Curiosity Got This Cat in Trouble - Again

A little cat deja vu for you. You've already been warned about what happens when dad is left in charge of the kids. This is what happens when dad is playing WOW and not paying attention to the kids.

I'm watching TV and hear Eric frantically yell to me to come downstairs and bring the camera. The kids haven't gone to bed yet. So nobody is asleep in a funky pose. What could be so pressing that I need to rush downstairs with a camera for? Oh, only Rascal. He's jumped on top of a filing cabinet and then into the "ceiling" of Eric's office.

Does this look familiar, folks? Eric trying to coax down the cat?

Once again - Rascal is trying to figure out how to get down from his predicament. "Oh, now you've done it, cat. You touched dad's Star Wars poster." It's not funny anymore.

Sweet Tooth?

Sweet Pea lost another tooth - her third one. She pulled it out all by herself. But here's the rest of the story . . .

Let's set up the scenario for you: I'm at work, Eric and the kids just got home from the school's show choir performance and Eric needs to use the little boys' room, and the girls want ice cream. So - to paraphrase - I'm gone, Eric's indisposed and the girls are left to their own devices. Through the bathroom door, Eric gives permission for the girls to get their own ice cream. And just like their mother, the girls must have tons of chocolate sauce with their ice cream. (Some days it's ok that Heavenly Father blessed me with two carbon copies of myself - like when it involves eating ice cream. Most days, it is not ok to have 3 Julie's in the house!!) Dad's occupied and can't help open the bottle of sauce so Sweet Pea is going to be the big sister and make sure she and Jellybean get chocolate sauce on their ice cream. She uses her front teeth to try and open the bottle. Eric says he then hears wailing coming from the kitchen - not whining, not whimpering, but wailing. Jellybean is screaming that Sweet Pea has blood everywhere. Eric's still tied up and can only hurry so fast, you know. Sweet Pea is still hysterically crying and is now in the kids' bathroom. Jellybean is just in a state of panic and freaking out. What a brave little girl Sweet Pea is - she wrenched that tooth the rest of the way out all by herself. She met Eric at his bathroom door with tissue in the wound and a tooth in her hand. Oh the drama!! That front tooth was loose but nowhere near being ready to come out yet. She's amazing!! So I guess you could say Sweet Pea has (or rather, had) a sweet tooth!!

We've Got a Thespian in the House!

Loch Monster takes acting lessons at Hale Centre Theatre. He just finished the fall semester and performed at the recital. He's taken 2 previous semesters and then we took a year long break because I wasn't happy with what was happening during the classes. I didn't feel like playground games taught anything about acting. I paid for one hour acting lessons not daycare. This is the first semester of classes I've finally felt like we were getting our money's worth. He memorized lines and performed in a small play. He did superb!! And he enjoys every minute of it - that's the best part.

Curiosity Got the Cat Stuck

My youngest child, Rascal - age 2, is exactly what his name suggests - a rascal. This morning, I'm in my office being unproductive on Facebook (again!) and from the basement, I hear Jellybean yell, "Daddy! Daddy! Oh no! It's Rascal!" I hear Eric run down the hall and then hear, "Julie, get the camera." Rascal has decided to explore the nether-regions of the basement. (Yes, we've lived in our home for almost 8 years. Yes, the basement is still mostly unfinished. Yes, our grandchildren will get to enjoy the basement. Sorry, no - it's really not that bad and Eric's doing a great job and working hard at finishing the basement in his spare time.)

Rascal leaps from the air shaft to the green support beam and is kind of freaking out. Behind the green beam is the air shaft so he is moving towards the camera - to give you some perspective on the layout.

Eric decides that he's going to try and help Rascal get down but Rascal doesn't understand that Dad is just trying to help and won't have anything to do with Eric. Now you can also see the whole picture. And I really wish I would have thought to get a picture of Rascal's other half. That would have been hilarious to see. You could totally hear his claws scatching against the wood. I'm sure his toes were spread-eagle, claws out, holding on for dear life.

Eric tries to be a good dad again and save the day but Rascal still doesn't get it so Eric gives up. "He got himself up there, he'll be able to get himself down." Sure enough, Rascal jumps down and then is super angry at Eric. For real! He won't let Eric pet him, talk to him, get close to him, nothing. He just bites and lunges at Eric whenever Eric attempts to get close. See - Rascal's just glaring at Eric in this last pic.

Turns out, Eric is the one who started this whole chain of events into motion. "Rascal wanted to see what was up there. So I put him on top of the box." That would be the clear box with the blue lid on top of the pile of white boxes. (P.S. The white boxes are my scrapbook memories dating back to 1997 - waiting to be taken out of hanging file folders and actually scrapbooked. Based on completed scrapbooks, Loch Monster isn't even born yet. How sad am I!?!?!) Not thinking anything of it, Eric went down the hall to his office until said Jellybean screamed and panicked. This is what happens when dads are left in charge of the kids. You've been warned!

5th Grade Homework is Rough!

Fifth grade homework is not a walk in the park. It involves a whole lot more than reading for 20 minutes a day. Loch Monster and I have spent the last month working on his USA Scrapbook. He had to create some kind of ABC book of the United States that included the following: 5 states, 5 famous Americans, 5 famous events, 5 important places, and 6 other topics relating to the United States - plus - a title page, table of contents, bibliography and cover page. Phew!! We finished it on Wednesday - a whole week ahead of the deadline. Eric and I helped him come up with his 26 topics and then I helped him research each letter (thank heavens for Wikipedia!!!) and assemble each scrapbook page. This was Loch's first research project so we had a little bit of a learning curve to work through. I helped him research A - U - describe it, find the interesting facts, write it in his own words, etc. Things were crazy this week and he was left to research V - Z on his own. He finally got around that learning curve, though, and did great on those last few letters all by himself. I'm so proud of him!!! He did 95% of the work on his project (I did the cover, title, table of contents and bibliography pages). He muddled through the learning curve, the frustrations of harder work and even a couple of migraines. And he's truly the sweetest boy ever - he was quite emotional as he hugged me and thanked me for all the help I gave him with this project. That's all the reward a mom really needs!!

Here's my 3 most favorite pages in the entire scrapbook. D was for the Declaration of Independance and E was for the Emancipation Proclamation. On each of their Wikipedia pages were pictures of the actual documents. I saved a copy of the picture and then blew it up to an 8 1/2 x 11 image and printed it on cream colored paper. Then the best part - I burned the edges using the stovetop element to create the antique look. So instead of a plain colored background for those two pages, the "actual" documents were the background. How cool is that?!?!?! (Thankfully, I did this when all the kids were at school. That's all I need - for the girls to learn the latest way to have fun! And for future reference - be sure to have doors and windows open before burning edges of paper.) There's nothing super special about the actual page of the Twin Towers but 9/11 is a sensitive topic for me. I went into labor with Sweet Pea while we watched the events of that day unfold. She was born the next morning but we'll always know how long it's been since the tragedy.

To save you some key strokes and curiosity fits, here's what he did for each letter: Arkansas, George W. Bush, California, Declaration of Independence, Emancipation Proclamation, Benjamin Franklin, Grand Canyon, House of Representatives, Independence Day, JFK Assassination, Martin Luther King Jr., Lincoln Memorial, Mount Rushmore, New Jersey, Ohio, Michael Phelps, Queen Mary Ship, Theodore Roosevelt, Statue of Liberty, Twin Towers, Utah, Valley Forge, World War II, Richard M. Nixon, Yankee Stadium, and Zion National Park. (What would you have done for the letter X?)

We learned some really interesting things about our country and its people. My most favorite piece of unknown information is that Pres. Roosevelt didn't have a vice president for his first term in office. Honest! Click it out.

Loch Monster, I'm so proud of you! You did awesome!

"Scary" Halloween

Halloween really isn't my most favorite holiday. Having a birthday the day before meant that I got a lot of Halloween birthday parties. I hate, uh . . . greatly dislike, getting dressed up myself let alone finding costumes for my kids. Bless their hearts, though. This year they all wanted to be what they were last year except the scary (or scarier) versions of those so we added face and hair paint, brooms and some serious back-combing. I can handle $20 bucks for this year's Halloween costs.

Since they wanted to be the scary (or scarier) version of last year's costume, I felt they had to act mean, too. What kind of sick idea was that, Julie, to ask them to be nasty?!?!?! They just couldn't pull off the mean, scary face, though. Maybe it's because I was laughing too hard.

My latest crush, besides a-hunk-a-hunk-a-burnin'-love Barry, is my nephew, BabyCakes. At Family Home Evening on Monday night, we all came (sorry, they all came - remember, I don't do costumes) dressed up for the Halloween festivities planned by Grandma. Ever seen the Disney cartoon about Lambert, the Sheepish Lion? (I know the whole song, by the way. Ask me - I'll sing it for you.) Well, here's our version and BabyCakes' real name sounds almost like Lambert so I love singing the song to him.

And what kind of aunt would I be if I didn't give the other two youngest nephews some air time, too? :-)

Happy Birthday to Me!!

On October 30th at 7:11 p.m. and weighing 7 lbs. 11 oz., I was born. It's been told that my dad joked with my mom, "Wouldn't you like to wait 5 more hours and have a little goblin?" For those of you who have delivered a baby, you know what my mom's answer was. I'm four hours old in this picture.

These next two pictures were taken of me with my parents on the day I was blessed, Dec. 3rd. I still have my blessing dress in my cedar chest. Gotta love my parents groovy clothes. Even our couch has character.

Life's been grand these last 36 years. I'm grateful to be where I am in life right now. When my mom was 36, and I'm the oldest child, I was 15 years old. I can't even imagine having a teenager right now. Sweet Pea and Jellybean are drama enough right now. I thought my mom was ancient, too. Life's not so bad at this age and I'm not really that old contrary to my children's beliefs.

When my mom called me today, she couldn't believe she has a child that is 36. But her perspective changed a little bit when she remembered that, just a month ago, my grandma said she couldn't believe she has a 60 year old child, my dad. I cross my fingers that my mom and dad get to "not believe" that someday. They both lost one parent each very early in their married life. I don't know how I could survive without their support and knowledge and prayers.

Thanks to my parents for "gettin' it on" many, many moons ago so that I could have this amazing journey and wild adventure. Get ready, though - this ride ain't over. The best, and I'm sure the worst, is yet to come. :-)

I'm a Fanilow!!!

For my debut post to the blogging world, I wanted to share the most exciting event to happen in my life in recent months. My wonderful husband planned the most amazing anniversary get-away. Eric absolutely hates (well, that's a strong word - greatly dislikes) Las Vegas but he chose to celebrate our 14th anniversary there because he knows how much I love Barry Manilow. He got us tickets to Barry's concert!!!!! I totally broke all the rules, every single sign posted as you enter the theater, and all of Eric's warnings to bring you my first blog.

This is screen or curtain thingy (a scrim? Is that what it's called Theatre Steph?) on the front of the stage. Images were projected on it as the concert started. Eric got us super awesome seats - dead center, 13 rows from the front. I had to take a picture of us in the theater to prove that we were really there.

We all got Barry Manilow glow sticks. It really killed me to crack mine to make it glow because I wanted to keep it in pristine shape forever but I succombed to the masses. I had nowhere to put it for safe keeping than where you see it in the picture. One hand was holding my camera, the other had the phone texting my sister. What's a girl to do?

Here's just a few random shots of Barry that actually turned out to some degree.

Now for the best part of the evening (no, not that part - do you really think I'd tell you about that part?!?!?!) The concert was practically over, or so I thought, and he hadn't done Copacabana. That's my favorite song (it's got a good beat and I can dance to it - for all you American Bandstand fans out there). I was getting sad that he wasn't going to sing it but then he said, "We can't end this show and not do this song." Then the music started for Copacabana. I raced for my camera because that's the one song I wanted video of. I missed the first few measures but caught the rest of it. Thanks to Eric's great choice of seats, this up-top part of his performance was right in front of us. Had we been any closer to the stage, we wouldn't have got such a great view of this song!! (Pause the playlist at the bottom of the blog before you watch the video.)

We were really there! I still can't believe it! What an amazing experience! Eric is the best husband EVER!! He was so thoughtful to celebrate our anniversary in a way that was really mostly all about me and doing something that I'd just dreamed about doing for such a long time. I'll never forget that night! (Mostly because it was pretty much my anniversary, birthday and Christmas gifts all rolled into one big present!)