Happy Birthday, Erica!

Happy Birthday, Erica Ryanne!

9 wonderful years old!

Love you bushels and bushels!

xoxoxo

Mom-mom, Pop-pop and Ben

PS - take Kelly's age: 33 and mulitply it by itself and you get your age! (3x3=9) Cool, huh?

Matters of Life and . . . . . .

On Tuesday we (Jenny, Ben, Erica, Hope, Rease, Helena and I) went to Ocean City so Jenny could buy a couple of hermit crabs for Erica for her birthday. The shells on those things are nothing like they used to be. Now they are painted up in all kinds of designs. Erica got "Sponge Bob" and baseball painted shells. Really cool. I'll have to get Jenny to take a pic and post it here later.

Anyway, as we are walking, I have Helena on my right and Erica on my left.
The conversation at that moment went something like this:

Helena: "Mom-mom, you know the apartments we used to live in? They, um, found two people dead there."
Me: "I know. I heard it on the news. Aren't' you glad you don't live there any more?"
Helena: "Yea. But why do people kill themselves?"
Me: "I don't know. Not very smart are they?"
Erica: "It's so they won't get in trouble."

And on we go.

So, I guess that sums it up. If you want to whack someone one and don't want to get in trouble, I guess that means you have to whack yourself!

(On a serious note - there was a homicide at those apartments. I didn't elaborate on this to the girls. It took a very long time for them to get past the little Foxwell girl's abduction and murder. All of them were here at that time and it was very scary and very hard for them to grasp.)

I hate that such "heavy" things have to weigh on a child's mind. Even the news is "R" rated anymore. Such a sad thing - that all the ugly out shines any good and an indescribable fear is left in the hearts and minds of our children.

Ready. Set. Jump!

Learning new things is always fun. Getting paid for learning new things is even better.
Earlier in the season, Helena gave up her swimmies for the doggie paddle. (That was a pride issue, not a paid venture.)

Today she conquered another fear: jumping from the deck!
She was begged, bribed and bought for the grand total of four dollars!
It took a bit, but the money won over the fear in this case, and it didn't hurt (or help) that her sister and two of her cousins, Hope and Erica, were jumping and bragging and coaxing and bribing, too.
Once she made the plunge (no pun intended) however, she was hooked and spent the next hour climbing out and jumping in.

We (being they) needed to wear tee shirts over our (being their) suits today.
They literally spent all day long in the pool yesterday - coming out only long enough to eat lunch and dinner and then back in til time to get ready for bed. They were beat and pink! Um. . . . yes . . . we did use sun screen.

And . . . . I just love Jenny's camera. It takes sports pics (back to back action).

I want one.

Badly.

Things That Make You go . . . "Hmmm . . ."

Yesterday as I was finishing my blog about my "wallet", Kelly handed me Piper and asked if I would finish feeding her while she ran home and changed. They had been swimming in the pool.
As I am feeding this little sweetie, Helena is eating a peach in her little chair just diagonally behind me. Perfect spot to analyze the veins in my legs, again. So. . . here we go:

Helena: "Mom-mom, you have veins in your legs."
Me: "Yes, I do."
Helena: "They are in 3-D."
Me: "3-D?"
Helena: "Yes, one is sticking out!"

I turn and look at her, as she is slurping her peach, not missing a beat, she smiles back at me.

Okie-dokie.


Kelly returns and visits for a bit and as she is collecting her "parcels" (that being the girls), she points out the rebate check on my kitchen counter. I know, I tell her. I need to take it to the bank. But she keeps "tapping" it. So I walk over and look at the check.

Yep, she's been here alright!

My Wallet

I got this wallet/check book set for Mother's Day from my hubby. He brought it to me when he came home for Ben's graduation. Jenny's girls said I would like it. They were right. I simply love it!

I am proud of my gift. Everyone that has seen it has complimented it.

Everyone except for the cashier at Food Lion, that is.

We were in there Tuesday evening picking up a few things. When I got to the register I pulled out my bank card and my MVP card. The cashier looks up and sees my wallet. The conversation went something like this:

Cashier: "That's a pretty big wallet."

Me: "Yea. It holds all my stuff. CC's, money and such. If I wanted, this would be all I would have to carry."

Cashier: "I don't know why you need a wallet that big."

Me (a little confused here): Well, it has all my stuff in it, and . . . (in a meek voice) . . it was a gift.

Cashier: "I don't see the need to have a wallet that big." - (just add insult to injury, here)

Me: silence - thinking, should I respond again?

Cashier: "I don't have all those credit cards and stuff."

Me: silence - thinking, no, don't respond

Cashier (as she reaches beside the register to retrieve an object): "This is my wallet. It's plenty big."

Me: Smile, retrieve my bags of groceries. I think I remember nodding in approval.

Cashier: "Have a nice day."

Me: "You, too." thinking - you just busted on my wallet!

Now mind you - we are in line. Bob is with me. I can only wonder what is going thru his head.

As she was showing me her wallet, the line was growing. I'm squirming inside, thinking "No, I don't want to explain this conversation. No, I can't speed things up." But it did make me laugh a little at her spontaneity. She was -opinionated - enough said.

When we left the store, I turned to Bob and asked: "Did you hear her?" Duh? Of course he heard her. He was laughing. At me, I think. Because - he defended her and her implication of wallet snobbery.

As I have thought about these wallets two things come to mind:

1. Color difference. Mine is bright and bold. Hers was black pleather.

2. Size. Her wallet looked a tad bit longer and a tad bit narrower.

My conclusion: Although her wallet was narrower, it was longer and black. Everybody knows that if you want to look thinner, you wear black.

Mine was taller, but shorter. It was definitely brighter. Perhaps the colors gave the illusion of girth. I'd bet nickles to donuts that per square inch, our wallets were the same size!

The things that make you go "hmmm. . . ."!