I Can Explain

Corey says to me this morning, "So Mom, they didn't really have technology when you were little, right?"

Falling into lecture mode I explain, "Well we thought we did. We had calculators and phones. The only problem was that they were the size of an actual phone book."

"Oh," said Corey, as if that just explained everything. But just to clarify, he took it one step further. "Mom?" he asked, "What's a phone book?"

Irish Day

It's the First St. Patrick's day since Grandpa has been gone and we celebrated it by crying our eyes out at Mass as a violinist did a gorgeous Danny Boy solo before the processional. Sure do miss Old Irish today.

When we got home we found some chocolate coinage that the Leprechauns must have left behind. Ummm um!

When They're Hot

Just asked Shannon if he had a girlfriend yet and he said nope. When I asked why he said, "I'm going to wait until I'm in Middle School, when they're hot."

Alls Is Not A Word

... unless you're playing Ruzzle. Now what am I supposed to say when Ken butchers the English language with this stupid 'word?'

Not-so Hot Tub

I'm not entirely sure what Ken thought he would find when he walked in on me in the middle of my sudsy hot bubble bath, but judging from the look on his face, it wasn't a naked wife exfoliating her gnarly feet and trimming her toenails. By the way, yes, he lost that lovin feeling.

Changing it around

Now that I have officially grown to hate Facebook I am returning to my original venting platform, this old blog of mine.  And I'm just going to record things that occur to me, not events as in the past.  So basically what I'm trying to get across is that any readers that come across this blog will simply not care for what I have to say and that is fine!

Anyhow, today I warned Shannon as he headed out to the bus stop that he needed to be careful because there was a lot of black ice.  Shannon looked at me funny and said, why do I have to watch out for black guys?  Well because they could make you fall flat on your ass, obviously.

Attempted Family Portraits

All our photo session really proved to me is that I have some really cute kids and I am totally going back to short straight hair!  Here's a few of the pictures, there's more on Facebook.

Halloween 2010 in Pictures

We had some friends join us for Halloween again this year, Riley and I got our baby fix playing with Alivia the poodle and Shannon and Corey got a workout running around with Aiden the dragon.  None of them wanted to pose for pictures.

...But I made them anyhow.  Here's Riley and Corey, ghosts from the Pacman game, and Shannon in his football uniform costume.  We were going to do a family theme, Pacman, Ms. Pacman, and three ghosts, but Shannon really wanted to be himself a football player, and Ken and I didn't really want to dress up.  (Hey, at least we're honest.)

Here's one of those rare family shots (thanks, Stacey!) and since they're so rare, you'll probably see this one again on our Christmas card. 

And here's Stacey's crew (it appears they all know how that family picture thingy works!)

Season One in the Books

The boys' football seasons are finally officially over and we don't seem to know what to do with ourselves with all of this time on our hands.  It was a great year all around, with each of the boys being announced over the PA for completing tackles at one time or another.  We thought for sure that all of the games were going to be played in cold wet rain, but the season finished off with two beautiful weeks of weather. 

Anyhow, surprisingly both of the boys LOVED football, and not surprisingly they loved it for entirely different reasons. 

Riley loved the social aspect, whenever his team got riled up the boys would run a quick scrimmage... using Riley as the football.  It's almost as fun watching the boys throw Riley around as it is for Riley to be thrown around.  Another bonus for Riley?  Hello... muscles.  Big guns.  I kid you not, they're there.  Not huge, but there.

Shannon loved football because he got to hit people.  (Not to be confused with getting hit BY people, that was not a highlight for Shannon although it did make for some hilarious expressions.)  He loved playing 'Bull In The Ring,' knocking the bigger kids out whenever he could, and he loved making his "I'm gunna get you!" pose after being tossed around.  Nothing beat the attitude that showed up when Shannon had an audience, wow, did he like to impress!

We're all looking forward to next year!  (They swear they're up for it, I'm crossing my fingers.)

Sis

After a short miserable time back home, we made a quick stop at the cemetery before heading out. Corey read the headstone of his twin sister, and this time I think it really sunk in that there was a person under there. He asked me to explain again why Carley was in the cemetery. I told him the story of how they were born too early and Carley died because she came out first but in doing so, she actually saved Corey's life.

Corey thought about that for a minute and hit his knees really quick. Shannon asked him what he was doing and Corey said he was saying a little prayer for Carley. Shannon then told Corey that he prayed too fast and to get back down there and say a longer prayer, like the Our Father or something. That's when I caught this picture.

Love my boys. And my little girl.

Field Trip: Kalamazoo River

Grahams Visit the 'Zoo (content warning)

The Grahams came for a visit last week, and generally the boys got along really well.

The Grahams were busy over the week, they filled their days golfing, swimming at Lake Michigan, visiting the Air Zoo, reinacting traumatic incidents...

The boys toured 'tornado ravaged' Gull Lake in a boat (hey, people on Facebook said there was a tornado so it must be true...)

Finally it was time for the Grahams to leave. They took the hint.

Joanne Won the Fight

Why...

Today Corey was in full 'I'm going to ask mommy a million questions that I really don't need to know the answers to because I already know the answers before I ask the questions' mode. I was giving him quick rote answers as soon as the questions came at me... not so smart of me, apparently.

Just as I was ready to silence him for good, Corey asked, "Mommy, why do you always sit down on the toilet...?" and I quickly answered, "Because if I didn't sit I would pee down my leg."

"Eeewww, NO, Mommy!" replied Corey with disgust. "Why do you always sit down on the toilet (seat) when you brush my teeth?" Oh. Oops.

Buttful

Shannon came home today and very proudly presented me with a Mother's Day coupon book that came from his Weekly Reader. On one page he was asked to describe me and this is what he came up with...

Whatever Works

I have two posts I need to get up (fire hydrant and First Communion time again,) but I am working so much that I just haven't gotten around to it. I'll continue after you stop laughing...











Okay, I seriously have been working quite a bit lately but I will have plenty of time to tell my stories sometime next week. Actually I'll have all the time in the world since Ken is moving to day shift on Monday. This move means that I wont be able to take on very many jobs at all unless I put the kids in before and after school care. Unfortunately the work I'm doing is very sporadic so it isn't financially feasible to put the kids in daycare at all. Sound familiar?

Luckily summer is right around the corner and I can once again take three months to ponder what I want to do when I grow up after yet another attempt at work doesn't really work for our family at all. Grr or yippie, not sure what to think at this point. Sigh.

Theriously?

Corey has had four loose teeth for months now, and today the little left bottom one finally annoyed him so much that he asked me to fix it. I was pretty impressed that he was willing to let me pull it and when he walked up to me and opened his mouth I just reached in and yanked it out on the first shot. Trust me, that never happens with me...

...and apparently that was what Corey was counting on. He was as surprised as I was to see his little tooth in my hand and I started to get all excited and self-congratulatory when Corey let out a ear piercing scream. He cried and cried and cried, so hard that he could barely breathe. Finally he was going at it so much that he started dry heaving and I knew I had to do something.

I screamed, "Knock it OFF, Corey, it's just a tooth!" The room fell silent as Corey stopped crying immediately and gave me a stunned look. "I know, Mom," he said with urgency, "but I MISS my tooth and now I can't make the 'TH' sound!" I just looked at him like "WTF???" (which according to Corey would sound like, "Wot da twuck?") and he started bawling all over again. Then I left the room and laughed my butt off.

Post Script: Guess who is not willing to let some crazy tooth fairy guy come into his room tonight, money under the pillow be damned?

How to Challenge Corey

So your spelling test is a little too easy for you and there's no way in heck you're going to take the time to improve your penmanship... what to do? Well if you're Corey you just practice your Roman Numerals. Duh.
Seriously, the kid could stand to work on his handwriting!

The Sixth Solstice and that Other Holiday

Shannon had a little difficulty this morning and I am not exactly his favorite person anymore. It all started when he woke up and ran to the bathroom for that morning pee that all little boys seem to take. What is usually a simple task apparently isn't too easy if somebody put you in your footsie pajamas in the middle of the night. Especially if they put them on you backwards.

So anyway, Shannon's running for the potty trying to unzip a zipper that is not there and growing very upset. As he kicks open the bathroom door, a hat filled with about 20 bouncy balls falls from the ceiling landing directly on his head. Balls bouncing everywhere and a bladder ready to explode, Shannon just didn't know what to do! Seriously, it was freakin' hilarious, I wish he'd let me take a picture.

So all the commotion wakes Corey up, naturally, and the first thing he does is go down to his computer and fire it up. But what is this? The screen is broken and the mouse doesn't work? (Or is it just the way mom set up the wallpaper on the computer...)


Not to worry, Corey has another computer directly behind him! The mouse works! Corey moves the cursor up to the search bar and starts typing in his latest most favorite website, occasionally looking down as he pecks his way through the address. But wait...


Oh, the frustration!  The home row is backwards!  Naturally I had to reiterate to Corey that this was temporary, the computer wasn't ruined, and then of course I had to show the boys how to dismantle a keyboard.

Anyways, all of this happened before daddy got home, so we went into the kitchen to prep the bouncy ball gag for daddy's entrance. Corey looked around and asked why there were sixes all over the kitchen.


The numbers, left over from Riley's ninth birthday, obviously didn't represent a birthday, but they did represent The Sixth Solstice, a holiday that falls on the first Thursday of April, wink wink. I explained that the sun isn't quite at it's highest point yet, it was six degrees off and today we celebrate that fact. And of course... we celebrate it by only eating things that are green, which is why I made green jello the night before.


After having jello for breakfast (it was a holiday after all,) we waited for daddy to get home, bounce bounce, where he told us all about how he suckered numerous people at work the night before by pulling off the CTRL + ALT + ↓ trick that Corey inadvertently taught us the day before. Try it, it looks like this:


To turn everything back, just do a CTRL + ALT + ↑.

Anyhow, just as everybody calmed down Shannon suggested that we get the guinea pigs in on a prank. He was brainstorming for a while and I told him he could probably think of something easier if he was actually holding his pets. Of course Shannon thought that was brilliant and ran to get Max and Cheepers. "What happened to my guinea pigs?" yelled Shannon in disbelief.
Not really sure what happened to those guinea pigs.... oh, look, they've been pooping jellybeans! I wondered aloud whether or not these aren't the infamous Easter Pigs I've heard about, for when the real Easter Bunny can't reach all the kids... Suckaaaaaa's!

Anyhow, that was all before noon, and the day is still young. I will probably direct future efforts toward my neighbors just so that the kids don't run away for good. So for all you neighbors out there, don't say I didn't warn you.

Clarification

I took all three boys to the mall today to get them some nice button-up shirts for Easter Sunday, and yes, Uncle Casey, much to your dismay, I bought the boys matching shirts. Corey's is green, Shannon's is yellow, and Riley settled for blue. Look for pictures sometime after Easter.

While shopping, I asked the boys if they wanted to go talk to the Easter Bunny. ($49.99 for a set of pictures? With the Easter Bunny? Good thing the conversations were free!) Anyhow, Shannon looked over at the large white bunny and yelled, "I'm not going up to talk to him, that's not even really the Easter Bunny!"

I was overcome with this horrible feeling - Shannon's figured it all out, how sad! Worse yet, he debunked the EB right in front of Corey! Not to worry, though, Shannon quickly added, "the REAL Easter Bunny is PINK!"