A New Little Game

My Blog friend Amy had this new, little game on her site to help blog buddies get to know each other a little better. Here's the way it's played...

If you want to play, leave a comment on this post letting me know, and I’ll assign you a letter. You write about ten things you love that begin with your assigned letter, and post it at your place. When people comment on your list, you give them a letter, and the chain continues on and on...


Amy assigned me the letter:

"D"


1. DARLING little girls...two of them, that fill my life up to overflowing.

2. DEPENDABLE family....siblings & parents who are there whenever we need some advice, babysitting, loans.

3. DOLLARS...Happy in this economy to still have a steady flow coming in.

4. DAREDEVIL...Jami is the biggest one in our family.

5. DEAF....Lindsi's Deafness has brought so many wonderful people & experiences into our lives. It's been an unexpected journey, but one filled with a lot of rewards.

6. DELIGHTFUL....What my girls are MOST of the time.

7. DISNEY PRINCESSES.....It looks like my house is sponsored by these lovely ladies.

8. DECENT.....I would like to (effortlessly) meet a decent (SINGLE, EMPLOYED, INTERESTED, CHRISTIAN, CLEAN, LOVES KIDS) kind of guy

9. DREAMS...I am encouraged by them coming true & encourage my children to dream BIG & OFTEN.....

10. DAILY prayer & meditation keeps me happy.

(Comment or email if you'd like to play along!)

Helecopter Parenting

Are you familar with the term Helecopter Parents?......I'm betting you are. If you're not, a helecopter parent is a parent who hovers...who scoops in to rescue the moment their child gets too close to screwing up or getting them selves into a tricky or uncomfortable situation.

The whole idea behind NOT being a helecopter parent is that by allowing your kids to make mistakes, take risks, experience uncomfortable situations, when the currency (result) is low, you'll hopefully avoid the BIG consequences later. I GET all of that. I BELIEVE it to be TRUE. And, I try very hard to NOT be a helecopter parent.

All that being said, tomorrow, I am breaking my own rule & going to act like a helecopter parent. For some reason, Lindsi HATES fire drills. It's not like she has a good reason to hate fire drills.....she certainly is no where near the situation of the poor kid who lost a parent & sibling to a fire & is now personally escorted to the comfort of an office prior to any fire drills. No, for her, fire drills are just noisy & chaotic, & worst of all, timed. She totally stresses out, gets upset, & cries when she has to participate in a fire drill. In short, she becomes a mess.

Tomorrow AM, I know, courtesy of her bus driver, that they are scheduled for a bus drill. He knows how upset they make her & thought that by giving her a heads up, she would be better able to handle it. Instead, on the day he told her, as soon as the bus pulled out of sight, she started sobbing & she has marked the days, & she has worried about it every day since then.

Part of me thinks that if she just did the drill, she would see (again) that it is just practice in case of an emergency. A bigger part of me though, does not want her to be so upset & stressed out as she starts her school day. In the past either her interpreter or one of her past teachers has had to comfort her & calm her down after a drill.

She knows how to exit her bus if there's an emergency. There are only about 5 kids, an aide & her driver on the bus anyways. I know she's safe in her current bus situation.

So, even though it's inconvenient for me, tomorrow, I will get Jami up & dressed an hour early so that I can drive Lindsi into school, so that she can SKIP the bus drill.

I am totally, (sadly? lovingly?.....not sure which)the helecopter parent tomorrow.

Happy New Year

Next weekend is our big FCC Chinese New Year gathering.....

Tomorrow, Lindsi's teacher is devoting the whole morning to Chinese New Year. There is a Chinese boy in Lindsi's class & his parents are coming in to help with the lessons. I'm going in to learn more..lol... Then, the kids are going to enjoy a lunch meal of Chinese food.

So, from our house to yours...Gung Hay Fat Choy!!


Oh yes...do you notice that Lindsi is missing another tooth....the girl collected at least $3 for that tooth & some of it from church members this AM!!! Our church family just adores both girls....=) Next month I'm sending her out to collect our mortgage payment.

Misc Ramblings

It's been pretty normal routine life around here lately. Nothing interesting enough to blog about.....

But, here are a few things roaming around in my head:

- Not only is Cinderella the STAR princess in the Dis*ney collection (according to my girls), but one of our cats also had that name bestowed upon her. Jami has always said Cinda-El-La-la (an extra la in the name). This week I noticed that she was saying the name correctly now. She's slowly losing her toddler speak...=(

- Lindsi is growing vertical at an alarming rate. People at church, who see her every week, comment on it often. Pants that fit her fine in Sept are now above her ankles. Over New Years we picked up the bins of clothes from my niece. Size 7-8s. She nearly skipped over size 6. So, she has about a size 5 waist & needs a 7 in length. She hovered on the 49 lb mark for quite awhile, but all of her recent vertical growth has pushed her over. Friends joke that she could possibly be Yao Ming's love child. ha ha

- It was 18 degrees when Lindsi caught her bus today. I'll download a picture later of her in her winters warmest. Another haha.... Jami, on the otherhand is a summer dress & flip flop kind of girl. She is so LUCKY she was not adopted by a family who lives in cold weather. As long as we don't leave the house, she can wear her halter dress & sandals.......I think she's nuts.


- My sister Pam finally posted her very cute christmas Hall*Mark commercial story. Hop over & read it. It's cute.

- For someone who has never been married, I have been thinking about marriage a lot. No, not to any particular person...more in how marriages work & what makes them successful vs not. For instance, the office of the President has got to be one of the top stressful jobs in the world, yet, as far back as I can remember, the Presidents marriage has been solid (excepte for one...but they are still together).

While I was born during a different President's time in office, the first President I can recall is Richard Nixon. He had Pat. Then Gerald Ford & his rock & love, Betty. Then Jimmy Carter & Rosalyn. Ronald Reagan & Nancy...OK I know Ronnie was married before, but the marriage he had with Nancy was long & love filled. The elder Bush's...George & Barbara, again, another deep & abiding love. The Clintons..they are sort of the odd couple out, but something keeps them together, whether its appearances, or history together, or a comfortable understanding between them. Then George & Laura Bush who I think have a good marriage. Now there is Barack & Michelle. They seem to be living out their own love story. Their marriage seems strong & their family life seems wonderful.

I just think it's interesting that the most stressful job, keeps strong marriages & doesn't rip them apart. **I do know that some Presidents were bachelors..I am just reflecting on these few couples. OR maybe it's the skills that go into a great marriage are also skills needed to be President??? The Vice Presidents have pretty good marriage track records as well.

Oh well...just things on my mind.

Read Her Blog

I hope you will pop over & read my sister, Pam's blog. She doesn't post nearly enough, but she is so witty. Even though I know her stories already, I still end up laughing at her written accounts.

I'm still hoping she'll blog about being in the quintessential Mc*Donald / Hall*Mark commercial this past December.

So, Amy tagged me on the book reading game.

Here's how it works:

1. Grab the nearest book.
2. Open to page 56.
3. Find the 5th sentence.
4. Post the text of the next 2-5 sentences along with the rules.
5. Don't dig for your favorite book, the cool book or the intellectual book. Pick the CLOSEST.
6. Tag 5 other people to do the same.

As luck would have it, the closest book to me is a library book that Jami took the scissors to, quite awhile ago. The library said I could replace it (it's on Amazon for $11) VS $28 library price. But, it's not 56 pages long......

So, the next closest book with at least 56 pages is (and I'm NOT going for the phone book, which is next closest, but just too boring)....The Wok Cookbook. Wouldn't you know it...page 56 is a full page picture..so onto page 57 which introduces the shallow frying technique:

5th sentence:
The oil allows the butter to heat beyond its normal tolerance, bringing to the dish a richness of flavor that frying oil alone would not provide. However oil or butter alone can be used.

I'm envious of those of you who still can make time for pleasure reading...I try, but it just doesn't happen very often for me anymore.

I'm not going to tag any specific folks, but feel free to do this & let me know in the comment section, so I can pop over & read your selection.

Finally, please keep my brother & his wife in your prayers as both of them work for companies / organizations going through layoffs within the next week.

QUIET

It is so quiet in my house this morning since both girls are back at school (Jami goes 2 mornings a week).

I am usually SO READY for the girls to go back, but this time I honestly felt like their break FLEW by & I would have loved another week of them being home.

We've had a great time playing together, on the swingset, at the park, with their new games from Christmas. It has just been a wonderful time.

I hope your 2009 is starting out on a good note too.

2008 In Pictures

I wanted to do a year in pictures, as many of my Blog friends have featured on their sites......Well, I wanted to do it BEFORE 2008 ended...just ran out of time, this takes AWHILE...lol....

We spent New Year's Eve & New Year's Day at my brother's house. A nice relaxing time with them. Now, back to work & cleaning up around here.

So...I give you 2008 in pictures....

JANUARY
An introduction to snow. We picked one weekend in Jan to go to Atlanta...hoping for snow & we were well rewarded.


An afternoon at the Atlanta Children's Museum. We LOVED this place.


FEBRUARY
First Lost Tooth

A pretty Jami


MARCH
Easter

Flower Fields


Planting a Garden


APRIL
Happy 3rd Birthday Jami!!




MAY
Turning 6


Blueberry Picking



JUNE
Kindergarten Graduation

Dance Recital



JULY
Roasting Marshmellows

To The Beach


Rock Star


AUGUST
Trip to the Beach

First Day of School

Weekend in Atlanta


SEPTEMBER
Labor Day Beach Trip

Unexpected Haircut

Fun with Balloons


Princess Pottery Party


OCTOBER
Pumpkins! Pumpkins! Pumpkins!




NOVEMBER
Two More Teeth...GONE


Fall Festival

Holiday Parade


DECEMBER



HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!!!