This isn't my story. But I'm stealing it anyway.

I ended up having to work on Wednesday.  It was okay as I got Thursday off instead.  However, my neighbor (the flower lady) met me in my yard almost as soon as I arrived.  She had expected me to be home and had tried to catch me all day. 

"My daughter brought over some flowers for you, so come on over!"

This time I was wiser and just drove the pick up over instead of making fifty trips up and down the street...

As we were chatting she told me how ornery her two boys were growing up.  They loved to play practical jokes on her, and still do.  I told her that it's fun to get a rile out of our mothers.  After all, we all still tend to gang up on my mom, just because it's funny.

Sorry, Mom.  But it's just true.

Anyway, she was telling me about when they lived in a different house in a different town, and her kids were all young.  They lived next door to her husband's brother and wife.  Before Emmett left for work one fall day he said, "You boys better get up on that roof and clean out the chimney.  A bird built a nest in it, and we will need to light the fire soon."

Well, being the good boys that they were, they eagerly obeyed their father.  Katherine was sitting in the living room, happily stitching or knitting or some such domestic thing when suddenly something flew  past her chair and made an exploding sound right behind her!  She jumped up, let out a scream and tried to figure out what was happening.  Very quickly another something flew out of her FIREPLACE and flew into the living room and it exploded too!

They were pop bottle rockets!

The boys had decided that the easiest and most exciting way to clear the chimney of the bird's nest was to blow it up.  The only glitch was their failure to make sure the flue was closed before starting their endeavor.

At least that's the biggest glitch I see on first glance...

Well, her sister in law had been watching the boys from her house, and she saw Katherine coming out screaming bloody murder and threatening to "wring you boys' necks!"

The boys just began to laugh.  She yelled more threats of dire consequences.  "But, Mom!  You can't get us up here!"

"Well, you'll have to come down some time!"  I can just see little 5'0 Katherine yelling and shaking her fist at those boys.

She didn't tell me what the consequences were, but I would love to have been a fly on that wall when those rockets came flying down the chimney!

Hey would you like a sneak peek at my new flower bed I built all by myself?  I planted a lilac bush, some lilies, iris, malva, and maybe even a small shasta daisy.  Here's a picture I snapped with my phone.  Sadly, it's already short three plants as the puppy decided to pull them up and chew on them. 



So tonight as I ran into Wally World to buy some supplies for an impromptu tea party the girls and I are having since my husband went hunting, I bought some unsightly fencing to put around it...

*sigh*

It's All Fun and Games Until the Cops Show Up

Last Saturday night as we sat around the fire, eating ourselves sick delicately snacking on S'Mores, Studmuffin suddenly sat straight up in his chair and announced "I think I have a roman candle in the garage!"  And he was already rising and heading to the garage before he got the sentence out.

"Is that legal?"  Popcorn asked with great big eyes.

"No.  It's not."  I gave her (and her father) my no nonsense tone...

Studmuffin came jogging up to the fire pit and then he leaned forward to LIGHT THE STUPID THING IN THE FIRE, while the children ran for the house so they would be safe when the cops showed up.

I sputtered and stammered as I had horrific visions of that stupid thing, left over from July 4th, exploding in his hand...

He simply looked at me with a crazed, "I'm so doing this and nothings going to stop me" look in his eyes.

And the fireworks began.

And then they were over.  And Bookworm came away from the safety of the storm door, laughing with relief that Daddy didn't have a horrific burn from unsafe handling of fireworks, and Popcorn eventually made her way back to the fire sniffling and worrying that the cops were going to come and take Daddy away.

"Oh, Baby.  He won't get arrested.  At most he will have to pay a fine.  Like he had to do a few times before he decided that seat belts weren't really uncomfortable at all." 

She slowly stopped her crying, looked me dead in the eye, and said:

"Do NOT blog this."

I'm not at ALL sure he was remorseful.

Not. At.  All.

Peeps On a Stick

 Last week we finally fetched my girls from their grandparents after being away from home for eight whole days.  We met my dad at a nearby lake.  As we were headed out Studmuffin asked what we were doing about supper, "Because we will be getting there about 6 and you know the girls will be hungry."

So, we threw some drinks and condiments into an ice chest, grabbed a bag of charcoal and chips then ran into the store to grab enough hot dogs to feed a small army.  After all, my 16 year old nephew and one of his friends was going to be there too, so I figured it wouldn't be possible to have too much to eat.

Anyway, I have more to say about our trip to the lake, or rather to SHOW you about our trip, but today's post is not about the lake. It is about Peeps.

Or rather, S'mores made out of Peeps.  

 

Perhaps we should call them S'Meeps?

Why do all of my posts begin with topics that are irrelevant to my actual post?  Gentle Reader, it is entirely possible that you should pity the people who are frequently inundated with my circular conversations.

 So as we were dashing through the store, grabbing all beef hot dogs and buns, Studmuffin caught site of some Peeps.  "We should make S'mores out of those!"

 And so we did.

Pinkalicious

When my kids were at my folks Studmuffin took me to Freddy's Frozen Custard.

As we stood at the counter placing our order, the cashier looked out the window at all of the traffic stopped and said, "Oh my!  I wonder what is going on?"  And then we heard an ambulance siren and saw a pink ambulance blow through the intersection.

"Why look at that!  That ambulance is pink!  How cah-yoot!" bubbled the cashier.

Well, every bossy and opinionated particle of my being rose up in ire and came spewing out my mouth.  "I've been noticing those outside my hospital and they annoy the fire out of me.  Who paid for that pink paint?  The taxpayers?  An private donor?  What a waste of money!  It would be better served to just give the money for the paint to breast cancer research!  Just like when all of those football players wore pink accented uniforms with pink shoes and had special helmets and everything.  Instead of wasting all of that money on pink uniforms, how about just GIVING that money to cancer research!"

Strangely, she just kind of looked at me in shock.  And then she asked me if I wanted to make my single California steakburger a combo.

Studmuffin reached up and patted my shoulder and said "Yes she does."

And seeing a light at the end of my tirade she interjected, "Because you don't want to have to share yours, right?"

He readily agreed, grabbed our drink cups and ushered me over to the drink station where I couldn't pour out my wrath on any unsuspecting cashiers.

*Disclaimer:  Gentle Reader, please do not be mislead into thinking that I actually watched a football game or anything.  but I did hear about it.  And I was righteously indignant.

Oh yes I was.

P.S.  Studmuffin just told me that I should point out that people of a certain age should not wear clothing saying "Pink."  You know what he means.  Especially with the word across certain parts of the anatomy.
"Because once the letters bow outward..."

So While I Was Working My Fingers to the Nub

My kids decided to fly kites!

It was a beautiful sunny day with a very faint breeze.

Too much wind and the kite crashes before you can get it up in the air.

Not enough wind and you exhaust yourself trying to get the kite high enough to catch upper wind currents.

Either way, sometimes your string gets all tangled up and you find yourself sitting in the grass trying to figure out where it all went wrong.