What do YOU see?

Pete's taking an English Comp class at Northwest this semester. His first writing assignment was to describe a piece of art he found off the Internet. I just saw a girl.....

This is what Pete saw:
"There is a girl; strong, beautiful, determined. She sees everthing; she can see through you, read your soul, your thoughts. She sees the trees blowing like paper in the wind, the dog barking down the street at a local mailman, the sands of time falling through the hourglass. She can tell what you are going to say and what you are going to do. She knows everything about you.
She looks at you with intense passion, a longing to be with you. Some would make the mistake that she is mad. She has beautiful, strong eyes longing to catch a glimpse of your face. You feel a longing to be with her. An urge to hold her, to push back her hair and look straight into her eyes; eyes that trap you, hold you in a trance.
Her hair is blowing in the wind, only adding to her sense of strength. She stares undeterred at you, her hair in her face. Her lips are soft and delicate. Her teeth, pearly white, and when she smiles, your world becomes warmer.
She reminds me of my girlfriend. How she looks at me with caring, loving eyes. How she stays strong when the wind is trying to push her over the edge. How she can read my thoughts, and how she can see my soul. How you can't help but fall in love with her beauty, her deep eyes, her sense of strength and determination."

Happy Birthday Emily!

Um....ok, so it's really not her birthday. If it was, it'd be Elizabeth's birthday too, right? But well.....see.....tonight was the first time Emily's had a chance to eat out with us, so we wanted her to feel a part of the family. So Patrick and I took Mabry, Pete, Ryan, Cat (Pete's girlfriend), Emily and Elizabeth out to eat at the Mexican restaurant. Knowing exactly what would happen, I whispered to the waiter that it was Emily's birthday. Imagine Em's surprise when suddenly a sombrero was placed on her head and all these Mexican dudes were singing the Mexican birthday song! They placed a sopopilla in front of her, and she was so excited and of course a bit confused! She was especially surprised when they then took a small pie plate full of whipped cream and smashed it in her face! Welcome to the family, Emily!!!

Mom to the rescue!

Tonight Patrick and I were in the bedroom when we heard Mabry yell, "Get vertical!" Remembering that Pete's girlfriend Cat was here, we knew she was yelling to them, so I came out to see what was up. When Liz saw me, she said, "Mom, go in there and tell Pete and Cat to get vertical!" Liz absolutely LOVES to see the brothers get into trouble, so she was a little disappointed when I turned in the opposite direction and walked out of the room. But her eyes lit up when I returned to the kitchen, carrying a Super Soaker.
After filling it up, I walked into the media room where Pete and Cat were, with Mabry and her entourage following closely on my heels. The lights were off, and though Pete and Cat weren't doing anything, they WERE laying down on the couch watching tv. So I started spraying and yelling at once, "You heathen hussey, are you attacking my son AGAIN?! Get off him! Get off my baby!" There was a scramble of arms and legs tangling all around each other as each tried to hide behind the other to get away from the water! I'm proud to say I saved Pete, but for some reason he wasn't very thankful! :)

El Stupido!

(Pronounced Ale-Stupid-O)
Mabry has started using the term "El Stupido" in the most hick accent possible. She says it anytime she thinks someone has done something...well...stupid. She most recently used it on ME this week, when she was giving me my overall GPA from college over the phone (ok, she had me on that one!).
This weekend we have Mabry Emily, Elizabeth, Joseph and Joel staying with us. Emily and Elizabeth are my "adopted" daughters who moved in with us over the summer. The boys got here around 10 last night, and shortly after their arrival Emily showed up with about 18 other folks (Ok, maybe not 18, but surely it was somewhere in the vicinity). They celebrated Joseph's birthday with a Walmart pizza (for those of you who don't know, Walmart makes a KILLER pizza!) and cake. Um, yeah...the pizza was great but the cake might not have been the best idea.
You get a bunch of folks aged 19-26 together, and they get ideas. The food-fight scene from "Animal House" comes to mind when I think of what went on in my kitchen last night! I walked up behind Mabry and noticed she had a little icing on her cheek, so I scraped it off and tasted it. Liz thought that was really funny, so she took a little more icing off the cake and tried to smear it on Mabry's face. Mabry saw it coming and headed her off at the pass, by dipping her hand INTO the cake and smearing it on Liz's face. Liz then grabbed a bit of cake and smeared it into Mabry's face and hair. Mayhem ensued. I made the mistake of laughing at them, and Mabry decided to thank me by trying to hug me...really close, wiping her face all over my face & hair! What she didn't realize was that I was in the kitchen for a reason; I'd just gone in to refill my ice water. :) Not one to just idly stand by and let her smear icing all me, I took advantage of her proximity and dumped my entire cup of ice water over her head! It was then that I was able to look at her and say, "Ale Stupid-O!"

The 15th Annual...

Back to School Ice Cream Party!!!! I can't believe we've done this for 15 years! Holy cow, that means Mabry's in the 14th grade (we started in Kindergarten)! As usual, the 3 course meal includes an appetizer (ice cream cone), the entree (banana split) and dessert (hot fudge sundae). We had around 40 people come, which is par for the course. It's really an open house type deal, with people coming and going as they please. Usually we hold it on a school night, but because I was caught totally by surprise when school started (When my friend called Wednesday night to ask if we were having it Thursday, I said, "Why would we? It's not til the first day of school", to which she replied, "Well, the first day of school is tomorrow!" (insert shocked and confused face here)) we held it this past Friday night instead. As a result, the last of the partiers left around 11:30 pm! I guess that's why we hold it on a school night, so folks HAVE to go home at a decent hour! :)*

Finally! Someone who agrees with me!

I've always said talking to Ryan is like talking to a wall, and finally someone must agree with me. Last week was the opening of the play A Mid Summer Night's Dream, in which Ryan played Snout. In the play there was a play, and in the play within the play Snout played a wall. Yes, you heard right...a wall! And oh, was he ever a great wall! Unfortunately I don't have really good pics, but I do have one of him showing his chink in the wall, through which the 2 lovers spoke and kissed. Oh, now THERE was a picture for ya! For some reason the wall was ok with them speaking through his "chink", but he kind of grossed out when they kissed! LOL All in all it was a great play, and he sure played his part well!

Wait...How many kids do I have?

Earlier tonight my cell phone rang. It was one of Pete's friends, and she's riding in the car with him going to see her boyfriend.

Me: "Hello?"
Her: "What's the name of your GPS?"
Me: "Huh?"
Her: "Well, Pete says her name starts with L but I think it starts with E. Which is it?"
Me: "Um....it's Evelyn. You win."
Her: "HA! I TOLD him it was an E! Pete, you loser, it's Evelyn!"
Hang up.

It both baffles and tickles me that their friends treat me like their Mama!