Kleeman and Mike Go Surfing

I love this video because it captures the essence of surfing, surfers and their cats. Otherwise if people keeping asking me what surfing is like I will have to start writing nonsense such as this.

Today I checked the waves. I was expecting, knee high waves, but it was more like chest high waves.

"Ahhhhhh, I brought the wrong board!" I wail, at no one in particular.

I'm at the beach might as well paddle. I pull on my neoprene suit of armor to protect me against the attack of freezer water. Hide my car key in my suit. Make sure it's the right one, five times. Lock the doors. Make sure they're locked, three times.........

Anyways, you get the point, watch the video, please. Besides, the boys love it and so do their parents.

Comedy of Errors

Staged photo: "You can only do this when Mommy says it's okay."

Note: Sunday, I staged some photos for yesterday's blog, in the bathroom sinks. I didn't bother to clean up the messes, right away.

After going to the bathroom Vinny runs down the hall yelling, "Mom, my toothpaste is on the counter! With the lid off! And someone smeared it in the sink! It wasn't me! I think Gio did it!"

I didn't have to say anything. Innocent people were confessing left and right. Well, just one person.

"I did it because I was spitting the toothpaste out," Gio confesses, falsely.

Then my husband got into the mix, upon waking from a drunken, benadryl-induced coma, "Gio's been finger painting in the sink, with toothpaste!"

I love it when I make a mess, everyone takes notice and freaks out, as if something out of the ordinary has happened. Maybe I'm not as messy as I think, after all?

Self Help Therapy

I have this little rule I put into practice, when I remember, and let's just say I forget a lot:

Everyone is a mirror of me.

Therefore, whatever advice I give to someone, I am really giving to myself, because everyone is me. Hence the adage, "follow your own advice."

That's not difficult to follow, right? Plus, I usually give pretty good advice so I don't mind following it myself.

But what about when someone is irritating me with an annoying habit? Such as, putting clean laundry in the dirty bin. Or failing to rinse the toothpaste out of the sink, minutes after I finish scrubbing the sink.

I'm pretty sure I never do those two things. And even if I did, it doesn't count, because I'm the only one who does laundry or bothers to clean the sinks.

But, seriously, is there a point where the concept Everyone is a mirror of me, really doesn't apply, to me? Yes, I believe so.

That's when I follow my own advice.

I take a few deep breaths, right before yelling, "please, for the love of servants everywhere, stop the unnecessary messes and clean up after yourself, now!"

In conclusion, I'm very messy and often don't clean up after myself.

Wardrobe Meltdown

Harry Partner

Gio is a different person everyday. One day he's Dora's cousin Diego. The next day a clone from Stars Wars. The next day a Jedi, who uses the force, The next day a Western Harry Potter.

Generally, we pick clothes from Gio's closet to build costumes. Last week he had a complete melt down because I couldn't get Diego's costume quite right.

"He wears a blue shirt with a pocket!" he wails.

"This is what Diego was wearing for the picture, but he doesn't wear that outfit everyday," I explain rationally. "Do you wear the same clothes everyday?"

"It's not right!" he protests.

There was no use trying to reason with him. He was at the bottom of downward spiral, and he needed time and space to recover his senses. So I waited until later that day to talk to him.

"You need to figure out your own costume from now on," I say. "Mommy doesn't like screaming, and you don't get to scream at her anymore."

Now he's picking out his own clothes for his costumes, thank goodness. But every once and awhile, he still asks me for help.

"I will help you, but if I do, you have to take the clothes I give you, no complaining," I say.

"Okay," says Gio.

Phew.

Happy Ending Sugarland

One of my favorite bands of all time is Sugarland. Not because I'm a huge country fan, or I'm addicted to twang. But because Sugarland writes great songs. Some are fun, some are sad, and my favorites are inspiring and speak volumes of truth regarding the human spirit.

This particular song, "Happy Ending," has some of the most inspiring lyrics of any song stuck in my little MP3 player mind.

"We're all lookin' for a happy ending," really applies to all of us. "We come here with nothing and take it with us the day we leave, first and last breath don't matter it's all the ones that are in between."

Oh and let's not forget the Martin Luther King and the first astronauts to walk on the moon references. Those are some of this country's most inspiring leaders ever. Yeah, I could go on and on, but I need to go surfing. And I know y'all are smart and get what I'm saying. Even if you don't like country, listen to the words, they're inspiring.