Neanderthal

If you read this, you probably know me.  Let's see.   If you could use 3 words to describe my physical attributes which words would you choose?  Here are mine:

1) Crazy curly hair (ok, that's more than 1 word)
2) Freckles
3) Short

My hair has been a battle most of my life.  I grew up having a friend of my parents call it "The Torn Look."  That sounds better than "don't you ever do your hair?"  I love my hair when it does what I want it to, but when is that? Hardly ever. And puh-lease! It's nearly impossible to find anyone who actually knows how to cut curly hair.  I've never been excited about one of my cuts.  Not one.  I also never feel like I have an actual hair- style! Curly-haired girls shouldn't own a brush.  You don't brush this! You also don't use a normal towel.  You steal your husbands old t-shirts, they keep your hair from being frizzy.  You don't wash your hair daily, not even every other day.  Sounds gross, I know.  And it's best to air dry, but with thick hair, who has time for that? So, you MUST use a diffuser. 

Ryan teases me when I say, "I have to take a bath and do my hair before we go."
"Why? It will look just like that when you're done anyway!"
Love you, too.

I remember the morning after our wedding.  Ryan was already downstairs in our living room watching t.v. while I was in bed contemplating how in the world I was going to get to the bathroom without him seeing my crazy, curly, bed-head hair.  He'd never seen it in this state before!

There would also be mornings where I would wash it the night before and went to bed with it wet.  Ry would see me in the morning, grab me by the arms and take me to the huge bathroom mirror and say, "look at those curls!"  

I'm over it now.  He actually thinks I'm at my cutest right away in the morning...hmm.  That really isn't saying much for me is it?

Well, then.  It shouldn't come as much of a surprise when the littlest man in the house said what he did.  It was one of those "washed-it-before-bed-and-went-to-bed-with-it-wet" mornings.  I walk into the kitchen.  Dig looked at me without a single expression on his face.

"Mom.  You look like a Neanderthal." 
"Do you even know what a Neanderthal looked like?!"
"Yeah."

So I Googled it.  Sure enough.  The very first picture that popped up could be me...on a good day!

Look. She's got freckles and everything! 
I do have nicer brows, though! =)

One More...

Drue reminded me of another funny.

She was in the mood for a little staring contest. She thinks she's quiet good at them. 

DD:  "Daddy, are you good at staring contests?"
Dad:  "No."
DD: "OK, then let's have one!"
Dig pipes in, "I'm good at staring contests...if it's with a pretty girl!"

Guess it's easier to stare at pretty girls.  Oh boy.

In Their Own Words...

Well, my little "to-blog-about" list keeps getting longer, so I thought it was high time I posted something!  How about a random entry on all the cute/funny things I've heard the past few weeks? I realize these are mostly from Dig. Sometimes DD is way too serious and grown up.  She also has a brother who talks a lot!

* Turns out our Little Man is quite the Ladies Man.  He's friendly, caring, smart,  used to playing with girls, he's a cutie, not to mention smoooth.  Put these things together...you're bound to have lots of friends, boys and girls.  Dig also knows he can get a reaction out of his momma if he tells me about something a little girl says or did to him at school.  For example, "She hugged me!" "She chases me at recess!" "She tries to kiss me!" He even has girls tell him, "meet me at the bubble!"  The bubble is a crawl through tunnel on the playground equipment...thank goodness you can see through it! Evidently, this is the "secret" meeting spot for Kindergartners.  "Mom! If a girl says 'meet me at the bubble' DON'T do it!" 

* I admit, it's a rare thing for me to wear tennis shoes.  I'm just not that kinda' girl.  So, when Lane saw me wearing my tennies, he looked at me and said, "Mom, you look so cute in those shoes!"

* Dig's Kindergarten teacher, Ms. Phillips, uses a ladder system to keep behaviors in check.  Students move up or down the ladder depending on their behavior, how well they're working, if they're kind to friends, if they're caught doing a good deed, etc...  Dig is usually on Outstanding.  The highest tier of the ladder.  If you're on outstanding you get a coupon.  These coupons vary from, wear a hat in the classroom, bring your favorite CD, bring a stuffed animal, pick a friend to eat lunch with, all sorts of fun stuff!  Lane's friends aren't always at the top.  So, one day Lane was proud to tell me, "my two best friends moved up to outstanding today...and you know, I was kinda happy for them."

* It's no secret here that Dig loves chubby things.  That's how we got our cat.  He picked the one with the chubbiest face.  So, I guess I should take this as a compliment. (?) "Mom...you're face is just fat enough...almost too skinny." Then I got a hug...around my belly..."Now that's how I like my momma...with a nice chubby belly!"  {sigh} "Will you be my wife?" Redeemed.

* We know a true story about Ryan's elementary school days. He chased a girl on the playground and when he caught her, he kissed her.  Turns out she's a family friend, and I crack up just thinking about it.  One night we were re-living this, trying to embarrass Daddy and talking about "all the girls he used to chase."  I said, "I wonder what some of those girls look like now."  My sweet baby boy replies, "well we know he got the cutest one in the end." Seriously? He's smooth.

* On a day I subbed at the school.
   "Mom! What was that about today?!"
    "what was what about, Bubs?"
    "I saw (Billy) hug you! Why did he hug you!? I don't like that."
  
* "Mommy, you're like an onion."
    "what honey?"
    "You make me cry."
    "why are you crying?"
    "Cuz' we're talking about something nice.  Sometimes, good feelings make me cry."

Please ignore the slimy, fingerprinted door.  ;)

And here's one from the Queen of the house...

"DD, can you help me clear the table?"
"No, I'm saving that for the future.  5 kids are going to make me tired!"

The Presidents of the United States of America

Ladies and Gentlemen, I present to you Ms. Drue Kathleen reciting the Presidents of the United States.

It took D all of thirty-minutes to memorize all 44 Presidents. 

I originally told her to only memorize 5 at a time and she could do 15 a night. 

Well, that got blew out of the water. 

She also loves to quiz us with Presidential facts.  When they were born, how many kids they had, how fat they were or how tall.  It's so fun seeing her so excited about it.

Drue also loves to say who was born during which President. 
For example, Laura Ingalls was born during Andrew Johnson, Mary Ingalls- Lincoln, Carrie Ingalls- Grant, Pa Ingalls-Andrew Jackson, Ma Ingalls- Van Buren and Grace Ingalls- Hayes.  Why she knows this I don't know, but it helps her memorize them.  She also knows which President was in office when we were born (Ford) She also knows Grandmas' and Grandpas' and Great Grandmas' and Great Grandpas' Presidents. 

Drue is just soaking up all of this new found information and loving history...which I'm loving, too!

I sure hope her 4 years of required Confirmation memorizations go that smoothly!

Watch the Clock!

The morning of Mom's birthday, we went over before school to give her her birthday present.  Lane gets nervous thinking I'm going to make him late for school.  He's never been late before, but doesn't want to know what that feels like. 

Every morning he reminds me to "watch the clock, Mom!"  It's especially concerning to him on days when he wakes up earlier than normal.  It just seems like he has too much extra play or t.v. time in the morning and he thinks we must be running late or that I have forgotten he has to go to school.

The morning at Mom's he kept looking at the clock on the kitchen wall.  The clock with hands.  I assured him I was "watching the clock." 

"What time IS it, Dig?"

{Pause.  Pretty long pause, actually}

A couple minutes later, Lane comes to the table with a drawing of "what time it is" (or at least WAS when he drew it!)

"This is what time it is Mom! And we need to be to school by the 12!"

The second hand kept moving! ha!! Nanny's clock is a little fast and it showed the time as being about 7:50...all that work to tell me the time!

Reminds me of what my brother, Shawn would say when Dad would ask him to check the time (you know, waaay back before everyone had a cell phone with the time on it in their pocket!)

When reading a digital clock Shawn would say "Seven. dit, dit, Five. Zero"  {dit, dit = : the colon}



Happy REAL Birthday!

I'm bummed I didn't post on Mom's actual Leap Day birthday, but better late than never. 

My mom turned 14 this year! We went to her parents' house for dinner the weekend before and out to eat with Shawn and KK on her real birthday.

It was always a weird concept for me and I always thought it was kind of sad that, as a child she didn't have a real date to celebrate her birthday.  But, the older I get, I think I'd be ok with only having a birthday every four years!

We also figured out that DD and Nanny will turn 16 the same year! How fun will that be?! I forsee a picture in the paper...DD sees new cars for her and Nanny! We'll see, DD!

Happy Birthday, Mom!

Ubba!

Aren't You Funny

Dig's usually the one looking for laughs around here, but his sister's pretty stinking funny, too!  However, her idea of humor is a little different. 

She has math homework nightly and parents are supposed to correct it.  Drue hardly ever gets a problem wrong and to be honest, she's bored with "easy" math.  I guess I've also become a little lackadaisical in my correcting, she tries to catch me and thinks it's hiliarious!

Funny Girl!