I got an Honorable Mention

So, my whole life whenever my mom sees some random invention that makes life easier she always says "now, why didn't I think of that?"

Well tonight I am sitting in my recliner (of course) looking at the One Step Ahead catalog that came in the mail today and I'll be darned if I don't see the Snack & Play Travel Tray. Ummmmm nice try, One Step Ahead. I ALREADY thought of that! I came up with that idea for Invention Convention in 6th grade! Maybe I didn't have time in 6th grade between school and about 35 hours per week of gymnastics practice to get the patent, but I did have the idea first.

You might be asking yourself what the heck is Invention Convention? Well, I'll tell you. It's some sort of science fair type event where elementary school children try to create new inventions and learn about the patent process.

And in case it's not totally obvious to anyone that knows me, I am SO not a science/math person. I have no earthly idea what I was doing entering a science fair type event. Props to my mother for just trying to engage me in any after-school activities seeing as how every waking minute of my life at that time was spent at school or gymnastics OR in the car for 3 hours each day to and from gymnastics! So in the maybe 2 seconds that I wasn't at practice or on my way to or from practice, I came up with this super fabulous idea. Every night after practice I ate my dinner (usually a Mrs. Winners chicken leg, biscuit) in the car on the way home. I could invent a tray to hook onto the back of that passenger seat that would flip down and I could eat my dinner. Yes, I see now how it seems exactly like the flip down trays on airplanes. Like I said, I travelled A LOT and lacked in creativity.

But what I lacked in creativity, I made up for in design. Oh wait. That's the complete opposite of the truth. My design was horrible too. Actually worse than the idea itself. I'm pretty sure I had my dad cut the side out of a cardboard box and then I somehow fastened twisted rods of aluminum foil into these hooks that would hook this tray onto the back of the front passenger seat. I am literally laughing so hard that I am crying right now just thinking of the design! I can't even do it justice in writing. Why oh why do I not have a picture of it somewhere? Oh my gosh, I'm going to go duplicate it right now and attach a picture.

The best part? My ever so creative name. The Car Eating Tray. My pride was shattered when Josh Wilson made fun of me and said it sounded as if the car was actually eating the tray. Oh snap. The name sucked too.

I got an honorable mention.

the funny pages

what a wonderful Sunday! Jeremy was actually home so we went to church together with the boys and then out to lunch...a rare treat on our strict Dave Ramsey budget, but very worth the quality time together. Then home and we all took naps! We ran a few errands and I took the boys to a parking lot near the airport and watched planes take off and land.

so a few of our very own Sunday comics:
-- at church during the Nicene Creed (prayer)one line reads "He was born of the Virgin Mary, and became man" obviously referring to Jesus. Justin exclaims "a CAVE man? Like in Scooby Doo?" He thought "became man" sounded like "cave man." He was all excited that the entire congregation was talking about Scooby Doo in church. Yup Justin, Jesus is running around disguised as the frozen caveman. I can just picture Velma saying "It was that pesky Jesus who has been haunting the deserted inn."

-- Leo spent our entire lunch feeding himself and his "raff" (giraffe) lunch. He holds him by the neck and says "raff's turn" and then "MY turn" as he takes turns feeding raff and giving him drinks from the sippy cup. Then at the end of lunch he lays raff on his back and says "raff pooped" and proceeds to act like he is changing his diaper (on the table). NICE

-- and last but not least, Justin was beyond excited today that he got to wear a new pair of shoes. And by new, I mean barely used hand-me-down shoes from his cousin Nicholas. Justin has been obsessed with his friend LJ's shoes at daycare. He told me a few days ago that LJ has Sketchers and Sketchers are FAST. So when I got out the shoes to wear to this morning and realized that they are Sketchers I thought Justin was going to lose it. He was SO excited. He has been talking about them all day. This afternoon as we watched the airplanes take off he said from the back seat "Mom, do you think if I stick my foot out (of the window) they will see my Sketchers and think they are COOL?" And then just now as he was going to bed he told Jeremy "Everyone tomorrow is going to be like 'WHOA! Those are so cool!'" He is totally pumped for daycare tomorrow to show off his new shoes! And just so Leo doesn't feel left out, he got new Buzz Lightyear tennis shoes that light up when he stomps! It's going to be a good Monday!

the necessary lie

When is it ok to lie to your children? Well, I did. I am. I will continue to do it. At least until after Halloween.

Because you see my friends, Justin wants to be a "bad guy" for Halloween. He has a small obsession with a costume magazine that arrived in the mail last week. He's been carrying the dang magazine around with him for several days now. He asks if he can take it to Ellan's every single morning. He has slept with it twice. It's the first thing he asks for each morning. We had a mini catastrophe when Leo ripped off the cover tonight but thankfully the bad guy pages were preserved and Justin was in a forgiving mood.

So he wants to be all sorts of different monsters and characters. The past day or so it has been Wolverine...or as he sometimes calls him "the guy on my toothbrush." Before that it was a Power Ranger and before that I think it was some other scary looking superhero guy. And I'm just not ready for it yet. I know I will have to get used to it. With 2 boys I am bound to end up with some horrible/violent character at least a few times in the next 10 years. Ten years right? It doesn't go on much after that does it? The wanting to dress up like bad guys? Maybe 12 years.

I think that most of the time I am really good at letting the boys make their own decisions as much as a 1 and 3 year old can make decisions. But not this time. I've got a good plan for Halloween this year. Batman and Robin. They are perfect for it. Tall, thin, dark haired Justin with short, stocky, blond haired Leo. They are meant to be Batman and Robin. I refuse to give up on it for this year.

So, I lied. Kind of. I told him the Wolverine costume doesn't come in his size, which is doesn't but it's not as if I couldn't have tried to find one in his size. I told him that he has to be FOUR to wear that and alas the young lad is only three. He took the news pretty well. He's hyped up for his fourth birthday. I might just have to get him the Wolverine costume for his birthday next year!

I have promised myself that they can be anything they want to be next year for Halloween. Well except for anything gory. Or with guns. Or violent. Or aliens.