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Jackson and the 5 Gallon Bucket of Oil

* Brace yourselves, this is a long one... *

It was a busy Friday morning - Joy School was at our house so I was running crazy trying to teach the letter Y, do crafts and cooking with 4 little ones. Joy School was just about over and the moms were about to arrive to pick up their kids, I was about to go to a presidency meeting next door, and Lizzie had a friend coming over - all set to occur at the same time.

Jackson walks in the door as I'm madly cleaning up our preschool mess and says, "ew, sticky" and holds his hands out for me to see. So I swept him up and started washing the "sticky" off his hands. I couldn't tell exactly what the sticky was until I smelled it. Oh no. Motor oil. I looked down at his feet to see if he'd stepped in it and oh boy, his feet looked just like his hands - covered in that stuff. I peeked out the back door and saw his new toy sword also covered in oil and several greasy footprints on the back patio. Instantly my heart sank. I knew exactly what had happened.

As soon as I had his hands, feet, and sword cleaned up (I didn't need that greasy sword making it's way through my house) I ran out the back door and around to Matt and Aimee's side yard. I came across the MOST HIDEOUS MESS OF ALL TIME. Jackson had used his sword to stir up and eventually dump an entire 5 gallon bucket of used motor oil all over their side yard and it was running down the driveway. Can I take just a moment to describe my horror? #1 This was NOT my house. #2 That oil was like a black river of grime - I'm telling you, it covered at least 12 square feet of Matt's recently poured cement on his side yard, and there was a 2 1/2 foot wide stream of it running down into the gutter. #3 How in the world was I going to clean this up?! #4 OIL STAINS LIKE NOTHING ELSE!

I RAN home to our house to call Jeremy for suggestions and support. He also had no idea where to even start! A family friend was next door doing some home improvements on Matt and Aimee's house and he came out to see what all the commotion was about. He saw the mess and was equally impressed with the oil spill. (Notice I used the word "impressed". He has 6 children of his own and knows all about these kinds of situations.) The first words out of his mouth were, "Kitty litter". Ah! Genius!

I couldn't stay away from the mess for fear of some other child stepping into it, but wait! The moms started knocking on the door to pick up their kids and one of the presidency ladies had also just pulled up.

I quickly ran next door to see Kari and ask for some kitty litter. It's probably the only time I'll say it but, I AM SO GLAD THEY HAVE A CAT! She graciously met me over by the mess with a huge brand new 25 pound box of kitty litter. We quickly started spreading it about and I sent her home to do the presidency meeting with the ladies that had just arrived.

In those moments alone my mind began to get the better of me. As I started spreading that entire box of kitty litter over the mess the questions would not stop coming! How was I ever going to get this all cleaned up? How angry would Matt be? Why did Jackson keep getting into everything?! How many hours would I be working on my hands and knees to get this oil off the ground? How long would it take to scrub the cement until it sparkled like new? I'm telling you, it was a downward spiral that was not good.

As I was just about to loose it and let the tears flow I heard the sound of people approaching. It was the sound of cheerful voices and cute flip flops coming up right behind me. It turned to look and it was almost as if in slow motion 3 of the loveliest ladies - the presidency ladies - were walking up the driveway to meet me.

I did not ask them to help. I didn't want them to help - it was such a disgusting mess! They didn't need to ruin their cute shoes and clothes and stay out there baking in the hot sun (This was also one of those freakishly hot days where it got up to 90 degrees in April!). They wouldn't take no for an answer. They jumped right in and started scooping and scrubbing as I stood there dumbfounded that they would do this for me. I think I may have been most baffled by their happy attitudes. They were cracking jokes and smiling and were so pleasant that my terrible cloud of spiraling bad thoughts were literally pushed out of my mind. I could not be upset any longer.

We exhausted the kitty litter, Palmolive, Tide, OxiClean, papertowels, one broom and one dust pan from the houses. They stayed there with me for 2 maybe 2 1/2 hours. Scrubbing and sweeping and scooping and cleaning and cleaning until we could do no more. Those ladies were heaven sent. I have no doubt that they were there to help me through this most awful ordeal and not for a presidency meeting that day. They really did save me. It could have been a nightmare, but it actually turned out to be such a pleasant experience (or as pleasant as it could be). We visited while we worked and retold past experiences of our children's silly adventures and messes. I felt a great spirit of friendship and love and I hope they did too.

And now I sit here tearing up over such an awful/wonderful experience. Tearing up not because of the mess anymore, but because of good friends. Wonderful women that would do anything for anyone. I am so grateful for you sisters. I truly could not express the deepest love and emotion that I felt for you on that day. I hope I can have the opportunity to give that same service to someone else someday.

So the story ends like this: We hosed down all the soap and bubbles as best we could. And all we could do was wait. While I was waiting another friend - one of the Joy School moms who saw my panicked face earlier - stopped by with more clean-up supplies. It was raining good friends I tell you! I went back an hour later and it looked pretty good. You couldn't tell there had been such a monstrous mess earlier that day. Best of all Matt was not upset. Why am I surprised by this? I don't know. He's such a good guy. He was more concerned that I was here to clean it up alone. But we all know I had my super special lady helpers to make the job easier.

Jackson's Featured Photo

Hey guys, just wanted to share Jackson's few minutes of fame...

Click here to visit the website that features his 3-year-old photo shoot on the website's home page!

Then you can click here to visit the photographer's blog and leave a comment on his post about Jackson's photo shoot.

Joy School Zoo Trip 2009

2nd clue summer is on it's way

THESE:

+ THESE

= THIS

6 months of homemade strawberry freezer jam!

One of life's simple pleasures

I may have already shared this memory once before, but it needs repeating at least once a year. It's a good one. This tradition may have even started during my mother's childhood. This is a real, down home, tradition.

Every year at the start of strawberry season my family had a simple unspoken tradition. Strawberry Shortcake.

Mom would buy a flat of strawberries from one of the local stands because of course their berries are the best. None of the store-bought ones are ever as good as the ones from the stands. She may have bought the entire flat just for the Strawberry Shortcake because I don't remember her canning jam like we do now. We would go through an entire flat of strawberries (that's 12 of those little plastic green baskets) in about 3 days. Mom would wash the strawberries, take off the stems, slice 'em up, and pour about a cup of sugar over them to sweeten the deal even more. While the sugar was soaking into the strawberries she would mix up a yellow cake mix, or maybe it was two, or even three (she had a really big cake pan just for these occasions) and bake it up just right. I can remember salivating as we were waiting and waiting through the baking and then the cooling of the cake until if was finally the moment when we were allowed to dig in.

Oh those were some of the sweetest memories. The perfect slice of cake in my bowl, split in half. Heaping spoonfulls of sugary deliciously fresh strawberries and their juices over my warm cake. Letting it soak in for just a moment. And then that first juicy bite of heaven. Oh yeah. It was good.

No whipped cream or ice cream was needed. Ok, maybe there was a tub of Cool Whip around sometimes, but come on - it was the strawberry goodness we were all after.

I think mom loved those Strawberry Shortcake moments just as much as us kids because she would let us eat AS MUCH AS WE WANTED. And if there was some leftover, we were even allowed to eat it for breakfast the next day! Is that awesome or what?!

So, to my mother I say, thanks for the memories and a great tradition that we now continue on in our family. I still love it and now your grandkids do too. This picture was taken a few nights ago. I was taken back to my childhood just like I am every year when I take that first delicious bite of Strawberry Shortcake.

Little Boy Blue

Little Boy Blue, come play with your trains.

The Goo Gah's on the counter

And the crackers are all gone.

Where is the little boy who makes all the messes?

He's inside the playset, fast asleep.

1st clue summer is on it's way...

Lizzie used every one of these bathing suits last week. EVERY ONE OF THEM. She hung them up in her room and it looks like a little tribute to summer hanging there on her wall.

Anyone else start swimming last week?

Family Room Makeover

BEFORE

AFTER

See if you can spot all the differences from the first picture.

1. new wall color
2. new CHOCOLATE BROWN SECTIONAL (that started this whole business) and throw pillows
3. new fancy chair
4. new dining table (we stained it ourselves) and purchased chairs (same old benches I said I'd restain to match 5 YEARS AGO, but never have gotten around to it)
5. new hutch/cabinets still need to be refinished/painted offwhite to match the new island
6. new chandelier
7. one new floor lamp
8. new window treatments

Here's the opposite view:

1. notice the tablecloth hiding the "countertop" (it's just an old piece of plywood - 2 actually - duct taped together. nice.) still need to finish that project
2. new 3 tier basket organizer thingy - thank you craigslist for exactly what I wanted!
3. new island (we found 2 beautiful matching bathroom vanities at Lowe's and decided they would look so nice in our kitchen pushed together back to back - trying for a non matchy matchy look here with the contrasting white cabinetry.)


Some of my new favorite spots in this room are:

This seat by the entertainment center is my "piece de resistance". It's comfy and super stylish. That black on white floral print makes me so happy! And that Jeremy wanted us to purchase this beauty from Costco, our favorite store, was the icing on the cake.

My "above cabinet space" loves new/fresh decor. This whole white and black and brown accent thing is working so well with the blue wall color - some days I just stand there and take a few seconds to look at it and enjoy .... mmmm.... new color......


And I think I may have a slight fascination with clocks. Not time, mind you (obviously - they are all telling different/wrong times), just the clocks themselves.

kids say the darndest things

We're driving in the car and Lizzie says: Mom, you know I have another brother?
Me: What?! Who? (Please tell me she doesn't think I'm pregnant!) You mean Trevor?
Lizzie: No.
Me: Jackson?
Lizzie: No.
Me: Logan?
Lizzie: No. Mom - it's JESUS!
Me: Lizzie! How do you know Jesus is your brother?
Lizzie: I just know, mom.



Me: Jackson, what do you want for breakfast?
Jackson: (No hesitation) Oak-milk!
Me: Oh, oat meal?
Jackson: Yes, oak-milk!