Passed on to another generation

Long ago, I had a teacher I loved. I liked having her in second grade. I liked having her in fifth grade even more. Then a little over a year ago, I ran into her when she was selling her books at a local craft fair. I had come across her first book in the library, but I didn't recognize the name since she'd remarried in the last 20-some years since I'd had her as a teacher. I quickly and excitedly bought her books. The books were given to our kids, and I told them stories about her and what a wonderful teacher she was ... even though they'd already heard most of the stories about her whenever I talk about teachers I had.

This past fall, I saw her at the same craft fair where she was selling her newest book. Still excited by the fact that she's writing books, I quickly bought the newest one to give to the kids for Christmas. Then I found out that she'd be doing a book reading at our library a couple of weeks before Christmas.

My kids were going to get to hear her read her new book!

It ended up to be a bad weather night so the crowd was very small, but that meant the kids could sit even closer and pass around the stuffed animal she'd brought along. Here are my three favorite kids with my favorite teacher from elementary school.

Thank you, Mrs. Sparks (as I'll always call you), for the great memories you've given me and that you're now giving to my kids also!

(If you're interested in her books, here's a link to her author page on Amazon: Marilyn Schuler)

When getting their hair trimmed

When getting your girls' hair trimmed, I highly recommend taking them to and end-of-day appointment with a beautician (stylist? hairdresser? What is the correct word here?) who's a young mom who loves playing with hair who has three boys of her own but no daughters.

The result for you* is daughters who have fun hairdo's that they absolutely love that they can show off for the next three days.

*This result is not guaranteed. But that's the result we got last week. And it was wonderful!

Good and properly wiped out

Sometimes it's hard to know if your kids are tired and how tired they really are.

Sometimes they make it abundantly clear.

This is Laura letting us know that Grandpa and Grandma wore her out good and proper.

I caughten the cotton -- more word play

Evan: I caughten the mighty zebra!
Mommy: Caughten isn't a word. Unless you mean cotton, like the cloth.
Evan: I know, but it's fun to say caughten. ........ I caughten the mighty zebra!

Slide, slided, slode

Child of mine: Did you see how far I just slided?!
Me: Yes, I did. It was a good one! But, slided?! I don't think slided is a word. How about...
Child of mine: Oh, yeah. Slode.
Me: Slode??? Um, no. Slode is not a word. How about slid?
Child of mine: I'm sure I've heard slode before.
Me: Yes, but it's slowed, as in "I slowed down when I was going too fast."

Sleepy prayer

One night over Christmas break, as I was tucking Laura in to bed, I asked her if she'd already prayed. She answered with, "No. Yes. Maybe. Uhhh ... No. Dear Jesus ... [quiet moment of reverent silence as she prays in her head] ... Amen!"

Turning into a shark

Laura's trying to become a shark. I think she has a pretty good start so far...

(Wow, were her lips dry this day or what?!)