“Mommy, what are we doing the day after tomorrow after the day after today?” (I call this picture: bedtime essentials.  Used it cuz it’s cute, even if almost a year old.  And these ARE still the essentials!)

“Read a story to E. today and told him we need to find a copy of it for cousin H., because it’s a book her class in America is going to be reading and she needs to be able to read it too.  Later, to some made-up tune he was singing this: ‘I’m going to read it — But I can’t read — But I’m going to read it anyway — with no one helping me –’ (this last was drawn out, a la Sinatra) ‘aaaaallllll by my- selllllllffffffff!’  There was more, but this is all I could catch.”

And now, 3 years later, he DOES read it — whatever ‘it’ happens to be — (sometimes with a LITTLE help) aaaaaallllllll by him- selllllffffff!   I’m so glad he still enjoys being read to, though.

Well, blast it!  Sorry, Sarah and Marilyn.  I really REALLY don’t have any pic’s of the brave Mama who does not like Lorikeets and went anyway because her little girl wanted to SOOOO BAAADDD!!!  I’m thinking I should count myself lucky to have THESE pictures.  Her daughter, as you can see, had a striped shirt on and I became convinced that the birds wouldn’t sit on her because of the pattern.  So I was busy putting my jacket on her to hide the pattern (plus I suspected that their little claws on bare skin would not be ideal), and trying to attract birds to both kids ,and taking pics of them, and talking to the volunteer.  PLUS!  I frequently don’t take pictures of the adults in a group on purpose, because I don’t especially enjoy seeing pics of myself and figure they may be the same.  But clearly, Alyssa doesn’t mind showing off MY crow’s feet and other less-than-favorable traits.  She’s probably got less mental damage than I do, anyway.  So maybe in future I’ll have fewer reservations about taking pics of her too.  :-)   And no, I’m not upset with her — I’ll just not look at her blog until she posts something new.  Problem solved.  Actually, the one of me squatting down with a bird on my arm isn’t too bad, other than crow’s feet.  :-)   Sarah, I don’t suppose I can use THAT one for my Online Community photo, can I?  Is it really THAT important for people to see up close what I look like?

But ANYWAY!!  the two “big kids” seemed to have a grand time , once we managed to get the things to land on them.  And I’d be willing to bet the birds peeing on my stroller was probably more exciting to them than to Alyssa and myself.  Caleb still talks about it every time we talk about the Lorikeets.

If you have no idea what I’m talking about, go to my friend’s blog: themccooks.blogspot.com

No, I have no idea if that’s a real thing or not.  Don’t even care enough to look it up.  But for the Disney Channel, and “Phineas and Ferb” (one of the few things Disney Channel does that’s worth watching!) it IS Platypus Day.  Our family (Tim included!) loves to watch Phineas and Ferb.  If you are not familiar with this cartoon, these two boys have a pet platypus named Perry, who is also the crime-fighting secret agent — Agent P.  It’s hilarious.  Trust me.  So today, apparently being Platypus Day, Disney Channel is doing a “P & F” marathon.  It started this morning at “9/8C.”

This morning Tim woke up about 6:45 and noticed Ethan sitting on the floor in our room.  He was kind of squatting on the floor next to the treadmill/ junk collector, staring at the curtains.  Tim said, “Ethan, what are you doing?”

Ethan simply replied, “Waiting for time to pass.”

Okay — so on to the “discoveries” part of this post!  I have discovered that when you are THIS messed up, you should be very proud of yourself for crawling out of bed, throwing something edible in the kid(s) lunchbox(es), getting said child(ren) off to school, and getting yourself back home without crashing the car.  If it is a non-Mother’s Day Out day, you should also be proud of using Hulu ALL DAY to keep yourself awake, so you can be aware of the 4 year-old’s whereabouts at most times.  And it’s okay to be pleased that the 4 yo didn’t finish his lunch from the day before, so when he’s hungry you can just say (in a very excited-for-you voice), “Oh you know what!?  There is some PBJ in a baggie in the fridge just. for. YOU!  And there are some orange slices, AAANNNDDD your milk sippy cup!  And guess what!?  You are so big, I’m just going to let you go get it all by yourself!”

I’ve also discovered (by watching Hulu for hours on end) that even though the show “Sliders” (from the ’90′s) wasn’t nearly as good as “Quantum Leap,” when you’re REALLY sick it can be fun to watch.  If you fade in and out, it’s okay.  You’ll catch up.  Plus, Jerry O’Connell is always fun to watch; and John Rhys-Davies is a hoot too.  Although, now I can’t see him in anything without also seeing him wielding an axe and wiping out Orcs along-side Legolas.  But that’s okay.

And my biggest discovery was: MARS REALLY DOES NEED MOMS.

I may not be proud of my housekeeping skills.  No, that’s understating things.  I AM NOT proud of my housekeeping skills.  I certainly could improve, and have goals in that direction.  AND I really want to give a big THANK YOU to my darling husband for just taking over the instant he got home, no complaints, and even coming home early to do so.  He fed people (granted, with lots of help from Wendy’s, McD’s, Panda Express, and who knows who else — but he still did it!), he got them in bed, he kept them mostly away from me.  He even did some dishes and laundry along the way.  Not to mention that Saturday was the Cub Scout Pinewood Derby for our pack, and the car needed some adjustments to qualify.  So he did that too, as well as taking them to the derby and all that entails.  He was great.  But when I came downstairs Saturday morning because I was tired of being in bed, and I wanted some tea, I was a tad dismayed by the condition of the dining area alone!

THIS WAS LEFTOVER FROM THE PREVIOUS NIGHT — SOME FROM TWO NIGHTS BEFORE.

Oh. Dear.

When I saw this white towel stained with chocolate milk I suddenly remembered the little one rousing me from a half-sleep the previous night, asking my advice on a milk spill downstairs.  I must have said, “Get a towel.”  So he did.  And there it sat the next morning.  Next to two open milk containers, each with about 1/3 of the contents still in said containers.  Notice the uneaten bun and apples?  Under the towel were some more uneaten apple chunks.

In this picture of the floor, can you spot the partially eaten hamburger patty?  That milk bottle on the floor was, I believe, from two nights previous.  And most of the wet wipes were still damp; so I’m going to guess they were only opened the night before.  Oma, see with what disregard these heathens treat the lovely place mats you slaved over?

Floor on the child side of the table

After gasping when I saw this carnage, I blurted out in my pathetic scratchy voice, “For Pete’s sake!  Mars really DOES need MOMS!!!  Will you people please get up here and at least pick up the trash and nasty uneaten food OFF OF THE FLOOR?”  They came up to the dining level, and both busted out laughing!  But they did clean it up.  The table too.  After I documented it.

Every time I think about what must have gone on without me, it mostly just makes me laugh.  I love their daddy.  He takes good care of all of us.  And I love these sweet little heathens.   I do NOT, however, love being sick.  Here’s hoping for a better next 10 days!

“Truly I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child will not enter it at all.”  – Luke 18:17

I did also get  YouVersion (although it took a while to find).  I mean… it IS free!  And all those versions have already come in quite handy.  For example: this is not my favorite way to use access to tons of versions, but if you have the Message and any other “regular”/ “real” version, I invite you to read 2 Samuel 22:25 and tell me if they are saying the same thing.

So that’s been interesting.

And I also found a thing called “Bible Memory Verses.”  It is a tool designed to aid in memorizing verses.  It will give you tests, and you can record your voice saying the verse so you can listen to it, and things like that.  It’s free, so I thought, “Why not?”

So there ya go.  I’m loaded up with Bible apps.  Now… to use them!

Potential “TMI” ahead — you’ve been warned.

Both boys today let me in on the fact that sometimes they have to potty at the same time — and so, they do!  And it gets even better because they often have “pee-pee wars.”  I bet any of  you can figure that out on your own.  You’re all a pretty swift bunch.

I just had to nod, walk away, and bust a gut so they wouldn’t see me.  I had no idea.

When Caleb was born the elder in our class at church told me that it would be great if every boy could have a brother.  I wonder if this is what he meant.   I kind of feel like my little brother was cheated somehow….

But I am struggling with which Bible to get.   Of course the only versions you can get for free are  KJV and ASV because of copyright stuff.  I don’t have a problem paying for NASB and NIV (which are the only other ones I want), but there are so many companies that make Bible apps.  Who to go with!?

I have had a Palm PDA for about 9 years, and Tim got me the Laridian company’s Bible program for it.  For 7 years it has been almost the only Bible I’ve taken to church because it went into my purse (or the diaper bag), didn’t weigh a ton, AND because I could highlight stuff, add bookmarks, and take notes!  Awesome.  I have loved it.  Now, because technology moves on whether I like it or not, and because my PDA is on its last leg, AND because Steve Jobs (rest in soul…) was such a control freak, I can not transfer AAAALLLLLLLLL of those Highlights and Notes and Bookmarks from my Palm to my iPhone.  Even if I use the Laridian iPhone app, I still have to start all over.  (To be fair to Steve, I think I’d be starting over even if I had an Android or Blackberry or what-have-you.)  This makes me sad.  But in any case, I want to find a replacement.

I want an app where I can easily highlight, bookmark, take notes, and any other cool feature they want to throw at me.  The biggest key is I want it to be easy.  I’m bad with technology.  I don’t mind playing with stuff a little to figure it out and make it work for me.  BUT!   If I practically have to go to the help page every time I want to do something because there are so many steps or it’s just not very intuitive, forget it.  My UX brother knows what I mean.  :-)  (Partly cuz he knows how very pathetic I am with tech!)

SOOOOO…. any suggestions?  Tell me the app that I will fall in love with and use for about 9 years, before having to start all over again.  Thank you.

Happy Birthday to you!

Happy Birthday, mein Bruder (I can’t type an umlaut)!

Hap-py Birth-day toooooooo YYYOOOOOOUUUUU!!!!

I won’t say you’re getting old, because I’m older than you…. but…… you’re not in your early 30′s anymore!

Love you, Homer.