits historical family fun website: http://titanicpigeonforge.com/  You can see the maid with her arm up welcoming you to the Titanic!

Birthday cake disasters

I've got many friends who, on their blogs or Facebook page, post pictures of these amazing cakes that they made for their children's birthdays or a friend's birthday.  It is simply incredible and some of them are a work of art.

Then, there are my poor cake decorated deprived children.  They have a mom who is seriously handicapped at cake decorating.  Seriously!!!  It wasn't always this bad, but it seems each cake I make just gets worse and worse.  Here is the most recent cake disaster:

Yeah, I know.  That's bad.  I don't even want to tell you what it makes me think of.  So, I made the cake, like normal.  After it was completely cooled, I took it out of the pan.  Well, it broke into about three pieces when I took it out of the pan.  Then I tried to ice it.  It just crumbled.  I've never had a cake do that.  NEVER!

Thankfully my son was very amused and forgiving of his mom's incredible lack of decorating talent.

This was my daughter's cake last year.  The two round cakes didn't sit well on top of each other and the top of the cake kind of slid off the bottom of the cake.  It was a mess.  She was forgiving as well.

Hey, my cakes may be ugly, but they are tasty.  There is nothing wrong with the way the cake tastes and that's the most important part.  Right? 

My husband an two older sons don't even bother asking for a cake, they want cheesecake and I can make some killer cheesecakes.  They are yummy!  This year, after seeing her brother's cake disaster, my daughter asked for ice cream instead of a cake.  Smart girl.





Fall Tradition

Where would we be in life without traditions?  Lost, that's for sure.

My kids can count on every year, the annual post-Halloween torching of the jack-o-lantern.  We started this tradition about 10 years ago.  We were living in Hawaii.  It's hot there year round.  Our poor pumpkin we bought and carved in  mid-October was a nothing but a moldy, melted orange blob by Halloween.  We decided to have a bit of fun with it and the Hubby sprayed it with lighter fluid and set it aflame.

This became a post-Halloween tradition.  This year, after an unusually warm October, we once again had a melted, gooey pumpkin.  Last night, we set it out among the rocks in our yard and the Hubby turned on the propane torch.  Flames shot out of it's eyes and mouth.

Long live traditions!

Scary Thoughts

We love our holiday TV specials, Garfield, Charlie Brown and such.  With this being Halloween, I started to think of my favorite shows and their Halloween episodes.  Most TV shows, that I can think of, have at least one Halloween themed show during their run. 

Right now, as I am writing this, my daughter is watching Blues Clues.  It is the episode where they are trying to find out what Blue is afraid of.  At one point, they enter into an old haunted house that is occupied by a little ghost named Boo.  Every time some one says Boo's name, everyone screams.  It's funny.

My favorite TV show of all time, The Monkees, really didn't have a specific Halloween episode.  They did have four or five shows that took place in haunted mansions with monsters, vampires, werewolves, mummies and coffins.  Definitely a couple of great episodes to watch during Halloween.

Another favorite TV show for me is SeaQuest DSV.  They had a Halloween one that if I remember right, aired on Halloween.  It took place on an old sunken ship where tormented souls of ghosts did their best to scare the crew of the SeaQuest.  I've seen the episode three or four times now, but one part of the show still freaks me out.  It's at the beginning.  The crew is watching some old footage of a Titanic-like ship.  They pause the old movie to discuss what to do and while the movie is paused, one of the faces in the movie turns to look at them.  Freaks me out every time.  (Shivers)

I prefer to laugh than be scared, so I'll share a favorite YouTube clip of a not-so-scary witch.  Just a warning - do NOT eat anything while watching this.  I did this morning and about choked on my cereal because I was laughing so hard.

What's your favorite Halloween TV episode?

The Halloween Fountain

Thirteen or so years ago, the Hubby and I bought a little Halloween decoration.  It’s a small fountain in the shape of a tombstone with a pool of stones at the bottom.  When you turn it on, it played spooky music and a small pump within the tombstone kept a stream of red blood-like liquid pouring from the top into the pool.

It was a fun decoration and we enjoyed it for several years.  Then, we moved and half of our belongings went into storage and remained there for 10 years before we were finally able to retrieve all of our things.  Last year, we opened one of our storage boxes to find our spooky fountain.  You can imagine my children’s thrill when we filled the pool with water and red food coloring.  It didn’t play the spooky music anymore, but it was still fun to watch the fountain flow it a most spooky way.

Towards the end of October we started to notice that we could, very faintly, hear Christmas music coming from the fountain.  Odd.

Now this year is here and we’ve pulled out our Halloween decorations, including the fountain.  I addedsome water and turned it on.  Very distinctly we heard Christmas tunes coming from our fountain.  Santa Claus is Coming to Town and We Wish You a Merry Christmas played while the water poured from the top of the fountain to the skulls and stones below.  It took away all spookiness and made the fountain quite comical. 

I wasn’t ready to add the food coloring just at that moment, even though the kids were asking me to do it.  Really, it’s quite a mess and I didn’t want to deal with it quite yet.   Well, Peanut, my ever busy 3 year old, decided to take matters into her own hands.  She climbed up onto the counter, opened the cupboard with the food coloring and added it herself.  She added blue.  I haven’t changed it.  So, our spooky skull Halloween fountain plays Christmas music and has lovely blue water flowing over the tombstone.  Happy Halloween or Merry Christmas!

I don't know why Blogger keeps turning the picture sideways, but you get the idea of what the fountain looks like.
Are you spooked out yet?

Dumb Criminals

The other day on the radio I heard this funny story.

A man goes to the blood bank to donate blood. (Sounds like the beginning to a bad joke.)  He notices at the front desk a 51” TV that the blood bank is giving away in a prize drawing.  That night he broke into the blood bank and stole the TV.  He used a taxi to make his get-a-way.  The TV was too big to fit into the taxi properly, so part of it was poking out.

Apparently, the blood bank realized very quickly what had happened.  The man was arrested while still in the taxi.  The blood bank recognized the man as having just been in there that day and for goodness sakes, they had all the DNA on the man that could ever be asked for.  After all, he had just donated blood.  Thanks to the stolen TV sticking out of the taxi, the police were able to find him pretty quickly and arrest him.

I guess the guy was too desperate to get the TV to think about who he was stealing it from.  Maybe he wanted to really watch the new fall line-up on primetime TV.

Happy Hobbit Day

I have the greatest sister in the world.  I love to laugh and that is good because I laugh my hardest when I’m with my brothers and sister.  There was one week about seven years ago when my sister came to visit.  My hubby was out of her town.  She left her hubby at home because he was working.  It was just her and me (and several children).  We laughed.  I can’t think back to that visit without laughing.  The week involved stories about piñatas,  electric screwdriver home improvement projects, a noise at the side door late one night, and a day at a children’s museum where she and I had more fun than all the children at the museum.

My sister can do a dead-on Katherine Hepburn impression.  She calls me on the phone and suddenly I’m speaking to Katherine Hepburn.  Dahling, you will never know the amusing things we have to say to one another.

Yesterday, Katherine Hepburn, I mean, my sister called me and we discussed making seed cake for the day’s Hobbit festivities.  She told me a story about her husband and a party with his family that had me rolling on the floor with laughter. 

She is an awesome mom too.  She sings crazy camp songs and speaks in fake English accents to annoy the heck out of her children.  I wish I were as awesome as her.

Anyway, back to Hobbit Day.  I fixed porridge for breakfast that only my husband ate.  I wore the closest outfit I have to a Hobbit dress and an apron.  For dinner I fixed a dinner of bread, cheese, crispy bacon, and seed cake.  Wash it all down with white grape juice.  Mmm…. A great meal.  I wish I were an elf, who floated about in beautiful homes in beautiful forests, wearing beautiful clothes, but I realized that I am a Hobbit at heart.  And I’m OK with that.

PS, Happy first day of fall!  I love fall.

Heavy Metal Cactus

Heavy Metal Cactus

Sounds like an awesome name for a rock band, right?

Well, here in the American desert, we have lots of cactus. Prickly Pear, ocotillo, and a lot of other nasty cactus plants that I do my best to avoid at all costs.  This is a land filled with cacti, dirt, rocks and browness.  All the homes, as a city rule, must be some shade of brown.  It is the Southwestern look.

There are, throughout this city, several locations of "art".  What kind of art, you might ask?  Heavy metal cactus.  Isn't there enough cacti in this city without adding rusty metal versions of it in various intersections around the city?

Yes, the one in the middle has been painted green.

Isn't that lovely?  Watch out for that Yucca on the right there.  If you bump into it, you might need a tetanus shot.

Toilet Paper

My children are a major source of my personal entertainment.  They are also the source of my biggest frustrations.  What is really incredible, though, is how the kids can be entertaining and frustrating at the same time.

Do you know how much water 5 brand new rolls of toilet paper can hold?
A LOT!
How do I know this?  I found 5 new rolls of toilet paper, heavily laden with water, resting at the bottom of a full bath tub after my youngest son’s last bath.

It was so funny and so frustrating at the same time.  I hate the waste of all that toilet paper, but I certainly found it amusing enough to take a picture of it.

Enjoy!

Four of the rolls have had most of their water squeezed out, one is still full.

Can you guess which one?

Entry #500 and a guest blogger

After thinking about how I could celebrate my 500^th blog entry, I decided to have a guest blogger – my 13 year old son. 

As I’ve mentioned before this son is funny.  A natural ham.  His is also very smart.  I hope that as he continues to grow and learn, he will use his talents and brain for good.  I’m proud of his accomplishments.  He just gets funner to be with each year he grows older.  So, without further ado, I’m happy to present my son, whom will now be known as Stonehelm the Wise.

Philosophy of Life according to me:

When doing a maze begin at the end and go on till you come to the beginning; then cheer like a lunatic.

Believe in yourself when seeking the truth.  Party when you find it.

When the student is not ready, then school appears.

If you think you're free, do not get caught by the cops!

If you chase two rabbits, be sure to bring a gun.

The 4 elements of summer: 1. Cook-offs 2. Watermelon 3. Root beer 4. Sunburns.

The best things in life are groovy.

Music energizes the soul. Silence is just plain creepy.

Ninjas are good, pirates are bad!

Irish Oxter Song

(To the tune of “Rubber Ducky”)

Irish spring, you're the one!
You make oxters so much fun!
You make me smell like
beer and bacon toooo!

Irish Spring, for a bit
You make me smell like armpit
I like it so that makes
It okkkkkkkkk!

HEY!

(Molly here: Oxter is the Gaelic word for armpit, and son’s favorite deodorant is Irish Spring)

Stonehelm the Wise just started his own blog.  Take a look and enjoy the laugh you are sure to get.

My kids, keeping me laughing

Kids are funny creatures.

Have I mentioned recently how funny my kids are?  They keep me laughing.  I have, over the years, loved to watch each of my children's personalities develop and with that, their sense of humor.  We have some very different personalities in this family.  They are all wonderful.  This summer has been an especially funny one with my kids and I'll share a few examples of why.

My three year old.  She is mature beyond her age in many ways.  I guess that's what happens when you are child #5.  Her ability to communicate is incredible and she has the most interesting things to say.  One new phrase from this summer has been, "That was suppose to be funny."  She uses it when she says something that she thinks we should be laughing at and we don't give her the kind of response she wants.  She will tell us that it was suppose to be funny.   That is funny to hear her say, so  we laugh and she is happy with us.

The five year old son.  This guy is sweet and quiet.   He loves physical comedy.  He doesn't often get word jokes and when he tries to tell jokes, you just have to laugh because they make no sense at all. 
Here is an example:  Why did the chicken cross the road?  To go find the boss (a bad guy in his favorite computer games.)  Yep, not at all funny and yet, hilarious!

The seven year old daughter.  She is a smart, chatty, creative girl.  In the last few months, I started playing some improv acting games with the kids.  They love it.  How often does mom encourage them to be totally goofy? (OK, I admit, these games are so I can be completely goofy.)  The games have really been an eye opener for me, though, and I continue to learn more about the personal character of each of my children through the acting characters they create.  That in itself is a whole other burrito, though.  So, the other day we were playing one of our games.  I let the kids pick any kind of character they want, but if they have trouble coming up with ideas, I have a bowl with strips of paper with ideas, a cowboy, a pirate and such.  So the other day, this daughter started doing her character and we just couldn't figure out what she was doing.  We tried to play along, but finally we asked what she was doing.  She told us she was being her dad when he was a little boy.  We were befuddled at this so she showed us her suggestion: Really Old Person.  Apparently to this 7 year old, my 36 year old Hubby is an incredibly old person.  I about fell to the floor with laughter.  Poor Hubby.  He didn't find it quite as amusing.

The 11 year old son.  Here is another quiet guy.  He doesn't often have much to say, but when he does, he can be quite funny.  He can also pull the funniest faces.  Yesterday, we were at a big shopping center.  He was waiting for a haircut and I was waiting just outside with the little kids hanging out in the shopping basket.  I look over at this son and he peeks around the corner and pulls one of his funny faces.  Of course, that gets me laughing.  So, he does it over and over again, each time with a different face.  I'm laughing and I'm sure everyone around me was thinking that lady is crazy.

The 13 year old boy.  Here is a natural ham if ever I saw one.  Not only is he quick with a joke, he is quick to laugh and I LOVE to make him laugh because his laugh is so funny.  He and I have a few running jokes and more than once, I'm proud to say, I've made him snort his drink through his nose. I would love to tell some of the jokes we have going, but the set up would take so long to write down.  He is just a funny kid and his current lankiness that being a teen in a tall body that he can't seem to control makes him even funnier.  When I did my theater in June, I convinced him to do a pre-show act for me.  Ok, I practically begged.  He finally agreed to do one.  Well, I have to say, he stole the show.  I need to send him to his two uncles, my brothers.  Hams all around.

I could go on and on about the funny things that go on in this house.  I just need to write it all down, then someday I'll have enough material for an awesome humor book.  Then I'll make millions!
Evil laugh: Mwuhaha!!!

More great products for you

 Don't you wish you had this patio?  It's filled with all sorts of amazing things.  Zoom in and you will see all the brilliant things I had to say about this set up.

I hope you enjoyed today's section of the Amazing Products catalog, put together by yours truly.

MORE great products for sale

I love Sky Mall!  It is the greatest catalog with the most amazing things for sale.  Of course, I like to put my own twist on products.

Click on the pictures to enlarge them so you can read all about these great products.

I'm not sure why, but it Blogger won't enlarge this picture.  It's funny, but the best part is the snowman at the bottom of the picture.   A body bag for your snowman!!! What kind of sick and twisted world is this?

Enjoy!

Great products for sale

For years my sister and I have gone through catalogs, cutting out the best of all the products for sale.  We put our own twist on the products and make our own catalog.

Some of these items just make you just wonder WHY?

You'll have to click on each picture to be able to read what they say and what I wrote about each of them.  Wouldn't you just love to get a catalog like this one in the mail?  Enjoy.

The insanity that is creative thinking

My mother is an amazing person. She taught me, while I was a young child, the insanity that is creative thinking. As a 10 year old, I participated in a school activity that involved 50 mouse traps. Now, imagine giving six kids ages 10-12, fifty mouse traps, several hot glue guns and a lot of green paint. That is just what my mom did. It was part of a creative thinking competition. We had to take those mouse traps and glue them down to a wooden board. Those mouse traps had to perform a chain reaction of events, like ring a bell. In a matter of weeks, I snapped my fingers, my toes, and my rear end more times than I can count. We burned our fingers on hot glue and learned real fast how not to use a hot glue gun. We didn’t do well in the competition, but I’ve never forgotten the tremendous amount of fun that insane little project was.


My mother was a school teacher. Teachers are very creative people. She was also a camp leader for several summers, a principal, a Cub Scout leader, Girl Scout leader, and so many other things. From her, I learned that to solve some problems in life, you must think creatively, and to think creatively, you sometimes have to be a little crazy.

Two weeks ago, after visiting the location for my theater, I realized that I would have no area for “off stage”. The auditorium wasn’t built for theater. What to do? I got creative. I bought some black sheets, got a lot of PVC pipe, and some scrap wood. I built a frame to hold the sheets that would create a curtain for us to hide behind when off stage. My first design didn’t work. I had to make the PVC poles shorter. As I was out in my backyard, struggling to get the pipe frame put together, I thought of my mother. I thought of how completely crazy I was trying to build a portable six foot tall frame to hold a sheet up. Several times the pipes slipped out of their joints, hitting me in the head or the knuckles. I would chuckle to myself about how much my mother would love this. I wished she had been there to help me fight those silly PVC pipes.

My mom and I came up with a great idea for a new TV show: Projects in your Pajamas! We’ve done so many home projects in our pajamas – house painting, replacing toilet seats, cutting drywall, and caulking bathtubs. It would be a great TV show – two crazy ladies in their pajamas, trying to do home improvement projects. You should have seen Mom and I five days after my youngest was born. We were both in our pajamas, standing on the kitchen counters painting the cupboards. “Insane,” you may say! Yes, we were.

I’ve worked my way through problems in life with the crazy art that is creative thinking. I think it could also be described as making-it-up in your way through life when you don’t know what else to do. Be flexible, think outside the box, laugh along the way and the most amazing things can happen.

A week of home improvment adventures

Molly and her Mom's week of home improvement adventures.
October 2008

“Oops” was heard a little too often!


Tips for using a paint sprayer:
• Read the directions first. Just jumping in and using it isn’t always the best idea.
• Make sure you keep the drain tube in the paint bucket. This is especially important when priming the painter. Better yet, put the entire sprayer into a bucket.
• A plastic sack from Wal-Mart doesn’t make a good painters cap, a paper bag from McDonald’s take out is much better
• Don’t spray too much paint on popcorn ceilings. They will soak up the paint and then peel off the ceiling.
• Thoroughly clean the spray painter before you return it to its owners, they don’t need to know about all the paint spills you had.
• A scouring pad works great at removing the paint off the spray painter before you return it.
• Paint boogers are what you get if you don’t wear your mask while using the spray painter.
• Wear Depends when you work, in case you start to laugh too hard after spilling paint all over the floor (or any other “oops” moment)

Be careful about what you say out loud. Telling a kid you are sitting on the toilet, while hanging a TP roller onto the wall, while the kid is holding the phone out, with your best friend waiting for you on the line is very embarrassing.

If you don’t want to cook dinner or clean the kitchen, keep the stove covered in plastic and just tell people who come by that you are working on painting the ceiling. This excuse is good for several days.

If you get too frustrated with a project, just go work in the bathroom with the Goo Gone, it will make you happy!

Carpet surfing with furniture sliders is fun, but you need to watch out for two things – the wall and accidentally doing the splits.

When hanging shower curtains, be careful not to step into the toilet when using it for a step stool.

White paint on toes makes for a nice camouflage if your socks have holes in the toes.

Keep Tylenol handy. Paint fumes give you headaches. Paint rollers make arms and shoulders tired and sore. Painting ceilings makes your neck hurt. Tripping over extension cords can injure any number of things. Moving bookcases bruises shins. And, finally, running into paint cans stubs your toes.

How to make and use your own popcorn ceiling:
1 bucket of spackle
1 can of spray foam
1 sheet of wax paper
1 food chopper
2 crazy sleep deprived ladies, high on Goo Gone

Lay out a sheet of wax paper. Spray foam onto the wax paper. Be careful not to get any on your fingers. Wash off the foam you got on your hand anyway.

Allow foam to dry. When dry, tear chunks of foam into small rice sized pieces. Do this for about 15 minutes. You now have enough foam chunks to cover three square inches of space.

To apply popcorn ceiling you can either:

Combine a hand full of spackle with the foam pieces. Mix it well with your fingers and then apply the foam infused spackle to the ceiling.

OR

Apply spackle to ceiling and then stick foam pieces to the wet spackle.

Use a putty scraper to “smooth” out the spackle.

Allow to dry.

Inspect area. Scrape it all off.

Call in a professional handyman.

Word Games

As a family, we have for many years played word games around the dinner table and traveling in the car. Most of them are alphabet games. For example, the subject will be food, so we will go around the table each naming a food that starts with the next letter in the alphabet. So, Hubby will start with A and he’ll say Asparagus, then it will go to oldest son whose letter is B and he will say Banana and so on around the table. The more creative you can get with your food names, the better. Some are tough and some kids struggle more than others to come up with a good word for the letter. Even Hubby and I struggle sometimes to come up with something.


We’ve played this game with many different topics. Sometimes we’ll pick something easy like food so everyone in the family can participate, but sometimes when it’s just Hubby, Oldest Son and I playing, we’ll try a more challenging topic. We have great fun. My son’s teachers have told us over the years they are amazed with his vocabulary and we think some of this success is because of this silly game.

Well, in recent months, we’ve been watching a family favorite TV show whose entire premise is funny games. So, lately we have had many meals where we speak only in questions. It’s tough and pretty funny.

Last night we tried a new variation on the game with song titles (stealing the idea right from the show). This was really hard. I know a lot of music and a lot of songs, but when you are under pressure, it can be hard to come up with one that makes sense with the situation we are trying to talk about. Last night’s topic was “At the amusement park”. The beginning was easy. I was able to come up with “Ticket to Ride” and “Tunnel of Love”, but after that, it got harder. My second son struggled with this game and managed to come up with only two song titles, but his were the best. At one point in the game, there was a long pause as we all were thinking of a good song title. Second son looked at us and said, “Word Up?” At the end of the game when we all gave up, this same son points to his older brother and declares, “Super Freak.” Fabulous!!!