Don't Be a Litter Bug

Have you ever seen a tree eating sign - make that a sign eating tree?

Nope, me neither.

Huh.

Bad window...

bad, bad window.

Oh no.

So apparently it is soooo hot here that the tar holding the window in place melted? Something's gotta give.

Really.

It's great to be FIVE!

According to Bill Cosby, "It's great to be FIVE!" And Charlie believes him. He is three - and a half - and he told his soon-to-be Aunt Mary that he was five. He sooooo wants to be five because when you are five you get to go to Kindergarten.

Kindergarten. Big whoop. The beginning of 17 loooooooong years of education. I used to long to get on the school bus too, until I did. School is not all you have dreamed it up to be my little Chaz, but maybe for you it will be.

But about the pic...Little Laurel got a kitten and named him Smokey. I seem to be the most boring pet namer in all of the universe. Why is that? I had a black horse and named him Blackie. A grey cat is Smokey.

My mom reminds me that I had an imaginary friend I called Collijosin. Now that is a name!

I did have a cat - she came prenamed - Spark Plug, until we realized he was a she - common problem I know. We ended up calling her Sparky, but not me, I called her Woofie. Woofie because she would get right up in your face and bark a meow at you, like she, her puffy little self was going to let you know exactly what she thought. And she did. Woofie was a cool cat.

Ha.

But really, Woofie was a cool cat.

MEOW.

MeeOWH.

Mee OWH.

MEEowh.

Love that shot!

How cute am I? Jeans rolled up, pig tails, nerdy glasses?! Not everyone can pull this look off. In fact very few can.

Haha!

The other day I was in Publix with my little guy. He was being a very good little guy because he had just gotten a new transformer with the money great gram gave him. He asked to go to the turkey section - the deli - so we waited for slices, one of ham, one turkey, and one chicken. As he was gobbling down his on-the-go meal, I was working his new purchase from the robot version into the truck.

When I was finished I handed it to him saying, "You know Charlie, not every mom knows how to transform a transformer." He knew his mom had something special.

Hehe!

I crack myself up.

Circa 1991

Flashback - Here's a photo of a Jersey girl at the Senior Prom! Charlie's having a fit...will write more later.

Lil Buccaroo

This little boy sometimes does not want to listen. But on this day he learned Mama means business and cars are no joke.

I shoulda been a quarterback.

New Role

This summer I find myself in a new role, that of tutor - of writing. A neighbor's daughter, like me, has the passion to write. So today I shared with her Freytag's Pyramid, protagonist, antagonist, and parallel structure. We also edited the first three chapters of her novel.

Freytag's Pyramid

Exposition - Background knowledge, characters, and setting

Rising Action - A conflict is introduced; subplots are introduced

Climax - The highest point of action

Falling Action - Subplots are wrapped up

Resolution - Conflict is resolved; main character may have come to realization because of process

Protagonist - The main character, readers want this character to succeed

Antagonist - The character opposing the main character, often seen as the "bad guy"

What else needs to be said?

Defenestrate. Oh so often I have felt the need to verb this. If I were to invent a word - uh, think I have already accomplished that more than once - this would have been it. Not only is it capturing an action but also an emotion, loads of emotions. Read into it as much as you will.

By the way - the word of the day is one of the dailes - daylies - dalies - I get in my mail (and for good reason - seeing as I am an English teacher who cannot spell worth a darn) from Dictionary.com.

Love it!

The kids refer to urbandictionary.com but seeing as I wasn't born in 1991...

Word of the Day: Defenestrate

defenestrate \dee-FEN-uh-strayt\, transitive verb:

To throw out of a window.

Some of his apparent chums . . . would still happily defenestrate him if they caught him near a window. -- Andrew Marr, "No option bar the radical one", Independent, July 5, 1994

I defenestrated a clock to see if time flies!-- Lane Smith, quoted in "Who's News", Time for Kids, September 25, 1998

A woman, driven to fury by the manner in which her lover prefers to lavish his attention on a match on the telly rather than her, starts to throw his possessions out of the window. He's finally moved to stop her when she tries to defenestrate his new Puma boots. -- Jim White, "Budgets substantial enough to buy most of the clubs in the Endsleigh", Independent, April 6, 1996

Defenestrate is derived from Latin de-, "out of" + fenestra, "window." The noun form is defenestration.

Aqua Boy

Now here's a boy who is way too excited to be blue. After lunch, I laid in his bed with him and read him his toddler Rhyme Bible. After a hundred pages or so I slipped out of the room to take a shower. Apparently Charlie did the same, only the intention was not the same.

Stepping onto the bathmat, to hear the sound of silence only reassured my reading had settled my little guy right into dreamland. Boy was I wrong. A quick peek into his room to noiselessly shut the door brought the discover that my sweet angel baby was not tucked safely in his bed. On the contrary, after a one man woman hunt, it was I who discovered a tiny blue man huddled in the corner, stoic and smurf blue. A shade I have never truly see on a human being, although the man on NBC Today, who took too much silver supplement, did have a blueish-silverish tint, my boy was BLUE.

Blue like he wanted to travel with the Group, of which he had never heard.

My reaction? Silence. Followed by "now Charlie you know you aren't supposed to play with mommies markers..." So I grabbed Aqua Boy, my camera, and handed him the soap. (The pumice stone was his idea.

Plopping myself on the toilet, I just had to snap some shots of this moment. Today, I officially name the day before St. Patty's Day, the day the water ran blue. (Ran as in right down his tummie into the tub.)

Oh, boy.

Uncle Wes's Monster - (dot com)

Uncle Wes works at Monster.com, so he stocks us with a good supply of monsters. But this is by far the best! Uh, I could use a few more of those thermos coffee mugs with lids.

As you can tell, Charlie is not as interested in saying "thank you" as he is in seeing if the monster can fly, and how high.

Mariposa

Mariposa

A ray of light by shuttered pane does pass,
Bringing with it refraction;
New light shone on air, fire, water, and stone,
How so I am enraptured.

Enveloped by your rocking embrace,
Sweet breathe’s satisfaction;
Needing only what holds a fleck afloat;
Soft lips set skin ablaze.

Drawn to you without consent,
So deep is this attraction,
The path was set by moon, sun, and stars,
Crackled words fan the flame.

From yellowed love letters, neatly stacked and bowed,
Blossomed tangible abstraction;
Apple seed to orchard, in one short springtime day
Is illuminated by dawn’s freshest ray.