Spanish Inquisition

Papaw to Braylon: "We won't be at dinner tonight, we're going out of town."
Braylon: "Where are you going?"
Papaw: "New Mexico."
Braylon: "Will you talk Spanish while you're there?"

Hot Chocolate Has It

Sorry Egg Nog, no one likes you....

A Granny Story

A story WRITTEN by Granny B.

After I had picked up both boys and had them together in the car, I told them what we were going to do.......shop first, then meet everyone at Luby's for a birthday party.As we drove to DollarTree, I again gave both boys some instructions about how we were going to shop......stay together, shop for two items each, look for something "suitable" for a grandmother gift, etc.

We got just inside the store when Braylon suddenly called a halt......put his hands on his hips (somewhat like I've seen his mother and his grandmother do!!!) and in a voice somewhat like the above-mentioned females, say "Granny, we HAVE to look on the toy aisle FIRST! THEN we can look for a granny gift!" (Priorities have to be established!!) It didn't take either boy very long to locate two items each---after I decreed we would NOT buy the swords. Then....in a "typical male fashion" we made our way to the next aisle and the VERY FIRST ITEM THEY LAID THEIR EYES ON was their choice for the grandmother birthday gifts! (Thankfully, they didn't spy a plumber's helper first!!)

In a split second, they were on their way to the cash register to pay out.....their goal complete!!! I had to bribe them into making a minor detour thru the candy aisle to look for the chocolate turtles to add to the flower pots and to grab two small gift bags---of course, that's where they spied the packages of cotton candy and what grandma could resist their pleas when they had been so good!!!

You would have been proud of both of them---they actually stuck with me, didn't put up too much resistance about the swords, and cooperated every step of the trip!! It was also cute to see them carry in the two little bags--they were "proud as peacocks" to have selected their own flowers and candy for the two grandmas!!!Every now and then, we get a "glimpse" of civilization from two lively, noisy, messy....but highly loveable little boys!!! It made a sweet birthday memory for this grandma!!...and perhaps one the boys will remember, too!

Giving Thanks

Last week the nation remembered to be thankful for the creation of our union to this land and it's original inhabitants. Hopefully, the majority of people celebrating the great holiday extended that thankfulness to current events and situations. I cannot make an exhaustive list of what I'm thankful for. Will never happen. I would never get done with my list...

In that thought, I AM thankful for being together with my family on that special day - Watching my kids play with Grampy (who has been living away for 13+ months) - Seeing extended family that I so rarely get to enjoy - Resting at home after traveling and watching the snow fall down like rain - Pulling the Christmas decorations out and seeing the excitement in the boy's eyes as we went through the items that will remind us of another great holiday.

The more I think of all the things for which I'm thankful, the shorter my list of complaints or aggravations gets. It's kinda funny how it works that way, huh?

Great Game Ideas

For the game lover in all of us ~ My sister started a blog with GREAT GAME IDEAS! Below is the link. Save it to your favorites for that event where you need a good idea or for family fun nights!

greatgameideas.blogspot.com

The Last Word

Game review: The Last Word

We played this on Thanksgiving Day. It's a game for up to 8 players that revolves around your ability to ramble on any given subject. The gist is that there are two decks of cards: Subject cards and Letter cards. You flip over a letter card and try to talk about your subject that starts with the letter on the Letter card. There is a timer and whoever is the last person who said something applicable when the timer goes off gets to move his man. This continues for X rounds until the winner reaches the end of the board with his man.

Becky's rating: B+

I thought it was really clever and something different. I didn't win, so it doesn't get an A! HA! Just kidding - The game is really good for junior high and above age group, I would think. Any younger and it would probably be too hard. It definitely got my mind a working!

Not A Firefighter

Braylon came into the kitchen while I was preparing dinner tonight, visibly upset and near tears. Out of the complete blue he says, "Mom, I don't want to be a firefighter when I grow up!"

I responded with, "Ok, you don't have to." And that was that... Problem solved.

Now don't ask me where in the world he came up with that notion, but he's ruling out that line of work early...

Smoked

It's how you feel when your 7 year old nephew beats you at Sequence - AND YOU DIDN'T LET HIM WIN!

King of Crabs

No, the above title line doesn't refer to Brandon's state of mind or demeanor, despite it being crunch time in his PT program. (Although, probably not far from the truth!)

Last night some friends of ours invited us to dinner - We had king crabs that our friend had picked up fresh from Alaska this week when he was there. Brandon and I had never eaten crabs before so this was an adventure. We had fun using kitchen shears to cut through the outer shells and, of course, had even more fun in conversation.

A good time was had by all!

Jr. Music Minister

As anyone who knows Braylon will attest, Braylon LOVES singing. He especially loves putting on a microphone pack (AKA any type of string that is long enough to stretch from his waistband to his ear held on with Mommy's hair clips to the back of his shirt) and singing his heart out in the mirror. About 90% of the time he chooses praise and worship ditties.

Last night, he was doing this - Nothing new or noteworthy - But then he started to give inspirational encouragement to his "audience" in between sections in his song. I won't do the situation much justice here, but let me give you a small picture of what he was saying:

The song was "We Fall Down." In between lines of "We cry holy, holy, holy..." he would say things like, "It doesn't matter what you sing - Just sing it from your heart! Holy, holy, holy.... Sing it to Jesus, it doesn't matter... It doesn't matter....Holy, holy, holy.... He's listening.... Just sing it.... Holy, holy, holy..."

This went on for about 20 verses of "We Fall Down." Brandon and I were trying our hardest not to giggle so that we wouldn't discourage him. He never ceases to come up with something that is just plain hilarious! Not to mention the fact of how sweet it was and probably how wide Jesus Himself was smiling....

Faith in Practice

"Give proper recognition to those widows who are really in need. But if a widow has children or grandchildren, these should learn first of all to put their religion into practice by caring for their own family and so repaying their parents and grandparents, for this is pleasing to God." ~ 1 Timothy 5:3-4

While in my regular Bible reading, I came across this passage. It reminds me of my father, who has given up 13 months of his life (and counting) to relocate and care for his elderly mother. The last year has been filled with hard decisions and probably a lot of second-guessing of "Am I doing the right thing?" The bottom line: It is pleasing to God.

We can all pray for such an opportunity when our faith can be put to practice.

Shadow Spray

Several nights this week have caused a stir in the Hamilton household due to 4 year old Braylon throwing fits in his bed while he is supposed to be going to sleep. My kids have always been top notch sleepers, so I just couldn't figure it out. I asked him over and over and all he came up to tell me was inconsistent reasons like, "my pillow isn't right," or, "I'm scared of Blaine."

Last night at Granny's house, Granny asked Braylon why he was having trouble sleeping this week. Braylon said that there were scary shadows in his room. Granny knew just what to do ~ She went to her laundry room and pulled out some special Shadow Spray. It's not to be confused with Monster Spray - That's green. Shadow Spray is distinctly yellow in color. It doesn't make the shadows go away, but it turns mean shadows into nice shadows.

Sufficed to say, Braylon went to sleep in about 2.2 seconds last night as peaceful as a lark....

Eating Healthy

On the way home from school the other day, Braylon asked if we could have strawberry cake after dinner. Knowing that I had a cake mix in the pantry at home, I told him that could probably be arranged.

After dinner and baths, I overheard Braylon talking to his Daddy while I put icing on the cake. Braylon asked if Daddy wanted any strawberry cake, to which Brandon responded, "No thanks. I'm trying to eat healthy."

Braylon quickly responded with, "I'm not trying to eat healthy, Dad - I'm trying to eat strawberry cake."

Thankful

Last night around the dinner table we got into a conversation about what we're all thankful for (brought on by a discussion of the Thanksgiving holiday). Braylon, Daddy and Mommy were listing many different things that we are each thankful for while Blaine sat quietly listening. After several minutes, I turned to Blaine and asked, "And what are you thankful for, Blaine?" Of course, the first thing out of this mouth was, "food." Then Braylon turns to him and says, "What else, Blaine." Blaine thought a moment, pointed to his chest and said, "Blaine!"

Brandon laughed and said, "Yep. He's your kid alright!"

Coughing Remedy

I have been suffering from my usual seasonal allergies the past week or so. With me, allergy problems manifest one of two ways. Either I get a killer sinus headache with face congestion or I get the coughs. You know the coughs I mean - The wake you in the night nearly throwing up coughs.

So recently when I read in a parent's magazine this cough remedy I said in my mind to try it the next time I cough in the night. Here is is: Tried and true. Worked for me:

Apply Vick's Vapo Rub liberally on the bottom of your feet and put on socks. I also put Vick's on my chest and back for added measure. Took about 10 minutes and I was back in bed snoozing as usual.

Early Bird

Ever since the time change, little Blaine hasn't gotten it into his head that he should still sleep until 7 a.m. His little bio-rhythms are skewed. Today he woke up at 5:45 a.m. just singing happily in his bed. By the time his Daddy got him out of bed at 6 a.m. he was full speed ahead and ready to roll for the day. Ahhh.... If we could all wake up with that much stamina! God bless him! (Grampy, I do believe he inherited this from you!)

Movie Review: Spiderman III DVD

First I have to say, that it took us 6 months to actually see this movie, although we tried two times to see this in the theaters to no avail! Both times we went to the theater, the movie had already left (both first run and dollar movies). Grrrr.... But, alas, we saw it this weekend. Here's my review:

Spiderman III - Rated PG13
Starring: Tobey Macguire, Kirsten Dunst, James Franco, Thomas Haden Church

Story line: The third in the Spiderman series, this film picks up with Spiderman 2 leaves off. Mary Jane knows that Peter Parker is Spidey, but so does his friend/nemesis Harry. Harry thinks that Peter killed his father and plots revenge off and on during most of the movie. Peter suffers from a puffed-up ego from all his Spiderman accolades and fails to give his girlfriend, MJ, enough time or attention. Peter and MJ go through spats and make ups all while Spiderman faces 4 bad guys - Yes, I said 4! Good always wins, but I won't spoil the details for you.

Becky's rating: A-

This seemed like the longest of all the movies, probably because of all the loose ends to tie together and the fact that they felt they needed 4 villains! In the previous two movies, Spidey has only faced 1 villain in each of the films, so having 4 to contend with took serious time. I feel that even though I enjoyed the storyline, the filmmakers were trying to pack in too much story in a short amount of time. They would have done better to remove at least 1 villain since they really didn't have time to develop any of them except one, that has been building up for all three movies. I also thought they needed to take out the cheesy song montage with Peter Parker dancing in and out of clothing stores and the stupid part where he embarrasses MJ at the jazz club. Those two parts left me scratching my head, saying, "WHY?" But, all in all, the film completed the story line that started back in 2002. All's well that ends well....

Bottom line: Go see it - But see #1 and #2 first because otherwise you'll be completely lost.

Fall Back

I remember thinking that the "fall back" time change was the coolest thing ever. I would usually make an event of it - Movies and snacks until at least 1 a.m. - I mean, I could sleep in until right before church started and still feel refreshed. Tricking Father Time....

And then I became a parent. Apparantly, 4 and 2 year olds don't get the concept of Daylight Savings Time or otherwise. Last night I let the kids stay up what would have been an hour past their normal bedtime in hope that we could at least delay our getting up by a little bit. The boys usually get up around 7 a.m., so I was hoping we could push to the new 6:30 a.m. by keeping them up.

But Blaine didn't the memo I guess. He must have sensed a change in the barometric pressure (ok, lame guess) because he was up at the new 4 a.m. ready to roll for the day. I was less than thrilled because I tried my old trick of staying up late...

Guess I'll never learn....

Music & Lyrics II

Correct: "For your goodness.... "
Braylon: "For your feelings..."

You could not convince him otherwise, either!