Minus a few brain cells today

As we speak my son is sitting in a third grade classroom slowly losing his brain cells. They are being killed off one at a time all in the name of Halloween. You see at his school they are allowed to wear costumes as long as they are dressed as a book character. So Ben chose to dress as Calvin (as in Calvin & Hobbes)

And since I am always the super prepared mother I sat down last night at 11pm with red t-shirt and a black sharpie to create a Calvin shirt. 45 minutes later I was done, but high as a kite from the Sharpie pen fumes. 7 hours later my child awakens me from my coma by standing next to me in his awesome shirt, but all I can smell is Sharpie. It is then off to the bathroom to create the wonder that is Calvin's hair. Yeah, it's cool, but cool takes ALOT of goop. We put in mousse, we put in Got2Be Glued gel, and we put in more Aqua-Net hairspray than I used my entire eighth grade year. Once his hair is in it's chemically induced state of coolness, he then heads out to the living room to pick up his accessory piece. An adorable stuffed tiger that we picked up at the Goodwill yesterday. Did I say PICKED UP AT THE GOODWILL? Then by all means I should probably sanitize that thing before he hauls it around all day. And by sanitize I certainly do not mean throw it in the wash machine with some eco-friendly laundry soap and extra hot water. There is no time for that. By sanitize I mean grab the giant aerosol can of Lysol and spray the heck out of that tiger.

So that is how I sent my third grader off to school today. Looking like Calvin, carrying Hobbes, but smelling like a chemical reactor. Hopefully no one lights a match!

Pictures to follow later tonight.

Dear Zac Efron,

Wow, did you have a great weekend or what? I heard your newest installment raked in over 40 million dollars this past weekend and that was just it's opening weekend. Not bad for a movie marketed to the "tween" set. You know the 8-11 year olds that really do not have any money to their name, but instead spend daddy and mommy's money to see you and your beautiful girlfriend sing and dance your way through your senior year.

I admit that I have not seen your latest movie yet. I'm still undecided about whether or not I will take my tween to see it. Now don't get me wrong. I did see the first two. And honestly I really liked them. Well, the first one more than the second, but that is typically the way it goes. My kids loved them too. Especially the songs. There is nothing like driving your four year old to preschool with the soundtrack to HSM playing very loud and listening to him sing all the words to every song. That is marketing genius!

I do have one bone to pick with you though, little mister. And yes, I know you are actually in your twenties, an adult and everything. And while you may or may not choose to be a role model in real life, you chose to play one in the movies thus making you a person that lots.......errr, make that tons...........oh no, maybe millions of 8-11 year old children adore, probably most of whom are girls (along with lots of thirty-something women, but we won't go there). Since you have so many adoring young fans, would you do them all, and me, a favor and spend a tad bit of your millions, it doesn't have to be much, on a belt. Yes, I said buy a belt. You know one of those things that holds your pants up while you are walking arm in arm along the beach with your sweet girlfriend. That way the millions of YOUNG girls who adore you, never have to risk seeing a scene like this. What if your under garment accidentally slipped down that last 1/8 of a centimeter.

(photo courtesy of People.com)

Enough said.

Now please go on your merry way making sweet teeny bopper musicals.


Much love,

The mother of a tween whom I never hope to see with his pants slung that low

I worked the system last night

My beloved local Fred Meyer recently sent out some amazing coupons in celebration of their grand re-opening after completing a remodel.

So tonight, armed with my grocery list and coupons I embarked on a savings adventure.

After TWO hours (I was by myself, so I shopped leisurely) I had a cart full of groceries, and not just the basket portion, the bottom of the cart was packed tight too!

My total before coupons was $208.43.

After coupons?

$94.02

Yeah Baby!

Wordless THURSDAY

(because I make my own rules!!)

This one shall be titled "Goalie Practice in the Pacific Northwest"

BOO-kini

A friend recently gave me a couple of zuchinni and for some reason Cooper took an instant liking to this one.




(Yikes that kid needs a haircut!)

Today we turned his big zucchini friend into something delicious:

(Yikes that is a big knife right there next to that 4 year old!)

Cooper called it Bookini Bread.

So BOO-kini bread it is. All ready to be delivered to his teachers tomorrow and an extra set for Ben's teacher.

A message from my mom

Thank you to all of you who are praying for my mom as she serves in Africa. Here is an e-mail update she sent out today:


We arrived in Kigoma at about noon today. Am safe with the Stillman's at this time. Are trying to make plans for when we go where. Culture is so different, am having a difficult time seeing the poverty I am seeing. It is a way of life here. We will be going to one of the refugee camps this week sometime. I can see the Congo from the Stillman's front window. They are about 4/5 of the way up the lake from the southern tip. The lake is 400 miles long and 30 to 50 miles wide. They tell me it is the 2nd deepest lake in the world. Kigoma is also right on the border of Tanzania and Burundi. Geography lesson for today.
Flying from Dar es Salaam took about three hours. It took 4.5 hours to fly from Seattle to New York. In all fairness, I was on a prop to Kigoma and a Jet to from Seattle. A difference of about 200 miles per hour.
Chuck, I still have had all of the Toilet Paper I need. Will see how things are once we get to the camps. I think we will go to one of them this week. Are getting only one day in each, had hoped for more but the officials say that since they are being sent back to Congo they do not need visitors any more. Whew, the corruption is amazing.
I am taking as many pictures as I can, but I have to be careful as so many places do not want you to photograph them and some of the people are insulted if you photo them also. I always ask before I do.
Someone, please tell Susan that I would include her in my mailings except the address I have for her is not current. If she sends me an e-mail I will be able to include her.
Gina, maybe you can tell dad that I have mailed again.
Stan, send me an e-mail so I know you are receiving from me.
Love to everyone
Ev, Evy, Mom, Gramma, etc

It is very hard for me to imagine my sixty something year old mother, who has never travelled outside the US (except to Canada and Mexico once) taking it all in in Africa. It will beinteresting to see what God shows her. She is already a wonderful person and I just know that God will use her in an amazing way. She will come back a changed person.

Please continue to pray for her safety and ministry.

Circa 1990

Please Pray

My mom left early his morning for 3 weeks in Africa. She is going to the Congo to serve the Tanzanian refugees there.

Please pray for their safety and effective ministry!

Are you Smarter than a 3rd grader?

My third grader announced tonight that he had homework for me.

"Oh really?" I said. Fully expecting him to pull out yet another questionnaire or form for me to fill out.

He then proceeded to pull this out of his backpack:



That is Laszlo Polgar's book titled Chess: 5334 Problems, Combinations and Games.

It is 1104 pages long.

And all the pages that look like this:

Apparently the kid did not get the memo that I don't do books that long. (Although I have read a certain Vampire series whose 2560 pages were worth every minute of my time.)

I asked him why I needed to read the book, which ironically has very few words and far to many pictures of chess boards.

He told me that he wants to be a better chess player because chess players are better at math.

Ummm okay.

Then he said that in order to be a better chess player he needs to practice more at home. And in order to practice more at home someone there needs to know how to play chess.

So he asked Mr. Wagner (the media specialist and chess coach at his school) for a book that I could read to learn how to play chess.

Apparently Mr. Wagner recommends this one.

Can't we just stick to being mediocre in math?

Junk

I've been absent.

Well, actually I've been here.

I just haven't felt like posting stuff whilst I deal with JUNK in my life.

Yes folks, it's true. I got junk.

In my trunk?

Only sometimes it slips out.

And then it makes a mess and exposes me for the fraud that I am.

I'm not really a fraud.

I am quite likely one of the most genuine persons I know.

I am who I am.

I am who God made me.

Only sometimes I forget.

I have a very wise friend who recenly shared with me a great analogy:

You see we all have this bottle inside of us where we keep our bad stuff. Some peoples bottles are bigger than others. Anyway, we take all our junk and stuff it in that bottle and then we stick the cork in it. Then we have more bad junk and so we stuff the bottle again and again. Then pretty soon the bottle is full and we just can't get the cork in quick enough after we stuff junk in there and some of the junk comes spilling out.

A couple of weeks ago my bottle was so full that the cork didn't even fit anymore.

Then it tipped over.

It made a mess.

That's okay because my God is an amazing God and he deals with my messes much better than I do.

2 Corinthians 1:3-5
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction so that we will be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. For just as the sufferings of Christ are ours in abundance so also our comfort is abundant through Christ