Still Here!

I admit, I've been a very bad blogger lately. I'm sorry. I have thought about writing now and then. I think my last post was a short one about my nephew. He lives in Detroit. I went to visit him this summer when my sister had a baby. That's a very difficult thing for me to say, "My sister had a baby," because that's not the full truth. My sister had twins, a boy and a girl. The boy lived for 5 hours. She found out at 34 weeks into the pregnancy that the boy's lungs were not developing. Those last 6 weeks were horrible. I went to be her for the birth and the death. It was so sad to look into his eyes knowing that he wouldn't be there for long, knowing that he didn't have a chance.

The baby girl is healthy and home. The boy was buried with his great grandfather. The funeral was 2 weeks after the birth and I wasn't able to return for it. I still wish I had.

So it's taken me a long time to go back to "normal." I still feel like nothing will ever be the same. But slowly happiness has returned.

Yesterday I drove my 6 year old and one of his teammates to soccer practice. From the backseat I heard my son telling his friend, "Our car is really old. It's from the nineteen hundreds!"

He is right. The car is a 1999. But I never heard it put that way before!

And one more thing that my 8 year old said when we were at a restaurant. He ordered pasta with butter sauce and french fries. (You can only get away with that when you're 8!) My husband asked him how he liked his dinner.

My 8 year old said, "It's good, but I like mom's better."

I smiled.

Then he added, "the one she makes from the box."

My husband laughed.

The King of the Jungle

I was visiting my 3 year old nephew for a week. He picked up the book next to my bed and read me a story. He said, "I'm going to read a story called, 'The king of the Jungle'." He opened the book and read, "One day there was a king of the jungle."

Then he closed the book and said "The end."

He's destined to be a great author one day.

What I learned During Summer Vacation

I try to keep the summer filled with educational things for my kids. Tonight they learned that if you laugh and drink milk at the same time, the milk will come out of your nose. And onto your dinner plate.

This proud parent moment is brought to you by the Washington Dairy Farmers Association.

Webster's

Today I took my kids to see the movie, "Hotel For Dogs." They loved it. The theater was packed with kids. There was one line in the movie when a said, "I'm going to sue you!" My 6 year old turned to me and whispered, "What does sue mean?"

I hushed him.

Then I heard the little girl next to me say to her mom, "Mom, what does sue mean?"

Her mother replied, "It means getting money from a person."

So true.

How Can You Eat That??

Today was my kids' last day of chess camp. We out to IHOP afterwards to celebrate. My 8 year old read the list of flavors of syrup. Suddenly my 6 year old looked worried and said, "How can you eat that?"

I didn't understand what he was referring to. Then my 8 year old said, "It's Boysenberry, not poison berry."

My 6 year old replied, "Well, that's a scary name!"

So far no deaths have been reported by eating Boysenberry syrup at IHOP.

Whew.

I Take That Back

Yesterday my kids were inside playing video games. It was a nice afternoon and I was planning to do some yard work so I sent the kids outside to play.

My 8 year old asked me if he could cut some blackberry bushes that were invading his fort by the swing set. I told him, "Sure, go ahead."

About 40 minutes later I surrendered to my weeds and was putting the garden recycling can away when my 8 year old said, "Mom, come over here and look what we've done to our fort!"

OMG. They had cut all of the ivy on the hill. The ivy that needs to be on the hill so that the hill remains a hill. We do live in Seattle. The rain will be here soon enough and the hill will be gone.

So I take back what I said earlier. "Please go back inside and play video games."

My husband is going to be really mad when he sees the bare hill. So nobody tell him, okay. Hopefully it will grow back before the Autumn monsoon starts.

Uh Oh

Usually my blog is about my kids and the silly things they do or say. Today I'm writing about me and the silly thing I might have done.

On Saturday I went to a friend's house to meet up with some friends and play Bunco. I brought an hors d'oeuvre to share. It was crackers with cream cheese and jalapenos. Simple and yummy! My husband took the kids out to dinner so he used my car and I drove his car.

I came home and my bag was wet. The jar of jalapenos had leaked. Just a little. The jar remained filled with jalapeno juice. So I dropped the bag in the laundry room.

On Monday when my husband drove his car to work it stunk like a jar of jalapenos. Whoopsie. Never thought that it may have leaked through my bag and into his car.

When he came home I used some carpet cleaner and then some baking soda to try and get the smell out. When I was done he car still smelled but then it smelled like cleaner, not jalapenos.

He sent me an email today saying it still smelled.

So now I'm shopping for a new car.

Spelling Test

The other day while in the car my 6 year old said, "Mom, do you spell 'gum' 'G-U-M'?"

"Yes, that's right." I replied.

Then he said, "So do you spell 'come' 'C-U..."

I started to slam on the breaks and scream "NOOOOOO!" But luckily before I could, my 8 year old interrupted laughing, "no, it's C-O-M-E."

Whew. Good thing the 8 year old was there.

Why do they learn how to sound out words anyway?!?!

Funny Signs

I came across these signs on the Internet this morning and they made me laugh. Hope they make you smile too!



Do you think police are giving out a lot of tickets for not stopping here?




I'm glad my children don't play here!

A Little Bit of History

Here's a little bit of history you probably didn't know about...

The second civil war started when the small states in Europe were fighting the big one. Then it moved over to Asia and Japan bombed Pearl harbor, so the US entered the war and bombed Nagasaki. Then Japan surrendered on a boat. And Canada signed in the wrong place.

This account was given by 6 year old. I heard him saying this to his friend yesterday morning. I think it may have something to do with our visit to Pearl Harbor while we were in Hawaii last week.