Monday, January 31, 2011

etc.

 My SIL  recently posted a picture of her messy laundry room that embarrassed her husband. My laundry room is messy too but not as fun to photograph as this picture of Ethan's bookshelf. Sadly this isn't the Before picture. It's the After picture as in after he said he cleaned his room. Sure enough, his floor was spotless because everything was stuffed in the closet or on his bookshelf.  This picture does not do justice to his paper airplane collection, btw.

And here is Noelle modeling the latest in her own fashion line. I hope Walmart is looking for some new innovative designs. Pretty sure you could offer this as a rollback.

Wednesday, January 26, 2011

Reality Bites

I hate to post without a picture and had nothing really relevant to upload.....so I thought I'd go to the irrelevant extreme with this picture of our Christmas tree. This tells you a lot about me. I love to get my Christmas decor down ASAP. This year was no different and though it takes Hub and me and all our kids to pick a tree from a lot and haul it home and cut off branches and decorate it.....It really only takes me to rip it down and toss it unceremoniously out our back deck come Dec. 26th.
Anyway. I just want to say that my poor ten-year-old had a sad realization the other night. My boys love to go all deep at bedtime. That is normal, right? You pester them all day about what happened at school, scouts, b-ball practice, etc. and you get detailed answers full of enlightenment like "I don't know" and "I'm not sure" and "fine".  But then, when you're just so excited to put them to bed and have your own freedom, they want to talk about all their issues.
So Ike's 'issue' the other night was that he will never get to be free. He was just doing the math that he will be in school and college, go on a mission, come home and get his doctorate (OK, I added that part) and have a job and he will never be 'FREE'. Summer breaks don't count because they are too short and then most jobs don't give you a summer break.....So it was kindof sad because he is right! His life is mostly planned out and nowhere in our goals is where he gets to be a bum.  I tried to tell him that he wouldn't really want to be free for more than a couple of days at a time but he wasn't convinced. BTW, his idea of what freedom is involves playing computer games, football, basketball and eating when you want. Without ever having anyone tell you to stop or making you clean your room. (Probably not exactly the freedom some of our ancestors fought for, but you never know!) I had no more words of solace because then I realized I was never going to be free either! I'll always be worrying about my kids and my husband and my family and friends and my bank account and my stained carpet and the plight of those who text and walk at the same time...Dangit, why did he have to go so deep on me??

Tuesday, January 18, 2011

Heat Wave

 The above picture evokes many memories for me. The primary one being that despite the smile on my face, I was super-duper ornery. It was 9 in the morning after a night of pretending to sleep in a tent with my kids during my family reunion. We were trying to load up the 200 pounds of belongings we'd had to bring and there was no easy way to the parking lot. Plus there were wasps flying around and our van's storage space seemed to have shrunk over night. And the kicker was that it was already about 102 degrees. Maybe my memory is slightly faulty on that. But for storytelling purposes I'm sticking with it.
Enter January 2011. Two weeks straight of temps in the teens, gunky air, inside recess for restless boys on the verge of ADHD. But guess what? Yesterday we hit 50. We pulled the new Christmas bike out of the garage and miraculously none of the other bikes had flats! We hit our favorite drag-- the local church parking lot (Since we are in such a righteous neighborhood we have two churches with adjoining lots--makes for great bike riding). And today is another winner. Give me those ornery hot days of summer anytime over the dreary gray days where your fingers feel frostbitten just opening the car door.
Catch you later---I'll be laying out on the top layer of snow in my bikini.

Thursday, January 6, 2011

A Non-Gamer's guide to Games

Now that the holiday season is over and we are partied out, I can offer my expert advice on fun games to play. My disclaimer is that I am NOT your typical game person.  I can’t shuffle very well and I can’t ever remember the rules to most card games but I am an awesome person with perfect opinions.  And with that, here is my guide:
GAMES THAT I HIGHLY RECOMMEND YOU NEVER PLAY
*Monopoly
*Life
*Settlers of Catan
Nothing personal with the above games (actually it is), but they all require too much TIME.  Fun games should not take longer than 15 minutes and they also shouldn’t require enough brain power that you’d miss something if you had to go change a diaper, make a sandwich, or carry on a conversation with someone across the room.

FUN GAMES I RECOMMEND FOR ANY PARTY:
*25 Words or Less
*A to Z
*Anomia (new find from faraway sis)!
*Catchphrase (wouldn't be conference weekend without it, though I think I have most of the categories memorized by now)
All the above games are fun word-speedy- yell out games that make me break out from my demure nature.  They’re great for a group and can often get those other demure people involved. 
So go return the that Settlers of Catan expansion set Auntie Beulah bought you, and invest in some of my game suggestions. 
(Of course, if you really are angry that I dissed some of your faves or wondering why I didn’t recommend SkipBo, then you and Hub can get together for game night anytime. He’s up for anything.  As evidenced by the fact he played High School Musical Monopoly Jr. with the kiddies…..bless his heart.)