I guess this is what is meant by "Knock Em Dead"

WZZM 13 News - Print Editon

RAVENNA, Mich. (WZZM) - Teammates in his bowling league think after rolling a perfect 300 game Don Doane's heart just gave out. "You get nervous shooting a 300," says teammate Todd Place. "The pressure keeps building," says bowling alley owner Jim Nutt.
Minutes after achieving the life long goal of a perfect game the 62 year old bowler collapsed and died at Ravenna Bowl in Ravenna. "Don just collapsed," says alley owner Nutt. " At first we thought he just fainted." "Then when I rolled him over I realized it wasn't good," says teammate Place.
The teammates say he was giving a high-five minutes before. They tried to revive him but Doane never spoke another word. He died of what was apparently a massive heart attack "He looked fine, reached across the table and gave me a high-five and he fell over," says Place.
"I think he died by the time he hit the floor." Don Doane was a member of the "Nutt Farm" bowling team at Ravenna Bowl for 45 years. His teammates says its strange not to see him on league nights.
"It was like a book, a final chapter," says Place. "He threw his 300 game with all of his friends, gave each other high-fives and it's like the story ended. He died with a smile on his face."
"Don will be a legend," says Nutt. 'It's something that will never be forgotten as long as people bowl here." Ravenna Bowl is planning a memorial ceremony for Doan's' wife Linda and son Chad.
Phil Dawson


When I was teenager a friend was saying how her grandfather was talking about dying after a few people he had known had recently died of illness. He stated that if it were up to him he would chose to die on the golf course.. and he wanted to fuss so just a pine box for his burial.
Don't you know a few short weeks later after finishing a 18 hole round of golf my friend grandfather sat down on a bench for a minute and keeled over dead. Instantly. Went the way he wanted. Simple and peaceful.. They finished his dream by having a simple pine box built and a big old post funeral dinner....

Hurry and grab the gloves!

There is snow on my porch! The kids are thrilled. Trying to explain to them that it will not last is pointless. It is really not noticeable from the frotn window because it is not sticking to the grass so you only get the ground effect from the porch view!

YEAH for my first photo attempt!

Dinnertime bribery works!

I made a dinner that I knew woudl not go over well: Turkey Mignon, twice baked potatos and chinese broccoli. I gave each child a small portion as well as a serving of applesauce. Ben immediatly starts to whine. Andrew tosses all the broccoli in his mouth without thought. Maddie starts in on her applesauce. I sat with them ( waiting to eat with Michael who was on a call in the office) and encourgaed them to try it all. I provided ketchup for those who have sauce issues. Ben was just being bratty and refused to try anything.. I KNOW if he just stops whining he will eat the turkey, applesauce and potatoes. He flat out refuses.

So I bring out the big guns.

I tell them all that whoever eats their dinner will get an ice cream sundae. (I just grabbed the leftover ice cream from my moms freezer today.) Maddie becomes a freaking mad woman. My non meat eater devours all her turkey and then eats the inside of the potato. I was in AWE! She was leary of the broccoli after she sampled the seasoning. I gave her credit.. ususally she eats an entire head of broccoli herself. So with Ben off in his own pout land and Andrew watching to see if I will give in we go make a sundae. I put vanilla ice cream, chocolate syrup, sprinkles and whipped cream together.. along with their favorite a *magic* cherry. She proudly takes it to the table and starts eating it like there is no tomorrow.. bragging the whole time.

Look what I got!

Mine is the biggest ice cweam ever.

Lookey what I got.. YUMMY

All of the sudden she stand up and starts to moan.. it gets louder and louder and she flings herself across my lap..
RUB MY HEAD, rub my head mama.. it hurts mama.. my face hurts...

I was laughing so hard. My little girl has her first ice cream headache. All that showing off brought her pain and agony. I rub her for a moment and she jumps right back into her seat and cleans her bowl.

Andrew not to be outdone eats his turkey and takes 2 bites of his potato. He then goes to the kitchen to await my arrival so he could oversee the sundae building event. He was much more civilized in his eating and avoided the headache.

Dishes have been done and sadly.. Ben received no ice cream. stubbornness got the best of him again...

There is always one non believer.

Due to the nasty coughing coming from the twins room Michael and I felt it was necessary to pull out the vaporizer. So I dug into the depths of the linen closet and pulled out the machine. After a thorough scrubbing and rinsing I filled it and carried off to the bedroom. They desperately needs a nap. I plugged it in and immediately gave the lecture about NOT touching this. I told how it will help their cough, it will make them feel better and how very hot it is. I warned them over and over to NOT touch the machine, the plug or the steam. Michael then comes in and goes over it.

Wouldn't you know.. Madeline had to check it out herself. Now she has a slight steam burn on her palm/thumb.. Go figure.. that thing is HOT!

Language and threats

I love this stage where they are learning new words all the time but pronunciation and usage is not perfect. If you ask Andrew where he lives he will say "Canton, Ho-Hi-Ho" He likes to talk about how daddy spent the week at work in "cowumbus"

Our regular attendance at First Christian Church, http://www.firstchristian.info/
is providing lots of new songs and stories from all the kids. Ben had me in tears a few weeks ago. They talked about the story of Steven and how he was stoned. To really send the story home they held a fake "stoning" They all crumpled up green paper and *STONED* one of the Childrens Ministry leaders b/c it was his birthday! I only hope that the next class birthday at school doesn't lead him to ball up his homework and start his own stoning...

Recently overheard while the children were playing.

Maddie- Stop it Andwew- that is mine
Andrew- No, I play wif it...
Maddie- Stop it Andwew, God is watching you.. God can see you.. He gonna be mad atch you!


Today is an inservice day so Ben is home. SO we are sitting at the table eating breakfast together and Ben does something.. I cannot even remember what it was(Isn't that sad?). I rolled me eyes at him and told him to just stop it. Mother Maddie had to interject and question her big brother with " Stop it Ben! Is that reawy Necessary?" I almost chocked on my cheerios!

M&M's- They do melt in the nose....

I am in the kitchen this afternoon doing dishes and talking to a friend on the phone. Maddie and Andrew keep trying to *help* me so I send them on their way with cups of juice and 1 small fun size bag of M&M's to split. Shortly after this Andrew comes back to the kitchen whining..nothing unusual about that. I finally understand that he keeps repeating " It hurts.. my noses hurts" I tell Kelly "I think he stuck a piece of candy in his nose..gotta go." and hung up the phone.

I so wish I had photos of this but there were more important things to deal with. There was BLUE running out of his nostril.. YES I said BLUE. The shell was melting away but the candy was lodged so tightly in there that there was no way I was going to be able to grab that sucker. I tried to push it down by applying pressure and that was a waste. I went and found the tweezers and he FREAKED. Poor guy ran and hid behind the couch. Tried to call a few neighbors but of course no one was home to help me hold this kid down. (Michael was of course out of town when I needed him).

SO I call the Ped office and laughing hysterically they advise me to pack him up and bring him in.. They will rally the troops and be prepared to hog tie him down for me. NOW here is where the fun time comes in. Today was the last day of Ben being "Star Student of the week" So I had already made snacks to take to school and had a book to read at the end of the day to the class.. So I am supposed to be there in an hour and now I have nose boy to deal with...I call the school and the secretary tells me if I bring them by she will run out and grab the snacks for me to send in.

Even though it is quite chilly I grab the the sandals because they are the first shoes I see. Maddie complies but Andrew starts to freak out. TOTAL freak out. Crying and chanting "I no go to the Docto, NO Docto." Then it happens.. He lets loose a big sneeze and all of the sudden a huge blog of chocolate goes rolling out his nose! I start laughing and grab the tissues. THANK HEAVENS! I was able to cancel the Dr appt and go to the classroom to read after all.

During the clean up I also learned one other thing. He had also shoved a green M&M up the other nostril but that one apparently was able to be pulled out..I hope he figured out ALL candies are bad.. NOT just blue M&M's.

Conversations NOT to be had at 735am.

As with every morning I was prodding Ben to hurry up and finish breakfast, wash up, brush teeth and finish getting dressed. He walked past me and had his Kung Fu Panda T-shirt on and a pair of jeans. I noticed his zipper was down so I said to him " Pull that zipper up... hurry! Before your penis falls out" he laughed at me and tried to tug at his zipper one handed ( he still has the cast on his left arm) saying " It won't fall out.. I have on underwear!". I laughed and replied " OH! They have been known to fall out even with underwear PULL it up FAST!" He looks at me and then to his father as though to say mama is crazy.. Then Michael tells him to yes pull the zipper up " because one day your Penis will have it own brain."
Ben looks at us like we are both crazy and asks " what will my penis do with its own brain?"

I quickly replied "Nothing~! Just pull up your zipper"

I can only imagine how that phone call from the teacher will go.

These kids.....

Are going to be the reason I suffer early insanity. I swear can ANYONE listen and follow simple directions.

DO not play in the water.

Pick up your toys in the living room and put them in YOUR room.

Stay out of Bens room.

See these are pretty basic and easy to follow. BUT.. they are still ignored.

I went to strip Bens bed today to change the sheets. As I pulled the sheet off I notice that the edging FALLS off the mattress causing the mattress side to fall off from the top.. Leaving me a cleare view od the inside of the mattress. NOW we already knew that a new mattress was necessary as this was Michaels way back in the day.. STILL... Thank You Madeline for lovingly tearing all the threads out of the seaming. That was so helpful.

So I leave that bed unmade to make sure that Michael saw this.. Tossed the blankets back on the bed until later.

While I was working on dinner I told all three to pick up the toys and put them away.. I knew I was being ignored by the screams of joy and laughter. I left eventually to stop all the fun and realized that Madeline and Andrew were playing in the bathroom sink and the floor was covered in water and wet towels. What an equal spanking opportunity!
I go back to finishing dinner while daddy gets to tell them how bad they are being. I eat quickly so I can shower before Parent Teacher Conference at 730pm. Quick shower and dressed.. OH CRAP! I need to make Bens bed. I stop in his room adn grab all the trash( his treasures I am sure) off the floor/dresser and pull the comforter off his bed.. The corner is wet.. dang kids obvioulsy spilled on this. I get everything off the bed and see that a good 1/4 of the mattress is DRENCHED in water.. I was so mad.. I coudl hardly see straight.. I KNOW that we need a new mattress and it is not a huge loss but still it pisses me off that I turn my head and they are terrorizing everything.. I swear they are worse now then when they were newly walking and really into everything.

So now I am getting finished to leave and Michael gets a call for work. I put the twins in bed at 7pm, send Ben to his room to pick up everything he already tossed on the floor since I picked it up half an hour earlier.

Then I hear the twins. LAUGHING

Go To Bed= jump off the dresser. DUH... I guess I should have known this.. So I spank them both on the butts now b/c I am really mad. They KNOW this is not allowed.

I storm downstairs and Michael is in his office, I look in and am like " I have to go NOW" he totally forgot I had to go talk to the teacher. He was no longer on a call.. just doing something.. I won't pretend to have a clue.

This day is almost over. I woke with a headache and killer sinus issues.. I end with the same headache and sinus crud.. I have medicated the best way I know how... Chocolate and Ice Cream.