Girl Toys - Boyfriends - and Halloween

Again, I have let an entire week go by without a post! Still, I managed to get the Prop 8 widget going ... please go and explore it!

As a mother of 3 boys and 1 girl, I tend to wonder if my little girl will ever want anything to do with "girly" things. Well, the phrase just be careful what you wish for comes to mind. After playing with such friends as Bria and Elle, Ginny has found the girl toys. More than that, she doesn't want anything to do with the boys' trains and trucks (unless she can snatch it from them so they will scream and chase her - but that doesn't count). So, I broke down and took her to the store to find some girl toys. She picked out a little tea set and has been carrying around pieces of it ever since - Josh has had lots of fun with it too. Ben seem to be mostly happy that Ginny isn't after his cars so much anymore. It looks like I might get a little girl after all. Did I mention she loves shoes too?

Going along those lines, Ginny has found her first boyfriend. We had Roman and his brother Nick over for a couple of days this week and Ginny thought Roman was the living end! Seriously, she followed him around just jabbering away at him. If he sat down then she was right next to him ... if not trying worm onto his lap. Poor Roman was a pretty good sport. He finally started edging around the room trying to stay ahead of her, telling us "this is weirding me out." Not bad for a first pick Ginny. True to form, Ginny had no trouble telling her swain good-bye this afternoon ... I wonder if she will do it again next time we see them?

In other news, we have had so much going on around here. First, the fence is more or less finished - I just have to wait for a kind neighbor with a tractor to come and help move the dirt around so that the ground level around the fence is high enough to keep the kids and the dog inside. I also got my new dishwasher installed, new faucets put in, and Byron started putting the closet organizers together. In addition, Byron finished is first fall class and I have been working on my ongoing class (as well as trying to encourage Robert in pursuing academia). On that note, Byron's next class started yesterday and the textbook for this one is entitled Wound Care Essentials ... let's just say that Byron might have lost his study buddy. Let me explain, as a physical therapist, Byron can only cut "dead" skin. This means that any wound he needs to know anything about is one that is already putrified - you see where I am going with this. To add to my trepidation, the format of the class is all in MS Power Point presentations (ewww more pictures) and there is a "lab" package arriving. I told Byron that if any part of a cadaver ends up on my front porch I will lose it ... he just laughed and said it would most likely be a dead cat - as if that made it any better! This is going to be a great class for Halloween!

Speaking of Halloween, my mother just sent costumes for the kids and I got them tried on today. The kids are so excited - I think I will have to hide the costumes so that they make it to the actual Halloween date. Josh got his wish and will be Dash of the Incredibles. Ben is too fun as Buzz Lightyear, and Ginny is adorable as Tinker Bell. Robert is still trying to decide. Everything he has thought of so far also comes with a full face mask, so he is working on it.

I Never Forward These Types of E-mails ....

Just so that you know Dani how very special you are: here are the "tagged" answers

Ten years ago I:

I have a hard time remembering what happened yesterday - this is soooo not fair. Okay ...

1. Robert's father and I had just separated and I was living in Sherwood, Oregon (getting ready to move to Scappoose, OR). Not a really happy or even bright spot in my past but I didn't make the rules for this stupid game. On the plus side, I had the most beautiful baby boy that anyone could imagine and here he is:

2. I was just getting into Civil War reenacting (a hobby that really accentuated my love of costumes and ability to nitpick every historical movie ever made ...)
3. I was working as a legal assistant for Klarquist Sparkman, et al. in the World Trade Center (downtown Portland rather than NYC)
4. Dani ... I really can't come up with five different things - I have probably repressed them!
5. Okay, I remember, I was organizing a team to run the Hood to Coast race (195 miles). I was even starting to train so that I could run on the team (I ended up just organizing it and volunteering though)

5 Things on my ToDo list today:

1. Read and annotate Mises 50 laws of Economics; CS Lewis' Screwtape Letters; and Bastiat's Economic Sophisms
2. Unpack the garage
3. Hang pictures
4. File my private school affidavit
5. Get my hair permed
(this doesn't even scratch the surface of my list, but you only asked for 5 - thank goodness)

5 Snacks that I enjoy

1. A really great salad I found today at Vons called "Very Berry Chocolate Salad" Seriously, it has chunks of dark chocolate, ripe strawberries and blueberries, all covered in a sweet raspberry viniagrette ...yum!
2. Dove Silk - dark chocolate (can you sense an overriding theme here?)
3. Pringles ... almost any flavor (I don't really care for Ranch)
4. trail mix - at least if it has M&Ms in it
5. dark chocholate M&Ms (it is definitely the wrong time of the month to be asking me these questions)

5 Things I Would Do if I Were a Millionaire

1. Pay off all of my debts
2. Pay off all of my families' debts
3. Buy Byron the Honda S2000 that he thinks he really wants
4. Buy Lynn & Ed a really expensive auger so that the next time they get sucked into a job like my fence they don't have to kill themselves to do it :-)
5. finish all of the "projects" we are planning to do to the house over the next decade or so (that includes the extra livings space, matching furniture, etc.)

5 Places I Have Lived

1. Utah (lots of cities)
2. Oregon (lots of cities and even a few towns)
3. Tennessee - Clarksville
4. Republic of Panama - Panama City
5. California (San Diego, Lakewood, and Lake Isabella)
I only left out Maryland and Mississippi for the states :-)

5 Jobs I Have Had

1. Legal Assistant/Paralegal
2. Schoolbus Driver
3. High School Head Secretary
4. Executive Assistant
5. Wife and Mother (goes hand in hand since even if I didn't have children I'd still be mothering my husband ... just ask him)

I Tag ...

1. Allyson
2. Lynn
3. Heather

Okay, I don't know anyone else who actually has a blog and hasn't already been put through this! Hope you're happy now Dani!!!!!!! ;-)

Way too much life

It seems like forever since I sat down to blog ... really at least a year has passed since last week. Still, tonight we are excited because we have a new front door! Isn't it pretty?

(The old door is the one on the left) :-)

My only question now is how to give adequate notice to strangers who are visiting (I used to have this notice on the front door)

In other news, the fence is nearly complete. Of course, I let the dog and the kids out this morning and the dog headed for the neighbor's fence found the only low spot ... it took him all of about 2 minutes. Ben wandered the entire length of the fence, stopping every few feet to reach out and shake it ... is there any doubt as to whose son this is? Ben was very upset when Boggart managed to find a hole he missed (or maybe he was just upset that he couldn't fit through it too). So, the fencing challenges continue ...

I just returned from a fabulous seminar entitled Face-to-Face With Greatness offered by the George Wythe University. It was amazing! I came home incredibly energized and ready to get my education rolling, I was ready to be inspiring to my family (because you know, of course, that the only one you can actually educate is yourself ... think about it!), etc.! I must admit that I left my poor husband hiddeously outnumbered for 48 complete hours! I, of course, returned to no clean towels and not a single clean dish in the kitchen (this I expected, although I still don't know how they managed to dirty every single one). What I didn't expect was ...

Yep, it's all gone ... he "bic'd" it. My first thought? I can find a great blog title for this: "Husband shaves Head in Protest ..." I have to say that I do actually like it, I just wasn't expecting it. And, no he isn't actually protesting anything execpt nature itself (at least that was his story).

Finally, I found a note on my blog that I had been tagged, so that will have to be another post. I honestly am not ignoring it, I just haven't gotten that far yet Dani ... thanks for the thought though!