You Got To Go To The Mountain of Love

Brennan: Mom, you got to go to the mountain of love.

Me: Oh really?

Brennan: Yea, it's not far away...only an hour...you have to turn right and left and right and left a bunch of times...actually it's a volcano...and it's really like...ummm...five hours away.

Me: A volcano of love?

Brennan: Yea.

Me: Why would I want to go there?

Brennan: To see if it's melting and stuff...I want to see if it's popping and noisy and stuff...and there are people inside.

Me: I don't think so.

Brennan: Sure there are.

There's A Pill For That

Since I'm fairly new to blogging, I'm not sure what the proper etiquette is when bloggers have errors in their posts. My sister, Chelle, and I are pretty open about this. She sends me corrections when needed and I send her corrections when needed. No big thing. I am by NO MEANS perfect in my writing and find mistakes in my own all the time. But I am a writing teacher and when reading other blogs, mistakes pounce out at me like a blinking neon sign.

Let me back track a minute and tell you that I have some issues with mistakes in writing. Remember now, before thinking I'm too crazy, that I teach elementary writing and have now for 15 years. Secretly, I make corrections in other teachers' bulletin boards when they have huge mistakes like a misplaced or missing apostrophe, a capital letter when it should be lower case or visa versa, or something else along those lines. Initially I tried just telling those teachers about their mistakes, but that didn't always go well. Please though...teachers can't model bad writing when students look at the bulletin boards and such!

I've even been in the drive-thru at Sonic and been compelled to tell the cashier that their sign on the window needed to be corrected. She gave me a look like I belonged in an insane asylum. I wasn't sure if she thought I was crazy or if she just didn't understand what mistake I was talking about (even though I described the problem to her in great detail!!) Another time I was at my doctor's office and got the same response from the receptionist there. There was a sign that had this horrible incomplete sentence! Don't they want to be told?

So what's the protocol? Do bloggers want to know or do they just want you to leave them alone? I don't know about other people, let me say right here and now, if anyone out there reading my blog sees mistakes that need to be made, PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE, let me know. I don't want to sound like a hilly billy (that's what my kids at school call it when they use bad grammar).

This whole post reminds me of a comment that one of my student teachers would make when I would get on rampages such as these. She would say, "You know...there's a pill for that."

Wearing The Same Dress To Prom

While looking through my favorite blogs last night I ran across someone who had the same background as me. We can't have that now! That is equivalent to wearing the same dress as someone else to the prom. Yea, I know, right? (I had to throw that phrase in there because my nieces use it all the time, and my sisters hate it). So of course I headed off to my favorite home of the free backgrounds, thecutestblogontheblock website, and found out that their site was down. Being the quick thinker that I am I just searched some other free background websites. I'm not the most techy person in the world so what I ended up with was a messed up background! For this reason, you'll have to look at a boring blog until TCBOTB is back up and running.

This should teach me a lesson. It shouldn't matter if we're wearing the same dress. More than likely no one even noticed but me!

Can Calgon Really Take You Away?

Not really an age-old question, but a good question just the same.

Can Calgon really take you away?

Sometimes, one just needs to get away and be by themselves for some quiet, calming time.

If you are like me, you slip off to the bathroom for a hot bath or a hot shower (I'd love to say long hot shower or bath but that's just crazy talking) only to be interrupted every 10-30 seconds with reports, tattles, whines, complaints, requests, announcements, etc. My interruptions often sound something like this (make sure to read these comments with a long, whiney drawn out Texas accent OR imagine it in a yell), "Mom, Brother just called me poopooshutupbutt." or "Mom, Sister is making me be like her slave." or "Mom, someone just called you. I told them you were naked!" There are way more, but I won't bore you with them. I think you get the idea. This kind of shower or bath is not what I would consider to be the Calgon taking you away type.

Tonight, there was great need for Calgon to take someone (me) away. Usually I announce this event and try to get the kids to understand that I need them to avoid burning the house down or painting each other, but this evening I just snuck off without saying a word. The whole time I'm in the shower I kept waiting for the intrusions. There were a couple of times that I think I even imagined their little voices calling me. Low and behold, I finished my shower and realized that a record had been set! I took about a 10 minute shower with NO interruptions. Count them...NONE! NADA! ZERO! ZIPPITY DO DA! What's even better than that? The house was not destroyed (any more than normal that is) after that 10 minutes.

So to answer the question early asked, can Calgon really take you away? My answer today would be...

YES...if Wii Mario Cart is played...and if two out of three are sick and feeling not quite themselves...and if new movies are available for viewing...and if all the planets are perfectly aligned.

Thank you Calgon!

Ella & Brennan's "Real" Party at Chuck E. Cheese

Okay, so how many of you feel like the birthdays are never ending? Oh, so it's just me then? Anyway, here's a slideshow from Ella & Brennan's birthday party at Chuck E. Cheese. There were about 27 kids at the party and I hope we got pictures of everyone. My sister, Chelle, was kind enough to take pictures while I was being social.

Now, for the last time this go around...Happy Birthday Ella & Brennan!

Happy 5th Birthday Ella!

Ella and Brennan have been having fun being four years old together for the past three days, but today Ella turned 5. Being the resident "Drama Queen" she went hysterical when I told her I had a doctor's appointment this morning. The wailing sounded something like, "It's my birthday! You'll miss it! What about my pancakes!?! Waaaahhhhhhhhhhh!!!!" She calmed down a little when I told her I'd only be gone a few hours first thing in the morning and that Nana was coming over to make her pancakes for breakfast. Nana made some ginormous (Anna's new word that she enjoys telling me is now an actual real word according to the dictionary) pancakes. I had about half of one when I got back from my appointment. The kids spent most of the day playing with a neighbor friend. They spent time riding ripsticks, scooters, a razor and playing the wii. After Brennan had a nap we got ready and went to see The Tale of Despereaux. After the movie Ella kept saying that we missed her birthday cake. Nana to the rescue again. Once we got to my mom's house Ella helped put her birthday cake together. We sang happy birthday. She blew out the candles. All three of the kids are now outside playing with the candles and fire. What is it about nanas that they let their grandkids do things their kids weren't even allowed to do? I guess they just love them more! Check out my mom's blog for some pictures of the pyromaniacs and their nana. Even though Ella opened all her birthday presents on Brennan's birthday, she still wants to know if she'll have any to open when she gets home. What is that called...being a child of excess...caused by parents overindulgence...yep I think it is. Anyway, she'll have a little to open. A new toothbrush, Tinkerbell body spray, and some candy. She'll love all of it and ooh and aah appropriately because she's my Ella and that's what she does. 

Happy Birthday Ella!

Happy 4th Birthday Brennan!

December 28, 2004, just three days after that great white Christmas, Brennan was born. Today was his fourth birthday. Earlier this week Brennan (and Ella but I'll get to her in a couple of days) received several cards wishing him a happy birthday. He also received early birthday presents from Grandma and Grandpa Greene when they visited in November. Ella and I started off the day singing Happy Birthday to Brennan. Then I told him I would make him whatever he wanted for breakfast. What did he want you ask? Macaroni and cheese. What did he get you ask? Macaroni and cheese. He and Anna ate that while Ella and I chose oatmeal. I told Brennan that I was going to make him a walnut banana cake with cream cheese frosting. He said he didn't want that kind of cake. He wanted a strawberry cake. Thankfully, I had all the ingredients to make his cake wish come true. After breakfast I let them open their gift. Since Ella's birthday is three days after Brennan's birthday, I let her open her gift to. The other reason I let her open it was because they were receiving the same gifts. Plasma cars! They were very excited until they realized I couldn't get them put together. We had to wait until later in the afternoon when my uncle could put them together for me. They were all pretty happy to play with the wii until I was ready for church. At church, Ella told everyone that would listen that it was Brennan's birthday. She would say, "Today is my brother's birthday. He's four. I'm four too." It would take them a second before they realized what she was saying and it took each person by surprise. They thought she was mistaken. She's not mistaken. Each year, Ella and Brennan are the same age for three day and they love that. When we were through with church we went over to my mom's. We ate butter beans, spinach salad, rolls and of course...strawberry birthday cake. My uncle managed to get the plasma cars together. Brennan got a Thomas the Train DVD and a remote control car from my mom. As I'm blogging all three of the kids have figured out how to make it run along the hoola hoop and are playing very happy together. What a rare occasion!

This morning I held Brennan like a baby and said, "I can't believe that four years ago you were saying goo-goo, ga-ga." He was pretty tickled with that. Although he claims he's not my baby, I continue to assure him that he will always be my baby.

**Revision: Right before I put the two little ones to bed tonight I remembered the gifts that were sent from Jon's brother, Brad and his wife Erica. The kids loved the monogrammed backpacks.**

Happy Birthday Brennan!