What's for dinner?

The boys have told me they are hungry. And you would never believe what they have asked me to cook them for dinner. First off, they want me to fire up the BBQ grill. Sounds easy enough so far. But Forrest wants me to grill up some Bananas. Does anyone have any good recipes for grilled Bananas?

He also wants me to grill some Chicken. A request that I can actually live with. I polled everyone in the family, and they were all happy with grilled chicken.
Lastly, Forrest and Nathan asked for grilled eggplant. Again, does anyone have any ideas for grilled eggplant? Thank God I have the Internet. I shall Google recipes for grilled eggplant and bananas. And then there was Nathan's request. This child loves eggs, so he wishes for me to make grilled eggs and bacon.

I'm starting to feel like a short order cook. Maybe I should go apply for a job at Waffle House. I'd feel right at home.

And the winner is...........

Congratulations to Random Chick for her winning entry into my poetry contest, Ode to Blogging.' So RC, I need your address so that I can mail you your prize as soon as it is completed.
I would like to thank all five of you who entered. Leah, your tanka was super, and
Mr. Shife, your poem was very sweet. And since you are with child, I will be sending you a special consolation prize in the mail as soon as you email me your address. And if you don't send me your address I will just have to get it from our dear Suzanne, who by the way, submitted an interesting non-haiku verse. And last but not least there was MJ and her violent love poem. We all know that deep down MJ is sweet loving and nurturing woman, and yearns for love and understanding. I hear ya sister. I hear ya. Phwap Pwhap Pwhap, here's your love and understanding. LOL

So I suppose, since all FIVE of you were so kind to write an entry for my contest, I should share my poem of why I love to blog.

"Blog Thou Art Loved"

I write to be heard
When I am happy
When I am sad
When things don't go my way
And when I'm glad that they have

I write to share
Things of nature
Things of beauty
Things of laughter
Things of life as it may come
And of the death of loved ones

I write because I love it.
The wonderful people that I have met
The wonderful dreams that I have shared
The wonderful fears that I have conquered
The wonderful life long friends I have made

Yes, to blog is to live
and to live is to love
To love is to laugh
and to laugh is to be free

So I write to live,
to love, and to laugh,
but mostly I write to set me free
and be me.

100th Post and Poetry Contest.

If you would like to read about how you can live with just 100 things then you could click here .
If you are interested in 100 things to do before you die then you can click here .
But I think you are more interested in what I'm going to do to celebrate my 100th post.
I'm going to have a contest. Yep, I stole the idea from Leah, but who cares. I mean after all, if you win, you'll get something. I don't know what you'll get. I haven't thought that far ahead. But it will most likely be homemade. And of course, it would be gender specific. Don't you folks like surprises. So now I guess I have to come up with a contest. Damn, this is harder that I thought. Ok, you guys have to write a poem. Not just any poem mind you. It has to be a poem about the things you love about blogging. You have until Friday, September 19th to submit your poem to the comment section of this post. So put your "Cat in the Hat" thinking cap on and start rhyming.

Rain Rain Go Away!

This is what our live view radar currently looks like. I wish I had this much green in my wallet!

Why Kill Em' When You Can Wear Em' Out!

Well, after the boys drove me nuts last night, I decided to wear them out today in hopes that they might get to bed early. Although, EBay was pretty tempting, I decided Splash Zone might be a little more appropriate. Splash Zone is a public pool in a nearby town. (about 10 miles from my house!) It is a super cheap way to waste the day and tire out your kids. The cost to get in is only $4, and the joys of riding the water slide is only $1 more! So for a mere $14 we were on our way to an afternoon of fun.

I highly recommend clicking on the photos to enlarge them

The kids had a blast. The first place they headed to was the water slide. Here they are waiting for their turn in line. Yeah, that was some line. Nathan went first.

I couldn't believe my camera would zoom in this well. After Nathan launched himself, I couldn't tell if this was a look fear, or concern on Forrest's face. But whatever it was, it didn't stop him from following his brother down the shoot.
I stood at the bottom of the slide, snapping photo after photo, in hopes of catching that perfect shot of them coming out of the tube.

But this was the best I could get of Nathan.
And this was all that I could see of Forrest.
I started timing them to see how long it took them to get from the top to the bottom. I had the timing down perfect with this next picture, unfortunately, the kid wasn't one of mine.
There was a short diving board at one end of the pool. Forrest really enjoyed it and was doing some phenomenal dives from it. One of the lifeguards was also a swimming coach and he approached me and told me that my kid was an excellent swimmer. Of course I beamed. I told the life guard that everything he knows about swimming, he learned from his Mom! Look! I caught this super shot of Forrest suspended in mid air.

Nathan was somewhat afraid of the spring board. He approached the end of it with extreme caution. But he is equally as good of a swimmer as Forrest, he just lacks in the diving skills department.



We decided to take a short break from all the water fun, and grab a bite to eat.
Forrest decided the top of the picnic table made for a great place to stretch out and relax.
While Nathan, invented his own idea of a Bed and Breakfast. Except in this case it was Bed and Brunch.
After our bellies were full, we decided to take it easy under the waterfalls, where the boys played with their new friend. The tall boy in this picture has Asperger's Syndrome, a form of Autism. He took right up with me. And followed me around for much of the day. And he very quickly warmed up to Nathan as well.















Our fun ended abruptly when someone found some turds floating in the water on the other side of the fountains. So the entire fountain area had to be shut down to be relieved of it's doo doo and sanitized. I took that as the perfect cue to gather my brood and head home.

INSANITY.

MY KIDS ARE DRIVING ME NUTTS!!!!



CAN I KILL THEM?

Potato

Well, Girl Potato and Boy Potato had eyes for each other, and finally they got married, and had a little sweet potato, which they called 'Yam. Of course, they wanted the best for Yam. When it was time, they told her about the facts of life. They warned her about going out and getting half-baked, so she wouldn't get accidentally mashed, and get a bad name for herself like 'Hot Potato,' and end up with a bunch of Tater Tots. Yam said not to worry, no Spud would get her into the sack and make a rotten potato out of her! But on the other hand she wouldn't stay home and become a Couch Potato either. She would get plenty of exercise so as not to be skinny like her Shoestring cousins. When she went off to Europe, Mr. and Mrs. Potato told Yam to watch out for the hard-boiled guys from Ireland; and the greasy guys from France called the French Fries, ... and when she went out west, to watch out for the Indians so she wouldn't get scalloped. Yam said she would stay on the straight and narrow and wouldn't associate with those high class Yukon Golds, or the ones from the other side of the tracks who advertise their trade on all the trucks that say, 'Frito Lay. Mr. and Mrs. Potato sent Yam to Idaho P. U. (that's Potato University ) so that when she graduated she'd really be in the Chips. But in spite of all they did for her, one-day Yam came home and announced she was going to marry Tom Brokaw. Tom Brokaw! Mr. and Mrs. Potato were very upset. They told Yam she couldn't possibly marry Tom Brokaw because he's just......Are you ready for this? Are you sure? **OK! Here it is!****


A COMMONTATER