I never would have believed it when I was a teenager, but it's true.  There is never a dull moment for a parent.  There are many cute moments, some happy moments, frustrating moments, exciting moments, even a few restful moments, but not dull.  Eddy makes certain of that.

For the last 4-5 weeks Eddy (and his cousins when they were here) has wanted to watch one of the favorite kids' movies in the house: Curious George!  But after searching the house over and over again, I gave up trying, and just told Eddy, "It's lost. Sorry, bud."

Today the temperature was in the 40's all morning, so Dan and I decided to start our first fire of the season in the wood stove.  I'm recovering from the flu, and couldn't wait to get it warmed up in here.  We started it late morning and by Eddy's naptime the house was warming nicely.  He went to bed.  Good timing, as it turns out.

A few minutes later Dan noticed some smoke coming from one of the vents in the wood stove.  Maybe it's just dust from over the summer...but, seems like a lot of smoke for a bit of dust.  Peering into the hole with a flashlight he spotted it. "It's Curious George." My heart sank.  If only we had found it sooner.

Well, we set right to work.  First we transported the red hot fire outside, via a metal trash can.  I'm surprised Eddy didn't wake up to that.  Every smoke detector in the house went off. (mental note: don't count on Eddy in a house fire) Then we systematically removed as much of the DVD and case from the vent as we could with Mom's old metal spatula, a bent metal yardstick and a needle nosed pliers.  The plastic that remained we decided to burn off, with the windows open, of course.  Time to bring the that fire back in.

The whole incident just made Dan and me laugh.  There really is "never a dull moment"!  Unfortunately Eddy won't be laughing when he sees what's left of his movie.  Live and learn!

It's been really hot here lately.  There was even a heat warning out a couple days, and we had to send our employees home mid-route.  Everyone in the town of Afton had to choose whether to roast their skin in humidity or cower in the dark by the air conditioner.  Most people chose the latter.  One such day was Monday.  It was a strange thing for Dan, Eddy and me to spend the whole day in the house together.  Last time that happened we had to break loose and go to the museum (and, as it turned out, the famous MICKEY'S DINER).  This time we went to the beach.

The evening was just starting to cool off when we headed to the nearby town of Lake St. Croix Beach.  This town sits just upstream our beloved Afton, but is much more popular on days like these, because this town has -- as the name implies -- a beach.  And that's about all they have.  There are signs posted on every street that read, "No parking on ANY city street".  And they have only one parking lot: the beach parking lot.  I love small towns.

We parked and walked the gravel road to the shore together.  Eddy's sandals kept falling off, making it a haltingly slow process...until we stuffed them in the diaper bag and held him off the ground by both arms.  Whatever works!  Ah, the sandy goodness!  Shoes were kicked off, the waves were flirted with, and Daniel dove in for a much needed cool down.  There were plenty of people there that day, which made me happy.  I love enjoying the weather with others.  It was quite like a local party, everyone invited, no charge.  Then I noticed something: Eddy wasn't swimming.  He wasn't splashing.  He wasn't even getting his feet wet.  The all too familiar "I don't wanna swim," was all he would say.  This would take some work.

I prodded him from the shore, Dan coaxed from the water, but he would not go in.  Why does he have this propensity to do what will only make him unhappy later?  Finally I bit the bullet.  Though still dressed in my tie-dye skirt and t-shirt, I picked up Eddy and stepped in the water.  "I'll just go up to the knees."  Right.  One thing led to another, and I was as wet as Eddy.  Finally, I couldn't resist the urge of going all in with hippie clothes on.  It just seemed to fit.  So, though I had my swimsuit on underneath, I dove in and swam all the way out, skirt and all =)  I got out, got all sandy and jumped back in.  Why don't more people do this?

Eddy did realize he liked the water.  He walked as far out as he could stand, he and I attacked Daddy with splashes, we even let him dunk a couple times.  It was a blast.

Eventually people began to disappear from the party, the sun went down, and a layer of mosquitoes graced the top of the ripples (haha, as if mosquitoes ever "grace").  We trudged through the sand and over the gravel to the car.  What a successful trip!  Laughter and pleasant talk filled the car all the way home and followed us in the house, just in time to open up the windows for the night.

A 2-block walk by myself to the natural grocery store is delightful enough. And still unexpected fun awaits at every corner... a shiny green VW bug greeted me on my way AND I had a phone camera to capture the moment.