Are You Feeling Silly?

Silly Bands aren't new around here. Ben has seen them and liked them for a while now, which surprised me because, well, they are bracelets and bracelets are for girls. Of course silly bands are cool bracelets made of rubber band material in fun shapes that stretch for wear as a bracelet and then return to their original shape after you take them off. That means there are endless possibilities and we will never be able to have one of each kind or complete the set or anything. There is no end to silly bands. Lucky us.

Though I knew Ben wanted to buy some we hadn't made it to the store and he wasn't overly insistent. Then he went to Connor's birthday party at Pump It Up and his gift bag had three silly bands inside. He was elated and we were now solidly in the silly band camp. Within two days he broke one of them by stretching it really, really far. Tears were shed. Before I could get to the store with his cash in hand, they discovered Aimee. She is their supplier. She stalks the stores searching for cool new packages of fun shapes that Ben would like or Maddie will go nuts over. They have letters, numbers, kitchen utensils, cars, princesses, fairies, jewelry shapes and more. Some are even glow in the dark. We had Aimee watch the kids for us last night when we went to hear Representative Rob Bishop of the US Congress speak at the Temple Visitor Center. She brought a whole grocery bag of silly bands to "trade" with the kids. Ben reported back this morning that "I didn't actually have to trade any with Aimee. She just gave me lots more so they go almost to my elbows." Yeah. They love her and apparently, we love silly bands.

The Eleventh Commandment

Today Jacob broke the eleventh great commandment. "Thou shalt not waste potato salad from Claudia." I was horrified. This stuff is to be treasured about all things in this world. It is amazing. I asked for recipe once. It was something along the lines of..."a bit of this and some of that until it tastes just right and then you..." and I knew I was sunk. The phrase "to taste" translates to mean "Angie need not attempt this recipe." Claudia's potato salad is A-M-A-Z-I-N-G. I will never be able to replicate it, but I can relish every last bite. Jacob wanted to try it, so I gave him the tiniest little potato chunk. He liked it, so I gave him a second small bite. He promptly tried to spit it out and wipe off his tongue making a mess all over his face. All I could think was, "Don't WASTE IT!!!" It has the perfect zest, exquisite blend of mayo and mustard, a bit of crunch and tender, soft potatoes. Thanks, Claudia. You made my day today with your gift.

Crazy Neighbors

As I'm leaving the neighborhood multiple times all morning long for various errands today I see the same lady in front of her house. In the course of three hours I had observed her take a kitchen broom and sweep away the autumn leaves in a diagonal path across her lawn for the garden hose to lay in. Then she proceeded to fill a bucket with sudsy water and wash the wheel wells on her car. Not the whole car. Just the wheel wells. All this in the pouring rain. Think she's alright? She must be soaked to the bone and a little batty too.