Safe!

Yesterday evening it was just Kobee, CoolJ and I at home. The big kids and hubby were out doing other activities. We had about an hour before bedtime and were tired of watching cartoons. Kobee asked me if I'd play a game with him. I play games with CoolJ all the time so I'm thinking this will be all sorts of fun.

"Sure, what kind of game do you want to play?"

"Let's race!"

Oh, you've got to be kidding me. I'm so out of shape, but I have to be able to beat my boys at anything so they don't think their mom is a woos.

"I'll beat you," I threatened.

"That's okay. Let's race."

So we all put on our fastest running shoes and headed to the front yard, where it was very dark. Our front porch light doesn't seem to do much good for the front porch, let alone the whole yard. Now last time Kobee and I raced was about a year ago in Tooele. I was way faster than him, and a lot lighter. Kobee has grown several inches this year and runs races all the time at school, so he's improved a bit since last year, but I'm still determined to beat him. He tells me to line up along the edge of the driveway, facing the side yard.

"Okay, where are we running to?"

"To the red tree. On your mark, get set, GO!"

Kobee starts running as he says go but of course I don't start running until after he has said it, so he is already ahead of me. I book it to the tree and stop, while Kobee hollers,

"You have to run back, too, mom."

UGH. So no matter what I've lost this race due to the fact that my six year old makes the rules as he goes, and calls out go so that he can leave the line before I do. In hopes to make this more fair, I declare CoolJ the referee, who gets to be the one to say go. I also verify that we're running to the tree and back. I've got it straight what he expects now and we are ready.

CoolJ says, "On your mark, get set, GO!"

Kobee leaves the line as go is said AGAIN so I'm behind AGAIN. But I'm still determined to be faster than my six year old and win this race. I book it, touch the tree, which Kobee didn't do, and book it back. Making great strides to catch up to and pass Kobee in the last leg of the race, I slide on one foot several feet across the grass, which means of course that I then fall and slide on one knee several more feet while Kobee is passing the finish line. Yes, I slid safely into home. If only we had been playing baseball or kickball or softball. But NO, there I lay on the grass beaten by my six year old. Of course I had to accuse him of cheating because he didn't touch the tree before he so quickly ran back.

The races continued without me, which means I got to be the referee for Kobee and CoolJ. The first race Kobee won hands down. CoolJ isn't as practiced at this yet. To make things a little more fair for CoolJ, I made a rule of my own. CoolJ has to touch the tree and come back, but Kobee has to run around the tree and come back.

"Ready, set, GO!"

Off they go towards the tree. CoolJ is so funny at how precisely he follows the rules. He stops completely, touches the tree for several seconds, turns around and runs back. It's like slow motion. Luckily he still finishes in similar time to Kobee who has run around the tree.

The boys went to bed with no problem that night!

Mannah from Heaven!

As many of you know, my parents live in Idaho. With no stops, it's about a four and a half hour drive for us to get to their house. Each fall my parents glean potatoes after the potatoes have been harvested. This year since my dad is driving over the Teton pass to work each day, mom had to find someone else to help glean the fields. Mom's best friend is in her early forties and has six kids, the same age as mine down to newborn. Since this friend lost her mother many years ago, my mom stepped in to help give her advice on raising kids and helps her like a mom when she has babies. Since there's only a decade difference in age, it works well for them to also be best friends.

Now that you have the background information here's the story! Mom took her best friend's kids to help glean the fields. Their first gleaning was red potatoes. When they drove into the field, right there on the edge of the field was a big puddle full of spuds. Those kids had a hayday digging potatoes out of the mud. Mom said it looked like there was trouble getting around that corner because of the puddle so they dropped all the potatoes on the belt and picked up once they got around the corner, leaving probably hundreds of pounds of red potatoes for someone else to discover.

The second time they went to glean, they wanted russets. Mom pulled into the field and found tons of potatoes again, right there on the edge of the field. They filled the back of her jeep with all the plastic bags mom brought chock full of russets. Mom's best friend ended up with easily a dozen boxes of potatoes between the two gleanings and my parents with probably as many.

A day or so goes by and mom gets a phone call from her best friend, "You didn't need to glean potatoes. Come to my house and see." Mom's friend lives next to the highway and there is a ditch between her house and the highway. A potato truck filled with thousands of pounds of potatoes hit the ditch with one tire, which of course toppled the truck, dumping potatoes onto mom's friend's yard. The farmer came with another truck and a front loader and scooped everything he could, telling her she could have the rest. Mom and her friend spread the word for people to please come take whatever potatoes they wanted from her yard. 30-40 families have gleaned potatoes from her yard and there are still potatoes left waiting to be claimed.

With the economy the way it is right now, those potatoes serve as a blessing for many families to be fed this winter. Mom described it as "Mannah from heaven."

Don't watch "The Dutchess"

Church_Mouse and I went on a double date Saturday night with some friends. After going to dinner, we went to see the movie "The Dutchess" starring Keira Knightly. We've enjoyed other movies that she has played in and figured this one would be good as well.

The movie had several sex scenes, including a lesbian sex scene. It was based on a true story and the story line was very sad. I was quite shocked and would like to warn everyone else this movie should have been rated R and I can't recommend it at all.

You've Been Spooked!

My best friend started "Boo"ing people in her neighborhood last week. It's a fun tradition that has gone on for many years in the month of October. I've been running so far behind in school as well as the rest of life that I have decided not to worry about it this year.

This week with the weather changing so drastically, I have struggled with allergies. My allergies became a raging cold over night last night and I have slept all day today. Matt woke me up for dinner at 5 pm with a bowl of chicken noodle soup for dinner. Still tired, I came upstairs and crashed on the couch with no energy.

A few minutes later someone pounded quite loudly on the front door. I waited for one of the kids to go running to answer the door, but nobody budged. CoolJ was playing quietly with his mega blocks. Church_Mouse was working from home with very large head phones preventing him from hearing just about anything. The other kids were downstairs: Hawkfire on the computer in her own little world and the other two boys playing the Wii. So...that left me to answer the door. Forcing myself to get up and walk across the house, I found the front door wide open with our black cat, Friday, sitting in the front doorway. No one is at the door, but a plate of cookies with a note, "You have been spooked."

We invite cookies at any time! I the meantime, for FHE tomorrow night, and figure out who we are going to spook. But the story thickens. Rafiki had just gotten out of the shower and had come upstairs in a towel and was walking past the front door when the "BANG, BANG, BANG" took place. Scared Rafiki out of his skin. Our front door at that time was closed, but the door opens easily, so about the time somebody ran, the door flew open and the cat showed up to take a look. Soon Kobee showed up when he found out there were cookies, asking who was at the door. I told him it was a ghost. He seemed a little taken aback by that until I told the whole story and reminded him that he helped "Boo" neighbors last year.

So hopefully I'll be feeling well enough tomorrow to make cookies. If not, the kids will do it. They love to bake...and make a big mess in the kitchen.