Holy Thursday!

We just received Jonathan's Catholic kindergarten home school kit. He missed the kindergarten deadline by a few days, but he's ready. If we do accredited kindergarten for him, he will have the option next year of entering first grade or repeating kindergarten at school. The only accredited home school kindergarten in the area is affiliated with the Catholic church.

As you probably know, we belong to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Tracy called the school before we ordered the kit to find out about how "Catholic" the materials are. The man on the phone said not to worry; there may be an image here, a sentence there, but for the most part the materials are strictly academic and non-religious.

I'm sorry to report that the gentleman, perhaps unknowingly, broke the ninth commandment. Or the eighth commandment, depending on your denomination. Whichever one says "liar liar pants on fire." (Okay, I don't think he meant to deceive us. It's all about your point of view.)

Actually, it's not that bad, and we can substitute those materials that are not in harmony with the gospel with materials of our choosing. And we have had a few good laughs already. For example, if you're Catholic, you might not find anything funny about the term "Luminous Mysteries," especially when appearing in a kids' coloring book, but believe me.

As another example, there was a rosary in the box. For our non-Catholic readers (which I believe is all of you), a rosary is a bead necklace that helps Catholics count the prayers that they recite. It has a crucifix at the end of it. We focus on the resurrected, living Christ so we don't even use crosses, much less crucifixes, so Jonny may or may not have seen one before. His reaction to the rosary was priceless:

"Why did they send me a dead Jesus necklace?"

Snopes Mini: Go Up, Thou Bald Head

Welcome to Snopes Mini, where we debunk urban legends one at a time. In fact, I have only one myth to dispel today.

Claim: Baldness, or lack thereof, is inherited from one's mother's father.

Status: False.
I don't see the top of my own head very often. So I was pretty surprised to discover this a couple of weeks ago. I was especially surprised because I have always been taught that I would go my whole life with a full head of hair because my maternal grandfather did so.

I'm not too upset about it. I'm more amused that I didn't know, and that Tracy didn't tell me.

And what, you may ask, does this have to do with the kiddodiddos? Nothing for now, but it will in about 25 years (hee hee Jimmy!).

Superhero Rumours

As you all know by now from reading a previous entry, we have a superhero living at our house named Crismon Shedds. His marquee superpower is that he knows everything. We have a few updates on Mr. Shedds. One is a clarification, and the other is new information.

Clarification: the name Crismon Shedds comes from a misreading of the video game Crimson Skies at that vaunted center of high culture, Chuck E. Cheese.

New Information: Jimmy looked down a storm drain and said he was looking for Crismon Shedds. When asked to clarify, Jimmy explained that Crismon Shedds is a shape shifter who likes to flush himself down the toilet. He (Jimmy) did not specify whether Shedds' brother, Crismon Shredds, is also a self-flushing shapeshifter.

That is all.

Want to know when Jesus will come?

We have a famous super hero in residence. He came home with Jimmy from kindergarten on the first day of school. He wears the same clothes as Jimmy and he looks just like Jimmy. However, his family of 7 brothers was killed in a car wreck and he was forced to join our family. His name is "Crismon Shedds." Crismon Shedds' super power is that he was born knowing everything. He's not around all the time, but sometimes he puts in an "appearance."

Last night, during dinner I made a joke about the millenium (don't ask, it was political) which lead to the discussion of what the millenium is. We explainned how Jesus will come and it will be wonderful, but no one knows when it will happen. Not even the prophet or angels in heaven know when it will happen. "oh yeah?" says Jimmy "Just ask Crismon Shedds!"

UPDATE: more info on Crismon Shedds.