November 13th, 2008 by Jennine

Miss Elly turned 10 years old yesterday which is a relief to me. We have been listening to her countdown to the special day for the last 364 days. If you thought the political commercials were bad, try hearing a “It’s my birthday in only ___ days”, along with a list of her most coveted gift items.

We have a tradition of taking our birthday children out to eat at a restaurant that doesn’t require the engine to remain running while you eat. This year Elly wanted shrimp for her birthday meal which, in our rural area, limited our choices.

But we found her shrimp and she enjoyed the meal knowing that now she has one more thing in common with Hannah Montana because Hannah eats shrimp at every meal.

After we finished eating, we took Elly to a store to pick out paint for her bedroom, something I’m guessing Hannah Montana has never done.

Since Elly shares a room with her little brother, a choice she made when Kait moved out and she discovered that the darkness of night requires another body to be in the room, I tried to nudge Elly away from the neon purple that she chose for the color.

“You know what the smart decorators do, Elly?”

“What?”

“They choose a neutral color for the walls and bold colors for the accent. That way, should you go blind grow tired of the bright purple, it is easy to change the look of your room!”

Darren and I teamed up to sell the idea. That’s where I present the idea and Darren sucks in wind like he’s starved for oxygen and says “Ahhhhhhh… what a GREAT IDEA!”  We have found this to be a highly effective parenting tool whether it be for selling a bath, bedtime or a chore list.

Elly tapped her chin with her index finger,  thought about it for a minute and said “I think you’re right. This could work.”

And then she proceeded with a list of must-have decorating accents, the likes of which would make Bill Gates take a peek at his checkbook to make sure he could cover the tab.

Apparently counting backwards from 364 can make you irrational.

So this weekend, we are giving Elly her birthday gift–a redecorated bedroom. This weekend is also deer hunting, a fact that has not gone unnoticed by my husband.

“Oh, come on, Honey… [sucking in wind like I'm starved for oxygen]… this will be REALLY FUN!”

“It’s not going to work, Jennine, I know what you’re trying to do,” he said while rolling his eyes.

I leaned over and whispered something in his ear.

“Will you shake on that?”

I nodded.

“Then you’re right. This is going to be REALLY FUN!”

Yeah. I’m gifted in the art of persuasion.

November 7th, 2008 by Jennine

*No children were harmed in the making of this video.

And now we all understand Elly’s frustration with having five brothers. On the other hand, it does afford her the opportunity to audition for an orange juice commercial on youtube.

November 7th, 2008 by Jennine

My 20 year old daughter, Kait, was describing a nightmare she recently had about the world coming to an end.

In her dream animals were attacking humans, giant comets were falling from the sky and chaos spread over the planet.

She went on and on with the horror of it all.

Kait was visibly upset and the rest of us sat in silence trying to figure out what to say in response. I was trying to think of how to gracefully change the subject. Darren just looked at me wide-eyed and shrugged his shoulders. The boys were just staring at the floor imagining the ugly word picture Kait just painted for us.

That’s when Elly, in a thick sarcastic tone and with rolling eyes, said “Well. Thank God you’re not a psychic!”

October 30th, 2008 by Jennine

Elly came home from school today with a story her teacher told the class.

“My teacher was making her bed and her little boy came into the bedroom with brown stuff on his hands. The brown stuff, upon closer inspection, was smelly! She called her husband to help and they discovered that the little boy had POOPED in his diaper and stuck his hand in it!”

I imagine the classroom erupted with laughter as she told her story because fourth graders LOVE poop stories.

Hearing the teacher’s story reminded me of one of the worst days of my life. It involved poop.

You can read about it here.

September 2nd, 2008 by Jennine

Just because Kirsten asked.

September 2nd, 2008 by Jennine

Halfway through the 2007 school year, we took Elly out of public school and taught her at home. She was having a really difficult time not being with me, although academically she was doing very well. Her separation anxiety manifested in a record number of stomach aches and “Mom, do I have a fever?” as the bus arrived at our driveway.

Darren and I went to great lengths to determine if there was a problem on the bus or with her teachers but our inquiries turned up nothing. She just wanted to “be with Mom”.

I wanted to be sensitive to her desire since the older kids had the benefit of homeschooling until they were older than Elly, and she always expressed the idea that she had somehow missed out on the circus-like fun of being taught at home.

This year we gave Elly the choice to go back to public school . Each time we broached the subject she would reply, “You guys are the parents. You decide.”

I began to suspect that she was worried that MY feelings would be hurt if she admitted she was ready to go back. She and I had alot of fun being alone together during the day. People tend to bond while singing multiplication facts karaoke-style.

When I informed Elly that I had made the decision that she was ready to return to public school, she was visibly relieved.

This morning, however, she seemed to get a little iffy about the whole thing. I reminded her that I would see her at school because I was covering the event for the paper. I kissed her goodbye and watched her shuffle to the bus stop.

I was at school, waiting, as she arrived and I watched as she found her friends on the playground. It was only after seeing this did I breathe a sigh of relief:

She’ll get by with a little help from her friends.

September 2nd, 2008 by Jennine

2008 First Day of School

2007 First Day of School

Notice the joy on Kevin’s face as they headed out to the bus this morning.

On the other hand, I had a HUGE smile because chances are good that my refrigerator door will not be opened for the next eight hours.

August 17th, 2008 by Jennine

Today Elly made her singing debut at an Art and Music Festival in Central Park. She sang in front of her peers, not to mention the several hundred people walking through the festival. I was so proud of how well she did! People clapped for a long time after she finished her Taylor Swift song.

Afterwards I asked her how she did such a brave thing.

“I just said to myself ‘If mom can golf real bad in front of people then I can do this.’ Hey, Mom. Did anybody clap for you when you were done golfing?” she teased.

“No, Elly. But only because clapping isn’t allowed on the golf course.”

She thought about it for a minute and then said:

“Then why would anyone want to golf?”

My thoughts exactly.

August 7th, 2008 by Jennine

It’s not easy to be the only girl living with five brothers. Boys make fun of princess dresses and lipstick. And all they want to do is shoot BB guns,climb trees and fart into fans.

But Elly somehow manages to remain true to her femininity, even when she’s packing.

February 8th, 2007 by Jennine