Sadly, I have had no funny things happen to me lately, so I have no material to use for a true, but funny, rambling story.  Pathetic, I know.  Guess I need to put myself in some situations that might result in something comedic happening.  We’ll see what I can come up with.

In the mean time, there is always Jayden… 

What I want to know is, when do kids start coping an attitude?  When did Jayden decide he had opinions and he was going to let me know what they were?  Granted, as advanced as his talking skills are, he really can’t communicate very well, so his way of telling me whats up is screaming at the top of his lungs until his face turns red for a few minutes, and then most times he starts laughing.  Like, man, I am so funny…  He laughs whether or not he actually gets the thing he was screaming about.  I haven’t quite decided what I am going to do when he does this, so for the most part, I just look at him like nothing is happening.  Like, nobody is yelling at the top of their lungs, and if someone was, it really wouldn’t bother me.  But on the inside, my brain is short circuiting, I feel like I might be developing a twitch in one eye (could that be why he laughs?)

 Some of the things Jayden has new opinons on are

1. Sleeping - he has decided it is no longer a priority during the day.  A nap of 45mins to an hour is long enough.  Sheesh, not long enough for me, especially since he is only taking one nap now.  I’m sure he’ll figure out how to sleep again and I cannot wait until that day!
2. He likes to throw things that he likes (water, milk, binks) across the room, and then he wants me to go pick them up.  This is the one that involves the most screaming, and he usually is trying to climb up my legs while he does it.  It’s fantastic, my most favorite part of the day.
3. Computers - if Jayden and I are upstairs and I step into the office to check my email, Jayden has an opinion on what website I should be looking at.  It has to be starfall and if we are on starfall, then we have to watch the letter ‘D’.  If you try and do another letter before you do ‘D’, all you hear is, “D! D! D!”  Then once you do the letter ‘D’, you have to watch the Dinosaur Dance at least 4 times.  “Again!  Again!  Again!”  I suppose some of this might be my fault.  When I was working from home, Jayden spent a lot of time up here in the office with me, on his own little keyboard, banging away…What have I done???
4. Clothing - for the most part, clothing is optional, especially shoes.  Jayden has decided that he HATES shoes and getting them on his feet is a challenge.  That little bugger is strong.  But I’m bigger and I’ll sit on him if I have to.  But for the most part, I let him run around in just his g-diaper.  It is summer, after all.

Although, Jayden has decided he likes barefeet the best, we discovered something that he loves this past weekend.  We were all in Sportsman’s Warehouse getting some things for our camping trip next week and we walked by the Croc’s display.  I looked around for some for myself, but alas, it is the end of the summer and they are practically out of them.  However, they did have some to fit Jayden’s monster feet.   So I grab one off the display, take his sandal off, and put one of the croc’s on and let him walk around.  He wouldn’t take it off.  If it fell off, he came running back, ’shoe! shoe!’  So, I decide that these might be a good purchase.  Since then, Jayden wears his crocs everywhere.  If we’re in the house and he finds his crocs, he brings them over to me to have me put them on.  He asks to go for walks all the time, just so he can wear his crocs. 

Here is Jayden, today, playing outside with his pool

I leave the room for one minute, and this is what I come back to…..

 

Royal made it back from Boston!  But instead of his flight getting in at 11:30, he was late (of course) and he didn’t fly in until 1:15am.  That means we did not get to sleep until around 3:00am.  So, lets just say I am a wee bit tired today.  The good news is, Royal decided to not go into work today.  YEA!  I think it’s great, especially since he flew out to Boston, Sunday morning at 7am.  That’s right, that meant I had to get him to the airport at 5:30, which meant I had to get up at 4:00am.  Who books these flights?  Are they even legal?

Here are the sweet shirts Royal brought back - yes I know we look a little tired, WE ARE!

 

  

I believe the saying ends…the mice play.  But really this has nothing to do with mice, it has everything to do with poor little Scooter.  Yes, I figured it was time for another installment of Scooter’s Scary Life.

Royal’s off in Boston for a couple days at the American Chemical Society Convention.  Yes, say it with me…NERD ALERT!  He is pretty darn proud of the t-shirts he picked up Jayden and I.  Jayden’s says something to the affect of “Chemistry is Everywhere says the Mole” (get it mole? pay attention in class next time!)  and mine supposedly says, “Experiment with your Chemist”.  Royal thinks it’s pretty hilarious that America is sexing up chemistry now.  But while he’s away, I’m here defending the roost.  Jayden and I have had a pretty uneventful time so far, until just a few minutes ago… 

I wasn’t feeling too tired, so I figure I’d just keep working on the knitting project I have going.  As I was sitting downstairs, I hear a rucus outside.  I turn down the volume on the TV, and I’m like, ‘dang, those stupid cats in the neighborhood are fighting right in the backyard’.  It quiets down, and then I hear it again.  Then it dawns on me.  ‘Oh crap, my cat’s outside’.  I forgot I let Scooter outside after dinner and I forgot to let her back in.    So I jump off the couch, run over to the door, flip on the light, and open up the slider.  There is the biggest of all the wild cats that roam around the neighborhood ready to eat Scooter.  I mean, this cat pretty much looks like a lynx.  Ok, not that big, but you get the point.  Scooter isn’t the biggest of cats, she’s kinda small, and let’s not forget she has a snaggle tooth and she drools.  I’m sure the other cats probably make fun of her.  I scare off the big orange cat and Scooter goes and hides under the BBQ.  She won’t come in the house from me calling her, so I slip on my shoes and go out to try and coax her back in.  She just stays there and growls at me.  Each time I get close to snagging her, she hisses and trys to bat my hand.  So, I go and get her favorite thing.  Food.  As soon as she hears the shaking of her food, she runs right into the house.  Well, not runs, sprints, she’s like a streak of lightening.  I pet her over to see if she got scratched or anything, crossing my fingers that she didn’t, because the last thing I need is another absess.  I didn’t find anything, but I’ll have to wait and see if anything develops. 

I have to say, I am pretty proud of Scooter.  When I opened the door, Scooter was standing her ground, even though the orange cat could of eaten her in probably two bites.  The last time we were at the vet after the last attack by a racoon, the vet said that it looked like from her injuries she really didn’t run away or fight back, she just took it.  So props to little Scoots!  She’s becoming a Lovingfoss!  Lovingfoss’ like to fight, and they only fight to win.  I don’t fight, I’m still alot McComb, but I married a real big guy and he can do my fighting for me.

This doesn’t count as one of her lives, right?  I mean, I saved her so she didn’t have to use one, right?  So, sorry Royal, it looks like Scooter still has 6 lives to go!

I went and bought the Nike+ system today.  I am training to do the Nike+ Half Marathon in October, and I figured I might as well train with the system I will be using during the race!  For $30, really what you get is a glorified pedometer, but it’s sweet!  You plug the receiver into your Ipod and put the sensor in your shoe and it talks to you!  It keeps track of distance, speed, calories burned, and then you can upload it all to nikeplus.com to keep track of your training.  I’m so excited to try it out, I almost want to go wake Jayden up and get him in the stroller, but having a cranky kid is not quite worth it for me.

I refuse to buy the Nike shoes that the little Nike+ sensor fits into.  I personally don’t like running in Nikes, but that wasn’t going to stop me from using the Nike+ system.  So, I started to look for solutions to how I could attach the sensor to my shoe.  I have an old shoe wallet that I used to use in Seattle to hold my keys when I ran after work, but it’s too big for the sensor and I couldn’t get it strapped down tight enough so the sensor didn’t move around.  Then I thought, why not just knit a little case for it???  Genious, I know!  I know it’s not waterproof, but when the weather starts changing, I’ll go look for a more water resistant case to use.  For right now, I’m going to be stylish! 

Here’s the little sensor (it’s a little blurry I know, but I’m not a photographer, I’m a runner…well right now I’m hardly a runner…stupid knee needs to heal)

 

Here’s the little case I knit up

 

See, the little sensor just wants to get in there and be cute!

The finished product with the sensor safe inside and some loops to run my laces through

The Boring Before Shoe and the Stylish After Shoe!
 

I currently use white distilled vinegar all over my house.  I clean counters, cutting boards, floors, Jayden’s toys, tables, etc.. to disinfect them.   Vinegar kills 99% of all germs and it’s not poisonous to humans!  Double bonus!  I find it much easier to let Jayden drop his food or binks or whatever on the floor and then stick it in his mouth, or lick the table when he’s done eating when it’s been cleaned with vinegar.  I don’t have to worry about what poinsonous chemical he’s ingesting.  Royal laughs and makes fun, being the chemist he is.  He loves chemicals and thinks they should be used for everything.  I keep buying dishsoap, and laundry soap, and cleaning products that are safer for the environment and not as poisonous for us, and he keeps threatening to make his own cleaning products at work and bring them home.  He says, “Who cares if it eats through cement, at least you know it’s eating away the germs!”   He actually said this to me last night while he and a friend of mine, who was visiting for the night, sat around and made fun of me.  It’s cool, I don’t care.  I do the shopping, so I’ll keep buying the stuff I want.

I have had this problem with ants in my rock retaining wall this summer.  And they aren’t just any ants, they are freaking fire ants.  Biting, mean, little, fire ants.   They build their nest out of the beauty bark inbetween the rocks, running to and fro, without any idea of the hatred I hold for them.  Yes, I know they are God’s creatures and we are suppose to take care of them, but I pose the argument, are you sure they aren’t the Devil’s creatures?  (Good argument I know, ha ha ha)

So quite a few times this summer, while I have been out watering the plants that sit on top of the retaining wall, my hatred for the ants boils over.  I turn my watering hose from a lovely light mist, into a hard stream of water…and I power-wash the suckers right out of the wall.   I am always a little shocked at the number of ants that come streaming out.  I glare at them over my stream of water and say, ‘Get the heck out of my wall you stupid ants!’  So far they haven’t listened, they just start rebuilding their nest a few rocks down.  In about a week, it looks like I never did anything to them.  Resilient little suckers.  The last couple times I have flushed out the ants, I have had a visit from another one of God’s creatures that live in my wall.  A huge hobo spider.  Now don’t get me wrong, I HATE spiders too.  Hate them!  Too many times were we chased out of the closets by those hairy spiders that lived in the cabin at Timberlakes.  Those spiders didn’t run away from you, they jumped at you.  I’ve had nightmares, especially after the movie Arachnophobia.  Not a good one to watch when you already have an aversion to spiders.  But I spare the spider.  Why?  Because I am hoping that it will eat the ants.  I even say to the Hobo, ‘Hobo, please eat these ants, I hate them’.  So far, the spider hasn’t listened either.  If God ever gives me the gift of speaking in tongues, I hope he gives me the language of animals/insects.   Everyone else will think I’m talking crazy, but the bugs will keep a nice safe distance from me.  I think it’s better for everyone’s sake.

I have been wanting to get rid of the ants for awhile because I am afraid of Jayden running over to the wall and getting bit, but I did not want to use poison to do it, for the earth and our sake.  (You’re welcome earth, you can thank me later)  I just couldn’t figure out what to use.  Then as I was reading about the 1001 uses of vinegar , I ran across this “Stop ants from congregating by pouring white distilled vinegar on the area”  I heard angels singing in the distance, I really did.  So, I went to the store and bought a gallon of white distilled vinegar.   During Jayden’s nap, I went out to the wall, I talked to the ants, telling them I gave them lots of chances, but they had made a sad choice in staying and this was the end of the road for them.  I then preceeded to pour the entire gallon of vinegar along the side of the wall where the ants have been living.  The next day, I was out inspecting my work, and I noticed that there were still ants everywhere.  Needless to say I was furious, so I grabbed my hose and I destroyed their nest, mumbling to myself, “stupid vinegar”. 

It was a week ago that I did this.  I was out watering the plants today and I started to look for the makings of another nest by the ants.  And I couldn’t find it anywhere!!!  I love vinegar!  I don’t know why I ever doubted it’s powers!!!  Granted it’s only been a week, and the ants could be moving to the other side of the wall where the vinegar didn’t get poured, but if they do, I’ll be back with a 5 gallon jug of vinegar.  Sayonara Ants!!  Watch out Hobo, you could be next!

I created a little wristlet out of my leftover sock yarn for Kaylee, so that she would have something to wear around that would make her think of me, and miss me.  Yes, selfish I know, but sometimes I can’t help myself.  Who would of thought that they would be so popular?

While sitting and listening to Jeffrey Williams play at Urraco’s Music on the Patio this past Saturday, I was knitting up another one for Joanna, so that we all could have matching ones.  (I still don’t have one yet, you will see why in a moment)  So I finish Joanna’s, she puts it on and shows her husband Jon.   Jon’s eyes light up and says, “That is great, can I have one?”  I say sure, of course.  I didn’t really take Jon THAT seriously, because Jon is one of those really nice guys who says he loves things and it’s mostly because you love them, so he likes them by association.  He even has the really nice smile and the soft funny laugh that is almost a giggle.  I really like him, he’s one of my favorites.

Anyway, the next day was Sunday (because Sunday is always the day after Saturday) and I was sitting out at the lake during Jayden’s nap and I started knitting up some more wristlets, one for Jordan and one for me, so then all the siblings would have one.  Linda and Greg were staying out at the lake for the weekend too and Linda saw one of my wristlets and asked if she could have one.  So, as they were getting ready to pull out of the driveway, I ran out and gave Linda one.  I go back to the front of the house and someone comes out on the patio and says, “Greg was wondering why he didn’t get one”  Well that would be because I didn’t know he wanted one.  Luckily, I had another finished one, so I grab the spare one and give it to Greg.  I was a little tired of making wristlets at that point, so I never did make more for Jordan and me.

Yesterday (Thursday), I was chatting it up with Joanna online and this is our conversation: Jmccomb4=Joanna, RachelELov=me

So, it turns out, Jon really did want a wristlet.  So last night, after Jayden went to bed, I cranked out 3 wristlets.  Jon is one lucky fellow.  When his band, Ordinary State, makes it huge, my wristlets may become really popular, because let’s face it, everyone is secretly in love with the drummer and wants to be like him.  Ask Joanna, all the girls are in love with Jon.

Rock on Wristlet, Rock on!

.