Dreaming of a WHITE Christmas!

Did you wonder if you came to the wrong place? I was feeling festive.........

Anyway, on to one of the many things I have to talk about tonight. The first one being, how children will and do repeat what you say. The Rocket Scientists has this saying that goes something like this when I am asking him to help me with something that he isn't sure he wants to do. He says, "You're killin' me woman!" I usually smile and let it be. That is until the the 1st one started using that line on me when I'd ask her to pick up her shoes or clear off the table. Now you know on the inside I was busting up. That is some pretty funny stuff, but on the outside I had to tell her it wasn't OK for her to use that line with me. The RS has decided with some encouragement that maybe this is not a line he will use with me anymore either.

The next thing is my fun loving Friend has this link to a personality test. If you haven't figured it out yet.......yes......I can find endless entertainment in these type things. So if you are wondering about which "color" I am, I'm white.

"Whites are motivated by Peace. They seek independence and require kindness. They resist confrontation at all costs. To them, feeling good is more important than being good. They are typically quiet by nature, process things very deeply and objectively with great clarity. Of all the colors, whites are the best listeners. They respect people who are direct but recoil from perceived hostility or verbal battle. Whites need their "alone time" and refuse to be controlled by others. Whites want to do things their own way and in their own time. They ask little of others and resent others demanding much of them. Whites are much stronger than people think, but are not often seen for their strength because they don't easily reveal their feelings. Whites are even-tempered, diplomatic, and the voice of reason; but can also be indecisive, unexpressive, and silently stubborn. When you deal with a WHITE, be kind, accept and support their individuality, and look for non-verbal clues to understand their feelings."

I would love to know what color you are!!!

The last thing I wanted to cover in this post is my erratic posting and reading of my bloggy friends. I miss you when I don't get to read what you are doing or thinking about, etc. I want to say that it is going to get better, but chances are, it will not for a while. I have plenty I want to blog about. I am lacking time. I have this part of my brain that shifts with no explanation that sends me in a different direction than I was originally headed. This instance......as a child I was not neat or tidy. My mid-teens this shift happened and everything had to be neat and organized. Then sometime after I had been married for about 4 years, there was a shift again. Neat and organized were taking leave. Well about 2 months ago, neat and organized came back. I have almost 10 years of clutter that suddenly can no longer exist in my life. Getting rid of all this clutter is a serious time sucker. Since I will have no peace until it's done, and that is what I am motivated by according to the previously mentioned personality test, it is what is occupying most of my free time. This is not to say that I will not be around at all, just not daily. More like three to four time a week.

I hope you all had a happy Thanksgiving!

Back to cleaning.......

Karen

Watching my mother fall victim to my children

My sweet mother took my children yesterday and kept them over night so that I could get ready for Thanksgiving. Since we live back close to family, we usually do the get together here since we are best equipped for gatherings. Besides that, I LOVE to cook! Really!!! And the entertaining part is nice too. It makes me feel at home to have people I love in my home enjoying themselves.

Early this afternoon, my mom calls to check on the time of dinner. She was running behind. Yeah.....she had my kids, so that is to be expected. But the story behind why she was running late must be told. Now, in my experience, grandmas are suckers for grandchildren. Why that is exactly I don't have a firm grasp on yet, but I am sure there will be a day that I do. Well, my sweet mom was bringing a few homemade pies and mashed potatoes for Thanksgiving. She seemed to have a handle on that. That is until the my children, aka the grandchildren in question, asked if she would make them brownies. Now if they asked me, the answer would have been an easy "NO!" There would be plenty of good things for them to eat when they got home. Being the grandma put her at a disadvantage; You know being a sucker for her grandchildren and all. She started to tell them that she really didn't have time when the Wild Child in all her charm uses her cutest smile and voice and says, "Please, they're like a river of chocolate." Yep, she made them brownies.

Hey Mom, if you get a chance to read this before you collapse into your bed tonight......Thank you!! I could have never pulled it off without you.

Stolen Thanksgiving Meme

It has occurred me over the last year that ones ability to be happy is somewhat dependant on that person's ability to be thankful for what they have. I have watched this in myself, particularly. If I have lost my happy place it is a pretty good bet that I have forgotten to count my blessings. I am working on that. There is no reason to not be grateful when I have so many blessings.

Flea has this meme on her blog. She "borrowed" it from someone else. So I thought I would join in on the fun.

Little Thanksgiving Meme

1. What are you thankful for?
Yesterday I spoke with a woman who is very dear to me. She is currently living in a homeless shelter. While speaking with her, I became aware to my core of how truly blessed I am. I am thankful for a knowledge of a Heavenly Father and that He loves me. I am thankful for good parents, for an amazing family, for children who challenge me and make me smile. I am thankful for a warm home, a husband who loves me and supports me. It occurs to me that this list could go on for some time. I think I will do that somewhere else........

2. What is your favorite thing to make?
Hmmmmmm........this is a tough one for me to answer. I love to cook/bake. If I have to pick one, I will say the stuffing/dressing. A few years ago, I found a recipe that calls for apples and chestnuts.....yum.

3. Do you have a special table cloth?
Sort of. I have table cloths for Thanksgiving and Christmas mostly, but quite often forget that I have them.

4. What is your favorite thing to eat?
Pecan Pie!!!!!!

5. What time do you eat?
This varies with the year and it's guests. We make our best effort to accommodate work schedules, nap times, distance traveled and whims.

Play along if you like.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Knees should not look like basketballs

I may have mentioned before that the Rocket Scientist has an auto-immune disorder. Yeah and it's great fun to be had by all. No....not really.


The first time we became aware of it, we thought he had injured his foot. The doctors couldn't find anything wrong with it, yet it was swollen and extremely painful. Now my guy's tough rarely breaks. If he is wincing in pain.......it's bad! So, back to the doctors he went for some blood work. They thought maybe it was gout. They sent him home, told him to call back in a few days for the blood work results. You know....it came back inconclusive. The doctor told him to avoid red meat and get in shape. We wanted to do what was best. So we cut out all red meat and most meat in general. Trying to be a good wife I put him a vegetarian diet. Well..........not the right answer. The swelling got so bad and so painful. Both his ankle and knee started swelling. Eventually it went away and he went back to eating red meat. There were a few recurrences over the next year. Then we moved to Kansas. Can you believe the entire time we lived there......not one bad "out break."

I could drag this out.......but you all really don't want me to do that. Turns out soy is the trigger for him. His body just can not process it. Do you have any idea how many things have soy in it. Try to eat out and not consume soy or one it's products.

Over the years I have gotten really good at avoiding soy. Sometimes we miss something and the man ends up in extreme pain. Of course then I feel terrible for missing it.

Last week the RS's knee started bugging him. It wasn't long until it was as big as a basketball. The poor guy spent the last week in bed. I have been through everything. I can't figure out where he got the soy. I'd say this is one of the worst cases he has ever had.

So I'm back to the drawing board. I wish there was just a test that would say this is the thing that causes your knee to look like a basketball, but once again, no. We get to do trial and error. My next best guess is "high fructose corn syrup." Fortunately this is a bit easier to avoid. Sorry, Babe.....no more Soft Drinks for you.

If you are easily offended.....this post is not for you.

Bloggy friends......life is kicking my butt! Really!! Family, if you are about to scroll down and witness my shame as a mother.....you were warned in the title. Even the Rocket Scientist says looking over my shoulder as I am posting the following pictures that I am "crossing the line."
Really though......the pictures say it all. I can't keep a grip on life. The kids are running the house. Ya.....you see what they are using for stickers these days. Apparently it's not enough to put stickers on furniture or walls where they have been warned that they will spend the rest of their lives in time-out if I find another sticker in one of those places. Nope, they decide it's time to take it public and put it on an upstairs window you can see from the street.

I know I should have some shame, but I can't find it under the crayon colored walls, dirty bathrooms and mountain of laundry that has become my charmed life.

To fit in or not.....

Oh this little clip made me laugh. It also made me think...... There has been way too much of that going on around here lately. It has occurred to me that I have no desire to be "normal", to fit in. I do however, want people to be comfortable around me. It's an interesting balance. Certainly not a balance I have perfected.

Playin' Tag

Flea tagged me with this Meme of 4 things. This one is a little harder than it looks. Or maybe, I'm just over thinking it.


A) Four places I go over and over:
1. The kids school. Three times a day. I have a kindergartner and a second grader.
2. Target......I love this place. So much so, that it a prerequisite for living someplace new. If there is no Target.....I'm not going
3. The Laundry Room....whether I want to or not
4. Costco


(B) Four people who e-mail me regularly:
1. Krista
2. Carrie
3. My Aunt Jean
4. My Dad



(C) Four of my favourite places to eat:
1. Rumbi Grill, I love their Voodoo Chicken Salad......YUMMMY
2. Cafe Coronado....I have only ever been there once, it's in Phoenix and it is amazing.
3. Phuket....A Thai food restaurant in Huntsville, Alabama....truly some of the best Pad Thai ever known to man.
4. Red Beans Bayou Grill in Wichita, Kansas. The tomato bisque is worth the trip.



(D) Four places you'd rather be:
1. Huntsville, Alabama
2. Target
3. Lake Tahoe, it is so beautiful there
4. Europe, I have never been and really want to.

(E) Four TV shows I could watch over and over:
1. House Hunters International
2. Extreme Makeover House Edition
3. Everybody Loves Raymond
4. According to Jim



(F) Four people I think will respond:
1. Krista
2. Carrie
3. Missy
4. Kim.....because then she will have something to post about.

Message In a Bottle

It's that time of year. The time of year that there are things that my spouse needs to know without the children over hearing me.

It use to be that we could spell things, but those darn kids keep getting smarter! I remember my parents spelling when we were little to discuss things they didn't want us to overhear at the dinner table. Of course, all that taking us to school and all, started to work against them too. My Dad has a firm grasp of the Spanish language and my mom just enough to look confused when they started trying that route.

So, last night we were trying iron out the details of Wednesday night without the kids finding out I was taking them to Disney On Ice. As we spoke in code I was reminded of being a little kid trying to figure out what it was that my parents didn't want me to know. You know....I'm not really against my kids knowing. However, I am against them asking about it every waking second until the moment arrives. Anyway, I decided that I would tell them we have plans for Wednesday night. They wanted to know exactly what it is we are doing. I said that I wouldn't tell them, but they could guess and I would give them a few hints. Typically all the questions about this would make me crazy, but the guesses are so darn entertaining.

So do you have a special language of your own? How is it working out? Does it leave you looking confused like my mom with Spanish words flying at her or me when my husband tries the "really big words" route? You wishing your kids didn't spell so well? I may be trying the message in a bottle route next.

A Married Question Meme...

My friend Melissa tagged me with this meme. Since I love to talk about the Rocket Scientist, I was thrilled to play.

What is your husbands name? Rocket Scientist, well in cyberspace it is.
How long have you guys been married? 14 years
How long did you date? Too long. I felt like I had to drag him to the alter, kicking and screamin'. 1 year.
How old is he? 37
Who is taller? The Rocket Scientist
Who can sing best? The RS's Eustachian tubes collapsed years before I met him while skiing a semester he spent at BYU. So, the answer would be me. (that is really not saying much)
Who is smarter? He is a Rocket Scientist. He was a physics major. He also just thinks more than I do.
Who does laundry? I'm not sure if anybody does laundry looking at the pile.
Who pays the bills ? He makes the money, I spend it.
Who sleeps on the right side of the bed? I'm not sure which is the right side.
Who mows the lawn? The RS
Who cooks dinner? Both of us.
Who is the first to admit when they are wrong? Me, but it usually is me who is wrong.
Who kissed who first? He kissed me first, but if he had waited much longer....I would have kissed him.
Who wears the pants? I make the decisions and he has the veto power.

So tag you're it.

Second guessing my words

You know I have started many posts in the past couple of days, only to abandon them. Some because I can't find the right words to express how I feel. Others because, I decided they have no relevance to me or most people. Then there is the one that I think I sound whiny and well, I'm not a fan of whining when it comes to me doing it. I have way too much to be thankful for.

So, this brings me to a question. Do you have posts you start and never finish? Post you finish that you never actually post? Posts that you delete? I guess that is more than one question.

Can I exaggerate like Longfellow?

I feel like I'm hearing Paul Revere running through the streets yelling the "British are coming, the British are coming." Only it sounds more like, "Christmas is coming, Christmas is coming." Can you believe that we have, at least, two local radio stations that are playing Christmas music almost full time. Yes, I mean now. This has been going on since the day after Halloween, at least.

Maybe this is the cry in the streets, trying to salvage our economy. I hope they accomplish their mission, because if I hear Christmas music in September of 2009, Paul and I are going to have a talk.

Crop Circles in My Head

I am feeling a bit philosophical tonight, so you all have been warned. I have always thought myself to have a clue when it comes to life. The strange thing about that is.......the older I get the more I realize........there may be no clues, for me anyway. Just when I think I have it figured out............well........the rules change? Or maybe it is that I never understood the rules to start off.

For instance, you might fall in love with someone when you are young and think that this is it. You believe you will get married, have a family and live happily ever after. Then you start to hear about the statistics of young love and its success rate. It appears that the rules are changing. Then you get your heart broken and you think your life is over and once again it feels like the rules are changing. You meet other people, you date, you eventually find someone else you fall for. Then you begin to wonder which set of rules apply to this new relationship. Is this the happily ever after? Are you still too young? Is this the heartache express?

You see, it seems like this is the pattern of life to me. That there are sets of rules that I clearly do not understand. Health......Nutrition......Right......Wrong.......Republican......Democrat......
Life......Death........Love...... it is as if their definition changes daily. Then I wonder if it is just my own evolution that brings to a higher understanding of the things in my life. Or maybe these are all just pieces of a puzzle that I need to keep turning until I have them facing the right direction so that they will fit with the right place. Either way, I have a lot to learn.

If you haven't had enough deep thought I might suggest reading this. She is a dear friend of mine that has some real insight to life.

Traditions

Thank you all for you kind words and thoughts at the passing of our furry family member. Your words were so appreciated.

We all have our own sets of traditions. This is really funny to me, since Halloween is a necessary evil so to say. To say that I am not fan, is truly an understatement. It's a holiday about candy, monsters and tricks to me. None of which I believe deserve a celebration.........well maybe the candy.......but no one needs 35 pounds of candy to consume for themselves. (Yes, I do really know the real story behind Halloween.) So, the fact that our families most defined traditions are for this holiday, humors me a bit.

When the kids were really little, it was too much work and too much for them to cope with to carve 4 pumpkins. The Rocket Scientist came up with this great idea. He would hand each of them a black crayon and tell them to draw the eyes and tell another to draw the nose and so on. The RS would then carve out whatever and where ever they drew. There are years that we have some Jack-O-Lanterns with some serious personality. So this is this years. I love him. I think he is darling. The Sea Monkeys trick-or-treated in the neighborhood. I have decided that there is no easy way to take a picture of four kids at once. There is always somebody not looking, walking away or posing in a fashion that, well, scroll down, you'll see.