If U.S. special forces can hunt down and kill Osama bin Laden, why can’t my husband kill these f*cking gophers?

Paul and I LOVE our hot tub. So much so that I bought this hot tub about 10 years ago before I bought living room furniture.  (I have my priorities after all.) The only time I don’t enjoy soaking in my hot tub is when it rains. Who wants cold raining coming down on you when you are soaking in warm water?

In the past, my darling husband has rigged up various forms of shelter such as beach umbrellas and makeshift canopies, but this recent solution is perhaps his most creative and artistic of all.

For the past few years, this rowboat has been gathering dust (and mold) on the side yard of our house so Paul decided to put it to good use. Consider this his contribution to the Earth Day cause of re-purposing recycled materials.

Today finally feels like the first real day of summer for me. June was such hectic month with Eva’s graduation, birthday parties, the end of school and the big family reunion. Just as our house guests were departing, I too got on a plane to Florida for a week long business trip and Eva and Sophia took off for a trip with their dad to the East Coast. Now that we are all back I feel like we can settle in and relax.

The kids were still asleep at noon today  when I left the house to go get my hair done. When I returned two hours later, Paul had put all of them to work  in the yard. In his words he had “organized his work crew.” They were weeding, removing mulch and cleaning out flower beds. Surprisingly, they were fairly good natured about it. When they were finished, the yard looked great. I made them some lunch and all  five kids sat at the kitchen counter eating, talking and laughing. They were working together, cooperating and seeming to have a good time as well. They were taking pride in their home which pleased me immensely.

This put me in a nesting mood so I made some soup. Paul cleaned out the freezer last night and found a ham bone stashed inside and I hunted around in the back of the cupboard for some dried beans I knew were in there. I threw it all  in a pot of water and let it simmer all afternoon and the smells are still wafting through the house. Yum.

Later in the evening, I asked Sophia if she would like to make brownies with me and she replied, “How about we make Mud Puddle cake instead?”  Great suggestion since Mud Puddle cake is much less fattening and super easy to make. I used to make it all the time when my girls were small because you can mix all the ingredients in one pan and the kids can stir ’til their hearts are content. It’s dairy free too. For a recipe of my Muddle Puddle cake click on my Just Imaginate blog. (Scroll down the page, it’s the 5th recipe down.)

I better go check and see if it’s ready.

Being the celebrity gossip monger that I am, I couldn’t help but search the Internet for reasons why the Norman/Evert marriage didn’t work out. According to an article published in People magazine, the main reason was problems with the couple’s blended family of five children. Evert has three teenage sons with her ex, former Olympic skier Andy Mill (who was at one time Norman’s best friend) and Norman has two grown children in their 20′s. Norman’s kids never warmed up to their step mom and Norman is accused by Evert’s ex for coming between him and his sons.

Maybe this can be attributed to the fact that the kids are older and it’s harder for older kids to accept a new parent and blend as a family. Or the fact that they did not get to know each other very long before the wedding may have had something to do with it. OR, it could be because THE COUPLE NEVER ACTUALLY LIVED TOGETHER. They never set up house together. Norman and Evert each kept separate residences and had sleep overs. That, in my opinion, is a recipe for disaster because it does not signify a true commitment. I don’t care if it worked for Woody and Mia (and we all know how that turned out), nothing says commitment quite like joint bank accounts and joint mortgage payments. I’ll never forget (although I have tried) those first few months of us all living together in a still-under-construction-house with no heat and in some rooms, no walls; our belongings still in boxes, snuggling up with blankets and popcorn on lawn chairs in the family room to watch a movie. Now those were the days. Although it was a struggle and an adjustment for the kids, Paul and I as their parents sent a very clear message to them that we were committed, this was their new home and we are a family.

I went to see Startrek over the weekend and I loved it!!! I highly recommend it. However, what I am referring to here is not the final frontier of space, but rather the final stages of our home remodel. When Paul and I decided to get married 3 1/2 years ago, we agreed I would sell my house and we would remodel Paul’s. We started the remodel in March of 2006 with a completion target date of July 2006, a month before our wedding. Hah! When Eva, Sophia and I moved in in September of 2006 (yes, that’s a month after the wedding) the back of the house still had no walls or heat. Eva and Sophia, who were used to having their own rooms, had to double up (horrors!)  because the hardwood floors had not yet been installed in Sophia’s room. (This is a real tragedy when you figure that Sophia is a neatnik and Eva is a slob.) Read the rest of this entry »