Wednesday, August 31, 2011

FREEDOM

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Last weekend was my annual girl's weekend outwith my friends. THis year it was not one, but two nights of pure awesomeness. I know these highlights will mean nothing to the general public that reads my blog--but this was the easiest way I could journal it and get it to my friends.

My highlights from the weekend:

#1 Marlo surprising us with Lenor
#2 Hilarious drunk man in the pool
#3 T.P.ing as an adult
#4 Staying up until dawn and rolling into Bashas at 6:30 a.m. for donuts
#5 Only going on 20 minutes sleep Saturday
#6 Darcy's stories involving hookers and Care Bears
#7 The ice cream tower
#8 Lazy River
#9 Staying until the last minute of checkout
#10 Getting a text from my husband telling me to not go to church, that he'd handle it and i could take a recovery nap
#11 Strawberry Coladas
#12 Snacks, treats, snacks
#13 Finally falling asleep for a little afternoon nap on Saturday
#14 Staying up until 2:00 a.m. the second night
#15 laughing, and laughing, and laughing
#16 Lenor's Bib story that made me cry with laughter
#17 Sarah doing my hair
#18 Wearing a white t-shirt, because I didn't have any kids there to get it dirty.
#19 Getting cozy with Molly and Cicily
#20 Squeezing into the clown car to go get ice cream
#21 Kizzy stealing MY PURSE

Seriously--everyone needs a weekend with the coolest/chillest girls on the planet.

You guys are the best.

ANd shout out to my husband for not just being ok with me going, but happy for me--and creating a weekend of fun for the kids--and hooking me up with that nap on Sunday.

And just in case you didn't believe me, here is a shot of Darcy and I at 7 a.m. after our donut run.

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Seriously. So much fun.

For those who went--what were your top three of this trip???

Monday, August 29, 2011

What's your Virtue?




My friend is part owner in an awesome lip gloss company with an awesome message.

Down East Basics Blog is hosting a giveaway for the lip gloss company What's your Virtue?

It is the only lip gloss i use. I love it. And it's also a stick it to the whoreish world sort of message.

So head over to Down East Basics BLOG and enter the giveaway.

And also, head over to What's your Virtue? and order some lip gloss.

What's my virtue??? It's Curiosity.

Friday, August 19, 2011

Conversations

My kids were in the back yard on the swing set enjoying the storm that was blowing in. I walked out there and began pushing my 5 year old on the swing. My other girls didn't notice I was there because they were in a heated discussion on the end of the swing set, this is what i heard:

9 year old: "I can't do it, I'm just not good at it--YOU ARE."

7 Year old: "I am good at it, it's easy for me. I can talk to them."

9 year old: "I just can't talk to guys."

SCCCREEEECH. (that was the sound in my head) Guys what guys? Oh no! it's starting. NO it's too early!

My 9 year old turns around and notices that I'm there and has a slightly sheepish grin.

So I speak up:

Me: "Did you just say you can't talk to GUYS???"

She gave me the most absurd--you are crazy look.

9 year old: "No!!! FLIES, I can't talk to Flies. Josie can talk to flies."

Josie: Yeah! I can talk to flies. And I can talk to worms." **squeak squeak chatter chatter squeak.** "See mom."

Me: "What did they say?"

Josie: "They said I have a cool mom."


Yes. My kids are still kids.

Kizzy (age 5), "I talk to flies, but they don't talk to me"

Wednesday, August 17, 2011

A proposal of Sweets



If any of you locals have a sourdough starter--I need some.

And if you share, I will have my husband attempt a batch of these SOURDOUGH CINNAMON ROLLS, and I'll hook you up with some.

Anyone???

Friday, August 12, 2011

Modesty--for kids?

I have an issue with Modesty.

I don't think it fully applies to children.

I can hear someone reading this saying, "ahem . .. if you don't teach them as children then when will you teach them?"

Well--I think things are appropriate for different ages, and I don't want my kids thinking things too early.

I have heard my kids point people out in public and say, "SHE IS NOT MODEST". And truthfully, I am a little horrified--because I didn't teach them that--and I think they are judging those people, and that is the LAST thing I want.

I remember thinking my mother was a stickler for modesty--but now in retrospect--she was just like me--some things are driven home, while others .. . .not so much.

I was NOT allowed to wear short shorts. EVER. At least not when I was old enough for them to be considered short. If I look back at my early childhood in the late 70's early 80's--I wore short shorts--and those tank tops that had those pin tucks around the top and were super itchy--the ones with the spaghetti straps. In fact i remember being college age and seeing a picture of my friend from her childhood--and she had the same thing on--and her mother was all about Modesty.

It was fine--we were kids. So that led me to believe that the whole overboard with modesty thing kicked in sometime after my childhood.

Which is part of my point. I blogged my beliefs years ago after I read a Segullah article that i loved, but I can't find that post or I'd link it. I just remember the author saying that kids should be asexual and not worry about their bodies or images.

There should be a point in a child's life that modesty isn't a concern--being obsessed with our clothes and others shouldn't matter. You know, the less my kid thinks about her body and others bodies and who is and is not doing something wrong--then the better.

My kids wear short shorts--not gross short, but short. I don't care. They are little.

My kids wear tank tops. It's frickin' hot here--and they are kids, I think it's super cute.

But what i don't let my kids do is bare their stomach. I just think that's trashy at any age.

Well, unless you are swimming. But even then, when kids have bikinis on it weirds me out for some reason. Not the tankinis--but bikinis. ON babies it's cute because it's funny, but once they hit school age--then it starts getting weird for me. I don't know why.

So, basically I am doing what my mother did. Letting my kids be kids. And adjusting as I go. Annabelle is 9 and I'm starting to adjust for her. TAnk top dresses are just now seeming to not look right. So those are out. And when she gets boobles (you know, when their little boobies start to grow) then for sure she's done.

The reason this is on my mind is because I have to teach a lesson to the Primary kids on modesty. WHAT??? They are too little. I think. What do I tell them? Mostly--I don't want to say things because modesty isn't a black and white issue. There is not a clear list of what is right and wrong listed in the church's handbook. It is a general issue, with basic precepts, left to the parents to teach. Especially not for kids. And besides, not EVERY family believes the same thing.

I had one of my girl's friends say something to my daughter about her clothes being immodest--when she was 5. 5!!!!!!!! My kid was wearing a tank top.

Many mothers would be proud, I would be horrified. I don't want my kid telling other kids that they are doing something wrong, or unacceptable.

So I am going to tiptoe around the subject on Sunday--I actually saw on Sugardoodle that someone else didn't like this lesson either--so I'm going with her idea. The Primary manual for this lesson doesn't give specifics--it just says--teach modesty.

So I'm going to teach all of the kids that it is ok to wear tank tops until they have boobles. That's ok right?

Post note:

(I am NOT the right person to teaching this lesson, because just a few days ago I saw a picture of me in a bikini in college--and i thought "I am so glad I rocked that when i could--look at my abs" Not exactly a warrior or modesty ;)

post note of the previous post note:

My friend from the blogesphere linked me to an article she wrote--i thought it was great READ IT HERE>

Thursday, August 11, 2011

1st day tales

You know what's NOT AWESOME about the first day of school?

When your husband goes to pick up kids from the bus stop and calls to say--our second grader wasn't on the bus, nor was our kindergarten niece that we are in charge of. And adds that another kid on the bus says that she got on the wrong bus.


. . .. um . . . .what?

***commence slightly panicked phone call to school**

"Hi, school, we are missing two of our children (insert name and description)"

I hear from my end of the phone . . "are (insert children's name) here?"

"Yes, we have your niece here, but your second grader is not here."

then nothing, no questions nothing.

me: "Well, she was supposed to get on the red bus and she never did, another child from her bus said that she might have gotten on the yellow bus."

them:"Well--I will call the drivers and then call you back--what is your number?"

Husband comes home and drops off the oldest child--then sets out to school to retrieve niece and get info on second grader.

School calls me back and says that they have called the buses, and they haven't called back yet. And that is all that she says.

Hyrum gets to school and calls me every 5 minutes or so with updates saying that they haven't found her, and that the bus drivers aren't answering their radios.

. . . um---try not to panic, try not to panic . . ok panicking---

You see, if it was my fourth grader, I wouldn't be so worried--she's the oldest child, and she is very aware and grounded. If she were lost at age 7 I would have not been panicking as much--because she is one to walk up to the bus driver and say--I'm on the wrong bus--but this never happened with her--due to her awareness, she never got on the wrong bus.

But this is my second child. She is the one who used to put her clothes on backwards for the first 4 years of her life--even jeans. Oh and her shoes on the wrong feet. She isn't aware of anything---a giant wildabeast could sit next to her at church and I doubt she would notice. All of last year I feared that she wouldn't get off the bus at the right bus stop--so I went to the bus stop every day--or had my friend check everyday--so that I knew she got off. And last year . . . nothing. I only wish that she has just missed this stop--and stayed on this bus, because I know all of the other stops on it's route--just in case she doesn't get off.

But--she never got ON the bus.

And I'm near expletives--why the *********** did the second grade teacher not make sure that she got on her bus???? She's 7!!!!!!

That is answered later--when my husband asks, and they inform him that they do make sure kids on the bus . . . in Kindergarten and First grade. Apparently 7 year olds are capable of doing it themselves.

um . . . or NOT. Well, not MY 7 year old.

I then call my friend whose kids are at the same bus stop, "Hey, Julia, (and then the voice crack and tears roll) what do your kids know about where she might be?" I explain how I'm trying to hold it together, but I'm starting to panic.

So, I say a prayer with my other two kids--that she is safe and not scared.

In retrosepct, I should have said a prayer that I wouldn't panic. Because I AM panicking.

My friend shows up and takes my other kids so I can go look for her.

Because remember--she's that kid that isn't level headed. So I imagine her getting off the bus at the first stop--because her normal bus top is the very first stop on her route.

I get the cross streets of the yellow bus route's 1st stop. I have to google it and look and look, because it's within a neighborhood.

And yikes--it's in the hood. Like hood hood. But luckily, I am close-that stop is about 1/2 a mile away.

Hyrum calls--he has talked to the teacher--Josie got on the bus with her friend Rachel that she said was on the bus with her last year. PROBLEM---there is NO Rachel on her bus. And the office says that they still haven't heard anything.

***we are nearing 45 minutes at this point***

So I jump in the burb and haul butt--driving around that neighborhood.

My thoughts during this:

If she DID get off, then hopefully a mother at the bus stop would notice she wasn't at the right stop and call the school

I'm sure this happens every year, it's no big deal, she's fine

If she is with some friend named Rachel--then her mom will call the school. Then I think--that mom might have last year's school list--with my home phone number, maybe I should go home.

But what if she gets off somewhere and no one notices--and no one finds her--what is the next step . . . police? Then I try to calm myself with the thought that I have never seen a missing persons report on the news--due to the first day of school and busing issues.

But what if?


***phone rings**

It's my husband, "I have her (I can hear muffled crying in the background) she's crying and so scared."

So I cry--because I am so relieved.

And I go to pick up my kids from my friend's house, and I get a text from her:

"Out looking for Josie, text me when you have news"

Now that is a good friend.

So I call her--and she brings my kids home, and just then Josie gets home--gets out of the car and jumps into my arms and just sobs. And I wipe away a few tears of my own.

And she tells me her story.

She thought she was on the yellow bus--because her little Kindergarten sister is on the yellow bus--and that's true--she's half day and rides the Yellow bus HOME from school and gets dropped off at my front door. But she rides the red bus TO school.

I am just glad we knew to check that bus.

So turns out, once she was on and got going--she realized it was the wrong bus and was so scared. But a friend of my fourth grader was on that bus--and sat with her, and told the bus driver that she was on the wrong bus. So she just stayed on until they came back.

My husband tells me about how he was about to lose it on the school staff--because he is running around the school trying to get information--and when he comes back in to the office to check--they act like they have never seen him before, and are calm as anything "we haven't heard back yet from any of the buses". Then after he goes and talks to the teacher--as he is going back to the office--he sees her get off the bus.

But seriously school staff---why the frick aren't your bus people answering calls? Why didn't that bus driver call in and say that he had a stray? 45 minutes a 7 year old was unaccounted for--and you are calm?

That makes me want to punch them in the face.

So the moral of the story is---if your kids haven't started school yet, and they ride the bus--take some time to go over these things:

#1 Know their bus--and make sure that they don't confuse it with another

#2 Tell them not to get off a bus if they get on the wrong one

#3 Tell them to tell the bus driver IMMEDIATELY if they have gotten on the wrong bus

#4 Tell them that if they ever find themselves somewhere they don't know (in case they did get off the bus) to tell a mom that they are lost

#5 Make sure they know your cell number (she knows our home number--but no one was home if she did try to call.


Well--that was quiet a first day of school tale, now wasn't it?






Monday, August 8, 2011

Dance lessons?


Are you looking for a dance studio to put your kids? Yes kids--both girl and boy?

My friend has a studio and it is awesome. Classes start this week. It is the most affordable dance studio that i have found--and has fantastic instructors.

GO HERE for the Fall Schedule.

Thursday, August 4, 2011

dreamy

This makes me want to bail on my mortgage, and become a traveller.

Because I forget how much I love it.

Watch them here, or even better click on the links below them and see them bigger on Vimeo.

MOVE from Rick Mereki on Vimeo.



EAT from Rick Mereki on Vimeo.



LEARN from Rick Mereki on Vimeo.