All I want for Christmas....

I am officially a loser. Along with things like making people happy and peace on Earth what I really want for Christmas is a vacume. Man am I a loser, a loser who wants clean floors.

My Family

Listening to Naomi :

"Mommy, Daddy, Victor, Caleb there is one more member of my family. Naomi, I mean Raphael the ninja turtle. That is my family."

Yes she actually said that.

Animated does NOT mean for children.

There are some seriously great movies out there. I however find myself trying to figure out which ones are actually for children and which ones are simply adult movies in animated form.

I recently watched "UP" for the first time. What a fabulous movie! It had humor and adventure, a great moral and dialogue. I LOVE that the first portion of the movie is devoted to the wonderful marital relationship that was there. Trying to keep promises to each other. They helped each other deal with hardships. They worked together for common goals. They spent time together and enjoyed each others company. It almost made me cry how beautifully it was done. It was one of those " I want that kind of relationship" moments. I love watching old people who still love and court one another. It was completely a beautiful thing for children to also witness and draw from the example.

Contrast that with another Pixar movie that I think was completely inappropriately marketed. The "Incredibles" movie was in no way acceptable for children in my opinion. Yes, it was animated, yes there are scenes that are perfectly fine. It had some good kid humor in it. What was the over arching theme? At least what I mostly got out of the movie was a married couple not only arguing, but actually YELLING at each other. How often does yelling at your spouse improve the situation? There was lying. There were accusations of cheating, what kid needs to hear about parents having an affair? There was lack of communication and trust. These are not issues or examples that kids should have to deal with.

Then again, maybe this is what a lot of kids are dealing with and thus they think they should address it in the movie theater. Just the other day at the bus stop the 11 year old said to me, " I can't wait for my birthday. I don't have to go to my dad's house any more." How heartbreaking is that? He doesn't even want to deal with his own father. Maybe situations like this are just more common than I would ever like to imagine and thus movies are just an outlet for this kind of pain. At the same bus stop there is a grandmother that has several of her grandchildren, not all from the same family, that live with her. Their parents, though have different excuses, all simply were working too much and in the end their own children moved in with their grandparents. Why on earth did you have children if you don't even deal with them? Do you honestly believe that it is grandma's job to raise them for you, so you can occasionally take them to the zoo or out to a movie? I understand that things happen and not everyone lives in the ideal situation. It simply makes me sick to see so many examples of terrible relationships at just ONE bus stop. I can't imagine how much there is in that entire school.

Ok, so I started with movies. I just end on families. I get off track sorry. I also think that Cars was not that great of a kids movie either. I want to know who thought putting in "Hill billy Hell" not just once but TWICE was acceptable for a children's film. Are you making a movie for kids or adults, pick one and work from there.

The pretend monster.

I remember being afraid of the dark. I even admit that once in a while I may walk faster than needed up the stairs from the basement late at night.

I am, however having a very hard time knowing how to deal with my children's sudden terror at walking up to the bathroom in the evening, even if the light is on. I am told that Victors room is scary. I am finding the fear of the dark to be draining and obnoxious. I realize nearly every kid goes through this. It is common and normal. I HATE it.

I was losing my temper with Naomi over it the other night. I know that that isn't a great plan. She really is terrified and yelling at her over it isn't going to improve the situation. I honestly think part of my problem is that I feel partly guilty about it. A while ago we had a neighbor boy over to play. He is a great story teller. My kids eat up every word. So we all went through the house with a flashlight pretending to find monsters. OK so Brahim and I were pretending to find monsters, I didn't realize that Naomi and Victor were 100% convinced there really were monsters in our house. Had I realized they were scared out of their minds the game would have ended MUCH sooner. So since that point Naomi won't go up stairs after dark on her own, thankfully during the day she isn't like that. I don't know what I would do if she was that upset.

We have managed to convince them that the monster is pretend. It appears that that is only an adjective, like saying he is yellow. Yes he is pretend, still just as horrific, but he is pretend. Naomi will even talk about the fact that she can hear the pretend monster breathing in the basement. I guess we need to go over the definition of "pretend".

She pretends to be a Ninja Turtle (Raphael for those interested), but simply refuses to pretend she is any kind of monster or powerful being when a trip to the bathroom is needed. Why does the imagination only work when they want it to?!

I guess in the back of my mind I knew someday I would have to deal with the dark issue. They have been so good about it for so long, too good I guess. Now I get to deal with the fact that my kids really are kids and really are afraid of perfectly normal things. Grrr. Maybe that is better than being afriad of wierd things, I don't know.

My little princess

Today I asked my nearly 4 year old daughter about some of her preferences. If you thought she was a girly girl this should remind you, she's just not.

What is your favorite color? red, blue, orange and purple

Do you like Princesses or Ninja Turtles? Ninja Turtles

Puppies or kitties? Both

Birds or turtles? Turtles- NINJA turtles!

Dress up in a pretty dress or batman? Batman

Godzilla or Winnie the Pooh? Godzilla



Yup, that is my daughter. Kinda lacking in girly girlness. I think she is great.

Christians

Lately I have run into two instances where I have been really bothered by the speakers sentiment.

" He's no Christian, I tell you." and,
" I've decided that apparently my definition of Christianity and his must not be the same..."

Seriously, is it really up to you to decide how "Christian" or not someone ELSE is? You can't see their heart, you don't know why they act they way they do, and in the end God is the only one that is going to have to deal with them.

The idea of deciding how religious or even what religion someone else is really bothers me. Unacceptable as far as I am concerned.

My twerpy son

So every so often a work book comes home from school for us to work on at home and then PROMPTLY return. Victor for no reason that I am able to discern WILL NOT turn the stinking book in . He turns other papers in all the time. Each week they send home a folder of things they worked on that week for the parents to read and look at, then sign and send back.

I decided to outsmart Victor and stick that work book inside the folder so he will turn it in. So he came home today, I look at the new papers he brought home and there.... there is the work book. He purposely REMOVED the book from the folder before handing it in. It appears that there is some mental block against his teacher ever seeing that book again.

I don't get it. What a twerp.

Victor's dream country

Victor brought a paper home from school the other day with a picture of a pilgrim style ship and a sentance in the middle that said,

"If I sailed to another country I hope there would be___________"

Victor filled in " Dinosaurs. "

That made me laugh.

The other evening we had a friend over. This is a person who has been friends with our family for a very long time, known our children their entire lives. I think to a degree that is part of where our problem lies. He used to come over and wrestle and throw the kids around and they thought it was great. Now that they are bigger suddenly when they try to climb all over him he is getting all angry and unkind about it. I had to leave the room for a few minutes because I was just getting ticked off. Maybe I just spend too much time watching my own kids, I don't see how you can play with them like that for years and then suddenly get mad at them for trying to play with you the same way as always. They don't see what has changed. Yes, they are older and throwing a 5 year old isn't as easy or as fun as throwing a one year old. They however don't get it. This is not the first person to do this to them. I had another friend over who was acting the same way and was getting really frustrated with them. Finally I told him "You're the one who taught them to act that way." Somehow this seemed completely foreign to him.

Recently I read a conversation between two people and at one point the comment was made " You don't have to be learning ALL the time." ( referring to the lack of educational value Sponge Bob has) I do agree with that statement, however he is watching this show with his 3 year old, and whereas he may not be getting much more than mindless entertainment from it, a 3 year old is ALWAYS learning be it good or intelligent learning or Sponge bob brilliance.

That same sad evening where suddenly my older two just weren't allowed to play any more also happened to have the fabulous moment where the statement was made " Not right now I am playing with Caleb." What game can you honestly play with an 18 month old that a 3 year old can't particpate in? Granted the dynamics will most likely change, but think of how much more loved everyone feels when all invited to play. There wasn't even an alternative presented, just "no I am playing with Caleb." Makes me want to beat you.

Why must people be so rude to children? Have you never noticed how embaressed or ashamed they look when you yell at them for an accident, or when they just want you to play and you say " I am playing with Caleb- not you." Rude and insensitive I tell you. Take your rudeness away from my kids, my kids are too good to suffer through your belittling attitude.

OK so I guess this is just my kid watching rant a lot blog.

I will say in addition, I have a super sexy husband who on his own borrowed a carpet shampooer. Then shampooed the couches, the kitchen chairs and the upstairs hallway, all on his own. That is some serious sexiness. This was all after he already mowed our lawn and the neighbors lawn that morning.

In other news, the next few Monday nights will be devoted to a pie making class. By Thanksgiving it won't be Paula's perfect pies, nope it will be Vanessa's perfect pies. That's right. They did change the dates though, so suddenly that last class is dangerously close to my baby's due date. Hope I get all 4 classes in. Close enough to my due date that on my little dry erase calender we finally have it marked. YAY!

Just to reinforce my previous stance,

Watching another friends kid today. Yup. I still don't really like other kids. So sad, so few kids measure up to how awesome my kids are. Especially since I really detest Thomas the Train and some kids can't seem to move past him. Beh.

I am also witnessing just how impressively competent my children really are. Child turns 4 this month, tells me he can't put on his own coat, can't put on his own velcro shoe, can't get his coat off. I am such a meanie. I look at him and say " You're almost 4 years old- you can put your own shoe on. " Amazingly enough, when told to do it himself- He can! Oh wait that is because just about any 4 year old can his foot inside a shoe two sizes too big.

He is a very kind sweet kid though, who loves to tell you about everything and listens very well when I tell him something. He is very obedient. He just requires more attention than I am used to giving. It is really good to see my daughter interact with someone near her age. She seems to generally avoid other children that are not her own siblings, and sometimes even them. I am not really concerned about it, just mentioning.

On the way to the library,

Story hour has started up again for my little girl. She will turn 4 shortly before Thanksgiving (right when the new baby is due). I really don't think that I sit down and talk to her often enough. Every time I do I feel so enlightened about some of the mysteries of the world. Here are a few of the highlights from our walks to and from the library.

N:"Look mom! I can run really fast because I have super sonic speed!"

N: "There are a lot of rules. They come from the sky."
Me, quite puzzled and thinking she is just talking like a little kid: "Oh? What makes you think they come from the sky?"
N: "That is where Heavenly Father and Jesus live, and they make the rules."
I found this thought to be surprisingly profound.

N:" Did you see this crack in the wall?"
Me:" Yes, I did."
N: " A shark did that."
Me: " I had no idea."
N: " See those cracks in the road?"
Me: " Yes."
N: " A shark did that too."
Me: " How exactly did a shark get there to put cracks in the road?"
N:" I don't know." (Staring at me as if that was the dumbest question anyone had ever asked her.)


She also tried 4 different times to stuff rocks and/ or berries in her pockets.

While at the library she made a new friend. When I happened to walk by she yelled, " Mom! Meet my new friend! Her name is 'My friend'!" I guess she wasn't paying much attention during the introduction portion of the conversation.

She also called the new librarian whose name is Mr. Peter, Mr Peach. Luckily he seems to actually want to deal with children so it wasn't a big deal.

I am so glad I have her. She is so fun and makes me think in different ways. I honestly feel sorry for people who live in stable and loving relationships who simply don't want to have kids. Yup they are work and they are frustrating, but how often does your job really make you laugh? I think you are only missing when you think you are missing.

A little Mormon humor...

A good friend of mine recently joined the same church that I attend, that being The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. She just sent me this link. It makes me laugh. It will make you laugh, especially if you are a Mormon.


http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3D1ydG2iYibr8&h=c9158be164d5ceed5324f310c1fe55a3

For those of you who have met them...

For those of you who have met Naomi and Victor, this little note will be more amusing.

V: (giving me a big hug.) " I am just SO full of love!"
Me: "yes, yes you are Victor."
Naomi: " And I am just so full of ideas!"
Me: "why yes, yes you are."

G-20

I never thought there would come a day in my life when I would care/ be effected by the happenings of a G anything summit. It has come to Pittsburgh. My husbands boss owns a limo company. My husband speaks portugese. The limo company scored the Brazilians based on the fact that they had someone who could fluently speak the language. So on my husbands merits they got an extra deligation. That makes me pretty proud. Sadly that means that he is going to spend all week driving Brazilians around. I can always hope that they are paying him the limo driver rate....

She just doesn't get it.

I have a friend who took my eldest two children out for an adventure yesterday, Caleb was heartbroken as they drove away. She promised she would take him out today, at approx 11:00am. As far as I am concerned he isn't going to be any fun anyway because that is really close to nap time, and as an 18 month old that is IMPORTANT to him. (Yesterday I took too long cleaning up lunch and by the time I found him he was already passed out in his bed.) She just called to tell me to expect her about 12:30. Yea.... hope she has fun shopping with that monstrous creature. Glad I will be taking my own nap not dragging him around. Fun shopping adventures are only worth taking if they are actually fun. When you are under 3 nap time is IMPORTANT, especially the timing thereof. Granted she works night shift so mornings are rough for her. Yup glad I am not coming along.

Good notes of my day.

These are some of my thoughts right now.

Ethan got a fair sized unexpected raise yesterday.

I ordered 3 new windows today.

I think crock pots are fabulous.

Kindergarten open house tonight.

It is awesome when I send my eldest two to the basement to pick out a new cereal and they do, without arguing about which kind.

I think it is great when the 6th grader from the bus stop thinks I am cool enough to just stop by and chat with while we are outside playing. Now I need to learn his name.

I love fans.

I love running water, especially hot water.

I also happen to love indoor plumbing.

I love being able to squirrel away a few things from my own garden for food storage.

The window guy remembered that my daughter is "full of personality" even though she was in bed napping the whole time he was here. I think that is excellent.

I just heard from the other room, " Caleb get off the table."

While reading scriptures, when the word kiss was read aloud, my 17 months old NEEDED to climb into my lap and up in my face in order to give me a kiss.

I had popcorn today, popped previously and flavored with the cheese packet of a mac-n-cheese box. Surprisingly delicious.

I wasn't willing to bite my tongue when the nurse at the hospital told me she was sorry. I just smiled at her and said, "No.... you're not." and then walked away. Kinda made me feel good.



Now, I will go change my clothes and try to make my children look like miniature adults instead of barbarians and then supervise all the colored pencils that are "waterfalling" onto the floor. Cursed boxes of 72 given to children much to young to appreciate more than 20 colors.

This is why I don't have run a day care.

I don't really like other kids.

Taking a moment to rant.

I want to vomit when I see a girl who is so desperate for attention that she is willing to dress herself in such a way that any guy around her couldn't possibly carry on an intelligent conversation with her. Are you honestly that pathetic? Couldn't just be an interesting person.... no... we would much rather make it so that any DECENT guy would run and cower from you from sheer embarrassment rather than acknowledge you. Seriously do you really think that any guy you could attract by NOT wearing clothes would be the kind of guy you actually want? AHHHHHH!!!!


I know guys who can't even look at some women because they are wearing such a plunging neck line that these guys are incredibly uncomfortable around them. Sometimes I wonder if women would actually dress the way they do if they realized that the men they would seriously want to date are terrified of outfits like that outside of the bedroom. (That and so few of women actually look attractive in their get up... upper arm flab... gross.... )


Skin just for skin's sake is NOT sexy. Tastefully done skin is beautiful.

OK... I can go accomplish something now.

Passions

Right now if Ethan died I could probably get a job at um... a gas station... maybe even McDonalds. I don't have a degree in anything, nor do I really have much job history experience. I have decided that I want to go back to school, problem being.... for what? I have very seriously considered becoming an ultra sound tech, though I am not 100% sold that it is something that I would really love. Luckily this plan is actually just me wanting to have a back up plan, not actually going out and finding a job. So today I sat down and wrote out a list of things that I am passionate about or at least enjoy a lot.

My husband
Raising my children
My religion
Gardening
Identifying plants
Canning/ food storage
Emergency preparedness
Doing Service- I really honestly do LOVE this, though I have no idea how to make a living from it.
Surprising people
Quilting
Cooking
Traveling
Camping
Making collages
Stage productions
Politics
Home improvement projects

I don't have any idea how to make a living at any of those. Surely there is some degree out there that I can pursue and really enjoy studying. I am in all seriousness asking for suggestions for things that you think that I have strengths in and would succeed at.

Went to an apointment yesterday...

We went to an appointment yesterday. After weighing and measuring Naomi and Caleb and then plotting them on a chart the lady turned to me and said, " It appears that Caleb is gaining on her."

Any suggestions on how to encourage body length growth as apposed to only hair length growth? Naomi, my eternal pixie....

Update on aliens

This morning Victor and I had a very thought provoking conversation about aliens. It went something like this.

V: I have 5 fingers on each hand.
me: I do too, I really appreciate my fingers, I would be sad if I didn't have them.
V: Ya, picking things up would be really hard without fingers. Aliens only have 2 fingers on each hand.
me: Oh yea? how do you know that?
V: That is what aliens look like.
me: I see, Victor no one has actually seen an alien so we don't know what they look like. We haven't even seen any life on any other planet. So maybe there aren't even aliens.
V: We haven't seen any aliens on other planets because we haven't BEEN to any other planets mom.

Observations

The last two days the neighbor girl has come over to " play", usually because her mother isn't home and needs a place to hang out. She is only 8, not really ready to be left alone.... I am starting to think that you can tell what a child's home life is like by watching what it is that they act out when they play. I already knew that this child was not being raised the same way I am raising mine, honestly I don't think any two parents do it the same way. It was sad to me however to watch the kids play, yes a total of 6 children, in my backyard. I seriously felt drained by the time she left. She is 3 years older than everyone and the game consisted of her chasing people around with a light saber yelling,

" Get back in your room!"
" Get in bed!"
" I didn't tell you to come out here!"
" Get over there!"
" Stay in there!"

And various other phrases that were along those lines. I don't know how the other kids tolerated her. Ok, so Victor didn't. Victor sat out and watched and finally informed her that she was "being Miss Bossypants" and he was going to find something else to do. Sadly she is larger and louder than everyone else so it was hard for them to ignore her and play another game. I couldn't take it any longer and introduced them to Tug-o-War. It kind of makes my heartache for her if this is what she is dealing with all day and thinks is normal. I would like to think that I don't yell at my kids that much, that they spend their play time just yelling at other people.

I also observed my 16 month old sucking Jello off his tray, loudly.

My changing world.

Right now I feel like there isn't really all that much going on, yet if I stop and think about it there really has been some big changes in the works.

A dear friend of mine decided to get baptized out in Colorado, so Ethan and I had the chance to go out there and visit and participate in the service. Very nice. We also got to visit the Denver Colorado temple, beautiful... as all temples are, though I will always have a special place for the Washington DC temple in my heart. We watched a meteor shower in the mountains, I realized that I travel much better even when pregnant then my husband does, got lost trying to find a grocery store, realized that Pittsburgh really does have an incredibly impressive sky line particularly at night, and got to play Zombie Fluxx. Also realised that humidity really does matter and that I can stand dry heat much better than Pa rain forest weather.

My eldest son has been acting very emotional lately. At first all I could think was " what on earth is going on with you, it isn't like your world is changing." Then I realized his world is changing. Mom had been gone a lot in the recent past. There is a new baby coming soon so we have been rearranging things in prep for that. We have been practicing getting up and ready for kindergarten so we can get on the bus in time. That poor kid is having his whole world shaken up. Though I still think growling when asked to unload the dishwasher is unacceptable, no matter what your reason for being emotional happens to be. He has become extra cuddly and has gone back to taking naps with me after a very long period of just playing with toys quietly during nap time. He is such a good kid, I am starting to think that he is having second thoughts about going to school. This was originally his idea anyway. We talked about home schooling, he demanded to go to public school. I just couldn't bring myself to put him in preschool, I just couldn't do it, and most likely won't with any of my other children. I really enjoy having them around.
I sat and smeared tar all over the basement stairwell yesterday ( in a vain attempt to keep the water from coming in that way). My son just sat at the top of the stairs and talked to me while I worked for well over an hour. Granted the conversation included a lot of comments along the lines of... " We should go see Ice Age 3 again. I really liked that movie."," I love the part with the giant plant, plants don't have wires, that is silly."," Buck is a silly name for a weasel, weasels shouldn't have names." ," I think Optimus Prime would like to see that movie." I am going to miss his company.
Sometimes I honestly wonder why some people have children at all. I don't think some parents even like thier children. I do not in anyway mean that they are inspiring conversationalist who understand adult boundries. I am however stating that if allowed they can be so entertaining and fun to be around, at least mine are anyway. I love watching them pick up on new concepts, I really enjoy answering most of thier questions. I love witnessing the thought process when working out a problem. I know that some people have to put thier kids in day care or preschool, but for me, I don't understand why have children at all if you are going to ship them off to someone else to raise, especially at such a young age. Victor is only 5, and I am not sure that he really needs to leave yet.

I would chose my family over most anything, period.

And here we go!

I am really glad I didn't have any serious plans late in August as I just got Victors kindergarten stuff yesterday. They don't give you much notice and suddenly you just have to be there.... even if that is in the middle of peak vacation time. This probably just proves that I haven't had to deal with going to school for a while. School year? When is the school year? They have to go back? I think I am going to end up being one of those moms who is sad when summer is over. I am not even in school but I hate those "back to school" sale signs.

Today we must run to the library to return the ever so stimulating "Thomas the Train" movie we borrowed previously. It isn't due until Saturday, but I get to go to Palmyra New York on Friday. I am excited. I love temples. Plus I am going up early enough that hopefully I will be able to do stuff beside be tired while I am there.

So after returning from my trip on Saturday, I get to repack all my stuff and fly out to Denver! A friend of mine has decided that she wants to be a baptised member of the LDS faith. Ethan has been asked to preform the ceremony, which is quite an honor. And I just realized I really should be practicing piano, seeing as I was asked to play at her baptism. Sadly we can only be out there for like 36 hours of actual visit time. But we are going into the mountains to watch a meteor shower. Plus we get to go to the Denver temple. So within a week I will get to visit two temples. Woohoo! Sadly I really haven't been to any temples yet this year, maybe this will change the tone for the rest of the year.

Oh yea... and then I was just informed that the day after we return from Denver one of my not really cousins is getting married in Ohio and that we are invited out for the festivities. Still up for debate on attendance there. So as I said in the beguining, glad that I didn't have anything going on late in August.

I love traveling.

It seems to get worse with age.

Went to the Clarks concert last night. Man they are awesome. I mean so insanely awesome. I so greatly enjoy them. We even took Victor last year since they are pretty family friendly. Glad we didn't this year though. Opening band not so family friendly.

I have been to a lot of concerts in my short little life. I have been attacked my crowd surfers and mashed my mosh pitters. It was a Dropkick Murphey concert that made me swear off concerts all together. But then there was the Clarks. I just can't swear them off.

The atmosphere is just so different there than at my teenagerhood concerts. If they weren't different I wouldn't be attending.

Sadly, there were a fair amount of teenage boys, standing directly beside me, who can not differentiate between mosh pit bands and the Clarks. Last year at the fair the Clarks specifically said, "Please do not crowd surf, we don't want anyone to get hurt." No, he did not make that announcement this year, but I will always hold that as a standard at their shows.

When I was younger I almost never spoke up for myself, ever. I still have a hard time at moments. Somehow I think I am afriad they will relize that I am very small and easily ignored and thus will ignore me or yell at me back. I really don't like being yelled at. However the older I get, the more concerts I go to, the more perfectly willing I am to tell people around me when they are doing things I do not approve of. Maybe this sounds harsh. Let me point this out to you, I am 5ft 1in. Only 124 pounds while pregnant, I can not and will not try to hold up a crowd surfer.

The boys near me spent 2 songs trying to figure out which one of them was going to be lifted up. I couldn't stand it any more and finally poked a few of them in the back and said in a fairly angry voice, since other people had already come way too close to me, "if one of you really needs to be up there you better go in the other directions because we are really short over here and we will drop you." In my head was added "on purpose". Shortly after that they just started dancing and singing and just enjoying instead of plotting.

I know this story isn't all that exciting, I simply wanted to point out that my backbone seems to be growing even if stature is pretty stunted. It made me quite happy when we got to the point of just enjoying the show instead of the constant worry of having someone thrown on top of me. I was very proud of myself for ending the threat all on my own. I have even recently poked people that moved in front of me and reminded them how short I am and how they should not stand directly infront of me. Me in high school? yea... not talking to strangers I tell you that much. Some times I really wish I could go back and stand up for myself, I seem to have gotten much better at it. Plus I am so small, I am certainly not worth the time to beat up, though it wouldn't take very long at all.

Trying to take over the world.

So about 3 years ago we had this older couple stop by to help us be "reborn". It is nice and sweet of them to be concerned about my personal well being. I have dealt with other churches that due to the fact that I am Mormon kind of just wrote me off as beyond saving. Sadly this couple just doesn't go away. They like to set up lots of points to tell you how wrong and stupid you are for believing what you currently believe.

So yesterday they showed up again. They lectured me about how Hitler and Al Capone were baptised so obviously baptism doesn't mean anything at all. And take a look at this brochure of how big our church is getting, we have had to remodel because so many people are coming. ( We handle that problem by building more buildings.), but anyway. I just smiled and nodded, there is nothing in the world that I am going to say that is going to change their mind that I am not going to hell and I am not going to listen to them because I have a testimony of my religion. Arguing doesn't get anyone anywhere. Luckily Naomi came outside crying and they went on their way.

Then an SUV pulled up beside them as they were going door to door across the street. They decided to come back and tell me all about what the guy in the car had to say to them. ( I honestly don't care, I just assumed he was one of the thousands that go to their incredible church stopping to say hi. ) I guess he was a Muslim trying to get them to read the Koran. So I got a lecture about how dangerous Muslims are and the Koran says to kill everybody. The thing in the conversation that got to me was when he talked about how quickly they are reproducing and how everyone else in the world is not. This is the quote that got me:

Crazy missionary man, : "They are trying to take over the world, and that is how they are going to do it."
Me,( I let so much go by, I just couldn't let that one go.) " Isn't that what Christians are trying to do too?"

Should have seen the look on his face. No, No. Christians are good and they are bad so they shouldn't take over the world. We don't kill people they do.

I can be honest. I really do want Christianity to take over the world. I just don't want it forced on anyone that doesn't agree. I do want everyone in the entire world to have the chance to learn of Christ, but no, not going to kill anyone who decides they are better otherwise.

Just don't demonize them for having the exact same goal. OK if they are taking a tactic you don't agree with, but don't pretend they are trying to do something evil, when it is your goal too. Honestly did they really think they were that different when they go to every single door in Butler, aren't they doing their own little convert the world campaign right here?

Then he told me to tell Ethan "hi". So I told Ethan "hi" I don't know if he meant for me mention it was from the crazy man or not. So I didn't.

Hee hee hee. He also looks at me with a very stern unfriendly face and says," You are looking at the happiest people in the world, Most joyful." We're happy dang it. Don't you see just how stinkin joyful we are!? You want to be like us. US! I tell you!

He also didn't like it when I mentioned we were still Mormons and in fact going out to Colorado for a friends baptism in a month, and that I am even teaching my children Mormon doctrine. You could just see him cringe. Hahahah, makes me laugh.

Milked raisins

Last night we came home from being out at basketball for the evening. Of course that requires sitting back down and getting a snack. A few weeks ago Naomi was given a treat in church that she hadn't eaten yet so we handed that over to the children. Two rice Krispie treats and a bag of yogurt covered raisins. This is the conversation that followed.

Naomi : Yup those are milk raisins.
Me: Milk raisins?
Naomi : Yup they milked those raisins. Milked them out of a cow.

Ethan and I could not stop laughing. Raisins milked right out of the cow.

I have learned alot this week.

I have learned a lot this last little while. Here is an over view of what gathered this weekend while having 8 children 6 years and under in my house.

1. Com paired to some, I am a REALLY laid back mom. I mean REALLY, REALLY laid back mom.

2. I can not stand constant chanting, "No! stop that." ," leave her alone" ," gently" " softly"," not so hard," "Will you cut that out?!" " Get over here!"," I am counting!"," will you just cut it out!?","Listen to me already", "Give that back", " What did you do that for?"

3. Some people just can not let kids be kids. Kids like to get dirty, they wrestle, they get wet, they do not care if their hands are dirty when they eat, they can work out a lot of problems on their own.... if you let them.

4. Boys seem to be viewed as the enemy, girls as precious. Boys can be brutal, but girls can be WAY too manipulative.

5. Boundaries are over rated, at least in the mind of a 6 year old boy, or a two year old girl, or any other child that happens to come over.

6. Pick up truck bed is a great place for a dance party.

7. One baby can produce an awful lot of snot.

8. Children who watch too much TV on a regular basis are really annoying to have around when you need to have a break.

9. Other kids cry too, not just mine.

10. A lobster over 100 years old can grow to be 15 lbs.

11. Only some kids actually want to touch a lobster that large.

12. Ok so this one is one I already knew, but was reminded of, again. The Clarks are possibly the best band in the entire world. I am in no way kidding. I don't know why other bands even play music. The Clarks can write and perform music better than any other band I have ever encountered. If you don't know who they are go now and find samples of thier music. They are awesome! What other band would turn thier new cd release concert into a tribute to the Penguins for winning that Stanely Cup. There was "Let's go Pens" chanting that kept breaking out during the concert, the band was even chanting with us. Seriously the best band ever. Find them. Love them.

13. My sister in law is one of the most awesome people in the entire world. Why on earth does she lives so far away?

Those are my profound thoughts for the moment. I have plenty of stories from the whole deal if you actually want to hear them, though I doubt it. Most of them are me not putting up with one particularly bratty niece. She was much better behaved by the end of the visit....

One more quick note.

I just wanted to rant momentarily about how flabbergasted I am at the lap top computer my 5 year old niece brought out. It seems as if the only thing to do on it is play different games to learn Spanish. Sometimes I really feel like there is a huge push to indoctrinate kids into speaking Spanish. That bothers me.

They're here!

So a bunch of Ethan's family has come in from California to hang out for a bit. YAY! They are so fun! So right now we have my 3 children, plus 5 more children also under the age of 7, plus a mother-in-law, and a brother-in-law and his wife.( Thanks for Kate for all her help getting my house ready for the invasion.) Luckily I think they are all really fun to have around, though this is the first time I have gotten to deal with any of the children in nearly 3 years, so some of them weren't even alive at that point. It is really great getting to have lots of little cousins get to be friends. I think that is how cousins should be, friends, not distantly separated.

I will admit however, that I am not a huge kid person. I LOVE my kids, I TOLERATE most other kids for the first while and then I start to love them. One of my nieces must watch too much TV at home, seeing as all the other kids her age can just watch a movie and let me take a nap, but she is the one running around the house, and keeps coming to ask me if she can do different things. Currently we are having quiet time. If I don't have quiet time, I don't exist. My life ends (at least for the day anyway.) She specifically requested a movie, I finally put it on for her after the other one was over, then she brought me a book and asked me to read it to her. I may be the worlds most awful aunt but my response was, " Not right now, you wanted that movie, get in there and watch that movie." At least none of them seem terrified of me, which is quite impressive since none of them really know me. YAY! I must not be totally terrible to a small child.

My first entry.

So I decided to give in and start a blog. I can pretend it is because you all want to hear I have to say, though I doubt there is much truth to that. Here is my lame reason for "blogging".I started so that I can get to everyone else's (the computer is telling me that that is not a word, I am going to ignore that.) blog with less effort. So on occasion I might grace you with something amusing and I LOVE when people comment, but I am not setting a very high standard here.