Mother of the Year
See this picture?
Would you believe me if I told you that this looks BETTER than it did before? Well, it does.
Would you believe me if I told you that this isn't a sunburn? Well it's not.
Not any more... it started out as a rather mild burn. Red's skin is super-mega fair and he burns easily. We went to the beach last week and he got a light burn. So, I alternated putting burn jel and aloe vera on his back. But it got worse... and his back got really splotchy. Each time I applied the stuff he said it hurt a little more. But, being the BRILLIANT person that I am, I didn't add things up... so, I kept putting stuff on his back.
On Friday night he was hurting. I put more aloe vera on him (stupid, stupid, stupid!) and the pain it caused was terrible. Soon he was laying on the floor shaking. He kept telling us that he was okay, but it was very obvious that he was not. We were getting ready to take him into the ER and we decided to say a prayer. The power of prayer is amazing. The pain stopped shortly after and he was able to sleep.
Afterwards I started looking at both the gels... both have lidocaine in them. I'm not sure if he had an allergic reaction or if it was some kind of chemical burn... but I just thought it was the sunburn getting worse. Sigh. Why is it that when I make a mistake, it's usually my kids that pay the price?
We kept him home from school yesterday, but by last night he was teasing Baby Girl till she was almost in tears. Apparently he's feeling better :)

Just Keepin it Real: A Cautionary Tale
I have a story to tell about...um... a friend of mine. Yeah. That's it. And her name is... uh... her name is Marissa! Yep. That's her name alright! Anyway, Marissa had some family visiting. One day the family decided that they wanted to go for a hike. Marissa got all the kids ready and made sure that they went to the bathroom before they left. But, she forgot to send herself to the little girl's room and by the time they got to the trail head she had to go... BADLY. Of course, there was no porta-potty or outhouse type structure. Marissa had never wished to be a boy till this very moment in time. But that's besides the point. Anyway, she sent the rest of the party on ahead and took off into the bushes. She found a lovely spot and ... wow. What a relief! Till she stumbled just a bit... she's not used to squatting, you know. Anyway, there was a dead tree branch behind her behind (ha!) and she kinda fell onto it. Now, this dead tree wasn't all nice and smooth... no. It was rough and very brittle. It broke. Marissa caught herself before she fell all the way to the ground, but not before that branch left a lovely splinter in her rear end. Have you ever had a small piece of wood in your bottom? Yeah... um... me neither. But MARISSA has! And she told me that it hurt pretty bad. Luckily, she was able to get it out in the end (ha!ha!).
So, the moral of this story? Go potty before you leave the house... but if you have to pee in a bush, check for items that may impede the process. Oh, and you should probably start doing squats to build up those leg muscles, just in case. Learn from Marissa's mistake... I know I have...

Random... Again
It's time for another edition of randomly random stuff. I'll be your host today to guide you through this jumbled mess of thoughts that have been scrambling around my mind. Please keep your arms and legs inside at all times... my brain can be a scary and dangerous place!

• Why is it that people who drive fancy cars think they can do whatever they want? I was cut off three times yesterday... once by a guy driving a Jag, another driving a BMW and another driving a Lexus. I know that their vehicles cost more than we make in a year, but I think someone needs to let them know that they only bought the car... not the road they drive it on.
• The other day we were cleaning up and I handed Baby Girl some toys to put away. She turned around and said, "Look Dad! Mom gave me the bird!" It took me a minute to figure out why Hubby was laughing so hard...
• We have family coming tomorrow. They'll be here till Thursday and then we have more family coming on Friday. Should be a fun and hectic week!
• I left a message on Hubby's phone the other day that went something like this... "Hi - I hope you're having a great day! Hey, I may or may not have bought a Wii Fit today. And I may or may not have played it all afternoon. And I may or may not be the hula hoop queen! Love ya!" I'm stiff and sore, but I'm lovin that Wii Fit!
• The neighbors have a little girl. The other day she was in the back yard singing the songs from "Enchanted". Totally made my day!
• I made my picks for March Madness. I'm not very scientific about my picks. First, I pick the teams by location. The closer the team is to where we live, the more likely it is that I will pick them. Unless they have a really cool name... then I'll pick that team. Like Villanova or Gonzaga. Try saying those names.... see? Totally fun!
• Little Bug pushed our Little Tykes car over to the fence the other day. He climbed on top and threw rocks into the neighbor's pool. Sigh.

I think that's about it for now! Thank you for joining us today here at Mejojac's Memos. Please remain seated till the ride comes to a full and complete stop. We hope to see you again soon. Enjoy your day!

Coming to a Table Near You
We spent some time in the field with Hubby this morning. It was a great day to be out and about and I realized that almost everything we were seeing was going to be eaten at some point in the not so distant future.
Summer 2009... Super delicious table grapes...Winter 2009...Oranges and lemons (I wish you could smell the blossoms! SO GOOD!)

Some random time in the future...
Honey! (And yeah, this photo was taken from the car because I'm a coward... but come on... that's A LOT of bees!)And probably never...

Escargot! Yep. They have escargot snails out in the orchards, but they don't harvest them. This is actually an empty shell, but the snails are everywhere!

Hubby works in agriculture and so we've been surrounded by all kinds of different fruits and veggies over the years. When we were in Oregon there were watermelon fields, peach and cherry orchards, potatoes, peas, onions and corn. Down here there's strawberries, citrus, bell peppers, dates, tomatoes, and lots of other things. The best part is getting to bring a little home every now and again... like the oranges Hubby picked this morning and I ate with my lunch. There is nothing better than produce that goes from the field to your table and skips the middle man.

Do you live in an area with a lot of agriculture? If so, what is grown where you're at?

Not Too Bad
The other day I was at Kohls and found a skirt that I really wanted... but it was almost $50... on sale. I don't have $50 for a skirt... and so, sadly, I put it back. But then, I had a thought... I could make my own! It can't be that hard, right?
And actually, except for the zipper, it wasn't that hard!
I went to JoAnn's and found a pattern I liked and the fabric I wanted. Came home and measured myself to see what size I would need. I'm usually an 8-10 and figured that's the size I would need.
WRONG!
Apparently, in pattern-world, I'm a size 18. I figured that they MUST know what they are doing and went ahead with the 18. This is what I ended up with.It seems that pattern-world measurements are a tad off. If I hadn't been wearing jeans it would have slipped off completely.
So, I took about 5-6 inches off the side seam. It fit much better.
The zipper was a pain. I've never put a zipper in by myself before. My mom has ALWAYS been there to help (a.k.a. do it for me). The stitching around the zipper is crooked and kind of off center, but for my first try, I'm pleased.
The finished product?Nothing fancy or amazing, but I like it! And the cost...
Fabric - $8.00
Pattern - $1.50
Thread - $.50
Zipper - $2.00
Hook & Eye - $.15
Twill Tape - $.75
Total = $12.90
Lots cheaper than the skirt I had wanted and it only took me about 3 hours to finish it (would have been less but I had to unpick the zipper twice... I told you it was a pain).
I bought fabric to do a different skirt that was in the same pattern packet. We'll see how that goes... but all in all, not bad. Not bad at all!

To Whom it May Concern
Dear Person Who Thought of Daylight Savings,
I hate you.
From,
a Tired Mom who will have to PEEL her kids out of bed in the morning... sigh...

So Cool
The Elasticwaistbandlady, otherwise known as The Smiling Infidel, had this video on her blog. I thought it was so awesome, that I'd share it here too :)

So fun!
I'm still working my way through the Google Reader. It's still deleting posts, but not every time. Selective deleting. Kind of like my kids selective hearing loss, only I can't punish Google Reader for ignoring my pleas to STOP DELETING POSTS!

Hello Out There!
I'm back! Kind of... my parents and brother left yesterday. We had a fantastic time with them here! It was fun to play games each night, go hiking a couple of times and head to Disneyland one day. And the weird thing? I think they had a good time too!
I tried to catch up a little on blog reading this morning but my Google reader is being weird. I clicked on a link to take me to the blog and it didn't go. So, I clicked again and noticed that it deleted a post from my reader. I looked through and realized that it had deleted two posts. I tried a different link... it deleted two more posts. I have no idea what is going on...so, I'm waiting for a little bit to see if it quits and then I'll try to catch up again. It's going to take me awhile... there are almost 300 posts in my reader! I'm not going to get to all of them, but I will hit your most recent posts. Unless, of course, those are the ones that were just deleted in my Google reader. Then I can't promise anything!
I did want to thank you all for your kind words and encouragement about Red's car. I made a certificate for him letting him know we thought he did a great job and it promised a trip to Carl's Jr. (his fave fast food spot). He was pretty pleased with that. Anyway, I read your comments to him and you should have seen that kid grin! Y'all made his day - so, again, thanks!