Tuesdays are trash day at the Zoot house. And just like Mondays (Curbside recycling pickup day.) I spend the morning with my ears tuned in for the sound of the BIG TRUCK coming up the street. We often miss the recycling truck as he comes around naptime, but the garbage truck usually comes right before we leave to take E to school so we often hear him and sit on the stoop waiting for him to come take our garbage. Yesterday we caught him, and like usual, Wes waved frantically at the driver. The driver waved back yesterday, which we thought was the MOST AWESOME THING EVER.

We were wrong.

Since Wes kept waving at him, even after he waved back, the driver honked his horn for us. And right then? Wes died. He could not believe what had just happened. We had to call Daddy at work and tell him all about it. We told the E on the way to school and we told the preschool teachers when we dropped of Nikki. He was just beside himself with excitement. CAN YOU BELIEVE WHAT JUST HAPPENED, Mom?

(Sidenote: My Dad would have LOVED that. He was kinda fascinated with big trucks too.)

Well…just when Wes thought he had reached the high point of his day, we came home to this.

See…our landscaping on the front of our house is not really the type we either like OR want to manage. It’s a bunch of big shrubs that would require some massive trimming and then maintenance to keep them from growing over the stairs. There’s a hodgepodge of stuff going on in the flowerbeds, none of which is low maintenance. And there are weird issues where obviously things died and they were just removed leaving gaps in whatever design there was going on. I called a local landscaper (whose receptionist immediately bragged about it being the only female-owned landscaping business in town – which I LOVED) and she came out and priced digging EVERYTHING out (except 3 crepe myrtles and one non-maintanence needed shrub) and starting over. So they brought the bobcat in yesterday morning to dig the stuff out. When they’re done I’ll show you pictures of all the stuff they found in the shrubs/flowerbeds. Have I ever mentioned that the family that lived here before had 8 kids? Well, half of their shoes were left behind in our flower beds.

I never took a “before” picture, but here’s a coupled “just got started” pictures:

Basically they’re digging everything up and planting some Azaleas and some ground cover in the beds that I wont have to think about. I want LOW MAINTENANCE since I have no interest in taking care of anything. It needs to be able to survive on it’s own around here. Just ask our kids.

Wes and I sat out IN THE RAIN yesterday and watched them dig everything up. I don’t think Wes understood at all what was going on, but he did NOT want to stop watching when we had to take the kids to the vet. I didn’t think the bobcat would still be here when we got back but it was and Wes watched out the window until they left. I’m certain the entire time he was thinking, “If only I could drive that thing…”

I know – without a doubt – that today will be nothing but disappointment after yesterday. As a matter of fact, it may just go downhill from there. That was a damn good day for a 2-year old little boy.

I was at Target getting groceries this weekend with the two little ones. Wes in the buggy (shopping cart for those of you not from the South) and Nikki walking along beside me. It was the same drill it always is for us, a constant parade of conversation from aisle to aisle. Sometimes Wes freaking out about the dog in the photos above the refrigerated sections. Sometimes Nikki trying to figure out some way to convince me to buy [insert random pink item here] for her because she TOTALLY NEEDS IT. Other times we’re talking about non-grocery related tasks like the upcoming days and what we have planned or the next meal and what we’re going to eat. I sometimes stop and wonder if other families are as talkative as we are. Especially when it’s been just me and a baby doing the same amount of talking. YES. I’m that Mom. The one that even when her kid is not old enough to hold up his head, I’m saying things to him going through the store like, “Don’t let Momma forget the oatmeal.” Or, “I can’t remember if we’re out of orange juice or not.” I never really expect a response, of course, it’s just the way I’ve always been. It’s an instinct in me, I guess, to chat with my kids. Even if they’re not old enough to chat back.

So…this weekend. We were rounding an aisle and a lady stopped me and said, “I just want to tell you I think it’s wonderful how much you talk to your children. I’ve been listening to you all and you talk to them, and they talk to you, and you respond and it’s such a joy to hear. Sometimes I see parents and children out and about and no one is even looking at each other, much less talking.” I was overwhelmed with appreciation at this stranger’s praise but I said while laughing, “Well…we are quite a talkative family!” She smiled sincerely and said, “And I wanted to compliment you on just that.” I thanked her and we went our separate ways. Nikki immediately said, “What was she saying?” while Andy starts waving, “Bye! Bye!” I guess to prove her point – we never shut up.

Whatever it means that I talk to my kids a lot, I’m glad I do it. Do I often also tell them to, “Be Quiet!” Yes. OH MY GOD…YES. Nikki’s favorite game is the quiet game and I use that to every advantage I can, because sometimes? I need it to be quiet. But a lot of the times? I don’t. And I’m glad we’re quite chatty. And I’m glad there are people possessed by so much kindness in the world that they feel the need to pass on compliments to strangers. I’m going to try to repay the woman by complimenting as many strangers as I can this week.

By the way…have I told you your hair looks great today?

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And now…random photos that relate to nothing above! Enjoy!

This is just one of the many moments I catch of my kids just loving each other. I’m so glad they get along so well.

Paint party on the front stoop.

This top was made from parts of the 100+ year old dogwood that has recently succumbed to time/sickness/aging. (Here is a photo of it in it’s prime here) The tree means a lot to me for many reasons, so I made sure to buy a handful of items a local artist made from the wood. I bought each of the kids a top and Wes has decided it’s his favorite toy EVER.

This house does not have the typical “Open” floorplan you see on new builds these days, probably because it’s almost 30 years old. Our old house, on the other hand, was quite open with the kitchen only closed off from the office/dining room (What? Those rooms aren’t the same in your home?) from a bar. Therefore, it seemed like the kitchen area was always the central hangout zone. I loved this as it kept me from using my kids as an excuse to not spend any time in the kitchen. I had no idea how this would play out in the new house. I assumed the kids would hang out in my sitting room off the kitchen, which is why I made sure to get small chairs, a coffee table that could be beat up and colored on, and put a TV in there.

While they do end up there periodically, the crayons and coloring books I put in there originally? Have ended up in the kitchen. There is – of course – our breakfast table in there for small meals. But there is also this strange desk area that I can only assume was some sort of bill-paying/letter-mailing center in the original plan. There are mail slots above it in the cabinets that I now use for those random things we need readily accessible: Sunscreen, bugspray, bandaids and – of course – flashlights without batteries. (We never keep actual working flashlights accessible in our home. It keeps power outtages more exciting that way.) But this desk area? Has become quite the hang-out zone for the kids.

I often will try to get them to at least move to the breakfast table, as I typically keep my camera and purse and laptop on the desk area, they still spend quite a bit of time there using my pens (Why can’t they use their pens? Because I’ve evidently already instilled in them some office-supply snobbery.) on my grocery-list notepad. Do they use their crayons? Or their coloring books? No. Not as a first choice, anyway. Sometimes they’ll do that when I ask, but first attempt? Always MY pens, MY paper, on MY desk area where I keep my laptop so I can have my recipes easily accessible. So much for the well-thought out sitting room with it’s adorable kid-friendly furnishings.

*sigh*

What about you? Do you have a planned children’s area that seems to be constantly ignored for your areas? My kids also love my office even when they have an entire playroom ALL TO THEMSELVES. I guess the only way to really assure they use the areas like you intend them to? Is to use reverse psychology. “I do NOT want you touching those crayons! Use Mommy’s pens instead…those crayons are off-limits!” or “Please don’t go play in the playroom. Stay here in the kitchen and harass me while I cook, please? I don’t want you in the playroom!”

I’m sure even that would backfire on me.

• The So You Think You Can Dance finale is set to go and my favorites are the last ones standing. Actually, José was my sentimental favorite but I knew he wouldn’t make it to the end. The three that made it? Are my technical favorites. And I’ll be happy if anyone but Kent wins just because I have this weird vibe from Kent that the whole Innocent Good Ole Boy schtick might be a little bit faked. Not entirely, but I feel he’s exaggerating it for the show. And that kinda annoys me. But he’s a good dancer! So…you know…if he wins I won’t be pissed. But, I hope either Lauren or Robert takes the prize. Lauren is probably my overall favorite which is funny because she was no where near my radar when the Top 11 were announced.
• It’s back-to-school time so let’s talk office supplies! I have two new favorite pens. They are both the BiC Triumph, one is the 537R and the other is the 730R (both extra fine) and it’s such a joy because I haven’t had a new favorite pen in years. Unfortunately, they’re relatively new so you can only get them in the basic colors (Red, Blue and Black) that I know of. If I ever see a pack of 10 different colors in those pens? I may die from excitement. LOVE THEM.
• Our a/c went out in our downstairs of our home. I’m calling the repair folk today and hope to GOD they can get over here and fix it this afternoon because it has been reaching over 100° on the thermometer, let’s not even get into the whole Heat Index thing. Let’s just say if you consider Heat Index? It has been illegally hot here. Yet I’m still walking my dogs for one mile up and down the hill from hell at least three times a day. I need my a/c to reward me when I’m done, dammit. As always when my a/c is out I’m reminded of growing up with no a/c (not even a window unit) in my home in TN and just giving up on showers because WHAT IS THE POINT? You start sweating the moment you turn off the water in the shower…defeating the purpose all together. Luckily our upstairs a/c is working overtime so the downstairs has not gotten above 79°, but still, if that keeps going they’ll both be out and THEN I WILL DIE. The End.
• I’m heading to Knoxville this evening to visit my Mom. This is the first chance I’ve had to see her since she started her Chemo treatment 3 months ago for colon cancer. There’s not much I can do to ease the physical challenges of such a regiment, but hopefully a visit from her grandkids will help lift her spirits. Let’s hope. I’m begging them to leave their devil sides at home for the weekend and to only bring the angel half of their personalities. We’ll see if that actually works.
• I do not mind reading about BlogHer on the Feed Reader or on Twitter. It seems a lot of people who aren’t there are annoyed by it. Maybe because I’ve been before so I can get swept up in the excitement even from here, but I really enjoy the silly updates from NYC. Makes me feel more of a part of it all. What about you? Do you find it interesting/entertaining or annoying?

The house I grew up in has been emptied and auctioned. My father, the man who raised me, has died and his possessions have been sorted. I can pretty confidently say I now possess all of my childhood/past. And with this move – and the resulting sorting – I have now sorted and stored all of that past. 35 years of my life fits into three boxes:

And of those three boxes, there is one duffle bag with things from my brother’s childhood. There is one box containing mostly stuff I wore in high school and/or college. And one box contains mostly Dad’s old journals. I think that in reality? My “childhood” – my life under the age of 16 – probably fits in half of one of those boxes. Yes, there are things displayed around the house or being used by the kids, but the majority of my childhood is right there in the above picture. I find this a little sad, but also very liberating as I know that I won’t ever have to decide what to get rid of. It all fits right there, I don’t see us being so cramped for storage in our home down the road that my 3 boxes has to be shrunk.

This is the only item of clothing in the whole three boxes save for one shirt I won off Nickelodeon. (This is where my brother says, “That’s my shirt you’re talking about!” He swears he won the shirt in question. He is a liar.) This is the only item of clothing I own that I wore before the age of 13. NikkiZ was super-excited to get to wear it. I think there is something very good about having so little from your childhood, the few things I have? Totally cherished. While I sometimes look at MrZ’s much larger pile with jealousy? I’m also very sure that having so little? Means I can savor each piece. I try to think of that when I try to decide what to keep of my own kid’s. What will they truly cherish? LilZ has about 4-5 boxes so far. We have yet to go through a lot of it, it may shrink once we do. I’m going to go through it with him. If he doesn’t remember it at all and I don’t see any need to keep it for his siblings? We’ll chunk it.

We don’t have “invisible storage” in this house – places where you can hide stuff to never think about. We need to only keep things that are truly important. So the rule is: It can’t leave the garage until it has been sorted. My stuff? Three boxes. Hopefully we’ll get LilZ’s down to that little as well. All of his old t-shirts are in AndyZ’s room for him to wear. I’ve kept a lot of the kid’s clothing in case we do have more children. I guess once we know we’re done? I’ll keep only the most sentimental pieces that we have photographs of. I want my kids to have more than three boxes from their childhood, that’s for sure. But I don’t want to keep things that may be better off being used by someone from Goodwill. It’s a tough balance, trying to decide what is worth more being stored in a box for a decade than being worn/used by someone less fortunate. How do you decide what to store and what to give away? How much do you have from your own childhood?

And most importantly: How adorable is NikkiZ’s new short haircut?