They are on the other computer, right behind me - searching ‘poop’ on Google - and laughing their butts off!

Lovely topic for a Sunday morning, no?

I hate to say it, but, I like that topic much better than the one they were researching last night - hunting videos on YouTube.

Oh, and last night they were also looking up girls they know on MySpace.

So let’s see here: Google image search of POOP, YouTube search of HUNTING VIDEOS, or MySpace search of GIRLS THEY KNOW

What happened to the days of arts and crafts and watching Barney?

Someone get the Calgon!

My two sweet boys…

In an hour and some minutes, Shawn will be 13 and then for ten hours, I will have two 13 year olds!

Two 13 year olds?! Agh! Where’s the door?! HA!

I cannot believe I am soon to be the mother of two
TEENAGERS! Yikes!

I had a super-sweet, ushy-gushy post mapped out a bit in my head, but, some of my aching, old-lady, mom-of-two-teens body parts are sore and sapping all the brain cells right outta my head!

Well, my aches have saved you from the sap. How ’bout that? Good for you - bad for me - now the sap is still stuck inside me somewhere… I’m sure I’ll come back and get it out sometime today!

FYI, Shawn was born at 9:34am and Patrick was born at 7:35pm - so that accounts for the ‘two 13 year olds’ thing. That and Shawn and I get so much pleasure out of giving Patrick grief for it. *Evil Momma*

I hear from all my mommy friends all about how great Britax car seats are! They all just talk them up so much! When my own kids were little, the car seats had gotten pretty cool - but, nowadays, they are just awesome! Britax has been the best-selling child seat in England, Europe, and Australia for a number of years, and ten years ago was introduced in the United States. So that was just after I was pretty much done buying car seats, so I missed the flurry - but, I have heard so much about them from friends with younger kids! Everyone just seems to love them. I saw a really pretty one the other day - it was all pink! There weren’t any pink car seats when Sammie was born, or believe me - I would have begged Mark or my parents for it! The most impressive thing about Britax, to me, is that if your car seat is involved in a car crash, they will replace it - for FREE! That is seriously cool! And their Versa-Tether seat anchoring system is one of the industry’s most highly praised safety innovations. Combine that with the free replacement offer, and that is an awesome car seat for munchkins!

I think it would be so cool to get a psychology degree. I think if I had been the ‘college type’ - psychology would have been one field I would’ve seriously considered. If I already had my bachelor’s, I could even work on a psychology degree online! I’m serious - isn’t that cool? People can get Chicago School Online Psychology Degrees, if they apply and are accepted into the program of studies. This school was started in 1979 by practicing psychologists who wanted to start a not-for-profit training center for students entering the field. And as of this year, they are offering distance learning. And the really cool thing about this school is that they have a major focus on diversity and multicultural studies, as they believe that multicultural awareness plays a very important role in psychological therapy. And they seem to not only be a good part of the community there in Chicago, but, also they are a good community themselves. I really like schools that are like that. You don’t just go and absorb information, regurgitate it, and that’s all there is to the school. It is an actual thriving, supportive community. I really hope that my children pick a school like that - and if one of them were to choose psychological studies, I would just be thrilled.

We had a rather exciting, wildlife morning the other day while getting the kids ready for school. It started out when I was in the kitchen alone, before the kids got out of bed. I was standing in front of one counter, and I heard something in another counter on the other side of the kitchen. It sounded a bit like plastic hitting plastic. But you know how when you’re alone, and you’re lost in thought, and then you just barely catch this noise, over the drone of your thoughts? So I sort of second-guessed myself about hearing it.

And then Shawn had come into the kitchen, and he is standing in the same place I had been standing, when I first heard the noise. He is preparing his breakfast, and I am sitting at my desk - and we both hear this scratching noise. I didn’t look up, because, I just assumed it was something Shawn was doing. And then he says, “Mom - did you hear that?” And I sorta freaked a little bit, “Omg, yeah, but, I thought you were doing it!” He told me it hadn’t been him, and that it came from ‘that cabinet over there’ - the same one in which I’d heard noises twenty minutes earlier! Yeeeks!

Shawn and I bravely go over to said cabinet and slowly, ever so cautiously, open it up

- AND JUMP BACK!

But there was nothing in there, nothing, that is, but, some pots and pans. So I figure the little guy must be behind the oven. Mark is unconvinced, and we haven’t heard anything since. Shawn and I know what we heard, though! And hell, there are deer across the street - we can watch them from the balcony - we are a lot more rural than Garland, TX - so it wouldn’t be shocking at all. And heck, plenty of people in Dallas get rats in their pools/houses/garages. It just wouldn’t be surprising. But I guess Shawn and myself and our bravado scared him off!

Getting back to our wildlife morning, though - this was one of those mornings that I had to drive them to school. Somebody wakes up late, and that knocks back the whole schedule for everyone, since they all want a turn in their bathroom. And plus that puts them bumping into each other in the kitchen. Staggered awakenings are really a good thing - especially when they work! So, anyway, we get in the car - and the whole thing - ON THE INSIDE - is covered in ants!!! The freakiest part about it is that on the dashboard, there is a swarm of them POURING out of the vents! It looks like some 1970’s horror flick! And if you’re a kid of the 70’s, that’s a freaky thing - scarin’ your inner child and all, you know?

It was nuts, totally nuts, but we wiped away the ants that we could (though they continued to spout out those vents, the rotten buggers) and went on our freaked out, paranoid way.

And not too long before this, Mark and Patrick were vacuuming the basement, and when they moved the big chair - they found one of these guys:

The North American millipede - living in the room that is serving as my living room! That’s living room for people, dude! Not millipedes - now hit it! Sure, they’re not all that dangerous, but, they can do this to you:

OUCH!! And to top it off, later that day, I joyfully discovered that these crazy people I call my family had ’saved’ him in a little tupperware bucket! Yikes. I don’t know about you, but, to me, there is just something creepy about those things!

And a few days later, they were asking me to show someone the little guy, so I popped off that tupperware lid - Little did I know one of their defense mechanisms is a horrible smell. (And it is horrible!) And I guess when they die, out comes the smell. It was so bad, just lifting that little lid for a second, that the whole kitchen STUNK! We had to open the windows and light a candle!

So that’s a little bit of our wildlife life - just wait till I tell you about the ticks!

Have you ever wanted to learn all about stocks and investing? I have always been very curious about it and have always wanted to learn how it all works. Well, now I can do just that. And I can trade stocks from real companies with virtual money. And at the same time, I will be entering into a weekly $1000 contest! So I will be learning and also eligible to win $1000! That’s awesome!

You just go to WallSt.net and sign up for the rookie challenge, and everyone who registers receives a free WallSt.net hat. It’s totally free to register and totally free to participate. I, personally, am looking at this as a chance to get a free education in the world of stocks. Yes, I know it won’t be a full-fledged education, but, it will definitely get me a lot closer to understanding all of it.

They rank the success of each user, tracking everyone’s performance, and comparing how you’ve done with all of the other Rookies. You will start out with $100,000 and you can invest it in any way that you wish.

The winners are determined by whomever has the highest percentage of gain in that week. You have to have $100,000 or more in total equity before you are eligible to win prizes. Oh, and every transaction you make costs a virtual $20.00.

I really like how much information is given on this site, I think they are really going to help a lot of people like me understand, at least a little bit, about investing. And the cool thing - it’s a social networking site - yes, Web 2.0 is reaching out into every walk of life. I love that. You have a profile, just like on many Web 2.0 sites, where you can add pictures of yourself, and tell people about yourself. You can make and add friends, and communicate with other users.

This could definitely be a very helpful site - to a lot of people! I know it will be helpful to me!