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Showing posts from 2011

on a brighter note...

I'm considering making my blog into a book. It would cost somewhere about $100. I know, it's expensive. I won't likely do it just yet, being in the post-Christmas red and all, but I'd definitely like to do it in the next few months. It's not even like my blog is profound, or that it would fly off the shelves in bookstores (unless there was a hurricane, tornado, or really bad kid there), but it would be kind of neat to have it in print. I have lots of stuff in here about the kids, and some day to day happenings and it might be fun years from now to look back and remember some of these silly things. Some people journal. I lose my keys.

bye simon :(

Remember Simon ? He was our dog for two days. He went back home tonight. Although the kids loved him and I wanted to keep him Steven was not to be won over. I thought for sure he'd warm up to him, especially when he came home from work and the puppy met him at the door and hopped around and wagged his tail because he was super nice and lovey even though Steven was NOT. Anyway, I think I've got us on the short list for babysitting Simon from time to time, and hopefully we can steal him every once in a while for the day while Auntie Debbie is at work. Steven agreed to that, probably because he was relieved that I didn't just lock him in the freezer and let the dog sleep on his half of the bed.

post-christmas rambling, simon, this and that

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I know someone who actually blogged every day this year. Crazy eh? And I read this other blog of this other crazy person who wants to blog every day for the first ninety days of 2012. Part of me wants in on it. Part of me says "Ha! I'm way too lazy and unimaginative for such nonsense." We'll see. I should probably try to do more. I have this dream (dream? Really?) of one day printing out my blog. Someday I'll tell the kids that I didn't need baby books, baby pictures, to keep all the "art" they make me, because I have a blog and that's at least as good as a half-completed baby book. What's new? Well, Christmas is over. I like Christmas. I also hate Christmas half the time. Funny how the biggest holiday of the year can inspire so many mixed emotions. It's not like when I was a kid and my mom would plan and prepare and organize our family's time and all I had to do was get up on Christmas morning, tear through my presents and eat
My house looks like Christmas threw up in it. The baby smells like sh*t. The kids are fighting over one of Elliot's toys. Tennyson doesn't want to pick up his gazillion army guys. There is somehow laundry everywhere. Don't even get me started on the box of stuff that was dumped out in the front entrance. I just want to go back to bed and let them raise themselves for a day. Is that so horrible?

Merry Christmas Eve

Steven and I took the kids to the Island of Lights tonight. They love watching the different displays and being the first ones to "notice" something else. From there we drove through KokoPlatz. There's a street there that should probably be charging at least what the Island of Lights charges for admission. Our house has one string of lights. Just one. I keep thinking that we should jazz it up some, because the kids would love it, but there is so little time or extra money for that sort of thing these days. One day. It's Christmas Eve. The boys sprinkled reindeer food on the lawn and hung a special key just for Santa on the front door. Jordan found a perfect spot in the living room to leave three cookies and a glass of milk. An apple was added to that, because it's healthy (go Jordan!), and after careful consideration a second apple was added for Santa to share with either a reindeer or an elf. I guess it's up to him. Except for three presents we're d
1. Your real name: Tiffany Verwey 2. Your detective name (favorite color and favorite animal) : Purple Dog 3. Your soap opera name (middle name and street you live on) : Lynnette Fourth 4. Your Star Wars name (first three letters of last name, first two of middle name, first two of first, last three of last) : Verlyvewey 5. Superhero name (color of your shirt, first item to your immediate left) : Grey Phone 6. Goth name (black and one of your pets) : Black Ch loe 7. Your Porn star/drag queen name (name of your firs t pet and the first street you lived on-that you can remember) : Fluffy Division (yes really)

diaper gym woes

I have got to de-grumpify. I'm feeling very grumpy right now. It's totally the kids' fault, or maybe my fault, or maybe by Friday morning I've clearly drained the bottle of patience. Usually by the time the week is over I'm definitely ready for Steven to be home for a couple of days. Just ask him how happy I was the last weekend he was on call and was in and out every night for a week and then all weekend too. He think I was grumpy. I think my attitude was just reflective of his abhorrent desire to run out and unplug sewers instead of stay home and entertain me. Where was I? Right. Not my fault. Seriously though, the kids are pretty cute these days, when they're not fighting. Or awake. Or hanging on my legs at diaper gym and crying despite the fact that I go to diaper gym so that the little darlings can run off and play with their friends. FOR THE LOVE OF ALL THAT IS GOOD - GO AND PLAY WITH YOUR FRIENDS CHILD!!!! The Little Miss is driving me nuts at dia

dear lord let's blame it on the seasonal flu

"It doesn't even make sense to donate glasses to Africa. It would make more sense to just donate a computer and then they could go online and order glasses for like six bucks, and if they ordered glasses for the whole village they would only have to pay shipping once." "This kid built a windmill of garbage and they could plug into that. It produces energy. Pretty genius kid. Everybody laughed at him until he built a friggin windmill and made electricity. Pretty awesome. Give that guy a laptop." "Your clacking is very annoying. You need to tone it down a bit. Now you're just doing it loud on purpose. Don't think I can't tell." Now he's dozing on the couch. He just about choked on some phlegm in his sleep. Serves him right. This is what happens - we want our husbands to turn off the tv/wii/computer/ipod and talk to us. Then this is what we get. I think he's being all intentionally weird so that next time I'll just let him h

busy weekend

I keep meaning to take pictures of stuff, but I forget. A lot. Just ask Elliot. Last night I went for dinner with my dad's side of the family. It was nice to have a chance to catch up with people in the midst of all the business of the season! Today I went Christmas shopping with Ange and Steph. It was fun. Food, spending, a couple of wrong turns and voila! - home 8.5 hours later, and a big mac heavier.

christmas carnival

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 A couple of weekends ago the ballet came to town. I had never been to a ballet and have always wanted to go. I knew Jordan would love it too, being that she's into all things princess right now.  Jordan loved it. She gasped each time a new ballerina came out, especially if she was wearing a different dress.  At one point I noticed that she looked a little sad as she gazed in awe at the performance. I asked her what was wrong and she said "I just have tears because they're so pretty." Then I got a little teary thinking about the depth in this small child. She's such a mix of dresses, dirt, frogs and pretty things. I love it. I'd recommend the ballet to anyone, especially when it's a shorter performance showcasing dances from multiple ballets. The stands were full of women with their little girls, all excited to be there. Can't wait for it to come back next year!

awana concert

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 Tonight was the Awana concert at Jordan's friday night Awana church. That was a horrible sentence. It's okay. It's Christmas! Here's Jordan in her cute little dress.  Jordan's hair. People asked me if I had taken her to a hair dresser. I'm proud to say that no, I didn't. I did it myself!  The boys, misbehaving in church. Tennyson told me ahead of time that he was going to go and change into something "fancy." I didn't realize until we got to church and I helped him out of his jacket that "fancy" meant X-Men. Mitchie ended up in the nursery. Then it was Mommy's turn to giggle in church when we could still hear him ROARing in the sanctuary. Boys.  Elliot. Probably should have left her at home. I'm pretty sure she's recovering from the seasonal flu - the same seasonal flu that spiked her fever and sent her into convulsions on Monday. Look how happy and sickly she looks. Poor baby.  The Awana kid

naughty daddy

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Half naked baby out in the snow? I'm filing this picture away for the day "someone" decides to trade me in for a younger model and then take all my kids to live on their romantic island with them. That's right. You're all mine now baby...

my princess and her hair

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The thing about little girls? They negate the need for me to play with barbies. Remember reluctantly putting away the barbies when you were twelve nine? Me too. It was time to grow up. Time to stop dressing up dollies. Time to think about boys even if all the boys in your class seriously sucked. No offense . Enter - the six year old daughter with hair down the middle of her back. Living barbie? Of course not. I'm way past that. But seriously, check out the picture! I wish I'd have taken pictures of some of the other styles I've stolen off The Story of a Princess and her Hair ** website. The author of the site is a hairdresser, and the mother of a little girl with long thick hair, and she's very nice about sharing ways to fancy them up. Not only that, she breaks down the styles so even a mom with ten thumbs can muck her way through them and end up with something cute looking. Would you believe that I've got a giant length of ribbon, five elastic ba

NaNoWriMo - Done, 1 day early!

(I tried to post this on the 29th, but I was having trouble with blogger. Anybody else notice anything weird,  or do i have a big mean psycho blogger virus?)  I did it I did it I did it!! Guess who wrote a novel in a month? A novel that has a beginning, middle and an ending that more or less wraps up the loose ends? Me! I finished my novel tonight, a day early, and with a whopping 51,849 words. As the NaNoWriMo website says, I most definitely DO have eternal bragging rights! Things I may do now that I’m done: Pay a little more attention to my kids Mop a floor Clean the bathrooms Catch up on my favorite shows Exercise Make homemade pizza crust instead of buying that pre-made stuff Flaunt it Drink from the NaNoWriMo coffee mug I just ordered Sleep Wear clean clothes Blog blog blog!! It’s actually been a really cool experience. I’ve always said I wanted to try and write a novel, but in my head I imagined writing something well thought out, really good, sensible, s

I'm Christian - Unless You're Gay

Please please please check out this link: http://www.danoah.com/2011/11/im-christian-unless-youre-gay.html I don't care what side of the homosexual "issue" you stand on, everyone should read this. It's beautifully written and covers so many bases without (I believe) being offensive to anyone. This guy has managed to put into words much of what I think about gay people and popular judgement.

half done my first (albeit really crappy) novel

I say first as though there will be tons more. Two things. I have 25,099 words written in my novel. It's pretty exciting for me. Two: Why on earth do I need to receive an invitation to join pinterest? I've heard so many people go on about liking it, so I figured I'd check it out. Apparently it's invite only. I'm assuming that my invitation will show up in my email soon. Do I need to send references? Write a two-page autobiography? Bribe somebody? Is pinterest really worth the trouble? But I digress. Good grief I need a mouse for this computer. I'll be typing away, and then I bump the little pad on the computer (ridiculously situated right under my hands) and the cursor moves and the next sentence is injected randomly into a paragraph I've already written. Maybe I'll put a little mouse into my own stocking. I know what you're thinking: If you hold your hands up properly you wouldn't touch that uber-sensitive little pad. You could be ri

beam me up!

Sometimes, when I check into the internet to read a ton of different blogs, check facebook, and update my word count on my NaNoWriMo page, I wonder if there's a little bit of a dork in me. The other day Jordan brought home a beginner reader book about a bookworm. In her little book the worm is literal, and it eats words, and pages, and entire books. I excitedly told her what a bookworm actually referred to, and was a little disappointed when her joy didn't match mine at the prospect. Sure I'm past the stage where I have X-Files posters on my wall and Star Trek binders stuffed full of laminated episode guides, and maybe coasters with all the different Federation as well as enemy ships on them, but still - I love a good science fiction movie. I was watching Big Bang Theory tonight, and the show poked fun of someone's Blog, and I thought Hey! I have a blog! Why are they making fun of blogs? Oh, okay. I'm totally cool. Like, totally.

excerpt

Our plan was simple. We would park the truck down the street and then Ryan and I would walk to the edge of Wilson’s property and then disappear into the bushes along the outside, where we’d make our way to the back of the house before using the code to open the back door. Once inside we’d locate the clock. If we figured we could move it on our own we’d get it to the front door and then call Amanda on her cell to bring the truck around. We’d load up the clock and be gone, locking the door behind us like the courteous burglars we were. No problem. No property damage, no looting anything else, no snooping through personal belongings. We were simply taking back something that should have been ours to begin with.

sick days

There are serious discrepancies between men's and women's sick days. I have Ebola today. I haven't had that confirmed by an actual physician, but I figure that as a mother I have a certain right to make diagnoses of weirdo illnesses that plague this household. I decided this morning to take a day off from my chores. Firstly? I didn't hop on my treadmill this morning, despite deciding at the beginning of the week that the slacking was over. In my defense, this particular strain of Ebola hits hardest in the morning. I could barely whisper, much less make any actual human sounds. My nose was plugged solid with that stuff that mutated the ninja turtles, and when I finally had to get up and have a coughing fit I did it in the bathroom because the stuff I was coughing up was making me wretch. I won't even mention the eye goop and headache. Aren't you glad you tuned into this blog this morning? Right, sick day. I didn't get on the treadmill. Then I got up and ha

nanowrimo, day 9 - all caught up

By the end of today I should have had 15,003 words. I am now up to 15,593. I'm a little excited about it all. Is it good? Probably not. Is it actually getting written with a hope of being finished? Yes!

NaNoWriMo, day 9

My house is actually pretty nice and tidy today. This is due only to the fact that I had company yesterday, and not because I'm the best house keeper these days. People keep telling me I have four kids, and this is what houses are supposed to look like when there are six people living here, four of them ages six and under. I just feel bad that my four kids have to live in squalor. Anyway, moderately sparkly house (if you don't look in the corners), and one kid in school, two kids sleeping, and the fourth playing Nintendo means I can write! I'm currently at 11,583 words. By the end of today I should be at 15,003. I'm a little behind, probably because I actually cleaned and organized yesterday instead of sitting for half the afternoon at the computer. On day two I wrote enough to take me past of day three, and I took day three off, so being a day or two behind is no biggie. I sort of know where the story is going, it's even fun to write it, and I type somewhere around

I'm telling!

Tiffany: Jordan! Jordan: What? Steven: (from the other room) You need a spank! Tiffany: Yeah! Let's spank her! Jordan: No, or I'm telling your mommy. Our family is so cool. Actually, I stole a website from Pamela's blog and I want to try a cute little updo on my little tomboy/princess. Note: We don't really spank that much. There's much more tickling.

farewell blogtober - until next year!

I missed ten days of Blogtober . That’s really awful considering that I aced it last year. That’s okay. Apparently there are a few little tricks that I didn ’t know about - including dating posts to pop up on different days. Had I known that I may have done slightly better! I’m sure there were days when I posted more than one post, I could have post-dated them. Whatever. Next year is going to rock. I’m cruising along with my novel. Granted, it’s only day two, but I’m sitting just under 3000 words right now, and I only need 3334 by the end of today. If I can hit that in the next half hour or so and then write for another hour tonight I’ll be ahead of the game. I worry that my character doesn ’t have enough character traits yet. Kind of too bad considering I’m 3000 words in. I’ll have to quickly try and make her a little more interesting.

1800 words

I'm sitting at 1800 words and cruising along! This is so fun. Who knows, I may even share parts of it at some time. Maybe. Except that then you'll read it and I'll be all shy. I have to average 1667 words a day to hit 50,000 by the end of the month. Kickin ass!

347 words

Alright. I've actually started. This year I remembered on the first day - I figure that should count for something. And obviously I'm not procrastinating by hanging out on my blog. I figure that NaNoWriMo and Blogtober should coincide more. I'd blog daily for sure if it meant avoiding something a little more assignment-like.

november 1st

I'm supposed to be starting a novel right now. Unfortunately I'm not really sure how to start my novel, nor did I ever think about it again and I still have to figure out some details before I can get into it. Sheesh. On the bright side, I've managed to catch up on my google reader and facebook and email. On the dark side I am currently a catchy sentence and 1667 words behind schedule. Luckily it's the first day.

i wanna be a pirate!

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After Halloween last year I bought two costumes for $5 each at Walmart . I was pretty proud of my bargain hunting. Jordan and Tennyson have been waiting all year to wear their butterfly and pirate costumes. Last week one day we finally brought out the costumes to make sure everything would fit before school parties, diaper gym, and Halloween night arrived. I dressed up all four kids in their costumes. Tennyson was a pirate, Jordan a butterfly, Mitchell a kangaroo and Elliot was a little purple dragon. They were pumped. They got into character right away; Jordan flapped, Tennyson “ aarrgged ”, Mitchie hopped, and Elliot, well Elliot wandered around looking cute. A few minutes in, Mitchie asked in his cute little Mitchie -voice, “Where’s my pirate costume?” This keeps happening. A few weeks ago we went into the city to buy the older two kids new winter coats and snow pants. They all played in the racks and the younger two were pretty much oblivious to what was going on until it was tim

halloween 2011

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Today was Halloween. Ten random things: Mitchell was a pirate, not a kangaroo. More on that later. Kids can have a fantastic day, full of candy, Halloween parties, costumes of choice, school fun, trick or treating, grandparents, aunties, cousins and gorgeous outdoor evening weather, and still find something to cry themselves to sleep over. Tennyson was a pirate. Scarily, it really suited him. Jordan was a butterfly, if a little less than obviously so. Elliot was a little purple dragon. That same little purple dragon has now been sighted on Halloween nights for six years - the last four of them on this very block. I ate far less Halloween candy this year than any other Halloween I can think of - ever. I bought far more Halloween candy this year than any other Halloween with the intentions of actually not running out before the trick-or- treaters did. Unfortunately we had far fewer kids this year and now I have extra candy. I didn't count on that. The last few kids left the doorstep

second last day of blogtober

My Blogtober has been slightly less than successful. Not that I didn't get some posts up here, but it certainly wasn't every day! It's now a few minutes after midnight, but in the interest of getting something up today I'm going to pretend it's still Sunday. Tonight I met up with some blogger friends in Winnipeg. We ate, we visited, we played a game, and we did a lot of laughing. Did I mention it's now after midnight? It's all pumpkins and rags now. A fun evening was had by all. It was nice to do some catching up - and it was nice to see you again Candice! I know that you have lots of friends and family to visit before you head back over to Montreal and it's pretty awesome that you manage to fit us in. :) Kids? My kids are pretty great. A little extra "spunky" some days, but pretty awesome overall. I'd go into details, but it's after midnight and I'm just impressed at how few spelling mistakes I'm backspacing right now. Tomorro

hockey? oh no, not that again

I went to Grey's Night at a friend's house tonight. Everything was fine until I realized that nobody was going to push play on the PVR until the hockey game was over. I'm not even Catholic, but I have now endured and survived purgatory. I am so glad that Steven isn't into sports. I don't have to suffer through hours of football or hockey. I don't lose my husband during the playoffs, or the Stanley Bowl or football players rubbing each other's bums while they wait to get their hands all over the ball. We watch TV shows about zombies and grumpy doctors. I sit through the occasional super hero movie. All is well. I kid though - if you want to watch five minutes of hockey I'll humor you. If you want to invite me over for the Stanley Cup playoffs I may come for the snacks. I'll likely bring my laptop and possibly be (more than) somewhat disruptive. I might secretly video tape you hopping around and swearing, and dump it onto youtube before the game ends.

pet names

Over the years Steven and I have used various pet names with the kids. They've never stuck to the point where others have used them, but we do! Probably more me than Steven. I think Steven calls them all baby from time to time, but it's starting to be limited more to Elliot. Jordan : Beautiful Monster (Steven, as a baby), Joe, Josephine, Princess Patricia Tennyson : Monkey Man, Yeti, Sonny Boy, Tenn, Tenny (that would be Steven's. I don't like it.) Mitchell : Punkin Pie, Mitchie Bear (after he was born we said this so much that even the older two kids called him that), Mitchie Boo, Mitch, Punkin Pie Elliot : Petunia, Menace, Ellie, El, Babykins , Fatty Pants (she loves that one I'm sure), Pork Chop, Baby Pie Overall : Minions (a lot), Entourage, Stinker, Stinker Pants. Then there's stuff like Honey, Honey Bunny, Sweetie, etc. It's funny how we spend months thinking up the perfect names, only to distort and change them after the babies come.
How do I keep missing days? I honestly didn't think I had until I logged in here and saw that the last post was on Sunday.

free to good home

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I am the most forgetful Blogtoberer ever this year! I think this should count. For real (as Mitchie now says).
Soooo tired . . . It's not even midnight on a Friday night. I am so old.

keep it real, zombie makers, keep it real!

We've been watching the Walking Dead series. It's about Zombies. You know there are slim pickins on TV when we start watching series about Zombies. I dreamed about zombies last night. Actually, I dreamed that it was my friend Angela's birthday so we had to go out and party even though I knew it wasn't safe. Didn't want to hurt her feelings. I figure it's pretty nervy of her to expect us to get a sitter and be separated from our kids so that we could stay late at her house and then brave the zombies on the way home. Anyway, my question is this: do you really, really think that there would be cities overrun with zombies? Not to look for loopholes in an obviously sound premise, but apparently the only way to turn into a zombie is to be bitten by zombies. Um - do you see how those zombies bite? They don't walk by and playfully nip at your ear. They leap at you and while you're still alive they begin tearing chunks off you. Then all their zombie friends cat
I wonder if there's any way to post and back date it? Oops. Not that there isn't stuff to blog about, but I'm easily distracted. Ooh moth! Kidding, no moths here. Nor are there bedbugs. There seems to be an infestation of small blondish animals though. Not sure what to do about them, although I'm guessing I could bait the traps with peanut butter and chocolate milk.
Not sure if anybody noticed, but I finished my walking ticker! I had wanted to walk/run 1000 miles this year and I've now hit 1037, and that's not with today's 6 added in. Go me!
Yesterday as we were leaving the pet store, the kids asked if they could have some licorice. I said sure. I gave them each a piece. I was about to give Elliot the last one when Steven said: "Wait, is that the last one? None for me?" "You can have half of this one" I replied, tearing it in two. I handed it to him. He took a bite before I said: "I ripped it apart with the hands I used to play with the gecko." With a pukey face: "Ugh. Didn't you use that sanitizer on the wall?" "I meant to, but I forgot." "Ugh" gag, more pukey face. Continues eating. "I don't know if I can keep eating this." More bites, more yucky face. "And I sat on the floor. I must have touched it with my hands as I got up and down. And I petted a bird. I might have monkeyed around in the hamster cage. There was also that guinea pig, but he ran and hid right away so I didn't touch him much. The bunnies were cute and fuzzy." More

gecko

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Yesterday Steven, the kids and I went to Winnipeg for winter coats and skates for various kids. While we were there we stopped at Staples on Pembina . I can’t stop there without wandering through Petland after. I asked one of the workers a few questions about the geckos. I’ ve always thought it would be really really cool to have one someday, but have never looked into it seriously. I’m hooked. I want one. I held it, the older two kids held it, it climbed around on our hands and jumped from my forearm to my shoulder. It was all cute with it’s sticky little feet and it’s round little toes. I went on Kijiji last night, and people apparently breed them in their homes. They sell for anywhere between $25 and $50. The one at the store had been on sale for $177. Even more hooked. Now I just have to get Steven on board so that when I bring one home he’s not entirely annoyed. Besides, how could he say no to this little face? Actually, I really like the Dalmatian Crested Geckos: Stay tune

more on NaNoWriMo

November - National Novel Writing Month. I've tried the past few years to write a novel. Each time I've failed and died a little inside. It's hard! I've been planning my novel. I have scenes in my head. SCENES! This is the year baby. If I actually do it and . . . wait, WHEN I actually do it and get it done I'm going to treat myself to some overpriced NaNoWriMo goods. Did you know that they make a coffee mug? That's how I roll. Write a novel in a month so that I can justify the purchase of a coffee mug, because it's not like I can just save myself the grief and go to Dollarama for one. Besides, Dollarama's mugs don't have the nifty NaNoWriMo logos on them. *** You'll be saddened to hear that I just checked the site. They no longer have the NaNoWriMo mugs. Instead, they have either a Script Frenzy mug (it's an entirely different writing project) or the NaNoWriMo ceramic coffee mug . I may have to settle for that. Now I'm thrown. My

dinnertime/breakfast time woes

Suppertime is such a performance sometimes. Why is it so hard to get kids to eat their supper? Last winter I started cooking all these fun meals out of these healthy living cookbooks. There was pasta, cheese, cooked spinach (I love spinach in foods), stir fries, fun burgers, etc. The kids would see a hint of green and spend the next twenty minutes moaning and choking it down. That's the older two. The younger two wouldn't even pretend to try. Eventually I kind of gave up and went back to the regular five dinners that I remake over and over and over and just made sure to serve them with salads and veggies. Jordan eats. Tennyson whines about not liking noodles, potatoes or vegetables but usually we can bully him into eating his dinner. Who doesn't like any side that goes with beef or chicken? Seriously? Not liking pasta? Or potatoes? Or rice unless it's floating in sweet and sour sauce? Good grief. I'm so glad that their pickiness is so individual to each child. Tha
Can I just list some stuff I want to blog about and call it my blog for today? Tennyson's dog. Today's picture session. One might come yet tonight, but then again maybe not.

unicef

On Friday I picked Jordan up from school and she announced that she had an assembly that day. I asked her what the assembly was about. "School in a box," she replied. "What's a school in a box?" I asked. "We get money and stuff and put the school in a box." "What on earth are you talking about?" "For kids! And we send the school in a box to Australia." "Um, do you mean Operate Christmas Child, where we get a shoe box and fill it full of school supplies for a needy child somewhere?" "Nope. Mommy ," she said, a little exasperated because I wasn't catching on, being that this was all so obvious. "We get a school in a box and we send it to Australia ." "Do you have a paper for me to read about this?" I asked, hoping that this was going to become more obvious once I got home. "Yep." I thought about it for a minute - what else besides Operation Christmas Child would require kids to se

van conversations

Tennyson : When I'm six how old will Jordan be? Me : Eight. Tennyson : When I'm seven how old will Jordan be? Me : Nine. Tennyson : When I'm ten how old will Jordan be? Me : Tennyson, Jordan is two years older than you. You can take any age and add two and that's how old Jordan will be. So when you're ten how old do you think Jordan will be? Tennyson : (thinks for a second) Twelve! Me : Right. You can always just add two. Even when you're a grownup you can add two. Jordan : So Tennyson will never pass me? I've told them before that when they're grownups Tennyson will be taller than her. This has her a little confused I think. Me : Nope. He may be taller, but you'll always be older. When Tennyson is 30 you'll be 32 and Mitchie will be 29. You'll always be the oldest. Tennyson : What happens when kids don't have a dad? Me : I don't know any kids who don't have a dad, do you? Tennyson : No, but when I'm a dad I can be their da
Oh no! I forgot to blog yesterday! Shame on me.

the baby just sucked on my toe. ew.

Today I planned on reading far fewer blogs than I did. I forgive myself. Because not forgiving people only hurts you in the end. I did manage to clean all three bathrooms, make stew, vacuum, do dishes and sweep ridiculous amounts of toast and cheerios off the dining room floor. My stew is beginning to smell fantastic, by the way. I wish I had something more profound to write about. There is just not a whole lot of profoundness sometimes. What's new here? Well last night I was sleeping by 10. That's about it. I'm still tired today. I have no idea how to shake this tiredness. I think I may have to hire someone to come every day between 1 and 3 so I can nap. I never understand why kids are so crabby about their afternoon nap. Imagine your day going like this: Get up in the morning. Run around and play until someone lets you know that it's breakfast time. That same someone places your meal in front of you, your bananas carefully cut into pieces in your cereal, or you have

Elliot

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My baby. I affectionately refer to her as a menace. I smile and say it to her with my happy mommy/baby voice and she giggles evilly and with much joy that Mommy is obviously saying something funny to her. I was going to relish my last baby - the baby fuzz head, the sweet baby smell, the tiny baby cuddles. Elliot had her own ideas from the start. She's never been cuddly. She's lovey and likes to be around me, and she wants to be up in my arms, but she won't cuddle. She just wants a perch to look around. She gets angry if I sit down. I am her mommy chariot. If I want to sit with her at the table I had better have some good incentive. Elliot doesn't eat. At least not anything I try to feed her. Things she won't eat: meat vegetables boiled eggs noodles potatoes soup pasta sauce rice cantaloupe oranges pineapple honeydew squash did I mention meat and vegetables? Those food groups are pretty much off her list. Things she will eat: bread cereal milk coffee (she climbs on t