Just doing our part to reinforce stereotypes

Night before last, we pulled the van out into the driveway

and put our rooftop carrier on.

We're getting ready for our beach trip, you see, and the rooftop carrier is an integral part of our packing ritual.

Grayson is driving the van right now, as he does every Summer, because his office is closer to daycare and he drops off the boys and picks them up almost every day. After we put the carrier on, I asked, "Are you gonna remember not to park in the deck tomorrow?" And he said he hoped so.

Yesterday morning at work I got a text from Grayson: "Well, it almost fit."

Y'all. He forgot about the rooftop carrier and drove into the parking deck. I called him, and he said that he almost made it in, but he got stuck at the entrance and there was a pretty big gouge in the carrier.

When I got home last night, I could see the scrape across the top.

We'd loaded it the night before, so we already had most of our beach toys, linens, etc., in it.

I moved around to the back, which helped me see the extent of the damage.

Granted, it could have been worse, but our things definitely wouldn't have been protected from the elements with that kind of gash in the top.

Grayson had purchased some of this at Home Depot:

As well as some of this:

And he was able to patch it up for the trip.

I keep telling myself, "No one will really see it. It's on top of the carrier. You can't see that from the road." But I'm just having a hard time convincing myself that shuttling our family around with something strapped to the top of my car that's patched up with foam and duct tape is okay.

THEY'LL NEVER GUESS WE'RE FROM ALABAMA, INTERNET.

It's still hot, so we're still at the pool

It's been AT LEAST a week since I posted pictures of us at the pool.

I know. You've been thinking your life has been missing something, and I just provided the missing link!

When I came into town on Sunday afternoon from my scrapbooking crop, I drove straight to the pool and met the family there. At the first courtesy break, we broke out the sandwiches.

(My lens has some sort of weird flare right in the center of it, and I don't know why. Let's try to ignore it, shall we?) (This will drive my dad crazy because he will want to fix it but he's 160 miles away.)

While the boys love to swim, they love the diving board almost as much.

Nicholas tries to hit the water in a different way practically every time he jumps.

Nathaniel surprised me by deciding to try a front flip off the board.

He did it at the lake last weekend, but off the dock, which is a good bit closer to the water.

Still, he gave it everything he had.

He did a pretty good job ...

But he didn't QUITE make it all the way around.

He landed almost flat on his back, and it made a loud SMACK.

I was worried when he came up, but he was fine. He only did it two more times, but he was fine.

Jake has decided that the board is his Very. Favorite. Thing.

He surveys his surroundings quickly before every jump.

But he doesn't hesitate out of fear ... he runs to the end and jumps right off.

He usually makes a cute little "YAH!" yell on the way in.

And he shows no fear as he hits the water.

Down he goes ...

Farther and farther.

And then he pops up and yells, "I gonna do it again!"

It takes him forever to swim to the side, but God forbid you try to help him. He wants to do it all by himself!

I love that the boys love the pool, and I love watching them enjoy it. And I know we'll have many, many more weekends to enjoy it ... what with living in 100-degree temperatures for the next two months and all.

The Peacock Room

If you pay attention to my Tweets, you know that I spent last weekend at a scrapbooking crop with some of my closest friends.

We stayed at Ruth Mountain Bed & Breakfast, which is about 90 minutes from Birmingham. I stayed in The Peacock Room.

How many peacock-themed items do you think someone can fit in one bedroom and bathroom?

Don't underestimate the power of an innkeeper with a mission, Internet.

My bedside table lamp didn't give off much actual light, but luckily I didn't need much by the time I fell into bed.

A peacock-themed arrangement greeted me when I walked in my door each evening.

And there was a peacock ... drape? at the foot of my bed.

I folded the drape up every night and moved it over to the peacock ottoman, but I wasn't without a clear view of a peacock, because there was a large peacock tapestry on the wall facing my bed.

To the left of the bed was the armoire that housed the TV. It displayed a peacock ... ornament?

To the right of the armoire was a peacock arrangement ...

And to the left of the armoire was another one!

On the way to the attached bathroom, this little guy sat on an end table.

He did NOT represent the last of the peacocks for my little room. In the bathroom, I found another peacock arrangement waiting for me on the counter.

The peacocks were right there for me when I needed to blow my nose.

Or get a drink of water.

Or take a shower.

Or even when it was time to use the potty!

All kidding aside, it was a very comfortable room ... if decorated in a way that would make some people squirm. Nonetheless, I enjoyed my stay, the progress I made in my books (I'm all caught up in the boys', our family's and the new baby's albums!), and most of all the time with my friends.

Grinning on Sunday

I just have to assume that this had a happy ending, because how could it not?

Via When Parents Text

Saturday funnies

I'm off at my annual Summer Scrapbooking Crop, which is always one of the highlights of my year.

While I'm gone, I wanted to share with you a couple of things that really tickled me this week:

Feedback from a child, to MoMa ... CLASSIC (via Win!):

How I feel on a sometimes-daily basis (via Three Men and a Lady):

Family rules

** Updated: the links are working now! Sorry they were down for a couple of days! **

When I saw the Family Rules sign that Tara had for sale, I knew I had to have one.

I'd had it saved in my inspirational images folder for I can't remember how long when I saw her post that they were making them again this Summer.

Tara's husband Andy makes them, and they allow you to customize the rules for your family. The only change I made to their original version was that I asked Andy to replace "Forgive and Recover" with "Laugh Out Loud." To me, laughter is at the heart of all that's good in life, so it was important to me to have that reflected on the sign. SCREW FORGIVENESS!

When it arrived, it took about five minutes for me to rip through the packaging and get that sucker on the wall.

I LOVE IT!

It's a light grey background with charcoal letters, and the whole thing is distressed.

It's framed in a rustic finish, which is stained dark brown.

Right now the frame doesn't contrast with the wall much, but I have a design plan in place that includes repainting the kitchen, hopefully within a year, and the color will be much lighter. (SURPRISE, GRAYSON! Don't worry. I won't ask YOU to paint.)

The sign is large, 2 feet by three feet, which I wanted. I'd found other customizable Family Rules signs on etsy and other places, but none of them were this big. I like big. 

The cost was $100 plus shipping, which varies from state to state. My shipping and handling charge was $30. Click here to get details on how to customize and order your own!