But I’m shaving it for later.

Allyson had art camp this week and loved it. She came home with a couple of things but this horse/donkey thing that she made out of what looks like crumpled up tin foil and then sprayed it blew me away. She also made a mobile out of a coat hanger. When the instructor told me she needed wire hangers it was all I could do not to reply with who do I look like mommy dearest. I had traded out wire for plastic many moons ago and since I don’t buy anything that needs to be dry cleaned, none arrive in our house.

This next week was sketch and draw which she really wanted to go to but she’s going to Big Stuf instead. When we return she has two more weeks left before school starts. One is fun with duct tape. I can’t wait to see what she creates with that!

Today I got up and decided Allyson and I needed to go find some cakes. For those of you who are out-of-town or have no clue what I am talking about, St. Louis turned 250 years old this year and St. Louis has planted cakes around various locations. So far 247 have been placed with three left. So this week at work the pharmacist was telling me about the free app they have to find them. I downloaded it and found it to be slower than snot and not helpful so I went to the website (www.stl250.org) and they have listed all the locations. This is much easier for a GPS challenged individual. So it all started with wanting to see the one next to a giant bottle of ketchup over in IL. I told Allyson she was coming with me and I mapped out ten cakes in Belleville, Cahokia and Collinsville. It was a three-hour adventure full of fun. Our second stop was a church. Now my mother had just finished her story When the Church Bells Rang yesterday. No sooner than I had snapped Allyson’s picture then the church bell rang. I felt like it was my Grandpa Miller saying hello from heaven. So I told Allyson to hold on and i posted it to my moms wall. I suggested this blog as a way for her to tell the family stories less than a month ago. I thought it would keep her busy for a year or more. Nope she has finished it, epilogue and all and now is working on making it into a book.

I have decided I will see all 250 and will drag various family members with me whether they like it or not. It’s all about quality time and someday they can write in a blog about the summer their crazy mother dragged them all over St. Louis and IL to see these stupid ass cakes in which she took a picture of every one and then turned it into a scrapbook.

And the giant bottle of ketchup brought back childhood memories. My mom use to keep stuff in a brooks ketchup or tomato box. I know her softball in which she pitched a no-hitter was kept in it. Unless of course I am off my rocker as usual. But the building and property was abandoned and for sale. That was kind of sad. I told Allyson before we got there it had 100 foot legs which she took to mean it looked like a comic bottle of ketchup with 100 foot legs. What I mean was it was sitting on top of 100 foot legs. I assumed the bottle would be square because I had forgotten they use to be round. Well worth driving around looking at cakes today. Now if I don’t finish the laundry, Allyson and I will be wearing the same outfit all week at camp. The bus pulls out at five am tomorrow morning.

I think I mentioned on Facebook that I suggested to my mother that she start a blog to write down all the family stories since I never really paid attention to them. So that in fact created a blog monster and I really should be working on adding a print button to her blog because some of her friends want to print some of them out. The other day she wrote about my favorite book. I am going to copy and paste what she said because I would hate to be busted plagiarizing my own mother. That would be AWKWARD!

Somewhere along the way Mrs. Mugford had given Larry the book “The Bernstein Bears Picnic”. Mom didn’t dare throw it away because the Mugfords were at their house every other Saturday night and she wouldn’t want them to know she did (Larry was the biggest “tattle tale” I ever knew). John and I were both avid readers and we started reading books to Rachel before she could walk and Rachel loved books. When she was around two, she found “The Bernstein Bears Picnic” where Mom kept it next to Daddy’s Bible and she came into the kitchen carrying the book. She walked up to where Daddy was sitting and just stood there until he looked down and saw her. She handed him the book so, he picked her up and took her to “his” chair in the living room and sat down and read it to her. Now you haven’t had a story read to you unless you have had Daddy read one to you. We all thoroughly enjoyed it. When he finished, he told her “now go put it back where it goes” and she did. About an hour later here she came again with the book and stood beside him until he picked her up and took her to his chair and read it to her. From that day until she started school and had her own books to read, every time we went to Mom and Daddy’s, she would wait about an hour or so, then go get the book and stand beside “his” chair in the living room until he would see her there and come read it to her. Usually twice was enough, but I don’t think she ever ever said anything out loud about him reading the book to her.

I wish I could remember the way my grandpa read it. I know it was fantastic. I often stare at this page fascinated and I am sure he said some crazy stuff. Maybe I just like to pick the garbage out of the trash pile. My cousin Eddie is seven years older than Emily. His father “Uncle Larry” is seven years older than me. I know at some point I bought this book and mailed it to him in Pennsylvania. I have no idea if he ever read it or liked it. You know in this day of instant connection I could text and ask him. Wow I’m smarter than I look. Anyway I just love this book and I shall read it again tonight. I think when I first get to Heaven I’m going to walk straight up to Grandpa Miller with this book in my hand and stand there till he notices me and reads it to me. Then I am going to tell him to sing the dog and cat song for all of heaven to hear. He sounded like real dogs and cats in a fight. And then he can walk around on his hands and do a one arm push up and pick up a match stick with his teeth. That is if they have matches in heaven. We might have to drop into hell and pick one up! Ok its late and I am getting down right silly. Time for bed but first I am reading the best book in the whole world!

Today was the Big Stuf Olympics. I think I have attended every year I went to camp except for maybe once. I have always been a spectator except for the first year I think I did some judging. It’s just a fun afternoon for the kids to meet each other before they share a room at camp. They are divided up into groups by grade year and boys and girls. They then compete in some crazy games and the winner of the boys and the girls gets to get on the bus first. This means better seats. It seems like every year it is always insanely hot and today was no different. Because I have spent little time outside this summer due to my surgery, it seemed even hotter than usual. It was a Disney theme this year and Allyson’s group was Pocahontas and Sierra’s was Snow White. (Allyson has never seen Pocahontas so we must watch that movie soon!) One group of boys was the Lion King. At the beginning they had to put on a little show. The Lion King was great. The Olympics were held at Rockport Elementary so one boy stood on the top of the slide with a stuffed lion in his and while they all sung that song with the weird words. It was great. They did an egg toss, water balloon toss and some other stuff. They ended with which group could drink nasty looking concoctions the fastest. Allyson volunteered and picked this stuff that kind of looked like milk (all the stuff was food processed) little did she know it was tunafish. She got about half of it in her mouth and if I only had my phone out for pictures. Her face was hilarious. Herc was convinced she was going to puke. She managed to get it all down and her group was the fastest. They also won so she’s first on the bus. I secretly called Brian and told him when we get home and we ask whats for dinner to say he decided to make tunafish. I thought she was going to hurl when he said it. Then we told him what happened! This time next week we will be at camp all checked into the hotel. Allyson, Sierra and I cannot wait!

I just finished reading the book Popular: Boys Booze and Jesus. It was recommended by either Herc or Tom. I can’t ever keep their book wars straight. I cheated and bought it on Kindle so it didn’t help them out. Oh Herc and Tom are brothers and Pastors at my church and each month they recommend a book and put it on sale for 1/2 price in the church bookstore. They can be extremely competitive. Anyway, the book is really written for young adults but since I am still twenty in my head, I enjoy young adult books. The book is about the authors road to be popular in high school. Yep kind of glad i was never in the popular crowd. It would have been way too much work to be someone I am not. And I’ve never felt normal in my life. The author’s dad is the one who said that normal is a setting on a washing machine and it’s true. I am not sure normal even exists. Every single family no matter how perfect on the outside has something in the closet. It’s just some people’s closets are way more interesting than others! Nope, not discussing mine! Bahahahaha.