It rained all day today. I didn’t mind much. I put on my ipod book and started cleaning out the laundry room. I cleaned every inch of it. I even retrieved all the lost items from behind the washer and dryer. Now it feels so nice to be in there doing laundry. Too bad the rest of my house fell apart while I was doing it.

While the kids were eating lunch today, our scaredy cat dog, Mr. Darcy, started barking frantically in the front yard. I looked out to see that one of our huge, old oak trees had just fallen over. It has always leaned, but we were sad to see it go. Our property is filled with some very old, very beautiful oak trees and I love every one of them.

I got a bunch of prints in the mail today from January and February. I’m trying to stay on top of things this year and order from my print folder every few months. Next step, put them in an album. I like to do that while I’m watching TV.

Speaking of TV, Don Draper is back! Sunday night is the long awaited season premier of Mad Men. I’ll be watching that instead of going to the premier of The Hunger Games. I loved the books and I will eventually see the movie, I’m just not a bandwagon kind of person and I don’t like crowds. I prefer to watch movies in my own home, alone and with a meal.

Which are you more excited about? Mad Men or Hunger Games?

There is a new trend around here and it involves a straw with my drink. This started happening when I bought one of those thick plastic cups with a lid and its own hard plastic straw. I enjoyed using it every morning with my cold Coke over ice. I looked forward to it even more than usual.

When that cup broke, I kept using a straw with my Coke. It just felt right. Then I started using a straw with my juice drink (a new beverage recently added to my very limited preferences, recipe to follow below). I, in fact, only drink 4 things: milk, coke, my juice, or water. On occasion I can tolerate Welch’s grape juice (over ice in glass).

I think the straw really upgrades the drinking experience.

The exception to this is milk. I can’t handle a straw with milk. It just feels weird (unless it’s a milkshake).  My mom always put ice in her milk. I love cold milk, but ice floating in it just doesn’t work for me.

And what about cups? That’s a whole other story. No milk in a plastic cup. That’s just wrong. Coke only in a glass. Juice can actually go either way. I prefer water in a plastic cup, but never a fast food cup.

My juice:

2 cups of pineapple juice

1/2 can of frozen orange juice

2 tea bags boiled in 2 cups of water

2 cups of sugar

Add all this and fill the rest of your gallon jug up with water. Best over ice with a straw. Glass or plastic cup, your choice.

Tell me a straw doesn’t make everything better.

A few noteworthy things happened this weekend:

1. I took some pictures of my second oldest daughter with her lovely smile because in a few short weeks that smile is going to change when she has to get some teeth pulled to prepare for braces.

2. The light went out in our refrigerator and in the 28 hours it took to get it replaced I lost the will to eat. It’s strange how depressing a dark refrigerator is. It brought back bad memories of the time when our power was out for 10 days after an ice storm and everything ruined. How did I survive those 10 days with a 3 year old and 1 year old and no ability to wash clothes? I’ve blocked most of it out of my memory.

3. I started watching the first season of Downton Abbey on Netflix and I love it. I’m pacing myself because I know I’ll be sad when it comes to an end. (In other exciting TV news, Mad Men returns March 25!)

4. I read a book called Burnt Mountain by Anne Rivers Siddons. At first I was turning into a prune reading it in the bathtub each night it was so interesting and completely normal, then it got weird when her husband ran off on the mountain and started stealing kids’ childhoods. I hate when books get weird when they seem normal.

5. I hung a raft on my wall and called it art, but you’ll have to wait till tomorrow to see it.