Quotable Kids

Whenever my kids say something I find amusing, I quickly jot it down on paper so I get the wording right.

Last week Oliver was looking out the window and noted, "Mom, some trees in the backyard got naked!"

Jane was telling me about a friend she made at school. "We're exactly the same. We both like to scream for no reason, we both like to bounce, and we both don't like the mile run."

Oliver and I had just finished running errands one day, and he had been a particularly good boy. As we drove home I told him, "You were such a good sport!" He didn't take it as a compliment. "I'm not a spork!"

The other day as I followed Oliver into his room he asked, "Do you want to see how I can skip?" Before I had time to answer he added, "I can skip just like a super hero!"

I don't want to leave Cora out, so here's something from when she was 4. (I had to grab her baby book to help me remember.) Anyway, I guess she didn't like the smallish playground I drove to one day, 'cause she tartly remarked, "Baby parks are the stupidest, trashiest parks in the world."

Maybe these quotes are only funny to me. If so, then so be it. I'm just glad for any little thing that makes me giggle.

Here's a sweet one to end with...

When Cora was 2-1/2, I pointed to a world map on a bulletin board at church. I asked her what it was. She answered, "Heavenly Father's drawing".

How's that for a short blog post? I do realize most of my posts are way too stinking long!

Tidbits

Hi. Get set for a mishmash of Shan-related info.

Is it just me, or is Christmas in a bigger hurry this year than ever before? Don't read me wrong, I enjoy Christmastime. But it's not time yet. About a week ago I innocently walked into a store, only to hear "Feliz Navidad" playing. What the...? Our Halloween candy isn't even gone yet!
I'm careful to avoid Lite 108 on the rare occasion I'm listening to the radio. They started playing nonstop Christmas tunes just a little too soon. I sidestep the rows of holiday merchandise everywhere I turn. I avert my eyes; it just feels wrong to look at it yet. Thanksgiving will be over soon enough. Then, and only then, I'll catch the Christmas spirit.

Last week I took Jane to look for shoes. One of our stops was Ross Dress for Less. Winding our way through rows of random clothes, Jane commented, "For some reason Ross reminds me of D.I." =)

One of my goals this year was to expand my Halloween decoration collection, which was embarrassingly slim. I planned to hit the stores after Halloween to rustle up some good clearance. I didn't have much luck anywhere except Kohl's. They had some really cute stuff that was right up my alley.


Nothing says Halloween like a jovial jack-o-lantern. The one on the left looks like it says 'meats'. It's actually 'treats'. That little guy on the right has a flickering, battery-operated candle inside. So homey.

This is the cutest night light I've ever seen! I can hardly wait until next October to get it out and let it shine.


I like to sift through the clearance jewelry at Fred Meyer whenever I get the chance. I can usually find something cute and quite cheap!

I got these earrings for under $2. They reminded me of some my friend (Joanna) was wearing when I saw her last summer. I liked them a lot, so I was pumped to happen upon something similar at Freddy's.


I picked up some lunch bags at Target today.

At first glance, I thought, whoever designed the packaging should've just cut the sentimental crap and put "Packed with lunch", because that's what will actually fill the sacks. After I bothered to take the picture, it occurred to me that the bags' touted features sound like some kind of sick personal ad. =) Shame on you, Target marketing!


Speaking of Target, I've often wondered why they don't have any music playing over the speaker system. I typically feel out of place in a quiet store. I like to have something to quietly sing along to as I shop. I may have figured out why Target doesn't do it. You know when one of your favorite songs starts playing, one you haven't heard in a really long time, and you're happily singing along, anticipating the chorus, and then some jerk gets on the microphone to announce what specials are going on, RIGHT in the middle of the best part? I know what it's like. It induces rage. I think Target realizes this, and that is why they choose to have silence be their shoppers' companion.

Speaking of shopping, is it weird that my right shoulder is physically incapable of keeping a purse on it? My left shoulder holds one just fine, but I've tried to put one on the other, and it just slides right off. Is it the same for everyone? Maybe it's just psychological. I'm not used to it, it feels weird, and my brain tells my shoulder to reject the purse.


My sweet little Superman. He wears this so much, I have a hard time recognizing him in normal clothes.


On a recent weekend, cousin Malory slept over at our house. The girls got up in the morning and decided to dress up in goofy outfits. I have no idea where they get ideas like this. ;)

Mal, Cora and (not wanting to be left out of the picture) Oliver.



Jane is a drawing machine! I really hope she keeps it up. She loves it and always puts so much care into her work.

She's always coming up with cute ideas.

And she likes making living room forts...

The tough part is knowing when it's time to take it apart and put the couch back together.



Uh-oh...
My sprinkle shelf is bursting at the seams. Yes, all the bottles from the front of the cupboard to the back of the Lazy Suzan are sprinkles. I do believe my collection has grown. I think it's about time to reorganize. Or bake cookies and drape them with my sugar shapes.


On November 1, I had a hair appointment. I wanted to switch things up a little, so I went darker. I should have taken a picture beforehand, cause it's kind of hard to tell what's different without anything to compare it to. Just take my word for it; it's darker than it was. I think it had faded considerably before I took pictures, but oh well.


The bangs are back in town. For now. They're to mask my saggy, aging forehead. Okay, it's not too saggy, but there is some obvious wear and tear.
I'm enjoying the change. Even though I thought I hated myself with bangs. They're long enough to wear swept to the side if I so desire.

I couldn't decide which one picture most appropriately portrayed my bangs, so I included a few. It's funny how they look different in every shot. Tricky bangs.

Bangs in the living room.


Bangs in the car.


Bangs in the backyard.

Get the picture? I have dang bangs.

The gal who did my hair is one of those people who calls everyone "love". It's a little uncomfortable, but in a strange way it's comforting to have someone I don't know address me as though my name was Love. I wonder what it takes to become one of "those" people. How does it happen? At what point in a person's life does he or she begin using terms of endearment as substitutes for any old someone's given name? I wonder if there have been any studies on such people. Like the waitress or cashier who calls unfamiliar faces "babe", "darlin'" or "hon". I bet they're pretty happy and confident. It's funny to imagine myself or any of my friends or family doing that. Maybe I'll try it. But would people know I was just pretending to be that kind of person?

Okay, that's enough of my rambling for now.

Have a happy day, doll face.

My Life's Soundtrack

My ears, brain and heart want to thank They Might Be Giants for making them so happy.
I won't pretend to know much of the band's history. I'll let the semi-reliable Wikipedia do some explaining if anyone's interested. For anyone who likes fun, look no further. TMBG offers one off-the-wall treat after another. If you're anything like me, you'll be begging for more. If not, I guess I don't know what to tell ya.

TMBG have been together since the early '80s, but I don't think I ever heard of them until junior high. There was a kid in my photography class named Jon (conveniently enough, since the band is made of two Johns) who was obsessed with them. I was too focused on Beatlemania and other golden oldies to worry about introducing any "new" music to my small library of cassette tapes. Plus, this Jon guy stood his ground as a Beatle-hater. As a result, I didn't trust his taste in music.

The only TMBG songs I'd heard by the end of high school were "Istanbul (Not Constantinople)" and possibly "Birdhouse In Your Soul"- only because that Jon kid brought his CD to the stake Saturday Night Dances and made friends with the DJ.

Fast forward a few years... Becky, my friend and roommate, had a copy of Flood, one of TMBG's most successful albums. I borrowed it and listened to it repeatedly. I kinda sorta took over the CD, and eventually Becky let me keep it. =)

Fast forward a couple more years. I have no idea why, but I still only had the one TMBG CD, though I knew full well there were others. In 2001, I bought their freshly released Mink Car. I loved most of the songs on it.

Fast forward some more years. I obtained many of the albums I'd been missing out on for too stinking long. But I've made up for lost time. During the past thousand or so days, I have come to fully appreciate the music created by (in my reliable opinion) the 2nd greatest band ever.
I'm positively crazy over their music. I never get tired of it. There's just so much of it to go around.

I got to see them in concert 2 years ago this month, and again this month. Move over, Thanksgiving- November is TMBG month. On second thought, Turkey Day can stay. Because I'm very thankful that my ears can daily feast on the music of such a delightful band. Plus, I really like turkey dinners...

I can't go on without summing up the recent concert. It was everything I hoped for and more. I loved being there. I made sure to bring some special somebodies to enjoy the long-awaited event; Erin and Barry, Gavin and Maren, Mike and Megan, Ryan and me. I enjoyed the show enough for everyone there. I understand that it's not as fun to attend a concert that can't be sung along to, and that was about how it was for my siblings and their spouses. They just weren't as familiar with the music. Overall, I think they liked it. There was some mention of the amps being too loud, but I was too giddy to be bothered by it.
On a side note, I swear I made eye contact with John Linnell a few times while I was singing along to their merry music-making. We were quite close to the stage. He had to know I was loving the show, based on the flames of elation engulfing my face. Needless to say, I went to sleep that night wearing a smile (and jammies, of course).

Here's a pic Gavin took during the encore. I love watching them make music! I thought it was adorable how Linnell kept looking at the set list with a confused smirk on his face. Apparently John Flansburgh didn't write it down very legibly.
I love their songs, their voices, their humor, their creativity. They really are musical geniuses.

I've selected a couple of songs to share. I'm hoping the links work. If not, stay tuned. I'll try again. These are important links; two of my faves, although there are many, many more where these came from.

"Dinner Bell"-

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x8PWHOVYhI8


"You Probably Get That A Lot"-


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=anWrcmKsYI8

Ok, for some reason I can't get the second link to work. I don't get it. I did the same exact thing with both, and the second one doesn't work. I would highly suggest going to YouTube itself, looking up the band, and searching the song. And just keep going on like that, clicking on song after wonderful song. Marsha, I'm talking to you. =)

I feel like posting a bunch of lyrics and links to songs (if only I could get them to work!), but I don't want to overwhelm anyone. These things take time. Plus, the words have much less potency without the music.

I came up with the idea this week of starting a home-based pyramid business where I host parties and get everyone enthused about They Might Be Giants. =) I would never be interested in selling kitchen supplies or jewelry, but I could see myself putting on a peppy presentation about my precious TMBG. =) Who wants to be the first host???? Ha.

Here's a little something John Linnell once said:

“

I have a personal, a real obsession, with melody and harmony. I can really never get enough of that kind of thing. I don't think too much about the cultural context of what we're doing. I think John [Flansburgh] is more on that end of it. He thinks more in terms of the larger picture, the larger meaning of what we're doing. I'm more into the technical end: the chords and the rhythms and the melodies.

”

This explains a lot, and his obsession is my obsession. I melt when I hear those melodies and harmonies. That guy has a real knack for sound and rhythm. Many of their songs are so complex. Many of them don't make sense. But that's what makes them unique. I love how I feel when I listen to their catchy tunes. Love, love, love. That's what I think about that. Yep, I'm obsessed.

...Anyone want to buy a CD at my first home party...?

October!

October was a busy-fun month. I can scarcely believe it's over.

Here's the fairly thorough low-down...

10/2 - The first nephew I ever had turned 14! (Isaac, who is Erin & Barry's son.) He's growing up to be a fine young man.

10/7 - My Grandma Pinney's birthday. She's my mom's mother, and has been living with my parents for the past few years. We went over to celebrate with some Mexican food, cake and ice cream.

10/8 - I got to babysit two of my nieces (Ruby and Maisie) and a nephew (Fletcher) while their parents went to see Bill Cosby. Ruby is 7 months old and the cutest little thing ever.

10/11 - My mom took family pictures of us at the Boise Depot. That is always an experience. We only ended up with a few passable ones. I guess that's all we need, right? It's just tricky getting five people to keep their eyes open all at once.

10/14 - Ryan and I took his sister and her husband to my sister's Chicks n' Giggles (improv comedy) show downtown. My brother, Gavin, is currently participating in the group as well. Ryan's sister was shocked that my sister could be so zany on stage. She said she wondered how Megan and I could even be related. Hmmm... Guess she hasn't seen "that" side of me yet in the 11+ years I've known Ryan's family. Anyway, the show was a lot of fun. I love having hilarious siblings.

10/21 - Jackie, Bethany, Haley and Malory came over to our house to decorate cupcakes for the upcoming Halloween party at Shirley's. Cora and her friend also helped. I did a few, but mostly I was monitoring the frosting situation. The kids did a great job on these!




What a grand activity for a Friday afternoon!


10/22 - Shirley's Halloween party started at 5pm. We got there, ate taco soup, then played games, including a cupcake walk. After dark, most everyone slunk through Shirley's awesome spook alley. She'd decked out the garage with all kinds of creepy things, complete with sound effects. She did a great job, but the kids didn't act scared, so she felt like it was a waste of time and energy. It wasn't, though. She is always so good at creating neat stuff. I was very impressed with how it turned out.

Earlier that day, I planted a whole bunch of tulip, daffodil and crocus bulbs in our front yard. I placed them in the bare spots betwixt the remaining summer flowers. I really hope they come up in the spring. This was my first time working with bulbs, so I'm not sure how picky they are about soil conditions, and if they care who's handling them and what-not.

Unbeknownst to me at the time, Ryan took pictures of Oliver helping me.



I worked for 2-1/2 hours. My arms hurt like the dickens for a few days after that. I hope "no pain, no gain" applies here.


10/25 - Ryan and I took the kids to The Farmstead (corn maze, etc.) for the first time. The last time I went to a corn maze was probably the fall of 1999, maybe even the year before that. Sad, I know. But traditions have to start somewhere, sometime, so I suppose all's not lost. I wish we would have gone before the weather turned cruelly cold, but we didn't.

The first thing the kids did was jump on this enormous inflatable pillow.



Two of our nephews and Ryan's sister came along with us. (Not pictured: Ryan's sister)

Cora mustering all of her height.


Janey on the hay ride.


Messy Royce, Oliver and Ethan. These boys have a lot of fun together.


We didn't take any pictures within the maze, but we finished it without any tears of frustration rolling down our faces. (Thanks to Curtis Stigers for the classic song lyric I just borrowed and slightly altered.)


Who doesn't enjoy a game of tetherball? Here are Cora and Jane giving it their all. Just before this, I played a round with Cora and won. I felt so alive.


Cora sitting on the side of the cornbox. It's like a sandbox, only with dry corn. I think they should have a creamed cornbox next year. That way, if you get some in your mouth, free dinner!


Aboard the ever-popular cow train.




Jane, Ryan and Oliver slowly sliding south.




The only evidence that I was there is this pic of the back of my wavy head.

10/26 - I went on a horsey ride with Maria in the Boise foothills. (We rode separate horses.) It was so fun, even though I was a little nervous. Maria wanted to make sure I got a real ride, so she got us cantering a few times. That's fast, according to me. I may have wet my pants a bit, and I thought for a brief moment that my neck might snap, but other than that, it was exciting! Maria's horse was kind of hard to keep up with, so I urged "my" horse to trot at times. That made for a lot of bouncing, which showed no mercy to my underside. All I could focus on was the sound of myself rhythmically slapping against the saddle at full force. That sound, mixed with all the other bouncing going on, made me laugh. Then the thought of someone laughing while horseback riding made me laugh even more. Everything seems funnier with Maria. We wanted Renee to come, but she couldn't that day. There will come a time. Oh yes...

10/28 - Oliver's 4th Birthday! He'd been antsy with anticipation ever since Cora and Jane's August birthdays. The week before, when everyone was coming over for cupcake decorating, Oliver asked me, "Is it going to be my birthday when everyone gets here?"
I said, "No, your birthday is comin' up next week."
Oliver: "I thought it was comin' up right now."
Me: "It's next week."
Oliver: "It is next week!"
Somehow he managed to wait 6 more days until his big day.
We planned to take him and the girls to Pojo's after school, then come back home for cake, ice cream and presents. It worked out nicely.

I only took two pictures at Pojo's. I've come to realize that I have WAY too many pictures of the kids. I think the digital world has gotten a little out of control, at least for me. I have so many oodles of pictures that they've almost lost their meaning. Sifting through them all is kind of mind-boggling. It makes me appreciate the much more manageable number of pictures my mom took of our childhood. A few here and there. Enough to prove that we were alive and well, but not overkill. Like me, now. I got to thinking if I took 100 pictures every month, that's a dozen hundred every year! I can't wait to pull out the eleventy thousand photo albums when my kids' dates come to the house. From here on out, I'm going to be more choosy about my picture taking sprees.

On that note, here's my birthday boy.



He likes to wear clip-on ties with his superhero outfits. =) He used to put one on no matter what shirt he was wearing.



I took closeups of the cake I made, so I felt obligated to post one here.


Oliver and his slack-jawed sisters.





I guess in some ways I like having a huge assortment of pictures.


Present time! I found these cute gift bags and thought they seemed appropriate for a Halloween-time birthday.

He got some action figures and stuff. He seemed pleased.

The next day he said the sweetest thing. "Mom, I'm happy that you letted me have a birthday." He paused and asked, "Am I still 4?"

I love my Oliver.


10/29 - We had our ward Halloween party. They had people bring soup or chili for dinner, then there were a few carnival-type games going. The costume parade was fun to see.

After the party, I went over to Maria's house to watch "Teen Witch" with her and Renee. I finally brought Maria her housewarming gift. A hand towel for the guest bathroom.

She and I came up with this idea over the summer when I was helping her paint their guest bathroom. It really doesn't need much explanation.

I found some felt, iron-on letters at the store. I was thinking of actually getting it embroidered somewhere, but I'd hate for them to steal my idea. ;) What do you think, should I try and market these? Who knows, it's probably been done.


10/31 - Halloween 2011

I got one of these for each of the girls at the beginning of the month so they could wear them a few times. There weren't any available in my size, dang it. I wouldn't be surprised if this is what my bones look like.


Here's what we scraped up for costumes...



A purple and blue fairy, Supergirl, Thor and... can you tell what I am?



I saw this idea on the cover of a magazine. I was hoping Cora or Jane would go for it, but no such luck. For a while I couldn't decide what I wanted to be. When I realized I would have a valid excuse to wear my black and white checkered bloomers in public, I knew I was going to be the paper doll!


It was a fun little project. I traced a blouse and skirt of mine onto poster board, cut it out, spray-painted it, then added my own personal touches.


I got some elastic and hot-glued a length of it to the back of each piece so I could basically step into it and pull it up. I'm happy to report I didn't have any wardrobe malfunctions the entire night.


I got lazy with Jane and Oliver, but they made their own choices. I prefer putting together costumes, but sometimes it's just easier to buy the dang outfit and call it good.


Pretty purple lashes I got for her.


I liked how she looked.


Mike and Megan! They (with 4-year-old Fletcher) came candy collecting with us, along with Gavin's family and my mom. Ryan unexpectedly got the night off work. The other pharmacist offered to trade shifts with him so he could be with us. This explains his reason for not having a costume. At least, it's a good excuse. ;)


Gavin, Maisie and Maren. Baby Ruby was tucked snugly in her stroller. She was the red Angry Bird. Maren made all the hats and Maisie's entire bird costume. Wow! I don't think she even had a pattern.

Oliver and Fletcher. My boy is indeed my boy. After every house, he'd ask excitedly, "Are we still going (to the next house)?" Lucky for him, trick-or-treating is in my blood. Even at my ripe age I find it difficult to pass by a group of houses with porch lights on during candy-giving hours. The kids want to go home before I do. I think I may have a problem. A candy problem.

One other thing I have to add is: I can't believe all the moms I heard of who didn't let the kids keep any of their candy come Nov. 1! What is the point of going trick-or-treating if you don't let the kids have any of it? Yeah, the moms offer money as a trade, but what the heck?? It's called wrecking Halloween.


The kids nearly filled their pumpkins to the top.




Cousin Malory came with us too.







Halloween is fun. I love all the costumes and candy and creepy things. I hope everyone had a bootiful October!