The Drivers

Last Saturday night, my high school had a 17 year reunion.  Seemed a little odd that it was 17 years rather than 15 or 20.  I went to my 10 year reunion and I remember that being a lot of fun.  Anyway, I was hesitant about going to this reunion.  I mean, i’m friends with a handful of people from high school and I feel like that’s enough for me.  I guess I wasn’t sure what to expect, and in all honesty, I hate the “What have you been up to?” question. 

In this picture below are my good friends since the seventh grade: Sue, Amy, and Pauline.  What’s wonderful about our relationship is that we have all kept in touch for last 20 years, we’ve all gone through the same milestones (e.g. college, moved, marriage, children), and we get to see each other several times a year, usually at our kids birthday party.  We don’t pick up the phone and talk to each other everyday, but when we do see each other, it’s like no time has passed.  I always wish I had a sister, but my friendships with my girlfriends is like having a sister.  I feel really close to them and feel that I can tell them everything about what’s going on in my life.    

Did you know that 1/4 of the United Sates population is kids in diapers, and that disposable diapers take up 2/3 of our landfill?  That’s 18 billion diapers a year!  From an eco website I read, that equates to ”82,000 tons of plastic a year and 1.2 million tons of wood pulp (250,000 trees).”

We continue to be work on being “green” and have switched from disposable to cloth diapers.  We are doing all the cleaning/laundering at home.  Ugh, I hate touching poop, but really, who doesn’t?!  What sucks the most about cloth diapers is that you have to scrub the poo poo out of the diaper to get the SH#T  out before it goes in the wash.  All said and done, we feel really good about doing this.

Doing the cat walk is Miss Lila Driver.  She is wearing an adorable plastic diaper cover made by Kushies.  The cloth diaper is made from 100 percent cotton.  Her chubby legs are from eating lots of yummy food!

A gang member came into our home the other night and graffitied his gang sign.  Okay, maybe this really didn’t happen.  Our gang member was Miles.  Yes, he somehow got a hold of a black permanent marker and decided to graffiti the office wall and our white futon.  Poor Kona, she was trapped and also got black marker on her!  Now we have to figure out how to get black permanent ink off the wall.  We don’t even remember the shade or brand of red we bought for the wall.  As for Kona, well, her hair will grow out, and since Kona rolls around in dirt, the black marker will blend right in.   

These pictures do not do justice! Our office looks worse than these pics!

We are so proud of Miles!  In the grand scheme of life, it’s really not that big of a deal, but as a parent with a 2 year old, you feel a sense of success. Do other parents feel this way too about their kids when they accomplish a milestone?

I was so choked up at how proud I was of our son. It’s so silly when I think about it…it’s not just the fact that he used the big boy potty, but the fact that you do the parenting thing day in and day out (often fun, sometimes stressful), and when you see change in your child, it just overwhelms you…makes you feel like you have achieved a milestone. I guess we are doing the parenting thing correctly! HA What am I going to do when my kids graduate college? Sheesh, cry my eyes out, I bet!

Have you ever heard of ear candling?  Sounds pretty weird, right?  That’s because, IT IS, but it’s the best thing EVER invented!  Okay, as you can see, I am pretty passionate about this.  One of the fun but strange things we did while  in Arkansas was ear candling.  You can do this at home and it’s pretty safe.  Just make sure you trust the partner who is helping you!  

You can buy the ear candles at any organic grocery store from $1.49 to $2.49 per stick.  The stick is about a foot long.  It looks like a really long, but hallow pencil.  The outside is made of beeswax or parafin and is rolled onto a sheet of thin canvas material.  What you do is place the ear candle gently in your ear.  Put a piece of aluminum foil around your ear, making sure that no smoke escapes the ear hole.  I think the aluminum serves to protect the ear just in case your partner decides to light your ear on fire!  Anyway, your partner should hold the candle while you lay on your side.  What happens is that the wax from your ear is melted and sucked/pulled into the ear candle.  When you get to the bottom of the candle, you put the fire out in a bowl of water.  Cut open the candle, and voila! you have yourself a clump of ear wax in your candle.  It’s pretty damn disgusting, but feels oh so good!  

You would think that q-tipping would get all the wax out of your ear.  But it doesn’t!  Q-tipping actually pushes the wax further down your canal.  I’m telling you, once you’ve tried ear candling, you’ll never go back to q-tipping! 

If you are easily grossed out, best not to view these photos.

This piece of ear wax (below) is about the size of the tip of your pinky finger.

Our recent trip was to Arkansas, to visit Jason’s parents.  The weather was warm and humid, and the kids spent most of their time in the kiddie pool.  My in-laws (Bill and Karen) live on 40 acres of land in the Northwest part of AR.  It’s incredibly peaceful and beautiful out there.  At times, I felt like John Denver singing, Country Roads…take me home…  

Miles getting some hugs and kisses from grandma.

I love this picture of grandpa and his granddaughter.

One of the great things about my in-laws place is that they have a huge garden in their yard.  They have tons of vegetables and herbs.  When making a salad for dinner, Karen would go out in the yard and pick some fresh lettuce.  I aspire to have a garden like theirs one day!  Karen gave me some alfalfa sprout seeds…i’ll start with that!

One of the many beautiful flowers in their yard.  This flower was especially rich in color, and in full bloom, so much that it almost seemed like a silk flower you would buy at a craft store. 

I love this picture of the Little Mulberry River.  This river flows through their property.