Turkey Soup

Thanksgiving is over so that means only one thing-Turkey soup. Okay well two things. Turkey soup and Christmas. I did make a pretty fabulous pot of turkey soup. It made quite a lot which is good because I am not cooking for awhile. Hubby says it is the best he has ever had. I think he just wants great presents. Mom and I went out at ridiculous o'clock in the morning on black Friday. It wasn't too bad and we did get some good deals. Is it bad that I am almost done Christmas shopping? The girls are brainstorming on what to write to Santa and since I have already finished shopping for them, I may have to "supervise". We went to the Tempe Festival of Lights parade. We saw Santa riding a fire truck. Above is a picture of him and a few of the girls. It was a bit chilly. We had hot chocolate. It was pretty fun. They had just watched the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade a couple of days earlier so I don't know what their expectations were but I think the hot chocolate helped. They said they liked it. The holiday season is now in full swing. I have already watched two Christmas movies. We are getting a tree this weekend. Just because it doesn't look like Christmas outside doesn't mean it can't look like it inside. Hope all of you have a great holiday season and take time to drink some eggnog. the kind with rum in it. and watch lots of Christmas movies that make you cry.

Piano Recital

Saturday was the girls' third piano recital. They both did a marvelous job. They had their songs memorized and even spoke into the microphone. Here are a few pictures I took of them before we left. How cute are they??? Hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving.

Confessions

Inspired by Dr. Write, I have compiled a list of a confessional nature.

1) Sometimes when I am over at other people's houses and I go into their bathroom, I switch the toilet paper roll. I like it when the roll of paper goes over the roll and hangs over the top instead of coming from the bottom..do you know what I mean? Anyway I can't stand it when it hangs from the bottom and I have, on several occasions, changed the roll without telling anyone. Perhaps this is my form of OCD or something.

2) I wish I were taller. I know. I am 5' 7" and as my friend once said to me: "That's tall for a girl." Still I would like to be 5'10" or so. Since I can't get taller I wear heels. My friends all laugh at me because most of them are shorter than me to begin with but I like it. Pretending to be taller.

3) I miss the seasons. Don't get me wrong I like warm weather but I must say it is getting a bit redundant. When we went to Flagstaff and the girls saw the colors of the leaves they were in awe. Do palm trees change colors? Or cacti???

4) I wish I could sing. I wish that I could open my mouth and effortlessly produce a beautiful, pitch perfect, on-tune song that gives people goose bumps. Maybe this comes from watching too much American Idol or something.

I think that is it for now. I can't think of anything clever to say to end this because I have two girls who need to be tucked in. So here I go, ready to tuck.

Myths about children

Okay I know this wasn't on my lists of lists but I have noticed several myths people have about raising children that I thought I would share and explain why I feel they are myths:

1) Girls are easier than boys. First of all no one with a girl over the age of 7 believes this. Maybe at age 3 girls are easier but after that, I'm thinkin no. As a teacher I noticed that usually boys get over things much easier and with much less drama. I have lots of drama in my house. If you could bottle up drama and use it as energy than the amount of drama in my house could run an entire country. Okay a small country, but still.

2) The older children get the easier they are. Again, no. Only people with really young children that have been deprived of sleep believe this. They believe this because it helps them make it through the long nights. This is however, not true. When they get older they learn how to talk, and argue and negotiate. They get opinions. Lots of them. And they aren't afraid to share them either. They learn how to read and write. They read things you wish they didn't. They start asking seriously provocative questions. Some questions you can't answer. Not that you don't want to, you can't because you don't know the answer. They have homework and eventually, hormones. They get friends. They lose friends. They fight with friends.

3) You shouldn't tell your kids everything. This also is not true. Honesty is always the best policy. In my opinion if a child is smart enough to ask the question they should get the answer. The entire answer. Of course this can back fire on you when your 7 year old is drawing penises on the sport court but other than that, I am all for full disclosure. Well-you know what I mean.

4) It's fun to watch your children grow up. This is both true and false. Yes I like being able to enjoy the experiences of life with my children but it is also painful. It hurts when they cry telling you about how a friend hurt their feelings. It is painful to tell them that there are bad people who will hurt them for no reason. It is hard when you tell them something and they choose not to listen and you have to watch them get disappointed. It hurts watching them go out and make mistakes and then have to suffer the consequences. It is not easy watching them get more and more independent and saying things like: " Look Mom I did it all by myself and I didn't need you at all." Ouch. It's not that I don't want them to have these experiences. I know they are "part of life" but that doesn't mean I have to like it.

List about lists

Okay since there seems to be a plethora of list making going on I thought I would join in the fun. I decided to make a list of things that I want to make a list about. This will come in handy when I am trying to figure out what to make a list of.
1) My obsessions. This is a good one because my obsessions change so it will probably never be the same list twice.
2)My pet peeves. Again this one is nice because like my obsessions, they change according to my mood.
3)Places I would like to go.
4) Places I don't ever want to go.
5)Best songs of all time-good for discussions as most people have an opinion about this.
6)Best tv shows of all-see number 5.
7)Top Ten lists-can really be anything.
8)Things I would like to do before I get too old.
9)Things I wish I didn't have to do.
10)Favorite lists.

Why am I writing this? Because I am supposed to be doing homework or laundry or something(see number 9). Any other list ideas???

7 things about me

I was "tagged" my Dr. Write so I am going to try to make a list of 7 things about me. Let's see how this goes...

1) I don't care what people think. Really. Except when I say something that sounded better inside my head and realize that it was better left unsaid. Of course, if I give it a few minutes, I get over it pretty quickly.
2) My favorite novel that I had to read for school is Catch 22. I love it!
3) My favorite movies are(in no particular order): Legally Blonde, When Harry Met Sally, Mary Poppins, It's a Wonderful Life, Miracle on 34th Street and old movies with actors like Cary Grant or Jimmy Stewart or Rock Hudson. I can't take horror flicks. They are way too scary in a bloody gory kinda way and I get nightmares..I know!!
4) I am deathly afraid of heights, enclosed spaces and dying while my children are still young. I don't like sleeping alone but I also don't like being touched while trying to sleep.
5) I read books by authors like John Grisham in my bed so that not everything I read in a day is about curriculum or education theory. I will read just about anything except science fiction. The closest I came to reading scifi was A Wrinkle In Time-one of the best books ever!!
6) I can't watch the news at all. Ever. I always cry and then get mad. Besides news is way too sensationalized for me. I also can't watch shows that are about children getting hurt or dying.
7) I am not as neat as I would like to be and I don't really like cleaning I just like having a clean house. I am training the girls now to help out in this.

That was harder than I thought it would be. But there you go. I am not sure who to tag so I guess that is it.

They Grow Up and Break Your Heart

My oldest daughter discovered the secret last year behind the "tooth fairy" when she was only 6 years old. At the same time she questioned me about Santa but I did a good job of distracting her hoping she would forget all about it. No such luck. Last week she says "Mom. Is Santa dead?" To which I replied "Well there was a man that gave gifts to kids and he got the name St. Nick or Santa Claus." She thought for a minute and said "Well there is no such thing as magic and he couldn't still be alive. I figure since you and Dad are the tooth fairy you are probably Santa too." I took a deep breath and instead of bursting into tears I said "Maybe you could go talk to your Dad about this." and talk she did. She took it pretty well. Later I asked her about it and she said "It's alright Mom, I understand. And I won't tell sissy. I have been good about the tooth fairy right?" Wow. It's just that I thought we could do the Santa thing for awhile still. She's getting older and smarter every minute and I can't stop it. Not that I want to, at least not all the time. She used to ask me questions that were easy to answer but now it's a whole different ball game!! At least the baby still believes. For now. But she is working on not sucking her thumb and as much as I want her to stop there is a part of me that longs for the days when she would sit on my lap, thumb in mouth and fall fast asleep. She said "Mom I am betting bigger now. I didn't suck my thumb at all." These are just the beginning steps of their life long journey that will eventually lead them out of my house.