Federal Offense

Yesterday Maddie had a playdate with Lauren at our house. They were riding scooters in the cul-de-sac and I came down to check the mail. Maddie said "I already checked it, there wasn't any." So, I said good, and walked towards the house. Maddie said "we took everyone else's mail and delivered it for them." Sure enough, everyone had piles of mail in their driveway. I had to make them collect it and put it back. Future criminals!

Looney Tunes

Maddie has discovered the hilarity that is Looney Tunes. Many kids in this generation don't get the humor. Maddie loves it. I don't think she quite understands it, but she loves it. I sat down the other day to watch it with her and I began to question a few things.

Why do so many of them have speech impediments? Maddie can hardly understand what they say. Bugs Bunny, Elmer Fudd, Daffy Duck, Tweety Bird, Sylvester, Yosemite Sam, even Foghorn Leghorn has a STUTTER for Pete's sake.

What's with all the attempted murder? People give Spongebob a bad rap for it's adult-laced humor, but how often do you see them try to kill each other (minus the episode where Squidward accidentally feeds Spongebob a pie-bomb).

Looney Tunes is chock full of racism and stereotypes. Did you know there is actually one called Bugs Bunny Nips the Nips. I'm not kidding. It means what you think it means, too. Then of course, there's Speedy Gonzales......

Then of course there is the drinking and smoking. You hardly ever see smoking at all on prime time TV nowadays and my daughter is watching it on cartoons?

Despite these numerous flaws, it's still the funniest cartoon out there. I think maybe some of today's cartoons should take a page out of the Looney Tunes book. Wouldn't Spongebob be a little funnier if instead of grumbling and griping about Spongebob, Squidward called up Acme and manufactured a bomb that he accidentally blew up in his own awkwardly drawn face? Or what if Max got fed up with Ruby not listening to him and tied her to a railroad track. Or Wanda got sick of Cosmo being stupid and so she drank all the time. Well, I guess that will never happen. We'll leave that to Merrie Melodies. Why do they call it that? There isn't anything Merrie about it.

The End of Summer

Summer is coming to an end and I have been given an award. Worst Blogger EVER. I use this blog as a tool to go back and look at all the things that have happened to us and I will look back at the summer of 2010 as the most boring summer ever. BUT IT WASN'T. And here you thought I just used my blog to make snarky comments and complain. Shows what you know.

So, I'll get you caught up on the last 3 months. Some of which have already been mentioned in the blog and some haven't, but I am not going to be picky and choosy about what is blogged about in the next 10 minutes and neither are you.

We started our summer off with a family trip to Oregon. I already know I blogged about this so I'll keep it short. It was fun. End of story.

I turned 25 in July. Or was it 35? I lost count. Either way my AARP card is on it's way. Actually, funny story, I do get AARP stuff in the mail, but it's not for me, it's for my mother-in-law, who happens to share my exact name. I think she did it on purpose just to give me a mild heart attack when I see it in the mailbox. Or maybe it is for me. I'll stick with the first story. She doesn't argue it.

Maddie turned 7 in July. Although sometimes I think maybe it was 2. I don't know. I swear she throws more temper tantrums now than she did when she was 2. I put up with them A LOT less than I did when she was 2 though. You'd think she'd learn, but I think she has that short-term memory problem. The one where she chooses what she remembers and what she does not.

We played some incredible softball this summer. We gathered a team of old players and new players, and all in all we got a team of people who not only played well together but got along like peas and carrots. Or broccoli and cauliflower, only because I actually prefer that to peas and carrots.

We were given a really large pool this year by my dad for the kids to play in, which they utilized to the highest extent all summer. I'll admit to having dipped my tootsies in the pool once or twice on the hottest of days.

Joel decided to use his head at work, not in a good way, and got 7 staples and 6 stitches, which he decided would be fun to remove himself. This is me not amused by him.

We camped twice, once with the Snelsons and all the kids in Belfair and once with just grownups in Brinnon. Both were awesome. Neither time did we have good weather. The two weekends of bad weather all summer were our camping weekends. Oh well, camping in the Northwest wouldn't be the same without tarps.

So now the summer is coming to a close. Tomorrow is the first day of the last full week of summer vacation. Maddie is preparing to head off to 2nd grade and Dylan is preparing for 7th grade. I'm preparing for a Mommy Party. The one in which I sit down on the couch and cry tears of joy while listening to silence. I will be sad to not sleep in until 8:00 or 8:30 every day, but to be completely honest, I really only did that once or twice this entire summer. I would have done it more, but kids and husbands don't know how to let a woman sleep. They apparently didn't get the memo. I'll be sure to write it more clearly next summer.

Camping Grown-Up Style

Alright, so we had an insane couple of days. We had planned an Adult-Only Camping Trip for this weekend. Joel and I, Tara and Brad, Dennis and Megan headed up on Thursday. Ironically, we had all planned to go up at different times but because of various complications we all ended up there within minutes of each other. Tara and I had originally gone up early to secure some campsites, which turned out to be a the best idea ever. Jay and Paul and Lezli came up on Friday night. We got oysters directly off the beach on Saturday. They were so good. We had the best time. Of course, there were some people that were invited that unfortunately could not make it, and we missed them, but we hope that next year when we do this again we will all be able to be there together. We brought home a lot of memories and shared a lot of laughs. It was a good bonding experience for everyone and I am really grateful for that time we had up there.

No, the dog is not sniffing my butt. I know that is what you're thinking.

Leaps and Bounds

Maddie had saved up some money for her birthday and decided to buy a Leapster. Dylan used to have one but it broke (probably by the hands of Maddie the Toddler Tornado). I had tried to pursuade her against it because the age group is 4-8 and she just turned 7. I figured she'd be too old for it. Boy was I wrong. Most of the games are highly educational and she's LOVING them. As we know, she struggles a bit in the learning department and this little creature is helping her. Thank you Maddie for making the right choice, despite what your mama tells you.

Today is a great day to be me. My kids are having a day that I like to call "Make Mama Proud" days. Dylan is being patient with Maddie. Maddie is agreeing with everything Dylan says, no matter what it is. They are currently outside playing together. Yes, you read that right - TOGETHER. If I didn't know better I'd think they were doing it because they are going to be away from each other for almost 4 days and are going to miss each other like crazy. Nah, that's not it. Oh well, whatever it is, you know I'm enjoying every last minute.

Library Adventures and More

Somewhere in my jangled brain in the past 15 years I had forgotten about the library. In my younger days I'd visit it quite often and check out books and read them. As I got older, I'd buy books, which is a silly waste of money considering the massive amounts of books I read.

I decided as something to do this summer we'd visit the library once a week. I'm trying to encourage my kids to read. Dylan is an awesome reader, but he hates to do it. Maddie struggles with her reading, but she loves to try.

Dylan likes books about sports and scary stories and Diary of a Wimpy kid. Maddie loves the Junie B. books and anything Dylan likes. She has high ambitions.

For me, I've just been loving the never ending supply of books they have. I love that if they don't have what I want, they can order it. It's like I'm a queen they are my servants. I have a large list of books I have been wanting to read and am slowly working my way through it.

Tomorrow is a special day. I could wait and post it tomorrow, but it's also a busy day and I might forget. Tomorrow is the official release of Ryan Star's album 11:59 in stores everywhere and on ITUNES. You can get a sneak peak by downloading one song, Breathe, from ITUNES for FREE this week only. Also, Breathe was #16 on the VH1 Top 20 Countdown this week. I'm so proud of him. What a journey it has been. Congrats Ryan :)