ANOTHER FUNNY VIDEO

THE HAWAII CHAIR

Inspiration and Laughter

Need a little INSPIRATION or a little LAUGHTER? On days when I'm feeling down, I watch these videos:

This one inspires me:

Susan Boyle on Britain's Got Talent

These make me laugh so hard I have a COPD attack:

The Dennis Quaid Video

The Starbucks Employee Video

And my favorite online video that made even Ellen laugh insanely:

The Original Starbucks Employee Video

I had to put them all of these videos into one place (this blog) so I could access them easily :)

Battling Boredom In Preschoolers

"I'm bored," a child says. And I say, "Not at my house. I'll show you a fun time."

And then the father slaps me.

Yes, I'm kidding. But I honestly don't understand how ANYBODY, adult or child can EVER be bored when the world offers SO MANY activities or distractions. 

As a result of my experience with children, I put together a list of outdoor activities and included several links to web sites that offer even more activities so that no child will ever be bored.

So for a fun time (hmm, maybe I should change the wording) ... ahem ... To Prevent Your Preschooler From Experiencing Boredom, CLICK HERE!

Today is Mother's Day

Mom's Favorite Flower - one of my favorite memories

Gentle breezes and a warm sun play across my face as I monitor my children from our front step.

Though he is not allowed to wander far, my son rounds the corner and hands me a beautiful red rose, obviously from a neighbor's garden.

Not to be outdone, his older sister hands me another beautiful flower, probably from the same neighbor's garden.

My 3-year old, unaware of where her older siblings found these treasures, searches and searches until, beaming with pride, she emerges from the corner of the house to drop remnants of dead dandelions in my hand.

I fawn over them as I did over the other gifts bestowed upon me by my babies.

Years later, I sit in a Dairy Queen parking lot with my youngest daughter, when a little girl approaches my window. Her father smiles bashfully as he watches his daughter hand a perfect stranger a precious gift, a memory. The dandelion sits in my palm, a lovely reminder of that warm sunny day when my children placed their gifts in my hand.

Today my grandchildren -- their parents the givers of more than a dozen bouquets of dandelions -- carry on the tradition. I gratefully place each droopy dandelion in a glass, careful not to drown the bugs flitting around the yellow flowered weed.

My children are grown now. I miss our daily contacts, especially those with my Marine son who is often stationed overseas or living across the country. I long for the day he comes home.

And if he brings me nothing else, I would welcome with laughter and tears another red rose, or even a handful of bug-infested dandelions, my favorite "flower."

FOR YOUR MOM (or friends who are moms)

CLICK THIS SPECIAL MOTHER'S DAY GIFT! FREE! FREE! FREE! And so much FUN! FUN! FUN!

AMBER ALERT

MISSING: Briant Rodriguez

Spread this news around. This little 3-year-old boy was kidnapped from his home in San Bernardino, California. The two gunmen tied up is mother and her four other children after ransacking their home and taking off with the little boy. Nobody in the family claims to know the kidnappers.

Read about it HERE.

OK, I admit it – I'm weird, but so is...

For years my mother introduced me as her weird daughter. I hated it. Then I believed it. People even provided me with proof from time to time. After my children repeated it, I thought, well, if people are still saying it, it must be true.

So I accepted it. I even bought a keychain that said, "I'm not weird; I'm gifted."

But I worried about being too weird, because if the saying is true that your children will marry somebody just like the parent of the opposite sex, my poor son was destined for a life filled with weirdness.

When I met Michelle, I thought, oh, thank God, she's normal. And then one day I caught her staring at my wall. Apparently, after having been told her new mother-in-law was weird (BY MY SON), she thought nothing of the odd looking wire-shaped man hanging on the wall next to my antique plates. 

OK, so maybe she's a little weird, I thought. Maybe my empty plate holder did look a little like the wire-shaped man she thought it was. I don't know, but just when I was getting comfortable thinking she might be only a tiny bit weird, she upped the weirdness factor when we sat together in a Mexican restaurant. 

I was so impressed when she started speaking Spanish, but ridiculously confused, because every time she spoke, her voice dropped about three octaves. "Wow!" I commented. "Did you know your voice becomes very masculine when you speak Spanish?"

Turns out she was learning how to speak Spanish by listening to a tape produced by a man, and when he asked her to repeat after him, she provoked some guttural sounds forth to speak just like him! We tend to laugh a lot about that (and so much more – I could go on and on, but this is, after all, just a blog – not a book).

So now, Michelle, I would like to say – with a voice much like the one that belongs to Brad Garrett, who was Robert Barone in Everybody Loves Raymond – Te amo, Michelle.