I am a fan of Survivor. Not a Cochran-type fan, but I love that show. Honestly the first season is still my be-all-end-all favorite. Before people thought they “knew” how to play the game.

Looking through the view of a mom’s eye, Survivor could be the ultimate sibling game. Especially if you rip off the theme: Fans vs. Favorites and switch it to Older vs. Younger Sibling. 

A food challenge? Will older sibling get mom’s attention before or after younger sibling.

An immunity challenge? Will older sibling sneak past younger sibling to play with dad.

A food challenge? Which child can force down the dinner that their mom is forcing them to eat.

An immunity challenge? Older sibling attempts to put a puzzle together faster than the younger sibling can take it apart.

A food challenge? Which sibling can get more food on the floor/themselves/not in their mouth!

An immunity challenge? Will older sibling stay awake longer than younger?

A food challenge? Which sibling will be the first to find mom hiding in the laundry room with the brownies.

An immunity challenge? Which sibling will create the best Mother’s Day card.


The winner to be determined by a single vote. Spoiler alert: The who puts mom up in the better nursing home will probably win.



Today is Monday and I am quite fried from all the Mother’s day activities. I mean really, 8 loads of laundry, do the dishes x 4 and then the freaking Bruins lost!! OH and let’s not forget the card I got…To Our Mother….love Hubs, Allie, Boo and the dog. It was a card for an 80-year old. But at least I got a card, right? Oh and then he worked overtime so it’s all good.

This week’s Listicle? 10 Favorite Characters in Movies or TV..

10. Woody from Toy Story, come on someone who believes so much in a child’s love? That has Mommy all over it.

9. Boston Rob from Survivor. 1st he is from Boston. 2nd everyone tries to emulate his game, and fails.

 

8. Archie Bunker. Wouldn’t you love to be able not put a freaking filter on your lips?

7. Princess Leah: she can shoot a gun, fly the Millenium Falcon, ask a walking carpet to get out of her way and then kiss Han Solo. Enough said.

6. Samantha from 16 candles. Because on my 16th birthday I hosted a party that no one came to, sad but true story.

5. Brad Marchand. The Little Ball of Hate on the Bruins. Only because he reminds me so much of my husband. I just hope he plays better in Game 7.

4. Austin & Allie, due to the joy they bring Boo.

3. Danny Zuko and Sandy from Grease. I remember dancing in the aisle with my mom in the movie theater. I think I was 8. I cannot imagine taking Allie to this movie, and she is 9. Holy crap, Rizzo has a freaking pregnancy scare!

2. Ariel from the Little Mermaid. This is an odd pick, but funny. Allie recently told me my hair looks like testicles, like Ursula’s hair. She meant TENTACLES but still she got me to the hair dresser!

1. Indio Montoya from the Princess Bride. I hope someday Allie or Boo says to someone, my name is “Indio Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die”. Or better yet… you said my mom’s hair looks like testicles, prepare to fix it!

This post was brought to you by Monday Listicles. The word you might be using but not know what it means…

 

Who are your favorite TV or Movie Characters?

Life is funny. Just yesterday I contributed to Kristi’s Our Land Series and wrote about how some one (in my mind) was judging Boo and therefore my mommy skills. That same day I was driving Boo to an appointment at Children’s and well, you know how Boston traffic can be. If you don’t know picture a 4-lane highway at a dead stop with a blinking sign telling you that it is only going to take you 37 minutes to go 5 miles. And your exit is another 7 miles past that.

As we are sitting in this traffic Boo starts screaming “HI” at the top of her lungs and waving at the car next to us. Here is where karma kicks my ass. He looked like he was in a gang.

So there I am judging, ON THE SAME DAY as I write a post about judging! Now in my limited defense, the car was pounding rap music so loud my feet felt the vibration. He was wearing the Mr. T starter kit of gold chains and earrings and had his head covered in a handkerchief.

After about (what felt like) 5 minutes of Boo calling “HI” this man finally cracked and waved at her. Then he smiled. And he had gold teeth to match his gold chains. The minute he noticed me noticing he quickly started scowling and changed lanes.

Yeah, I judged and still think he probably was in a gang. But it just goes to show you the power of my Boo. Imagine if we used her in crime control?

Wow. Kristi over at Finding Ninee decided to use one of my posts in her Our Land Series.

Thanks Kristi!
http://www.findingninee.com/dear-you/

Sometimes people’s kindness just makes me speechless. The other night, after a very long day for Boo, I had to drop something off to a friend of mine that works at a golf course. As we were catching up, Boo was just resting her head on my shoulder.

A kind man who works in the pro-shop approached her and held out a pink golf ball. Boo actually took the ball from the man, said ‘thank you’ in her quietest voice and rested her head back down.

This is huge for so many reasons. Boo is very shy, that she even met this man’s eyes and took something from him is amazing. But that she also said thank you? Oh my…

We left, she never let go of the ball. The next morning, it was the first thing she grabbed after her IPAD.

She has not let go of it. She has held it in the supermarket, the bank, Church and while playing. I had to wrest it from her hands before bedtime.

So I would like to take a moment, to say thank you. Thank you to this very kind gentleman who took time out of his day to make a little girl’s day and her momma’s heart overflow.

I have no freaking idea. But I asked Kristi who of course had the answer….according to the world of Kristi According to Wikipedia, a listicle is a list that has more guts.  Specifically “a short-form of writing that uses a list as its thematic structure, but is fleshed out with sufficient verbiage to be published as an article.”

What the heck does that mean, exactly? No idea. I mean how can that be a word if spellcheck doesn’t recognize it? But I have wine so I figured I would hop on the listicle train because this week’s cracked me up.

Ten things that you love that cost you nothing, yet….

Okay, the “yet” is probably not part of the listicle. But since I love bending the rules here I go!

1. Kissing your children good night. Sure, they are cute now, but if they are anything like my Allie they will probably try to charge us soon. This is the girl that asked for an allowance and then refused, refused I tell you, to do ANYTHING if she wasn’t paid. Now I don’t want to raise a future hooker because you know it isn’t like Pretty Woman. So I am never going to go for paying for kisses. But I know how her brain works and will not put anything past her.

2. Walking the dog. Our town just passed a pay-as-you-throw deal. Not only do we have to pay for a dump sticker and on top of that per bag of trash you just know they are going to start changing extra for disposal of dog poop.

3. Showering. Oh wait, that is already taken.  I mean we already have a water tax. So I guess we already pay to be clean. Except I have a well, no water tax right? But how much do you want to bet that soon our town will say you have to pay extra NOT to use their water. And since I love to shower…. 

4. Breathing clean air. Think about it, about 20 years ago some guy in Maine said hey don’t drink your water it isn’t as clean as Poland Springs….

5. Facebook. Let’s face it. I am a Facebook addict. I love Words with Friends, I like looking at people’s photos and saying what the heck were they thinking? I think it is all a scam. Kind of like the water deal. Zuckerberg reeled us in and in the future he is going to make us pay for addiction. Think of the black-mail he has with all those photos we put online. Even worse, all those drunken status updates.

6. Public education. Why do I love public education? Well, it makes sure my children are some place, anyplace else other than at home. I see a time coming when the seniors in the town say they are no longer using their retirement money to pay for my child’s education (and really, who can blame them). Leaving parents to pay for their own child’s education.

7. Blogging. I do not advertise. Why? Well, haven’t been asked! But also my blog is more of a look into our lives. It is not an advice or “theme” blog. I have some favorite blogs though that do advertise. Some A LOT more than others. I worry about the day when you cannot just write or read. Instead if I want to see what is going on in your life I am going to have to pay for the privilege. Oh and Dana as a fellow non-advertiser, if you ever charge me to read your blog I’m going to be very upset!

8. Friendship. At this point my friends are my therapist. I imagine them charging me one day to listen to my troubles.

9. Marriage. I know what you are thinking how can they tax marriage? But if the people who are against marriage for everyone start to think to themselves, hey wait if everyone can get married and we charge them extra then people won’t “live in sin”….I see marriage equality for everyone!

10. Love. See #1 above. Where do you think Allie gets her mercenary tendencies from? If Hubs ever gets a clue that charging for love does not make him a gigolo…..
 

This has been a Monday Listicle event brought to you by the Fab Northwest Mommy at the Good Life. Go check her out and tell me what you would love that doesn’t cost you anything. And if you want to be a rebel, tell me what doesn’t cost you money YET!!

It is Friday and time to take 5 minutes out of the day to just write. Lisa-Jo Baker’s prompt this week is: BRAVE

Ready, set, go!

When I think of Brave I think of my husband. He is either the bravest or most foolish person I know. Seriously, think about it for a moment. He runs INTO a burning building not out of it. He has been electrocuted, dropped 2 stories during a training exercise and yet he still goes back for more.

And trust me, the pay isn’t all that worth it.

He goes into work all hours of the night. I swear I don’t even hear him leave or come home anymore. Allie knows that if we have plans Daddy may or may not be joining us. I cannot tell you how often I have finished a meal by myself.

I know he would say differently, but his love for the job comes before all else. If he had to choose between his family and the fire service he would OF COURSE choose us. But we love him enough not to make him decide. He has been on the fire department since high school and you don’t change what you love about some one.

But he lives, lives, I tell you for the fire service. He joins every tech team they make up. He is on the confined space team. You know if a building collapses? He is the one that will be in there searching for survivors.

Wildfires? Or as we call them here, brush fires. He is on that team too. That is his ‘favorite’ fire. And how weird is that, to have a favorite kind of fire?

Drowning, boat in distress need the dive team? He will probalby be on the call.

I did ask him once if he was ever scared. He said, no because if he ever was he couldn’t do his job.
So again that makes him either very brave or very foolish.


END

What makes you brave?