Lesson 225: We Noticed. Did You?

Good weekend to you, Readers! 

Did you notice the sky on Friday morning?  

We did.

I caught a pretty moon this morning on the way out to the paper box to retrieve the Erie Times News.

The weather page hinted that Saturday we'll top 50 degrees and sunshine is expected.

Hooray!

It was a 48 degree heatwave on Thursday and my team (above) was thrilled not to exercise in snow pants.

Ellen and Em got in some batting practice.

Natalie got to walk the dog.  No, Natalie is not part vampire.  Yes, her skin is that white.

That is what skin looks like when it has not seen the sun in five months!

And Sam (gulp) signed up for little league.  It took most of the evening to convince my son that baseball was not a contact sport.  As the youngest on his team, Sam was thrilled to run the bases and be with the boys.  He spent a good part of the night rolling in the grass of the outfield though.  This could be a very long season.

How much of a Noticer are you, Readers?  If you've been reading Lessons From the Lamp Post regularly, you may have picked up on the fact that Sam is a rough and tumble boy.  He's been my biggest challenge to raise. 

 Eloise is trying to channel her son's boundless energy in a positive direction.  For example, I try to make sure that the TV shows he watches are appropriate.  His favorite is WWE Wrestling, but if Sam watches too much of it, all he does is jump off furniture and punch people.  I was flabbergasted the other day when Sam asked me to buy him a Nibbles stuffed animal.  Nibbles is a character from the Tom & Jerry cartoon.  Those old Tom & Jerry cartoons are about one step away from wrestling.  V-I-O-L-E-N-T.

I was unsure of who Nibbles was.  Sam fired up the DVR and quickly maneuvered the remote to an episode that included this cute little gray mouse, donning a diaper.  My heart warmed.  Oh thank you, Lord!  There is hope for Sam yet!

This is Nibbles.

He bunks with Jerry in the mouse hole, I guess.

I wiped a stray tear of happiness from my eye and said, "Awwww, Sam!  Nibbles is so cuuuuttttee!"  

"Yeah," Sam said with a gleam in his eye.  "He likes explosives."

Sigh.

"Go get your library book, Sam.  Let's read that," said a defeated Mother Eloise.

He retrieved his book.

Here's a shout out to my favorite librarian:  Thanks a lot, Deb!

Strike two.

"Hey Sam. Go get your book bag.  Let's look at your papers."

"Yeah!" cried Sam.  "I got to bring my Easter Bunny picture home today!"

Did you notice the red race car and the sword?

Strike three.  

Eloise was out.

The ordeal left me feeling like I needed one of these,

...but it was a school night.  Bummer.

Instead I told Sam a bedtime story.  I made him a hero who saved the castle from invasion, tucked him in, and gave him a kiss as he drifted off to sleep.

I made a cup of Sleepytime tea,

(..stop your teasing---I'm making a conscious effort to get more sleep to improve my health!)

and clicked on facebook for a little down time internet surfing.

While looking around, I came across a post from a high school classmate who is now an art teacher in Norfolk, Virginia.  He has a son Sam's age, and posted some of his little boy's art work as well.  My high school friend is an artist himself and I noticed that he must like the number 3 like I do.  This is one of his paintings.  I also noticed that white three is backwards and I wondered why.

Imagine my relief when I saw that the son of an accomplished artist also rendered an Easter Bunny as "Ninja Bunny", complete with a mask and sword.  Whew!  Maybe there is hope for Sam after all.

As I scrolled through Jimmi's page, I noticed that he listed his current residence as Dublin, Ireland.  Silly, Jimmy.  You can't pull that one over on old Eloise.

The thoughts of Dublin brought be back to my friend from last week, Fionnula Flannagan.  Do you remember this?

Fionnula sent me this lovely, leather bound journal as a Random Act of kindness.

Did you notice anything?  

We did.

For me, the first clue was the familiarity of the poem that was enclosed.  My sister was mentioned as her real name Karen.  In blog world I refer to my only sibling as Kenyan because she is a speedy fast runner.  Fionnula also referred to my parents by their first names.  This has to be a family member or close friend, thought Eloise.

Now take another look at the envelope. 

Here, let me enlarge it for you.

The return address is fishy, not just because it is from Oceanic Avenue.
LOST fans:  815----OCEANIC Avenue.  

Does that ring any bells?

Did you Notice anything else?  (capitalization intentional)

Here's another clue:

Summary

Orange Beach, Alabama, is a simple town filled with simple people. But they all have their share of problems – marriages teetering on the brink of divorce, young adults giving up on life, business people on the verge of bankruptcy, and many of the other obstacles that life seems to dish out to the masses.

Look to the top right corner and you will see that the post mark is from Erie, PA. Not Alabama.

The UPS tracking number let us know that it came from an office on Zuck Road.

And how about Fionnula herself?  That's a good Irish name, wouldn't you say?

Go ahead.  Do your "research" as we moderns call it.

Google it.

She comes up.

Fionnula Flanagan is none other than the actress who plays Eloise Hawking on LOST.

I had this as my profile picture on facebook for awhile.

I still stand by my statement, Fionnula:

but I'll add to it, too:

People are clever!

Eloise is more than impressed.

Eloise didn't solve all of this alone.  You must know that I come from a genetic mix of creative meets skeptical.  Before me comes a long line of the creative thinkers, the innovators, the divergent.  By the time Easter Sunday rolled around, Kenyan was on this mystery, as well as my brainiac nephew Jack.  Then the big guns came in full force---MY MOTHER.  She's been working on this one all week.

She's still hung up on the zip code:  42186.  "It must mean SOMETHING!" yapped Grandma.  She's still on it today and brought me over her notes:

You can get much past my mother.  It's a party and a half with her living next door.  She's theorized everything from Bible verses to fuel pumps.  As you can see she determined that 42186 is the postal code for Hidalgo, Mexico.  "Who do you know in Hildago?" she asked.

Sigh.

Have you noticed?

I've been sighing a lot lately.

Eloise has thought about this until her hair stood on end.

I think I've thunk it through.  

Fionnula, expect a package from Eloise in the upcoming week.

Let me know if we got it right.

It's hard to pull one off on the Noticers.

For further entertainment, the video below contains more photos from Easter.  I set it to one of my favorite songs to chill to, Ho Hey! by The Lumineers, a folk band out of Denver, Colorado.  

Thank you again, Fionnula.  You have made this week very fun for this family of Noticers.  

Eloise