Truth Be Told #9

Truth Be Told #9

We Were Blown Away

This is who we went to see last night.  Country Star Carrie Underwood performed in Pittsburgh for her Blown Away tour.

This person opened for her.  His name is Hunter Hayes.  He just won a Country Music Award for New Artist last month.  He is really good at piano and guitar and a good singer.

Mother Eloise bought me his t-shirt because I saved the people in front of us getting barfed on by Natalie.  She hogged too many nachos and got all flipped out over us changing her seat.  She has autism and sometimes when she gets worked up she pukes.  Natalie coughs before she pukes and I recognized the sound.  I got her up to the bathroom just in time. It was pretty gross but it was worth a Hunter Hayes t-shirt.  I wore it to school today.

This is who went, me, Grandma, Natalie, and Aunt Karen.

Mother Eloise was taking the picture.  She's never in any pictures because she's always taking them and doesn't trust anyone else to use her camera.

Carrie is really pretty.

She has pretty hair.  

And the world's best wardrobe.  Even Aunt Karen was jealous.

She wore this hi-low dress first.  We loved it but she got ripped on by Hollywood for it.  They called it "over the top."  I don't think it is over the top.  

She wore this pretty multicolored short dress.  

She wore cut off jeans and a t-shirt and cowboy boots and still somehow made it glamorous.

She came out in sparkly pants for a duet with Hunter Hayes.  Mother Eloise and Aunt Karen said not many people can pull that off.  But she looked really nice.

The last song she wore a tornado colored dress and did Blown Away for the last song.  

 It was really cool and it looked like there was a real tornado on the stage.  Confetti was flying all around.  It was really powerful.  

Mother Eloise says that Carrie is a good role model to have.  She eats healthy, works out, and is a nice person.  She uses her talent to make others happy.  Those are good things.

Here is the video from youtube for Blown Away.  It is based on The Wizard of Oz.  Carrie plays the role of Dorothy.  Look for clues in the video, like what Carrie is wearing.  It is really artistic.  

Have a nice night,

Ellen Louise

Truth Be Told #8

Christmas Begins Early at the Lamp Post

This weekend my parents went "shopping" and Amy and Brad came over to babysit.  I know they were Christmas shopping because they were being vague about where they were going.  To pass the time we told Sam to make his Christmas list.

When I used to make my Christmas list I put one thing I wanted, one thing that Natalie wanted and something like "world peace".  I always had to write Natalie's for her.  

Then comes Sam.......

This isn't the cuddliest Christmas list in the world.  And it was four sheets long.

He wants WWE action figures.

If you're unfamiliar with "professional wrestling" here is The Great Khali he mentioned above.  Maybe Santa won't recognize it because Sam spelled it wrong.

He did want a few Ninja Turtles, too.  At least they are kind of cute.

Not like Funkasaurus that he also asked for.  

Can you imagine what our house is going to look like Christmas morning?

This weekend Natalie spent her time painting.  She loves to paint.  Paints will be on her Christmas list this year.  

I finished my wreath that I showed you last week.  It turned out better than I expected it to.

I want to make a Thanksgiving one like this but I couldn't find any orange tulle.  I have all the other colors but Wal-Mart didn't have orange.  If you know where to buy orange tulle or orange nylon net in Erie, let Mother Eloise know.  

Have a good week,

Ellen Louise

Truth Be Told #7

Truth Be Told #7

Sam's a Neat Kid

It was Report Card Weekend at The Lamp Post.

It's really no big deal.  We don't get paid for our grades or anything.  Mother Eloise says our best is just expected every quarter.  

But I still get nervous every single time my teacher hands me that tan report card envelope.   I still did well though.

We were all nervous for Sam though.  This was his first report card. 

The Kindergarten gets kind of a weird report card.  They don't get grades yet.  They just get Proficient or Developing in their skills.  

I could have filled out this section of the report card for Mrs. P. months ago.  Sam is developing all of his social skills---except for one.

Cleaning.  He got Proficient in that.

He's neat. 

I'll give him that.

 Christmas is 45 days away.  I see that as a Behavior Management Plan for Sam.

Threaten Santa.  That always works.

Sam has had a strange history with Santa Claus.

He didn't know what to make of him the first year.

 By the next year, he had sort of a love-hate relationship with the Man in the Red Suit.

Sam was kind of afraid last year, but wanted presents.  He told Santa at the Christmas party just to leave his presents on the front porch because he didn't want a stranger in the house.

45 days of "Santa's watching......."

That's nice for me.

Speaking of me, I started some Christmas crafts this weekend.  This is a cool wreath that I misjudged the amount of materials I needed.  I'll have to finish it next weekend.  Stay tuned.

I made some owls on my finger nails.

I also made this canvas art with spray paint and cheap snowflakes.  

Grandma wanted me to design wine glasses for Thanksgiving dinner at my Aunt Karen's house.  She makes the best food and we have a fancy dinner there every year that she and my Uncle Steve cook.  Grandma wanted some special wine glasses to drink wine out of.  She bought me the paint pens to do this.  They are really cool.  

Grandma says to give her all the glasses I make mistakes on.  She says you can never have too many wine glasses and to give her the "junker ones." 

I put a Lady Antebellum Christmas video on here.  They came out with a brand new Christmas album for the season. We were going to get it this weekend, but Mother Eloise is feeling sick.  Plus she says it's too early to be thinking about Christmas and that it is making her nervous.  Maybe next weekend we'll get the music.

Enjoy the video. This kid kind of looks like my brother, but Sam would never be that dressed up willingly.

Happy Almost Holidays,

Ellen Louise

Truth be Told #6

Truth be Told #6

On Fire, Even Though it Rained

Trick or Treat!!  Halloween went on as scheduled in Harborcreek, despite all of the rain from Hurricane Sandy.  We weren't out as long but we collected a lot of loot.  

Sam was the wrestler, John Cena.  I was Katniss and Natalie was Primrose Everdeen.

The funniest part of trick or treating was Jack and Adam.  They went as President Obama and Mitt Romney.        

We could tell who people were voting for by the amount of candy they handed out at the door.  They wised up about six houses into the night.  They would look for the sign in the front yard that said either "Obama" or "Romney."  They'd be sure to stop at those houses.  

I learned how to make a video this weekend.  Here are our Halloween pictures.

I hope you had a happy Halloween.

Video below.

Ellen Louise

Truth Be Told #5

Truth Be Told #5

It's Okay to Surrender Sometimes

Something has been bugging me this weekend.  It's left me scratching my head.  It's not just the lousy weather leaving me perplexed.  It all began with a project for school last week.  Here's the story.

We are learning about the Civil War in Social Studies.  I got assigned Fort Sumter for a project.

It was the first battle of the Civil War.  Unfortunately the Union lost that battle.  And what I learned in the process actually confused me.  

Everyone is always telling me never to give up.  You should always fight your hardest til the bitter end.  Those are good lessons for a kid to know.  

Then when I was reading about this battle, I found out that the General for the North, Robert Anderson, actually surrendered the fort.  He was surrounded by the southern General P.T.G. Beauregard.  Fort Sumter is on an island and the southern ships were bombarding it.  General Anderson knew there was no chance of winning, so he surrendered quickly.  He quit.  What's that all about?

But later, after reading some more, the history books say that his surrender was key.  No one died in the battle at all.  No one was even injured, and some of the important people from the north were spared.  In this case, surrender was ok in the long run.  

I hate to be nit picky, but there is still something bugging me about that.  Surrender just doesn't seem right.  

The south was happy.  They won the first battle.  This is the confederate flag I used as the background for my poster.  In case anyone from Slovenia is reading my blog, I have to let you know that the Confederates didn't win.  It took four years, but the north won and the slaves were free!

Mother Eloise says that we should send this flag to her friend Tracy Southern to remind her that South Carolina is a dumb state.

Another thing that has to do with surrender is a book series I am reading, the Twilight series.  

Mother Eloise, who is one of the people always telling me never to give up, finally gave in on this.  She finally let me read the first one and watch the movies.  She surrendered.  

We've been catching up on the movies before Breaking Dawn Part 2 comes out in November.

We watched Eclipse on Saturday while Sam was at a birthday party.  Mother Eloise says she doesn't need him catching glimpses of that movie and getting any more fighting ideas.  It was a really good movie.  We only have one more to go.  

So in this case, surrender was good again, because I would have never got to read some good books or see these movies.  It is fun to read a book first and then go see the movie.  That is the best.  I almost always like the book better, except for these.  I really think I like the movies more because they are kind of artsy, like me.  

My weekend is almost over.  I'm ready to publish my fifth post, but truth be told, something is still leaving me scratching my head this weekend.  Hmmmmm, what could it be?

Until next time, My Friends,

Ellen Louise Cullen

Truth Be Told #4

Truth Be Told #4

There's Cussin' In The Lamp Post

This is my brother Sam.

He can make a person crazy.  Crazy enough to say a bad word or two from time to time.

This is my sister Natalie.

She has autism.  Let me give you some advice, don't use bad words around autistic people.  She said a bad word this weekend when we were making cupcakes with our babysitter Amy.

We spent the rest of the weekend blaming each other for who taught Natalie that word.  It's not real bad, just kind of bad.

When we were decorating pumpkins this weekend, I had an idea.

I suggested that if we want to say a bad word, we just should say a replacement word.  I suggested Sammit. It think it is perfect.

This is how my pumpkins turned out.

We used silver glitter paint,

gold spray paint,

That one looked like a Notre Dame football helmet so we gave it to my Aunt Terri, Uncle Mike, and Jon.

I had some left over paint so I sprayed leaves (and my thumb).

The googly eyes are my favorite.

I saw some ideas like this on pinterest, but I made some of them up myself.  I want purple metallic spray paint.  If you know where I can gets some, tell Mother Eloise.

Have a nice day!

Love, 

Ellen Louise

Truth Be Told #3

Truth Be Told #3:

It Was An Apology Letter

This was on my mom's blog video last week.  Mother Eloise often puts our artwork on her blog.  This was a note Sam wrote to her but she failed to explain it.  It was an apology letter.  He wrote it because he punched the yellow Candy Land piece because he lost the game.  Even though fabulous is spelled with three S's, Sam's a pretty good speller for a kindergartner.  God help us all if he gets a blog someday.  

He writes me notes like this when he is in a good mood:

Sam writes me notes like this most of the time:

My biggest worry when Sam went to school was that he wouldn't have any friends.  Clearly I was wrong.  Kids like him.  

Here's Sam and his friend Gino:

They are a lot alike:

Things were going well until Gino tried to kiss Sam:

So then Sam decided to put Gino in a choke hold:

Here's the summer of Sam and Jacob:

 But fall football games have been all Delaney:

She's a lot like him, too.

I make no apologies about my brother.  He is who he is.  There is no further explanation other than that we love him and he makes life entertaining.  

Have a nice weekend,

Ellen Louise