Heads of Death?!?

We live in the Tete Des Morts Valley. I don't know how many of our readers know French. For those that don't, "Tete Des Morts" literally means "heads of death" (pause for dramatic effect - insert your own soap opera music if that helps). Now, I know a little French. I took four years of French in high school. I haven't really used it since, largely due to the lack of French speaking immigrants in the Midwest.

Stephanie and I first looked at the property that has since become our dream home last September. The house and two acres of woods were just perfect. There was even a large creek - almost a river - running adjacent to the property, and it was even far enough below the house that flooding would not be a risk. We were awe struck.

Then, Stephanie divulged the name of the creek - Tete Des Morts Creek. Now I was awe struck for an entirely different reason. Steph took German and Spanish in high school. So, she honestly didn't know the literal meaning of the words she spoke. After her brief French lesson on the drive home, she was on the internet as soon as we walked in the door.

After her exhaustive research, she discovered that she would have to go to a college library to find out the important details, but she did find out the basics from a few anecdotal sources. Apparently, a French explorer in the 1600's was the first settler to name the creek. He did so with the inspiration of floating severed heads from a recent Native American massacre.

Obviously, we really liked the place because we made an offer the following week. (Our well tested just fine!)

Logic vs Julia

Julia is your usual fanciful five year old. She imagines all kinds of things that will make no sense to you but positively delight her. Unfortunately Andrew is the current King of Logic. He is always having to point out why something won't work and becomes very agitated if you won't see it his way. These two personalities combined make for some of the most ridiculous arguments you have ever heard. I decided to post one so you can see for yourself what we listen to on a daily basis.

The other day Bella was playing Sonic vs Mario on the Wii. Julia came running up and announced "Sonic is so handsome, if he were real I would marry him!" I laughed and gave the usual "that's nice dear" response that has become the mantra of mothers everywhere who are faced with the odd musings of children regularly.

Andrew's head quickly whipped around and proceeded to give the most rational reason in the world why this will not work. "Julia, you can't marry Sonic because then your kids would be half human and half hedgehog and that would just be weird."

Julia of course stomps her foot and proclaims with more defiance than Scarlet O'Hara ever had that she can marry whomever she wants. This whole thing then devolves into a true argument with tears and yelling thus placing me in the position of telling the kids that they have to go sit in their rooms because they were fighting over the marriage rights of a hedgehog.