Hello, Morning!

 

This morning’s funnies are brought to you compliments of CGirl and SBaby.  We’ll give Gr the day off.  And dadgumit, J is just too mature and grown up for anything goofy to come out of his mouth it seems. 

CGirl:  Mom, some day can we close all the curtains in the whole house?

Me:  OK.  Why do you want to?

CGirl:  Well, if we shut the curtains, then the light can’t go out and we should do it.  It’s for daylight savings.

 

___________________

 

Today being Valentine’s Day, I made something special for breakfast, the famous hollow biscuits: crescent rolls wrapped around a butter-dipped, cinnamon and sugar coated marshmallow, baked until perfectly perfect, with the marshmallow disappearing into a gooey supersticky form of sugar goodness.  Can’t you just taste ‘em now?

SBaby:  Mom, can I have two more Hello biscuits? 

We may have just started a new name. 

Two (not) birds, one stone (ice chunk)

 

Yes, I know it must seem like there is a Gr-focus on this site, but it’s not intentional. It’s just that he’s the one that seems to provide me with all my material.  Here’re two nuggets for you that totally cracked me up and maybe will give you a smile. 

Scene 1.   The other day, headed out the door for school. 

Me:  Gr, did you see that dead bird?

Gr:  Where? (practically stepping on it)

Me:  Right there!  Look down.

Gr:  That’s not a bird.

Me:  Why don’t you think it’s a bird? (Admittedly, it was in pieces but they were obviously bird pieces.  Thank you, some generous neighborhood cat?)

Gr:  No, it’s just some animal with feathers.

Me:  Um… Gr, so what animal has feathers?

(Sorry for the unappetizing visual but I just had to share how bird-like it truly was.) 

-------------------

Scene 2.  Today, minutes ago as we are standing at the bus stop, me shivering in the 12 degree air with really painful tingles all over my exposed face from the wind.  Gr is sliding around on the ice, cracking it for thrills.

Gr:  Mom, you are so lucky that you can stay out here as long as you want and crunch up the ice today. 

Yep, that’s what I was thinking would be a great day of fun.

Everybody, keep warm!!

Science Fair

This weekend, Gr worked on his 4th grade Science Fair project.  He wanted to see if dogs or humans experienced more reaction to pepper.  He used what we had in our kitchen: finely ground black pepper, cayenne red pepper, and freshly ground peppercorns.

Here you can see his new braces, by the way.  They’re on the bottom only and these are still part of his expansion treatment, just the next step following his full-time retainers, trying to create a bigger mouth. 

Sometimes I have to wonder if any of these kids need a bigger mouth.

So anywho, this below is Gr’s reaction to the cayenne.  It had his eyes watering and made his face contort a bit, but no sneezes from him sniffing any of the three types of pepper.  CGirl got it in her eyes.

Gr ended up with pepper going down into his throat, so he hoped drinking milk would help.  He described the cayenne pepper as the strongest, causing “really painful tingles.”

After each trial with Gr, giving five minutes to record any sneezes, Scooter was given his turn.  Gr hypothesized that the dog would sneeze more since the dog’s nose is more sensitive. 

Here you can see Scooter is quite eager to get to whatever’s on the plate.  Scooter, you are in for a surprise!

Here’s his reaction to the ground peppercorns.  No sneezes, but he did make this face. 

I just noticed the pepper visible on his neck fur. 

He came inside for the cayenne.  No sneeze, but he did do this: 

Major drool.

It turned out that only the finely ground black pepper that we use in our salt ‘n’ pepper shakers caused any sneezing.  ScooterDog sneezed four times with it. 

For being such a good sport, Scooter got some extra love and attention.  Rewards included licking peanut butter out of Gr’s hand, sugar out of CGirl’s hands, and peanut butter off Gr’s face. 

 

SNEEZES

dog vs. boy

IIII to 0

All in the name of science. 

Hey Jule

Thumbs up right back at ya!!

Congratulations!  We are proud of you. 

Scientific Discovery

   

By CGG

Today GDG Was Scientific he did a Discovery With  Thee  kinds of  Pepper. And  He Did It To  Scooter too. He  had 4 big sneezes    and  2    Small     Ones.           This      is Scooter  .                                                     

Announcing: the New King of Rock n Roll

I will say it right now that I am a Weird Al fan.  It dates back to the early 80’s when I was still a kid.  My Bologna, Another One Rides the Bus, Fat, Like A Surgeon.  Ahh, those were the days.  More recently I have enjoyed his Amish Paradise (yes, 1996 is still recent to me), and White and Nerdy with the supercool Donny Osmond~~awesome video!

So anywho, the boys are into Weird Al now and want to download some Weird Al tunes and we have been discussing it.  Yesterday Gr says this, with all the sincerity that is Gr:

“Mom, Weird Al is the King of Rock n Roll.  (pause…) Well, there’s Elvis but after him, it’s Weird Al.”

The King

No. 1

Close 2nd

My New Clothes

I got this outfit at Christmas and it’s very cute!  I am wearing it to school today.  It feels very comfy!  And with the bottom, it looks very cute.  Aunt Karen, thank you!

I Love Technology

Guess I do have some other dead-give-aways as far as our actual identities here that I need to clear up if I truly am concerned.  Thanks, Ross for noting that.  Plus, there’s like 6+ months’ worth of posts that contain our names all over the place.  Man, that means I’ll have to go back and edit all of those, and sitting at the computer having fun is just no fun when it is work, you know? So anywho, from now on we’ll go by some fitting pseudonyms as soon as I figure them out.  And that past stuff, hey, I’ll just get to it when I get to it.   

And did you ever notice? See my picture of Kip up over there? The Always and Forever area?  -----------------^

He is Napoleon Dynamite’s brother.  He’s a real character, but I guess that’s the case with everyone in the movie.  And that’s why I love it so much.  It’s in my Top 5 movies of all time, that Napoleon Dynamite. 

Goofball.  Yes, I know I am.

If, I mean, When you watch it again, just count how many smiles you see on Napoleon and Pedro’s faces throughout the entire movie. 

That’s the kind of stuff I get from movies.

Kip is just… Kip.  He sings this self-composed song at the end of the movie and it just struck a chord with me from the first time I saw/heard it.  Especially the phrase I lifted for the bloggy header up there:

Yes, I love technology.

His rockin’ voice so full of life, the Casio keyboard, his breaking voice at the end.  Kip, you got me.  And I got you, on my blog.

 

Weekend Highlights

Our weekend consisted of Friday night having Mom (so happy she’s back) and Dad G here for awhile to have supper and some quick convo and hugs before they left for home sweet home.  And then Saturday day, umm…gosh, I can’t remember.  Then, Saturday night, I know~~Dairy Queen for supper since it was half price day!  Now that I can remember.  And I remember my Georgia Mud Fudge Blizzard.  Oh boy.  Brownie, pecans, ice cream.  Swirled all together.  In a cup.  Perfection. 

On the other hand, G’s: Cappuccino Heath.  Yuck because coffee. 

GrG:  Mint Oreo.  Mint good, Oreo better.  But yuck, because together? 

S: Dilly Bar.  Yuck because chocolate coating, and geesh, only 210 calories.  Don’t be wastin’ my time! 

So anywho (just yesterday C asked me, “Mom, what does anywho even mean?”  That one was kinda tricky.), Sunday was going to be kinda forgettable also until the   unplanned visit Sunday morning from someone we love to have visit,  RrrrrMmmmm.  Hint:  Sounds like like a little Honda speeding off. 

[By the way, I am going with initials these days in case someone other than my very generous friends and loving family subject themselves to these Go-Go ramblings and what if that outside person turns out to be a weirdo and considers tracking us down?  So you know, it’s for protection, the initial names—like that helps?] 

So while RrrrrMmmmm was here, there was some Wii’ing happening, catching up, and annoying camera behavior by just guess who. 

Isn’t the idea of the Wii that it is supposed to be active gaming, involving activity?  Wondering what’s with all this reclining non-active business, boys?

We ate some delectable frozen pizza for lunch and just hung out all afternoon.  And RrrrrMmmm helped G pi-vot a large chair from our upstairs bedroom to the main floor so I didn’t have to.  Yea!  But then he laughed at it becoming our computer chair.

I will admit it’s not the most typical desk chair. 

A 5-year-old can actually get swallowed up in its mongo-ness.

  And yes, at this very moment I am trying to type with my arms fully extended and I am having to reach up ‘cause it sits kinda low. 

But I can sit on the edge of the large comfy seat and then can reach the keyboard fine.  Laugh if you will, but I see it as “seating with options.”

Anywho,  RrrrrrMmmmm, so glad you came by, and gotta ask, how’s those buns??!

Arch Field Trip

On Friday, G and I went to the St Louis Arch for his field trip.  His classmates H and Z were also in my group.  We had a great time!  Here you can see G and the guys touching the top of the Arch. 

We have known H from Scouts for a few years now, and Dad G has always thought of him as a 40 year old man given his mature looking face but, yep, he is a 4th grader.

Our view out the windows at the top was not too hot with the foggy skies we’ve had all week, but it was still exciting.  This is our view of the Illinois side, aka East St. Louis. When we exited and was asked by a ranger what we were able to see, G exclaimed, with a little much enthusiasm I thought,

“I saw  The Casino Queen!” 

Looking out here, we are up 360 feet, for your information. And just a little fascinating tidbit for you, one of my very favorites actually, the legs of the Arch are exactly 360 feet apart.  It is as wide as it is tall.  And, warning,  now the Arch tidbits are just gonna flow.  I can’t help myself!  I love the Arch.  Official name:  Jefferson National Expansion Memorial.

Shouldn’t this entry be required writing of, say, a 4th grader?

The idea of the Arch originated in 1947, a result of a St. Louis architectural design contest to construct a national monument to represent Thomas Jefferson’s Louisiana Purchase in 1803 and the 1804-1806 Lewis and Clark Expedition he commissioned  to explore this brand new land of the United States.  Eero Saarinen, a Finnish immigrant, won the competition. 

Construction began February 12, 1963, the day before my dad turned eighteen years old. The final section was fitted into place in  October 1965, five days after my parents were married.  It was built at  a cost of $13 million dollars.  And sadly, Mr. Saarinen had died of a brain tumor in 1961 at age 51,  before the Arch construction even began.  He designed other famous works in his lifetime, including Washington Dulles Airport.  

Also, interestingly, in order to ensure that the constructed legs would meet at the top of the Arch, the margin of error for failure was 1/64th of an inch. All survey work was done at night to eliminate distortion caused by the sun's rays. Since the Arch was constructed before computer technology, relatively crude instruments were used for these crucial measurements.  What a wonder! Here we are in our little egg pod for the tram ride back down.  We were just speculating how someone super tall like an NBA star would take a ride in the egg pod.  The boys decided he would need a private pod.  No seating 5 big guys, for sure. 

The ride up takes 4 minutes and the ride down lasts 3 minutes. 

I quickly leaned in and snapped a camera shot, telling G this would be nice picture of son and mom togetherness with he and I on our Arch trip.   I had no idea at the time this is what he was doing until this showed on the screen.   

And then I realized his buddies looked like this and this…

I asked G what he was doing and he said he was “protecting his ears.” I asked “from your mother’s voice?” and he said, “No, from the popping.”

 

Smart answer, kid.