Just a Good Ole Boy...

Recently my sister acquired the DVD's for the first three seasons of The Dukes of Hazzard. I question her sanity in purchasing such a series but I find that as we get older we get more and more sentimental about our childhood, so I can sorta understand it.

The other night she had my kids over to watch their very first episode of The Dukes of Hazzard. As we all sat in basement of her home, it was so funny to hear all the adults sing every word of the opening song. It's amazing what useless bits stay in the brain.

Nate and I stayed to watch episode #1 and then we had to leave. That was enough for me. I used to be in love with Luke Duke. I guess as a child I didn't realize how intellectually challenged he and his cousin, Bo, were. Really, stealing cop cars and breaking out of jail just because it's Daisy's birthday??

Like I was saying, Nate and I left after episode 1, and my sweet sister allowed the children (hers and mine) to watch FIVE STRAIGHT HOURS of Dukes episodes. I seriously wonder what brain damage was done to them that night.

Since that evening of fun, we have heard Duke-isms around the house like:

"Coo, coo"

"I'm gonna get them Duke boys!"

"Did you take a correspondence course in brains?"

As well as the token lines from the show, my little three year has decided he wants to dress like a Duke boy. (Mercifully, our one daughter has not decided to dress like Daisy.) What does a Duke boy dress like? Well jeans, of course...but did you know you must wear a button up plaid shirt completely unbuttoned? Here he is....my little Duke:
All morning he's been running around the house hollering, "I'm a Duke Boy! I'm a Duke Boy!"

I guess he's just like the song...."Just a good ol' boy...never meaning no harm."

Fall

Teeth Repaired!

We took Boy #2 to the dentist yesterday and she fixed his tooth. Before we went I was about to throw out the chunk of tooth that I had made Boy #1 look for in the woods...good thing I didn't. The dentist was able to use some dental cement and put the chunk right back on...it looked a little discoloured yesterday but by this afternoon you would never know it had been cracked in half. There is no line and the broken off bit has turned the same colour as the rest of the tooth!!

And all for the low, low price of #112.00. I was thinking it would be way higher!

Boys will be boys...

Yesterday was a work day at our house...the kids were cleaning the van, Nate was continuing to install the new siding on the house, etc. It was finally a day without rain.

Across the road from our place is a small green space the kids like to call "The Woods". So after the boys were done cleaning the van, Nate let them go over there and play "Air Soft." Now, Air Soft is a small pistol like gun that shoots tiny plastic balls. It's not supposed to hurt and the balls are biodegradable so that you can just leave them on the ground. I, personally, have chosen to NOT be shot at by one of these guns so I have no idea the force, velocity or pain that it can incur.

The boys had been over there about an hour when I hear one of them coming across the road, hollering like he's been...well, shot. Turns out that's what had happened.

Just so you know, they wear these big ski goggle type things for face protection. However, I never once thought they should have worn teeth protection. My eight year old runs in the house, hollering and crying and when I look at his face, his big, front, ADULT tooth has been shot off.

I AM NOT KIDDING.

I freak.
I tell the other boy to run back to the woods and find the tooth. It is almost perfectly sheared in half. It looks terrible and from the noise he's making, it's not feeling so great either.

Once I calm him down, I ask him the scale of pain question (1 to 10). He answers, "Oh, it doesn't hurt." What?? Then why are you making such noise? Hmmmm....he doesn't know.

Remember it's a Saturday afternoon of a holiday weekend. So for the next twenty minutes I call several dental clinics from the yellow pages that say "Emergencies Taken" ~ none are open. It seems you must have your emergency btwn 9 and 5, Monday to Friday. I call Telehealth, they ask me a few questions and basically, there's nothing I can do until Tuesday when I can see a dentist.

Boy #1 comes back home, tooth in hand. I put it in a ziploc. By dinner time, the story is embellished and all males in the house think it's it looks cool.

Air Soft Gun - $30
Dental Repair - $800
Being able to say you got your tooth shot off by your brother - Priceless

By the way, the Air Soft is now in the trash can.

Freebies...

I'm not sure really how to explain this blog post...you see, we seem to be the family that people like to give things to...for free.
I'm not sure how we have gained this status, but it tends to work very much in our favour.

I was telling my running buddy/dear friend this morning about our latest free thing and she said I should blog about it. So here I am.

Yesterday I was at the No Frills grocery store. I think I must look a little odd grocery shopping in the middle of the day with five kids. Picture a little caravan of people, carts and strollers walking up and down the aisles. First is me, then my 10 yr. old pushes the cart, then my 7 year old pushes the baby in a stroller and behind her is the 8 year old, pushing the 3 year old in a stroller. All very organized...right.

Anyhow, I'm bagging up the groceries and am just about finished when this cute couple (in their 70's I'm guessing) comes up to me, plops a bag in my cart and the man says, "Here. And Happy Thanksgiving." I look at them and am shocked, manage to speak some sort of Thank You and then they are gone. I look in the bag....it's a turkey!!

Just earlier this week I came upstairs from our school room and look out the side door and there are three new hoola hoops sitting there. No idea who brought them, no idea when they were put there.

In a typical month someone, anonymous or no, will drop off a bike, a skateboard, a bag of clothes (not brand new -- but who cares?). I have come to the door and seen a pie on my step. No clue who left it there. I have entered our garage and there in the door way is a bag of baby bedding. This guy at Home Depot gave Nate a bike for the kids. It's weird. It's fabulous!

Anyhow, I'm not sure if it's us -- do we appear to be in need? If so, how do we portray the need for GAP gift certificates and cash? Just kidding...I'm very grateful and it makes life very interesting when you come home and find a parcel at your door. It's fun to try and figure out who dropped it off.

Goldie is gone...

We took good care of her, it isn't that she's dead. But we leave for holidays and so we couldn't just leave her in our home, wandering about, pooping wherever she liked. So we took her back to the Salthaven Bird Sanctuary.
Mr. Salt told us that they'll work at getting her flying. The kids and I did work at it. We'd take her outside and she would hop to the ground. We hold her high in the air and she'd just sit on your hand looking about. I even took to sorta "throwing" her into the air ~ she'd flutter to the ground...or if I got her high enough she'd land on the branch of a tree but wouldn't stay there.

Mr. Salt said that if she didn't fly, she'd probably just die in captivity. These birds are super-athletes and flying is just what they do. You never see a goldfinch on the ground. So, we'll call when we get back and if she's flown away, that'd be the good news.

The kids missed her for about the first five minutes and then moved on...we do leave for holidays so the excitement of that overshadowed the sadness, I guess. See ya when we get back!!

Goldie - Day 2

We drove out to a bird sanctuary called Salthaven yesterday morning to see if Goldie's wing was really broken. Turns out this bird sanctuary is rather cool. As we pull in, there is a line of red-tailed hawks just sitting along the driveway on perches. The owner asked us to pull up the driveway slowly so we wouldn't run over any of his patients. In a big tent-like cage is a beautiful 1 year old bald eagle...and about a gazillion Canada geese and mallard ducks wandering about the yard.

He took a look at the gold finch and told us there was nothing wrong with her wing, but it appeared she may have had a head injury. Probably flew into a window or something. He gave us a little syringe of medication, showed us how to use it and sent us on our way. Basically, she isn't sick enough to be admitted into his sanctuary if we're willing to take care of her. He thought she'd be flying again by Wednesday or Thursday.

His other suggestion was that she stay in a quiet dark place for a few hours. I mentioned that we have five children in a small house and he seemed perplexed...may be about the house, may be for the bird's sake.

So, all in all, we have a 'special needs' bird living with us. She has been a lovely little pet for the past couple of days and if she doesn't regain her ability to fly, I don't know what will happen. I know what the kids would like to have happen!
Hopefully she just figures out how to fly once again and we'll be able to set her free.