Get Right Out Of Town!

So my lovely Bohemian and I have been working our tails off for the past two days trying to get everything done before tomorrow. I'm tempted to insert our obnoxiously long to-do list here just because I'm so proud of us for accomplishing almost all of it but I'll refrain. If you suffer from insomnia and would like a copy to read in lieu of sleep meds just let me know and I'll fling you a copy! Suffice it to say I tried my hardest to accomplish a big task on the list but had to give up in girly defeat and head off to the laundry room (bows head in shame). Try as I might I simply could not run the stinkin' weed eater! It kept stalling out and I couldn't pull the string to get it started by myself. I guess I led a sheltered childhood as far as yard work is concerned!

Tomorrow morning at 8:30 am we retrieve the u-haul, load it from bumper to bumper with all our worldly possessions, drive it four hours away with a caravan consisting of myself, my husband, our two and four year old boys, my husband's mom, sister, her husband and her four kiddos! Oh, yea, and our cat and dog!! Wish us all much luck.

Skunk De-Funk And Other News

I finally had the chance to try and rid Maya of the skunk smell today. I always kind of thought the effects of skunk attack were a myth, but now I know it's not. Maya still smelled awful after 2 days outside! Thank you to glassbead, a fellow aretsian who gave me the skunk de-funk recipe that I now pass on to anyone unlucky enough to be on the receiving end of an angry skunk.

1 1lb box of baking soda
1 32 oz bottle of hydrogen peroxide
mix with a little dog shampoo
add a little water if needed to make it usable
rub all over your dog, working into the skin
soak for 5-10 minutes
rinse

I actually forgot to add the soap in the recipe. What I did was soak with the magic elixir, rinse and shampoo her. Seems to have worked like a charm. Her head does still smell since I didn't want to get peroxide in her eyes, but I can't smell it unless my nose is practically on her so I let her move back in. It's pretty funny to use, the peroxide made it sound like I was fixing a giant bowl of Rice Crispies in the tub!

In other news, we'll be moving on Wednesday. The house that we were supposed to be closing on and moving into on Thursday isn't finished. Actually they don't seem to have accomplished anything in the past few weeks, nor do they seem in a hurry to do so. That's tremendously disappointing but we're moving anyway. We'll all be living under the same roof again at the house of the angels that have taken in my husband. Being the extremely shy, social anxiety ridden person that I am, the thought of living with complete strangers for an unknown amount of time threw me into a bit of an emotional tizzy, to put it mildly, but I'm slowly recovering from that and trying to see the good points. Like the hugely wonderful fact that our family will be together again! The boys are breaking my heart these days. Last week when I told Mr. Golden Curls that Pappa was coming to visit he said to me "maybe if we play lots of really fun games Pappa will want to stay with us." and Lil' Spitfire, who usually watches Pappa drive off and then goes back inside to play, instead stood on the porch screaming "No! No! Don't go Pappa! Come back!" and cried for a good 5 minutes afterward. They're breaking my heart and it's time to go!

The boys have been at Grandma's since yesterday afternoon and I've been kicking some major bootie to wrap up the odds and ends here. There are a lot more of those than I realized! I closed my etsy shop while we move, that was really hard to do. It looks so empty and sad! But I look forward to re-opening with new enthusiasm when we're settled.

Pepe La Pew

Last night my dog high tails it to a shadowed corner of the yard then comes right back at top speed and starts wildly rolling in a small patch of dirt. "Maya, that's enough." I say this because she's just had a bath and usually saying this is all it takes to make her get up but she was like the deaf. Then it hit me, a wall of overwhelming, eye stinging, gag inducing stench that can only be a skunk.

Even though she was banished to the backyard, after a short treck through the house to get there, I think the smell must have been seeping in through every possible crack in the house. With my eyes burning and the aroma permeating the house, putting me in a nauseous stupor, I played in my mind how the skunk attack must have gone down in those deep shadows of the night.

Maya: Wow! Cool cat, never seen a cat like that before! Hi cat! Hi cat! Hi cat!

Pepe: Oh, hi there, umm yea, I'd love to meet you, just let me turn around and let you sniff my bum, as is your custom...KABLAM! Take that you creep!

Maya: Run away, run away, run away! Find mom. No! Roll in the dirt. Can't get it OFF! Jeez, a dog can't even be nice and welcome a new cat the the neighborhood anymore.

Me: What the heck is that dog doing now. Oh, crap, Maya, oh (cough cough gag) Come through the house Maya. Go out. NO, don't roll on the living room carpet! OUT, OUT, OUT! (shut door. quickly re-open to shove food and water out)

Maya: What is wrong with everyone tonight? Must be a full moon or something. Hey, wait a minute, why am I in trouble. It was the CAT mom!

The Circles of Hell

So which circle of Dante's hell would I be in if I had been pinching pennies so hard my fingers were turning blue and starting to die because in a week I'm closing on a new house that would get our family of four under the same roof after 6 months of separation and I'm scared to death that somehow we won't have the down payment and then the central heat and air goes out in our current house, which we've been unable to sell but will be renting out to someone so is still in our possession and our responsibility to upkeep, and it breaks at 5 o'clock on a Friday when calling a CH/A guy out would cost an arm and a leg, on top of the normal arm and a leg, and the evening that it breaks I turn on the news to hear "this weekend will bring the start of our hottest weather this summer..." and by the end of just one day I'm so hot I'm sticking to myself and my dreams consist solely of lying naked in a bed of ice under a fan and not moving EVER, and my boys can't fall asleep for their naps because it's so stinkin' hot so I get no break and they turn into heat crazed psycho monkeys from a different circle of hell than whatever this one I'm in is?!

The Ways of the Pappa

I think every father from the beginning of ride on farm equipment has taken part in this tradition. Summertime is filled with this sight and it's one of my personal in-love-with-watching-my-husband-be-the-Pappa-of-boys favorites.

Lil' Spitfire helps Pappa clean up around the edges.

The Bohemian Life Part VI

Baby steps. We're taking baby steps and it seems to be finally moving us out of our situation. The Bohemian got to move out of the apartment that he affectionately calls "the cave" and I "the nasty hole". He's met another youth director in town who's parents are angels. They have a large house, are empty nesters and feel that it's their responsibility to share what God has given them so they house people who need it. And my husband needed it! I can tell by his voice over the phone that it has made his life better.


I'm almost afraid to mention it for fear of a jinx but we have found a house in Hot Springs and have a closing date, July 31st! Even though it's not at all our preference for a house, even less than our last try, I'm so excited I can hardly stand it! By the time we move in it will be 6 months of our living apart. And as soon as we decided to trust that God would take care of us if we took the leap to buy this house he sent us two people interested in renting our current house, after two months with a for-rent ad in the paper and no takers. Soooo, the moral of the story, TRUST GOD! You'd think I'd have that down by now.

Going Through The Motions

Samuel leaned over the basket and put his finger against the small palm of one of the twins and the fingers closed and held on. "I guess the last bad habit a man will give up is advising."

"I don't want advice."

"Nobody does. It's a giver's present. Go through the motions, Adam."

"What motions?"

"Act out being alive, like a play. And after a while, a long while, it will be true."

"Why should I?" Adam asked.

Samuel was looking at the twins. "You're going to pass something down no matter what you do or if you do nothing. Even if you let yourself go fallow, the weeds will grow and the brambles. Something will grow."

Adam did not asnwer, and Samuel stood up. "I'll be back," he said. "I'll be back again and agian. Go through the motions, Adam."

John Steinbeck, East of Eden

I'm stuggling hard to go through the motions.

Best Toy Ever

Mr. Golden Curls practicing for his future life as a brooding artist

For Mr. Golden Curls' fourth birthday we got him a Kidizoom digital camera by Vtech and it's awesome! The flame case and face plate is actually Fischer-Price but it fits. We had to cut part of the face plate to keep from covering the flash but you can't tell. The Kidizoom seemed to get better product reviews than Fischer-Price's kids camera but had boring cases so we went with the best of both worlds! It doesn't take high quality pics but how cool that my baby can take his own photos of the things he loves, and I love seeing the world through his lense. It was a bit of a debate since it's a pretty pricey gift for a kid but I'm so glad we did it. It also has some extra fun features like being able to put clipart hats, mustaches and other decor on your subject, adding audio to your pics and taking short videos. A feature I could do without is video games. Once the kiddos figured out those were there they were less interested in the camera functions. If I wanted video games I would buy them video games. Small flaw though. And one of the games makes puzzles out of the pictures you've taken so that's kindof cool.

Gallery of Mr. Golden Curl's Photography

Keys on the window sill

A church through Grandma's car window

Grandpa's boots

The moped of our beloved Carl Dog through the window screen