A Super Saturday--Bunches of Stuff

Lots of good things happening here today.

Last night, my super-hero husband made me my new laundry shelves. This will revolutionize laundry in our house:


So that we can reclaim this:


For it's true purpose!

I never, ever, ever thought this would happen to me, but I now have a library in my house! I've kind-of always mused about having a library and how nice it would be. When I was decluttering, I decided to pull all of the books out of the kids rooms so that I could see what books we had, which ones to get rid of and then reorganize them. They all ended up in the basement. As I rearranged the kiddos' rooms, I realized that they don't really have room for so many books in their rooms and we settled on letting them have book baskets in their rooms where they can keep the books that they check out from the local library and a small selection of our household books. That means that most of the books in the house are now in the basement and I spent a few hours organizing them tolerably onto the shelves (hated every minute of that!!). We are awaiting some bean bag type chairs so that we'll have comfy seating. I'm so happy about it!

The first peony of the season:


And some columbines:


There are either a lot of bugs in my house to support the spiders, or just a lot of emaciated spiders. I vacuumed up a whole lot of old, dust-filled spider webs today. Whenever I do that I live in mortal fear that the spiders will come and get me in my sleep!

And then there's this ant. I call this photo, "Ant's Last Drink" and I'm sure It'll make me famous some day! Ha!:



Either way, he was on his way out. He had almost reached the ant "hotel" filled with ant poison, when he drowned in a puddle. Did you know that my kitchen counter ALWAYS has puddles on it!!?

I still have one more room in which I need to wash the walls. I only wash the walls once in a blue moon, so this is quite an accomplishment and I'm going to insist on having a gold star for this one.

Speaking of gold stars, May is quite an adored young lady. Her teachers always pay the highest compliments to her. Her choir teacher gave her excellent marks and left the comment, "Can we clone her?"

Elijah and Brigham got summer haircuts yesterday, but not the usual quarter-inch or eighth-inch type that we used to give. Nathan has asked to grow his hair out like some of the kids at school. I told him yes and he's already practicing the bang flipping technique that he so admires in others.

Sariah went to a birthday party today. She's just ecstatic whenever she gets invited to a party. She has been going around this week telling me that she can't believe she's going to a party, which has shifted this afternoon to, "I can't believe that I got to go to the party." That's gratitude for ya!

That about sums it up for my day.

Joseph and Nathan are off buying lumber for the next exciting project for the summer!

This Bloggy's Going Private

For various reasons, I've decided to make my blog (and my kids' blogs) private. Do me a favor, please? If you read my blog and enjoy it, just send me an e-mail (cindimartineau@gmail.com) and I'll send you an invite (in a week or two when I actually make the switch).

Thanks for being understanding!!

P.S. Here's an excellent post that talks about blog safety!

What a Find!

On the way out of the doctor's office this morning, Sariah and I saw a huge, very cold moth on the side walk. When I picked it up to get it out of the way, it gave us this fine display (wingspan approx. 5"). I've never seen one of these before:


This afternoon, after picking up the kids, we headed to the local Nature Center just to see these Spring flowers. These are an invasive species, but they sure are pretty when they are all in bloom:

A New Blogging Toy

I received a recommendation this weekend about a program that's might be a fun addition to blogging called Windows Live Writer.

I downloaded Windows Live Writer this evening to give it a go.  By giving the program access to my blog address and password as well as my Feed ID which I finally found in the address bar, WLW detected my set-up so that I can see what my posts will actually look like before posting (which I've never been able to do with Blogger).  However, I've downloaded another piece of freeware.  Zoinks!

Over on the right hand side there is a column that tells me I can insert several different things into my posts: hyperlinks, pictures, tables, maps, tags (I wonder what those are), and videos.  I'm going to have to play around with this the next time I post with pictures etc.  I'm not seeing how I'm going to add labels.  But, look, I can add cool fonts not available in Blogger, so even if I have to go back and add my labels, maybe this is all worth it???

The BLOB

Just listen to this description:

"Beware of the Blob!" One of the great cult classics, THE BLOB melds '50s schlock sci-fi and teen delinquency pics even as it transcends these genres with strong performances and ingenious special effects. Made outside of Hollywood by a maverick film distributor...80 MINTUES OF CONCENTRATED MOTION PICTURE TERROR! IN BLOOD-CURDLING COLOR!

Now if that's not enough to get you to run out and rent this flick, maybe my review will help.

I took this recommendation from another blog, suggested by Heidi, I believe.

I'm really not one for horror/terror of any kind. The first Harry Potter had me hyperventilating and gave me nightmares as did the Lord of the Rings, even with silly looking special effects.

Joseph and I sat there eating our Panchero's chicken salads as the movie started. We were excited that the movie stars Steve McQueen from Joseph's favorite movie of all time "The Great Escape." A meteorite falls and an old man comes to the scene where he pokes at it and finds some slimy gook. Suddenly the slimy gook sticks to the old man's hand and he can't get it off. Steve and his date almost run into the old man on the road and take him to the Dr. We get a glimpse of his awful looking hand and I almost lose my salad. (I do not know why this is happening to me. I used to have a stomach of steel and not the least bit of a gag reflex. My family used to talk about the grossest things at dinnertime. Now, just the slightest provocation and I turn green.) Nothing much uphill from there.

I decided that I'm not watching horror flicks. There is no happy ending. They dump this large pile of reddish gook that has swallowed 40-50 people into the arctic and say, "We are safe as long as the arctic stays frozen." How prophetic can you get? And I'm left wondering what giant thing will swallow me in the night as global warming unleashes this awful monster...

Yard Sale

I will clear the suspense, first off, by saying that I DID make enough money to buy the wheat grinder. My neighbor can't even fathom that I would spend my money that way. "You're buying a WHAT?" I have also located a generous sponsor who is willing to support me in the purchase of a mixer so I don't have to knead my bread by hand any more. I can hardly believe it! And having recently cleared a bunch of counter space, it only makes sense to fill it again, doesn't it? Thanks, J!

This year I had a yard sale, not a garage sale. I don't know how it works for most people, but for me, it's a garage sale if I park myself in the garage and a yard sale if I sit in the yard to help the customers. It was such a beautiful day, how could I not sit in the yard and have a Yard Sale? For some of the day, I sat in the shade of this tree:


And worked on my current afghan project which I'm making for our living/family room.

The publicity department did an excellent job this year. Signs were posted on busy intersections and just forget about the lousy newspaper ad which not only costs too much, but doesn't bring around any more customers than the signs do.

My brother wanted to know just how often we do garage sales and are they popular in our neck of the woods. Well, yes, they are pretty popular. There are people around here who have an annual yard sale. My first sale was about 3-4 years ago. The next one was last August coinciding with my basement flooding. And finally, the current sale which started and ended on Saturday. I'm kind-of hoping it will be my last, but I forgot how interesting it can be to talk to lots of people of all walks of life. I have promised myself that I will go through all of my possessions again in 6-12 months to make sure that I'm really done getting rid of things. It's easier to let go of things with each sweep through the house, but it takes a lot of self-discipline for me to carry out this grand scale de-cluttering project. Ideally, I would do it this November though so that I can really accomplish my one New Year's Resolution which was to declutter, organize and start living a simpler life.

Here's a run down on some of the interesting folks I met yesterday:

--one guy told me that he can do five yard sales in thirty minutes, but has to wait for his wife to go through each object. He talked politics to me in a very quick fashion speaking of oil prices and presidential assassination.

--one lady asked me if she could use my bathroom. Ummmm, I'm not very comfortable with that!

--one little boy drove a hard bargain and bought a little car set that had been marked fifty cents, for five cents.

--one man came and started cleaning out my videos and books and was talking about cutting a deal, even though my videos were only 25 cents and my books 10 cents. I felt I should go and ask him why he wanted so many. It was a great lesson on why humans need to communicate. I had felt a little annoyed with him at first, but then I found out that he owns a book/collectibles store and does free book day once a year. He told me that he always runs out of children's books. Of course, I cut him a huge deal after that so that he can give books to kids. What a great cause! And in some small way, I'm now part of it!

--a lady showed up near the very end and we started talking a lot as she was the last customer and wanted to go through all the clothes. We got talking about religion. How I love it when people will talk about religion with me! I learned that she was a Baptist and I had a long held fear of mine dispelled...that all Baptists are anti-Mormon (too bad I was so stereotypical, eh?). By the end of talking with her, I felt that we should see each other again and she mentioned that maybe she'd stop by. I hope she will.

--one neighbor from down the way talked to me about when things were better for him. He's got a major disability and I marveled at how he keeps his spirits lifted and keeps moving forward.

--one woman was so genuinely thankful for the deals we gave her and asked her grand-kids to say thank-you as well. I like that feeling. Even though my prices were already very low, I tried to be even more generous with people and like to think about them taking things home and using them.

--a lady bought May's puppet theater (which she and I were sad to let go of) to donate to her church. I thought that was so nice of her and told her so.

--our neighbor friend (age 8) came and bought our toy kitchen and play food to give to his little nephew with his mom's money. With his own money, he bought a car racing speedway for that same little nephew. How thoughtful and sweet!

Here's a funny story. Sometimes I put things out in my sales that I don't really think will be purchased. Such was the case with the cloth diapers I put out. Nathan used cloth diapers briefly and I had kept them as part of our storage, just in case we needed them again. Brigham will potty train in the next year or so, so I decided to let them go. I figured that just the right person would need to come along. I offered them for 25 cents per dozen. I was shocked when an older man asked about them. It made more sense when he told me that he was buying them for rags in his garage! Not at all what I had pictured when I set them out!

I price things so that no bargaining is needed (dirt cheap), but still people want to bargain and so I let them. I held on to the price of $15 for our futon, though. Sometimes people don't know when to stop!

I was so tired by the end of the day that I hardly wanted to clean up. I was sad at how full the garage still is with stuff. But thankful that my Sunday is a day of rest!

How Do I Love Thee...Let Me Count the Nicknames!

This post might round out your ideas of me that range from thinking I'm slightly to moderately weird into the VERY weird category, but it must be written so that I don't forget as I continue down the path to senility.

Once I got married, I started using nicknames. I can't imagine how this originated because I don't have much experience with nicknames. My mom called me "Cin" and probably had some similar type nickname for each of my siblings. Oh, I remember calling my brother "Toad." Poor kid. Are you over that yet, Todd? I had over 20 nicknames for Joseph, most of which I can't remember.

Once Nathan was born, Joseph (Joe at the time) became himself again and Nathan had what seems like hundreds of nicknames. Once May was born, Nathan retained a few nicknames and May had bunches and bunches and so on down the line.

Interesting phenomenon. About a year ago, I was telling someone about this and she totally couldn't relate saying that sometimes she called her boys "Buddy." That actually surprised me because I thought everyone used nicknames. I still wonder how many people do and how many people are as crazy as I am about it.

So, just for the fun of it, I'll list Brigham's nicknames (and edit as necessary when I remember others). I'll list the ones I can think of that I use right now for the other kids too.

NOTE: This post has been edited by Joseph and I certainly can't and won't take claim on some of these nicknames. But you, the reader, will never know which of us is weirder. Bwa-ha-ha-ha-ha!


Brigham:
B
BB
BBB
Beeb
Beebee Dee
Big Boy
Big Guy
Brig
Briggy Benji
Brighamin Benji Boy
Brighamin Benji Body
Brighams
Brig-HAM
Buddy
Cutie Guy
Froobie
Froo Froo
Hambone
Hammy
Hammy Boy
Little Guy
Lovey Dovey
Silly Guy
Silly Willy
Sweetcakes

(I have lots more, I know it. I just can't think of them and will add them in later.)

Sariah:
Rissy Su
S
Sa
Saríah
Sariah Ruth
Sartah Rey (long story on that one)
Sis
Sissy
Sissy Ru

Elijah:
Bulldozer
E
Elías
Ejila
E-lijah (stress first syllable)
La
Lías
Lij (long i)
Lijy
Lijy Boy
Lijy Lou

Someone asked us when he was born if we were going to call him "Eli." I've never called him that.

May:
Amy
Esther May
Lulu
M
Ma
Maisy
Maisy Daze
Maisy Daisy
May May
Maya
Mayacita
Mayita
May Estree
Miss May
Yam

Nathan:
Buddy-boy
Chewy
N
Na
Nanito
Nano (pronounced NAH-no)
Nano (pronounced NAY-no)
Natán
Natancito
Nate the Great
Nathaniel (Huh? A nickname is usually shorter, isn't it?)
Nuthane (Nathan backwards phonetically)

Now, my title might indicate that those who have more nicknames are more loved. Not really so!

Do you remember the anti-superhero Sindro from The Incredibles? We do have to admit, albeit a bit sheepishly, after certain activities of anti-superhero proportions, our children have at rare times also earned the nicknames Tantro and Destructo. At times of extreme frustration, we have been known to refer to them collectively (to each other only) as "the baddies." Although it breaks the tension, but we might do better to refrain!

Dear Mr. Norton,

Since I'm now just counting down the seconds until I'm one day older and hopefully a few days richer, I can dedicate a few computer minutes to a letter to Mr. Norton:

Dear Mr. Norton,

I can't please you. I'll never be able to please you, so I'm writing to say that, "I GIVE UP!" I hope this doesn't make you any redder or more obnoxious, but that you will carve a place in your understanding code heart to put up with a human being who wishes to ignore you.

Each day I turn on my computer I have a whole slew of things I have to do before my computer can even function. This may be more Microsoft's fault than yours. I'll write Mr. Microsoft later to tell him that no deep discount will ever induce me to buy his terrible computers or computer copy-cats again. Having down-loaded maybe one too many free software packages has caused a few glitches. First I have to turn off my pop-up protect so that I can use blogger (a must!), then I have to open my 'windows task manager' and end a tiny little process that my internet searches tell me belong to you, Mr. Norton. BECAUSE IT'S SUCKING UP ABOUT 98% OF MY CPU USAGE!!!!

I really can't get much of my work done that way. And my work, you see, is changing the world. I'm downloading photos, editing them, writing blogs posts and e-mails, and doing internet shopping to redecorate my house. You can see how (at least my corner of) the world is becoming a better place bit by bit!

Then, because I turned a piece of you off, I see this annoying little red icon with a "!" in it. This tells me that you want my attention. But, no matter how much attention I give you. No matter how many times I let you search for new updates or scan my hard drive, you persist. I can't do this anymore. You will have to be patient and wait your turn.

I used to be the kind of girl who would listen to you every time. The larger left brained part of me HAD to listen to you. But, I've been expanding the right side of my brain and it now tells me that I don't have to listen to pesky little you. I can go on my merry way, glimpsing blue sky, smelling blossoms, and listening to birds chirping.

Please understand.

Sincerely,

Cindi

Festival of Cultures

Last night was my kids’ International Festival of Cultures. The children display their singing and dancing talent for the parents. I won’t publish pictures since I don’ t have permission for the other kids in my pictures, but I just have to comment on the night.

“Every year I get a lump in my throat when the kids parade out,” said the principal as she began to announce the night’s events. You see, there are 48 countries represented, 11 states and 30 languages spoken. People ask how it can be done. By opening up their arms to each individual student AND their family this school is unique and wonderful and welcoming. I love it that my kids are a part of it.

The night begins with the kids parading out to the open-air amphitheater single file. They are encouraged to wear the costume of their native country and let me tell you, there are some dazzling costumes. The emotions are also near the surface for me each year as I see this. My heart catches in my throat several times as the parade goes on.

Then we are all given the chance to see songs and dances from around the world in many languages. This year, Sariah made a friend of a woman who didn’t mind that she goes a mile a minute and I was able to video some of the events for Joseph who couldn’t be with us.

The finale is always a song called, “Good-bye my friend.” I remember the first year Nathan was involved in this program we had just heard that his wonderful little school would be closed and it actually made me cry to think of the community he had been a part of coming to an end. We were, happily moved to this current school and love that all our children will attend here. Being that there are children from all over the world, most of my children have felt the loss of a child they have befriended who has to go back to their home country. This is dedicated to all of those friends wherever they may be…

Good-bye My Friend

Good-bye, my friend

Adios amigos,

Sayonara, adieu, so long.

As you go down the road of life,

Carry in your heart a song.

I hope you’ve enjoyed

the time we spent together.

Filled with magic and song.

All good things must end they say,

Carry in your heart a song.

Sayonara!

Carry in your heart a song.

Wave Clouds

The clouds were crazy-cool this morning and very quick moving. Sariah named them wave clouds. In some places, they really did look like waves crashing on the beach. I have a fixation, though, you know.

The first shot is through my "up north" buggy windshield. I'm not sure if the sky isn't always so pretty and different. This is, apparently, the first time I'm deciding to enjoy it each day as I'm sure I did when I was small.

A Love-Hate Relationship with my Bathroom

But, first, a couple of thoughts.

The sky is a lovely cerulean blue today and it's about 60 degrees and breezy. I simply have to share this information with someone.

Me: The sky is cerulean blue today.

Joseph: What color is that?

Me: Well, it's the color of the City trash bins, but a little more sky-ey. Know what I mean?

---

Sariah was playing around with the gummy worms I bought her (another shopping bribe) and was breaking them in to pieces to make a family.

Sariah (playing with her worm family): What? The baby has come?!! I can't believe the baby is already here. (Dad voice) Oh, look, the baby, I think I'm going to eat her. (Mom voice) NO! You can't eat her, she's our baby!!!

---

I am a ball of anger bouncing around the world. This is probably due to my coming off my medication. Joseph very kindly asked me if it was worth it to come off of the medication. I can't answer him. It's not time yet. I need more time.

---

Did you know that ants protect the peony blossoms until they are ready to bloom? I think they protect them from wasps laying their eggs, but I could be wrong. The ants benefit because there is some kind of sweet stuff they eat on the peonies. It's been a long time since I read about it and I don't have time to research it now. Still, every year when I see this it amazes me. Luckily I read about this before the first time I ever saw it because I'm definitely someone who would have set out to eradicate the ants if I didn't know better.

---

Nathan took the camera outside yesterday because he wanted to try to photograph some birds. He got a great shot here of a male and female cardinal. Can you find them both?

---

Now, for my bathroom.

When we were searching for houses, there were really only three or four in our price range contrasting to the hundreds of similar houses for sale like ours now. Limited choices can be a good thing. This house was the best of the three, but we still had some concerns because the inspector told us that there had been standing water in the basement, despite the owner insisting otherwise. I'm a worrier. Joseph was probably pestered to death during that time because I really wanted this house, but I also really didn't want problems.


On our second time through the house, I noticed something. The bathroom walls had a pattern on them. The then-owner had sponge painted this pattern onto the wall with a sea sponge. She had used three colors. Cornflower blue, moss green and a dark mauve color. While I'm really not very fond of the walls in my bathroom, something hit me about those colors. Those were the exact colors of the towels we have. I'm not kidding. We had at least two or three of each of those color towels including hand towels, rugs, and wash cloths.

To me, this qualified as a sign. It meant that things would be o.k. if we bought this new house. You know what? Looking back over nine years, we've had some problems, even some water in the basement, but I don't regret buying this house. I think it was a good decision.

---

P.S. It's really hard to redecorate a bathroom when there's only one in the house. I'll be waiting until we have more than one bathroom to paint over the sponge painting. Until then, it's a good reminder that God is watching out for me. He always has and He always will.

Garage Sale!

I'm just sitting down for a few minutes here and there at the computer this week. No time to blog. I'm getting ready for the big weekend garage sale. I'm hoping to make enough money to buy this:


And to supplement our gas money for all of our beach trips!

Planet Earth

My friend, Kristen, told me that they had gotten the "Planet Earth: as you've never seen it before" DVD's produced by BBC video for Christmas and that they were wonderful. They just couldn't stop watching them.

I got right on the list at the library. It took until last Saturday for me to be able to check them out. The kids have been watching them a little bit this week, but I've been busy. How much I've missed!

I decided that the kids and I would watch an episode last night before they crawled into bed. I meant to watch "Deep Ocean," but one about forests came on while I was switching the laundry into the drier. I'm not sorry at all! Intriguing. Beautiful. Enlightening. These are all about nature at it's best. A peek into a world that is rarely seen. If you get the chance to see them, please do!! I have to return them today, but I'm going right back on the waiting list!

Changing (Michigan) Attitudes One Person at a Time

The year I entered high school, my family moved to Massachusetts. My mom did not like this move at all and mentioned mostly the negatives to us kids about living in our new state. I couldn't really see much great about it either and I remember sitting in my 7th period study at the end of each day expounding on the many faults of MA to a new friend. One day she became fed up with me and told me in no uncertain terms that I was not to talk to her about this anymore. How would I like it if she moved to Utah and told me how horrible it was there? Point taken.

On to Michigan. I don't hear people saying that they LOVE to live in Michigan. As you may know from my previous posts, I LOVE Michigan! A lot of people I have known come to Michigan to complete some schooling or for their first job and can't wait to "get outta he-ya."

I admit the winters are cold (though not much colder than Utah or Massachusetts) and probably an even bigger factor is the lack of sunshine in the winter. I can see their point to some degree. I have done my share of complaining, but now I am out to convert even the hardest cases!

I was in Meijer (grocery chain) the yesterday and had such a fun experience. I could tell the cashier was a friendly guy and when I got up to the front of the line, I could see his badge. He had been given an award for his friendliness and now it was my turn to have a chat with him. He made some comments here and there about my purchases. We got to the sand toys and I explained that we are planning on hitting the beach this summer. At one point a comment he made (said he had been to the upper peninsula and was amazed to find that Michigan could be pretty), made me wonder if he was originally from MI, so I asked. He told me yes and asked me the same. I told him we were transplants, that we had come for school and loved it. We decided to stay. He told me that I was the first person he had ever heard say that before. So began my sales pitch.

"Where else can you live where you have an east coast and a west coast, where you can visit 'up north,' where you can see lots of pine trees if you want to and if you like snow activities you can do that too? The fall is absolutely beautiful and once spring arrives you are so glad to see it that it looks and feels magnificent."

He was amazed by this new perspective on Michigan. I think I left him considering it a little. He really doesn't need an attitude adjustment with his free smile and friendly ways, but even if he can enjoy our great state a little more, it was certainly worth it!

---

Here's something to consider no matter which state you live in and whether you like your surroundings or not. This is from my friend Jeff, who has just arrived back to the Grand 'Ole US of A, from a year in Iraq:

America The Beautiful

When the flight touched down the crowded plane full of uniformed troops under my command erupted into cheers and applauds. “Thank God,” the Staff Sergeant and Miami Beach cop sitting next to me expressed with the deepest sincerity. His voice crackled. It sounded like he would cry.

“Yes, America!” shouted others while the clapping continued.

I was so choked up I could cry and shout all at once. The feelings were contagious.

My gratitude to be back in the land of the free and the home of the brave cannot be adequately described.

Also, it might sound funny but I want to run through all the thick, green bushes and roll around in the tall grass. I’d like to climb a tree and hug a branch, soaking up the scent of the leaves and feel them brush against my skin. Man, America is BEAUTIFUL.

…I can hardly wait to see my family again.

---

For more of Jeff's writing, see his blog.

Insects

Sariah has been collecting insects to keep as pets. The first was a pill bug. She called it a pill bug; I grew up with "potato bug." She carried that up to her room in her hand, asking me what pill bugs eat and was sorry that it was dead in the morning.

Next was an inch worm, this time in a container with a leaf. This one apparently ate three bites and then went for a walk.

Today, she left a piece of apple out on the sidewalk for an ant that she almost squished to death. Some kind of peace offering, no doubt. She told me that later it would be covered with ants. I can't wait.

She found a book about butterflies and wants to know if we have the plants in our yard (milkweed) where the butterflies lay their eggs so we can gather some and raise our own butterflies. This is more to my liking. Maybe we'll hunt up some butterfly eggs!

Luxury Bed Sheets

This morning on the way to dropping the kids off for school, Sariah asked me, "What are bed bugs?" I managed to thoroughly confuse her on the matter as she kept correcting my descriptions by saying things like, "No, those are mosquitos." "No, those are moths." Thankfully, my bed does not harbor any of those little public health concerns. Which leads me to my topic ... bed sheets.

Back when I was going off to college, my mom gave me a primer in buying bed sheets. Never buy anything less than 180 thread count (TC). Less than 180 TC will pill up and be uncomfortable. Any of you parents ever bought the character sheets for your kids? Don't we know it! I think those sheets usually run about 130 TC. I'm obviously quite naive when it comes to sheets though, because I never put much more thought than that to buying them. I knew that there were "luxury" sheets selling for exorbitant prices. I thought maybe it was just the labeling?

Joseph and I have had our same sheets for a long time. I'm sure both sets are around 200 TC and 8-9 years old. One is a forest green color and the other a maroon color. I hate them. I must sound very fickle with my qualms about bed sheets when there are typhoons and earthquakes destroying everything in sight around the world. At least that's what I keep trying to tell myself. It hasn't worked so far as you will see.

I bought a set of sage green 200 TC sheets last week from Walmart. I walked around until I found the least expensive sheets and then made sure the thread count was acceptable. I was surprised to find that they even sell 130 TC sheets and they were more expensive than the ones I picked up! Then this weekend, I did a Google search for bed sheets, I can't remember why exactly, and ended up at Overstock.com. Wow! I never realized that there were 300, 400, 500, 600, 1000, even 1200 thread count sheets. A whole world has opened up to me that I never knew existed. I believe this is one of the reasons we are cautioned against too much web-surfing!

I looked around on there for a while and read some reviews. I learned that some people like sateen sheets rather than satin because with sateen, they don't fall out of bed. A hilarious mind-picture. I learned that high thread count sheets in cotton are a mess of wrinkles coming out of the drier. Some people iron, some people throw them on the bed, some people just live with the wrinkles because of the luxurious feel of their sheets, some people leave poor reviews that say, "DO NOT BUY THESE SHEETS!"

Well suddenly, my sage green 200 count bed sheets were not good enough for me. I picked them up and ran my hand over them. What? Is that a scratchy feeling? I can't sleep in that! I simply must have luxury sheets!! Plus Overstock.com is telling me that the retail price of these sheets is $199.99, but they are selling them for $46.99. My Walmart sheets were $11.00 for the flat, $11.00 for the fitted, and $5.50 for the pillowcases. About half of what I'd be paying for my luxury sheets. With shipping only $2.95, I decided to go for it. I chose ivory sheets with a 500 TC. They are on the way as I type...

P.S. From what I can tell, overstock.com's prices are really quite good if you are looking for high count bed sheets. It was a little tricky finding the size and color I wanted which is why I settle on ivory. Plus you can't beat their shipping. We are also considering buying some memory foam to get some more life out of our mattress. Those things are heavy and shipping is still only $2.95.

Google Earth

We are loving Google Earth around here!

On Sunday, Elijah traveled around the world. He went right down into the volcano on Hawaii's biggest island. (Did you know that there are cottages built right on the edge of that thing?) I saw him coming out of Indonesia telling me he couldn't find Utah. We went to visit his cousin's houses. I asked him if he'd like to see Houston where we'll be going next spring, he and I. We saw where Grandpa lives. We decided to check out Sea World in San Antonio since we'd like to go there. I had no idea of the death defying roller coasters they have there. Elijah says he wants to go on them. What do you think, Dad, are you game?

I've been using it to look up locations in Michigan we'd like to visit this summer. It gives me some idea of the surroundings and the size of the beaches. Really cool.

You can see the same satellite views on Google maps, but I don't think it's quite the same as Google Earth. It is free to download. Check it out!

Sucker Punched: The Sequel

Today, out of the blue, the same boy just punched me in the nose again. I must say, the shock was not as great as the last time, and I pulled him aside, and told him not to punch me again. He said "I had too much candy today! I'm CRAZY!"

He is on notice!

Tulip Festival and Early Season Beach Trip

On Thursday I kept the kids out of school so we could visit Holland, MI during "Tulip Time." We also went to two of Holland's beaches. Enjoy the photos! (For a travelogue, click here.)

The first beach we visited was Tunnel Park (because it has a tunnel through a dune to get to the beach). I have to say that I had great anticipation as we neared the tunnel where we would see the waters of Lake Michigan. My heart was in my throat and I was literally like a kid on Christmas morning. I haven't felt that way in a long, long time. Exhilerating!

Veldheer's Tulip Farm

One of the sweetest things I saw all day. Nathan said, "I forgot how nice it is to hold a little hand!"

Tunnel Park

We took our shoes and socks off to wade in the water. It was so funny when a wave came up and hit Brigham when he first had his feet in the water. I had hold of his hands and he retracted his whole body out of the water. Whoosh!

Ever since we visited Silver Lake Sand Dunes last summer and learned what happens to sand when lightening strikes, Nathan has been wanting a piece of fulgarite. It is rare to find it because it is so fragile, but that is exactly what he happened upon. A nice contribution to his rock collection. I don' t have a picture of it yet. Maybe he'll post that on his blog.

Holland State Park

Nice big brother trying to keep his sister warm!