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Friday, May 30, 2008

Tupperware

When I was little, I had 4 great grandparents. My family would occasionally go for a really long drive (at least that is what it seemed like to a young child, in reality it was about 2 hours) and end up at one of my great grandparents homes. They lived in neighboring towns so a visit to one, meant a visit to the other. I don't know how many times I actually visited them, because I can only distinguish a couple, but even then I'm not sure it isn't many memories rolled into a few.

My mothers paternal grandmother was a very giving woman. Every summer we would have a family reunion, and she would be sitting there, making a quilt, hand quilted, that would be going to who ever was the next great grandchild to be born.
When ever we visited her home, we always left with more than we came with. I remember her giving us coloring books one time, but her trademark was Tupperware. She sold Tupperware. But she also gave a lot away.

My mothers and grandmothers cupboards were always filled with Tupperware, and I wouldn't be surprised if they had received most of it as gifts from my Great Grandma. So as I grew up, Tupperware was a part of my life.

I remember baby-sitting at people's homes, and as I would go to give their children a drink, open the cupboard and find it filled with glass cups. I would think to my self, "what do they give their children to drink out of?" Giving them a glass cup was just unthinkable.

One summer, while in college, I was at a city celebration at a park. They had booths set up, and I had decided to wander around, while waiting for the fireworks to start. It just so happened that I came across a Tupperware booth. This booth was being run by an old family friend, whom I hadn't seen in years. I stopped to chat, and then filled out a slip for her drawing for free Tupperware. One of the questions on this paper asked if I was interested in selling Tupperware, and thanks to all of my memories of the product, I checked the box.

Well it didn't take too long for me to get started in selling. Tupperware is a nice product to sell, because it sells its self. I didn't really put a whole lot of effort into my sales, and parties. I simply would do a party for someone if they asked. I was single, with not many time constraints, and so I simply complied to what demand was there. I decided at the time to turn my revenue into dishes for myself, and so I started stockpiling my collection.

I later put aside my selling Tupperware, to focus more on educational pursuits, but kept my stockpile for that day, somewhere in the future, when I would have my own home, and need my dishes.

Well that day is here now, and let me tell you. My cupboards are full, and so are 3 large rubbermaid tubs. Every time my husband would talk about dejunking my mind would go to my Tupperware. "But that is some expensive stuff, and I just might use it sometime. I can't get rid of it." I would think. Well lately I have been cleaning out my cupboards to try to make room to store our food storage. I pulled out all of my tubs, to see if I could make room for more dishes in them. And I realized, I have enough storage dishes to suit a family almost 3 times as big as mine. Tupperware is great, and it has a life time guarantee. I just have to call their customer service, and I can get any broken piece replaced for only the charge of shipping. So it makes me wonder, why I ever thought I might need 4 bowl sets, 20 cups, 3 strainers (one of which is huge), plus a lot of other stuff. Anyway, I guess this is a long rambling way to say, that just because it is awesome and you get a good deal, you don't need to buy it.

Guy and the wagon.

For memorial day, we went and visited my father-in-law. He lives in the Eastern side of the state, where it tends to be much warmer and dryer than here. On Friday night we enjoyed a BBQ dinner at some friends house. It was great to let the kids go out and roam in the back yard, and play. One day WE will have a backyard, but for now, we just appreciate the times we can spend in other people's backyards.
While they were playing Guy discovered a little red wagon. He was enthralled by it. It was fun to watch him play. I've cut down my 7 1/2 min. video to this 3 1/2 min. one. Hopefully you enjoy watching it, as much as I did.

Food

Guy loves to eat. I guess he is the typical boy. Often when he gets up from his nap or gets home he heads strait to the kitchen. If I am in there cooking, he is right at my feet begging to be lifted up. Well this last week, my husband had gotten in to the refrigerator to get something, after he left the fridge I turned around, and this is what I saw...



Since then he has tried this a few more times. If he can get into the fridge he does. I think it is hilarious. Each new stage is fun, if you don't get frustrated. :)

Sunday, May 11, 2008

Mama Hair

OK so to show you my straitened hair, first you have to hear my Mama hair story.

I have naturally wavy hair. The curl in my hair has been stronger at some times than others, but I have a tendency to feel like my hair doesn't look nice unless I put a lot of work into it.
For the first few months after Cinderella was born, I had long hair. It looked OK, if I just combed it and let it air dry.

But I felt like it looked a lot better if I blew it dry and straitened it. So I got a hair straightener, blow dryer in one. I really liked the end result, but it took me an hour to do my hair. Being a new mom, that didn't happen except on Sunday's and special occasions.


Then came the time that my hair started to shed, really shed. I was constantly finding long brown hairs, everywhere, and it was driving me crazy. So I wanted to get my hair cut. My husband gave me the go ahead, and so one day, when he was able to stay home with Cinderella, I went to get it cut. What I came back with shocked him. I think it kind of shocked me too.

Short hair was OK. It was a lot easier to take care of, which was why I had it cut that short. But it also didn't look very good, if I just let it air dry, and didn't do much with it. But it had the advantage of not taking as much time to do something with.

Until it started growing out. Then I had to go in every month to get it shaped so that it looked good. Then it started taking more effort, time and money than I wanted to spend on it. So I decided to let it grow out.



And now except for a few trims along the way, my hair is about as long as it was before I first cut it after Cinderella was born, and once again I am faced with the never ending wave.
Except, this time, I don't really care enough to chop my hair, or spend an hour on my hair every Sunday. So except for days like today, wavy is what it is.
And well, other than my husband, no one seems to notice the difference anyhow, so wavy must not look that bad.

Hair

So Cinderella's hair hasn't always been as curly as it is. But yes the curl is natural. We have been able to get her hair to do all kinds of fun things, however even before the curl was apparent. The first thing was the "Mohawk", or as I grew up thinking of it, the curl on top of the head.
She also had the new born wave. Right after her hair was washed it would stick up.

Then one day when she was probably about 4 months old, we gave her her bath, and as we were drying her hair, we noticed that the top curled. And if we put a little gel in it, the curl would stay.

Then one day, I had taken my quite short hair at the time, and spiked it all out in back and on the sides. So just for fun I thought I'd see if Cinderella's hair would do it too.


And then it just got curlier and curlier








So what would her hair look like now, if it was strait, you might ask. Well today we got to find out. You see for Mothers Day I got a tube of straitening gel, courtesy of Cinderella's fingers that think they need to sample everything at Bath and Body Works. Even if it isn't supposed to be sampled. After she thought the gel was lotion, it was decided that we should buy it. So this morning I decided to straiten my hair. Cinderella and Guy had been taking a bath, and Daddy was taking care of Guy, so I took my straitening blow dryer into the bathroom, where Cinderella was still bathing so that I could keep an eye on her and do my hair at the same time. Well when she saw what I was doing she wanted me to do her hair too.
This is the end result.

You may notice, her hair still has some curl to it, even though I straitened it. And I used high heat, even though her hair is so fine, because low heat, just wasn't doing anything.
I think I prefer it curly, but I think strait is pretty cute too.

Happy Mothers Day

I just want to wish you all a Happy Mothers day.

I think Mothers day isn't just for those who bear children. It is for any women who impacts and touches the life of a child. It doesn't matter if you are single or married. If you have children of your own, or not. Raising a child isn't done by parents alone. So to all you women out there, Happy Mothers Day.

Mile High Apple Pie

Last night we had a Luau for our church. It was put on by the Young Women, to be a fund raiser for Girls Camp. They offered free child care, and fed the children too. They requested a $10 donation per person over 10.
Then after the meal they had an auction. All of the Young Women had made desserts. Some of them were simple, but others were very elaborate. The desserts sold between $15 and $110, I think.
I think the item that went for the highest price was a raspberry almond spice cake. It looked really good. My husband was enjoying bidding to drive the price up. It took quite a while before we actually won anything, because most of what he bid on went sky high. Well the last thing to be auctioned off was a "Mile High Apple Pie". This pie is probably about a foot tall. They said it had 24 apples in it. Which took the girl who made it and her boyfriend an hour to slice and peel. Then it was covered in caramel and pecans.

We figured when we saw it that it was going to be an item that went for a lot. The bidding got started at $20, and then stopped at $35. We thought it was such a shame that something like that should end at $35, so my husband put a bid in at $40. Well we won it. It didn't go any higher than $40. I think we got it for a steal. Now we just have to figure out how to eat the whole thing.

Friday, May 9, 2008

Like mother, like daughter

So you know how sometimes parents will say, "I hope you have a child just like you." Well I don't know if my parents ever said that. But if they did, they got their wish.

When I was little, I was a terror. I couldn't sit still for the life of me. One day we were having dinner, and I just wouldn't stay sitting in my chair. My parents finally took my chair away, and told me that I had to eat the rest of the meal standing. So what did I do? I went and stood on my head on the chair. I don't really remember doing this, but I've seen the picture my parents took. So I know I did it.

I also had a really hard time sitting still in church. Most of my younger years, my father had church responsibilities that kept him from sitting with my mother and us kids in church. I am the 2nd child of 9. You can imagine the circus that my mother sometimes had to deal with. And I am ashamed to say, I added more to the problems than helped. When a younger sibling needed to be removed from the meeting, my mother would ask my older sister or me to take them out, because she needed to stay with the rest. I remember sometimes when the meeting was getting awfully long, I would attempt to stir up restlessness in a younger child with the hope that maybe my mother would let me be the one to take them out.

I also had a knack for destroying things. But I don't think I ever did it intentionally. I think my curiosity just go the better of me. For instance, my mother had this lamp. It was a beautiful lamp. I think her brother brought it from Japan, to give to her. It had a Japanese lady, holding a long sheet of paper, that reached down to the floor. She was in a glass encasing. And this was the lamp that was in my sisters and my room, when we were little. I remember one day I got curious as to what the paper that the lady was holding said. So I encouraged our neighbor, who my mother baby-sat, to help me break the lamp so that we could get to that paper and see what it said. Disappointingly it didn't say anything, that at least I could read. It might have had some Japanese characters on it, but I don't even remember if that was the case or not. But now the lamp was ruined.

Another time, I was playing ponies. My sister and I had a few My Little Ponies, and my sister also had a brown horse, that was about the same size as the My Little Ponies, and so it would be played with at the same time. Well I got this brilliant idea. The brown horse needed to have pictures on it's sides, just like the My Little Ponies did. So I got a pen and drew some pictures. As you can maybe imagine, my sister wasn't too thrilled with my artwork.

Those are just a few of my many exploits when I was younger. I have a brother who is 17 months younger than I am. He was often my partner in crime. We drank my sisters perfume, and ate her chap stick. We stayed home sick one Sunday at Christmas time and decided to do what ever we could to discover what all of our presents were.

Sometimes I would do things, and get others in more trouble than I got in. I cut up the shower curtain, and left my sisters scissors sitting by the tub. My father put us both on chairs, and when I told him I was sorry I was let free. My sister, the innocent one, tried the same tactic, and was told no. My Dad figured she was just trying that because I had gotten away with it.
Another time I asked my older sister to cut my hair, and she did. Then when she was done, I went crying to my mother, that she had cut my hair. Her punishment was to have her long tresses, which had never been cut, chopped. She cried the whole time.

Wasn't I a bad little girl. I must have stressed my mother terribly.

Well now I have Cinderella. No she hasn't done many of those exploits, and I pray that she doesn't, but to an extent, I can see her already on that path.

For her last birthday she got a book. It is called Hide and Seek Dragons. I got it for her because she was on a dragon kick. She loved dragons. It has flaps, as well as being a touchy-feely book. Well a few days ago, I was in the kitchen making dinner, and I hear a "rip" noise. I immediately turn to see what is being torn. There is Cinderella looking at her Dragon book, tearing all the flaps off. The last flap she tried had torn part of the page with it, making the sound I heard. I told her the book was broken, and that it needed to be thrown away. The thought of throwing that book away, made my stomach hurt. It was a nice book. We had spent a lot of money on that book. It was a book she really liked. She just turned to me and said, "I don't think it will fit in the garbage." I told her it would, and so she went calmly and put the book in the garbage, acting like she didn't care at all.
Then I was mad. I went and got a box and boxed up all the books that were in her reach that could be easily torn, and told her, she couldn't look at any books for the rest of the day. Now that got her upset.

So, now all of those books are still in a box, in my closet. I let her have a few of them for quiet time, but other than that they stay in my closet. I'm not sure yet when to pull them back out. But she hasn't really asked for them yet, so I'm not in any hurry.

I just don't know what to do, to help her overcome this. Because, like when I was little, I don't think she is meaning to destroy the books. I think she just acts on the impulse. And tearing the books is what happens.

Oh well, maybe she will have a child just like her too.

My BIG boy

So Guy thinks he is so big. Yesterday we went to a playground. This is the second time in 2 weeks that we have gotten out. Part of my goal to get out more even on cold days. Anyway, he loves to climb up on the playground, and this one had a lot of stairs.

We don't have stairs at home, because we live in a one level apartment, so when ever we go somewhere with stairs, he makes a beeline for them, and enjoys each step.

I followed him up the playground, and he continued climbing until he was at the very top level. Which was probably about 7 feet high. As he neared the top of the stairs, I could see an opening on the other side of the platform, which made me incredibly nervous. And as soon as he got up there, sure enough he started heading strait for the opening. So I grabbed him and we looked down together. It was a climbing wall, and he really wanted to go down it. Instead we went down the slide that was right there. When we got to the bottom, he wanted to go check out the climbing wall.
Thankfully those things really can't be mastered very easily by a 13 month old. Even Cinderella thought it was probably too big for her. Much to my relief. OK so maybe I'm a paranoid mother, but I like to have my children only climb high enough that I can still reach them, without having to climb too, if there is a problem. At least until they are more coordinated.


Guy also has a tendency to LIKE to be in places that are kind of a tight fit. Today I looked over at him and this is what I found.
Can you see how tightly he is wedged in there between the playground and the barn, while he is playing little people. I don't think the idea of moving the toys even occurred to him.

I love my little Guy, and get a kick watching him grow up. Times like this make it definitely worth being a stay at home mom.

Saturday, May 3, 2008

ABC's

Cinderella is learning her ABC's. She has the song pretty much down.
But the actual letters are a different story.


When we have a house....

Potty training has been one big power struggle, with Cinderella. I was quite frustrated one day, and called my mom for advice. I couldn't get Cinderella to sit on the potty, and she refused to wear panties. If I put them on her she would just take them off. She didn't like getting wet, when she had an accident. So her solution was, just wear the pull-up. My mother suggested that I give her some control over something that didn't really matter. So our strategy became, if you don't sit on the potty, you have to wear panties. I know it is backward, but it has worked. She sits on the potty most times, and if she starts throwing a fit, I will ask her if she wants to wear panties. She usually agrees to sit on the potty. And she still wears pull-ups pretty much all the time.

Yesterday, I was taking the kids to Costco. As we were driving, Cinderella looked out the window and saw a school. She pointed to it and said, "I saw a house." I explained to her that it was a school. Then as we passed houses, I pointed them out and told her that they were houses. She pointed to an apartment and said it was a house. I told her it was an apartment. She said, "I don't like apartments." I then told her that we live in an apartment, and that apartments are just a bunch of houses stuck together.

When we were at Costco, she noticed the playground they had on sale there. She told me she wanted to play on it. I explained to her that they didn't want people to play on it. They want you to buy it and put it in your yard, and play with it. Right now we live in apartments so we don't have a yard. But when we get a house, we will have a yard, and maybe we can get a playground. Her response was, "When I am bigger, we can have a house, and I can play on a playground. But not when I am little."

Well later that night Cinderella commented to me that she doesn't wear underwear. I told her, that's right, but when you can go wet in the potty all the time, so your pants don't get wet, then you can wear underwear. She responded with, "I can wear underwear, when we have a house." I sure hope it doesn't take THAT long.

Thursday, May 1, 2008

Lesson of the day

Did you know that cast iron gets really hot and radiates quite a bit of heat? Even when it is only on the burner next to the one that is turned on?

I knew that it gets hot, but I didn't realize how hot it would get. We used my husbands flat bottom dutch oven, last night when we made dinner. After we ate, we cleaned it, but neglected to put it away. Instead it was set on top of the stove. Which is a common thing for us to do.

Well today Cinderella requested macaroni and cheese for lunch. Well I got out a pan, and found the dutch oven still sitting on the stove. Well I was being lazy, and just moved it to the back burner so that I could use the front burner for the macaroni.

So I cooked the macaroni, and was in the process of combining the sauce when I looked and saw this.

OK so I realize the picture isn't very good detail, so I'll explain. The black, is the dutch oven. The cream, gray thing is our kitchen scale. The yellowing color on the scale is where it melted. That's right it melted. When I first noticed it I thought, "When did this melt? I haven't noticed it melted before." I reached out and touched it, and realized it was still warm.

Then I was trying to figure out if I had somehow bumped my saucepan against it. Then I realized that the dutch oven was hot to the touch, on both the side next to the element, and over where it is near the scale. So then I deducted what must have happened.
I am just amazed, that a heat that high traveled that far, and I didn't notice.

New word for english language. Wery

Wery (pronunced like very with a w instead of v): A word used to emphasize a point. Similar to very, but can be used anywhere you want. Can also be used to stall for information, if you aren't sure what to say next.

Here is an example of Cinderella, using wery, as she and I are playing little people.

No Excuses! Excuse #1

I am a homebody. Not really because I just love my home, and never want to leave it. But because I have too many excuses why not to go out. So I have decided lately, that I can't have any excuses, so I am slowly getting rid of them one by one. And I plan to document it, on here, hopefully with pictures. That way it gives me even less excuse.

So for excuse #1. The weather.
I live in the North West, which is known for gray skies, cooler temperatures, and rain. When the day is like that, I stay home. Don't want to get the kids wet, cold, and sick. And I just plain don't want to be cold.

Well every Thursday we have a playgroup, that we attend, with some other mothers and children from our church. We will meet at someones house, a park or some recreational facility. If it is at someones house or somewhere free, we go. If it costs, I go if I feel like it would be worth the amount that I would have to pay, and it is a place where I feel like I can handle both kids by myself. For instance, I haven't gone swimming with both kids, because the idea of two young children who can't swim in a pool, relying on me, scares me.

Anyway, today's playgroup was supposed to be at someones house, but unfortunately, their child got pink eye. Well the forecast for today is partly cloudy, high of 54. Which for here, means a nice day. So it was decided that we would go to a park instead.

This morning when Cinderella was getting dressed, she pulled out a skirt and requested to wear it. I told her that for playgroup, we were going to go to a playground, and her legs would get cold in the skirt. So she decided to wear pants. And I had locked myself into going.

Playgroup starts at 10:00. At about 9:30, I look out the window, and this is what I saw.

Well gray clouds like that are enough to make me change my mind about wanting to be outside. But I had already told Cinderella we were going to go, so go we must.

I decided to get a view from a different perspective. This is what I saw out our front windows.

OK that blue sky looked promising. (Other than the fact that the park we were going to is in the direction of the gray clouds. But I wouldn't let myself think about that.)

So we went. And the kids had a blast. Guy felt so big that he could climb up the playground all by himself. Every step he would stop, stand up and grin a big grin, as if to say "look at me."
Cinderella, just loves it anytime we go to a playground. It could be poring rain, and I think she would enjoy herself, particularly if she gets to play with her friends.
So yes, even though I really didn't want to be outside this morning, I am glad I went, and I know the kids are too.