Isn't he too young for this?

This evening, one of Jake's friends from the neighborhood knocked on the door to see if Jake could come out and play with her. After a few minutes of playing with the new basketball hoop and a few laps around the house chasing the dog, Jake and Abby settled on the front step and were just sitting there talking to each other. They looked so darn cute that I had to take a picture...but I didn't want to disturb them so I was taking the picture from inside the house:

Then I decided to just go out front and take their picture:

Could they be any cuter? But seriously - isn't he too young to have a girlfriend?

P.S. Please pay no attention to the dead grass in our front yard. Don't you know that NC is in the midst of a severe drought?

Finally she sleeps!

After many days of not napping, several nights of staying up late (either because of activities or because she just won't stop playing!), a couple days of bad allergies complete with a couple doses of Benadryl (and STILL not napping or falling asleep at a decent hour), she finally fell asleep! And it was before 8PM! Hallelujah!

Funny Megan

After another afternoon without actually sleeping during nap time, I asked Megan "Are you ever going to take a nap again?" Her reply -- "no I'm only gonna take beds".

An interesting take on it, I suppose....naptime vs. bed time...time to take a nap vs. time to take bed (although I never actually say that). I see the linear progession there, don't you?

Surely all these days of no naps, staying up late and getting up early are going to catch up with her sooner or later, right? Maybe she will sleep through all of next week.

Seriously!?!

Why is it that my son cannot not remember that I have ears? Does he seriously think he is fooling me when he says he was taking a nap when in actuality he was hopping around his room like a kangaroo? Does he really think I can't hear that?

Calgon....take me away!

Crazy magnet

I've frequently kidded my friend Toni that she is a magnet for crazy people. Toni has some good stories about these frequent encounters and they never get dull. Unfortunately, I think the magnetism has transferred to me! UGH! It's amusing to hear the stories, but not so much when I am a part of them.

Nothing major happened...I just got blind-sided by some crazy lady during one of my classes last week. I thought she was about to simply walk out (it happens every once in a while), but instead she chewed me out right in the middle of a turn step! I could do nothing but stand there completely still with my mouth hanging open and twenty something aerobicizers waiting for me to tell them what step to do next! It was a short chewing-out, but a chewing-out nonetheless. Thankfully, my faithful followers literally cheered me on, saying "shake it off", "just let it slide" and the like. Therefore the tears threatening to fall simply stayed in my tear ducts. I took the cheers as them being supportive and being just as dumbfounded by the whole thing as I was, but really, they were probably just hoping I would call out the names of some steps pretty darn soon so they could actually get a workout in!

One of my regulars actually chased after her with the intent of telling her that her outburst was one of the rudest things she had ever seen, but couldn't find her. Oh well. The crazy lady couldn't be found, because apparently she went to complain to the management. OY! My boss just thought she was crazy and didn't really give much more thought to it. Cool. It's over, I thought.

But for the last few days, every time I run into someone I know from the gym, they say something like "I heard about the incident in your class...it's the talk of the gym!" Great. For once I actually handled something fairly well - without my mouth getting me into trouble (shocking I know...can you believe it?) - and yet it just won't go away. Oh well. I can only hope for some other incident to occur so this just dies.

Toni - please take your crazy magnet back. I'm done with it!

I'm off the hook!

Here's a big weight off my shoulders...

"Scientists at Harvard School of Public Health found no link at all between eating fruits and vegetables and cancer risk. It didn’t matter whether people consumed two servings a day or 10; their risk of developing cancer over the 15-year study period was exactly the same."

YeeeeeeeeeeHaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!

This not-so-good fruit and veggie eater (do fruit-flavored Skittles count as a fruit? Kidding, Mom, I do eat some fruit...every once in awhile...sortof) is not more at risk for cancers than all those extra health-conscious people. What a relief.

Now if someone could just find scientific proof that eating ice cream every day is EXCELLENT for your health. Then I'd be really good to go!

Fourth of July at the Beach

We hopped in the car around 8AM on Friday to head out to the Outer Banks. My sister, Julie, her husband, Chris and their kids, Ryan and Kelsey, were in the area visiting Chris's parents. Mid-morning, they all trekked out to where we were on the beach and hung out for a few hours. Unfortunately, Kelsey wasn't feeling well and didn't last too long on the beach, but Ryan had a ball. He and Jake were like two peas in a pod, jumping around in the waves, splashing, and just generally having a great time.

Hopefully Julie and her family will be out at the beach again this summer so the kids can play together again! Here are two pictures that Julie took:

Ryan, Jake, Megan and Kelsey

Ryan and Jake

41 is not old!

I'm watching the Olympic trials and just saw Dara Torres kick butt once again. That's great. I love the Olympics. But it is totally driving me crazy how they are making such a big deal about her being 41 years old! I realize that this is much older than the average Olympic swimmer, but for God's sake - it's not like she's 70! She's only 41! The announcers keep saying "this is such a story of triumph".... and so I keep waiting for some bombshell of a story to drop. Did she overcome a terrible illness? Did she have a heart transplant? Did she recover from a catastrophic injury? Did she lose a limb? No. She had a baby. And she aged 8 years since the Olympics...yup...8 years ago! Not so triumphant, really.

The fact is - Dara Torres rocks! She is awesome. She works hard, she trains hard and hard work pays off at any age. So all you NBC announcers and other news people need to just get over her age! 41 is NOT old!

(I suppose I might have had a different perspective 10 or 15 years ago, but I just don't think of 41 as old now that it is not so many years away!)

Beautiful, beautiful rain!

Monday afternoon brought some much-needed rain, a bunch of frogs, a silly 3 year-old, a very wet dog, a rainbow and a dripping, nutty 5 year-old.

Anyone who has ever met Jake can attest to the fact that he LOVES water. In any form. A puddle, the ocean, coming from a hose, in a lake or river, in the bath, squirting from the refrigerator's water dispenser...or even in a cup. I'm telling you - if you are ever stranded in the desert, you had better hope Jake is with you. The boy can find water ANYWHERE. After which he will promptly splash in it.

SO - when it actually began to rain fairly hard on Monday afternoon, Jake was just crazy with excitement to stomp around in the rain puddles getting soaked. As Jake ran around delighting in the water falling from the sky, Piper followed closely behind him, trying to catch raindrops in her mouth. Apparently we don't provide enough drinking water for her.

The ditches in our front yard began filling up with rain water and out came the frogs. They were jumping into the water, jumping out of the water, hopping away from Jake as fast as they could, all while making all kinds of weird noises. Jake was in heaven! Megan, ever the more cautious Storch child, stayed on the front porch observing from afar for awhile. After finally venturing out into the driveway and subsequently getting quite wet, she started shivering and announced "I'm going inside to get a jacket". A few minutes later....out she came....wearing this:

Yes - it is her winter parka. Over her little sundress. With bare feet. Silly girl.

The rain storm also produced a gorgeous rainbow. The picture doesn't quite do it justice. It was beautiful.

It sure was nice to get some good, steady rain. Hopefully we will get more soon and have some more fun splashing around!