A legitimate misunderstanding

The kids were doing a Harry Potter quiz in the morning and Ally had asked Anna what merpeople were. Anna explained it was mermaids and mermen. 

So later, they were looking for something to watch and The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives popped up. 
Ally said, “Oh, wow! A show about women who are married to men who think they’re mermaids… that sounds interesting.”

Everyone laughed so hard that they could hardly explain to her that it wasn’t the secret lives of mermen wives. 

Later, Ally was defending herself, and she kept telling me I had to look at the picture of the show to understand why she had that misconception. 

Kate finally pulled up the picture, and I can see totally see it. 

For two days, every time I saw that picture, I'd start laughing out loud. 

I mean they don’t NOT look like they’d be married to men who think they’re mermaids.

----

This reminds me of the last time something Ally said made me laugh this hard. She does have a tendency to use similar words in place of each other.

We were on our work trip to Kentucky with the Appalachia Service Project. Our first day, we were hanging J-channels on a mobile home. When we got back to the center where we were staying, the other team asked Ally what we did on our work site. Ally, probably thinking that "J-channels" is a two word phrase and the first word is a letter, replied, "We hung G-strings on the mobile home."

Shaking my head

Luke wanted to change from taking a fitness class next year to taking guitar instead. Dave and I thought this was a great idea. Luke loves music. But, the drop-deadline had passed, so he had to talk to the guidance counselor. It was the end of the school day, so Anna went along with him before they got Ally and went home. 

According to Anna, Luke told the guidance counselor that taking guitar instead of physical fitness made sense, because, Luke reasoned, "I don't have to be fit if I can serenade people."

He's reasonably fit, anyway. He got a trophy for soccer.

Luke helps Ally with Spanish

Ally: I got a 96 on my Spanish final.

Luke: That’s because of me, Ally… because I helped you study.

Ally: What did you get?

Luke: An 81.

Me: You got an 81, but you’re claiming Ally owes her 96 to you?

Luke: Yes! I helped her study for two hours!

Me: I know. I get that, but I think it’s a stretch to claim that you, who got an 81, get credit for her 96.

Luke: We should split the grade. She got a 96. I got an 81. It seems like we each should get an 88.5.

Me: Yeah, that was some good fast math there. Too bad you wouldn’t be as fast at saying it in Spanish.

Redeal

In 2020/2021, Dave and I played a lot of cards with Tim and Jenny. There was nothing else to do.. At one point, after hours of cards and a few rounds of Old Fashioneds, a couple of us were sure another one of us was cheating. Tim clapped his hands twice and threw them in the air, declaring, “I’m out!” Another one of us yelled, “Redeal!” And, because of the Old Fashioneds and probably also because of a year of lock down, we thought it was hilarious, and we turned the gesture into a sign to demand a “redeal.” Any time one of us didn’t like the cards we got, we’d clap twice, throw our hands in the air, and shout “redeal!”

I’d kind of forgotten about it. It’s been a couple years since we last used the gesture.

Then last weekend the girls and I were playing cards with my parents. My dad dealt a hand. Things had been getting goofy. Opa had been getting sassy. And Ally clapped her hands together and threw them up in the air. She expected everyone to know that she was demanding a redeal. After all, she, as a ten and eleven-year-old had witnessed the adults in her life make the gesture a dozen times.

My parents looked a bit perplexed and I figured out what happened and burst out laughing. Ally explained to my parents that meant redeal. My dad, who’s played more cards than anyone else I know, raised an eyebrow. So I explained the situation.

My dad told Ally that it was just a local thing, a very local thing… like within 100 feet radius local thing.

Opa is good at everything

Our first floor toilet had a water trickling sound every few hours. I decided to fix it. I replaced everything inside, and I was pretty proud of myself. 

After I did that, though, the chain was getting stuck under the new flapper, causing even more water to run. I tried to adjust the rod attached to the flushing lever, but the whole thing cracked off. I bought a replacement, but the old one was so corroded I couldn't get it to unscrew.

I, once again, ended up calling my dad. He's done most of our repairs for us, especially things at the cottage. And, this summer, he's fixed up every repair I originally thought I might be able to handle myself. So, here we are again! 

In the mean time, I rigged a string through the hole of the flushing lever and a clothespin so the string didn't get pulled in too far.

This morning, the twins were asking if they could go to the bathroom. I said, "Yep. Just make sure that the clothes pin is up against the toilet so that the flapper closes.

Luke went to the bathroom and came out and said, "Mom, I don't think we can just flush the toilet with a clothes pin for long. It's embarrassing!"

"I know," I replied, "Opa is coming to fix it tomorrow." 

Ally shook her head, full of pride,"Opa is good at everything! He's a good plumber, a good woodworker, a good engineer. He's so smart!"

Totally, Ally! I agree!

The clothes pin Luke didn't like. I don't understand his issue it was so fancy...

My dad fixing the cottage bathroom earlier this summer (after I'd attempted it on my own).

Dave made brats on the grill for the game tonight. After grilling them, he soaked them in a mixture of stadium sauce and beer that he’d reduced to a thick sauce. I obviously can’t have beer because of my gluten intolerance, so I kind of wiped the brat off. 

When I was nearly done eating, he was talking about how good his sauce was, and he tried to scoop more sauce onto my gluten free bun. 

I said, “I actually can’t have that, because there’s gluten in the beer.” 

He said, “I cooked off all the gluten. I boiled it.”

I said, “It doesn’t work that way.”

He continued, “Yeah, I cooked it off.”

I said, “You cooked off the alcohol but gluten doesn’t cook off.”

I think he realized then he was wrong. But, he was now being annoying, so he started to insist that it was such a high temperature it cooked off. I pointed out that he boiled it, but pasta is also boiled in water. And how most items with gluten are baked at a minimum of 350 degrees, our pizza recipe is 450 degrees.

He continued and he was driving me crazy, so I was like, “Amazing! It looks like I can now eat anything as long as I bake it at a higher temperature.”

I reached into the cupboard and started tossing everything into the oven, bread, buns, pasta, cookies and I exclaimed, “I can’t wait to eat all this!”

Kate was cracking up.

The other three were staring at me.

Then Luke said, “Oh, my gosh. Dad broke mom.”

 Taking a break 14 miles into our 18 mile bike ride yesterday

Twelve!

 These two amazing kids turned 12 this summer.

On their actual birthday, they got a quadruple scoop at the Hamburger Haus, something they'd wanted to try for years. That's not four scoops. It's seven. We kind of hoped they'd be piled up high like on the picture, but they were split between two cups.

Because they wanted their parties up at the cottage and summer availability can be tricky, Luke had his party in June. Ally was supposed to have hers in early August, but she came down with Covid the day before, so her party wasn't actually until September.

The kids swam, tubed, jet skied and grilled hotdogs and s'mores over the fire.

Barre, Yoga

Last school year, I spent four or five mornings a week at the JCC - Jewish Community Center (the local gym at which I'm a member). Every morning, I was greeted by Joe, the incredibly friendly older man who works at the front desk, and it always set my day off right. I attended my favorite yoga class two days a week and worked out with my friend Merri the other three days each week. It became my happy place. The exercise helped me feel better and focus more on my teaching and parent coaching, as well as on being the mom and wife I wanted to be.

Joe at the front desk started to encourage me to come work there, since, as he said, I was there all the time anyway. I told him I had no qualifications whatsoever to work there.

I looked into getting certified as a personal trainer, but what I really wanted to learn was about muscles, and specific exercises for specific needs. Instead the program covered more how to work with people, which I've been doing for the last decade.

I'd often entertained the idea of teaching yoga, but the training programs are at least $2500, usually more, and instructors usually make less than $25/class. The programs also take a good part of a year, including weekends, which I like to spend with the kids. So, I'd never followed through on that idea.

While I was entertaining the idea of how to get into teaching group exercise, I mentioned it to the secretary at the kids' school. She told me about an opportunity to get trained to teach Barre through the WAC - Wisconsin Athletic Club (our other local gym) for only about $100 and in only seven weeks. That sounded perfect, except for one thing. I'd actually only ever gone to one Barre class, and I'd hated it so much I never returned. But, that was years ago. I was a different person... and I was up for trying something new. 

The seven week program didn't leave me feeling prepared me to teach, but it did get me excited to teach. I took another program online and applied to the WAC and the JCC. I had to have an audition, which was to teach a class to people who worked there, including those who'd hire me. I asked the women in my yoga classes to allow me to teach them some practice classes before I auditions, and then, in May, I auditioned.

I was offered a job at both places. Since I wanted to teach four days a week, and most places only hire a person two days a week, I accepted both positions.

I didn't want to start weekly classes until the fall so I could have the summer with the kids and be out of town as much as I wanted to be, so I began subbing at both gyms for other teachers who were gone. I only took the classes that I wanted to take.

After a couple weeks of subbing, the WAC was looking for a sub for a yoga class. I wrote to my boss that I wasn't trained for yoga, but I've been doing it for 11 years, and that I'd sub if she wanted me to. She asked if I felt 100% comfortable teaching yoga. I wrote back the I felt a lot more comfortable teaching yoga than I did teaching barre. She allowed me the chance.

I subbed that class and then was offered other yoga classes, so I taught yoga a bunch of times over the summer. 

This fall, I'm teaching two barre classes at the JCC, one at the WAC, and a barre yoga fusion at the WAC. In October, I'm going through a program (that will only cost me $25 since I'm an employee) at the WAC that will officially certify me to teach yoga there. I'm excited to learn ways I can tweak what I've been doing.

 

It's been a super fun adventure. I love teaching, and I've always enjoyed teaching my Love and Logic classes. But I also love new challenges., and trying something brand new in my mid-forties has been a challenge. I've really been enjoying it.

 

Forty freaking six?

Time passing is weird. It sometimes gives me an out of body feeling. How did I go from being a teenager to bing three times that old. How did I go from having babies to having high schoolers? How am I closer to 50 than to 20... or even to 40?! 

I remember my Grandma Gebler telling me she didn't understand how she was suddenly so old. I totally get that. I'm sure the next forty years will feel even faster than the last forty.

Here was my birthday out on the water.

 

The little moments

I have two friends who I really love to text. One of them is really insightful and the other just cracks me up. She sends hilarious stuff, but she also enjoys my ridiculous thoughts. Here's an exchange today that made me smile.

Clever kid

I wanted to make stuffed zucchini, since we have zucchini coming out of our ears right now.

I was going to stuff it with the same mixture I use for stuffed peppers (ground turkey, black beans, diced peppers, Mexican spices), but Kate encouraged me to use the mixture we use for stuffing portobellos (Swiss chard, feta, parmesan, mozzarella). 

Dave and I liked the zucchini, but it wasn't a big hit with the kids.  Ally looked at the filling and commented, "The mushrooms wear it better."