The Singing Cat and Other Mysterious Happenings....

My cat loves music. It is so funny, no matter where the cat is in the house, if you start singing loud enough for her to hear you, she will come to you. She then rubs up against you, or jumps in your lap, and will purr, like she is saying, "Thank you for the concert". Like any other music lover, she likes some music better than others. For instance, Diana was practicing to sing in church Sunday, she was singing, "Come to Jesus". The cat was going crazy, just purring madly, rubbing up against her; I mean she was in love with Diana! She acted like she had gotten ahold of some cat nip. This morning I was listening to my iPod and started singing along to "Mountain Music" by Alabama. The cat stopped whatever it was that she was doing, and ran to me, jumped up on my lap, realized I sounded AWFUL, jumped down and ran away.

The other night I was working on the Annual Report, and I thought that Jerrid had put Calvin to bed. Instead, Jerrid just watched a game and let him play around upstairs....with a cell phone. So, Calvin comes wondering downstairs after 10, with that, "I solemnly swear I'm up to no good" look on his face. I just thought, "Oh no, what's he done now." So, I asked him, "What have you been doing?”. He answered, "taking pictures". Now, I was REALLY thinking, "OH, NO!!", because he doesn't own a camera! I asked him, "What were taking pictures with?" And he answered, "The cell phone." Naturally, I assumed that he had called or texted Japan. (He does know how to text, just ask Diana’s poor friend Lauren. ) He said, "I took some pictures of myself...Then I didn't text...Then I did something else". Bet, you can't guess what I thought when I heard that....."OH NO!!!!". It took me awhile to try and figure out what he did, he kept saying, "I took pictures of myself...Then I didn't text...Then I did something else..." I kept saying "WHAT DID YOU DO?" Finally, he said, "Oh, you mean what I did after I took pictures of myself and then I didn't text?" ....."YES, WHAT DID YOU DO?" He answered, "I did something else, but it wasn't texting." Realizing I wasn't going to find out what the something else was from him, I went and found the cell phone and started looking over the history. Turns out the something else was that he called my Aunt at 10:02 pm. He tried to lie and say he didn't call her, when I asked him about it. But I told him that the phone knows what he did with it, it remembers it all, and that it made a list, and the list told me what it was he did. Tattle-telling, he understands. So then he says, "Well, I didn't TALK to her." Apparently, the phone just rang "about a million times"! Ugh! I just wish I had a little more understanding into the minds of little boys, because they just surprise me every single day. And I grew up with Charles and Matthew, so you would think that would be impossible by now!

Now don't feel too bad for Calvin about staying up so late, and missing out on sleep. He took a pretty much whole day long nap yesterday to make up for it. I don't know what Aunt Bobbie did to make up for him waking her up at 10:02 pm though.

It was funny when he texted Lauren though, because he texted something like “idc jfi”. And she texted back, “Huh?” She probably thought Diana was using some text talk or something. So Calvin kept texting, most his texts to her were like “idhfieh9e3hf9” because he would just hit random numbers and letters and then hit send. She texted back, “I don’t understand you”. It was so funny, I admit, I didn’t stop him, because I was laughing too hard. Finally the phone rang, I was like, “I'm caught now!". So I just handed Calvin the phone, and said, “It’s for you.” So he answered the phone, he was like "Hello, this is Calvin". I could hear Lauren saying, "Calvin, can I talk to Diana? Where is Diana?" Calvin just kept answering her by saying...“Is this my Grandma Valerie?..Is this my Aunt Mary?” I could hear poor Lauren, saying, “No, this is your sister’s friend, Lauren." Finally, he said, “I DON’T EVEN KNOW WHO YOU ARE! DON’T CALL MY PHONE AGAIN!” Whoops, poor Lauren.

I tried to confuse Jerrid’s Mom one time when she was iming me on Yahoo. She would ask me something and I would answer, idk, and she would be like “WHAT!?” And I explained that meant, I don’t know. I continued shortening things, I gave her, idc, ttyl, jk, lol, rofl….Finally she sends me a message and it says, “iwbrbihtgttbr”. When I asked what she was saying, she said, “I will be right back, I have to go to the bathroom.” I admit she bested me there.

Right now, Calvin is watching "Handy Mandy". He is being taught about how to be politically correct when you have a rodent problem in your home. Handy Mandy is all, "We will find a kind way to catch the mouse, something that won't harm him." Then he is looking at all these evil mouse traps, ones that snap closed, breaking the dirty-little-virus-carrying-rodent's neck. Oh my no, that would never work, how cruel! Next there was a sticky one, poor Handy Mandy's Hammer almost couldn't get unstuck. I quit watching when he started heading all around town trying to find ways to to catch a mouse which is humane, so that he can let it go free..."free to run, free to dance,"..free to find a sneaky way back into the house so that it can chew holes in cereal boxes, leave germy, sticky, disgusting mouse tracks in drawers of silverware that Handy Mandy's neighbor eats off of, and then go and have hundreds and hundreds of mice babies. On the next episode of Handy Mandy, lets watch Handy Mandy run around town finding supplies to build his neighbor's a coffin. Seeing as how, the neighbor's house became invested with mice, and he caught a disgusting disease from them that killed him horribly, after a long and painful illness. Aren't you glad that we have Wilder Valderama (the voice of Handy Mandy) to teach our kids how to be politically correct? He is such a wonderful role model! He got high on "That 70s Show", got his pics in loads of magazines while he was doing the Hollywood club scene, and he dated Lindsay Lohan when she was so young that it was literally illegal. I can see why Disney thinks that he can teach our children how to grow up and become productive members of society better then their own parents.

Missing Ipod

For weeks now, Jerrid has been looking and looking for his ipod. Every now and then, Jerrid would get super tired of not having it at work, and he would run around the house complaining, and making everyone search for it. The thing just totally disappeared, Jerrid would say over and over, "It's gone, I am never going to find it." He even contemplated, seriously contemplated, buying a new one. Even worse then that, he tried to use mine! That was a big NO-NO! I know when you get married you say, "All my worldly goods I thee , blah, blah, blah.." Well, I personally think it should have been, "All my worldly goods, with the BIG exception of my ipod! That's MINE! Hands off, don't touch it! Jerrid, this means you!" I understand that keeping vows are important, but is it really fair for me to have to keep a vow to share an ipod, when at the time I made the vow, I didn't know that ipods were going to be invented?I am not a selfish wife, but ipods belonging to Jerrid, have been known to be ran over by fork-trucks. I don't want my pretty, pink ipod, with all the songs, I very carefully downloaded onto it, and even season 1 of The Office, to meet with such a fate! I mean, that would be like losing a pet or friend! No, I can't even imagine how horrible it would be! I know it is terrible, I must keep my vows, but would I let him run over my cat with a fork-truck? No, of course not!
And let me tell you, it was getting scary there for awhile. There was even a point when Jerrid picked up my ipod and started listening to it!!! I was like, "What are you doing????" He said, I was just trying to remember how that song "Learning to Breathe" by Switchfoot went. So I did some quick thinking, "Oh, yeah, that's a good song, How does it go again? Here let me listen for a second." Then I took the ipod back, safe in my hands, and ran away and hid it from him. It was so tense there for a second, just like a hostage situation being resolved peacefully and safely, with no harm coming to anyone's pink ipods.
Well, tonight was another night of searching. Jerrid didn't want to head back to work silent once again. I told Diane to get up and help her Dad find his ipod. That was right about the time that Calvin said, "Daddy's ipod? Oh, I hid that." I was like, "What?" Seriously, I didn't think he really did. But then he said, "Yes, I did, I hid Daddy's ipod." He said it so seriously and matter of factly. So, I said, "Well, if you did, then where is it?" Then he said, "I hid it right here." Then he walked over to the printer, and picked up a small recipe box, that has been sitting there all along, opened it up, and there was the ipod. I couldn't believe that he had it there the whole time! He knew all along!
I gave the ipod back to Jerrid, who was so excited and thankful to have it back. Still, I don't really think that he handled it just right with Calvin. He was so grateful that was like, "Thanks, bud, thanks!!" That's when Andrew said, "Don't thank him! He'll just do it all over again!"
Now, I realize that it was sitting there, in a box, in plain sight, nearby where it was last seen. It should have been very easy to find, any of the many times that a big search was had. But you have to understand that while Jerrid and Andrew would look, I was usually unable to help, being very busy getting my own ipod and carefully hiding it, and making sure they didn't find it. Protecting my ipod, made it very hard to help look. And as far as Jerrid and Andrew looking in the box, well, their male. Should I ever really expect them to find something? The only male in this house that finds things, is the 3 year-old, who hid it in the first place.

Just Some Stuff

Today was the WOL Conference. The name was changed to Flashpoint, I guess they are trying to keep us on our toes :) It was really exciting, I learned a lot. It used to be 2 days, but I liked the quick 1 day, and I feel like I learned so much in such a short time. There was a video message from Mike Calhoun, which was really great, gave me so much to think about and learn. The Conference got me excited about a whole new year of Olympian Club (and Gopher Buddies and Teen Club, too) starting up again. Of course, when I got home and started working on the actual work for tomorrow night's meeting, I started to get a bit nervous. I have a lot of work to do still! I am excited to see where this year leads our church, team, the kids, and the families we work with! New year's are exciting, new quiet times, new lessons to teach, new ideas to implement.

Calvin has really been enjoying his new Quiet Time. I love how he likes to "read" the Bible scripture for his Quiet Time on his own. Well, he more then likes to, he almost demands to. Of course, "reading" it on his own means that he holds his Bible (we found a little Bible that is just his size, that is actually a real Bible, Old and New Testaments, and not just a Bible Storybook) and then me reading over his shoulder one or two words at a time and then him repeating after me. It is really cute to hear him pronounce some of those big words, he says them so carefully, obviously trying to be very grown up.

Listening to Calvin "read" his Bible each night, has got me to thinking about how different my three kids have been with reading. I am a BIG believer in reading to babies pretty much from day one. I like 1st Birthday presents to be mostly books (they are too young to complain about a lack of toys.) and actually if you keep giving books they get so used to it, that they like it for a long time, hopefully forever.

I think maybe the major reading to my kids started when Diane was a baby, and I was nanny/babysitter to Clay. Clay was 4 years old and would bring me literally like 30-40 books at a time, and I am telling you that is NOT an exaggeration at all. Then he would sit next to me, Diane on my lap (and I mean she was a little baby, not even one) and then on the other side of me was the giant stack of books. Then I would read and read to them both for hours and hours at a time. (Of course, Clay's Mom liked to read to him as a baby as well, which helped to create this book-loving 4 year-old). Not only was he a book-lover, he was the smartest kid, I mean SO smart. He used to only not want to read, if he could watch Bobby's World or Where in the World is Carmen Sandigo. And this 4 year-old knew the answers to those Geography questions, too. He would also work on his "inventions", and I mean he would say, "Well, I have to go and work on my inventions" at 4! Then he would take all these odds and ends of toys and make some kind of creation and it would actually DO something every time. I tell you, everyday was an adventure. Someday, we will all be using something, that is quite a wonderful new convience to us all, and it will have been invented by Clay, I promise you that.

Anyway, I quickly learned that the only way to read that many children's stories at a time, without slowly losing your mind, was to read the stories really dramatically. So I would kinda make a game out of seeing just how dramatically I could tell the stories. I would give all the character's voices, read fast when they were running, slowly whisper when they were falling asleep (the characters not the kids, they stayed awake for all the stories). Clay and Diane both would just sit and listen so well. I thank Clay for the fact that Diane from before she was even 1 year old would literally sit, quietly, and listen to anything I tried to read her. And I can probably give him a big thanks that my little baby spoke in complete sentences before she was even 1 years old. She probably got that great vocublary from all those books.
When Andrew came along he was totally different. He didn't want to hear the "Real" story of "The 3 Little Pigs" as told by the Big Bad Wolf (which was one of my favorites), he didn't want to hear about Rainbow Fish's adventures, Amelia Bedelia, and he really didn't care for green eggs and ham, and he really did mean it Sam-I-Am. But, much to my great delight- I hope you added a sarcastic tone when you read that last part- Andrew LOVED to read about sharks, whales, dolphins, other sea-life, but mostly sharks. And his favorite books to read about sharks was non-fiction. Yeah. Do you have any idea how interesting reading book after, non-fiction book about sharks is? Not much. He memorized exactly where the non-fiction books about sharks were in the Children's Department of the library by the time he was 2. He would run to that spot, and pull a half a dozen of the books off the shelf to take home. I would read them, and then if I would try to do that cheating thing that parent's do where you try to just shorten the story and just tell it by the pictures, you know, "There was a gray shark, a black and white whale, they were swimming.." Anything to get done with that book that seemed so long! (Some of them would take a good hour just to read one book!) Andrew never fell for that, he would say, "NO! NO!" and cry if I didn't just read it right. So here I was with my 2 year old, reading about how sharks have cartilage instead of bones, and that the whale shark was the largest, and how many different species there were and how to identify them, and where they were from, and what kind of water do they like, and how they find their shark dinners. I would like to tell you if you need any info on sharks I can help you out, but it was so boring to me, that I literally just read it and didn't really put it in my mind as I read. (Maybe just like what you are doing if you are still reading this blog.) Still, it is a good memory, because it was time spent with my little guy. The cool thing about it was that when he was about 2 1/2 we took him to an aquarium and when the other kids were asking the guy that worked there what some of the fish were, Andrew answered them. Seriously shocked the aquarium dude, let me tell ya. Then when we took him to the movie "Finding Nemo" and please don't judge him too harshly for doing this, he had never been to see a movie in the theater before this.. . It was the part where the little fish are swimming to the light, and trying to figure out what it was, and this little kid somewhere behind us was saying, "What is it? What is it?" and Andrew turned around and yelled, "IT'S AN ANGLER FISH!" When they had the chance to touch sting-rays at Sea World, Diane reached right out and touched, but Andrew refused absolutely, he would not go near it. Months later at my parents they were arguing about who was braver and Diane said, "You wouldn't even touch the sting-rays!" and Andrew said, "Uh-Yeah, why would I? They are STING-rays!"

Now, I have Calvin, and I am experiencing a completely unique reading experience once again. Calvin loves books, and all kinds, the only thing is, he has to read them to you! He can't stand to have you read to him, it drives him crazy. He doesn't even do well with storybooks, having me tell him the words, like he lets me to do with his Bible. He has to just take the book, look at the pictures, and "read" the story himself. He does do quite well at Toddler Time at the library relinquishing control and allowing them to read to him, but at home, there is very little that he lets us read to him. It all started with these books about babies which were his favorites. He loved books that had pictures of real babies in them. And these books would have a picture of a baby on one side, and the other would be like one word. Like a baby with a fireman's hat- FIREMAN. Calvin would memorize these and then "read" them to us. Now he just takes any old book and reads it to us. It is really interesting to find out what is really happening in these stories that I thought I knew. But then again, everything is pretty "interesting" in Calvin's world.

Calvin's Redecorating

I recently had to rearrange my living room. I have this wooden doll furniture with stuffed dolls and teddy bears. There is nothing more appealing to a child then doll furniture that is not meant for them to play with, let me tell ya!

So I had made this arrangement including a little wooden bench that had a fabric pillow set on it, a wooden, old-style school desk (you know like the old one-room doll school-houses of yore.) the desk has a rag doll setting on the seat and a little basket on the desk, next to it is a wooden high chair with a big, ugly doll (the doll didn't used to be ugly, but it is now that it's wig is coming off and it is nearly bald from Calvin carrying around the house by the hair. I would just throw it away but Calvin, much to Jerrid's dismay, loves the doll. He has also changed it's clothes by the way. It used to wear a long, flowing, white gown and lacy white bonnet. It now wears a striped, Carter's outfit that used to be Calvin's.), finally on the other side of the high chair there is a wooden wagon filled with stuffed dolls of different sorts- including a stuffed scarecrow.

Before I go on here is a picture of Calvin, taking a nap with his doll which I described above. It was taken quit awhile ago, but you will get the point, by the way, the doll isn't so well kept anymore. It is one of Jerrid's favorite pictures because not only is Calvin cuddling his dolly, but he is also sleeping on a pink, Minnie Mouse pillow, lol;

So, earlier today, Calvin was supposed to be eating a little snack at his table but I found him instead eating among all the stuffed dolls in the doll furniture. He had taken my little wooden bench, throw the fabric pillow aside on the floor, then placed the wooden bench in front of the desk and put his dolly on it. Then he sat in the wooden high chair that had been for his dolly. And finally, since he had to have somewhere to put his lunch, and that darn basket was in the way, he took the little basket off the desk and stuffed the scarecrow's face in it. I couldn't resist, I had to take a picture so you can see the scarecrow, improved with Calvin's decorating skills....

And since I have shared with you what Calvin's dolly looked like before he played with it is so much, loosened the wig, and changed his clothes...here is a picture of what his dolly is looking like nowadays...

Well, I have to go and get all this doll furniture back the way it was, while Calvin is taking his nap and can't stop me. Although, why I am doing it I don't really know, since he will only just rearrange it to his liking again later.

Salsa

Tonight, Jerrid went and got chips, salsa, and Monterrey chicken from Chilis and brought it home for dinner. Of course all Calvin wanted was chips and salsa. After eating it for a few minutes he ran around in circles saying, "My mouth is burning, my mouth is burning". Then he drank my entire glass of ice water. He immediately went back to eating the chips and, of course, the salsa as well. Every few minutes he would run around complaining of a burning mouth, then he would drink another glass of water. I think he drank about 4 glasses of water total while devouring the chips and salsa. When Jerrid came in from watching some sports game in the other room (I am thinking Dodgers, but I don't know) Calvin ran up to him and said, while pointing I might add, "Daddy! You should not have bought salsa! Next time only bring home chips!" So Jerrid told him, "If the salsa burns your mouth then don't eat it, just eat the chips." Calvin looked at Jerrid like he was a total idiot, "Daddy, if you bring home the salsa, I am going to have to eat it!"

Calvin's Prayer List

Calvin and I were filling out his prayer list in his new Quiet Time. Each year, you get new Quiet Times, and the front of them has pages for listing prayer requests. I have really liked it with Calvin because it has taught him that he can personally pray for people that he cares about. He prays for everything, too, people, dogs, cats, toys, milk, juice, and even dinosaurs. (I didn't have the heart to tell him he maybe just a little late on that request.) So, I told Calvin "Tell me people that you want to pray for and I will write their name down. Like you could pray for Daddy.." Then I wrote "Daddy" on his prayer list. His list now looks like this..

Daddy, Grandma, Pixie (Mom and Dad's dog), Grandpa, Aunt Mary, Patches (Our Cat), Grandma Jobe, Grandpa Jobe, Sissy (Diane), Nonny (Andrew), Mommy, Aunt Bekah, Uncle Mike, Aunt Sarah, Uncle Tom, Aunt Hollie, Uncle Johnny, Xander, Ashton, Aiden, Tabitha (Bekah's Baby- who is still in her tummy), Joe (Bekah, Mike, and Calvin's kitty), Rascal (Bekah and Mike's other cat), London, Jack (our Dogs), Uncle Kenny, Aunt Melinda, Kourtney, Aunt Mindy, Rachel, Jenny, (Right about here Calvin stopped and said, "I have to pray for my friends.") Taryn, Taryn's baby, (This is about where he stopped and said, "That's not all of them, I have LOTS of friends"), Kylie, Edwin, Allanna, Hollonna, Taydon, Keeliegh, (What cracks me up here, is that he just went from naming his friends that were kids to his friends that are grown-ups, like Calvin, he sees no difference in age where his friends are concerned.)Shea, Penny, Mike, Matt, Tabitha, Logan, (This is where Calvin said, "Logan is my friend!". Calvin thinks Logan is super cool, and I think that he thinks it makes him extra cool that Logan is his friend.) Cody, Ty, Aunt Bonnie, Uncle Frank, (I loved how he told me to add this name, he goes, "Make sure you put Aunt Bobbie on there!") Aunt Bobbie, Uncle Terry, Grandma Bobo, Lindsay, Trista, and Cortney.

Now the majority of these prayer requests he came up with totally on his own, remembering most of the people all by himself. Every now and then he would stop and say, "I am forgetting someone.." Then he would think about it for a minute and then start naming names again. It was a very, serious and important job to him. Which I think is good.

The only concern I have when I look back at his requests, and the thing that made it a little hard for me not to giggle while we prayed after making the list...and remember that "Daddy" was a freebie, I gave him that name and wrote it down...So that means, not only that Pixie- Mom and Dad's dog- was the 2nd most important prayer concern to him, but look at where I, his own mother, ranked! Not only did I come after Pixie, the one-eyed dog, but also after Patches, our Cat! I can live with coming after the Grandparents, brother, sister, but it is a little hard to come after the dog and cat!

Play Doh

Play-doh is just not the same toy as it was when I was little. When I was young Christy and I used to get out like a can of red, blue, green, yellow, and maybe if we were lucky, we would find a can of purple. Then we would make a kitchen table full of creations, all straight from our imagination. Now-adays, things are little different for play-dohs kids. There are millions of colors, that are made to represent different things. Like Calvin's ice-cream maker play-doh toy, has "chocolate ice-cream brown" and even a special white, with confetti sprinkles in it to make extra special whipped cream.

When I was young, and we wanted to make a person, animal, or food with our playdoh. We pretty much had to get to work rolling, patting, and shaping all on our own. Play-doh kids of today, have step-by-step instructions included on how to make things just exactly perfect. His ice cream factory or whatever it is, makes the play doh come out looking just the same exact shape as ice cream comes out of one of those machines at Golden Corral or MacDonalds or something. It even has something that pumps out little tiny sprinkles onto the top of the ice-cream. And a special pump for the sparkly whipped cream.

I remember being EXTRA careful, not to mix the colors up. Once you mix up the colors that is it all your play-doh is a wierd purple-brown color because it has just all mixed around. Calvin's toy makes it pretty much impossible not to mix all the colors together. (Although maybe this is just play-doh's clever way of making it so parents have to go out and spend more money one new play-doh.) It is really a little hard for me to watch him, just smashing it all together and making green/brown, chocolate-mint ice cream. I have to close my eyes, it's his toy, not mine, and if he doesn't care that all his play doh looks remarkably like puke, then I guess I can live with that, somehow.

Here is Calvin with some of his special play-doh creations, the first is a Calvin showing off a flavor that I call, puke. The second is the special cone that he made for Grandpa Merton, complete with a big smile from Calvin and his kool-aid mustached face. . . . .

Spiderman

Today Diane brought Andrew a Spiderman action figure that Mary had bought for him. Andrew excitedly rips open the bag and pulls it out, then Calvin sees it and starts singing "Spiderman-man, Spiderman-man" and dancing in a circle and clapping.
So my question is WHAT IS THE DEAL WITH SPIDERMAN? All males love him. It doesn't matter if they are 1 or 100, all males LOVE Spiderman. I know that Xander loved him, my dad has seen Spiderman 3 two or three times already. He went and saw it Saturday, and then tried to talk Mom into letting him go see it again on Sunday. Jerrid doesn't really care about superheros, but he likes Spiderman. I remember when we were little John had some Spiderman toys. Bekah says that it is wired into their genetic makeup. I think that it's this; Spiderman makes every man think there is a chance that THEY could be a super hero. See, Superman, he's an alien, no chance there. Batman, is just a man, but he is a millionare man, now the only men that could be Batman would be rich ones, like Michael Jordan or Donald Trump. But Peter Parker was just this ordinary fellow who got bit by a spider. Now look in the corners of any old barn, and many houses, there are spiders everywhere! Somewhere in the back of their minds men are hoping that one of those will happen to be radio active and that the spider will bite them. I do not base this only on my own rambling thoughts, I base it on hard evidence. You see, Andrew used to go find spiders and then I would find him with his hand in front them saying things like, "Please, Bite Me, Please!"
Anyway, Andrew and Calvin have already had a fight over this Spiderman Action Figure, and I got told that the bathroom is no longer useable by girls because Andrews needs to hang his Spiderman's web on the mirrors. I wonder if I should just tell them both that it is really just a doll like Barbie and Cabbage Patch.