Latin Funnies

On the first day of Heritage classes this year, I was sitting outside Mrs. Miller’s Prima Latina class and about laughed myself silly overhearing some of what was going on in there.  I was not laughing at her teaching, but at her amazing ability to exercise self-control in the face of hilarity - she has a whole class of 5-6 year olds.   Better her than me. 

I had written these down when we got home from classes, but had forgotten about it.  Here are some highlights:

The kids were asked to give their name and something about themselves that they wanted to class to know:

“This isn’t my actual hair.  My hair is really straight and sticks out like this”    So, he had a wig on, eh?  I couldn’t see around the curtain but I was dying to.

“My favorite color is black, white, red and yellow”

“My favorite color is camo” (true Montanan)

Other notables:

There are a set of twins in the class, so regarding twins some comments ensued, “they are born at the same time; one comes out and then the other and they just ‘bloop’ right out together” (um, nope.  No blooping at all.  obviously SOMEONE has never been in labor!)

Mrs. Miller – “who knows anything about Latin?  What people speak Latin now?”  student: “you!” (observant! She IS the teacher!)

Have any of you studied ancient Rome?  “I’ve studied American Indians!”

“I changed my name and I want you to call me my new name.  Eric-kai.  Hm. I wonder if his mother knows?? His name isn’t even Eric.  

Energy Like a Cow

So, I know that kids are tweaked…all of them. It’s just their nature.  I have one especially super tweaker kid, but they are all their share of tweaked.

My super tweaker (not mentioning any names and I bet none of you can guess, right?  Right!!)  is a really loud, crazy, odd, darling, funny, talented, child who makes weird noises constantly (I think I need to write Julian Smith’s mom and ask if she was worried when he was young…..the answer probably won’t make me feel any better, but might help me prepare emotionally for the future).  He was being unusually loud(er) and I was holding my head saying stop, stop, stop you’re driving me crazy.  And he said “I can’t mom, I have the energy of a cow”.  Hm.  Oh…..yeah……I get it….no, I don’t.…  Here ‘s his explanation:  “Cows are moving, moving, moving their mouths all day long…chew, chew, chew.  They never stop moving their mouths…..they have lots of energy…..just like me”.  Okay.  Yep, I get the mouth thing. – boy do I.  And be assured that this wisdom was offered about 40 decibels above normal in a squeaky, cartoon character voice.  Tweaker.   Did I mention that he plays the drums?  Figures, huh?

Last night, we were talking about everyone getting older and Josiah being out of the house in the next few years most likely (and I am getting sad), and the tweaker blurts out, without even a second to contemplate – natural as anything….”Yeah, and I’ll move out with him.  I still won’t have to pay rent and he will have good recording equipment then and a way better drum kit than I have now”……huh.  And so we were thrown off in a mere instant for better gear.  I see how this works.  The rest of us laughed really hard, but he was serious.  

Dress Up Wars

category: wizards

It started out with just three of them; they amused themselves Saturday with a great idea of Elisha's.....Dress Up Wars. Eventually, Elisha herself jumped in. The idea was to put dress up categories in a hat, draw one out, dress up the best they could and then have Mom judge the best costume. You gotta love it when they get creative and have fun for hours without the use of any technological devices. Here are the categories and winners.

winner: Elias

winner: rockers

winner: Isaiah

category: Medieval

winner: Princess Elisha

winner: Isaiah

taker of blurry photographs: Mom

and an honorable mention: Elisha from the Revolutionary War

category: Star Wars

winner: Micah as Princess Leia as she looked in "The Empire Strikes Back"

category: western (3 cowboys and 1 indian)

winner: tie between Elias and Isaiah

category: rangers (inspired, I believe, by the Ranger's Apprentice books)

winner: Elisha

The category: business people

the winner: Elias. The tie and briefcase sealed the deal

Category: NERDS

Clearly, we have been watching a bit too much of Blimey Cow.

Licked

When McGyver got back from the ranch last week, our car was looking mighty odd.....the horses are staying at the ranch all winter this year and becuase of the snow, Brad couldn't get the car to an area where the horses couldn't get to it. When Brad arrived at the ranch, the car was a filthy brown from all of the snow, sludge and salt on the roads through the pass. Well, the horses not only cribbed the front hood (but we won't talk about that) but they also LICKED the entire car. You can't really tell by the photos - you can see parts of the car (I took these a few days after it had been driven around and sludged off) that look like there are weird brownish smudges all over. The entire car - really - entire car - bumpers, rear view mirrors, windows; were thoroughly licked by the horses. We figure it is from the salt they put on the roads ( I'm thinking they need some salt and minerals out there maybe?). I couldn't even see out the rear window to drive. I would love to have seen that taking place and loved even more to get a photo - or video!!! MONTANA CAR WASH!! HA! America's Funniest Videos here we come.

Fiesty

That's a good name for it. Micah is fiesty....totally. She is also really funny - sometimes because she is a kid and other times because she has a great sense of humor. She has cracked us up this week because of her fiestiness. First, we were in the car the other day and Isaiah was saying that he wanted to be either a writer, an engineer, or a chef (well-rounded individual with high expectations - nice.). Micah yells out "I'm going to be a sky diver". Hm. Nice occupation. Today, Brad and I were bantering about the fact that he only gets his birthday dinner once (I reminded him that I did make it twice last year) a year on his birthday. It is tuna noodle casserole - anyone need to know WHY he only gets it once a year?? Didn't think so. I responded, that I haven't had MY favorite dinner, lobster and artichokes, in over 15 years . Well, I HAVE had the artichoke part a number of times (not so much since leaving CA), but not the lobster part. Micah calls out, "I'd try the artichoke, but I don't know about the hamster". Brad pipes up and says, "Yeah, Micah, I wouldn't eat the hamster either". Then Elias walks through the kitchen and says, "I don't think I'd like the hamster OR the lobster". So, there you go. Hamster anyone?? I also got a story today about something that happened this weekend in Plains. The kids were playing in the barn loft (see photos in last post where Josiah is using a rope to climb up to a window!). They were capturing each other and tying each other up. They got Micah once, but they couldn't get her again. At one point, Josiah was trying to grab her; she kicked him in the shin (not so very lady-like!) and took off running through the loft with Josiah hot on her trail. As she was running, she pushed the doors open and LEAPED out the window and kept on running!!! The kids couldn't believe it - no big deal for a sky-diver-to-be, I guess! Crazy girl. Another thing....Micah LOVES Switchfoot - she has very specific musical tastes. She thinks Josh Groban sounds like a goat along with Mac Powell. She cannot stand Michael Buble' - how can one NOT like Michael Buble'....she makes groaning, dying noises when he comes on. Today she came waltzing in talking about the Switchfoot podcast she had just finished watching on the iPod - "...the one where John almost threw up when they gave him that gross egg/bird thing (balut) to eat onstage at a concert in Asia somewhere". She loves that one....she watches their podcasts all the time. I want to know why she isn't watching something like Veggie Tales. She is a little odd for a 7 year old.