Phones

Phones are a funny thing. They have become such an ingrained part of our lives. This was pointed out all too clearly when a very teary, slightly hysterical daughter climbed into my car after school a couple of weeks ago. Seems her phone turned on her...dang phone!! It had completely wigged out, lost all of her contacts (yes irretrievable in case you are wondering...don't think the Sprint guys and I didn't try) and would no longer connect to the network. She was pretty sure the world had come to an end...well for at least a few hours anyway :-)

Yes, Miss M's phone went to cell phone heaven yesterday (or hell I guess depending on how you feel about these little texting gadgets and your teen, and whether they are truly of the devil...the phones, not the teens).

"How can any of my friends contact me?" she wailed.
"We have this amazing thing called a phone at home" I told her.

She looked at me as if that was the lamest thing she had ever heard...as if her friends would really call her HOME phone... I'm pretty sure most of them don't even have the number. I didn't help matters much when I told her she would have to wait a few days to get a new one...the horror! I suppose this is actually a good thing though, it gives the teens a drama, which teens seem to love,

"oh my gosh you lost EVERYTHING and no one can text you????? How did this happen???" and takes the focus off of other life ending situations such as having something you thought was a secret revealed to everyone by the girl who "swears she can keep a secret, pleeeeaaasssee tell me" (ahhh so many life lessons to learn at the age of 13)

So I've been thinking about phones (haven't we already discussed in previous posts the very important topics I think about ...yes I think so).

They should invent a phone that's attached to the wall :-) Oh yeah we used to have those...back in the old days...you know when dinosaurs roamed the earth and we all walked 10 miles uphill both ways to school...oh wait that was my parents :-)

We did however used to have these lovely contraptions attached to the wall. I have 4 cordless phones and 1/2 the time I can't find ANY of them. Many of my friends have gone to only cellular to save money. If I can't keep track of 4 fairly large phones how in the world would I ever keep track of one tiny one...that's never charged...I don't see that in my future.

There were some advantages to having the phone attached to the wall. You always knew where the phone was!! My parents always knew where I was and could hear at least 1/2 of my conversation. You have to be part Sherlock Holmes nowadays to be a parent. It takes some serious sleuthing sometimes to keep up on what's going on. (or the ability to stay up LATE into the night as this seems to be when they want to talk)Maunia came to me last year completely frustrated. Thrusting the home phone (this was before her cell phone when she had no alternative but to use the home phone) at me she proclaimed

"the phone is broken"
"What's wrong with it?" I asked
"Well, just listen to it!"
I did listen and then started laughing. It was....dun, dun, dun...a BUSY signal!!! Yes, in these days of call waiting she had never heard such a sound.

Do you recognize this? (OK, let me have a moment of silence as I realize most of you reading this really have NOT ever seen one of these...yep, I'm letting my oldness sink in...deep breaths)

No, it is not some military device or a gadget to contact life in other worlds. This was one of the first cell phones...and I owned one. My mother bought it for me when we moved to DC as I think she was in fear for my life. This thing weighed a ton. I could just as easily knock a mugger out with it as call 911. I actually carried that thing in my bag every day...no wonder I was so much more buff back then. Let me tell you there was no sticking that baby in your pocket.

So, we've come a long way in the cellular area and perhaps taken a step back in the wall phone area. There's something to be said for being tied to the wall and not being able to multi-task with the phone clutched between your ear and shoulder. The days when you could just lay on the floor, unable to move and talk for hours...just ask my mom...and all the neighbors who had to come to our house and say "so and so just called our house because they couldn't get through to yours they want you to call them" ahhh, good times! Something to be said for being unreachable every now and then. Something to be said for having a whole conversation and giving a person your undivided attention. I guess I'm just an old fashioned gal :-)

Sierra's 12th

A slightly late update from Sept.

Sierra came to me and told me she wanted a glow in the dark party. This was a hard one to plan. There are only so many things 12 teenage girls can do in the dark. I was a little worried but I have to say it turned out great!! The girls had so much fun and it was so fun to watch them and all their goofiness.

Her invites. They had glow in the dark stars and writing.

The cake

I did discover that taking pictures of a glow in the dark party is rather difficult. All of the pictures basically look the same.
Each of the girls was given a pack of glow sticks as they came in and they got to use them to wear however they wished. (some were rather creative I must say)

Maunia and Marcea

Maunia and Marcea with the lights off

A group of glowing girls
We made several signs with glow in the dark paint and then had black lights

We decorated the windows with glow in the dark spray

Even the dog got in on the action. That is a glowing necklace around her neck.

Toasting the birthday girl (I had to talk Sierra into having the lights on so they could see what they were eating. She wanted to eat in the dark.)
We did a glow in the dark scavenger hunt. We hid various glowing objects and mini light brights that spelled out her name, age, a smiley face and a heart. They had to find all the light brights and figure out what they spelled
It was such a crack up to see all the girls dancing. All you can see are moving glow sticks.

The scavenger hunt. The dog was tired by this point in the night so she just laid down in the MIDDLE of the yard. I kept yelling "don't step on the orange circle, don't step on the orange circle" as they were running around looking for glowing objects.

The girls played murder in the dark and freeze dance. It was a great party!

Amazing Woman

I was thinking of creepy stories and C Jane had a blog about a mysterious tent that appeared in her back yard in the middle of the night, which reminded me of a family story of Treg's...don't worry it's not a ghost story.

Treg's Aunt Lavird was an incredible woman. You will never meet a more Christlike person than her. I had the privilege of meeting her only once or twice before she passed away. She was loved by all.

So, she lived all alone and never locked her doors. One night she gets up in the middle of the night and sees there are all these people sleeping in her family room. She has no idea who they are. Does she panic and call the police??

Nope, she said "well, I didn't know who they were but I figured they would be hungry when they got up so I started cooking."

She made them her famous sourdough pancakes (which I never got to try because Treg hates sourdough...sigh). Turns out it was one of Treg's cousins and a bunch of his friends.

How cool is she though?? No wonder everyone loved her so much.

**The above picture was taken by Treg's brother Dirk. I LOVE this photo. Doesn't it just show how much character was in this beautiful woman??

Daughters

So I called my mom a couple of days ago.

I apologized for ever being 13
For screaming and squealing all the time ( I don't really remember that part but she swears I did)
For being hormonal
and for liking boys

I heard her chuckle. Sometimes wishes do come true. All the times she sweetly said "I hope you have a daughter just like you when you grow up."...yep...it's like that.

Halloween Ghost Stories

Ghost stories fit right in with Halloween right? Well our family has their fair share of ghost stories.

GHOST STORY #1
It all started in our town house a few blocks down, the one we moved in to when we came to CA. Treg was working VERY long hours and I was often home along late into the night with the kids. On several occasions, around 11 pm, I thought I heard one of the kids crying and then a door slamming. I would go upstairs and both kids' doors were open and both kids were sound asleep. I shrugged it off as odd and joked about having a ghost but didn't think much else of it.
A few weeks later we had a baby sitter. She says to me "The weirdest thing happened. Around 11 o'clock, I thought I heard one of the kids crying and a door slamming but when I went up both of the kids were asleep." "Oh, that must have been our ghost", I said. I don't recall that babysitter every agreeing to baby sit for us again :-)

GHOST STORY #2
In that same house, my mom was watching my kids while Treg and I attended a wedding on the East Coast. We talked a few days into the weekend and apparently my mother had "fallen" down the stairs and broken her arm. She said it was so weird. She was standing at the top of the stairs, nowhere near the landing, and all of the sudden she was falling down the stairs like someone had pushed her...ooooo...creepy.

GHOST STORY #3
(This one if my favorites)
My father in law and Treg's step mom bought a very old house (we're talking like 100 yrs. old or better) and they have this funky closet in the master bedroom. The closet is kind of L shaped. The previous owners had put rods in the closet to hold the clothes that blocked off the back part of the L. (you would literally have to crawl under the clothes to get to it). My father in law had never been back in that part of the closet. His cell phone went missing one day. He called it and called it and after looking for it for the better part of a month he finally gave up and got another phone. Some months later for some reason he went back into the blocked off part of the closet and guess what he found...yep, his cell phone, and it was out of the case, he never took it out of the protective case and the case was nowhere to be found...spooky. The better one however is the day he and his wife were in their bathroom. There were no open window, no breeze, no air disturbance of any kind and all of the sudden the toilet paper roll just starts unrolling and continues until the roll is empty. I told him he should do some research on his home to find out who the previous owners were...turns out it was a mob family...I told him I didn't think I would dig up the cement on the back patio any time soon. Yep, the kids are really jazzed to sleep at grandpa's house.

THE FINAL GHOST STORY
In our current house there is an entry way that leads into a room with a pool table and there is a hallway that leads from the entry back into the kitchen/family room area. Again, Treg was working long hours (might I just point out I'm glad he doesn't work such long hours anymore) and I was often home alone. One night as I was sitting on the couch watching TV, I thought I saw out of the corner of my eye, down the hallway, someone run from the entry way to the pool table room. It was such a split second thing that I thought I was just imagining it. However, it happened every night for the next few weeks. I never said anything to anyone about it (I have sort of an aversion to being committed to an asylum).
So, the girls and I are eating dinner one night and all of the sudden Maunia says "mom, there's somebody in the house".
"WHAT?", I say rather alarmed.
"Yeah, they just ran from the hallway to the pool table". (OK, validation, yeah...maybe not crazy...well, it's still debatable I guess).
We mentioned it to Treg and he says "oh, yeah I've seen that".
A few months later Treg's nephews were living with us and we mentioned one night that we had a ghost "oh you mean the one that runs from the hallway to the pool table" his nephew says "I've seen that." (we had not told him WHERE the ghost was).
Several people in my house have heard the ghost. They all report the same thing that he says "I want my mommy", I've never personally heard him.
He seems to have gone dormant since the dog got bigger as we haven't seen him in quite some time.


So those are my ghost stories. Hope you enjoyed my Halloween haunting tales. Don't worry, it's still safe to come visit us. No one has been killed....yet.

Follow up to the dinner story

I guess I owe my dear hubby an apology. Apparently the whole dinner misunderstanding (click the link if you missed the original post about this) was a gender thing.

He did a little social experiment to see if this was the case. He told two women at work the story and they both knew exactly what I was asking. YES!! See, I was perfectly clear :-)

BUT WAIT

He had some friends over the other day and he told them the story (I was present for this experiment). He gets to the punch line "and I said I would be fine I would just have a snack or something" and they both just sat and looked at him like they were waiting for the rest of the story and didn't understand why this was amusing. I busted up laughing and said "you see I wanted him to MAKE the dinner."
"ohhhhh" they replied and then they started laughing.

So I guess it is a gender thing. All those men would have been running for the snacks in fear of perishing before I got home to make dinner and all the women would have had dinner ready and waiting. Too funny. It's no wonder they say we are from different planets sometimes.

Let's see...
I drew blood
I waited until the night before it was needed
We picked the most difficult fabric to work with
I was about ready to commit myself to an insane asylum
I'm sure it was all the machine's fault!!

Yep...it all adds up to the Halloween costume being done. I'm sure now you're going to expect some elaborate costume for all that blood sweat and tears...silly you...it's just a simple witch's dress...but she's a pretty dang cute witch (pictures will follow later)

The animal shelter

We headed down to the animal shelter so the girls could present the spoils of their hard work. We are standing at the counter and the girls that work there were not paying much attention to my girls. I finally said "These girls have something for you". The gal turns around and says really sweetly "oh, what do you have?" Sierra looks at her with her dead pan face and says "$500" the lady looked slightly shocked. From there it was thank yous and pictures and much gratitude. They were so appreciative that they let the girls pick which animals to give toys to and give them to them themselves.

The girls had collected blankets and newspapers

Sierra handing over the money

Giving a dog a chew toy

The little dog was lovin' that chew toy

Giving the cat a catnip mouse. It was too funny. The cat was so excited, he would flip the mouse up on his bed then pounce on it, then flip it in it's food dish and pounce on it, it finally flipped it so hard it flipped right out of the cage.

How cute is the little pony tail on this dog's head?

Another happy toy recipient

The girls were so happy when we left and I was happy we didn't come home with a dog. Again I say, good job girls!!

The Carnival

I never updated you all on the outcome of the girls' carnival. Let me clear the air about something though. People have praised me because of this carnival and what a great thing it was to teach my kids about charity. This was the girls' idea. They have HUGE hearts. They are such good girls and sometimes I am blessed to be able to help them :-)



We had gone to the animal shelter earlier in the year because the girls wanted to volunteer. The shelter told them they were too young. So, the girls got in their heads that they were going to raise $500 instead. I thought that was LOTS of money but they were determined.



They started by making small clay figures and selling them door to door and then saving their spare change. This brought them up with a little over $100. That's when they got the carnival idea. They decided on a Mon. that they wanted to have a carnival and the only day they could do it was the following Sat. so it was a little crazy but it turned out awesome.

The girls getting the carnival organized

They set up a great business model. They sold punch cards for a set amount of money and then each of the games cost a certain number of punches. The kids then earned tickets which they could trade in for prizes. To accumulate prizes they cleaned out their rooms and told all of their friends to donate small toys they didn't want so their overhead cost was very little.

They delivered about 100 flyers door to door and spread the word.

Maunia at the punch card table. The kids also had a "guess how many pom poms in the jar" game where you could win those giant prizes in front for FREE!!

Trysten at the pick a duck game

Tessa at the candy crane game

Syd at the toss the penny in the rainbow pot game

Sierra with her home made vending machine...she was VERY proud of that machine

Ryan at the sucker tree

Lauren at the basket bean bag toss game

The kids having a good time

Haley at the fishing pond

Angela with her loot :-)

Sierra and Ashley at the ring the bottle and the vending machine

Marcea at the plinko board

The prize table
All the kids that helped did such an amazing job. It was blazing hot and they were troopers. The girls raised over $300 that day. They reached their $500 goal and had some extra to buy toys for the cats and dogs. I'm so proud of them. Good job girls.

The Lakers

Treg and I hold Lakers season tickets. We can't afford them so we sell most of them so we can afford to go to a few games each year. (If any of you are interested in buying tickets let me know, I'll make you a deal :-)

Anyhow, the first year we had them we were about 2 rows from the top of the Staples Center. I think I remember getting altitude sickness and vertigo as we kept climbing to our seats the first year...seriously, if there had not been a jumbo tron showing the game I don't think I would have even known there was a basketball game down on the floor.

See that tiny little pink arrow up there...yep that was where we were.

We have moved down a little more each year. The other little pink arrow were our seats last year.

This year by some weird twist of fate (It's a long story, you really don't want to have to read through the whole thing, really) we ended up with awesome seats 12 rows from the floor. It's a whole different game down there. All those times we yelled "why the heck didn't he make that shot???" we now understand why. They are right on top of each other ALL the time, the game is so physical, I'm amazed they ever make ANY shots.

View from the current seats. AWESOME!!

I like to watch basketball but I don't really get how you make it onto a basketball team I guess. Several times throughout the game (we were at a pre-season game) Treg would say "yeah, he's not gonna make the team". I was confused.

Treg: "he's not gonna make the team"
Me: "ummm, isn't he already on the team? Look he's wearing the jersey and on the floor playing and everything"
Treg: "no, this is pre-season, they can still get cut from the team"
Me: "wouldn't they have too few players then?"
Treg: "No, they have too many players, more than they're allowed to have so they have to cut some"
Me: "Oh, so it's like an overbooked flight. Do they first ask for volunteers to leave the team...you know offer them a free night in a hotel and some food vouchers if they'll step off the team?"

In the end we concluded that they probably have a white boy quota...you know they have to leave a certain number of white boys on the team so no one gets upset...although we didn't see any we thought should stay. I would have been going up to all the white boys saying "Thanks for coming out tonight, here's your food voucher, better luck next year".

Customer Service

People say customer service is dead. They say that companies are so rude now a days. I don't know why they would say that. Case in point. I ordered a book online a few weeks ago and kind of forgot about it. I got a request from Amazon the other day asking me to rate the company. I had totally forgotten about the order. (It was $.99 and not something I desperately needed, obviously). I didn't remember ever receiving the order so I emailed the company and told them I hadn't received the order, that $.99 was not that big of deal but that I just thought they should know I hadn't received it. Here was the nice email I received in reply. THIS ORDER WAS SENT BY EMAIL AS ALL EBOOKS FROM OUR STORE TO THE EMAIL ADDRESS GIVEN......PROOF BELOW !!!!! (then they included the original email they had sent) Now see how nice they were 1. They YELLED at me in all caps (maybe they just wanted to make sure I heard that they were right) 2. They pointed out that they had SENT IT TO THE ADDRESS GIVEN...so if I hadn't received it then who's fault was that huh missy??? 3. They had PROOF that they weren't wrong. 4. 5 exclamation points to prove their point Now wasn't that nice, friendly, customer service. Turns out I had gotten the original email (it was an ebook) but they sent it under a different name that I wouldn't have connected with the company I ordered from and the name could have easily appeared to be junk mail. Yeah, they give me warm fuzzies and make me want to rush right back and work with them again...NOT!

Communication

**I love my hubby very much. He is good at many things, cooking just doesn't make his list of things he cares enough to learn. Hopefully he found the following conversation as amusing as I did and if not...hopefully he's already at his golf tournament and won't read this post ;-)**

You know those times when your communication skills seem to be out of sync with your spouse's?? Well the last couple of days have been like that around here. I talk and for some reason Treg looks at me like I'm speaking some unknown language. I think I'm being perfectly clear but apparently not in his mind. The following conversation made me laugh.

The girls and I sing in a Christmas choir every year. This year the rehearsal time is from 5:30-6:45. The rehearsal building is a good 15 minutes away so that leaves us with a dinner dilemma. I was talking to Treg about this dilemma.

Me: "I don't know when we're going to do dinner on rehearsal nights. You want to do dinner at 4:30 or 7?"
Treg: "7:00"
Me: "Can you make it?" (now women you know exactly what I'm asking at this point right??? It's pretty clear?? I thought so)
Treg: "yeah, I'll be OK, I'll have a snack or something"

Huh?? I think I just stood and looked at him for a few seconds then started laughing. Obviously I wasn't asking if he was going to perish if he didn't eat by 7:00. I wanted him to MAKE the dinner.

My Jetsons kitchen, and Samantha Bewitched nose, despite seeeeverral requests by me, have not yet been delivered so it's fairly impossible for me to have dinner on the table as I walk in the door.

Me: "No, not can you personally "make it" until 7 without starving, can you actually MAKE THE DINNER?"
Treg: "WHAT??"

I'm seeing 2 1/2 months of Sunday night peanut butter and jelly sandwiches in our future.

Maunia

So, we are watching the MTV awards the other night (well Treg was kind of watching them while he was working and the women folk of the house all just happened to filter in one by one and got sucked in by the music) You know, it's so much more enjoyable to listen to the music when you don't see the actual people singing...they are scary man!

Lady Ga Ga comes on (that woman is FREAKISHLY weird!!!)Next up came Beyonce (who looked like she wanted to kill someone and could crush you with the heel of her boot and well toned leg muscles at any given moment, plus her top half staying inside that outfit defied the laws of nature and gravity...I'm thinking there must be super glue involved)

Maunia totally dead pan says "well mom I guess they figured the outfits covered their butts so they were OK to wear in public" ha, ha, funny kid. (this is a follow up to this post if you don't understand why her comment was funny, we're also pretty sure Lady Ga GA WAS in her underwear)

Flu shots

There has been much debate going on as to whether to get flu shots or not? Do the benefits outweigh the risks. Is the flu really that bad?

I for one am hoping for the flu.

Immediate weight loss
Guilt free day to spend in bed
A free pass on cooking/laundry duty

Hmmm....I'm just sayin

Oh come on!!

My dog likes butter...and See's dark chocolates...but I'm pretty sure this post has to do with the butter.

Cassidy has been on a pretty good run with the stomach thing. No throwing up or other such doggy type accidents. (for those of you not familiar with my doggy woes, last Feb...the day after my birthday to be exact...the dog started having funky stomach issues)

Two days ago I ran to get the kids from school and while I was gone she, Cassidy, decided to eat two sticks of butter...yep two sticks....mmmm, yummy! No issues that day so I thought we were in the clear.

Yesterday I put her outside for about two hours while I ran errands and let her in when I got home. I'd been home about 10 minutes when I notice a pile of throw up...really??? Awww, come on...you couldn't throw up OUTSIDE the whole time I was gone??

Later in the day I hear "MOM, What is THAT?" That cannot possibly turn out well. In mom speak we hear "hey, there's something really gross no one else wants to touch so lucky you!"

I am wondering where in the contract of motherhood/wifehood that I somehow signed(without remembering signing it) it said "you will clean up all gross stuff no one else wants to touch"

My favorite line is
Me: "well clean it up"
Them: "ewww, it's gross (disgusting, insert whatever adjective you like), I don't want to touch it"

Oh by all means if YOU don't want to touch it then I would LOVE to touch it! Gross stuff is one of my favorite things :-) As a matter of fact I have a song about it...sung to the tune of My favorite things

Drooling
and shedding
Refusals to eat food

Paw prints
and fur balls
the size of small poodles

dog puke
and dog poop
all left there to clean
These are a few of my favorite things

Mud balls
and wet fur
when it rains in the Spring
These are a few of my faaaaavooooorite things

Yes indeed, the motherhood contract has somewhere written in invisible ink that we are responsible for all things gross that trigger an immediate gag reflex...isn't my contract up for renewal and renegotiation yet?

Hot Air Balloons and Michael Vic

I was listening to the radio while in the car today. There was a story about a 6 year old boy that took the family's homemade hot air balloon and sailed off into the sky. Needless to say people were a bit concerned about this. The balloon came slowly and safely to the ground a couple of hours later but there was no boy in it. Very odd story, but actually this post is about me trying to find out the latest on the missing boy. So, I come home and while I'm working on the computer I decide to look up the latest on the story. What better way to do that than through Twitter right? I have never looked at Twitter before...now I know why...it makes my head hurt. It's like standing in a room with 1,000 people all talking to you at once. The conversation makes no sense because everyone is putting their two cents worth in at the same time so it makes for a very disjointed conversation. I'm thinking I'm not a fan of Twitter. Any of you fans of Twitter?

Another news story I heard made me laugh. Do you remember when NFL player Michael Vic was convicted for dog fighting? Well apparently he came back to play a game in the city where his dogs were adopted out after the dog fighting was discovered. So here is what struck me as funny about this story.

The news reporter says "Michael Vic was invited to visit his dogs while he was in town but he has declined". Then they had some guy on who said "The least he could do is come and visit the dogs and say 'I'm sorry for what I did to you and your litter mates' ". (he was totally serious and emotional I might add)

Really????

I'm all for no animal cruelty and loving your pets and all but do you really think these dogs are just sitting there waiting for his apology? Do they need more doggy therapy because he didn't want to come visit them while he was in town and apologize and give them closure? I envision the dogs nodding their heads while Vic is apologizing, saying (through a doggy interpreter of course) "you know man, I'm not gonna lie to you, it's been rough. We've just been sitting here wondering when you were going to be man enough to own up to your mistakes", then giving him a paw to let him know they forgive him and everyone can move on with their lives.

School House Rocks

School House Rock...ROCKS!!

Maunia struggles with Social Studies (yes, sadly she is MY child, sorry for those genes babe!) Anyway, they are studying a book called "We the People" right now in school. They have a test coming up tomorrow and I was asking her if she was ready for it. She told me that she pretty much already knew most of the stuff. "Mom, I used to watch school house rock for hours and hours" she said. "Every time the teacher starts talking a song from that pops into my head and I already hear the dates and events."

Sierra came in and asked what we were talking about and we told her School House Rock. This led my girls to sing a montage of School House Rock songs. Conjunction, junction, Shot heard round the world, no more kings. It was pretty funny.

Now I know you all started singing Conjunction, junction when I mentioned it...admit it. If not that then perhaps it was I'm just a Bill, but you started singing SOME School House Rock song.

We have the box set if you need to come and be nostalgic. Bless the brain child behind School House Rock and their ability to make my child's studying easier.

Maunia wisdom

Apparently you all were not impressed with my fabulous wisdom following Benjamin Button. So I have decided to share some of my children's wisdom with you and maybe you will be more impressed :-)

Maunia and I were discussing the clothing (or lack thereof) that several girls her age wear. She was telling me about a conversation she had with one friend about the length of her shorts. Maunia was telling this friend that she should wear shorts that were longer and covered a little more.

Her friend's response, "As long as they cover my butt they're long enough".

Maunia says to me "Mom, her underwear covers her butt, why doesn't she just wear that out in public?"

I thought that was a brilliant response.

So parents feel free to use that. You know our parents (well at least MY mother) used to say "if all of your friends jumped off a cliff would you do it?" you can now say "well, if all of your friends wore their underwear out in public because it covered their butt would you?"

Do your kids need some good reasoning for math? Have them try this one out.

Maunia came home with her math test and we were going over the questions she had missed. One of the questions was something like "Jill hikes for 3.5 hours, and she hikes an average of 2.75 miles per hour. How far did Jill hike?"

Maunia came up with something like 93 miles. She had put her decimal in the wrong place by accident.

"Honey, you need to think about your answers, that's not even logical" I said "No one can hike 93 miles in 3 hours."

"Well, if you ran you could"

"Uhhhhh, no you couldn't"

"Well if you were Edward you could"

Hmmm, she had me there. (for those of you not familiar with the Edward reference you obviously do not dwell in the teen world of Twilight) Edward moves faster than the speed of light and could indeed easily cover 93 miles in under 3 hours. I'm pretty sure the teacher will happily accept that answer. So have your children use fictional characters to justify math answers, it's even better than the dog ate my homework.

Benjamin Button

WARNING: If you have not seen Benjamin Button, but you plan on seeing it and don't want anything revealed before you do...don't read this post!!

WARNING II: There is profound thinking at the end. You know what a deep thinker I can be so you don't want to miss it.

Treg and I watched "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" (I can never remember whether to italicize, underline or quote movie titles, so if you are a punctuation perfectionist...Betsy...just work with me here OK).

Anyhow, Treg and I watched the movie over the weekend.

Treg's take on the movie.
1. It was self indulgent to make it so long.
2. He (Benjamin Button) totally missed the point in the end. Wasn't the point to accept what God gives you and work with it. He shouldn't have walked away from his daughter.
3. It was too long!!!
4. It was toooooo looooooong!!!

My take on the movie.
1. I really liked it
2. It had to be long to show the relationship development with all the different characters at different stages of his life.
3. He was trying to be selfless in the decision he made at the end and I thought it was sweet.
4. The makeup artists are AMAZING! How the heck did they make Brad Pitt look 16 again...and can they come to my house in the mornings and work their magic?

So here is my question to you if you have seen the movie. Do you think he did the right thing in walking away from his daughter so she could have a normal life? Treg says no, I say yes. I mean really who wants a 9 year old for a dad.

As I was thinking about the movie later I came to the conclusion that this is how the human race should be set up. (this is the profound part by the way...just in case you don't see it) Women get older and men get younger!!! Totally!! Let's look at the merits in this:

1. When boys are completely hormonal around age 12 or so they would look like they were 90 and no girls would want to mess around with them so think how many problems that would solve.
2. Old ladies seem to be realllly cranky with their old husbands but they LOVE babies so they would LOVE to be with their husbands more if they actually WERE babies, not just acting LIKE babies.
3. It is so much more pleasant to change baby diapers than big people diapers so more people would be willing to help out in that department.
4. Mothers are always trying to get their kids to do chores but they have no work ethic yet. So, with the reverse plan by the time they really have a work ethic they would be at their strongest and happy to help with all the chores.

Yes friends, I'm thinking I like this plan.

When I create my own world perhaps this is how I will set things up and see how it works ;-)

Confusion

The mass marketing powers that be that Target my mail are seriously confused about who I am. I get the most mail from two main companies.

Similac
and
AARP

Now which of these two demographics do I possibly fit into???

Perhaps the buzzards tipped off the AARP people of my impending age and they figure they'll get a head start.

Heaven help me if the Similac people are on to something I don't know about.

I have to say AARP is pretty tempting. They have some great deals on stuff. Perhaps I'll go out and get a fake ID so I can be eligible :-)

Sierra the brave

Sierra is a tough kid...unless it involves needles. Needles are totally her Achilles heel!!

We went in for her 12 year check up and ended up with 4 immunization shots. If that wasn't bad enough we needed to get blood work done. We (well mostly mom) decided to get it all over with in one fail swoop.

She was hysterically crying while getting her blood drawn. The VERY large man in the cubicle next to her pokes his head around the corner and says "hey kid, you're scaring me, I'm about ready to get up and leave" :-)

So, we finished the blood work and I had to go to the bathroom (yes, important to the story not just TMI). Sierra stood outside of the restroom and waited for me...still sobbing somewhat. I come back out and all these little old ladies are gathered around her. The one with the walker is showing Sierra her taped on cotton ball and saying "see sweetie, I had to get my blood drawn too and it wasn't so bad". The next little old lady says to me "you should get her a lollipop" and the final one invited us to a karate show her daughter was performing in...karate makes everything better right?

Sierra had that "rescue me" look on her face. In the end she didn't get a lollipop OR karate she got Tylenol and an Oreo shake and that seemed to calm her down just fine.

Medical marijuana

I was listening to the radio the other day and this guy comes on to discuss the necessity for legalizing medical marijuana.

A man called in to the show and and made a very compelling point. He said (and I quote, and I think perhaps he had been market testing the product by the sound of his voice )

"We need medical marijuana for people who have... like multiple scoliosis".

You have to admit the man has a point. I mean, scoliosis is bad enough with the whole crooked back and back brace thing, but if you have MULTIPLE scoliosis that's rough and you should totally be able to get marijuana for that.

What is it again they say marijuana does to your brain??

On today's episode of mystery diagnosis

Remember the mysteriously appearing birthmark on Sierra's leg? Well we have a new addition to that same leg.

About 3 weeks ago she was walking down the stairs and my mom noticed her leg had all these bruises on it. She had like 7 or 8 bright, purple bruises that just appeared out of nowhere. She couldn't remember bumping it in any way either.

Off to the doctor we went. We ran LOTS of blood work. We checked blood clotting disorders and white blood cell counts (to rule out leukemia) and everything came back normal.

So here we are once again wondering...what the heck????

Fall

Oh, how I love Fall. The 100+ degree temperatures, the hot wind blowing in your face....what do you mean that's not Fall???? If you don't think that is Fall you must not live in Cali.

Yes, we are still in the midst of a heat wave and the Santa Anas are a comin' For those of you not familiar with the Santa Anas, they are a HOT wind that blows at an insane rate knocking over anything that's not nailed down and have even been known to blow down fences. It is a bonding experience waking your neighbors from slumber at midnight by loudly knocking on their door and yelling "the fence is falling over come help us prop it up somehow" as the gale force winds are blowing. You should try it sometime.

How do I know the Santa Anas are coming? I have my very own live weather forecaster at my house. My little miss Sierra has magical hair :-) As the Santa Anas are looming her hair gets ridiculously staticy. She hates it. She was brushing her hair this morning and I hear "UGHHH! Are the dang Santa Anas coming?"

I tried to take a picture but it's really hard to get a good picture of staticy hair.

So, I'm thinking lovely, color changing, crisp cool air thoughts and hoping it will tide me over until we move from heat wave season to...well...not heat wave season :-)

Success!!

I did it, I made the cake. Let's see how I did with meeting the requirements.

1. Stacked cake=check

2. Neon glitter dust=check

3. Polka dots=check (I even made homemade marshmallow fondant so it wasn't horrible, nasty tasting)

4. Glow in the dark element=glow in the dark stars on top=check

5. Sugar party hats (because they taste yummy)=check

6. Topsy Turvy=check (totally unintentional on my part, I just can't level cakes right, there's a reason I don't do stacked/wedding cakes)

7. The whole neon bracelet colors, color scheme (neon yellow, orange and pink)=check

So all the requirements and 4 cake mixes later we have success!! I guess I did OK because Sierra came in the kitchen, saw it, exclaimed "oh, mom it's perfect", gave me a big hug and kiss and told me to take LOTS of pictures :-)