Butterflies

Beautiful and graceful, varied and enchanting, small but approachable, butterflies lead you to the sunny side of life.  And everyone deserves a little sunshine.  ~Jeffrey Glassberg

When I went out to deadhead my flower beds this morning, I found this little guy cruising around the marigolds.  He was totally unconcerned about me, plucking off the expired blooms, just going about his butterfly business.  I finally decided to go get my camera and try to get some photos of him.  I am pleased as punch at how a few of them turned out.

The truth about public rest rooms

When you have to visit a public toilet, you usually find a line of women, so you smile politely and take your place. Once it’s your turn, you check for feet under the cubicle doors. Every cubicle is occupied.

Finally, a door opens and you dash in, nearly knocking down the woman leaving the cubicle. You get in to find the door won’t latch. It doesn’t matter, the wait has been so long you are about to wet your pants!

The dispenser for the modern ‘seat covers’ (invented by someone’s Mum, no doubt) is handy, but empty. You would hang your bag on the door hook, if there was one, so you carefully, but quickly drape it around your neck, (Mum would turn over in her grave if you put it on the FLOOR!) down with your pants and assume ‘ The Stance.

In this position, your aging, toneless, thigh muscles begin to shake. You’d love to sit down, but having not taken time to wipe the seat or to lay toilet paper on it, you hold ‘The Stance.’  To take your mind off your trembling thighs, you reach for what you discover to be the empty toilet paper dispenser.

In your mind, you can hear your mother’s voice saying, ‘Dear, if you had tried to clean the seat, you would have KNOWN there was no toilet paper!’ Your thighs shake more.

You remember the tiny tissue that you blew your nose on yesterday – the one that’s still in your bag (the bag around your neck, that now you have to hold up trying not to strangle yourself at the same time). That would have to do, so you crumple it in the puffiest way possible. It’s still smaller than your thumbnail.

Someone pushes your door open because the latch doesn’t work.

The door hits your bag, which is hanging around your neck in front of your chest and you and your bag topple backward against the tank of the toilet.  ‘Occupied!’ you scream, as you reach for the door, dropping your precious, tiny, crumpled tissue in a puddle on the floor, while losing your footing altogether and
sliding down directly onto the TOILET SEAT. It is wet of course. You bolt up, knowing all too well that it’s too late. Your bare bottom has made contact with every imaginable germ and life form on the uncovered seat because YOU never laid down toilet paper – not that there was any, even if you had taken time to try.

You know that your mother would be utterly appalled if she knew, because you’re certain her bare bottom never touched a public toilet seat because, frankly, dear, ‘You just don’t KNOW what kind of diseases you could get.

By this time, the automatic sensor on the back of the toilet is so confused that it flushes, propelling a stream of water like a fire hose against the inside of the bowl and spraying a fine mist of water that covers your bum and runs down your legs and into your shoes.

The flush somehow sucks everything down with such force and you grab onto the empty toilet paper dispenser for fear of being dragged in too.

At this point, you give up. You’re soaked by the spewing water and the wet toilet seat. You’re exhausted. You try to wipe with a sweet wrapper you found in your pocket and then slink out inconspicuously to the sinks.

You can’t figure out how to operate the taps with the automatic sensors, so you wipe your hands with spit and a dry paper towel and walk past the line of women still waiting. You are no longer able to smile politely to them. A kind soul at the very end of the line points out a piece of toilet paper trailing from your shoe. (Where was that when you NEEDED it?)

You yank the paper from your shoe, plunk it in the woman’s hand and tell her warmly, ‘Here, you just might need this.

As you exit, you spot your hubby, who has long since entered, used and left the men’s toilet. Annoyed, he asks, ‘What took you so long and why is your bag hanging around your neck?

This is dedicated to women everywhere who deal with any public rest rooms/toilets (rest??? you’ve GOT to be kidding!!). It finally explains to the men what really does take us so long. It also answers that other commonly asked question about why women go to the toilets in pairs. It’s so the other gal can hold the door, hang onto your bag and hand you Kleenex under the door.

This HAD to be written by a woman!
No one else could describe it so accurately.

Chace Reconnects with Ttown friends

This is strange.  We got a phone call last night.  The number is a 205 area code, so I know it is not someone from around here.  I answered and I hear this girls voice.  She asks if there is a Chace living here, a Ramsay Chace Lindley.  I said Ummmmm…….(wondering the whole time is this a stranger/stalker who somehow found Chace on Myspace or something?!?!)  She then asks if he went to TMS last year?  Then I realize that it is one of his girl<insert space>friends from TMS.  So, I say yes.  Her voice immediately goes up an octave and she asks if he is there.  I said he is, hold on a minute.  By this time Chace is clued in to the fact that someone is asking for him, and he is slowly backing away from the phone.  I told him it is a girl from TMS, so he takes the phone.  He talks for about an hour!  Finally, he gets off and we get the scoop.  It was Ashley, and she got his address from Mrs. Little, a teacher at TMS.  I didn’t think they would just give out that info, but whatever.  She then spent a good chunk of time apparently looking us up online.  Anyway, he chats with her, then she passes his phone number around to a couple of more people.  So, the hour was spent catching up with 3 friends from TMS.  Now, he has more friends on Myspace,  and more people to text.  Now, they are all dying for him to come visit.

Soccer – Aug 23rd

This was a great game – the twins are really getting into playing now.  They have figured out that if you want to get in on the action and be able to kick it, you gotta get really go after the ball.  The coach has postions for them, he calls them Taz, Striker and a couple of others.  I don’t have a clue what they mean, but the kids seem to be learning what he wants them to do when he says, Hey Lael – Be my Taz!  Anwyay, I got a few good shots of them playing today, and one of them resting on the sidelines.  Look closely at the picture with Lael in it, she is just chatting away at someone while the game is being played around her.  H-I-L-A-R-I-O-U-S!

Boosterthon Fun Run

The Boosterthon at Columbia was a huge success!  The kids had an absolute blast, even though they were tired.  They all started out zooming around the track, but after 5-10 laps they started slowing down and walking more than running.  They had the Boosterthon t-shirts on and every time they came back around to the start line, the teachers would put a mark on their backs to indicate how many laps they ran.  So, as they were running around, getting tired, they would stop and turn around and ask how many laps they had run, and if they had reached their goal yet.  But, the Booster Boys made it really really fun for them.  Each lap they had them do something different, like drive your car with music from Cars blasting from the speaker they set up, they did the Limbo lap with party music, they did a lap where they had to gallop like a horse, ice skate, fly like a plane, hop, skip, you name it – they did it!  Caeden completed 28 laps, and Lael did 27.  Yes, they slept well Wednesday night!

It was the best fundraiser I’ve been involved in, I think.  Caeden had some issues one day because some of his friends had moe pledges than he did, and got more prizes, but that is just Caeden, he is soooooo tenderhearted!

Here are some cool facts from the Fun Run:

• Total States Represented: 47

• Total Countries Represented: 14

• Total Laps Run: 25,478

• Total Miles Run: 1,592.4 miles!

Now, here are the financial updates:

Based on what has been pledged to the PTA over the last eight days, if we collect 85% the PTA’s profit will be just over $44,000! THAT IS AWESOME!!!  The PTA only budgeted $30,000 profit from the Fun Run, so we are above that.  Yay!  We can do some great things for Columbia with that kind of money!

I have the most wonderful husband!

It’s true!  Todd is the best hubby a girl could ask for!  I love him for a myriad of reasons, I could not begin to list them all!  But, last night he proved he holds the title yet again.  I was not feeling well, just a headache that went away after some meds and a warm shower.  Anyway, I had marinated some pork chops, planned on doing twice baked potatoes, and toss a salad for dinner.  I also had a fresh pineapple (b/c a fresh pineapple is 10X better than the canned variety) that I had planned on using for a fruit salad for the Lia Sophia party.  After he got home, I complained about my headache – so he promptly got me some water and Tylenol and told me to go take a bath or shower.  “I can’t! I was just about to start dinner!”  He said not to worry, he would take care of it.  He did, and he did it with flair! 

Lia Sophia Jewelry Party

Aimee asked me to go to one of those jewelry parties a few weeks ago at another friends house.  I tagged along and we had a great time.  While we were there, of course the consultant asks if anyone would like to book a party.  Aimee asked if I wanted to co-host one with her.  SURE!  that sounds like a fun excuse for a party!  I told her if she provided most of the friends to invite (since she knows much more people than I do) and the chocoloate martinis, I would provide the food.  It’s a deal.  We had the party last night, and it was so much fun.  Aimee had to ask the last few guests to leave after 11:00, it was a school night after all!  I made Nena’s Pound cake, (which it turns out, I am becoming famous for, LOL!), spinach dip, Mom’s Mini Cheesecake recipe, Jezebel sauce, Chicken Salad Rolls and Peppered Pinwheels (Lynda made something like this once and everyone loved it!).  Aimee did end up adding a few things, since a couple of her friends are vegetarians.  I made invites for the party, which of course I had to get a picture of! 

Here is the Mini Cheesecake recipe.  It is so good, and not really difficult at all!

Mini-Cheesecakes

1/2 cup graham cracker crumbs
1/4 cup sugar
2 tbsp. butter or margarine, melted
1 egg
1 8 oz. cream cheese, softened
2 tbsp. strawberry preserves

Combine graham crackers and butter.  Line 1 3/4″ muffin pans with paper cups.  Spoon 1 tsp. crumb mixture into each liner and gently press.  Beat cream cheese at high speed until light and fluffy.  Gradually add sugar and mix well.  Spoon mixture into liners and bake 350 for 10 minutes.  Spoon 1/4 tsp. strawberry over cheese cake and chill.  Makes 2 dozen.

We’re Back in Soccer

Well, not me actually! Caeden and Lael are playing. They are on the same team, which is an all boys team. Actually, the whole league is all boys. There is one team that is made up of all girls, which is very weird, I think. When Chace played soccer in NY and in FL, there were always girls and boys on all teams. I don’t know why Madison splits them up. When I registered the twins, the lady told me that she would be the only girl on her team, and maybe in the whole league. I couldn’t believe it, but knew it would not matter in the least to Lael. Of course not, she believes that anything boys can do, she can do better!
They were so cute on the field Saturday!  The uniforms are humongous on both of them.  If you pull the socks all the way up they look like they are wearing tights.  Caeden was not happy about that, but when I folded them down a couple of times, he was ok.  They are the Teal Tornadoes, and sometimes the field looks like a tornado when all 10 players are crowded around the ball trying to get a toe on it.  Lael had a tendency to chat with anyone standing nearby her, especially the coach, even while he was talking to the other players trying to coach them.  I’ve got her on video just chatting away, while standing on the field, looking up at him, and he is totally engrossed in the game, calling out directions to the other players.  too funny!  Caeden would look over at us every time he kicked it and ask if we saw it and give me a thumbs up.  I am gonig to try to figure out how to add video clips to my blog so that you can see if you want.

Chace ~ Myspace

He’s finally done it – jumped on the Myspace bandwagon!  I told him months ago that I would help him design his page so that it totally rocks…..he was noncommital, but today he decided to do it.  So, I drew upon my vast stores of website design expertise , and now he’s there!
Chace at Myspace

Carrot Bread

I made several loaves of carrot bread as Back to school gifts for neighbors, teachers and office staff.  Carrot bread is one of those recipes that you hear about and think, hmmm, not sure about that.  But, it is good.  Really good.  I think it is probably Caeden’s favorite thing I make.  I got the recipe from my MIL, she has the yummiest recipes.  Anyway, I made the loaves and then of course I had to make them pretty!  Here is a pic of a few of them.  And the recipe for the bread is below.  You really must try it yourself!

Carrot Bread

2 eggs
1/2 tsp. salt
1 cup sugar
1 tsp. baking soda
3/4 cup cooking oil
1 tsp. cinnamon
1 1/2 cup flour
1 1/2 cup grated carrots
1/2 cup nuts, optional

Preheat oven to 350 – 325.  Cream sugar and oil.  Add eggs one at a time.
Sift together flour, salt, soda and cinnamon.  Add to creamed mixture.
Fold in carrots by hand.  Bake for 1 hour – 1 hour 15 minutes.
Makes 1 loaf.