Unleash Spring

Mother Nature Unleash Spring Please!   Okay I know this is weak and I am really stretching it here... more like PANIC as I eeek my way through Jennys Alphabe-Thursday as this weeks letter is U......         After weeks of unusually odd weather here in Ohio and a few to many weeks of being down in the mully grubs I was refreshed to have 2 wonderful spring like days so Yes with extra pep in my step I unleashed the kiddos to explore outdoors!!!!          I had the, not in school yet, big boys help me with a Nature hunt....we found all kinds of treasures....I later used their treasures for a nature scavenger hunt with the after school girls       Of course you know you can't be outdoors with out practicing hitting,kicking, tossing and throwing!! Which of course unleashes oodles of lessons reinforcing WHAT we can hit kick and throw.... boys I tell ya     We wouldn't be in full celebration of Unleash Spring without breaking out the bubbles!     For me the best part of being able to get out doors is how easily this happens!

A Wee Bit of Me

{one} do you wear holey jeans? If so, do you buy them that way?
No I wear what my daughter calls "mom jeans" now. I did, tho it took me my whole summer (when I was 12) save up my allowance and babysitting jobs to purchase ONE pair of Guess Jeans and yes they did have a hole in them..... I loved them Jeans

{two} do you get a full 8 hours of sleep per night?
I haven't in a VERY long time

{three} what’s your favorite way to eat an oreo?
Oreo...What Oreo?? Haha I quickly plop that whole baby in as I look around for any witnesses hahaha

{four} do you wear shoes in your house?
Yes really depends on the season we live in an old farm house....my first choice is always bare foot

{five} who would you call first if you won the lottery?
My husband

{six} have you ever been in a food fight?
Yes a few and they were fun ...but not so fun to clean up

{seven} do you snore?
I shout to the moon that I don't  but I think I do ....softly of course

{eight} do you know how fast you type?
No I don't.

{nine} can you do a headstand (without using a wall)?
When I was younger yes....no clue now

{ten} how do you like your popcorn?
We have a wonderful microwave air popper little oil and salt love it!!

Now it's your turn let us know a wee bit about you.

Thunder....Snow

Yes...You read that right....ThunderSNOW!!!

And it happened on Alphabe-Thursday  (2-24-11) and it maybe a quinky dink as the letter for last week was "T"and here I was entertaining the idea of sharing with you all how I, the oldest of 5, sat glum faced for an hour as my father gave each of us his power point presentation on the cost of Toilet paper.... broken down to the very cost of "1" two ply square and all thanks to a week long spree where 2 of my siblings (Melissa) had been "TPing" friends houses! 

  I am sure I would of enlightened you more as I drag it on for a few more paragraphs on other past experiences "all in the name of fun" toilet papering" and how it became a HUGE controversy in our church!

  Umm that would be the paragraph where I highlight how our oldest found himself in trouble when while with his Youth Pastor and other youth group members toilet papered a fellow church members home who wasn't to happy about it and threatened to press charges if they hadn't come back and cleaned it all up...I have been on the receiving end of this infamous TP Youth Pastor and let me tell ya he is a pro hahaha we literally were tped in our house...it took two of us one pushing on the door while the other with a pair of scissors cut our way out...it was hands down.... the best unforgettable... hilarious.... NO fun to clean up....just insanely funny TP experience...we chose laughter hmmm they got a little out of line MAD.    

   I then would of hoped to bring my TP tale round full circle as I left you with thoughts to ponder....is it really illegal???... even include a site on the "how to's"   But this T post isn't supposed to be about toilet paper at all ......instead I was going to share the phenomenon, with pictures and all, of a weather condition called thundersnow! 

 

We sure have had our fair share of CRAZY certainly far from the norm weather here in Ohio...With one eye brow raised I questioned the weather mans report as he provided a name for our latest thunder CRACK boom wind whistling man whats going on outside WARNING weather report!!! I googled thundersnow and learned this......

*Thundersnow is when thunder and lighting occur during a snowstorm, it most often appears in late winter or early spring when a mass of cold air on top of warm come together with the moist air closer to the ground. all this coupled with decent snowfall rates at a rapid clip of more than two inches (five centimeters) an hour. Here are a few of my pretty pictures to prove it...tho WOW the sound wish I could attach that somehow.

 That sincerely was what my Alphabe-Thursday posting dedicated to the letter T was going to be all about...Some personal issues kept me pretty busy last week so I wasn't able to link up on the scheduled day hopefully I will get caught up soon and be better prepared for this weeks letter U.....

Be sure to head on over to Jenny Matlocks blog (the host of Alphabe Thursday) and I'm sure you will be tempted as I was  to read other T bloggers links.

 

 

My Spotlight is on Seniors!

It is Alphabae-Thursday  

And this weeks letter is S

 

 

These Vibrant Seniors are life long friends

   (my mom Linda and CA Girls mom Carolynn)

 

 Rex & I

are one year closer to claiming super saving senior discounts!

AND This beauty is a Senior in High School 

 

Tomorrow night in between the JV and Varsity Basketball game 

they will be honoring several Seniors and our daughter 

(letters of Kate) is one of  them wooohooo gooo Katie!

 

 

Now What are you waiting for........ link up and join in on the fun!!

Wee bit Wednesday

  {one} what is your favorite breakfast food? This one may sound odd but here lately I have been on a oatmeal kick   {two} how many pairs of shoes do you currently own? Oh my goodness I have oooodles I am an alllll seasons shoe lover   {three} city or country? Country.
{four} what is your favorite part of your job? Playin with the little people.   {five} what is your favorite junk food to snack on? Oh my goodness hide that dern box I LOVE them smiley tropical fruit snacks!.
{six} have you ever been mentioned in the newspaper? Yes a few times   {seven} do you use post-it notes? I used to use the "real" ones now I use cyber ones 
{eight} do you have freckles? I am sun kissed alllllll over well almost all over  :)
{nine} is it okay for men to wear pink? Sure… my hubby is a caveman silly guy when they were asked  to wear pink at his work in support Of breast cancer it took some coaxing on my part to get him to wear it   {ten} when was the last time you wrote a letter to someone on paper? Today.

For the love of Reading

So many times a month my daughter (letters of Kate) has to use her debit card or she is has to pay a service charge...A bank that charges you for NOT spending your money to which they are drawing interest on hmmm....man I knew I should of went with her when she opened this account....Anyhoo that's not what this rant is about. It just states the history of how her urgent  purchase "I have to use this card 2 more times!!" landed a book  (actually several) in our home....She also got a great deal on a very cute purse. That's my girl!

A few days later the package arrived and I stood by her side as she unloaded her "I have to use my card" treasures......BOOKS I love em, she had purchased  4 and these I had never heard of..... 

"Our Sometime Sister," "The Kite Runner," "Little Bee"

& the book that sparked the inspiration for this post

"Running With Scissors" by Augusten Burroughs

The title alone is a "no, no" right?

It wasn't to long ago, before our nasty Governor made huge cuts in the area of Education causing over 7,000 of us to lose our jobs (ya you betcha I'm still a little bitter), that I was writing up creative lesson plans for 3 to 5 year olds on the proper use of scissors. Oh woe is me I loved that job!

Okay pity party over lets get back to my journey with Mr Augusten ...

I eagerly flipped the book over to read it's reviews and hopefully catch a glimpse as to what was written on the inside. Whoa....Stop the Presses.. Dare I read more?

The "reviews" alone send off another WARNING.....I will high light a few:

"It is as funny as it is twisted"---GQ   I don't do well with twisted

"A memoir that is both horrifying and mordantly funny."----San Francisco Chronicle

  mental note must Google "mordantly" *harshly ironic or sinister ....darkly sarcastic

"Running with Scissors will transport you"----Vogue 

One of the reason's I love to read ....it's the great escape from ones reality...beam me up Scottie transport me PLEASE!

"Irreverent, scurrilous, profane, licentious, horrific, and vile. It'll warp your mind, upset the neighbors, and lower your standing in the community"

 Now here is a Reviewer that has a love of words....and yes I had to Google a few of them too.

Of the 26 reviews written on the back and front sleeve the one that comes closest to a review I would of written (cause yes besides all the warnings I did go on to read it). 

This  was written by a representative of The Hartford Courant.

"It's gross, it's shocking, and its humor is blacker that a thousand midnights....But this hilarious, provocative and oddly touching book draws you into a bizarre world and keeps you rooting for its unusual narrator to survive, thrive, and break free."

All the right words to describe the "feelings" this book brought out in me.

I am 41 years old and there have been a few who have called me overly naive ..sheltered ....I say guarded. Yes, guarded for I was raised to believe that our eyes are the windows to our soul....guard what you see...in this case read....I threw caution to the wind, let my guard down and in 2 days time,read my first memoir and believe me this was no great escape!

No matter how shocking dare I even say stunned I was by the words I was reading I couldn't put this book down...the picture he paints with words is grossly tragic ....a few times I had to pause...skim over, even flip a few pages forward..I couldn't take it..and yet I kept on reading cause I had to know.

 I vented aloud over the gross neglect and My hubby asked "if it is upsetting you this much why do you continue to read it?"  I tried to explain that for him the narrator, the very author of this book.... This was REAL!...  This wasn't some fictional character that he created....he is proclaiming in graphic detail  unspeakable sins...CRIMES.. That happened to him and  I'm reading on because I need to know that someone saved him....though it seemed impossible...I had hope that in the next few pages he would reveal his hero. Will he ever be rescued?
 

I don't want to ruin the book entirely for anyone who plans on reading it, though I definitely do NOT recommend it  I have strongly encouraged Katie to PLEASE, I know your 19 but as your mom I plead with you, DON'T read this ...donate or throw it away. I also asked her...what led you to this book? ...she said it was the reviews...they didn't scare her one bit.....I'm not surprised as she does have a mordantly, funny sense of humor (wink wink).   

So have you ever thrown caution to the wind (even if regrettable) and read something just for the love of reading?

Rainbow...that's 15 pts

In honor of  Jenny Matlocks Alphabe-Thursday 

The After School Kids and I played Scrabble with a little twist, our first word had to start with the letter R! 

For the start of this I placed all the letters out face up and gave each child the letter R. The youngest went first....she quickly chose her "R" word. She is in Kindergarten so we worked together sounding it out as we found each letter.

She told me that she loves loves loves rainbows like Dorthy from Wizard of OZ!

Now the second kiddo had a little harder task as she too had to choose a "R" word BUT it had to be able to connect on the board with "Rainbow".

 

Little Miss here is in the 1st grade and I was quite impressed as she needed no help finding all the right letters for her connecting "R" word.

 

Little Miss Sister is in the 4th grade she found and claimed her spot on the board while her baby sister was still thinking...made her so mad...I had to remind her "Patience Please"

 

Last but not least...this beauty too took her time as she was eager to place a connecting "R" word that was sure to rack up some points!

 

I then placed the remaining letters back into the bag and we went on and played the rest of the game as normal....

I sure had fun with the letter "R" as we creatively participated in

*Kids photo's were posted with Parents permission