From "Tomborns" to Sit and Spin (Journal#36)

Sometimes I wish I could go back to our summer vacation. It was such a dream this year. Mostly, as I said before, it was uncharted territory for our master mind Sam who remembers everywhere we go, and is the navigator supreme. He did not know anywhere we would go on our vacation until we experienced it. So, as the last official day of summer is here (and we woke up to 30 degree temptures here in Minneapolis), I relfect, I am sad, and I can't wait until next summer.

Above is an attempt at my first "sample" digital scrapbook page. I am going to digitally scrapbook our Yellowstone experience tonight with my "scrapbook girls". This is exciting for me. I am an "in the closet computer geek". I have been scrapbooking for 10 years, and am so excited about taking it to the next level. I hope to share more pages as I practice more.

Even though I am sad about summer, I also LOVE the fall. The crisp morning air (especially in Minnesota), the beautiful lakes and leaves, the apple orchards, the pumpkin patch, and our now annual trip to the north shore of Lake Superior (I will scrap those pages and share when it happens :).

As even more sick than this may sound. I also love mowing in the fall. I prefer to mow in our family by choice. I love our yard and being outside (as does Sam). I also mow by choice because Brent works hard, travels, and when he is home, I want him to be with family, not doing yard work.

This all leads me to the newest love of my life. It is a new love, as I murdered its former. I killed our Lawn Boy. Brent and I were so proud of our purchase almost 13 years ago. It was expensive for us, a new brand named lawn mower. But we researched and purchased Consumer Reports, and made the Lawn Boy decision. We knew it would last forever. That is.......until I rendered its brutal ending last week. Seems ding dong me, forgot to put oil in the gas the last time I filled our 5 gallon gas can up. Yup....I also polluted the enviroment in our neighborhood that fateful day, as loud cranking noises emerged and clouds of smoke pummeled into the air. Several neighbors came by to pay their last respects, and confirmed with me that after running that much plain gas through my baby, that unless I knew how to rebuild the engine, she was through. So, I have placed her in an add in the Twin Cities Free Market for parts. Sniff, sniff.....

But I have a new love. I have a brand new self propelled Lawn Boy. It rocks. I could seriously mow the lawn every day. I felt Sam deserved a new lawn mower too, as his was his brother's 8 year old one. So we went to Toys R Us and bought him a new one with bubbles. As I mowed yesterday, with Sam following me behind, as he always does with his lawn mower, I was reflecting on my mowing experiences in comparison to Sam.

The "tomborn"- Every day when we go outside to play, Sam will say at least once, "mom tomborn?". He has called the lawn mower the "tomborn" for the last year and a half (we believe it may be a combination of "combine the corn"). Ever since we could start understanding his speech better. Seems he is in love with his grandpa's tractors, but especially his combine. Before I ever could figure out what Sam was saying every time I mowed, I kept explaining to him, "No Sam, this is a lawn mower". It wasn't until one day with his extreme frustration of me not understanding, that he used his whole body in motion to show me why it was a "tomborn" (combine). He took his hands and pointed to the lawn mower, then used his body in a swooshing manner and hands, by pushing them along side the side bagger, then up. He took his fingers and wiggled them into the grass container, as if sprinkling something into it. He then screamed to me "TOMBORN"!!!! Duh, of course it was a combine. It cut the grass/corn, sent it up the container/shoot and into the bin/wagon.

That is the way Sam always thinks. He is always trying to figure out the way things go and work. He understands very quickly those mechanical things.

Today he spent much of the afternoon on his Sit and Spin from grandma and grandpa. I couldn't believe he wasn't getting dizzy. He would take off his clothes even and spin, then put them on. But as I watched him, his purpose I believe was trying to see how fast he would go with different weights on it etc... He had super concentration in his eyes. It was finally at dinner time that he came running up the stairs yelling "dot it, dot it, loot" (got it, got it, look). He turned the Sit and Spin upside down to show me the middle part underneath that stays put while the outside goes around. He didn't use any words to explain it, but just like the "tombine", his actions and face spoke and explained more than a thousand words.

I love the way he thinks, I love his dramatic movements, I love how he understands the world...from "Tomborns" to Sit and Spin.