Happyyyyeaster!!

Nothing terribly earth-shattering to report here. The Easter Bunny came.

Side note: I don't like the Easter Bunny. Or should I say, I hate whomever came up with the concept? For some reason, I'm ok telling my kids about an old fat guy in a red suit who flies all over the world in a sleigh pulled by reindeer and delivers gifts to every kid in the world in one night. That doesn't bother me one bit. But on the other hand, I have the hardest time looking my kids in the eye and saying to them, "Look what the Easter Bunny brought you!" A giant rodent delivering chocolate replicas of himself to kids everywhere? Why, I ask. Why! I may as well sit down with them and say, "Sweeties, I think you're really, really dumb." What on earth does this have to do with the real reason we celebrate Easter? What do little tiny blades of plastic grass discovered all over my house for MONTHS after the actual day of Easter have to do with the resurrection? And don't get me started on the eggs that get hard-boiled, sloppily colored, and never eaten. Discarded! Thrown away! Ok, it's fun for them. I understand. And I wouldn't dream of taking it away from them. But just once I'd like to spend 5 minutes alone in a room with the inventor of the Easter Bunny.

Lest anyone think I'm a springtime Scrooge, let me state for the record that there is one thing I absolutely LOOOOOVE about this time of year. Two words: Cadbury Eggs. Yes, that's right. I have a weakness.

At any rate, this post was simply going to be a few words and some cute pictures of kids hunting eggs. (hunting eggs???) But I ventured off the beaten path a tad. Please forgive me. I'm coming down off of a severe Cadbury Egg high.

I was going to omit the below photo of Ben, for obvious reasons, but the more I looked at it, the more I liked the sheer "reality" of it. When ya gotta go, ya gotta go, right? I love my Benjamin!

Nursing Assistant at Your Service

Ok, technically, this is not me (the dummy in the bed OR the one standing up). But for those of you who are wondering why I have not posted in my usual frequent fashion---and also for those of you who couldn't care less---here's the latest...I'm currently taking a 3 week, highly intense (in terms of hours) nursing assistant course. The course runs full time, Monday thru Friday, 8am to 4pm. So...if you're wondering why I don't blog so much, there you have it. I'm a tad overwhelmed with my new schedule. Between studying, taking care of 4 little kids, laundry, meals, errands, all day in class, and trying to get my house sold, with each day starting at 4am, I'm plain old pooped. But prepare to be wow'ed. Are you ready? Wait for it, wait for it!! Ready? Wait for it!! OK. We've had two tests so far, and yours truly is the only one in the class who's gotten a perfect score on both tests. Two words: Woo. Hoo. Alright. Horn tooting session complete. Unless, that is, I ace tomorrow's test. In that case, you may hear from me again very soon...stay tuned.

BIG P.S. Thanks, love, gratitude, love, appreciation, more love, to my wonderful amazing spectacular family and friends for making this possible for me. Without your help I would NOT be sitting in class all day every day learning to clean people's bottoms (and I mean that in a good way). Mmmmwwwaaaaah!

Hair Today...Gone...uh...Today

The following photos were inspired by one thing and one thing only. Wait, make that two things: pain and whining. My girls let their hair grow pretty long. They both have gorgeous hair. But the chopping was inevitable. Why, you ask? If one was to enter my bathroom on any given morning between 6:30 and 7 am, one would witness the following:

Mommy: brushes daughter's hair oh so delicately and sweetly

Daughter: OUCH! OUCH! OUCH! YOU'RE HURTING ME!

Mommy (in snotty mommy know-it-all tone): Well I can cut it off for you and we won't have to deal with the tangles anymore

Daughter: No, I (ouch!) like it (ouch!) long (ouch!). STOP IT, MOMMY!

Mommy (no longer brushing so delicately and sweetly): Then you're just going to have to put up with the tangles every day. Now hold still. I know those tears are fake!

I'm omitting the rest because, 1. you probably can guess how it goes from there, and 2. you never know when a social worker might be reading.

At any rate, long hair or not, I think these girls are just pretty. dang. cute. You know you do, too.

One for P.E.T.A.

That'd be People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, in case anyone's wondering. It might be kind of hard to see the picture, but I'll try to explain. My little Livvi is in kindergarten. She may even be the dang smartest kid in the class, but I'm not saying for sure. Anyhoo...the students often have to write stories and draw pictures about things they learn about in class. Apparently Livvi learned about Abe Lincoln shooting a turkey. This picture makes me laugh out loud every time I look at it. I'm not a "saver," but I just can't seem to bring myself to toss this masterpiece. If you can't read it, it says, on the bottom, "Abe Lincon shot a turky." Then at the top, we see Abe holding some kind of girly hand gun and looking like Mr. Bill, and pointing said gun at a very cute and innocent looking turkey. He's saying, "Oh, no! I shot a turkey!" Yes, turkey is spelled correctly in the speech bubble, but not in the story. She's consistently inconsistent. That's why I love 'er. Those of you who don't know Livvi well may not really see the humor in this picture, but for the rest of you, including the PETA people...enjoy!