SARCASM!

My daughter Cassadie is very literal. She does not get sarcasm....ever. Jarod, on the other hand, gets it and uses it....often. Remember, Cassadie is almost 12 and Jarod is 9, their ages make this even more funny. This morning, we were getting ready to leave and Jarod said something absolutely dripping with sarcasm, he then turns to Cassadie and says (very loudly) "SARCASM!" She very calmly and honestly replies "thanks Jarod". She meant it. We have discussed the use of a sarcasm sign we would hold up each time we used sarcasm. It has never happend, but Cassadie often mentions it, and wishes for it.

Although Cassadie is older, and slightly taller, Jarod is outgrowing her. He grew an inch in 3 months, and he is becoming stronger than her, although he doesn't always realize it. Today, Cassadie was trying to put the wheels in her Heelys. (For those of you who don't know, they are tennis shoes with a wheel in each heel. The wheel can be removed and a cover goes in its place.) She had been trying for several minutes when Jarod sits down next to her and asks, "can I help?" He takes the shoes and has the covers out in a matter of seconds. (by the way, it was huge that Cassadie actually let him help...she's a bit hard headed) She says "oh, thanks Jarod, you're the best". He walked away beeming. It was very cute.

We discovered last week that the difference in womens and mens shoes starts at size 6. We had bought Cassadie a size 7 and Jarod a size 6.5. Jarod's shoes are significantly bigger than Cassadie's, which led us to examine their feet and found that Jarod's have gotten bigger over the last few months. When we bought their Heelys for Christmas they are both size 6 and actually the same size. My questions: is there a chasm between a size 6 and 6.5 in mens shoes? why is there such a difference between mens and womens shoes sizes? who decided it should be that way?

110 degree heat and no sunscreen makes for a really nice sunburn

We took the kids to Silverwood Theme Park this last weekend. For those of you who don't know, it is a theme park in northern Idaho. It has a huge water park and the other half is the usual stuff (roller coasters, etc.). We had a great time, the kids had a blast. It opened at 11 am and closed at 10 pm, so we got there and spent the first half of the day in the water park.

We put sunscreen on, but we only had the spray stuff and found that it is really unreliable. Alex's chest and back are kinda striped - he didn't want me to include a pic so you'll just have to imagine it. He didn't think to put any sunscreen on his legs or feet, so they are a lovely shade of purple. The picture doesn't really do justice to the color.

At one point, we stood in a line for a ride for over half an hour. The ride was called Thunder Canyon. You and 7 other people climb into a giant sized inner tube and seatbelt yourself into a seat. You ride down man made raging rapids - and of course, you get wet. We watched people coming out, drenched and contemplated leaving the line several times. We stuck it out, and didn't regret it, even though we ended up soaked ourselves. Jarod got the worst of it, but he was a trooper. We played until the park closed, and sleepily drove about 15 miles down the road to a cute little campsite for the night.


The campgroud is set on a beautiful mountain lake with a great little inlet for swimming. The kids had a good time swimming in the lake and chasing a pair of ducks.
These last two pictures were taken the next day, after Silverwood. You can tell that the kids' sunscreen worked. Their faces were a little pink. My sunburn was patchy - the places we missed when we sprayed on the sunscreen.

10 days in a tiny trailer

So, I just got back from spending 10 days in a tiny trailer counting money for about 15 hours a day. This may sound glorious, but by the time you've counted your 50th bundle of bills, you are very unaffected by it. It really just becomes paper to you. I was working with my sister, Angela, and the company she works for. Angela, our other sister Beckie, and the other employees were the only people I saw for those 10 days, (except for the hundreds of people I sold parking tickets to). Most of the employees were under the age of 20 and so I felt right at home. I found myself wanting to tell them to watch their language, out of habit. We had one incident where a goat got loose and the kids had to try and catch it. I think that was one of the funniest things I have ever seen. I really enjoyed the people, and the job was kinda fun most days. Most of all, I really enjoyed spending time with Ang. I love her, and am sometimes in awe of the things she can do. One of the boys said "I don't know how you know how to do all of that" referring to a complicated spreadsheet I was working with. I replied that Angela had trained me, and that I didn't know how she knew how to do all of this. She had created this system of complicated spreadsheets to keep track of everything, they all made perfect sense to me, but I cannot fathom coming up with them.

Beckie and I went to see The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants. I had really been wanting to see it, and was glad to have someone to go with. About 10 minutes into the movie, a group of 13-14 year old girls came in and sat down in the front row. They had obviously never been taught movie watching etiquette, although very much old enough. They proceeded to talk, drop things, crawl across the floor and mess with the curtain just below the movie screen, throughout the entire movie. Their mothers should be scolded for allowing them out without proper supervision!!!! Even though the girls were somewhat distracting, the movie was great.

Beckie and I often get told that we look alot alike, except for the hair color. We have even been mistaken for one another on several occasions. People will say, "Oh, I thought Christi died her hair!" We can see a resemblance, but have never thought we look that much alike. We have similar taste in fashion and find ourselves buying the same clothes which only adds to the problem. The night we went to the movie, we were dressed in dark jeans, brown flipflops, and our shirts were of similar color. We laughed at ourselves as we rode the elevator down from her apartment. To make matters worse, we ordered the exact same thing for dinner. The little guy who took our orders at Carls Jr. must have thought we were crazy. I think Beckie is an amazing woman. She is beautiful, smart, and she is one of the most caring people I know.

I often wish we didn't live 3 hours away, so I could spend more time with my two amazing sisters.