Won't That Be Nice?!

Right before we moved, I had a few VHS tapes converted to DVDs.  I was afraid the VHS tapes would eventually disintegrate and all those precious memories (like our wedding video) would be lost forever.

One of the gems from that little conversion was the following video.  Some of you may or may not know that when I graduated from college I moved to Houston, TX to teach high school.  While I was there, I went to Second Baptist Church (which is where I met Kevin and got married).  Second is huge - Texas HUGE.  I mean really, really big.  It is a wonderful church and I loved going there.  But did I mention it was really big?  Overwhelming for most people when they visited there.  Not one, but two balconies.  Parking was crazy.  The campus was enormous.  You get the picture.

Well, one day a few singles were sitting around talking as we used to do when we had lots of free time before we had kids and mortgages and soccer practice and carpool duty.  We thought, "Wouldn't it be funny if we made a video poking fun at life at Second Baptist."  Now, keep in mind this video was filmed almost 10 years before youtube ever came along.  And I think that Facebook Zuckerberg guy was still in elementary school.

Disclaimer:  You've always heard it said that the camera adds 10 pounds.  Apparently, this camera decided to add all ten pounds to my face.  Yikes!  Fletcher and Luke saw this video (they think it is hilarious) and they wanted to know how I could make my eyes get that big.

Enjoy!

First Day of School 2012

Fletcher started school on Tuesday and Luke started on Wednesday.  They are both together at a new school.  (We moved over the summer which deserves its own blog post).

Fletcher said the first day was "awesome."   Luke said it was "good."

I told them beforehand that I would ask both of them a question when they got in the car at the end of the day.

"What color are your teacher's eyes?"

We are working on getting both of them to look an adult in the eyes when they are talking to them.  It is a sign of respect (as opposed to staring at the ground and mumbling).  It is also a confidence builder for them.

For the record - Mrs. H has hazel eyes and Mrs. B has brown.

Next up, Fletcher has to find out the eye color of his Latin teacher, his music teacher, his art teacher and his PE coach.

Speaking of coach, both of the boys will be playing soccer with their school through the YMCA.  Should be very interesting for so many reasons. Have I mentioned that I know nothing about soccer.  Well, except for the black and white ball and the goal part.  I guess we will all learn together.

Before I show the obligatory first day of school photos, I do have to share Luke's lunchtime prayer on Monday.  Luke was at home with me while Fletcher was at school.

"Dear God, please make Fletcher not be mean to his new friends today at school and that he won't bite anyone. Oh, and help his lunch taste good. Amen."

Ok so Fletcher looks about 16 in this picture.  

Luke was a little nervous.  But doesn't he look adorable in his uniform?

Good-bye Summer!

Hello?

Is anybody there?

I know.  It has been 6 months since I've posted anything.  One half of a year has gone by.  Several or 8 things have happened.

I made a goal to start blogging again when the boys returned to school which is today for Fletcher.  Tomorrow for Luke.

In the days and weeks ahead, I'll try to catch you up on all of our adventures.

A few things are changing though.  For starters, I'm only going to put up a post on Tuesdays and Thursdays. I used to put something up every week day.  But that gets overwhelming after a while.  I know sometimes people get frustrated when they look at a blog and nothing new is posted.  So for now, just know to check Snickelfritz Lane on Tuesdays and Thursdays for new posts.

We said good-bye to summer by spending the Labor Day weekend with our friends in the mountains.

Here are a few pictures from our weekend.  We ended up at a really cool park on Beech Mountain.  I've seen lots of parks, but never anything like this.  Things were made out of these really thick ropes.  Lots of bridge type things to climb on.  Swings made of canvas.  Rope spider web.  The boys loved it.  And the parents had fun too.

(Haven't the boys grown?  Since my last blog entry, Luke turned 5.  Yikes!  Where is the time going?)

Carpool Line

Luke's teacher brought him out to the car last week for carpool line.  She is one of the carpool "loaders" so that part didn't alarm me.

I opened the side door, smiled and said, "Hey, Luke" like I always do.  As she was helping Luke get into the van, she said, "Luke really impressed us today with his vocabulary."

My heart stopped.

My eyes widened.

My face fell.

I was horrified.

We all know that "Luke impressed us today with his vocabulary" is really nice preschool teacher phrasing for "Luke said a bad word."

I was bracing myself for the worst.

"Uh-oh...um...what exactly did he say?" I asked trying to maintain my composure.

She looked at my face and immediately sensed my panic.  "Oh no, nothing bad at all.  I mean, he really did impress us.  We were doing an activity and he used the word 'extraordinarily'.  The other teacher and I were impressed that not only did he know the word, but he used it correctly in a sentence." 

I. Was. So. Relieved. And. Overjoyed. 

"Well, he does watch Word Girl on PBS,"  I said. 

The next day, this is what came home in his class folder.  They were studying the letter "U" and they painted an umbrella then drew something underneath it.  The top of the page (got cut off on the scanner) said "Who is under my umbrella?"  Each child drew a picture and the teacher recorded the child's response.

Luke said, "A people who has one eye and extraordinarily long arms."  I think I can see the long arms and the one eye. 

I'm so proud of my little wordsmith!

Did Someone Call A Repairman?

Kevin wanted to get his lawnmower ready for the spring season.  I can honestly say I had NO IDEA one must "get his lawnmower ready" for the spring cutting season.  I guess it involves sharpening the blades and tightening the doohickeys and what have you. 

Kevin found a guy that comes to your house and takes care of it all.   How convenient is that? 

Mr. Lawnmower Man showed up and Luke was fascinated!  He has a toy lawnmower that he loves (we've had it since Fletcher was 2).  So Luke decided he needed to get his lawnmower ready for the spring cutting season too.  I wanted to go outside and video him, but I knew as soon as he saw the camera he would stop what he was doing.  So I videoed him as best I could from the front door through the side light window.  You can see Mr. Lawnmower Man in the background.  Seriously, it was one of the cutest things ever.  At one point Luke went and found a bungee cord to figure out a way to suspend his lawnmower like Mr. LM was doing.

I'd Like To Thank The Academy

Our church has a Chili Cookoff the same night as the Super Bowl every year.  Kevin decided he would compete. We originally thought he could make gumbo and call it "Louisiana Chili".  But time got away from us that weekend so the gumbo was out.  Instead he found a chili recipe that uses roux as a base.  We have some delicious hot garlic sausage that we had shipped here from Louisiana.  We can't find anything around here that even compares to how good it is!  So he used the roux and the hot garlic sausage and made chili.

It was definitely spicy and delicious.  Everyone wanted to try it. 

I was one of the three judges.  I am sure that had nothing to do with him winning.

Nothing at all. 

If You Could See Me Now

Forgot these were on my camera. 

One particularly cold Saturday morning, Fletcher decided he wanted to put on his insulated camo outfit and go outside to look for deer (or maybe birds or squirrels).  Luke wanted to do it too.  However, Luke's camo is just a thin costume from the costume box so I had to dress him in lots of layers first then put the costume over it because there was NO WAY he was wearing a coat over his camo. 

 The looked with their binoculars. 

 And talked a significant amount.  I just watched from the window.  No way was I going out there.

 They talked a lot too.  And yelled.  And Luke might have even sang a couple of songs if I recall correctly. 

Can't imagine why they never saw anything.