damaged silly bones and other crises

i wish you could hang out with benny for significant periods of time. 
because if you did, you might have a blog. 
or at least this encounter, from 30 minutes ago. 

benny was helping me get a dry erase marker out of the desk drawer. 
we needed one to draw an airplane on our family calendar. 
while doing this, he hit is funny bone and collapsed into Anth's arms in a pile of tears. 
as he explained, it "really hurts to hit your silly bone."
i clarified that it was actually called a "funny bone." 
at this point benny stopped crying. 
the look on his face was of serious concern. 
he walked into the dining room to tell bernie, "daddy. i just hit my funny bone. . . so i lost one of my jokes. i think it was my number one joke."

bless bernie's heart. 
he didn't skip a beat. 
he walked benny through all of his regular hits from ridiculous bathroom jokes to tissues with boogies in them (a la daddy's colleague Nicole Craven).
and all was right in the world again. 
it seems that benny's silly bone was lightly bruised, but not seriously injured on impact. 

fail photo: not this year's holiday card

benny has declared that tonight is family movie night. 
we will be spending some quality time on the couch.
with popcorn. 
sweet for anth and daddy. 
salty for mom and benny. 
so much can be drawn from our popcorn preferences. . .

we will be watching epic. 
this was supposed to be a christmas gift.
but then benny went and got his hand shut in a door at school and needed stitches. 
(i will try to get bernie to ghost write the account of that urgent care visit...)
so he got the movie a little bit early when we needed him to calm down and sit still for a bit at home. 

all this to say...i'm going to go snuggle the boys on the couch, so i'm phoning it in tonight. 
and posting what is, of course, my favorite photo from the Buckeye Kickoff event. 
a fail photo. 
because i love me some hot mess caught on film.  

happy weekend, friends!

LOL. Literally.

i have shared that i recently started a new job.
people keep asking me how it's going.

just so you know. . .
i'm loving it.
to put it in StrengthsQuest terms (because that's just the kind of gal i am), my Learner/Input/Intellection/Strategic strengths are totally nerding out and loving all the new information, ideas and experiences i've been taking in.
plus i'm surrounded by great people.

all in all, a great first few weeks.

along the way, i have been asked by my new colleagues to pitch in on the day to day tasks that make the machine that is the Center for the Study of Student Life work.
we deal with a lot of detail, so we serve as a second set of eyes for each other.

today, however, was different.
i was asked to help do the voice recording on a web module.
this basically involved a colleague and me in a "whisper room" recording studio reading off of a script about analyzing focus group data to complement a PowerPoint.
this may not sound very exciting.
let me tell you.
it was hilarious.

now, most folks who spend enough time with me know that i have a rather loud laugh at times.
today, however, i was given this gift:

the first line of recording is my colleague speaking her lines.

then there is me.

you can see that i am louder than her in general.

you can also  see the exact point at which i found something funny.

while recording a web training.

on focus group analysis.

clearly.

BUT...for those of you who are currently thinking, "isn't this blog supposed to be about your kids?"

here is another tidbit.

from the car ride in this morning with benjamin.

benny had been a chatterbox half the way in to work.

then he was quiet for a few minutes.

"mommy?"

"yeah, ben?"

"do you think we could get some cookies?"

i assumed he was talking about an event or for some purpose.

"for what?"

i glanced back in the rearview mirror.

(we were at a red light. hold your horses.)

benny tipped his head back and looked up at the car's ceiling.

the expression on his face said, why did i get a mother who clearly can't understand the simplest of concepts?

then, very clearly.

very slowly.

and very loudly.

as though to make up for my incompetence at large. . .

"FOR. MY. MOUTH!"

i laughed.
out loud.

(some might say, very loud.)

'tis the season...for football

ok, friends. 
brace yourselves. 
for lots of photos. 
lots and lots of buckeye photos. 
last weekend was the 2nd annual Buckeye Kickoff event. 
it is a really fun event for the first year class, held in the Ohio Stadium. 
the boys loved it last year and asked to go again. 


anth was really excited for the event. 


benny was. . . benny. 
he didn't want to pose for a picture. 


check him out. 
this is benny intently staring into the distance and refusing to look at my camera. 
i had to respect the concentration, if nothing else. 

thankfully, one of his favorite buckeye ladies, beth, came around and brought him out of his shell. 

and, of course, The Best Damn Band In The Land can always get him out of his seat. 
he genuinely loves them.
(he is not alone in this sentiment.)

look at them. 
both smiling beautifully. 
fun fact: benny is only smiling this way because there is a bunny-ears-in-progress behind anth's back.
i'll take what i can get. 

this was almost a really cool picture. 

and then the band walked away. 

oops. 

this is bern teaching benny the proper rhythm for the song. 
i went through a similar lesson before my first game in 2001. . . 
in the car from bowling green to columbus. 
almost the whole way. 
festive. . .

if i were a much taller, you might be able to tell that there is a fully formed Script Ohio behind them. . .

after the band left the field, benny was super interested in the rest of the show. . .

although he was happy to join daddy on the field for the first year class picture. 
again, i'm not tall enough, nor high enough in the stands to show what this means. 
here you go. 

timmy siverd was very proud of this photo, so i am giving him proper photo credit. 

he took this one, too. 
come back soon for the tragic Fail Photo version of this one. . .

all 3 of my savvy boys. 
(which, PS, the savvy is short for Savarese. someone admitted they didn't realize the connection between our name and the name of the blog. which brings me back to this post, in which i explain that i am trying to be punny, not cocky. . .)

anth and one of his favorite camp counselors, Danny. 
:)

per usual, not sure what benny is doing. 
but otherwise (minus the random array of first year students behind us) this is actually a decent family photo.
life's little victories. 

Dr. J (Dr. Javaune Adams-Gaston, our Vice President of Student Life) tried to photo-bomb our family photo. 
and just ended up in it. 
genius. 

another gem of a human, Moe Samad, teaching benny some of the finer points of football. 

most of my pictures of these two ended up looking like this. 

with a little bit of this. 

but by the end of his lesson, they were ready. 


perhaps benny was a little too ready. . .

i have about 43 Fail Photos of this one, too. 
all of them are worth a 1,000 words. 
most of the words being along the lines of, "mom, why on earth are you trying to make us hold still on the Buckeye football field?"

and, of course, i ended the night with a few photos with some of my favorite buckeyes.
including jen. 
whose hair is still long enough to make a perfect mustache. 
i was worried. 
(yes, this only makes sense if you know her.)


moe stopped running around long enough for a photo. 

and, of course, a pic with the now most-senior Assistant Director of Residence Life, curtis. 
whose hat i should have borrowed as to not be eating my hair in this photo. 
charming. 

also? 
one of these days i will remember to get a picture of bernie and i at this event. 
oops. 

anyway. 
all of this to say. . .
Happy Buckeye Football Season!