Category Archives: Treasures from the Archives

Ordinary Man or Unordinary Monster?

By Chloe

Nicholas lived in an ordinary house, on an ordinary street, in an ordinary city, which was in an ordinary state (Hawaii), that was in an ordinary country, which was on ordinary planet, and even his life was ordinary.  But not for long.  For he was about to become the most unordinary person you possibly meet.  This whole story begins in February on an ordinary day.  It was beautiful outside, and may I add very hot too.  Everybody was either at a lake, beach or pool.  Except for a boy named Nicholas, Nicholas Mound.  He was a well-behaved boy.  He was nine years old.  And the only thing odd about him was he was born on a leap year.  So you can see he probably had the most uncommon birthday somebody could ask for.  And in fact today was his birthday. 
For his birthday, his dad was taking him fishing.  And that’s when the strangest thing of all happened while they were out fishing they caught an octopus. An actual octopus!  Nicholas and his dad were amazed.  Nicholas touched the octopus and the transformation began.  He was turning into an octopus!  His dad was too shocked to move, all he was able to do was stare and gape.  In about another 30 seconds, Nicholas was an octopus!  The only things that were the same about him was he still had hands and legs and feet.  
Nicholas was a very smart kid for his age.  He was able to figure out that he needed to find the creature most opposite an octopus.  Because that would change him back to normal.  Which he thought was a spider. Even though it also had 8 legs.  And all he needed to do was touch it.  He easily found a spider and touched it.  And this time he turned into a…well you probably know what happened.  

A Child’s Milestone

After a bit of a rough afternoon, with moodiness and cranky behavior making its imprint on an otherwise uneventful day, Chloe went from miserable to ecstatic in about five minutes flat after I allowed her to accompany her friend on a bike ride around the block by herself.  

She didn’t believe me at first – that I would permit this fleeting moment of independence.  But boy was she happy.  She rode off before I could change my mind, and after a couple of hours of nastiness, her demeanor went through a complete metamorphosis.
It was exciting for her to be on her own – outside, out of our view, with her friend.  There are lots of other milestones to come, but this one touched me – she was so proud of herself.  And even though the adventure lasted all of ten minutes, it was priceless.

Bookmark Contest Ceremony

It’s official – Chloe received her prize today for winning honorable mention in the local bookstore contest.   Chloe’s masterpiece is the one on the bottom right.

She already put her $10 gift card to use (and had to raid my wallet for a little extra money to cover the cost of the book she wanted) and walked home while reading her new novel.   This had me a little worried because Chloe is not the most coordinated 8-year old I know.  I had visions of her tripping and falling on her face, book splayed on the sidewalk.  Luckily, she didn’t fall, but at one point she trailed the rest of us by at least 500 feet.
Next year Sophie will be eligible to participate as well.  I have high hopes that she’ll win a prize too.  I’m sure whatever she creates will involve the color pink and at least one princess.  

Chloe’s First Book Review

She’s hoping the local bookstore (the one that awarded her honorable mention in the recent bookmark contest) will publish her review in their next kids’ newsletter:

The Twits by Roald Dahl

You might want to know some facts from the book The Twits.  So here they are.  In The Twits both Twits hate each other so much, they pull pranks on each other.  Like this one:  For dinner, Mrs. Twit made spaghetti.  When Mr. Twit gets his spaghetti he said they were a bit squishy.  Mrs. Twit just says it’s a different brand.  Guess what it really was?  I’ll give you 10 seconds. 1-2-3-10-gotcha!  If you’re about to say worms, that’s correct.  And you know who did it?  None other than Mrs. Twit!  The Twits is a very funny book.  And that’s all I can say.

The author is Roald Dahl.  I’m sure you’ve probably heard of him.  If you ever do read this book, I hope you enjoy it.

9 AM

That’s right.  I slept until 9AM today.  I don’t remember the last time I slept until 9AM.  I woke up awake, if you know what I mean.  No lingering fatigue.
And boy, was it quiet in the house!  As my husband remarked, time passes a lot more slowly without the girls around.  I’ll be glad to see them a little later, that’s for sure.  But as I said yesterday, as much as I love them, I don’t miss them at all.  Mother’s Day be damned!
I truly appreciate being able to relax.  It’s nice to do not much of anything.  And having days like that with two young ones are all too rare.

I Will Be Sleeping in for Mother’s Day

That is my present.  The girls are sleeping over at my mom’s place tonight, and I will be sleeping late tomorrow.  At least, that is my intention.  I haven’t slept late in a really, really long time.  Not sure if I’m still capable of doing it.

But even if I’m not sleeping, at least I won’t have to roll out of bed before 7AM to make breakfast or play legos or give baths.  I can read, spend time on the computer or do nothing at all.
I haven’t been able to do nothing at all in really, really long time.  And as much as I adore my offspring, I know that come tomorrow morning, I won’t miss them a bit.

Bookmark Contest


As I mentioned in a previous posting, Chloe entered a bookmark contest at our local bookstore.  This morning she got some pretty excellent news.  One of the employees called, announcing that she had won honorable mention and a $10 gift certificate.  
When she started to listen to the message and heard who was calling, she was grinning with delight.  Until the part about honorable mention, when the grin suddenly reversed itself into a pout.  She’s not too fond of honorable mention, and announced that she would have rather lost than won honorable mention, because coming so close to winning is such a tease.
She got over her disappointment fairly quickly though, especially once I told her that 170 kids had submitted designs.  She’s one of 15 or so award recipients.  Frankly, the odds of her winning honorable mention in the bookmark contest were less than her getting accepted into an elite college in 10 years, but somehow I don’t think that analogy will hold much weight with her.  
That said, the ceremony is next Saturday and we’ll be there.  She was a little more excited once I told her that if the $10 doesn’t cover two books, I’d pay the difference.   My special prize to her for doing such a great job.

Disney Hoax

Mom calls me yesterday. All excited. “You’ll never believe what I received in the mail today,” she started. She went on to describe a postcard depicting a photo of her taken at Disney World in 1974. She read the text of the card to me, which essentially thanked her for her recent visit and expressed the wish that she enjoy this old photo that Mickey found in his vaults.

Based on her description, I’m thinking that this is the coolest marketing ploy ever. Culling their archive of photos, which must number in the millions, to thank a recent guest for coming to visit the park again. It seemed a little odd that they were able ot match up her image with her name, but stranger things have happened, right?

When I arrive home, there’s an envelope waiting for me. Return address: “Mouse House. Kissimmee, FL.” I open it up and there are two postcards each with a photo of my brother and me and Winnie the Pooh. From 1974. Similar message. I look at the envelope again- the messages are handwritten, and it frankly seems odd. These photos are not professional by any stretch and they even look familiar.

I notice that the postmark is from a post office in Central Massachusetts. I grab the phone. Sophie, Chloe and my husband are laughing as I tell them the story of their gullible grandmother (and mom). “Mom – your brother-in-law – my uncle – sent these photos to us!” I exclaimed. “My god,” she replied. “Of course that’s it. But you know mine didn’t come in an envelope and there was no postmark.” Trying to rationalize. But there’s really no excuse. She was fooled for a good while (enough to convince me over the phone that what she had in her hands was legit and enough to have a conversation with her sister about the marvels of digitized libraries). Thanks for the laugh, Uncle A!!!!