end of a Camry era

We bought a car this past weekend after an annoyingly long hunt for a reasonable deal.  It's a Pontiac Vibe; a well-built, reliable car according to Consumer Reports (knock on wood).  We've driven Camrys (Camries?) for almost 14 years, so this is a departure - kinda.  The Vibe is a sister model (whatever that means exactly) of the Toyota Matrix, so we're not entirely ditching our Toyota past.

We found a way to make our teenager actually want to spend time with us, because Michael was really into the whole car buying process.  He wanted to drive through every car lot in the twin cities metro and go on every test drive.  He scoured every print-out of vehicle descriptions we had laying around, and occasionally had some helpful info inside that car-obsessed head of his.

Adrienne the artist

In Language class, Adrienne has a weekly assignment to define certain words and idioms.  They have to make a sketch of a sentence they come up with, and I've found some of her drawings kind of funny and cute.  Yeah, I know, she's my kid, so of course I believe she's special and all.  But I think she could be a cartoonist or somethin' with the way she draws facial expressions.  Maybe it's because I never really moved beyond stick people drawings myself, but her subjects even have fashion sense...

Meanwhile, in weather related news...we're hitting the 70's this weekend.  Yeah, baby!  We haven't hit 60 since November. 

April thundersnow brings May flowers?

You are now entering the weather twilight zone...the "I thought I put away the snowpants for good already, dang it!" zone.  The average is 60 now, so they say, and we're nowhere near that tropical temp.  We were woken up overnight the last two nights by loud sleet pellets smacking the house.  The snow had finally melted, and now this icky heavy white slop is all over.  Phooey.

But, anyway, Michael had a jazz concert the other night:

At home afterwards, we realized Michael is taller than Grandma Elaine.  If height correlated directly to how much you eat, though...yeah, he'd be 10 feet tall.

the many moods of a 14 year old

It was Michael's birthday yesterday.  He had a very specific wish list of things he didn't get at Christmas and hoped to score for his b-day.  At times last night, he was happy enough to produce a real smile.  Trying to get in his head here...

Sweet!  Let's do this.

This 2.5 second delay for an additional picture is unacceptable.

Yes!  Finally.

Why did my weird mom ask me to put my head by the cake?  I'm gonna look goofy then.

I'm so over this lame singing...ergh...

Happy 14th Michael!  Love you!

Waiting for real spring

Brr.  Sayonara to a crazy cold March, and here's hoping we can at least hit average temps in April.  A weird robin came to our deck a few days last week to flutter at the window and peek inside.  Drove Felix bonkers...

"Lemme in, I must have come back too $#@* early!"

I wonder if it's the bird who nested under the deck last year and didn't appreciate our photographing her babies.  I bet she wants some Hitchcock style revenge!  Thank goodness we don't have a real chimney.

Anyhoo...Happy Easter y'all!

Nicky's ninth

Nicky turned 9 this week!

I thought as the kids grew out of the baby/toddler stage it'd be easier to get them to pose for pictures.  No way José.  Teens and five-year-olds are photo saboteurs extraordinaire.

Saw this video on the news yesterday; something to rival the goat version.  No disrespect Taylor...Zach likes your song and we rock out to it in the minivan.

Habemus Papam!

Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio of Argentina is our new pope.  He has chosen the name Francis, or Francesco to those Italians.  Which does sound cooler, frankly.



The peace prayer of St. Francis~

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace,

Where there is hatred, let me sow love;

Where there is injury, pardon;

Where there is doubt, faith;

Where there is despair, hope;

Where there is darkness, light;

Where there is sadness, joy.

O Divine Master,

grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled, as to console;

to be understood, as to understand;

to be loved, as to love.

For it is in giving that we receive.

It is in pardoning that we are pardoned,

and it is in dying that we are born to Eternal Life.

Amen.

“Preach the Gospel at all times; and when necessary, use words.”

 God bless Pope Francis!

Lent lessons

We've imposed a No Sugar Cereals rule on the kids for lent.  Lots of families do that year round anyway, of course, but we like our Peanut Butter Cap'n Crunch around here.  The kids have had to tolerate speeches about the people who don't have enough to eat, period, much less their fav cereal in the cupboard every morning.  Nate came up with another idea for them during their bedtime prayers, too.  They each have to say one positive thing about the other.  It's kinda funny listening to their compliments.  "What I like about Michael is that, uh...umm...he was not mean to me today."  But it's been cool seeing how insightful they are about each other.  And they've learned to be more conscious of their positive interactions during the day so they can remember to mention them at bedtime.

We had a snow day yesterday.  I think it's been 3 years since the last one.  I had to console Nicky, who was actually bummed out because he had a Scholastic book order due to arrive yesterday.  We hung out and watched Jurassic Park.  In realizing it came out almost 20 years ago, I felt rather old.  Kids born in '93 are in college for Pete's sake.  Back in my day we had animatronic dinosaurs in movies, and CGI was yet to be overused.  And we walked 3 miles uphill both ways to the theater.

the Pope's last day

Today is Benedict XVI's last day in the chair of Peter.  Since secular news reports are generally semi-ignorant at best and riddled with nincompoopery at worst in regards to anything Christian, it's best to take them with a grain of salt.  Mark Shea says to take off 50 IQ points when the mainstream media reports on religion.  So, here are some of Fr. Barron's thoughts about Benedict's legacy:

recap of some recent junk

Had another bday recently.  That's a Cold Stone red velvet cake layered w/cake batter ice cream.  It was stupendous.  Took the edge off of turning 29 again.

Michael made this pillow case in his FaCS class.  That's Family and Consumer Science, or Home Ec to us old ogres.

This beastly ugly dog won the Westminster title this year.  Doesn't it look like Chewbacca?  I think mutts are usually cuter than all those fancy schmancy in-bred dogs.

We had some Nicky artwork framed.  The 3rd graders had to sketch and then paint something from the school garden last fall.

And the Oscars were last night.  We haven't seen any of the contenders except Les Mis.  Musicals are not really my thing, but the end was moving.  A really cool payoff.  (book snob alert)  The book is ridonkulously better than any cinema or stage adaptation, though (end book snobbery).  Anyway, I thought Peter Brady did a decent job of hosting.