The Piano Guys

A friend sent me a link today, and of course, one link lends to another on YouTube. This makes me so happy -- must see:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tyPDQpel8bI&feature=relmfu

Starpower

Yesterday, one of the leaders in my church congregation emailed me to ask if I'd say the closing prayer in services to be held today.

Fast forward to today, during my church meeting, I hadn't told my kids I would be praying. No big deal right? Well, when the person conducting announced I would be giving the closing prayer, it was as if I'd won the lottery. Each of my three kids were patting me on the back and giving me these huge cheshire grins. My daughter said, (with all kinds of pomp and circumstance) "Mom, you get to pray. They said your name." The person in front of me turned with a huge smile, as if to say, "This is your 3-minutes of fame sister, enjoy."

Reunion

This weekend I experienced true joy and happiness. I reunited with my friend Sonia after almost 25 years' absence. With the help of social media, we connected and if that is the only reason I ever give for creating a facebook account, it would be worth it.

Meno, Me, Sonia

She and her family lived next door to mine long ago at a time in our lives when all we had to do was wake up and eat occassionally. We played from morning till night, it seems, and relished in the freedom of small town living. She shared stories of our picnics, where she was always in charge of providing the cheese because she had the best kind and cooking "in the ground" and jumping on a trampoline full of holes. I loved sharing memories of her pink banana seat bike and going on the windy trails down the street or down to the store (watch out for that pothole!). She remembered watching "Bo-ie" for a 4H project. Her basement was haunted and part of mine was (not the part with all of the colored sheets hanging from the ceiling - that was where Melissa, Curt, and I slept). She had a white "Wonderbread" t-shirt and my family had so many cars. She never knew my mom had a food storage business in our home, she just thought we had an enormous pantry.

She asked me to bring books and pictures - so I did, this shows Sonia and Meno :-)

As you can tell, we had the best visit. As soon as I saw Sonia and her sister, who even after all these years, I could only call by nickname - Meno, memories just flooded back and we went back in time for three hours. I've come to the conclusion: our families must have known each other long before we came to earth. That's it. That's how I can describe this happy feeling.

My girls begged to come and meet my friends - I told them we'd probably talk for four hours, so they better have stuff to do. By the end of our visit, there were Barbie dolls covering our booth

It's That Click-Click Sound That Gets 'Em

Something about mom's shoes simply fascinates little girls. I was the same. I am not sure what prompted my little girls to go in my room and pick out my high heels this morning, but sure enough, both girls show up ready to practice violin all decked out.

I had just long enough to snap a picture before one of them tripped and fell, including the very expensive instrument (I think the girl was OK too). Needless to say, we finished the practice on solid ground.

And Please Help Ken's Pants to Stay Up

Little girls are so easy and their birthday parties are too -- unless of course, they (girls or the parties) aren't (like last year when it rained on my daughter's JULY birthday party). That sounds like a Yogi Berra statement to me.

My little girl mostly just wanted her babysitters to come to her party, but luckily two of them were out of town. So, the remaining "lucky" babysitter came along with two other 3 yr olds.

Here, we were making rainbows with fruit loops and gold coins - thanks to pinterest for the idea, it was great

The hit of the party was when Aidyn brought out a mass quantity of barbie dolls that she used to play with her sisters. She got right down on the floor and played with them and the girls all LOVED it. I was cracking up as I listened to them. Apparently, some of Ken's wardrobe was seriously and permanently malfunctioned. The elastic was no longer elasticizing (made that word up, can you tell) around his waist band. The girls were so concerned about Ken's pants staying up and just couldn't figure out why his pants were always falling.

The little girls could've played like this for hours, no other party entertainment needed

We had lunch during the party and when my older daughter said the mealtime prayer, she was sure to include a requested blessing upon Ken that his pants might stay up.

Amen

Remember that time . . .



Find Me at: http://www.amazon.com/To-Best-Recollection-Kathleen-Lashier/dp/1563830604

Today my children and I spent some quality time in a doctor's office waiting to find out that my older daughter has a bladder infection. We went straight from church, so we were all "gussied" up for the wonderfully hygenic and pleasant office (not). Anyway, (did I really just say, "not"? I must be really blasting from the past) my son was bored and I grabbed a memory book from my purse and told him to find a funny memory to read.  Below is what he found: (be sure to read my comments at the end too).

What was the dumbest stunt pulled by you and a brother or sister?

My parents’ bathroom (only bathroom in the house so I guess it was the family bathroom) had a glass window in the door with the special glass that made it not clear.  Marci had been in there forever and I “spoke” to bathe next.  But, when Marci came out, Melissa raced in there and barricaded the door (no lock on it, just a method of opening two cupboards in such a way that “locked” the door.) Marci heard me screaming outside the door at Melissa and came to my rescue.  With her fist, she started banging on the door to get Melissa to let me in.  She broke the glass.

Silence.

Fear.

Dad was angry when he got home.  I don’t remember a specific punishment.  I felt really bad. I remember worrying about the cost of replacement. They did replace the glass with mirrors, which have been really nice. J

First question, "Mom, what is a stunt?"  (did you catch that in the tag question)

He wanted me to explain every detail of this "stunt" over and over and by the end he had incriminated Melissa as the "at fault" sister by a long shot. I simply couldn't talk him out of it. He claims Melissa should have listened to me because I "spoke" for the bathroom (I did have to explain what "speaking for" something means, I am pretty sure that phrase or word is going to start showing up around here).

I am kind of thinking it was Marci's fault . . .

I'm Going to Scream

That is exactly what my youngest said to me at the doctor's office the other day before her immunizations. She knew she had to get "healthy pokes" and she was not happy about it. She heard me make the appointment five days prior and asked me each day if "today" was the day.

http://i304.photobucket.com/albums/nn194/nettech9276/shot.jpg


Well, there isn't much more I can do but laugh now, but this kid screamed so loud and for so long in the doctor's office, surely I lost hearing. Right when the doctor walked in, she belted out a high-pitched scream. After I convinced her the doctor wasn't going to poke her, she calmed down, but wouldn't let go of me. She was kind of like a ferret ( is that the animal that holds on and won't ever stop holding on -- there is a movie I watched long, long ago where something like this happened and the guy was out on some dusty terrain, hmm, what movie was taht?). Anyway, she clung to me to save her life.

They had to call in backup. One nurse held her arms down, the other one gave her three pokes. Then, it was over. Screaming over, sadness over. They earned their money. I still live with the kid . . .

My Little Victim

Tulip Time

OK, this really is funny. I changed my facebook profile picture to this little doll:

and then realized how funny the story is that goes with this picture. So, we were at the Tulip Festival today and there are basically two rows of tulips in bloom, compared to the hundreds upon hundreds that will be in bloom next weekend.

All of the tourists (who didn't heed the warning of the festival organizers to wait another week before coming), were pretty much at the same few rows of tulips oohing and aahing. It would be my children who ran heedlessly into photo op after photo op. But, all the people were friendly, especially the picture-taker above. She had a fancy camera and crouched down amongst the tulips like she knew what she was doing. My sweetie pie ran right through the scene just at the time of the snappage of the photo. And, wa-lah -- here we go, an awesome picture. I asked the photographer to email it to me (she motioned me over first to show me how cute the picture was - I did have the forethought to apologize). Anyway, here you go - my funny of the day. I do love my girl, she is so headstrong and fun, I think this picture captures it, she was the one child who got back into the car with one muddy sock and shoe.

Chocolate Tooth

My daughter lost her second tooth on Sunday while eating a chocolate (delicious brown cookie with chocolate chips) cookie. Again, no blood. Another hanging-by-a-thread tooth. I was just a tad embarrassed to clean the cookie off the tooth in my cousin's home. Then, the teenager piped in, "Mom, your cookies are so hard she broke her tooth on 'em".

I kept the clean tooth in a baggie and in my pocket, as not to lose it. I was assured by my daughter that this one is not going to the tooth fairy. She (my girl) is keeping this one in her "precious" things.

Just to set the record straight, my cousin's wife is an amazing cook. I don't want to burn any brideges in that department.