The Grocery Ritual

Ever since Moo was little and we come home with the groceries, she sets up her own little store. It's a simple little store. The boxes of pop are set up as the scanner and she unpacks the groceries. As she takes each item out of the bag, she runs it over the "scanner" and say, "Beep!" for each item.

It is amazing to me that at the age of 9 years, she still continues to do this. It makes me smile to see her enjoy something so simple.

Today, she decided to take the eggs from the carton and put them into the egg tray from the fridge. She picked up each egg, examined it, said "Check!", and then put them into the tray.

How God has blessed me with simple moments like these!

Our Trip to the International Space Station

So that this blog doesn't become a place to just document and update goals and resolutions, it's time to post about something else. So, how about writing about our future trip to the International Space Station.

Why the International Space Station? Well, what's the reason for most of the crazy things I do these days? Like...
- hiking for three hours in freezing cold weather at night.
- walking through cement tunnels under the road.
- buying snow pants for myself at the age of 36.
- lifting light post covers.
- taking on dares and documenting them in photos.
Those who know me know that the list could go on. They also know the reason for the craziness! GEOCACHING!

Recently published on the geocaching website was the cache furthest from home. It happens to be hidden at the International Space Station.

You can check it out here...

Out of this World Cache!

Obviously, we don't really have plans to visit the space station but it did make for a fun little discussion this evening.

Me: There's a geocache in space now.
J (Hubby): How do you get it?
Me: Become an astronaut.
Moo: No way! I'm not going to get it! Do you know how many ways there are to die up there?

I agree with Moo. I'm not so sure about going into space for a cache. We'll just have to stick to the earthbound caches for the moment! They are a lot of "phoon"!


"Phoon Bucyrus" cache found over spring break 2009

My Wart

Moo, J, and I were swimming in my mom's and dad's pool yesterday. Moo had latched onto my back and we were swimming around together. I said, "J, look at this wart I have on my back."

A bit later, Moo was still on my back. J was messing around with her, trying to get her off my back. She said to him, "Stop! I'm mommy's wart!"

The Buxton Bag

I was just talking to someone the other day about Moo's love for those "As Seen on TV" commercials that advertise products. She watches them and then comes to tell me we should get the product advertised.

Today it was "The Buxton Bag."

"Mom! Come here fast! You need this! Come here! Come here! It's a bag that organizes all your things. It has a pocket for your cell phone. You won't miss any phone calls. You should get it!"

I chuckled.

I chuckled even more when she ended with, "Gee, that was a mouthful!"

(Looking for my pic, I stumbled onto this website http://www.asseenontvguys.com/. I must keep Moo away from this site!)

A Bad Mistake

You probably know the story. A mouse ran into a lion one day and the lion said, "Stop! I'm going to eat you." The mouse says, "Please don't and someday I will help you." The lion says, "You're too little to help me," but he lets the mouse go anyway.

Sometime later, the lion is caught in a hunter's net. The mouse gnaws through the rope to let the lion go. And they live happily ever after.

So the question presented on Moo's homework was, "What can you learn from this story?"

Moo's response... "Never eat your friends. That would be a bad mistake."

You Better Watch Out!

Christmas eve, we sprinkled "reindeer food" on the lawn.

Today, as J, Moo, my brother, and I returned from the store, it was fairly dark already. As we walked through the yard to get to the front door, Moo warned us, "Be careful! There might be reindeer poop on the grass!"

Ambitiousness and "Some Mint" Frosting

Being a teacher and a mom, I don't always get to do things exactly the way I would like to. For example, when Moo came home the other day and told her teacher that we would make gingerbread boys to go with their gingerbread houses, you should have seen my face! How on earth would I accomplish that? Oh yeah, the gingerbread mix... but it only makes 20 and what if I burn them and what if I make them too big and... When?!?!?!?

Here is the letter I sent to her teacher.

Dear Mrs. B,

When Moo told me, that she told you, that we would make gingerbread boys for the class, I thought, “Yikes!” That was a tad ambitious of her! (Plus the mix we have only makes 20.)
So, I did the less ambitious thing and sent J to IGA to buy some gingerbread boys. Not exactly homemade, but pretty good anyway. (And under 100 calories!)

Oh yes! One more thing. On the way home from church Wednesday night, Moo informed me that you would be putting the gingerbread houses together with “some mint” frosting. I just had to laugh!

Michelle

Moo's Letter to the Tooth Fairy - 11/22/07

Moo's tooth came out on Thanksgiving day. I always have her jot down the date her tooth came out for the tooth fairy's records. Since she has become a first grader, she is quite the little writer. Here is her Thanksgiving letter to the tooth fairy. I will use her spelling and her lack of punctuation to recreate it for you.

Dear Tooth fairy
I lost a Tooth it came Out at Uncl Es on Tanksgiveing day I love you Tooth fairy I am sorry that I Have to Bother you on Tannksgiveing and I am sorry that it is cold out Please I am sorry That I tricked you with the rock my frind M tricked you with a rock to so what I was saying I am veary veary veary sorry But then I went to Aunt S's I playd a game with my Cusins I playd a Hamberger game it is rely fun and on the wai Home my dad sawed me He's wrok But I allredy saw it.
love Moo
XOXOXOXOXOXO
XOXOXOXOXOXO
XOXOXOXOXOXO

Home All Day

With the exception of a 30 minute excursion this morning to deliver a pie for a fundraiser and get the mail, I have been home all day. This is a very rare thing for me and after a busy week like the past one, it was quite nice.

I worked on cleaning the house, while J, my husband, and our friend, E removed the leaves from our lawn. Both the inside and outside of our house look quite a bit better than it did 12 hours ago! The inside definately needs more work though. I made a pot of chili and baked a pineapple-upside down cake. I listened to Moo read, took an afternoon nap, played some Nintendo Wii, and visited with my brother and his friend. We played Hand and Foot and Apples to Apples. I lost both games, but enjoyed the company.

If only weekends could have one more day! That way I could have one day to work on cleaning, one day for geocaching, and the other for church and resting!

What Would Jesus Wear?

The other day I had a glimpse back at my childhood. I was talking to Moo and I accidentally tipped her baby doll over onto its face. She quickly "scolded" me and turned it back over on its back.

This reminded me of when I was younger. There was a period of time when I made sure that I could see all my stuffed animals faces. My reasoning behind this? I had to make sure they could all breathe.

I am glad to see Moo engaged in imaginative play. With video games, computer, sports activities, and the general busyness of life, I wonder how many children use imaginative play anymore. (Although, I did catch my students at school, during indoor recess, a couple weeks ago "playing school." How hilarious is that?)

This morning, when I took Moo to my mom's house, she lugged along her doll with the doll's diaper bag. (Grandma takes Moo to school in the morning.) When we go there, she began to unpack the clothes. Obviously, I thought she had doll clothes packed. To my surprise, she begins to pull out 2T, 3T, and 4T clothing from the diaper bag.

Chuckling, I asked, "What are you doing with all of these?"

Remembering her part in the Christmas program as Mary, she sincerely and adamantly replied, "I need to find something for it (the baby doll) to wear for the Christmas program!"

Still chuckling, I said, "Umm... a blanket should work."

Perhaps I should explain to her that there were no Baby Gaps or Wal-Marts around when Jesus was born!

My 3 year old niece was also at grandma's during this time. I quickly sorted through the clothing and gave her more than half! Yeah me!

I Dressed up as Super Mom!

I dressed up as Super Mom and I didn't even have to wear a cape, tights, boots, a leotard with a big letter on the front, or have to wear my underwear on the outside of my clothes.

Here's my story...

I work full-time as a teacher and stay pretty busy. I also like to be as involved as I can with Moo and what's going on in her life. That means that at times, I'm running around like a crazy woman. An example would be volunteering to work at Moo's school's fun fair this Friday, even though I really don't want to. (WHY did I do that? *banging my head on the computer desk*)

So last week, Halloween week, I was really, really busy. First I had the regular hustle and bustle of the fall season - making sure I had candy for the THREE parties Moo would attend, getting her to each of the parties, making JELL-O Jigglers for one of them, and taking her trick-or-treating on the appropriate night. I also had work responsiblilites - grading papers (and I was behind), doing report cards, and getting ready for an evaluation. I also volunteered, along with my friend M, to introduce geocaching to Moo's Brownie troop. In the middle of that, I'm sure I did a couple loads of laundry, made a couple of meals, and washed a few dishes.

It was exactly a week before the famous October date that I admitted that I put off getting Moo's Halloween costume. So enters Wal-mart. But, a week before Halloween, an angel costume - in size 7 - could not be found. So I start thinking, "Maybe I can find a white dress and we can add wings and a halo." I go to the girl's section and come back to the reality that this is FALL and white is NOT a popular color at this time of the year. Next is a visit to the sewing section. You read me right - three days before she would need the costume for the first time I went into the sewing section. I looked at the material and even found a pattern for an angel costume. Did I mention that the last sewing project I did was when I was in 4-H, almost 20 YEARS ago? Well, looking at the pattern I realized the complexity of THAT situation. Then it came to me! White shirt from the girl's section + a big piece of cheap, white fabric from the sewing section made into a skirt = angel costume! (I'll get to the wings and halo.)

That's how it went. We found the best, white shirt adorned with silver sequins around the neck. I sewed a skirt from a $3.00 piece of material. (I cut the material in circle, cut a hole in the middle, and sewed a makeshift waistband.) I bought a stretchy sequin thing to make a headband for the halo. My mom, (the actual Super Mom), made the stretchy sequin thing into an actual halo and found some angel wings she made several years earlier. Voila! Angel costume. We later added a white feather boa she had used in a dance recital when she was three.

Of course, I wanted to know if I did "good enough." Moo liked the costume, so that was the main thing. After our town trick-or-treating came the costume judging. She won! "Wow! I guess I did do okay!" I thought. Moo was happy with the $5 prize. Next was the costume judging at our church. Pictures were taken and winners would be posted the following Sunday. Sunday morning, we checked out the winners and there she was again! She and her angel costume had now won a t-shirt!

I was happy and a bit proud that "I" had made the costume. Thinking back to the crazy week I had, I knew that I had dressed up as Super Mom!

Moo

From here on out I will refer to our daughter in the blogosphere as "Moo". This is a nickname that has been tacked on to her real name by some friends of ours. It also reminds me of our cuddley "cow blankie" that we snuggle in, and the adorable little girl in "Monsters Inc." named Boo. Hence the nickname, "Moo."

Moo is seven years old and in the first grade. She loves to read and write. The exciting news today is that she gets to be Mary in their school Christmas program. How fun! I know that has nothing to do with the nickname thing, but I just had to say it! Yeah Moo!