Friday, February 7, 2020

7 Quick Takes about Making Mistakes, Drowning in Cute Puppies, and Creepy Ways to Sell Balloons

It's 7 Quick Takes Friday! How was your week?

1


My 3-year-old thinks the past tense of "drive" is "drooved." He's said it that way for a year now, and he probably always will, since I've threatened any child who corrects him with being cut out of my will.

We were going to a library in another town that we don't visit very often, and as the car pulled up the 3-year-old yelled, "Oh! We have drooven here before!"

YOU GUYS I CANNOT EVEN WITH THE PAST PARTICIPLE.

2



When I drove somewhere this week (or drooved, depending on who you ask) I decided to take one route over the other and soon regretted it. I ended up running into traffic, and highly annoyed, I muttered out loud to myself, "I think I made a mistake..."

That's when my 5-year-old cheerily piped up from the backseat, "That's okay! Mistakes are how you learn!"

I love when you can hear their teachers at school coming out of their mouths. 

When my now 8-year-old went to kindergarten, whenever she was pleased with something we did she started saying, "That was a thumbs-up decision!"

3


Speaking of my 8-year-old, she's in a bit of hot water right now. It all started when we got a letter from the school notifying us of a $222.30 negative balance on her lunch account. That's right, clutch your pearls. We didn't even know she had a lunch account.

She brings lunch from home every day, but apparently she'd rather buy pizza from the cafeteria and didn't exactly think through where the money was coming from before becoming a regular customer.

But now that I think of it, the many mornings I pestered her because she wasn't taking very much food to school are making a lot more sense now...

Clearly, our system for packing nutritious and delicious school lunches is working splendidly.

Anyway, we talked about it and decided that since she can't realistically work enough to pay back more money than she's earned in her entire 8 years of life in a timely manner, she's going to take a break from the horseback riding lessons she loves until she's able to use the lesson money for paying back the school.

I'm also pretty ticked off at the school for not informing us earlier. I get not wanting to deny lunch to a kid because they can't pay, but this is something that should've been brought to our attention at -$20, not -$200.

I love that girl but there's no way I'm ever co-signing on her loan or credit card.

4


A friend of ours signed up with a local animal rescue to take in dogs needing a temporary home. The rescue recently found a pregnant dog on the streets so guess what? My friend is now fostering a litter of ten puppies. (She's also got two young kids and a dog of her own, which means now she literally does nothing except for serving food and cleaning up pee.)

The puppies are leaving for their new homes next Friday, but until then she's the most popular person in town, because who doesn't want to come over and play with ten puppies?

I could only fit half the people and half the dogs into this photo. It was pandemonium.

It's impossible to describe the chaos of 6 excited children meeting 10 excited puppies in the same room at the same time. It was like jumping into a ball pit filled with wiggly cuteness.



They chewed on all of us. We stepped in pee at least three times. My daughter who's allergic to everything furry (even guinea pigs,) had to wear latex gloves and she still didn't want to leave.


When I sat down on the floor, eight puppies immediately zoomed over and parked themselves in my lap. "They really like moms," my friend said.

After both of us got up and went on the other side of the doggy gate, the oldest person left in the room was my 15-year-old daughter. Figuring she was the closest thing to a mom in the room, they swarmed into her lap.


One by one the puppies started getting tired and went back into their crate to sleep in a cute little pile, and we went home to eat cereal for dinner. So all in all it was pretty much the best day.

5


Last week I mentioned that my 3-year-old was officially cleared of his walnut allergy. I didn't really think anything of it when he got a cold sore a few days later just above his lip that turned red and blistery after a few days.

When he started to get a cluster of three more on his lip, I started to Google. Was it hand foot and mouth? Impetigo? I mentioned it to Phillip on the phone, who was out of town for work, who said, "Maybe it's the walnuts."

What?

I looked it up and didn't see a lot, but according to super-official webistes (Quora, folks, I'm talking about Quora) some nuts, especially walnuts, can cause canker sores in and around the mouth for some people.

So... I guess we're not as home free as I thought.

6


My 13-year-old recently read The Hunger Games and we've been watching the movies with her.

After we saw Catching Fire, I kept thinking that Sam Claflin (the actor who played Finnick Odair) looked familiar, but I just chalked it up to the fact that we have the same sharp, narrow nose that could be used as a can opener in an emergency situation and maybe he simply reminded me of myself.

I forgot all about it until four days later, when I was in bed trying to sleep and it randomly popped into my head where I'd seen him before. He was the male lead from Me Before You, which I saw several years ago. At least I thought he was.

Feeling pleased that my brain is apparently still youthful and functional, I went to sleep telling myself, "I'll have to look that up in the morning."

I'm not going to lie, I did sit in front of the Google homepage for a while the next day with a blinking cursor, thinking I remember that somebody from some movie looked like somebody from some other movie... but who was it?

But eventually I did remember. I looked it up, and I was right! Cue victory dance. I was thrilled because one, I thought of it at all. Two, because I remembered to look it up the next day. And three, because I was even right.

I'm thoroughly impressed with myself, although apparently it doesn't take much.

7


You all know I'm a devoted Amazon shopper.. Okay, so I'm a little creeped out by that miniature robot spy Alexa, but other than that, I love Amazon. I buy everything on there.

In my years of online shopping, I've seen some ridiculous, weird, and extremely badly Photoshopped product images. But I've never seen anyone trying to sell balloons by hiding a naked person in them before.

Internet, you continue to keep me on my toes.

I mean, I'm not trying to tell you what is and isn't a good way to sell balloons... actually, yes I am. This is a terrible way to sell balloons. Get your act together, Amazon.

Click to Share:
Unremarkable Files

4 comments:

Angie said...

I've missed meeting up with you on Fridays! I love the way kids talk as well.

PurpleSlob said...

#1- I won't let my daughter correct her 3 yo either. It makes me all squee inside when I hear her make such adorable mistakes!!
#7- Just nope. That IS beyond creepsy. ANd NOW all the perverts are gonna crash amaZon looking at balloons.

Chaun said...

Two HUNDRED dollars?! I can’t believe the school didn’t mention it sooner!!

Btw that’s a genius disciplinary strategy for your daughter. I’m storing that idea away when my kiddos get into money troubles :)

Jenny Evans said...

Chaun: Had it been less money, we would've made her "work" it off by doing extra chores. However, we felt that either we'd have to pay unrealistically high prices for chores (giving her the wrong idea about what your work is actually worth) or it would take her so long to earn $200 that the lesson would be lost on her. We felt like this was the best compromise and she agreed.