Dinosaurs

Elijah has become quite interested in Dinosaurs recently.  He is also the sort of child who wants to know all their names, then memorizes them and what they look like so you can never get away with making up Dinosaur names ever.

This doesn’t bother me though, because thanks to my brother David, I have a solid base of Dinosaur knowledge to draw from.  Oh yes, I know the regulars like T-Rex, Stegosaurus, Triceratops, Brontosaurus, Pterodactyl, and even know some of the less well known ones like the Allosaurus, Velociraptor, and Ankylosaurus.

Or so I thought.  First I find out (a while ago), that scientists believe the Brontosaurus was actually a combination of multiple Dinosaurs.  So they split it up into 3- the Brontosaurus, Apatosaurus, and the Brachiosaurus.But then, I was watching a Dinosaur movie with Elijah and it all centered around what looked very much like a Pteradactyl.  However, they kept calling it a Pterosaur.  What is this now?  Is this some sort of scientific change they made?

But this one, this one takes the cake.  I cannot believe they are doing this to us.  They now are speculating that Triceratops and Torosaurs are one and the same.  Yes, that’s right, they are now saying that Triceratops may never have existed.  This is more than I can take.  What are they going to tell us next?  That a T-Rex is just an Allosaurus whose front limbs never fully matured?

What To Expect When Tutoring

When working with High Schoolers, here are some things you might expect.  They just might….

• Show up early.  So early you are still drooling in your sleep on the couch.
• Show up late.  They have things going on you know.
• Before knocking, they try the doorknob to see if they can just walk in.
• Be extremely aware of the time once they are there.  Wouldn’t want to do a minute more of homework than necessary now would we? It’s 2:57pm, time for me to go!
• Take frequent bathroom breaks.  During which you can hear them having phone conversations.
• Take phone calls in the middle of your important mathematical explanation.
• Ask to have some food from your pantry.  When you yourself are not eating.

Cartoon Characters and Marriage

If any cartoon characters out there represent Nick and my interactions with each other, it would be these two:

Every time I hear this conversation, I chuckle.  I think Nick and I have had some variation of this conversation about 17 times.  Make that 117.

Mr. Incredible: The robot’s in the Financial District. Which exit do I take?
Elastigirl: Traction Avenue.
Mr. Incredible: That’ll take me downtown. I take 7th, don’t I?
Elastigirl: Don’t take 7th!
Mr. Incredible: Great, we missed it!
Elastigirl: You asked me how to get there, and I told you. Exit at Traction!
Mr. Incredible: That’ll take me downtown!
Elastigirl: It’s coming up, get in the right lane. Signal!
Mr. Incredible: We don’t exit at Traction!
Elastigirl: YOU’RE GONNA MISS IT!

Can any of my readers relate to this next conversation? Oh please, please, someone say this is them! I think this is one of the funniest marital conversations on film.

Lucius: Honey?
Honey: What?
Lucius: Where’s my super suit?
Honey: What?
Lucius: Where - is - my - super - suit??
Honey: I, uh, put it away.
Lucius: WHERE?
Honey: WHY do you need to know?
Lucius: I need it!
Honey: Uh-uh. Don’t you think about running off doing no darin’-do. We’ve been planning this dinner for 2 months!
Lucius: The public is in danger!
Honey: My evening’s in danger!
Lucius: You tell me where my suit is woman! We are talking about the greater good!
Honey: “Greater good”? I am your WIFE. I am the GREATEST good you are ever gonna get!

Cleaning Pays Off in More Than One Way!

This week I have had the cleaning bug, and have ended up focusing much of my time on the Garage since the kids like to be outside playing as often as possible. While organizing and shifting things around yesterday, I stumbled upon these beauties stashed under the filing cabinet:

I actually squealed with delight when I saw them! They have been missing for a year, and I have been racking my brain trying to figure out where they had ended up. Silly me obviously never thought to look under the filing cabinet in the garage. I have no idea how they got there, but finally, finally I can stop looking around my house every few days, and looking on the internet trying to find some Greek store that will mail handmade leather sandals to me. (For the record, those stores do exist, but charge about 3 times more than I paid AND the sandals are all ugly. I thought I would have to fly back to Greece to get more.)

Can you believe these shoes are 5 years old? When they weren’t lost, I would wear them every day in the summer, and quite often during the winter months as well. Such quality! I am so happy to have them back in my life.

Baking and Housewifery

It finally clicked this week that I have been a complete lazy bum when it comes to baking.  I know how to bake.  I have been baking for years.  My mom taught me faithfully while I was living at home.  Yet why do I not bake often in my own home?  Is it because I like to be healthy and avoid all those carbs?  Hahahahaha…no.  It comes down to the fact that I am lazy.

Yes, yes, I am saying that all mothers who don’t bake are lazy.  That is exactly what I am saying, so shame on all of you who don’t bake.

Wait, I take that back… that’s not what I’m saying.  I just had this realization that I was being lazy.  Me.  Myself.  And here are the reasons why:

1. As stated above, I know how to bake.  Bread for instance.  I used to sell homemade bread.  So yeah, it’s not like it’s a struggle and takes me a long time.
2. We are tight with money right now.  So why am I going out to the store and buying bread, cookies, etc. when I know it is cheaper to make them?
3. I have time.  I stay at home.  I only work 7 hours a week.  From home.  Bread in the oven while tutoring?  Not a problem.
4. My kids like it when I bake.  They let me bake.  I know this isn’t the case with a lot of moms, it just makes things more chaotic and disastrous if they try and add baking to the mix of the day.  But not here.  Elijah likes to help.  Elena likes to eat.  It all works out well.
5. I don’t have a car.  So, really, going to the store is more complicated right now then just baking what I need.

So you see my friends, I have no excuse.  I was being a lazy housewife.  The good news is, I have resolved to change all that.  I baked some bread this week, and made my family some cookies.  They love me for it.  (And the cookies are already gone).  It feels good to know I am being productive, saving my family money, and serving them carbs that are healthier than some of that store bought crap I was buying.

Let’s see how long this lasts.  Hopefully I can keep it up for a while.

Flea Market

I never go to the Flea Market, but on the way home from Church yesterday we noticed there was a tiny one in Scotts Valley and decided to be spontaneous and check it out.  Look at my awesome finds:

Candle Lamp: (Brand NEW!)

Fondue/Chaffing Dish from the 1940s:

I think they are both amazing, and was very happy to find them. Although, Nick deemed my Fondue pot “Ugly”. Humph.

New Camera

We are getting a new camera this week and I can’t wait to use it!!  (To be perfectly honest, we have half the camera already… we are waiting to get the lens).  I have missed taking good pictures of my little kiddies, my camera phone has just not been cutting it lately.  Our old camera and my camera phone both have the same problems: They need perfect lighting and no movement for the pictures to come out semi-decent.  (Elijah has dropped our old camera too many times… okay maybe I dropped it too…).

So get ready for some (hopefully!) awesome pictures coming your way in the near future!

Cuteness beyond what you can handle.

I guarentee it.

Automated Prayer

There is this crazy and ridiculous site out there called Information Age Prayer.  A little snippet from their site: Information Age Prayer is a subscription service utilizing a computer with text-to-speech capability to incant your prayers each day. It gives you the satisfaction of knowing that your prayers will always be said even if you wake up late, or forget.”

Really?  So I can pay to have a computer PRAY for me?  If you order the Morning Prayer you can “tell God you remember Him every morning”.  Uh, no.  No you can’t.  Because if it’s automated, the purpose is so you DON’T have to remember Him every morning.  You took care of it.  You paid to have a computer remember to do that for you.

Browse the site.  If you are Protestant, they recommend the Lord’s Prayer.  If you are Unaffiliated, a Prayer for World Peace.  Etc, etc.

Wow.

Coming Soon…

Some cute pictures are coming soon, but we are in the middle of computer juggling so it may be a few days.  Soon though.  Be patient people.  Geez.

Where have the pictures gone?

So I just realized February was seriously lacking in photos!  Sorry about that!  Our camera is on the fritz, so I haven’t been using it as much.  I just entered a contest this morning to win a Nikon D90, and if I never win another contest again that would be fine with me so long as I win this one!  Anyway, poor Elena isn’t getting as many photos as Elijah did at her age… I said I wasn’t going to be that way- that I wasn’t going to take less pictures of my other children… yet here I am, taking noticeably less pictures.  I will get some good shots over the weekend and show you all how big and cute she is now.