And Then I Gave Her Chocolate

Prior to having a child, anytime I witnessed something I considered wrong when it came to parenting, I used to tell myself:

"I'm never going to be the kind of mom that......(fill in "wrong-doing" here)."

Apart from the horrid things a parent can do to a child, I quickly figured out that it was not fair for me to say such things, even if was saying it in my head.  When I see a mother or father do something that might seem a little off, now I think:

"I wonder what kind of day they've had.  Did they sleep well?  Is their kid tired or feeling ill?  What kind of "me time" did they have if any?  Did they get to take a shower? (Isn't it funny how a nice long shower is a luxury?)"

Whenever I had come to realize that I had just done the thing I said I would never do as a mother, I ended up feeling a bit let down at myself.  I had put myself on this crazy standard of parenting that doesn't exist. I had to let those "nevers" go because who knows what kind of day I'll have with my daughter.

Sometimes when you need to get something done and a little one might not be cooperating, and you know of one thing that will help you get through that small moment in time, just do it.  I had to let go of people who might be watching or saying comments under their breath.  Yup, it was my kid scream-singing, crying, who made the mess, who spilled the drink/cheerios, running in a crowd, refusing to walk, and any other thing she was doing. 

Just like every adult human being on the planet, a child has free will.

And I have a stash of chocolate in my purse/backpack/car at all times.

Ukelele By Accident

So this past holiday I got my husband a ukelele.  It was on his secret santa list and I didn't think anyone was going to get it for him.  Lo and behold, he ended up with two.  I decided, why not try to learn this cool little instrument?  I've played some guitar here and there, how hard can it be.  There are a ton of youtube videos of kids rocking out on them.

Well, there are four strings, not six.  The strings are nylon so its easier on my phalanges but the chords are totally different.  Plus the tuning is weird.  Barr chords are easier but my long gangly digits are a clumsy mess.  But I'm still doing it and I've learned chords, a few tunes and I'm sure I'll sound a lot better as time goes on or until I find my next thing to get into.

***Update:  Now I attached two videos of my attempt to be musical.  My singing however is not up for discussion. :) *****

December Freak Out

Why is everything in December?

My daughter's birthday (that's my fault, I could have planned better) and I threw her first big birthday party.  Why did I choose to do that?  She was turning 3 and she won't remember it.  It was fun.  It was a breakfast party and it was over by 12:30.  We tried to catch the Muppets at the theatre because Baby Sagittarius loves muppets; at least I thought she did.  The Toy Story short film "Small Fry" threw her off.  She was expecting more Toy Story and instead she got the first 10 minutes of people singing and dancing.  I understand, she wanted a lot more muppet action.  Instead of testing how long she'd "be cool" we decided to get a refund and go out to an early dinner.  I was totally wiped by the time we got home.  Not a bad day.

Tamales.  I love to eat them but not necessarily make them.  It's a lot of work.  If someone is so kind as to gift them to you, they must really, really love you.  7am - 7pm.....12 hours of work and no, I didn't want to eat a tamale when they were done.  I didn't want to look at them or smell them.  Nope, no, niet.  Mechanic Hubby brought me a whopper and it was a Christmas miracle.

Post office. This I didn't mind so much.  The day I went to the post office was actually a very great day spent with my sister.  It didn't start that way.  I have a crazy imagination.  When someone sets a time to meet and they don't show up (I give about 1/2 leeway) I start to worry.  I called my sister and she didn't answer.  So instead of just thinking, "She must be asleep," because that's pretty much her favorite hobby, I think she's in some horrific crash and is unable to answer her phone.  Needless to say, the worrying was unnecessary and yes, she was sleeping in.  Silly me.  We had a great lunch, went and finished up our Christmas shopping and went to the post office the Thursday before Christmas and my package got there on time. 

Christmas Eve. First off, my Gramma said I was dressed very nicely.  She felt under-dressed because she was lounging in her sweats.  I assured her that I wished I was wearing sweats.  Why did I dress up?  Anyway, I made chicken alfredo and penne in tomato meat sauce.  My sister made a salad and we ate...and ate.  We had a cookie decorating contest and we quickly found out that we stink at cookie decorating.  We decided to forgo the whole staying up until midnight tradition because we had to be at church early the next morning.  We all received some great gifts and the night was wrapped up by 9:30.  Pretty sweet.

Christmas Day.  Got up early, got ready, went to church.  It was only an hour long and I'm so glad we went.  One of the members of our congregation sang a song called, "Mary Let Me Hold Her Baby."  It's basically about a woman who can't have children but she was allowed to hold the Savior a short time.  The blind lady who sang isn't particularly the best singer, but the lyrics were moving; as she identifies with the woman in the song.  It was a treasure to hear.  This particular verse was so true: 

Those like me 

who can't have children 

Still can be mothers
Something in His eyes 

convinced me
I could serve so many others

We had everyone over, opened gifts and ate a great Christmas supper.  As much as I enjoy the holiday season, it's definitely more for kids because if I had to wrap one more gift (which I think is counter productive because you're basically wrapping future garbage around the nice gift) I think I'd go crazy!

And yet, there's still one more holiday.  New Year's Eve.  We're going to make pizza in the beehive oven outside, exchange white elephant gifts (darn it, one more thing to wrap), maybe hook up the XBOX Kinect outside, release some floating lanterns (like in Tangled!) and stay up to ring in the new year.  It's going to be so fun!

Pirate Reunion

 Anticipation is nerve racking and delightful.

Red Boot Pearl is in my city.

Not only is she amazing and lovely, she's one of my best friends.

I met her at church over two years ago.  She looked in my direction and introduced herself.  Since then we had pretty much did not a week go by without hanging out at least once.  We'd call each other and vent our issues. There was the person who vented and then the person who listened.  Sometimes we'd just acknowledge that whatever horrible things happened to happen that day did indeed suck.  We didn't want each other to fix our issues, just agree with one another when things suck. 

Even though we're 1,000 miles away, we still call each other at least once a week to vent.  I moved away from her back in June and it's been 5 months since I've seen her.   I get to have one whole day with her and I think I've got some fun things planned.  Honestly, I think we'd have a great time just hanging out in my living room, eating ice cream and painting our nails. 

I wish Monday was tomorrow.

CAPTCHA! - Just Being Silly

“The term CAPTCHA (for Completely Automated Public Turing Test To Tell Computers and Humans Apart) was coined in 2000 by Luis von Ahn, Manuel Blum, Nicholas Hopper and John Langford of Carnegie Mellon University. “Source: www.captcha.net

What if the CAPTCHA words were real and had definitions?  I made a list of the last 20 words I’ve had to type to verify that I’m a human and these are the definitions I came up with.

jocurie - (zho-ker-ee) this is when a lot of joking is going on in France.

bingeste - its the word bing used for the most searched word of the month.

fainm - happy fame

coushl - easy, this is a cousin council. (When my cousins and I were kids we had many a coushl.  We made big plans that we would all live together as adults and do whatever we wanted.  We were 11, 9, and 8).

unterc - it’s when you take the stubborn out of someone (Terco is Spanish for stubborn).

baryopon - its playing ping pong in the barrio.

ratrum - this one is easy, it’s rat flavored rum.

quali - a lot of qualifying tests people need to take to get a job these days.

farcie - a fairy that spreads lies.

killigm - people that kill pilgrims

stshar - the sound you make when pretending that you know karate.

comerb - magical herbs that put themselves in your cooking whether you want them or not.

chedes - its when you have too much cheddar and your stomach gets upset.  You’ve got a case of the chedes my friend.

ovelyi - Another word for average.  Not lovely, not ugly, just ovelyi.

couriont - a fancy courier, you know, for when someone needs to deliver your tea and crumpets.

scearl - it’s a snarl and a squeal or a seal that produces pearls.

ovenwom - another name for a uterus.

forkedu - an educated fork, duh.

lanigan - an extremely large cardigan, or a blanket.

efuura - (shh, its a curse word with a lion roar at the end).

All Souls Procession

Ever since my lovely father in law passed away three years ago, my little Mormon family have attended the All Souls Procession held the weekend after Halloween. He used to travel to Mexico for the big week long celebration every year so we thought we'd honor his memory by taking part in our local parade.

The first year we made a giant altar with his picture and decorated it with flowers and candles and gaudy glitter. I even whipped up a fake plate of enchiladas, his favorite food. The year after, while I was away, the rest of the family went to the parade with the same float from the previous year and some people said, "Pssh, we saw that float last year." Not only did I think that was completely rude, seeing how everyone was there to remember their loved ones, my family was mortified.

So this year I decided to change it up and build a giant guitar. Dad would play in his younger years and my husband also grew to love playing guitar.

I got a large piece of cardboard (courtesy of a chassis) and painted it. I had some scrap pressed fiberboard and made a neck. I had some Styrofoam and made a head. I went to my trusty dollar store and picked up anything skulls for me to repaint and decorate. On the actual guitar we have Dad's picture and I tried to paint/decorate things that related to his life. Dad's from Veracruz, an ocean front state in Mexico so I painted palm leaves and fish skeletons.

At the actual parade we dress in Mexican garb and paint our faces like skeletons. The gals sometimes wear flowers in their hair. The parade route is long and it's a nice community feeling. 

Cool giant neon skull.

The man featured on this altar actually built this himself, he passed after it's completion.

There was a variety of artwork.  We have no idea how many people attended, in the thousands at least.  It was kind of weird having random people come up and want to take your picture.  Do I smile?  Look somber?  Deer in headlights?  Some people didn't ask and took candid shots.  There was music throughout, hooting and hollering but overall a really great time.  It was a nice family affair and though our feet are a little sore, we'll do it again next year.  

Halloween Hop

So my amazing friend put this link up on her blog and being a true lover of Halloween, I had to participate. As a kid, Halloween was a time to dress up and be someone completely different, even if it were just for one day.  We usually stayed up a little later, got our costumes the day of and got a ton of free candy.  We usually drove to a nicer neighborhood, teamed up with our cousins and knocked on every door until our legs gave out.  The downside?  Mom collected our candy that night and put it in a plastic tupperware and we were not to eat the candy unless she handed it to us.  Bummer.  It was for our own good I guess. Last year when my baby was "trick or treating" Mechanic Hubby let her have any candy she could open up on her own.  She learned how to open up candy quite quickly. 

I really do love to be scared, even if it means sleeping with the lights on......for a few days.   During my goth years (yes, I was that kid in high school) I was a lot braver and never turned away from the screen.  Now, I get totally freaked.  I don't get it.  One of my favorite "Halloweeny" type movies isn't scary but after I watched it, I wanted to be Winona Ryder.  Only the cool Winona, not the nerdy one.  Ha.

Beetlejuice

The costume I am most proud of, and was the winner of the company costume contest (tongue twister) is this:

Yup, I was a pregnant skeleton.  I used regular white craft paint for the shirt and I used an old t-shirt for the pants.  I didn't want to ruin my sweats because I pretty much lived in them during my last trimester.  But I won 200 bucks to Circuit City.  Remember Circuit City???

As for my costume for this year?  I've worked hard on it...she's a lovely pink pear shaped television character.  I'm almost done with the entire ensemble.

It'll probably be way to hot out to wear this for very long but my baby will be Brobee so I have to stay dedicated to this bit.  It's only for about an hour so what's the big deal?  It's going to be my interpretation because 1. I have no patience for sewing and 2. I have no patience for sewing. 

Here's my kiddo modeling the Brobee hat I made for her.

Hooray for Halloween!