7 Quick Takes (Volume 234)

1) Me (to Drama Queen): Insanity in the morning?

Drama Queen: Nah . . . technically I'm done, but I'll go to the Y with you.

Me (breathing a huge sigh of relief realizing I'll be avoiding the torture of Insanity): Super. Sounds good. At 8?

Drama Queen: Yep.

The next morning I saw nothing of her. About 8:15 I wandered up to her room to find her in bed still.

Me: Did you want to go to the Y?

Drama Queen only groaned.

Me: You don't have to. I just didn't want to leave you if you wanted to go.

Drama Queen (feeling pity or guilt, I'm not sure): But I don't want you to have to go by yourself.

Me: Uh, I think I can handle it. I've been going by myself for nearly 20 years!

Is this a sign she's finding me elderly and needing a "companion" for daily tasks? Wait, don't answer that.

2) It's been a week of concerts for Princess Dawdle. Tuesday night was her Band Concert. Doesn't she look all grown up?


She's LOVING her new saxophone. And she sounds super!


Last night was a vocal concert. She's all business, I tell you.


She did a nice job on her solo too. Great work, babe!


3) So I was driving around in our Pontiac Vibe the other day, my purse resting in the passenger seat, when I noticed my passenger side seatbelt light kept blinking. What?! My purse is as heavy as a person?

(To my dear chiropractor friends, please don't worry or chide me. Would you believe me if I said I carry it with both hands, thus keeping myself balanced? Yeah. I wouldn't either.)

4) Not only is our neighborhood home to the amazing owls, we also have TONS of squirrels. The other night while relaxing on our back porch, we spotted an unusual one in the tree next to us. It was a small squirrel without fur on its tail. Think squirrel body, rat tail. Weird. And it wasn't too shy, staring us down only a few feet away, close enough that I wondered if it would jump at me. My kids decided it needed a name and dubbed it "Rodney."

Now it's not unusual to have at least half a dozen squirrels running around in our yard at any given time and normally I don't pay any attention or distinguish them from each other, but two days later as I was pulling out of the driveway I spotted that rat-tailed squirrel and had to text everybody immediately.

"I just saw Rodney!"

The texts flew back. My favorite came from Drama Queen's boyfriend who she teases about being a genius.

The Boyfriend: Is his fur growing back?

Me: Apparently not since I recognized him.

The Boyfriend: Good point.

His blood sugars must have been low! Just kidding, dear boyfriend! Who knew a little thing like an abnormal squirrel could be so entertaining?

5) And speaking of little entertaining things, I had the pleasure of having a 3-year-old buddy help me make brownies yesterday. I pushed a chair up to the counter for him to stand on and got the ingredients out.

Little Buddy: I smell sumpin'. Oh wait, it's just you.

Me: Is that good or bad?

Little Buddy: Mmmm . . . I don't like it.

He was easily distracted from my stench, however, as I gave him the job of pouring the oil and water in. When I reached for the kitchen shears to cut the brownie mix open, he looked at me with big eyes.

Little Buddy: I don't get to cut. I'd cut my finger half off!"

You think he's heard that somewhere before?

6) Later Little Buddy was joined by his brother, my two nephews and all my kids. It was a hopping place, I tell you. The little boys were out playing with my big boys and it was so fun to hear them all laughing. I thought my dinner table was crazy with my own kids, but add four little boys 8 and under and wow, it was exciting!

I feel the need to apologize to the mothers of said little boys though. They may or may not have been convinced we have rats living under our dining room. They may have been encouraged to repeat songs you don't like and they might drive you crazy looking for Rodney.

7) I can't believe it, but my baby, my little guy who could wiggle his ears at two-years-old, my kid who banged the table so many times to frighten his siblings they wouldn't react to a sonic boom now, my Drummer Boy turns 23 on Sunday. 23!!! How can I have a child this old? I wish I could claim I was a teen mother, but I wasn't. Not even close. Now he's a man, with a beard and everything! How did this happen?

I'm not gonna stress over it too much. He still gives his mommy the best hugs. Happy birthday, Drummer Boy. I love you.


And with that, another week concludes. Hope your weekend is splendid and you enjoy more Quick Takes at Conversion Diary.