Yuletides

Merry Christmas! We had a more professional family picture taken, but Brian was having fun with the cropping feature of Picasa and "accidentally" cropped me out. But I think the lighting in this picture is kind of cool. It is actually a historic picture because all three of my daughters' hair is done.


Here is Gwen on Christmas morning, modeling some of her stocking stuffers. Notice the layered necklaces. Since this picture was taken Gwen has also started to wear Ruby's necklace she got in her stocking, so with three necklaces she is starting to resemble Mr. T with all that bling. Also notice, at Christmas in our house, pants are optional.

Here is Ruby with her stocking stuffers that Gwen will soon sneakily accumulate into her own jewelry collection. The clothes and jewelry wars are already beginning.

Merry Christmas everyone! This may be the closest thing you get to a Christmas card this year, so we love you and miss you, and hope you're enjoying the Holidays!

I'm a Monterrey Eagle!!!

I have lots of reasons to celebrate! For one, my last day of student teaching was yesterday! The next and exponentially more important because of the financial implications--I have a job starting on Monday!!! Woo-hoo. I am now a 2nd grade teacher at Monterrey Elementary School!

Funny Girls

The girls have been cracking me up lately. Like Ruby, lately she'll find two of a toy or animal, the bigger one is the mommy, and the smaller one is the baby. Well the other day she found two baby dolls, one was bigger than the other and she said "This is the mama baby..."

We were watching Noggin and there is a character named Moose A. Moose, and a particular segment features "business mouse," a little mouse who wears a suit and carries a briefcase. Gwen said "We don't have business mice in Carlsbad." (I guess business mice only live in metropolitan areas)

Brian told me he was loading Gwen into the van the other day and she started to say something, but had a hard time getting the words out from giggling so much. Finally through the fits of laughter she said, "Don't forget your purse Dad."

A few nights ago, Ruby woke up screaming in the middle of the night. I ran in and she had thrown up all over her crib (that did NOT crack me up). I washed her sheets and "hokie" (blanket), and cleaned her up in the bathtub. After much cuddling (Me, Ruby, and the bucket), I went to lay Ruby into her bed. She said "No mommy, yucky." And I explained to her that I washed everything and it was all clean, then she said "gakes Mommy, gakes" (that means Thanks Mommy, Thanks). I said "I love you Ruby." Ruby said "I yuv you too Mom." It never ceases to amaze me how those words can make everything alright after the most disgustingly nasty of nights.

The pictures are just some fun ones, the playground is at Monterrey School.

Shameless Comment Seeking

And the winners are . . . Kathleen and Kristin! Wow, you guys know me so well, my own mother told me she wasn't sure which ones were false. But you were right, I don't even really eat sunflower seeds (though I did do the chipmunk cheek thing once or twice when I played softball in the 8th and 9th grade ), and I definitely do not even like "Earth Girls are Easy," although truthfully, it was my favorite movie when I was about 10 years old.

I have really been wanting some comments (I get this strange sense of rejection when I don't get them, it's like this irrational feeling of web-nerdiness overtakes me), so I am posting this picture of Captain Blueberry. Any guess as to who it is? Let's hope he's not too upset with me for using his image for comments.

Wow he's dreamy!

6 Quirks Tag

I forgot that I got "tagged" for this game where I have to list 6 quirks about myself. Well, I've decided to make things more interesting. I will list 6 quirks: 4 will be true, 2 will be made up. You, my dearest friends and family, will have to guess which are made up. Here goes:

1. While Papa Murphy's Hawaiian style pizza is my absolute favorite, I believe that Papa Murphy's Pepperoni pizza is hardly worth eating.

2. I like to put a whole bunch of sunflower seeds in my mouth, and one by one, crack'em open, eat the seed, and store the empty shell in the other side of my cheek. Mid-way through the seeds, I look like a little chipmunk.

3. My drive-thru voice is as loud as my stranded-in-the-bathroom-with-no-toilet-paper voice.

4. I am infamous for putting a virtually-empty milk carton back in the fridge.

5. I hate the words "flesh," and "nourish."

6. My secret favorite movie is "Earth Girls are Easy."

Okay, make your guesses. I tag: Maria B., Maria C., Priscilla, Brittney, Audrey and Elise.

Poetry

There have been some poems that I have heard throughout my life that have stuck with me. The first was a little rhyme I learned in the third grade. My teacher, Mrs. Lizotte, posted it by her door. I would see it every day as I entered the classroom:

Good, better, best,
never let it rest,
till the good gets better,
and the better gets best!

I took that on as my personal motto for many years, and thought of it often when I felt like giving up. Those of you who have tasted anything I've cooked know that I don't quite live by that philosophy anymore.

Another poem I think of often is a poem I had to memorize by Robert Frost.

Whose woods these are,
I think I know,
His house is in the village though,
He will not see me stopping here,
To watch his woods fill up with snow,
My little horse must think it queer,
To stop without a farmhouse near,
He gives his harness bells a shake,
To ask if there is some mistake,
These woods are lovely, dark and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.

Those last two lines, it's almost like they haunt me. Those late nights when my list of things to do is still a mile long, I hear those lines mercilessly repeat in my mind, and miles to go before I sleep, and miles to go before I sleep.

And the last poem I remember has left a profound imprint upon my life, as will be apparent to all who read it.

Crowded Bathtub
by Shel Silverstein

There's too many kids in this tub,
There are too many elbows to scrub,
I just washed a behind,
That I'm sure wasn't mine,
There's too many kids in this tub.

(All these poems have been typed from memory, and probably aren't correctly laid out, and are copyrighted not to be dispersed to large groups for profit so I won't get sued.)

More Birthday Pictures

Gwen woke up and put her clothes on. She walked out of her room and said "Huh, my clothes still fit!" I guess she was expecting that since she was a year older, she would now be too big for her britches.

Ruby's unconventional way of eating a cupcake.

Who would've thought a little girl named "Dempsey," (After the Manassah Mauler boxer Jack Dempsey), would have turned out to be such a beauty.