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August 31st is the big day — I think I will get everyone Ice Cream Sandwiches to CELEBRATE!!!  Wish our ridiculously NON-GAMER family good luck!

G Funk…you are big time now!  22 yrs. old, and on your way to stardom!  XOXO, and L.A….here we come!

Skylar, in anticipation of school starting up again in three weeks, has asked me over a dozen times if I will “homeschool” her.  The first few times I just laughed, but now I lead her on like I am really considering it.  When she asked me this morning, I told her that her first assignment was to write me a list of pros and cons regarding the idea.  She came back, and happily exclaimed she had no cons!  I told her there were cons, and to use her “creative thinking” to come up with one.  When she finally turned her paper in, there was one very serious con she said….”my mom might say no!”  However, her list of pros said “take care of the baby” three times, which I think is the underlying reason of the whole obsession.  When Trilby came home, Skylar tried to influence her, but Trilby is dead set on supporting the public school system and having Skilly attend. 

I also think she may have heard about the time when I was Britni Samuelian’s mentor on career day.  Everyone else was hooked up with the Laguna Beach Mayor, Lawyers, Doctors, CEO’s, and Brit was with “Lindsey the (unemployed at the time) Broadcast Journalist”!  All was good until Steve came home in the early afternoon to find me and Brit tucked comfortably in his bed with the remote in hand.  He asked what on earth we were doing, and Britni excitedly explained that I was her mentor for career day.  Steve asked what career I was teaching Britni, and I told him, “In an effort to really help Britni understand the difficult future that lied ahead in her broadcasting career….we were watching every talk show on TV and dissecting what we liked and didn’t like”.  That particular day, Britni decided that Oprah’s dark purple was very slimming, and a great on-camera color!

I went in to admire my Iwako collection tonight, and only saw a note that said the following:

Lindsey-  I found out that 5 of my friends collected Iwakos.  I sold all of them 4 5.00$ for 3 erasers.  Very sorry about your loss. -Mystery Women

I am not totally sure who the mystery women/woman is, but I have a couple of thoughts.  First of all, there is a pretty confusing part in the letter which tells me the M.W. is possibly young.  I also noticed that four wasn’t spelled out, but rather written in number form (4), which tells me the person is very into I.M.ing or texting, and finally the note is written on the exact type of lunch sack in the pantry downstairs, which tells me I might have the M.W. under my very same roof. 

It could be Skylar, but she would be WAY too scared.  Micah knows he will be out more money if I have to go and buy a whole new collection, and I also don’t think he has any friends collecting Iwakos.  My mom is out of town, and Trilby is never really in my closet.  Which leaves my young, text messaging, little niece who lives in my exact house to be the culprit.  Calin…you aren’t such a mystery, and I have three words for you, that you are going to wish I never uttered……..THIS IS WAR!

(If you are up to speed from the last post…here is Calin’s shelf that gives me another reason to assume it is her…..Jealousy!) ….BTW Calin - How lame is your bouncy ball collection! (and learn how to use spell check!)

I had a group of friends over to go swimming today.  The Thacks, Deckers, Hemeons, Tuckers, and part of the Harris family showed up.  It was low key and very fun.  The kids swam, jumped on the trampoline and played on the swings/slide.  It was just the girls until the dads showed up after work.  Good times and good friends — I wonder why I haven’t done this all summer long.  I think I am going to put a standing invitiation to whomever wants to come on a certain day every week.  So anyone who is interested, let me know what day works best!

Last night, Micah watched the baby while I went over to do a couple of things with Gary.  I went to sleep at about 2:00am.  I woke up to feed Scout at 7:00am, and then started reading.  I fell asleep reading and figured I would wake up again when he was ready to eat at about 8:30.  After a good sleep, I looked at the clock, and couldn’t believe it was 10:00am and the baby wasn’t awake yet!  I went to the crib to see a bunch of blankets, but no baby.  That is when I discovered Skylar had gotten Scout up, changed him, bathed him, got him dressed, and was trying to feed him a bottle.  Keep in mind that he has only nursed, and isn’t used to a bottle…but Skylar got him to get about 2 ounces down.  Nice job Skilly, and thanks for letting me sleep in!

Micah competed in the Camp P. Tri again this year.  All was good, until we found out that Kirk Lindahl fell on the bike and had road rash all along his right side.  He ended up finishing the race like a champ, and was very pleased to report he had the “crash of the day! 

Tristen had a little photo session with Micah and Scout. She did a great job, and I am really proud to say her most difficult subject to shoot, followed directions marvelously! Nice job Micah!
(Since Tristen’s computer is a lame MAC — I will post pics later!)

Micah has just informed me for the second time that I always spell my most used adjective - ridiculous - wrong. (I spell it rEdiculoous).  Too bad, I pride myself on being a pretty good speller and grammar aficionado — Whoops! So rather than go through every blog and change the spelling, I am simply saying I know it is wrong, and vowing to correctly spell it from this point forward!  Thanx hunny fore helpeeng wyth mi speling!

Skylar and I have a new obsession…Iwako Erasers!  They are these Japanese erasers that look exactly like whatever they are supposed to be and have interchangeable parts (like the fish comes apart and has the bone skeleton underneath).  Such as - fruits, vegetables, any food, scissors, cars, and they are coming out with a helicopter this month!  I know it is ridiculous, but Skylar and I have SO much fun collecting, trading and displaying them.  (Think Garbage Pail Kids, Pogs, and Beenie Babies).  We started out with about 20 and when we really need to splurge, we go out and buy one or two.  So far we have a ton of classic stories that have stemmed from our collections, but I will only recount a few:

1. We have official trades where we sit down and everything is timed out.  We get 10 minutes to look over all the Iwakos, ten minutes to trade and ten minutes to display them on our shelf.  During the look over, I always try and show Skylar the worst ones and talk about how cool they are.  For example, I was telling her how cool the (lame) Eggplant Iwako was because it was a deep purple - like none other either of us has.  Like clockwork, she took the eggplant on her second pick — freeing up the pink tulip for me!  After we trade, we do a little trash talking about how cool our picks are, and then we go to the shelf to set them up for everyone to see.  Mine looks really good, but Skylar has a hard time using different levels and props.  I keep telling her she just doesn’t have the eye for it, but as she gets older, she may develop that eye.  She just responds by flicking one of my Iwakos so it falls down, but I don’t really care because all I have to do is put it upright again.  She had finally had it when I called Gary Samuelian and asked if he would come over and help her.  I told him his visual merchandising background just might be able to help salvage her side of the shelf.  Gary thinks we are both crazy, but did offer his assistance.  Skylar just rolled her eyes, walked away, and next time I saw my collection my penguin’s nose was the whale’s water spout, and the top of my pineapple was a surfboard — she had changed all of the parts on my erasers so none of them went together.

2.  We display our collections on the same shelf of my closet.  Between our collections is a bottle of hand sanitizer, that must be used before we touch any of the collector’s items.  (The hard fast rule is that you can’t touch the other person’s collection without permission, but in bouts of teasing, we have both been know to break that rule.)  One day Calin walked in while we were both reorganizing our displays, and rolled her eyes…BUT tried to handle almost every one of them.  She acted like she didn’t care, but I knew she got the Iwako bug and really wanted a piece!  As she walked away, making fun of our obsession, I asked her if she wanted to start her own collection.  She quickly and eagerly responded, “Yes…but how will I buy them?”  I told her with her own money, and she disgustingly said, “forget it.”  As she walked away, I was trying to explain that if she didn’t spend her own money she wouldn’t have the same appreciation for her Iwakos that we did, and like any adult I was wise in my words.  She was long gone before I finished, but I think she got the gyst.  I entered my closet a couple of hours later and noticed everything was misplaced.  My heart skipped a beat when I thought my Iwakos had been terrorized, but both Skylar’s and my collections were safe.  But on the shelf next to our display was a printed sign that read, “CALIN’S COLLECTION! DO NOT TOUCH WITHOUT SANITIZER!”  And the shelf was full of different colored bouncy balls.  DUH — doesn’t she know that you can get those at ANY grocery store for 25 cents.  Ours are hard to find and are at least $1.75!

3.  Skylar and I both have a hard time remembering to put on our seatbelts in the car.  Trilby has tried everything from scolding to giving out bribes, but nothing has worked so far.  When we were in the car one day, and she was getting in trouble for not belting up, I said, “Skylar, I will make you a deal.  Anytime you catch me without my seatbelt you get to choose an Iwako from my collection.  But if I catch you, I get one of  yours!”  She was all over the deal and the games began!  She caught me the first time, and the second time.  I was so irritated, so I started trying to distract her when we started up the car.  I subsequently got her three times.  At this point I was one up on her.  Not to be outdone, as soon as she would get in the car she would get her belt on very quietly.  Then the second I turned the key she would get me.  I told her we had to wait until the end of the driveway, and she said, “yeah right”.  Then I told her that she had to wait until I at least backed out of the garage, but she won’t go for that either. So at the moment, she has gotten me 6 times, and I am still at 2.  What a rip off!  But I guess it taught us both a good lesson……be really sneaky when you are in the midst of a competition.

My mother thinks I am out of my mind, but Skylar thinks I am the coolest! Micah is slightly embarassed, and thinks I am funny because I love anything miniature!  If anyone out there has an Iwako collection themselves, please let me know and we can make an appointment for you to come over and join in on one of our trades! Also, if anyone asks what I want for my birthday at the end of this month…The new helicopter and jet sets would really be one up on Skylar!

PLEASE READ— IF ANYONE KNOWs OF SOMEONE LIVING IN JAPAN, I REALLY WANT TO BUY THE BOX OF 300, BUT THE WHOLE WEBSITE IS IN JAPANESE, AND I NEED SOMEONE OVER THERE TO BUY IT FOR ME.  THANKS FOR THE HELP!

I just went to admire my collection, and it is like there was an earthquake?!!!  Skylar, you are SO dead for knocking them all over!