Have you ever been thunderstruck?  I try not to be, but when your family is made up of Big D, Bonny Annie, Dirty Harry and Cap’n Jack Henry it seems to be a way of life.  Also, have you ever noticed that different things cause different people to be thunderstruck?  I mean what shocks one person is barely a blip on the screen of another.

Take Bonny Annie’s recent hairstyle…

I was mildly thunderstruck when I saw her bound down our stairs with dreadlocks on the morning of our departure for South Carolina.  But I was even more thunderstruck (thunderstricken?) when she wanted to know if I thought she looked African American.  I bit my tongue to keep from laughing.  The child is from Swedish and Irish/European ancestry.  She is a redhead.  With freckles.  She has to use SPF50 sunscreen.  Again, even more thunderstruckism occured when she was disappointed that she did not look African American and she confessed that she had always wanted to look thusly.  You learn something new everyday, I guess.

Big D, I’m quite sure was (or will be) thunderstruck to see that I was indeed able to pack our van for the trip by myself.

Now, don’t tell anyone this, okay?  But I was a little thunderstruck by this as well.  There was a moment that I didn’t think I could do it either.

Later, on our trip, I was thunderstruck by this…

Not so much that Indiana Mimi is drinking Pepsi from one of Jack Henry’s bottles (because I was the one who poured it for her), but that she actually drank it and posed for a picture with it.  I mean she knows any photo I take is fair game for my blog or Facebook, but there she sat, poised with her beverage in a baby’s bottle, allowing me to capture the moment with my camera.  I think Indiana Mimi must have been very tired.

Before we left on our trip, I had asked Annaleigh to watch Jack Henry for me for a while so that I could get some packing done, and I was thunderstruck by this site in her room when I was later looking for them….

Her explanation was that she was trying to get some packing done herself, and was unsuccessful with Jack Henry rolling all over her bed.  She found that he was happy….and contained….when placed inside her open suitcase.  Now that I’m here at home by myself with the Cap’n, I’m finding this may not be such a bad idea.  Where is that suitcase, anyway?

I don’t think anyone was more thunderstruck than Clara to be brought to a home and plunked down in front of her mirror image:  her sister, Sadie, who is owned by my sister’s family.  I think what was most thunderstriking to Clara was that she discovered on this trip that she is, in fact, a dog.  We do not sniff her rear or try to clean her ears with our tongues or try to steal and chew on her toys.  She sleeps in the kids’ beds, takes showers with them and sits on the sofa to watch TV.  It was a rude awakening for Miss Clara to be treated like a dog by other dogs, no less….but a fun one, eventually.

I was not thunderstruck to be tail-gated in downtown Charleston, but Annaleigh and Harrison were VERY thunderstruck that we were being tail-gated by this…

I guess it’s all perspective.

I’ll leave you with this short video clip of Harrison’s All-Star team being announced at the opening ceremony at the TN Youth Baseball Assoc. championships.  Because, ironically, they marched to AC/DC’s song “Thunderstruck.”  (Dirty Harry is one that is carrying a smaller sign in the front right.  The one with the sunglasses on his cap.)

So, what gets you all thunderstruck?

My name is Kellie, and I’m the Pirate Mom around here.

 I’m ecstatically married to my Admiral on this big ship of life, Big D. 

He is a wonderful husband and dad, and he’s not really that red.   He works for a large physical therapy company doing administration/management stuff.  In a nutshell, stuff I don’t entirely comprehend.  On the side, he dabbles in photography, but he dabbles exceptionally well.  His photography site is in my list of links on my sidebar.  He loves God and challenges me on a regular basis to love Him more and better.  I’m a blessed chick.

Our scurvy crew consists of our three children:  Bonny Annie, Dirty Harry, and Cap’n Jack Henry.  And our dog, Clara-Beard.

Annaleigh is our oldest child and only daughter. 

She’s a delight in every sense of the word.  She is smart, funny and talented.  She is sometimes sassy.  Currently, she is twelve going on about thirty.  She enjoys all kinds of involvement in the arts, including dance, singing, and drama.  She loves the stage and tries to find one to get on wherever we roam.  She is also a black belt in TaeKwonDo and loves pets and small children.  In her limited free time she enjoys reading and making beaded jewelry.  Bonny Annie is a keeper.

Harrison is our oldest son. 

I believe the expression “all boy” was probably coined just for the likes of him.  He thrives on dirt, sweat, and crude bodily noises.  I fully admit…to him and to the world… that some of his behavior is a bit of  a mystery to me.  Dirty Harry loves sports of every kind.  He is also a Tae Kwon Do black belt and plays a mean first base on his Little League team.  He is chronically obsessed with Legos.  Seriously…he needs a three-step program for his addiction.  He also enjoys reading adventure stories and playing with his dog, Clara.  I love me some Harry….dirty or no.

Cap’n Jack Henry is our surprise third child. 

He is the cutest, sweetest baby on the planet.  He also may be the smartest.  I say these things as a completely unbiased third-party observer stating the facts.  Jack Henry spends his days latched on to his mother like an extra appendage, playing with toys, being cute, drooling and refusing to eat anything that remotely looks like, smells like or acts like a vegetable.  The Cap’n may have been a surprise, but he was definitely the great kind.

Clara is our Boston Terrier. 

She is about three weeks older than Jack Henry, which officially makes us lunatics.  She is basically a good dog, who nearly worships the ground we walk on.  She is only slightly confused about where she is supposed to relieve herself.  She enjoys sleeping on our furniture, licking our feet, eating anything (including Annaleigh’s beads, Harrison’s Legos and Jack Henry’s vegetables) and running at 75 mph through our home.

We are a home schooling family, so we are together…. A LOT!  Annaleigh is a rising 8th grader, Harrison is a rising 4th grader, and Jack Henry is working on his English studies.  I am the teacher, lunch lady, bus driver, librarian, secretary and nurse.  Big D is the principal. 

This site is going to be a little of this and a little of that.  It will be my on-line journal.  It will hopefully be a place of encouragement.  I often blog about home schooling, both my adventures and misadventures.  I will converse a lot about motherhood and child-rearing.  I will post a lot of pictures.  I will post a lot of links. I may whine a little sometimes.  Consider yourselves warned.   I hope this site will make you smile.  I hope this site will make you feel all warm and fuzzy inside.  I hope you will come back.  I hope you will come back often.

‘Till then,

The Pirate Mom