Chocolate Coins

Sundays we attend church at 12:30 PM. On Dec. 6th, we receive a phone call at about 11:00 AM. It was a guy asking us if we are missing something. Stephen looks around, checks first and foremost for his precious cell phone, then for his wallet. "Nope," he says. The gentleman on the phone began laughing as he said, "Well I have a 4 year old boy of yours here at the church. I think he must be lost, but he said he knows exactly where he is."

Stephen hopped in the car and drove to our church. As he walked in there was a whole row guys that were acting like they received Christmas early. Apparently our family, especially Remi the devil child, is "too funny for words."

Remi left our house around 10:30. "Mom, I am going to Grandpa's house!" I was pleased, one less child to wrestle with while trying to get my new boy hair do to sleek and sophisticated. Ha! Remi walked straight to my parents house. It was, however, locked. He didn't want to be bothered with ringing the bell, or knocking on the door. It was too much work. So, he decided to walk the 4 or 5 blocks to our church. He knew exactly where it was. He was already dressed in his church clothes so, what's the big deal? Right? He walked into the chapel and was directed by the men in there to go to primary. Good thing he knew where that was too. I guess he walked in, looked around, didn't recognize anyone, and sat down. He listened better than he ever has before. Stephen asked him later why he left us to go to the church. "Duh dad, they were giving out chocolate coins. I LOVE chocolate coins."

Tell Me.......

Why are baby's fists made so perfectly for purple nurples?

More to follow!

For 21 weeks we have been waiting to see if my boys are observant enough to notice the huge protrusion sicking out of the front of my stomach. I am pretty sure that everyone knows that I have indeed found myself knocked up again. Well, my boys did not figure it out, apparently I always look swollen. We wanted to wait to tell them while I tried to decide if I am crazy for having another baby. We waited so long that we figured we would take them to the "big ultrasound." Actually our ultrasounds are a little anti-climatic. My ob does them. I am pretty sure he has the first ultrasound machine built. He can see all the things he needs to see, all the things that are important. In the grand scheme of things, the gender is not part of the important part. I agree wholeheartedly. That being said, I always really really want to know whether we are having a boy or a girl. This time, I was a little worried that maybe we would have both. Yikes! Well, we will not be having twins. We will be having one baby towards the end of September. If I were guessing, I would guess September 23rd to be precise. Thank goodness for planned cesareans. My doctor, bless his heart, THINKS we are having another boy. Hunter and Remi are completely stoked. Remi emphatically told me that he didn't ever want another sister. He could be right. Bentley might be all the girl this family can handle. Although I have decided that I am joining the ranks of neurotic women that bear children close to 18 months apart, for now, I am okay with it. Neurosis suits me.

Spring is finally here!

This picture is taken of a tree in our yard. I just love it. We live in an old house with a fully established yard. The woman that lived here for years and years had quite the green thumb. I am so excited to spend the summer with trees and flowers. We are so lucky to be here.

Indoctrination?

Here is the million dollar question for the day: Do we indoctrinate our children? On the one had it is obvious that we do. This is not always pejoratively done. We tell our children the same things over and over again. We teach them by repetition. I take my children to church every week. They are taught pretty much the same things over and over again. The young women recite a theme each Sunday. Most Catholics can recite The Holy Rosary. What I am referring to in the negative side of indoctrination. Do we expect them to never question the "doctrine" they learn? Specifically I am referring to things like having elementary students stand every day and pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America. My 4 year old can recite this pledge. He has learned it in his first year of preschool. He cannot recognize any of the letters of the alphabet, but he can recite a 31 word pledge. Don't get me wrong here. I am not upset by this, although some of you may know my thoughts on this "pledge." However, I do find it interesting that this is one of the first things we teach our children. I understand that my children attend state schools sponsored by the government. It makes sense that a government sponsored school would want to encourage the values of it's government. What doesn't make sense to me is that it is almost socially unacceptable to not recite the pledge. Sure you have your people that disagree with the "Under God" part. It is okay for them. But, what about everyone else? Although this rant appears to have gone absolutely no where, I still want to know: Is it indoctrination to have our tiny children learn and recite the Pledge of Allegiance over and over again?

sidenote: I feel that I must put a disclaimer with this post as some of my previous posts have caused some hurt feelings unintentionally. I do not aim my posts at anyone in particular. This post does not mean that I am "unAmerican." I understand what a wonderful thing it is to live in this country. I support our soldiers. blah blah blah. Basically if you are going to be offended, go away. No one is making you read this.

Warning: Highly Flammable!

Have you ever really looked at a package of tortillas? I have been examining ours to find the warning label about tortillas being a flammable material. I am considering writing the Mission Tortilla company and requesting that people be warned. Caution!!! Highly flammable material. Do not expose directly to the microwave for longer than 5 minutes. Do not throw into a heat source for too long. It will start on fire!

A couple of crucial points to this tale. 1. We live right next to my parents. 2. Next to corndogs, tortillas are a main staple in our family. 3. I always heat them up for about 15 seconds to make them easier to roll.

The other day, I ran over to my dads house to grab sometime that now is completely unremembered. I left Remi home watching the television. He is, after all, almost 4 years old. I was running 20 feet away, no big deal. My dad engaged me in some sort of distracting conversation. (Yes, I am blaming him, it is a lot easier.) I returned home to find smoke billowing out of my closed front door. Hysterical, thinking that our possessed computer had finally exploded, I ran into the house. I found Remi standing in front of the microwave in a hypnotic trance. The microwave was running. It said 18:24. I have no idea how long it had been running but smoke filled my entire house. I shut it off and turned around expecting my sweet little 3 year old to be scared watching all the smoke. He, still in a trance says, "Mom, when you put tortillas in the microwave for a loooonnnng (stretching his arms wide for effect) time, it makes fire. Fire makes smoke. It is awesome!" Awesome? Are you kidding me? I have tried everything to get the smell of burnt tortillas and cinnamon (I boiled a bowl of cinnamon water for 10 minute increments for about 40 minutes. Not my finest moment.) out of my microwave. Rather than take responsibility for my actions, or lack there of, by leaving a toddler unattended, I have decided that it is the Mission Tortilla company that needs to be punished for the smell and taste I have endured for 3 weeks. They need to warn everyone. Tortillas are highly flammable. Now you know.

Heath on Saturday Night Live Dream

This guy Heath is pretty funny. Click on the link to see him on YouTube.

http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=tejcriley&view=videos

He would love to get on Saturday Night Live. SNL has to be my all time favorite program. I am very passionate about it. I found Heath on Suzanne Calton's blog. He does some great impressions. If you think he is funny, pass the word along. I'm sure he would appreciate it. Funny people like to make people laugh even when they are not present to see it.

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Among those whom I like or admire, I can find no common denominator, but among those whom I love, I can: all of them make me laugh.
-..W. H. Auden

Presidential Inauguration

On Tuesday Hunter came home from school in a huff. "Mom, did you watch the news today?" I say, "Yeah, why?" He rolls his eyes, "Mom, you know what I mean, did you watch today or not?" I laugh, "Yeah, why?" Getting visibly frustrated, "Mom didn't you see Barack Obama. They had a huge parade." "Yeah," I say, "I saw it. So, why was everybody making such a big deal about Barack Obama?" This time his eyes literally rolled out of his head, "Because mom, duh, he is (pause for effect) the 44th President of the United States! Why did you think everyone was making such a big deal?"

The 5K

December was a pretty crummy month for me. I kept getting the stomach flu, weird. Anyhow, between that and the snow I really didn't run a whole lot. I was planning on running last weekend in the St. George Half Marathon. I decided to just do the 5K instead. My girlfriend Tiff has been kind enough to run with me. She went down too. It was so funny. I am pretty sure, it was my worst run of all time. Tiff has legs that go on forever. I kept up with her for the first 2 miles, but had to let her get a few minutes ahead of me in the third (more about that later). Anyhow, there I am running along, passing some people, while others pass me. I had about 5 people tell me what a good job I was doing. It struck me as kind of strange, being how they were running right along side of me. If I was doing good, then so were they. I thought about it later and realized that they were impressed to see a big girl. I forget sometimes that I am overweight. How is that possible? I had to laugh. "Way to go chubby!"