My Little Chatty Kindra...

"I want out.....", I told myself.

As I pulled out of Kindra's school parking lot I could not believe what had just happened. I'm so serious... I want to pull my kids out of school permanantly so that I don't have to deal anymore with these wack jobs! (Can you tell yet that I am piiiiiissed?!?)

Her teacher had nabbed me as I was dropping Kindra off for class.

"I wanted to talk with you for a moment about Kindra's background."

Huh??? What is a background and what background are we talking about???

"What kind of structure is she receiving at home? How does she usually behave socially? Is she always so chatty and defiant? Well, we find her to be a bit immature yet quite intelligent but not necessarily in a positive way and we wanted to talk with you first before we did anything about it."

Excuse me??? Her structure at home?!? Defiant?!? Immature?!? When is it not normal for a 5 yr old to not be chatty and what do you want me to do...tell her to shut up and to crush her spirit? Sorry, but I'd much rather her be too chatty then too reserved! When is being intelligent not a positive attribute? What the hell do you actually think I am going to let you do when you say before we did anything about it?!?

Let me remind you that I am one who does not do well when I am surprised with something like this. I don't like when I feel attacked and I don't like when my kids are attacked. Even when the other person may be partly correct, I don't like it! My first instinct is to fight hard and dirty. I know, immature (maybe that's where she gets it...) but don't pee on my fire hydrant. MY family is MY territory. I was "chatty", am still "chatty". I'm very intelligent....hehehe and come on, whatcha gona go about it!?!

I was very calm and polite but was very adamant that I would handle it by talking to her myself about it. I know that there are rules and that there are ways that she should be acting but reeeeally???

I am sure that I am making a bigger deal out of this then it really is but when you ask about our home life...structure...ways that I run my domain, then I get pissed!

Just wanted to vent a little because I think that things sure have changed alot in the past 25 years. I remember the things that we would get away with...that we would do and the ways that they were "taken care of" and it really is different!

I find it sad because I think it's because we've become paranoid, over analytical, live in "too scary" of a world, we're confused...need I go on?

"Thanks you old bag. I'll take care of it! Come on Kindra...let's go back to our chaotic, disgustingly messy home, and you can go play some more with your horses!" hehehe

It's Right About That Time...

"Maybe it's time to be clear about who i am. I am someone who is looking for love. Real love. Ridiculous, inconvenient, consuming, can't live without each other love."
---Carrie, Sex and The City

Exactly. I couldn't have said it better myself.

After watching a re-run of an episode last night, I've decided that these will be the first words uttered out of my mouth right after I open the door and before I set foot out on a first date.

I'm serious.....

Think of how nice it would be if we could have a small chalk board that hung from our neck that stated the most important things about us. People could read it, see if it interested them, and then if not, move on. It would make things so much easier. The best thing about it would be that it could be erased and could change whatever it said which would enable us to fine tune its wording and to make sure that we got it exactly right.

So much easier.

I'm serious....

Who's Really Doing The Work?!?

Last Thursday, Kindra brought a packet home from school which also included a note of instructions....

"Please have the student make a doll of what they think that they look like. Have it include some of their favorite things and list what they would like to accomplish this year in Kindergarten."

...so I took the "have the STUDENT make" part literal and went to work having Kindra create her doll to look exactly the way that SHE wanted it to. My thoughts were this...SHE needs to learn how to do this. SHE needs to expand her creativity. SHE needs to feel like this is HER accomplishment. I helped her to write her goals but SHE did the work.

So on Friday when I went to drop her off to class (we were a bit late so I actually took her in) these are the "other dolls" that we saw....

...immediately Kindra said "Oh no! My doll doesn't have hair and my doll doesn't have a dress! Mom????" To be honest, I was a little dumbfounded myself! What had I let her done? What a horrible, uncreative Mother I am to have let her actually DO HER project HERSELF!!! I could not believe that I had been so stupid! I can't let my daughter feel like she is the boring one! I began to panic for a quick moment, becoming overwhelmed once again with all of these "new" things that I have been learning. I never had to worry about these types of things with Carter. He could care less!

"Oh don't worry Kindra! We'll fix it this weekend and you'll love it!" was what I said without thinking! So this is what we came up with. Yes, I helped her jazz it up a bit but I still let her do EVERYTHING that she wanted to do with it. (notice....the chin...the glasses...the skin...the horse...the shoes...the fingers...hehehe!)

How funny is this picture! We had to show how much they looked alike and look at Kindra's fingers :)
The reason for this post is to point out that this really bugs me! I think that we put way too much pressure on our kids and on ourselves! They would still be happy with alot less work! I swear that we have our kids doing things just to please ourselves. I even did it myself! Like I was going to let my daughter be the uncreative and boring one. And look...Kindra was insecure about the other dolls that had been made by parents not by the kids in her class so it was a "fake issue"!!! Why are we doing that to them??? So I ask the question...Do we let our child be an individual and let the insecurities be possibly created or do we do the work ourselves and stay in the "safety zone"?

I had no idea that it could be so complicated but I think that for me and my 2 minions, I'll put on my life vest and test out the "insecure" waters!!! Honestly...

I Am SOOOO Annoyed!

I love to shop. LOVE IT! I love to buy. LOVE IT. I am also not afraid to return.

In fact, I will buy articles, take them home, sit with them for a day or two, see how I feel about them at home, and then will return them back to their store if I need to.

The other day I was up getting my hair cut and decided to run next door to The Basket Loft. They had some darling Halloween displays (and we all know how much I LOVE Halloween) so I made some purchases. I took them home, looked at what I all ready had to see if it all "flowed". It did not so I decided to make a return.

Today when I went to the store to return them, 4 days later, they would not! I had my receipt so I was a little confused!

"We will take the return but will not give you a refund. Only a store credit."

I asked if it was their store policy to let their customers know of this when they made the purchases.

"Yes. There is a sign right back there", as she pointed to a small sign that was covered by clutter.

It's not like this is the first time that I have shopped at The Basket Loft! It's not like it's 30 days later! Come on! What a total BS move that is on their part. Their "store credit" is a piece of paper that I'm sure they hope will "be lost" as this is the only way that they know it exists!

Not a huge deal. $40 but still...it's the whole point of it all!

Recognizing My Blessings...

As I watch the news this evening and the special broadcasts that are giving us the up to date news concerning Hurricane Gustave, the images of Hurricane Katrina are all too vivid. The devastation, the death, the sadness, the horror, and the feelings of "how in the hell did this happen to those of us in our country" still seem like yesterday.
Thank goodness that they were prepared this time around with the evacuations before Gustave hit and thank goodness that the terror did not hit down into New Orleans or the rest of the gulf cities that are along our coast.
It causes me to reflect on how lucky those of us who have not had to deal with this type of disaster really have been. We all have our own bumps in the road, but our region luckily has not had to deal with this type of disaster...not yet at least.
So tonight, thank your blessings, how big or small they may be, tell your family just how important they are to you, and pray to your God to continue to watch over us and keep us safe from the major disasters that could come at us, at any time, especially when we least expect it.

TOUCHDOWN!!!

It's official. Football season has begun. Trevor is a fanatic when it comes to BYU football and has been a season ticket holder for years. This year he was able to buy 2 more so his friends would use 2 and he could use the other 2 to take Carter. He searched high and low for Carter's new BYU football shirt and he finally found one at Walgreens? of all places.

I am so excited for Carter to spend some guys only time with his Dad. I have my own memories of being his age and going with my parents to the football games in that very same stadium. I can't tell you one thing about the actual games but I can tell you all about the treats that my Mom put together to keep Jake & I occupied.

"Rise and Shout
the Cougars are out
along the trail to Fame & Glory....."


There's nothing more memorable or better than the BYU Cougars fight song! :) rrrrrrrrright!!!