Children: Free to Good Home

Okay, the children have been home since Thursday after school. Friday was an in-service day. Then we had the Blizzard. Monday was cancelled and I've just found out that school in cancelled AGAIN for tomorrow!


Noooo! I'm ready for them to go back to school!

In the face of this new development, I got to thinking. (Hush, it's not ALL bad when I start thinking!) How would I go about advertising my children if I were to send them somewhere else for awhile? Truth in advertising? Go the route of used car salesmen and put the best possible spin on things?

I think I'll go with Pros and Cons:


Magnet: Almost 12 years old.

Pros:
1. Practically housebroken, rarely misses the toilet anymore.
2. Cooks his own macaroni and cheese.
3. Very smart.

Cons:
1. Has not understood the concept of a hamper yet, doubtful at this stage if he will.
2. While he does cook his mac and cheese, he doesn't put up any ingredients and often cooks the stirring utensils at the same time resulting in frequent smoke alarm sound-offs as well as warping all plastic cooking utensils.
3. Very smart in school, has yet to figure out that there is a time and place to just be quiet when mom 'gets that look'.

Another option is this one:


Alien: 10 years old.

Pros:
1. Young enough that he doesn't mind snuggling.
2. Quick to laugh at most anything.
3. Extremely sociable and makes friends easily.

Cons:
1. Being the second son, he does not have the ability to entertain himself and thus requires all those around him to participate in his activity of choice or suffer the whining consequences of not joining him.
2. Quick to laugh, and make noises, and fart while laughing, then snort, laugh with mouth full of food, chokes on said food and then laughs about it again, still laughs while being told not to do something. Convinced he's entirely too cute to ACTUALLY be in any sort of trouble.
3. Brings any friend he has made or just met or anyone that is tagging along with anyone that he has just met right over to the house and brings them into the bedroom where he then wakes you while you are sleeping with your nightgown twisted up around your waist so that he can ask if everyone can come in.


They both come with a bike that has a flat tire. multiple pairs of jeans with stains and holes in the knees, book bags that have a mysterious ability to lose library books and shoes with floppy laces.

AS IS condition and all returns will be accepted. Orthodontic work will be the responsibility of the accepting party. No exchanges. Thank you.

Snow Storm Update! Whoa!

Grab some hot chocolate, bundle up in your favorite blanket and look what is going on now!

Just a few short hours ago, this is what we had. And now..this! It's getting hard to even see out there. I'm sure glad I don't have to try to drive in this stuff!


That nice little garden light...yeah, presto chango..and it's disappeared! BTW, that's a 36 inch T-ruler to that means that drift is ummm, someone do the math. It's deep is what it is! Heh. (You can click to make the pictures really big!)

Magnet decided to venture into the back yard to work on a snow fort. Snow fort in Magnet speech means "I'm going to track all over the yard and get as covered in snow as I possibly can so that I can come back in all frozen and melt all over the house while loudly demanding that you make me some hot chocolate with extra marshmallows."

Yeah, he's really learned how to condense down all of that in just two little words. Snow Fort.

He's going to be one of those strong, silent types.

To be a kid again (otherwise known as) To sleep outside without being drunk.

My two youngest boys are sleeping outside tonight on the trampoline. They are bundled up in blankets and are lying under the clear night sky with a million stars overhead.


I kinda freaked out Magnet with the first photo. He didn't hear me coming outside.


Alien is already sound asleep buried in his pile of blankets.


The night is just wonderful, a soft breeze, mild temperatures. It's kinda tempting to join them.

I think the last time I slept outside, I had passed out on some lawn chair after drinking waaaay too much and woke up the next morning with a ton of little stripes across my face.

Just not the same.

Spelling Bee 101

Yep, it was time for the county spelling bee. Actually, it's the elementary and middle school spelling bee but since our county has such a small population, it's also the county spelling bee. So school, town and county spelling champ all in one shot!

Alien was so excited this year. It's the first year he was eligible and he was pumped! Magnet was very laid back this year. Didn't even go over any quiz words or anything. He has done this 2 previous times ya know...he's a well-experienced bee-er that has been around the block more than once!

The kids competing were 4th through 8th grade. Altogether 59 kids were lined up to compete and they were all given a practice word to begin with. Magnet sailed through his word with 'place'. Piece of cake. Alien has nervous as he stepped to the microphone but got 'month' without a hitch.

Okay, now time for the real thing. Round 1 has commenced and there are a few casualties. Magnet steps up to the microphone. His word is 'temper'. He spells out T. E. M. P. U. R. E.

Huh? This is my kiddo that had a 10th grade reading level in the 2nd grade? I think he was just a bit too laid back this year. He's giving me this look cause I'm getting onto him about picking his new wires on his braces. Don't even ask me about his wires and brackets and how many extra trips we have to take back to the dentist. He's lucky he's still alive right now.

So back to the bee. Alien's word is 'graze'. G R A Z E. Easy peasey. Round 2 comes around and kids are starting to drop like flies. Alien's word is 'nurse'. His sentence was "Your mother is a nurse at the hospital." People around me snickered cause shore'nuff, I'm a nurse at the hospital. Again, the kid got it right.

Round 3. His word is 'platoon'. Now this one is a bit tougher for him and I didn't know if he had seen this one before. He spells P L U T I N E. Down he goes but he gave it a good shot. He was pretty bummed at first.

Then he remembered that he had gotten farther than his brother. All was right in the world after all. Just an FYI, a 4th grader ended up winning the bee, for the first time in our county's history! I wish I had a video of how excited the 4th grade class was. The boys were all pumping their arms with every correctly spelled word! It was pretty awesome. I love small towns.