Things That Make Me Smile #6

I'm rushing around, getting ready to make the forever drive to Ikea, where we will be buying some supplies for our church.  But I thought I'd just check in super quick because i don't like leaving a depressing post as my most recent.   So... a couple things that made me smile recently:

LOVE having my mom in town!  She's been here for about a week and has a couple more to go.  We've enjoyed spending time at the beach and going out to birthday lunches, and just sitting around talking.  I just adore my mom, and am so thankful to have some time together.

LOVED Chloe's 9th birthday last week!  For her gift she wanted to go horseback riding, so we found a little place that would take us for an hour and a half.  The little kids stayed home & it was just me, chris, chloe, & gideon.  It was so cute watching the kids learn how to sit on a horse and steer.  we rode through the beautiful mountains, and had a wonderful time!  and a little less than a week later, my butt is still bruised. ;)

Things that make me sad

Last week, I was feeling a bit down, so I thought it would be the perfect time to start my first "Things-That-Make-Me-Smile" post of the new year, in an effort to cure my gloominess.  But I didn't get very far, because the busy-ness of life interrupted me.  And the next day, Chris and I recieved some bad news.  There's no need to go into the details of it, other than to say that it was really discouraging for me.  I was so down, that I couldn't even begin to think about writing a post about smiling.  I only wanted to cry and think about how I was hurt and angry and sad. 

 I didn't want to pout.  But those of you who have tried will understand how hard it was for me to convince my emotions to stop feeling the way they did.  Emotions by nature are irrational, and no amount of convincing, cajoling, or chocolate could persuade them to feel any other way.  And so I sat in my emotional darkness, waiting for those cruel little guys lose the battle to my sunnier (and ordinarily more victorious) emotions --or at least to show me a little mercy and take a break from their tireless nagging.  Well, I'm happy to say that after a week of moping, I had my very first day of good mood-ness. This is a great relief to me, because I hated being sad.  And  while battle still contiues, I'm glad that I'm seeing more sunshine than clouds lately.  And hopefully by next week, I'll be able to share my new  "Things That Make Me Smile" post.

Random Facts About Me

In honor of my birthday today, I thought I'd re-post something I did on facebook awhile back. It was a fun little game where you think of 25 random facts about yourself, & list them for friends to see. I've taken that, and added some more, just for fun. I'll put a link to this page on my sidebar and add more as I think of things. If you can think of a fact about me that should be added, feel free to post it in the comments. I can always delete it if I don't want anyone knowing. ;)


1.I have a great memory for anything that leaves an emotional impression --especially music. But I have a terrible memory for numbers --unless the numbers have some sort of emotional value attached to them.

2. i've gotten so good at tuning out all the noises form the children talking & playing, that I often don't hear them when they're talking to me. "mom.. mom!... MOOOM!!!:

3. I hate almost every activity that needs to be repeated on a daily basis, including cooking, cleaning, and bathing... "i just did this yesterday!!"

4. i'm an increadibly loyal person and *hate* losing touch with anyone, even if i only met them once...which is why I love facebook. :)

5. It's impossible for me to talk without using a lot of expression. If i'm not feeling well enough to adequately express myself, i'd rather just not talk.

6. when I type, I put happy faces at the end of almost every sentence. I just can't help myself. I *need* to use facial expression! :) :) :) :)

7. i've been told that i look like Claire Danes, Gwenyth Powltrow, Cameron Diaz, and Kirstin Dunst.

8. I can't stand Kirstin Dunst...she reminds me too much of me!

9. My favorite flowers are star lilies. I just love how the smell fills the room.

10. I've always regretted not getting my bachelor's degree.

11. When my kids grow up, i'd like to be professional photographer.

12. I *really* regret not taking cosemtology classes in high school

13. i'm *terrible* at returning phone calls and emails.

14. I'm kind of lazy, and would often rather not do something fun, if it involves work to do it -- which is why i seldom take my kids to the beach . I wasn't like this until I had kids.

15. I *love* people. I love being with people. I'm energized by being with people. But i'm dreadfully shy. So shy, that if i see someone i know in the store, i try to hide. Or if i'm at a meeting of some sort, I'll pretend to be reading something so I don't have to talk to anyone.

16. one of my highest values is kindness.

17. I can't stand to see anyone or anything hurt. even an annoying bug. i feel terrible anytime i have to kill one. If there's any way I can avoid it, I will. If it must be killed, I try to get someone else to do it, & then hide, so I don't have to watch.

18. I hate conflict of any kind, & will go to great lengths to avoid it.

19. I seldom apreciate new technology.
~ I thought CD's were dumb --"they'll get scratched just like records!"
~I wondered who on earth would want a digital camera... "it's not a good picture unless you can hold it in your hand...and the lag time after pushing the shutter: don't get me started!"
~ I thought cell phones were annoying "if you want to call me, call me when I'm at home!"
~ I thought MP3 players were rediculous "what if you don't want to listen through the earphones??"

20. I know about half of the employees at our local grocery store by name, and I have to plan extra time for my shopping, because i know i'll be stopping to talk to a lot of them while i'm there.

21. I've always wished I could be cool &; artsy &; quirky.

22. I'm somewhat concerned that i'm never going to grow up.

23. i smile when I'm nervous or uncomfortable. If i'm *really* nervous, i smile a LOT... which is really inconvenient, if i'm in a serious situation... like if i'm telling chris i just totalled the car, or something (remember fact # 18?) The upside is that i usually make a great impression at job interviews because of my "great smile" :)

24. I *love* getting things in the mail! ( real things like cards & packages. not junk mail)

25. i love to help people. you know, with little kids, how you ask if someone wants to help & they *all* raise their hand & say "pick me! pick me!" ? I never grew out of that. (see random fact #22)

26. my feet are always cold, but i seldom wear socks. when i must wear socks, i use thos thick fuzzy ones that never match what i'm wearing

27. the three hardest times in my life were: when i placed my baby for adoption; my first year of marriage; my first year of motherhood.

28. i love being a mother.

29. i hate being a housewife. mainly because of fact #3 and probably also #14. It takes away a lot of the joy i have in mothering.

30. my first kiss w/chris was on the night we got engaged... not that we waited *that* long, since we met &  married in five months. :)

31. My mom is my greatest hero.

32. I think the whole question of whether the glass is half-full or half-empty can be easily decided by asking if the glass was just filled, or if someone just drank out of it?
 
33.  I don't use capital letters very often when i type.  This bad habit started when Chloe was a little baby and I could never put her down.  So I would chat in chat rooms on the internet to pass the time.  but I could only type with one hand because i was holding the baby with the other.  That made pressing the shift key more difficult, so I didn't.  I'm working hard on breaking that bad habit.
 
34.  I don't drink coffee.  I tried to like it once, because that's what grown-ups drink.  But then I noticed that everbody I know who drinks coffee is adicted, & would like to break the habit, and I decided that it's silly to try to force myself to like something that will only become a bad habit, so I quit trying.
 
35.  I feel the same way about alcohol as I do about coffee.
 
36. I've never been on a diet.
 
37.  My life's dream is to have an orphanage in Africa.  This started when I read an article about Compassion International.  In the article they talked about children who were living alone, scavenging for food in a trash dump.  The tragedy was that there was no one to help them or take them in because there were so many orphans. I couldn't understand why there weren't enough people to help, & thought, "someone should do something about this!"  As quickly as that thought went through my mind, a new one came, "I will."
 
38.  I'm 6 ft. tall, and wear size 11 shoes.   I'm constantly discouraged by how difficult it is to find inexpensive clothing that fits well.
 
39.  I love to laugh and enjoy people with a good sense of humor.

40.  I love starting new projects, but I'm terrible at finishing them.

41.  My drink of choice is milk.

42.  My favorite TV show of all time is Pushing Daisies.  I'm sad it only lasted 2 seasons.

43.  Because of my height, I'm often asked if I ever played volleyball, basketball, or any other sport.  The answer to that question is no.  I've never played sports, except for the occaisional tennis "game" with my dad when I was in grade school.

44.  I love to dance.  Five  minutes of loud music, dancing, and singing at the top of my lungs is the perfect emotional pick-me-up for me.

 45.  I was a nerd in high school. (not like the smart kind.  the dorky kind)

46.  My childhood pets included (but were not limited to) a parakeet who was beheaded by my pet ferrett;  a gerbil who died after being thrown against my bedroom wall by a certain person who will go unnamed; and a baby duck who was smothered to death in a certain other person's bed, when they were trying to keep it warm at night,

Enjoying Life

Tomorrow is my birthday. I love birthdays. I love having a special day. And if it were up to me, I'd celebrate my whole birthMONTH. To celebrate my birthday, I spent today doing laundry, and endless paperwork for school. That way there would be nothing that I *have* to do tomorrow! Sadly for birthday me, I got tired of doing yucky stuff today & decided that I should go ahead and start celebrating a little bit early, by not finishing the laundry. That means that tomorrow I have to fold the mountain that I washed today. But that's okay, because at least I'm not doing *all* of it on my birthday! :)

Tomorrow, Chris is planning to come home early (I love rainy days when he can't work!), and take me out to lunch. Then we've planned to play games, roast marshmallows, and generally lay around being cozy in the living room while it rains outside. For dinner, the family will be going out to eat at my favorite restaurant, which is right on the beach. Maybe we'll get to see the giant waves crashing over the pier while we're there!  Then we'll bring the kids home to stay with my very kind father-in-law who has agreed to babysit, and Chris and I will go out to a movie (I'm planning to see Leap Year, which doesn't look amazing, but this is the only day of the year that Chris will willingly watch a girly movie with me, and this is the only one that's out, so we'll be watching it whether it's good or not, doggone it!).

Saturday, we'll be extending the festivities (because that's the kind of girl I am) by going to visit the Getty Museum while the kids stay with Grandpa.    I've wanted to visit ever since I moved here twelve years ago, and it's finally working out.  Yay! :)

Science vs. Fairy Tale

Today's science lesson began with an introduction to the animals of Australia & its surrounding islands.   I read to the children, "Unlike other mammals, monotremes do not have any teats.  Instead, baby monotremes lick up milk that seeps out of glands in the mother's skin."  This very interesting fact was followed up with a question from Evelyn, "What's a teat?"  I answered matter-of-factly, using simple words that she would understand easily, "It's like a mamma's boobie, where the baby gets it's milk from."  The light turned on in her mind, and she exclaimed knowingly, "Oh!  Like Boobie and the Beast!" 

Shortly after, we learned about the birds of New Guinea.  Our book described the way male birds of paradise fluff up their feathers & show off their good looks in order to attract a female.  It went on to tell about bowerbirds, who atract their females by building elaborate "bowers", decorated with flowers and berries.  The female selects the male whose bower impresses her the most.  (as a sidenote a bower is defined as, "A large nest made of grass and bright objects, used by the bower bird during courtship displays; A shady, leafy shelter or recess in a garden or woods; A woman's bedroom or private apartments, especially in a medieval castle; A picturesque country cottage, especially one that is used as a retreat" --isn't that romantic!?)   Check out this picture of the beautiful bower that was built for one lucky chick. (found on Nick Triantafillou' flickr site--a great photograph don't you think?)

This lesson on how birds pick their mates seemed like a great opportunity for me to teach my children the importance of picking a good mate for themselves.  I explained how, just like birds, different people are attracted to different things in a husband or wife.  Some people are attracted to a good looking person.  Some are attracted to someone with lots of money, or a nice home.  Some people want someone with similar aspirations, etc.  Then I said (especially to the boys), "Do you think that if you choose a wife just because she's pretty, that you will be happy for the rest of your life with her?  People's appearances change as they get older, and they won't look the same as they did when they were young.  So if that's the only thing you look at when you pick someone, you might be disappointed when you get older."  Zachary thought about this for a minute, while I went on to talk about other things you can look for in a spouse.  And then he said, "Then you should pick someone because you like their hair, because your hair stays the same when you get old."    Guess that's what the handsome prince was thinking  when he rescued Rapunzel. 

27 Random Things I Learned From Driving Across the Country With Four Children

Well, after all that to-do about how I wouldn't be posting anytime soon...we decided not to go to Big Bear this week, and I've got a quiet evening to myself, while Chris plays basketball. So.... i will give you a little bit more detail about the last several weeks of my life.

As is our usual Christmas tradition, we drove to Dallas, TX for the holidays to spend the time with my family and friends. While we've always flown, having four kids over the age of two made that a financial impossibility this year, so we decided to truck it. We had a wonderful time driving through California, Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas, and it was fun to see the land. The three days of driving each way was a very educational experience for me, and I thought you might enjoy hearing what I learned.

1. There are five prisons between Santa Barbara, CA and Las Cruces, New Mexico.
1b. There is one windmill.
2. It is possible for the one and a half hour drive between Phoenix and Tucson to turn into a six hour drive.
3. Truck drivers know everything that's happening on the roads ahead of them.
4. Truck drivers are very friendly to women who stick their heads out the window and ask them to share their infinite knowledge.
5. A little dust storm can cause a lot of damage!
6. If you ever need to steer around Hwy. 10 in Arizona because you've been sitting still on the road for hours due to your second encounter with a 20 car pile-up, driving over dirt roads that run through cotton fields is an excellent option.
6b. This Should not be attempted if your car doesn't have a GPS system.
7. If you happen to be driving on dirt roads through cotton fields in Arizona, this is a wonderful educational opportunity. Pull the car over and pick some cotton to show your children.
8. It's possible for a dust storm to get so bad that you can't see anything outside of your car.
8b. This is a bad time to be exploring Arizona by way of a dirt road.
8c. It's also a bad time to decide that you want to educate your children by running out into a field to pick cotton for them.
9. My children are amazingly well behaved in the car.
10. Bribing the kids with various gifts every couple hours goes a long way toward keeping them well behaved.
11. Gideon can amuse himself for hours, playing "war" with two pencils and a piece of paper.
12. My children aren't so well behaved when we let them out of the car after driving for several hours.
13. I can no longer take pride in the fact that I don't get carsick
14. Chocolate milkshakes go a long way toward curing my carsickness. Starbucks hot chocolate: not so much.
15. My children's cheeks turn red when they ride in the car for an extended length of time
16. The majority of trucks on the road between Santa Barbara, CA and Dallas, TX are from Indiana, Maine, and Tennessee (in that order). (Why maine?? What on earth does the whole country need from Maine??)
17. There are two major choices for driving from California to Texas: Hwy 10 and Hwy 40
18. Hwy 40 has a lot more snow and windmills. Hwy 10 has a lot more dust and prisons.
19. There is a mass exodus occuring from Minnesota to the southwestern part of the country.
20. While there may be hundreds of Mennesotans driving on Hwy 40, we couldn't find a single one driving on Hwy 10.
21. The Grand Canyon is beautiful when it's covered in snow.
22. When the Grand Canyon is covered in snow, it's a bad idea to walk out to the very edge, because it may not be the edge at all.  It may just be a big chunk of snow that's sticking off of the edge, and it may not be strong enough to hold your weight.
23. It's a bad idea to go walking around in snow, when you have holes in your shoes.
24. A three day car trip is the perfect time to knit a scarf.
25. If you want to knit a scarf in three days, you must knit for the entire three days.
26. It's possible for Dallas to have a white christmas!

27. As fun as it is to go on a road trip, and spend time with family and friends, it's a wonderful feeling to be home again.

One small step...

I know I've beem MIA since December. Our family took a road trip to Texas so we could celebrate the holidays with friends and family there. We had a wonderful time, and I have a whole post written in my head about it. But today is not that day. I'm still trying to get my life back in order after all the holiday chaos. (We still have a pile of Chistmas presents waiting for a certain someone -- you know who you are. And the funny thing is that they probably won't be getting them until my birthday, which is this Friday.) So... once I recover, I hope to continue with all of my regular fun posts that I was doing here. But that probably won't be for awhile still, because today, I'm packing up the family, so we can go to Big Bear to play in the snow for a few days.

But the point of this post is not to give you a million excuses for why I haven't written, or why I don't intend to write for a while longer. The point of this post is to share some exciting news.

Today, I mailed off the last of the forms we needed for our adoption and homestudy agencies, which brings us one small step closer to bringing our new baby home! Next, we need to meet with our "buddy family", and take one more class through our homestudy agency. After that, we will be assigned a social worker, who will interview us several times. I hope to be finished with all that by the end of February. Then it will take the social worker some time to write up her report, so I'm hoping that by the end of March, we'll be on the waiting list for our baby! Woo hoo!!!

The joys of democracy

As I was cleaning my kitchen (finally), Chloe ran up to me and asked if policemen were allowed to be in charge of the president. "No," I told her, "the president is in charge of the policemen."

"Good!" She said, & ran off down the hall, shouting at Zachary, in a snotty voice, "I'm the president, so I'm the boss of you, and you have to do whatever I say!"

This just would not do. I followed her back to her room and informed all of the children that it's important for a president to treat her people well, otherwise they might vote her down --or worse: form a military coup to bring her out of power forcefully. This pleased the other children greatly, and as I walked back to the kitchen, they were debating what to do with their president.

A few minutes later, they were all marching around the kitchen chanting, "Vote! Vote! Vote! Vote!" 3 year old Evelyn interrupted her chanting, turned to chloe and said maliciously, "We are the enemy! Vote! Vote! Vote!" And they marched out of the room.

Back in the playroom the political debates continued.

Gideon: "Well, I'll let you play the Wii!"

Chloe: "I'll let you play whenever you want!"

Gideon: "I'll give you candy!"

Chloe: "I'll give you candy too!"

Zachary and Evelyn cheer!

Then Zachary runs to me, "I'm the congress, and I'm making a law that Chloe can't be president anymore."

The chanting resumes: "Vote! Vote! Vote!"

As I think about it, this doesn't sound much different from how adults behave when it comes to politics. As I go back to my dishes, I congratulate myself on a successful moment of minimal-effort homeschooling. And then I'm jolted back to reality as I'm whacked in the head by a foam dart that one of my darlings just shot at me. (who's idea was it to buy those dart guns for christmas, anyway?)

Travel with Kids!!

One of my favorite memories from my childhood years is all of the car trips we used to go on. I loved discovering the world around me through the window of our family van, i loved playing games with my brother... i loved everything about it! This year, for Christmas, our family will be driving to Texas. That means three days in the car, with four children ages 4-8. Today I went out and bought lots of little gifts to give the kids at regular intervals through each day, to help the time pass. While trying to think of some other creative car trip ideas, I came acoss a great website! The creator of this site has so many super ideas, that I thought all of you out in blogland would appreciate hearing about it. With all of her suggestions, plus whatever else I can come up with on google, we're bound to have a great time in the car! --this just further supports my creativity motto: steal everyone else's tidbits, and you'll look like a creative genius!

Things That Make Me Smile #5

Last week, I came upon a local news site. While browsing their articles, I found this one, in which they discuss the how many of santa hats were worn at our local Christmas --oh, excuse me --- *Holiday* parade this year. I just LOVE that they considered this newsworthy. Also, not only do they count santa hats at Christmastime, but they also count dogs, horses, and drums, during some of our other many parades throughout the year. How fun is that??

I'm CELEBRATING because today, Chris & I finished the last of our 6 counseling sessions which were required for us to get through the homestudy for our adoption. Hooray!! We had a great meeting with our counselor today, and she gave us all sorts of wonderful advice in regards to raising teenagers. I'm now sufficiently freaked out. (next step in the adoption: finish take another class with the homestudy agency, and finish paperwork

SMILING because we had a lovely pre-Christmas celebration with the kids on Sunday. Because we go to Texas every year for Christmas, we always celebrate with Chris' family the weekend before we leave. But neither my family nor his family want to sit around & watch all our kids open their gifts from us. So we have an addional Christmas just for us & the little ones --which happened to be last night. They had lots of fun opening our gifts, and we even had some friends come by for a surprise visit, bearing many more gifts!

SMILING because we had a very fun ladies' brunch at my church. There were 10 tables, and each one was assigned a table leader who got to decorate her own table, all christmasy cute. I got to be one of the table leaders and had lots of fun decorating mine.

LAUGHING because i got to take part in a fun skit for the brunch. I'm reminded of why I feel I missed my calling as a melodrama actress.....maybe someday

THANKFUL that i'll be seeing my family for christmas again this year. I LOVE visiting family and friends every year

And, I'm EXCITED that we'll be driving, because I LOVE road trips!!!

I'm also HAPPY that i've finished 99% of my Christmas shopping! Yay me! Now on to the wrapping

And finally, i'm LOVING the holiday season. it's just so dang HAPPY!

Magnanimous Monday

In many parts of the world, the poverty conditions are so bad, that people are dying from lack of food or clean water. This is a hard reality to comprehend when we live in such an affluent place. This week, consider giving a gift to a family in Asia. This site offers many options for life-saving gifts ranging from $1 to $11,000.

For just $11 you could give chickens to a family in need. Their eggs would provide much needed nourishment, and as they reproduce, they can sell the chickens for additional income. That tiny bit of money can change the course of a families life!!

For $30 you can help supply a village with clean drinking water --one of those little things that we so easily take for granted. Or how about a blanket to keep someone warm through the winter for only $5??

What sort of guilty pleasure could you give up for a week or two (or a month or two!) that would give *life* to these people in Asia?

Childhood Magic

We've all felt it. The childish excitement. The wonder. The desperate hoping. We wake up in the morning, throw the covers off, pray a silent prayer, and run to the window. Is it there? Has it come? We peer outside to see the rooftops covered in white. The ground has been frosted with a sparkling blanket, and tiny little flakes flutter magically from the sky. They pile neatly along the edges of our window, and if we look very closely, we can see the detail of a tiny flake that has just landed. The dirty old world of yesterday has been transformed in to a stunning land of white. And then it hits us. It's happened! It's actually happened! The moment we've been waiting for has arrived! We run out of our rooms, shouting the joyful proclamation to anyone who can hear. "It's snowing! It's snowing!"

Beyond the constraints of time, this feeling of expectation and excitement has remained the same in children throughout our country - and perhaps even the world. And it's no different for my children today. As I tucked my little ones into bed on Sunday night, their final thoughts were full of anticipation for the next morning. Will the Glorious Change take place as they slumber? What magic will greet them when they awake? As soon as the clocks in their bedrooms change from 5:59 to 6:00 they know they can finally get out of bed. They run to their windows and look outside. It's here! It's come! Sweet elation! I hear the sound of my children running to my room, as I snuggle deeper beneath my warm blankets. And then I hear the rejoicing of my children. "Mommy! Daddy! It's raining!" I'm suddenly awakened to the stark contrast of my childhood versus my children's.




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