A conversation

(As we were packing for our camping trip)
Brandon: Do you have enough socks?
Me: Yep.  I packed three pairs.
Brandon: Three pairs? That's not enough socks.  You can't just wear three pairs.
Me: Sure I can.  I only own three pairs.  That's all the socks I've worn all winter.
Brandon: You really don't wear shoes very often...

Grab my button, if you please.

Brandon has made a button that links to my website. If you want to grab it, follow these instructions:
1. Go to "Layout" on your blogger dashboard.
2. Click on "Add a gadget."
3. Choose "Add html/java script."
4. Paste the code below (the entire thing, exactly as it is):

<a href="http://50mmlinds.blogspot.com"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMAWoGc6zHpc3SJBKVCAVT-gvx5vQM_rci0FPRtqT1BYt7orN5elgjsd0TdRLsFprdPbNqeBCA5lvJY-dzuPbZBukFyJG76PIhc9GbswWhqqyjO5l-yLN2z2KqAMYguePHiTZG/s1600/50mmlinds+button+reduced.jpg" /></a>

5. Save, and enjoy your new button.  And thanks for promoting me!

HMNS- through Violet's camera

She took this picture.

Last week we went to the museum and I let Violet bring her little camera along.  She wanted to walk through the garden and take some pictures of flowers before going in.  As soon as Charlie saw the roses, he pointed and said, "Fwawahs! Fwawahs!"  He learns new words every day.

I took this picture of her-- I made this dress for her last week.

We had a great time inside the museum, too.  They now have a T-rex that you can pay to ride which roars and moves around.  Charlie roared back at it and loved it until I brought him up for a closer look-- then he buried his head in my shoulder.

Charlie would not put his cone down to climb the stairs.

 Afterwards I bought our ritual ice cream cones at McDonalds.  Charlie's started melting a bit, so I took it and licked it a little so that it wouldn't drip.  And let me tell you, you do not want to get between that boy and his ice cream. He screamed like I was tearing apart his very soul when I took his cone.

She loved it so much that she took a picture of it.

Violet also got a letter from her cousin last week.  When she found a picture of Caroline inside it, she clutched it to her heart and wouldn't put it down for a good hour. Later, when Charlie would try to touch the picture, she would yell, "No, Charlie!  Don't touch Caroline!" That letter definitely made her week.

The dumpster

Tonight I did some cleaning and ended up with several large things that needed to be taken to the dumpster.  It was around 11:00 PM, and since I couldn't take it all in one trip and I don't like walking through alleyways in the dark, I decided to put the items in my car and drive them to the dumpster.  When I got there, I was worried that if I left my keys in the car, someone would drive off with it (not a far-fetched concern for where I live) so I took them out of the ignition and carried them with me.  But as I was throwing the last thing into the dumpster, I heard a familiar jingle and realized that I had flung my keys in there, too.  I'm not going to share what I thought at that exact moment; suffice it to say that it started with S.  Now I had a car that I couldn't move, right in front of the dumpster, in the dark.  I knew that there was no way to avoid having to get in there, so I wasted no time in running home to retrieve a flashlight and a stool.  Fortunately, there was nothing terribly gross in there, and I found my keys pretty quickly. But I can no longer say that I've never been inside a dumpster.

Violet's sense of direction

This girl's got skills.  One of them is her uncanny sense of direction. Before she was even two years old, she could tell me the way to the zoo and her favorite parks.  Last summer, we lived in corporate housing which she referred to as our "splash pad house."  In December, more than four months after we had moved out, we passed the exit to our old corporate housing and she pointed to the exit and said, "Mommy, there's our splash pad house!"  You can't even see it from the freeway.  She just still remembered where it was.  Nowadays, when we go to a park that we haven't been to in months, she will ask what park we are going to.  All I have to do is explain where it is, and she will remember what park I'm talking about and tell me which way we have to go to get there. 

The best story happened when Brandon and I were in Belize and my sister-in-law Lena was staying with Violet and Charlie.  Lena lives in Utah, so I gave her directions to a park and to Target, but she really didn't know how to get anywhere else.  One day, Lena took the kids to Target and Violet told her that she wanted to go to HEB. (Violet loves HEB.) So Lena got in the car and told Violet to tell her the way to HEB.  (Target is nowhere close to HEB, by the way.)  And Violet got her there!  The best part is that I mentioned to Lena that I didn't know that Violet knew how to get to HEB from Target, since we always go to HEB after we drop Brandon off at school, never after we go to Target. And Lena said that Violet actually gave her directions to Brandon's school, and then gave her directions to HEB from there. When Lena would try to turn a different direction, she would start crying and yell, "You're going the wrong way!!!!"

Not bad for a 3-year-old. 

Why I shouldn't be cheap

I'm cheap.  *GASP* Really? I'm sure this comes as a shock to everyone.  For awhile there I was getting better at not being cheap, but then I thought about how Brandon graduates in a year and I really want to buy a house right when he's done, so I started being frugal again.  I've been eyeing this really nice camera lens for awhile, but I was always too cheap to fork out $500 for it.  Last week it went on sale for $400, and while I was tempted, I was STILL TOO CHEAP.  I gave myself the same party-pooping lecture about being frugal.

Well, yesterday we went to my mom's house for Easter dinner.  She throws a great party.  And during this party, she had an adults-only easter egg hunt where she warned us that there may or may not be cash in some of the eggs and one of them had a BIG prize.  But as part of the game, during the hunt she would ring a bell every so often and when that happened, you would have to trade one of your eggs with someone else.  Although I may be cheap, I'm not generally greedy.  But for some reason, I got REALLY into this game and I thought, "I don't care how bad this looks; I am getting as much cash as I can!"  I devised a strategy of hoarding all of the light eggs and giving away all of the heavy ones, because I assumed they just had candy in them.  Well, after awhile I got sick of being cheap and greedy and decided to just let myself have fun.  I stopped hoarding eggs and traded whatever ones I happened to pick up. 

The game ended and the moment of truth arrived-- we all opened our eggs.  One had candy.  Two each had $1 inside.  And the heaviest one-- the one I would have easily given away-- had A HUNDRED DOLLAR BILL! 

I want you to look long and hard at this face.  This is the face of pure greed.  Oh man, I loved every minute of it. And just for the record, Mom said my reaction was worth every penny.

And here's a picture where I look slightly less like the devil.

After the excitement died down, Mom asked me what I was going to do with my money.  I told her that I was going to buy that lens.  $500 was way too much, but $400 was reasonable, and the cash would have brought it down to $300.  I was so excited. Brandon told me that he was glad I won, because I seemed so thrilled about it.  Shamelessly, I smiled and admitted that I was glad I won, too.

And the next morning, I wake up and find that the price on the lens has gone up exactly $100.  And I thought, Why do I have to be so cheap? I should have bought that freaking lens!