We’re still out here in the sticks and still enjoying summer, even if it is 100 degrees in the shade. Rapunzel drug out the slip-and-slide I bought for her about a thousand years ago. That’s the great thing about my mom’s messy house, you can find anything. She never throws anything out. The slip-and-slide only had one gigantic tear down the side but it still works splendidly.

She’ll never admit it but Rapunzel has a crush on a neighborhood boy down the street. He’s actually a really nice kid but she’s only nine! So it’s kind of cute/funny when she constantly is asking if he can come over for this reason or that. She tries to play it off as if she really doesn’t care but you can tell.

She kinda reminds me of myself when I was in college (I was a late bloomer) and I had this crush on my best friend’s boyfriend’s friend who was sort of interested in me but not really. The one who I pined after for way longer than I ever should ever admit. I still feel sorry for my old self who used to sit by the phone and make up all kinds of elaborate reasons why he didn’t call. At one point I actually convinced myself he couldn’t call me because he was dying in the hospital. I was so pathetic. The part that reminds me of Rapunzel was how I would come up with all kinds of creative ways to work this boy into any conversation I had with my friend hoping she’d talk to her boyfriend and get some clue as to why he was blowing me off. Of course it never worked out between us and last I heard he was dating a girl with the same name as me.

Anyway, I felt sorry for Rapunzel (and also she was driving me bananas with her constant “Auntieeeeee I’m bored. Can I carry Baby Bug around all over the place and drop her on her soft cantaloupe head?”) so I told her she should invite the neighborhood boy over to play on the slip-and-slide.

You should have seen the glee in her eyes. She tore out of my Mom’s yard so fast I had to yell after her to put her flip flops on before she burned her feet off on the hot asphalt road. The boy seems to like her too because next thing I knew he and his brother and three friends came over to play in the slip and slide.

It was a big muddy splashy mess. They had so much fun. I should have taken a picture. My mom’s yard is toast but you can’t put a price on fun like this. I know she’ll always remember these summers just like I remember my summers from that age.

It all reminded me of being a kid and how fun it was to wear a swimsuit all day long and eat peaches right off the tree, fuzz and all.

driving in my car car from secretagentjo and Vimeo.

(I included my brother tripping over a hula hoop for your enjoyment.)

My brother is moving out of my parent’s place and that means lots and lots of chaos while they pack up their stuff and attempt to transport it all to their new place. Of course I never want to miss out on any family drama so I decided to head out to the sticks to help with the “process”. Or at least help my mom cope with the empty nest syndrome, even though this will be my brother’s third or fourth time moving out.

My mom and I have been packing boxes (while my brother is at work and my sister-in-law and nieces are out of town) and we’ve been sneezing up a storm with all the dust. Let me just say this: my nieces don’t need any more toys ever. I think we must have packed a hundred boxes of toys. So many! If you want to buy them a birthday present in the future, buy them a ticket to legoland or something. Something that doesn’t need to have a place. I don’t know what their new house looks like but I’m guessing there isn’t that much more room than there was here at my mom’s.

I could be wrong. I am the fanatical neat-nick of the family. And I might get in trouble depriving my nieces of presents. I hate to do that. It’s just my independent editorial opinion that they don’t need any more toys.

I was talking to my brother’s boss (who came to help—yay boss!) and he said it’s just the times. All kids have this many toys, he said. Hoo Boy! I don’t think I can do that with Baby Bug. I really get stressed out when things don’t have a place to go. Plus, I hate to see people waste money on toys when she’d be just as happy with an old used up cardboard paper towel tube. Though I have to admit I do covet Madeline books and maybe a little miniature broom so she can sweep the patio for me. I’m such a hypocrite.

Baby Bug has been having a blast here, as usual. She loves the sticks. “Side! Side! Side!” she yells as soon as we pull up into the driveway. She loves the dogs and the dirt and the miles and miles of weeds to go running around in. It’s not really miles and miles, only a half acre, but to a city kid like Baby Bug it’s miles and miles. I filmed a little movie of me driving her around in my nieces play car. I’ll try to put it up tomorrow if I have time. I would put it up now but Baby Bug is sleeping in the same room I am typing this in and I know I would wake her up if I tried to work on a movie right now. You know me. I can’t just upload a movie as is. I need to edit it and add music and stuff… definitely not something I should be doing at 11:19 pm when my eyeballs are burning and I really should be sleeping.

So I’ll leave you with this silly face and check back in tomorrow!