True story!

My cousin lives in Arkansas and also works at a retail shop.  One day, an older gentleman came by the store.  He was wearing red suspenders and looked suspiciously like this guy:

She asked him if he would be willing to come back the next day and let her bring her children to meet him.  He said he would love to!  The one thing her daughter wanted for Christmas was a sleigh bell a la The Polar Express, so she said she was going to go to the local jeweler and see what they had.  She’d been looking everywhere, but couldn’t find a sleigh bell that was decent.

He said he would like to go with her and purchase the bell for her as a gift.  She tried to refuse, but he insisted.  He followed her in his red pickup truck (seriously, I couldn’t make that up if I tried), but the jewlery store didn’t have anything worthwhile.  They finally settled on a small silver handbell thing and had it engraved with her name on it.  Mr. Santa Man paid for it, still against my cousin’s objections.

The next day, he came back decked out in his Santa gear.  When it came time to do gifts for the kids, he said he had something extra special for Anne Marie.  He pulled out a box and in it was a true sleigh bell, still attached to a section of leather harness.  The underside of the leather was worn from use.

As you can imagine, everyone was in shock.  As far as I know, no one has seen him since. 

I’ve actually seen the bell and if it doesn’t make you believe, I don’t know what would. 

I’d love to write a children’s picture book based on this story, but seeing as though I have so many strikes against me (debut author/children’s picture book/holiday theme), I don’t think it’s really plausible.  Maybe one day!

Merry Christmas!

Today, I was at work when I got a frantic call from my husband.  Our son slumped over while eating lunch and started seizing.  He had a febrile seizure in March, so I thought that might be it, but he’d just come off of antibiotics and hadn’t been warm the day before and my husband said he didn’t have a temp this morning.

I ran out of my classroom and told the teacher across the hall to take my students.  The daycare is only about two minutes from work, so I pulled up right behind my husband.  The feeling of pulling up and seeing emergency professionals and KNOWING its for your child is something that I can’t even really put into words.  It’s just awful.

To make a long story short, we took him to the ER and it turns out it was another febrile seizure.  His fever spiked to 103+, but was brought down with Tylenol.  He has pneumonia. :(

So basically…today sucked.  I really feel bad for my students, too, because we were about to do our final performance of a Reader’s Theater piece we had been working on and they were all standing around in their crowns and capes.  They were so excited to perform!  But I’ve got a great crew and they knew just how to behave.  I’ll make it up to them next week!

Here is a cell phone picture of my sad little man in the ER.  ————————>

 He’s currently laying on a mat in front of me watching Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. 

As a mother, you just wish you could make it all go away.

I still think he’s a bad momba-jomba, but six years ago, he did something that people still talk about (in our neck of the woods, anyway).

My husband played college basketball for the Charlotte 49ers (hence my screenname on AW) and six years ago to the day, they went up to play the (then) defending National Champion Syracuse Orangemen. Here is a clip a fan made (the quality kind of stinks) that shows just why my husband was a bad momba-jomba. If you can’t figure out which one is him, here is a hint – he’s the one hitting the 3′s. ;)

And another video for good measure. Funny story with this game – there was a blizzard and we drove from Ohio to the game because we had to hand of our dog to his family for the Christmas holidays. My sister and I ran into the gym JUST in time to see this end of the game play. Can you tell I’m proud of him? Awwhhh…love!

And he is still a bad momba-jomba. Why, you may ask? No, he’s not being featured on ESPN anymore or anything, but he’s a wonderful husband and father. I’m lucky to be treated like a princess everyday and I look forward to growing old with him and watching our grandkids play while we sit in our rockers on our front porch. I am so very thankful.

Sappy is over now, I promise!

I have absolutely nothing to talk about, so HAPPY THANKSGIVING EVE to my American readers.  And…HAPPY WEDNESDAY to anyone who isn’t. :-)

I’m trying some new recipes (an appetizer – I think; and a dessert).  If they are decent, I’ll post them in Yummy for the Tummy after the holiday.  Geez, I love this time of year!!

OH!!  If I can bribe my good friend Regan into helping me, I will be making an intro video for la blog.  Hers is too adorable!  Check it out: http://www.reganleigh.com

Like, clinical.  But I crack up at all of her YouTube videos…she really needs a Twi-tervention. I am NOT this type of Twilight fan, just in case you were concerned.

We loaded up the posse and went to the midnight showing of New Moon last night.  Nothing like a car full of elementary school teachers rolling up to a theater full of teenage fangirls.  We are so unbelievably mature and I love every minute of it.

First of all, it was 50 million times better than the first Twilight.  I loved that movie because I got to see the characters on the big screen, but this one really hit on all cylinders, I thought (with a few exceptions, of course).

It is getting panned by critics, which means absolutely nothing to me and this is why – critics rarely like chick flicks.  They just don’t.  Why they can’t see them for what they are, I have no clue.  One of their big complains was that it was slow, but the book was too, so I’m not exactly sure what they expected.  So, I take the people who are in the “know’s” opinions with a grain of salt.

They built up just the right amount of sexual tension between Jacob and Bella (which was missing between Edward and her in the first film).  Taylor Lautner nailed his part and was just perfect, I thought.

Kristen Stewart got on my nerves, but I knew she would going in.  She’s just…well…annoying.  That being said, she didn’t get on my nerves THAT bad.  And she looked fantastic.

Robert Pattinson wasn’t really in this one much and still had the personality of a stick.  Don’t get me wrong.  I love me some RPattz, but Edward just doesn’t have a lot going on other than being in love with Bella.  You could visibly read the hurt he was going through and it wasn’t cringe-worthy cheestacular or anything, so that’s good.  I do wish they’d explained why in the world Bella would chose Edward over Jacob because it wasn’t clear in the film version.

The special effects were great and the wolves really were perfect.  The new actors were excellent (the Volturi especially).

I laughed a lot during this movie, which was great.  I doubt it will be nominated for any Oscars, but for a book to movie adaption, I think they did pretty great!

My sister cracks me up all the time.  Today, we were talking about how insane Twilight fans can be.  I told her of a thread I read once where women were showing off their Twilight tattoos.  This led to a discussion about Harry Potter and how she could understand people being more fanatic about that book because it was better written (even though she is a Twilight fan, too).  This is the discussion that followed:

Sister: I’m a huge Harry Potter fan, but I still wouldn’t get a tattoo.

Me: Don’t lie.  You know you have a lightening bolt on the small of your back.

Sister: No, it’s a snitch and it’s on my butt.

My sister is awesome. : -P

Yesterday’s comments made me wonder what other’s think about this subject:

Is it good to see kids reading period or is it the quality of what they are reading that matters?