Happy Birthday, Linds!

It's my older sister's birthday today.  Happy birthday, Lindsey!

I thought I'd share a little of our "good old days":

We each had our own issues -- Lindsey with her fingers, me with my binkie.

But who cares?  We were so darned cute!  And sweet, too.

We always found intelligent, exciting ways to occupy our time out on the farm.

And we've always had a great backside.

We have always been at the height of fashion.

And we've got talent to spare.

Here's to the good old days!

It's "Miss", Please

This is a note to all of you young service people (usually boys).  You know who you are.  The ones who bag my groceries, check out people at Office Max, workers at Target asking me if I am finding everything okay.  Yeah, you.  I'm talking to you.  I know that I may have a few laugh lines, my boobs may no longer be in the upper-half of my chest, and I drive a mini-van, but I am only 31 years old.  I am not old enough to be your mother.  I don't wear clothes from the old lady section yet.  Nevertheless, it seems that lately, even when I don't have my 5 children trailing behind, leaving a wake of destruction in our path, that you have the audacity to call me "Ma'am".  You should know that every time you do that, it makes me want to hurt you.  A little tear escapes my eye when I get into the mini-van I swore I'd never drive.  Then I go home and run another two miles on my abused treadmill.  I pull out my college ID card and wonder what happened to that girl.  So please, for the sake of my sanity, from now on, it's "Miss" -- not "Ma'am".  Thank you.

Good News and Bad News

The good news is that we've been enjoying some great weather here -- I think it was 60* yesterday!  We went to the zoo and played outside.  We actually like to think of our zoo as a great nature walk, because if you grade it as a zoo, you would have to give it a "D".  But if you grade it as a Nature Walk, it gets and "A+"!  So Nature Walk it is.  How many times can you go for a nice, wooded walk and find tigers and bears and pandas?

The bad news is that the Steward found our camera card sticking out of its port in the computer, and now it is lost forever.  So no pictures.  That darned Steward!  He also left a mysterious glob of something brown on the light switch.  We'll say it's chocolate.  Yep, let's go with that.

Grace and Matt were so happy to go to the zoo.  And guess what -- I DIDN'T BRING A STROLLER!!!  Yes, I went to the zoo without a stroller for the first time in 14 years!  It's the dawning of a new age....

Grace decided that she would "pretend" that she owns the zoo, and she introduced me to all of her animal friends and led me around like she knew where she was going ("And over here is lake... and this is my duck... please come this way").  She is so much like Andrew -- always in la la land.  Always a story going on in her little head.  Can I live in the land of make-believe, too?

Matthew loved it, although he was very upset about the peacocks roaming around, and the various waterfowl at the barn.  He thought they were stupid and gross and horrible.  He yelled at them and ran at them to scare them away.  He showed him that he knows how to use the word "no!".  I just wish I had the camera to show you the disgusted look he had on his face.

So since I haven't been able to take pictures for a few days, I thought I'd share some of my favorite pictures of the kids from years gone by.  See if you can tell who's who:

Third Place!

Matthew was very disturbed this week when he found his favorite baby -- the other kids call him "Bob" -- without a head.  Those naughty kids.  They thought it was pretty funny, but Matt did not.  He wanted his baby fixed.  So I made the culprits fix him.

Andrew worked very hard on his car this week for the Pinewood Derby.  He drew the design himself, and when Daddy saw it, he said, "Wow!  That's a really good design!"

They went over to a friend's house who has whatever it was they needed to cut it, then Andrew very carefully sanded and painted it.  We put vinyl striping down the middle, and Andrew wanted the number 94.

At the event, Joey found Josh, who he describes as "so cool", to stand with.  I think he's right.  Josh is pretty cool.  So is Joey.  They make quite a pair.

Andrew was so surpised and excited when he found out that he got third place in speed!  He got a ribbon and a nifty red trophy.  Just look how proud he is:)  Nice job Andrew!  I hope you can teach your little brothers when it's their turn!

Scariest Thing I've Heard all Week

This morning as I was reading Nie Nie, I heard the scariest thing I've heard in awhile:

Andrew went looking for the other kids and said,

"Hey, does anybody want to play skydiving?"

Yikes.

Popping, Snowy, Wrestling Fun

We decided to watch the Olympics with some snacks last night, so I pulled out the air popper.  Usually I just stick a bag in the micro, but since Ben got the kids some pizza for dinner, and I didn't have to make anything, I decided to go all out.  This was the first time Matt had seen the popper.  I keep typing pooper.

So he sat with anticipation, and was a little frightened also.  It's pretty loud.  Then when the popcorn started coming out, he thought it was the funniest thing he had ever seen.

The snow is finally starting to melt, but as you can see, we've still got plenty.  So the boys and daddy made a tunnel through it to the neighbor's yard.  They had great fun crawling through and getting wet.  Hurry up, Spring!

Wrestling camp is over, and we enjoyed a great 2 1/2 hour tournament last Thursday.  Andrew really loves wrestling, and he's very good at it.  He did three matches, and won all three.  He has a great medal to show everyone.  He can't wait until next time!

A Couple of Gems

Today, as we were riding in the car to get to the indoor play area at the mall (can anyone say cabin fever?), I overheard Joey explain cheating to Grace:

"Cheating is when you're waiting for a ball, and then you wait some more, and then you get like five shots.  That's cheating."

Okay!  Thank you for the definition.

I always get calls from Grandpa Jerry after he's been with the kids.  He calls later in the day, so he doesn't embarrass them by telling me the stories in front of them.  The other day he picked up Andrew from school and stayed with him until he was done with wrestling (we were at sister's volleyball game).  Andrew has been trying to earn money for a new DS game, and he's always hitting Grandpa up for some cash.  Last month, he learned how to make calendars off the computer.  He printed one, complete with birthdays listed, and sold it to Grandpa for $3.  Apparently, he is turning into quite the salesman, because he made a deal for Grandpa.  He said, "You know how you bought that calendar for $3?  Well, 3 x 12 = $36.  How about I make you a deal, and sell you a whole year's calendar for only $20?"  Wow!  That was quite a sales pitch from an eight-year-old.

Later, I asked Andrew about it.  He said, "Well, I figure since a couple of months are gone, I'll take off a few dollars.  And the rest of the discount is just because I like him."

Volleyball

Haley just made the volleyball team, and last night was their first game.  She played great, served great, and made some awesome digs.  I love this game!  It takes me back to my days in Jr High and High School.  Being on the volleyball team was one of my favorite things ever.  I'm so glad Haley gets to experience this too!  Hopefully we will soon have a backyard big enough to have a net up.  Grace was a little put out because she couldn't play with the big girls.

Matthew was pretty good, for about half of the first game.  Every time he heard a whistle (which was a lot -- before each serve, after each play -- and there were two games going on at the same time) he would yell, "Uh Oh!"  It was cute, for the first 50 times.  Then, not so much.

About half way through the first game, he finally figured out that Haley was playing.  So then he kept yelling her name and running onto the court.  We didn't stay much longer.  Luckily, Ben has a great job that he can leave during the day, so he was there to stay and watch.  But it's my turn to stay on Saturday!

The kids loved the drinking fountain and the bleachers.  Joey only had to drag Matthew out of the boys' bathroom once.  Grace positioned herself at the door and pretended to take $2 from everybody who entered or exited.  She's going to make a good buisness woman someday.

Haley's number 13.  She is the shortest one on the team, but she works hard and has a lot of talent!

Pray for Eric

All of you who read this are my great friends and family.  My brother has been in the hospital for a week with complications from a condition in which he suffers.  He is now looking at an extended stay, and possible life-changing surgery.  Please pray and fast for his recovery.  Thank you!

The Man Sport

There are a lot of sports I like to play and watch, but this is not one of them.  This one, for the life of me, I cannot figure out.  I can't find a reason in this brain of mine (that is far more feminine than I had imagined), why any normal human being would want to do this.  Of course, as we all know, people who participate in this sport are not normal human beings.  They're boys.  That right there explains it.  But I still don't understand it.

Andrew has been participating in what seems to me to be a well-put-together wrestling camp at West High.  There are several head coaches, and the high school wrestlers break into small groups to coach the kids.  They have taught these little boys more than I ever thought possible.  Who knew wrestling was so serious?  You mean it's not just a couple of boys trying to overtake the other on a filthy mat?  There is technique involved?  Amazing!

I had visions of my future tonight.  I have three boys.  I might be spending a good chunk of my adult life shielding my eyes while sitting on the bleachers.  The head coach of West High gave me quite the smile when he saw the tortured look on my face, while just watching my eight-year-old practice.

Thankfully, Haley was one of the wrestling managers for her middle school (and knows these coaches), and she can sit next to me and explain just what the heck is going on.

I noticed earlier in the week that Andrew might do a little better during the matches if he'd wipe the smile off his face.  It was so cute, though, to see him just beaming and laughing because he was loving it so much.  But he tried today, and after practice he told me that he had much more energy because he wasn't smiling.  He even won his match.  I told him to go ahead and smile -- after the match was over.  He agreed.