migrating people?

Dima and I were out for a walk to check out the neighbors' holiday nights and I mentioned that some people have homes in warmer climates to get away from the cold at this time of year, he was like: "so, they migrate?" ... I thought that was a great way to describe it.

No chihuahuas at the zoo?

Our dance group was dancing at fundraiser at the Elmwood Park Zoo for their Oktoberfest on Saturday night and as I was getting ready Josh had his bundhosen on and as we were talking about the zoo I reminded him that was where Dima and I did the Zoo Snooze a while ago and he was disappointed that we werent' going to be sleeping over this weekend... then he mentioned that they have chihuahuas at the zoo, he said that Dima told him they did, near the lions! ( I think Dima just wanted him out of the house for the evening) So once I assured Josh that there are no dogs at the zoo he didn't want to go along... disappointed again, he took off the outfit and he stayed home. His loss cause it was a fun event, lots of other animals, but no chihuahuas.

I did not prompt him to do this!

So I had coupons for Chic - fil - A kids meals and as I pullup to the drivethru Josh pipes up from the back seat" Now there's a HANDSOME man!" about the teenage kid at the window. The guy goes "Hey, Sara listen to this - say that louder kid" and Josh says it louder then the guy goes "Did everybody in here hear that??" to his co-workers. As we drove away I told Josh that everyone likes to be complimented and that was a nice thing to say and he goes, "Sara was pretty too, but I want to compliment boys first".
Guess that guy just found his favorite customer cause as we left he told us to come back any time!!

Pirates

As we were hanging out here at home today I overheard the boys discussing pirates today and Josh goes... I bet they eat lots of beans. CaribBEAN!... get it!?

If you're tired you should get some rest.

Me - Josh, we haven't seen your regular bus driver for a while maybe she'll be back this morning.
Josh- One of the kids on the bus said they think that she's rerested.
Me - She's what?
Josh - Rerested, like she's not coming back
Me - Maybe you mean reTIRED?
Josh - Yeah, that's it!

classically inappropriate ?

We had a cook out at my in-laws' place this past weekend and while we were eating nine year old Dima noticed a small statue of Michelangelo's David on a shelf and told us it was "inappropriate"... I guess one person's classic work of art is just another person's statue of an un-clad guy, the adults at the table got a chuckle out of that one.

Ocean City, MD trip

Dima taking my hand to walk down the boardwalk and Josh thanking me again and again are what I think of as the highlights of our Spring Break trip to Ocean City, Maryland this week.
Once I realized the kids had nothing on their schedules after dental and eye appointments on Monday and then playing a hockey game on Tuesday I started looking into stuff to do. My first thought was OC, NJ but when I compared the hotels in each place the extra hour of driving to get to Maryland seemed like the better deal. I got a place with a kitchenette so we wouldn't have to eat out much, the place was right on the boardwalk and the hotel had a pool and hot tub. When we did anything other than the pool Josh was like "can we go to the pool? can we go to the pool? can we go to the pool?" and since it was chilly and windy we did end up spending a lot of time there we also did the arcade and walked the boardwalk and of course got some caches one of the caches was a webcam cache - I'm on the phone with Chris at home so he could tell us where to stand and the kids helped me figure out where the camera was in the first place. This was my first of this type of geocache.

https://mail.google.com/mail/?ui=2&ik=956440de22&view=att&th=12f756dce5b63737&attid=0.1&disp=inline&zw

The drive home yesterday felt long but the trip was a nice get away. Josh just thanked me again tonight as I was tucking him into bed.

https://mail.google.com/mail/?ui=2&ik=956440de22&view=att&th=12f850758913f601&attid=0.0&disp=inline&zw

https://mail.google.com/mail/?ui=2&ik=956440de22&view=att&th=12f8508f70ef9822&attid=0.0&disp=inline&zw

That girl must be crazy!

This morning Josh and heard the end of a weather forecast for tomorrow as we were on our way to a doctor appointment (he has a cough and will be fine after using his Advair inhaler for a week) when the girl said that they're expecting an inch or two of snow. At first I was like... is she talking about this area??? and when she mentioned temps in local places I knew she was and Josh was saying ... " Spring just started, what? That girl must be crazy!".
This just after I decided to wash up hats and mittens and put them into storage cause there's got to be noooo more chance of snow now that the weather's turning out to be nicer and nicer each day.... yeah, right!

St. Pat's day lizard?

Leprechaun / Lizard
During dinner yesterday the boys were talking about stories they heard in school involving a leprechaun that comes during the night - only if you're asleep - and leaves candy and coins in your socks if you leave them beside the bed on St. Patrick's Day eve. Well, I had never heard of that so I think it's another ploy to get loot... but anyway, Josh went upstairs (a night early) and put his PJs on and came down with a large pair of socks he intended to leave beside his bed for the "lizard"!! I think he combined leprechaun and wizard to come up with that.

A stink bug??!!

I was enjoying a nice bowl of ice cream with tons of whipped cream last night when there was an unusual crunch followed by a weird / gross taste... what the... ??? legs??? stink bug??? Ach!!! Ick!!! ptttt pttttt ptttt .... that's me spitting, wiping my tongue off and freaking out. In the mean time handing the bowl to Chris who was totally puzzled by what I was doing... he threw the remaining ice cream in the trash I have no idea how or when the bug landed on the food. Note to self: Pay attention to each bite you take even while watching TV!!
Plus, there was another one sitting in the kitchen sink as I was being totally grossed out. I guess the warmer days are bringing them out of hibernation. When I see them from now on, they are soooo outta here!
Have you ever wondered why birds don't just eat the stink bugs when they're all over the place? Now I can tell you, they taste bad! I wanted to go make myself throw up I was so grossed out. Didn't do that, that's gross too! It may be a while til I eat ice cream again!

Josh's day or "You're going to have to come with me"

As the kids were out and about on the slopes this morning Josh's instructor found me in the lodge and goes, "You're going to have to come with me"!!!?? Oh... this can't be good... Josh fell while trying to get on the chair lift and clunked his knee - when they told him he'd have to ride back to the first aid station he was so excited that he was jumping up and down - okay, so I guess the knee can't be that bad. Once they brought him down in their SUV - with him goofing around with the radio along the way - he laid down on the cot and told us his head was hit by the chairlift... he had his helmet on and we could only find a small scrape on it but in the mean time Josh was quizzed about where he is and what day it is - he actually remembered so he seemed fine. The instructor's advise was to let him sit with me, Nana and Poppop through lunch to judge how he seemed but to think twice about possible knee injury and putting him back out on snow that was accumulating rapidly. Apparently this storm was supposed to create two- inch snowfall per hour! I haven't seen any statistics but I believe that this was a significant storm just from watching it come down all day.
So, he was really disappointed that I made the call to keep him in for the afternoon but the slopes are supposed to be groomed and nice tomorrow and it looks like the conditions will be great. Late today it was more like ice pellets than snow but it seems like things are getting better and at least we didn't have all ice like Pennsylvania.

Dima's day

Dima went on a Double Black Diamond with bumps today for one of his afternoon runs. There was no one else in his class so essentially he ended up with a private lesson. We sat with him and his instructor at lunchtime and the instructor asked me how tired I wanted him at the end of the day and I told 'em to have at it... bwaaahhhaaa - they went out all afternoon and then met up with Chris and then Chris and Dima went back out. Yes, they'll all be tired tonight.

Wanna go in the hot tub?

So...as we're winding down from a day on the mountain Josh is hanging out with a four year old family friend and he sidles over on the couch as they're watching Princess videos and asks --- so , do you wanna go in the hot tub?... Okay... knowing Josh I'm not surprised but then he goes - she has an extra bed in her room and said I can use it... oh geeze!

Vermont

Dima got a rave review from his ski instructor this afternoon, At first the instructor told me she was questioning his being in her class and once they got out there she watched him carefully and was wowed by his abilities. He skied a "bump black diamond" and was able to do hockey stops while spraying the snow up to the hip of the pretty - tall teacher.
Josh in the mean time was boo - hooing about not being able to continue skiing once the lessons were done. He really really wanted to keep going plus I think waking up at about 6am didn't help.
They - Josh, Dima, their cousin and a friend are all in the lessons to day and are now settling in and will have a decent bed time since we have to do it all again for the rest of the week.
Josh's report card from ski school got check marks all the way through carrying and learning to use poles, is skiing parallel all of the time... he saw the snow board instructor - who he's got a private lesson to decide if he should continue to board on Wednesday am and was already like... see you then dude!
He also told Nana that if he gets to be like Sean White he'll give her his autograph!

He must be rich!!

Dima and I are catching up on some of the Tivoed Mummers parade and as they were interviewing a captain and Dima goes - That guy must be rich look at all the glitter and sparkles - so I asked which instrument do you think you might learn to get out there like them ... I want to play a banjo cause it looks like an upside down mushroom. Oh geeze! .... then again this is the most interest he's ever shown in performing we'll see if we can keep the interest kindled.
Bring on the mushrooms and glitter if that's what it takes!