A Celebrity Sighting

Ahhhhhhhh! Brett Favre was at our local W*lgreens. Can you believe it? A famous football player only 2 miles away from our house. I snapped a picture. Let me replay the moment for you. It will forever be in our family stories.

Brett was getting a energy drink from the cooler. Then Brett got a tap on the shoulder...

...and saw this face. Eric then heard, "Oh man, I thought you were Brett Favre."
You can not imagine the amount of laughing I have done. Eric was mistaken for a Brett Favre.

Emogene the Watcher

Eric and I have been painting for three weeks. We have had some disagreements and interesting conversations.
I sent Emogene and Hattie to a birthday party with my mom so we could finish the kitchen. Emogene told her Nannie, "Mommy and Daddy are probably shouting at each other right now. That is what they do when they paint." Thank you Emogene for ruining the perfect marriage image we were trying to portray. Also, for your information, Eric and I had a lot of fun painting and play fighting during the process.

The Bathroom

Hattie's announcement during class: "I love my toilet."
That totally sounds like my Hattie. She takes after her daddy in that realm. She spends way to much time in there.
Oh wait. Her teacher just repeated Hattie's announcement. Hattie is a little red in the face.
Hattie's second announcement, "I love my tortoise."
Okay that is better.

Painting

We have been busy painting and painting and painting. Isabel was so excited to help, until she realized it wasn't fun. Hattie and Emogene were banned from helping. We even sent them away today so we could finish it.

I'm the only one that can put my baby in a corner.
Uhhh, we have plenty of paint brushes Isabel.

Isabel loves to goof off.

I can come up with at least two reasons you should not ask Isabel to help you paint. You don't want to have her tape either. I'm just saying... she is terrible.

Hattie's Days

This is one of Hattie's looks. This one means, "I am upset because Emogene always tries to win." You see, Emogene and Hattie have a new game on the PS. They LOVE it. I have had to do some interventions to avoid catastrophes. Emogene has taken a few for the team so we didn't have to hear another Hattie meltdown, but sometimes Emogene likes to win. Hattie just doesn't understand why Emogene wants to win every game. She has a lot to learn.
This is a net hat thing Hattie found on the ground at the football game. I don't understand how Hattie has a radar for hair things. I find hair barrettes in her book sack all the time. Her friends give her barrettes they find. Hattie is known as the child that collects hair things from off of the ground. I'm not sure that is what I want her known for. Well anyway, Eric had a problem with her playing with the strange hat, especially when she tried to put it on my hair without my knowledge. I just thought she was tickling my head. Whew, I'm glad he knew what she was doing.

I am so proud of this kindergartner. She has surprised me immensely. Her teacher's aide told me the other day, that she can't believe that Hattie ever misbehaves. I should video the real Hattie, but I am so relieved she is a well behaved student. Homework has even gotten better. She doesn't cry and flail on the ground the whole time. It has made after school less stressful for me. I don't like my girls to grow up too fast, but maturing is a different matter.

The Football Game

We went to Isabel's first flag team performance on Friday. She was incredible. I had not seen her do any practicing, so this was my first time seeing her skills. Amazing! The pictures are terrible of her so I only had one that wasn't completely blurry. She is the last one on the right. She is of course holding a flag.


This was Emogene and Hattie's first football game. They were great. They loved watching the "cheeeeleaders" (Hattie) and putting on performances for us. They also loved going down to the "confession" (Emogene) stand. Wow, clear your conscience and get a pickle. That's a good deal.

Hattie HAD to have popcorn right away. A meltdown was avoided. I didn't want to choose this specific night to teach her a lesson, so Eric went down with her to get the popcorn. By the way, Mom, we do try to teach her lessons on other occasions.

On the way back from the "confession" stand, Hattie wanted us to either wait at the bottom of the stairs as she went up or we had to go ahead of her. She liked to have some distance between us. I think we are embarrassing.

Emogene was not a happy camper. Can you believe they didn't air condition the football bleachers? She was beginning to sweat, and she doesn't like popcorn. That was two strikes against us. We had to do something to get back in her good graces.

Daddy got her a pom-pom which came with a free snowball. This was the beginning of many performances.

They were both studying the pom-poms.

It was a great night. The man in front of us will be watching for us next time. He was not a huge fan of the pom-poms. We were not a big fan of the cow bell behind us or the other strange noisemaker. They should make a special spot for those people.

I think the girls did rather well for their first game. We did resort to bribery, but we also have never claimed to be the perfect parents.

Popularity

I have been checking my Faceb**k account. I like to get on it on the weekends and update frequently. I'm not addicted to it yet. This past week after confirming yet another friend, I noticed I have people coming out of the woodworks wanting to be my friend. Does anyone else have to go look in a yearbook to see exactly who has friended you? Even after seeing the picture, are you still not certain you remember them? I can only draw one conclusion. I was way more popular in high school than I thought. All these people want to be my friend even after all these years. I definitely left some kind of impression on them, and they remember me. Yep, I was popular. I mean, I tried to hang out with the popular people, but never felt quite included in that category. I just might need to go to one of my high school reunions. These people need to see me. They want to see me.
Wait, I guess it could be that people on Faceb**k have this compulsion to friend anyone that they graduated with, and I possibly do not have the best memory. Awww man, I may have been a loser in high school. Nope, I'm going with my first instinct. I was popular.

Horse Poop

We had to pull over today. Pony had to go to the bathroom. I told Hattie it was okay with me if he went in the van, but she would not hear of it. I guess it wasn't a huge inconvenience since Emogene needed to go too. Hattie brought Pony out, held him over the grass, and then changed her mind. She said, "Pony is 'lergic' to ants and spiders." Hattie decided it was okay for him to go in the van where we didn't have as many ants and spiders. We all agreed that Hattie was going to have to clean up the horse poop.

Torture

Hattie's face had us laughing. I was ripping off Isabel's eyebrows. Hattie was in shock. I better keep my wax on a very high shelf.

"O-oh, say can you see..."

Don't you just love "The Star Spangled Banner?" Why don't you come take a ride with me. My 7 year old, who thinks she is the next Hannah Montana, sings it over and over again in the van. She has also announced that she thinks she should sing it before a baseball game. She said, and I quote, "I get all the notes right Momma." I just smile and tell her she is fantastic. Isn't it okay to boost her self-esteem just a little?

A Portrait of Mommy

Hattie has done it again. She has created a masterpiece. She brought me this picture and announced that it was me. She then proudly announced that I was wearing glasses. Where do you think she would get the idea that I wore big honkin' glasses?



I do believe it would be this Christmas picture from circa 1983. I actually willingly showed her this picture. I bet you can find me. I look just like the hairy man in the picture standing up in the back, looking to the side.

Sorry Santa, but I couldn't get the scanned picture that was sent to me to load on Bl*gger, so I had to take a picture of the picture.

E is for Eggs

Hattie has a love of eggs. She even carries around a plastic egg that has a fabric egg inside of it. She talks about it and it hatches frequently. She walked into the room to say, "Daddy the eggs broke."
"Hattie how did the eggs break?"
"I had to hold one."
Eric was lucky, the eggs were still in the carton. They were still broken due to the fall, but they weren't all over the floor.

L is for Lamb

Hattie brought home a necklace telling about the letter L. Lulu the lamb also helped Hattie tell about the L. Hattie then had something to tell about Lulu. Very seriously she said, "It is sacrificing." Well that is a little more than I thought Hattie would know about Lulu the lamb. I'm glad to hear she has been listening during Bible.

Family Reunion

We had a family reunion yesterday. We had soooo much fun playing Nertz or Nerts. I'm not sure of the spelling. It is a very intense competition and it gets very heated.

Some of us choose to stand to play to get a better view.

Eric was not playing with us at this time.

My partner was Toni (yellow shirt). It looks as though she was doubting my abilities.

I was in the pink shirt.

I then looked a little bit skeptical about her technique.

None of it mattered though, we were the winners. No matter who was my partner,
my team won. Hmmmm, I wonder who was bringing the skill.



The little kids wanted to get in the fun.

Cheyenne is a little ham.

Hunter didn't get to play with us. We did occasionally find a random card on the table.

Thank you for trying to confuse us Hunter.

Michael did not want to play. The apple falls far from the tree on this one. His mom is brutal during Nerts. She was very well behaved tonight, but I have heard stories of pure terror among her partners. You better not cause her to lose. Her partner was saved this time, because she was trying to prove she was a good sport. He may still need to sleep with one eye open and hire a food and drink taster just to be safe.

My Marilyn Monroes

Before I show you my Marilyns I wanted to show you this thrilling picture. Hattie was actually walking with her dad. She was not only walking with him, but she wasn't fussing about it, and she was over 50 feet behind me. I think her Mommy addiction may be subsiding a little. It was nice to walk around holding Emogene's hand.

This was my modest Marilyn. She was very worried her dress would go up too high.

This was a shocked Marilyn. I thought she looked very Humpty Dumpty-ish.

We later had to almost leave her because she would not walk away from the air vent. She was very upset that I tricked her. I told her to come towards me so I could feel her dress when it poofed out. I felt it and then grabbed her and ran. I then walked around with her very slowly as she looked for pennies on the ground. She was determined to find enough to buy herself a movie ticket. "Mommy doesn't like movies!" No, Mommy doesn't like the cost of movies.

She found 3 cents and was very excited. She then found out it wasn't enough for a movie ticket or *bucks. Poor little darling.

They were going crazy!

They posed one last time before we had to leave.

Bonus:

While we were shopping for jeans, Emogene and Hattie had a good time playing in the store. Emogene ran into one of the dressing rooms. She opened the curtain, turned, and closed it and then quickly ran back out when she saw a surprised half-clothed girl staring at her. It was hilarious. Emogene turned very red.

We had a nice day doing things together. We also visited Hattie's favorite kitchen store. She was not pleased to walk out without purchasing the basting brush. I told her she might get it for Christmas. She is excited.

We went into a book store as well. I told Emogene I would get her some new chapter books for her birthday. Eric walked around with her, helped her pick a book, and then told her she couldn't look at it or touch it until next month. She was steaming mad and giving him the stink-eye. This was all while Hattie was seated in the van next to her, browsing through her new fairy book. At what age will Emogene realize when her dad is messing with her? Maybe it will be 8 years old. I tossed her the book, and she has already gotten to chapter two.

Getting Ready for the Wedding

We went to get my bridesmaid dress for my sister's wedding. I was not looking forward to picking it up. Upon being measured, the size 2 girl was in shock when I told her the size I usually wear. She then told me I was measuring four sizes larger, if you only count the even numbers. She said she would be nice and order a size smaller, but I would need to wear some Spanks underneath it. I refused to try it on at the shop. I didn't want the size 2 girl to get any satisfaction in case the dress did not fit. I also felt as if I had grown a little since I was measured and didn't want that embarrassment. Well, I brought it home, tried it on, and it was way too big! Isabel thinks it may even be 2 sizes too big. In your face sales lady! I don't need any Spanks for this dress. I may for others, but not this one. I think the shop orders a larger size so you will get it altered by them and then they will make more money. I will not be using them.

The girls enjoyed playing on the stairs in the shop. I was waiting a while because they don't normally have pick-ups on Saturdays, and I didn't call ahead to let them know I was coming. I'm sorry I was inconveniencing them with my $250 purchase.

The Hands of Love

Look at those precious hands collecting money for our poor neighbors.
Isabel, Hattie, and Emogene went to our closest neighbors to try and get some sales for Isabel's school fundraiser. They received several replies telling them they didn't have any money to buy anything. Hattie rushed home and began a hunt for money. She raided my change container and begged me to take her to our neighbors. "They need money Mommy. They don't have any. That is what they said."
I obliged and we blessed two neighbors. The first neighbor received about 7 cents and the other neighbor received about 3 cents. I hope they put it to good use. Her heart was happy as we returned home. She wanted to bless many more, but we needed to get home to eat supper.