The Curse of the Purple Toothbrush

It happened again. It's going to wreck our marriage. Dr. O and I are going on a date tonight and as I am cheerfully getting ready....you know makeup, perfume, brush teeth, deodorant, things that don't normally happen....that's when I did it. I reach for the toothbrush and start brushing. About halfway through my brushing session I realize that I have the PURPLE toothbrush! Drat! The purple toothbrush is not mine. It belongs to Dr. O. I get the blue one. I'm not sure how this absurd discombobulation of toothbrushes occurred, because I always pick the girl color, but somehow, this time, it all came out wrong. The problem is, I always reach for the purple Reach....not only that but I have a tendency to demolish my toothbrush. After I use a toothbrush for three weeks it looks like I've been using it for three years. The blue strip is gone. The bristles are almost totally flattened. It looks like the toothbrush that you have been cleaning toilets with (that in no way should reflect how you view the quality of my mouth or my speech). So I have been merrily demolishing two toothbrushes this round because the only time I remember who's is who's is when Dr. O grabs his first. He ALWAYS grabs, or rather snatches, his first when we are together, which is very helpful. But when I am alone just cannot come to grips with this blue toothbrush thing. My sweet husband tries to be patient, but I know he hates it. Every time he looks at his PURPLE toothbrush, I can see him eying the flattened bristles and the disappearing blue strip, and I know he is wondering how many times I have used it. Tons! I have used it tons and tons! I try to tell him that it is kind of like kissing me....really he should be thrilled that I am using his toothbrush....sigh....I think it is time to buy new toothbrushes, I guess our marriage is worth the four dollars. This time I get the girl color.

1 purple toothbrush +1 blue toothbrush =1 confused Missus

Hairdos

This is for Lara...I'm glad you like the do! I like to do my daughters hair...however, sometimes Beppina doesn't have the patience for me and sometimes I don't have the patience for her! I have checked out a few hair-do blogs and find that most of them are way too complex or just silly looking; not generally conducive to mother daughter bonding. The one blog that I like is Girly Do's by Jenn. Generally simple, fun and easy...and not stupid looking!

Recipe for a cool hairdo:
1 cool blog (not this one)
1 cool daughter (get your own)
1 cool mom (it's okay if you're not always cool)

The Month of July

Here we are at the end of July and it has been quite an eventful month. I won't bore you with travelogue - mostly 'cause we didn't go anywhere - but I will bore you with some of this month's activities:

On the third of July, we went early in the morning to watch the balloon festival. They launch about 6:30a - we made it just in time - then they spend the next hour and a half dropping things on the ground in some sort of balloon competition. For the most part, the kids like the donuts that we buy for this occasion - it's likely the only time they get donuts. Then the sun rises so it's shining right in our face, so the kids get bored and want to go home. Perhaps next year we'll get there earlier and sit on the opposite side of the field...

Daughter Beppina got all gussied up for the fourth (which we actually spent up in Idaho with my mother - so I lied, this is a travelogue). The missus likes to do those fancy doos that make little girls sparkle, so she did this patriotic star for the 4th of July. We spent the evening ducking illegal fireworks that my brother shot off at a park near the airport. There were no casualties, but there were a lot of glowsticks, s'mores in mom's backyard, and even a night in the tent.

After we got back home, it started to get really hot. Believe it or not, it took until the middle of July to get hot here in Utah. When it gets hot here, we have just a few options: either we can while away a summer day or sprout wings and go crazy in the house. That's what son Giovanni likes to do.

Days like that, the missus doesn't have a lot of patience. Our children spend a lot of time getting ants wet.

An alternative which we decided to explore was a trip to our local reservoir. The water was muddy and it cost us $10 to park the van, but all in all, it seems the kids had a good time. Little Raphael spent a little time in the waves, eating licorice:

The other kids got their life vests on and dared to venture out past the weeds. I got muddy:

All in all, the $10 surcharge and the dead bugs didn't spoil our fun.

Finally, we spent the 24th of July in classic pioneer fashion: lighting off fireworks before dark so we could put the kids to bed before ten. There was some good homemade ice cream that got mostly eaten by our neighbors and friends - there was even a batch that didn't quite turn out, so noone got to eat it but us...mmm...

That was our month in a nutshell. Now it's back to writing the ol' dissertation for me (okay, I confess, I'm not a doctor yet...) and going crazy with bat-boy in the house for the missus.

Sleepy Children
1 Balloon fest
1 Fancy hair-do
1 Bat-boy adventure
1 Piece of licorice and some waves
Lots of ice-cream and fireworks
$10

How to While Away a Hot Summer Day

• 1 four year old boy
• 1 Spiderman water bottle (it's okay if it's broken, logo is optional)
• 268 free refills
• infinite number of things to dump water on: ants, rocks, feet, flowers, little brothers, older sisters, etc.
  

Salsa, or summer goodness

Sometimes when I am alone I talk to myself....okay, all the time I am alone I talk to myself. Sometimes I have a pseudo conversation but mostly I just pretend off-the-wall things. Like yesterday I was pretending that I was on food network teaching everyone how to make fresh salsa. I really do like to make salsa. I like to eat salsa. It tastes like summer. It's easy and I think I have a good formula. So here is my formula. And just imagine me in my kitchen talking to myself because I will never be on the food network!

Salsa
or
summer goodness: chopped up small

start with the fruit

(Tomatoes...or if you are feeling it: mangoes, pineapple or peaches)
this is the base and you should have more of this than anything else

add mild peppers
(any color of bell, or Anaheim peppers)
I usually add about 1/2 as much as I have fruit, but you may use as much as you like

add onions
a little less than the peppers

add cilantro
a little less than the onion but don't skimp...cilantro brings a good fresh taste to salsa

add hot pepper
jalapeno or Serrano
chop this up really small, as small as you can get it
I always start with about 1/2 as much as I think I might need...you can always add more but you can't take it out. Peppers are hottest if they come from hot climates. Peppers from Mexico are hotter than peppers from Idaho. Generally your store will tell you where the peppers are from so you can know what to expect. The hottest part of the pepper is just around the seeds so if you want to you can cut that out. I find that a salsa without hot peppers is somewhat flat, so even if you want a mild salsa you should add a little.

something acidic
(vinegar, lemon juice, lime juice)
each will give a slightly different flavor but you need one of these to bring the flavors together

Salt
enough to balance the acid

Sugar
just a little to bring out the tomato flavor, you can skip this if you a using a sweet fruit

Now you have your basic salsa. Chop it how you like it, or put it in the blender. I can tell when I have a good mix by how pretty it is, a good mix of colors will give a good flavor. Mix it up, taste frequently and let it sit just a bit before serving. You might also like to add: Black beans, corn, tomatillas, zucchini, garlic powder or cumin.

If your salsa is too hot: add more fruits and vegetables; beans and zucchini especially will soak up the heat. If that doesn't work try cooking the salsa; that will soften the heat considerably.

...and of course, talking to yourself makes the salsa taste just a little bit better...

Happiness

Happiness is as a butterfly which, when pursued, is always beyond our grasp, but which if you will sit down quietly, may alight upon you.
-Nathaniel Hawthorne

Pleasure is very seldom found where it is sought. Our brightest blazes are commonly kindled by unexpected sparks.
~Samuel Johnson

Unexpected Things that Make Me Happy

1. Giving cookies to a fat baby. It must be a fat baby though, it is not as fun when they are thin.
   
2. Pushing my kids super high on the swing set. Super, super high.
   
3. Listening to opera music. I know, that's just weird.
4. Throwing away toys. Nothing satisfies me more than to get rid of a whole bunch of obnoxious toys.
   
5. Playing Kreutzer Etudes. I always hated etudes when I was younger. Now I love the constancy and the flow of them. Funny how we change.
6. Pickles. No explanation needed here.
7. Baseball Tonight. For some reason when we get home at the end of the day and my honey turns on Baseball Tonight, it feels good. Even when the Cubs lose.
   

Redemption

No one wants to play through the loser's bracket, so losing in a double-elimination tournament is always best to avoid. Most important is to avoid losing your first game of the tournament, because then playing through the loser's bracket just means you have to win more games or go home. But that's exactly what my city team did just a week ago. Well, you say, it happens, right? Sure it does. But when it happened to my team, it also happened to me. You see, with two outs in the bottom of the last inning, I was the tying run, up to bat. Hero situation. Slow. Pitch. Softball.

I grounded out.

Now, we're not just playing through the loser's bracket, we're playing through the loser's bracket.

Monday was our first loser's-bracket game and we take the field first. I'm playing left because our left-fielder is pitching (I usually play rover - the tenth position in softball). I'm thinking to myself, this is a moderately tough bracket, but I'm a moderately tough softball player. I've got to redeem myself so everyone forgets I got the last out in the first tournament game. What better place for me to do that than here, in the outfield, where playing well is second nature to me.

So imagine this: first man up to bat, blooper to right; second man up to bat, grounder to rover; third man up to bat, blooper to rover. Bases loaded, number four coming up. In baseball, they call number four the clean-up batter, because he's the first one to take a shot at "cleaning up" the loaded bases in a game (which rarely happens in reality, but for some reason Monday, was the case). Well, I was ready. I was going to redeem myself.

Fourth man up to bat, line drive down the left field line. I will pick that ball up and throw it home. I will pick that ball up and throw it home. I will...and the ball bounces right over my glove and rolls to the fence. By the time choice words were spoken and the ball was finally flying to the third baseman, fourth man up to bat was 10 steps from home.

0 outs; four runs in the first inning; not the best way to start a game.

Redemption
1 Blooper to right
1 Grounder to rover
1 Blooper to rover
1 Line drive that bounces casually over your glove

This recipe is guaranteed to make your teammates forget you got the last out of the previous game.

Water is Cool

How to Float a Pin in Water

• 1 glass of water
• 1 sewing pin
• a heaping tablespoon of patience

P.S. It's not really floating it is just being held by the surface tension of the water. Here is one my five year old did. If you like this check out Walter Wick's book A Drop of Water, and learn more about how cool water is.

Memory of my father

When my father got really sick, my sister starting making a photo slideshow of my father's life, with a soundtrack. One of the songs that accompany the photos was one of those new-fangled versions of Somewhere Over the Rainbow. The video played and re-played during the three hours my family greeted guests at my father's viewing, so in the background of this somber (well, as somber as my family can be - which actually wasn't very somber) occasion was this constant, though quiet, soundtrack of my dad's life. And sometimes we'd hear Somewhere Over the Rainbow. I imagine every time I hear that song, from now until I die, I'll think of my dad.

My wife has one of those new-fangled versions, though it's different than the one playing on my dad's video. Still, her CD was playing tonight (yes, we still listen to CDs) and once again, I heard Somewhere Over the Rainbow playing in the background of my life. I was picking up after my son at the time, who had spread all the pens and pencils we own on the ground to lay the plans for a house. One of those pencils was a black-painted Scripture Marker that is popular among Mormons. I picked that pencil up while Somewhere Over the Rainbow played.

Anyone who knew my father - Mormon or not - knew he loved the Mormon church. And he was a seminary teacher by trade, so he had a lot of those pencils sitting around the house while I was growing up. They remind me of a lot of things - mostly of the number of times I went to the junk drawer searching for a regular pencil and could only find a couple of old Scripture Markers (which, by the way, only write in red). But when I picked up the only Scripture Marker pencil we own this evening, I was reminded of my father and his love for all things Mormon - but in particular, his love for the scriptures.

I thank God he left that love to me before he died.


One Memory of My Father
1 New-fangled version of Somewhere Over the Rainbow
1 Black-painted Scripture Marker
Hundreds of early mornings around the kitchen table, reading from the Good Books

Chocolate Chip Cookies

I've decided that I want to be a chocolate chip cookie mom. I think that there is something cozy and loving and friendly about chocolate chip cookies and that's the kind of mom I want to be. Generally I'm the stingy mom. I don't like junk food. No fruit snacks, no sugar cereal, no white bread and chips are only for field trips. We get desert once a week, and I throw away any leftover Halloween candy when my kids aren't looking. However in my quest to be a good mom, I can miss something. This week everyone is tired, everyone is a little sad and I think chocolate chip cookies can help a lot. I still firmly believe that one really good way to heal tiredness and sadness is by taking care of your body and that means eating right, but it sure can bring a lot of joy to your home when you sit around the table eating cookies and milk with your kids. So I decided to make more cookies! My mother has a fabulous cookie recipe and I have altered it slightly over the years to fit our family. Go make some cookies and give your kids a smile!

Chocolate Chip Cookies

1/2 cup sugar
1 1/4 cups brown sugar

1 cup butter (softened, unless you are Becca)

2 eggs
2 cups flour
1 cup ground up oats (I just use a blender)
1 tsp. vanilla
3/4 tsp. salt
3/4 tsp. soda
1 pkg, semi sweet chocolate chips

Cream together butter and sugar. Add remaining ingredients. Drop onto cookie sheet. Bake at 350 for 10 minutes.