My Family As A Sitcom

So my Auntie Robin (my parents good friend, our babysitter, and one of our very favorite people) came to visit a couple of weeks ago. We all came over for family dinner (once a month 2nd Sunday tradition) and started just talking about stuff since we had seen her. Told some fun jokes, talked about funny stuff we remember from childhood. She looked at us and just started laughing. She said "you can't make stuff like this up! This is like some TV family show". This comment came after several remarks about my father's finger. For anyone who doesn't know my father these make interesting tales. Due to an accident (he cut his hand with a skill saw) his finger was amputated just before my 16th birthday. He kept it in a jar in the freezer for a while. At first he would ask us to go scratch it for him. Um...no. Love ya, but no. On my first date he took it out of the freezer to show it to the guy -- "This is what happened to the last guy who brought her home late." You know that AT&T commercial where the dad is going around knocking on cars and he tells the camera - "Sorry dear - now come Monday you are going to be the girl with the crazy father no one wants to date"? Yes- that was me. Except I was already weird so having a crazy father didn't much surprise anybody.

Then he took it to the Natural History Museum and they freeze dried it for him. So he put it on a necklace with all of his teeth on the string. Yes, his teeth. (yes he wears dentures and does not put the necklace in his mouth. I know you didn't ask but it had to have crossed your mind.) We have some great pics of the kids picking their noses it I will have to find. We have a lot of moments like this. Kind of like -- Mom where is the ice cream? Mom says, in the downstairs freezer under the badger." Now to us this makes perfect sense but to others -- maybe not so much. So I started thinking about my family, and thought -- she's right! We are a pretty strange bunch. We talk in movie quotes, dad tans his own leather, he has a tipi, we have body parts on strings, can jerry rig anything! Sometime we spontaneously burst into song and everyone knows all the words. We toss around phrases like - "you should have seen his face as we snuck around the deer at the bottom of the stairs" and have the deer not actually be part of the punchline. And you know, that makes me feel pretty cool.

(This is all of us with our boo-boos we got in one month. Trying to be cute with the hear no evil see no evil thing. I think we were actually saying see no ouchies, hear no ouchies etc etc. The ER just started reserving us a bed)

For my science project in 6th grade I decided to do a report on how to brain tan leather.(And for those who don't know - it is work!! Lots of time consuming work! How did those women do it with all those buffalo??) I thought it was a pretty cool one and I could gurantee no one else would be doing it (unlike the baking soda volcano). So we had the hide, stretched it out and boiled the brain. As a side note - deer brain smells like turkey when you boil it. It does NOT taste like turkey though. Just FYI. I took it to school explaining the whole process and everything you have to do after you brain it and brought samples of the one we did. I also brought a new hide with a boiled brain so people could smear some on if they wanted. What was funny was how many girls did it while the guys looked like they would pass out. I got an A. And a note never to do anything like that again. But I got an A.
( Yes the snake is real. Dead and stuffed with wires but real.)

And the time we had a new neighboor move in next door. A nice sweet little old lady. A day after she gets settled she wanders into her back yard. We just so happen to have the tipi up with our horse tail scalp hanging off the top, a couple skins stretched out and were boiling some buffalo skulls to get all the tissue off and bleach them white. Now to us that was normal. She almost had a heart attack -- what devil worshipping monsters had she moved next to???

Lots of fun moments. The kids playing dad's teeth. A picture of everyone squeezing in a four seater out house. (Because who doesn't want someone next to them in the outhouse??) Me catching a fish with my feet. My dad with a fish hook in his nose trying to catch the damn fish that jumped off the hook that is now in his nose. My cousin Kristy and I getting stuck climbing up Pig Pen, then getting bored of waiting for someone to rescue us so we found a way to climb down. Christmas time with all 80+ of us Sqeezing into my Uncle Clem's house so we can listen to my totally awesome Papa talk. (and of course presents. Some normal, some not so much. Who doesn't want their own fish pillow made with personlized fabric huh? Everyone needs those googly eyes staring at them on their beds.)

Ahhhh family. The more other family's I know the more grateful I am for mine. No offense to my friends or in-laws, they are all good people. But I wouldn't trade my crazy fam for anything in the world. Love ya guys!!

Um Really? He He

Ok so I saw this quiz on my cousin Angelic's page and said why not? Except I am not sure what to say. I really did think he was hot and kinda still do. But do I admit to that???

Your 80s Hunk Is

John Stamos

Who's Your 80s Hunk?

Football !

So it's football time. Yay. No really though, I have never been more interested. My husband calls me a Giants fan now although I don't consider myself that dedicated. (in his family fan leans more towards fan-atic) I watch with him because I could read a book snuggled with him on the couch while he cheered and yelled. Last year I actually started watching though. I wanted to understand what was so fascinating. That meant I had to learn the rules. I stopped him from teaching me the actual plays because I just don't want to care that much. But the rules were fine, then I could know why he was cheering or yelling. So I started rooting for the Giants one week they were playing the Cowboys. Mostly because my husband hates the Cowboys, not because I particularly liked them Then I just kinda stayed rooting for them. I'm not sure why. Maybe because they seemed like an underdog. Maybe because Eli was Peyton's little brother and all little brothers should get a chance to shine. Anyway - just kept rooting for them, and hey, they won. That was fun. So yay for football, something we can watch together.


But now, I have signed up both my sons to play football. This is something I struggled against for a very very long time. I thought it was too rough, would teach them to be mean jerks, make them more violent, coaches would be mean, I hate cocky jocks etc. etc. Then I realized that I have seen way too many football movies, and I don't live in Texas so I am probably ok. Josh who is now finally 8 and can play sports in leagues is loving it. I think it's pretty cute to see these kids in pads running around, practicing catching and stuff. They are just starting and learning and it looks fun. I don't know what will happen when they actually have to play a game and can't just randomly tackle people but it should be amusing.


Curtis however is definitely a teen. The 13th birthday just made it official. Anything that takes effort and isn't electronic just isn't fun. And let's face it -- football is hard! He has 2 hours of practice 6 days a week,(which since I go to all of these have to ask myself -- what was I thinking??) running, learning etc. He is the only one on his team who has never played before so he is doing double catch up. But you know, apart from some grumbling in the beginning about how I was forcing him against his will, it has been amazing to watch. He hurt his ankle the second week so we had to ice and soak it all week after practice but he just kept going out there and doing it. He never asked to quit. He told me he had to prove to my us and himself he could do it. And he is.In 3 weeks he is 10 times better than he was. He goes out and always listens to his coach (who is marvelous and teaches exactly the way Curtis learns)and does what he is asked, changes what he is told to change, and doesn't quit. Is this my kid??? Well yes as soon as we get home the teenager comes back. No - actually he is better at doing what I ask him to do and doesn't argue as much. Holy cow. This is great! If this does nothing else but teach him self-confidence then it is worth all the ungodly amount of money we have put into this. So then I listed all the good things this could teach him - play as a team, work together, listen to your leaders/teachers/parents, follow directions, not to mention the benefits of being physically fit, and that life outside of video games is good too.


So now I am an official fan of football. Even if it means my schedule is now full from now until November.