Crazy Kids

My boys are sure busy, and they're a little stir crazy right now so they can be pretty nuts.  I remember about a year ago I was talking to my sister about kids being crazy and she basically said, "If you can't beat them, join them."  I'm happy to admit that I have gone crazy.  We made halloween jello jigglers last week, made cookies (taste testing after adding each ingredient), built tents out of tables and blankets, made pancakes shaped like Mickey Mouse, gone to Pet Smart to see the animals, laid under the Christmas tree just to see what it's like, read the same library books three times a day, and had cookies for breakfast...twice.  We'll see how it goes in the long run but loosing my mind so far has been a good thing.

 These are pictures we took one day when we were playing with the web camera on the computer.

Who's that cubby baby?

How To Fall Off A Roof

Our house has a slightly sloped roof and our two very large fur trees next to it.  We usually have several wind and rain storms in the late fall that blow the needles onto the roof.  About every three or four months the roof requires cleaning.  We finally gave in a bought a shop vacuum that converts into a leaf blower (an excellent contraption if I ever saw one).  I didn't understand why my husband bought this as we don't have many leaves to clear from the yard but it is probably the most used item stored in our garage.  We use the blower to clear fur tree needles off the sidewalks and porch which keeps them from getting tracked into the house.

Anyway, back to the roof story.  We use the blower to pile up the needles and then shovel them into leaf bags and drop the bags off the roof.  I'm sure our neighbors enjoyed watching my husband and I out  walking all over the roof for a couple hours.  While dropping the fourth bag full of needles from the roof I lost my balance and down I went.  My back is killing me today.

Okay, I'm just kidding I didn't really fall off the roof but if I had I'd atleast have a good reason for feeling as bad as I do today.  When I got down we moved the bags into the garage to keep them from getting rained on and falling apart.  I lifted wrong on one of the last bags and strained my back.  I've spent the last 24 hours wishing I didn't feel so old (and I'm really too young to be thinking that).  The worst part is I'm sure I didn't learn anything from the experience as I'll be out there in a few more months doing the same thing again, and maybe next time I really will fall off the roof and have quite a story to tell. :)

Dream

You see things; and you say, 'Why?' But I dream things that never were; and I say, 'Why not?'

George Bernard Shaw

When I red this I thought of my husband.  I am always the one to say, "Why?" and he is always saying, "why not?"  Being a mother there are many situations where the "Why not" rarely ends well but I'm more refering to a way of thinking here.

I tend to be very pessamistic when I think of what is possible.  My husband, who happens to be a mechanical engineer, sees the world so differently.  To him everything can be broken down, simplified and understood (and many times explained).  As such, he never seems to be overwhelmed by a situation or a problem because it can be reduced to it's components and worked out.  He is also very solution driven.  He's spends little time agonizing about the problem and sets straight to work on a solution. (This used to drive me crazy when we were first married and I would complain to him about work, only looking for a sympathetic ear and instead I got 100 ideas of how to fix it.) 

I've always admired how his way of thinking seems so uncluttered by emotional bias and emotionally charged logic (which is NOT logical).  As I look forward I want to be more open to all the possibilities life has to offer and not be overwhelmed by the problems.  Oh, and dream big!