1st Birthday and Beyond

We celebrated our son's first birthday the other day. We had some good friends visit with their little boy, and hilarity ensued.
The boys had fun playing outside. The picked grass, and my son tried to eat a handful of dirt.
The carrot cake was a big hit. Our son loved the frosting.
For his birthday, he got a rocking horse, which he hasn't quite figured out yet. As long as you’re making it bounce, he's happy. He also got the book Green Eggs and Ham from his Grandpa. It's one of my personal favorites, and I'm sure we will enjoy reading it together.

After our friends left, we were all tired and feel fast asleep. So much for the party! Yawn! Snore!

To see birthday pictures, click here.

Dirty Little Secret

I have a dirty little secret I want to tell you about. You see . . . SOB SOB; I'm addicted to SOAP! No, not the stereotypical stay-at-home mom soap addict who has to watch Guiding Light, Passions, or General Hospital, but the liquid kind that comes in a bottle.

It all started as a child. My parents would only buy generic Suave shampoo, you know the kind, and you have probably bought this brand in the past or have some on your shelf right this moment. The "flavor" my mother preferred was the Strawberry scent. I can still remember the lingering odor of vine ripened, chemically created, juicy pink fruit fantasia.

As a child, we had hair shampoo (not usually conditioner), Lux bar Soap, and Dawn dish soap. My parents could use these soaps to clean anything. For example, stain in your shirt? Use the bar soap to pre treat. Car needs washing? Pull out the Dawn. Floor need mopped, a squirt of Dawn in the mop water would do the trick. If we ran out of shampoo, we used Dawn or Lux on our hair. It would leave my hair feeling like straw and a dry unmanageable mess. I wouldn't recommend it. If we ran out of Dawn, then we used the Suave to wash the dishes!

The funniest use of household chemicals came when my dad tried to make his own car windshield wiper fluid. I believe he used a concoction of Dawn and Bleach. To this day, I don't know why he just didn't spend the .99 cents on a jug of the blue stuff, but I think he was trying to be thrifty. Needless to say, his concoction had disastrous results. It smeared the windshield, leaving it impossible to see out of. This was not helped by the fact that the wipers on our maroon 1982 Ford Escort were probably original to the car. The rubber edges had peeled off, and the sharp pointed edges dug into the glass, making a horrible screeching sound with every pass. This concoction etched the glass, made a soapy nasty mess, and then stained the hood paint. For years after that, I would look at the ruined hood and shake my head. We still tease my dad about this to this day, although sometimes he pretends he doesn't remember!

I expressed my early love of soap by making my own shampoo formulas. When we had hair conditioner (usually also Suave), I would mix it with the shampoo, making my own early shampoo/conditioner formula before the big brands even did this. I think I should be getting some money from somebody!

Once, we moved into a new house that had a dishwasher! Someone in my family put Dawn into it. (Everyone had done this at some time or another I think), and the kitchen was overrun with bubbles. Someone in my family also tried Dawn in the washing machine, with the same results. After that, we actually bought dish soap and laundry soap.

As a child, I think I was a bit of a handful. I remember one time when my mom was punishing me. I was grounded to my room or something. Maybe I was standing in the corner. That was always a big punishment in our house. I was mad, so I took the container of Dawn soap in one hand, and then started yelling, "I hate you, I hate you!" to my mom. I know, I know, it wasn't very nice, but I was a willful child. Before she could do anything, I announced that I was going to punish myself, and squirted the soap in my mouth for "punishment". I don't know if my mom was madder at me for screaming at her, or for being so cheeky with the soap, but needless to say, I was in even more trouble.

So that's where my addiction to soap started. Once I grew up, and started buying my own groceries, it seemed like I couldn't stop buying soap. Especially shampoo. I don't know what it is. I get bored with one brand before it is used up, and then will buy another bottle. I end up with four or five half used bottles kicking around. Then I have to suck it up and finish them before I let myself buy any more.

I think the back of soap bottles actually make interesting reading. For example, the back of my body wash bottle says: "When your skin looks and feels beautiful if shows -- You are radiant. Caress Glowing Touch Body Wash gently cleanses and moisturizes for beautiful, silky soft, glowing skin. The luxurious lather . . . leaves you looking radiant." Wow! It can do all that! Amazing. Forget the tummy tuck and face-lift! Just buy this soap! Also, the name amuses me "Glowing Touch!" I'll let you make the connection! Just remember, you can use sex to sell anything, even soap.

I also have an unhealthy collection of household products. At the moment, I probably have 20 different household cleaners. The problem is, nothing seems to work as well as I want it to. I like my tub spotless, so I have about four different products for that. I have several different kinds of floor soaps, and three different kinds of counter top cleaner. I tend to buy things in big bottles from the wholesale club, because it's a good deal, but then I have these huge bottles hanging around.

Every new soap/household product I have to try. I have two Swifters, a mop, two brooms, and associated laundry products. I'm hopeless!

Finally, I decided that enough was enough. I have put myself on a ban from buying any more soap. I'm not buying another one until it's all used up. It's been six months since my last purchase of household soaps. You know the funny thing? I still have lots left. Maybe I can get out a jug and whip up some windshield washer fluid or some car wash -- or maybe not!

April 2nd, 2006

The daffodils nod their heads with queenly grace,
While Robin's twitter and hop from place to place

The springtime breeze warms the land
While mother nature plots and plans

The trees awake with joyful green
While neighbors start to tend and preen

J Miller 04/02/06

Eventful

We went to visit my husband’s parents this weekend. It was an action packed trip. On the way to their house, we inadvertently drove through a tornado. It started out, as these things do, as a bad rainstorm. It got pretty bad, with driving rain, wind, and hail. The lightening show was brilliant. The tornado went to the north of us. We missed it by maybe 10 minutes. They closed the highway, and we were sitting and sitting in traffic. After about 20 minutes, my husband pulled out a police scanner from the depths of his seat. He proceeded to pull out the instruction book, and they we turned it to the trucker channel. Those truckers are pretty funny. One guy who kept saying "nanoo nanoo" like Mork from Mork and Mindy, and another female trucker was telling everyone how much she wanted to see a tornado.

People started to get out of their cars and walk around, talking on cell phones. I really didn't see how this was going to get the cars moving again, but maybe they just needed to stretch their legs. People started turning around in the muddy median. The guy who was in front of us tried this, and ended up getting stuck in the mud. My husband decided to try it. I was nervous to say the least. I had visions of us stuck in the mud, while carrying a wailing baby. However, his rambunctious sprit paid off, and we made it though the mud. After that, my husband consulted his in car computer GPS unit, and we found an alternate route. 10 minutes later, we were again stopped on yet another closed road. Apparently the tornado had done much damage, and this road was also closed. However, we learned from an official looking gentleman that the main road was now back open. So we proceeded on our way.

Going past the affected area, we say about 10 ambulances, 4 fire trucks, and about 50 cop cars. Pieces of roofing and siding were littering the road. Homeowners where out with flashlights, surveying the damage. It was all very exciting and scary. Check out here for a local article on the storm.

Around the time that we were getting stuck in traffic, my son woke up. He was not happy. He likes the nice vibration of the car, and the road noise. He started crying and crying, nothing was making him happy. Unfortunately, he ended up crying off and on all the way to our destination. Nothing was making him happy. He just wanted his nice bed, not a hard uncomfortable car seat.

Once we got to our destination, we had a nice visit. My son was wide-awake at midnight, entertaining his grandparents with his antics. Finally, we all went to bed, and we all slept like logs.

On Saturday morning, we had an appointment to get my son's haircut for the first time. We packed up the little boy and hauled him over to the family barber. Bruce has been cutting the Miller boys hair since grandpa was a young’ in. My son is the third generation to have his hair cut in this quaint small town barbershop. My son was so good. They sat him up on the genuine barbershop chair on a board they laid across. Daddy held him, and Bruce went to work. SNIP SNIP, the long baby locks came off and reveled a handsome little boy. The little boy was fine until Bruce got out the electric clippers, and then the tears started to fall. He didn't like those at ALL! We got some great pictures.

Later on at Grandma and Grandpa's, we celebrated Grandpa's and my son's birthday. Grandma made the Miller special Red Velvet cake (we make it without the red coloring) with special frosting. My son was so funny. He didn't know if he should eat the cake, or play with it. He eventually decided that it was yummy to his tummy and scarfed it down!

We got home late last night, without running into any storms, and without any tears from the little boy. He was so tired after his eventful day; he slept the whole way home. Oh, blessed quiet! Click here for some other pictures of the weekend.