Friday Funnies with Grayson

This was a longggggggggg week.... but thankful that Friday is here and for once, I am not working at all this weekend and have nothing major on the agenda! Sleeping in shall be rewarded tomorrow methinks!

Thought I would share with you a few funny things that happened this week... It seems as though my kids are currently obsessed with a few things - Danika is obsessed with Strawberry Shortcake, Spencer is obsessed with music, and Grayson seems obsessed with asking me about things that I did or didn't do when I was little - things like "did you cry when you got needles when you were a kid?" or "did you watch this show when you were a kid?" ...and he was horrified to discover that I only had one channel as a child and really only watched Mr Dressup, Friendly Giant, Hockey Night in Canada, and Wonderful World of Disney (I did leave out Dallas as I wasn't sure how to explain that show just yet). But the best one came yesterday - a while back we were talking about how my mom had a rule that we all had to move out after high school graduation. Yep, we were given about a week and then she happily helped pack our stuff and sent on our merry way. It wasn't a mean thing, we knew it was coming for our entire last year at home... it was supposed to teach us independence. However, when Grayson found out about it, he was quite traumatized by it. He constantly asks if I will "kick him out" when he turns 18 and if so, where will he live and yadda yadda yadda. Normally I deal well with these questions...up until yesterday.... We were playing at a park waiting for 2 of the kids to get out of playschool. I was having a nice little chat with a Grandmother at the park when suddenly, across the field, Grayson yells

"Hey Mom? Did you play at this park when you were a kid?"
"No honey, remember I didn't live here??"
"Oh right.... well where did you live?"
"At Grandma and Grandpa's house... remember?"

And as soon as I said the words, I felt myself holding my breath because I KNEW he was gonna say it....

"Oh, that's right... you lived there until she kicked you out, right?"

As I scrambled to explain it to the friendly Grandmother I almost died of embarrassment...

The other thing Grayson is currently loving is cooking shows. I wish we had the Food Network but I can't bring myself to spend so much money on a few extra channels so we settle for the odd show on CBC. He will sit quietly with me and ask me all kinds of questions about what they are doing/cooking/burning etc. So the other night, when Hell's Kitchen came on, he was drawn right into it. Now please understand that I would not normally let my child ever watch this show but since the other kids were upstairs playing and it was just him and I, I thought it would be a good time to explain to him how Gordon Ramsey didn't treat people very nicely and also enjoy cooking at the same time.

After watching about 3 minutes of it, Grayson asked me if the tv was broken. A bit puzzled, I asked why -

"why does it keep beeping Momma?"...

oh that. Well... that would be because they are beeping all the bad words that the mean man keeps saying.

"Ohhhhhhhhh... like the S word???"

(the S word btw, is "stupid" and a banned word in our house"). Yes honey, like the S word.

I no sooner get that out of my mouth and suddenly, we hear Gordon screaming at one of the poor chefs "get out of my kitchen you JACKASS" Ack!!!!!!!!! No beeps!!!!!!!!!!!! I gasped and Grayson quickly asked what the word meant.

"It's very bad word G... a word we don't say. It's like calling someone the S word, only 10 times as bad!"

"Oh... okay Momma, I won't say it"

Now flash forward to the next morning while we are all running around in our morning routine and somehow or other, Spencer did something to annoy G. Just as dayhome mommy has come into drop off dayhome girl, Grayson shouts

"JACKPOT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

I turn and look... ??? What Grayson???

JACKPOT!!!!!!... JACKPOT, JACKPOT, JACKPOT!!!!!!!!
(did my son suddenly develop Tourettes Syndrome overnight?!)

Before I could say a thing he quickly reminded me

"Remember when the mean cook said that on tv last night????"

Oh right.... jackPOT. Yep, I remember. But you aren't supposed to say ... ummm... jackPOT honey..... it's a bad word (seriously stifling hysterical laughter at this point).

Okay Momma, I won't say it.

So tell me.......... should I have corrected him?!

Hopefully that gave you a little giggle - have yourself a fabulous weekend1

10 Things Tuesday - Things that cheer me up

So I am having a kinda poopy day.... well not really kind of, a full on poopy day. And so I did my best to cheer myself up and thought I would share 10 things that usually help me do that (and truthfully, I also asked some other friends to do the same so it might rub off on me too!)
So... here are my 10 things....

1. Glee -

yep, just call me a Gleek. It can still be sad sometimes... but it is a show that doesn't make me think too hard and often makes me sing along... So thanks to the wonderful writers who come up with crazy lines like "You wear more vests than the cast of Blossom" or "I don't brush my teeth. I rinse my mouth out with soda after I eat. I was pretty sure Dr Pepper was a dentist" ...

2. Reminiscing -

is there anything better?? Tomorrow is my friend Alissa's 10th anniversary so tonight, we chatted on the phone about how crazy it all was - the phone call on Monday night in which she asked myself and the roommate at the time which days we were off... when it was discovered we were both off on a Friday, a Friday the wedding was to take place. The crazy stagette where we discovered why Alissa really shouldn't drink (but what a truly hilarious discovery it was), the forgetting of the wedding dress clear across town and my insane drive to retrieve said dress, the rushing of the ceremony so that we could watch the very first ever Big Brother finale.... ahhhhhhhhh good times they were. Thanks for the chat dear friend :)

3. Spiced Pumpkin Lattes -

thank you Starbucks for the comfort of fall in a drink. Non fat, half sweet, extra hot if you please!

4. Favourite Photos -

There is nothing better than a favourite photo. I often look back through old files at my old pictures and they always seem to put a smile on my face. It may not be the perfect photo, it might even be blurry, but they always seems to cheer me up. So thanks to the brilliant person who invented digital cameras and made it that much easier for me look back at a whole wack of photos! This is a favourite from last week :)

5. Books -

whether it be a new book for me (just started The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo last night) or my most favourite...snuggling with my kids and reading their favourite (current fave is There's a Dragon Downstairs) reading just makes me forget my troubles and takes me to another world. I took a break from reading for a while and it feels good to be back so thank you to the many talented authors who can do that.

6. Cheese -

cheese is my comfort food. Hot, gooey, melted yummy cheese. I was smart and avoided the fridge downstairs tonight but I am not making any promises for tomorrow! Thank you to all the lovely cows who make cheese!

7. Bubble Baths -

take me away Calgon. Okay, so I have never used Calgon, but do have to say that my kids bubblegum/strawberry/fruit punch/whatever is sitting on the shelf works just lovely!! One day, I will have my own bubble bath but for now theirs does the trick just fine! Thank you kids for sharing so nicely! (PS did you notice the names of these?? How cool are they?)

8. Pajama Pants -

I don't ever wear them to bed or I would probably die from over heating but when I am having a poopy day, there is nothing better than putting them on and just being cozy. I am currently sitting in a lovely pair of penguin flannel jammy pants that Cheryl surprised me with on one of my trips to New Brunswick and they are C.O.M.F.Y.... and penguins always put a smile on my face! So thanks to Cheryl for my awesome jammies! (PS, while these are cool, the ones that Cheryl made totally outdo these!)

9. My Kids -

even though they can drive me crazy... and today one of them came home with the first ever notice from the Principal about misbehaving... my kids cheer me up. Their snuggles can melt away my blues and their kisses can make my heart swell with love. Thank you to God for 3 amazing blessings in my life. (and this pic is about 2 years old but one of my faves!)


10. Did you see yesterday's post? Because that song just does it for me. And so thanks to Meg for finding the file and sharing it with me - you rock!!!!!!!!! Just in case, here it is again for you!

I WILL REWARD YOU!!!!!!! (oh and a SOTW)

Okay people out there in blogland, I NEED YOUR HELP!!!!

I stumbled across the most amazing song today and I NEED NEED NEED it on my Ipod!!! I have searched and searched and searched to no avail to find a download.... so I am offering up some sort of RAK for the first person to find me a download for this lovely song.... check out the video!!



Isn't it the greatest?! I am going to check with my son's music teacher tomorrow about teaching it to the kids - what a great message it is!!!

So PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE send me a link if you can find one!!! I promise to send you goodies in return!

Oh and... in honour of my friend Michelle, this week's SOTW is all about polka dots! I must admit I have more polka dotted patterned paper than anything else...so Michelle's obsession is not just her own apparently!!!



Have a great week!

10 Things Tuesday - Weird Things I Know

This one is a bit of a challenge for me...let's see if I really can think of 10 things!!

1. Starfish have eyes at the end of each of their legs - how weird is that? I only learned this thanks to dayhomeboys end of the year book from Kindergarten when his TA wrote that is something she learned. This summer we were at a festival that had some naturalist society people with all these tubs full of marine life and I was teaching my son this little tidbit...made me feel pretty darn cool when I even taught the naturalists this little ditty too!

2. 111,111,111 x 111,111,111 = 12, 345, 678, 987, 654, 321 - Honest!! My math teacher in grade 4 taught me that and I have never forgotten it.... that and what a google was but somehow that didn't seem as weird to me.

3. A duck's quack cannot echo - not that I am a duck but this summer when we were at the lake for a holiday, we spent one day teaching the kids all about echoes. When a friend's dad told us this, we all spent the next half an hour trying to quack like a duck. Our quacks echoed but apparently if we were real ducks, they wouldn't. I'm sure the neighbours thought we had all lost our minds but luckily it was the middle of the day... which gave me some comfort in hoping that they didn't think we were drunken fools, only crazy parents.

4. And speaking of crazy parents.... no one can lick their elbow. I told this to my daughter one day and spent the next hour in hysterics while she tried...and tried...and tried. It was honestly one of the funniest things I have ever seen. And right about now, if you didn't already know this, you are trying to do it yourself or making someone else try it!!

5. If you wipe out your bathtub with a Bounce sheet you won't get a ring in the tub! Thanks to Alissa for this cool tidbit, I tried it out and worked like a charm!

6. I have no idea where I heard it but it's one of those things that sticks in your brain.... way back when, in Ancient Egypt (?) they used to brush their teeth with... wait for it... urine!! Bleckkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk!! And here I thought Crest was gross!

7. Peter Pan and 101 Dalmations are the only two Disney movies where someone has both parents and they don't get killed. This was discovered way back in University days...after a serious (yet somewhat drunken) discussion about Disney and how bad words appear in clouds in The Lion King and how parents always die or are dead. The crazy Disney fanatic informed me of this and now every time I watch a classic with my kids, that is the first thing I look for in the movie!

(and yes, this is not either one of those movies but does happen to be my new favourite!)

8. The human head weighs 8 pounds - yep... according to the kid in Jerry McGuire! I have no idea if it's true but for some reason I always remember this line... and then Tom Cruise tells him some stat about football and then he replies with "did you know my neighbour has three rabbits?" Yep... I loved that movie. Still makes me laugh.

9. Race Car spelled backwards is Race Car! When I can't sleep at nights, I do these dumb word games in my head and this one was a recent one! My stupid other game is finding 7 letter words and seeing how many 3 letter words I can make out of it.... insomnia does great things to my brain!

10. Griffin means "very wide" in Filipino. When I was pregnant with my oldest, I loved this name and had my heart set on it. Then when I told a mom that I had just met (who happened to be Filipino), her eyes got huge and she told me in broken English what it meant. So, hormonal me, went home and cried and vowed to find a different name. And now looking back at it, what a dumb thing that was! I loved the name and no one in my family would have known the Filipino meaning of it! Oh well, I now have a Spencer instead and I just can't picture him as a Griffin (although I really do still love the name!)

Whew..........that was tough! I am one of those people who normally rocks at Trivial Pursuit because I have all this useless trivia in my head...but trying to find 10 of them to write about today was tough!! Can you do it???

SOTW Sept 20-26 and a few other things...

Hello!!!! Is this thing on??.....

I think I almost forgot how to log on to my poor old blog. Last week, I made a new best friend - his name is Buckley... if you haven't met him, be thankful....but when you need a friend, let me tell you that you won't find a better one... he looks just like this:

And let me also tell you that the pillow that my Momma sent home with me in the summer was also well loved last week - but the good news is, I am back and raring to go!!

I did a quick sketch this week after a bunch of girls were chatting over on the forum about using your well-intended saved up scraps....


You know that big box that we all fill with leftovers and then somehow never use?? It's kind of like leftovers in my fridge - I can't bear to throw it out but then getting around to using it just seems like it's never what I'm wanting... but my new rule is that I must use scraps to create cards so I will see how well it works for me. In the meantime, I am gonna do this sketch three times over this week (one for each of the kids) and see how different I can make each one look.
APOS has also started carrying a new brand of chipboard embellishments so Alissa decided to offer up a contest on both Facebook and the Forum - they aren't in the online store just yet but if you're lucky enough to be able to get some in your hands, be sure to enter!!
I am off to teach another Copic class tonight - this time it is a nice little class so it should go a lot quicker than normal! I have some more exciting Copic news to share.... as soon as I get all the details!!
Have a great week!!

10 THINGS TUESDAY - PreWinter Wish List

It has been miserably cold this week - we even saw our breath this morning!! And so, sadly I must admit that fall is on its way...but I am not yet ready to think of winter...other than the things that I want to get done before winter hits!

1. Camp - we only managed to get 2 camping nights in this summer...not super successful ones at that but still, I must be a sucker for punishment as I want to try it one more time before I am ready to put the gear away for the rest of the year. However, I do need the weather to co-operate a teeny tiny bit.... anyone know how to do an Indian Summer dance??
2. Clothing Clean Out - ugh.....I so do not enjoy this job but I am in serious need of a clean out of the kids clothes. This year, I will have Tuesday afternoons all to myself (!!!) so I am hoping to tackle that somehow.
3. Declutter the Toyboxes/Downstairs - The kids are finally getting old enough that most of the toys can move to the upstairs level... but the job seems a bit overwhelming at times and I just need a swift kick in the rear to get it started!
4. Paint Danika's room - in the softest shade of lime green.... the colour that I can't seem to find in any google searches! I have been wavering about doing it for the last 2 years but have decided this is the year!
   
5. Get Grayson's Training Wheels Off ... again...because we weren't too successful the last time and somehow he suckered me into putting them back on again. And I really want to get some more good bike rides in!
6. 
   Win the Lottery - you know I had to put it in there...but if God is thinking that he can't grant me that until after winter hits, I'm good with that too!!
7. Take down the blinds and put up curtains - grrrr I hate those stupid cheap blinds...a lot. I think Ikea is calling me!
8. Family Pictures - did I just say that?? Hmmm...weird...I actually mean it! I think it is time to get pictures of the kids AND me..... honest!
9. Find a Good Hiking Spot - there has to be one somewhere in the city? One that won't kill me or the kids but still be a challenge?? If you know of one, please tell me!
10. Figure out Life - simple as that. Simple.... right?
    

JUMP RIGHT IN

Ahhhh summer, how I miss you already. We got back from holidays about midnight on Monday, spent Tuesday running around like a chicken with my head cut off and then got my oldest off for his first day of school on Wednesday.

So much to share...

1. our holidays started out not so well when my Mom fell and broke her hip, but it ended up with a fabulous week at a lake with some special friends.
2. APOS! got a new Inspiration Team and I am excited to see all the new changes coming down the line with that! Be sure to check out the blogs of the fabulously talented DIANA, MEG, TAMMY, CHERYL, VALERIE and BETHANY (who is working on a blog so stay tuned for the link!!)
   
3. And some new changes happening in my life that I am really happy about but just not ready to share quite yet!

Look for some online crops happening soon over on the APOS! forum - but in the meantime, enjoy a few of the vacation pictures!

10 Things Tuesday - What I Love About Summer

In the middle of glorious weather here, I was inspired to write today's list about the 10 things I love about summer! It would be easy enough to say pretty much everything (minus the blood loss to those pesky mosquitoes) but I will get a bit more specific....

1. No socks!

I can go without socks and don't get weird looks about it. I hate socks...hate them. I only wear them in winter if I absolutely have to and often get weird looks for that. Once I get in the house, I can't get them off fast enough and so summer is true freedom for my always hot feet.

2. Reading Time

Im not sure what it is that makes me read more in the summer - maybe it's the fact that we are at the park pretty much every day and I need something to occupy my time. Now that the kids are getting older, I can actually sit and relax instead of constantly chasing kids and doing head counts. Oh and please note that adorable baby is not me...but could have been!

3. Road Trips

Oh how I love them! Little road trips to find a new spray park or even to check out the brand new Prehistoric Forest that just opened up (on the schedule for tomorrow). I love being able to pack up a picnic and head out.
4. Friend Time


It seems as though everyone's schedules calm down and I am far more likely to be able to meet up with friends during the summer. It may just be to meet up at the park but once in a while I get lucky and I even get to go to an adult movie...without kids!! Oh wait, not that kind of adult movie...I just mean one without the words Disney or Pixar involved.

5. Sun Tans


Why is it that once my skin turns that lovely shade of brown, I feel so much better? The funny suntan lines of my sandals or even my necklace feel comforting... although the white skin that isn't tanned could truly blind someone!

6. Salads and Fruit

My two favourite food groups and I love how easy it becomes in the summer time to make it a meal. We eat salads almost every night and can eat 4 or 5 different fruits and make it a meal. I truly think cherries and blueberries should be in season all year long - it would make me a very happy Momma!

7. Fans

I love fans...I find the constant noise comforting and love the feel of a cool breeze of one blowing at me. I have found that I sleep much better when the fans are on - but more because of the noise than the cooling off of them. Here in happy Alberta, we have a thunderstorm almost every night which really helps to cool things off but I still love the comfort of a fan. I hate when it starts to turn cold enough that the fans all get stowed away until next summer :(

8. Long Days

You may have just read that and wondered what I like about long days...but I like the long of it. I love waking up to a bright sunny morning and having it still be light out at 11 o'clock at night. Long days are the best.... especially knowing that soon winter will be here and the days get so short and it is pitch black dark out when we wake up... making it really hard to get out of your nice warm bed.

9. Water


Oh clean water, how I miss you... Being a BC girl, I came from the land where lakes were aplenty and CLEAN! C.L.E.A.N.
Not like the swamps in this province (ugh).... So instead we settle for spray parks. And those make me happy!

10. HOME


Yep, this is the true best part of summer. I get to go home. To family. To the ocean. To the mountains. To clean lakes. To awesome beaches. To the Island. To friends.
Home...
(PS I leave for this special place on Friday! No computer access for a while so catch ya on the flip side!)

10 Things Tuesday-Favourite Childhood Games

I am a few hours short of making it on Tuesday...but I was a bit caught up in colouring...honest! I am prepping for my first Copic course this weekend and the colouring is a bit out of hand! And so without further adieu, here are 10 of my favourite childhood games.

1. RED ROVER

since we grew up without television (ok, I can't lie...we did have CBC... on cloudy days...), outdoor games happened a lot. We had a "Guest House" in the camp that we grew up in (it was for visiting bigwigs of the logging company) and it had a fabulous back yard that was the meeting place for all the kids. We spent hours playing Red Rover and British Bulldog - now that I am older, I don't really remember the difference...but basically it involved 2 teams and one person running like a madman trying to break through the chain of arms on the opposite team. I am amazed that no one ever broke an arm! Please note that I do not know those people in the picture...but since I wasn't a scrapbooker when I was 10, I had to rely on google to provide the image for me!

2. SORRY

Technically, we didn't own this game...but my Granny did. She would play this (or Yahtzee which was not my favourite) with us and do everything possibly to avoid "bonking" anyone elses men back to the home square. And when she did have to "bonk", she would repeat how truly sorry she was!

3. MILLE BOURNE (card game)



I have no idea where we ever got this game. I am the only one in my family who speaks French and this was a French card game... It was only ever played when we were on our boat (which was a lot of the time) while we were waiting to catch something. Somehow, we got this crazy rule that we couldn't eat until we caught something that we could keep (if it was too small or a dogfish, it didn't count)... so we spent a lot of time starving and a lot of time playing this game.

4. KING'S CORNERS (card game)


So yes, poor television deprived me usually spent the majority of the summer either at a cabin at a lake (let's be honest and call it a shack...running water came from a macgyver-like invention my dad rigged up to the creek, no electricity, and our toilet location changed depending on which bush was closest to the cabin without getting us in trouble for going too close!) or on our boat in the middle of the ocean. We played a lot of cards. A lot. But this one I usually only played with my Grampa C. He was good and would give a little cough when I was missing an opportunity and he loved to tease me when I got down to last my last card, he would pretend like he was going to say it first but always let me get away with it.

5. MASTERMIND


Remember this fun little game? Such a simple game but provided hours of fun...and I think in later years, they made a version with only black and white pegs and it was just as much fun!

6. DONKEY KONG by COLECO


I have no idea how we ever got so lucky as to get the Coleco when it first came out but I don't think you have ever seen 4 more excited kids in your life! Seriously! I can honestly only remember Donkey Kong so it is quite possible that was the only game we ever got for it but then again, my memory isn't the best lately. The difference between video games now and then is quite simply incredible...but the biggest difference I remember? We didn't sit for hours and play it, we sat as a family on a Friday night and played...as a family. And I still remember the little ditty that went with it!


7. TRAINS/FORTS


Okay so not really a game, but I sure spent a lot of time building forts. We would sneak dishes and books and pretty much anything we could get away with to make our fort more like a home. I seem to remember my mom going crazy about the broom missing until I decided to bring it back from the fort before I got caught! And we hit the motherload of all forts when we got brave enough to venture into the train yard and build a fort on an old train.... we were so cool!


8. TOWTRUCK


So you know how you get older and you think about things you did as a kid and wonder how you ever survived it?? Yeah...this is one of those games.
As a kid, pretty much everyone had dirt bikes. And I waited for the day till I was old enough to get one...and then my brother had to go and ruin it all by playing chicken with a friend, crashing and getting his finger cut off. Gone went my dreams of a dirt bike. I was not happy. But then a new girl moved to camp ( woohoo, we went from 3 girls my age to 4!!) and she had one. I got caught riding it once, got severely punished, and decided not to try that again... but then one day we got this brilliant idea that my rather long skipping rope would work really well to have her tow me on my pedal bike! Yeah... you see where this is going right?!
We tied up my hot red banana seat bike to her little dirt bikes and we rode around the back roads of camp (which is funny if you knew that camp was all back roads) thinking we were so smart.... My hair blowing in the wind, feeling the need for speed but yet I wasn't breaking the rules, I wasn't riding the dirt bike.... but gravel roads are not made for bicycles to be going that fast. The wipeout was spectacular - but how on earth was I going to explain the blood all over my body? No need...because as I lay on the ground bawling, my dad decided to drive down the back road and find his daughter caught up in a mess of gravel, blood and a bright pink skipping rope. Towtruck ended. And I vowed never to spank my child when they were bleeding.

9. BATTLESHIP


You sunk my battleship! I hated saying those words...this was one game I hated losing. Hated. So I got smart enough to figure out if I bent the pegs of the battleship just a little bit, I could actually get the battleship in on a diagonal...hence fooling anyone I played with! But it didn't take long for my brothers and sister to catch on. Looking back at it now, I don't think I ever knew that the battleships were war ships...wonder what I thought they were?

10. PET MANIA
Okay, so I made up the name for this game... because there wasn't really a name. I loved pets and loved doing anything with them. My friend Lianne loved dressing her cats up in doll cloths and I thought it was the coolest idea I had ever seen. Two problems with that though - I didn't have a cat and I hated dolls so didn't have those either. I once came home on the school bus with a cat in my backpack thinking that once my mom saw how cute it was she would let us keep it. Wrong.
So usually we borrowed whomever's pet we could - we played veterinarian, dress up, and somehow I even got the brilliant idea to do a pet parade. I think it only happened once because untrained pets (we lived in camp, who had a leash?!) should not be brought into close quarters with other untrained pets. But here for your viewing pleasure, is the picture of the famous Nimpkish Pet Parade in 1977 - can you figure out which one is me?!