wordless wednesday

tuesday tip

(topic: tri-state traveling with a tired teething toddler)

if you are ever so inclined to confine yourself to a car for 10 plus hours with a tired, crabby, hungry, obnoxious, teething, picky, demanding, 21 month old BOY toddler as I was yesterday, do NOT forget to bring a mylar balloon. or two. believe me, it will provide hours of entertainment!

thanks, auntie rah, for the balloons!

headlines

after reading sara's post about ads, i figured it was time for another headlines post. you know, real headlines, ads, etc.,* that are so crazy you wonder how they ever made it into print.

last week when my sister becky came for a visit she brought us all tacky gifts (here's her story on our tacky gifts). she brought me a something (i'm not really sure what it is, but it is definitely blog worthy. i'll be posting about it later sometime). she brought heather the sunglasses that ryan was wearing, and she brought my mom a lapel pin that says "mom."


so can you see why this made my headlines?

look in the top right corner...




...8+!


pah-lease people!! what EIGHT year old is a MOM?!?


so what crazy, weird, absurd headlines* have you seen lately?

*can be anything - from a newspaper headline to a misprinted cereal box to a commercial on tv!

meta micah-morphosis

when my sister becky and her kids came to my parent's house last week, my cutie nephew micah looked like this:

then when i got to her house yesterday, she informed me that i was going to cut micah's hair! so this morning we chopped off 2.5 inches of hair! and although the picture isn't the greatest, he is still super cute!

and while we're speaking of hair, ryan got a new 'do compliments of his auntie beppy!

wordless wednesday

orange for stellan

as you all know, i'm away from home right now visiting my parents. and you should also know about stellan by now, who is at this moment having surgery. so when i read yesterday that people were wearing orange for stellan today, i was bummed. my orange shirt is at home. i have absolutely NOTHING orange to wear.

so i decided to dress my blog in orange, hence the change. go visit mckmama's blog to get the latest update, and click here to see everyone who is wearing orange for stellan today. and pray pray pray!

not me! monday

welcome to not me! monday. the day that we can fess up to those things that we would rather leave un-fessed (yes... i like to make up words). click over to mckmama's blog (who was the brain behind NMM) to read the latest on stellan. and please pray pray pray as he'll be having his ablation tomorrow.


here we go... not me! monday minnesota style:

i have NOT totally been taking advantage of my parents and have NOT had at least three different kid-less shopping outings. i could so NOT get used to this!

on the other hand, though, ryan has NOT been getting up 1-2 hours earlier than he normally does at home. i am NOT gonna have to totally retrain him when we go back home!

my sister becky is NOT so blonde that one night while we were playing a card game, she did not misuse or make up these words:
vietnamists-more commonly known as vietnamese.
bonsai-something you say when you are doing karate. yeah, beck, it's a tree...
trifecta-three of a kind. (remember, we were playing cards. and apparently she had a trifecta.) bonus points to any of you who know what a trifecta is. because i did NOT have to look it up myself...
epicenter-she just thought that it referred to the center...of anything.
homes how-after reading about a homes how and asking what it was, she then correctly re-read it as homeshow...

i have NOT been getting my dad addicted to the wii. we have NOT been bowling so much that when i actually went to the bowling alley the other night, i was NOT flustered because i wasn't bowling like i had been on the wii. and after bowling a 66, i did NOT come home and then bowl a 167. hmmm.

my sisters and i did NOT take nice pictures together, then follow those up with some silly pictures. we were NOT laughing so hard that we were crying.

i did NOT just post an embarrassing picture of myself. again. we all know what could happen when i do that! (yes... those are my dad's old glasses!)


what have you NOT done this week?

Spring Fling – What I can not live without…

so remember how i told you that sara was having a spring fling blog swap kinda thing? well it's here!! and today on my blog i'm hosting cass from the rowan four. so here's her post with her favorite girly product:

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Hi Everyone! I am a guest blogger participating in Domestically Challenged’s Blogspot Spring Fling Event You can check out her blog here…

So back to the title of this post. What I can not live without…

…body mist. It is so very wonderful AND it has so many personalities’ uses too!

I have a story! So let’s flash back to the sixth grade – that would have been 19XX, ahhhh you didn’t think I has actually going to tell you did you??? There was a girl, we will call her Karen for this exercise, that always smelled ‘flowery’ and all the boys LOVED Karen! I have to admit she smelled good…for competition that is. Now I was a bit of a tomboy so smell had never really mattered to me until THAT year. So began my many years of searching for a smell that worked for me…I tried soap, shampoo, hairspray, perfume, lotion, you name it- I tried it! This one was too heavy, that one to musky, THIS one you could smell from across the room…oh the frustration. It wasn’t until the late 90’s that I discovered body mist. It was perfect, it was light, and I loved it.

So I have a love for things that smell good, but are light.

Now back to the many personalities’ uses of body spray. I use it for lots of things, not just my body. Let’s see- I spray my clothes to freshen them up, any room in the house OR furniture for that matter that needs a lift, great for hot days in the sun for a quick spritz to cool you off, and finally- ummm it’s great for those shoes that I refuse to wear sock with…My mom is shaking her head right now…

Now I have tried all brands, but my favorite right now is the New DOVE mists. Good news is they are inexpensive at a whopping $3.89 at target. I dare you to try them- what do you have to lose??? It’s not like shelling out a crisp Benjamin for a perfume you may end-up disliking after 2-3 weeks. Soooo-go for it!

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thanks, cass! it was a pleasure to blog host you! and don't forget to visit sara at domestically challenged to see everyone else's favorite girly item.

so what's your fav? what can you not live without?!

just so you're not TOTALLY confused!

someone else will be posting on my blog tomorrow (saturday). well, i will really be doing the posting, but it's gonna be someone else who wrote it.

you see, sara, over at domestically challenged, is having a spring fling blog swap kinda thing. how it's gonna happen is that everyone who is participating is going to email her a post. then she's gonna email it to another participant to post on their blog. all the blogs involved will be linked on her blog, then we get to go "find" our own posts. kind of like a big scavenger hunt for your blog post.

confused? yeah. i was too. but i think it will be fun!

click here to read the complete details (she explains it way better!), and feel free to join in on the fun. because like she said, the more the merrier!

thankful thursday

this is gonna be quick. because i have to go play a game with my family.

but today, i'm very thankful that my dad no longer has dial-up, but now has high speed internet. because instead of this taking me 15 minutes to post, it now takes me 2!! love you daddy!

what are you thankful for today?!

a favor...UPDATED

UPDATE: samantha's ankle is feeling much better. after i wrapped it in an ace bandage last night she attemted to walk on it a little bit, and then when her auntie rah got home she pretty much ran to the door to tell auntie about her injury. she told me to write to everyone "thank you so much for praying. my ankle feels better." so thanks!

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ORIGINAL POST: today was a beautiful day here in minnesota (i'm at my parent's house for a visit), so this afternoon we went outside for a while. when we were done samantha started running to go inside. then she lost her shoe and was hopping around on one foot. we got her shoe back on and she said her ankle hurt. when she started walking again she limped for a couple steps then started sobbing. she bawled as i carried her all the way back to the house. so she either twisted it or rolled it or something. i don't know. apparently it hurt a LOT because she asked me to please call the doctor! i propped her ankle up and put ice on it, and as she was crying the questions came "mom, will i be able to walk again?" and "what if i can't play games at awana tomorrow?"



then after a few minutes she said with the saddest look and with tears rolling down her face, "mom, can you put it on your blog so that people will start praying for me?"

absolutely.

so, if you would, please say a little prayer for samantha's ankle to feel better!

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in other news, ryan started throwing up on sunday, and he didn't sleep well that night. we took our 11 hour trip to minnesota yesterday with him throwing up in the van only once! and after a better night of sleep last night he's been much better today! i guess he just needed gramma!

not me! monday

thanks to mckmama, it's not me! monday. go stalk visit her blog like the rest of us and please continue to pray for baby stellan who is starting his 4th week in the hospital.

this has been a fun week full of not me moments, so lets get started!

we were NOT busily cleaning the house this week since my sister heather was coming for a visit. and when we got done with said cleaning, samantha did NOT say "IT'S A MIRACLE!!!!"

since heather was not supposed to get here until 10:30pm on wednesday, i did NOT let samantha stay up just so that she could see her. she did NOT got to bed until 11:30pm!

heather, di (ben's sister), and i did NOT go to phantom of the opera on thursday night. i was NOT so excited to go that i wanted to throw up. i did NOT enjoy phantom soooooooo much that i cried. four times. i did NOT have tears rolling down my face as we left. and when we got home i did NOT look to see if there were still tickets available for the next night. go read heather's post about how great the opera was!

after leaving phantom i did NOT weave in and out of the pillars (while driving my dad’s van) in the parking garage just to annoy my sis-in-law. don’t worry dad, i did NOT hit anything. hehe!

after a big fiasco (which made me really mad) with the walmart photo department a year ago, i did NOT go back there this week to get some graduation pictures printed out for my niece. after i got all the pictures printed out, they wouldn’t let me purchase them because i didn’t have a copyright release (saying that i give myself permission to print out the pictures that i took. ugh.). but instead they said that they would put my name on them and i could get them when i bring back a copyright release. my whole conversation with them (that was much too long for this already long story) did NOT make me very mad! so i did NOT decide to give them my name with the intentions of never picking up the pictures. and just so that they couldn’t track me down, call me, and make me pay for the pictures i was not going to pick up, i did NOT give them my maiden name…

when we were all done with the photo department we exited the store and in front of us was a mother with her probably 2 year old twin girls and 4 year old daughter. as they were walking out she was yelling at the oldest girl “when we get home i’m gonna…” they went down one row in the parking lot and we went down the other. we got to our car and heard a bunch of yelling/cussing. i looked up and the person parked right in front of us was yelling out her passenger window at the mom saying that she was sorry and she didn’t see them. the mom was NOT cussing back at the lady saying about every word you could imagine. and NOT in front of her girls. nice one, mom! we did NOT just stand there and watch for a couple seconds because we were shocked at how the mom was acting. she did NOT then cut through the parking lot over to her car which was two spaces away from ours. she was NOT still loudly cussing at the lady, now in front of MY kids, so i did NOT politely say, “hey, my kids are listening.” she did NOT then turn to me cuss me up one side and down the other. samantha did NOT start digging through her purse for a God loves you paper to give the lady. no, I didn’t let samantha give it to her…. on our way out of the parking lot, the lady did NOT give me the finger (after I honked and waved at her of course!!). and after we left the parking lot i did NOT keep checking my mirrors to make sure she wasn’t following us!

i did NOT make a picure/diagram of the walmart parking lot while riding to MN just so my story would be easier to understand. (yes, the ovals are cars. you can only do so much in a car!) it was also NOT a good way to pass time….. there goes 100 miles…

also on our trip i did NOT get one of those microwavable ham and swiss sandwiches at the gas station for our dinner. and the microwaves were the type that just had a dial and went up to 6 minutes with 15, 30, and 45 second markings. i totally did NOT read the dial incorrectly, thinking that it only went to 60 seconds. so i did NOT put our sandwiches in the microwave and turn the dial to 6 minutes thinking it was only 60 seconds. after the dial got to the 4 and I thought only 20 seconds had gone by instead of 2 minutes, my sister did NOT come to my rescue and tell me to take the sandwiches out before they blew up! thanks, heath!

i am now NOT at my parent’s house in Minnesota. and my dad did NOT finally get high speed internet this year, so hopefully i WON’T be able to keep up on my blog for the next 2 weeks!

happy monday! what have you NOT done this week?!

happy resurrection day!

today is easter--the day we celebrate the resurrection of Jesus! i haven't talked a whole lot about what i believe, so i figured this would be the perfect day.


when i was four years old i asked Jesus into my heart and accepted Him as my Savior from sin. i grew up in a Christian home, went to church every sunday, went to a Christian school, and so on. i knew very well what i was taught to believe so 'faith' didn't come very hard to me.

until i started questioning it.

when i was 12 i started to doubt the truths that had been taught to me. i was so scared that i would lose my salvation and afraid that i didn't say 'the prayer' right the first time. i remember going to bed every night and asking Jesus to save me just in case. (i know better now... a prayer doesn't save you, JESUS saves you!)

then i started wondering what if this isn't the way to heaven?! looking back it was an unsettling time. but as i started asking a LOT of questions, and finding out the facts for myself (and not just because that's what i was taught) things became clear to me. when i turned 13 i remember rededicating my life to Jesus Christ and claiming this simple truth: Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved. Acts 16:31


this is what i believe today:

~ i believe that everything God says in the Bible is true. John 17:17

~ everyone has sinned against God and our sin separates us from God. Romans 3:23

~ God's punishment for our sin is death. Romans 6:23

~ Jesus took our death sentence and died on the cross for my sin. your sin. everyone's sin. past, present, and future. His death covered them ALL! Hebrews 10:11-14, 1 Peter 3:18a

~ Jesus did not stay dead--He resurrected to life again! Acts 2:22-24, 1 Corinthians 15:3-4. do you know how important this is?! the fact that Jesus rose to life again validates the truth of the entire gospel and my faith. if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins. I Corinthians 15:14-17

~ salvation is a free gift. all i have to do is take it - by believing that Jesus died on the cross for my sin and by trusting Him alone to save me from my sin. Romans 3:23-24, John 3:16

~ i can't do anything on my own to get to heaven, nor can i add anything to my salvation. try as i may, the good things i do (going to church, getting baptized, taking communion) won't earn me salvation. thank goodness.... because i would fail big time! it is ONLY through BELIEVING in JESUS that i can be saved from my sin and go to heaven someday! Ephesians 2:8-9, Titus 3:5, John 3:36, John 14:6


today i celebrate that Jesus rose from the dead! and i am rejoicing in the fact that i KNOW that i am saved and will spend eternity in heaven with Him! 1 John 5:11-13

are you confident of your salvation today? are you believing in Jesus to save you from your sins? are you totally confused after reading what i believe?! i'd love to hear from you. so if you'd rather not leave a comment, email me. benanderinkern@gmail.com

HAPPY EASTER! HE IS RISEN!!!

girl's got heart

samantha wants to be a missionary. after learning about it at church, and having a former sunday school teacher go to peru as a missionary, samantha has talked about it several times. and there's a boy in one of her classes at church who's parents will be going overseas this year. one day samantha told me "oh, i just wish i could go right now with them and tell the people about Jesus!" she has such a big heart for people and their need for God, so it didn't really surprise me when she said that. so i told her that she could be a missionary any time by showing God's love to people and telling her friends about Jesus.

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so i don't know why i was surprised when i caught her doing this about a month ago.

she had fashioned her own assembly line. first she cut the pages out of her small notebook, then she'd stamp 5-6 pieces of paper with her hello kitty stamp, followed by "God... Loves... You..."

"what are you doing samantha?"

"i'm writing 'God loves you' so that i can hand it to all the kids so that they can know about Jesus."

i caught myself before i discouraged her endeavor out loud and thought to myself, it's not like she's really going to hand those out. i mean, she's home-schooled so it's not like she'd hand them out at school. she'll forget about it anyway.

"oh that's neat, honey. you're making a lot."

"yeah. i'm making one for every kid in the whole world."

"really? how are you gonna give one to every kid?"

"we're gonna drive in the car and i'm gonna throw them out the window and they can run into the street to get them."

i admit i discouraged that idea a little. afterall, we don't want the kids running out in the street!

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later that night she showed her daddy the fruits of her labor. we counted all the papers she had made--27!

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the next day the papers disappeared and i didn't think anything of it. the day after that went to my one-stop-shop for some needed supplies and food. and of course samantha brought her purse. while i was busy searching for a certain type of cereal, she walked over to the employee who was busily restocking the shelves. "here, this is for you." she held out a paper, then turned and walked back to me before the lady could say anything. i don't know why, but i was shocked again! wow... she actually did it!

she handed out 3 more to random employees who seemed confused rather than touched by her gesture. then we headed over to festival, the real grocery store. she gave one to the butcher who was also uninthused. then as i was checking out she gave one to the cashier, and the 18 year old sacker boy who both seemed genuinely appreciative! the boy kept saying "that's so awesome," and "thank you very much!" it was cute. i think he made her day with his excitement!

on the way home i told her i was proud of her for sharing God's love with others. she was so excited and exclaimed in her grown-up-wanna-be-14-year-old voice "i know!!! i just can't believe that i'm a missionary now!!!"

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the following week she handed a few more out. she tried to remember to take her purse everywhere so that she could pass them out to people, usually employees. then we hadn't gone anywhere for couple days, so i had forgotten about it.

until...

...we all went back to festival to grab a few dinner ingredients. when we got to the checkout line, she again handed a paper to the cashier (not the same one as before) and the lady bagging our items. they were both impressed. the one lady said she was going to hang it on her fridge, and the other was going to put it up in her office. while they were talking to samantha another cashier came over and the sacker lady said to her "look what she just gave me!" to which the other girl excitedly replied, "oh my goodness!!!!! i've been waiting to meet you! i've heard all about you from the other employees that you gave a paper to!!" and samantha happened to have just one left in her purse so she gave it to her.

she was practically beaming as we left the store.

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so was i surprised when i found she had started to made another stack of these...?!

...nope!

thankful thursday (updated)

updated:

A.M.A.Z.I.N.G!!!!!

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original post:

you'll have to click here to see what i'm thankful for TODAY! 2 hours and counting, baby!!

the lesser of two evils...

...clean the kitchen floor? or wash by hand a dishwasher's load of dishes? hmmm, what to do...

i hate cleaning. and i think people who enjoy it are crazy. so i enjoy the little things that make my household chores easier. like a dishwasher. i have one of those dishwashers that is portable, so every time i use it i have to push it over to the sink and hook it up. some might see that as an inconvenience, but i see it as two minutes of work for clean dishes. (for those of you who have never heard of a portable dishwasher, this is what mine looks like. except like 15 years older.)

most of the time i have a load ready to go in the dishwasher (which i am now going to refer to as dw. seriously it's too long and annoying to type!) and another load waiting on the counter. might as well save up my dirty dishes and only move the dw once, right?!

well last week our dw started leaking. halfway through the load it started making this awful noise, so ben turned it of. the sound didn't quit. so then he unplugged it. the sound still didn't stop. then without any warning water started leaking out of the bottom all over our kitchen floor. i wasn't home at the time, so he got to clean it all up! yes... one dw full of water all over the floor.

it actually leaked like this a few months ago and was fine after that. so today i decided to use the dw again. i placed towels around it like sandbags and waited for the flood. first the noise came. i turned off the dw and the noise continued. so i unplugged it and waited for a few minutes. ok, it's not leaking, i thought. so i went in the living room for a minute and came back to a dw lake in my kitchen. AGAIN!

even with the towels surrounding the dw it still leaked about 6 feet beyond them! so i cleaned up the floor for the next 30 minutes, turned the dw back on so it could finish, then sat patiently waiting for it to flood again. the load got done with out any more leaks, so i unloaded it, piled it full of dishes again, and am now waiting out round two! yes, as much as i hate getting down on my hands and knees to clean the floors, i would rather risk running the leaky dw again just so that i don't have to do the dishes! besides, the floor could use a good cleaning. or two.

what household chore do you absolutely hate?

tuesday tip

be careful what you post on your blog. because you never who will get their hands on it...

about a month and a half ago i wrote this gross post about samantha's earwax and how i practically went mining for it. and then the following day i posted a picture of me wearing the headlight that i used while toothpicking her ear.

then a couple weeks ago i received these in the mail:





yeah, my sister becky wanted to help me in my new business so she made 12 business cards for me.




so, anyone in need of some earwax removal? .....anyone? .....hello??? .....ANYONE??!?

hmm... that's what i thought.

thanks anyways beck! :-)

and the award goes to...

...me!

hang with me people, this is a little long.

it started almost 5 weeks ago. my procrastination, that is. i was so excited to receive my first blog awards from ashley over at let go, laughing. so i started this post, and when it was almost done i saved it, and then the procrastination began.

on march 5th, ashley gave me these two blog awards - the lemonade award and the friendship award. since then, alicia and ace have also given me the lemonade award. then yesterday ashley gave me the kreative blogger award and today alicia gave it to me too. so here are these awards and their rules!

the lemonade award


rules:

If you are given the award, then put the logo on your blog or post.

Share the love and link to this post and to the person from whom you received your award.
Next, nominate 5-10 blogs which show GREAT ATTITUDE and/or GRATITUDE!
Be sure to link to your nominees within your post. Let them know that they have received this award by commenting on their blog.


the friendship award

The Friendship Award: "These blogs are exceedingly charming. These kind bloggers aim to find and be friends. They are not interested in self-aggrandizement. Our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut, even more friendships are propagated."

rules:
Deliver this award to eight bloggers who must choose eight more and include this cleverly-written text into the body of their award.


kreative blogger award

rules:
1. Post the award on your blog, and link to the person who gave you the award.
2. List seven things you love.
3. List seven blogs you love.
4. E-mail or comment on those blogs to let the people know you've given them the award.

thanks, ashley and alicia, for thinking i'm a kreative blogger!

7 things i love: (besides the obvious God and family answer)
1. my camera
2. target
3. my laptop
4. air conditioning
5. ice cream
6. raspberry cheesecake yogurt and animal crackers
7. smiling

7 blogs i love: (and also the blogs to whom i am awarding all the awards..)
1. jessica's
2. brooke's
3. mary's
4. katie's
5. nicole's
6. heather's
7. becky's

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i do think though, after the time it took me to post this, that i would be most deserving of an award. more specifically, a procrastination award. so you know what? i decided to make one! yes, i have procrastinated on housework, taxes, sleep, etc. to make myself a procrastination award. and it's up for grabs, too! i hereby award this to anyone who has ever procrastinated, is procrastinating, or hopes to someday procrastinate!

no rules, just procrastinate on putting it on your blog for a couple days....

not me! monday

time for not me! monday again. if you haven't been keeping up with stellan and the whole mckfamily, they are on week 3 of being in the PICU for his SVT. so instead of hopping over to mckmama's blog to read other not me! monday posts, please go visit her blog and lift little stellan in your prayers.

this week i have definitely NOT still been glued to my computer checking mckmama's blog and twitter for updates on stellan. and i have NOT been constantly reminded by samantha to pray for stellan.

and after looking at all the pictures in stellan's name gallery one day, i did NOT accidentally call ryan "stellan."

after moving tons of ebay stuff to our new storage unit (YEA!) we did NOT vacuum our living room for the first time in about 2 months (not kidding people). and ben has NOT vacuumed every day since then because he got a new vacuum. and you know how boys like to try out something new...

and when my inlaws came over yesterday, ben did NOT try to totally sell them on the new vacuum by pretty much doing an infomercial. and then when he asked them if they'd like to try it out, i did NOT get my living room vacuumed again.

i did NOT find samantha in the fridge with her head upside down drinking directly from the spigot on our water jug/container/thingy.

we did NOT avoid a $50 maintenance fee when we had stuff too close to the furnace in our utility room. and we did NOT avoid said fee because the maintenance man that came over to change our furnace filter was NOT an old friend of ben's from school. when he opened the door to the utility room ben did not say, "oh! don't look in here for a minute," and then did NOT move everything very quickly!


what have you NOT done this week?

13/52 photo challenge

first of all, let me start by saying that i have slacked for the last 2 weeks on the picture of the week challenge. i will do those someday...

but as for this week, FOOD is the category. i didn't cook at all this week, except for the stouffer's pour contents of bag into the pan and heat for 15 minutes meal that i cooked tonight. ahem. so i didn't really have any foods worth capturing this week. well, except for when i went to margarita's for tacos with my sis-in-law. but i totally didn't think about taking a picture of the best tacos in the world because we were too busy talking about stellan. i digress.

instead i decided to take a picture of one of my our new favorite desserts.

one bowl of mixed frozen fruit...


topped with vanilla flavored yogurt...


and all mixed together!


YUM! it's incredibly delicious, and has also been said to taste better than ice cream! the only thing that could make this cool treat better is a nice hot warm day!

thankful thursday

today i'm thankful for imagination. i loved my imagination (except for those times when it got the better of me) while i was growing up. and i can see that samantha's huge imagination is a lot like mine was.

we have this game at bedtime called "hey honey" that she and i play every now and then. it all started a few years ago when she ran upstairs and hid in bed. and when i went into her room to tell her goodnight she said from under the covers in her best 'daddy' voice "hey, honey!!" so i said, "hi, whatcha doin'?" to which she replied, "watchin' ball..." so we carried on a conversation as if she were ben, while she kept herself hidden under the covers.

after puting the kids to bed last night, i am thankful for imagination. because without it, i could not have great conversations like this:


sam (in her big bad daddy voice under the covers for the entire time) - "hey honey!"

me - "oh, hey babe. i didn't know you were up here. what are you doing in samantha's bed?"

sam - "just waiting to tell ryan goodnight."

me - "oh, well ryan's down here in his crib. so why don't you come down and tell him goodnight." (samantha has a loft bed)

sam - "i can't."

me - "why not?"

sam - "because i'm a ghost."

me - "haha. no you're not because ghosts aren't real."

sam - "YES THEY ARE!!!!!"

me - "well are ghosts ticklish?"

sam - "no."

i climbed up on the chair, put my hand under the covers and started tickling her and she started wiggling and laughing.

me - "sounds like you're laughing which means you're ticklish. so that means you aren't a ghost."

sam - "i know. i'm not a ghost. i'm an ALIEN."

me - "oh. well if you were an alien you wouldn't kiss ryan goodnight. you'd just take him back to your planet."

sam - "well why didn't you say so?!"

me - "because if you're an alien you should already KNOW that!"

silence

me - "hey, why don't you come and tell ryan goodnight then we can go downstairs and have a snack."

sam - "that's okay, i have snacks up here... like ten hundred snacks."

me - "oh, well can i have one?"

her hand emerges from underneath the covers and puts an imaginary snack in my hand.

me - "that's not a snack. that was nothing!"

sam - "it is too a snack. it's a ghost snack."

me - "well humans can't eat ghost snacks."

sam - "yes they can. it's a human ghost snack. you just have to imagination it."

me - "oh, well i could also just go downstairs and get a real snack..."

sam - "fine. go downstairs!"

me - "ok..."

as i started walking out of her room she jumped up out of the covers and started laughing. i acted all surprised that it was her and not ben, and she was quite proud of being able to conceal her identity for that long.

oh my sweet silly sugar, i'm so thankful you think like mommy and that i can imagination things with you!

wordless wednesday...

...with an explantion: samantha was making a clothing word book in school one day and on the last page it says "can you think of another clothing word?" then you're supposed to draw the picture and write what it is.

she did this with no prompting from me whatsoever...