The Spellathon

The beauty of having children, is having them for spring break! What a week we had! The five of us travelled up to Oklahoma to visit the ole grandparents. What a trip that was!!!!

It started with a midnight drive after working a 6 hour scrapbooking shift. YIKES!!!
But it was well worth it. The boys had fun with their grandparents and also the dogs. But the most fun, as usual, were the comments made by the young ones to a generation not familiar with their wit and wisdom.

For example, the Bull and Tiny T were out in the living room and Gram was throwing out ideas to do for the evening. And knowing she needed to pass the ideas past mom and dad before getting to the children, she starts SPELLING the choices of activities. I let her spell a word once without correcting her, but the Bull was on her like white on rice. He looked quizzically at her and stated, "Gram, you know, we have been spelling for quite some time now and we can understand everything you are saying." Needless to say, this caught my mom totally off guard, but I was in hysterics. I mean, what did my mom think she was getting away with? Seriously! Unless you speak another language, you really can't have a discussion in front of the kids without them hearing! Weird when you think about it. I guess I will have to come up with another language. "Momese" or "crazy person talk". I will keep you posted.....

s & h green stamps, anyone?

ok, so alot of mornings, i make a trip to my local library. i am sure i should be reading books, but mostly i peruse the internet looking for free images to use for my crafting. i love vintage pictures and artwork and there is so much online. but alot of them have copyright rules, etc.

anyway, i came across this group of ephemera (vintage paper/pictures) and thought i would share.

does anyone remember the days of the green stamps? S & H Green stamps?? well, we had a corner grocery store in bartlesville called Landers. some of you remember it, i am sure. we went at least once a week, got fresh cuts of meat from Mr. Wilkie and Mr. Cotton. (my sister and i used to go by the meat section and touch the cow tongues....so gross!)

and when you were checking out, you got a certain amount of green stamps depending on how much you spent.

first of all, she and i thought those were named after us since they used our initials (s & h), silly girls!

but nana used to let us have all her green stamps, as long as we pasted them in the books. she would set up a card table for us and give us a wet kitchen sponge so we could wet the stamps and glue them in the books. then we could go to the s & h store and get prizes. it was super cool!

remember the episode of the brady bunch where the kids all saved their green stamps and shopped at the store, only they couldn't decide on a sewing machine for the girls or i forget what for the boys? so they decided on a tv for the whole family?? wasn't that cute? well, it wasn't really like that for us. we were all girls and we got dolls, etc with our stamps. ha ha brady family. we win!

anyway, right click on the pic i am putting on here and you can print some green stamps out for your own posterity! have fun....

and then....

just as i posted my last post, Big A came up to me as if i had just been lobotomized, and asked if he could go hang with his friends. apparently, when i am finished doing what i am doing on the computer, that means he is finished doing his homework!!

oh the logic of a 14 year old.....

or maybe this is just my kids?

would love to hear your stories.....

half day in crazyville

welcome to crazyville. population 5. today is a half day for both the elementary schools and the middle schools. (why does it seem like there are more and more of these silly half days?) so i picked Tiny T and his buddy up at 12:45. the buddy had no idea what he had in store for him....

Tiny T had made a request this morning for a list of chores to do to earn money for some new shoes. keep in mind that his closet is so full of shoes, he can't even see which ones he has. but that is neither here nor there.

anyway, he had invited a friend over to play today since he knew it was a half day. but he really wants these shoes, so this morning he told me, "i feel bad for my friend, i invited him over to play and he is just going to have to help me do chores. not a very fun play date". i asked him if he was going to pay his friend for helping and he said "nah, he will just WANT to help me, i'm sure." oh, the logic of an 8 year old.

and don't feel bad for the friend. no chores have been done to date. big shocker.

i have also found that i am no longer the "cool mom". this is being told to me by my fourteen year old. (of course, when i let 8 of his buddies spend the night and run up and down the stairs til 5 am, i am the coolest mom ever.) but when i make him stay home on a half day to finish 4 missing assignments in three different classes, i am the worst mother ever. i mean, all his friends are out and about roaming the neighborhood. it makes sense that HE should be there too.

i guess there is a fine line between being friends with your kid and making them actually want to be a productive member of society. Big A is really pushing my buttons right now, because all he wants to do is hang with his friends, and school, well, it just gets in the way.

needless to say, he is sitting here right now doing his homework and giving me the evil eye. trust me, i don't mind it. i am sitting here right now on my blog making fun of him. ha! i win.....

Wait a minute!!

WAIT A MINUTE!!

that was my first post? no cute kid story? nothing? no, actually, i have tons of cute kid stories, some are unpublishable, but i do have a funny one about my middle son, we call him The Bull.

well, The Bull was at a friend's house the other day. it happened to have snowed that day. in Texas. one time. he was at his friend's house and they were throwing snowballs at cars. not the greatest idea. but who knew in texas i would have to warn my kids of all the rules pertaining to snowballs? not me.

so they threw a snowball at a passing car. of course, they hit the car with the lady that had to throw the car in reverse and come teach them a lesson. the Bull hid himself in the garage and waited. he heard the lady calling him to come out and he figured he would wait her out. a whole minute. do you know how long a minute is in sweaty, layered, snow-covered coats and mittens and hats? well, according to the Bull, it is about half an hour. the lady didn't mind. she waited. she had a lesson she had to teach.

finally, the Bull slunk around the corner of the garage and hoped for the best. no such thing. she was there waiting in the car with the $100,000 question: "Do you have anything to say to me?" the Bull answered, sheepishly, "Sorry?" he breathed a heavy sigh, thinking he got off pretty easy. not good enough for the lady. "Anything else?" the Bull pondered. what else could she want? a car wash? a tip? a snow man? no, that couldn't be it. but the Bull was definitely irritated by having to think with all that garb on. so he did what any good-natured, sweaty, normal kid would do. he put on his best eastern-european accent and said "It will not happen again."

you had to hear the accent. it was priceless. i don't know if the lady got the sarcasm, but the Brazilian Boy (my hubby) and i were hysterical with laughter.

moral to the story: don't mess with the Bull, you will definitely get the horns......

First time to blog

Ok, i have heard the word blog so many times, i felt i had to research it. i watched the movie Julie and Julia last week and loved it. i had to try it! but what i really loved was all the fun things i got to do to make this blog! it was like making a re-doable scrapbook page. i have been playing on my computer for hours and this is just the beginning.

anyone who knows me knows i love a project, so this is my new project. all my family lives all over and i want to keep in touch with pictures, posts, etc. but i also want to do some fun crafts.

SO, this blog will hopefully do all that. once i get done playing with the artistry of the blog, i will start posting cool crafting that i have been doing. they will be simple, with only a few ingredients, and will definitely be something everyone can do.

stay tuned.......