Knock OUT!!!

I have come to expect and actually cherish the adorable little "gifts" the munchkins leave on my Mac.  Well, sorta.  

Today I found a plethora of images of JP doing only heaven-knows-what in Photo Booth.  I might not have found these little beauties if it hadn't been for Brian.  He was in the process of filming a video of him "beating JP up".  I have graciously included both the multitude of stills of JP and Brian's video:

Is this thing on??

Wait, you have a little something on your nose...

I have no clue what was going on in this one...

Oh, no!  Double Trouble!

AHHHHH! Now there's three of him!

This is how I see JP after a day like today- all twisted and swirly!

The Crimson Chin! Minus the crimson, of course.

This is JP after the head shrinkers finally caught up with him!

The Hulk after his skin bleaching...

As you can see, it wasn't JP who was knocked out, but Brian.  He wore himself out trying to demolish JP's image.  Maybe I should have told him it was just a picture of JP, not ACTUALLY JP, but it was much more fun to watch him do this.  I'm SURE there will be many more antics to report on tomorrow, so for now...

Mummies in the Morning

We have the kids reading each day, in hopes that come fall, we will have kept their reading skills sharp as well as begin to instill a love of reading in them. Celine, who is going into First Grade, is quite the little reader! She reads everything she can get her eyes on! She has discovered the American Girl Series and loves it!

John Paul is reading the Chronicles of Narnia and is in The Dawn Treader, Grant; the Spiderwick Chronicles, and Brian is working his way through the Magic Tree House series. The book he is reading right now is Mummies in the Morning. In the book these kids travel back in time to historical locations. It really is neat concept, the kids are getting a History lesson and never even realize it!

Well, they all have to read aloud to us, and afterwards we talk about what they have just read. It was at this point that Brian turns to me and very seriously asks, "Shannon? Umm...why did they wrap mummies in all that toilet paper?" I try REALLY hard NOT to laugh at him. Seeing as he's already a GIANT ham, and we don't want to over indulge him. Well, not anymore than we already do. I think we've created an attention hording monster! Anyway, I told him that it wasn't TP, but bandages used to preserve their bodies. Apparently this was more information than he was looking for. He was totally grossed out by the whole idea and couldn't understand why ANYONE would want to do that.

After a quick talk about their ideas on the after life, he tells me he would never want it to be that way; he'd much rather just go to Heaven when he died and be happy with God. Forever. From the mouths of babes!



I hope you have all had a wonderful day! I've missed blogging regularly. We're off to Winnie the Pooh live. I'll let you know how that was tomorrow! I just love that Fuzzy little Cubby all stuffed with fluff! Off to the Hundred Acre Woods we go!! Ta-ta!

Be good and God bless!

Famous frogs and the Slowskys...

So how many famous frogs can you name in 30 seconds? OK- GO!














I would bet that the first one you thought of was Kermit the Frog, that lovable little green dude Jim Henson created back in the day. I bring him up because I have a story. Surprising, I know. So Brian was reading about St. Rose of Lima in History today. The book told of her remarkable holiness, even as a young child. She would often go off alone as she delighted in praying, so she spent a lot of time by herself. The book compared her to a "hermit". Pausing, I asked Brian if he knew what a hermit was. As I explained that hermits spend a lot of time alone and avoided contact with other people, Brian chimes in, "OH! And they're like that little green frog, guy, right?! " HUH? ... It took me a second, because it came out like this: "OH! And theyrw wike that wittle gween fwog, wright?!" Then I had to realize that he meant KERMIT THE FROG! We had a good chuckle and got back to learning about St. Rose, who is one of my FAV Saints, BTW!

One last note- the "Willimas" family lives on a lake, inhabited by numerous fish, ducks, other birds, I think that we've established that there are snakes in the area, and turtles. In the afternoon the turtles will come up the banks to sun themselves. Today there were two that looked like they were talking to one another, it was pretty funny to see them interacting. One of the kids said, "Hey, look! It's the Slowskys!" They were very proud that they had made the connection. I on the other hand was reminded that perhaps we do watch a little too much T.V.! LOL!



OK. That's all for today!

God bless and be good!
P.S. Feel free to e-mail me the names of the other famous frogs you came up with, and I'll compare it to mine! Ha! Ha!

This Summer's Hottest Thriller!!!:

SNAKES IN A CLOSET! (Dun-Dun-Dun!!!)

Coming soon to a theater near you!

In this summer's hottest thriller, "Snakes in a Closet", the prequel to "Snakes on a Plane" is unleashed on sleepy, unsuspecting suburbia! Staring Colette Williams as herself; the movie opens with our heroine stumbling upon a deadly reptile poised to strike her down as she reaches into a linen closet for a beach towel. Dr. Chris, and the Williams' brothers rush to her rescue after receiving her frantic call for help!

OK- so here is the story. Friday, Colette and a friend decided to head to the beach, so she went to the linen closet in the downstairs bathroom, when I hear her yelling, "OH my GOODNESS! Oh My!" I asked what her problem was, and she's barely able to squeak out that "there's a S, S, SN, SNAKE in the closet!" I didn't even believe her at first. Then I saw her face and had to believe her! After we secured the premises, (see above picture) I did question her in depth about what it looked like, and made SURE it wasn't a lizard, or a fake snake. She assured me it moved, and I got what I believed to be an accurate description of the intruder: big and brown with a little yellowish on it. OK, so the description was a little shaky, but I was pretty sure it WAS A snake so I called MY dad to see what he thought it might be. First he was a smart alec and said he definitely thought it was a snake. Well, DUH! Then he wanted to know if I had seen it. HECK NO! You really think that I would willingly go into a small confined space with a reptile of unknown deadliness??? He didn't think it was poisonous, so I relaxed a little, but not Colette. She was perched on top of the piano bench clinging to her friend, Emily, both of them quivering in fear. She was screaming, "Get it out! Get the snake out -of- the- house!" For some strange reason she thought I was going in there and removing the snake, MYSELF. She must have been delirious from the shock, but there was no way I was going anywhere near that thing!

So I told her to call her dad. She was hysterical! Screaming into the phone that he had to come home RIGHT NOW! That there was a HUGE SNAKE IN THE BATHROOM! I tried to get her to calm down so that he could understand her, but I wound up having to wrestle the phone from her and tell him the story. That's when he asks me, "Have you seen the snake?" What is with all these crazy people wanting me to close myself up in a bathroom with a snake?! What makes them think that is something that I would do? Anyway, Chris was on his way back to the house, and he would take care of "it".

When he got there the kids rushed in before him announcing, "Never here the Snake Hunters are here!"

The first thing they did was press their ears to the door. I asked what they were doing. "Can you hear anything?", one hunter asked the others. "Nope, how about you?", was one's reply. So- they decided to knock, but surprisingly... the the snake did not answer them. "I think he's ignoring us.", the third one stated. So they headed off, I think to find more exciting things to occupy their attention. Meanwhile, Colette and her friend are still on top of the piano bench, and Chris starts bringing in shovels, yes, that's plural, as in more than one. I never have figured out why he needed more than one shovel, but hey, he was the one dealing with the deadly rattler. That's what this snake had grown into; a big, fat rattle snake, coiled and ready to strike at the next person to come in that bathroom. Remember, Colette is still the only one to have seen this snake, so we really had no idea what was in there, so it COULD have very well been a deadly creature of mass destruction. By now both Monica AND I had realized that we had gone into the same closet just minutes before Colette, and not seen this monster. Strange to think that we missed it!

Chris disappeared outside through one of the many doors that had been propped open. I was told by the Snake Hunters that these were to give the giant killer escape routes, should he get out from his confinement. When I turned back to the door I found this:

The boys had returned with Air Soft guns, locked, loaded, and trained on the door. Just waiting for some sign of movement. "Did you see something move?" "Nope, did you?" "Nope, keep watching, though." After a few seconds of a lot of NOTHING happening they decided to be brave and go in after it.
JP: "Open the door, Grant."
Grant: "I'm not opening that door! You open it!"
JP: "Just open the door, don't be a wuss!"
Grant: " NO! You open the door."
JP: "Fine. Brian. Open the door."
Brian: " Uh-uh. NO WAY! You open the door if you want it opened so badly!"
JP: "Jeez! You guys are wimps! Shannon, open the door on three!"
ME: "You are nuts! And none of you are opening that door. So just chill, and back away from the door!"



So they took off to find something else to use as target practice, or so I assumed. About this time Chris tells that he has a "professional" on the way, and that he should be here soon. Celine decides to be the lookout, and announces "He's here! He's here!" about every 30 seconds or so. When the guy does show, he looked to be as old as Moses, and came armed with an empty box that once held kitty litter, and a couple of long poles with grabby claws on the end. Without missing a beat, the "Snake Charmer" guy, who was obviously over 80 years old, tries to open the bathroom door, but- it was locked. Colette had locked the door as she fled the bathroom! Why? I have no clue. It's not like the thing had opposable thumbs, jeez! After we got the door unlocked the gentleman quickly caught the monster, which turned out to be not so monstrous. In fact, it was a Gardner snake. a SMALL, THIN, GREEN snake with YELLOW STRIPES along its sides. Oh, and it was about a foot and half long. Some monster, huh? The "Snake Charmer" put the little guy in his bucket and carted him off to be released in the woods.

This has led to untold numbers of snake references, jokes, and pranks. I brought a bag of fake snakes and hid them on or in each of their desks. They found them one by one, and none of them were really frightened by them, they just thought that they were funny. Brian had fun pretending that his was real, and stalking him while he worked.









OK, so that is the snake story. Sorry that there wasn't more of a dramatic end, or even pictures of the little fellow. It all happened so quickly that I couldn't get one. It is interesting though, that latter that evening we were sitting by the pool when a large black snake slithered onto the deck. THIS one I did see, and he was pretty big. No exaggeration! I have no idea what type he was, but the kids did get a few shots with the Air Soft guns in. Grant hit him twice, but don't fear all you animal lovers out there, he was unhurt, just spooked. It obviously didn't scare him too badly, though, because he came back about five minutes later. UH! (**Shivers!**)


Be good and God bless!

All Work and no Play....

I just thought I would give all of you out there a glimpse into my reality. Life here at work can be stressful, and busy, and well, trying; I've mentioned all that before, but honestly- that is a MINUTE part of the time spent here! The laughing and fun abounds! Ha! Ha! In fact just the other day, I was able to capture such a moment of fun on film. Should I share it with you? OK, I shall. And afterwards I shall explain:

So that was Meghan and John Paul, playing the XBox. They are my heroes- Guitar Heroes, that is! The two crazies running in and out of the frame are Grant and Celine. This was Meghan's first time playing- I'm the veteran having played it THREE times! It's a joke, really. The kids like to see how many notes the old ladies miss, even when playing on EASY. When we're not perfecting our Hero Skills you might find us in a rousing billiards tourney, or having a tea party. As I type this there is full out Jedi battle in the next room. I can hear little ones spitting everywhere as they simulate the sounds a light saber makes. HEY! Stop that you guys! That's unsanitary! As I was saying... We could be engrossed in a board game- Electronic Monopoly is the favorite at the moment. That and Pick-up Sticks. Or, my favorite activity, cuddled together reading a book, or 20. Meg even took them off to the beach in my absence. Man! You guys have all the fun when I'm gone! Hold on....

I THOUGHT I TOLD YOU KIDS TO STOP ESPECTULATING! It's GROSS!

Sorry. We feel it's important to expand their vocabularies whenever possible. OK, so that's a bit of a stretch, but it never hurts to learn new things right? Does moving up to the next level of difficulty on Guitar Hero count? If so then these kids are geniuses! (we think that they are regardless!)

One last note:

Brian saw me posting a picture of him on yesterday's blog. And he says, "Is that about me?" I kindly pointed out that not everything on this great Earth pertained to him. He replied, "Well, you have to admit, I do some pretty funny things and say some really funny things, too!" I had no argument, like I said, genius! Until my next post that, according to Brian, is going to be all about all the wonderfully funny things he says and does...

Be Good and God Bless!

Wishin' Ye all A Happy St. Patty's Day!

Wishin' all ye laddies and lassies a

Happy St. Patty's Day!!

Today was a bittersweet day. A dear friend of the family was laid to rest today, Rosemary Ann Aeschbach. She was a feisty lady, with a heart of gold! Mimi, as she was called by those close to her, loved all things Irish, and so it was fitting that she be memorialised on this day that she so cherished. She is survived by her two daughters- Lisa and Lori, and her three grand children-Johny, Jacob, and Tess, and finally her precious Great-grand daughter-Caroline. It was a day of remembering the love and spirit of a wonderful soul, where friends gathered from far and wide to celebrate the life she lived. We love you, Mimi, and you are missed! Pray for us!!!




Even though today was tinted with sadness, there was much merriment as well! The kids have been anxiously awaiting this day, though I'm not sure why. They aren't Irish, but you might have thought so by the excitement level around here. They were vigilant in their quest to find some poor soul not wearing green, in the hopes that they could pinch the heck out of them! OUCH!!! Not me, though! I was properly attired in the color of the day. I was bombarded by requests exclaiming; "Kiss me! I'm Irish!" Which quickly became, "Kiss me! I'm NOT Irish!" after they were reminded of their Italian heritage. Brian, or O'Brian as he was called for the day, took his attire quite seriously, as you can see! Meg was a bonnie lass, and happy to sport her "Irish" tee; and green just happens to be her FAV color! Imagine that!






WARNING!!! The following is devoid of adorable quips about the cute things that the munchkins in my life do and say! Don't say I didn't warn ya!

After work tonight I went to see my very dear and very Irish friend, Penny. We had a blast spending time with her family and old friends! Believe it or not, I did not partake in any adult beverages, not even a drop! I'm not a big "drinker"-except for maybe WATER! I drink that like a FISH! But I digress... (By the way...why am I using "big" words today? I think I'm coming down with something!) I may not have been drinking- but the drinks were a' flowing over at Pen's! She insists that her increased volume levels and excited chatter was a result of her being "tipsy". Sure, Pen, you were tipsy. I believe you, really I do. Oh, by the way, how are the Shamrocks this morning? That's what I thought. "You'll never get yer 'ands on me Lucky Charms!"

Well, that's all for today. I am EXHAUSTED! I have no clue what my problem is-maybe I kissed the Blarney Stone one too many times last night? I don't know, but I think I'm going to need the assistance of another beloved Irsh tradition to make it through tomorrow- the Irish Coffee!




Be Good and God bless!

Little Blue Men...

And no, I don't mean the Smurfs! So Chris is taking the four youngest to see the Blue Men Group tonight. They are so excited! It's all they have been talking about for days now. We all went out to lunch today and of course the main topic of conversation was tonight's activity.

Brian says to me, "Shanny, I CAN'T baweave that tonight is the Ba-woo Men Gwoop! It is going to be awesome! I hope I can get a Ba-woo Men Shirt." I started wondering how one would spell "ba-woo", so I asked him. He didn't even think about it, he just said, "You know, 'ba-woo'- b-l-u-e. 'Ba-woo'." I have no idea how someone can spell something that they can't pronounce correctly! It must be a testament to my ability to teach him Spelling. HAAAA! Anyone who knows me right now is probably screaming: "The real question is- how can someone who can't spell themselves, teach someone else to spell?!!"

I have a feeling that regardless of how Brian pronounces it, they will have a "gweat" time tonight. I'm sure I'll hear all about it on Monday, and I'm sure he'll have the t-shirt to boot!

Be good and God bless!

A Day in the "Wife" of Brian...

I am struggling to make it through Math today! It is by no means my best subject, but even I can handle second grade arithmetic! But today is a horse of a different color! My brain is fried! We are learning about parallel line segments, and Brian is understanding them, for the most part. This lesson is taking forever, though! We started BEFORE snack break, and here it is 12PM, and we are still doing Math! It may have something to do with the 30 minutes we spent on reviewing subtraction facts that he’s having a tough time memorizing, or it could be the billion or so distractions he finds so intriguing! I just want Math to be done for today. PLEASE!


It is amazing what comes out of these kids mouths! You never know what they’re going to say , and sometimes you can’t understand what it was they said. Brian has a hard time pronouncing his “l”s and “r”s . His “l”s sound like “r”s and sometimes “w"s, and his “r”s sound like “w”s, too. It can be very confusing at times. Today when we were learning about parallel lines and I asked him to repeat the term to me it sounded more like “parw-a-welw wines”. No matter how many times I try to get him to pronounce it correctly, he still has difficulty! I started calling him “Scooby” today. He seems to "rrrlike" it. We don’t tease him, but we have started bringing his attention to it more. He just doesn’t hear himself like we do. It is pretty cute, though! One day he'll just stop, and then we'll miss it.


Today Donna brought the kids some lunch home. Kids have specific tastes, just like adults, and these kids are no different! When asked, Grant requested his usual - Chicken Nuggets; JP- a double ham-booger (no, not a typo!); and Brian asked for his usual as well- a plain hamburger, "with out the ham". What he means, is that he doesn’t want any cheese, no matter how many times we tell him that's what “plain” means, he still asks for it that way! So today he asked for just a hamburger, and most of us replied in chorus, “Without the ham?” He responded, "Of course!"


Well, that's it for now. Have a wonderful day!


Be good, and God bless!

Last nerve...

I have never considered myself a font of patience. I mean, I can tolerate only so much before I SNAP!!! Today was one of those days where the font ran dry rather quickly, leaving me little choice but to become the meanie that shouts and yells, " Cut it out, or I'm gonna whack ya!" They know I'm only joking, so it really does little more than make me feel better, and leave them thinking that I need anger management classes! I could be writing about all the LOVE and the sweet things the kids did today to mark this day of HEARTS, and I will in a moment, but first let me explain the psychotic meltdown that occurred only moments ago...

In the spirit of the holiday that is St. Valentine's Day, Donna had a BUCKET of candy waiting on the kids this morning. AWWW, how sweet! Right? WRONG!! These munchkins have been OUT OF CONTROL!!! In as much as these kids can be out of control, I mean, nothing has been burned beyond recognition, or anything, but the yelling and wrestling, and incessant chatter all while we are trying to learn has been, well, MADDENING! One can only say, "Please be quiet, children" in a sicky sweet voice a couple of hundred times before the voice becomes not so sweet! Well, in the midst of this chaos, Chris, their father calls home to check on the kiddies. I answered the phone, "Williams' Mad House, Shannon Speaking." Well, that threw the kids into hysterics, so much so that I had to flee to another room and barricade myself within, just to be able to have an adult conversation with my boss and find out what his plans were for his lunch with the kids. Of course a few locked doors did not deter the sugar induced high! No, the kids continued to bang on the doors demanding to be let in and to talk to their dad. But my time in the gym paid off! I was able to hold them at bay long enough to finish our conversation. Yeah, ME!

Once I returned to the school room, and Meghan and I restored order. We all got back to the business of learning. Or, so I thought. Just as things were grooving along, Chris called again to let me know that the plans we had made had changed slightly. In mid sentence, I hear this loud POP, and the pinging of what I came to discover was thousands of KIDNEY BEANS! As I turned to see what was going on, there sat Brian with a busted Ziploc bag, a bag that HAD been filled with our Counting Beans, which were now scattered all over the floor! Here is a little video of the aftermath...




And the Clean up efforts:



It really only took about 10 minutes for him to clean them all up. But it felt like 30 to him!


One final note: As I finish typing this Grant is in the background saying : "I'm done."
Meghan corrects him, "Finished."
Grant: "No I'm done with spelling."
Meghan: "No, you are finished. Cakes are done, people are finished."
Grant: "That's what I said!"
Meghan: "It is NOT what you said. Use proper English!"



And minutes latter she had the SAME conversation with John Paul! Maddening, I say! MADDENING!

God bless and be good!

OH- and use proper ENGLISH!

Hairy Situations...

There seems to be a common thread to many of the conversations with the kids the past few days: Meghan's hair. Brian started it all off while making some window clings he got for Christmas. There was a girl super hero and he says, "I should make this super hero for Meg." I assumed it was because it was a girl and so is Meg, but nope. He tells me it's because they both have curly hair. That's all well and good, but then latter on he is telling his mom the story, and Celine pipes in, "I love Meggie's hair. I wish I could dye my hair curly!" OK, how cute is that???

My adorable niece Cora has decided that at the mature age of 21 months, that she is ready for potty training. My sister tells me that yesterday she actually refused to wear diapers, and after a few hours of wearing pull-ups she discovered that pull-ups are not exactly the same thing as "big girl panties", so she wanted to be wearing those instead. Now, for those of you who don't know my sister's middle child: Cora is fiercely independent! She does only what behooves her to do. My sister, knowing this child's profound love of nay-nay(candy), promised her that she would be rewarded with her favorite food group, candy, hoping that it would speed the Potty training experience along. The conversation went something like this:

Cora: "I want nay-nay.

Katie: "No, Cora. No nay-nay.

Cora: "I want nay-nay, Mama."

Katie: "If you go pee-pee on the potty then you can have some nay-nay. Wanna go pee-pee on the potty, Cora?" (Nodding her head and grinning broadly as she asks this)

Cora: "I want nay-nay, Mama!"

Katie: "Then, let's go pee-pee on the potty."

Cora: "OK, bye!" (As she walks away.)

Latter that day, after a successful potty attempt, Cora called her GiGi (grandma) to tell her about the triumph, and handed the phone off to her mother. As Katie is telling Mom just how cute Cora is in her big girl panties, she shrieks, "OH_MY_GOODNESS! (one word) I_GOTTA_GO! (again, one word) Cora just peed all over the floor!" And clicks off the phone. Now as a nanny I have assisted in the potty training of several children, and have experienced my share of accidents, and it's not always a funny thing when it happens to you. But somehow it becomes wickedly funny when it's someone else, especially your younger sister who put you through HECK when you were children. Sorry, Katie, but I loved this story.

Be good and God bless!