I Love Lists

So here is one for you. There is no rhyme or reason.

-1. Most days I make lists of things to do. Then as I complete things I cross them off. If I do something extra I add it to the list ... so I can cross it off. It makes me feel like I'm accomplishing something in life.

-2. When packing for a trip I wait until almost the last minute because if I pack something too early I will inevitably need to use it, then will put it away where it belongs instead of re-packing it. So I make lists of things to pack and do it all at once.

-3. Today I entered a giveaway for a Nook. I hope I win it. It surely would be nice for our trip. There were, like, over thirty thousand entries though, so I guess my chances are pretty slim.

-4. The other day the Boogie asked me, "Honey, what lives on Tortuga?" Tortuga? Where in the world did she hear that? "I don't know," I said hesitantly, "um, pirates?" Wrong. She insisted that I guess again and again until I finally gave up and asked her to please tell me what in the world lives on Tortuga other than pirates. "Tortuguys," she informed me. Well, duh. Of course Tortuguys live on Tortuga. I totally thought she made it up but apparently she picked it up from the Wild Kratts show on PBS Kids.

-5. Last week I found the Pheebs with an open tube of bright pink chapstick. I didn't know she knew how to open chapstick. I thought I took it right away from her but a couple of days later I discovered bright pink chapstick on the back of the leaf quilt my mom made for us when we got married. I treated the stains and washed the quilt but forgot to take it out of the washer until the next day and the red leaves had bled into the white background. And none of the pink chapstick had come out. So I cried. Of all things for Pheebs to get chapstick on, you know? It couldn't have been on the old hand-me-down couch or the boring cheap brown rug in the living room. No, it had to be on the quilt my mom made. I put some Oxiclean on the red stains and let it sit for a few minutes then washed it again and not only did the red come out, but most of the pink did too! Thank you Lord for Oxiclean.

-6. I love Oxiclean. I use it almost every single day. I don't even buy the real thing. I buy the big tub of the Target version. It works just as well and is cheaper. More cheap. More ... cheaper ...

-7. Is it bedtime yet?

-8. I then hunted down and threw away a tube of bright pink chapstick and hid all the other tubes I could find.

-9. Several months ago my friend Abby blogged about making her own laundry soap. Since I think Abby is super mom and I want to be her when I grow up, I decided that I needed to try it too. I did it tonight for the first time so we'll see how it looks in the morning. I even bought some lavender and orange essential oils in case I decide I want to get fancy, but the soap itself smells really good. I had to grate a whole bar of Fels Naptha soap so if you come over for Mexican food and your grated cheese tastes a little soapy, that's why.

It even kind of looks like cheese ...

-10. I ordered a responsibility chart for the Boogie and it came today.

She was very excited and thought it was a game. "How do you play it?" she kept asking. We picked out some responsibilities for her to fulfill this week. I know she needs to have more chores to do so hopefully this will motivate me to motivate her.

-11. Last Saturday MIL and I had a yard sale at our house. It was beautiful weather and 3 other houses on our street had sales, too. As I unpacked boxes when we moved into this house, I turned right around and filled a bunch of boxes with yard sale stuff. Over the last few weeks I have been going through all of it and pricing it. I made signs and posted a listing on Craigslist. I thought we did fairly well. I sold a lot of household stuff and Eric donated a bunch of model cars and some baseball cards to the cause. I didn't care as much about making money as I did about getting rid of things! This weekend we will do it again at 52 and whatever I don't sell I will donate. I just want it gone gone gone. It's amazing how much STUFF you can accumulate in five years, even with a couple of moves thrown in. I am totally in purging mode and am constantly perusing the house for things to eliminate.

-12. After the yard sale on Saturday we went to Eric's work picnic. The info we got said it would go until 6 p.m. and we didn't get there until after 3:00. We took our time eating, and let the Boogie play with her cousin HE for a while. When HE needed to leave it was about 4:45 so we distracted the Boogie by telling her she could jump in the bounce house. But when we got to the bounce house the guy running it said he was shutting it down in ten minutes. So the Boogie jumped for a bit and then she said she wanted to go in the paddle boats on the lake. As soon as she and Eric set foot on the dock, the lifeguards said they weren't letting anyone else go out because it was time to close up. I was so disappointed for her because she was really excited to go out in the boats. I told her she could take her sandals off and wade for a few minutes, but as soon as she stepped into the water the lifeguards started yelling from the dock for her to get out. Really? She can't wade for five minutes? More disappointment. She had mentioned before that she wanted ice cream so I thought that might distract her and told her we would go get some ... but nope, they had put it all away. The whole place shut down at 5 p.m. I was really annoyed. Had our info been correct we would have made more of an effort to get there earlier, or at least get around to do more stuff before 5:00. I hate when my kid is let down when she's looking forward to something. That's one of the reasons we don't tell her anything ahead of time! She handled it really well, though -- I think I was more disappointed for her than she actually was. We stopped at Wawa on our way home for her ice cream sandwich and she was a happy girl.

-13. My daisies are blooming. I don't have a picture but they are pretty. They all lean in one direction which is funny. And my petunias are getting big. My friend Chrissy reminded me to use MiracleGro so I did that last week and I can tell a difference.

-14. Phebis is walking everywhere and sometimes seems on the verge of running. She is very steady and even does really well with shoes on, which impresses me. If she falls she usually crawls over to something to steady herself while she stands up, but in the last couple of days she's been standing up on her own, by balancing on all fours with her bottom sticking straight up, and then standing.

-15. She has cut her fourth molar with no sign of hives. There goes that theory.

-16. She says "cuh-cuh" for cup and cracker. Yesterday at 52 she opened a cabinet, pulled out a bag of Goldfish crackers, said "cuh-cuh", and took it right to MIL to open for her.

-17. She signs "more" and "milk" and something I made up for "all done."

-18. Today she said "book" and shook her head for "no" and nodded it for "yes."

-19. She has mad love for a big purple dinosaur. I won't be a bit surprised when her next word is "Barney."

-Tenteen. If she gets her hands on a hairbrush she goes straight for the Boogie and whacks her on the head with it. She is just trying to brush the Boogie's hair (girl has to live vicariously, you know) but has reduced her big sister to tears several times. She can pack quite the wallop.

-Eleventeen. We have had an influx of flies and I can't figure out where they are coming from. At first I thought it was through a window screen that had a hole in it, but we've been keeping that window shut lately. A few days last week were really awful. One day I'm pretty sure I killed at least twenty flies. They have reduced some in number but it's still creepy and nasty. Grosses me out, man. And of course we can't find flypaper anywhere. I need to get one of those light zapper thingies for the laundry room.

-Twelveteen. I spent a lot of time rearranging furniture today and I don't like any of what I did. But I don't want to spend any more time on it now. I've got other things to do. Like go to bed.

-Thirteenteen. "Cheeeeeee!"