I mentioned in a post below about Nappy and the fire hydrant and in honor of the late great Paul Harvey: here is the 'rest of the story."

A few years ago we ventured to the mall, we also needed to go to Wally World and Krispy Kreme donuts. As we left the mall, on the way to the car, Nappy cut through one of the flower beds in the parking lot that contained a fire hydrant. A leaking fire hydrant. He took a few steps and then sank up to his knee in the mud. He was stuck in the muck and we managed to pull him out. Toby was already down the parking lot to the car and hadn't noticed us retrieving Nappy from the mall tar pits. So we get Nappy out and he lost his flip flop in the mud and at that we were all hysterically laughing about it.

But we can't have that, he had to have a shoe - we had other places to go. Toby finally shows back up and we are laughing feeling like we were on candid camera because we saw mall security in their golf cart but they had the sense to steer clear of us. So Nappy is covered in mud and shoeless. How does one get a shoe unburied from 2 feet of mud? This is sheer ingenuity folks....we had nothing else to use....but....we did have our YMCA bag in the trunk of the car. Toby managed to retrieve the shoe via the jaws of life: a raquetball racket. Granted he strained more mud then he moved but in the end the shoe came out and the evening was saved. Sort of.

We load up in the car and head for Wally World. At this point in our lives, with the kids mostly grown, I don't carry kid cleaning products in the car. Usually I have a wad of fast food napkins in the glove box but this night there were just a few. Poor Nappy had to clean himself with....Armor All wipes. Which by the by don't work on muddy kid legs, who knew.

When we arrived at Wally World Nappy decided to stay in the car and I didn't have a problem with that considering the trauma he had just suffered. But we still had one more stop to make: Krispy Kreme, the now defunct Krispy Kreme that is. They used to run a special for the kids to inspire them to get good grades. For every "A" on your report card you would get one free donut, additionally they always gave the kids a free donut just for coming in.

With 5 kids, who get pretty good grades, I knew we were getting 2 1/2 dozens of donuts. Free. I was not about to let a little mud get in the way of that. Poor Nappy didn't want to go in at all and me being the loving mother I am...insisted he did. Did I mention the donuts were free? I know, I am a bad Mom and Nappy will spend most of his adult life in therapy or on Oprah lamenting my parenting skills. But they were free...

Now fast forward to President's Day 2007. The twin boys, Simba, Toby and I went camping. It was a rare weekend my back wasn't too bad and we went exploring in the surrounding woods. Did I mention it had rained the night before, heavily. So there we were blazing a trail, dodging puddles, climbing over huge downed trees....and guess what? Nappy steps in a puddle and loses his shoe again. I can't find the pictures we took of it, a blow by blow photo essay if you will. And again we were all laughing to the point of tears. Yes, I can see years of therapy in that boy's future.

On a more serious note, Nappy, like Frodo, is in Drama at the high school. He started this week rehearsing for the spring musical and will be in almost every scene. He did such a great job in the winter musical and I am really looking forward to seeing this production. Needless to say: I am so proud of him!