much ado

That dog of ours has found a deer carcass in the woods.  He has dragged up a couple of it's legs and contentedly lies in the front yard gnawing them.  But Sunday he left one of the legs in the driveway in the path of Mr. D's car.  Mr. D talks to Jax like he understands and I watched him explain to the dog that he needed to move the leg bone so he could get through his side of the driveway.  Well that dog understood "bone" and "driveway" all right.  I took the gang to church and returned to find the deer's torso lying in the driveway beside the leg bone.  Never has a dead carcass struck me so funny as when we saw that huge spine and ribcage and skull smack in the middle of Mr. D's path through the driveway. 

In other news, Mr. G's a happy little Ravens fan. 

I'm going to be in Virginia April 19-22 visiting Jen on the Edge!  If you're from the area and think you'd be up for a bloggy get-together, let me know!

Reason # 2 to buy Whipped, Not Beaten on Kindle: It's been described as "Stephanie Plum meets Pampered Chef."

Reason #3 to buy Whipped, Not Beaten on Kindle:  it's about Public Radio and who doesn't have a soft spot for Public Radio? 

This just in:  my friend Nicole said the formatting of my e-book release looks terrific!  What a relief!

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turn on your headlights and speak clearly into the microphone

It's FOGGY here today.  I can only see 1/8 of a mile which makes for some mighty scary driving conditions.  I left the house once already to announce a spelling bee.  You should've heard me practicing these words at home for the past week to make sure I could say them okay.  Pantisocracy. Payn-ti-sah-krass-y.  Pan-tsi-craw-see.  Pan-ty-sew-cray-see.  (FYI: that's a utopian society where all people rule equally.)  I hadn't even seen some of these words before in my life and I worked really hard learning how to say each one correctly.  Talk about goofy, but I'm a stickler for good pronunciation. 

The room was abuzz with nerves.  I felt bad whenever I had to tell someone they spelled a word incorrectly, but most of the students seemed more relieved than disappointed when they got eliminated.  The second-to-last round eliminated the last 3 standing so we did a final round where only 1 kid remained.  I was relieved not to get to the last hundred words on the list.  Even though I practiced, some of them were REALLY hard to say!

A few kids came up afterwards to see how to spell words they missed.  I told a couple that I'll never forget how to spell "embarrassed" because that was the word I stumbled on when I was in a 4th grade spelling bee.  The double-r screwed me up, but never again!

It rained ice last night and this morning I saw lightning outside my window.  It's supposed to snow half a foot or more starting tonight.  Whether you think this wonky weather is due to climate change or just a fluke, there's no denying it is WEIRD out there.  Forty degrees today and down to five by Friday.  Good grief!  It's a Meteorological Mash-Up outside.

Spill it, reader.  Did you ever compete in a spelling bee? What word did you get wrong?  I bet you still remember!

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partying like rock stars (again)

 It's been a thrilling time here over the weekend--Mr. G's indoor winter baseball team won the league championship!  Mr. T made a basket during his game!  Mr. B mastered the fine art of setting a pick during a game!  Grandparents were present to watch all of these wonderful moments!  Back at the ranch, we exchanged gifts.  My folks knocked it out of the park with monogrammed Packer pillowcases for Team Testosterone and vouchers for an outing to an amusement park during our next visit.  Three monkeys all in a row opened their gifts and grinned.

The following night we had chili, old neighbors, a bonfire, beer and fireworks.  Oh what a sound to hear the fireworks reverb through the woods, across the frozen creek and rip over the barren snow-covered fields!  Many people enjoyed the show, I later learned on Facebook.  Maybe this should become an annual tradition.  Our only error in judgement was to have the kids collect the shells and toss them in the fire.  One little whistler hissed past my right shoulder and gave us enough of a scare to head back in to the house.  Imagine my horror and joy when later that night, as I closed the blinds, I watched a Roman Candle explode brilliantly from the bonfire.  Red! Green! Red! Green! balls of fire soared into the air and white sparks shot in every direction.  A Christmas miracle that we manage to survive my stupid suggestions.

Christmas Eve we dialed it down a notch--went to church, made our homemade pizzas and enjoyed a silent night.

Until the monkeys woke up and tore into their gifts--such delight!  The airsoft guns, while making me a bit queasy, seem to be okay so far.  In any event, it got the gang outside for a while.

Santa brought the family one of those new-fangled iPads!  I've yet to actually play with it myself, though Team Testosterone does allow me to type in my password so they can install apps like Angry Birds Star Wars...

But the most awesome moment of all was my gift to Mr. D.  After MONTHS of logistical coordination, I called him downstairs to help me with one final gift of the day...

As he reached the bottom of the steps, I flipped the switch and the The. Most. Epic. Christmas. Present. Ever. lit up and made marvelous electronic noises.  Yes, The Best Woman in the World (for the moment, anyway) shocked Mr. D by presenting him with a mint-condition 1988 Secret Service pinball machine.  The story of acquiring this gift is pretty good, but seeing Mr. D's reaction was a thousand times better.

What a moment.

It all went exactly as I planned, thanks to a lot of help from my friends.

He had no idea and was thrilled by the surprise.  Mr. G exclaimed, "This is better than an Xbox!"

While the boys glutted themselves on Christmas chocolates and games, Jax and I hit the trail, he on foot, me on skis.   The air was cold and still and silent.  We saw some deer, rabbits and a few birds.  I counted my blessings and enjoyed the peace.

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ninjas everywhere, but only one broken ornament

While I was off enjoying the Packers stomping on the Lions in the snow at Lambeau (though not literally, as stomping means something quiet specific when talking about that team and the Packers have good sportsmanship unlike SUHme players...), Team Testosterone was ecstatic.

For a while now, Mr. G and Mr. B have had serious boy-crushes on these two brothers at the dojo, I'll call them Nina 1 and Ninja 2, AKA the Ninja Bros.  They're good, upstanding assistant instructors, both in high school, both compete in martial arts tournaments and both are phenomenal athletes.  If my kids want to hold anybody up as role models, they can totally idolize these guys.

Ninja 1 and Ninja 2 have a team routine they've done at karate tournaments and my younger boys copy their moves, flipping and jumping over each other in their room at night.  They've numbered the moves, so they come up with various combinations of flipping, jumping, and shaking the floor when they land.  Mr. G's mastery of a kip-up is also due in part to the Ninja Bros. 

For a while now they've been begging for the Ninja Bros to babysit.  We don't have much of a need for sitters around here since Mr. T's old enough and we've worked out an excellent system of paying everyone for cooperating with one another (Mr. T gets $2/hour, the younger boys get $1/hour, you only get paid if you have a good report).  But a Packer game overlapping dinner time is a pretty long shift, so I relented and asked the Ninja Bros if one of them would be free to come over for a few hours.

Team Ninja Bros said "YES!  We're both in!" and the clouds parted, a light shone down from heaven, angels sung and Team Testosterone squealed with joy.  Or something like that.  The Ninja Bros then asked if we had anything breakable in the living room.  Uh, yeah.  You can do all the crazy stuff you want in the basement, but keep your weapons out of my living room and away from the Christmas tree!

Team Testosterone counted down the hours and then the Ninja Bros arrived, one carrying his sword, the other his bo staff, both laden with Monster Energy drinks and sodas.  I handed over money for a run to Subway and cell phone numbers.  We drove away with a strong vibe that Team Testosterone was in for one of the best nights of their lives.

We returned much later to find the Ninja Bros' vehicle still parked at our house.  I'd told them they were free to leave around 7 (school night, snowstorm, Mr. T capable of handling bedtime) so I panicked, thinking their car hadn't started and the poor boys were trapped at our house waiting for us to return.  Ah, but no.  They were sitting comfortably in the living room, watching TV, drinking soda.  Just hanging out, enjoying the quiet of our home.

"I have to tell you, I broke an ornament on your tree.  It was just a glass ball, not a fancy one or anything," Ninja 1 explained.

"Oh?"

"The boys had knocked it down and I was trying to hang it back up, but it fell on the ground and shattered."

"Don't worry about it.  How did everything else go?"

"We did karate in the basement, played outside in the snow, went to Subway--the change is on the counter--fed Jax.  We played the Wii a little.  Now they're all in bed.  Your kids are really good.  We had a lot of fun with them."

I helped the Ninja Bros scrape off their car and watched them drive away, curious to know if Team Testosterone really had a good time.  They woke up Monday morning dragging their feet.  Later I learned that they had played really hard.  Mr. T finally mastered a new bo staff move he'd been working on (private weapon lesson in the basement from Ninja 2 while we were gone).  They found a flashlight, turned off all the lights in the house and played hide-and-seek for at least an hour.  They each learned something new to add to their karate repertoire.

"So, did you have fun?  Would you want the Ninja Bros to come out here again sometime?"

YES!!!  Are you leaving again?  When?  I had to stop them from rushing off to mark their calendars and grab their weapons. 

Well, there were 5 black belts of varying degrees tearing through the house and only a broken ornament to show for it.  I have to say I was impressed.

In other news, it's 12/12/12 today which means putting on your #12 jersey and celebrating this guy:

Spill it, reader.  Who rocks the babysitting in your neck of the woods? 

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we need your votes

I'm generally not one to get involved with this sort of contest, but this time the project is worthy and it's actually got a shot at winning.  Here's the story:

My kids attend a small parochial school with a positively dreadful playground.  The school's playground is located smack in the middle of our small town and it gets heavy traffic year-round from neighborhood kids and school kids.  The current playground was built on a pebble surface, out of wood.  The climbing tires are beginning to tear apart, several parts of the playground are out of commission because it's very old.

St. Nicholas in Freedom is a thrifty parish, they print on both sides of the paper, they share and innovate to work and learn in a building with no frills. 

Here's the kicker:  there's at least one girl who cannot use the school playground EVER because she's on wheels.  She's either stuck playing on the blacktopped parking lot or inside during recess every day and there's not a thing anyone can do about it--except build a new playground.

Over a year ago people designed Freedom For All To Play

 

and then some more people started to find funding.

The 8th grade class donated a few thousand dollars before "graduating" to high school last spring.
The math and science teachers shaved their heads (and beard) after raising a thousand dollars.
One mom applied for

 Power a Bright Future through Clorox

and people voted.

Then word spread and more people voted.

I cast my first vote on the site when our school was ranked #188.   (I confess, I'm skeptical when it comes to these contests and stuff.  When we started to climb in ranking from spot four hundred-something, I ignored the pleas to vote.)

The town began to rally.  Flyers went out after mass at the parish and during the town's Christmas parade.  The public school sent home a note asking parents to vote.  During halftime at a girls home basketball game the student body was asked to whip out their phones and text in votes.  Announcements and reminders are going out at every single home game until the final day to vote, December 19th.  People can vote online and text in a vote once daily until December 19th.

This morning when I voted online and texted in my vote we were ranked #59.  Our small town is rising in the ranks as word spreads and more people commit to voting for this project.  My family is voting--even my aunt in Utah is on this.  My friends are voting.  And now, dear bloggy pals, I'm asking you to start voting, too. 

I wasn't going to ask you to do this a week ago, because frankly I didn't think we had a shot.  After watching our project climb through the ranks, I believe it's possible for this playground to happen soon because $50,000 is a HUGE jump start.

Here's how you can help:

1.  Text your vote daily.   When texting, 95248 is the “phone number” and 775PBF is your “message.”

2.  Vote daily at the Clorox website. Registration takes a minute the first time you vote, and I promise you, I've received no spam or annoying phone calls since getting involved.

3.  Spread the word.

 

You can vote every 24 hours now through December 19.  

Thank you so much.

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