It Was A Dark And Stormy Night

It's science fair time AGAIN.....and STILL....and any other word I can use instead of the expletive that I'd really prefer to think and say. Really--I'm glad the kids like them, but it's driving me CRAZY. The nice thing is that they're getting a little more independent in getting them done.

Independence, however, is a relative term. Tre' is independent, but his project involves driving to opposite sides of our valley at least once a week to collect water samples from natural springs and from golf courses (i.e.--Do golf courses cause pollution? As a side note--was that really a brilliant move on my part to suggest this since I'm employed by a golf course? Thank goodness the pollution is minimal--frankly, the coyotes cause more than the people!)

Our desert doesn't get a lot of rain--so when DJ heard that we were getting a rainstorm this weekend, he told Tre'. Tre' wanted to get samples before and after the storm, SO.....we started collecting water at 6:30. The desert (and golf course) are DARK at 6:30. We got through the golf course, and then headed up to the hills. Our home is a mile or two from the San Andreas fault line and we have a ridge of palm tree oases with natural streams, etc. It's also the home to several packs of coyotes--we can hear them frequently at night. It was blowing, cold, and dark by the time we got out of the car. I looked at my 7 year old, and he was wearing his snowboots from our trip to Utah (I've had to peel them off his feet several mornings on his way out to school. I will NOT have Napolean Dynamite for a child). We started hiking through the desert, and I went into "mom" mode (i.e. "If you let go of my hand the coyotes will eat you"). As a result, Josh was literally glued to my leg. Madi decided that it would be a lot of fun to howl at the coyotes--and I decided to join her--and then the coyotes decided to join in as well! Tre' kept disappearing into gloomy palm tree strands with a zillion coyote footprints leading in as well. I kept imaging a whole herd/flock/pack/snarl of them....waiting in the gloom....

Guess what--it was SO MUCH FUN!!!!!!!

I now have teenage kids (or at least one teenager and one who THINKS he is). I can remember growing up and having a boyfriend's mother "gently" tell me about how effective an apricot scrub could be (Sidetrack: Do you wonder why he was only a boyfriend? Can you imagine a lifetime of "gentle" comments like that one?)

My kids are blessed with good skin for teenagers--nice complexion, not too many "owies", etc. However, I noticed that Tre' was starting to get some blackheads and so I picked up the above-named apricot scrub to "help" him out; I told him that he needed to squeeze this out and mix it with a little bit of water and rub it on his face.

A couple of weeks passed...I asked him how it was going. He said he wasn't using it because it was "defective." "Defective?" was my reply..... "Yeah, defective. It has all these little pieces of rock inside of it." Pause. Laughter--from DJ and I.

Crickets

No--not the sporting event beloved by the British Empire. I'm talking the disgusting insect that infests the desert (as seen above). We have 3 geckos and a turtle (along with the 6 parakeets and the dog) as pets, and crickets are a staple of their diet. We had run out earlier in the week, so on Friday, I had to pick some up.

I was running late so I didn't pick them up on the way home from work, but after a ward activity (which ended up involving a Jello food fight, but we didn't start it. REALLY.), we had just enough time before the pet store closed to pick some up. Because I also had to pick up a birthday present for the following day with Madi, I sent Reagan and Tre' in with instructions to pick up 15 minnows (for the turtle) and 20 crickets (primarily for the lizards).

Imagine my surprise when I got a call from Reagan, just AFTER closing time, asking where I was because she had 200 crickets. 200 crickets? Did I hear wrong? Nope....she got it wrong by a factor of 10. 200 crickets. AAARGH! Oh well, the lizards wouldn't be hungry for a while, right?

WRONG--she got baby crickets instead of the regular large ones we go for, so the actual food content was probably about the same. Fine. We dumped them all in the cage. About 15 minutes later Madi was shrieking as the baby crickets came pouring out of the mesh top of the cage (about 1/8" square mesh holes). Yes, I now have 190 crickets jumping around my house (the lizards ate 10 to begin with). I have just enough time to call the bug guy......

Campaign 2010

We've move into election mode in the Risk house--every summer, we start plotting and planning our strategy and then we run through a variety of different logos with associated themes with focus groups (usually we'll find our focus group in the various friends over during the summer). Once we're good with what it looks like, we'll brand the entire campaign, from posters to the speech he'll give. Oh--and buttons. Did I mention those? This year, we've made over a thousand buttons to hand out at the schools.
Reagan is running for president and Tre' is running for vice-president in their middle school. Madi is running for vice president at her elementary school.
Reagan and Madi both liked the same theme--there have been a lot of discussions at their school between different groups of students (English vs. Spanish, etc.). They wanted to find a way to use all the different languages to say that everyone could like a candidate. We didn't want to limit it to just English and Spanish, so we went through a variety of languages (English, French, German, Russian, Mandarin, and Spanish). To honor Madi and her love for animals, we chose dogs from all the different countries. For the buttons, each button has one of the dogs and the phrase "I like Madi (or Reagan)" in the associated language. (At least I HOPE the button says that. I was relying on the translator that was in Word. As long as it doesn't say "Eat at Joe's", we'll be fine.) You can see their posters above--with the pronunciations for each phrase. We'll see how it works out.

My Josh turned 7--and he's been SO excited about it (Poor kid--first day of school and it's your birthday. That's got to stink!) When we've been asking him what he wanted, he's listed things like "an Android phone" (good luck on that one), a million dollars, 36 video games, and a go-kart. However, he's always listed a remote control helicopter as well. OK--we could do the remote control helicopter (we sure weren't doing the million dollars).

He opened it, started it up, and started the hovering process. I've neglected to inform you of the birthday cake that was sitting right in front of him, in its double decker glory. I've also neglected to let you know that I was sitting to the side of the cake, where the reflected trajectory of frosting and cake "could" splatter if the helicopter was to stop hovering.

It did. Josh DIDN'T stop the blades from rotating either. Neither the cake nor I looked fabulous after that.

When You Wish Upon A Star....

There's a lot of reasons to love August in our family. After all, who can't love 120 degree weather in the desert (although that doesn't hold true this year--we've been rather cool for most of the summer in the low 100s!) We have Madi's and Josh's birthdays to celebrate, we have back to school shopping (thanks Kristen for taking Reagan!), we always have new releases of books (can't wait for Mockingjay!), and we have the Perseid meteor showers.

Last year, we didn't get to enjoy these because DJ was still on his way back from Alaska, and I was lazy and slept. This year, however, we wanted the best seat in the house. That seat is found up at the back entrance to Joshua Tree National Park. We headed up there with our beach chairs, drinks, and snacks--of course. Actually, before we headed out, our little black Pomeranian decided to bolt--and YOU try finding a little black pom in the dark WHEN THERE ARE NO STREET LIGHTS!!!!!!!! We eventually got on the road.

Once we hit Joshua Tree, there's a pull off we go to every year, with a nice wide concrete area, with plenty of space to set up the chairs. The stars were amazing--it's scary how much gets filtered out around civilization. The Milky Way stretched from horizon to horizon. We made plans that when we saw a shooting star, we'd say "12 o'clock", "3 o'clock", "6 o'clock" or "9 o'clock." I don't think we did that once--it was just "OOOHH look at that" or "THERE." Lots of laughs, giggles, and kids sneaking up behind mommy to put there fingers on her and say, "Is that a tarantula?" We also told the story of DJ's first Christmas gift to me--he did that "Name a Star" radio thing. We found where it was on the star charts, went out to look for it--and then (dramatic pause here)--it fell. Right then, right there. Who would have thought it?

We stayed for about 1 1/2 hours, and saw 100 falling stars (more or less--I think Josh may have been counting by twos--or maybe it was me towards the end). There were a couple of brilliant ones that lit up the sky, but most were fleeting. I'm glad we took the moment to enjoy--and continue the tradition. Star watching next fall anyone?

Arachnophobia

A couple of days ago, I woke up, got ready for work, looked down at my leg and thought--"Huh. I must have had an ant bite." (One of the glories of the desert is the fact that we don't have mosquitoes. That's right. NONE.)

Later that day, I thought, "Huh. That ant bite is really itching!" Then it turned into, "That hurts!" By the time I got home, tore off my suit and looked down at my calf, it was swollen, had a bright red patch about 6 inches by 3 inches, and did NOT feel good. DJ slathered on the cortisone cream and a huge piece of gauze.

Let me introduce our major predator in the desert. Her name is Latrodectus mactans--and she is a tricky little devil. She's a lady of the night (in the best possible sense) but has a zillion kids.

It's a black widow. She must have thought I was tasty. By the time I discovered what had happened, it was too late for anything besides cortisone and Advil (also Benadryl with the added benefit of sleeping soundly through the night!). It's much better now, but I think I'll take the mosquitoes from now on.