Firemen (158/366)

“The difference between a man and a boy is, a boy wants to grow up to be a fireman, but a man wants to grow up to be a giant monster fireman.”

Jack Handy (American Writer and cast member of Saturday Night Live from 1991-2003. Famous for his Deep Thoughts comedy sketches.)

TIME:  12:23 PM
PLACE:  Missouri History Museum
SUBJECT:  DramaQueen, StellaDella & MonkeyBoy

I told the kids not to eat any breakfast this morning and at 10:30 we arrived at Crown Candy Kitchen to partake in a Heart Stopping BLT. 

StellaDella enjoyed it.

My son uttered these immortal words - ”I can now die without any regrets.”

We then went to the Missouri History Museum in Forest Park.



One of the current exhibits was “Fire! Friend and Foe”  That is where they stuck their heads in the photo prop and MB tried on a much-too-small fireman’s costume.  They also sat around a (pretend) campfire and (pretended) to roast hotdogs and marshmallows and play a ukulele.



A successful summer field trip!

Solstice Santa (355/365)

“If you ever have to steal money from your kid, and later on he discovers it's gone, I think a good thing to do is to blame it on Santa Claus”

Jack Handy (American Writer and cast member of Saturday Night Live from 1991-2003. Famous for his Deep Thoughts comedy sketches.)

TIME:  9:33 PM
PLACE:  Home
SUBJECT:  Playmobil Santa

This year, we got out one of our many Playmobil Advent calendars to help countdown the days until Christmas.  Today’s figure was the man in red, Santa Claus, himself.  I was reminded that there are only three more boxes to open until the big event.  I am so not ready.

Plastic Pumpkin (287/365)

“If you're in a war, instead of throwing a hand grenade at the enemy, throw one of those small pumpkins. Maybe it'll make everyone think how stupid war is, and while they are thinking, you can throw a real grenade at them.”

Jack Handy (American Writer and cast member of Saturday Night Live from 1991-2003. Famous for his Deep Thoughts comedy sketches.)

TIME:  5:45 PM
PLACE:  Living room
SUBJECT:  Vintage plastic pumpkin

Ouch.  That pained me to write “vintage”, but it is because it’s at least 40 years old.  This is my plastic-candy-gathering-pumpkin from the early 1970’s.  My name is still on the bottom – printed by my mom with blue pen on first aid tape.  My brother’s had plastic pumpkins for trick-or-treating too, but theirs were round with more traditional faces.  I always liked mine better because he was winking.

Skull and Crucifix (255/365)

“When I found the skull in the woods, the first thing I did was call the police. But then I got curious about it. I picked it up, and started wondering who this person was, and why he had deer horns.”

Jack Handy (American Writer and cast member of Saturday Night Live from 1991-2003. Famous for his Deep Thoughts comedy sketches.)

TIME: 7:38 PM
PLACE:  Boy Scout Meeting Room
SUBJECT:  Deer skull and Crucifix

MonkeyBoy’s Boy Scout troop had a Court of Honor (earned ranks and badges are presented to the Scouts) this evening.  MB received the badges he had earned while attending summer camp - Archery, Canoeing, First Aid and Lifesaving.  The Court was held in the man-cave in the school basement where they attend their weekly meetings.  On one wall, there is a large faux fireplace with a stone façade and hearth.  Hanging from the top of the fireplace are the deer skull and the crucifix.  Why yes, they are a Catholic troop…how did you guess?

Peek-A-Boo (212/365)

“If you're in a war, instead of throwing a hand grenade at the enemy, throw one of those small pumpkins. Maybe it'll make everyone think how stupid war is, and while they are thinking, you can throw a real grenade at them.”

Jack Handy (American Writer and cast member of Saturday Night Live from 1991-2003. Famous for his Deep Thoughts comedy sketches.)

TIME:  7:13 PM
PLACE:  East side of the house
SUBJECT:  Baby Boo pumpkin

We planted several pumpkin seeds this spring, but the only vine that grew was the Baby Boo variety.  I found this pumpkin on my early evening wandering and examining of the growth of our landscaping and gardening in our yard.  Tomorrow is August 1st; the kids go back to school in 17 more days and fall will be here before we know it.

Snow-Werewolf (004/365)

“I bet when neanderthal kids would make a snowman, someone would always end up saying, 'Don't forget the thick, heavy brows.' Then they would get all embarrassed because they remembered they had the big husky brows too, and they'd get mad and eat the snowman.”

Jack Handy (American Writer and cast member of Saturday Night Live from 1991-2003. Famous for his Deep Thoughts comedy sketches.)

TIME:  9:07 PM
PLACE:  Kitchen
SUBJECT:  January Family Project

StellaDella brought home a family project to complete for school.  It is to decorate a snowman using whatever we want however we want and officially, it is due on Friday.  This morning, SD told me that we had to DO IT TODAY because some classmates already brought theirs in and IT IS REQUIRED BY FRIDAY MOM!!!!  Obviously, she didn’t want to wait until the last minute and needed me to get with the program.  We worked on it this evening.  Her idea was to make a snow-werewolf (of course it was…although I was a little surprised she didn’t want to make a snow-zombie) and she wanted to use the leftover fur from her werewolf hat I made in back in 2009.  Lucky for me, I was able to find the fur without too much digging and we were able to put it together.  The snow-werewolf is a girl.  She is wearing a jaunty, striped scarf and is going to heave a snowball at you…because that is what snow-werewolves do.

Tornado Watch (365/365)

“In some places it's known as a tornado. In others, a cyclone. And in still others, the Idiot's Merry-go-round. But around here they'll always be known as screw-boys.”

Jack Handy (American Writer and cast member of Saturday Night Live from 1991-2003. Famous for his Deep Thoughts comedy sketches.)

TIME:  12:21 PM
PLACE:  Looking west
SUBJECT:  Sky

As I was taking down the Christmas tree, the tornado sirens went off.  That, of course, made DramaQueen go into hysterics.  Then, when I went outside to continue with the de-Christmasing of the porch trees, lights and garland and to watch the skies, it threw her into a tizzy.  “Come inside!!!! Come INSIDE Mom!!!  Oh my god…is there going to be a tornado? Are we going to be ok!?!  Mom! Come! In! Side!”  So I went inside, got my camera and went back out.  MonkeyBoy came with me.  He thought the weather was pretty neat.  I took another couple of shots, we started up the porch steps and all of a sudden, a wave of wind and rain hit.  It was like someone turned on a switch.  We barely missed getting soaked.  MB was impressed.  DQ was hysterical.  We all survived.

Scary Skeleton (298/365)

“It's fascinating to think that all around us there's an invisible world we can't even see. I'm speaking, of course, of the World of the Invisible Scary Skeletons.”

Jack Handy (American Writer and cast member of Saturday Night Live from 1991-2003. Famous for his Deep Thoughts comedy sketches.)

TIME:  4:07 PM
PLACE:  Front yard
SUBJECT:  Halloween decoration

When I got out the Halloween decorations out a few weeks ago, SD insisted on helping.  Her “helping” consisted of placing every single Halloween decoration we own in random places.  She hung this skeleton outside on the tree – I didn’t notice it was there until last week.  I must admit, that girl does have some excellent decorating vision.

Shoe Love (287/365)

 
"Before you criticize someone, walk a mile in their shoes. That way, you'll be a mile from them, and you'll have their shoes."

Jack Handy (American Writer and cast member of Saturday Night Live from 1991-2003. Famous for his Deep Thoughts comedy sketches)

TIME:  10:32 PM
PLACE:  Living room
SUBJECT:  My shoes and Jack’s tail

Not feeling the picture taking today.  *shrugs* It happens.  I did receive a compliment on my shoes today.  They were $9.99 from Lands’ End overstocks.  I bought them earlier this summer, when I was ordering my swimsuit.  Apparently, Mr. Jack likes them too.

They Suck The Life Right Out Of Me (292/365)

 
“One thing vampire children are taught is, never run with a wooden stake”

Jack Handy (American Writer and cast member of Saturday Night Live from 1991-2003. Famous for his Deep Thoughts comedy sketches.)

TIME:  8:45 PM
PLACE:  The Living Room
SUBJECT: MonkeyBoy, StellaDella and DramaQueen

Definitely another manic Monday.  I worked today from 8:30am to 2pm, then ran to the grocery store to pick up dinner ingredients.  SD had a Daisy meeting, MB had basketball practice and DQ had cheerleading practice after school.  I completely forgot about MB’s Cub Scout pack Meeting and Halloween party tonight.  MB reminded me when he came home from practice.  So after dinner, we dug through the dungeon of doom basement and located the Halloween containers for costumes and accessories.  All were happy with the costumes we were able to cobble together and we made it to the Pack meeting by the skin of our teeth.  They each received colorful plastic vampire teeth in their treats at the party and decided to model them for you.  Isn’t it a lovely photo of my darlings?

Doves On A Wire (257/365)

 
“How come the dove gets to be the peace symbol? How about the pillow? It has more feathers than the dove, and it doesn't have that dangerous beak”

Jack Handy (American Writer and cast member of Saturday Night Live from 1991-2003. Famous for his Deep Thoughts comedy sketches.)

TIME:  7:02 PM
PLACE:  The front of the house
SUBJECT:  Mourning doves

Were the children tired this morning?  Yes they were!  Everyone moved verrrry sloooowly getting ready for school.  The older two had safety patrols this morning and had to be at school 15 minutes earlier than usual.  So I walked SD to school at the regular time.  Then off I went to work.  I was the first one there and after sitting at my desk, I kept smelling something bad.  I couldn’t figure out what it was.  Finally, I look down and what do I see but dog poop on my shoes!  Just great.  But the weird thing was, it wasn’t anywhere else on the floor.  You would of thought that since it was on my shoes, I would have tracked it throughout the office, but I couldn’t find any evidence of it being anywhere else but smeared on my chair protector pad and my shoes.  I was still the only one in the office, thank goodness, so I cleaned up the mat and my shoes and sprayed the air freshener quickly before anyone else arrived at work.  I then deposited the paper towels in the dumpster outside.  While I was out there, I went to my car to see if there was any poop on the driver’s side car mat.  Nope and no tracks leading to the outside office door.  Now just where did this dog poop come from?  Who knows…I guess I will chalk it up to one of life’s great mysteries.