It has been raining BUCKETS here for two straight days, with no end in sight yet.  Our backyard is completely under water.  Too bad we didn't get around to installing those rain barrels yet.

In honor of the blah weather, please enjoy the following ramblings from my soggy brain.  You're welcome.
-----------------------------------------

Pat Benatar's "Hit Me With Your Best Shot" was on the radio yesterday, and our son was trying to sing along.  Our daughter said, "Stop singing.  You don't even know this song."  To which he replied, "Yes, I do -- it's from Guitar Hero!" 

-----------------------------------------

I turned on Dr. Oz's (new?) show yesterday for a brief spell.  A woman in the audience asked a question about whether or not wearing an ill-fitting bra was a health risk or not.  (My snide answer would have been "Only to the poor people who have to look at your saggy ladies all day long, sistah," but he was much more civil.)  He asked her to raise her arm in the air and feel under her armpit and under her boob (okay maybe he said "breast" - what a snob!) to see if anything was falling out of her bra.  I decided to join the poor saggy lady and raised my arm and felt around.  (Good news -- no leakage.)  I kind of forgot that our son was sitting on the floor next to me doing Legos, and he started to giggle.  I thought, great -- now he's going to tell his friends that his mom was feeling her boobs while watching Dr. Oz.  But no, here's what he said, "Mommy!  They aren't going to call on you!  They can't see you through the TV!"

Whew!

In the next segment, Dr. Oz started testing people's sinks for.....DEADLY BACTERIA!!!!  That's when I turned it off.  He found "bacteria that can cause dystentary! and pneumonia! and meningitis!"  Seriously, do you hear of a lot of people checking into the ICU because they licked deadly bacteria out of their kitchen drain?  Pour a little vinegar on it and get a life, Dr. Oz.
--------------------------------------------

Wow, I didn't even realize this was going to turn into an anti-Dr. Oz post.  Did you hear how he wants us all to put hot salt water in our noses daily to avoid swine flu?  He is just a bit much for me.  In case you hadn't already picked up on that vibe from all my pent up Oz anger.

---------------------------------------------

Before Halloween, I made two giant Mexican Casseroles to be enjoyed in between the birthday party insanity and the trick-or-treating.  The Professors were visiting with their two kids, my mom was here....so I figured we would need lots of real food in our bellies in between the cake and candy eating.  When it came time to reheat the casseroles, I was talked into making only one of them.  I assert that this was the wrong decision -- I think the Mr. and Professor Bro-in-Law could have eaten at least another portion each.  I couldn't freeze the other casserole because of the container it was in, so I left it in the garage fridge to cook "later."  Yeah, that never happened.  What a waste.  And when I went to neatly dispose of it today (yes, I know it has been a long time since Halloween - ew), I instead spilled all of it on the garage floor.  NICE. 

--------------------------------------------

Well, nothing I write now will top the excitement of a spilled casserole, so I better sign off now.  Tooda-loo!

Check out this quote from our son.  I'm not sure if I should be offended or not:


I can't remember the context of the conversation, but there was a lot of giggling going on, for sure.

Our daughter has been asking me about how to type.  I asked her teacher at what age they start learning keyboarding in school, and she said she thinks it is introduced in 3rd grade (next year) and covered a lot in 4th grade.  She gave me a link to a BBC website that teaches kids how to type, though, and our daughter is loving it and doing great!  Also, after swim practice today she decided to entertain herself by "thinking of really hard words and trying to spell them correctly."  For fun.  There is no question that this girl has my DNA.

Words she spelled correctly:

-hurricane
-membership
-realize
-district
-security
-educational

Words she spelled cutely:
-superuoir (superior - she's learning about the Great Lakes)
-librayin (librarian - heroes to a couple of bookworms like us)

She also climbed up onto the chair I was sitting in earlier this evening and positioned her head right near mine as I was snuggling with her brother and petting the dog.  She said she wanted to see what it looked like from my point of view.  Smarty pants!

Do you like my rambling posts this week?  If not, you can blame the Mr. for a 3 night business trip, leaving me with no one else to ramble at but my trusty Mac and its blinking cursor.

  Things that happen at a Halloween themed birthday party for a 6 year old, with 15 boys in attendance:

1. It rains.  Of course.
2. The guests will come bearing weapons.  Light sabers, plastic swords, rubber swords, gloves with claws, ninja accessories.  This challenges the party chaperones to maintain peace and order.
   
3. The party goers do not stay in the room where the party is taking place.  There is always at least one boy wandering freely through other parts of the house, requiring one of the adults to chase him down and drag him back.
4. The parents of the birthday boy will begin counting down the minutes until pick-up as soon as the first child is dropped off at the party.
5. Stretchy worm toys that the mother of the birthday boy naively thinks they will just hold in their pudgy little hands get thrown onto freshly painted ceilings and brand new skylights and do not fall back down again.
6. A boy will initiate his gag reflex with a pair of blue vampire teeth he got as a prize and "blow a chunk*" as he tries to eject the teeth from his mouth. (*Credit for this quote goes to Professor Brother-in-Law.)
   
7. Another boy will not speak for the first half of the party because his own vampire teeth (part of his costume) are too big for his mouth.  However, he will successfully eat cake and popcorn before deciding to remove the teeth from his mouth.
8. Beating a homemade spider pinata with a baseball bat in the wet driveway will not entirely release all of their sugar induced boy energy.  As a result, the pinata smashing will be followed by a pinata kidnapping, whereby the empty pinata will get thrown into the street, ripped apart by bare, sticky hands and ultimately tossed into the neighbor's wet pile of leaves.
9. As the party begins to wind down, boys will begin to ask, "Where are the goody bags? Don't we get goody bags?"
10. The boys will not want to leave without their stretchy worm toys, but will not understand why throwing them onto the ceiling made this impossible.

Our little werewolf birthday boy had a great time.  Some of the boys were great and some were a MAJOR handful.  We have officially resigned from the practice of throwing home-based parties for large crowds of children.  Retirement is sweet.