Consumer Alert

We went to Seven Peaks--one of those water parks on steroids--this week, and it was fun! But let's not dwell on the positive. I had bought a can of spray-on sunscreen, because that extra effort of having to RUB on the stuff had gotten to be just too much for me. So I sprayed, and I sprayed, and I sprayed my little heart out. The girls were covered. (And by girls I mean the real, little human girls--not "THE GIRLS" like they mean on Oxygen T.V. Although, those ones were covered too, and the world thanks me.) I sprayed some shots on me in what I like to call the 'a sunburn here makes me incredibly grouchy' spots. Mainly, these spots are the very top of my legs, the bendy area just next to the armpits, and my back and shoulders. All of these are areas that hurt like the dickens when trying to sleep, move or breathe. On top of that, they are NEVER exposed unless I'm at the pool, and then I just pretend I'm invisible anyway. So why have them tan? This is my reasoning for just hitting them with sunscreen from the get-go. (I have many rituals, er routines, when it comes to sun exposure, but let's save that for another time. Can't wait.)

After we'd been at the park a couple of hours, I started to notice the girls (again...real little humans) getting a tad pink. So I reapplied. I know you're always supposed to do that with any sunscreen, but I usually don't and have never had trouble with it. But this time I DID. On them, mind you--not on me, because I can't SEE me nor the lobsterish transformation beginning to take place.

Soooo, you might have guessed by now that my new spray sunscreen did not work all that well. A half hour after leaving the park, we were in pain. The girls (again...) weren't terribly red, but they're little girls and felt for sure that they were going to die of pain. Since I'd used it only on the above-mentioned never exposed parts, I couldn't see the red, but I sure began to feel it. It's 3 days later, and I finally can wear clothing again (not that I am, but I could if I wanted to. hee).

In case you missed it, I set out to protect the tenderest parts from sun damage, and by so doing, ended up burning them and only them. That, my folks, is what people like to call irony.

But here's the public service part: DO NOT BUY BANANA BOAT KIDS SPF 30 SPRAY SUNSCREEN.

Learn from my mistakes. Now that I think about it, that could be the theme of my blog. "Learn From My Mistakes."

And maybe it'd make me smarterer

I want one of these so bad I can taste it! (Not sure what that means, hmmm)

Here's the top 4 reasons I need a SmartCar:

4. I'd be saving the planet
3. I'd be saving money on gas
2. I'd be saving my sanity, since there's no room for kids or dogs, if you KWIM
and
1. I'd look incredibly cute.

Afterall, what else really matters?

They're Ba-ack

It's that time of year again, and hallelujah that it came earlier this year than usual. MY TEENAGERS ARE BACK!! They were only out in California 2 weeks this time, but it always seems longer than it actually is. (How we'll survive college and missions, I don't know. Maybe cloning will be viable by then.) Shnookies 3 and 4 were beside themselves. They decorated the garage with Welcome Home signs, and they made Boozer a T-shirt to wear. Pics:

Doesn't Shnook 2 look so much older? She got a chic new do, which we l-o-o-o-v-e! And Boozer wearing clothing? I could not stop laughing. UNTIL...he went in the back yard and it got in the way of his 'business.' Not pretty.

The boy was so happy to be reunited with his dog. I may frame this pic, since I caught him actually smiling.

So they got home Sunday late afternoon. On Monday morning early, Shnookie 2 went to Especially For Youth (a week-long conference for teens) in Logan. Shnookie 4 was NOT happy about this arrangement. She's quite sure we did this just to tick her off. And when her brother left on Wednesday for a 4-day scout camp, that was all the confirmation she needed of her conspiracy theory. She may never trust us again.

All the good ones wear red hats

I am really, really supposed to be asleep. But I don't think I am. And in my sleeplessness, I remembered a funny story that NEEDS to be told before I can sleep.

A couple years ago, my friend Merrie and I took our youngest children to Boondocks--a place with a huge arcade, bumper boats, paintball, etc. (Yes, we had some money we needed to get rid of.) One of the automatic ticket counter machines gypped me out of a few tickets (heaven forbid...cuz there's a big difference in quality between those 30 ticket items and the 33 ticket ones). So I told the red-hatted employee at the front desk. She said she'd page the repair guy, that I should wait for him by the machine. I did that for about five minutes, which is about four minutes longer than I'm comfortable standing, and then I sidled on over to the closest bench.

I'm still within sight of the machine, but I'm nervous that I'll miss the repair guy. After another 10 minutes, I'm getting pretty worried that I've missed him and that he's on to resolving other mother's desperate problems. But behold, I see a guy approach in a red hat and work shirt, looking around. I run over there lickety-split and breathlessly say to him, "Are you the one I've been waiting for?" This gentleman looks at me, raises his eyebrows, and then says, "I don't think my wife would think so." I follow his gaze to the table full of his family, celebrating someone's birthday.

Wow. Did we have a chuckle over that one.

And, of course, the actual repair guy showed up a few minutes later; greasy, long hair hanging out of his red hat, stale smoke on his breath and a huge God complex due to his power over my fate. Made me want to run back to the happily married man and say, "Okay, I get it, but are you any good with a wrench?"

And now.... I can sleep .... my humiliation lives on the internet.

Farewell Friends and Fame (a tad too dramatic perhaps??)

In scrapping news...I haven't been doing much of it. Okay, none. I was on 2 teams for years, and loved it, because my dear designer friends, Shawna Clingerman and Kim Giarrusso, are full-on amazing with their talents. And I got to play with all of their stuff! Well, Kim had a baby AND took over The Digi Chick (not as in hostile takeover, lol), so she stopped designing. Something about not having any time? Wha...? 4 kids under 5 and running a business, whatever! So Kim gracefully released all of us on her team a few months ago.

Shawna also had a baby, and was knock-down, drag out sick the whole pregnancy. So I'd been able to keep up with her team...UNTIL she popped that baby out. It's been kit this and kit that ever since (she's like a maniacal creative genius these days!) That's when I started falling behind until I finally feel like this huge dead weight on the team. You see, I have actually been able to be on my feet the last 6 months, and I've discovered that I've got A LOT of real-life making up to do. HURRAY that I've got that much energy back!!! But BOOOoooooo that every detail of raising a family and keeping a house waited around for me. (I don't know why...I don't even do it that well.)

So, although I LOVE scrapbooking, and it has quite literally saved my sanity during the last five years, I have to face the fact that I am just not team material right now. So I resigned from Shawna's team. Sniff. Of course, I can still scrapbook when I have a few minutes, so what I'll really be missing is the on-line community I've been a part of. Those relationships I've formed are as real to me as any I've ever had, and because of how these people got me through my illness, many of them are like family to me. What a gift that is! So I'm NOT giving that gift back, I just know that I won't be on expanding it. Sigh.

And THEN, I'm going through my old emails yesterday and find this one from Digital Scrapbooking Magazine:

I’m writing to you because Digital Scrapbooking magazine and Adobe needs your help for an upcoming project.

Adobe is holding an event in New York City for the consumer press including Family Circle, Modern Bride and Seventeen magazines on June 24. They would like to provide their attendees with sample scrapbook pages created using Photoshop Elements and have asked Digital Scrapbooking to provide samples.

Your layout “Ordinary Magic” from the December/January issue of Digital Scrapbooking magazine is one of the ones we’d like them to show off. We have your layout in smaller form but in order for Adobe to print it out at 12 x 12, we need a new file. Any chance you could use yousendit.com to send me a 12 x 12 300 dpi version of the layout? I will need to receive these files by Thursday evening at the latest so Adobe can have them printed.

NOT a good email to find a month too late. Sigh. But it feels good to (almost) be recognized for something artistic, and I'm thinking "Can I give this up?" Looking for reassurance, last night I say to Hubby, "Am I doing the right thing?" And in his own acutely perceptive way, he says... (wait for it) ... "I dunno."

And this is why I keep him around??? (JK, Honey, I wuuuuuuv you!)

Luckily, I know it's the right thing to do, and I am so grateful and happy to be at this place in my life. I need to dig my heels in and make some magic happen around here!

But is it too much to wish that somebody would recognize my contributions at "an event" in New York City? It could happen. Bathroom Weekly may want to showcase my tips on shining a toilet as only I can do.

(Note to self: Ask cleaning lady how she shines the toilet.)