The _______ Life of Brent and Erika

Today when we were driving home from the bookstore, I noticed a bird in the road. This is usually not a big deal (as you probably know), as birds are smart enough and scared enough to move out of the way. Apparently there was something wrong with this little bird's senses because by the time I realized he wasn't moving, it was too late. I saw a pile of smooshy feathers in the rearview mirror. I swear I have nothing against nature, but I guess that our white car does.

Since today was Brent's LAST DAY OF SCHOOL , he decided he wanted to purge himself of this school year's slightly bad vibes and move forward. This is how he decided to do it. And then, since the mohawk seemed too inflammatory (and bad looking), we settled on this: And it's official: Chloe wants to eat the gerbils. Definitely not friendly.

Yesterday, the gerbils came home for the summer. Until we find a permanent home for them (one of the unused bedrooms), they're living in the living room. Chloe is fascinated by them. As I said before, we can't tell if she wants them to be friends or food. You decide. And yes, her bark really is that high pitched when she's desperate.

First I'm sunburned. And now, I've done it again. I guess there are some lessons that you need to learn at least five times before they stick ( here's the proof ). Mine is this: DO NOT WASH WHITE AND RED TOGETHER. This time it was a tablecloth and some washcloths. Yeesh.

Yesterday was Lagoon day at Diamond Fork. I go with Brent's class every year because it's fun, and because his kids need chaperoning (unlike most of the hooligans that they just let run wild...), and it's easier to keep track of them if we've got more people. At any rate, I'm getting much smarter about what I wear and how I prepare to make sure that Lagoon stays with me as only a memory--nothing more permanent. The first year, I wore jeans that turned my garments blue after the water rides. They are still blue. So I wore cotton shorts. I wore good walking shoes. I put on sunscreen, except on my neck/chest area. I just forgot. So now, I have a sunburn in the shape of my shirt's neckline, which happened to be circular. Brent says that the red circle against the rest of the white skin makes me look like the Japanese flag. Maybe I could get a part in "The Even More Recent Karate Kid", in which Mr. Miyagi teaches me to stand up to life's demons (the ...

I'd just like to publicly say thank you to my good friends Bjorn and Frida. Bjorn is a hard hard worker. He sticks with me while I clean the house, while I do the yardwork, and while I do other arduous tasks. Bjorn reads to me, and I like it. Frida is really into exercise. She never tires of running, and keeps encouraging me to just keep running until the end of the song. She stays clipped to my shirt, and sometimes motivates me to even get out and start running. These two friends are one of the few things that helps me maintain sanity right now. So thanks.

This morning I spent three and a half hours attempting to turn our jungle of a backyard into something recognizable as "lawn". In a tedious process of weed whacking, mowing, raking, mowing, whacking, racking, and bagging the clippings by hand, our yard looks mostly good. Some places were still a little too wet for our reel mower to cut very well, and in some places the grass is so trampled that I've got to mow it from lots of different directions to get it to cut (reminds me of Brent's hair...he's got lots of cowlicks), but it's definitely an improvement. After finishing the back, I decided to do the few places in the front that we didn't get on Saturday, and just for kicks and giggles and service I decided to mow the rest of the lawn that we share with the neighbors. I am already sore, and I love it. I mean, I don't love being sore, but I actually love the feeling of manual labor. I've wanted to write essays about it before, and liken it to Camus...

I have to be honest, all week I have been dreading Mother's Day. I even had my post for the day planned in advance. This is all it was going to say: "Better luck next year." It was going to be brief, and to make your heart hurt as much as mine occasionally does. But for the past few days, I've been feeling very loved. The other day at the grocery store, I was so happy to see so many beautiful flowers out for the mothers that I bought myself a bouquet, and the flowers are spread between two rooms. They make me happy. Brent constantly tells me that he loves me, and that he appreciates what I do (I've been doing a lot of things alone lately because we're trying to get him feeling better...). Chloe has been more sweet than not lately, although we're still struggling with the whole "the hallway is NOT your emergency bathroom" thing. I found a beautiful shirt at Banana Republic for $20. I've never stayed in that store for more than 5 minutes becaus...

We've got two new members of the family (sort of...). Their names are Gouda and Wensleydale, and they are gerbils. They're going to live in Brent's classroom, but the kids have to earn them first. If you know my history with rodents, this should sort of shock you. When I was five, I was given a dwarf rabbit that died of a heart attack NINE DAYS LATER. Brent is still shocked that we never replaced the rabbit--I think I must have been too traumatized. Anyway, my family's next venture into rodent land was many years later when my sitter was somewhere between 7 and 10, and she had a hamster named Charlie who was cute but kind of inert, and her room constantly smelled of hamster urine. I never went in there, it got so bad. Brent has had a really stressful time at school lately, and we've been trying to think of anything that might help him out. He decided that he would like a classroom pet, and for a while he thought he really wanted a snake. Since it was going to be a c...