Holy Week (According To A Five Year Old)

Big A spent the afternoon at Grandma and Grandpa's today so that I could keep Little A stay calm and resting (she was sick this morning). When Grandma was bringing him home this evening, she asked him what he'd learned in Chapel today.

Grandma - "So what did you learn in Chapel today?"

Big A - "We learned about God and Jesus."

Grandma - "You always learn about God and Jesus because that's what Chapel is for. Tell me something specific you learned today."

Big A - "We learned about Palm Sunday and Happy Friday. I don't know why it's called Happy Sunday, though. That's when they crucified Jesus."

Grandma - "That's right. Do you know how they crucified Jesus?"

Big A - "Yes, they nailed him to a cross and that's not good so I don't know why they call it Good Friday (Yes, this time it was 'Good' Friday and not 'Happy' Friday)."

Grandma - "Well... That's a good question to ask Intern John."

Big A - "Intern John doesn't know either."

Big A - "I wonder how they nailed Jesus to the cross. Did they lay the cross on the ground before they nailed him to it?"

Grandma - "That's another excellent question. You should ask Intern John about that, too."

Grandma - "Do you know when Palm Sunday is?"

Big A - "No."

Grandma - "Is it next Sunday?"

Big A - "No, next Sunday is Easter but maybe last Sunday was Palm Sunday."

Grandma - "That's right. Remember before the Easter egg hunt all of the kids carried the palms into the Chapel and placed them on the altar?"

Big A - "Yes."

Grandma - "Do you know why it's called Palm Sunday?"

Big A - "No."

Grandma - "When Jesus came into Jerusalem before he was crucified, all of the people were happy to see him and they laid palm leaves on the ground for him to walk on."

Big A - "Actually, Grandma, he was riding a donkey!"

Sorry, She's Taken!

As a parent, you only want the best for your children, right? The best schools, the best activities, the best environment, etc. This includes finding the best care for them when you can't be with them.

A few months after Little A was born we started looking for someone to come into our home to watch the kids 3 hours a day, 3 days a week. We are lucky to live in a college town, so we turned first to the college's job link where students look for jobs. This proved to be a gold mine, sending 15+ applicants our way. We interviewed all of them and selected the one whom we felt was the best fit. C was wonderful, but unfortunately (or fortunately as the case may be...) she only stayed with us for one semester. She was going home for summer break and her fall schedule didn't work with the hours we needed.

We reposted our ad on the job link and again were given our choice of qualified applicants. We were lucky to find A but she only worked for us through the summer because like C, A's fall schedule didn't work with ours. (The kids still ask to see A every time we go to Costco, though... A, you have not been forgotten!)

By this time we were becoming pros at using the job link but getting frustrated with the tedious process of finding just the right person to be trusted with our most prized possessions when along came MOLLY! (Molly, this post is for you, and not just because you feel like you don't get enough blog time!) To put it simply, MOLLY ROCKS! We love her, the kids love her, our friends love her (Yes, I WILL give her up occasionally if you ask nicely)... She has become part of our family. It melts my heart to watch the kids interact with her, asking for "one more goodbye" as she's getting ready to leave, shouting to her from the doorway as she walks to her car and asking every day if it's "a Molly day".

Molly plays with the kids, colors with them, takes them for walks, etc.... Everything you would expect a 'nanny' to do, but she does SO much more! Molly finishes dinner for me if I leave it in the crock pot, gives the kids baths if they get dirty in the sand box, accompanies us to doctor appointments for moral support, takes the kids on special trips, comes early and/or stays late with little to no advance notice, attends birthday parties and family parties, the list is endless... And she does it all with a smile which us moms know, is NOT always easy! OH.... AND.... She schedules her classes around US! AMAZING!

We would never be able to replace Molly even if we tried. I worry about the fact that Molly told me the other day she is officially a senior. She then told me she'd be staying here to do the credential program, but realistically.... Yeah, she won't have time for us.... And that makes me sad. I know it will all work out, it always does...

So Molly.... We can never thank you enough for all that you do for us. THANK YOU INFINITY TIMES INFINITY, we love you!

Hippity Hoppity Easter's On It's Way

It's that time of year... Time to break out the vinegar and those little dye tablets, cover everything in sight with plastic and go to work... Yep! Coloring Easter eggs! What better way to spend a rainy Monday evening?

When we told Little A we were going to color Easter eggs, she just looked at us with a blank stare. I realized that she hadn't colored eggs before... She LOVED it!

I have NO idea what this face is all about... Big A was into 'silly face' pictures tonight.

Molly came over to join in the fun!

I LOVE my Fiestaware! And look... A cup to match every dye tablet! I'm sure glad I've collected so many colors!

It's amazing what you can create with color crayons and Easter egg dye. That clear wax crayon that comes in the kits doesn't even begin to compare to real color crayons! It was cool, you should try it!

Looks like everyone had a good time!

The Golden Rule

The kids are playing boat again (their new favorite game, apparently!). Big A (the dad) is telling Little A (the kid) that it's Wednesday and that she's going to Grandma's. He's telling her that Grandma will pick her up at the dock, that she needs to pack a lunch but not all of her toys, etc.

Little A looks down and says, "Daddy! I found a coin!"

Big A - "OH! Let me see. Is it a five dollar, or a one dollar? Oh! It's a five dollar."

Little A - "OOOOH! Can I buy a gumball with that?"

Big A - "Okay, but only if you don't chew it for a second and then spit it out (Hmmm.... Wonder where he learned THAT line!?!?)."

Little A - "Okay. Is that the golden rule?"

A Joke And A 'DUH' Moment

This morning on the way to church Big A said to Little A, "Hey, Little A, do you wanna hear a joke?"



Little A said, "Yes!"



At that same moment we were driving past the baseball field and a boy who was running bases, rounded 2nd, tripped and fell. Big A said with a little chuckle, "WHOA! He fell!"



Little A paused for a moment and said, "Was that the joke?"

______________________________

A few minutes later, Big A was looking out the window and saw an airplane. He said, "WOW! Look at that plane up there! I bet it took off from somewhere!"

There was silence in the car for a split second while everyone proceesed what had been sed and then Big A and B and I started cracking up. Even Big A realized how silly that comment had sounded.

My Little Engineer

Today when I got home from work, Big A was excited to show me his latest Lego creation.

Big A - "MOMMY! I made this ALL by myself!"

Me - "WOW! What is it???"

Big A - "It's a Star Wars ship (except that he's NEVER seen Star Wars in his life) with guns (except that we don't play guns in the house)... I mean these shoot spaghetti sauce out!"

Me - "WOW! That's SO neat! Go get the camera and we'll take pictures of it."

Big A - "So you can put it on the blog!!!"

Big A - "Mommy, actually they shoot hot sauce!"



And because Big A got to be on the blog, Little A insisted that I take her picture as well. Okay! Twist my arm!! I mean really... It's not obvious that I LOVE taking pictures of my kids or anything!

Blog Comments

Last weekend I received a comment on my 'travelogue', the three posts I wrote about our vacation, from a man I don't know. I don't receive many comments on my posts and generally the ones I DO receive are from family and friends but I'm always intrigued as to how other people stumble across my blog.

Awhile back I posted this post about Ice Road Truckers and a conversation the kids were having in the backseat and this post about abstract art and the value of PBS shows and I had people who work on each show post comments to my blog. I learned that they have systems that track when people link to the shows and they read up to see what people are saying. That explains that one.

I'm also registered with BlogHer and under the ad that you see on my left sidebar, they feature four blog posts. Quite often I find that my blog posts are listed there on other people's blogs (I frequently see people visiting my blog from Big Mama). That explains that one.

And finally, every once in awhile I see people who have arrived from Google, probably by mistake. But where do these other people come from? How do they stumble upon my blog? Don't get me wrong, I love it! I'm glad people read my blog, I hope they enjoy it, but I'm curious!

So here's the question... How did you stumble upon my blog and what do you like about it? Leave me a comment and let me know! I love getting comments about as much as I love that people to read my blog, so come on! Flood my inbox!

Oh... And here's a little secret... Awhile back I signed up to blog for books. A company sends me books to read and I review them on my blog. The first one is coming up the week after Easter and guess what??? Sometimes they give me a give away copy. Hmmm...

Bucket List

Until the movie The Bucket List with Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman, I had never heard the term. I haven't made a bucket list, really don't give it much thought usually, but today I got an email titled "Bucket List". The list is not really so much a bucket list, as a list of things you may or may not have done in your lifetime, but I thought it would be fun to share with you the things that I have done and fun to see what you all have done!

Directions: Place an 'x' by all the things you've done and remove the 'x' from the things you haven't done.

(x) Shot a gun
(x) Went on a blind date
(x) Skipped school
( ) Watched someone die
( ) Been to Alaska
(x) Been to Canada
( ) Been to Florida
(x) Been to Las Vegas
(x) Been to New York
( ) Been to Europe
(x) Been to Mexico
(x) Been on a plane
(x) Been on a ship
( ) Served on a jury
( ) Been lost
(x) Been on the other side of the country
(x) Been to Washington DC
(x) Swam in the ocean
(x) Cried yourself to sleep
( ) Played cops and robbers
( ) Played cowboys and Indians
(x) Recently colored with crayons
( ) Sang karaoke
(x) Done something you told yourself you wouldn't
(x) Made prank phone calls
(x) Laughed until some type of beverage came out your nose
( ) Caught a snowflake on your tongue
( ) Danced in the rain
(x) Written a letter to Santa Claus
(x) Been kissed under the mistletoe
(x) Watched the sunrise with someone
(x) Blown bubbles
( ) Gone ice skating
(x) Gone snow skiing
(x) Slept out under the stars
(x) Seen something so beautiful it took your breath away
(x) Are or have been married
(x) Have children
(x) Have a pet
(x) Gone skinny dipping
(x) Been fishing
(x) Been boating
(x) Been water skiing
(x) Been hiking
(x) Been camping
(x) Flown in a small 4-seat airplane
( ) Been skydiving
( ) Flown in a hot air balloon
( ) Bungee jumped
( ) Gone to a drive-in movie
( ) Done something that should have killed you
(x) Done something that you will probably regret for the rest of your life

As for my TRUE 'bucket list', the things I want to be sure are on it are to travel more, to spend as much time with my family (both immediate and extended) as I can, to watch my children grow up and have children of their own, and most importantly to continue to grow in my faith. While many of those other things might be fun, I don't see any of them as absolute necessity.

So... What's on YOUR bucket list???

Earning Her Keep

Imagine my surprise when my three year old came into the kitchen while I was doing dishes and asked, "Mama, can I help you do dishes?"

REALLY!?!? How long will THIS last? Can I go put my feet up while SHE does the dishes?

Okay, so maybe not quite... But it was still two less dishes that I had to wash!

Liars In Church

This was sent to us by B's aunt, and it's too good not to share...

A Preacher finished the service one morning by saying, "Next Sunday, I am going to preach on the subject of liars. As a preparation for my sermon, I would like you all to read Mark Chapter 17."

The following Sunday, the preacher rose to begin. Looking out at the congregation, he said, "Last week I asked you all to read Mark Chapter 17. If you have read the chapter, please raise your
hand."

Nearly every hand in the congregation went up. Smiling, the preacher said, "You are the very people I want to talk to today... Mark has only 16 chapters."

Imagine how you'd feel if you were one of the people who raised your hand... Personally I'd want to crawl under the pew! It's bad enough to lie, but to lie in church?!?!

I'd like to sit here and say that I would NOT raise my hand if I hadn't done what I was asked to do, but who knows. We're put in situations every day where we have to make the decision to 'raise our hand or not' so to speak. We teach our kids that they may get in trouble for doing something wrong, but they'll be in MORE trouble if they lie about it.

Now if we could all live by that advice...

St. Patrick's Day Shenanigans...

While my family slept...

The Leprechauns crept...

To spread Irish cheer...

Recycle green beer...

Leave some green treats...

And make sandwiches neat...

The kids weren't so sure...

Even quite ticked...

Until they found out it was chocolates they licked!

A Fly On The Wall...

I love working in the kitchen and listening to the kids while they fight and argue play. You hear some of the strangest things!

This afternoon I was making lasagna. Little A came in and told me she had to go to the bathroom. I said, "Okay, go ahead. You're a big girl."

She went in and attended to her business, singing the ENTIRE time!

"Twinkle twinkle little star, H I J K L M N O P."

"Open and shut them, open and shut them, give a little clap clap clap. Open and shut them, open and shut them, fold them in your lap."

"Toilet paper is so great to me, I don't have any soap. It unrolls and I love toilet paper...."

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A few minutes later the kids were playing neighbors. Big A was going over to Little A's house. He knocked on the door and when she answered I heard, "Hi! I'm here! I brought my dog, my water bottle and these two bombs."

(Editor's note... While it sounded VERY odd, I knew what he was talking about. Last night we were at a silent auction and kids' raffle and Big A won some water bombs for the pool.)

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They'd moved on to playing boat (I have NO idea, but they have the GREATEST imaginations!). One would get off the boat and go on a date with their boyfriend or girlfriend while one stayed on the boat, then they'd switch. At one point Little A climbed into the 'driver's seat'. Big A ran over and said, "That's not how you drive, you Little Twinkle! Is that what the GPS is TELLING you to do???"

Ahhh... I love my kids. I don't know what I've done differently today than any other day, but I've been told at LEAST three times what a wonderful mommy I am, and it's not even because they want something! There's something about hearing that from a 3 year old and a 5 year old that just melts your heart.

A Lesson In Animals And Meats

This afternoon the kids and I were headed to In-N-Out for lunch. On the way we were discussing what each of us was going to order. Big A said, "I want a hamburger with just ketchup."

Me - "But this is In-N-Out. I though you liked everything on your burger here?"

Big A - "Oh, yeah. But no onions."

Me - "Right. No onions and no cheese, but sauce and lettuce and tomatoes."

Big A - "And HAM!"

Me - "OH! I see it's time for a lesson in animals and meat. Well yes, hamburger, but it's not ham. Did you know that?"

Big A - "It's not?"

Me - "Nope! Okay... Where does chicken come from?"

Big A - "Chickens!"

Me - "Yes, chickens. Hamburgers are made from beef. Do you know where beef comes from?"

Big A - "BEEFERS!"

Me (laughing) - "Beefers, huh?"

After we all had a good laugh about the beefers, and knowing full well that the kids had NO understanding of what I was saying and were not going to listen because they were too caught up on the beefers, I told them that ham was actually pork and asked where pork came from.

Big A quickly answered, "PORCUPINES!"

Thursday thru Sunday - Los Angeles

I'm embarrassed ot say that I don't have any pictures from this part of the trip! Can you believe it???

The last few days of our vacation was spent in Los Angeles visiting Great Grandma and Aunt Pam, and getting dresses in line for my cousin's July wedding which the kids and I are in. We arrived in LA late Thursday night and went straight to our hotel where we were supposed to have adjoining rooms with my parents. When we checked in we were told that we'd requested adjacent rooms, NOT adjoining rooms (REALLY!?! Because adjacent is a word that I use QUITE often, right?). We were a little ticked but went to our 'adjacent' rooms and went to bed.

The next morning we got up, talked to the front desk staff about moving to adjoining rooms, ate breakfast and headed to Grandma's. Mom and I spent time visiting with Grandma, the kids played with Grandma's caretaker, and the guys worked on various projects that Grandma needed done around the house. After lunch the 'girls' went to David's Bridal while the guys continued working. I think B was ticked that I left and ended up being gone for so long, but after spending 3 hours at David's Bridal I am 100% convinced that I did the right thing by looking at dresses with Mom, and NOT with B. He'd have been ready to go after the first 15 minutes (if he lasted that long) and would not have been readily available (and willing) to hook and unhook bras, zip and unzip dresses and repeatedly return to the racks for different sizes and styles. Ladies, YOU understand what I'm talking about, RIGHT?

We went back to Grandma's, ate dinner, and returned to our hotel where once again we were assured we'd have adjoining rooms waiting for us. HA! No such luck. The woman who'd switched our rooms that morning had failed to communicate the switch to the night staff, and my parent's room had been given to someone else. The staff hurried to find us a different, suitable rooms, and we FINALLY got settled for the night (the also gave us a coupon for 6 free $14 breakfasts at the hotel which was nice, although didn't fully make up for their incompetency).

Saturday was pretty much a repeat of Friday with the exception of the room mishaps and this time we only spent TWO hours at David's Bridal, instead of three. We took my Grandma and aunt with us on Saturday so that they could see the dresses that my cousin had picked for the bridesmaids and flower girls then we took them to shop for shower and wedding gifts.

We tried to get to bed fairly early Saturday night, as we wanted to be on the road by 7am on Sunday in order to make it home in time for a dinner at church that was raising funds for the Mexico Mission trip that B will be attending in a few weeks. While we didn't make it to bed early Saturday, we DID manage to be on the road very close to 7am and we DID make it home in time for the dinner.

We were all exhausted but it was a GREAT trip and we're already planning for next year! We can't wait, can you?

Tuesday thru Thursday - San Diego, CA

The second leg of our trip took us over some hills and through the desert (a beautiful but lonely drive along desolate Old Route 66) to San Diego where we visited the Wild Animal Park and Legoland. I believe I said this already, but I HIGHLY recommend both places (although I would not visit either in the summer)!

I'll apologize here, because the rest of the post is mostly pictures. If you follow me on Facebook, you've already seen these. For the rest of you, please enjoy living vicariously through our pictures. I would have LOVED to share more (after all, I have over 200 pics from our trip), but I'm sure I'm much more interested in them than most people and a large chunk of them are pictures of the animals at the Wild Animal Park.

I just LOVE this picture...

The tickets at the Wild Animal Park include unlimited rides on the carousel and the Journey Through Africa tram. I think we rode the carousel four times, each time choosing a different animal to ride on (except for B who rode in the spinning bird's nest every time but one)!

This is a view of a portion of the Wild Animal Park from a sky deck in the park. It's BEAUTIFUL!

B and Big A fed the lorakeets. Little A told me she wanted to do it, but started SCREAMING as soon as she saw that they actually land on you.

All in all it was a beautiful day at the Wild Animal Park. We had a couple of small showers pass overhead but the weather was nice other than that. When we left the park we used Myrtle (our GPS) and mom's iPhone to find a pizza place for dinner. We settled on Soprano's pizza which was a few miles away. The service was awful and I didn't think the food was great but everyone else enjoyed it. After dinner I wanted ice cream but we tried three or four different places (again using Myrtle and the iPhone) and were unsuccessful in finding any place that was still open so we went back to our hotel room and had Girl Scout Cookies instead. Oh well! It's not like I REALLY need ice cream.

The next morning we got up and at 'em and headed to Legoland. My only complaint about Legoland is that they charge for children 3 and up yet the majority of the rides require you to be 4 to ride them. This was a bummer because I was constantly looking for rides for Little A to ride while Big A was able to ride just about everything.

Getting ready to watch Bob The Builder in 4-D

Little A wanted to get her face painted. I am SURE that I have this SAME picture of me when I was her age. I LOVE it!

There are a few rides where people on the outside can squirt you with water while you're riding. Big A LOVED being on the outside of the fence squirting people. I guess he didn't mind that they were squirting him back!

We LOVED Legoland and could have spent another day there, but alas we had to move on to Los Angeles to visit Great Grandma. Once again we used Myrtle and the iPhone to find Harbor Fish Cafe, a tiny cafe sitting right on the Pacific Ocean. We had a good dinner, great conversation with the wait staff and hit the road!

Stay tuned for the final leg of our trip... LA!