My Boyfriend's Back

My boyfriend's back and you're go-o-o-o-nna be in trouble

Hey la, hey la my boyfriend's back

If you see him come, better cut out on the double

Hey la, hey la my boyfriend's back

You've been spreadin' lies that I was untrue-hoo

Hey la, hey la my boyfriend's back

Look out now cause he's comin' after you-oo

Hey la, hey la my boyfriend's back

Sorry. I couldn't resist. I really don't know where these things come from. This is a picture of Zoe Bug and her friend-that's-a-boy, Sean, that she has known since they were six months old.

Sean's inconsiderate-of-my-feelings mother moved him away to St. Louis years ago, and Zoe only gets to see him for a short week or two each summer. Hence the song.

I call this picture Horse Tooth Meets Beverly Hillbilly.

Today we went to visit Sean, his sister Maggie, and their mom, Suzanne. They're staying at Grandma Nancy's house because really, they came to see her, not us. We get worked in though, so I can't complain.

Would you look at that creepy bird trying to eat that poor butterfly? Thankfully they were strategically placed when I snapped this picture because Zoe Bug was lettin' it all hang out. It's a good thing she's only eight. It could have been ugly.

Here are Sean and Zoe on that same bench when they were eighteen months old.

Well, not really. I mean they were 18 months old but it's not the same bench. I lie embellish sometimes.

We were pushing them together, even at that young age.

But they're soooooo cute together.

We're Soopa Stars!

Come on Homey, let's cruise the mall.

Okay, enough of that. I wanted so badly to put a particularly sweet picture of Sean on here, but his Dad, R.S., is coming to trick out my computer this week and I so badly need that. 

R.S., which is short for Rocket Scientist because he really is a Rocket Scientist, is a manly man and he doesn't take too kindly to my adventures with the camera. Plus, I might've threatened to blow this particular picture up into a poster for his viewing pleasure. Instead, I decided to just sit on it until Sean is a teenager and I can really get the mileage out of it. Until then, you'll have to satisfy yourself with pictures of Pickle's boys playing dress-up. He hates me already, so I lose nothing.

Last summer I posted some layouts of this wicked awesome slide that Sean and Maggie's Grandma Nancy got for them. I love this slide.

Everyone loves this slide.

Grandma Nancy needs to get her yard fumigated for creepy birds and freakishly large butterflies. They are handy though. Annika's right bum cheek would not stay tucked in for anything and this butterfly happily obliged.

I love that.

Lucinda Gooseberry is Her Name, Sleeping is Her Game

So we finally named our little Kitten Britches. It took us awhile, but we've always felt we should get to know a creature before we saddle it for eternity with a rather unfortunate name.


I thought Lucy would be a super cute name, but we had to come up with a longer version that would be more of a mouthful.

Because we like to yell long, cumbersome names throughout the neighborhood when looking for our pets at curfew.

"Catalina Magdalena Hoopensteiner Wallendiner Hogan Logan Bogan Smith, here kitty, kitty. Time for be-e-e-e-e-ed!"

So, we decided that Lucy would expand out to Lucinda nicely. Then, since this cat sleeps all the time, and she lets Stinkerbell carry her around all day long, and she doesn't mind being swaddled and tucked and draped, we've decided that she's exceptionally laid back. As in loose as a goose.

Which, of course, translates to Lucy Goosey, which then expands out to Lucinda Gooseberry.

See, makes perfect sense.


And I am not responsible for this ridiculous tag. Seriously. Princess? Oh Geez. I'd like to think that this cat has loftier goals than finding her Prince Charming and living happily ever after.

Set a goal for yourself and do something with your life, Sister Girl. Come on.

But Peanut Head took the girls to pick the collar and tag, so I can't say I'm surprised. He's such a Girly Man.

Well, not really. I made that up. But he does have a manny pack that I really hope will spontaneously self combust.


I do love the glittery pink collar though. We do like our glitter in this house.

The Over Prepared Boy Scout Strikes Again

Tonight I said to Peanut Head, "Thank you so much for giving me such good material and letting me make fun of you on my blog all the time." He just smiled and nodded his head.

There are advantages to his having an over abundance of self-esteem.

So, that picture of Peanut Head above, that's him all ready for our hike a few weeks ago. Remember that one? The one that lasted five minutes. Yeah. Well, as you can see, he was packed for a trek on the Appalachian Trail. 

I don't know everything that he had in that backpack, but I'm pretty sure all this stuff was in there and then some. It almost makes me want to get lost in the wilderness, just so we can make all the packing and staging worthwhile. I bet he even has some MREs in there somewhere.

What is all this stuff? I don't know about you, but I think I would've tossed a GPS in there. Of course one of the dealie bobs in that mess is probably a compass, but we don't have a working knowledge of that just yet.

I'll explain.

Recently Peanut Head became involved in the Boy Scouts. He has all that pent up Marine Corps knowledge that he likes to knock about, so this is right up his alley. And yes, the Boy Scouts' goal is not to teach the young men how to kill each other in multiple and inventive ways, but they do need to learn survival skills and whatnot. Enter Peanut Head.

This week Peanut Head put together a little Orienteering course in our neighborhood for the Boy Scouts. He gave them each this map and a little Hints key, and they were to find the markers and record the numbers at each marker to prove that they had found them.

So, the boys did that last night and they loved it. Then this evening Peanut Head thought it would be a good idea for the girls and I to find all his markers, while he tagged along and watched amusedly, and we could pick them up at the same time.

Here the girls are, zeroing in on one of the markers.

Except I'm racing them to it because I need a picture of it before they rip it off.

So I knocked them down and got my picture. Hey, anything for the picture. The picture tells the story.

Of course then I did let Stinkerbell peel the marker off.

We didn't want to litter, so we stuck all the tape to Zoe Bug's head for storage. She didn't even notice what we were doing. We just kept smacking her in the head and she was all "HEY! Why'd you do that?!"

Because we love you, Sweetie.

Here's Annika trying to comprehend the compass.

Peanut Head was reading the hints to us, "80 meters on bearing of 200 degrees from blah-blah-blah."

All at once, the girls' and my mouths dropped open and we looked at him like "Say WHAT?"

He may as well have been speaking Greek.

He looks a little exasperated, doesn't he? But it was mixed with amusement and that's the only thing that kept his head from exploding, trust me.

Here he is trying to explain the compass to the girls and asking them leading questions. They were waiting for him to start speaking English.

"Meters? That's like feet, right?"

"No. yards."

"Oopsie."

This compass is taking for-EVER. Give me my GPS and the snotty talking lady that lives in the GPS.

In spite of the obstacles, Peanut Head persevered.

Zoe just had an epiphany. I'm happy to report that she at least, got Peanut Head's navigational genes. He has some pushy genes too, but that's another story for another day.

The verdict's still out on Stinkerbell. At one point she ripped the map out of my hands and tore it in half. She's enthusiastic if nothing else.

Here's Stinkerbell. She took off running in the direction Zoe pointed. She had no idea where she was going, but she was going to beat Zoe there, dang it.

Of course she had to change directions once she saw where Zoe actually headed.

They found it! Criminy, can you tell Peanut Head has a thing for rocks?

Banner Winners!!!

Wow, it looks like a few people wanted a banner. Unfortunately I could only pick two lucky little ducks, so here they are.

Random Integer Generator

Here are your random numbers:

31

57 

Timestamp: 2009-06-23 16:04:43 UTC

After crossing out duplicate comments, these numbers translate as follows:

#31 - B said . . .

I could really use this because my little man's birthday (first) is in a couple of weeks and since I just moved I haven't had the time to even think about making something half as fantastic as this.

#57 - Stephanie said . . .

LOVE those banners. . . and really, I do feel that the force is with me.

Ooh, I have goosebumps.

So now, my lucky little ducks, please e-mail your mailing addresses to me at Jillderbeast@cableone.net and I'll get your banners to you.

Let's Hear it for the Daddy Man

In my lame defense, I really meant to do a Father's Day post yesterday, but dang it, I was tired. And I did haul my gnarly carcass out of bed before I was ready, just to make Peanut Head breakfast in bed. Assisted by the girls of course. Which, as I'm sure you know, actually made the whole process a lot more difficult.

When I'm tired, I have a real bad attitude. You might have noticed.

Anyway, even though my attitude needed some adjusting, I did manage to get Mr. Peanut some excellent Daddy Man gifts. That little ditty you see up above there? I put it on a t-shirt. Yeah. I know. Ooh-rah.

I put something else on a t-shirt too. Try to read the whole thing without your eyes rolling back in your head and knocking you out. I dare you.


Now you have just a small glimpse into my world and what I live with everyday. I can cite examples for every single one of the above examples, but I've taken enough of your time already, so I'll just comment on a couple.

We have rocks in our house. Everywhere. You. Look. E-V-E-R-Y-W-H-E-R-E. But I allow them to stay because each of them has spent no less than five weeks of spinning in a rock tumbler 24-7, over and over and over and over, driving me out of my mind with the monotonous noise, threatening to cause my brain to implode and drip, drip, drip right down my spinal column. The only consolation being that they come out of that blasted machine looking oh so pretty. Shiny and smooth. I like to sit and just stroke them. While I'm waiting for the short bus to come and take me away to the asylum.

I actually did get to spend an entire, precious-as-it-can-only-be-for-a-teacher, Spring Break in Death Valley with Peanut Head. I have pictures.

And speaking of pictures, from our earliest dating days I have a few pictures of myself, taken by Peanut Head, in which I am only in the picture for scale.

So, Peanut Head got a couple t-shirts and he's going to wear them if I have to dress him in them myself. After all, they were made with love.

We also got Peanut Head a Dutch Oven and its accompanying paraphernalia. Now he can cook for us when he drags us camping. Score one for me. Ooh-rah.

Shield Your Eyes Lest You Go Blind

Would you look at that rainbow of color there? I'm pretty sure I've told you that I like bright colors, right? I mean A LOT. Well, what better place to have bright colors than on a birthday banner, right?


I finished this banner exactly 35 minutes before Zoe's birthday party. I was talking to myself, freaking out and giving myself stress sweats just trying to get it done in time.

I'm a freak, I know that.


It was a fun banner to make.


So much fun that, will you look at that, I made THREE of them.


One for me and two to give away to two lucky readers to celebrate my Blogiversary tomorrow.


You have until Midnight Monday, June 22nd to enter.


Just leave a comment and answer this question.


Have you lost your bloggin' mojo now that summer has hit?


I know I have. I haven't felt much like reading blogs, writing posts, or even being on the computer at all.


And I'm not a big fan of the outdoors either. I like to be inside. Where's there's no dirt.

I'm a freak like that.

You have 24 hours to leave your comment, and May the Force Be With You.

Let's Get This Party Started

June is one crazy month in this household, let me tell you. There's just too much going on. For starters, Peanut Head and I celebrate our anniversary in June (it was 18 loooooong years on Monday), there's Father's Day, Zoe Bug's birthday, the Scrapbook Expo in my town, and I do my big summer crop.

As if all that wasn't enough, I'm also celebrating my blogiversary on Monday, the same day as Zoe's birthday. Yep, June 22nd my Zoe Bug will be 8 and my blog will be a whole year old. Wow! So, in case you were wondering, that's why my blog header this month is so festive.

I want to do some fun things to celebrate my blog's birthday, but first things first, we have to celebrate Zoe Bug's birthday. Then after that I might have a fun give-away or two, so stick around.

Tomorrow we're going to have Zoe's party for her friends. That's her invitation you see up above. We always do a backyard water/pool/squirt gun bonanza and this year is no different. Heh. Yeah. Except that we've been experiencing torrential downpours daily for the past two weeks. When I made the invitation I was in complete denial when I wrote "The weather IS going to be nice."

But still, I'm convinced that it will be nice in spite of the dog dish floating in our backyard. Besides, the weather man says it will be nice, for just this one day as I've ordered. Never mind that the weather man is frequently wrong, we're going to have a water party of one sort or another tomorrow. And as soon as I finish this post, I'm going to go and find my life jacket.

I made these little brownie pops to give out as party favors, and let me just say this, NEVER AGAIN. Oh, the pain and suffering I went through for these ridiculous little things. It's so not worth it. Just in case you ever consider making some of these yourself, let me save you a little time and money, okay?

Don't buy this. It's a stooooooooopid silicone brownie pop mold and it's dumber than dumb. First of all, do you really want to pay $8.99 for this? No. And yes, I did use a 50% off coupon but still. Let me just tell you why you should never buy one of these.

First of all, you can only bake eight brownie pops at a time. Then you have to let them cool before you can get them out of the pan. Then they won't come out of the pan anyway. Then you'll try again because you'll be convinced that you did something wrong because maybe you're sometimes a bonehead. And it still won't work and you will have wasted two hours in the process. Then you will dump the rest of the batter into a pan and bake them the way Betty Crocker intended in the first place. And why?

Actually, Betty Crocker is one smart cookie and her way is best. You don't need no stinkin' special pan. After wasting two hours of my life that I can never get back, I learned something. You can cut the brownies like a normal person and then roll them into perfect little balls and then put the cute little lollipop sticks in them. Duh.

After that epiphany, I stuck the brownie pops into the freezer before I dipped them. I left them in there for a couple hours so they were firm and cold. 

Then I melted some of those nasty waxy candy thingies to dip them in. Actually, I think they're really called Wilton Candy Melts, but do you really care? Man, I sound bitter.

That's Zoe Bug's hand there, helping me. We went through a truckload of sprinkles which was another disaster in itself. After dipping the brownie pops into the melted wax, we sprinkled the sprinkles on the pops. Rolling them in the sprinkles didn't work because it left unsightly clumps of wax in the sprinkles. Also, we had to be very careful to not get too much candy wax on the pops or the whole shebang would just slide off like a California mudslide. It would have been funny if I hadn't been freaking out.

But they're done and that ordeal is over. Thankfully.

I found another fun idea, complete with tutorial, for these cute little water bottle tag drink mix holders on Blue Eyed Blessings. They're actually supposed to be for Crystal Light packets, but I didn't think the kids would appreciate those very much, so I crammed some Kool-Aid packets in them instead.

Plus, since it's Zoe's Bug's birthday, I had to put a lady bug on them.

So tomorrow is the birthday party, and Saturday is my big summer crop. But for once I'm not behaving like a complete lunatic, and I'm making my June crop a "No Frills" crop. That means I'm only cooking dinner and when I'm ready to do it I'm going to stand up from my own scrapbooking spot and say "Ladies, get yo' rear-ends upstairs, we're cookin' us some dinner." Yee haw!

Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go and give myself an attitude adjustment.