Vilis are blue.
I love you.
I have no clew of what you do.
Woud you ples be port of my crew?
And I can do kung fu.
And I put on a shoe
And I can breakthrough a shoe to.
And I can be trueblue it is very true.
And thank you for all you do too.
And I can go boo hoo too.
And I can make a stew.
I drew a crew.
And how do you do?
Tuesday, January 6, 2009
Sisterly Affection
"Mooooommmm!!!"
"What?"
"When Lainey pulls my hair weally weally hard, my eyes feel like they wanka pop ouck, and thack make me feel nervous!!!"
"What?"
"When Lainey pulls my hair weally weally hard, my eyes feel like they wanka pop ouck, and thack make me feel nervous!!!"
Monday, January 5, 2009
Cold
Today my older children went back to school. It's kind of odd to send my children out into the freezing darkness, I have to say. I wrapped them both up to within an inch of their lives because, well, it's nine zillion degrees below zero. You think I'm kidding. I am not. The tires of Ben's truck have actually frozen to the driveway. And one wheel doesn't particularly want to turn when not in 4 wheel drive. I think the HIGH today is slated to be -5. Did you notice the negative sign before the 5? Just making sure.
Saturday, December 20, 2008
Why Can't It Just Be Enjoyable?
Why has Christmas become so stressful?
As a kid, no stress whatsoever. Lots of presents. Lots of goodies. Lots of magic. But no stress.
As an adult? Gobs and heaps of stress. Piles. Mountains. Stress stress stress.
I like to blame it on Ben. Because the poor guy has been branded as THE Grinch Incarnate. But really, it's not his fault. He's actually been pretty wonderful this year.
I, on the other hand, am running around like a shrew. I don't know how to balance the "shoulds" with the "wants". I want my children to have magical, happy memories. To understand the real meaning of Christmas. To get that the part about giving is so much more important. To understand why Christ was born. To know that He loves and knows them.
It's all clear in my head. The days leading up to Christmas are filled with service projects. Gifts for the homeless, baking yummy treats for friends and neighbors. Thoughtfully making or picking out gifts for family. Christmas parties and concerts. Sledding and hot cocoa. Reading the Christmas story from the Bible while sleepy blond haired babes listen contently, feeling the particular warmth and joy that only that story can bring. Happy, well rested, children in matching pajamas waking up to a sparkling tree with hills of beautifully wrapped gifts arranged beneath. Marvelling at just how Santa got there, laughing that he ate the cookies and left a note and just knowing that the reindeer liked the carrots. Opening gifts and being delighted with each and every one.
When really, what will happen is we'll spend a lot of time getting places not quite on time or not at all. We'll get some baking and delivering done but not all of it. Extended family will get to make their Christmas last a little longer by opening gifts from us a day or two after the actual holiday because I'm slow and cheap so the gifts will be mailed a little late and not express-super-duper-over-night-maybe-while-you're-still-in-bed-in-the-middle-of-the-night-for-a-mere-$899.52-plus-the-promise-of-your-first-born-child-and-your-favorite-pair-of-shoes. My kids will wear their favorite pj's because sewing 4 pairs of new Christmas pajamas are probably not happening. The gifts will be there, but they'll be lucky to all have a bow. Chances are good that they won't eat anything but the cereal that will be in their stockings (gotta love those mini boxes!) and chocolate until noonish. I'll throw something together for lunch and probably end up being angry with one or more family members for complaining about what it is. (Chocolate and carrots and water are about the only things the entire family all like.) Then at least two of the children will be sent back to bed for a nap because I am sure they will wake well before they should, (last year it was 2:30 a.m.) and will have dissolved into puddles of tears from sleep deprivation, sugar, and excitement by then. Everyone will act like I've just asked them to impale themselves on red hot spikes when I tell them it's time to clean up wrapping paper. I'll make dinner while the kids run around with their toys. I'll look longingly at my bed every now and then and wish for a Christmas nap for myself. The rest of the day gets a little hard to guess at at this point. There are about 900 ways it could go, most of them not pretty. The over stimulation of the entire day will cause most or all of us to succumb to some sort of upset and we'll all go to bed later than we should and not until we've all grumped at one another for slights real and imagined.
So I guess what I will do is adjust the should and want lists right here and now. I will take most everything off of the should list and transfer it to the want list. The should list will now read: Be happy. Be thankful. Have fun. And that's it. And then, I hope, all of the wants will fall into place.
As a kid, no stress whatsoever. Lots of presents. Lots of goodies. Lots of magic. But no stress.
As an adult? Gobs and heaps of stress. Piles. Mountains. Stress stress stress.
I like to blame it on Ben. Because the poor guy has been branded as THE Grinch Incarnate. But really, it's not his fault. He's actually been pretty wonderful this year.
I, on the other hand, am running around like a shrew. I don't know how to balance the "shoulds" with the "wants". I want my children to have magical, happy memories. To understand the real meaning of Christmas. To get that the part about giving is so much more important. To understand why Christ was born. To know that He loves and knows them.
It's all clear in my head. The days leading up to Christmas are filled with service projects. Gifts for the homeless, baking yummy treats for friends and neighbors. Thoughtfully making or picking out gifts for family. Christmas parties and concerts. Sledding and hot cocoa. Reading the Christmas story from the Bible while sleepy blond haired babes listen contently, feeling the particular warmth and joy that only that story can bring. Happy, well rested, children in matching pajamas waking up to a sparkling tree with hills of beautifully wrapped gifts arranged beneath. Marvelling at just how Santa got there, laughing that he ate the cookies and left a note and just knowing that the reindeer liked the carrots. Opening gifts and being delighted with each and every one.
When really, what will happen is we'll spend a lot of time getting places not quite on time or not at all. We'll get some baking and delivering done but not all of it. Extended family will get to make their Christmas last a little longer by opening gifts from us a day or two after the actual holiday because I'm slow and cheap so the gifts will be mailed a little late and not express-super-duper-over-night-maybe-while-you're-still-in-bed-in-the-middle-of-the-night-for-a-mere-$899.52-plus-the-promise-of-your-first-born-child-and-your-favorite-pair-of-shoes. My kids will wear their favorite pj's because sewing 4 pairs of new Christmas pajamas are probably not happening. The gifts will be there, but they'll be lucky to all have a bow. Chances are good that they won't eat anything but the cereal that will be in their stockings (gotta love those mini boxes!) and chocolate until noonish. I'll throw something together for lunch and probably end up being angry with one or more family members for complaining about what it is. (Chocolate and carrots and water are about the only things the entire family all like.) Then at least two of the children will be sent back to bed for a nap because I am sure they will wake well before they should, (last year it was 2:30 a.m.) and will have dissolved into puddles of tears from sleep deprivation, sugar, and excitement by then. Everyone will act like I've just asked them to impale themselves on red hot spikes when I tell them it's time to clean up wrapping paper. I'll make dinner while the kids run around with their toys. I'll look longingly at my bed every now and then and wish for a Christmas nap for myself. The rest of the day gets a little hard to guess at at this point. There are about 900 ways it could go, most of them not pretty. The over stimulation of the entire day will cause most or all of us to succumb to some sort of upset and we'll all go to bed later than we should and not until we've all grumped at one another for slights real and imagined.
So I guess what I will do is adjust the should and want lists right here and now. I will take most everything off of the should list and transfer it to the want list. The should list will now read: Be happy. Be thankful. Have fun. And that's it. And then, I hope, all of the wants will fall into place.
Friday, December 12, 2008
Some (totally random) Updating
There is a lot of snow here. Yes, I know I live in Alaska. I'm not complaining, it's nice. The only trying part is how much time I have to spend wondering where in the heck fifty percent of the people who live here thought they were going when they got in their cars on any particular day. Do they not see the snow? Can they not tell that there is ice under the snow? Do they not realize that going eighty miles per hour for approximately ten miles and then spending the next three hours digging themselves out enough for a tow truck to pull their car out of the ditch is not an effective use of their time? Have they not driven on the roads enough by now to have seen this exact thing happen over and over and over again? It's all very perplexing.
Ben passed two of the four CPA tests. Yay Ben!! We are still waiting to hear about the third test and he will take the fourth at the end of the month. Ben is awesome. And nice. And pretty much perfect. Hey Ben, if you're reading this? Work schwork. Come home and hang out with us. We miss you and we really like you a lot.
Every Friday is popcorn Friday at the kids' school. They can buy brown paper bags full of popcorn lovingly popped by the PTA members just that morning for a mere 25 cents. If Will and Elizabeth want popcorn, they take some of their allowance to buy it. Beth usually comes home with at least one bag, sometimes as many as 4 (she says she's saving it for later? Maybe somehow that Mormon food storage gene has been triggered in her?) and Will - he never takes any money. To quote him "Why should I spend my money on popcorn when I know there will be some in the prize box at the end of the day? And I'm always so good, I get to pick lots of things out." Cheap and cocky.
Tonight Will, Beth, and Ella are making dinner. This should be interesting. I will be right there to supervise all oven usage and answer all questions relating to seasoning and fractions of course. This should be fun, and interesting. And later, depending on how it goes, I may be thinking Arby's.
I don't think my children need any toys this Christmas. They have Elaina. I'm not joking. From the instant Will and Beth arrive home, they whisk her away and start making up games with her at their center. "Pretend she's a princess in a big puffy dress with the most beautifullest crown. And pretend that she has some hair." Or "Pretend she's a giant lizard and she's crushing this town (shapes made out of Lego's or shoes or books) with her giant lizard feet. But she's disguised as a cute baby. Then nobody will know she's really the lizard. Unless they smell her. (this was the part where I was called to diaper duty.) " Or "Lets pretend she's a horse. A magic horse. One that makes rainbows when she flys. Pretend her drool looks like a rainbow, okay?" I'm glad they see her as a princess-lizard-horse and not a bald, stinky drool factory.
This year, the kids designed and created their own stockings. And we made a lot of ornaments for our tree. (We usually make some, but this year we made almost all.) It's been so very much fun. I'm sure there will be pictures of them all when I post the Christmas pictures.
A conversation between Beth and I:
Me: Beth, you're a lady. Please don't say fart. Say toot.
Beth: Or, you know, I could just say 'something from my gluteus that wasn't poop'. That would work too, right Mom?
I am so excited that the darkest part of the year is almost over. It's been really hard to get up and get the kids to school way before the sun comes up and then to have it get dark just after 4 p.m. It's also kinda weird to have the sun always hang out on the horizon and never get to the middle of the sky. But in just a little more than a week the daylight will begin it's comeback. Yay!!
"Mom?" said Beth. "I was thinking, I need to do some Christmas shopping." "Okay, who for?" I said. "For me. But I want to surprise myself. So you can take me to the store and I will close my eyes and pick out my present just using my ears and my hands. Then when I find it, I will put it in the cart and you cover it up so I won't know what it is."
Ben passed two of the four CPA tests. Yay Ben!! We are still waiting to hear about the third test and he will take the fourth at the end of the month. Ben is awesome. And nice. And pretty much perfect. Hey Ben, if you're reading this? Work schwork. Come home and hang out with us. We miss you and we really like you a lot.
Every Friday is popcorn Friday at the kids' school. They can buy brown paper bags full of popcorn lovingly popped by the PTA members just that morning for a mere 25 cents. If Will and Elizabeth want popcorn, they take some of their allowance to buy it. Beth usually comes home with at least one bag, sometimes as many as 4 (she says she's saving it for later? Maybe somehow that Mormon food storage gene has been triggered in her?) and Will - he never takes any money. To quote him "Why should I spend my money on popcorn when I know there will be some in the prize box at the end of the day? And I'm always so good, I get to pick lots of things out." Cheap and cocky.
Tonight Will, Beth, and Ella are making dinner. This should be interesting. I will be right there to supervise all oven usage and answer all questions relating to seasoning and fractions of course. This should be fun, and interesting. And later, depending on how it goes, I may be thinking Arby's.
I don't think my children need any toys this Christmas. They have Elaina. I'm not joking. From the instant Will and Beth arrive home, they whisk her away and start making up games with her at their center. "Pretend she's a princess in a big puffy dress with the most beautifullest crown. And pretend that she has some hair." Or "Pretend she's a giant lizard and she's crushing this town (shapes made out of Lego's or shoes or books) with her giant lizard feet. But she's disguised as a cute baby. Then nobody will know she's really the lizard. Unless they smell her. (this was the part where I was called to diaper duty.) " Or "Lets pretend she's a horse. A magic horse. One that makes rainbows when she flys. Pretend her drool looks like a rainbow, okay?" I'm glad they see her as a princess-lizard-horse and not a bald, stinky drool factory.
This year, the kids designed and created their own stockings. And we made a lot of ornaments for our tree. (We usually make some, but this year we made almost all.) It's been so very much fun. I'm sure there will be pictures of them all when I post the Christmas pictures.
A conversation between Beth and I:
Me: Beth, you're a lady. Please don't say fart. Say toot.
Beth: Or, you know, I could just say 'something from my gluteus that wasn't poop'. That would work too, right Mom?
I am so excited that the darkest part of the year is almost over. It's been really hard to get up and get the kids to school way before the sun comes up and then to have it get dark just after 4 p.m. It's also kinda weird to have the sun always hang out on the horizon and never get to the middle of the sky. But in just a little more than a week the daylight will begin it's comeback. Yay!!
"Mom?" said Beth. "I was thinking, I need to do some Christmas shopping." "Okay, who for?" I said. "For me. But I want to surprise myself. So you can take me to the store and I will close my eyes and pick out my present just using my ears and my hands. Then when I find it, I will put it in the cart and you cover it up so I won't know what it is."
Thursday, November 13, 2008
Go To Bed
That's a phrase I say.... a lot. It's usually met with responses like "I'm not tired", "I'm thirsty", "I'm hungry" "My toe, elbow, armpit etc. hurts", or, my personal favorite "Can I stay up if I puke?"
So last night, I sat my kids down. I laid down some very specific ground rules. "Get a drink, brush your teeth, use the bathroom, get a book. If you don't do these things before you get into bed, you will just have to wait and do them in the morning." (I'm so nice.) Because of their subsequent questions, I added two exceptions. "If you are bleeding or someone is trying to break into your window, you can get out of your bed before morning." So they did great with this clear rule to follow. The are still able to read in their beds and talk with one another and they were happy, I was happy.
So tonight I hear Beth. "Mommy?" "Beth, are you out of bed?" "Yes Mommy. But it is because Ella is bleeding." "What?!? Ella is bleeding?" "Yes Mommy" came Ella's voice "me pick a scab. Me get out of bed?"
Oh good grief.
So last night, I sat my kids down. I laid down some very specific ground rules. "Get a drink, brush your teeth, use the bathroom, get a book. If you don't do these things before you get into bed, you will just have to wait and do them in the morning." (I'm so nice.) Because of their subsequent questions, I added two exceptions. "If you are bleeding or someone is trying to break into your window, you can get out of your bed before morning." So they did great with this clear rule to follow. The are still able to read in their beds and talk with one another and they were happy, I was happy.
So tonight I hear Beth. "Mommy?" "Beth, are you out of bed?" "Yes Mommy. But it is because Ella is bleeding." "What?!? Ella is bleeding?" "Yes Mommy" came Ella's voice "me pick a scab. Me get out of bed?"
Oh good grief.
Monday, November 3, 2008
Happy Halloween!!!
I'm so awesome. Two years ago, I got the pictures up in mid-November. And I don't think that I even posted the pictures of last year. What is today? November third? Wahoo!
Elaina. The pudgy fairy. She only wore her costume for picture purposes. And for that reason, I don't feel bad that I didn't make her tu tu like I did for Elizabeth and Ella. Or maybe I only feel a little bad.
She spent all of trick-or-treating in her car seat under a quilt in the van with the heater on full blast because the door had to be opened repeatedly for trick-or-treating entrances and exits. And can I just say that it is my personal opinion that whoever invented the push button sliding door on minivans was a saint or else they must have taken small children trick-or-treating in sub zero weather? Handy, I tell you. (Even though I didn't make Elaina's tu tu, I did make her trick or treat bag. She loves it, actually. Who would have thought???)
Fairy Princess Ella and her Daddy. She loved her costume. Most of all she loved it that she got to wear make up and have glitter in her hair. She kept telling anyone who would listen "Me a pairwee, me got a tu tu!" So cute.
Elizabeth was a fairy, also. She kept talking about her "periwinkle headband. You know Mom, periwinkle, not blue, not purple, but bluish purple, like, well, like periwinkle!!"
And last but not least - Will. Can you guess who he dressed up as???
No? Still need a little help?? Does this make it easier???
What a funny boy! He was so happy about this costume. He even made a lego cellphone, ha ha! He sure loves his Dad. While I was putting his goatee on, he told me "Mom, this is my favorite costume ever. Dad is just so cool!"
I like this picture of Will and Elaina because I remember that Beth was a butterfly for her first Halloween and I have a picture very similar to this of Beth. And now she can read and ride a bike and say periwinkle. Sniff!
Elaina. The pudgy fairy. She only wore her costume for picture purposes. And for that reason, I don't feel bad that I didn't make her tu tu like I did for Elizabeth and Ella. Or maybe I only feel a little bad.
She spent all of trick-or-treating in her car seat under a quilt in the van with the heater on full blast because the door had to be opened repeatedly for trick-or-treating entrances and exits. And can I just say that it is my personal opinion that whoever invented the push button sliding door on minivans was a saint or else they must have taken small children trick-or-treating in sub zero weather? Handy, I tell you. (Even though I didn't make Elaina's tu tu, I did make her trick or treat bag. She loves it, actually. Who would have thought???)
Fairy Princess Ella and her Daddy. She loved her costume. Most of all she loved it that she got to wear make up and have glitter in her hair. She kept telling anyone who would listen "Me a pairwee, me got a tu tu!" So cute.
Elizabeth was a fairy, also. She kept talking about her "periwinkle headband. You know Mom, periwinkle, not blue, not purple, but bluish purple, like, well, like periwinkle!!"
And last but not least - Will. Can you guess who he dressed up as???
No? Still need a little help?? Does this make it easier???
What a funny boy! He was so happy about this costume. He even made a lego cellphone, ha ha! He sure loves his Dad. While I was putting his goatee on, he told me "Mom, this is my favorite costume ever. Dad is just so cool!"I like this picture of Will and Elaina because I remember that Beth was a butterfly for her first Halloween and I have a picture very similar to this of Beth. And now she can read and ride a bike and say periwinkle. Sniff!
The kids were kind enough to model the Halloween trick-or-treat bags that I made for them. It was actually a really fun project and they loved being able to wear them across their bodies for some reason. Maybe it was because they got FULL really fast (people in Alaska are generous to those willing to brave the frozen weather and trick-or-treat, I guess. We'd only gone up two streets before they were filled, and they have just as much space inside as a plastic pumpkin does.
Happy Halloween!!!
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