VBS = Very Busy Sistah!

Last week I only had 50% of my kids in the house.  One is still in Africa and one was at camp in California.  So the two that were here participated in a Vacation Bible School program that lasted from 8:30 am to 12:30 pm.  I love summertime!  It was a little slice of heaven for this sistah!  I felt like a mother who sends her kids away to school…. but just for five half days.  I didn’t quite know what to do with myself…. so I went shopping, out to lunch, bookstore browsing, shopping, out to lunch….etc.  And then the last day I just came home and did nothing.  Nada.  I didn’t even blog.  Seriously, I sat and looked through a few magazines… stared out the window enjoying the silence… nothing.

Nora has not really been away from me in a setting with other kids, other than Sunday School…. and that only lasts one hour!  So this was a stretch for her!  She told me on the second day that she had no friends.  I asked if there were other girls her age and she said there were.  So I explained that she needed to go up to them and say, “Do you want to be my friend?”  And she did.  She got in the van that afternoon and said, “Now I have lots of friends!”  If you want to have friends, show yourself friendly.  It works!

One of my FREE mornings, my mother and I went to a fabric store…. and my sewing creativity that had been dormant for over eight months burst forth into life.  I purchased two dress patterns for Nora and came home to check my fabric stash.  I had ample pieces for little dresses, but needed some zippers, some rick-rack, some sequin trim and a few extra pieces of material.  I finished two of the dresses and I’m onto number three.  They all have lime green, turquoise and dark brown in them, so I’m also working on a corresponding purse that works with all three!  Matching is SO important! 

Did I mention that I love summertime?

Monday’s Smorgasbord

My favorite words by Nora and the definitions by yours truly:

1. Teddy Burr (teddy bear):  when a stuffed animal gets under your saddle.
2. Unnerwhere (undies): what’s that unner there?… unnerwhere?
3. Peaksa (pizza): when you take a little looksie in the oven door to see if the cheese is indeed melted.
4. Enbalope (envelope): when you quit eloping earlier than planned.
5. Austeen (Austin): the new teenage version of her older brother.
6. Chickenout (check it out): what you do when you are too scared to jump into the cold water.
7. Heronimo (Geronimo): an old Indian hero – Nora yells this when she jumps into the swimming pool.

Other tidbits of information from today’s saga:  VBS has begun… hip hip hooray!  My mother and I went shopping and out to lunch!  Boooyah!  The colorful fabrics at JoAnn’s caused me to be deeply inspired to CREATE!  I bought a pattern to sew a dress for Nora!  Ohhhhyeah!  I was dismissed from jury duty before they even saw my outfit!  Rockonnnnn! And I got a ticket from a nice officer of the law.  Booo-hisssss!  Traffic school, here I come! No, I wasn’t speeding… the city closed the road that is the closest entrance onto the freeway… and I took it anyway… for the last time.

Current Affairs

Here’s the latest:

The guppy explosion is currently being effectively managed.  This past week was VBS, so I gave away over 50 fish to wide-eyed little kids who have no idea what will happen in their new fish tanks…  heh heh heh.  One family inadvertently took a small bowl with two pregnant mama fish, but they have 5 kids, so they’ll understand.  AND I finally purchased a baby-guppy-eating fish to handle and new circle of life that tries to rear its ugly prolific head in our fish tank.  Huh uh, baby.  It’s over.

I’m done being glamorous and now I’m cool for the summer.  Yes, I chopped my hair.  I thought of donating to Locks of Love, but they don’t accept anything under 12 inches.. .and I only had 2 inches.  BUT, it’s dramatically changed my appearance and my neck is ready for 120 degrees summer heat.  Bring it on, baby.

Today is fingerprint day.  Rick and I both get our federal adoption fingerprints re-done this afternoon BEFORE they expire.  I’m very relieved to have this done in time.  I’ve read on adoption loops about several families who let their fingerprints expire… what a nightmare of bureaucracy and paper work.  AND I have to be “state” fingerprinted to be a camp counselor for kids camp.  This is my 6th year attending… and my first year fingerprinted.  Think of all the mayhem a smarmy fugitive could have wreaked on innocent campers for the past 5 years????  Luckily for them, I’m a law-abiding, God-fearing mom.

Thanks to faithful blog readers like yourself, Bags for ZAZA is a smashing success.  I’ve joined the sewing team and will have my first four bags on this weekend… hopefully.  Thank you to all who have linked www.bagsforzaza.blogspot.com to your sites.  With the special requests complete, I think we are near the fundraising goal.  But alas, do not fear, new goals are being considered at large wooden conference tables behind closed doors this minute, and more bags will be available.

Peace out.   www.LindaCrosby.com

Overpopulation: A Worldwide Issue

April 2007:  Three mature guppies.  37 immature baby guppies. 

3 + 37 = 250

Have you ever wondered how Walmart started?  I can tell you all about it.  Sam Walton obviously had guppies of mixed sexes in one tank early in his life.  Soon Sam had two tanks to deal with the overpopulation crisis.  Then ten tanks.  Then he had to start Walmart to sell all the guppies.  Wisely, his stores now house their guppies in two tanks and separate the fish by gender. 

You’d think we would have caught on to this.  But no.  We bought three cute little guppies…. two years ago.  The crowd control problem was worse than the thirteen colonies before westward expansion….  manifest destiny… all that good stuff.  I emailed friends offering free pets for their children…. twenty per bag.  I was saving them $2.49 PER FISH!  That’s $49.80, for those who don’t have a calculator handy (like I do.)  What a nice friend I am!  Only two takers.

Solution #2 came in the disguise of Vacation Bible School at our church.  They unknowingly aided in my guppy distribution by asking me to teach crafts.  I was given a “decorating” budget for the arts and crafts room… heh heh heh.  AND the theme was Under the Sea!!!  Perfect.  I decorated with 6″ glass bowls complete with rocks, water and 5-7 guppies.  Then I gave them away every day as long as the kid had parental approval.  I got rid of more than 75 fish that week…. but that was over 8 months ago.  We are back up to over 100 guppies in our 10 gallon tank. 

I tell you all of this because I can’t sell them on eBay or Craig’s List.  Please help!  Free guppies!  Leave your contact info in the comment box below and I’ll have them delivered to your front door.