Happy Halloween!

Me and Lindsay, Halloween 1999

Here is a picture of one of my worst costume choices ever. I was going for Smurfette, but ended up being mistaken for a dead nurse. Add that to the fact that I couldn't make any physical contact with a soul without getting my blue paint all over them and I would say it was a big bust!

I was talking with my friend, Mehgan, the other day on the phone and she reminded me of another particularly bad Halloween costume that I put together in 2004. The young single adults in the area were meeting in the Valley for a little Halloween party/ Family Home Evening and even though I didn't know anyone who was going, I thought I would don a costume and celebrate with the best of them! Since I had a fractured leg (or foot. I can't remember) at the time, and had to use a crutch, I decided to make the most of it by being Tiny Tim. So I found a little hat, wore fingerless gloves, made up an old-english-styled boy's outfit, and even smudged my face with coal. Then I headed off with hopes of having a good time. When I got to my destination, there weren't too many cars there so I called up my trusty friend, Meggie, and killed time before I made my grand entrance.  As we talked, more people arrived but very few of them were in costume. After a while, I decided to get it over with and headed in. When I hobbled through the doors, I heard pounding music coming from the cultural hall and realized that this was no ordinary Family Home Evening singles activity. It was a full-blown Halloween dance! I was horrified! There I stood, dressed like a boy with my little crutch and smudged face while the more successful daters danced around wooing each other. After a good ten minutes, I concluded that as much fun as it was to bee-bop by myself and my crutch in the corner (looking like a dorky little lame boy), it was time to accept my defeat and call it a night. It really is a wonder I was able to stay single for so long.

The Nap Fairy

 Mason, enjoying the fruits of his labors/nap

I know they say that bribery should not be used in parenting, but I believe that there is a time and a place. And after having a house full of sick kids for the past several weeks, I would say that time and place is right now in the Sieg home! For the past couple of months, Mason has decided that nap time is a thing of the past. As you can imagine, this has been a very sad development for mommy. But while he has been sick, we have both desperately needed him to get a mid-day recharge. Thankfully, over Christmas, my mom reminded me of a little fairy who has made a world of a difference in our napping successes. Her name is the Nap Fairy and boy do I love her!

My mom came up with her to help persuade my younger siblings to take naps back in the day and it worked like a charm! She told them that the Nap Fairy was a kind little fairy who would put a little treat (a small candy, trinket or toy) under their pillow if they took a nap. She also made sure to mention that she was very shy and would only come when she knew they were truly sleeping. While my mom tucked them into bed, she would have them pretend to call the Nap Fairy and say, 

"Nap Fairy, Nap Fairy, 

Hear my call.

Nap Fairy, Nap Fairy,

Bring me something small."

Thankfully, the Nap fairy has yet to retire because she has saved many an afternoon snooze in the Sieg home this past month! I would highly recommend this clever form of bribery to anyone!

I promise that Mason doesn't usually get this much loot. This must have been a day when the nap fairy was especially grateful that he got tricked into sleeping.

Couch Potato

Picture taken on Valentines day of this year

Last night Charlie woke up with a fever. After I gave him some medicine, we snuggled on the couch and watched a riveting 40+ minutes of Kipper the dog (some weird cartoon we found on Netflix). Thankfully, it was just what our little chap needed and when it was all done, he was able to finally fall back asleep. We Siegs generally don't watch much, but there is something about being sick that seems to require a little couch potato time.

When I was little, my mom had a rule that we could only watch 30 minutes of cartoons a day. After that, we were forced to turn it off so that we could be active or to use our little brains. Since 30 minutes never seemed like enough, we didn't like this very much. There was at least one time when we revolted by staying in front of the turned off television staring at the blank screen to prove to her that she couldn't make us do anything worthwhile. My mom was never paid enough.... Although we only had 30 minutes generally, when we were sick we could watch a lot more. For this reason, another post-tv-time found Marshall and I eating all sorts of plants, etc. in our backyard in hopes that we would get sick enough to watch more of Nickelodeon's Pinwheel. Too bad it didn't work. We foolishly ate the non-poisonous part of the oleander plant. Get's ya every time.

Unfortunatly for our TV addictions, we were fairly healthy kids. However, I do have several memories of getting pulled out of my bed on nights when I wasn't feeling well and getting to snuggle on my dad's lap. While we watched an old black and white version of the comic, Dagwood or listening to a musical performance of the song, Matilda, (my dad would often sing to me with my name inserted instead), I would drink juice and suck on ice cubes. TV just soothes the soul.

It's my party, I can cry if I want to

Happy 30th to me.

Let's hope this new decade is more of a hit than the smashing childhood birthday party pictured above. I'm the one partying-hard on the far left. Wow. Good times.

Talent shows

Mike, Matt, and Parker performing their "walk off" last weekend and stole the show.
Last Friday our single's ward had another talent show. It was a hoot, as always. James and I were thinking about performing a song and dance to our song,"Don't cha wish your girlfriend was raw like me" but weren't sure how it would go over. :) Maybe another year?.... Being there and watching our ward put themselves out on the line not only reminded me of how great the people we get to serve with are, but it also reminded me of the last talent show I was in.

Mason with two of his favorites, Kristen and Courtney.

Eye of the Tiger Laser Light Show
As with most people, I think my friends and I are hilarious people. Especially in our college days, I thought all of our pranks and jokes were off the charts funny (I still do, really. Let's be honest. We had a good time). Because of my high level of confidence in our sense of humor, I was more than willing to sign up with a group of them to perform at our ward's talent show.

We decided to do a laser light show to the inspiring song, "Eye of the Tiger" from Rocky. We practiced long and hard to get everything just right for the big night. When our turn on the stage finally came, we turned off the lights, strapped glow sticks to our ankles, and each held two flash lights in our hands. "DA!!!! DA DA DA!!!! DA DA DA!!!! DA DOM DOMM!!!!!" Whether our dance routine was really all that funny or not doesn't really matter. We were having a ball and our ward knew we were joking and got a good laugh.

Poppy and Char, looking equally impressed
We didn't think much about our laser light show again until the next semester. One of our friends was having a talent show in her new ward and wanted us all to perform it again. Those of us that were still around happily said yes, since it had gone over so well the first time. In fact, it had been such a success, that two of our friends who refused to dance with us the first time agreed to dance with us. None of us were even slightly concerned that we would look foolish. How could we? It was a winner!

The night of the talent show came and we showed up proudly in our black costumes. As most of us were not in the ward, people looked at us in wonder as we paraded in wearing our black costumes. The ankle glow sticks only added more to our mystique. I, of course, was eating it all up! Next thing we knew, we were up on the stage waiting for our music to begin. Adrenalin was pumping through our veins! Hot dog! And then the song began and our fancy footwork ensued. To our horror, instead of cheers and laughs, our routine was greeted by polite oohs and aws. Oh the shame of it!!!! There we were, caught in or own web! We had just barely started our dance, and we still had the whole song to go! I cannot express the mortification that was felt by my friends and I as we twirled around the stage. As soon as the number was over, we ran off stage and laughed hysterically. Then we picked ourselves up and walked out the door. The "Best Choreographed" award we received later was the nail on the coffin of our lameness. I still can't listen to that song without turning a little red.

This one's for Meggie....sorry Rachel.

Today is a very special birthday for three of my favorite people: Jennie, Jed and Meggie. However, since today is Mehgan's 30th birthday, I felt like she needed to be especially celebrated. And so, I give her the best picture from my college career.

Rachel, Chris, me and Meggie, 2000
If a picture says a thousand words, than this one at least screams HILARIOUS! Sorry, Rach, but I just love this shot. We found this little couch sitting outside of a trash dumpster and knew that it would be the perfect addition to our fancy balcony/walkway. Many happy hours were spent on that little number. Obviously, enjoyed more by some than by others....

Poor Chris....How was he to know that Rachel would never be wooed by a cowboy? Or that buying her a pickle at the dollar theater was not what her love-bucket needed. Poor Rachel, too. She had to sit that close to him while her friends mocked. For that matter, poor me! I was his rebound girl. I never would have guessed that my first marriage proposal would come from a squat little man wearing a do rag and spouting out fancy poetry? Some things you never see coming....

I'm sure your thirties will be like that but in a good way. May it bring even more laughter! Enjoy, Mehgana!
love your twenty-something friend,
Mal

This one's for Ari

"Do you LOVE him?!!!!"
--Damon Bradley in Only You
When thinking of favorite actors, Adam LeFevre comes to mind. Can you blame me?

Four Years....

Me and James at lake Piru when we were dating, Summer 2005
Another January 6th has come and gone. It has now been four years since we have tied the knot and it just keeps getting better. I sure love my honeybun!
Speaking of Jamesycakes, he is now officially done with his undergrad! Hot-diggity-dog!!!!! I am so proud of him. Now onward ho to more schooling!

Grandpa Charlie

Thanks to our truck giving us sass, we are still on vacation in California. While here, my Dad showed me some shots of himself when he was a little chap. Doesn't this first one look like our little Charlie?!!! My Dad and his big brother, George

Christmas memory: "Oh Christmas tree, Oh Christms tree...."

Amanda Swett, Sarah Nelson, me, Craig Bench and Amanda Cleverly Bench
I struck gold my Sophomore year in college with roommates. My friend Mehgan and I signed a contract without knowing who are roommates would be. They ended up becoming some of my best friends and we are still close to this day. We bonded over "The WB" and seven layer dips, and from then on were thick as thieves. When December rolled around, we decided that an apartment Christmas tree was in order. Together we pooled our funds and bought a festive tree to help bring in the holiday season. Our roommate, Sarah, who was gifted at making everything feel homey, made all sorts of decorations for our tree. I contributed by wrapping my green top bed sheet around the base of the tree for a make-shift tree skirt. Overnight, our college apartment turned into a home.
Unfortunately, none of us were too savvy at using a tree stand and our friendly tree would often tip over. One morning I woke up after all of my roommates had left for the day and found our tree laying on the floor. Since this happened all the time, I wasn't fazed and immediately set it back up and re-filled the stand with water. After that I groggily walked out front and hung the wet sheet over our balcony to dry. While I stood there in my pajamas, ward members walked by on the way to class. I was surprised when they gave me strange looks while we said our hellos. It was only then that I realized that with a big wet circle on my bed sheet, it looked like I was just cleaning up after a night of bed wetting. Oops.

Christmas memory: Keep it simple, stupid

I am getting a Christmas package ready to send off to my missionary sister and as I do my mind wanders to happy Christmas memories that I experienced while I got to serve. Here is one of them:Sister Barss and me at a dinner appointment, shortly before Christmas. The mother of the family that we were eating with gave us these two sweater vests as Christmas presents. Even though it wasn't really my style, I was touched by how kind it was. However, her teenage sons started teasing her with comments like, "Gee, Mom. Did you get a matching one for Grandma, too?" and I couldn't stop laughing. She was a good sport.

I got to serve with one of my favorite companions, Sister Barss for the 4 1/2 months leading up to Christmas. Boy was that a treat! There are so many things that I love about her, but her thoughtfulness comes first to mind. Sister Barss was especially excited for Christmas, as she would be returning home just before the holiday and would get to spend it with her family. However, before she left, she wanted to do something special to bring in the true meaning of Christmas to those we loved. She decided that during her morning gospel study, she would compile pictures from past Ensigns and match them with excerpts from the book, Jesus the Christ, to best tell the nativity story. The plan was to separate her findings into twelve installments and give them with a little binder so that people could use it to count down the twelve days of Christmas.

We missionaries had a little over a hundred dollars put into our missionary spending account at the very beginning of each month(mine was paid for by my dad). I knew that I wanted to save some of my December funds to get little presents to send home to family, but I figured that since Sister Barss was going to all sorts of trouble and effort to make this special gift, I could help out with the financing. I told her that I would split the costs with her, figuring that I would be spending around twenty dollars.

All November long she toiled away at her project. I had no doubt that it was going to be lovely. It better have been with all the time she put into it! On the very first preparation day in December, after we got our allowance, we headed off to Office Depot to get everything printed off and ready to give away. First off, we handed over her stack of images to have color copied and then the twelve pages of script. "Twenty of each, please". While They were being printed off, we perused the store for the nice binders, etc. that we wanted to use. Our baskets were piling high, and I started to worry that my half of the spending was going to be in the thirty dollar range. Yikes! After our shopping was complete, we headed back to the printing section to retrieve our order and pay for our goods.

While we piled our loot onto the counter, Sister Barss casually asked how much the prints would cost. "Um....the copies come to two hundred dollars." TWO HUNDRED DOLLARS? Was he joking?!!! Who in their right mind would pay for two hundred dollars of copies that were only going to be used as a fancy ding dong ditching present?! We were horrified! Then the hilarity set in and we both started to laugh uncontrollably while we grabbed items off of the counter to return to the shelves. The man must have thought we were loony. We laughed while we paid for our ridiculous amount of paper and the cheapest flimsy binders we could find. We laughed while we drove home. We laughed while we delivered her thoughtful gifts, and we continued to laugh about it for the rest of the month while we pinched our pennies.

To this day it is still the most expensive laugh I have ever had but it was worth every penny of it....especially since my Dad surprised me with some holiday money in the mail a couple days later.

This one's for Marshall....

"Camelot!!!!!"

And while we're at it....

"Mommy, I'm thirsty."
(Said in a high-pitched voice)

Ode to Kathleen

Mason, directing Poppy on how to change a diaper. Picture taken when our family first grew to four.
Now that we have Charlie and his little newborn sized hiney, Mason's plump size 6 rump doesn't seem so babyish anymore. I can't help but think that our boy needs to be potty trained and if my hands weren't full (and I wasn't dreading it so) I might just do something about it. Maybe next week...
The other day while James was changing Mason he said, "I feel like I'm changing a ten-year-old's diaper!" which reminded me of my sweet sister, Kathleen, and of one of my most beloved (and frequently shared-especially if Marshy is there) family stories of all time.

Disclaimer: This story is not funny to anyone really besides my siblings and I. In fact, it isn't really a story; rather, it is more of a memory. Our poor spouses have to hear it at nearly every family gathering. Kathleen doesn't even think it is funny. That doesn't matter to the rest of us though. It still causes us all to roar with mirth and delight. :)

When my siblings and I were younger, we were asked to help babysit children at a local Baptist Church for their weekly craft/mother's retreat. Since we were always on the lookout for ways to earn money, we agreed. Me (age 16ish), Marshall (age 14ish), Aria (age 12ish) and Kathleen (age 10ish). We hated this afternoon every week. The place was an absolute MAD HOUSE with a zillion bored and unruly children. They would split up the babysitters and put us in charge of different age groups-usually a different age group each week. Sometimes we got to work with another sibling and sometimes we were on our own. However, without fail, Kathleen got put on baby duty! The rest of us Vances felt bad for little Slingle, as there really was nothing worse than babysitting that big group of crying, stinky babies and toddlers. This in itself was no laughing matter.

However, there was one toddler in particular that has kept us laughing and teasing Kathleen ever since. I don't remember her name or anything else about her except that she was the BIGGEST TODDLER I HAVE EVER SEEN! So big that she really did look ten years old!!!! The poor thing never really had much facial expression at all, which only added to her strangeness. As Kathleeny was always babysitting that group, it was a common occurrence to see her changing the diaper of a child who appeared to be her own size! There the giant toddler would lay with a blank stare on her face while petite little Kathleen had to awkwardly change her diaper (insert one of us siblings making a blank face while pretending to be this poor child).

See. Not that funny really....except that I'm chuckling right now as I type about it. I sure miss having all of my siblings together to laugh about oddball things with. There really is nothing better than family.

Flashback Friday: Tiny Tim does a jig

After I finished at BYU, I moved home to pursue a masters in art therapy. Even though I felt like I was doing the right thing, I dreaded the move. I didn't see how living at home and attending the bite-sized singles branch (church for young single adults) was going to do wonders to a socially awkward returned sister missionary. However, I decided to make the most of it and threw myself into the activities and events that the Singles Branch put on. Each one seemed more painful than the last but I decided to soldier on anyway. I refused to be intimidated by teeny-boppers. Besides, there was a really good looking red head that I had my eye on.....

When the wonderful month of October came around, a nearby singles ward decided to throw a Halloween costume party for Family Home Evening and invited all of the nearby singles to join in on the festive fun. I knew it might be uncomfortable to go by myself, but I do love Halloween and there was a chance that James would be there, so I dressed up and bravely made the forty minute drive.

Just previous to this party, I had hurt my leg and had to use one crutch to get myself around. To make the most of my accessory, I decided to dress up as Tiny Tim from the Christmas Carol. I put on shabby old fashioned clothes, a little cap, scarf and fingerless gloves. Last but not least, I smudged my face with charcoal to make the Dickens character complete. I always pride myself on my Halloween costumes and I knew that this, too, would be a smashing success.

When I pulled up to the church, the parking lot was nearly empty. Curses for being prompt!!! I decided to do the only sane thing and made a few phone calls while I waited for more people to show. After about twenty minutes things had barely improved. However, I decided to pull out my little crutch and limp my way in.

Once inside, things quickly turned from bad to worse. I heard loud music coming from the cultural hall and I realized what I thought was a friendly party turned out to be a DANCE! What the?!!! How was I going to woo anyone on the dance floor while toting a crutch? Needless to say, being dressed up as a prepubescent coal-faced boy wasn't turning any guys head....at least in a romantic way (working it, working it). Yikes was I a bust! After I paused to survey the pathetic room, I bee-bopped my little hiney right back to my car. There are some things that even a dorky returned missionary won't bring herself to do...especially since James was not in attendance.

Swinging

My mom used to recite this poem to us Vance kids when we were little and it still is one of my favorites. She certainly had a knack for making childhood magical. Today is my mom's birthday. I love her so much. Today is also my nephew, Isaac's birthday. I cannot WAIT to see him (and his family) in a month and half! Hot dog!

Flashback Fridays: Oh to be invisible...or at least not so socially awkward

When I was 16, my family moved to Germany for a semester while my dad taught in a study abroad program for his school. At the time I did not appreciate the experience fully. Mostly I just moaned and groaned about how much I missed my friends and made it a point to remind my parents of my sacrifices daily. After a while I started really enjoying myself but I had to keep up my grumpy facade when my parents inquired. While we were there, my brothers and I took classes with the Loyola students and spent a fair amount of time touring the local sites with them. They were all nice to us but I could not help but feel foolish since I was so much younger. One guy in particular, Brad, always made it a point to try to make us feel included. He was an especially funny guy who was liked by everyone. However, I stayed awkwardly aloof, as I did not want him to think I needed a handout.

One evening, we joined the students to see a production of "The Magic Flute" that was going to start soon after our afternoon classes. As soon as our classes were done, all of the students (including my brothers and I) pulled out a change of clothes and took turns getting ready for the big show. This took a fair amount of time because there were so many of us and only two small bathrooms.

After the guys had all finished getting ready, a couple of the sophisticated ladies decided to take over the guys bathroom so that we could make the show in time. I thought this was a great idea and followed after them. However, I felt a little uncomfortable changing with them so I opted to use the lone stall for privacy. While we changed, they chattered away and seemed to have forgotten about me being there at all. So much so, that when they finished changing, they opened the door and told Brad that he could use the men's room to go to the bathroom and in he came. I was horrified!!!

I was hidden in the stall changing so he had no idea that I was there and since I was so shy, I could not think of how to tell him! I was trapped by my own stupidity!!! My anxiety increased when I heard him walk over to a urinal and begin peeing. All rational thinking left and I did the only thing I could think of. I silently collected my things and ran out the door, possibly hoping that my speedy getaway would blur his image of me completely. No such luck. As I struggled getting out of the door, I heard Brad say, "Well, hello there!" in a very surprised and amused voice. In hindsight, I suppose I could have handled that situation a bit differently.

Sweet Baby James

Little Baby James with his Siblings in 1982

This is one of my favorite pictures ever of my honeybunny so I had to get a copy of it when we were visiting his family a couple weeks ago. Aren't they all so cute? I just adore James' saggy little cheeks and red hair! I recently had a dream that I was holding a snuggly little James look-a-like and it made me so excited to have this little baby! Boy or girl. The dream was the usual random/weird type so I don't think it was any revelation on the gender. It just made me happy. Happy to officially be in my THIRD trimester?!!! Hot Dog!!!!

Some days we think we have a little boy on the way and other days we are certain it is a spunky little girl. Who knows. Only time will tell! Any predictions?

Flashback Friday: Dipper Day

I feel especially lucky to have been blessed with good friends in and outside of my own family. Some of my close girlfriends have stuck with me through thick and thin for many years now and are, in many ways, more like sisters than anything else. One of these good friends is Amy Engelbrecht. She and I grew up in the same area and went to BYU together. She is tall with dark brown hair; on the contrary I hold legal-midget status along with my brown locks. Somehow along the way we picked up the nicknames, Big and Little dipper, and it has stuck like glue. I have always been proud to be a dipper along with Amelia!

Our Sophomore year in college, we ended up taking two classes together. These Tuesday/Thursday classes quickly earned the nickname "Dipper Days." We lived in the same complex so I would meet her at her apartment and together we would make the trek up to campus while we would laugh and talk about whatever we pleased. I guess it is true what they say about great minds thinking alike because it seemed, more often than not (and without planning), we would meet for the day with clothes that were remarkably similar. We thought this was hilarious because of how dorky it made us look. Dressing like twinners just isn't as cool in college as one might think- especially when one looks like a mini version of the other. It didn't help that we would roar with laughter wherever we went, drawing even more attention to ourselves.

Sadly, both of our classes were duds and if it weren't for the each other, we would have all the way hated ourselves for signing up for such bores. The worse of the two was our mission preparation class. We had both been toying with the thought of serving missions (and both later did) and thought that it would be a wonderful chance to get ourselves ready if the opportunity arrived. Boy were we wrong! The only thing I remember learning from that class was that our teacher had the (according to him) talent and could make it look like he was chewing grapes with his tongue and cheek and would conveniently incorporate that trick into nearly ever lesson we had. Amy and I didn't find this nearly as humorous as I am sure he had hoped. We mostly thought that he was about as nice, dorky, and boring as they come.

In this class, our teacher made us break up into groups for different projects that he called "districts" just like they do in real missions and he wanted each district to come up with a group name for themselves. LAME-O!!!! Our group consisted of us dippers and a strange girl named Raleen (who always made me hungry because her name reminded me of praline n' cream ice cream and our class was scheduled just before lunch). She thought this district naming thing was a terrific idea and excitedly told us about the name that her brother's district was called on his mission while we pretended to share a sliver of interest."Blah blah...it was such a cool name....blah blah blah....because they were all tall...blah blah...so could we call ourselves blah blah blah?...." As we really didn't care one bit about the name of our group, we told her that her name would do just fine.

Apparently we should have listened to her suggestion a little better because it didn't occur to us until we were all three standing and introducing our group how strange and inappropriate it was. There we stood at various heights, all three rather busty girls, while Pralines n' Cream proudly told the religion class that we were to be known as "The Mountain Tops." We could have died. As if dressing the same and giggling like crazy didn't already make us look bizarre enough!

Flashback Friday: I look like WHAT?!!!

I believe that one should always be careful when telling a person that they look like someone else you know, whether it is a film star or a neighbor, it can backfire for even the most innocent comparison. Take, for example, when I told a girl I met that she looked just like one of my friends....who happened to be a guy....as soon as I said it, I could see in her face that it was a big mistake. Telling her that he had very long beautiful lashes didn't heal the unintended wound. Blast!

I had one of these zingers thrown at me, so I don't feel too bad. When I started out my service as a missionary, I got to spend a great deal of time out in the sticks of southern Virginia. People always poke fun at West Virginians, but I saw more weird down there in my first six months than I did for the rest of my time in the hill-billy state.

Soon after we arrived in my first area, we met a family who all lived together in different trailer homes on a plot of land. They were so kind to us and we sure liked them. Every time we would go over there, they would stare at me and tell me that I looked just JUST like their deceased family member, Wanda. I didn't mind the staring too much. I was just happy they let us teach them, even if it got a little weird at times. Sometimes they would say to me, "If I didn't know any better, I would think you were Wanda coming back to visit us!" and then they would stare even harder as if I were the spirit of their dear sister/daughter/mother (or whatever the family relation). A little strange, but in truth, I was flattered. They obviously thought the WORLD of this gal.

We had been visiting them for about a month when one day they asked if I would like to see a picture of Wanda. I had been waiting to see my ravishing look-a-like for a while and was more than ready to see just how pretty they thought I was. They pulled me over to an especially fancy frame and said, "There she is." in a voice of near reverence.

I was shocked! I don't think I was expecting to see Miss Virginia State looking back at me, but I certainly did not expect my clone to look the way she did. She was butt-ugly, was stuck in the '80's, and was missing a leg! Now, call me superficial, but this was not the biggest ego booster. I was so surprised at Wanda's appearance that without even thinking I said, "Wow, she is beautiful!" But then I realized that to them, I was saying that of myself, since we did look just like each other. Boy was that a hard pill to swallow! At least I never have to wonder what I would look like with poofy bangs and a wooden leg.

Mason's Alexander Beetle

Mason loves all moving things, including bugs. The other day I caught him happily watching this poor little beetle. It reminded me of a song that my uncle Jeff used to sing to us when he would come and visit that quickly became a family classic. My dad would pull out his guitar and we would sing it to my youngest brother, Alex. The song brings back many happy memories of my childhood and my musical uncle and it made me wish that I could be around him and and see some of his cool magic tricks again.

Alexander Beetle
I had a little beetle, so that beetle was his name,
I called him Alexander and he answered just the same.
I put him in a matchbox and kept him all the day....
And Nanny let my beetle out
Yes, Nanny let my beetle out
She went and let my beetle out-
And beetle ran away.

She said she didn't mean it, and I never said she did,
She said she wanted matches, and she just took off the lid
She said that she was sorry, but it's difficult to catch
An excited sort of beetle you've mistaken for a match.



She said that she was sorry, and I really mustn't mind
As there's lots and lots of beetles which she's certain we could find
If we looked about the garden for the holes where beetles hid-
And we'd get another matchbox, and write BEETLE on the lid.

We went to all the places which a beetle might be near,
And we made the sort of noises which a beetle likes to hear,
And I saw a kind of something, and I gave a sort of shout:
"A beetle-house and Alexander Beetle coming out!"



It was Alexander Beetle I'm as certain as can be
And he had a sort of look as if he thought it might be ME,
And he had a kind of look as if he thought he ought to say:
"I'm very, very sorry that I tried to run away."

And Nanny's very sorry too, for you know what she did,
And she's writing ALEXANDER very blackly on the lid,
So Nan and me are friends, because it's difficult to catch
An excited Alexander you've mistaken for a match.



This also reminds me of the song, Ugly Bug Ball by Burl Ives. I remember watching this clip in the Disney movie, Summer Magic and on our Disney Sing-a-long Songs. My siblings and I got a kick out of it. Now that Mason is big on bugs, I catch myself singing it to him all the time.