The summer in a nutshell...

This is only the first part of a two-part series because, as you know, summer isn't quite over yet. It's breaks are squeaking and there's smoke coming from the tires, but it hasn't come to a full and complete stop. And I haven't been on vacation yet.

Here are some things that have gone/are going on around here this summer...

Lots of swimming.




The celebrating of the birthday of a country and a healthy dose of pyromania.



Lots of baseball...




and baseball watching, replete with concession stand goodies....


and under the bleachers drama!


Rain everywhere but here.



The beginning of a love for gardening...



and some hard-learned lessons on the subject...




and the promise of something sweet and juicy.



Some naps in weird places.



And last but not least, my kids, hungry all day long, giving me a break only when they go to sleep at night. School days, when are you coming back?

Last night, while laying in bed with my husband:

Me: Oh gosh, I almost forgot, I left the water on in the backyard.

Elliott: You'd better go turn it off.

Me: I'm half naked, why don't you do it.

Elliott: I'm already trying to turn it off with the force. [Moves his hand like he's turning off a faucet]

Me: [rolling eyes]

Elliott: I think I got it this time, but you'd better go check.

A bonding project for a father and his son.

This past Saturday was just your typical Saturday. Except for one small thing. What's that I see, off in the distance?


What are those Park boys doing?


What is that contraption?

Hey, dogs, what are they doing over there?

Dogs: Pant, pant, hot, hot, pant, hot, pant.

What's up, John?
John: Well, I was supposed to be building a trebuchet with dad.


Elliott: See, if we can get the fulcrum blah, blah, blah, pivot, blah, blah, rotation.

Elliott: All we have to do is make sure the blah, blah, blah, torque, blah, blah, floating arm blah.

Elliott: See, Eric, the blah, blah, leverage, blah of the blah, blah fulcrum blah, swing blah.

John: This was my idea, you know.

Elliott: We need to make sure the blah, blah center of gravity blah, is blah, blah, blah that way.

Elliott: What do you think about here for the blah, blah swingy thing.

John: I have an idea. We could use this for the blah, blah, blah thingy thing and then it will blah, blah projectile blah, blah really far.

Nunie: You see, Aiden, when I was a little girl we used to make mud pies the size of frisbees. It was really fun!

Elliott: If we can just get the blah, blah, fulcrum, torque, swing, projectile, we'll have the perfect blah, blah.

Eric: Now, wait a minute, Elliott, what about the degree of blah, blah, blah you mentioned earlier?

John: I'm gonna go jump on the trampoline.

My deepest apologies...

I suggested a movie last night. A movie that was to be seen by seven other people. I was not nervous. I simply suggested a movie that I wanted to see. That's all. It turns out, there were others who wanted to see it too. But there were not many others who enjoyed it like I did. No, that is an understatement. In the movie theater, there was wailing and gnashing of teeth. And I could have sworn I heard the distinct sound of someone slitting thier wrists, but they came out of the theater just fine.

I have to give a shout out to the lovely Krissy, who sat on the end of the row next to me. Without her, I would be hiding under my bed right now thinking I was the only one to have loved possibly one of the cheesiest movies ever made. I'm not kidding. If it hadn't been for Krissy proclaiming her love for this movie and her consistent "shushing" of everyone around her, and the tears that gently trickled down her cheeks at the very same moment they trickled down mine, it would have been a seen from junior high. I would have felt the pressure of all my friends who hated the movie and I, to be cool, would have followed along. If not, half-heartedly. I would have been a closet fan. I would have been relegated to watching the thing on a rented VHS tape in my parent's living room.

But I'm not 13 anymore. I'm not even 30 anymore. I'm a few short years from 40 and I'll shout it from the rooftops, I loved Mamma Mia! There was cheese pouring from every scene and it's true, without all the singing, it would have been a ten minute movie! Did I not mention in my top 100 things that I like musicals? Well, I do and as Elliott says, "You can't have a musical without the cheese." And I do love cheese. I will admit there were a few parts that were a little over the top for me, but that's ok. I watched the drama geeks in high school from afar and wondered to myself what it would be like to live so loudly and not care what anyone thought, but not enough to hang out with them. I still have a little bit of that in me.

And even though the music was a little different from the way I heard it on the radio back in the day, I'll take ABBA any way you serve it. I've put their greatest hits on my "music I must have" list. My friend Sarah did an excellent job describing what the fascination is.

So, to those of you who were there last night, poking your straws into your eye sockets hoping for some relief, I'm sorry you didn't enjoy yourself. I'm sorry you felt misled or deceived or that you wasted the calories in a large Dr. Pepper on that movie. But, as they say, you win some and you lose some. You'll bounce back. You'll find people that hated it as much as you and you'll compare war stories of how you lived through the whole experience. And while you're doing that, Krissy and I will be at the movie theater, waiting for it to start all over again!

Cardboard Testimonies

I love transformation. Of anything. An old, paint-chipped table, a wrinkled shirt, people's lives. And, obviously, I prefer positive transformation. Anyway, Wendy sent me this link in an e-mail and it really moved me.

Adventures with the Tooth Fairy (The Prequel)

I recently found some old pictures at my mom's house and boy, did I laugh. Out. Loud. Some that I found that were of particular interest were the ones that chronicled the evolution of my two front teeth.

As you know from this post and this one too, I have semi-recently had some dental work done. It's always been hard for me to explain why I was having them fixed. I would have to go all the way back to around 5th or 6th grade to begin the story. So, as I was going through those pictures at my mom's house, I realized that it would be a whole lot easier to just show you why I had it done.

Try not to laugh too loudly.

Here I am as a sweet innocent baby. Surprisingly, I was eating rice cereal at 1 week old. Not surprisingly, I was born with no teeth. (I feel ya, Jaxon)


The teeth did eventually come. Aren't baby teeth just the sweetest things?



But, alas, they are gone in a flash and in their place materialize these huge ivory tusks that our faces have to grow into. Nice.



Just about the time my face began to fit my new permanent teeth, we noticed there was a slight problem. The dentist said it could be due to the water I drank as my permanent teeth were forming. The kids at school diagnosed it as "cheeto stains". Again, nice.



To remedy the situation, my dentist told my mom that I would need to get bonding to cover up the stains. So I sat in the chair while my dentist packed white stuff onto the front of my teeth, let it harden, buffed it smooth and repeated the process several more times. This is how it turned out. [I couldn't find a picture of me right after it was done. This is several years later, in high school.]


Now keep in mind this was done around age 11 or 12. I was 36 last year when I finally had them fixed. That's roughly 24 years with the same bonding. It was stained and chipping away in places, but most of all, it made me look like a friggin' beaver.

Anyway, I got them fixed and these are the before and after shots taken by the dentist.


Of course, I made the transformation more dramatic by getting my hair cut and actually putting on makeup for the "after" shot.


I think those of you who see me on a regular basis know how happy I am with my new teeth. I love them! I love them, I love them, I love them!

Thanks, Dr. Christie!