My Soap Opera Scenario. . .

If you haven't tried the tickle test link to the left- you really should, it's a great way to waste time, I mean delve deeply into who you are as you take test after test to discover what really makes you tick. Today one of the feature tests is what would your soap opera scenario be. They're usually pretty on target- I can't fault someone who has recently concluded that I should be living in Savannah, GA with Owen Wilson!

Maggie, in your soap opera scenario, you're The New Girl in Town

While the rest of the town is swapping lovers, backstabbing friends, and selling family out, The New Girl in Town is one of the few characters with any real heart or integrity. Somehow The New Girl makes it through all the episodes untarnished, with her sterling reputation and optimism intact. While you may not have just fallen off the turnip truck like The New Girl in Town, you probably share a certain sunny disposition with her, looking on the bright side of things, and giving people the benefit of the doubt. And because of your outlook, people are probably irresistibly attracted to you. If your half-stepbrother were accused of stealing a secret formula, you'd probably be first to run to his defense, trying to uncover clues that point to the true culprit. When they free him on all charges and arrest the right man, people probably won't even start nasty rumors about the coincidence that you started dating the Chief of Police around the same time that your bro was first arrested. So enjoy your popularity as The New Girl in Town. Just watch your back for those folks who don't have such kind intentions or you might find yourself careening off a cliff or getting framed for someone else's transgressions. That's the only way anyone could get a New Girl in Town like you down.

Photo journalism

I duely apologize for the long over due update, rest assured I have been chastised by many of my regular readers and I'll try my best to keep up from now own. As far as this post goes- I just need to do something to get back into the swing of it. So much time has gone by that I just don't know where to start, so I haven't. Birthdays, anniversaries, parties, vacations, illness, etc... I will say that Wilson is better (since that's the last news I left you with)- the first evidence of his miraculous recovery was when I walked into my bathroom to find all of my "how to raise a toddler" books floating in the bathtub!! I'll let a few pictures and captions fill in the gaps from there.

Wilson got well and then was sick again exactly a week later. This a picture of his room the morning before our night with the 104 temperature- he woke up at about 11 and did not go back to sleep until 2am or so- it was party time. If you look closely you can see that he finally fell asleep with a combine and a tractor in bed with him & I vaguely remember trying to sleep in that hoola hoop!! Luckily his fever went down late that night and we didn't have to go to the ER, but he certainly knows how to get his mama & daddy's attention!!

Tate doing a victory dance over the sprinkler- it only took 3 years, but he finally killed it!

Wilson, bringing Mama her birthday present (an iPod nano- how fun!)

(thank you to the Network Streaming girls for convincing Phil that I needed a birthday present!!)

Blowing out the candles on Mama's birthday cake

Wilson and the dogs playing in pool

This is Wilson on his second trip to the beach this summer,

where he discovered how much fun ICE CREAM CONES are!

Wilson also found out how much fun flashlights are!!

Apparently we're having trouble with our hoola-hoopers being struck down in the crosswalks,

please be mindful of the new signs throughout town

A Sick Day Wilson

To help you better understand the last SIX days of my life I could tell you that today. . .

• at 7:00 pm I still had my sunglasses on top of my head and hadn't left the house since 3:00
• on the way home from running errands today, Wilson and I shared a bag of M&M's and then he fell asleep. When I was taking him out of his car seat I noticed that he had missed his mouth once, because there was one under his chin. Our friend and my life coach, Tommy Boy, was right- "we are going to be okay here- there's a thin candy shell". That thin candy shell kept all the melted chocolate off his neck. How do I know the chocolate was melted? Because I ATE the M&M and THEN thought "that was probably a little gross."
• I picked up Wilson to change what promised to be the runniest, nastiest diaper ever produced only to feel a very wet sensation between my arm and his shorts. I prayed to no avail that the dogs had gotten interested in the smell and licked him. Nope, just your run-of-the-mill explodo-poop.
• I read a book entitled Trains aloud four times in a row with no pause. I'd close the book, Wilson would say "men, men" (Amen at the table, The End when reading a book), and then open it to the front page. Finally a cawr that hadn't been rolled in at least 5 minutes (there by breaking the law in Wilson World) distracted him
• I cleared my on throat so much trying to some how stop the never-ceasing rattling coming out Wilson's head that I think I've given myself Laryngitis. I could honestly feel his crud in my throat!!

. . . or I could just show you this:

. . . 'nuff said.

The Patient

My sweet in-laws dropped by a little earlier to bring Wilson some popsicles and check in on him (they didn't forget mom- 2 tubs of Dibs or the dogs- a box of Frosty Paws dog ice cream!) My mother-in-law commented on how empty my freezer still is (see And the Frigidaire Has Never Been Cleaner). I've decided keeping it empty is the only way to keep it clean and prevent another incident!! Wilson got to show them his new swing set and his Aunt Lauren read him a book. If there were sound to go with the picture you would hear Wilson saying "Lalin, Lalin". He is standing by the back door looking for her after they left, sporting his new Cars pajama bottoms that Granna made this weekend and his Mickey slippers that are hand-me-downs from Uncle John. He's been a fairly good patient today. Mostly he's just slept and played cawrs and watched cars on TV. We did make it to Walmart for more cough syrup and diapers- Woo Hoo! what a day, I'm wiped out!! Ha, ha, ha! I remember when "a night on the town" meant so much more. Oh well, I better go finish those Dibs before Dad gets home!!

A Little Funny

Didn't know if everyone had seen this- thought most of you could relate!

Memory Lane

Wilson is still not himself yet, so I haven't had anything really memorable to photograph. We spent yesterday at Granna & Granddaddy's and grouched all around their house and tonight we hung out at Pat Pat & Paw's. Wilson did get to see his Aunt Lauren which is a rare treat and impressed us all by saying her name when we asked him who she was! He also got to see his Nanny & Pappa- boy does he love Pappa!
I've recently created a "favorites" folder from all the pictures we've taken since Wilson entered our lives. It's fun go back and look at how much he's grown, learned, and accomplished. It's also nice to look at all the pictures of a smiling face when all I've seen lately is a swollen, red, sweaty, pitiful face complete with a mouth that is crying or hoarsely screaming!! The picture I'm including in this post is from last Christmas. He found this wreath of bells on my mom's Christmas tree and fell in love with it. My dad insisted that we take it with us when we left. He is dressed in is Ralph Lauren PJ's that Pat Pat brought back from her trip to NYC and his Bunnies By the Bay Flipper Slippers that Granna gave him for Christmas. He also still had his red hair.
He can be happy, he can be happy, he can be happy . . . .

P.S.

The shameless product plug for today is for all the mom's of toddlers & squirmy babies. In dealing with taking a temperature every few hours over the last day and a half or so I've used a garden variety of tools for the task. I've never been a fan of our ear thermometer- it's never very accurate and is now one of Wilson's playthings. So, I purchased a thermometer that is supposed to gather the patient's temperature from their forehead and found it to be equally fickle in readouts- it is now in the WalMart Never-Never Land of returned products. I also used the same digital thermometer that I've since he was born, but it takes a year and half to get a reading- or is it just that long because it doesn't beep when it's done and I don't clue in that it's done because I'm Maggie the Crocodile Hunter trying to wrestle Wilson down so he doesn't wind up with this skinny little probe up the hoo-ha. It is now in the garbage. The winner of taste test, if you will, is the Vick's Baby Rectal Digital Thermometer. It is pictured above. This little device takes the temp in 10 seconds, is back lit when its finished (so you don't have to turn the light on to read it), beeps until you turn it off, and, as you can see from the picture, is designed so that it can't accidentally wind up lodged any further than necessary. It also gave the exact readout that our pediatrian's did, FYI. This should be on every mom-to-be's registry.

And The Diagnosis Is . . .

Well after a day of running 102-103 degree fever, I decided that Wilson must be suffering from more that teething and decided that we would go to the doctor. What finally pushed me to make the call was when he first laid in my arms for about 15 minutes for no reason and then saw a cawr and decided to get down. While my lap was free I made a break for the bathroom only to come back to find Wilson kneeling on the floor in front of the sofa with his head laying on a cushion with lion underneath it. No car noises or motions coming from the den- just a little pile of boy with cawrs strewn all around him. It was really kind of sad. I gave him some more Motrin and we went to the doctor. An hour later his fever was still 103 and a blood test confirmed that he has a fever virus. Nothing we can do but wait it out. He did pull himself together enough to play cawrs for a minute while we waited on the doctor to come to our room. Unfortunately, Parker(our pediatrician) scooped him up a little too fast and put him on the examining table. Wilson is terrified of heights and it scared him to death. He completed the chest listening in my lap and then I had to hold him down on the table for his ear and throat inspection. We then went to the lab to have blood taken and the nurse made the mistake of putting a band-aid on his thumb. Wilson hates having anything extra on his person- no dirt, sand, stickers, or pen markings. He was furious when he woke up last week and a scratch from Tate was still on his leg- it refused to be wiped off!! Anyway, we returned home and after a well rounded supper of ketchup and raisins (don't ask- I don't know why) and a dose of Tylenol he was back to his old self just in time for Dad to walk in the door and enjoy the same smiling face that he left this morning when he went to work. Wilson's asleep now and went down with only 99.7- looks like double timing with Tylenol and Motrin seems to be doing the trick.

Long Time, No Post

I've decided to give up clothes for the summer. No, no, it's not what you think- I'm not going nudest. I'm just resigning "good clothes" in exchange for an old swimsuit. Over the last few days I've come to realize that small boys are incapable of realizing that it is 1002 degrees outside. We'll go outside to swing (on our new (pre-owned) swingset- yea!) and within a couple of minutes I am soaking wet, Wilson has multiple beads of sweat rolling down his chubby, red cheeks, and the dogs have all but passed out from chasing the swing- and Wilson is just getting started! Unfortunately, I am beginning to run out of clothes- there's only so much laundry one can do. Additionally, I'm down to only one bra because Tate (the dog) has chewed threw the only other "good one that fits" out of frustration that I left him in the bathroom during a storm while I ran errands. So this brings me to the old swimsuit- a $10 Walmart frock that I bought for water aerobics about 3 years ago. It is so tight now that it actually does wonders for the stomach (of course it 'also squishes the chest completely flat- so without what little was there to begin with as a reference point- it makes no difference how flat your tummy is!) Sorry about the rabbit trail- but now I won't have to explain if you drop by and I open the door wearing only the world's worst swimsuit.

Now, what has Wilson been up to lately? Well, he has been quite the socialite over the past week. His friend Lily and her mom and big sister, Maggie, dropped by last Thursday. I think their mom was a little frazzled over it being the first day of summer- Maggie has just finished the first grade. So, we introduced Lily to the joy of the sprinkler and Maggie played with all my craft stuff and then joined the babies in sprinklers!! Pictures follow. That night Wilson spent the night with his Granna & Granddaddy while Mom & Dad went to see the Da Vinci Code and then a couple of nights later he spent the night for the first time with his Pat Pat & Paw while we went to hang out with some friends (Lily's mama & daddy) and watch the season finale of Desperate Housewives (thank goodness for TiVo). He had a great time hanging out with all his grandparents- and we had a great time playing with our friends for a little while. Then this week we returned to Itsy Bitsy Yoga- which had hated and cried all the way through, until I pulled out his cawrs- he played with them and tried to ignore the fact that yoga was going on around him. Yesterday we had swimming lessons which were tons of fun especially because Dad came to watch! Today we had a play date with Lily at her house. The babies played great together, until Lily made the mistake of TOUCHING Wilson as she was handing him back one of his cawrs. He responded to this by screaming bloody murder! We pulled ourselves together though, played a little longer, and then headed home. When we got home I realized that he had a fever!! Still not sure what's going on because he has been super happy all day and nothing seems to be wrong. Hopefully we didn't get Lily sick and hopefully it will be gone tomorrow!

Wilson watching as Lily "tests the water"

Wilson taking a sip- a trick he learned from Tate

Baby Friends

Wilson looking on from his mower as Maggie & Lily play in the sprinkler

Party at Network Streaming

Last night we went to a party at Daddy's office celebrating the release of their newest product. It was lots of fun- great Mexican food, tons of babies and kids to play with, and all our fun "work friends" and their wives. Below are a few pictures.

It's not a party without the cawrs

This is our buddy Lily

Since hanging out with Wilson, Lily has developed an affinity for cawrs- Wilson scoops them all up when he sees her coming!!

One last shot- if you look closely in the background, you can see baby June sucking on daddy's beer bottle. It seemed like all night long as the dad's relaxed and enjoyed their success, you could hear mom's voices everywhere (not necessarily directed at her own child) saying, "no, baby, that's daddy's juice!"

Latest product Review

I thought I'd fill you all in on a great little product I picked up at the grocery store this week. It is called Shout Color Catcher. They are little sheets you throw in the wash with your clothes. They catch all the excess dye floating around thereby keeping your clothes brighter. This is great news for sloths like me who refuse to sort laundry and throw it all in on warm and hope for the best! It might be a time saver and a small step towards a more relaxed lifestyle for those of you who keep two laundry baskets- one for whites/one for colors (you probably also obey the handwash only warning too!). Anyway, to the left you can see the box and a before and after shot of the sheet. Wilson's new red swimsuit was in this load and none of our white socks are pink!! Happy washing!

FYI

Just wanted to let all you pet owners know that there are some great dog & cat toys and accessories on the dollar aisle at Target. We got a new harness (one of ours had somehow gotten twisted beyond repair) one of those hard nylon bones with the teeth cleaning bumps (like the hartz ones) and a tennis ball nap covered flip flop. Here are some photos of Tate cuddling with his new toy (I'd show pictures of Jack with the bone, but he's always under the bed with it!!) Anyway, they have leashes, collars, harnesses, placemats, toys (ropes, balls, bones, cat toys), and all sorts of other paraphernalia in a Hawaiin theme if its time for any of you to replenish or freshen up your stash!

A Day at the Beach

We're back! We had a great long weekend at the beach. It was so much fun to see our friends Andy & Ashley (Lott not Ethridge) and to get to play in the sand. Wilson really enjoyed himself as you can see in the pictures. The last time he went to the beach we went with the Lotts to "their beach" in Biloxi- the weekend before Katrina. It was about 100 degrees and extremely still- literally the calm before the storm. We didn't have much fun because it was so hot!! This time it probably did not get up to 90, the sky was beautiful, and there was a steady breeze- perfect weather!

There was a feeling of bittersweet to me the whole time, however. Driving down there it was hard to see the remaining signs of Katrina in our state- a hundred miles inland. Hattiesburg was still littered with blue tarp roofs, trees were down everywhere, and stores were still closed. Once we got to the beach in AL, things were a little better, but Ivan's presence was still all around almost two years later. Where many of the beach houses once had been there was nothing but the stilts they used to stand on; there was one home that was a pile of rubble with a wicker sofa and an arm chair on top. I can't imagine what our coast must look like. Still, Andy and Ashley were hopeful- both said that if the MS gulf coast can look that good in two years they'd be thrilled!

We had such a great time, but it's always nice to be back home. Wilson was thrilled to see his dogs and they couldn't wait to get home (thanks to Granna, Granddaddy, & Uncle John for housing the mutts while we were gone). Wilson and I will be back at the beach in a few weeks with my mom while my dad & brother go on their adventure to Philmont in AR, so I'm still debating about whether or not I should even de-sand everything! We can't wait to be by the ocean again! Tomorrow Wilson and I are off to his 2nd swimming lesson. He's really enjoying them and got really good at his "kick, kick, kick" in the pool at the beach.

Irony

My spray bottle of daily shower cleaner has soap scum on it.

Congratulations!

Congratulations! It's a BOY!!

This is how Tate fell asleep last night- on his back with his head under our bed. Of course, Jack was in the dryer due to the thunder.

Chocolate Chip Cookies

Here are some photos from baking cookies on Saturday.

Marketing

Well, little Wilson's world has just gotten 110% better. The Cars movie marketing paraphanalia has hit the shelves. We got back from the grocery store just a little while ago where we saw Cars graham crackers, Cars cereal, Cars Pull Ups, & everything else imaginable! We got home and I had snuck a box of the Cars grahams in our bags. Wilson was ecstatic! He didn't know whether to drive them or eat them! He wound up taking them to the water trough on his farm for a drink of water he was so overjoyed. Later we were getting ready for his bath and he sat on the "po-ti" and actually went, so he got another car cookie that I had hidden in the bathroom cabinet. Well he couldn't have been happier if I had driven an actual Ferrari into the tub! He started squealing "ge-own, ge-own" (get down! get down!) I took him off the potty and he ran (in nothing but his hippo t-shirt and an ear-to-ear grin) screaming "Daddy! Daddy!". He found his daddy and spouted off the most excited bunch of garble I have ever heard. "Da-i-po-ti-cawr-caker" which I can only loosely translate as "DAD, YOU'RE NEVER GOING TO BELIEVE IT! I JUST PEED ON THE POTTY AND MOM GAVE ME THIS SUPER COOL CAR SHAPED CRACKER!" He was so proud. . . and so were we.

Seeing all of the Cars marketing has been fun. Needless to say, we are eagerly awaiting the premier of Disney's Cars. While it's hard to miss all of the Cars products a few new marketing ploys have caught my eye recently. Are we all getting excited about David Blane's special tomorrow night? I am a fan of the illusionist, he always leaves me scratching my head. But this time I'm scratching my head for another reason. The name of the special is Drowned Alive. I have to ask, "Can anyone think of any other way to be drowned?". Secondly, there is a new product on the breakfast foods aisle of your grocery store. It's from one of our favorites- Kellogg's Poptarts. They're called Go-Tarts and, I kid you not, the tagline for this product is something like "Everything you love about Poptarts, only easier." Was anyone terribly confused by the original product? Didn't the Pop-Tart already simply our morning routines by ending the need to make fruit filled pastries from scratch. Anyone run late for work and when questioned by the boss answered, "Sorry, sir, but it's just those Pop-Tarts. If they could just somehow simplify that confounding pastry in a foil package."? Apparently by reducing the size of the bar by half and only putting one in a package, our lives are now much better off. I know I'll never be late again!

Hope you all have a great week!!

Correction

My editor-in-chief has found a critical typo in the previous post. It should have read that "I walked in the den to find Wilson standing in the middle OF THE COFFEE TABLE in a complete trance. . . ". I apologize for the typo and any confusion it may have caused.

Brief Update

Hi to all. Sorry it's been a while since our last post. It's been pretty quiet around here- the fridge broke again as I was preparing for a party at our house. The guy came to fix it about 4 hours before the party so our outside fridge (the one from my college dorm room!) was stuffed to capacity. I rearranged the furniture a little for the party one night after Wilson had gone to bed. He walked out the next morning and whispered "WOOOW!" I don't think because of my centerpiece, but becuase he never knew the furniture could move. It was pretty funny. I was on the phone yesterday and walked in the den to find him standing in the middle in a complete trance watching "Stein" (Baby Einstein). I don't think he even realized he'd climbed up there. He's such a mess. He asks all day long for his daddy and grandparents and "JON" (my brother John). It's really fun to watch him become more aware of the world around him. Above are some of the photos we had taken for Easter. He had such a great time playing with the duck and bunny.

And the Frigidaire Has Never Been Cleaner

Yesterday was quite full- all sorts of adventure for Wilson and me. Twists and turns around every corner. We first went to the pediatrician for his 18 month check up. It went very well except that Wilson is very afraid of heights and was miserable every time we had to put him up on the table. He had to get an unexpected shot (the AAP and their ever-changing "suggestions") so that was not the most fun, but he quit crying as soon as I took him off the table and he could get back to the cawrs. The doctor sincerely said he was the healthiest kid he'd seen in a long time. Boy does he know how to make a mom happy.


Next we went to get Granna and then went to have some Easter pictures made with a real duckling and bunny. He had a blast. He petted the duck and it quacked at him and he quacked back. He loved on the bunny. He splashed in the duck's water bowl (before the picture, of course!) It was all too cute. I can't wait to get the pictures back next week!!


After that, we went back to Granna's for lunch and then went to Uncle John's tennis match. It was tons of fun to roam around between the courts and in the grass around them. We hear John won, but we didn't actually get to watch much of the match! It was blazing hot and Wilson was overdue for a nap, so he naturally fell asleep in the car on the way to take Granna back home.

If you came here looking for good news, stop reading here and just skip to the last paragraph of so because the day just goes completely downhill from here. Otherwise read on . . .

We get home and Wilson is in a very deep sleep- the kind that you can move him from his carseat to the bed without any problems. Or so I thought. He laid down in his bed and as soon as I walked out he started crying. I left him for a bit, but there was no changing his mind. So I put him in my bed to watch Baby Einstein while I recuperated from chasing him around in the 90 degree heat.

I got up to get something in the kitchen and noticed a small puddle of water in the kitchen by the sink and thought, that's odd, but I probably just spilled something. I went back later to clean it up and found that it was a flowing puddle! I first thought it was coming from the dishwasher which actually could have been a small victory since I have been begging for a new dishwasher since we closed on the house. After unloading the dishwasher, turning the water off that goes to the dishwasher, unscrewing it from the cabinet and trying to pull it out to see if I could find the source- I realized that this was perhaps the dumbest thing I'd ever tried to do with an 18 month old and two dogs in the house. I put the whole thing back together and decided to just run a load to get the last dishes clean (turning the water off to the dishwasher also turns off the hot water to the sink- so either way I was stuck with a sink full of dirty dishes- might as well let the machine attempt to do it!). I mop up the water that is flowing through grout lines of my kitchen and find that it has gone under the fridge. I then see water running down the front of the fridge from the ice/water dispenser. So now I go pulling the 8 ton fridge from its home and turn the water off from behind it and vacuum up the dust et al from behind it. (Now would be a good time to mention that Phil and I had been noticing an odd noise coming from the fridge the night gefore, but chose to ignore it and hope that it got better on its own) This did nothing to help the water problem so I decide that maybe ice is melting and coming out the ice whole- so I dump all the ice out. Finally, it dawns on me, things in the freezer are usually really hard, and not so much juicy like the broth that is sitting around the roast I put in there last week! (Still, an 18 month old, his tractor, and two dogs trying to help me here!) I use one of my prized Method Eucalyptus Mint cleaning wipes (the only way I know of to simultaneously clean surfaces and smell like your at the spa)to clean up the mess on the floor. I put the ice container back in the freezer, dribbling water right where I just cleaned up, thereby wasting the lovely aroma I had just spread. Alas, I admit defeat and call in the troops. Since this is a matter of food going bad I decide to go with the closest grandmother possible, my mother-in-law. I, of course, catch her as she's going out the door to church, but she graciously switches gears and offers to come over to wrangle the boys. She plays with Wilson while I attempt to get some information from the store we bought the fridge from about repairs and then as I try to call the repair place they recommended at ten after 5:00. Of course, no answer, not even a machine. Luckily, Pat Pat came prepared with a cooler to take the contents of the freezer to her house.

Let's pause here. Did anyone else's mom ever advise them to always wear clean underwear "just in case" you got hit by a bus? Okay, show of hands, how many of you have EVER benefited from that advice? Let me give you some advice that is much more likely to come in handy- this is on the house, free of charge. Clean the goo out of the bottom of the freezer regularly and keep it organized "just in case" you have ever to dismantle the dissolving igloo in front of your mother-in-law. Thanks, mom, where were you on that little piece of wit and wisdom!!

So here we go, pulling out the remains of every diet I've tried over the past 3 years, the frozen berries, nuts, and fruit that were going to make wonderful breads and desserts (yeah right!), vodka from party in 2002, ice packs, the ice cream machine middle, coffee, flour, sugar, you name it. We fill her cooler and my trash can leaving only chocolate unfrozen yogurt running down the inside of the door and pile of corn meal and broccoli flowrets floating in melted ice in the bottom of the freezer. Wilson heads in just in time to smear his hands through the chocolate yogurt.

The rest of this evening is spent cleaning the freezer, plugging in our outdoor mini-fridge and deciding which of our most prized refrigerated items should get a spot, trying to get Wilson to eat the supper that he loved last night but now not so much, putting him to bed and pondering how ironic that I had actually just vacuumed and steamed my kitchen floors the day before- WHAT A WASTE!!!

At 3:30 this morning Wilson wakes up and decides he is NOT going back to sleep. I change him, I give him a snack, I rock, I make a palette on the floor, I leave him to cry, but nothing is working. Finally I just decide to heck (but I wasn't thinking heck) with it, and I shut his door and let him play while I attempt to sleep in the middle of the floor. Apparently, he had a blast. I woke up when he threw a wooden stacker ring at my head and found that I was in a sea of legos, cars, stacker pieces of all shapes and sizes, farm animals, musical instruments and books. I fed him breakfast at 6 and then cleaned up his room while he watched tv.

Okay, if you came for good news, you may start reading again, Wilson and I played a little longer and then I peacefully put him back to sleep. Phil took a piece of the back of the fridge of last night a vacuumed out something (I had actually just recently cleaned out the vent across the front, but knew nothing of taking the back off the fridge. Really, mom, help a girl out-write these things down!) and that seems to have done the trick. As I was typing I just heard the first piece of ice fall into the bin- things are FREEZING!! Wilson is now asleep, Phil has gone to work, I think the dogs are under the bed, and I am going to take a nap. I'll post now and check grammar and spelling later!!