Our Tooth Fairy Must Be Blonde

I'm very concerned about our Tooth Fairy. I don't know if you've ever experienced this problem before, but I have multiple times now. To be more accurate, our kids have. It's heart-breaking to watch these kids of mine arise in the morning, excited to see what the Tooth Fairy has left in exchange for their itty bitty teeth, and then...wails and sobs break out because they have received absolutely NOTHING! That dirty, rotten, scoundrel Tooth Fairy. How dare she (or he) forget my children.

It's incredible to observe how creative this Loser Tooth Fairy has become over the years. On one occasion money magically appeared underneath the pillow after the child had awakened and left the bedroom. How did the Tooth Fairy manage to do that so sneakily, and how could the child be so naive to think that he missed seeing the money in the first place? Another time, that savvy Tooth Fairy placed that dollar inside the pillow case and forgot to take the tooth. We simply explained to our daughter that the TF probably wanted her to keep her tooth for posterity. She bought it, hook, line and sinker.

And the latest episode of the TF with Alzheimer's occurred a few days ago. A groggy, distraught Maddie plodded into my bathroom in the morning upset because once again the TF forgot to leave money. "I checked everywhere, even in the pillow case!" Picking up my daughter, I stepped into the kitchen speaking loudly to hubby, "Can you believe that the Tooth Fairy forgot to leave money AGAIN?" Wink, wink. He's getting the picture clearly, and as I hand him my wallet, he sneaks out to the rugrat's bedroom. A few minutes later, he appears saying that he thinks the Tooth Fairy did visit during the night, but left the money in a different place this time. The Tooth Fairy loves a good scavenger hunt! Walking into her bedroom, Maddie begins checking under all the pillows, looks behind the bed and doesn't find anything until daddy says, "You didn't check underneath your baby's pillow!" Wow, he's so smart. How'd he think of that? Well, there lay four quarters ready to be handled by her grubby, little hands. "But, she always leaves a dollar!" Maddie cried.

Forget the Tooth Fairy, we need to work on this girl's math! All's well that ends well. Sigh.

Is Summer Really Over?

It's been so long since I've posted that I can't quite decide what to write about. Perhaps it's just best to keep my re-entry into bloggy world rather short and sweet. I'm fairly certain that most of my readers don't desire to hear about every little tidbit of my summer that is now becoming quite past tense. C'est la vie, as the French would say. I despise the passing of summer only because it means the inevitable is coming...WINTER! Winter and I do not have a good relationship. It's cordial. We agree to disagree, but we do not love each other like summer and I do. So, I refuse to discuss winter until absolutely necessary.


Back to summer and the myriad of topics at hand. The abbreviated version of "what I did on my summer vacation" is as follows:

• 1 week of Vacation Bible Xperience (back in my day...VBS). Lots of noise, fun and complete exhaustion by the end of the week


• 1 weekend trip to St. Louis, MO for an annual business meeting with hubby's company. Fun experiences traveling to the top of the arch and attempting to find Maddie in the City Museum. Such a surprise that she did not stick by our sides in that massive place and managed to get lost!


• 1 week long trip to Mother and Father's and M-I-L's (Mother-in-law) in Seattle, WA over the 4th of July. Way too much fun with family and friends.


• 1 week back at home with just enough time to realize my house had not been sufficiently taken care of and was in need of serious cleaning, de-cluttering, etc. But, oh well...don't have time because I'm off to another adventure.


• 1 week long trip on an amazing Mediterranean Cruise with the girls. Nick stayed home to hold down the fort and a job in addition to attending tennis camp. One of our stops was Ephesus which was truly an emotional experience. What an opportunity it was to see where Paul, Timothy and John preached...and even where Mary spent her last days! It was so nice of Nick to inquire as we were returning home from the airport if we were planning to stop somewhere on the way and eat. I thought he was truly concerned about our well-being while he simply wanted to know how much time he had to get the house back together!


• 1 1/2 weeks at home to assess how bad the deterioration of the homestead had become. Unfortunately, between gymnastics camp and other activities, housekeeping did not improve. What a pit!


• 4 day trip to the Willow Creek Leadership Conference sans hubby or children...just great girlfriends! What a grand time for absorbing, learning and processing new ideas.


• 3 day whirlwind in preparation for school beginning. Is it me, or does it seem a sin for school to begin on August 13? Again, back in my day, school officially begin after Labor Day. Our family did, however, manage to sneak in a trip to Holiday World and Splashin' Safari after the first few days of school. I'll just slip in a little Maddie aside here. As we were preparing to leave the house, I showed Maddie the pajamas she had left on the floor of her room. "You need to put these away." "Oh, mom, just put those in the hanker over there." "Hanker?" I replied. "You mean "hamper", don't you?" Just another word mishap in the life of Maddie!

That's it in a nutshell. My summer recapped in the short and sweet version. Many are breathing a sigh of relief even now that I didn't relate the interesting details of each port of call we visited on our cruise. They are clapping for joy that I didn't discuss the highlights of each of the speaker's topics at the leadership conference I attended. You can thank me later for sparing you the saga of my summer including the laborious details of juggling the car between my son and me in which most of my brain cells are now permanently fried due to the intense mathematical equations required to determine workable scenarios. It's okay if that last sentence didn't make sense. I'm convinced my hubby could probably commit me to the mental ward because of this car drama!

It's a great thing that I am not in school any longer to write the annual, "What I did on My Summer Vacation" paper. Either the teacher would fall asleep in complete boredom or recommend me for some serious counseling. In all honesty, my summer was exciting and fast-paced, and most definitely too short. I enjoyed time with friends and family as well as much-needed unscheduled time hanging with my children. Thus, I would say that these short few months were rich in relationships, and that's all that matters.

Three Cheers for the Bulldogs!

You can imagine my utter shock at my results to this quiz. After all, I attended high school eons ago. I was fairly sure I had forgotten just about everything I had learned. Apparently, I've still retained some of that knowledge, and it's been laying latent in my brain just waiting for this quiz. Must be that great teaching I sat under at good old West Albany High. Go Bulldogs!

Have fun!

You paid attention during 91% of high school!

85-100% You must be an autodidact, because American high schools don't get scores that high! Good show, old chap!

Do you deserve your high school diploma?
Create a Quiz