Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader Part II

Today is February 29th, in the Year of Our Lord 2008. Yadda, Yadda, Yadda.

When I picked up the boys from school we engaged in two conversations. One I could keep up and one I couldn't. The first went like this:

Kenny: There's a boy in my class that turned 2 today.
Me: That's so cool!
Kenny: And he's taller than me.
Me: And he's only 2?!?
Kenny: Yup, he has a leap year birthday.
Me: That's pretty special.
Kenny: So when I am 100 he'll only be 25.
Me: That's pretty young.
Kenny: Yup, that's cool. Can I have a snack when we get home?
Me: You sure can.

And the second:

Chase: Actually, he'll only be 24.
Me: And why is that?
Chase: We have a leap year every four years, unless the year is divisible by 100. That year is not a leap year. Well, with the exception of the years that are divisible by 400. They are still leap years. So 2000 was a leap year, but 2100, 2200, and 2300 will not be leap years. That is because the solar year is slightly less than 365.25 days.
Me: So do you want a snack when we get home too?

The Weather Around Here

Yesterday it was 92 degrees here. Now it is 36 with a high of 58. This place is crazy. Of course today is my walk5milesallovercampusday.
I know, I know ... quit whining and go get ready for class.

You Might Be a Redneck (February 2008 Edition)

...if your kids play in the sprinkler system in the middle of February!

Rodeo Parade

We went to the Rodeo Parade yesterday. I have never seen so many horses in one place in my life! I won't bore you with the endless pictures of horses and marching bands that I took. But I will share my three favorite pictures:

My cool boy up on a flower box trying to get a better view of the 10 year old cheerleaders.

The longhorn cow that some of you may remember from the boys' Christmas photo (we did two different photos for two different cards that I had).

And ... the best entertainment of the morning. These donkeys decided they were done walking. Done. This poor guy spent about 20 minutes pushing, pulling, whipping, begging, bribing, crying, etc. right here in front of us. About half of the parade passed right by him while he tried to convince his donkeys to pull his covered wagon. I don't know who the guy with the baseball cap (behind the covered wagon) is. He thought he'd try to help by chatting with the people inside the wagon. Somehow I don't think he was much help at all!

Anyway, the whole thing was rather entertaining. And a good way to get out of the house for a little while. Stay tuned later in the week for some Rodeo photos.

Making Donuts

We have a found some new to us and old to the rest of the world entertainment here in our house. Last weekend I went on You Tube and found several of these videos to show the boys. Being a generation X child (no patience) I immediately went to amazon.com and bought the entire first season of the Muppet Show. Have you seen this show lately? These people muppets are so funny!

My Ideal TV Boyfriend

I was supposed to be working on a paper that I have due next week. Instead I was surfing around other peoples' blogs reading about their lives. Sometimes interesting. Sometimes boring. It all seemed better than writing my paper at the time. Anyway, I came across this link for taking a quiz to figure out who my ideal TV boyfriend would be. And I swear I answered everything honestly and here he is ... McDreamy! I can't believe it! Maybe I shouldn't tell Brian. He already thinks that I am in love with this guy. Hm ... maybe I should get to that paper that I have due next week.

Who is Your Ideal TV Boyfriend?

More on Gossip Girl. Created by BuddyTV

Ok, blogger friends. Go out and take the quiz and let me know who your Ideal TV Boyfriend is. Because I am hoping that I am not the only one who doesn't have better things to do.

The One That Got Bumped

This picture was going to be my Worldless Wednesday before my redneck-in-training won the spelling bee yesterday. Believe it or not this is the car of the local Bail Bondsman of our town here in West Texas. Really. And ... (yes, this story gets better) When I showed the picture in my camera to my friend in class yesterday she immediately recognized it and said, "Oh, the bail bondsman's car?" ... like it was just a normal part of this wonderful little place I live in. Well, I guess it is. Only in Texas, only in Texas!

Wordless Wednesday -- Scripps National Spelling Bee: School Champ!

At Least They Had a Good Day

Do you know what today is? It is President Day. It is a federal holiday. The post office was closed today. Federal banks were closed today. Most of my friends in other states in this great union had their kids home with them today. The entire United States Army had the day off. I would be willing to guess President Bush had the day off. Or at least he probably would have if his approval rating was better than 30% right now. I had class, but luckily for me Monday is a late day and my first class was canceled so we all slept in nice and late. It was a great day. I pretended I was a stay-at-home mom all morning. I made belgian waffles for breakfast. I baked banana bread. I cleaned the house. I finished the laundry. I studied for a test I have tomorrow. Brian and the boys played basketball, walked the dogs, played frisbee, went hiking, and rode their 4-wheeler. Then after lunch I went to class. When my friend Chelsea sat down next to me I noticed she was wearing her school disctrict badge. The badge she has to wear when she goes into the elementary school for her observation time. I said, "Chelsea, why are you wearing your badge? The kids didn't have school today." She said, "Yes, they did." I said, "But it's President's Day!" Then I started thinking ... how can they get a day off for the stock show? How can they get a day off for the rodeo? How can the entire United States Army take a day off and my kids are supposed to be in school on President's Day? And they are home playing frisbee with their dad right this very minute?!? I won't be winning any Mother of the Year Awards for this little mistake!

Why I Love Summer Vacation

I am sitting here trying desperately to study for an exam I have tomorrow. I have the old computer in front of me. There is a slide show of 2005 summer vacation photos going past on the screen. How in the world am I supposed to be able to concentrate when this goes past my screen?

While the Cat is Away

...the mice will play!

Yesterday I spent a couple of hours in the library at the college campus getting some work done on a paper that I have due this week. This is a picture I just found on my camera:

Rites of Passage

All around the world people use different rituals to initiate their young into adulthood. For example, the Rastafarians use marijuana just before puberty. They say that it binds the group of adolescents. The Surfista (young teen boys) in Rio ride on top of a train ducking overhead rails and wires. Vanuatu boys (Brazil) dive from 50 ft towers with elastic vines tied to a foot just long enough to stop them from crashing (we would call this Bungee jumping). Here at our house we have finally taken a step with our older redneck in training. He has crossed that threshold toward manhood.

He drank Nyquil!

What Do You Say?

I spend an hour a week reading to two students in an elementary school here in town. This is the conversation I had last week with my 3rd grade student:
Student: I don't really live here in WESTTEXAS. I live in Mexico.
Me: That's pretty far away.
Student: Yeah, sometimes I get scared when we cross because of all of the beggers.
Me: (stunned silence) (not really sure what to say) (uncomfortable pause) (time to wonder if there is a class that teaches you how to deal with these issues)
Student: We go there a lot because that's where we really live.
Me: It must be a long drive.
Student: Yeah, one time we didn't get back here until 1:00.
Me: In the morning?
Student: Yeah, that was after my brother got out of jail in Mexico and we had to pick him up.
Me: Do you want to work on your spelling words now?

I Must Be Getting Old

Thursday as I was walking into class I overheard one of the (younger) college students on her cell phone. She was obviously talking to her parents about money. What I heard her say was, "No, you don't get it. You just don't understand that $300 doesn't go very far these days." She started saying something about the price of gas but by then I was walking too far past her to hear any more. I couldn't help but feel bad for her parents. And I laughed out loud. Right there by myself as I was walking to my next class. I felt like going back to that little 18 year old girl and telling her that her parents surely knew how far $300 could go and that she should go get herself a job! I wanted to tell her that she should appreciate the gift they were giving her instead of whining for more money. And I wanted to make myself a note that says something like this: If one of the boys ever tell you that you don't know how far $300 goes when you offer to give them $300 be sure to give them $200 instead. Then remind them that it could have been $100. And tell them to learn how to make it stretch. Be sure to tell them that they should be grateful instead of selfish and whiney. Oh, and tell them to get a job!

Internet Privacy

I am trying a couple of little things to increase our amount of internet privacy. The first of which was taking our last name out of our blog address. The next thing I want to do is take our names and our town out of our postings. It all started with the posting I did last week about my textbooks. I was getting some really weird comments from strangers about how to sell textbooks online. I have also received some strange comments from strangers lately about how likable my blog is. I know a blog is public, but it is still a little weird to have strangers commenting on the video the boys made for my mom on her birthday!!!
Since then I have changed my blog address, taken my blog off from the search engine listings, and deleted a few of my postings. I have seen a noticable decrease in my daily traffic. (That is a good thing) I know that a blog is a public thing and I can't make it totally private if I want to be able to share it with my family and friends. But there are certain things I can do to make it a little more safe.
Some of the things I will be doing:

• The boys have blogs too. They rarely update them, but they want to have them because I have one. If for some reason you want to visit them, please just email me and I will send you a link to give you permission to view their blogs. I have made their blogs private and right now the only people who can view them are me, their Grammy, and their Aunt Lisa.
• Search engines have been instructed not to "crawl" my blog.
• My blog is not available when other bloggers click "Next Blog".
• I will not be using the name of our town, schools, or work places. I would appreciate it if you try not to use those names in your comments.
• I am going to try to come up with clever nicknames for everyone in our family. I know it sounds a little silly, but it can be done in a way that is cute and not too weird. One of my favorite blogs to visit is Confessions of a Pioneer Woman. She calls her kids punks and her husband is the Marlboro man. If you have any ideas, please pass them along. I am toying with "Rednecks in Training" for the boys or maybe even "Boy1" and "Boy2" I am not very clever though so if you think of anything better ... please let me know. I am stuck on punks, but I don't want to steal it from the Pioneer Woman!

Ok, I think that's all of my new news for now. Look, I know this blogging thing is not fool proof and it's far from the safest thing on the internet. But I am going to make a couple of small attempts at making it just a little safer than it is now. This weekend I'll go through my old postings and pull out names & references to our town & schools. After that I might just have to start referring to myself as Wonder Woman or something stupid like that if you all don't help me out and come up with something better. Help a girl out, would ya?!?!?!

Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?

Apparently I am not.

A couple of days ago my sister-in-law Lisa and I were talking on the phone about how we naively put our last names in our blog web addresses when we first set them up. Fortunately for me, my 11 year old redneck in training always listens in on my conversations and he joined in to tell me that he knew how to fix that problem for me. Of course, I didn't believe him. And of course, he was right. So within about 15 seconds I had a new web address. It is now http://www.alwayshomewardbound.blogspot.com/

I put the redneck on the phone with Lisa and 15 seconds later she had her new web address. Her's is http://homesweethomealabama.blogspot.com/ Her new address will take effect tomorrow. She was nicer than I am -- she gave her readers a day's notice. I just changed mine and figured you could all be frustrated until I sent out a mass email.

So if you need any technical assistance feel free to call my young redneck and I'll rent him out to you for a small fee.

Happy Happy Happy

Happy Anniversary to my parents! Here they are on their wedding day. It all started with a blind date. His roommate was dating her roommate (they are still married too) and they hooked up for a wild & crazy New Year's Eve double-date. Sparks flew and a February 6th wedding was planned. A big snowstorm pushed the date back almost a week and they got hitched on the 12th, a full 43 days after they met each other. 36 years ago.

Happy Birthday to my younger brother Toby. Here I am reminding my parents that even though he is absolutely adorable I am still the first child. The oldest. The one who gave them the gift of parenthood. I am still a firstborn child like that.

And lastly, Happy Valentine's Day to You!! Hope you have a great one :)

Wordless Wednesday -- Join the Party

You can't ever say I don't share with my kids!

Let the Truth be Known

It's been 13 years and I am finally ready to fess up. Finally ready to spill my guts. Tell the truth. Let my entire family know the real reason I joined the Army.

Here's my parents' weather forecast for this week:

Today: Snow. Snow will be heavy at times this morning. High 18F. Winds W at 15 to 25 mph. Additional snow accumulating 6 to 10 inches. Heavier amounts in persistent snowbands.

Tonight: Snow showers early will taper to flurries later on. Low around 5F. Winds W at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of snow 60%. 2 to 4 inches of snow expected.

Tomorrow: Cloudy. Snow likely in the afternoon. Cold. High 22F. Winds SE at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of snow 70%. Snow accumulating 2 to 4 inches.

Tomorrow night: Cloudy with snow. Low around 20F. Winds S at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of snow 80%. Significant snow accumulation possible.

Wednesday: Snow showers in the morning. Highs in the mid 20s and lows in the upper teens.

Thursday: Mix of sun and clouds. Highs in the mid 20s and lows in the low 20s.


Here's mine:

Today: Partly cloudy. High 74F.

Tonight: Mainly clear. Low around 45F.

Tomorrow: Some clouds in the morning will give way to mainly sunny skies for the afternoon. High around 60F.

Tomorrow night: Clear skies. Low 32F.

Wednesday: Abundant sunshine. Highs in the upper 60s and lows in the low 40s.

Thursday: Mix of sun and clouds. Highs in the low 70s and lows in the low 30s.

Note To Self

Do not take the boys to the store when you have the flu.

Today as I swam my way through the fog that was my afternoon filled with congestion, fever, body aches, chills, extreme fatigue, and strangely strong decongestants that are a major understatement when they say may cause drowsiness, I took the boys to the grocery store to buy lunch box supplies. Somehow we ended up with $4.15 Fruit Loop Cereal Straws. What?!?

Sweet as a Peach

I called my Gram a little while ago to ask her about some recipes for Super Bowl Sunday. That's the only thing I care about on Super Bowl Sunday ... the food. Well, that and the commercials. They are usually darn funny. Anyway, we got talking about how we were both a little under the weather. She said that when she wasn't feeling well she likes to eat peaches. I said that I craved peaches when I was pregnant. I said, "Oh yeah, I remember that you like peach ......" I was trying to think of Crystal Light but I lost the word for a moment and she came on the line with "Schnapps!" I was shocked! Gram! My Gram! My 75 year old Gram! Then she told me a story about how she and my aunt Kathy got her realtor liquored up on Peach Schnapps during the deal to close on her first home so that they could get a better deal. Yup, my Gram. She's as sweet as a peach. And I never even knew it!

Happy Birthday Dad

The Grocery Store

I am sure you will all be glad to know that I made the time to go to the grocery store. I try to be the best mother I can be at all times, even if that means sacrificing my own personal time to do mundane errands such as grocery shopping.

Congratulations Charissa

My friend Charissa (from the college) got married today. Congratulations Charissa & DJ!