A Day In The Life

Been a few days since our last post/update.  There have been some ups and downs and in-betweens, and finding the time/energy/oomph to blog has been a bit difficult.  But we're back and still raising money, and with only 66 days left until the Relay and a lot more to raise to reach our goal, we're back with a vengeance.


In the last week, Savannah has turned 4 (going on 16), joined karate, and has changed her outfit approximately 1,200 times.  Nathanael has added yet another occupation to his long list of things he'd like to do when he grows up (pharmacist, astronaut, animal rescuer, karate teacher, and now a robotic engineer), has taken a keen interest in entomology and ornithology, has mastered Jim Carrey-ish faces, and succeeded in getting the rest of us sick with some nasty virus.  We've had the sewer back up into our basement, a raccoon on our back deck, and a power outage.


Our last fundraiser at Nola's BBQ featuring the Skycoasters was a small success.  Somewhere on this ancient laptop I have the names of people to thank for their donations for raffle items.  We do have another fundraiser coming up in just a couple of weeks at local family restaurant Cheeburger Cheeburger.  We have items to raffle, and the restaurant will be donating 15% of their sales to our team for the American Cancer Society.  We're still so far from our goal, but we're all hopeful that we'll get there.  


Keeping the hope alive has been a bit of a roller coaster ride as of late.  We're still listening to Don't Stop Believin' and Jump to keep the message present in our daily lives.  It's harder for me than it is for the kids, but their youthful innocence and naivete can be infectious.


The kids are busy preparing something that they'd like posted on the blog which will get on here by the end of the week.  In the meantime, I thought some of the dialogue that has occurred in the time since the last post might put a smile on your faces, dear readers.  Thank you for your continued loyalty to our blog.  


There is still time to donate to our team, and if you'd like to do so on behalf on Nathanael and Savannah or in honor/celebration/memory of someone you love, please visit our team page here.  If you'd like to mail a check, you may do so by writing it out to The American Cancer Society and mailing it to:
Nathanael and Savannah Haskell
P.O. Box 506
Buffalo, NY 14226


And now, may I present "Overheard In The Haskell Household" or "A Typical Day In My House"


Mom: I'm nauseated.
Nathanael: Me too.
Savannah:  I'm lazy-eyed.

Savannah:  Make it a double!  (referring to the amount of fruit snacks she was getting, but still)

Savannah:  Hey Mama, take a whiff!
Mom:  Excuse me?
Savannah:  Oh, did you toot, too?

Nathanael, attempting to speak French: Clooka dooka f*cka troolay
*when asked what he was trying to say, he told me he was asking what the time was

Savannah: Do spiders have private parts?

Nathanael:  Girls are better than boys.  Oh...wait a minute.  That's not what I meant.

Nathanael:   Mama is WAY more fun than Daddy!

Savannah:  Mama, I've got an itchy spot right here.
Mom:  You do?  Where'd it come from?
Savannah: 'Cause I've been scratching at it.

Savannah, hitting their little table and in a creepy voice:  I give up, you scary table!

Nathanael:  Auntie C. texts you a lot.  I hope I get to text when *I'm* a pharmacist.
*for the record, Auntie C. does not text a lot, nor do I receive a lot of text messages.

Savannah: I need help wiping!

Nathanael:  I'm over homeschooling for today.
Mom: Now what do you think would happen if you went to regular school and you told the teacher you were over school for the day?
Nathanael: She'd throw me in the dumpster.
*again, for the record, we spend about an hour and a half total homeschooling at this age.  Not long enough for him to be "over" anything.  Little turkey.

Savannah: Do we still have lemonade?
*she asks this every day.  We haven't had lemonade since our lemonade stand in MARCH.

Nathanael: I need some tape for my microphone.
Mom:  Why do you need tape for it?
Nathanael:  Uhh....so I can tape it, of course.

Nathanael: I just put deodorant on.
Savannah: Regular?
Mom, knowing all he did was slap water under his armpits: Why did you put deodorant on?
Nathanael: Because my elbows smelled like sweat.

Most of this is probably "Guess you had to be there" funny, but trust me.  In the moment, the hilarity was too much.

What would a princess do?

Savannah, seeing her brother's success with his Knock Out Cancer Challenge, asked if there was something she could do that was just hers.  

Savannah:  I want to do something.  Not karate.

Mom:  Ballet?

Savannah: No.  My leotard is too tight.

Mom: A song?

Savannah:  No, I already did that, remember?

Mom, having clearly forgotten:  I absolutely remember.  What do you think you'd like to do?

Savannah:  Something about horses.

Mom:  We don't have a horse, Sav.  And I don't know how we could incorporate horses into our message.  Or where we'd even find a horse.

Savannah:  Um, the yellow pages.

Mom, feeling The Headache coming on and rubbing her temples:  Any other thoughts, kiddo?

Savannah:  Yes!  Rapunzel!!

Mom:  Okay!  What would Rapunzel like to do?

Savannah:  Ride a horse.

Mom, having flashes forward of what the teen years are going to be like:  Something without horses.

Savannah:  I don't know then.

Mom:  Do you want to talk to our readers?

Savannah:  Yes!  I could read them a book!

Mom:  You're just learning how to read, kiddo.  We're not quite there yet.  But I have an idea.  Remember the Disney princess books you have where they all try to solve different problems?  And how they all say the same thing as they think about what to do to solve the problem?


Savannah:  Oh!  Yes!  Just like when Ariel had to tell Triton that the pitsytooter was hers, and not Alana's!

Mom:  Would you like me to help you say some things to our readers, and then maybe you could end with that one line from the book?


Savannah:  YES!

And so, ladies and gentlemen, may I present Savannah, aka Princess Rapunzel, in our Cyrano de Bergerac style of....an interview with Rapunzel.  No horses were harmed in this interview.

‎  

Who can resist a beautiful princess?  If you would like to donate to our team, please visit the team page for The Cave Crashers.  From there, you can see Savannah's name toward the bottom listed as a team member, and if you'd like to donate directly to Savannah's page you can click on her name to donate.  If she raises $100 on her page, she gets a pretty awesome Relay For Life t-shirt.  You can also visit Savannah's page directly, but the default Relay picture of a random mom and daughter pops up when you click on the link and I don't know how to fix it; I just don't want anyone to be confused if/when you visit the page and don't see Savannah.  Our American Cancer Society rep is working on it.  


As always, dear readers, I thank you...WE thank you...for your continued support.  

Yankees Fans and Mermaids

Two new hairdos for a special event coming up.  Stay tuned!

Mom:  Natty, I have some exciting Yankees news about the blog.

Nathanael:  What?

Mom: Well, some of the writers and researchers from the YES Network have checked it out.  A writer for ESPN has, too.

Nathanael: What's ESPN?

Mom:  It's a tv channel for a bunch of different sports.  It's the channel that Salsarita's usually has playing when we go there.

Nathanael:  WOW!  I wonder if any of the real Yankees have looked at it?

Mom:  Well, a former Yankee named Chuck Knoblauch has looked at it.  All of these guys have found out about the blog through my Twitter account.

Savannah:  What's a Twittter?

Mom:  It's something on the internet where you can write what you're doing or about things you want people to know.  Daddy and I spend a lot of time on Twitter after you two go to bed, letting people know about your blog and why you're trying to raise money.

Savannah: Well, why can't you just call them on the phone?

Mom:  Because I don't know their phone numbers.

Savannah:  So look them up.

Mom:  *speechless*

Nathanael:  I hope Derek Jeter reads it!

Mom:  We'll see who we can get there, bud.  We have lots of readers and we're trying to get people to spread the word so we'll have more.  We want everyone to know what awesome kids you are.

Savannah:  Well, I want Ariel to read it.

Mom:  Sav, Ariel isn't real.  You know that.  She's just a cartoon character on a movie.  She can't really read.

Savannah:  Yes, mama, actually she can.

Mom:  Nope.  Sorry, kiddo.

Savannah:  Okay, well then how did she read Ursula's agreement before she signed it?

Mom:  *speechless*