Fun and learning

Today is Halloween and my children, as usual, have thrown me curve balls for their costume ideas. My oldest made things easy and wanted to be Mike from Monsters, Inc. I dont have a picture of her by herself and I don't have permission from the others in the picture. So here is her costume which was fun to make:



The boy threw us the biggest curve ball as he wanted to be a guy riding on a jet pack. After looking up costumes in this genre until I wanted to puke, this is as good as we could get it...he was thrilled:



I have a feeling the flame pants may be recycled. The legs lasted the walk up the hill to our neighbor's house and then they bit it. Oh well. Fun while it lasted. G decided to be a history lesson and feminist icon. I was surprised at how man people, when she was asked who she was going to dress up as, did not know who she was. We taught history lessons today:



Rosie the Riveter, aka, G the Riveter was a tough girl and so is our G. Our veteran neighbor was most pleased with her costume. S did her hair and makeup. G paid her off in Twix bars. It was a win win.

Night all.
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The force is with us

The boy woke up this morning wanting to go to school, but realizing that he did not feel remotely up to par to go and try and learn. With him as my captive audience, I decided it was high time he see the Star Wars movies in the order in which I saw them: IV-VI and then I-III. We watched Star Wars: A New Hope today. I was excited for him to see it, more than anything because I want him to be ready for the new one when it comes out. We popped the disc in and the iconic "STAR WARS" came on the screen with the music so suddenly that we both jumped. I read the words to the boy and felt a little catch in my throat and this strange moisture coming from my eyes. What is going on? Why such a reaction for Heaven's sake? I knew why. When my brother and I were growing up, these movies were beyond the most amazing things we had ever laid eyes on. It was to us what maybe the Marvel movies are today...but that doesn't even seem to cover it. We were rabid fans, saving every penny and working extra chores to be able to send away for special mail order, box tops required versions of Boba Fett and waiting in lines at department stores to get our autographed pictures of Darth Vader and Boba Fett. My grandmother made us all Star Wars blankets and one Christmas we woke up with freshly made Star Wars pillowcases under our heads. I cried my eyes out and went into mourning when they froze Han Solo. It was quite a franchise and the center of everything we did when we played, toy or make believe. So I guess I embrace the misty mood that hit when I watched with him and again when I watched with G later. I am grateful for the memories generated as a result of all of those characters. My childhood was richer for them.

Night all.

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My poor baby...

Wellll, we made it this far in the school year before we had a casualty. I did something this morning I never like to do. I am admitting right now that I am the top contender for mother of the year. I drugged my son up and sent him to school...against my better judgement. He was warm and his ear hurt, but he wanted more than anything to go to school for pumpkin activities that his class was participating in today. Go ahead and boo-hiss me all you want. When your child BEGS you to go to school, uh, you do everything you can to get them there. If he had been vomiting or any of the tummy stuff or streppy, absolutely not. We'll make our own fun at home. But he is an ear infection kid. S and G are sinus infection kids, but he is an ear infection type of guy. I know in his eyes when one is on its way. That is how it was this morning. So when he got in the car at pick up today, I felt about an inch tall. He was on fire. After picking children up and dosing him with pain reliever, I carried him out of the car and placed him on the couch to nap. When the hub got home, he got him to the doctor where they found, how bout that, an infection in his left ear. He has gotten the right meds, has taken them and is currently laying down in bed.

Again, I went against my better judgement and let him go to school. But I also called the ear. Poor guy. Night all.


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That boy!

Tonight was Wednesday night supper and activities at church and that means I don't have to cook...yay! We were having Brunswick stew, which was really appropriate for the weather 3/4 of the day. I am kind of sick of rain and cleaning muddy paw prints off the floor. I love our dog, but her brown hair and paws hide the dirt that is all over her. It gets quite frustrating. Anyhoo, I digress. We were going through the line after we had gotten our bowls of stew and other sides and headed on to get our drinks. Usually at the end of the drink table there are different salad dressings if we have a salad, maybe a thing with butter in it or toppings and sauces that are appropriate for the meal. I noticed that the boy was liberally applying hot sauce to his stew. To his credit, he loves hot sauce and enjoys the flavor and the heat that come with it. Still, everyone has a limit where your application goes from tasty to torturous quickly and I wanted to stop him before he ruined a perfectly good bowl of stew. "Bud, I know you like Tobasco, but you need to slow down on that. Okay?" He looked at me with wide, shocked eyes and said in a very offended way, "Mom. I do not smoke. I just like my stew spicy." Then he took his tray and marched off to his seat where he sat down, gave me a dirty look and commenced to eating. To his credit again, we don't call it by the brand name. It's just hot sauce. The whole condiment end of the drink table erupted in laughter. Tobasco=Tobacco. Stick a fork in me...I'm done.

Night all.


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Hey there!

I am pretty much out of thoughts and words today. It has been a long and busy day with little down time, but that could be said of any person. I am currently eating a spoonful of vanilla bean ice cream since I was too tired to have ice cream on Saturday...which is dessert night around here. I just finished a survey for a focus group that I will be involved with tomorrow with a friend of a friend from Ireland. It should be interesting. It is about toys and what kids ages 6-10 might like. Hope they are ready for an in depth conversation about Legos. I will be well versed, my friends, well versed.

Night all.


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Rumor has it...

I got a good laugh today. One of my children heard a rumor and told me what it was. "Did you share this with anyone else? Uh, do you think it's true?". Child: "Well, it's pretty awful if it is true...but I only told you and nobody else." This happened yesterday. It was a very busy day and I kind of forgot the conversation happened. This afternoon I received a phone call from a friend whose children are friends of my child. She heard the same rumor story from them. "Do you know if it is true?" "I don't know...how about you?". We were quite flummoxed. Not only did we hear the same rumor story from our children, but we both got tickled about the nature of the story and the retelling by our children. We got tickled to the point that neither of us could speak at all; we just heard the sound of each other gasping in hysteria from the strange rumors that kids come up with these days. No, I'm not going to share the rumor and I didn't mention the whole situation to be coy and act like I have information that others don't. The whole situation was not worthy of the time we spent except it was totally worth it to hear someone lose their composure while overcome with laughter. Kind of equivalent to hearing a rumor that someone shaved their head and they really just got a haircut. That was the rumor importance level. I needed that on a rainy, nasty Monday. It also turned into a lesson for the children about the damage rumors can do and the importance of not repeateing them AND the importance of stopping them cold. I will carry the sound of the other mom's laughter with me for a long time.

Night all. Hope to have better material tomorrow.


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What a game!!!!!

I am currently watching Homeland and relaxing after a lively Fall Fest at our church. We have had better crowds, but with the threat of rain, we had a pretty great crowd. Before I got to church for the fest, I was watching one of the best, but roughest, soccer matches I've seen one of my children play. In all of their soccer careers, I can remember one to two phenomenal games for each child that I have been privileged to watch. Today was one of those matches. G's team played one of the hardest fought, roughest games any mother has had to sit through without Xanax. The officiating was not great. The opposing team's fans were quite brutal. After the ref allowed it to get out of hand, I turned into one of those parents who scream like a banshee. My oldest went crazy as well. It got dangerous. In the end, the girls pulled it out and won the tournament. It was so exciting!!!. I think G was excited, but also was exhausted to the point of tears. One of her club coaches stayed to watch the whole thing. He told her how proud he was of her and was pleased with her performance. I am so proud of those girls. What a game! And I am so proud of my girl being one of only three 6th graders on that team. Proud mom for sure!



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