List seven habits/quirks/facts about yourself. 

got this from i_read_dead_ppl 

And, since I'm a party pooper, my tag ends here.   (you may boo and hiss as you wish)

1. I chew my bottom lip and my husband hates it.

2. I will rarely buy any item unless it's the lowest sale price in the entire city.  Period.

3. I could eat taco salad every day.

4. My parents had to sign my marriage license so I could get married.  (and I'm still married...happily after 11 years)

5. I rarely finish anything I start.  (one of the reasons I'm so thankful for my better half...who spurs me on to the finish of things) 

6. I have have had six (yes, 6) wisdom teeth removed from my head.

7. I'm infatuated with capturing my kids' memories in digital scrapbooking so they can see, read and feel these moments even more closely than I ever did.

Soon the boys had everything safely tucked away in their shiney green envelope, and off to Germany it went.

About 2 weeks later, George came trudging home on his daily walk from the schoolhouse.  He was troubled over a report that he needed to get done for his homework, and had put it off for way too many days now.  It was due tomorrow, and had to be about another country far away from Europe.

He scuffled into the kitchen and noticed an oddly colored envelope in the pile of mail post on the countertop.  

"Well, it's for me!"  George's spirits were lifted as he carried the envelope off to his room, locking the door behind him.  His little sis, Paula, was always trying to nose into his business.

"Ah, lovely!"  George exclaimed as he pulled out the little flag and flopped it around in his hand.  "Eric's never sent me stuff like this before."

He reached back in and pulled out the notes and the photocopy of the dollar bill.  Turning it over, he read the fun facts on the back about US money and instantly decided he had his report topic.

He read through the notes from Amos and Eric about sending the envelope on and how everyone was to keep track of where it's been.

"I'll have to take care of that after I get my paper done.  But I do know just who I'm going to send this envelope on to next!"

George worked quickly all afternoon putting together his homework assignment.  It came so easily after that great idea from his penpal in Nebraska.  He looked forward to writing back to Eric and telling him how much help he was!

My kids are glad to be finished with the Beatrix Potter collection we've been working through at bedtime the last few weeks.  Mostly because they prefer our own bedtime stories, conjured up on the spot.

This is the one we began last night.  We all agreed after beginning the story, that it would be fun to add to it each night, and perhaps make it into a little book.  This morning during summer learning time, everyone made drawings and journal entries with ideas for the story.

Here is how it begins (this is more elaborated for the book, but was much more basic when we were telling it  last night)

Clambering over one another off the school bus, Amos and Eric raced into their little brick cottage house in the old neighborhood.

" I win!" declared Amos, who never failed to beat out his brother with much shorter legs and two years behind him in age.

Kicking off their sneakers by the door, they overheard their Mother on the phone with Dad.

Eric glanced over to the corner of the tiny entry way to Dad's timeworn wooden desk, wondering if any practical joke catalogs had come today in the mail.  

There he first spied it.

"Hey, look at this, Amos." he said, turning over a shiney green envelope in his hands.

"Anything in it?" Amos wondered, snatching it from his little brother's hands and popping open the flap.  "Hmm, empty.  Nothing written on the label either."

"Let's ask if we can have it.  I've got a cool idea."  Eric said, wide-eyed.

Knowing they were not to interrupt Mom when she was on the phone, the boys took the liberty anyway, as it was obvious that Dad was on the other end, and they needed permission from both.

"What's this envelope for?" asked Eric.

Mom stopped talking and looked down at it.  

"I'll ask Dad.  He brought it home last night from a meeting."  she said.

Dad heard her comment and explained through the receiver.

"He says it was in the garbage can at church last night, and thought you boys might have some ideas for it."  she said.

"Thanks!" Eric called, loud enough for Dad to hear through the phone.

"Watcha thinking?" Amos wondered as Eric skipped off into the kitchen.

"I want to send this to my pen pal, George.  Just gotta think of some stuff to put inside." Eric said.

"Where is George from?" Amos wondered, his brain wheels turning.

"From Germany.  I have his address in my backpack." Eric replied proudly.  

"Why not send him stuff that's uniquely American?" Amos suggested.

"What do you mean?"

"Like stuff that's only found in our country." said Amos.

The boys threw some ideas around, and finally settled on the small American flag hanging from their bunkbed...it was just small enough to fit in the envelope without having to fold it.  Amos had just learned what the meaning of the stars and stripes were after reading about it on the internet at school, so he wrote that out for George.  Eric had a copy of a one dollar bill that had fun facts about US money printed on the back, and thought that would be fun to send to George.

"Anything else?" Eric wondered.

"Well, how 'bout a note telling George to pass it on?  You know, like use the green envelope over and over and send it all over the world?  He could think of things to put in, and send it to somebody else." Amos said.

"Great idea!  Do you think it might come back to us?" asked Eric.

"Hopefully.  We could have a list of names and addresses in it, so everybody can see where it's been."  Amos suggested.

"Yeah, let's do that."