One of the joys of home school....I can do field trips whenever is convenient for me. Today I took the kids to the aquarium with my little sister Jo. It was not cheap but the kids had a ton of fun...although I think the highlight for them was probably in the gift shop when Jo let then each pick a four dollar or under gift. Mom hates gift shops so this was a special treat.
Maybe people are going to think I'm being overly sensitive here, but it offends me when people think it is OK to diss Hispanics in front of me. We were having a discussion today about how abysmally the state of Utah did on the standardized test they wrote for themselves since they decided to ditch the ones written for common core. Heaven forbid a Republican State say "Hey let's not follow those other crazy states, let's save money and not rewrite the entire curriculum and testing and order more books." I mean don't get me wrong I have a serious problem with the amount of testing being done in schools, but these states aren't shucking it, they're just reworking it a little and giving it a new name at the cost of a lot of tax payer money. Wait I thought Republicans were all about not wasting government money....please someone say that to me, please....ok but whatever that's not what I wanted to argue about today. Back on track, it was the Hispanic comment. The person I was talking with (who I love dearly and still love) says to me, "well what do you expect with all the Hispanics here?". People I almost died. Just to set the record straight, I'm Hispanic. When I pointed this out she said, " yeah but you were born in this country.". "First generation," I told her, "my father wasn't.". I'd like to point out this is a fact based purely on luck. Everyone please stop thinking you are so special or have personally done something great that makes it so you deserve to be born here. The truth is you were just lucky, extraordinarily so, as was I. Most of the world wishes they could be so lucky. Why would you resent them for taking a chance. I mean sure maybe they are affecting your test scores (although considering even the schools that did good still did sucky it might be time to look at your low funding and large class sizes....), but let's consider that when your ancestors and my ancestors came to this continent many pretty much stole everything they wanted and killed anyone who got in the way of their american dream. I think we can agree it could be a lot worse. Can you tell this put me in a mood? I guess I'm just saying look if you want to hate on Hispanic people that's your right but if you love me I'd appreciate if you didn't do it around me.
And also maybe while we sit around our Thanksgiving tables this year maybe we can take just take a second to think about the outcome of that first Thanksgiving. Did it really pay off being nice to the pilgrims? My kids and I are studying pre Columbus America right now. We are right up to 1491...people it is about to get downright nasty, like Grand Theft Auto horseland style nasty. You remember that whole Hispanic thing, well that means I have Spanish blood, a fact my father likes to remind me of while rubbing his bald head....there is a good chance my family was responsible for some serious damage making their american dream. There isn't a thing I can do about that now, except maybe be understanding of others trying to do so in a much more civilized manner.
I painted our kids bathroom last month and when I did I pulled the towel rack off and swore to never put it up again. I hate towel racks. I've lived in the Midwest for eleven years now. Let me tell you something, folded in half towels never dry. I've been a mother for ten years now. Let me tell you something else, most of my kids still can't reach to put their towel away and even the ones who can struggle to make them look nice. Towel racks are a nightmare. So I've been on a look out for new bathroom towel solutions. I really wanted this shelf/hanger thing my friend Jessica had in her bathroom. I've had zero luck finding anything like it. Today I found a hanger at IKEA that I could almost get behind. It was just a piece of wood with five good sized knobs. The price of $30 was OK. Not great but OK. The knobs seemed big enough to be sturdy and easy for kid use. The problem was the color. I wasn't sold on the black with my oak cabinets and white mirror frame. So I searched through the whole pile at the store. They had no white. They had a bright red and a cheap fake wood color. It was at that point I started wishing I could find a black. This towel thing is driving me nuts....
Sometimes you capture a picture that tells a lot about who you are. Here's what this picture tells you. My daughter loves her grandpa. Her grandpa loves to grill...even when it is freezing. My daughter hates clothing...even when it is freezing. I'm the kind of mom who will take this picture rather then put pants on her....The End
Gigi has always had an interest in animals but she has been a little about them. This week though she's had so much exposure that I've really seen her interest blossom into love. It started at Grandpa Bryant's house. Grandpa has a puppy at his house. When we walked in the door she was nervous but when Grandma Deb showed her all the tricks he do G bear was hooked! By the time we left they were best of friends. Then we went to aunt Cheri's house. Cheri has a horse who lives in her back yard...in her back yard. When G bear saw that horse she was in LOVE, IN LOVE! She walked right our and started patting away. Then she was feeding the horse apples off the apple tree that her uncle Doug was collecting. Can I just say there is nothing more beautiful than my daughter and a horse. I asked her later if she was scared at all. She told me no. I said, "but a horse is so big." "But it is so beautiful she told me. I had to touch it.". I need to get this girl lessons. I just need to. Then we went to my moms house where there are two cats. For years G has told me that she hated cats, just despises them. But a fee hours of being there and she was chasing Willow around to pet her. Yesterday I took my daughter to see my sister. Her boxer mix Troy has been part of our family for the last ten years. Gigi loved him. Every five minutes G would come out of the room she was drawing in to hug Troy. It was adorable! So glad this girl is getting over her fear of animals, and finding the joy they offer!
I took my kids to Macy's (the local grocery store) for ice cream last night. What we really wanted to do was go to a girls soccer game but after driving around for an hour and not finding it, we gave up. They had five sizes of cone and while the responsible part of myself wanted to insist they get a reasonable size the part that belongs to my father took over and told them to get whatever size they wanted. My father left when I was seven and to be honest was often about as absent as you could be, but when we did occasionally get together, he was the man of grand gestures. I remember being seven and him buying me the biggest blizzard size they sell at DQ. When we got home, I got out of the car, tripped on the curb and spilled out the entire thing. He bundled me back in the car drove back to DQ and bought another gigantic blizzard. There is a part of me that realizes an entire life of that would have turned me into a nightmare....but the occasional spoiling, well that just made me feel special. So last night when I let my kids pick and my son asked for the gigantic cone, I silenced the part of myself that wanted to say, there is no possible way you can finish that, and I let him order. I hope someday it is a memory he cherishes like I cherish my double blizzard night. By the way Gigi picked the daddy Kong. When it came out she was mad it was bigger than the picture.
Something happened last month. I packed up my van and me and my hubby drove two days to bring our kids home to the place of his birth and the place where most of our family still lives, Utah. Then after three days of fun, I dropped him off at the airport so he could fly home and work for 30 days before flying back Thanksgiving week to do the whole thing again in reverse. It is totally nuts, and with still 24 days to go I miss him but we had not brought our kids home in over years and we needed them to see their family. Because we have so much family here and J only gets 7 day off vacation chunks, our trips are usually hurried to the point of being frantic. This time thanks to the sacrifice of my mother in law who is letting us live in her basement for a month we have plenty of time to enjoy everyone's company. Yesterday my sister in law brought her kids to my in-laws house so they could trick or treat with us. It was lovely! First off the weather was perfect. Utah has had its share of snow Halloweens but this year it was 65 degrees easy. None of my kids needed a jacket. Meanwhile at home the temps were in the high 30s with rain and sleet...ouch! High lights of the night included, being with cousins, having my brother, mom, and sister in law to help carry Cheetah, the house that had hot chocolate, donuts, and candy for kids and parents (let this be me someday when we have crawled out from under our debt), the Elsa who walked passed us and said to my Anna, "Anna I got nerds, what did you get?".
