A Posthumous Birthday Party, a Bad Hair Cut, a Great Sale and Much, Much More

Today …

…we had toast with jelly for breakfast.

…we sat on the swing together, my mother and I, vehemently trying to avoid a water gun assault. Twin B, standing across the yard, held his feet in guerrilla stance, pressed his gun, about two feet long, to his hip, and with a look of pure focus and an evil laugh aimed the barrel directly at our faces. He usually missed, but once in a while he sprayed us… directly in our faces. My mother stated that this would be a perfect photo op, but I told her that although Twin B had terrible aim, there was a chance he could douse my camera. Not worth it.

…we did our chores, including laundry.

…we ordered burritos from my father’s favorite dive, and ate them for lunch at the park, since it was his posthumous birthday. We call it “Special Ed Day”, and all of us do something he would have done to honor him. My sister, in his honor, sat on the throne and had deep thoughts. Toilet time was when most of my father’s inspirations came, like when he decided to purchase 50 buses that didn’t run. They still don’t.

…I asked my mother and older kids to babysit while I went to get a haircut. I had no idea what the end goal was to be, so after leafing through the 1001 hairstyles magazine, I found something I thought would be different, easy, and cute, explaining to the hairdresser that I didn’t want the back so short that she would need to get the razor out. At the end of the cut, she got the razor out, and my hair now looks like it always does, except much shorter. And because she told me that there was a great sale going on right now at Ross, I had her style my hair rather than leave it wet, which cost an additional unexpected $20, plus tip.

…I went to the great sale going on right now at Ross, and bought four outfits for $80. Excited!

…I came home, put my head under the faucet, and redid my hair.

…I did more laundry.

…we had peanut butter and honey half sandwiches for a snack.

…we reinflated and hosed down the baby pool, as we must do daily due to the slow and undetectable leak, and set up the Slip ‘n’ Slide. The six littlest, who are the only ones currently at home, mostly just fought, but I think Baby Hippo had fun digging in a 3-inch mud hole between the flagstones.

…I called my sister to tell her that the 11-year-old boy asked me if I was pregnant. I asked, “Why would you ask something like that?” and he said because he had heard Daddy John mention something about that on the phone. I told him no, that he was talking about the parakeets, and he asked, “Are you sure?” and I said, “Yes.” and then he said, “Anyways, I was able to extract the DNA from the peach like the internet instructions said. It was awesome.”

…,after John arrived home, we headed to Sam’s for snack shopping for the trip to California. John refused to put anything in the cart without my presence because he said if he messed up, he would get “the look”. He was right. The only unhealthy things we purchased were Nilla Wafers and Goldfish crackers. Disaster almost struck when he tried to stack two boxes of Caprisun, which happens to be on the top-ten list of horrible foods for kids, on the flatbed. I had said I wanted juice, and he said that was juice, and I said, no, it’s sugar, and he pointed to the box and said that it was 25% less sugar, and I said “still”, so he put it back and we purchased real juice, you know, like from an orange.

…, after our trip to Sam’s, we went to Burger King since it had an indoor play place, as a refuge from the heat and humidity. The restaurant itself smelled like grilling burgers and bathroom cleaner, but upon entering the play place, we were assaulted by the smell of old urine. After a few minutes of sitting there, I went back to the register to ask to speak to the manager and told him about the problem. I went to sit back down, repeating to my family how horrible it smelled, and John said, “You get used to it.” Soon thereafter, the manager came in with a spray bottle of air neutralizer and sprayed it near all the patrons. It greatly improved the air quality, but only for about six minutes. He profusely apologized, saying that they deep clean it every Tuesday and Thursday. I assume he wanted us to come back.

…., when I couldn’t stand the stench anymore, I called the kids down from the stinking play tubes and told them we had to go. They kept saying “One! More! Time!” so I let them, but then I forgot who I said could go one more time, so everyone kept repeatedly going one more time and it took another ten minutes before we were able to escape. My mother had gone to the Hallmark store while we sat in the play place. I think she owes me.

…we came home, gave all four of the little boys a bath together, John told the twins a story of The Three Bears and tried to rock Baby Hippo to sleep (He’s such a doll.). He’s still awake.

…I blogged.

…after feeling bad that Baby Hippo wouldn’t be rocked to sleep by John, I will now take him and try myself. Wish me luck….

Thanks for listening. :)

…Here I am again. After trying to take Baby Hippo, John refused to allow it, and is still rocking him. He’s not fussy, just talkative, Baby Hippo, that is, so he’ll fall asleep soon. John is an angel.


Addendum: Baby Hippo asleep. :) Now time for cheesecake! :) :) :)