What to do when you can't sleep.

Play with Photoshop.

The pile of stuff

Here is the deal. I'm getting a little tired of picking up everything my sweet darlings decide they don't want to put away, so I put it all in a big bin (which is overflowing) and said you have until Saturday morning to put it away and if you don't it's going to D.I. Do you know what raspberry said?

I want a new mommy.

Where is my sister?!

I miss my sister. She went back to Florida on Tuesday. How rude of her to return to her life in Florida. Florida... what's in Florida anyway? Red fire ants, blasting hurricanes, big bugs, and hot and humid weather. Who needs that? I think she should live in Utah very close to her older sister. When she was here she helped me with my laundry and was my play pal, she even made my fiery raspberry happy which is EXTREMELY hard to do. I think she should come back. She could visit her husband on the weekends. What's wrong with that?

You want to charge me what?

Had an interesting morning at the car dealership for my Mitsubishi Outlander (2003). I was switching the air in my car a couple of days ago for raspberry. She was cold, so I turned the knob to hot. I turned it, mind you, in the same simple form I've been turning it for the last 4 years. A simple turn, no jerks, twists, or wrenching, the same simple turn that everyone uses to turn the air from cold to hot...only this time the dial broke. The plastic simply broke off. After inspecting the less than dime size plastic portion that broke I thought, "well, that shouldn't cost too much to replace".

The nice dealer man said something about air, dirt, coming in under the hood, coming up into the system where the parts that turn the box from hot to cold and cold to hot get dirt on them and it makes the parts stick and not turn and on and on he went. I think the longer the story the more expensive the part.

Yep. I should have known better, anything that comes from the dealer has a 150% increase.

Sorry kids, you are just going to be cold for a while, perhaps until 2009 when the car is paid off.

Oh, and the part, it was $350.00. The labor is extra (a whole lot extra).

What is the deal?

I have to show you what my daughter does when I want to take her picture (car) and how she reacts when my sister (who is visiting from Florida this weekend) wants to take her picture (lawn). What is the deal with that?

Friends

"We are not put in circles of friendship by coincidence, but by divine design."
Neal A. Maxwell

I have really fun friends. The fact that they actually like me might be a miracle in itself. :)

Songs of the Raspberry

Raspberry has been singing a lot lately. In her room, in the bathtub, in the car, on the stairs, in the toy room and at church. She likes to sing alone unless she personally invites you to join in. I'm warning you now, don't join in unless you've been given the "join me" look. If you don't heed my warning, you will be glared at for most of the night for ruining her song and you won't be invited to her birthday party ever again and you won't be her friend. This is based on personal experience.

Here is a sample from a couple of years ago. The raspberry rendition of "Hakuna Matata." We asked her to sing into the camera and this is what she did.

A Fall Dessert

Not that I need any more sugar in my life, but there are some things you just don't pass up. This was delicious and I really don't like pumpkin. I think I will count it as a vegetable serving.

oh, and please serve it with REAL whipped cream. None of that canned airy chemical stuff my kids like to spray at each other.

Warm Pumpkin Crumble with Whipped Cream

Crust
1 yellow cake mix (reserve 1 cup for topping)
½ cup soft margarine
1 egg (beaten)
Mix together & press (with floured finger tips) into 9 x 13 cake pan

Filling
1 - 29 oz. can pumpkin (do not use fresh pumpkin)
2 tsp. cinnamon OR 1 tsp. cinnamon and 1 tsp. pumpkin spice
1 cup “packed” brown sugar
3 eggs (beaten)
2/3 cup evaporated milk
½ tsp. ginger
Combine ingredients and mix well; pour over crust

Topping
1 cup reserved cake mix
½ cup sugar
¼ cup soft margarine
Mix together & sprinkle over top of filling (mixture will resemble course crumbs)

½ cup chopped nuts—sprinkle over topping (optional)

Bake @ 350 for 1 hour (test by inserting knife---knife should come out clean)
Serve with dollop of whipped cream.

The 6th grade world of girls.

CC and I had this conversation last night on the way up the canyon. He had such a concerned look on his face. He is so dang cute.

Mom, I think this girl in my class likes me. I think her friend likes me too.

Me: Why do you think that?

Well... (insert big exasperated sigh here), I was walking down the hall with my friend and these two girls who are in my class were walking in front of us and the one girl looked back at me and whispered something to her friend and then she turned and looked back at me and then they both smiled at me and started giggling and then they both looked back and smiled at me again and then they walked away really fast holding each others arms (another big sigh). My friend just looked at me and we shrugged our shoulders. Girls are so weird.

Me: You just keep thinking that for at least another four years and I will be happy.

Oh Mom.

I have a very clean bathtub.

I went into the bathroom tonight to start a bath for raspberry and there where three very empty large shampoo bottles and one empty nail polish remover bottle lined up on the rim of the bathtub. Those weren't there 10 minutes earlier. I called her into the bathroom - she came in with a very sheepish look on her face. I asked her what happened to all the shampoo and she blamed it on her brother (who was at football practice). She could tell that her story wasn't flying with me so she said she wanted to clean the bathtub with lots of bubbles. As she got into the bathtub she said, "mom, it stinks." I picked up the bottle and said "Nail Polish Remover. It smells and doesn't make bubbles." She just looked at me and said, "that's dumb".

Mom, move over...

My parents stayed with us over the weekend, they left this morning to head back home. CC was ordained to the office of a deacon at church on Sunday by his Grandpa who has recently recovered from a triple bypass and doing quite well (thank you heavenly father). It was a great day.

Anyway, it is always fun to have Grandma and Grandpa here, but when they are here, they sleep in cc's large queen bed and cc gets raspberry's bed and thus raspberry sleeps with mom.

So last night about 1:30 in the morning I get this poke in my cheek, "mom, I want to lay with you". I said, "you are, go back to sleep okay". I could tell she was sitting up staring at me, so I said, "what's the matter". She replied with an agitated "I don't have a spot." I sat up, switched on the lamp and assessed the situation. I was on the far edge of my rather large queen bed with one pillow. She on the other hand had my other 4 pillows, all of the blankets, 5 stuffed animals and the rest of the bed. I said, "What spot do you want?" and she pointed to mine. Fine. Have it. Somethings aren't worth arguing about. I moved over to the other side. As I laid back down she said, "Hey, where's my drink?".

I really feel bad for her future husband.

Panic is beginning to set in

I'm officially the mother of a 12 year old. In the LDS faith, this age is sort of a big deal. No longer in primary, but the 'Young Men's program'. I see what's coming... teenage stuff. I told cc I have a year before he is officially a teenager so he isn't to get to lippy. I still have the height advantage too, although it is only about 2 inches. He said he is excited for the day that he can rest his chin on the top of my head. I'm going to invest in some higher heels.

Our wonderful bishop handed me a packet on Sunday and said, "7 years until a mission and it goes by like that", and he did some flip thing with his hand.

I gave him a phone for his birthday. He wants a "myspace page". Yea, like that's going to happen. Inside I'm thinking... don't panic.