When You Wish Upon a Star

Fellow moms out there with multiple kids know that the more kids you have, the more birthday parties you get invited to. This weekend is a triple play of parties for the kids to attend. I don't mind, actually, I love them because it's always so much fun for the kiddos. But then there's the whole gift-buying thing that gets tricky. Today we decided to try the new Disney outlet. I had all 4 girls with me, and before we went in, I gave them the preemptive lecture. "Now remember, we're not shopping for ourselves, we are just looking for one gift, and then we're out of here. Do not have greedy hearts, and start saying you want everything. Do not touch things, stay close to the stroller, don't covet....."

And then we walk in, and I remember that the people that work at Disney have spent their lives majoring in marketing. The bright colors, the sparkly t-shirts, the ornaments, the lip gloss rings. My eyes start to swirl, and I honestly feel the impulse to buy one of everything. I suddenly feel pretty sure that my kids are deprived, and I'm an unfit mother if I don't buy them a stuffed pooh bear, an Ariel nightgown, and a mug that has Mickey Mouse ears sticking out of it. But I gulp down the urge, and try to focus on my task. Maylin is the first to break, "Mom, I want this..." she picks something up. "Remember what I said girls, we can't want everything, we need to be content." Lorelei sighed, "But it's sooo hard."

I had to agree. Bringing them into that store was like bringing a drug addict into a room full of narcotics, and saying, hey don't touch. Honestly, I don't usually get my kids stuff for no reason, but there was a table of $5 t shirts, and I caved. I let them each pick one out, I had to. They were so cute, I mean where else can you get a shirt for $5? Okay, so I'm pathetic, and should not be allowed in stores. But as is customary for my generation, I refuse to take responsibility for my actions. I blame Walt Disney for creating "the happiest place on earth," and animated movies full of catchy tunes, long-haired princesses, and predictable sidekicks.

Darn that madman.

The Clock is Ticking....

Soooo people, let's get right to it. Some of you out there like to procrastinate, and as a result of that procrastination, I get Christmas cards AFTER Christmas or not at all. People, I love to see your smiling faces on my bulletin board, on my fridge, on my my special, "Look how many friends I have Christmas card photo board," but apparently many of you don't care about me, my Christmas decor, and how I like to show off all my Christmas card photos to my family and friends around the area.

Take a family photo this weekend, and then you can place your order before the mad rush of orders all the procrastinators will be making, and then you can send me your card, and make me happy. Seriously, try to beat Sandhya to it, I almost always get her card within the first 5 days of December, and it sits alone on the red board, waiting for the dozens of other cards to join them (they usually come in a mad rush on the 23rd of December). Think of how superior you'll feel to all your friends who wait till December 20th....

Oh, and you other Leamans out there, you're the guiltiest of them all. My kids want to see pictures of their cousins who live sooo, very far away..... sigh. (Guilt trip, guilt trip...)

The "Poodle Girls"

Every year for Halloween, my cousin Eliza, her husband, and 2 girls come over for a Halloween feast and trick or treating. We love the tradition of it all. What was funny was everyone kept asking the girls what they were, and my girls kept saying, "We're poodle girls!"

In other words (they think to themselves), "We don't actually know what we are, nor do we realize that other kids actually get to choose their costumes, because our mom is controlling. She plots and plans for months what will look cute in pictures, and for now we really have no say. But we will get our revenge in high school when we outnumber her, and we form our own coup and force her to buy us clothes she doesn't even like....."

Oh yeah, we'll see about that, but for now, you're wearing matching cardigans, and you're ganna like it. And another thing, that rule I told you girls about weeding out all the chocolate candies and giving them to your mom so they won't "melt," that's a real rule. Eat your hard candy and like it. The Snickers are mine.

Pumpkin Carving

Who says Californians don't really experience fall? Our fabulous friends, the Naimos have moved back to town from the desert of AZ, and we had a pumpkin carving night last night. (In other words, we watched our husbands do a bunch of time-consuming and messy work while we chatted, ate pumpkin bread, and sort of watched the kids). And hey, check me out I'm Suzy-baker and I made these cuties for the preschool Harvest day they have every year. I found that when I have nothing to do in the summer, I don't enjoy baking. But when I have piles of essays to grade, bathrooms to clean, and laundry to do, suddenly, I get the urge to bake..... or blog.... or talk on the phone ..... even playing Barbies with the girls is looking pretty good right now.......

Fine, I'm going. I'm going to grade right now. Just as soon as I post some more pictures......

No. Cal Visit

My father in law, a retired pastor, has just taken an interim position as a pastor helping out a Presbyterian church in Sunnyvale. We needed an excuse to visit the Northern part of Cali. because we've never really been up there before, so we took a 3 day visit up to see Grandpa Dennis, and my sister in law Carol, and her daughter Rhaquel came too. We stayed at our neighbor's parents home, which was beautiful by the way, and saw some sights. We ambled through the streets of Los Gatos, dined on scallops and risotto, took a train ride at a State Park in Feldson, strolled through Santana Row in San Jose, and enjoyed a Sunday with the saints listening to my father in law preach the word. It was just the change of scenery I needed after weeks of grading essays and dreaming about lice infestations....

Nit-Pickin

As it turns out the term, "nit-pickin," took on whole new meaning for me this past weekend. A nit is a LICE EGG, yep a lice egg, and the term nit-pickin' comes from the idea of people picking nits out of hair. (Start scratching your head right now as you read on). Basically, a few families at church have gotten lice, and because my kids have been in contact with them a bit, I've had the subject on my mind. So on Saturday, I saw something small and sticky in Lorelei's hair, and I FREAKED because I had heard these tiny lice eggs are sticky, they kind of stick to the hair follicles. I bagged it and took it to my friend's house. We both totally thought this was an egg (though it may have been marshmallow from the smores we ate the night before). I FREAKED out more, and threw it away, terrified it would hatch and infest my house. In retrospect, I should have kept it, instead of doing what I did next.

First I spent $100 on lice shampoo/treatments/etc. Then I came home and from Sat. afternoon on, I have been running my washer/dryer. Heat kills lice, so every stuffed animal, hair product, pillow, blanket, etc. has been run through my dryer. I treated all of the girls hair and then straightened all of their hair with my scorchin' hot straighter (again heat kills lice, so this seemed pretty smart to me). I almost dyed my hair, because hair dye chemicals kill lice. Basically, I've been going through everything in my house like a tasmanian devil on a mission. In gist, after hours and hours of combing through every strand of my girls' hairs, I don't think any of them actually have it, but I'm still taking precautions and going to continue checking them all week.

So the question is what have I learned from this?

1. I tried to maintain perspective, this was not a life-threatening illness, but it would be SERIOUSLY INCONVENIENT.

2. I have SOOOOO much compassion for my friend whose kids had it. The implications of having it are a HUGE PAIN, your life stops because you can't be around people, and to take all of the kids stuff and clean it takes forever.

3. Husbands are not helpful in these instances. For some reason the idea of lice sends chills down my spine, whereas Dan thinks it's no biggie. All he was worried about was the fact that I had spent $100 dollars on shampoos. He thought I was "over-reacting," as if that's possible.

4. And finally, be grateful for the boring day you may be having right now.

Fall Observations

* First of all the Pumpkin Spice Lattes at Starbucks are like having pumpkin pie in a cup. Hello happiness.

* Secondly, if you know me, you know I've had sinus issues since the 4th grade. I perpetually have to blow my nose. In elementary school they used to say I was responsible for killing the rainforest because I went through so much kleenex. Well, now I'm using a netti pot sinus contraption and it's sort of working. Too bad it feels like I'm being water boarded every time I use it.

* Thirdly, today whilst lecturing on the short story genre to 17 bored teenagers, I went over a Sir Arthur Conan Doyle story with the kids (you know the Sherlock Holmes author). I was explaining how Holmes and Watson's characters are the perfect complement to one another, and it occurred to me that Dr. Greg House and his BFF Wilson are modern day replicas of the two. Seriously there are tons of parallels, I could write a paper on it, if I had time, and if I actually thought anyone would want to read it.

* Lastly my pastor's sermon on Sunday was AMAZING, so go to fccoxnard.org and listen to it sometime. It will make you reflect on our humanity and God's sovereignty and how they all tied together in the account of Abraham, Sarah, Ishmael, and Isaac. I had read the story so many times, and yet never thought about so many aspects of it that my pastor pointed out. If I were interviewing with Oprah right now, I'd tell her it was full of "Ah-Ha moments," for me.

* And speaking of Oprah, you know how I had a list going for a while called, TTTMK (Things to Teach my Kids). Well here's #3: You're replaceable. I mean not as my kid, of course, but this week, I saw Journey on Oprah, and they were talking about how their lead singer walked out on the group, and now they have a new lead singer that's even better than him and super humble and inspiring. They found the guy on You Tube, and he's from the Philippines. So don't get too big for your britches someday and act like a diva, because if you do, well two words people, two words : You Tube.

* Okay, gotta stop observing, and go start grading essays. The red pen awaits.