This Person I Want to Be

Okay, I know you're out there ... overachieving shoppers who already have a neatly crossed-off holiday gift list and a pile of sparkling gifts, wrapped, tagged, and displayed under your flawless Christmas tree, placed there just as the Thanksgiving turkey was cleared away.

That's the kind of shopper I want to be.  Every year, I vow that THIS will be the year that I shop all year, a little at a time, get the best bargains, and have beautifully wrapped presents, color-coded by family and displayed under my tree on Thanksgiving weekend.  Well, it's the Monday after Thanksgiving and we just dragged all the decoration boxes from the garage this morning and Black Friday was the first of my shopping for the season (and I am nowhere close to being done!).

Sometimes I wonder about this person I want to be.  Where is she?  I know all about her, but not how to find her.  She is energetic and organized, friendly and fun, savvy and smart, and loving and kind.  She's a great mom, making hot breakfasts for her kids each morning before taking them to school ... on time.  She's a fitness fanatic, jogging after dropping off the kids and saving Pilates for rainy days.  She's a fabulous cook, managing to pack healthy lunches and have well-balanced, homemade and delicious dinners on the table each evening.  Her house is immaculate, a sparkling tribute to the family she loves. 

She is thrifty and creative, with a closet full of beautifully crafted scrapbooks, hand-made crafts, and personalized stationery for the hand-written letters she sends weekly to friends and family.  She follows a schedule each day, making a positive impact at work, volunteering at her kids' schools and on post nearby, teaching Sunday School at church, giving to the needy, and providing hope for the hopeless.  She does all this while maintaining a svelte figure and is the fashionista of the neighborhood, always leading in the current trends.

Her husband adores her and she spends her time making sure he knows how appreciated he is.  Her children rise and call her blessed ... and are the best-dressed, best-behaved, best-looking kids around (this, at least, is not such a stretch ... they are really cute kids!!).  They complete their chores with nary a complaint and ask what they can do to further contribute to the family.  They have giving spirits and always think of others first.  They make straight As, are musical geniuses and gifted athletes, and plan to cure cancer when they grow older.

Ah, this is just the start of this person I see out there ... there are glimpses of truth in it, but the reality is that this lady is happy to make it through a day with no major catastrophes  ... and no phone call reminders regarding late library books, forgotten field trip permission forms, or missed meetings.  Such is my life; truly a work in progress.

1st CAV Welcomes More Heroes Home

Just minutes after stepping off the bus at his own Welcome Home Ceremony, this CAV Soldier holds out his arms to encourage first steps from his baby girl.

He is seeing her for the first time in months, having been deployed for the past year to Iraq.

Is anything sweeter than that?

A Christmas Carol -- Bah!

I admit it; I have committed what a good friend terms a "Mommy Foul."  I was not diligent enough in checking my creepy-radar before I took my nine-year-old to see "A Christmas Carol" this weekend. I carelessly assumed that a Disney movie with Jim Carrey targeted to kids would be .... well, not so creepy. 

I envisioned more of an animated, humorous, Mary Poppins-like, don't-we-all-feel-like-a-Merry Christmas-now kind of movie. What we saw was a very dark, scary, and creepy version of this classic tale.

I know, I know. You're all shaking your fingers at me and thinking, "Hasn't she heard the story of 'A Christmas Carol' before?" Yes, of course I have, and yes, I knew it would have ghosts that visit, but I was fooled into thinking that they would be a happy, Casper-like ghosts, smiling and gently reminding our beloved Scrooge to be more giving and kind. These ghosts were more of the 'your-soul-is-bound-for-Hell' kind of ghosts and the scenes were actually pretty scary. Added to that, we watched it in 3-D so every twisted, dissolving corpse and ghoul-ridden chase seemed to land right in our laps.

To my credit, I did conduct some research before we went, and my kids are well-aware of the fact that "PG" means "Parental Guidance" and that it translates into "Mom and Dad get to decide."

I read the summaries (like this one) ...

Ebenezer Scrooge begins the Christmas holiday with his usual miserly contempt, barking at his faithful clerk and his cheery nephew. But when the ghosts of Christmas Past, Present and Yet to Come take him on an eye-opening journey revealing truths Old Scrooge is reluctant to face, he must open his heart to undo years of ill will before it’s too late.

And I was aware that it was rated PG for "scary sequences and images" but watching the previews of Scrooge flying through the air and sliding through an icy tunnel made it seem like the scenes would be more action-oriented that downright horrifying. 

Even one of my favorite parent review sites, Common Sense Media, rated it as "ON" for 8+ kids at A Christmas Carol Review.

So imagine my surprise, and dismay, when rotting corpses and demented children (that crawl from under the robe of "Christmas Present") are featured in the film.  Ugh.  It goes without saying (but yes! I'll say it anyway!) that I recommend that you NOT take your kids to see this without some serious thought first.  My almost-ten-year-old hasn't complained of nightmares yet, but it definitely was not the happy-holiday movie I envisioned.

"Steph in the City" wrote about this topic, too, at this blog post: Is Christmas Carol Too Scary for Kids?

Parent/Child Dates!

Our family has (somewhat inadvertently) started a tradition that we've grown to absolutely love ... parent/child dates!  These started out as "Daddy Dates" to ensure that both boys got their share of time with Dad before and after deployments but have grown into events for us both to enjoy with our kids.  When Dad has a day with one child, I get my time with the other!

Last weekend, Dad took the oldest for his day.  They chose to hunt (at some ungodly hour in the morning), ate an early lunch at Ghengis Grill, came home for a quick rest, then off again to fish for the afternoon.  Youngest and I followed the plan he made of:  breakfast at a local doughnut shop, a trip to Barnes & Noble to read and pick up a favorite book, then back to the house for an afternoon of board games.  He's quite the homebody, so it was no surprise he wanted to spend the afternoon home alone with Mom.  It was a great time for us ... and we ended up tied at four wins each at Flippin' Frogs and played a few other unfinished games of chess and Sorry Sliders.

This weekend, Hubby and I are switching up.  Youngest has a day of hunting and fishing planned with Dad while Oldest and I are planning the following:  Breakfast at the doughnut shop, a fun birthday party at a bounce house for one of his friends (that he couldn't stand to miss), then to see the new Jim Carrey "Christmas Carol" in 3D.  Youngest refuses to watch 3D movies so it's our chance to see a movie in 3D while it's just the two of us.  Afterwards, we're debating a trip to The Domain in Austin for kid's events and the tree lighting or possibly an afternoon with books either in Barnes & Noble or the local library (which we love).

It has turned out to be such a fun event for us all with the kids planning their days (within reason -- I've already fielded questions like "Can we get to Hawaii and back in one day?" during our planning session tonight) and spending the time just being together.  I'm excited for our day tomorrow. I'll let you know how it goes!

Christmas Ornament Swap!

The more I get into the blogosphere, the more fun I have! Today I wanted to share a cute idea posted by “The Mrs.” at Trying Our Best. See her post: Christmas Ornament Swap Sign-Up to sign up for an ornament swap among bloggers!

I can't wait. I love, love, love Christmas! Besides the fact that we celebrate this as one of the top holidays for our faith, I love the entire season associated with it. I love tinsel and trees, lights and luminaries, wreaths and wrapping, ribbons and reindeer, snowmen and sparkles, bags and bows!

I also enjoy collecting ornaments. Each year, I try to talk Hubby into another tree (yes, not just more ornaments, but an entire new tree!). We have our main family tree with lots of fun ornaments from places we’ve been, kids’ crafts, and other ornament exchanges. A second tree is our patriotic tree … all white with ornaments that are shimmery, sparkly and (of course) red, white, or blue. A third smaller tree holds all of our hand-made ornaments from Korea. I have a fourth (tiny) tree in my kitchen with miniature gingerbread and peppermint ornaments and each of the boys has their own small tree for their room. Each year, they pick a new ornament to add to their trees. It’s fun to see the eclectic collection they’ve each accumulated (with everything from glass baseball and basketball ornaments to dinosaurs to a feathery blue bird!).

I would love to get a tall pencil-thin tree for our breakfast room to be our “snowman” tree. I have a collection of snowmen that are displayed in the breakfast area and need a tree to start a snowman ornament collection. (When Hubby reads this, I might just get the “need vs. want” discussion again!)

All this to say … please sign up for the ornament exchange at “The Mrs.” Blog! It will be great fun to see what kind of ornament you receive and what you will select for your partner. Looking forward to it!

Boys modeling the Family Tree and the Patriotic Tree from 2008

Camping, Good. Poison Ivy, BAD!

I posted previously about our very fun camping trip last weekend.  With two boys (one of them a Cub Scout!), we were destined to be campers.  I covered that topic sufficiently in Our Family Campout but today's topic serves as the epilogue to that fateful trip.

My oldest son is highly allergic to poison ivy. In five overnight campouts with our Cub Scout pack, he has successfully garnered the poison ivy prize when NONE of the other 100+ scouts (not counting parents and siblings!) had nary an itch.  How is this possible, you ask?  I wish I knew.  How could this child find the evil plant and infect himself while hundreds of other humans managed to miss it?  This is the question of my nightmares.

Lest you think me melodramatic, poison ivy is a truly evil, horrible thing to have.  If you've ever had a good case of it, you are nodding your head in agreement and preparing to hit "Comment" to affirm this fact for me.  If you've never had poison ivy, you are surely shaking your head and thinking, "Whatever.  It couldn't be that bad."  Let me please say ... It. Is. That. BAD.  And worse.  Ugh!

In our house, when my precious poison-ivy seeker starts to itch, I know the gig is up.  We're in for days of moaning, groaning, complaining, scratching, and gnashing of teeth.  And that's the good stuff.  Add to this warm showers with poison ivy scrub, additional rinse with Tecnu, air-drying, application of Caladryl, air-drying again, then dressing in materials to lightly cover the rash (but not creating a sweaty kid -- this makes it worse!) and the subsequent doses of Benadryl and Tylenol and hot washing of all clothing, bedding, and furniture covering touched by this child ... repeated four or five times a day ... and you can see my dread at the event.

We've been poison-ivy free for a season while I joked that if he got the dreaded infection again, he would have to move out (yes, he's nine years old), but it's back with a vengeance.  Previously, he has had a majority of his body covered with the stuff -- ick -- but this time, it's only in two primary places.  Unfortunately, those two little places are his eyelids (go figure!) and ... well, the one place no boy should ever have poison ivy.  Hopefully, you're all sympathizing with me now, yes?  =)

So, bottom line ... stay away from poison ivy and send me lots of sympathy.  It'll be a long week! 

Isn't it pretty?  STAY AWAY!

My First Online Course: Writing for the Web

I'm excited ~ I think! ~ about the online class I just started. It's my very first online course (and my first course of any kind since 1997!) and I feel quite the rookie.  My fabulous parttime job requires me to work on several different websites and I wanted to upgrade my web content skills accordingly.

So far, I have logged in, posted my first discussion comment, and completed the first assignment.  Crazily, I am feeling the old-school first-day jitters.  How weird am I?  It's very much like that showing-up-on-the-first-day-and-not-knowing-where-to-sit-in-the-lunchroom feeling. 

Then came the discussion boards ... Do I want to be the first to post?  No vying for the title of Teacher's Pet ... so no, I won't post first.  But two others had posted early so posting on the first day is still okay, right?  Not first, but not slacking ... yes, posting third but later in the day on the first day is good.  I hope.

When I posted my first assignment, I had to resist the urge to email for more clarification ... all the while having flashbacks to 5th grade, asking my teacher, "Is this a good starting sentence?"  I refused to email and completed the assignment as I understood it.  Then I waited [very impatiently] for my first feedback from the instructor.  I spent two days checking my iPhone every time an email came in to see if I had a response.  When it did arrive, I acted like it was the Pass/Fail announcement for Life.  Really?  Who am I and what is wrong with me?

So silly! As if I need to invent stress for myself. But it's there. I feel like the new kid and want the other kids to play nicely. I'm sure I'll be just fine, but I thought it so funny that I feel like a schoolkid all over again.  I'll let you know how the class progresses.  So far, so good!