Hi Frankie!

We thought about e-mailing you and letting you know we'd be passing through, but I wasn't sure how you'd feel about having to get out of the house by 8:00 am. So we decided to just take a photo.

Brrr! It was cold!

Hear Him Roar

Colson is a delightful boy, and while he eschews anything pink or girly, he's provided our family with several moments like this over the years:



Colson loves to dance. I was recently watching a scene from "Swan Lake" on the computer with Colson. After it was done he breathlessly asked, "Do you think I could learn to dance like that?"

He wants to take figure skating lessons.

Colson frequently tells women that their makeup or hair is beautiful.

It's all very sweet and innocent, but it makes the other males in our family cringe a bit.

This week we were eating lunch in a restaurant and Oprah's old theme song "I'm Every Woman" came over sound system.

If you aren't familiar with this song, here it is. You don't have to listen to the whole song, as it's kind of long. But if you jump forward to about the 2:50 you can hear where the song picks up and the chorus begins.



At our table, Colson danced in his seat. Eyes closed and head bobbing, he was really getting into the song. Brogan, not impressed, rolled his eyes and looked disgusted.

Close to the end of the song, Colson decided to begin singing along: "Ahhhh anaconda! It's time to eeeeeeeaaaaaat!"

And with that, Colson's masculinity was restored. His bothers thought it was great that he misunderstood the song lyrics and assumed Whitney Houston's feministic anthem was about a giant, deadly snake.

Note to self:

1. Songs about women= bad.

2. Songs about deadly serpents= cool!

I was so excited! A coffeehouse opened in our town last weekend.

Before this, if you wanted coffee you had to go to the local Hy-Vee grocery store and get a coffee there. If you hoped to sit somewhere and read while you enjoyed your coffee, you were pretty much limited to the cafeteria seating at the Hy-Vee.


Our Hy-Vee, while populated by very friendly people, is nowhere near as comfy-looking as the photo above. Still, any port in a storm, and I've had coffee at the Hy-Vee several times over the winter and have enjoyed sipping my latte while writing letters and watching people fill up at the Chinese buffet.

The opening of a new coffee shop was very much anticipated, but still came as a surprise. The banners outside the coffee shop had said "Coming Soon!" for several weeks, but never posted a Grand Opening date. Saturday night M. and I drove past the shop and noticed there were people inside. I made up my mind to visit the shop as soon as I could.

Tonight I decided to treat myself to a coffee while I did my Bible study. I'm studying the book of Leviticus. It's an interesting book, but there's not a whole lot of story to it. At least not that I've read yet. (This is my first time through Leviticus.) It's filled with details and the Law and information, but there's not much plot. It's fascinating, but there's a lot of information to keep track of. So I thought a coffee might be a nice addition to the study of Leviticus.

I spent an hour at the shop studying, but had to leave prematurely because of the woman seated next to me. She was studying something herself, and was listening to her iPod while she studied. Every 10 to 15 minutes her cell phone would ring when it received a text message. She couldn't hear it ring, obviously, and so it would play the ringtone until she noticed the phone had lit up or was vibrating on her table.

The ringtone was cute and fun to hear the first couple of times. But now, nearly three hours later, I have the song going around in my brain and I cannot get it out.

Studying became increasingly difficult as I'd try to concentrate and would get a bit of reading done when her phone would ring:

Me (reading to self): "OK.....Purification..... garments... burnt offering...OK, got it.... peace offering...... sin offer-"

Phone: " Now this is a story of about how my life got flipped, turned upside down and I'd like to take a minute just sit right there....."

After an hour of hearing the first 20 seconds of the song I could take no more and had to leave. It's been 2.5 hours since I left the coffee shop and I still have the song going 'round in my head.

And so, in an effort to share the joy of earworms with others, here is the original song in its entirety.

You're welcome.

Ok, I know. I know. I know, already! I need to get back to posting about kids, family, and the random things that happen to us. For some reason I just haven't been in the blogging groove lately.

Recently I went back through old posts to do some editing, and some saving of entries. It was fun reading them, but it struck me: I used to be sort of funny. Not, you know, actually funny. But close. I approached funny. What happened to that? Did that get left behind in Kansas? I don't know, but I miss it.

So I promise to get back to writing about what *we're* doing. Until then, enjoy this sweet, short film. It's very adorable, and completely family-safe. (Even the boys liked it!)

Jack is Back!!

I've seen the first 4 hours of the new season of "24", and so far I like what I've seen!

Last season was awful. I looked forward to Monday nights, only because I knew I'd be calling my friend D. the following morning to mock the episode.

This season looks very promising, and I'm excited to see how it progresses.

To add to the enjoyment of the evening, I'm creating a "24" game. It could be a Bingo game, or an "M & M" game. ("Eat 1 M & M every time you hear/see _____________.") My concern about the M&M game is that it would cause my pancreas to rebel. I may end up just keeping tallies.

Here are my ideas for Bingo squares:

~Someone is told to "set up a perimeter."

~A perimeter is breached.

~Bills stares mysteriously

~Tony broods

~Someone is "on it"

~Someone is "ten minutes out"

~Someone's overly dramatic personal life interferes with their ability to do their job

~Someone in the government makes an amazingly incompetent decision

~A terrorist gets killed (random terrorist-guys only)

~Chloe awkwardly interrupts someone

~Chloe makes an unintentional double-entendre

~Jack is in extreme and immediate danger

~Jack is in extreme and immediate danger of being taken into custody by his own government

~Jack shoots someone

~Jack shoots himself

~Jack hurts someone for the good of the country

~Jack hurts himself for the good of the country

~Jack hurts someone's feelings

~Jack somehow enlists the help of an "average" citizen

~The terrorists possess better top-secret technological devices than the US government

~Terrorists who have lived for years in the US in deep cover turn out to be completely unnecessary in hatching the evil terrorist plot

Any more ideas? The more squares, the more M&Ms for me!! (Yum!)

Am I Sensing a Theme??

Perhaps.




Hat tip to Mental Multivitamin.

The Secret Longings of Homeschoolers

Sorry it's been so long since I've posted. I just haven't felt very bloggy, lately.

This video is fitting for my first post of the new year, especially since we're now mid-way through our first full week back of school.

The Secret Longings of Homeschoolers