Thinks By Me

I have to say that I don't believe I have ever met a single person who had a February 29th birthday. What's the chance of that when my brother and I share a birthday (2 years apart) and my sister's is 10 days before ours (2 years later)?! I just couldn't pass up the chance to post something today, since I won't be posting again on this date for another four years. Frankly, it's downright weird to think that I could still be blogging in another four years.

Perhaps in honor of Starbucks closing for some special barista training today, Dunkin' Donuts is practically giving their small lattes away for .99 cents! Or perhaps it's in sympathy for all the northeastern parents who, after triumphing through a week of winter break from school, will more than likely greet their wee ones with an early release from school today due to a winter storm that is fast approaching. It's from 1:00 pm to 10:00 pm today only, which corresponds nicely with the 5:30 p.m. closing of Starbucks for three hours of emergency training on how to spiff up their processes. Or something or other. So find your closest location, haul it over to get any variety of a small latte and sip in oblivion while your kids hoot & holler about an extra hour to track in snow and ice all over your floors! You won't even mind the mess.

On Little Chic's snowmobiling trip with Dad. Even the deer like a little affection.

Brainy Boy is taking part in his first real grown-up act of supporting a mission cause tomorrow night. He, along with his youth group, are taking part in the 30-hour famine . It's a youth event sponsored by World Vision for the cause of world hunger. The idea is that the kids get sponsors to donate money to help feed hungry children across the world, and learn a lesson in compassion at the same time. The kids, in conjunction with a night of fun activities, will be fasting for a whole 30 hours!! Brainy Boy is just barely old enough to take part (you should be 12, and he will be in about 10 weeks) but he seems to really be looking forward to it. I'd like to think he's excited about the prospect of seeing what it's like to truly be hungry, but I suspect that playing paintball again as part of the activities of the night, is generating most of the enthusiasm. If you are inclined to support this event tomorrow night, drop me a line, and I'll tell you how to give a t...

In return for the many nights of sneaking under Little Chic's covers for a warm cuddle, DogSpot decided to pay back the favor and allow Little Chic a prime spot on her doggie cot in front of the fireplace.

Denise sent me this Scattergories game. It's harder than it looks, believe me. If you wanna play along, use the 1st letter of your own name to answer each of the questions. They have to be real places, names, and things...and no cheating by using your name for the boy/girl name question, either. SCATTERGORIES - THE LETTER J What is your name? Jennifer 4 letter word: just Vehicle: Jalopy City: Jerusalem Boys name: Jackson Girls name: Julia Movie: James & The Giant Peach Occupation: Journalist Something you wear: Jeans Food: Jambalaya Something found in a kitchen: Juicer Something found in a bathroom: Jacuzzi tub Reason for being late: John (truly, my biggest reason being late) Cartoon character: Johnny Bravo Something you shout: "Just Say No!" Animal: Jack rabbit Body Part: Jugular vein PS-(Who Loves Google?!)

Brainy Boy has been agonizing at the mailbox every day when the coveted paintball gun that Muh Main Man won on Ebay last weekend did not arrive. Each and every day. We have exchanged numerous emails with Mr. Seller who assured us the paintball gun was on its way. Mysteriously today, we got a Paypal refund for the amount of the purchase price with a vague explanation about shipping problems. Nice. Explain that to Brainy Boy who schemed all week about gloating in front of his boy buddies during the paintball game tomorrow. Thus the discussion about pride and destruction and the haughty spirit before crashing and burning...or falling as Proverbs puts it. Mean Mom was going to make him wait until his birthday to rectify the issue, good and proper as was the original plan. BUT as always Muh Main Man and his instant gratification tendencies came to the rescue. He again bid and won. This time a better gun for less money. And that always makes me happy. Hopefully this time all will go...

I have a goal during this upcoming week of Winter Break from school. I've been intending to repaint the kids bathroom for a while now. I have no idea what those Short People do when they're in there, but the walls certainly look lived on. And then some. I've been putting off the paint job because....well, that's just what I do. But also because that bathroom is the one room in my house where I have a wall border. I'm not a huge wallpaper fan, but I experimented with a wall border in there a few years ago and I've dreaded getting it down. But surprisingly, some peeling and spraying of warm water and scraping with a plastic scraper got the job done. Who knew those little brown plastic scrapers that come with your Pampered Chef stoneware work for more than getting food off pizza stones? Of course, I have yet to actually pick out the paint but the new shower curtain is sitting on the counter and my nifty Tomboy Tools paintbrushes are rarin' to go, so I...

Luckily I'm married to a guy who gets the whole love language deal and he's well tuned into the fact that acts of service really fill my love tank. To earn brownie points so that he could buy a new snowmobile demonstrate his undying love for me, he has been doing all sorts of favors for me this week--odds and ends that generally would stay undone and cause me to be accused of nagging at some juncture--he has just been knocking them out right and left. He's even taken on a few of my own procrastinated chores. Just because. Without me asking. So although today was the official "day of luv" as they say, I've just been celebrating all week because I won the jackpot in the husband department. It seems that we have successfully passed the idea and excitement about treating your "special one" special on this day to only one of our offspring. Little Chic got right into the spirit of carefully selecting her Valentines for each of her friends, sig...

Brainy Boy, along with several buddies, engaged in a big-boy activity for a birthday party on Saturday afternoon. The game of the day was paintball at an indoor facility - and you have never seen anybody so excited. I could barely keep Muh Main Man from crashing the party. It turned out that they had as many dads as they did boys celebrating the birth of one very happy kid. Supposedly dads were there for supervision, but based on the battle scars Brainy Boy revealed, it seems the big boys were as intent on winning the game as were the little boys. He proudly showed off all 11 of the welts that were the result of the vicious battle. He is begging to go back again and has plans for two more times already. It took a mere 12 hours after the game for us to claim one very cool paintball gun for our own, compliments of EBay. We ended the day on a less aggressive note with our last annual mother/son bowling event hosted by our school. Since Brainy Boy is heading to middle school next y...

For any of you who #1-do your own taxes and, #2 are State Farm customers, you can file electronically via Turbo Tax absolutely free! Go to statefarm.com and register with your policy number and the Turbo Tax link will be on the page. We tested it out for you last night, and successfully filed state and federal with no problems. And it was free, Dude. It was free.

The Super Bowl was a thrill to us as it was to many. We watched, just the four of us, with split allegiance among us. Frankly, I didn't have a favorite, so I waited for Muh Main Man to claim his team before I claimed the opposite....to keep it interesting, ya know? As smart gals will do, I picked the winner, and was able to gloat with Brainy Boy at the upset. Little Chic and DogSpot watched as long as they could, but finally settled for a report as we hauled her out from under the snack table at the end of the game. She took the news well (she was on dad's side). Today was the first day at school after a week of sickness for the Short People. They fared pretty well and it seems their teachers took pity on them. They don't appear to have an overwhelming amount of work to make up. It helps that I picked up assignments a few days and they worked through some of them over the weekend. Hopefully we're good to go for the rest of the winter on the healthy front.

Since the kiddos have been sick all week, and I am fortunate enough to stay home with them instead of packing them off to a babysitter while I work, we've done all sorts of things we don't usually do. I've watched countless episodes of the Colbert Report with Brainy Boy. He gets so tickled at the satire, but occasionally we do have to switch the channel if it gets inappropriate. I spent almost one day laying on the bed, keeping Little Chic company while we watched rented movies. She really loved that. We stayed in our jammies more than one day this week, although it did drive me nuts after a while and I had to get a shower and get dressed. The kids just switched from an old pair of jammies to a fresh pair after their showers. It was nice to have a week to dote on them since we were pretty much housebound. There were no distractions of having to keep a schedule or rush around to our various activities. And Muh Main Man did let me escape several nights to do errands whil...