My Trampy Husband.

Ok... so he isn't really trampy.

In fact, we are both so lousy at being trampy that it took us both 6 days for our achy backs to recover from about 6 minutes of trampoline jumping.

Let this serve as a public service announcement to all those of my generation.

When the college kids take you to a super fun rainy day place where you can jump around on all these cool trampolines...beware. 

Pace yourself.

 Your 45+ year old back will be happier if you limit your leaps.

Lil' Beyonce and The Bloggess

Two years ago, my dear husband gave me this awesome, mid size metal chicken for my birthday.

His name is Lil' Beyonce and he is not so loosely based on the GIANT metal chicken named Beyonce, made famous by Jenny Lawson, aka The Bloggess.

 Here is the hysterically funny, big metal chicken post that inspired my birthday gift... in case you missed it a couple of summers ago.

http://thebloggess.com/2011/06/and-thats-why-you-should-learn-to-pick-your-battles/

 

Last night I was able to meet The Bloggess, as she came to town on book tour...I took my little Knock Knock sign from Lil' Beyonce for her to autograph.

(but then forgot to ask during the pressure and excitement of the book signing line..argh!)

But I did get a photo of us, which was pretty exciting for a book nerd like me.

For the record, Jenny Lawson was hilarious, humble and swore a lot...I loved her so very much.  

And then I bought another copy of Lets Pretend This Never Happened

that I could pass along and share. Because while I don't want to give up my very own signed hardback copy, I really must share the wit and wisdom of one of my favorites.
Here it is. 

 So Cincinnati folks, this brand new copy is waiting for you in the Big Pig Little Free Library on the  corner of Burch and Observatory...first come, first serve...Enjoy!

Jamie's Race for Jake's Heart.

 Jamie loves to run, and he's a pretty fast guy, so he was excited about the idea of running in a 2K kids race for the American Heart Association.   

He ran in honor of our friend Jake, who had a successful heart surgery two years ago and is now a healthy and strong four year old dude. 

It's not often when a ten year old can use his gifts and abilities to raise money for a good cause, and Jamie was proud of his role as the big kid money maker in this scenario. I helped him set up a fundraising page with the lofty financial goal of earning $999.

   Thanks to the generous support of friends and family he went over his goal and was able to donate $1420 to the American Heart Association in honor of young Jake Taylor. 

Which made him very proud and happy.

And also got his name on the Jumbotron in Fountain Square during the races, which was a very cool thing. 

(Even cooler...  Mr. Imwalle, his math teacher, saw his name in lights and mentioned in in class on Monday morning...fame amongst 4th grade class!)

 

The race was on Sunday, and it was a dreary day... cold and windy with a chance of rain/snow or sleet. Not ideal weather, but there was still a big turn out of kids with running shoes, ready to go.

Here is the homestretch of the race, Jamie is just under the 71 North to Columbus sign, and little Jake is to the right...you can just see the back of his green coat watching for Jamie.

And here he is crossing the finish line.

He really gave it his all once he caught sight of the finish line, turned on his speed jets and then collapsed in a lump of sprinters machismo just on the other side of it. 

The great thing about being ten is that your recovery time is brief. After a few minutes of rest and a long drink of water, Jamie was back in action, and quite pleased with himself. 

He began the race not sure if Jake would be able to be there because of the foul weather, and was delighted to see him at the finish line waiting for him. 

As the t-shirts say...

"You make my heart race."

I think that truer words can't be said when it comes to these two...

Well raced, Jake and Jamie. 

GENERAL and PRESIDENT, U.S. Grant!

"He was a GENERAL and a PRESIDENT!"

Henry is doing a biography report on Ulysses S. Grant and was angrily moved to defend his choice. As his big brother, Jamie felt that it was his duty to be critical of Henry's decision. He did his 2nd grade project on Sitting Bull and felt that he was a much cooler choice. 

"If you don't do Sitting Bull, then you should do Martin Luther King or Jim Carrey."

(Jamie LOVES Jim Carrey just as much as Sitting Bull)

But Henry would not be swayed. 

His heart was with Ulysses, so last week we headed out on a little field trip to check out the historical roots of Ohio's civil war general and 18th President of these United States.

Our first stop was Point Pleasant, Ohio, steps away from the Ohio River.

This was the house where little Ulysses was born and took his first little future general/president steps.

It really very small and very pretty.

(I just had to reminisce a bit about my visit to see Grant's house as a fourth grader, both Henry and the schnoodle were kind enough to humor me as I rambled on about how awesome this was for me)

 

 Henry wanted to walk to the river and check out the cannon, so off we went.

 

 Here are Henry and the schnoodle aiming their cannon at some sneaky confederate soldiers hiding out in the hills of  Kentucky.

They look like a dangerous pair.

(for the record, the cannon no longer shot cannonballs...Kentucky was spared from the careful aim of these two)

We walked down to the rivers bank where I implored both boy and dog not to fall in.

They didn't (yay!) and Henry spent a few moments looking at the water with his hands behind his back as Civil War generals often did.

I had to kick some beer cans out of the way, to make things more naturally scenic.

(Perhaps the beer debris was left there by President Grant's descendents?)

We found this helpful map which made it very easy to tour the Land of Grant.

With a healthy warning to drive responsibly we left Point Pleasant and set off to Georgetown Ohio... about 40 minutes away.

This was our first stop, the schoolhouse where young Ulysses attended primary school. After he left this tiny little school, he continued his education at West Point.

I don't imagine the transition was an easy one for the young Buckeye.

This is the home where young Ulysses lived while he attended his little two room school house a few blocks away.

I have to believe that Mr. and Mrs. Grant were happy to move from the little river house to the big town of Georgetown when Ulysses was a little guy.

Henry's next step with his biography project is to create a replica of U.S. Grant out of an empty 2 liter bottle and a Styrofoam ball. He wisely check out this lovely statue for inspiration. 

I think that he made a good choice in deciding to study this General and President and spent a happy afternoon an afternoon driving around Southern Ohio with my son, checking out the Land of Grant.

Thank You Mother Nature.

School is closed today. Classes will resume Thursday, March 7.

Snow happiness. 

Finally.

Last year was a snow-less winter and until Tuesday night, the winter storms of this year occurred on the weekends or over the holidays.

So goes two years of waiting by my little wombats who were craving a day when school should be in, but can't possibly open due to snowy roads. 

When my wombats went to bed on Tuesday night, it was 37 degrees and pouring down rain.
Gross. 

Then sometime overnight, sweet Mother Nature stepped in and dropped the temp to 32. 

Thank you. 

Schools closed their doors for the whole day and Cincinnati kids were completely ecstatic. 

Teachers, even more so. 

Here are some big sloppy, snowy smiles from the little guys on their first, but most likely last, snow day of the year. 

 

 

 

Thank you Mother Nature for the most lovely early March snow day- we loved every minute!

So Suppressed!

I appreciate that Rosie is happily able to give old grumpy words new fun, fluid definitions...

My most favorite recent example...

First, as defined by Webster

suppress
verb [ with obj. ]
forcibly put an end to: the uprising was savagely suppressed.

ORIGIN late Middle English

And Rosie's alternative and far more fun meaning...

SUPPRESSED!
verb

"being really, really surprised and impressed at the EXACT SAME TIME"

Origin: Southwestern Ohio Target store, Hello Kitty girls fashion rack
properly used in a sentence...

"This hat is so beautiful! If I wear it to school my friends will be SO SUPPRESSED to see it!"

Apologies to you, Mr. Webster.