The Roach

This morning my youngest daughter was looking at a book with a picture of a colorful beetle. It reminded me of something from several years ago. I'm not sure where I got them, but when I was still living at home, somehow I acquired 2 very realistic looking rubber cockroaches. When I was a kid I startled my Mom with them a couple of times. She had a certain kind of ice cream she especially liked. One day I put one of the rubber cockroaches in the small tub of ice cream. I think it was one of those small Ben & Jerry packs, or something like that. When she opened the lid, out popped the cockroach. It was great fun, as I have rarely heard my Mom scream. She got me back though... one day she stuck the rubber cockroach up into the faucet of the bathtub, so when I turned on the water, the roach came out with the gush of water, giving it the appearance of swimming for its life. The favor was returned; Mom got to hear me scream.

Recently when I was going through a box of memorabilia from my childhood, I came across the rubber cockroaches. I stuck them away for just the right moment. Today that moment came.

When my daughter was examining the colorful beetle in her book, I rather nonchalantly mentioned I had a cockroach. Both girls were instantly interested; Really? Can we see it? What's its name? How come we've never seen it before? I told them when I was finished with my coffee, I'd show them my cockroach. But be forewarned, he doesn't like being out in the light, and he gets nervous around people. My kids couldn't believe I'd have a pet cockroach, and my oldest was very skeptical. They could hardly wait for me to finish my coffee. Then I went into my room and shut the door. I cupped the rubber cockroach in one hand and covered him with the other. Then I went out into the living room. Both girls were very interested to see the cockroach. I gingerly opened my hands just enough for them to get a glimpse, then quickly covered him again. My youngest was a little nervous, but my oldest said, "That can't be real!" I told them he was tickling my hands because he was moving around. Then I pushed his head out between my fingers with my thumb, and both girls screamed. "It's real!" I was having great fun with this. I don't normally play pranks on my children, but this time it was just too fun. After this I let the cockroach "jump" out of my hands, towards the girls. My husband had the camera and was recording, so I thought I'd share the resulting video. Hopefully I don't appear mean for doing this, as it was all in fun. And after it was over, my girls were able to laugh about it. They loved watching the video, too. And I eventually let them know this was not a real live cockroach. :-) Enjoy the video!

Edit - I've decided to remove this video due to a couple of "visitors" that have left me a bit uncomfortable. I think I will have to rethink posting videos in the future, especially when they deal with my kids. I am a Momma Bear, and protecting my children is my highest priority. :-) The visits in question are probably completely innocent, but I've decided it's best to err on the side of caution.

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Under Construction

I've decided it's time to choose a new layout for my blog. When I picked this template it was Autumn, and I was ready for Christmas. This seemed to fit. Now that summer is here (I'm behind the times!) I decided something new is in order. Of course the template I've decided upon will not work with everything in my side bar, so now I have the fun task of trying to get everything to fit. So if this blog starts looking a bit odd, hopefully I can get it back in gear! And I really hope I don't make the whole thing go *poof*! :-) If you see a new background to my blog and everything seems to be in place, then I will have succeeded! :-)

Edit... I seem to have everything figured out, except my mp3 player of my girls singing. For some reason I just cannot get that to work in this new layout! So now I need to decide, to I change to a new layout, continue to work on the problem, or leave out the mp3's? I think they'd be disappointed if their songs were no longer here, I've put too much effort into this silly thing to quit, so I guess that means I keep at it. Which means it's after 10:00 and the laundry still isn't folded. Ah, such is the life we lead in this technological age! :-)

Final Edit... I think I've found a work around! I've found a customizable mp3 player, that I can adjust the size of the player. I can only put one song in it, so I just made one player for each song. Now maybe I can go to bed! :-)

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The "S" Word

This Sunday, my oldest daughter and I are going to have a very special afternoon and evening. We've arranged with her grandparents to keep her younger sister for the night, and my husband will be at work. I have told her we'll have that time together, just the two of us, and given her just a few hints as to what we're going to do. She's growing up too quickly, so I want to have a time for the two of us to talk, do girl things (like paint our fingernails and eat chocolate), and just have fun together.

Tonight at the table she turned to me and said, "Mommy after supper I need to talk to you. It's private, just for the two of us. It's about the "S" word."

The "S" word? I could only think of one "s" word that would require privacy to talk about. What question should she possibly have that was so urgent? She's EIGHT! We have been open and answered any questions she's had, but so far her questions have been very simple and basic, nothing requiring secrecy.

After supper we went to her room and sat down on her bed. I was trying to prepare myself for any question she might have. Taking a deep breath, I asked what was on her mind.

"Mommy, on Sunday if it's nice, can we sit outside when we go to Starbucks?"

I breathed a sigh of relief. "Starbucks" was the "s" word. She was being cryptic because she didn't want her little sister to be jealous of the fun day we had planned. I guess my little girl is going to stay a little girl for a little while longer. :-)

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I did it!

Ok, I believe I have added an mp3 player with 2 songs to my sidebar. It seems to work on my computer, hopefully it will work on others, as well! :-) I just picked one song my 8 year old is singing and playing on her ukulele. My 5 year old wanted to do something too, so she sang one of her favorite songs, from one of her favorite movies. I'm not sure how to put titles into the MP3 player, so it's just the link name. When I listen to the song, a little popup comes to the top of my browser saying I need some plugin for it to work, but I didn't download it, and it works fine for me to listen. If anyone has trouble with the player, let me know and I'll see what else I can find. Thanks! Also, I don't know if I'll change the songs in the future, but I put today's date in the title of the mp3 player. If I ever update it, I'll put the current date in there, so it will be easy to see if I've added any new songs.

(Update... I just checked to see what plugin it tried to install, and it's apple quicktime. I don't particularily like quitime, and I don't want to install it on my computer. It doesn't seem like you actually need it to work, but if it doesn't work for you without the plugin, let me know, and I'll look for another player. Thanks!)

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My Ukulele Gal

My oldest daughter has been taking ukulele lessons for a few months. I love to listen to her play and sing! One of these days if I can figure out how to do it, I'll try to put up one of those music players in my side bar, and put her mp3's into it. That could take a while, though. I'm not that tech savy. :-) It's one of my goals, though. Maybe I can work on it this summer, during our break from school.

I seem to have been in a blogging rut the past couple of weeks. And even though now I have my computer in front of me, I can't think of much to write. So I guess I'll put the blog away for a few more days, and hope inspiration strikes! :-) Or maybe I can use this time to try and figure out how to put my daughter's mp3s into my blog. In any case, I'll try to have something more of interest in the next few days.

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Next Year's School

Even though we're at the end of our school year and I'm sooooo ready for summer vacation, I'm anxious to get next year's curriculum. We'll begin our 2-year study of American History, and it looks really exciting! Some things we'll be learning (taken from Sonlight Core 3):

• We'll start with archeological information from hundreds of years before Christ
• We'll accompany Columbus on his journey across the Atlantic
• We will

  discover which state was founded on the loot of smugglers and pirates, and which state (then a colony) was founded by men who believed the Bible taught them never to offer military or police protection when their citizens were attacked.

• We will meet Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, George Washington, Lewis and Clark, and many others
• In Science we will study physics, human anatomy, biology, and taxonomy...

This is definitely going to be a fun year! I can hardly wait to start!

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