On the 1st day of Christmas, my true love gave to me - about a million cookies
On the 2nd day of Christmas, my true love gave to me peanut butter fudge
-and about a million cookies
On the 3rd day of Christmas, my true love gave to me candied sweet potatoes
-peanut butter fudge
-and about a million cookies
On the 4th day of Christmas, my true love gave to me Cheerwine soda
-candied sweet potatoes
-peanut butter fudge
-and about a million cookies
On the 5th day of Christmas, my true love gave to me EXTRA STRENGTH TUMS!!!!
-Cheerwine soda
-candied sweet potatoes
-Peanut butter fudge
-and about a million cookies
On the 6th day of Christmas, my true love gave to me moist lemon pound cake
-EXTRA STRENGTH TUMS!
-Cheerwine soda
-candied sweet potatoes
-peanut butter fudge
-and about a million cookies
-On the 7th day of Christmas, my true love gave to me leftover ham
-moist lemon pound cake
-EXTRA STRENGTH TUMS!
-Cheerwine soda
-candied sweet potatoes
-peanut butter fudge
-and about a million cookies
On the 8th day of Christmas, my true love gave to me homemade caramels
-leftover ham
-moist lemon pound cake
-EXTRA STRENGTH TUMS!
-Cheerwine soda
-candied sweet potatoes
-peanut butter fudge
-and about a million cookies
On the 9th day of Christmas, my true love gave to me cornbread stuffing
-(we'll never eat it all)
-homemade caramels
-moist lemon pound cake
-EXTRA STRENGTH TUMS!
-Cheerwine soda
-candied sweet potatoes
-(I think I'm gonna puke)
-And about a million cookies
On the 10th day of Christmas, my true love gave to me the rum-balls no-one will eat!
-cornbread stuffing
-homemade caramels
-leftover ham
-(What's that fish smell in the fridge?)
-EXTRA STRENGTH TUMS!
-Cheerwine soda
-candied sweet potatoes
-(thank God that's almost gone)
-And about a million cookies
On the 11th day of Christmas, my true love gave to me 1 pound of M&Ms
-(Here comes diabetic shock)
-cornbread stuffing
-(am I the only one eating this?)
-leftover ham
-(the lemon cake is gone)
-EXTRA STRENGTH TUMS!
-Cheerwine soda
-candied sweet potatoes
-peanut butter fudge
-And about a million cookies
On the 12th day of Christmas, my true love gave to me four extremely wired girls!
-1 pound of M&Ms
-the rum-balls no-one eats
-cornbread stuffing
-(something really smells wrong in here)
-leftover ham
-(Is that a loaf of apple bread?)
-EXTRA STRENGTH TUMS!
-Cheerwine soda
-candied sweet potatoes
-peanut butter fudge
-and a gestating 12 lb baby!!!!
Saturday, December 30, 2006
Monday, December 25, 2006
Thursday, December 14, 2006
Excerpts from Katie's "Book about Me"
I wonder why the sky is blue.
I wonder who stole my dessert one day.
I wonder when it will rain.
I wonder if my dad's family is moving.
I wonder whether the clouds are blue or white.
I wonder how come it rains.
I wonder where my dad works.
I wonder what kind of fish live in deep, deep, deep water.
And now please keep in mind that she in only 7, and that even Fathers of the Church like St. Augustine went through some.......unorthodox phases :
If I could make a wish for the world it would be letting girls be priests too because I think it is not fair that only boys can be it
so that girls would think it would be fairer then.
Time to whip out my Blessed Edith Stein and try to channel this in some sort of positive direction, I guess.
I wonder who stole my dessert one day.
I wonder when it will rain.
I wonder if my dad's family is moving.
I wonder whether the clouds are blue or white.
I wonder how come it rains.
I wonder where my dad works.
I wonder what kind of fish live in deep, deep, deep water.
And now please keep in mind that she in only 7, and that even Fathers of the Church like St. Augustine went through some.......unorthodox phases :
If I could make a wish for the world it would be letting girls be priests too because I think it is not fair that only boys can be it
so that girls would think it would be fairer then.
Time to whip out my Blessed Edith Stein and try to channel this in some sort of positive direction, I guess.
Monday, December 11, 2006
Finally some help!
I know, I know, I need to get off of my lazy rear and download some pictures for a "Happy Birthday Abbie!" post.
But in the meantime, I just found some ammunition in my quest to squeak Katie through this Christmas without having the Big Santa Talk! :-p
But in the meantime, I just found some ammunition in my quest to squeak Katie through this Christmas without having the Big Santa Talk! :-p
Monday, December 04, 2006
New Haircut!
I was tired of constantly combing Claire's hair, only to have it immediately revert back to it's unruly ways. She has a little touch of Pig-Pen in her; she can look absolutely filthy merely minutes after taking a bath. So about two weeks ago, when we had an hour to spare between dropping the big girls off at school and Abbie's physical therapy, we made a quick trip to the hair saloon. And I love the results! Claire now looks cute, neat, and at least cleaner all the time now.
And she likes it because it makes her look "like Stephanie from Lazytown." (Note: this show is very passe around here. We haven't watched it in months, yet somehow Stephanie seems to have become the standard of beauty for these girls. Um, in case you haven't seen it, her hair is pink. Should I be concerned?)
Anyway, I think she looks adorable and I wanted to share. Enjoy! :)
We knew this already, but now it's official!
Katie is a Terrific Kid:
(Admittedly, this is not her best picture but it's the only one I took.)
Many years ago, when Katie was still a wee babe, I noticed a bumper sticker that said, "My child is a Terrific Kid at Blah-Blah School!" I turned to Chris and we both started to laugh at how silly and meaningless it was. "All that sticker tells you is that their kid isn't an honor student," Chris said. I heartily agreed.
Fast forward to mid November of this year (I'm a little behind on posts), and I opened a notice from Franklin saying that Katie has been chosen as a "Terrific Kid" for the month, and that we were invited to a little ceremony to honor her and the other students chosen. Guess we were wrong, it isn't completely meaningless after all!
Katie was very excited about the whole thing, and very, very proud. She paid very special attention to how she was behaving because she wanted to be a good representative of what a Terrific Kid should be. It was adorable to watch her.
So we went to the ceremony, where a child from each homeroom gave a short speech to show how they embody the "value of the month" (respect, in this case.) Katie began her speech by reciting the definition of "respect," and thus her future rhetoric style was begun.
And now I am going to be cynical. This was a big deal for Katie. She took it very seriously, and was sincerely honored to have been chosen. We were (are) very proud of her; honestly, the girl absolutely deserved it! But I realized the rub right away, and it only took Katie a month to see it for herself. A "terrific kid" is chosen from EVERY homeroom EVERY month. That means that out of 20 kids in a homeroom, almost half of them will be named a Terrific Kid by the end of the year. Seriously, if you can't score at least one TK award in your elementary school years you have to actually work at being a loser.
In the words of the Incredibles, "If everyone is special, that means that no-one is special."
Today, Katie came home very perturbed because one of the boys chosen as this month's TK pushed her down on the playground. She can't understand why he was chosen, when his actions have often showed a complete disrespect for "the value of the month." So now Katie is in the uncomfortable position of suspecting that her "reward" doesn't mean as much as she thought it did. She's starting, and this is what makes me angry, to feel that she was foolish to be so proud of showing the "value of respect," because she now suspects that the powers-that-be don't actually care about rewarding the most virtuous (and here's another sticky point, of course - they aren't rewarding virtue. They don't even officially recognize virtue. It's all about "values," whatever ideals happen to be in vogue at this minute. Who the hell decides what a "value" is anyway? Isn't it by definition subjective? I value chocolate-loving, but no-one has yet to offer me a reward for my natural predilection, nor should they. What is inspiring is that by which we rise above our natural tendencies, not some watered-down hooey that claims we should be "good people" without having the guts to explain what makes a person "good.")
So, here we are. Katie is still proud of her award but in a muted, confused sort of way. I've put the bumper sticker up on the fridge, because I am proud of what a great daughter, student and sister Katie is. But I will not affix it to my bumper, because I refuse to give in to this herd mentality. My child is special, and maybe some people might think that makes their kids less special but they couldn't be more wrong. It just means that they haven't taken the time to figure what extraordinary tidbits are lurking in their own children.
(Admittedly, this is not her best picture but it's the only one I took.)
Many years ago, when Katie was still a wee babe, I noticed a bumper sticker that said, "My child is a Terrific Kid at Blah-Blah School!" I turned to Chris and we both started to laugh at how silly and meaningless it was. "All that sticker tells you is that their kid isn't an honor student," Chris said. I heartily agreed.
Fast forward to mid November of this year (I'm a little behind on posts), and I opened a notice from Franklin saying that Katie has been chosen as a "Terrific Kid" for the month, and that we were invited to a little ceremony to honor her and the other students chosen. Guess we were wrong, it isn't completely meaningless after all!
Katie was very excited about the whole thing, and very, very proud. She paid very special attention to how she was behaving because she wanted to be a good representative of what a Terrific Kid should be. It was adorable to watch her.
So we went to the ceremony, where a child from each homeroom gave a short speech to show how they embody the "value of the month" (respect, in this case.) Katie began her speech by reciting the definition of "respect," and thus her future rhetoric style was begun.
And now I am going to be cynical. This was a big deal for Katie. She took it very seriously, and was sincerely honored to have been chosen. We were (are) very proud of her; honestly, the girl absolutely deserved it! But I realized the rub right away, and it only took Katie a month to see it for herself. A "terrific kid" is chosen from EVERY homeroom EVERY month. That means that out of 20 kids in a homeroom, almost half of them will be named a Terrific Kid by the end of the year. Seriously, if you can't score at least one TK award in your elementary school years you have to actually work at being a loser.
In the words of the Incredibles, "If everyone is special, that means that no-one is special."
Today, Katie came home very perturbed because one of the boys chosen as this month's TK pushed her down on the playground. She can't understand why he was chosen, when his actions have often showed a complete disrespect for "the value of the month." So now Katie is in the uncomfortable position of suspecting that her "reward" doesn't mean as much as she thought it did. She's starting, and this is what makes me angry, to feel that she was foolish to be so proud of showing the "value of respect," because she now suspects that the powers-that-be don't actually care about rewarding the most virtuous (and here's another sticky point, of course - they aren't rewarding virtue. They don't even officially recognize virtue. It's all about "values," whatever ideals happen to be in vogue at this minute. Who the hell decides what a "value" is anyway? Isn't it by definition subjective? I value chocolate-loving, but no-one has yet to offer me a reward for my natural predilection, nor should they. What is inspiring is that by which we rise above our natural tendencies, not some watered-down hooey that claims we should be "good people" without having the guts to explain what makes a person "good.")
So, here we are. Katie is still proud of her award but in a muted, confused sort of way. I've put the bumper sticker up on the fridge, because I am proud of what a great daughter, student and sister Katie is. But I will not affix it to my bumper, because I refuse to give in to this herd mentality. My child is special, and maybe some people might think that makes their kids less special but they couldn't be more wrong. It just means that they haven't taken the time to figure what extraordinary tidbits are lurking in their own children.
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