We are officialy NOT cool anymore.

So today being Friday, the day of rest, we went out to lunch and the three of us walked to Starbucks for some "chill time." Well, I guess to say "the three of us walked" would be a lie. Two of us walked and Noah was carried.

*sidenote: Did you ever think how weird it would look to someone not from planet Earth to witness parents and infants. Think about it. I can hear them talking to each other. "It is strange, the small one seems to be their leader. He moans and speaks in a strange language, but the two larger ones tend to him and carry him around. They do all that he bids. The small one doesn't seem that smart either, he drools on himself and can't control his bodily functions, but still the larger ones obey him."

Sorry, back to why we aren't that cool.

So we are in Starbucks. Starbucks is the "trendy, western" place to hang out here. So you will see the 20 something crowds hanging around dressed more in style and western then we do. Its a place for quiet, rest, "in-depth" conversations between singles and business associates.

Well, we order and B and the shorty head upstairs. I grab our coffee and head upstairs and I see B sitting at a table by the window. We've got a small table with two cushy chairs and a poof. Is poof the right word? Its a big round thing that is actually a chair but with no back or armrests. It is a really comfy foot stool or a good chair. Well Noah had claimed the poof. He was asleep wrapped in a blanket taking up the poof. So at a glance you would see a couple hanging out chatting about something "sophisticated." That is, until you see the wee small drooling kid snoozin' on the poof.

It was great. People hanging out talking about "important" things and being all cool and then there is B and I with a kid conked out on the poof. We've officially hit the next stage in life. Which by the "single, 20 something crowd" isn't cool.

So by the official guide to coolness, you don't bring your kid to Starbucks. So....that's it. Aliens think we're strange and we no longer fit into the Starbucks crowd. What a day! :)

Singing Lessons Video

Please please forgive this post. To watch the video is to listen to me sing, which can damage your hearing, but Noah singing is much better, so tune him in and tune me out.

This was on the tail end of a 30 minute jam session we had today.

Singing Lessons Video

how?

i am here with noah on my shoulder pounding out all off this with one hand in the dark. i am trying to convince a wide-awake baby he is, in fact, is actually tired, so i, whom for sure is, in fact, tired can go to sleep.
i know i owe you guys two more chapters from the book. i know i owe you more pics/posts and videos. and i know i probably owe most of you money too. they're coming. well not the money, but the other stuff probably.
how do you get anything done with a baby? i mean i am sure it will get better and less time consuming, it has too right? but ...... i mean, even when there is a hour of free time, all i can do is gu tu sleep.
so....it took me so long to type this with one hand noah feel asleep from boredom.

sooo...
goodnight and good luck.

Signal Team Photo

This is the final post on Signal, the Bad News Bears meet the Sandlot meets Major League. All the photos and trophies came in so we picked them up and will distribute them to the team. I was so relieved when I saw that all the trophies were the same. I had feared that consolation ribbons were in our future, and thank goodness we didn't get a "4th place" trophy. Most of my team didn't know that we lost every game. They didn't know enough of the rules to figure out who won most times, so the trophies will throw them off the trail for a bit longer hopefully.

In reflection though, I would do it again in a heartbeat. Coaching non-competive, clueless munchkins is far better than playing and I enjoyed doing it. So, stayed tune next spring for season 2.

Chapter 2

The Stewardess, the Dragon, and the Upset Criminal

Now, this very well could end up as one of those, “you had to be there” kindof things, but I am going to try to depict these events as they happened. First off, you must know that in order to learn a new word, you need to use it. It’s like meeting someone and trying to remember their name. It helps solidify it in your brain if you can use their name in a sentence as soon as you learn it.

So, with that said, here are the words I learned the day before or earlier in class: atonement, instruments of reconciliation, fulfillment of prophecies, dragon, and the verb “to jump.” Now, also, you need to understand how I work. I hate bland sentences. The teacher will ask, “Give me a sentence using a verb in the future tense” or whatever. Now I’ve got two choices: I can use the normal everyday language and say, “He will sit in the chair,” and that way use the verb but never learn anything new, or I can try out one of the words I learned and say, “The dragon annihilated the village and will jump on the infidels heads.” Now, of course that sounds gross, but not all of my sentences have dragons in it. Plus, if everybody says the boring sentences then no one smiles in class and we are all bored to tears. So in my opinion silly sentences work better to a) make the class atmosphere better and b) bring in new words. Of course there are people in class that view me as a stupid American that refuses to work, because if I am going to do anything I want it to be fun, so …..some people embrace the silly sentences and use them with me and some view us of the first group as …..well… stupid.

Now on to the story:
We are doing the patterns. A sentence is given and it goes around the group and you have to change the verb or the subject or whatever. So the base sentence is, “Which girl recovered? The girl who has the suit with her recovered.” (see bland) We are expected to change what the girl has with her. So my turn comes around so I say, “The girl who has the angry green dragon with her recovered.” Dead silence…….nothing. A class room of glaring faces greets my eyes. I guess no body had had their coffee. Everybody apparently was not in the mood for my antics before 9am. Fine. No problem, I’ll save it till the next class, but the next pattern in our book had instructions that read:

“Converse using any of the words in chart B or with any reasonable word in the conversation.”

Yeah, slap in the face, but then here is the conversation.
Person 1: Did you know about the stewardess that went out?
Person 2: Which stewardess went out?
Person 1: The stewardess that had an injured hand went out.
Person 2: How was she injured?
Person 1: The criminal with the missing notebook hit her.

COME ON!!! That is retarded! Use any reasonable word in the conversation? You've got to be kidding me!

And thankfully the class agreed with me. So we decided to butcher the conversation. By the time all of us finish it came out something like this:

Person 1: Did you hear about the stewardess that jumped?
Person 2: Which stewardess jumped?
Person 1: The stewardess that has the ugly, injured face jumped.
Person 2: How was it injured?
Person 1: The crazy criminal with the missing brain hit her.

Well…..

Yeah, you’re right. I guess you had to be there. But it was funny, right? Ok, that was lame. Well, just remember we didn’t have enough words in our Arabic vocab to really mess it up. Cut us some slack.

Fly Me To The Moon

So today B was cooking or cleaning or something, I don't remember, but anyways Noah was obviously upset and whiny. I couldn't get him to stop whining, so I flip on iTunes and put on Ol' Blue Eyes and *poof* Noah goes still. He sat there quiet and still and listened through two Frank Sinatras and a couple of Sammy Davis, Jr.s. Who knew he had such good taste!


Oh, I know some of you are waiting for Chapter 2, The Stewardess, the Dragon, and the Upset Criminal, but I put the notes and dialogue for this chapter in my Arabic book, so next time I open it I will post the next chapter. So it may be a week, it may be a day depending on how much the Arabic Bear growls at me.