Sam gets up early just to have time for his bike riding before school. And look, the tiger helmet homemade stripes still survive, Ross and Gary, you doubters you. It's been a year.
Thursday, September 29, 2011
Tuesday, September 20, 2011
Sam—A Real Piece of Art
Sam, the first grader, recently brought this interesting exercise home. He said they listened to music and each student created a picture that he thought represented what they were hearing. Sam told me the songs he heard were like:
1) a ghost in a cage
2) a ballerina
3) a floating lollipop
4) a piano floating on water with coconuts falling from the sky.
I like that! Pretty perceptive, I thought.
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And this self-portrait was apparently from the start of school as the kids introduced themselves and provided info to get to know each other. Not saying he has body dysmorphic disorder, but maybe some slight inaccuracy in his body image? Read on.
My favorite color: Green
I love to: play Lego Indyana Jonse
My favorite animal is a: dog
My friends like me because I: donte now
I think I am a: TAN PERSON (????!!!!)
I am pretty good at: Lego Indyana Jonse.
A tan person. Really? Look at this skin tone.
This is his “tan” at the end of summer. Those arms and legs, the face-- I’d say he is a GLOWING person.
And yikes, not sure just what that’s all about, wearing the headband to school, but he does make a statement. I’m afraid it’s probably “Yes, please, pick on me.”
And the little yellow sticker on the STOP sign? The print is so fine from this distance. I’ll read it for you. It says:
bad headbands now!
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Honestly, raising four kids is exhausting, and expensive, not to mention how you have four times the guilt when you ruin their lives, but in my opinion, the real advantage of having all these kids…. you get at least one full-fledged laugh out loud crack up on a daily basis and that keeps life pretty fun.
Monday, September 19, 2011
MovieMonday—Dumb & Dumber
Guess what we watched yesterday, a movie within my Top 5 All Time Faves! If I had more time to think on it, I might even move it up into the Top 3, but I don’t think I want to get that bold on a Monday morning without pondering it thoroughly. Here are just a few reasons why I love it and it makes me laugh so hard.
Sorry if you are not a fan. This will seem like a big waste of space to you, but au contraire.
I think it means you need to watch it again and catch all of these.
Harry: Hi, Lloyd.
Lloyd: Hi, Harry.
Harry: How was your day?
Lloyd: Not bad. Fell off the jet way again.
Harry: It gets worse. My parakeet, Petey.
Lloyd: Yeah?
Harry: He's dead.
Lloyd: Oh, man, I'm sorry. What happened?
Harry: His head fell off.
Lloyd: His head fell off?
Harry: Yeah. He was pretty old.
Harry: Skis, huh?
Beth: That's right!
Harry: Great! They yours?
Beth: Uh-huh.
Harry: Both of 'em?
Beth: Yes.
Harry: Ah... cool
Lloyd: What's the matter, Har? Some little filly break your heart?
Harry: No, it was a girl.
Harry: Yeah, I called her up. She gave me a bunch of crap about me not listening to her, or something. I don't know, I wasn't really paying attention.
Harry: According to the map, we've only gone 4 inches.
State Trooper: Pull over! Harry: No, it's a cardigan but thanks for noticing.
Harry: What's her last name? I'll look it up.
Lloyd: You know, I don't really recall. Starts with an S! Let's see. Swim? Swammi? Slippy? Slappy? Swenson? Swanson?
Harry: Maybe it's on the briefcase.
Lloyd: Oh, yeah! It's right here.
Lloyd: Samsonite! I was way off! I knew it started with an S, though.
Lloyd: Wanna hear the most annoying sound in the world?
^^Gary’s favorite line and sound to imitate and it is truly the most annoying sound in the world, probably universe. Thanks, Jim Carrey.
Lloyd: [to motorcycle cop] Tic-Tac, sir?
Harry: (learning Lloyd traded the van for a minibike) Just when I thought you couldn't possibly be any dumber, you go and do something like this... and totally redeem yourself!
Lloyd: I get 70 miles to the gallon on this hog.
Lloyd: [after getting off the minibike with Harry frozen to his back] Got a little nippy going through the pass, huh, Har?
Harry: [shivering] Lloyd, I can't feel my fingers, they're numb!
Lloyd: Oh well here, take this extra pair of gloves, my hands are starting to get a little sweaty.
Harry: Extra gloves? You've had extra gloves this whole time?
Lloyd: Uh yeah, we are in the Rockies. Jeez!
Lloyd: [Harry is choking him barehanded on a picnic table in Aspen] Harry, your hands are freezing.
Lloyd: I want to ask you a question... straight out, flat out... and I want you to give me an honest answer. What do you think the chances of a guy like you and a girl like me... ending up together?
Mary: Well Lloyd... that's difficult to say... you really don't...
Lloyd: Hit me! Just give it to me straight! I came a long way just to see you, Mary. The least you can do is level with me. What are my chances?
Mary: Not good.
Lloyd: [Gulps] You mean, not good like one out of a hundred?
Mary: I'd say more like... one out of a million.
Lloyd: So you're telling me there's a chance. Yeah!
Lloyd: Listen, Mr. Samsonite, about the briefcase, my friend Harry and I have every intention of fully reimbursing you.
Nicholas Andre: Open it up. Open it up!
Lloyd: [Motioning to Mary] Go ahead, open it up. Do what he says. Hurry.
Nicholas Andre: What is this? What is this? Where's all the money?
Lloyd: That's as good as money, sir. Those are I.O.U.'s. Go ahead and add it up, every cent's accounted for. Look, see this? That's a car. 275 thou. Might wanna hang onto that one.
Lloyd: [a large bus full of gorgeous women in bikinis pull up beside them and three step out]
Bikini Girl: Hi guys. We're going on a national bikini tour, and we're looking for two oil boys who can grease us up before each competition.
Harry: You are in luck! There's a town about three miles that way. I'm sure you'll find a couple guys there.
Bikini Girl: [baffled] Okay, thanks.
[the doors close and the bus drives off. After a second, Lloyd turns to Harry]
Lloyd: Do you realize what you've done?!!
[they run after the bus]
Lloyd: HEY! HEY!
Harry: Lloyd! Lloyd!
[the bus stops and opens the doors]
Lloyd: [panting] You'll have to excuse my friend. He's a little slow. The town is back *that* way.
THE END
P.S.
P.S.S. BTW, we’re ones who sit in the theatre and watch until the last credit rolls, no matter what kind of movie. Well, on this one, it’s especially a shame if you don’t and you miss the extra funnies.
Friday, September 16, 2011
For Constitution Day
You can see more pictures on the school website linked below and there is also a video, mostly wind noise and a view from afar but... still it’s my Jack doing something big.
Breaking and Entering
Gary and I went to a few Open Houses last Sunday to scope out some ideas, some do’s and don’t’s for our house addition. Let me tell you, it is so nice that the kids are now at an age that he and I can spontaneously hop in the car, well, yeah, it is still a stinky minivan, but hey, we can go do something on our own without dragging the breast pump, the diaper bag, the unenthused kids. It’s nice and feels like it has been a long time coming. I think the kids are enjoying it, just being left on their own. I know we’re enjoying it.
Maybe getting a little too crazy with it.
Engaging in criminal behavior, in fact.
I had a list of addresses for ten Open Houses we could hit in a three hour span. That sounds plenty generous but you know, real life always manages to creep in.
Unfortunately, between getting called to return back home to settle with the roofing business and me being the navigator (read: gets confused at times and does not chose most efficient routes of travel), we did not have a full three hours to look at houses. We made it to three and a quarter houses, I think, in the first two hours. The quarter being when we had gotten in the front door and saw basically two rooms of the house before being summoned home to see the roofing guy.
We went into a couple others, one new construction and the other a typical, like every other subdivision house built around here. I did learn its interesting (aka bad) lot is called a flag lot. Longish driveway with the main part of the lot on the backside of the lots in front of it. In other words, your front yard is the neighbors’ back yards. I didn’t like that at all, but they had a huge in-ground pool, so I probably could have just stayed there forever. Well, until swimming season was over. Then I would’ve remembered the horrible lot and said I’m outta there.
We drove out of town a few miles to get the chance to see the fanciest of the ones listed, it’s on the golf course, but of course when we pulled up at 3:01, the open house had ended at 3:00. That was annoying.
There were three others that were going until 4:00 so we headed towards those. I, being navigator still, met some confusion at finding just the right address but coincidentally, this newish neighborhood had multiple open houses that day, not just the one on my list, judging by the balloons and signs. We parked and walked up to the door. It was locked, even though it had all this realty signage and balloons going on. We figured maybe one realtor was manning the multiple open houses since they were all within one block and s/he’d just probably walk us through them all.
We walked up to the next house with balloons in the yard, approached the front porch while commenting on its notable stonework, and walked on in. Again, no realtor there so s/he must be at the next one. This seemed like a nice house, very personal with many family photos but done so tastefully. It had the most interesting fireplace we’d ever seen. It was two-sided and totally see-through from inside the living room to the deck. (If you click the fireplace link, also click the little pics on the link so you can see the whole effect.) Cool.
Besides the funky fireplace, I noticed there were a few ladies’ purses sitting right there on the kitchen island. A little risky I thought, considering anyone could walk right in since it was an open house.
Hmm, weird, though. No other people were there.
That is, until two ladies came in and said, “This is NOT an Open House!”
OMG, we had walked right into someone’s house and was looking all over. I felt so horrible; I got sick to my stomach immediately. We apologized profusely in the few seconds it took for us to bolt out the front door. I did throw in a quick “We loved your fireplace!” Not sure if that helped at all.
Thursday, September 15, 2011
Sam’s 7th Birthday
Sam has the unfortunate luck of having a birthday out of the groove of that three weeks of June and July when we celebrate the others bam, bam, bam.
For Sam, the timing is: we go on vacation, right away school starts, we have Labor Day weekend, and, boom, it’s his birthday and there is little fanfare. This Mom has managed to plan one birthday party with friends ever for the poor kid and that was last year.
Luckily, Aunt Debra remembered his 7th birthday in plenty of time and sent him a card and a DQ gift.
He picked to go to DQ for his birthday meal that night and we picked up his ice cream cake that I had ordered earlier that day, just to his exact Spongebob specifications even though he probably didn't really think it would happen since nothing else of his birthday seems to come to fruition. He was pretty happy as you can see, and maybe that’s part of the problem. He goes along without complaining much at all and then it’s September the next year and I forget again until too late.
He calls it his DQ credit card and yes, Aunt Debra, it 
Sam is pretty well stocked in the Nutella department now, too.
To play, you have a card on your forehead that the others can see and you have to ask them yes/no questions to figure out what thing you are. “Am I alive?” or “Am I bigger than a microwave?” (Caroline’s fave Q) kinda helps you it whittle down. Of course, Sam’s method of playing was to ask, “Am I pizza?” “Am I a dog?” “Am I scissors?” “Am I a van?” Am I a ball?”, so yeah, he needs to learn to play a little smarter.
This was a huge bag of Tootsie Pops, like five pounds worth. And who thought this would be a good idea for the kid that barely eats any real food!?
He got Legos, too, but that’s just a given around here.
Sam says thank you also to Aunt Julia and Uncle Neil for the fun fish card and 7 bucks! Cool!
Wednesday, September 14, 2011
Don’t Forget, Constitution Day is Coming Up!
commemorating the day the U.S. Constitutional Convention signed the Constitution in 1787.
From Wiki: The law establishing the holiday was created in 2004 with the passage of an amendment by Senator Robert Byrd to the Omnibus spending bill of 2004. Before this law was enacted, the holiday was known as "Citizenship Day." In addition to renaming the holiday "Constitution Day and Citizenship Day," the act mandates that all publicly funded educational institutions provide educational programming on the history of the American Constitution on that day. In May 2005, the U.S. Department of Education announced the enactment of this law and that it would apply to any school receiving federal funds of any kind. This holiday is not observed by granting time off work for federal employees.
Iowa schools first recognized Constitution Day in 1911.
Did you know that? This guy did. He’s doing a flag ceremony in front of the whole school today in his Scout uniform. He let me take this picture. I feel like declaring it some special day just for that alone.
Of course, I had to go through this one first to get there.
Monday, September 12, 2011
MusicMonday—Just Watch This Crazy Chain of Events
On the weekend, Gary and I were driving into town. Billy Joel’s You May Be Right came on the radio.
Me: Did you have this album?
Him: Who didn’t?!
Me: I know! Glass Houses--it was my favorite album. I played that thing to death.
[Suddenly Amerigo Vespucci pops into my head.
I’m trying to remember the drummer in Billy Joel’s band.
I recognized that Amerigo wasn’t correct since he was, duh, an explorer.
Just look at his impressive journeys, all happening in a time span around 1500! No wonder he has some continents named for him. But no drumming career that I know of.]
Me: You remember the drummer, what was his name?! Remember on the record jacket he was wearing a watch around his leg?
Him: No. (laughing) But funny you should say that.
Me: Why? I remember I thought he was so cool.
Him: Well, I was trying to look different in high school so one day I wore my watch around my ankle and you saw it and went like this (does side-glance skeptical face and shakes head back and forth, no-style).
Me: Hilarious! I don’t even remember that.
But I do remember this! (sound of breaking glass) It was 1980. This was Billy’s real house, btw, on the Glass Houses cover.
Album back side:
And do you know why I love Internet so much?
Because I could totally see this image from the album liner in my head, even though I haven’t actually seen it in like 30 years, but I definitely wanted to just see it again. Mostly to know I wasn’t crazy making up this watch on the ankle thing.
And btw, his name was Liberty DeVitto. Not sure where I got Amerigo, but apparently they are filed near each other in my brain under Italian names.
Here’s Liberty’s story. Born in New York City of Italian ancestry, he taught himself to play the drums. After working with Billy Joel for 30 years, he was let go for the 2006 Billy Joel tour for an unknown reason. He had been the longest–playing member of Billy Joel's band, dating back to 1976. DeVitto filed a lawsuit saying Joel and Sony Music owed him over 10 years worth of royalty payments. DeVitto has never been given songwriting credit on any of Joel's songs, but he claims that he helped write some of them. In April 2010, it was announced that Joel and DeVitto "amicably resolved" the lawsuit.
Whew, I was worried that I wasn’t going to like the outcome, and that wouldn’t be right knowing they were such long-time buds.
So, anywho, I found this Q and A when I finally remembered his name and Googled him. It’s the real story about the watch!
Q: Did you really wear a watch on your ankle? ~Matt Johnson (via Facebook)
Liberty: We were such a boring bunch during that photo session that the photographer finally said, “Can you guys please do something different?” So I took off my glasses and put my watch on my ankle. When the photo came to the studio it was still boring, so Billy took the grease pencil and wrote our names and instruments on the picture. That’s what you get in the sleeve [of the Glass Houses LP]. 
Thursday, September 8, 2011
Seven years old and on top of the world today
Well, on top of the van at least. Happy birthday to my Sam-Man Man-Sam!
Sunday, September 4, 2011
This Week
Wow, it was a busy one.
Gary’s surgery
Kids feeling yucky in general but no one missed school, yet maybe shoulda. Yes, mostly you, Jackson-I-can’t-miss-school.
New roof put on house over course of two hot and noisy days
Resulting in picking up all kinds of debris
Hot hot days myself painting the screened porch
Hot hot Chili Peppers concert movie with Ross; muy excellento, btw!
Jamming to their new album as often as possible
Zumba’d twice
Lunch’d with girls once
School orientation night for Sam
Watched my fave show, Project Runway
Caroline’s big time random and severe nose bleeds, poor girl
Stopping in at the local music store to replace the Tuba Essentials book that was already purchased once but was put away so well it can’t be found
Mowing the pasture and what small parts of our yard that aren’t a dustbowl
Creating a color scheme for upcoming house improvements, at this point it’s exterior only
Contacting an architect to finally get moving on this much-needed home addition, but he hasn’t gotten back to me : ( Whatcha waiting for, dude?
Planning for creatively hosting Bunco next week, aka setting up three tables in this house? Nah gah dah.
And the usual grocery shopping and cooking and laundry and wiping down the stainless fridge and glass door to screen porch what feels like a million times a day, and, oh yeah, waiting hand and foot on my family, especially and understandably, my Mr. Hernia. He’s coming along, just slowly.
Hope you all had a great week!!