Ferris wheel, anybody?

These three are three peas in a pod.  They are cousins, each of their dads are brothers and they are relatively close in age.  They each live hours away from each other but when they come together, they are inseparable.

This ferris wheel is at Balboa Island in Newport Beach, California.  We go there every year.

This thing goes around at a pretty good clip.  Thank goodness for digital cameras because I had to take a ba-gillion pictures to get one in focus and one with their faces while the wheel was turning.

Have I said how hot it is?

No, really, have I mentioned how hot it is here lately?  Well, it is.  Really, really hot.  The photos above and below have not been "doctored" in any way and show the temperature of my C O L D water, unfortunately.  It very accurately depicts how crazy hot my kitchen faucet is (and every other faucet in my house is for that matter). 

Each night when I wash my face, I have to put the soap in the palm of my hand, turn on the faucet for a brief second, lather up, then tun it off.  I slather the face cleaner onto my face and then....turn on the faucet and as quickly as possible, splash the less than scolding hot water on my face before it turns to hot lava!  Once the water is hot lava, I brush my teeth with it.  It's very unpleasant.  If our water heater is broken, I probably won't realize it until October.  I"m not kidding.  The cold water that comes out of our fridge is only really cool between the hours of 3 am and 5 am, other than that, it's luke warm (slight exaggeration on my part).  Happy Fall everyone!

Frodo is back!

I don't know why but this guy seems to show up all over the house.  Look closely, he's there, Frodo, that is. Unfortunately I didn't locate him until after we had over 45 teenagers and their leaders over for a Sunday night fireside.

When I came home from work the other night, I noticed Frodo's head was placed on top of Cole's face (third from the left).  Cole isn't here to defend himself (he's in Japan, don't you know) but don't worry, his little brother came to his rescue and put Frodo on the culprit's head (second from left), Truman.

 One time he showed up on the inside of they boys' toilet lid.  No one knew he was there until they had to take a tinkle. I must admit, potty humor plus Frodo gives me the giggles.  Simple pleasures.

It still makes me laugh.  I can't help it. 

What is he going to call you?

One of the most often asked question I get since Emily had Winston last December 22nd is,

"What is he going to call you?"

"Mrs. Tipton," I usually reply or "Aunt Tracy."  Some people think its' funny, others, well, I don't know what they think.  This is the product of having my own daughter at 21 (almost 22) and then she in turn has her own child at 21.  There, you can do the math now on my age. 

I figure he'll call me what he calls me.  My nephew was the first grandchild on both sides and once he started talking, he couldn't pronounce Grandma, so Bama came out and it stuck.  Both grandmas were and still are called Bama and Kelly is well over 30.  Whatever Winston calls me will be his choice, as long as it's not....grandma!

I mean, can you stand it?

My feet hurt.

I am a master of copying other people's stuff.  Recently we went up to Prescott for my nephew's baptism.  His mom, my sister-in-law, had painted this wall treatment on her fireplace surround.  Then, I found out my other sister-in-law had just painted the same thing on her entry way and dining room.  I had to try it.  Below are the results.

It got quite wonky in places but the pattern is forgiving and hopefully only I can tell.

Climbing up and down the ladder to reach the 10 foot high walls kind of killed my feet, a lot.  I'm pretty sure my neck and back will never be the same.  Pretty sure.

But, it turned out nice and only cost me $3 for a special 1/4 inch paint brush from Hobby Lobby.  If I had been more patient, I could have found a coupon and gotten it even cheaper!  I used old paint that was gummy and dried almost before I could put it on the wall.  That wasn't fun.  I had grand ideas of going around the corner to the left of the picture over the den but once I got started, I nixed that crazy idea real fast!

You dress like an old lady.

A week ago, the day before school started, I went to the dollar movies with Truman and his friend, Cameron.  They were going to meet a couple of girls there so I invited myself to go with.  Two hours in an air conditioned, theatre isn't so bad.  The two girls came in after the movie had already started and sat in front of me...the boys joined them.  When the movie was over we all walked out together.  One of the girls said,

 "Look you two have the same pants on." 

I realized she was talking about me and her friend.  Then the sweet girl said,

"That means either you dress like an old lady or she (meaning me) dresses like a teenager!" 

Honest, actual quote here.  I couldn't leave it alone and said

"Did you just call me an old lady?"

the same time as her friend, my pants twin, said,

"We just shop at the same store!"  in a very embarrassed tone.

Ah youth.  Word to the wise, Down East Basic clothing store sells pants to teenagers and old ladies!  Buyer beware.

Shrinky Dinks

Quinn and a friend making Shrinky Dinks....I don't have any pictures of the actual "dinks" because they got really small when they shrunk.  Go figure.  I loved making Shrinky Dinks with my childhood best friend, Kristine, when we were kids.  I keep trying to make my kids love it as much as I did.  Today's fun lasted maybe a total of 15 minutes, hopefully the memory will last a lot longer than that!