I Am Thankful...

...that my house no longer smells like vomit.
...for my husband who fixed my vomiting sink.
...for Playstation's Rock Star.
...for people who still love me after hearing me sing.
...for almost-six-year-old Clone Troopers.

Staples

Our Sunday was too boring. At least the boys must have thought so. That's the only explanation I can come up with for what happened this evening.
After a full five minutes of spinning in circles in the kitchen, Jake headed off to put his socks in the laundry room. That's when we heard the "crack" which was followed closely by the screaming. He had fallen (due to extreme dizziness), busting his head wide open.
Now, four hours, one ER trip, and two staples later, I have to say that my little boy has redeemed himself of the flu shot spectacle. He's earned the title - Tough Guy!

Mama Bear's Not Happy

Why are lunch ladies so scary? Is it a job requirement? Do applicants have to prove their hatred of children? Really, I want to know.

When I was a little girl, our lunch lady was the oldest woman on earth. I promise this is true. And she was also the meanest woman on earth. Again, I promise this is true. I was scared out of my mind of this woman. She patrolled the cafeteria, wobbling along, peering at us with her beady little eyes, just hoping that we'd slip up and talk to a friend, or worse, have the nerve to ask her for a straw. Believe me when I tell you that I never asked for a straw. Or anything else for that matter. That woman was scary!

When I was in college I worked as a substitute teacher, often at my old elementary school. Guess who was still there... You got it. The oldest woman on earth was by then the oldest woman in the galaxy. And the meanest. I was a grown up, educated, married woman. She still scared me senseless.

And now I'm a mom. A mom who likes to go into school to have lunch with her little kindergator. A mom who is still scared of the lunch lady. Only one difference. Now, she's scaring my little boy. And that just makes me mad.

So here's my little rant. Why does a person who clearly does not like children even apply to be a lunch lady? What goes through her head? And how on earth does this person get hired for this job? Please, people. If you don't like children, don't work with them. If you can't handle noise, don't spend your days in a school cafeteria. And most importantly...

DON'T MAKE MY BABY CRY!

Weekend Fun...and an Announcement

On Saturday we headed up to DC to see the dinosaurs. We rode the metro, saw the Washington Monument and the Capitol, looked at dinosaurs and mammals, and spent a lot of time in the insect zoo. Nobody wanted to hold a bug, but there were three boys there who thought it was really funny to make Mommy look at big hairy tarantulas. Thanks, guys. I've still got the shivers.

And now, for the big announcement... Drum roll please... I'm getting a new sister! And we can finally officially call Christine, Aunt Christine! That's right, the Boy (my brother Clark, not to be confused with the boys...) popped the question. And she said yes. Phew! We're all thrilled. Well, except for maybe Jake. He's starting to realize that he might not be able to woo Pretty Christine away from Uncle Clark after all...

I Missed This

In our years away from ol' Virginie, I missed the fall. True, Massachusetts puts on a pretty good show, but Seattle...? Not so much.
Good ol' VA. I'll put up with the 200% humidity all summer and the freezing cold winter. I'll even deal with the fact that we get only one week of spring in between the two. It's all worth it for the beautiful fall.
So this is where I live. Pretty, huh?

Superman

"I'm not Camden...I'm Superman"

Not too many U6 soccer teams can claim Superman as a fan. But he was there for Jake's last game of the season!

Obsession

Mayo has a bit of an obsession. In her canine brain, sticks do not belong in water! And so she carefully and systematically removes all sticks from any body of water she has access to. Sounds simple enough, right? Well, there's a catch. Mayo is also terrified of water. You should see her freaking out when we, her people, get in water... So, to get the sticks out takes a lot of courage. But when the fate of the world is in your paws, a dog's gotta do what a dog's gotta do! That is, if you can reach the sticks without getting your knees wet. Any farther than that might be pushing things a bit too far.

Uncle Bob's 50th

This is what happens when your camera won't use it's timer feature unless you're holding it. So you trick it into thinking you're going to hold it. And then you drop it onto the nearest table and run. Came out better than we expected!

Happy birthday Uncle Bob! We had a great time at his SURPRISE birthday party. Complete with a silly-song sing-a-long, a poetic recitation by Poppy, and lots of meat. But the highlight of the evening? Seeing Bob jump when Poppy shouted "Surprise!"

I wish I had a picture...

of Camden the Scorpion chasing his brother around the house. And then backing into him and in that cute little voice saying, "sting!"

Trick-or-Treat! Halloween!

We've had a great Halloween, and we've managed to spread the festivities out over the past week.
Wednesday we went to our ward's Trunk-or-Treat. The highlight of the evening (other than collecting a ton of candy two days before actually trick-or-treating) was definitely the young men's gross-out room. The boys spent the majority of their time in there, watching others touch pig hearts, maggots, and bat guts. The boys touched nothing.
Thursday, Camden wore his by-then-dirty costume to preschool to parade around the high school. He was pretty thrilled that he was able to scare "a really big boy" when he said "boo!" Then he ate a cupcake and a cookie and was "too full" to eat his carrots. Uh huh. Oh, and his two little friends, "the fast boy" and "the fastest boy" (no, I do not know their given names, and apparently neither does Camden) ate cupcakes and cookies, too. Good to know.
Finally, Halloween rolled around and we started the day with playgroup at our house. Actually, we started the day by washing the floor because at breakfast someone poured syrup all over the floor. But I'm moving on. So playgroup was fun - and loud. Then in the afternoon we went to a great party at a fun neighbor's house. Camden and I had a great time, making googly-eyed jack-o-lanterns and playing musical tombstones and mummy races. Jake missed his down-time after school and was not a happy party guest. Oops. Sorry buddy. We left after an hour because we were having friends over for yummy pizza and trick-or-treating. We covered the neighborhood with two knights, a cuddly lion, and Spiderman. They were too cute and way too excited! And finally, our evening ended with four little boys racing wildly around the house. Sleep-deprivation and sugar - a winning combination!
Happy Halloween!