WICKED! Awesome!!!!

In honor of my amazing evening at WICKED! I'm writing this all in green!  Also because "Pink goes good with green!!" ( You have to see the play)  It was so well done!  I was so impressed with the entire production!  The stage!  The acting!  The music!  THE COSTUMES- wow!!!!  To have experienced this with Meg was a blessing!  We tried to remember all the things we had seen together.  They vary; from Harry Connick, Jr. to American Idol, and who can forget Michael Buble??!!!  So this was another stellar addition to our list of experiences together!  She is an amazing Daughter of God, and a pretty rockin' friend!  Love ya, Meg!! 

  Here are a few pics of us and a little video we did while waiting for the show to begin:

Myself and Meg before the show and minus the green effects.

Our seats, until we MOVED, to better ones!

Again, REALLY?

I would like to redirect your attention to a past post, I believe it was from last summer, when we had an unwelcome visitor.  Click HERE for a link to that post.  Why?  Because we had a repeat performance recently, that's why.  Read on, my friends, read on...

So I'm wondering why all things that slither feel drawn to this house?  Seriously?!!  We are overrun with lizards and frogs at every turn, and the snakes seem to think that they would be happier inside the house!  I don't know if my heart can take much more of this!

The story goes that Meg and Grant were downstairs doing dome work while the rest of us were upstairs doing school.  Then there was a lot of ruckus and Grant yells, "There's a snake in the house!"  We all rushed down the stairs, why?  I have no idea, but we did, and by the time we all got down there the back door leading into the garage was wide open, so I followed the herd outside to see what all the hullabaloo was about.  There, in the driveway, stood Gerry (one of the cleaners who come each Tuesday) with a black snake wrapped around his arm.  I might have been scared- but Gerry had a good grip on it, and it's head wasn't very big.  He was just L-O-N-G.  Here's a new video of the new snake.  I love it when he asks the kids if they wanna play with it, and they all take a step back.  Oh!  And the part when he says he's gonna let it go near the lake so it can eat all the rats and mice... nice touch, Gerr... that SOO made me feel better.  I thought to myself, "Sure he'll start with mice, move up to rats, and eventually be ready to start feeding on my munchkins!  Thanks for that warm and fuzzy thought."  

Enjoy...

What I Wouldn't Give to Have an Adult Conversation...

So, one complaint ALL moms have is that they miss having conversations with adults... I think the same could be said for nannies.   Bill Cosby is well known for saying, "Kids say the darnedest things!", and that is SO true.  My munchkins, however,  excel at saying the darnedest things...

Here is a taste of the conversations I've had thus far this morning... (It's not 10 AM yet...)

Brian LOVES to play with my hair.  He does it without even thinking about it, he just reaches over and fingers a few strands as I read to him or review the day's lessons.  He's a very sensitive child with a wonderful heart.   Today we were cuddling on the couch and he was playing with my hair, as usual.  He says, "Your hair always feels like plastic." I knew what he meant.

"Because, I have moose in my hair, silly." (A girl's gotta look her best!)  "It makes it feel funny." "Ahh, but it makes it LOOK good!"  Then John Paul pipes in his less than two cents, "Are you sure it isn't a DEER?" Of course this erupted into a litany of possible wild game that could be making my hair feel like plastic.  Elk, caribou, water buffalo, antelope, alpaca?  The fun is never ending around here.  

After the noise died down a bit, I began to herd (pun intended) the kiddos upstairs to the schoolroom to begin the day.  Celine, the youngest, asks me to sit with her, that she had something to talk to me about.   She says, very seriously, 

"Shanny, I think I'm allergic to Math..."

"Really?  How can you tell?"

"I don't know, I just can.'

"Well, are your eyes itchy?"

"Uh-huh..." (As she rubs them for effect)

"Do you sneeze a lot?"

"Yes."

"Is your throat scratchy?"

"Kinda."

I sighed, and grimly shook my head and gave her my professional diagnosis,

"Well, it DOES seem like you may be highly allergic to Math, Beans ( her nickname), but there is something that can be done..."

"What?"

"When I was a little girl, I had really bad allergies,"

"You still do!  You sneeze all the time!"

"Yep, anyway, I used to have to go every week and get allergy shots so that my allergies wouldn't be so bad."

"Shots?"

"Uh-huh."

"With needles?'

"Yep, BIG ones." In a heartbeat's time she replied:

"Yeah, I don't think I'm allergic to Math anymore." And she climbed up the stairs without another protest.

So my number is 555-NANNY if you'd like to engage me in a little grown up speak.  Maybe discus the stock market, politics, or debate religion.  On second thought, I'll stick with the kind of conversations that deal with grazing mammals and school related allergies.  It's more interesting...  

I'm Going to See WICKED!!!!

I am soooo happy!  I haven't been this excited about entertainment since I found out I was going to see Michael Buble!!  (There he goes, again, weaseling his way into my posts!)  And just like with Baby Buble (Grant's name for MB) I get to experience this with Magoo!  That's my dear friend, Meghan- who I am blessed to work with and love oodles!  We've seen many a show together, and now we are treating ourselves to WICKED!  We are going on Tuesday, and I think I just might take this opportunity to wear that little red dress I bought a few months ago!  Now... do I paint my skin green?

Celine's Song!

Little Miss has been quite the little extravert today!  First hijacking the blog and now this!  She and I were goofing off while cleaning up the kitchen after lunch today, and we were singing (which isn't all that unusual for the two of us!).  OK!  We were bored out of our minds! So we made up this little ditty and thought we'd share it with y'all!  Enjoy!  (OH! And the lyrics are below,  just incase you didn't catch them all!)

Without further Ado... Celine's Song:

I... want...a house in the Hills,

A car with the frills,

A maid to clean up the spills!

I want to sleep until noon,

Howl at the moon,

Michael Buble to Croon (*swoon*)

This all may sound so sappy,

But it would make me awful happy!

If only for a short while-

I would SMILE!! (*with a GRIN!*)

Celine and Her New T-Shirt!

So I have a new shirt, and I want to tell you what it says!  Well, okay, here it goes: "Friends are forever,  Boys are Whatever".  Ha ha ha! Isn't that funny?  Actually, my mom got it for me, but isn't it cute?  My brother JP, he said it was "cold", and then I said, "I know!  Thats probably why Mom got it for me!"  That's it... back to Shanny.

I had planned to blog about this today,  but the little Princess beat me to it!  I had the laptop open and ready to go, and the next thing I know, I hear little typing sounds!  She's over there typing my blog!  Well, I guess somebody's gotta do it!  I know I've been less than regular, lately.  It just seems like there's so much to do!  But, I am here now and blogging away!

I really like this T-shirt!  I think every little girl should be wearing these instead of "Hannaha Blondtanna" or "HSM" t-shirts!  Don't know what HSM is?  Well, you are SOO out of the loop, my friend!  It's none other than the High School Musical CRAZE!!!  I love that's she's wearing a shirt that is age appropriate, and OH! the wisdom!  

I think I needed to be reminded of this very wise advice today!  Thanks, Celine!  It may be "cold", but it is SOOO true!  Love, ya, little one!  

Swine Flu-ACHOO!

With all the panic over the recent outbreak of the Swine flu, I decided to pose a few questions about the Piggy Pandemic to the munchkins- just to see what they think of all this mayhem.

What happens when you get the Swine Flu?:   

Celine: Your stomach feels weird/bad, your nose starts running, your eyes might start tearing, you have a cough, and you sneeze, you may get a headache.

Brian: ... and your head might even explode! And you sneeze A LOT!

How do you get the Swine Flu?:  

Celine: You eat a pig and you get the flu.  

Brian: You go swimming and then you get the swine flu. 

Shannon: Um, does that mean you have it now, because you went swimming yesterday?

Brian: Uh-huh.

Shannon: You know I said SWINE FLU, not Swimming Flu...

Brian: OHHHHHHHH!

Shannon: So how do you catch the SWINE FLU?

Brian: You hug a swine- or a pig.

Shannon: You catch it by hugging a pig?

Brian: *Nods his head yes*

Shannon: So, all of these people who are sick got that way by hugging PIGS?

Brian: *still nodding head yes*

Shannon: In other words, they are "Pig Huggers"?

Brian: Yep.

I am suddenly reminded of THIS picture...

Am I to be the next victim?

This post is in no way meant to make fun of those who are sick with this sickness... I am aware that a small boy in Texas has died because of this flu, and my thoughts and prayers are with everyone who is suffering through this right now.  We are pretty isolated in our little "home schooled" world, and for this to reach their antennas is pretty big stuff.  I was wondering how much they were picking up on all of the reports.  Apparently, so are listening more than others... Makes for an interesting blog, though.