My hubby has recently been to Texas. He had to go for some sort of boiler seminar-like thing. He was gone for only a few days but it felt like forever.

Anyway...

When he came home he, of course, brought gifts. The two older boys each received a t-shirt and the little ones received a stuffed teddy bear. Then my true love bent down and talked to my tummy and told Mikayla that he had something for her too. I was imagining another stuffed something when he handed me a ginormous dark blue sweatshirt. I laughed and asked if I am supposed to safe it for her.

My husband said that I will have to just wear it for her. How cute.

Then he handed me a sweatshirt that is obviously designed for when I no longer have a big belly. "This one is just for you."

Maybe it was because he had been gone for several days.... but my goodness... my hubby is so cute!

By the way we have finally reached 30 weeks gestation... this was the point I was at when I had my Brownie. Every day is now an extra bonus! (Mikayla is supposedly as big as a head of lettace.)

Wave...

Recently we have had the joy of watching the 75th annual "Daffodile Parade". It lasted over two hours, which is unusual... plus the sun was shinning. I can honestly say it is easier to find a place to sit when it is rainy.

My Brown eyed son marched in the parade and his great daddy chaparoned the experience. Both did a great job... one playing the drums and the other walking along side the gang. I thought both looked very handsome in their red t-shirts.

It actually was a pretty good parade. There were floats covered in daffodiles, clowns, pirates with a big cannon that my sister would have loved (Mikayla did not like the cannon). Dance teams, several different bands plus a really cute VW bug painted like a soccer ball that my other sister might have enjoyed. Several ROTC groups and even a float from Victoria, Canada.

The little boys returned home with a new noisy horn to annoy their siblings and everybody got a little bit of a sunburn. Good times were had by all... unless you ask my Blonde boy... he said "it was the same last year"... party pooper!

Homework.

My Squish is in the 1st grade this year and if I must say so... he is by far one of the cutest and smartest boys in the entire school. Not that I am prejudiced or anything.

Over Spring Break he brought home an assignment from class that is due this upcoming Friday. Not a biggie... lots of time (so I thought).

Simply put, Squish had to choose an animal, find it on the internet, discover some interesting facts about the creature, write it all down and last but not least make a "display" of all of the information that he had found. Seem like a bit much for a 1st grader?

The teacher sent home a list of animals to choose from; scorpions, tigers, tarantulas, monkeys, etc. All sorts of great ideas that can be easily found on line with pictures and everything. My son chose to do his project on a Blue-tongued skink. Yep. I didn't know what it was either.

He had read about it in a book at school quite some time ago and thought it was cool. Cool maybe. Easy to find.. not so much.

We did though actually find a blue-tongued skink web page that was rather interesting in a bizarre sort of way.

Anyway. The trick now is to convince Squish that he has to do the writing and finish the project, not Momma. "Can I just trace over yours?"

In case you wondered, this attractive critter lives mostly in Austraila and New Guinea. He eats slugs, snails, spiders and occasionally small animals. He is eaten by snakes, raptors and kookaburras (did you just sing?) They give birth to between 5 -18 babies at a time and can grow to be up to 2 feet long.

The thing that Squish likes most about this lizard is his blue-tongue... which it uses to scare away other animals... oh, and me, too!

Not being chosen.

Bart Simpson's prank calls to Moe's Tavern are nearly legendary, but the sad fact is that some people actually go through life with those goofy names. The following Bart creations all exist within the Ancestry.com databases:

Al Caholic

Oliver Clothesoff

I.P. Freely

Seymour Butz

Mike Rotch

Hugh Jass

Amanda Hugginkiss

Ivana Tinkle

Anita Bath

Maya Buttreeks

Potholes and Children

After a hardy rainstorm filled all the potholes in the streets and alleys,

a young mother watched her two little boys

Playing in the puddle through her kitchen window.

The older of the two, a five year old lad, grabbed his sibling by the back of his head

and shoved his face into the water hole.

As the boy recovered and stood laughing and dripping,

the mother runs to the yard in a panic.

" Why on earth did you do that to your little brother? " she asks

as she shook the older boy in anger.

"We were just playing 'church' mommy," he said.

"And I was just baptizing him.....

in the name of the Father, the Son

And in...the hole-he-goes."

Close your eyes...

There is nothing sweeter than listening to my little ones say their prayers at night. There is never anyway of knowing how long or short, organized or random they may be. No matter how they prattle on, they are sweet to hear.

My Squish always says the exact same thing. "Thank you for this beautiful day." That's it, of course he inclues the "in the name" portion also. Ocassionally he will ask for someone to be blessed, but this only happens if he is reminded. His favorite part of praying is the amen. Which he says differently every night. Lately he has me say every other letter while he does the rest. Very clever.

Now Jellybean, on the other hand, will not follow prompts of any sort. He will jump from subject to subject like a bouncy ball dropped down the stairs. One night he will bless every stuffed horse that is in his room... by name. The next night he might ask a blessing on the cats . I try not to get annoyed when he asks for me to be blessed to not be mad at him anymore (usually I am not mad at him until he makes this request). Of course, my all time favorite part is when he starts naming the family. He always explains the order he is praying in. Youngest to oldest... youngest first... by birthday order, etc. Without fail he confuses himself and asks for help with whichever names he has forgotten. So cute. Last night though he seemed to be fully in control of his "list". "Please bless Mommy and Mikayla and Daddy..." and so on. He then moved on to "Pop-pop and Grandma". Nothing unusual, until... "and bless Uncle Matt."

Who?

There is no Uncle Matt on either side of the family. I wondered if maybe he had confused my brothers names. He seemed to be clear on Norm, Keith and Uncle John. He doesn't really know Uncle Ray so I don't think its him. I asked Jellybean about this person and he said Uncle Matt is at Grandma's house. "Remember mommy? With the toy hammer?"

What? I have no idea who in the world my son was praying for.... but by darn "Uncle Matt" was prayed for. Whoever he happens to be.

Aww.

According to a parenting page I found on the web, this week (week 27) Mikayla is about the size and weight of a head of cauliflower. My boys don't really care for cauliflower. Is that a bad omen?

It's a bird? It's a plane?

Spring Break has been a bust so far. With my two oldest boys not here (Utah and work) and with my youngest still having school.... Spring Break has mostly been my sweet freckled son playing XBox and showing me how he can make Superman terrorize the citizens of the town. It is quite amazing. Lazer vision, strong breath (we have dental appointments tomorrow) and ice stuff. Squish can really demolish a town and I am privilaged to watch it. Over and over and over again. "Mom, watch this!" "Mom, see this!" I have considered changing my name for the duration of the break just for a change of pace.

Actually I really think that tomorrow despite my being forbidden to leave home I will take my three sons (Brownie, Squish and Jellybean) somewhere. Anywhere. Some place where there are no video games and no mutant robots waiting to destroy the sad unsuspecting crowd that always stands around waiting to be killed or rescued.