Friday, August 29, 2008

President of Procrastinator's Anonymous


I have an entire house to pack, 5 pages about real estate to write, 8 templates of daycare forms to create, and a list of keywords about bridesmaids' gifts to research and turn into a fun, creative, original article. What am I doing instead? Well, I decided this was a good time to join Facebook and catch up with everyone I went to high school and college with. I really need to work on my time management skills.

Isn't Carter cute in his "packpack?" He started Mother's Day Out this week and absolutely loves it. He insisted on having a backpack like the big kids. We couldn't find a Diego one like he wanted, and he wasn't going to have anything to do with the Cars backpacks we found in every store. Luckily, he was happy with Handy Manny, the only other choice at Kohl's.

Totally unrelated side note: Jan Brady (Marcia, Marcia, Marcia!) is on Days now. I recognized her immediately, but her character name doesn't fit at all. Dora. Who names a 40-something, blond lady Dora? The writers obviously don't have small children, because every mother of preschoolers knows that Dora is a Hispanic child with short, dark hair and a huge head.

Wednesday, August 27, 2008

Good news!

We're not going to be homeless anytime soon. Starting Monday, we'll be moving into a great house that's in a perfect location for us. I'm so relieved! I didn't even really realize how stressed out I was about our situation until today when the stress went away. Maybe next Sunday I can sing on the praise team without bursting into tears and running off the stage (okay, so I slipped out the back door quietly...but it was still embarrassing).



Totally changing the subject: I was reminded today that God has an amazing sense of humor. He invented humor, after all, and he's a master at it. I believe coincidences are His way of putting a smile on our faces...and His. Tonight I decided to go to Walmart, despite the fact that I hadn't looked in a mirror all day and my children looked like orphans. As I was putting Carter in the car seat, I looked at the food all over his shirt and considered putting a clean one on him. But instead, I licked my finger and wiped the spaghetti sauce off of his face the best I could. The thought went through my mind that I hoped I didn't run into anyone I knew, especially not one person in particular from OBU who I barely knew then, but seem to run into at the most inopportune times here in Tulsa. It's the same person who was the subject of this frustrated post last September. He and his wife are the picture of perfection, and I have run into them a ridiculous amount of times when I was the picture of imperfection. Anyway, long story short, I had yet another encounter with this guy at Walmart tonight. I could almost hear God laughing. I'm not sure if He was laughing with me or at me, but He's definitely getting a kick out of placing this guy in my path. (If you happen to read this, KJ or Leslie, email me and I'll tell you who it is :)

Monday, August 25, 2008

Blackie and Brownie

Mason's "big kid" friend Caleb introduced him to the wonderful world of Webkinz this summer, and he's been begging for one ever since. I told him he could earn one by reading 20 books for the summer reading program. (There was a stuffed animal prize offered by the library, but I missed the deadline.)

Mason read his 20th book last night, Carter's Diego book called The Rainforest Race, so we went on a Webkinz hunt this afternoon. We finally found a ton of them at The Perfect Touch gift store, which had more tempting goodies for me than for the kids. I tried to distract Carter so he wouldn't want a Webkinz, but he caught on immediately and adopted a Lil' Kinz pug puppy within seconds of entering the store. Mason picked up several before deciding on a rottweiler puppy.

On the way home, I was trying to help Mason name his puppy because his other animals are named Big Bear, Little Bear, and Puppy. I decided to help him get more creative. At my prompting, he started listing possible names. "I could call him Biggie, or Kitty, or.." he got really excited because he thought of the perfect name. Not Kitty, but it rhymed with Kitty and had an "sh" at the beginning. I made sure he didn't know what he had just said and then attempted to redirect the name ideas in another direction...trying desperately not to laugh. He finally settled on Blackie, and we helped Carter change his from Puppy to Brownie.

When we got home, we had to officially adopt the dogs on Webkinz.com so Mason could feed the dog, fix up his room, and play the games on the site. He had to come up with a username, and all versions of TrainBoy and SpaceBoy were taken. So he suggested BlackBoy. I pointed out that he's not black, so he suggested WhiteBoy. Luckily I was able to get him to go with his initials instead. Otherwise my first grader would be WhiteBoy2002 on the internet. Nice.

Saturday, August 23, 2008

6-Pack Abs in the Renaissance?


I'd like to believe that Henry VIII looked like this at some point before he posed for his famous portrait (in which he appears much more portly). But somehow I have a hard time imagining His Majesty doing crunches and weight training in his quarters at the Tower of London. I've been there, and I didn't see a fitness center anywhere on the map. I loved The Other Bolyn Girl, though, and I'm glad they chose a hottie to play Henry - makes a much more interesting story. I've always liked Scarlett Johansson, and she did a great job playing the sweet sister of the movie. Of course, all she had to do was stand there and look bewildered most of the time, but she has a very believable bewildered look (see pic below). I also liked Natalie Portman as Anne Bolyn, but there was something about her that reminded me of Gone with the Wind. Maybe it was the enormous, green dress. I'm glad they didn't end the movie with the inevitable beheading that goes along with every movie about Tudor England (like my other favorite historical drama Lady Jane). I like a director that can take a tragic story and wrap it up with a nice, neat bow for a happy ending.

Unrelated side note: We're still in danger of becoming homeless in two weeks, but I'd rather blog about people who had bigger problems in life...like the possibility of being decapitated.








Wednesday, August 20, 2008

Insanity is my Reality

Sold the house...have to be out in 2 1/2 weeks...no place to go yet...YIKES!..might put an offer on a house tomorrow...might not...might pack something tomorrow...might not...YIKES!..

Thursday, August 14, 2008

I'm not the only one...

...who looked past the opening ceremony to see the evil behind it. This is a quote from an article by Senator Fred Thompson about the sticky international situations that the next president will inherit.

Who wasn’t impressed by the sea of Chinese performers, smiling and perfectly synchronized at the opening ceremony of the summer Olympics, demonstrating to the world their discipline and “organizational skills”? Or their ability to present to TV viewers beautiful fireworks displays that don’t really exist? What isn’t an illusion is that China is engaged in a rapid military buildup, the extent of which we do not know. With hundreds of missiles pointed toward Taiwan, experts say China is developing the capability to take Taiwan before the U. S. has the ability to respond.

Monday, August 11, 2008

On a lighter note...



I used my Home Haircuts for Dummies kit to cut Mason's hair for the second time the other day. The first time I did it a few weeks ago, my friend Tabi (who is actually trained to cut hair) had to help me finish. I think it looks pretty good. There was a minimal amount of blood shed and only one almost-bald spot, so I'm declaring success.
The second picture is an example of what I get when I say, "Hug your brother and smile."
We had our first Chuck E. Cheese's experience today, and it was super fun! I think the key is going on a weekday afternoon when most responsible citizens are at work. Mason was obsessed with winning tickets to buy cheap little toys and candy. Carter was happy just wandering around watching the action. He spent half the time sitting in the Barney car. He didn't like it when I put a token in to make the car move. He just wanted to hang with Barney in his cool, purple ride.

Saturday, August 9, 2008

Kinda' Cool...Kinda' Scary

Mason and I watched a recording of the Olympics opening ceremony this morning. Mason liked the fireworks. I thought it was:

Artistically very cool - The lighted drums were awesome, although Matt Lauer said they had to tell the drummers to smile more because they were scaring people. The costumes, music, choreography, fireworks, etc. were stunning.

Politically very scary - Did anyone else get a bit of a chill watching the Chinese soldiers take the flag from the children and goose-step Nazi-style up to the podium? If they put that much time and effort into a ceremony, how much more would they devote to a war. They're not exactly our best friends, you know.

Realistically very deceptive - The point of the show was to impress the world with the wonders of the "New China." Do they actually expect us to believe that they don't enforce mandatory abortions or abandon baby girls anymore? They don't persecute Christians and imprison people for their religious beliefs? They don't violate the basic human rights of their citizens every day for the good of the state? I read two Yahoo articles by AP writers that both lamented the measures the Chinese government has taken for the past three years to rid Beijing of anything that is "imperfect," like street vendors and unattractive housing. Once again, a reminder of Hitler's ideals (a Utopian world for the so-called Aryan Race).

So why are our athletes there? And why was Bush making small talk with Putin at the opening ceremony, pretending like he doesn't know Russia is at war with one of our allies? I really like gymnastics, but I don't think I'll be tuning in to watch this year.

Wednesday, August 6, 2008

Weekly Update

I think I can safely invest in a food processor. We really like the "deceptive" recipes. The only problem is that the recipes themselves are very labor intensive, even without the pureeing step. I'll definitely have to use some of my freezer cooking skills - doubling the recipe and freezing half - because I can't spend all day in the kitchen every day. You should have seen the mountain of dishes in my sink yesterday! (The macaroni and cheese was worth it, though.) One thing I'm excited about is the Sneaky Chef book that Kathi sent to me the other day. It has quick fixes for boxed and canned food, like Spaghettios. Maybe it won't take an hour to make lunch if I can just add sweet potato puree to a can of Spaghettios.

Carter is becoming quite the little musician. He has a song for everything. When a bus pulled up next to us at the stop light yesterday, he broke into a rousing version of The Wheels on the Bus. He also sings the Rachel Lampa song that I've been working on to sing in church. I have to get that one on video - it's adorable! Oh...and he's added a few things to his bedtime prayer. He now thanks God for pizza, Pull-Ups, and Wal Mart.

Mason is getting to be a really good reader. The only problem is that he can read the names of the TV shows on our DVR list. "Why did you record Days of our Lives, Mom?" Oh well. I guess he was bound to discover my soap habit sooner or later. He also loves for me to read to him. We finished The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe and part of The Horse and His Boy (not easy for me to read aloud because I hate fantasy - but he seems to like it). We were reading a Junie B. Jones book last night that had the word "pasketti" in it. Mason broke into a giggling fit because Junie called her favorite food pasketti. "It's not pasketti," he said emphatically, "it's BA-sketti!" He was so sure of himself, I didn't have the heart to correct him. Someday he'll have spaghetti on a spelling list and he'll figure it out.

Friday, August 1, 2008

Deceptively Delicious...So Far So Good!

Thanks to Jas's mom, I'm now the proud owner of the Deceptively Delicious cookbook that I wanted. I bought ingredients to make four of the recipes today at the store, and this evening I made grilled cheese sandwiches with pureed squash. Results:

Mason (6) was suspicious the minute I bought baby food at the store. I'm not investing in a food processor until I'm sure we like the recipes - so I used baby food for the purees. When we got home, and I put the baby food squash in a bowl, Mason said, "Whatever that is, I'm not eating it." I managed to come up with a convincing "white lie," and he actually bought it. He LOVED the grilled cheese sandwich and asked for seconds. He claims to hate squash, but he just ate about 1/4 cup of it in his sandwich.

Carter (2 and 1/2), ironically enough, wanted to eat the squash out of the container. I think he thought it was pudding or yogurt because it was in one of the plastic containers. So I gave him a spoon and let him go to town. He ate half of it and never complained that it didn't taste like pudding. He wasn't thrilled about his sandwich - mainly because he isn't thrilled about anything I put on a plate and call a "meal." He did eat some of it, though, when I told him he couldn't have dessert until he ate his supper. That threat usually doesn't work with him, so he must have liked the sandwich. That's the most veggies the poor kid has had in one day since he started eating solid food.

Tomorrow night: Spaghetti Pie (with brocolli and carrot purees)