Sternoclieno - factoid?

The sternocleidomastoid is a paired muscle in the superficial layers of the anterior portion of the neck.  It acts to flex and rotate the head.

Or so my little brother Jack would tell us :)  Jack, number six of seven and one of two boys in the family has been affectionately named "factoid."  His name is well-earned.  He loves rambling off random facts and making terrible fact based jokes.  Today's favorite - Laura!  how many snowflakes are alike? Me: none Jack they're all different Jack: Wrong!  They're all white! oh dear

Life in a big family is wonderful.  Full of love and joy and laughter.  I can't imagine anything different to tell you the truth.  And those of you that don't have one, big families are always looking for more members.  I suggest you join up.  Why? Where else can you be absolutely insane and fit right in?

My last evening before London began in fine form at the end of dinner, with Annie demonstrating how her teacher taught her to shoot rubber bands.  Dad found this to be incredibly resourceful and decided to take the opportunity to begin a full blown rubber band war.  Dad versus children (Me, Annie (#4) and Mary Kate (our nine year old baby)). At first, we three girls thought we'd wait it out in our dinner bench turned bunker,  UNfortunately Dad is a far better  rubber band fighter than we are.  Action was imminent.  The girls raced up the stairs  hoping to hold the upper ground dressed in towels, turbie twists and winter coats, but i ended up booby trapped into my little sisters room with a rubber band and a vacuum cleaner while annie and mary kate ran from Dad down stairs screaming like chickens with their heads cut off.  

Finally I managed an escape only to discover Dad had ALL the rubber bands.  This called for serious action.  MK provided a distraction (much yelling, screaming and very dramatic acting) while annie and I got some pillows and mounted a sneak attack.  Sneakiness is apparently not our strength since we soon had to resort to a three person dogpile on top of Dad on the couch to restrain him.  At that moment it occurred to us we had used the rubberbands Jack needed for his science fair project.  Ooooops. I hope we found them all . . . 

Later that night factoid himself (jack) added to the night of ridiculosity.  My Dad has recently committed to a healthier diet and 30 minutes of exercise per day.  Jack, doing his best to offer sincere and heartfelt prayers amidst a giddy bunch (Amy making monkey faces, Annie and Mary Kate laughing at Amy's accusations that Dad had been snoring during her "special prayer time," and Mom trying with all her might to ignore our dog, Abby, pawing at her arm and whining to go outside), prayed for Daddy to laugh more.  Because every time you laugh, you lose three calories.

Needless to say, following his very candid remark, serious prayers were out of the question as we spent the rest of them trying to help Dad lose weight by making him laugh.

What peace and joy and happiness.  I only hope you all get to experience the joy of an intrafamilial rubber band fight at least once in your life :)