Trees, eggs, and sunglasses

It was only an 8 minute drive, during which I never said a word. But it was a marathon of non sequiturs from my children:

Rainbow Watchers. (reading from a car window sign)

Little boy blue, come blow your horn........

Tree huggers.

My hands! (nothing further for explanation, just discovered her hands)

Rockets are faster than cars.

Twinkle Twinkle little star...........

Hug a tree.

Dance class is straight. (not really...it was to the left)

350Z. That'll be my dream car.

Turn right. (as I'm turning left)

Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall..........

So! There's a sensor to tell the light to go on/off! (refering to the visor mirror)

Where's my coat?

My future's so bright, I wear a hat, cuz sunglasses aren't my thang.

Today is Wednesday.

This is what our everyday life is like. I swear to you, none of this was embellished. Every word really was said by the children, and there was more that I just couldn't remember.

In the year 2024, when Gman graduates high school, somewhere there's going to be a padded room waiting for me. I hope it has good music.

Anybody can be a Jack or a Jill...

It began with a conversation on Tuesday evening:
Me: "Gman, you need a nursery rhyme costume for pre-school. What do you want to be? Maybe Jack that goes up the hill to get a pail of water?"
Gman: "No, I want to be the bucket."
Me: "A bucket? I'm not sure I can make a bucket costume. How about "Hey Diddle Diddle." I could make you a cow costume! You could be the cow that jumped over the moon." (I just saw some cow print material for dirt cheap on clearance!!)
Gman: "No. I'd rather be the moon."

So I decide to let him sleep on it since he's clearly *in a mood*.

Wednesday morning:
Me: So, for your costume, I gotta go buy stuff to make it today. You want to be Jack?
Gman: No, I'd want to be the bucket.
Me: I'm really not sure I can make a bucket costume. What's your favorite nursery rhyme?
Gman: Hey Diddle Diddle.
(So I recite the rhyme, with EXTRA EMPHASIS on characters that I can easily whip up in a day)
...the CAT and the fiddle, the COW jumps over the moon, the little DOG laughs...
Gman: I know!!!! I want to be the SPOON!

Alas....it takes a pretty awesome kid to pull off being a posterboard pail in a room full of Old King Coles, cats, sheep, etc..

Chee-burger! Chee-burger! Chee-burger!

All of my kids are picky eaters. The younger two are hit-n-miss as to whether they'll try something new, but Al R-A-R-E-L-Y tries any thing new. And for the last 10 years, the only meat he likes is bacon and those that come in a tubular form--bologna, hot dogs, pepperoni. He'd eat beef if it was in an entree/casserole/etc; but only because he knew it was a losing battle; and he'd always go down complaining.

A few months ago, Craig appealed to Al's love of onions and got him to at least attempt a White Castle. Not really meat if you ask me, but it takes baby-steps, even with a 13yo. Al's opinion was that it was "ok." As we were driving back to Lexington this evening, Al informed us he was craving a cheeseburger! (SHOCK!!) We convinced him to upgrade to Wendy's.



He's declared that he *officially* likes cheeseburgers now!!!
*sniff* My baby is growing up!
Next step----Chicken!!!

Blog Give-away

My friend Melissa at Stockpiling-Moms is having a give-away of a cute thermal tote from 31. ( I mentioned her blog a few weeks ago)

To see details of the give-away, click here.

New Year's Resolution: Pointless

I pondered the first week of January what I really, truly wanted to change. Sleep. I want more sleep. I should've known better. My life is filled with way too many independent variables to ever accomplish any resolution.

Jan. 6th (aka Night 1): I average 5-6 hours on most "school nights." Got in bed a whole 10 minutes earlier than my usual "Way way toooo late." But, due to an un-warranted snow day, I got to sleep in! Hey, this is my resolution, it counts!

Night 2: Going into it, I knew Friday was a snow day but still got in bed at 11--over 30 min earlier than usual (yay me!) thinking, "Cool, I'll get to sleep in til 8 too!" That's when every. single. flippin'. independent variable conspired to sabotage me in one night.

Variable: Mother Nature. As I've been approaching the 4-0, I've sometimes suffered out-of-whack-hormones-induced insomnia. Kept me laying there for 1.5 hours.
Variable: Facebook. I'm only supposed to get FB texts up til 9pm. But for some reason, an 8:45pm text circled the stratosphere for 4+ hours and hit my cell at 1AM.
Variable: Alexander Graham Bell. A wrong-number phone call at 3AM.
Variable: Hubby. 6AM. Technically not his fault that he has to work, but he's been to blame for keeping me awake many other nights, so no extra credit.
Variable: Al. This is the kid I have to physically drag from bed at 7:20AM for school. So WHY? WHY would he intentionally set his alarm for 6:55AM when he knows it's a snow day?!? He's incapable of hearing alarms go off 2 feet from his head. I have to get up to turn of the alarm.
Variable: Princess. 7:05 wanders into my bed. Not a problem. She'll fall back to sleep. "I had a bad dream about alligators." 5 minute discussion about alligators vs. climate/living conditions.
Variable: Gman. 7:25 wanders into my bed. "I had a bad dream that I went to get a Pop-Tart and someone ate them all. Can I watch your TV?"

Countdown to Christmas 2010

Gman: How many more days til Christmas again?
Mom: hmmmm about 354.
Gman: But that will take all night and all day.

Al goes to Washington

Al and I went to see my grandfather in Washington. Had a great visit with him! He lives on the coast. I've taken a few trips there, but this was Al's first time in Washington.


We drove out to the shore on the one day that it wasn't raining there, but the wind still made it pretty cold. The tree in the background is actually GINORMOUS! It washed up on shore in a storm about 2 years ago.


Of course, with this being Al's first trip to Washington, it wouldn't be complete without spending a little time in Seattle seeing what it's most famous for (other than rain....which we saw P-L-E-N-T-Y of while at Grandpa's. We just happened to go site-seeing on the beautiful weather day.)

Pike's Place Public market. This is where a scene from Sleepless in Seattle was filmed.


The guys who are famous for throwing the fish.


The "first" Starbucks is at the Public Market. Although technically this one is not the first. The very first one was a few stores down, they had to move it because the building it was in was being torn down. So this one is really kind of the 4th Starbucks that's treated as if it were the first.
































And what's Seattle if you don't go to the Space Needle?

The Minor League for the Minor Leagues

Lexington now has a new minor-minor basketball league team--The Bluegrass Stallions. Coached by Kyle Macy (a former UK starter on awesome UK championship team in the 70's). Many of the players on the Stallions team are former UK players and one former EKU player--my alma mater! Craig, the little ones and I went to the game last night (Al was with his dad). As we were heading to the ticket window, some random stranger walking near us gave us his 4 extra tix! Thank you random stranger! Some funny rules--they have 4 and 5 point shots.








They had one of the big bouncers for kids.

Conversation:
Mom: You look cute in that turtleneck!
Gman: I don't have a turtle neck!!!







The intermission time-filler was the game where 2 random people were chosen to shoot and make a lay-up, a free-throw, a 3-pointer, and a 1/2 court shot in a minute or less. They gave the girl (who appeared to be about 10yo) a break, she didn't have to do the 1/2 court shot. The prize: "Chick-fil-A for a year." The guy couldn't get the 1/2 court shot. But the crowd went WILD when the 10yo girl completed her round!!!! Afterward, the announcer interviewed her. She plays organized basketball but had never made a 3-pt shot before that one!



How many Chick-fil-A cows does it take to make a herd?

School Pictures 2009

The 8th grader! Doesn't seem right that he's almost done with middle school already!!!








The kindergartner/first grader. Picked her hair style for picture day--isn't it a little early for her to wanting to over-ride mom's picture day plans?






















The pre-schooler. If only I could put that dimple in my pocket!!

In need of your daily affirmation?

My friend Melissa

I've known her for about 11-12 years. She was a Home Economics teacher in her previous life. She's started a new website with TONS of tips and ideas on how to save TONS of money when shopping for just about anything. And updates on special sales from just about any store or website. Because of her savvy coupon & sales ads knowledge, she has actually left the grocery store with more money than what she went in with and bags of groceries too. SERIOUSLY! I've seen it.

You can check out her site here.

It's a Christmas Miracle!

We went to the Ky. Horse Park this weekend for the Southern Lights display and the miniature train display, crafts sale, and petting zoo. We were shocked that Princess, the kid that is generally scared of dogs that are taller than her knee, BEGGED to go on a camel ride! Al on the other hand, had to be bribed to go with her. The entire time we were in line, the camels were delightfully compliant. And then once our children were on one, it decided he was done, was quite resistant to doing anything the animal handler wanted and actually tried to bite the handler. I stood there in speechless horror thinking the 11 o'clock news was going to feature an angry mom attacking a camel.

For the very first time, we have a picture of the kids with Santa where the kids are all smiling, unafraid, and actually WITH Santa (as opposed to Santa being 25 feet BEHIND the children).