TTA- An Attitude of Gratitude

Tina

Jen Desiree

Frank

Every year when I think of what I am most grateful for I list my husband and children. Seriously, I can't think of anything better in this world than them. This year however I would like to add my brother and sisters to my crew at the top of the list. They have been such a good support during this crazy year our family has had that I cannot thank them enough.

I've always described my brother Frank as the perfect eldest sibling that set the bar far too high for any of us following to reach and then is modest to boot. Then I have two big sisters who've always kept me in my place like only sisters can do. My sister Tina is fiercely loyal and knows how to gently offer beauty advice to keep me from becoming too sloppy. My sister Jen is the comedien who keeps things lively, waka waka, and is always willing to be supportive if I start to let my pants get too small. Now to all of them I add supportive and understanding to their lists.

Happy Thanksgiving!

The Emerald City

The eggs benedict at The Georgian restaurant here is delicious!

Our "living room" here was small, but the couch was comfy.

We spent last weekend in Seattle sans enfants! Yes we had a weekend trip without the kids. Nate had some kind of dental meeting where they paid for $700.00 a night suites for everyone. The room was comfortable, but didn’t seem worth that much, the robes were a little bit scratchy if you ask me, but the hotel service was fabulous I suppose. The Sonics were staying at the same hotel and other people caught sightings, but I somehow missed all the giants walking around.

I didn't hold the camera still enough to use the night aperture, but the view was nice.

While the boys were a meetin’ the girls went a shoppin’. Marianne and Kevin are friends from Nate’s residency and it was fun hanging out with them again. Marianne and Kevin live in a small town so Marianne had fun "power shopping". She would be a great shopping partner for another friend I know, nudge, nudge, wink, wink. That night Nate and I went to Jazz Alley for dinner and listened to the Average White Band. They were a pretty fun group to watch. You can't beat good music and good food at the same time. Afterwards we had a second dinner with Kevin and Marianne at the Melting Pot. I love cheese, nobody else liked the cheese entrees but the chocolate pots didn’t last at all!

Kevin and Marianne were fabulous enough to find tickets for the Seahawks game, plus a pre-game lunch with the Canadian Embassy.

We kept asking people where a good place for brunch was for the next morning and found out that one of the best places was right at our hotel, the Fairmont Olympic. We were not disappointed. Nate and I headed back over to Pike’s Place for some last minute tourist gawking and ended our trip at a Seattle Seahawks game. Other than the Super bowl I’m not a big fan of watching football on T.V., but give me live sports any day, it was so much fun.

The fish were a little bit slippery today, but they finally caught one!

The guitar player gave Nate his pick for being a good sport when they had to squeeze by our table. Nate also has a pick from Dave Letterman's band from when we lived in NYC maybe he should start a collection!

Tell All Tuesday on Thursday: What are you afraid of?

I really, really don't like spiders. I met an old lady once, not the one who swallowed the spider to catch the fly, but one that decided she didn't like me because my friend thought it would be silly to tell her that I skipped out on my shower that morning because I met a spider stealing all my hot water in the shower and decided it wasn't worth competing with the scary beast that day. She told me that I would be a horrible mother one day because I was afraid of spiders. I told her that I was sure once I had kids I could muster up enough courage for them, but she wasn't convinced and went home irritated at me forever after. Seriously, she never got over it. I wish I knew where she was now if she's even alive still, now that I have kids so I could recount the many spiders I have caught and set free to keep my kids happy, or squished to oblivion to help them feel safe depending on their mood. I'm great with my kids when it comes to spiders. As for when it's just me, I'll still skip a shower any day to avoid them. I'm not afraid to admit I'm afraid of spiders.

Tuesday Tell All: If I Weren't Me....

Today’s tell all theme is about what we would be doing if we weren’t who we are today. I think I missed two career paths, the first one is that I know I should have been a docent at the metropolitan museum of art. How great would that be all day to be surrounded by such beautiful art works and get to talk about them all day long. I’d show everyone my favorite pointillist paintings by Camille Pissaro, run through the modern art wing as fast as we could ignoring everything until we saw the Jackson Pollack room and then head straight to the black and white photography display. What a great way to spend your day.

Otherwise I know I should have been a professional dancer. My poor game score on the Wii dance game, Rayman Raving Rabids, has shown me that I have no rhythm, but I’m sure that 8 hours in the dance studio a day could fix that. I think reality TV is a waste of time, but I still can’t seem to get enough of dancing with the stars. If you watch the video clip it takes about a minute and a half to get to the fun dance routine, but it will make you smile.

Day out with the Girls

I’m always complaining about feeling overwhelmed and I think I’m the root of my problem. I paid my sister-in-law to watch my kids for a few days so I could get our basement organized to finish it and I spent the last day playing with friends! I called Wendi to get our nails filled and we ended up eating and shopping the rest of the day. It was soooooo worth it and sooooooo much fun. I was reminded of why I spent so much of my life following her around, she makes everything a blast.

Her friend Crystal happened to be in the car in front of her on our way to lunch and so she ended up joining us. I totally recognized her from her blog and that made my new blogging hobby all the more fun and a little creepy, I felt like a stalker. Unfortunately for my time crunch problem she was as much fun as Wendi is so I have a new blog I’m going to have to frequent. My basement isn’t any closer to being framed now, I didn’t get any of our bills off in the mail, my fridge is still empty and dirty and so on, but for a few hours I didn’t even care. I can’t wait to do it again!

Big Girls Don't Cry

When Luke was born Maya decided that she didn’t want to be a big girl, she wanted to be a big baby. She wanted to be swaddled like a baby, to drink from her sippy cup like it was a bottle and to cry like a baby. I knew she had adjusted to Luke’s permanence when she announced one day that she wasn’t a big baby anymore. Now if you even mention the word baby around her she gets so offended. She also started 3-year old pre-school this year and babies don’t go to school.


I think she was excited to start school because she got a pink Hello Kitty backpack to take with her. I was excited because Andy had been to pre-school there and I knew she would love it too. Her class memorizes a poem each month. Andy came home with his first poem when he was in that class two years ago and wanted to start working on it right away. Maya however, pretended to not know what a poem even was when she brought her paper home. I explained it to her and tried to have her repeat the lines after me. “Maya, say apple, apple after me.” She said, “Oh, I like apples.” I said, “Okay, say apple, apple.” Instead she starts to sing up, down, up down…and this continues until I give up for the day. She was so all over the place. The next week on Tuesday, I told her teacher when I picked her up from class how fun it was to watch the differences between her and Andy. They each had such a different approach about class. The next class, Thursday morning she told me that she thought it was funny that I told her that Maya had trouble focusing on the poem because she had stood in front of her class and had recited the whole thing that morning. I was astonished because she had never reviewed it once with me. We never made it past that first failed attempt. When she got in the car I asked her to share her poem with me. “What poem mom?” “The one you said for your class today.” “Oh, up and up and …..” She still won’t share that poem with us. I guess a big girl has to have a few things just for herself.

Andy's Prayer

Andy said the family prayer tonight and I had to record what he said because I had the hardest time stifling my giggles. He said, " Heavenly Father, please bless that my daddy can always work very hard so we can have lots of money to buy everything we need. (This is where I begin holding in the laughter.) And please bless him to have enough money to pay taxes and that Maya will not do that during the prayer." (At this point Nate breaks down too.) While Andy is saying this thoughtful prayer, and Nate and I are stifling our laughs, Maya is waving her body back and forth while keeping her arms folded and eyes closed of course, and Luke thinks it's all a game and is laughing his head off. Our family is so spiritually minded it kills me! So of course after the prayer we had to ask Andy if he knew what taxes were since it's not a topic of conversation generally in our house. He said that the money from taxes is used to pay for the roads and water everybody uses. (Earlier today he was telling me about gravity and the earth's orbit and asking why some people still called Pluto a planet since it's probably really a comet or asteroid.) I don't know where this kid comes from some days. I'm just glad he's on my team.

Tell All Tuesday - Trick-or-Treat

This week's Tell All subject is about what we would like to find in our trick-or-treat bags. I would love to find house-elves in my Halloween bag. I’ve been picking up after my kids too much today I guess. They could each have one that trailed behind them, helping them pick up their things or just reminding them to do it themselves. They need to learn to clean up after themselves after all; it would just be nice for someone else to have to do the reminding once in a while!

Then I would love to find tickets to Europe with a month long pass for the Eurorail. It’s been far too long since I’ve had a really good pastry, or had a chance to be embarrassed by my horrible French skills. I would actually like tickets to any far off place. I would love a vacation that’s at least two weeks to a month. That’s long enough to feel relaxed and long enough to feel the urge to get home.

At the very least I would like some good candy. I love treats!

Big Man on Campus

Andy started kindergarten this fall and loves it. I volunteer in his class on Monday mornings and it’s a riot to see him in action. He told someone the other day that he hasn’t learned anything at school yet, but he is already reading better and copying all the big kids (uh-oh). He thinks he's so cool because he has some 5th grade friends. I thought he was kidding until one came over to talk to him after church today. Yikes! He barely comes up to the other kindergarteners shoulders, but he's rollin' with the big boys anyway.



He is also playing on his first soccer team. The first few games were quite a headache reminding him not to break-dance when it’s time to kick the ball in, tackle his own teammates, or fight with Maya over whatever toy she has on the sidelines. His last game was good. He didn’t jump on anyone and almost scored a goal.

Tell-All-Tuesday "You can quote me on that"

I'm going to have to paraphrase my favorite quote; I hope that's not against the rules of this week's theme. My favorite quote is from one of President Hinckley's books. Sorry, I don't remember which one which is why I'm not claiming the quote is going to be word for word. When speaking about getting through trials, and just every day life he said, "The only way I know how to get things done is to get down on my knees and pray and then get up and go to work."

I love it because it reminds me that the best way to have our prayers answered is to ask for help and then roll up our sleeves and get busy with the faith that God will make everything better then we could hope for ourselves. We just need to do our part.

It ties in with my new mantra from William Ernest Henley’s poem "Invictus”: I am the master of my fate; I am the captain of my soul. I’ve been trying to remember lately that I get to choose what I make of my life.

Eat Mud

Andy loves to play in the mud. Here he is literally swimming in a mud pool.
He had so much fun this day.

We spent an afternoon at Moon Lake with my sisters and my parents.
All the girls managed to stay clean, but the boys had to be soaked
and scrubbed to take off the mud cake when they were done!

This last photo was taken as I asked Andy to strip down and swim in the
lake to rinse off all the mud at the end of the day. The wheels are turning
in his head debating whether or
not he should risk the frigid water or find his way
back on foot! He was a good sport after all and enjoyed his first skinny dip.

The Cast

The following posts will show each member of our family showing in the That's My Life blog and the role each of us play!

Luke

Luke – making his debut as the sweetest baby in the world
Likes: laughing, playing, eating, and silly faces
Dislikes: messy diapers, being hungry and loud noises

Maya

Maya – reprising her favorite character of the one and only pink princess
Likes: all things pink, marshmallows, babies, and anything Andy has
Dislikes: anything that’s not her way and waiting

Andy

Andy – enjoying the role of big brother, smarty-pants and cutest 5-year old in the world
Likes: candy , candy, candy, asking questions and playing with mud
Dislikes: eating anything besides candy, sitting still, and being alone

Desiree

Desiree – playing her favorite character the dedicated mom and smitten wife
Likes: food, laughing, reading, buying things instead of making them yourself
Dislikes: meetings and not getting enough sleep

Nate

Nate – currently playing the role of superdad and superhottie hubbie
Likes: classic rock, itty-bittty details, being outside, projects, skiing, and keeping busy
Dislikes: mushrooms, animals, and buying something instead of doing it yourself

Joining the Blogger World

I am going to join the blogger world for a little while and test how much I like documenting the little things that make up our life. Hopefully I'll figure out how to save this all and my kids will forgive me for not being into scrapbooks and photo albums.