Have you seen the video that is going around on face book of the 911 call reinforcing the need to marry a good speller? It is pretty funny! Here’s a link that will hopefully enable you to go see it. If it does, it is well worth the time it takes to watch the 20 second clip. I promise! :)
Have a wonderful weekend!!
I high-fived my little guy to congratulate him on an accomplishment, and the next thing I know, he’s saying, “Hey! Lets do our secret handshake!”
Which would be really cool, if we had one! Lol!
When I pointed that out, he spent the next minute and a half thinking of one!
And you know what he came up with?? (Because you guys are special, I’ll skip the whole “If I tell you, I’ll have to kill you” thing.)
High-five
High-five
Knuckle touch
HUG!
Six is such a fun age!!!!!!
Do you and your kids have a secret handshake?
If not, get to it! (And let me know what they come up with, of course!)
Don’t you hate it when you ask your kids a question and they totally ignore you? I mean, seriously, don’t you hate it?? Well, I may have found something that will fix their hearing in a hurry. Hee-Hee!
This morning, I asked my little guy if he wanted to wear his big coat or layer two jackets. He didn’t even look up--just went right on firing his missiles and shooting the bad guys.
I’m all for The Force, and everything. But when I’m trying to get things ready in the morning, punctual answers make me happy.
So I turned abruptly and said to him, “O.K., you owe me a hug.”
He froze. (Ha! He CAN hear me!)
“What?? Why??” he said, all incredulous.
“You owe me a hug because you didn’t answer me.”
“No way!” He backed up against the wall like I was the boogie man. Great for a mom’s ego, by the way.
“Yep. Come on.”
He continued to stare at me.
After a few seconds, he said, “No, YOU give ME a hug.”
“O.K. I can do that.” (a hug is a hug, right??)
As I started to wrap my arms around him, he stipulated, “But no kiss!”
I had to giggle.
After the deed, he not only picked out his coat, he put his milk back in fridge and got his book bag ready to go. Whoa! Now we’re talking!
I can’t WAIT to try it out on his older brothers!!!
Tricky, I know. Lol!
Last week, while the temps were hanging around ZERO, I decided to drag out the hose and enhance an icy area just off our back deck. For hours.
Can I just say that I’ve done smarter things?? Lol!
I didn’t kill myself. But let me tell you. It was one crazy slick area!! In the end, the boys only got to skate a little bit on it for all my hard work (and F-F-F-R-E-E-EEZING FINGERS!).
But it was fun while it lasted!
It was totally cool to walk out the back door, sit down on the deck, and put our skates on!
We even got to drag our hockey stuff out and give it a go.
Now, I know I’m totally biased. But isn’t he just the cutest little hockey player ever?
Because it started to warm up, the guys took me skating on a real ice rink Sunday afternoon for my birthday. Aren’t they the best?
Now it’s your turn. What’s one of the craziest things you ever did for fun with your kids? Come on, don’t leave me in the crazy zone all by myself!
I’m all ears!
The Valentines cake I made was a huge hit! The consistency was so moist it was almost like fudge. Yum!! I know the directions seem more complicated. But it wasn’t at all hard, and I’ll definitely be making it again!
Ingredients:
Directions:
For CAKE, preheat oven to 350°. Grease 9-inch round cake pan, then line with parchment or waxed paper; set aside.
Melt spread with chocolate in 1-quart saucepan over low heat, stirring occasionally; set aside to cool slightly.
Beat egg whites with salt in medium bowl with electric mixer until stiff peaks form; set aside.
Beat egg yolks with sugar in medium bowl with electric mixer until light and smooth, about 2 minutes. While beating, slowly add chocolate mixture until blended. Beat in flour. Fold in egg whites with spatula just until blended. Pour into prepared pan.
Bake 30 minutes. (Note: Toothpick inserted in center will NOT come out clean.) Run knife around rim of cake to loosen cake from sides of pan; cool 15 minutes on wire rack. Remove cake from pan and cool completely.
For GLAZE, melt vegetable spread (or real butter if you like) with chocolate in 1-quart saucepan over low heat, stirring occasionally. Spread warm glaze over cake.
Optional: Decorate with Chocolate and Mint chips. The mint chips were delicious with it, and my guys were fighting over the pieces with the most green. :)
After almost three weeks of the flu bugs, my family is all back out of the house attempting a normal day of school/work. Yay for them!!!
And you know what I did instead of jumping back into my normal workout routine? I baked and ate chocolate! Lol! Personally, I can’t think of a better way to spend Valentines day while the family is away. :)
Look at the cake I’m trying out on them later. It was called the “Chocolate Lovers’ Cake” and I couldn’t resist.
For fun, I used mint and chocolate chips to make a heart on top. I hope the guys like it! If they do, I’ll share the recipe with you. :)
Just in case the cake is a flop, I also made chocolate chip cookies in great big heart shapes. I KNOW they’ll like them.
The rich red bows on the chairs are a special treat for my guys. After Christmas when all the plush throws were on clearance at Wal-Mart, I picked up a red one for just a few dollars. This morning, I finally got around to cutting it into strips and hemming the edges to make four-fun-furry-fluffy-scarves.
It’s fun doing special things for the people you love, isn’t it?
After dinner, maybe I’ll be able to convince the gang to go for a walk with me. The turn in weather is making me want to soak in the warmth.
Plus, I won’t feel as guilty about eating all that chocolate and skipping my morning workout!
What do you have up your sleeves for this Valentines Day? I promise I won’t tell if it’s supposed to be a surprise!
I probably shouldn’t be on the computer. There are scads of things I should be doing. But I couldn’t resist sharing my little funny today.
My little guy is home with a fever. Again. My husband has pneumonia and went to work anyway. My oldest son had “the look” this morning. You know the one I mean. The one where their eyes announce “I’m getting sick. My head hurts. Are you speaking English?”
However, because he insisted on going, and didn’t have a temperature at the time of departure, I let him go to school anyway.
I’ll probably regret it. But no news from school is good news, right?
All of that isn’t funny.
But the next part is.
After a trip to the doctor’s office (the third in two weeks for him), I asked my little guy if he was hungry.
He wasn’t sure.
Did he feel like toast?
Not sure.
Cereal?
He didn’t know.
So I asked if I could have a bowl of cereal with him, thinking maybe I could coax him into eating something with me.
Nearly exasperated, he replied, “Mom, I’m not in charge of you. I’m like--six and you’re like--twenty. You can do whatever you want.”
God bless his sick little self!
I didn’t correct him. Would you??
Later, he said, “I could still go to school, Mom, even if I’m sick.”
“Oh?” I say.
“Yeah. They have a sick bay.”
Hee-hee!
Maybe I should have sent him! I’m sure their sick bay is better staffed than mine!
I hope the school doesn’t “beam” anybody home today. :P Did I spell beam right?? Is there more than one spelling for beam? I digress.
My advice for the day is: Lock your door so those nasty flu bugs don’t sneak into your house!
Stay healthy friends!!
P.S. My dear friend and neighbor just called to say she’s picking her 12-year-old son up from school. He threw up and is running a fever. Yikes!! Is it too much to ask that my boys leave that bug at school???
Though, I doubt the school has a washing machine in their sick bay! Lol!
There is an upside to an ice storm. My boys got to ice skate for the first time in Indiana! This is me, giving my little guy his very first skating lessons on the road in front of our house. 
In NO time at all, he was skating like he was born in Alaska. :)
My older son looked at these pictures, and said, “Hey, he looks like Iron Man!” Lol! He does, doesn’t he? Those yellow dots are actually a couple of sticky backed reflectors I put on his camo coat. We were on the road, after all.
The next day, we got out some hockey sticks and a ball and played in the driveway.
I think the neighbors thought we were nuts. :)
One even asked if I’d lost my mind. Lol!
But OH MY GOODNESS, did we have fun! You can thank my oldest son for all the pictures. He didn’t have skates that fit, and was still feeling crummy with the flu. So he simply popped out for a few minutes here and there with the camera.
Growing up with a farm pond on our property, I spent gobs of time ice skating in the winter. Sometimes it was just my neighbor friends and me skating for fun. And sometimes my brother would have a crew of his friends over for some serious hockey matches.
Which I of course was in the thick of. :)
My boys have always had trouble imagining me as a competitive hockey player. So it was fun to show them a few things. Thankfully, I didn’t break anything important in the process…like a hip or leg! Hee-hee! It’s amazing how skating comes back to you so easily.
I did learn something, though. NEVER trust a lawn chair on ice.
Growing up, we always hopped up on the dock to change our skates. And docks don’t move.
When I went to sit down on my trusty lawn chair, the silly thing went right out from under me! Of course, there had to be a picture of me on my butt. :) Actually, I think he took TEN. But I’ll spare you!
We had so much fun skating, I actually BOUGHT a garden hose yesterday (ours are frozen stiff) so I could flood a part of our drive again during this cold snap.
If the neighbors thought I was crazy before, I hope they don’t see what I’m about to do!!!
ICE SKATING ANYONE?????
Unfortunately, I can’t drive the boys’ Green Machine to the grocery store! Lol!
In spite of their fun, the boys didn’t last long because of how crummy they were feeling. They came in, turned on a movie, and tunneled under a mountain of blankets.
We ended up getting a half inch of ice, followed by two inches of sleet. At some point during the storm, it all solidified into a rock-hard solid layer of white ice. You can’t chop it. And with the cold temps, the salt isn’t doing any good either.
The main roads are fine. It’s the getting-to-one that’s the problem! Lol! I guess that’s why they closed school for tomorrow, too.
As a side note, My husband and oldest son came down with the flu yesterday morning. I’m the only hold-out now.
My oldest doesn’t seem to be feeling too badly and is enjoying the extra snow days.
My husband on the other hand is feeling pretty cruddy. If he didn’t have pressing things to sign off on at work, he would have stayed in bed. I’m hoping he can leave a little early.
I have a pot of chicken soup all ready for dinner. :)
At the moment, the sun is shining brightly in a vivid blue sky, making everything all sparkly. 
Sometimes I imagine God playing around with his cosmic Photoshop, saying, “Hmm. Let’s give things the “Sparkle” effect and see how that looks.”
I like it. :)
Thanks for letting me just ramble today.
My husband has confirmed it’s “slicker than snot” out there! Lol! This morning, he went out to help other neighborhood men spread salt on our road’s hills.
I sure hope we don’t get too much more ice, though I know they are still calling for the main ice storm to hit us in the next few hours.
Think we should just turn out the lights and start getting used to it? I probably shouldn’t joke like that, should I?
Yesterday, I baked like a woman possessed. And the guys filled enough buckets of water to hopefully out-last an outage.
We shall see! We’re starting to pick up more freezing rain as I type. So this may be my last entry for a while. Pray we don’t lose power for too long!
For those of you who are catching a piece of this storm, stay safe, y’all!
And if you live in Florida, heh-hem, please refrain from telling me how warm it is outside right now. O.K.? Lol! (You know who you are!)
