Funny stuff from kids

Well, only two funny things. One from each child.

Jellybean said something that struck my funny bone last week. As we drove past a vietnamese restaurant she asked me if vitaminese people eat french fries. Once I stopped laughing, I told her that I am sure they do.

Yesterday Bug's teacher told me his response to playing outside at recess during the warm weather...

I am so hot!

(she touches his forehead)You are hot.

I'm so hot even my armpits are hot!

With Age Comes Wisdom

Words of the aged came from Jellybean's mouth this morning as she spoke to her brother...

Let me recount this incredibly wise {and cute} conversation went.

Jellybean to Bug: (as she was vaccuming) Bug, let me tell you something that I learned when I was like 7 or younger. The vaccum is too small to suck you up. It can't eat you so don't worry; you are too big.

Isn't it great when siblings share knowledge like that?

I know it warmed my heart.

Fiesty!

Jellybean was playing a bit of Wii boxing last night. Here is what I heard during her match.

Oh! Yeah! You want a piece of me? You want a piece of the birthday girl?

C'mon! How do you like that? And that? How 'bout that?

Huh? Is that making you hungry?

You wanna knuckle samich?

Huh? You hungry? I can give it to ya!

You likin' that?

I'm not even breakin' a sweat here! You're probably tellin' your friends I'm a pro. Heh, bro! Take it!

You can't take down the birthday girl!

I'm all over this thang! Oh yeah, that's right. Take that! Gettin' beat by a girl!

5...6...7...8...9...10

and that's a knockout!

Suckah!!!!

Oh yeah, people, she is fiesty!

I know it's not Feb 2

but, this little ground hog is popping her head out to say...

Wow! What a week this has been! I watched my brother marry a wonderful lady on Saturday. I laughed; I cried. It moved me, Bob!

No, really, it did. It was truly one of the most beautiful and moving weddings I have ever been to.

Sunday we had a good friend over for supper and later on in the evening a couple of very dear friends came over for coffee.

Monday was the kids' first music lessons and boy oh boy, did Bug ever make a good first impression. He walked in with his hair tosseled and held with gel, black dress pants and orange shirt and his "leather" biker jacket, flipping his fancy red drumsticks around. One of the people in the room stated that they figured he had to be the coolest kid they had ever seen. I think they may be right, at least as far as 6 year old boys go.

I've been training my replacement all week and now that time has come; tomorrow is my last day. We are all going for lunch tomorrow as a farewell to myself and another girl who left last Friday. Vietnamese food! Yummy!!!

On Saturday two of my dear friends are getting married and I have been doing the decorations. I have done my very best but I am simply hoping that it looks as nice as they deserve. I want nothing short of the best for them.

I am still missing my girl and think of her often.

The other day Bug had a hard time sleeping because Jewel kept jumping on his window sill in the middle of the night and he insisted that she was tring to run away from us just like Rush did. Needless to say, he and Jellybean have been finding this incredibly difficult.

BigB is gone for another week next week and he has been in school all this. We haven't seen much of him but plan to have a nice family time after church on Sunday. it may involve pizza...delish!

Oh! I just saw my shadow and so I must retreat back into my hole and hide for a bit more. See you after the wedding - perhaps with pictures...

Whole Lotta Shakin' Adjusting Goin' On

Wow, I have been quiet! I think this is probably the quietest I have been, well, ever.

Sorry about that.

There's just been a lot of adjusting going on in our home, in our lives.

Adjusting to BigB being gone for days at a time, in communities where we can't reach him.

Adjusting to Rush being gone.

Adjusting to the fragile emotional state of Jellybean and Bug right now, as they adjust.

Adjusting to the new school year (for the kids and for BigB).

Adjusting to adding music lessons, for both children, into our schedule.

Adjusting to my needing a new job. (I have a couple of places I would like to apply but I need to be able to find someone to "pawn" my kids off on for a bit - can't be applying for work with 2 kids in tow.)

Adjusting to the busyness of the last week and the upcoming week.

Adjusting to remembering to care for the two lizards we have inherited.

Did I mention adjusting to Rush being gone?
We may know where she is and we may know that she is being taken care of but, that only eases the worry and doesn't aid much at all in the "dealing" with the fact that she is gone.

It's has simply been a time of stretching and adjusting and trusting in God that He is in control and all will be as it is supposed to be.

Rockin' the Pixie.

Jellybean has wanted her hair cut to "her ears" for quite a long time and we were never brave enough to let her do it. We thought that she would regret it the minute it was done so, we compromised and each time when a bit shorter and a bit shorter. She needed a haircut a week ago and so, when posed with the question of what she wanted I was again greeted by the "to my ears" comment.

This is what she looked like pre-haircut (with her most favorite doll, Watoto, a well loved doll Jellybean has lugged around since she was 3 years old).

Yes, we are in McDonalds. It was a bit before we could get in to her appointment so, we went for a drink and a rest; we had walked and Jellybean & Bug were quite vocal about their sore feet. (Good thing they weren't around when that was the only way Rush & I could get around, heh, Rush?)

At this point, I think I stopped breathing for a few minutes. It was a LOT to take in and a BIG change. The hair stylist and I thought that, perhaps, Jellybean's vocal button was released as more hair came off because the less hair there was the more talking ensued. I don't know how many times I had to ask her to please stop talking so the girl wouldn't make a mistake she couldn't fix (due to lack of hair). Perhaps I am a hair stylists' worst nightmare - the parent who doesn't like this much change...)


Voila! The finished look. It has taken a lot to get used to; I mean, I "lost" Bug after getting his hair cut because I didn't recognize him and it was no where near this dramatic.

She wanted to look like Rihanna...I say she is the spitting image, wouldn't you? Only 8... and fairer... and blond... with blue eyes...spittin' image. (The funny thing is, she doesn't even know who Rihanna is; she just saw her picture in a hair magazine and said 'I want it to look like that'.)

You're my Superman

Someone thinks her daddy is very, very special. Someone thinks her daddy is just like Superman.


Someone drew this very lovely picture for her daddy.


Our children should look to us as their role models. Why should we leave it to the teenybopper star of the week or the super hero of the year to be our children's role models? Have you not glanced at the covers of those rag mags while you are standing in line at the grocery store? Do you really want your children looking up to them?

Give your child a godly influence to model themselves after. Make your life a life they should and will want to be like. Show them, with your example, what and who we are to be like by being a living breathing example of Jesus to them. Don't leave it up to the flavour of the week to influence your sons and daughters...it will only leave them heartbroken, discouraged, doubleminded and exasperated...

Dear Blog

I have ignored you the past little while. It hasn't been you; it's been me. No, really. I mean it.

You see, I was able to enjoy my daughter's Sweet 16 spa day and birthday supper, went with her to buy a home for her two new friends (you will meet them), walked my kids to get their hair cut (Jellybean looks VERY different), went to "The City" with a friend a couple times to help with wedding planning, went to my almost-sister's wedding shower (yay), heard that my brother wore a dress for his party, needed therapy after that and needed my brain cleaned - mental images and all (just kidding) and have been enjoying some incredible, life changing services at our church (Canadian Revival Center).

There has been a lot to take in with those sermons...a lot. Did I mention 'a lot'? They have changed our thinking and our perspective and our lives! It has been amazing!

Rush has been working just out of town since last Wednesday as well so, there has been a lot of driving back and forth and a lot of texting her; I miss her! She's a great kid! You would miss her too! She will be there until Friday and so, this week, is a week of driving out to get Jellybean and Bug each night (as well as taking them out there each morning before work). I am in charge of her new friends (you WILL meet them) and, this morning, I was perfectly at ease opening the door to their new home and taking care of all their needs, and for that, I am kind of proud of myself...

Another Super Saturday

This past Saturday was a nice family day. We had no plan, despite our attempts at figuring out what we were going to do. No one could think of anything we would all like, our town is a little lacking in that area unless you can get out to one of the many gorgeous lakes, unfortunately that wasn't a choice for Saturday.

We left our house, flying by the seat of our proverbial pants. No plan. No clue. We were just leaving.

We drove to Extreme Pita to have a quick, healthy lunch. It was delish! The 2 youngest kids had a ham & cheese pita with their own version of the works; their meals came with drinks and a cookie. What more could a kid want? We don't need no stinkin' Happy Meal to make us happy. The food was delicious. Rush had a grilled chicken pita; BigB had a Mandarine Chicken pita and I had a, mmmmm, yummy Mediteranean pita. It was so yummy. Have I mentioned that the food there is very yummy? I did? Oh, sorry. To finish off our meals, as we were still jsut a tad hungry, we split a package of freshly made garlic pita chips with hummus. Well, I had hummus; everyone else had Ranch. How boring.





Just look at that face as Jellybean bites into that pita. Isn't she just screaming, "MMMMM this is delish!"

From Extreme Pita we walked over to the pet store which was a big mistake. HUGE! Here we held some bunnies & some hamsters, checked out some fish, and fell in love with an adorable Boston Terrier pup & an equally adorable soft, fluffy grey kitten with gorgeous blue eyes. This is when we left the store, empty-handed with long, sullen faces.



Rush with a cute little hamster she decided to call Hernado or Fredrico; she couldn't decide.


Tell me how you could resist this adorable face? Tell me! Seriously! TELL ME!


Or this one?! Look at that face! {sigh} What cuties! Now you can see why we left so forelorn with empty arms...

The boys played football while we sunned ourselves and made funny faces at mom whow was always holding the camera...

And then we hopped on the swings to swing the heat away, and to giggle uncontollably as dad gave pushes.



We finished off the day with a family movie and some snuggling. I love days like these...

♫The Cat Kids Came Back the Very Next Day♫

♫She thought that they were gonners♫

♫But the kids came back; they just couldn't stay away...♫

Yes, they came back yesterday to their depressed and distraught kitty. I think she was under the assumption they would never return. Well, you know what happens when you assume. You don't? Well, it makes an a....ah, never mind.

Anyway, back to my story. The kids got home at 11:30 last night looking no worse for wear than when they left. It's always nice and mind-easing when your children come back with all their molecules in tact.

It seems as though they spent 90% of their time at the farm playing in the pool; it shows. (I am hoping to get some pictures of them tonight to show you - last night we were all too tired to do any posing.) Rush came home looking like she had just spent a good month on a tropical island; Bug looked like he is an exchange student from Australia, and Jellybean, poor, poor Jellybean... She has her Norwegian ancestory's pale skin (as do I) and she came home with a nice red triangle formed on her nose and 3/4 of her cheeks, like a danger sign or something. It just screams DANGE! DANGER! DANGER!

They did all come home with big smiles on their tired faces; I like that kind of tired, the tired that comes from 2 days worth of good, hard play, relaxing in the cool water under the hot sun, and, occassionally burying your face into the necks of good ol' dogs and horses.

How miserable does she look?

Jewel is not a happy kitty! In fact, she spent most of last night not being a happy kitty. Her kids are gone! Can you believe it?! We actually took her kids away from her!





Yessiree, these kids were gone last night, overnight, and poor Jewel was beside herself without them. She aimlessly wandered the halls of the house last night going from one empty bed to another - missing her kids. Poor, pitiful thing she is.

Of dinosaur fish and ferries

Last Sunday Jellybean, Bug & I took a drive in the country.

We had no plan; we just drove.

We enjoyed some of the beautiful scenary of country living, that I miss and they have yet to truly experience, but do appreciate.




We found ourselves driving up to the ferry and, upon realizing the kids had never seen one, due to all their questions, decided to hop out of the car and take a little walk to get a closer view of the ferry, and to, hopefully see it cross once or twice.


As we waited to see the ferry do its thing, we wandered along the beach area of the river, and watched a boy and his dad fishing. Moments later we watched as the young guy reeled in a fish, and my children watched with their mouths wide open as the fish was revealed.

The dad asked Jellybean and Bug if they wanted to come see a 'dinosaur fish' and they jumped at the chance with a slight backward glance to get the nod of approval from me. He told them how this fish was as old as the dinosaurs and, when he saw the look of shock on the kids' faces, he explained further that this fish was probably only 8 years old but that the type of fish went back to the dinosaurs. That made more sense tot hem and they carried on admiring the fish. Jellybean got brave enough to start asking him questions wherein she discovered that it was a Sturgeon.



We played with the water, sticks and sand for a few moments before heading back to town to get a nice cool treat.

But, it's my day off...

(Read the next few lines together really fast or simultaneously, if you can to feel the right mood to this story.)

Bug: Mo-om
Jellybean: I'm sorry....I'm sorry
Bug: Mo-om
Jellybean: I'm sorry; I'm sorry. I said I was sorry.
Bug: Mo-m
Jellybean: I'm sorry. Sorry. Sorry (mo-om). Sorry. I said...
Bug: Mo-om, Jellybean kicked my de-esk.
Jellybean: I'm sor...no I didn't.
Bug: Well, it's part of it! Mo-om...
Jellybean: I. Am. Sorry!
Bug, at this point stuck his fingers in his ears; I kid you not and I was waiting with baited breath to hear "I'm not listening" singing from his voice.

I slowly got up and sent each one on their merry way to their rooms; it's supposed to be my day off and I don't want to hear stupid fighting at this time of morning. Legitimate fighting maybe. Stupid fighting, no. After all, it's my day off and I have all ready been up for 3 hours.

Soda Tute

Bug talking to me as I finished making supper:
"Mama, I was watch...what is that Veggie Tales? Um...? Oh yeah. I was watchin' Soda Tute and Larry, he..."

Jellybean:
"Oh Bug! You are so cute the way you said that! Can you say 'Minn e so ta'? I really just think you are adorable the way you said that."

Bug:
"Could you twit calling me tute all ready!? All I said was we watched Soda Tute! There's nuffin' tute about Soda Tute!"

How do you stop from laughing when he is so adamant about not being tute, soda tute even?

Turn it on, wind it up, blow it out...GTO

My family ♥ cars, well, not just cars; we ♥ good ole American muscle cars (except for Rush; she ♥ them too but her favorite is the 2009 Acura NSX and if you were to ask her, she would even add silver on there because it doesn't hurt to be too specific).

BigB and I took the younger two kids to a small, local car show yesterday and, more often than not, the thing we heard most from their adorable faces was "OH! I LOVE THAT ONE! THAT ONE'S MY FAVORITE!". We have discovered that Jellybean loves Challengers (any year) and if they are purple that makes them even BETTER. Bug loves Challengers, Mustangs, GTOs and, pretty much anything that screams American muscle car. His favorite seemed to be a '71 Boss Mustang, orange in color but I didn't end up getting a picture of him with it.



We found the cutest Austin Mini Pickup that the kids HAD to get their pictures taken with it as they were almost taller than it.

At this point I think they were distracted by a lime green Challenger.


"Heh! Yook (look) at dat Mustang!"

Mama's favorite...

I have stalked coveted loved this car from the very first time I saw it, about 10 years ago. Now, don't get me wrong, I still love me some muscle car and I ♥ the Challenger and the Mustang but this car, {sigh}, she is SO pretty!!!!

As much as I love that beautiful navy blue 1932 Buick, as we neared the end of the vehicles, I gave my ♥ to another but check it out! How could you not love this big ole boy?

A Boss Hoss with Nos (and no, I am not channeling Dr, Suess.)


C'mon Dad! There's lots more to see!

And just like Bug rockin' the faux hawk, these cars ROCKED (according to my 2 young children - um, and me...)

Fun with a Bug and...a Jellybean

The condensed version of our family (even sans Rush who was working this weekend) had a fun evening out together and it went a little like this...

We spent some time at a local, annual car show (more on that later, perhaps tomorrow)




We found the most darling Bug in a tree.



We threw the kids on the back of a cube van. I am not even joking...




After eyeing up the artwork on this fence since, well, many, many years, we stopped to take some pictures in front of it. (You can't tell from this picture, but I will post more later, but this is a beautiful painting of a train on someone's fence.)


We spent time hanging out at the train yard playng on the trains and on the tracks...





We had a really fun evening and the kids went to bed smiling and exhausted. BigB and I got to spend some quiet time together. You want to know how we took advantage of that? We threw in an old movie (Son-in-Law with Pauly Shore; I used to love that movie. Funny how our tastes change. Now I think there is far too much swearing and sexuality in it for us to keep this movie in our house. It was great to go down memory lane though and it did show us that we have changed, a lot.). Oh yeah, back to what we were doing. So we watched the movie, chuckled at parts of it ad sat on either end of the couch snuggled up, each with our own laptop looking like a couple of geeks. Me, I was editting photos and BigB was doing some research for different projects he is working on.

It was a nice quiet night spent with some of the people I love, love, love. Did I mention I ♥ them? 'Cuz I do! (Really missed Rush tonight though)

Not Me Monday

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Welcome to Not Me Monday, a blog carnival created by MckMama. Are you tired of trying to hide behind a facade of perfect motherhood and womanhood? Ashamed that you let the kids eat marshmallows for breakfast or that you were just so tired that you watched as one of your children painted the baby? Did you fall short of all of your motherly/womanly expectations? Good. Join us as we all share what we didn't do this past week. If feels real good to get it off your chest and to air your laundry (oh, you didn't do your laundry....hmmm)

I did not overhear Jellybean say this, as she was about to kill a beetle, "Any last words?" I do NOT think that my children are incredibly funny most of the time and I have never, ever told any of my children that they were geeks. (Positive and uplifting words only)

BigB did NOT discover that leaving the glass bottle of BBQ sauce, with lid on, by the hot barbeque will lead to the lid blowing off. Fortunately no animals, children or other innocent by-standers were harmed during this discovery. (I have never thought it would be funny to see this on the end of a movie, One animal was harmed during the filming of this movie but he recovered very quickly and is in perfect health now. Or some other similar such note.)

I did NOT pay for my kids to get tattoos this week. No, really I didn't! What kind of mother would I be?! Well, ok...I did sort of pay for them to get tattoos...

My heart did NOT leap for joy when I got this text "Hi girlfriend! We are on our way to (insert name of town here). Will be there tonight. When do you want to get together?" and since I did NOT get this text, we did NOT decide to meet Thursday and we did NOT hang out all afternoon at Walmart and Timmy's with our kids and I, of course, then, did NOT get a chance to take these pictures of my most adorable nieces.

I did NOT think about enrolling my 5 (almost 6) year old son in some kind of etiquette training or "good husband" class after hearing this comment, "I am going to make a GREAT husband!" Followed by an incredibly loud belch.

I most certainly did NOT feed my kids and their friends s'mores for supper tonight as we had had a late lunch or "lupper" as they call it and I most certainly did NOT eat a couple myself. Good health practices are always followed in this house and I, therefore, fed them a wonderful snack of raw vegetables, nuts and berries. Yup, I sure di...

Ok! Ok! Don't judge me... {grin}

It is most definitely NOT a quarter to 1 as I type this as I have NOT been having a difficult time sleeping the last 3 days. Oh! Remember last week's NOT ME? Those sick family members I had been taking care of were NOT finally diagnosed with having H1N1 and since three of the four were boys and the girl only got a mild case of it I did NOT say something to the effect of that proving that men are pigs because I only ever say things that are honoring, respectful and uplifting (even when joking and trying to get a laugh). Always. So, I never did say that - NOT at all! NOT even a little bit! I never even hinted! NOT ME!

I am NOT going to bed now so I can get some sleep and get to work and I will NOT add the links and pictures needed to finish this edition of Not Me Monday tomorrow later on this morning (after I get some sleep).

This morning, on our way to work BigB & I did NOT stop to get some oil and a gingerale for me, and when he turned to right to drive me to work I did NOT ask him where he was going because I most certainly didn't think he should have turned left to go to church. I am always well orientated and know precisely where I am and where I should be going. He did NOT laugh at me and say, "You know you're in a revival seeking church when..."

Anyway, that was our fun week and you can read about more of our adventures here, here, here and here.

Whew! Ok, I feel a lot better having shared with you all my shortcomings of the week (as well as a couple from my family). Now go on over to MckMama's and read what the rest of us didn't do. Go on now! Go! I'm serious! I mean it! You! Go! {grin}

Happy Canada Day from our house to yours

I did manage to get those pictures uploaded so here it is - our celebrations. Hope our fellow Canadians and Canadian transplants had a great day! Tomorrow we send wishes of a Happy 4th of July to our fellow Americans and American transplants. (BigB & I were in Missouri for Independence Day a few years back and we had a great time; you guys know how to throw a party!)

Anywho, here's a little photo look-see of our Canada Day.

We got ourselves all tattooed up (some of us weren't as willing to show off our tats as others were)

We enjoyed a feast of grilled steaks, corn on the cob and citrus spinach salad (yum! That is delish in itself: spinach, canned mandarine oranges, dried cranberries, almonds, feta cheese and tuscan italian dressing. First time we ate that salad Bug said "WHY are there oranges in dis salad?! There are oranges in here! WHY?! Now he says, "This is my FAVORITE salad!)

We all enjoyed a dipped cone from Dairy Queen before heading to the river for the Canada Day festivities (and by that I mean rolling down the hill, doing interpretive dance to really off key singers, trying to figure out new and creative ways to not actually have to sit on the portapotty seats - yuck - and...people watching)

Hill rolling which soon turned into little boy squishing...
*Disclaimer* No little boys were hurt during the documenting of this adventure.

Part of the interpretive dance

This photo is VERY similar to the one where he was on his knees, looking directly at a couple as they passed by crooning at them. He is his father's son (or is he a lot like me? Perhaps both)

Bug and Jellybean doing their best interpretation of a Toyota commerical (from my youth) "What a feeling! Toyota!"
Fireworks then off home for our own sparklers and some nachos! Yummy!