Another Great Contest

5 Minutes for Mom is hosting another contest, this one is for some very cute hair clips or bows for girls. My prissy 2 year old would love these. So, go visit if you are interested in winning. The clips are from Madison's Room, a very cute line of custom hair accessories. Go have a look.

What's that smell and where is it?

I have a serious problem going on in my oldest son's room. It STINKS! I'm not talking the normal little boy stink that goes along with having a boy. This smell comes and goes and we never know what we will face when we walk into his room. We have all been trying to locate the source of this smell for months. At first I blamed it on a dirty fish bowl since it smells a lot like fish food. But after cleaning the tank the smell would still come back. But we got rid of the fish, just in case. Mainly because I was so tired of having to clean the bowls out but that's another story. So then I thought maybe fish food was spilled somewhere and just needed to be cleaned up. I have taken that room apart, I have vacuumed and used gallons of ammonia to get rid of that smell. My husband has looked up in the attic in case something died up there but found nothing. So what the heck is this smell and where is it coming from. I have noticed that it only starts to smell when the light is on in his room. We can run the ceiling fan (to air it out) without having the smell return. I truly don't know what to do about this smell anymore. I feel so bad for my son although he doesn't really complain about it. At this point in time I would gladly trade this yucky fish food smell for something more desirable, you know like sweaty gym shoes.

Duck and Cover

Duck and Cover...what's that your wondering. Well it's the name of the drill that the elementary schools practice with the students in the event of bad weather. Which we had plenty of yesterday. Students duck under their desks and cover their heads until it is safe for them to get up again. When my oldest son finally arrived home from school yesterday he wanted to tell me all about the duck and covers they had to do throughout the day. The first one was pretty uneventful since it took place in his classroom and went exactly like all the drills they practice.

At the end of the day while waiting in the cafeteria to be picked up they had another alarm go off. He was separated from his friends that he car pools with. They were the lucky ones who went to the music room. Not my son, instead they directed him to duck and cover on the floor of the closet girls bathroom. Now for an almost nine year old boy, there could be no greater indignity. Having to duck and cover in the girls bathroom with a bunch of scared kindergartners really was to much for him. He informed me that they might as well have put him in the library with all it's many windows than put him in the girl's bathroom. He would gladly have suffered broken glass everywhere. After the alarm, my son made sure to inform all the teachers and any available adult that he really had no business being in the girl's bathroom. Some of the adults treated him as he had hoped with a little sympathy at having to lower himself to such levels and commiserated with him. Unfortunately for him, my husband and I found way to much humor in all of this so instead of the sympathy he was looking for he just found stifled laughter. My poor son, he really had it rough yesterday.

Tornados

Living in Texas you become familiar with tornado's at a very young age. Well at least most Texans. I grew up in El Paso, the furthest part of west Texas you can be, yet still be a Texan. In El Paso we were surrounded by mountains and lived in the desert so never really had the threat of tornado's. So as a child I never worried about them until I went to visit my family in the Panhandle. I vividly recall the time at my grandparents farm when my grandmother woke me up and said we had to go the cellar because the sirens were going off. I was in a panic. I remember being so scared and putting my jeans on backwards and being upset that I couldn't get them to snap. Once my grandmama helped me to get them on correctly she told me that the rest of the family was already in the truck waiting for us to drive to the next farm where the tornado cellar was. It was pouring down rain and super windy and of course it was the middle of the night. Once we got to the neighbors farm I continued to panic. Instead of getting out of the truck and following my grandmama and my uncle to the cellar like any child with half a brain would do I took off running in the complete opposite direction. Trying to hide from the tornado, I guess. My poor uncle was sent out to chase me down and get me back with the rest of the family. He finally succeeded and I remember climbing down into the ground and seeing all these faces that I didn't know. I just crawled into grandmama's lap and waited to be swept away by the tornado. The tornado passed us by that night and didn't damage any of the homes of the people who were in the cellar that night. But that night has stayed in my memory.

Now as an adult I wonder what the heck was I thinking? And I pity my poor grandmother who had my brother and me for a week of vacation that included the tornado. Granted my brother didn't cause a scene during the storm but still she was responsible for us. And naturally I cringe every time I think of my poor Uncle Bobby having to chase his runaway niece in the rain. He put up with so much from me that I'm sure he would have loved to have me swept away, but his patience with me was unbelievable.

Lately our area seems to be having it's fair share of tornado's. This time it's my children who are asking me tons of questions about what to do in if a tornado hits our house. My youngest son is extremely concerned about the weather and ask me on a daily basis if there will be tornado's today. And while I try to reassure him it will be okay I know how scary it is to him. All I can hope for is that if we do have to seek shelter some day that my kids will be more prepared to deal with it then I was. And if they are scared senseless like their mom was as a child then I hope I have half the patience that my grandmother and Uncle showed me that night.