Literary Euphoria

Thomas, my husband, gave me the gift of $100 to spend on anything I wanted on my jaunt around town last Friday. The text with the announcement came after I browsed through a few stores where I probably could have easily found something on which to spend the money (all the pretty art). I could not find anything the rest of the day; however, I was not deterred. Exhausted and sore from walking through several stores and malls I returned home resolved to get something out of the adventure. I turned to my trusty friend Amazon and purchased 12 books. The second book in the new Beyonders series by Brandon Mull will arrive next year. I also got the final book in the Alchemyst series by Michael Scott which will also arrive next year. I guess you can call me a die hard. The rest of the books are themed around the American Revolution. (We loved Johnny Tremain so much I decided to dive into more books on the topic.) Titles include books written by Avi, Collier and Brady. I am especially excited for three of the books in particular.

The first is Ben and Me: An Astonishing Life of Benjamin Franklin by His Good Mouse Amos by Robert Lawson. Disney made a short cartoon called Ben and Me that I loved as a child. When you love the movie you often love the book more. I figured I can relive a childhood love. It is my playful take on two birds with one stone. The second book is Francis Macon and the Legend of the Swamp Fox by Kate Salley Palmer. It is a picture book. A picture book always has a place in a home library no matter how old the readers are. Again, I can attribute the excitement to receive this book on good old Disney. I am still heard singing, "Swamp Fox, Swamp Fox, tail on his hat. Nobody knows where the Swamp Fox at." And, I will sing this a lot until the literary euphoria wears off. Finally, I got Swamp Fox: General Francis Marion and his Guerrilla Fighters of the American Revolutionary War by William Dobein James who fought side by side with the Swamp Fox, Francis Macon (I wanted to call him Sir Francis Macon but the irony was too much even if he is a knight in shining armor of the American Revolution.). It's a first hand account: A primary source. It cannot be more cool than that. If you were here you could palpitate the excitement that has a strangle hold on the air.

Now I just hope I can make it until Tuesday. I love Amazon but sometimes the lack of instant gratification is too much to bear. I plan on being quite happy on Tuesday when my dog goes berserk at the sound of the doorbell.

The Best Thing My Neighbor Saw This Summer

I crossed paths recently with the only neighbor I know. His name is Tim. He said he saw the funniest thing this summer in my backyard. My three youngest children took the recycling bin filled it with water and then crammed themselves into it like a can of sardines. I guess you will resort to anything in the dog days of the Aridzona summer. I must admit I got a bit of a chuckle out of it too.

Recovery

The Sunday before last my sister (Kelly), her nine year old twins (Raef and Zach), her three year old (Eli) and two year old twins (Harry and Julia) arrived after a LOOOOONNNNNGGGG trip from Reno, Nevada. (I hope you got that straight because I am not sure I can explain it again.) It did not seem too bad at first then the havoc broke loose. Oh, they are all great kids. But, no matter how great kids are, when you stick them together in a house for too long it is liable to be a circus. The biggest problem was probably the littles. I usually refer to my youngest two angels as the littles but in this case it references anyone three and under. Or, what I call Kelly's triplets. Heck, they might as well be. You see, my house has not hosted littles that little for quite sometime. So it was not prepared for what was about to happen to it. For example, I forgot that markers and crayons need to be put out of reach. Until I learned that, the children's bathroom got decorated in a lovely shade of deep blue and a book became altered art. Kelly claims I live in black and white, no color, apparently her littles also agree. Little plastic critters were everywhere. (Kelly scored a sweet deal at Goodwill.) Raisins were everywhere. Gum was in a few places, carpet included. And the kitty cats were shaking in their paws. (The best picture I did not get was when my placid cat Harry reared up on his back paws and slapped one of the two year olds in the face several times. It was only a slap because his claws went bye-bye a long time ago.) That was until they got a reprieve when they escaped.

The active littles had me physically frazzled. (I gave up trying to clean up after them by Wednesday.) The opinionated big kids had me emotional drained. While Kaylee played the rodeo clown, Lije (my oldest son) and Zach had an alpha male showdown. It was interesting because they both had a definitive point-of-view and, technically, both of them were right until they were expected to see the other's point-of-view. When all the facts were considered they were both wrong. But, that doesn't mean two alpha males can stop their showdown. Things calmed down a bit when the magic formula was stumbled upon. Raef and Lije. Zach and Chance. It was like magically linking together yin and yang. Peace ensued. That is unless it was nap time, bed time or food time. It is always one of those. I guess calm is relative.

It may have been easier for the children if Kelly and I could have given them our undivided attention. That would defeat the entire purpose for Kelly and her gaggle of geese flocking to my house. We were getting ready for a wedding. My littlest, figuratively and physically, sister was getting hitched. Thankfully, the only time the children got along was while everyone was in the temple. That is as long as Eli got to "sit in the car for just five minutes." That is just five minutes and a movie later.

Kelly seemed determined to be the Mormon David Tutera. Once she decided she was providing the reception she talked big. She eventually provided big too. Although we ran around a lot, sometimes shopping for Kelly's closet, it did not feel like we were cramming everything into that one week. Thankfully, Kelly preempted some of the wedding psychosis by doing a lot of projects at home and packing them all the way down here. Still the Tasmania wedding devil hit my house. After deciding to paint a couple of the walls in my, ever so white house, green she opted to pursue a previously planned painting project (like that alliteration?) indoors. She had the older children (much to Eli's chagrin) paint a bunch of wood blocks turquoise blue. At this I take a very deep breathe because I am still scrubbing turquoise blue paint off of the sink, walls, cabinets and floors. Now you are probably imagining the worse: paint strewn everywhere. It is really a bad case of tears and pox. A streak here and there that, I believe, are Kelly's fault and not the children's. Pox, well, those are probably a kids' disease.

The highlight of the week was when I got to pick up my Grandma Nay from the airport. Sky Harbor makes me ill but it was worth the tummy rumbles to see her again. I am so very thankful for my Grandmother. Although Kelly and her family ventured to Tucson to prepare for the reception it did not necessarily mean calm or quiet. The pace picked up drastically. I got to bake a lot of snicker-doodles and pumpkin chocolate chip cookies. The whirlwind just did not stop so I ended up warming up the pumpkin chocolate chip cookies at the church. I also crafted all the syrups there too. Mind you, I did not cook or bake anything at the church (against the rules) I just warmed them up. The last couple of hours felt like I was boxing a few rounds with Ali. Kelly paints a much more pleasant picture of these moments, but she doesn't battle horrible anxiety. I managed to scrape by after taking a Xanax. I waited until after clean up and a long drive home to climb into a hole. This week I am in recovery.