Charleston

We're heading out to Charleston tomorrow. Haven't done too much planning, but things we may do are visit the aquarium, children's museum, see a beach or two, ride in a horse drawn carriage and eat some good low country food.

Our kitchen and family room floors will be revarnished while we're gone. We're hoping to avoid the stink.

Introducing the book

Funny, funny video. Especially if you've ever called tech support with a problem or helped a computer novice with an issue.

Condolences from a 5 year old

My uncle Tom (dad's brother) passed away last week. He was 81. He had been in bad health for a while. My dad got to visit his brother a few months ago and they had a nice visit.

I told Erin that PopPop's brother died. She asked if PopPop was sad, and I said yes, but he knew that his brother was in heaven and that made him feel better.

The next day Erin said, "I want to make PopPop a card to make him feel better." She was drawing and occassionally asking me to spell words for her so she could put them in the card. I wasn't concentrating on it too much, and then finally I said, "what does your card say?"

"When someone is old, they must die."

Hmmm. "Erin, where do you get to the part where you write something to make PopPop feel better?"

"I'm working on it."

She then wrote, "I am sorry." She also insisted on taping a stuffed hedgehog to the envelope. Nothing says I'm sorry for your loss like a stuffed hedgehog. She then asked me to mail it. I smiled and said certainly, and hid it away.

Who are you?

This morning I was talking on the phone with my mother and I must have accidentally hit the "voice changing button" on our phone. Why this feature exists, I don't know, unless you like to make prank phone calls. I thought I had hit the "off" button, so I said, "Hello, are you there?" No response. The following is the rest of our conversation:

Me: Mom are you there? Hello?
Mom: My line must have crossed with someone else, I'm hearing another conversation. (I now realize I've hit the voice changing button.)
Me: Mom, can you hear me? Mom it's me!
Mom: Who's you? What's your name? (She's thinking I'm some man now.)
Me (laughing): Mom, it's me, Jeanne!
Mom: What?
Me: I pressed a button on my phone and it makes my voice sound different.
Mom: What?
Me: Hang up the phone, I'll call you back.

Lost in McDonalds

Yesterday we went to McDonald's for lunch (after a major Erin meltdown, temper tantrum, followed by a nap--halleluia!

While we were there, the girls went into the playstructure which looks like it was made for very large gerbils, lots of tunnels. Erin doesn't like to climb too high, but immediately Lauren crawled up to the top tubes. After about 10 minutes she did not reaappear. We'd periodically see her crawl through one of the tubes, but she wouldn't respond to our calling. (Note there were about 1000 other children, more or less, also in the playstructure.)

Finally I found two girls who were 7 or 8, and asked them to go find a blonde little girl named Lauren wearing a pink jacket. If they weren't up to the job, I'd have to find a skinny McDonalds' employee The girls reported back that they found Lauren, but Lauren did not want to go down the slide. I told them to walk her down through the structure. They reported back that she did not want to go. Finally, I told them to tell her that her mommy and daddy would take her to the dollar store. Shortly they emerged with Lauren.

Next time we'll do pizza.

Y is for yucky

Got a call from Erin's teacher that Erin was complaining of a sore throat and she didn't touch her lunch. So I picked her up, picked Lauren up, and took Erin to the doctor. Diagnosis: strep throat. So the three of us are home today having a sick day. It's raining outside (forecast was for icy rain), and generally a good day to stay inside. Crossing my fingers that no one else gets it. Yucky!