Is that really school policy?

Sometimes school policy just confuses me.  For instance, I just received an e-mail from one of Ben's teachers at the middle school.  It said it was school policy that a teacher could not be  used as a limerick and that Ben would need to change his assignment.  Huh, do you think that is a real policy or do you think that the following poem was just offensive?

"There once was a teacher named Zogg,
He decided to eat a hog.
But his choice was not smart,
since he made a big fart.
The room’s odorous smell prolonged."

Party Problems

We will soon be in the the month of May.  For some of you May is just another month in the year.  For us here at the Revelli home it is "Jonny's Birthday Month."  I swear we plan his party for half of  the year.  However, this year we are experiencing a few glitches in his celebration.

1.  Jonny has decided he does not want me to do a party here.  He wants to have his party in Dave Smiths barn.  Don't get me wrong his barn is pretty cool, but not conducive to plugging in carnival machines.

2.  His first present request came today.  "Mom, for my birthday I want to be able to punish Sarah."  uhhhh I was about to book him in child therapy, until he further explained that he wants to be able to control if she watches any girl shows, listens to girl music,  etc.        ... I might still get him therapy.

3.  He is very upset that his friend Nick can't come to his party.  He is convinced that once Nick gets the cool party invitation he will postpone going into the M.T.C. on his birthday and wait a day.   After all, we can't have a cool party without Nick.
 

Nick played the

role of Vector during

the "Despicable Me"

Party.

  (He is at the bottom of the picture, in case you couldn't tell)

         

 The Year Before he also had the important role of  the dragon in the  "How to train your dragon" party.

So, since I clearly am not going to let Jonny punish Sarah and I have my doubts that Nick will postpone the whole entering the M.T.C. thing,  I guess I will have to let Jonny have his party in a barn this year.  

Oh yea, we also wish Nick luck on his mission Jonny  we all will miss him.

Does this make me a Montanan?

I think I have  adjusted to life in Hamilton. Here are a few examples why I have come to this conclusion.

• When someone was discussing the amazing “spread of the bull” I didn’t have to secretly wonder what that meant.

• I have driven safely through the 6 unmarked four way intersections safely. Even though there are no stop or yields signs anywhere to be seen.

• I have heated my house with a cord of wood this winter. Just for you non-roughing it people, I have included a definition : “A cord is a unit of measure of dry volume used in Canada and the United States to measure firewood and pulpwood.” Every morning I wake up, build my fire, and consider myself quite the pioneer.

• I have started calling Stevensville “Stevi” this pretty much makes me a local.

• Through great peer pressure from my boys they are going to take “hunters safety."  I will become a huge fan of hunting if they shoot the turkey that still mocks me.

I am sure my list could continue, but I think you get the general idea. Maybe it’s time for me to buy a goat and start wearing Camo.

Some people buy cars

1. Nathan turned 14 this week.  I know he is 6 '1 and looks like he is 19 but it still hurts.
2. I turned 36.  OUCH!  Of course this brings me one year closer to my 40th which is a good thing.   Why you ask?  Well, I decided at my fortieth I am buying two items to celebrate.  First, will be a commercial Slurpy machine that will always be running in my kitchen.  Second, will be the cool candy coin machines that have runts and gumballs in them.  These will change  my life.

I know some people buy cars or go on trips during a mid-life crisis. I obviously resort to my childhood.  I was even asked last week if I would play my violin and speak in Relief Society.  I was so excited until she said.  "Please explain what inspired you to start a new musical instrument  AT YOUR AGE!" 

So to celebrate turning 36 I am starting the violin, looking into Slurpy machines, Oh, and I was fitted for braces last week.  Happy 16th oh I mean 36th to me.

Nothing died well except for the large bird-like turkey

At a church meeting last night they said that blogging totally counts as writing in a journal. Since I don’t ever write in a journal it inspired me to blog more. You will all have to forgive my total lack of grammar.  I have to admit I got so I disliked blogging because it pointed out that I was not great at Kimbals advanced english class.


It has been dang cold here. I know it is cold everywhere but Montana unlike the rest of the world does not salt their roads. This has made my last few weeks difficult.

Things I have almost hit with my car:

A rabbit

Many poor squirrels,

A mailbox

Things I actually did hit with my car:

My bush outside my house,

A very large bird-like turkey thing (Don’t worry this was not my fault, and it is dead now)

A car full of teenagers. (Don’t worry this was also not my fault everyone is alive and well) My favorite part of the whole thing was that it happened on my birthday woo hoo at least the police officer noticed on my license and wished me happy birthday. My second favorite thing was on Sunday when one of the young women said the bummer part of her week was that some of the cheerleaders couldn’t cheer due to being treated for concussions. This was all because some dang lady hit them with her car. Well, at least I didn’t hit the rabbit.

All I want for Christmas.

Me:  Okay, everyone tell me the one thing you really want for Christmas.

Nate:  Minecraft (a video game)

Ben:  Halo and an Xbox to go with it.

Jonny:  Uhhhh, one of those big tubs of potato Salad from Costco.

(Jonny doing Tebow)

Merry Christmas!

30 minutes of Joy

The entire country should model their elementary music programs after ours.  It is truly brilliant. 

6:20 p.m.  All 2nd grade parents shuffle in to gym and quickly find a seat.

6:30 p.m.  All second grade students sing 5 songs most of which the ACLU  would throw a fit over.  (They ended with Silent Night complete with sign language.)

Jonny had a speaking part.  They asked a handful of second graders "How do you celebrate Christmas"

Girl # 1:    "We celebrate because it is Jesus' birthday"  crowd goes  "Ahhhhh"

Boy #2  "We celebrate by giving gifts"  crowd goes "AHHHHH"

Girl #3:  "We decorate a tree"  crowd goes "AHHHHHH"

Jonny:  "We build snow forts"  crowd laughes.

6:50  We quickly shuffle through one door as all the parents of 3rd grade shuffle in through the other.  Merry Christmas to us, we should all go make a snow fort.

Alton, your my hero.

There are some people who never let you down--  my gas station friends who can order a case of nacho cheese and it arrives the next day, Ryan Reynolds for obvious reasons and Alton.  You cannot however count on the tooth fairy. She has stiffed Jonny 3 days in a row.

 We have been seeing this dish pop up for years on our trusty "Food Network."  Since there are no "Chicken and Waffle restaurants here in Hamilton.... I know... shocker we decided to follow Alton's recipe and try it.   It was delightful in a very weird and bizarre way.  So here is a huge shout out to our friend Alton. I think I am going to try to make his home-made candy corns this week because let's face it, all candy corn is gross.

Death of the Hamster

We didn’t have the best of luck with pets as a child. Jenny had a horrible little crab that used to escape and we would find it in weird places. My first hamster’s sad little life ended quite tragically. I had spent many hours crocheting a leash. (Don’t judge me, all children in Wyoming crocheted their pets leashes.) Anyway, I then proudly harnessed my hamster and took her on a walk down to the Lancaster’s. Yet we never made it to the destination because a very scary dog showed up, barked once and my little hamster died instantly from heart failure.


We (Jenny, Jared, Jason, and I) were then entrusted with a second hamster. Oh, the hours I spent dressing up the hamster in all my doll clothes. He was a very happy companion at a time when my older siblings made up horror stories to scare me into staying at home rather than accompanying them to the park. To this day I am still afraid of all dogs, Nazi’s and anyone over the age of 75. Sadly one day our beloved pet also left us. Not by death, but by escaping into the wild to live with all the other happy hamsters.

Last week my parents visited us  in Montana bringing with them my favorite bag of doll clothing for Sarah to play with. It was quite the shock when Sarah’s friend came up to me holding the sad remains of our beloved hamster. Yes, it appears I might have left the poor dressed up hamster in my bag where he must have died slowly and then decomposed over the next 30 years. Well at least it wasn’t the crab.