B.S.C.

Jamega

The girls and I went to church this morning. It was, once again, a great service.   Our interim pastor rocks.  I was even able to use the message from today to explain something to Annie about an incident that happened last night--she was having a hard time getting over it. 

Anyway, with Daddy heading in to work and then flying out for a business trip later today, I decided to take the girls to breakfast.  And if there's one thing they love to do, it's go to breakfast.  

When Annie was 3/4 of the way through her toast, she noticed the jelly packs.

If there's another thing she loves...it's jelly packs.  This particular jelly pack was marionberry and not a generic brand like the photo above.  After I spread the jelly on the toast, she proceeded to lick the little pack clean. A feat she accompliashed so fast, I didn't even notice, let alone have time to stop her.  

Upon leaving, she got real sly and sneaky-like and whispered, "I'm taking one home to have on toast later today."

She put it in her pocket.  Which, in this house, is a scary thing based on what I've run through the washer. 

On our way to the grocery, Annie proudly pronounced that she was naming her jam "Jamega."

To which we all laughed. 

And then she said I'd better not take a picture of it and put it in project life.  

She's on to me.

It's a good thing she doesn't know about my blog.

I amaze myself and how did a penis get in that picture?

I finally found some blog inspiration.  It's not that I haven't had stories to tell, I just haven't felt like putting my thoughts down.  My feet issues have been kind of like a black cloud hanging over me and it's usually rainy.  It's definitely made me crankier than my usual cranky. But enough of my whining...

Today, I did personal yearbooks in Annie's class.  The feature was "Leprechaun Traps." The kids get a picture of themselves with their classmates and traps and then they have to write something about what happened that day. On the other page they get to draw a picture about the topic.

Annie wrote a great little narrative in which she used the "..." (yes, she used ellipses) .  She cracks me up. 

One little boy at her table is learning English as a second language so he hasn't quite mastered the grammatical aspect of the language. He gushed on and on about how well she draws..."you are such a good drawer...I amaze myself." I'm pretty sure he meant to say SHE was amazing. 

A bit later, one of the sweet boys called me over to his desk.

"Heather" he asks, "what is this in the picture?"

I lean over and look at it, not sure what he's talking about. "huh?"

"This right here," he says to me, pointing.

I study it for a bit and say, "It's xxxx's hand."

and then I look at it a bit longer, wondering what in the heck he thought it was. And, then it dawns on me.

It looked like a penis.  A teeny, tiny penis in the middle of the picture.  

I am too stunned to say anything but I look down and he's got this half grin on his face.  

"Yep, it's his hand I say," and walk away.

I can ALWAYS count on the kids for a good laugh. 

Yesterday, I did art docent in Gracie's class.  Apparently, all you need to make 3rd and 4th grade students happy is fresh drawing paper and new oil pastels.

 I always find it interesting who follows the directions but still maintains some creativeness and who doesn't follow the directions and ends up with a completely different product.  Needless to say, I made one kid start over. I don't know how I missed it, but at the end of the lesson (the kids were supposed to re-create VanGogh's sunflowers in a vase but with a variety of flower shapes) I looked at his paper and he had taken it upon himself to not only draw the vase with flowers but also a portrait on the wall behind the flowers.  Not the rules.  Try again.

 

follow through

Every night, when I get in to bed, the first thing I do is put my feet on Eric's legs. My feet are always freezing.  Even more so now that I wear my indoor flip flops all the time.  No more socked feet for me with my foot issues. 

I'll be honest, it's not a habit he loves...but he endures. 

A couple of nights ago, I hopped into bed and put my feet on his legs.

"WHAT IS UP?!"  He asks questioningly.

"HUH?" 

"Your FEET. They're so SOFT."

"OH. It's my new year's resolution...keeping my heels soft.  I just filed AND moisturized."  

So anyway, I'm making good on a resolution.  Nothing a belt sander and extra strength moisturizer can't help.  

I'll leave you with this.

and then this

She spent roughly 50% of her day doing this.  I think she peed 10 times last night.

first outing

We headed east on friday with the intention of skiing saturday and sunday.  Mission accomplished...sort of.

I took Gracie back to the Dr on friday morning and he thought she sounded better (based on what I don't know cause her never saw her the first time). He did say that she couldn't ski on saturday, but might be able to on sunday if she was feeling a little better. 

After two trips to the local ski shop in wenatchee, Eric and Annie got to ski on saturday while Gracie and I had some quality time in the lodge.  

Annie had a fantastic 2 hour lesson with Nicole on the rope tow.  She pretty much clung to her every time they came down the bunny hill, but the goal was strictly for Annie to have fun.

Our home away from home.

Annie, pre ski fuel up.  

Gracie and I colored for a bit then I taught her how to play a version of solitare and it passed the time rather quickly.

After we picked up Daddy and Annie from the lessons center, we went here again.

I think when they see up coming through the door, they're like "get the register ready!!!!" Since we started skiing, we haven't gone in there a single time and not dropped a dime...like the time last year when we left their ski coats at home, so we had to go buy them new ones on our way to the mountain.

Then we had a lovely dinner with Gracie and Eric's ski instructor, Joe, and his wife.

Sunday, the girls had lessons that started at 10.  We're used to afternoon lessons, so it was a bit of a challenge for us to roll out of bed...but we made it.

I'm glad we went in the morning because we got to see this. It was cold though, in the teens and I think a bit colder here at the top.

 

I finally got to ski on these.  And I loved them so, so much. And HELLO do you see that cute quilt-y pattern.  And the colors?!?!? LOVE

Gracie took one run on the lift and was really, really nervous.  yeah, that's just my kids.  we've all learned to live with it.  They're VERY cautious.  Both of them. So Joe took her to the rope tow and she got all comfortable with making turns again.  Annie made several trips down the rope tow hill all on her own and NOT clinging to her instructor.  progress.  It's all progress.

And now I'm off to the gym...my  home gym.  Which is really just a fancy term for an old treadmill and a work out dvd.  The snow is coming down and I don't feel like driving in it.  It's not really my specialty. 

misunderstanding

We had just left the mountain on sunday when out of the corner of my eye I saw Annie lean over to Gracie. I heard her ask in a soft voice, "I've been meaning to ask you this since last year, but can you tell me what it was like to fall off the chair lift?"

Oh boy.  

Annie has been adamant about not going on the chair lift EVER. EVER. EVER. 

A: She's nervous about the "big hill"

B: I guess she thought she might fall off the chair lift

On Gracie's first time on the chair lift last year, she waited too long to hop off so the instructor grabbed her coat and pulled her off.  Not being experienced at all, she fell as she hit the snow.  Apparently, Annie misinterpreted this to mean that she fell many, many feet from the chair lift. Uh, no.

Hopefully, we've ruled out point B as a problem and maybe she's one step closer to making it to the chair lift. 

I have my doubts.  

Project Life Week 2

It was a crazy week with Gracie's hives that lasted forever ( and I'm not sure she's out of the woods yet) and her pneumonia and eric being out of town.  He always misses these fun events.  I look at it like it's good project life material.  

We did, however, have a fantastic weekend away.  Eric was on work email and call silence for almost three solid days.  IT. WAS. FANTASTIC. 

I'd like to sew on my pages, but... I'm too lazy to get up while I am scrapping AND there is red thread in my machine that I'm too lazy to change AND I'm missing the doo-hicky that holds the thread on so the thread slides off and I just get mad. 

Given the fact that I just spilled an entire glass of lovely red wine on the carpet, I shouldn't be using anything sharp at the moment.  I'd probably sew my finger to the paper. 

you can see more PL posts at www.themomcreative.com

funkytown

I am in a funky-funk this week.  I've been trying to combat it by crafting. But it hasn't helped much.  Can I just say I am so SICK of clogged toilets.  I won't go into details on that one but it doesn't involve me. Work is so suck-suck-sucky. Annie keeps "throwing up" ( I think she might be experiencing reflux). Gracie has missed almost the entire week of school this week and Eric has been out of town most of the week. Pffft.  

I ran today. On the tread mill. First time since mid september.  It was super lame.  I ran 1 slow mile and then walked a slow mile. I was so embarassed by myself.  I guess it's better to take it slow and make sure the bursitis doesn't come back. 

I had to take my parents to the airport this morning. Not wanting to be late, I offered to drive Annie to school (sicky Gracie had to ride along with me).  Really I offered to take her so that I could get myself a coffee, drop her off and then proceed to my parents house...I didn't want to be late. I had to take the Sequoia (which we don't drive very often) so everyone and all their luggage would fit comfortably.  When Annie saw Gracie and I get in the car, she wrinkled up her nose and said "uh, mommy...it's ok...i'll just take the bus."

Apparently, I have a 7 year old snob!?

Gracie is feeling better. Not 100%, but better.  She just fell asleep on the couch.  How bad is it that I am trying to keep her up? She'll never get to sleep tonight.  

sigh.

I just need to pull it together and get some more crafting done.  I can almost see the light at the end of the tunnel on my December Daily 2010. And I've got an art docent craft project in Gracie's class on tuesday and the scrapbook project in Annie's class on thursday.   

But for now, I'm going to sit on Gracie and tickle her until she wakes up.

DD12:the santa photo that wasn't

We were supposed to see santa monday night.  The girls were all cuted up with cozy ruffly sweatshirts, new scarves and their warm boots.  AND...their hair was clean and well brushed...a rare occurrence in Annie's case. 

so we're 5 miles down the road, when I a little glimmer of remembrance hits me.  I vaguely recall the Bellevue Nordstrom Santa schedule said that Santa didn't work two days a week.  By the powers of reasonable deduction, I thought that maybe it was Monday and Tuesday.  

I asked Siri and she was no help.  So I pulled over and searched for their phone number...and the "is this voice for real" voice on the other end of the line confirmed my hunch.  

BLAST!

By no small miracle the girls didn't freak out in the change of plans, but I had already promised that I's stop and get french fries for them at jack in the crack (which I was already freaking out about...those damn non organic pesticided potatoes. I've gotten so freaky about organic that it almost makes me sick to my stomach. WOAH.  sorry for that rant. ) So I get Annie fries at the nearby Dairy Queen. Gracie declares she wants something healthier.  Wahoo! We settled on Mongolian grill at the towncenter-which we all ate and all liked. Gracie didn't have gluten free soy sauce but she had rice noodles.  Hopefully she'll be ok.  Annie declared we were going to eat there again and bring daddy!

Then we went shopping for teacher gifts. At the UW bookstore, we bought gift cards for the girls teachers.  The picked out the cards and while the gal was ringing them up, annie said under her breath "I don't wanna buy my teacher a card to the husky store."  so I asked why and annie responds in this exasperated voice, "BEACAUSE SHE'S A COUGAR!!!!" So funny.  she may not like football, but her daddy has taught her that we are Huskies through and through.  

and then we came home and made the gingerbread house, I finished my DD page 12 and wrapped presents until 11.

December Day 5: Gracie's concert

A bit of a rough start this morning.  Had to wake Annie up, a rarity.  She did NOT want to go to school.  Threw a big crying fit. Finally got us all in the car and I got a warning that my right front tire was low.  Was already headed down the road.  Called Eric.  He said it would probably be ok but I could take the sequoia if I wanted.  I stopped at Starbucks and got the girls their hot chocolate and warm apple juice (it's the deal I've made with them to get them to early morning spanish class twice a week).  Gracie remembers we didn't check the advent calendar, which I wanted them to since I thought that today was the day they were bringing mittens to Mrs. Park's mitten drive.  Get home, check the calendar and it's not the day.  sigh. Go to get in the sequoia and realize it's all frozen shut since we park it outside.  Windows frozen. Antenna frozen.  spend 5 minutes scraping the windows.  finally get in and head to spanish and arrive 20 minutes late.  

head to work.  get all sorts of pissed about the particular things that happen...or don't happen at work and then get the heck out of there as soon as it's time for me to leave.  

Run to Michael's to pick up a ginger bread craft for work.  Head to costco to pick up pictures for the personal yearbooks I'm doing in Annie's class but change my mind once I realize how crazy busy it is.  head to Central market to buy something for dinner.  and then I head home.  and once I'm home, I remember that I was supposed to go to the mall after work to pick up my polaroid camera i left there last night at one of the restaurants. $@#%$!!!! sweep the kitchen floor, throw in a load of laundry and head to the mall. dash back home so I make it in time for the bus to arrive.  Get the girls a snack, help them with piano and homework, give them a shower/bath and feed them then hop in the car to head to Gracie's winter concert. 

What is wrong with me?  Even my kids think I am crazy.

Gracie's music teacher put on a lovely concert.  Who can't help but love a bunch of kids singing festive holiday songs? I sure can't.  Gracie had a lovely time although, she looks so serious when she's on the stage. I love that we know kids in every grade since our neighborhood has a ton of kids in it, so every grade is fun to watch!

Today's advent activity ended up being this-taking small items to school to donate to christmas house-- a charity that helps parents get gifts for their kids.  I bought items today and let them pick what they want to bring in tomorrow.  It had been very special to teach them the various ways to help others and educate them in the various groups that need assistance. 

Finally finished up December Daily  Day 3 and 4...coming tomorow!

December 4: Favorite things

No december daily for the 3rd yet. i ran out of magenta printer ink for photo printing.  classic. 

Tonight was the 6ish?? annual favorite things night with my gal pals from...yes, JUNIOR HIGH and HIGH SCHOOL.  Nothing beats an evening with these gals.  I get the BEST ab workout!  

these were my favorite things...all wrapped up.  prep bowls and dry brine from williams sonoma!

 

In other news, today was a beautiful message of peace at church. So inspiring and lovely...and then we came home and played stratego and risk.  

huh.