Al Franken is contesting THIS BALLOT in Minnesota right now. Ugh. Ya know what I think??? I think that maybe this guy actually meant to cast his vote for Dean Barkley!

I mean, really....folks must be proud over there tonight...

Sorry...back to cute pics of the kids & dog....

Installment 3 of the "survivor series".

(See last 2 posts for 1 & 2).

Here's Eric's. No contest here, either.

Maybe a big box of Cheezits might be a close second, but if the boy had his Blackberry and a pound or two of Halloween candy...he could go for a while. Hey---he could even use the inside of the cellophane wrappers to reflect light to send out his SOS to passing ships!!

How handy.

Ouch

Yesterday's blog about what Syd would take to an island was funny, because it was just so obvious. The girl has NOT REMOVED those Wizard of Oz shoes since my mom gave them to her, and her bubble gum mouthwash is like her heroin. We are very fortunate that it's alcohol-free, because she'd be an addict by now.

Anyway...it got me to thinking that whatever two things you'd have to say you couldn't live without....those two things really say a lot about you. Your values. Priorities. Brain cells. So here's the second installment in the series.

Pooch. These tennis balls go everywhere with him...they are much like HIS heroin.

And all subtlety aside, I can't help but wonder if the fact that he was a "rescue dog" who was neutered exceptionally early in life has anything to do with his obsession. Don't we always want what we cannot have?

I'm just sayin'. :-)

Survivor

Sydney's marooned on an island....this is what she takes with her.

G-U-A-R-A-N-T-E-E-D.

Project Runway

See that outfit up there? No, really, did you see it? Look again. Click on it to make it bigger, and study it for a second. Get a good look?

She's serious. This girl stands by her fashion choices, and will defend them to the death. You need to know that she is truly and measurably offended when I STILL tell her, day after day, that no....in fact...she may NOT choose her own clothes for school.

Unbelievable. Or terribly believable. Guess it depends on who you're askin'.

We had a GREAT weekend this past weekend...me, Sydney, and Howdy Doody up there.

Guess where we went?? Tough one, I know.

Colin's just a scooch obsessed with maps. Eric's jumped on this interest, and now has the kid surprisingly aware of the whole globe, as they sit in his room each night & cover continents, countries, states, capitals, etc. Colin manages to work it into just about everything we do. "Mommy, are we going to the post office on Fecteau Way?" and "Are we going to the grocery store in Lee? Down route 125? Or the one in Raymond off route 27?". It's endearing and annoying all at once---never equally, I assure you.

Anyhow---Eric's been at the law library at school all day. He's working on a big project, and will be there for most of the long weekend. So tonight at dinner....here's ---just about verbatim---Colin's prayer:

"Dear God. Thank you that we got to go to the Topsfield Fair today. I liked that you made that. Good job. And thank you for this delicious dinner. And please help Daddy to have a safe ride home tonight. Amen"

So sweet....but after his first bite of food, he gets this panicked look on his face and asked to pray again real quick. Umm...okay. Here's was the addendum:

"Dear God. Remember how I asked you to keep Daddy safe? I forgot to give you directions. He's in Andover. Andover, Massachusetts. It's down route 93, and there's a sign on the highway. I don't know the exit. You'll have to ask your Dad. Ya know, God? Ask him. He'll know the exit. Amen".

Dude, I DIED.
Have a great holiday!!

http://www.vimeo.com/1866602


Just had to share this video because it reminds me so much of Pooch. You see, Pooch is half beagle. (The other half--complete moron) His Jack Russell half is maddeningly stupid, but his beagle half is just sadly and pathetically stupid.



This is captured perfectly at 1:13 when the poor guy realizes he's totally SCREWED.

It's a good one--

I just realized, after reading a note from Colin's teacher, that not only does she use the word "wowzers" alot...but...she also dots her i's with circles. AND the dots under her TWO exclamation points are the eyes that form the top of a cutie-patootie smiley face. This means that she is clearly absolutely PERFECT for this job, and I'm kinda jealous of her enthusiasm!

Wowzers.

See vooh play?

Sydney has started speaking in Spanish (thanks to Dora the Explorer), calling it Chinese (because of the ladies who do her pedicures), and she's doing it all with a heavy British accent...thanks to her ongoing addiction to Julie Andrews movies.

I WILL be trying to catch this on video as soon as I can....however, I'll have to sneak up on her to do it. The MOMENT that child sees a video camera, it's like her body loses all muscle tone, her face freezes in some sort of bug-eyed-tongue-out mess, and she acts like a total moron. Even if I can't catch it, though....read the above paragraph and then close your eyes while you try to picture it. It's THAT funny.

Young Republicans

Just found this stuck to the wall in the hallway between the kids' rooms upstairs! Colin had written the sign that says, "vote for John McCain and Sarah Palin turn right and left for votes of them". And in their rooms, there were homemade ballots on each of their respective desks...complete with pencil.

Pooch H. LaRooch

THIS is why Pooch loves it here...

.......and THIS is why Pooch hates it here.......

2nd grade

Colin started SECOND GRADE (all caps because it really is that exciting) this week! He was so cute with his buddy Noah White down at the bus stop on the first day. Here are some pics from that morning. His teacher this year is Ms. Crane, and she seems great. She was our first choice, and has a personality that should really work well for Colin's learning potential---which means mostly that her personality is exactly the opposite of mine. Ha. He had all highs and no lows to report this week, so we're off!

I thought I'd pull out my old scrapbooks (thanks, Mom) and show him my elementary school years...particularly second grade. He was reading all of my little stories, laughing at my artwork, and checking out my class pictures. He noticed that when I was little, I was called Jenny and signed my schoolwork as such. We had a special time of snuggling looking at those books, then he hopped off my bed and headed out of my room.

At the door, he turned around and said, "Mommy? I'm so glad you don't let anyone call you Jenny anymore...because you were VERY UGLY when you were Jenny."! I thought of explaining to him that just calling me Jenny would not transport me back & drop me back into my 1981 perm and give me oversized plastic eyeglasses. But forget it....

uh oh

Syd's been practicing her letters and whatnot as she is getting so excited for school to start back up. Just went down to the playroom & found this on the chalkboard.

Guess we'll be having "the talk" sooner, rather than later with that one!

That' so WHACK...

So, that's my leg. Hacked it to pieces with a weedwhacker on Saturday. Laughing yet? Yeah--not funny. MAY be funny soon, but not funny yet.

I was happily whacking the weeds, when I whacked off the top of a hornet's nest. Got stung. Went to get spray, sprayed to kill 'em, then turned around to fuss with the weedwhacker to get back to what I was doing. Ya know how when you put your hand on a hot pan handle, it takes your brain a second to realize that, um, yeah, bytheway...your hand is on fire? Well---it took a minute for that same synapse to fire and let me know that my THUMB was on the trigger, and that searing pain? YEAH...that was my leg being ripped to shreds.

The picture doesn't even do it justice, because you can't see how deep a couple of those are. And because it was taken before the bruising (from the velocity with which the damn thing hit my leg) had appeare. Oh, and there's no audio to hear me alternate between sobbing and screaming curse words.

Best part? (aside from the fact that I actually WAS intending to wear shorts some more this summer?) Had a terrible reaction to the sting...hand swollen and ridiculously painful. AND had to get a tetanus shot---which resulted in a case of hives. Nice spread out itchy ones. AND...I realized later that night that my underwear had been on inside out all day. Not even kidding.

We're gonna just forget Saturday ever happened.

Colin's TOOTH!

Colin lost a tooth! Colin lost a tooth! Colin lost a tooth! Finally.

Seriously. This kid has been waiting since the first day of first grade last year...when he first saw the blasted "tooth chart" on the wall. Every single kid in his class made that stupid chart last year---some with their second or third lost teeth! It all went down with very little fanfare. Grandad came over & pulled it. Colin was a little shocked, though, because he just kinda thought he was gonna take a look in there, and then all of a sudden---it was in his hand!!

We laughed the next day because Colin came down to our bed with his bag of loot & the card from the tooth fairy in his hands--still unopened. He had a kinda dazed look on his face, mostly because while he was pretty sure that the whole "fairy" thing wasn't really real...how the HECK was he supposed to explain the M&M's and the money. And, ummmm....where'd my tooth go? Sydney, on the other hand, would have had everything ripped open, eaten, and would be standing over us with a pair of pliers to see if we could maybe figure out how to get her some more money under her pillow??

Congrats, buddy!!

Kelsey

I was just uploading some old stuff on my camera & found these pictures from a couple of weeks ago. Eric & I were gone overnight, and our DEAR babysitter Kelsey was here with the kiddos. We came home to find the living room transformed into a blanket fort...thanks for that Kelsey, by the way! Found these, so thought I'd share. Those kids are so blessed to have Kels in their lives.

Let's hope she'll still be speaking to us after she sees that I just posted pics of her in jammies and without makeup for the whole world to see. Sorry!

Syd once more

Just a couple of Sydney's greatest hits from today:

First, we went to the new Children's Museum of New Hampshire--large, loud, and TONS of fun. The kids were both WIPED on the way home, and Sydney fell asleep in the car. I pulled in to get gas, and when I got to the pump & turned off the car...Sydney sat straight up with a start and yelled, "chicken nuggets and fries!!". I turned around to laugh at her, and Colin was just back there shaking his head going, "it's the gas station, Sydney".

Then just before bed tonight, I hear Sydney yell from the bathroom inquiring as to whether or not I could please come & help her *ahem* wipe. I yelled back that she is plenty old enough to handle these things, and she yells back...."okaaaay, but it's seriously a piece of work."

An overdeveloped love of fried foods AND an appreciation of potty humor. My girl.

I'm pretty sure this is where favoritism has it's roots...

I woke up a couple of days ago to THIS on my pillow.

Had it been from Sydney, however, it would've gone a little something like this:

i like you most days. you're not that bad it's fun when you let me have my way. it is. you'll do. buy me lip gloss today and i want to be called isabelle from now on. love sydney farris