Joshua turned 14 today. Or yesterday on British time. He was such a good baby. Now I'm contemplating Mark Twain's advice on teens. Does anyone have a spare rain barrel? hee hee

This, That, and the Other

The day before Mike got the second round of stents, he had to go to the cardiologist. He told us Mike has to eat fish three times a week. Not just any fish. It has to be ocean fish that is rich in omega 3 fatty acids. Not just any ocean fish rich in omega 3 fatty acids, either. It has to be from the real ocean, not farm raised. My grocery bill just shot through the roof. Thank goodness for Costco!

Joshua is going to be 14 this week. They say surly teenagers are nature’s way of ensuring that we push them out of the nest. He did apologize for something today. I about died of shock. There may be hope yet....

I have too much to do and not enough time to do it. Hmmm. What I need is a vacation! When we got home from the doctor’s one day we found a gift certificate for the hotel and spa at Snoqualmie Falls. http://www.salishlodge.com/ The note didn’t say who gave it. How kind was that? It will be fun, but I think I want to do that later when the snow starts to thaw. Then the water fall will be spectacular this year with all the snow they’ve been getting in the mountains! I'm going to try the $75 breakfast.

How Weird Is This??

Mike, as you know, entered the hospital on Monday to have a stent placed. I was checking my email tonight and a friend sent me a message saying that the local paper has the obituary of a man named Michael Beggs. (Click on the title to see it.) Her husband thought it was Mike. I bet the church will be getting a lot of phone calls.

Captain Jack Sparrow Burglar

So, I have been having a pity party today. Silly, but true. Then I watched the news tonight and perked right up. This idiot tried to break into a coffee shop a few miles from here. The owner put the surveillancetape on youtube with some great commentary. Click on the title above for a laugh.

The owener posted this on youtube:
Yes, Captain Jack has given himself up and is in custody. The suspect walked in to the Tacoma Police Station and turned himself in and admitted he was the person in the video. He added he does not remember committing the crime because of his intoxication that night. Oh...he also said that he suffered a dislocated knee when he kicked the back door the last time. :)

Too Hot, Too Cold, or Just Right?

So, Mike is now trying to watch what he eats. It is a bit rough going at the moment. He talks about cheese a lot. That seems to be his most difficult sacrifice. We need to get an appointment with the dietitian so we can find out exactly what he should and shouldn’t eat. He is trying though. He actually tasted oatmeal today. It was probably the first time he did since graduating from oatmeal baby cereal. I bought the good stuff from the store yesterday. Not the nasty, vile instant oatmeal in packages or even Quaker’s Old Fashioned Oats. I went to the health food section and bought Scottish Oats. Those are delicious. I made them with cinnamon and a touch of brown sugar. Mike came into the room and I held out a spoon to him. He ignored it. I persisted. So did he. I said, “Taste it.” He said “Not now.” I said, “Yes, now.” He took the spoon. He looked at it. He put it in his mouth. He got a nasty look on his face before the porridge even hit his tongue. He then said, “It’s mushy.” Then a mildly surprised look crossed his face. “It’s not bad,” he pounced. “I taste cinnamon and brown sugar.” An extremely shocked looked crossed my face. I had no clue he had ever tasted brown sugar, much less cinnamon. Althought it wasn't "just right", there may be hope.

Wanna see some elves?

Click on the title above.

To Work or Not to Work: That Is the Question!

I've been asked to apply for a preschool assistant teacher job 3 afternoons a week. I really don't want to take it, but probably should. I substituted a couple of days this week and things went well at home with the boys. We just did the stuff they needed help with first and they worked on their own in the afternoon.

There were some cute kids in the class, but a couple are real stinkers. One is a little girl who looks angelic, but isn't. None of the other kids will play with her. It's sad, really. The other is a little boy who is still in a pull-up. I don't know why they let him in the class as he should be potty trained. He could be, but he is as stubborn as the day is long. I told him he has ants in his pants. He didn't know what to think about that!

Before and After

Scruffy just got a hair cut. I think he is really cute when he has long hair, but when the black rugs in the kitchen turn white, it's time for a trim. :^)

Mmmm

Tonight we had Thanksgiving Dinner at the church. Our church takes turns hosting homeless families and this was our week. My friend Charlee signed up to do the meal tonight and asked if I would help. Charlee and her husband made the most delicious turkey on the BBQ. It was so good. She also made chestnut and sausage stuffing to die for. All I had to do was bring rolls and mashed potatoes. It was an excellent meal. I can’t remember the last traditional Thanksgiving meal I’ve had.

The homeless kids were a real eye-opener for the boys. The youngest was 11 and he had some mental/emotional issues. His sister was loud, obnoxious, and had all the teen-age boys but one at her beck and call. Her mother was totally clueless about how to control her children. It was sad. The boy who stayed away from the girl had a wise grandma keeping an eye on him. The other boys’ mother seemed blind to the fact that if someone didn’t intervene, she would soon be a grandma. And unless they did a DNA test no one would know which of her three sons the father was.

It made me wonder how the homeless kids I worked with in Dallas are doing. They would all be grown up by now. Some of them had wonderful parents and were homeless because of circumstances. I always hoped they would make it.

At any rate, I believe the boys now see that they have many things for which they can give thanks.

Frick and Frack

So, it is almost Christmas. The ONLY thing Leta likes for Christmas are pictures of the boys. Since they don’t go to school, I have to haul them to Penney’s Portrait Studio to get school pictures. Jeremy had his done yesterday. The photographer fell in love with him and commented that he was her easiest shoot that day. It was really hard to pick the picture because they were all so good.

Today I took in Josh. Last year I made him wear something nice and made sure his hair looked good. He was really grumpy as a result and his picture reflected it. This year I left everything up to him. I refused to look at him before he left. My only condition was that he couldn’t wear the t-shirt Mike’s dad got him that says, “I don’t give a…” and has a picture of a rat sitting on a donkey. Oh – and he had the hood of his hoodie over his head so I couldn’t see his hair anyway. So we get to the studio and I look at his hair. Dandruff and oil. Sigh. So I made him comb out the dandruff. When we got into the studio he absolutely refused to smile. He bit his lip to stop smiling because the photographer was making him crack up. The rat. When she finally got all his pictures done, another lady showed them to us to so we choose what we wanted. Usually they try to get you to buy a whole bunch. These were so bad, the lady just sold us the package and let us go. We hopefully found one that will work.

The Battle Over the Hair

It would seem that at some time or another in every family with boys there will be a battle over hair. Should it be long or should it be short? It inevitably will come down to a battle of the wills. Today I took matters into my own hands. I put it in a pony tale to keep it out of his eyes. It was the only way if it wasn’t going to be cut. There was much yelling and screaming, but I prevailed.

Do We Have a Scrooge In the Family???

Inquiring minds want to know. (See poll)

A Time To Give Thanks

When I was growing up, Thanks-giving was my favorite time of the year. I loved the meal, and it didn't hurt that my birthday was always around then. Alas, I have grown up and things have changed. My beloved traditional Thanksgiving meal has turned to a meal of ham and cornbread stuffing. It would seem that not everyone likes turkey and good old bread stuffing, and I am low man on the totem pole. So, I compromise and make a traditional meal the weekend before or after Thanksgiving. As for my birthday, Jeremy is generally the only one around here who remembers it. That may not be such a bad thing...

The Big Emergency

I was fast asleep last night when Caleb’s barking woke me up. He was barking like he does when he is shut up in the bedroom without me. I turned on the light so he could see I was there, but he continued barking urgently. So, thinking something must be wrong, I got out of be and he tore out of the room to the living room. The big emergency? Mike was eating a midnight snack of pizza without him. I was not amused at either of them.

Caleb’s Woes

Caleb gave me a right scare today. Jeremy was in the kitchen doing his work and told me Caleb couldn’t get up. He couldn’t get his back legs under him. Since he could move both legs I told Jeremy his leg probably fell asleep and he’d be ok. Naturally I started thinking if he didn’t move in a couple minutes, we’d have to go to the vet. Of course I then started thinking worse case scenarios like having to put him down. What do you do with a dog that can’t walk? Then I panicked and called Mike to come home right away and help me get him to a vet. Now this is Halloween and the church sent out thousands of fliers to school children about the Harvest Festival at church tonight. Three hours before it starts isn’t a good time for him to leave church, but he did. :^) Naturally as soon as I got off the phone, Caleb stood up pretty as you please and acted like nothing bad had happened. Go figure.

That Dog!!!!

Last night I had a couple members of my stamping club over to make a small Christmas album. One of the ladies, Charlee, a friend of mine, just thinks Scruffy hung the moon. She lets him out of the kitchen every time she comes over. Last night I decided that I might as well give him his freedom before she got there since he has been so good lately. Naturally when they arrived his shot out the front door. They called and he actually came back. Then we were standing in a group looking at some photos Charlee brought. Then Charlee noticed a WET MARK going all the way from the computer in the dinning room to the kitchen door. Oh, yeah. He also walked over Charlee’s foot while peeing!!!!! Dumb dog!!! Can you believe she still likes him?????

Trying To Be Good...

I'm

trying to be good. There is a really cool binding machine called Bind-It-All that, amazingly enough, binds stuff. It punches the holes in whatever you want – paper, cardstock, even cd’s – then puts a wire binding on them. How cool is that!!! Imagine all the neat stuff I could make with it! Unfortunately for me, it is $60, so I’m trying to be good. Really. I am.

A PRE-SCHOOL TEST

Which way is the bus traveling? To the left or to the right? Can't make up your mind? Look carefully at the picture again.? Still don't know? Pre-schoolers all over the United States were shown this picture asked the same question. 90% of the pre-schoolers gave this answer. "The bus is traveling to the left." When asked, "Why do you think the bus is traveling to the left?" They answered: "Because you can't see the door to get on th e bus."

Duh!

I'm one of the 55. Are You?

fi yuo cna raed tihs, yuo hvae a sgtrane mnid too. Cna yuo raed tihs? Olny 55 plepoe out of 100 can.i cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht I was rdanieg. The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid, aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it dseno't mtaetr in waht oerdr the ltteres in a wrod are, the olny iproamtnt tihng is taht the frsit and lsat ltteer be in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it whotuit a pboerlm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Azanmig huh? yaeh and I awlyas tghuhot slpeling was ipmorantt ! if you can raed tihs forwrad it.

Maybe that's why I can't spell! ;^)

Holy Crap!

Seattle thieves swipe truck, toilet-shaped soapbox racer
05:16 PM PDT on Sunday, October 7, 2007
Associated Press
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. - Thieves who took a truck in Seattle may have looked a little flushed when they found out what was in the back: a 7-foot-high, 7-foot-long soapbox racer shaped like a toilet.
Five friends built the racer in Colorado Springs for the Red Bull soapbox race in Seattle in late September. It was stolen when the truck it was sitting in was swiped from their hotel parking lot late last month.
Neither the truck nor the toilet-shaped racer have been found.
"We're laughing about it," soapbox driver Tom Valentine said Friday. He just wishes he could've seen the thieves' faces when they opened the back of the truck.
"My guess is (they said), 'Oh, crap, it's a giant toilet."' The soapbox car didn't win any races but was second in the people's choice competition.

HOLD THE PRESSES!!! They just reported on the news it's been found! We can all sleep now.