Archive for November, 2006

The Backyard

November 29, 2006 at 4:00 pm · Filed under house


For those of you who have seen what my backyard looked like when we moved in, I wanted to show off what a little grass can do. I tried to find the picture of the backyard as it looked, but I guess we got rid of it. You only get the “after” shot. Sorry. I was also mainly testing out our new camera tripod. We just got it on Friday, and I love having it!!

We planted seed and faithfully watered everyday. We chased birds out of the yard because they were eating the seed. After only a week we saw green start to sprout up out of the ground. This picture is about 2 1/2 weeks after the initial seeding. You can see we left the some big areas surrounding the grass unseeded. I’m not quite sure what we are going to do with it yet. Our main concern was to get in some grass for the boys to play on. I want to plant some flowers and stuff, but we’ll see. I also want to put in a firepit. I think we could have a lot of fun with that.

I love it! Now my boys have a grassy area to play in. They love it! Now Ches has something to mow. I’m not sure that he loves that, but you do what ya gotta do.

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You Say Toe-may-toe, I Say Toe-mah-toe

November 28, 2006 at 6:17 am · Filed under Observations

I’ve been thinking about how differently we all pronounce certain words. (I don’t know why. Just roll with me here) I often wonder why it is, really, that we DO pronounce them differently. Why is it that here in the US, when we want to apologize, we say “saw-ree” and you up in the north say “sore-ee”? We aren’t all that different, are we?

Then you get people in the same country… take a certain kind of pie that (most) people seem to like. I pronounce it “pe-CAHN”, whereas my friends down south pronounce it “PEE-can”. Then there is the word pie: I say “pyee”, and Southerners say “paaah”.

Sometimes it doesn’t seem to matter where you are from, you just pronounce it however your family does. Take the word creek. I am usually adament that it is pronounced “creek”, not “crick” as many people will. However, when I am talking about a certain small community in southeastern Idaho, it is most definitely Mink Crick. Even if it is spelled Mink Creek.

The town I used to live in during my high school years has a nice name: El Dorado. A beautiful, Spanish sounding name, right? WRONG!!! In that town, it is not pronounced “Elle Doe-RAH-doe”, as it is anywhere else in the world. Here it is “Elle Duh-RAY-doe”.

When I lived in Maine, you knew who the tourists were because they would call our little city “Bang-urr”. It is spelled Bangor, and it is pronounced “Bang-GORE”. Or, if you had a really thick, Down East accent, it is “Bang-ah”. Here in Arizona, the out-of-towners (or out-of-staters, really), pronounce Prescott wrong by saying “Press-SCOTT”. When you come visit, you will sound knowledgeable because I am telling you it’s actually pronounced “PRESS-kit”.

In Nevada, we say “Ne-VEH-duh”, NOT “Ne-VAH-duh”. Just to make that clear. When we moved East, we had to constantly remind people it is “Ore-e-GUN”, not “Ore-e-GONE”, and I don’t know why so many people can’t understand that the “s” is silent in Illinois.

So, pretty much, I’m thinking of place names more than other words. Hmm. What common mispronounciations do you hear where you are? Or what major differences have you heard (with neither actually being “correct”, just different) in your many travels?

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Some Things I’ve Learned

November 26, 2006 at 7:18 am · Filed under Family, Observations

Here are some important things I have learned since becoming a mother:

1. A timer is everything. I should carry one in my diaper bag.
2. If you call it a reward rather than a bribe, then you are a good mommy.
3. Sometimes you have to talk to the toy to get answers from the 4 year old.
4. When going to the zoo, don’t expect your child to be fascinated by all the “cool” animals (ie, lions, zebras, polar bears, monkeys, etc). Instead, be prepared to comment that yes, those ants crawling in the dirt really are special.
5. No matter how cool the toy is you bought for a birthday present, your child will still be happiest playing with the box, your makeup brushes, and a piece of tinfoil.
6. You really do turn into your mother because you have found yourself using phrases like, “Because I said so!” and “Look with your eyes, not your hands!!”
7. Your husband must really love you if he is still attracted to your saggy, stretched out, flabby, scarred body.
8. A child’s sense of humor is amazing. I find myself laughing all the time.
9. Mealtimes are major affairs, not to be handled with delicacy. Going out requires research, a bag of stuff to do while waiting for the food, extra clothes (especially if you’re planning on going somewhere after dinner), and plenty of cash for a good tip for the understanding server.
10. Mothers really do have super powers. They call it “intuition”. I don’t know what it really is, but I can tell exactly what my baby needs, can feel the emotions of a toddler as they feel them, and can move with super-human speed at the playground when it looks like someone is going to fall backwards.
11. I am tired, can’t think straight, feel like the ugliest, fattest person ever, and just wish for a day of complete silence with the chance to do nothing but indulge myself, but I couldn’t give up my children for anything in the world. Even in that wishfulfilled day, I would miss my kids after just five minutes. Okay, maybe more like 10.

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Gobble, Gobble, Gobble

November 23, 2006 at 8:12 pm · Filed under holiday

To all of us in the States:

Happy Thanksgiving! May your turkey be delicious, your pumpkin pie perfect, and your after-dinner nap satisfying.

To everyone else:

Happy normal Thursday that really isn’t different from any other day! May you enjoy Survivor and CSI on TV tonight, shopping for Christmas gifts, and going to bed at a normal time because you still have work and/or school tomorrow.

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Close To Home

November 22, 2006 at 12:29 am · Filed under Mr. Universe

An incident was reported on last night’s news broadcast that an 8th grade student had written a “hit list” of other students’ names on his notebook. These were students who had bullied the 8th grader. Also on his notebook was written a list of some students and teachers who would be spared because they had been nive to them. This incident happened last Friday, and it happened at the middle school that Mr. Universe teaches at.

Mr. Universe expressed surprise that it was reported on teh news because he didn’t see it as a big deal. No one seems to believe the student would actually do anything. The student was suspended, and the principal has talked to the students involved (which included two of Mr. Universe’s students) and to the parents. The principal was shown on TV to say that he is keeping an open mind in judgement on this, so this student may be allowed back in school. Mr. Universe said he doesn’t know this kid, but he did hear about the incident on Friday.

I just about freaked out. As I’m watching this TV report and realizing where exactly this happened, I start to have a panic attack. Mr. Universe kept saying it’s no big deal and not to worry about anything. The only thing that kept me from having a full-blown panic attack was that I was starting to get angry at Mr. Universe for not realizing that it was a big deal to me.

You see, I still vividly remember that day in April several years ago when I was home early from class. I flipped on the TV, and there were all these reports… on every station… images of kids in lines running out of a school with their hands on their heads… so many kids crying… kids and parents on cell phones…police cars with lights flashing… adults in full riot gear…

I think we all know what I’m refering to. Columbine. I was still a newlywed, and for the first time I really started to feel mortal. Worst of all, I realized my husband was mortal. We were both studying to become teachers, but we hoped to have a family one day. Once we had children, we both wanted me to stay home and be the full-time caretaker. Mr. Universe would be teaching.

I was horrified at what I was seeing on my television screen. How could two kids do this? How could they kill their fellow students? No matter how angry I was at other students for picking on me or my friends, it never occured to me that this kind of violence was an option. I believe most of us feel this way.

I called my mom. “Have you seen what’s on TV?” I cried into the phone. My mother is a teacher. I wondered if she was ever afraid of students like this. Mom tried to calm me a bit, and that when I said to her what has stuck in my mind since that day.

Someday, some student may be depressed and angry, and that student is going to come to school with guns and bombs and who knows what else. That students isn’t going to care what happens to anyone else, and my husband could be a teacher at that school, and my husband could get shot. I will never see my husband alive again because some kid is having a bad day.

I know that it is a silly, irrational fear, but a fear it is. When this incident happened on Friday, all those fears from 1999 came back. It hit just too close to home this time. I don’t know if this student really would do anything. I’m sure many of us have made at least a mental hit list at one time or another, but would never act on such thoughts. It could be true of this student. He may just need some professional counseling and maybe some anger management courses. I don’t know. This particular incident really may be just nothing. But it still scares me.

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Time Waster

November 20, 2006 at 8:41 pm · Filed under Observations

If I’m not doing what I should be doing, it’s because I went and got myself addicted to this. Pretty simple, but I keep playing anyway. What do you do when you are wasting time on one thing instead of doing what you should be doing?

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Random Friday

November 20, 2006 at 7:06 am · Filed under Random Friday

Yes, I know I’m writing this on Sunday, and really it’s only going to be Sunday for one more minute, so maybe this will show up as Monday. But that helps this become more of a Random Friday, right? Because it’s random. You expected it on Friday, and instead you get it now. It’s random.

Justification works sometimes.

*****

I am sending out Christmas cards this year. I don’t get to it every year, but I’m bound and determined to do it this year. SO… email me your addresses, my friends. You are on my list. If you are family, well, 10 bucks says I already have your address. If I don’t, I’ll call you.

Included in the Christmas card may or may not be a family picture (depends on if I can get all of us to look decent and sit still long enough for the timer to go off on the camera!), and will most likely have the Dreaded Yearly Update Letter.

I know most people complain about these letters and how they just brag and brag. However, I actually enjoy reading them from other people. Yes, I do get a bit envious at other people’s lives, but I enjoy knowing about the good things in their lives. I enjoy hearing that little Bobby Joe was on the honor roll for the third year in a row as well as achieving a record number of Boy Scout badges and winning the little elementary school track meet. Really I do. Because I know I am sending YOU a letter bragging about Aiden’s amazing reading skills, Dallin’s amazing verbal skills, and Parker’s amazing head-lifting and smiling skills. We all take pride in our kids. It’s allowed.

Of course, all of you already know what’s been going on because you read this blog. So you can toss the letter and just enjoy the card and (maybe) the picture.

*****

When I was in college, I started dying my hair dark colors (because I think the natural color of my hair is just a plain, boring brown with nothing to it). Mostly I went with a dark auburn, but sometimes just a dark brown. I really like the red in my hair, but it doesn’t look very natural on me if I go too carrot-y. So I stick with the auburn. I would often get compliments and, in the same breath, I was asked, “Is that your natural color?”

I wondered how much of a compliment it really is when people are questioning you on something as personal as your natural hair color. I could be wrong about that. It may not be personal at all.

Anyway, so they would compliment and ask, and I would answer with, “It’s the color I was born with!”

Hey, it was honest! I was born with lots and lots of dark, auburn hair. When I was a preschooler it was bleach blonde. It went to a mousey brown in elementary school, and that’s pretty much where it stayed. Although when I got my hair cut this summer and the blonde highlights were finally all cut out, I found my mousey brown hair had gotten darker. I like it darker. But it was still a boring brown.

Last week I got my hair trimmed a bit (got rid of most of the layers that were growing out horribly, so now it’s slightly layered and more of a long-ish bob) and colored. It is a dark auburn again, and I love it.

Sure enough, I have gotten many compliments and questions: “I love your hair! It’s so pretty! Is that your natural color?”

I’m back to my standby answer. “It’s the color I was born with.”

*****

Christmas is approaching. Which means… my birthday is coming! Do you know how old I’m gonna be this year? Thirty. That’s right. The big 3-0. Will I now finally be treated more as an adult? Not some twenty-something punk who doesn’t know what being an adult really is? Not some teenager who has yet to grow up? I doubt it. Because they are saying things about how people live longer, and 40 is the new 25 or something. Who is “they” anyway? Where do we get these things from?

So anyway, I guess I’m still just a kid. Or, as Ches likes to say, a spring chicken. Or maybe he says chick. I haven’t heard him use the phrase in a few years, so I suddenly don’t remember.

I should delete that last paragraph because that is just verbal vomit.

*****

I’m trying so hard to get Eragon read for the Book Club, but things just keep happening at our house! I pick up the book and seriously only read abouttwo paragraphs when Parker needs a diaper change. Or Aiden is screaming at Dallin to get off his bed and go away. Or the phone rings with a call for Haseem Muhommad yet again. I am normally a freakishly fast reader, but I just can’t seem to get this thing read. Hopefully in the next couple of days it will get better. Because I’m actually starting to enjoy it. I wasn’t sure what to expect because it’s fantasy, and that isn’t normally what I enjoy reading. That’s Ches’ thing. However, if it’s a well-written, just plain good plot, I’ll read anything.

*****

It got up to 88 degrees today. Yes, you read that right. 88. Eighty-freaking-eight. Thanksgiving is this week, and I’m still wearing shorts and sandals. Crazy go nuts.

*****

Parker is such a happy baby. He smiles a lot now. I mean, he smiles a LOT. And it’s postitively adorable. My boys have inherited their father’s extremely long and beautiful eyelashes (yes, you are allowed to complain about the fairness of all these males getting such great eyelashes). As babies, whenever they would smile I would notice the same thing that is happening now with Parker. I swear that when Parker smiles, his eyelashes grow an inch. It’s just beautiful. Also, his whole face lights up, and you can’t help but smile back at the wide open grin he has. I think he’s going to have dimples, like his brothers. SO CUTE.

I have to say, Ches and I make the cutest, most adorable babies in the entire world, hands down.

*****

Quote of the day:
We are often mistaken about art. Art is not emotion. Art is the medium in which emotion is expressed.
–Nadia Boulanger (1887-1979)

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Millions of Fingers! Millions of Thumbs!

November 14, 2006 at 11:47 pm · Filed under Observations

This month is Drum Month. I don’t know why, or who says, except that on my newsletter from Cool Mom Picks it said November is Drum Month. So…

Dust off your Remo heads, my friends, and beat the heck out of something! When changing the tire on your vehicle, compare tightening the lugnuts to tightening the screws on a drum rather than the other way around. Dig out the cool black t-shirt that says Zildjian on it. Talk about the advances in musicianship that Ringo Starr brought to the Beatles through his visionary rhythms. Have a debate on whether there is a difference in sound quality when using traditional grip or match grip. Carry a stick bag on your shoulder, or just have a couple of sticks in the back pocket of your jeans. Find your felt and yarn and have a mallet wrapping party. There are so many things you can do during drum month.

Dum ditty dum ditty dum dum dum.

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My Sunday I’s (12 for the 12th)

November 12, 2006 at 10:31 pm · Filed under Observations

1. I love to take a Sunday nap for hours on end

2. I enjoy watching other people struggle with their kids a bit at church because it makes me feel like we’re actually normal

3. I think I became the answer to someone’s prayer today

4. I like the warm, fuzzy feeling that I have by being that answer

5. I am going to watch some kids after school next semester

6. I hope to make some money off of it, but if I don’t, oh well

7. I need to reorganize my drawer in the filing cabinet

8. I have really wierd dreams sometimes

9. I wake up confused and can’t tell the difference between reality and my dream

10. I made a wish list on Amazon.com titled “Stuff I Can’t Afford”

11. I really can afford some of the stuff, but not all at once, and some of it just seems silly to go out and buy just for the heck of it

12. I love that the weather cooled down a bit today and yesterday

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Gettin’ My Vote On

November 10, 2006 at 5:46 am · Filed under Observations, Review


I voted on Tuesday. I’m quite proud of myself, but it was really stressful. I mean, how hard is it to make a few small decisions, right? Ha.

First of all, I have now voted in states and in three different ways. In Idaho I filled in a little circle (like a standardized test or something) with a pencil. In Nevada I pressed what looked like a button on an electronic screen, then reviewed all my choices before saving it, then got a little print-out verifying my votes. Here in Arizona I was given very large pieces of paper, given a “special” pen (seemed like a nice felt pen was all), and was told to connect the back line to the front arrow so it looked like one long arrow. I guess if I made a mistake, well, tough luck. No one ever told me what to do about that.

Second of all, I took all three kids with me to vote. I had meticulously gone through the sample ballot sent to me in the mail so I would know what proposition was what and I would be prepared. I had talked to Aiden about how blessed we are to live in a country that allows us, the people, to pick our own leaders, and this is how we get to pick them: we go vote for who we think is best and good and true and hope that everyone else feels the same way. I made sure I had my ID ready to show at the polls. I piled the kids in the van, and we were off. We made up a silly little song to sing about voting: “I get to vo-o-o-o-ote today! We’re going to vo-o-o-o-ote today! Oh it’s so fun to vo-o-o-o-ote!” Aiden and Parker were perfect during the voting. Well, Parker slept, so he really wasn’t a problem. Dallin –my beautiful, innocent-looking devil child– decided that this was the perfect place to run around, screaming and laughing very loudly. It took me forever to get the voting done because I had to keep chasing after Dallin! It was so embarrassing. I hope I voted for who and what I wanted. You never can tell when you have to leave the table 40twelve times to chase after the little monster.

Third of all, I really and truely tried to research the issues and the candidates, but it was really hard! There should really be a link on your sample ballot to a nonpartisan, completely objective and neutral website that says, “So and So is running for Blah Blah office. He believes this and this. Such and Such is the also running for Blah Blah office. She believes that and that. Proposition 10hundred is really saying la-dee-da and is supported by these High-falutin’ groups.” Wouldn’t that make life just perfect? Which is why, of course, there is no such website. Maybe I could start working on one for the next presidential election. Uuuuhhhhh, NO!! Am I nuts?? (Don’t actually answer that, please).

Fourth of all (good thing I wasn’t counting on my hands, huh? ‘cuz then I’d be a four-handed freak), I just plain stress out at the idea of voting for something and maybe I don’t actually know who or what it stands for and I just helped vote in something I am completely against. And what about these measures that are like they are about one thing, but they have a million other hidden agendas in them?? That scares the heck outta me. I don’t know if I just voted to raise the minimum wage or if I really voted to let someone come into my workplace and steal my identity!! (I don’t know how those are connected, but there was some commercial about it).

Here are the good things about my voting:
1) I did my Civic Duty and now feel like an Upstanding Citizen
2) I am now allowed to complain about the state of affairs in this country because I voted. I just won’t let you know if I voted for something that actually made it worse and I am now complaining about it
3) I got a cool sticker (they even gave me one each for Aiden and Dallin!) which I proudly wore the rest of the day

And now I’m ending with a gratuitous sentence so… well, Karen sounded better when she said it. Never mind.

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