Proof is in the pee

We squeezed alot of "Holiday Stuff" into today. In downtown Carmel every Saturday in December you can see Santa, see real reindeer, and take a horse and carriage ride. There are people caroling on the streets. A man playing the violin. He gives the kids bells and they have a sing along. So it was a very fun time. We were very cold but had the essential cold weather gear to make it through the afternoon.

All of my little ones still believe in Santa. Tommy(8) Trinity(8) Timmy(5) This year there were several questions by the two older of the little ones that showed they are starting to figure it out. I came up with completely logical answers for both the little doubters and they are still convinced. But this will probably be the last year. I almost really messed up one time.

I said "we are going to see Santa today."


And Tommy said "oh we are going to the mall?"


"No we are going to Downtown Carmel"


"But Conner said he was going to see Santa and he went to the mall. So we have to go to the mall."


" No, Santa is Downtown too"


"Huh?!? What do you mean?"


OOOPS!!!! Oh man I new before I even finished the sentence I messed up big time. Okay think fast Kristy. You can do it!!!

"Okay guys alot of kids do not know this but it would take forever for Santa to actually talk to every kid and we could not all fit in one place so he has Helper Santas to be at all sorts of different places and they all report back to him. The real one happens to be where we are going today."

They totally believed me. Especially Timmy the 5 year old. He knows that he gets presents from us, other family, friends, and Santa. So he was really contemplating what he wanted to ask for from Santa. Then its really special.

We waited for 20 minutes in the cold. I do not think they were even aware how cold it was. When we walked into Santa's cottage they were in awe. So excited. Tommy could hardly speak. It was so cute. I could hardly hear him, so I have to figure out what he asked for. Timmy had no problem letting him know what he wanted, a Webkinz lizard. "Okay Santa, will you remember that?" Santa did a quick glance at me and I nodded. "Yes Timmy I will remember" Santa said. Trinity was quiet but shared her wish for Littlest Pet Shop. She did not require confirmation.


I am going to soak it all in this year. No matter how corny it is.


Then we went to see the reindeer. They were cute but the one kept peeing. Timmy said looking at the pee "see they are real".

No deep thoughts on this entry. Tori and the girls got first place at Regionals this weekend. Cheerleading is not what it used to be. They work so very hard. I am so proud of them. On to State this Saturday!!!!

The No Part

One of the best things about children is they do not have "filters" like we develop later on in life. Their thoughts are honest. They can say it like it is. The real answer. Not something they think others want to hear. Or spin it to sound gracious or politically correct.

Today was a tougher day for Tommy and I. We were at each other from 5 minutes after the alarm went off this morning. Tommy is my sensitive one, but at the same time he needs firmness. So, it is a balancing act with him. After 20 minutes of him trailing on my heels and asking

"Mom, can I go to Conner's"?

"No".

"Mom, my home works done, can I go to Conner's"?

"NO".

"Mom after dinner can I go to Conner's"?

"NO!".

"Mom when can I go to ....


I spin around at warp speed. Not screeching but definitely loud I say "Tommy, what part of No do you not understand"?

He thought for 1/2 a second looked me straight in the eyes and answered "The NO part".

Well, that said alot to me. Sometimes, I think we all have a problem with The No Part.

George Washington

Holy Cow!!! I had no idea how long it has been since I blogged. I really like to blog and just ramble on. Then its fun to edit it into something I think people will find amusing. Not that many people read this.

Life has gotten busy now that every one is in school. Taylor is in 11th grade. He has the normal sixteen year old attitude, but other than that he is so awsome. He makes me laugh alot. He is so unafraid of what people think of him. In a good way. He has a project that his class has to present in front of the other students. He said he wanted to dress like George Washington. I gave him a $15 budget and off he went. He and his friend present their reoprts on different days, so they are sharing a costume. They went to Goodwill, Walmart, and the Party Store. Last night at dinner my husband received and email to his phone and the picture below was attached. Needless to say we both laughed pretty hard. It brings a smile to my face every time I think about Taylor in that outfit.





The next time he is completely ignoring me, only takes out half the trash, or leaves 35 gross dishes in his room, I will think of him in that outfit and he may get off a little lighter.

10 things you do not want to hear from your kids!

1. This was due yesterday. (any school project).

2. Just hear me out completely before you say any thing.

3. If I tell you something do you promise not to be mad?

4. One child saying I'm gonna tell mom, and the other child frantically begging
them not to tell mom.

5. Mom, how do you use the carpet cleaner?

6. Does the remote still work if it gets wet?

7. Why is that squirrel eating our chair?

8. Conner's mom (neighbor boy) will be here in a few minutes to talk to you.

9. Timmy's bleeding.

10. SILENCE!!!

Oh my goodness!!!

I have one question. How does someone so tiny do so much damage? Anyone?...Anyone?...

Here is the story. I am up stairs cleaning out drawers. Timmy is down stairs watching Backyardigans. All seems peaceful and calm. Then I hear CRASH!! THUD!! and a kinda POOF!! all in 3 seconds. I yell "what was that"? Then I hear these words..."Oh my Goodness, mom we have a problem". That is not what you want to hear come out of a four year old's mouth.

So what could it have been. The typical options would be, he dropped the milk, or knocked over the toy bucket, or ran into the screen door and took it off the track (happens alot in warmer weather) or even knocked the shelf off the wall while diving off the stairs into a pile of pillows. These are common causes of loud noises in my house.

Okay, so, back to my post crash noise question "what was that"? And his reply was..."the fireplace fell out of the wall. Let me repeat...THE FIREPLACE FELL OUT OF THE WALL!!!

I was just kinda dumb founded. What could that mean. Some ash blew out, he knocked a door off? So I get up to see what happened, and he meant what he said. The fireplace fell out of the wall. There was insulation and ash and the whole front portion of my firplace on the floor of my family room.

As soon as I made eye contact with Timmy he said "well, you see mom, I was...." the rest is still a blur. I just had to laugh. In his mind he had a completely logical explanation. It had to do with his sword and bad guys and his imaginary friend Matt.

A mess like this just had to be looked at for a bit. We had PB&J's for lunch. All while gazing at our lovely mess. I just laughed every time I really thought about it. Only one of my children could accomplish this.

The fire place was not to hard to fix and the ash and stuff just vacuumed up. Two things were learned because of this situation. Timmy will not be using the fireplace doors as a "sword holder" anymore, and I should clean the ash out of my fire place more often.

The Blank Pages

My family has a new Family Time activity. We love Rock Band. If any one reading this has not tried it, I am telling you, you need to try it. It is so much freakin fun. It comes with a Microphone ( which doubles as the tamborine), drums, and a guitar. If you get an extra guitar, you have a bass guitar. We gave it to the kids for Christmas. My husband said after watching the kids for a few songs, "let me try". He was hooked. I kid you not, they all played Rock Band for 8 hours straight Christmas Day. Grammy and Poppy even got in on the action. I usually just watch. I only sing for the band when there is no other alternative.

They, have gotten more serious now. See, as you play songs and do well, you get scored in Stars on your performances. If you do well it opens up more venues and you get more gigs to play like a real band. Are you following all that? They all tend to practice alone sometimes between band sessions. I do have to say it is quite amusing to come down stairs at 1am and find my husband in the dark, in his boxers, playing a toy guitar. "what are you doing" I ask. "Practicing, I just need to be able to 4 star this song" he answers.

I am just glad they all have an activity they can do together and have fun. Let me know if you would like to swing by one night and catch The Blank Pages in action. Its a sight to behold.

Love your little Natives.

A while ago I read an article about the digital age we live in. We all live in it whether we like it or not. But, how did we get here was the idea. Are we Digital Immigrants, or Digital Natives. The basis of this is that people born before 1980 are all Digital Immigrants and people born 1980 and later are Digital Natives. People born after 1980 have never known an undigital world. There are some of us like my self, born in 1970, that even though I do not fall into the Native status I feel like a Native but I still know too much of the "old world" to truly be of the Native mind set. Even though the Natives have seen some of our primitive devices in a closet or out in the garage or in old pictures they have never experienced or used any of them. Here is an example, try to follow it may be confusing at first...

Tori: Hey mom we were at Sammy's grandma's house an we found this thing in the closet it was so cool.

Me: What was it?

Tori: It was like this box thingy, it had buttons, , but the box was like a key board, it plugged in but it did not have a screen so we could not see what it did.

Me: Tori did it have a black roller thing at the top, kinda in the box part?

Tori" Yea, how did you know?

Me: (now try to imagine the confusion and amazement all at the same time in my voice) Tori it was a typewriter.

Tori: What's that? (and she truly was not kidding)

So then I had to explain typewriters and answer all the questions that followed. "So you couldn't save anything? How do you back up and fix an error? how do you spell check? what if you need more than one copy? How did you add pictures?" I was not about to try to explain how we digital immigrants actually created the phrase "copy and paste" by actually copying and pasting.

Oh my gosh, this was such a wake up call for me. So, now when I see her texting away on the phone or Taylor typing 120 words a minute (he really does type that fast) all while listen to their ipods and answering 3 IM's and editing the digital movies they just made to up load to YouTube, I need to remind my self this is all normal in their world.

Just like my mom used holler across the room, "scoot back from the TV its bad for your eyes, or is that phone attached to your ear"? I find my self telling my kids they are going to have carpel tunnel from texting or rot their brains from to many video games.

It starts so young now. My 4 year old, Timmy, is definitely of the next, more advanced generation of digital natives. His generation will probably make fun of Taylor and Tori's devices just like we look back and laugh at how big cell phones used to be. He can almost out do Taylor(16) on most video games and can already get on and off the computer all by himself. He is smart in reference to what he thinks I want to hear too. The other day I walked in to the room and he must have sensed that I was going to tell him to turn off the games now. He quickly put up his hand and said "wait, wait, wait,... Mommy, this game is not bad for my brains". I gave him 10 more minutes and apparently his brains were tired. I came back and he was asleep mid game.




Well that's all for now. This may not be bad for my brains, but I only type about 20 words a minute so my fingers and brains are tired.