Freestyle

John has been doing a lot of drawing in class lately.

This series of freestyle BMX guys are some of my favorites.

**My artist grandmother suggested the watermark, because you never know with the internet...

We're taking up a collection

Anyone willing to donate to the tooth fairy cause should contact me before Monday night.

John wants to wait to put the tooth under his pillow until after he can take it to show all his friends at school.

I'm sure they will be super impressed.

Actually, Jared and I both like Wendy's suggestion of a dollar coin, so if anyone knows where to find Sacajawea laying around, let me know.

The thankful list...

As I sat here eating my third Andes Mint cookie I decided it was time for me to write my Thanksgiving list...

I am thankful for:

Andes Mints and Andes Mint cookies

I am thankful that I can enjoy my Andes mint cookies because I am obviously NOT obsessed with calories, sugar, or fat.

My ice maker when it works. This makes my water more tolerable.

My vacuum, now to just change my carpet...

Four year olds. I love this age, it's the last of the little child years.

Bedtime.

Good shows on TV that I can look forward to.

Good friends. Real friends. The kind that are genuine.

My sewing machine, my grandmother's sewing basket, and my mother-in-law's serger.

My mother-in-law for her love and willingness to watch my kids on a weekly basis. So important for my sanity.

Two cars that work.

A job. An education.

Two super fantastic children that are pretty funny, cute, and smart.

One strong-willed, opinionated, hard working, attractive husband who needs and loves me.

Health.

Daily breath.

Sometimes I forget how it feels to have lungs that don't work, I never want to take breathing for granted.

In fact, I am thankful for modern medicine.

Without it, Jared wouldn't have a job, I would have succumbed to natural selection (twice), and come to think of it, most of my extended family would not be around either.

Family soccer games.

Especially when Katherine tries to stop the ball 3 feet before it gets to her and when John tries to perfect his drop-kick.

Polish neighbors.

She has literally saved me on more than one occasion.

Everyone needs a Polish neighbor.

My parents for teaching me humor, patience (still working on it), integrity, and the importance of family.

Good memories.

I love to relive the past.

I love visiting with my extended family and relatives.

I love the comfort and ease of family.

I am thankful for my testimony.

The end.

Another one?

A little Kitty resemblance?

I'm not so sure about this one, but Beth and Brady see a little Kitty in there somewhere.

I just think it's funny...

Where were you in 1981?

Jared was kicking for the NFL.

I'll bet you never knew he had hispanic blood back in the day...

But I'll bet you did know that he has ALWAYS been #1.

This one comes courtesy of Brady and Quinton.

Where were you in 1986?

I was in a B-rated zombie movie.*

Did I tell you I used to have a raging tan? I get the dark skin from my mom, she used to be super tan too (or at least that's her story).

Thanks go to my brother, Tommy, the only person on the planet who actually watches zombie movies from the '80s.

*Traci Biddle in Zombie Nightmare

Insomnia?

I know everyone has been waiting for some dry reading over at the Little Bully Blog, if you are one of those who can't sleep, go check it out.


**click the name to get the link**

A serious bone to pick...

So here's the thing, John finally has a loose tooth. He has been waiting forever to lose a tooth. The permanent tooth is growing in behind it at a pretty rapid rate. Our dentist friend suggested that he wiggle it like crazy for a month and if it isn't out by then he will need to get it pulled. No problem, right?

Wrong. He refuses to move it, insists on soft foods, and even included it in his list of ailments the other day when he wanted to stay home from school. He has a very real fear of swallowing it without realizing it.

In order to get the show on the road (and avoid an expensive extraction) I asked him if he knew what happened when you lose a tooth.

"The tooth fairy comes-- does she really exist?" How do you answer that? Especially when I have kind of wanted to experience this rite of passage with him.

So I said, "I don't know. I guess we'll have to see."

"She puts money under your pillow."

And now I am talking to everyone who has ever had a child that has lost a tooth...

HOW DARE YOU???

Remember when the going rate was something like a dollar or less? Thanks for ruining the experience for me and my family you people who obviously want to buy your children's love!

I tried to test the waters, "How would you feel if she left you a penny?" I wanted to set him up to be ecstatic when he got 75 cents.

"Disappointed."

"How about if she left three--"

'Quarters' I was going to say but he cut me off with, "--dollars? I think she should give me five for my first tooth."

Really? If you do the math that is $100 over the life of his baby teeth! Multiply that by two since what he gets Katherine will have to have in order to maintain fairness and you get $200 by the end of it.

You people obviously haven't done the math.

So much for experiencing the joy of this rite of passage. I should have just told him the truth he likely knows already, there is no tooth fairy and his parents don't love his teeth enough to pay $100 for them.

The Slowest Day

Sundays are some of the hardest days.

They

are

so

slow.

Especially when my kids get up a 6 am. Seriously, it has been Daylight Savings for a week now, you would think they would have adjusted. Not my kids. They are sensitive to change. The hour difference rattles our whole world around here.

So we wait for church.

And wait.

And wait.

And the whole time we wait I think to myself, "Gee. I really wish they would do something active to get all that energy out before church." Active, but not wild. Active, but don't bug me. Active to them usually means expending energy arguing.

Sundays are like snow days. We are cooped up until church and then we are cooped up some more.

The irony? We wait all morning for church at 1 pm, and we are inevitably late.

The latest deal

John told me this morning that Veronica (from his class) promised to give him $9 (sounds like all the money she has) if he would not pull her hair for two days.

Music From the Past Part I

So Tommy, in an attempt to totally copy you I was rummaging through my old music and I always come back to the old stand-bys, The Jesus and Mary Chain.

Back in high school and college they were one of my favorite bands. They have several songs that just make me smile and remember the good old days of my youth. This was back when I listened to music and prided myself on knowing all the cool "alternative" bands. You know, back when I was alternative.

I think I've seen them live at least three times. Once at the 1992 Lollapalooza, once in 1993 when I got kicked in the face, and once in 1995 at Saltair. I remember just before the 1995 concert Beth and I purchased MAC lipstick, a first of many shades. Mike and I made the drive from Idaho for the concert. I also remember that the singer (aka Jim Ried) dropped the microphone during one song and totally started laughing.

I am posting this video, not only because it is one of my favorite all time songs, but also because it cracks me up. See if you can find the "one of these kids doesn't belong here"-- I'm still laughing.

**P.S. As any true fan knows, they are NOT English brothers, but in fact, Irish brothers. I know that bothered you as much as it did me.

One big slew of pictures

The obligatory pictures from our week.

You can't have three snow days, two feet of snow, and Halloween without posting something.

I forgot that I didn't post a good picture of Katherine in her Dragonfly costume.

Unfortunately this one was taken after trick or treating, so her hair wasn't as curly and she wasn't wearing her antennae.

These are some pictures from the snow storm this week. John was throwing the snow and Maya was trying to catch it in the air.

Kitty having a great time.

John would run and then fall. He liked that it didn't even hurt.

Remember this guy? We decided to name our resident squirrel Bugsy, a name Katherine chose for one of her stuffed squirrels.

(Except, I'm almost certain that he's a she.)