Thursday, May 9, 2013

Ouch!

Nothing makes you prouder then when you are at a restaurant and your son yells,
"MOM! CHECK OUT THIS ALLIGATOR!"
and you turn around to see this...

Well, attention has already been brought to our family group, so why not take a photo!

Which leads to this...

and then you turn around and the hostess is giving you the stink eye because she has  been waiting to seat you.

I should have taken a picture of that!

Thursday, May 2, 2013

WHY OH WHY???

I saw this on Pintrest. How to hard boil eggs in the oven with a muffin pan.
"That is a no brainer!" I told myself.
ANYONE can be successful with this one!

NOT!!!!
 

Seriously???? How in the H..E...double hockey sticks does this happen???  All I wanted was to hard boil some eggs and now i have something that looks as if it was laid by some diseased bird!!

I sure did get hit by the"Try if You Want, But You Won't Be Able to Cook Fairy!"

Wednesday, May 1, 2013

Down, Set, Jam....

Sam started flag football this week.
Flag football already???
Yep.
The team gets together once a week...for practice and then a game.
Sam LOVES flag football and was super excited to start playing.

And then....

Down...Set...

Chasing the guy down with the ball... He grabs the flag...

...and jam.

In this picture he is actually bent over holding his left thumb.
Sam jammed his thumb two years ago in football.
It was better by the end of football season last year and it didn't need wrapped.
Now it needs wrapped again.

Coach, AKA, Dad checking on his player, AKA son.
His thumb swelled up pretty good and he couldn't play the rest of the game.
But, a little ice...a little Tylenol...and he was good to go!

I worried about him while he stood on the sidelines. 
I thought about going over and checking on him.
But I think the coach and the player would have had some words with me.
So I stayed in my chair.
Then "mommed" him all the way home...and at home!

 

Tuesday, April 30, 2013

Waiting to be Read...

Received some gift cards to the bookstore for my birthday and now I can't wait to start reading away...

The False Prince:  Sage is a street-savvy orphan, and along with two other boys he is recruited by Conner, a nobleman who wants to remake them in the image of their country’s lost prince, a victim of pirates and presumed dead. The task is urgent, as the rest of the royal family has been murdered and civil war seems imminent. As the boys, chosen for their passing resemblance to Prince Jaron,who was killed by pirates, compete to assume a new identity and the throne, Sage discovers some unpleasant truths about their host, beyond his treasonous plans to pass one of them off as royalty.

Since taking this picture, I have read this book and it only took me three days. It was a page turner and had several plot twists...which I love!  It is written for fourth to seventh grade level, but as an adult, I pleasantly surprised by the excellent twits that I didn't see them coming!  It is actually a trilogy and after I finished this book, I headed straight to the library for the second book, The Runaway King.

(Well, I really didn't run straight to the library. I had to wait a few days until it was bring a can for every dollar you owe on a library fine. i was glad to see that I wasn't the only one carry a sack full of non-perishable goods around that library that evening.)
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The Shoemaker's Wife: The majestic and haunting beauty of the Italian Alps is the setting of the first meeting of Enza, a practical beauty, and Ciro, a strapping mountain boy, who meet as teenagers, despite growing up in villages just a few miles apart. At the turn of the last century, when Ciro catches the local priest in a scandal, he is banished from his village and sent to hide in America as an apprentice to a shoemaker in Little Italy. Without explanation, he leaves a bereft Enza behind. Soon, Enza's family faces disaster and she, too, is forced to go to America with her father to secure their future.

Unbeknownst to one another, they both build fledgling lives in America, Ciro masters shoemaking and Enza takes a factory job in Hoboken until fate intervenes and reunites them. But it is too late: Ciro has volunteered to serve in World War I and Enza, determined to forge a life without him, begins her impressive career as a seamstress at the Metropolitan Opera House that will sweep her into the glamorous salons of Manhattan and into the life of the international singing sensation, Enrico Caruso.


I love epic novels that spans over many years...I think this may need to be my summer read! I can read with one hand and throw balls to Moose with the Sam-a-pult in the other hand!
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The Light Between Oceans: After four harrowing years on the Western Front, Tom Sherbourne returns to Australia and takes a job as the lighthouse keeper on Janus Rock, nearly half a day’s journey from the coast. To this isolated island, where the supply boat comes once a season and shore leaves are granted every other year at best, Tom brings a young, bold, and loving wife, Isabel. Years later, after two miscarriages and one stillbirth, the grieving Isabel hears a baby’s cries on the wind. A boat has washed up onshore carrying a dead man and a living baby.

Tom, whose records as a lighthouse keeper are meticulous and whose moral principles have withstood a horrific war, wants to report the man and infant immediately. But Isabel has taken the tiny baby to her breast. Against Tom’s judgment, they claim her as their own and name her Lucy. When she is two, Tom and Isabel return to the mainland and are reminded that there are other people in the world. Their choice has devastated one of them.


My  mom read this and said it was very interesting and grabs your attention...
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Reconstructing Amelia:  Litigation lawyer and harried single mother Kate Baron is stunned when her daughter's exclusive private school in Park Slope, Brooklyn, calls with disturbing news: her intelligent, high-achieving fifteen-year-old daughter, Amelia, has been caught cheating.

Kate can't believe that Amelia, an ambitious, levelheaded girl who's never been in trouble would do something like that. But by the time she arrives at Grace Hall, Kate's faced with far more devastating news. Amelia is dead.

Seemingly unable to cope with what she'd done, a despondent Amelia has jumped from the school's roof in an act of "spontaneous" suicide. At least that's the story Grace Hall and the police tell Kate. And overwhelmed as she is by her own guilt and shattered by grief, it is the story that Kate believes until she gets the anonymous text:

She didn't jump.

Sifting through Amelia's emails, text messages, social media postings, and cell phone logs, Kate is determined to learn the heartbreaking truth about why Amelia was on Grace Hall's roof that day-and why she died.

This book is said to be the Gone Girl book of this summer.
******************************

The Twelve: A small group of survivors clinging to life amidst a world transformed into a nightmare. In the second volume of this epic trilogy, this same group of survivors, led by the mysterious, charismatic Amy, go on the attack, leading an insurrection against the virals: the first offensives of the Second Viral War.

To do this, they must infiltrate a dozen hives, each presided over by one of the original Twelve. Their secret weapon: Alicia, transformed at the end of book one into a half human, half viral—but whose side, in the end, is she really on?

This is the second book of a trilogy. The first book, The Passage, is one of my top 5 books! I can't wait to read this one!!

Happy Reading!!!

Monday, April 29, 2013

A Boy and His Suitcase...

My dad gave Jack and old attache case that he was no longer in need of.

Jack LOVES this suitcase.  He takes it everywhere and puts random things in it.

On Saturday we went shopping and Jack brought his suitcase in the car.

Just in case he bought anything, he could keep it safe in his attache case!

This night, he was headed to bed and pulled his blankies out of the suitcase where he had been keeping them. He does have to tell us what he puts in his suitcase in the event that he would forget what he had put in there.

Because he wouldn't be able to open it and look inside the suitcase.

And because Jack has told us many times, "I have short term memories, mom."

Yes, memories.

 

Friday, April 26, 2013

SUPER GROSS!!

I am driving out of our lane.
 I stop and look left
and then I look right...AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

This BIG NASTY earthworm was on my windshield!  Totally gross! I got a pen and flicked it off into the grass. I called Jason and told him my theory of one day a snake being able to crawl on my windshield could really happen because I just flicked off a ginormous earthworm. 

His response, "How did it get there?"

Seriously?

"It flew, Jason."
 

Thursday, April 25, 2013

My Eyes...

When Sam wears a blue shirt, his eyes look SO blue.

Jack had this little number on the other day and sits down and asks me a question...in all seriousness.

"Mom, does this tie bring out the color in my eyes?"

Before I can say anything, Sam tells him, "Yea, if you want to have purple striped eyes!"

Got to love an older sibling.
 

Wednesday, April 24, 2013

The Grand Blue Mile...

Last night, our family headed down to Grand Avenue to participate in the Grand Blue Mile for the Drake Relays.

It is a fun run, meaning that you don't have to run it...just go at your own pace!
Needless to say, Jack's pace last night was no way, Jose, am I going to run.
So, Jack and I were spectators. 
Which was okay by me. I'd just take pictures of the entire event.

Sam and Jason did participate!  It was cold cold cold!!

So I didn't want to take my mittens off to take lots of pictures. 

I know...lame.

Jack and I watched from the starting line...to the finish line...

At the starting line, I saw a friend and missed the boys run by due to my talking!

At the finish line, for some reason, I did not see them cross over. 
At one point, Jack suggested that we get a bit closer to the finish line and I believe that is when Sam and Jas crossed.

I know...lame.
So these are all my pictures of the Grand Blue Mile.

Sweet Sam, "There's always next year mom."

 

Tuesday, April 23, 2013

Cheer Us On!!

Tonight we are to run the Drake Relays Grand Blue Mile!

Actually, Jason and Sam are going to RUN the mile.

Jack and I are going to follow the advice on the t-shirt...."YOUR PACE."

Which means Jack will run an all out sprint for about 100 meters and then walk the rest of the way.

Which means I will try to keep up with him, yelling "JACK!! JACK!!! Wait for me!!"

Then I'll  be super happy on the inside when we start to walk or skip the rest of the way!

Monday, April 22, 2013

Catapult!!!

First, I want to take this opportunity to apologize to all the parents who had me as their child's teacher.  If I were to do it over again, I would NEVER have given so many projects to complete at home! My sincere apologies!!

Sam comes home and announces that he needs to make a simple machine...by Monday.
Seriously?? we already had to make the leprechaun trap simple machine in third grade!
Now I can do posters, speeches, articles...but I draw the line when we have to build something.  Jason...your turn.

Off I went to work at Memory Bound and when I got home, Sam and Jason had created a pretty amazing catapult made specifically to toss balls for Moose! It was fabulous and actually very light to lift! Important when having to carry to and from school!

Sam was very proud of his invention (oh...mental note...keep catapult for future invention unit, just spray paint it!) Moose ran after so many balls this day, that she can barely keep her eyes opened!

The proper way to shoot a tennis ball from the sam-a- pult!

Moose gets so excited!!!
 

And look how far it goes!!

This will be awesome to have when sitting in a comfy chair on the patio, with a cool drink and some music playing in the background.

Now I just need to get Moose to bring the ball back.

Or, buy a ton of tennis balls.

I am going with option two.