Capital, Coffee, and Commode

Due to my lack of blogging, y'all had no idea that LegoMan and I went on a 5-day trip to Washington, D.C. with his 6th grade class last November.


You also wouldn't have known that we:

1. Had a GREAT time






2. Had cupcakes from the infamous Georgetown Cupcake (and, no, I didn't wait in line for hours for them....somebody else did)







3. LegoMan, and a few other classmates, woke up with a horrible stomach bug THE MORNING of our last day. Thankfully, for most of them, the bad parts of the virus were over by the time we left for the airport.






Facts about me that friends in real life know: I LOVE coffee and I am a *little* germ-o-phobic.

So, imagine my surprise when I arrived in our Washington, D.C. hotel room and saw THIS:




Dear Hampton Inn,

Coffee pots DO NOT go in bathrooms.

Love,

The Greek Girl

Knock, Knock

The kids came running out the back door yesterday to inform me that "somebody is at the door."



Naturally, I said, "who is it?"



Princess: "It's those guys dressed in BLACK and YELLOW!!"



LegoMan: "It's the Mortemists."



Me: "The WHO?!"



LegoMan: "You know, those guys we saw walking around the neighborhood the other day."




Me: "You mean the MORMONS??"


LegoMan and Princess: "OH!"



Welcome to MY world. Enjoy your stay.

Doggie Debut

Since we're getting the ol' blog ginned up again, it's important that you meet someone who came into our lives back in November.



Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you "Lego" (no surprise who chose his name):

He's a whole lot of cute.

A little bit of lazy.

A wee bit of sweetness.

Sometimes cuddly.

Often DIRTY.

But most of all, he was a gift.....from God.





And just what our family needed.

Sunday Night Live - Update

It's been 2 months since my last post, and I'm not sure anybody is still visiting the GRITS corner of the blog world. My Stat Counter tells me the blog averages 8 hits a day. Thanks, Mom.


I can't say my email or facebook page has been overflowing with messages demanding my return, but here I am.


If you have been a regular reader, you KNOW there has certainly been plenty to blog about. I've just taken the easy road out and not written about it.


Soooooo, what have we been doing the last two months?! A little bit of everything, that's what. You know, no update here would be complete without photos.


Swimming. We've had two swim meets and I am PROUD to report that both LegoMan and the Princess represented team GRITS well (or is it good?)





Football. Saturdays in the South are not made for blogging, they are made for college football. DUH! I had the pleasure of taking Papa to watch Alabama pound Florida. ROLL TIDE!





Homecoming. I must admit I have done the blog world a complete disservice by not posting pictures of my kid's dressed up for Homecoming Week. Such a shame. Here are few of my favorites:

Halloween. I must say, this year's costumes will go in the record books. At least LegoMan's will. It was PERFECT. And the Princess' was perfectly PUNK.






So, what's news in your world?!

School Daze

As you may know, we've been back in school for about a month.

What a L-O-N-G month it's been!!


We weren't even in school two weeks before I got the dreaded "Your son's had an accident and I think he might need stitches" phone call. And he did, four of them. Thankfully, the wound was right in his eyebrow line and the scar is barely visible.





Our afternoons are now filled with homework and swim practice. And did I mention the homework?!

I must say this has been a turning point in our household for the dreaded post-school work. Don't get me wrong....I am NOT complaining much. We have just had to get used to hitting the books a little bit harder now.

And staying awake during studying is important, too:






At what age do kids realize if they would just sit down and do their work, without dilly-dallying, they would be done sooner?? *shrug*

We are all hanging in there, so far.


The Princess is hoping she can just get by on her good looks and fashion sense alone:



I'd give her an "A"......wouldn't you?!

Sent with love

We've decided the magic number for owning a cell phone in our house is 13.

*insert gasping sound from an 11 and 9 year old*

I realize that does not make us the coolest parents on the block but, ummmmm, we don't care.


However, like any normal child over the age of 5, both of my kids know how to send and retrieve text messages on our phones.


LegoMan recently acquired the hubby's retired iPhone, minus the SIM card, which renders it as an iPod Touch. FYI, there is an app to send free text messages via Wi-Fi connections.


I had the Princess with me on a recent visit to the Hair Whisperer. While getting my hair did, I heard my phone beep for an incoming text message. The Princess quickly volunteered to field my message. She informed me it was LegoMan and said she would send him a message back. I heard her send a couple of messages and that was it.


What do two siblings who love each other so much text to one another.....see for yourself.









I'm so proud.

Back to School Blues

School Year 2010-11 is underway! We got back into the swing of all things school this past Wednesday. I officially have a 6th and 4th grader in my home.

What?!

How??

Where does the time go?

It seems like yesterday each were graduating from Kindergarten.

And now look where we are:






LegoMan has graduated from hanging out with the elementary kids in the cafeteria before school, to hanging with his buddies in the gym:




And the Princess has her books and new bangs ready for a new school year:





Happy New School Year, y'all!

Summer Rewind

*knock* *knock* *knock* Anybody still here??

We are on the final 3 week countdown until school starts......well, the hubby and I might be the only one counting down.

Our summer has been quite busy around here, it's been filled with GOOD, BAD, and UGLY! (warning: LOTS of photos)


GOOD:

The kids have spent most of the summer in the pool on a summer swim team. They swam 4 days a week and competed in a few meets. Both won several ribbons in their events and Lego-Man made the summer All Star swim team! I am a proud swim mom!!






We also took some time out for visiting family. It's always a good time when the littlest cousins get together for a week. It is non-stop F-U-N.






The local Princess turned the big 9. It's her last year of single digits.....*gasp*



BAD

The biggest bad news of the summer involved this sweet face:




And these cute boys:

As some of you may remember, last year's birthday present was tickets to see the Jonas Brothers. Earlier in the summer we found out her favorite boy band was going to be touring again this fall. The Princess begged for two more tickets for he birthday. I bought them and made plans for a fabulous weekend in Nashville with one of my favorite peeps and her daughter.

On the Princess' very birthday, I received an email that informed me of the JoBros canceling 20 venues, including Nashville (so they could add tour dates in South America????). Insert Sad Trombone Needless to say, I was waiting on a call from Team Jonas to inform my sweet girl of their poor decision making skills. We are still waiting on that phone call.

After receiving the bad news, the Princess settled on a birthday bike....complete with a pouch for her Mp3 player to blare on a speaker. Because the 9 year old needs ONE more distraction while riding her bike.



On another bad note, Lego-Man's summer hairdo strongly resembles Justin Bieber's. Oh baby, puhhleeze.

(FYI, the hairdo situation has since been rectified by the nice lady at Sports Clips.)

UGLY

My little sister and I had an encounter with aliens the Mac Photo Booth:

(Who knew my sister was Janice the Muppet)

We've had a really great summer here at the GRITS house. How about you??

The not-so-hip(hop) Mom

So, summer break is officially in session and I've finally got a few days off from work.....thank the Lord. The kids have swim practice 4 mornings a week and this week we've squeezed in Vacation Bible School.

Let me preface this whole story by a hopefully brief explanation. I grew up in a house where my dad owned a radio station....not just ANY radio station. A station whose claim to fame was "easy listening" music, which can also be defined as music with no lyrics, elevator music, Musak, and lastly, doctor's office music. You get the picture.

As I grew older, for various reasons, I wasn't really allowed to listen to popular music. I mostly grew up listening to Contemporary Christian music. However, in my adulthood I have grown to love some of the music I "missed out" on as a youth.

My iPod is mostly filled with Contemporary Christian music with a small variety of other music genres. My car radio is usually on the local Christian station but on occasion I switch it to other stations.

I'm also VERY bad at "name that tune" and "who sings that song", unless it is Michael W. Smith.


(which FINALLY brings me to the purpose of today's post)

Yesterday the kids and I are riding in the car, I switch the radio from one station to another. Fate had me stop on a local pop-rock station. After a few seconds, I notice the Princess singing ALL the words to the song on the radio. Then the following conversation occurred:

Me: "Princess, how do you know this song? I've never heard it."

Princess: "This song is 'Fireflies'"

Me: "Oh, really?"

LegoMan: "Owl City sings it, Mom"

Me: "What? Who? Owl City?"

LegoMan: "You've never heard of Owl City????" (followed by a laugh)

Me: "Whatever"


Because everyone likes smarty-pants-know-it-all kids. Right?!


In case you are not in the know, here's the song:

Raising Arizona......GRITS Style

I don't mind taking my kids shopping. Now that they are older, I don't have to look for them inside the clothes racks and they typically behave well for a longer period of time.

Take last Saturday, for example. We had to finish up some pre-Easter shopping and found ourselves at a local shoe store. The hubby was in the man shoe area and I had the kids with me.

As we walked around, I heard the kids talking and laughing. However, at some point I became completely oblivious to my kid's behavior, until I noticed one of the sales girls looking behind me and giggling.

How, ummm, marvelous is it to turn around and find your children looking like this:


Seriously. I can't make this stuff up.

How fortunate for me, I lived in the 80's and the first thing that popped into my head was this from Raising Arizona, a favorite movie of mine.

Son, you got a panty on your head. sound bite Raising Arizona sound bites

Just in case you wondered (because I DID), they took the socks fresh out of the box, so no nasty foot germs were transferred to their sweet faces in the making of their fun.

Wordless Wednesday-- Tea Cup Torture

For more Wordless Wednesday posts click HERE

Betcha didn't know

How many of you knew that Mario and Luigi, of Nintendo fame, actually lived in early Roman times???

Look, it's right here in Lego-Man's 5th grade history book:






I had NO idea!

It's in the book

I am not a teacher. For a reason.


It's not my calling. I recognized that early and I'm eternally grateful for those who do this job day in and day out. Thank you!

And nothing makes me feel more like a teacher than the dreaded HOMEWORK!

We have been up to our eyeballs in book reports this weekend. I'm not talking about your standard, run of the mill book report. Noooooo, we've had to get all fancy this time.

Lego-Man has a "Cereal Box" book report based on a mystery book; and the Princess has ye ol' diorama from a biography. Just imagine the fun we've been having, if you can. I'm in a fun stupor!

We had to change the boy's book midstream, when we realized the plot of his Hardy Boy's book had to do with smuggling DRUGS. He had his cereal named "Smuggler's Surprise" with the cereal in shapes of bottles and pills. Umm, yea. Fortunately he just finished another Hardy Boy's book, which was about missing coins that were melted. So we are going with that one. Anybody want some "Corn Crunch" Cereal, complete with coin shaped marshmallows that melt in your mouth?!

When I found out the Princess had to do her diorama on a biography, I offered up a list of possibilities......Marie Curie, Amelia Earhart, Rosa Parks, etc. In one fail swoop she shot down all my suggestions with one sentence, "Mom, Taylor Swift is a REAL PERSON too!"

Seriously. I mean, what was I thinking?? Of course, Taylor Swift. Duh. She's lived on the planet 20 years and done what.....made two albums and been dissed on national television by Kanye West.

I was hoping the Princess' teacher might help me with the battle of the biographies, but no such luck. The book was approved, so Taylor Swift it is. Just look for the box with glitter letters, a CD, cowboy boots, guitars and a Barbie doll dressed like Taylor Swift.


I can hardly wait for this week's homework assignments!

Head 'Em Up and Move 'Em Out

Aren't you relieved that we have finally reached Day 3, the final day of our 5th grade camping extravaganza.

Thanks for enduring it all, but this is the stuff grandparents live for!

Needless to say, everyone in the camp got a better night's rest than our first night. I think we all were exhausted from our full day of fun activities and there was no food delivery truck before dawn! The boys reported they got to sleep before the snoring warthog dad did!

Before heading back home, the kids participated in couple more educational activities and I took a few more pictures (because the first 150 photos were not enough).








Lego-Man and his buddy learned about the Western Cedar Tree and then had to teach everyone in their group what they learned. Raise your hand if you knew pencils can be made with cedar wood??




The kids also had a map reading class that wouldn't have been complete without a scavenger hunt! It was all fun and games until my boy took a little tumble into the nature. He scratched up his hands and leg and he was done!


Before we pointed the horse towards the house, I finally got a couple of mother and son photos (much to someone's dismay):

And here was the view from my rear-view mirror for my entire trip home:







Guess who wants to go to this camp for a week in the summer???