What lovely surprises in my inbox!

I was so sick this past week. I had the stomach flu and for days on end alternated between thinking I was dying and wishing I could (not REALLY, but, you know...).

I was literally too weak to read(!), so I lay on the couch moaning, taking endless trips to the bathroom and watching all four seasons of Jeeves and Wooster, while Stan, with help from the kids, kept the household going.

I checked my regular email enough to answer if something need addressed right away, but the blog comments go to my blog specific email, which I ignored all week.

Well, yesterday, feeling well enough to sit up at the computer for longer than two minutes, I checked it and got a wonderful surprise! Email after email from Naomi saying, "New comment on..."

Flashing back to the week before, Naomi had asked me how to make comments on the blog. I quickly showed her and forgot about it. Her observations made me smile, so I thought I'd share them all with you here in one place (with her permission) alongside links to the posts that inspired her.

Naomi said...

"wow that looks yummy :):)!!!!!" on Yogurt Contest        

              

"wow:):):):):):):):):):):)" on Growing a 'Stache

                         

"wow looks fun:)" on Bubble Fight       

               

"i love it" on Heather's Photography

                        

"cute" on Standoff in the Backyard

         

"beautiful!!!!! did you see it when you take me????????" on Just when I thought...

                    

"lovely!!!!! most lovely!!!!!!!!" on Embroidered Adornment

                      

"i like it so cute" on From the Last Few Weeks

                 

...and...

        

"i like it :)" on Have I mentioned lately...

I love you, Naomi! Thanks for reading my blog!!! 

Holy Priceless Collection of Etruscan Snoods

 

This is really fun!

Funny Mo

My friend Kristin and I trade off the school pick up responsibilities. It is fun to have her daughter, Sydney in the car. Apparently Naomi agrees.

Sydney emailed me this from her phone -

Bertram "Bertie" Wooster, the Soccer (Football?) Loving Budgerigar

It was NOT my day.

Last week, I was making myself a lovely hot fudge sundae, scooping the ice cream, heating the hot fudge in the microwave, and watching the hot fudge explode all over my kitchen. It splattered from the ceiling to the floor and everywhere in between.

I guess wiping up all that hot fudge up got me in a mood, because I decided to clean out my fridge, including taking the shelves out, washing them in warm soapy water and watching two of the four explode...self destruct...and fly all over the kitchen. Poor Michael even got hit and cut (just a tiny bit) by flying refrigerator shelf shrapnel.

Ugh.

Cute

This weekend I have added two more long posts in my to-post-pile, Gwen's day on the rope course and our tour of the port of Long Beach, but I am procrastinating them along with the three other posts still waiting to be done and just putting some pictures up. These are all things I thought were cute enough to photograph during the week.

Naomi caught a baby lizard.

I don't know what I think is cuter, the tiny reptile, or those chubby, grimy hands - okay, I do know, it is the hands :)

Each of the kids has some summer vacation meal assignments and the other day Heather set out sandwich fixings for cheese and mayonnaise OR peanut butter and banana sandwiches. Naomi didn't hear the "OR" part.

Michael was having fun in the bath with bubbles. The blur over his neck is Mo's hand helping him add MORE bubbles.

Kelly has such a cute smile and...

...I think Stan is really cute!

Hee hee

Someone was searching on Google for "Missouri-isms" and was directed to our blog and a post called "Mo-isms".

I don't think that is what they were looking for...

THE Princess

Last night, Naomi was in bed, hugging her stuffed princess doll. She told me that she loved her princess. I asked her who my princess was and she said, "Me!" I went on to tell her that all her sisters were my princesses. She is my littlest princess and I love her very much, but she is not the only princess in the house. This is how the conversation went -

Mo - Then what is Michael? Is he the king?

Me - Michael is Prince Charming.

Mo - Is Daddy the king?

Me - Yep, Daddy is the king.

Mo - Are you the maid?


This morning, to reiterate the "all your sisters are princesses" idea, I asked her who my princess was. This is what ensued -

Mo - Me!

Me - How about my other princesses?

Mo - Me!

Me - What about Kelly and Gwen?

Mo - Me!!!


I apparently have more explaining to do...

Dancing the Night Away

Summer went to a Midwinter Dance last month with Robert.

Michael and Naomi are getting ready for their own turns as teenagers on dates by practicing their dance moves.

Mo-isms

This morning, Naomi said she was thirsty. I pointed her in the direction of a cup of water by her dad's side of the bed. She looked at the bottles of soda on the kitchen counter and said, "No, I am thirsty for soda."

Later this morning, I heard Michael and her playing at being wild animals. Michael said, "I am a monkey!" and Mo countered with, "I am a pimpanzee!"

It is a good thing...

...that my kids have learned to translate Amy-speak.

This morning, I was making some peanut butter and fluff sandwiches for a picnic lunch. I used a butter knife for the peanut butter and gave it to Naomi to lick off when I was done. I had an almost empty fluff jar, so I used a silicone scraper for the fluff and gave it to Michael to lick when I was done.

I was busy making breakfast at the same time and took some milk out of the microwave. This is where the wires got crossed, I guess, because I told Michael when he was done eating fluff, to put the spatula in the microwave.

Smart boy. He looked at me and asked, "Do you mean the dishwasher?"

Cheesy

Sometimes, when the kids complain of hunger after they have brushed their teeth, we give them aged cheese, which is something their dentist recommended. The other night, Rachel brought everyone their cheddar and Michael got a little bit silly with his. I was getting ready for bed when he called for me to come see his mustache! Funny kid :)

I thought...

...it was kind of funny today when the Sunday School roll went around the room.

It came with a pen from a Vegas casino to mark our attendance :)

Is there anything we can do about that?

Gwen is eleven and at the doorway to the change from childhood to adulthood. She is holding on to the frame with both hands, but it isn't working.

She was disappointed when I told her that the time had come for her to join the ranks of family members who have their own deodorant, but that wasn't the worst of it. She got a teeny tiny pimple the other day.

When I told her it was just because she was getting closer to puberty, she moaned and asked, "Isn't there anything we can do to stop puberty?"

Sorry, sweetie!

Yogurt Contest

We went out for frozen yogurt as a family the other night for FHE. It was one of those places where you put everything in your container yourself and the the cashier weighs what you have chosen and charges you by the ounce. I neglected to fully educate the kids before we started. All I told them was not to put anything in their yogurt cups that they weren't going to eat.

It was chaos. 

I was trying to keep track of whose yogurt had been weighed. I would try to sort the kids into groups - weighed and non-weighed, but they kept moving. The three times I asked Michael if his had been weighed, he gave me three different answers. In the middle of it all, I heard Summer, who was one of the only kids whose yogurt I knew HAD been weighed say, "I didn't know there were blackberries. I want some of those!" Then she left the "weighed" kids cluster and moved to the "un-weighed" section to unwittingly add food to her yogurt that would not be paid for. Finally, after I asked each kid a half a dozen times whether their yogurt was weighed or not, and in the process, forgot whether mine was or not, the cashier decided to void the transaction and start over. I wish she'd given me that option earlier, but who knows, she might have tried and I just couldn't hear her over all the effort I was making to keep my seven frogs in their respective wheelbarrows!

Anyway, I didn't get a picture of Gwen's yogurt (understandably, since by the time we were done paying I had forgotten how to count), but here are Summer's, Stan's, Rachel's, Naomi's, Michael's, Kelly's, Heather's and my own yogurts. If you can guess whose is whose, you'll win a prize. I can't tell you what because I don't know yet, so not only is it a prize, it is also a surprise.

The contest ends on September 6th and there is only one entry per person per day. In the event that more than one person gets the right answer before the 6th, the first one to submit it is the winner!

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A Mother's Day Post

My family spoiled me rotten yesterday. I got a nap, Stan gave me a Godiva gift card (mmmmm...), Summer cut me some flowers and made a chocolate layer cake from scratch with seven minute frosting. She decorated it with shaved chocolate and fresh berries. It tasted as good as it looked. The rest of the kids gave me cards with expressions of love I will treasure and there were even a few "help with a chore" coupons thrown in.

It really is amazing that they treat me so well, considering my behavior. Rachel pointed out last night during FHE that I have the awful habit of embarrassing her and Summer, and I admit it's true.

I think I learned this behavior from my dad, or did I inherit it from him? Nurture or nature? Anyway, the more I like someone, the more I enjoy teasing them.

Summer and Rachel have these two friends, who happen to be boys. S & R like these two young men a lot, but just for the record, they don't LIKE them.

Anyway, they are very likable young men. They are kind and respectful and are gentlemen. I like them, which is where the problem lies. I also really like S & R. I see them together and I just can't help myself!

Here is a list of the teasing I have let slip out of my undisciplined lips provided by the daughters (I don't remember 2/3 of these, but they do - vividly) -

One time, I saw the four of them chatting in the halls at church and one of my daughters was twirling her hair. One of the boys was fiddling with his tie. I walked up and said, "Don't you all look nervous!"

Another time, another daughter was sitting by one of the boys, who started kicking her legs. She kicked him back and it looked like footsy to me, so I told her,"Stop flirting."

A couple of different times, I was ready to leave and so I let my daughters know by saying, "It's time to go, maybe some cute boys will escort you out," and, "Are you ready to go or are you too busy talking to cute boys?"

Finally, my most recent abomination was when the four of them were chatting and I walked up with the five younger kids to gather my two oldest to leave church. One of the boys looked at Michael and said, "Your little brother is so adorable with his suspenders," (see why I like these boys) so I said , "ALL of my kids are adorable."

They knew who I was talking about.

Hey, haven't I seen you before?

Yesterday, I dropped the two biggest girls off for seminary and went to get gas. I filled my tank and went to stand in line for my change, when another lady stepped just in front of me. She was there for a couple of minutes while she put some money on a gas pump and bought a pack of cigarettes. I stood behind her and noticed the color of her hair.

After I got my change, I mailed some stuff at the post office, went home to feed the three youngest and the four of us took off. We dropped off Kelly to take her standardized tests for school and Michael, Mo and I went to Walmart where we bought freezer jam pectin, a cake plate with a dome on it (I've been wanting one for a while) and a Mothers" Day card. We drove back to school for Kelly, returned some books to the library and picked up a quarter yard of green lycra to alter a swimsuit with.

As I was leaving the parking lot, Summer called. "Did you know I stayed home sick?" (I had no idea.) "When are you coming home?" I told her I was on my way and why didn't she clean up after breakfast for me so that we could eat lunch as soon as I got there. Poor girl, there is no rest for the down and out around here!

I fed the oldest and three youngest and, taking advantage of my newly discovered babysitter, took off on my own to run a couple of errands before I had to pick Rachel, Heather and Gwen up. I rushed into our doctors' offices to get something from the pharmacy and ended up in line behind one lady while I waited for my turn to pay. Her shirt looked familiar. I had seen that hair somewhere. It was driving me crazy. I had to mentally go over every place I had gone and every line I had stood in when I finally realized she was the same person who was in front of me at the gas station. I was so excited when I remembered, that I blurted, "Did you buy gas at Food 4 Less this morning? I was in line behind you twice today!" She said, "Yea, I remember you now!"

After all the places I went...isn't that funny?

Yesterday's post...

...was an April Fool's Day joke. Could you tell?

We also had April Fool's Day food last night.


"Cupcakes" that were really meatloaf with mashed potato frosting

"Meatloaf" made from knock off Cocoa Krispies and fruit leather

I'm really swamped here, Mother.

Last night, Naomi didn’t want to go to sleep and she is observant enough to figure out how to avoid bedtime in our house.

After reading her three books, I said, “Time for bed!”

She looked at me and very seriously replied,

“I have homework.”

Funny Things the Kids have Been Saying #3

Gwen is working on a state report for school. She was assigned Connecticut and she is in the research phase. This morning she asked me if she should put "seal" down as the state animal. I replied, "I guess. Did you read somewhere that it was the state animal of Connecticut?"

She said, "Well I saw something about a seal on the flag..."

If you're curious, go here and here.

Last night, Naomi came up to me and, artfully brushing her hair back behind her ear, she asked me, "You like mine hair better?" Hoping she wasn't about to tell me whom she was prettier than, I asked her, "Better than what?"

She said, "Fuzzy!"

I think maybe she had just brushed it :)