Don't even ask

You know how they say that we learn from our children? Well, it's true. Yesterday I learned this, and I quote from Emily:

"Mom, did you know that if you put your ipod earbuds in your nose, you can open your mouth and it's like your mouth is a speaker?"

Really. She said this. And Amanda demonstrated.

It's a shame you can't see the Newsboys music flowing from her head.

Then we found out that it works even if you have braces.

My children are geniuses!

Double Dozen plus One

Ok, my turn for the silly blog tagging. The idea is to write 25 things about myself. Sounds like it could become a little conceited, so I'll try to stay humble. I've actually enjoyed reading the list from others. I hope this isn't too boring! Get your coffee or a good donut and heeeeeere we go....

1. Ice cream vs chips. Ice cream, always. With nuts. Take them off of Kaisha's ice-cream and put them on mine.

2. I remember when we got a color TV when I was about 9. I was amazed at how colorful the Sesame Street muppets were!

I used to have this album!

3. I was baptized as an infant as "Brenda Maria Schnockenberg". My last name was actually Thomas. Baby Schnockenberg was the other baby being baptized that day.

4. I have been known to hide food that I want to eat, from the kids.

5. We didn't know the sex of any of our 3 kids until the moment they were born. I figure there are so few good surprises in life, why ruin one of the best!

6. Arthur is my favorite children's PBS show. I could watch it every day. Oh wait... I do!

7. Foot size before having children = 6. Foot size three children later = 7.

8. Jack and I met in college, but we didn't date then. After college, I called him up one day to see if he wanted to get together to see a movie or something. At the end of that conversation, I knew we would get married although we never spoke a word about dating.

9. I love steamer clams. Love. Them. With butter.

10. When I was about 5, I stepped on the end of a rake, causing the handle to come up and hit me square in the forehead (kind of like in a Road Runner cartoon). Standing in the yard crying, my parents rushed over to see what was wrong when I cried out, "BRETT HIT ME ON THE HEAD WITH THE RAKE!" I remember something about him being sent to his room after the wild accusation flew out of my mouth...  Sorry Brett!

11. Speaking of Brett, we used to look around our property on Lummi for evidence of Big Foot! This has nothing to do with item number 7.

12. I think it is amazing that God gave me one child with blue eyes, one with brown, and one with hazel-green. All of the colors got used on my kids!

Amanda's blue eyes

Emily's brown eyes

Thomas's hazely green eyes

13. Sometimes I like to have the heat on high in the car with the windows down. It's a nice combination of warm air and fresh air.

14. I am a night person. Probably always will be, although I'm less likely to begin painting a room at 10:30PM now than when I was in my 30s.

15. I can walk past a Milky Way or 3 Muskateers and never have a second thought about it. Snickers; that's a whole different story. That's probably the food I'm hiding from the kids on #4.

16. There was a point in time when I wondered how it was that I came to be older than Marcia Brady. She was always the older high school girl on TV. One day, she was much younger than me. Weird.

17. I have slept in my driveway. In the sunshine. If I believed in past-lives, I would think I had been a cat at some point in time.

18. I have always wanted to see a baby being born when I wasn't the one doing the pushing. I was invited to my niece Alissa's birth, but the labor went too fast and they were just lucky she wasn't born in the car.  Hmmmmm, she's a fast swimmer too. Wondering if the two are connected...

19. Love being woken up by a kiss on the cheek from Jack (the morning person in our marriage). The love deepens when I also smell coffee that he has brewed.

20. "It is Well With My Soul" is likely my favorite hymn. Jack sang it at the funeral of a former student (at her request before she died). Between that and the story of the circumstances of how it was written, it tugs at my heart whenever I hear it. Look it up if you don't know the story.

21. And while we're on the topic of Jack's voice... I love to listen to him sing. I used to dream that I had lost my voice and when it came back I could sing as well as him. Sigh- it was only a dream.

22. I once sat through 3 consecutive showings of Disney's Fantasia at the Mt. Baker Theatre in Bellingham with Mike Hagan. Seems to me that we only paid once.

23. I like to think about what kind of cute and zippy car I will get when the days of needing a van are over.

24. I was so excited when we bought our first computer: an Apple Mac LC II. It had a color monitor and everything! It was about $1500 in 1992.

Mac LC II. wow.

OK, and here is the "plus one".......

25. The nick name my parents call me to this day is Toodles.

Ta-daaaaa!

A belated congratulations

No good excuses here for not posting my Valentine Haiku winner. Just busy. And by the end of the day, I'm tired. So here is the winner... (drum roll please)

Ellen Joss! Step up Ellen and receive your tickets! Oh wait, you already did! Here's the proof:

Isn't she a cute winner?

And just so you know, here is the winning haiku:

Red lipstick prints go,
On my bald husband's sweet head,

He's my Valentine.

Kissing your Valentine's bald head... now THAT'S true love!

Honorable mention goes to Cierra. That was a lot of haikus Cierra! Maybe you have a future in haiku production.

Thanks for playing everyone! Now, onto more routine type of blogging.

Contest Time!

It's time for a BLOG CONTEST!

Ok, so you can't really get to Hawaii from winning my contest, but it got your attention, didn't it?

Here's the contest:

Write a haiku about Valentine's Day. There is a lot to say about this day. Tradition has it that it's a day for lovers, but I think it's become a day for Hallmark and Hershey's to make some serious cash. It's a day for kids to eat sugar and have a party at school with cute boxes decorated in construction paper hearts of pink, red and purple. It's a day that some single people loathe. Other singles I know love the day as it's a reason to have a big bash with lots of other single friends.

So, what's your take on the day? Put it in a haiku and write it into your comment. You are allowed as many haiku entries as you wish because once you write one, you will want to write another and another and, well, you get the idea.

A winner will be announced on February 14 (of course) and will receive two Regal movie tickets. The tickets can be used for whatever movie you and your Valentine wish to go to.

According to WikiHow: A haiku is a non-rhymed verse genre, conveying an image or feeling in two parts spread over three lines, usually with a seasonal reference. There are 5 syllables in the first sentence, 7 in the second and 5 again in the last sentence.

To get you started, here's my haiku:

Ten sticky fingers
Pass a sweet pink card to me
It says I love mom

If you need some more serious instruction click here for real haiku info.

Bring on the haikus! Serious, funny, clever... they are ALL fun and someone will win movie tickets!

Don't shop hungry

Today, I got kids up and moving and then got myself onto the dreadmill, which, by the way, I think is trying to kill me. It just keeps going and going and expects me to keep up. I told my sis-in-law, Kristine, yesterday that I blame it on Eve. Perfectly created as she was, she was a disobedient girl and now to keep this body in shape I have to spend time on the dreadmill to combat the original sin that sits on my theighs. By extension, the dreadmill is a tool of the devil. Of this I'm sure.

ANYWAYS... after several repetitions of 4 minutes of running and 3 minutes of walking was finished, I took Emily to school. Then it was time to head to Safeway. We needed milk. Seems like we always need milk, but today we were totally out after breakfasts were finished. I walked into the Safeway, feeling pretty good about having already finished my workout, and headed for the dairy case. I got the milk and some cheese. In the yogurt section I spied stickers that said "50 cents off" on the 75 cent yoplaits. They "expired" today. Tell me, isn't yogurt already spoiled? Isn't that how they make it? I never trust dates on yogurt, so I scored big time on the strawberry kind.

As I headed toward the produce seciton, it hit me. HUNGER! It was still that blasted dreadmill working as hard as it could to kill me. It gave me a hunger that said, "Just head back to the bakery section and get the cherry turnover. Nobody will know! You can eat it in the car!" I REFUSED! I was not going to let the dreadmill win. Not this time! Not even when it changed its chant to, "The rice pudding is on sale, get some! Pick up a spoon at the soup counter and you can eat that in the car too!" Oh how I love rice pudding. Cool, sweet, creamy. No raisins for me though, thanks. sigh.

Shesh! How's a girl to shop in such a hungry state? I bought chicken (on sale for 99 cents a pound!) to can later, some veggies and got the heck out of there before I caved.

Once home I had a simple bowl of oatmeal. I'm trying to be good.