The Major Veteran's Day Faux Pas

Noah came home from school yesterday and informed me that they had their Veteran's Day assembly. He was all in a huff over it. Apparently a major faux pas had been committed and no one he complained to seemed to take notice.

A year ago, the military bases in our area which are all located within a close proximity of each other, all merged to form one large joint superbase. And although the majority of the population is comprised of Army and Air Force, we are now seeing an influx of quite a few families associated with Marines, Navy and Coast Guard. They are all represented here.

During the school assembly, a medley of all the armed forces songs was played in a sing-along-style with accompanying video. Noah's first complaint? The Coast Guard was left out. He thought that extremely unfair. His second complaint? When they played the Air Force Song (we are an Air Force family) the accompanying video was of NAVY jets. And this infuriated Noah. He ranted, "How could they NOT notice it? They CLEARLY had "Navy" painted on them!!" I suggested perhaps they were trying to show how all the branches work together for one purpose. He wasn't having it.

So, on the off-chance that someone in film is reading my blog ( yeah, right!), can you please make a video including all the services, including Coast Guard? And for the love of all that his holy, PLEASE don't show a Navy jet when the Air Force song is playing.

Or you will have to answer to Noah.

Here ya go, little man- this one's for you: **singing**

Off we go into the wild blue yonder,
Climbing high into the sun;
Here they come zooming to meet our thunder,
At 'em boys, Give 'er the gun! (Give 'er the gun now!)
Down we dive, spouting our flame from under,
Off with one helluva roar!
We live in fame or go down in flame. Hey!
Nothing'll stop the U.S. Air Force!

**cue fly-by**

(photo credit- US Air Force)

Politics As Usual

With all the election hype wrapping up, I was remembering my favorite election/Noah story. I went searching through my blog archives and was shocked to see that I never blogged about it. It is one of my all-time favorite Noah stories and definitely something I wanted to record, so if you can stomach a little more politics, I promise it is worth it.

It was spring of 2008 and Noah was wrapping up his year in pre-school 4. His pre-school teacher was awesome in giving them just enough information about the world without overwhelming them. They had talked about how the president runs the country and the current president was George Bush, but that it was a very important year because our country would have to pick a new president and there were lots of people that wanted to be our next president. She also told them that there were two sides- one was blue and one was red and their mascots were a donkey and an elephant.

I was surprised Noah absorbed this much information, but he did and he began to watch the political ads on television and ask questions. Every ad he would ask me, "Mommy? Does he/she want to be president?" And then he would ask me which side they were on, blue or red, and what their name was. Eventually, it was decided that John McCain would run on the Republican ticket, but Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton were still battling it out for the Democratic ticket. We were careful not to talk about what our particular affiliation was so as not to confuse or corrupt his little mind. Politics are not for children. Or so we thought.

One afternoon after a particular grueling question and answer session from Noah regarding the candidates, I pulled up the internet and we went to the campaign sites of all three candidates. Noah studied their pictures, learned their names and their party affiliations and finally announced to me, "Well, I want Barack (he pronounced it MA-RACK at the time) Obama to win!" I was shocked that he was even this interested, let alone was choosing a candidate to support.

ME: "Wow, Noah. Can you tell me why you think Barack Obama should win?"

NOAH: "Because he is on the blue side and blue is my favorite color."

ME: "Fair enough, but Hillary Clinton is also blue, why shouldn't she win?"

NOAH: "Because Barack Obama is a boy and I'm a boy! So he should win."

I have to admit I was slightly offended at this sexist statement, but I let it go. After all, I told myself, he is FOUR!

I relayed this story to all my friends and family who, depending on their own affiliations, were either amused or horrified. It was a joke for awhile and Noah began to proudly trumpet his support of Barack Obama for president.

In April, I took both the kids and drove home to visit family, stopping in North Carolina at my best friend's house to stay a few days. She, of course, had heard the story and couldn't wait to get at Noah to question him all about his political opinions. We were getting ready for bed and she said, "So, Noah, why do you think Barack Obama is going to win the presidency?"

And without skipping a beat, Noah answered, "Because he approves the message!" (based on all the ads he had been watching where they say, "I'm Barack Obama and I approve this message.") We laughed hysterically for a bit and then went to bed.

The following November, Noah could not be convinced that he was not voting for president. I've told y'all before what a little old man he is. I think he sometimes thinks he is really an adult. He could not be consoled, so while he was at school on election day, I printed out a sheet of paper with a picture of John McCain and a picture of Barack Obama with their names printed in red and blue respectively next to their pictures and instructions to "circle your choice".

When Noah got home from school that day, he happily took his pen and circled Barack Obama as his choice for president.

To this day, he thinks he voted in that election. I'm not going to be the one to tell him otherwise.

The NUMBER ONE Reason Why I Change the Face Towel at Least Twice a Day

We live in a small house. It only has one bathroom.

Let me repeat that. We only have ONE bathroom.

Since everyone uses the same bathroom all the time, I generally changed the face/hand towel every few days. And up until a few weeks ago, that has been sufficient.

For the first time in the twelve years my husband and I have been married, we've run out of towels. They are all in the wash. "What has contributed to this great towel shortage?", you might ask.

Several weeks ago, I was drying my face after washing it and noticed the towel smelled... off. I thought maybe I had left it a little long and forgotten to change it out, so I changed it and went about my day.

The next day, the towel smelled bad again. I can't describe the smell.. it isn't anything specific, just used. I thought perhaps there had been an increase in dirty-child-hand/face-washing activity, so I changed the towel and put it behind me.

The next day, same thing. The towel needed changing and I could not figure out what was going on... until two weeks later.

I walked into the bathroom one evening to assist in the nightly toothbrushing routine just in time to catch Zoe as she finished peeing on her little potty. I watched as she got up, took the bowl out of her little potty, dumped it in the big potty, rinsed the bowl out in the bathroom sink and then WIPED IT DRY WITH THE FACE TOWEL!

Mystery solved.

Just to be safe, if I miss supervising Zoe's potty time, I change the towel.

And THAT is why we are out of towels.

And bleach.

The Agony of Defeat

We lost.

Every year one of our kids wins a costume contest and this year, we lost. I was certain one of them would win because their costumes were awesome and yet we came up short. It's humbling. And I think it might have cured my competitive addiction.

You see, every year, when one of the kids wins, I come home already thinking about what they might be the next year. This year, I came home thinking, "Next year, I'm buying their costumes at the store."

And just like that, the Chaos Family reign has come to an end.

Here were Zoë and Noah in their costumes this year: (the lighting was awful inside and I couldn't get the settings on the camera right to save my life, so I caved and used the automatic function which of course used the flash, washing them out)

Lego Boba Fett from the Lego Star Wars game and Strawberry Shortcake to go with my daughter's red hair.

There were four categories for the costume contest- Most Original Boy, Most Original Girl, Most Original Family and Most Original Homemade.

Most Original Boy went to a little boy dressed as The Joker. I didn't get a picture because when they awarded the prizes, they could not find him.

Most Original Girl went to a little girl dressed as an old lady:


Most Original Family went to a brother and sister dressed as the regular, yellow Lego people- which were really cute:


And Most Original Homemade went to two boys dressed as a pair of dice:

But, at least one really cute moment happened. While some of the smaller children appeared a little scared of Noah since he looked like a robot, one adorable little bumblebee could not leave his side. She walked right up to him and held his hand the entire time they were on the dance floor.


This post is being linked with SITS day 3 of the Halloween link-up where one lucky blogger will win a Canon DSLR.

Hooooo Dat?

There is a FABULOUS contest going on over at SITS right now to win a Canon Rebel T2i. Saturday we were supposed to link a blog with pictures and the theme of Halloweens past. Today, we are supposed to show something crafty we made for Halloween and tomorrow, we will link up what our kids dressed as this year.

Friday, while my daughter was wearing her costume and enjoying a Halloween party at pre-school, my son was costume-less and enjoying a Fall Festival. His school opted out of Halloween celebrations a few years ago because they didn't like excluding the children that didn't celebrate Halloween. That meant, no more character days or costume parades and absolutely none of the cupcakes, cookies, candies or decorations could having anything to do with Halloween. We got a very specific letter regarding what was and was not allowed. Only fall and harvest-themed items. In addition, the letter explained that each grade was tasked with bringing a specific item. Second grade was awarded the cupcakes.

I had tons of ideas for cute Halloween cupcakes, but was really struggling with fall. I pondered it for a bit- What makes me think of fall? Leaves, scarecrows, owls, harvest moons and, ahem, HALLOWEEN! I let the last one go and then turned to my best friend for ideas- Google.

After looking at page after page of cupcakes, here is what I finally decided to make. I think they are adorable!

"Whooooooo's not a Halloween cupcake? We are, that's WHOOOOO!" [ba-dum-bump]

Because of peanut allergies in the school, everything had to be checked for peanut contamination labels. I used a cake mix and frosting that were peanut-free, the Oreos are peanut-free and the original idea called for M&M's for eyes and a cashew for the nose, so I substituted Skittles for both.

Now, whooooo's the cutest cupcake ever?

Alright, WISE GUY, I'm looking at you!

I don't give a hoot what you think, stop your screeching or I'm crying fowl.

Alright.. you can quit cringing, I'm done.

Slacker

This year has really thrown me off my game. I feel like I am perpetually behind and running around like a chicken with my head cut off whereas normally I am on top of things. It is a combination of both of my kids being in school and now having functions, permission slips, information forms, required meetings AND my husband's night schedule that has him either home and occupying me during the day OR home and sleeping requiring me to either be very quiet around the house or be out of the house all day. How's THAT for a run-on sentence? I won't be correcting it, because the chaos and lack of organization in that sentence accurately reflects the same in my life right now.

Normally this time of year, I have whipped up awesome Halloween crafts, cards, projects, treats and costumes but I have accomplished NOTHING this year. Nada. I am thankful that I somehow managed to delegate the kids' costumes to other people, because I don't know that I would have done it had the responsibility fallen to me. And that is so not me. I hate feeling like this.

The last crafty thing I accomplished was Zoe's Ice Cream Parlour birthday party in August. For today's Mama Kat's Workshop, one of the prompts was to "show us something you've created for Halloween" and I am going to link up this post from Halloween last year. I just wanted to have an explanation in case someone followed the link and then landed on my current posts.

If you have been with me for awhile, I apologize for the repeat, but if you are new.. enjoy!

Hopefully I will get my groove back soon. Has anyone seen it?

Fall

I grew up on the gulf coast where we didn't have seasons. It was hot, hotter and football weather (which is jacket weather in southeast Texas, but still short-sleeved weather further north). I once saw a "travel Texas" ad in Texas Monthly that said, "Sure we have winter in Texas! Last year, it was on a Tuesday." I think that about sums it up.

So, when we landed in New Jersey ten years ago, I was plunged right into winter without getting to experience fall first. I hate cold weather and I hate snow. I was miserable. But the following autumn, I was amazed. And right then and there, I fell in love with New Jersey. Don't get me wrong, when winter rolls around, I still have a love/hate relationship with the area, but I can honestly say that three out of the four seasons, I love it here!

Fall is hands down, my favorite! Such beautiful colors!

[Arney's Mount Friends Meeting House (Quakers) near Juliustown, NJ -date on bldg is 1775]

[Kirby's Mill- near Medford, NJ]

**this is being linked to Wordful Wednesday hosted by Dumb Mom at parenting BY dummies.