.....Here we go again! My, My! (But don't tell THEM that, it would just make it worse.)

In fifth grade choir, I learned a bizarre song that was stuck in my head for twelve years.  Twelve years.  Anytime my brain fell idle, it would subconsciously pull the weird lyrics of that song to the foreground and I'd run it through my head for a few days until I couldn't handle it anymore and had to sing "Row, Row, Row Your Boat" out loud until I felt I'd been cured of "Aye, yi, yi, yi, In China they never grow chili..."  In fact, just writing those words, I'm having a relapse.  I thought I was alone in this never ending oddity, but I have since learned otherwise.


My sister-in-law, Susie, came to visit last spring, and she and her three kids must have listened to the Mama Mia! soundtrack all the way from Portland to Kaysville.  As far as musicals go, that one isn't on my top fifty list of favorites, nor do I think that Peirce Brosnan or Meryl Streep are particularly talented vocalists; but to each his own.  By the time they arrived, both of Susie's boys knew every word to every song on that CD.  I can still hear Jayden singing, "Don't go wastin' your emoooootions..."  It was a lovely rendition, but not all that pleasant to hear over and over again.  After about two days of listening to the Schmitz Boys performing the songs of Mama Mia!, my own kids started to sing along and I had to cringe.  Mama Mia seemed a little too girly.  Not that I'm worried that my boys would start wearing skirts and obsessing over shades of lipstick or anything, I'd just rather they had some other musical selection imprinted in their brains, because here's the real stink - it's been six months since our house was invaded by little boy voices endlessly chanting, "Mama Mia!", and it remains the only phrase of any of those songs that my kids can remember.  So they just sing those same two words over and over and over and over again.  

I now know exactly what hell will be like when I get there - I'll be forced to sort through stacks of third grade homework without the aid of Cherry Coke while the Mama Mia! soundtrack is playing in the background, stuck on that one phrase like an eternal broken record.  Thanks, Susie!  Love ya!