Thank You Veterans

It's Veterans Day again. Seems like at one time every man was a veteran. All three of my grandma's husbands were, J's grandpa, my father, pretty much every man you knew older than a certain age. Now it is fewer people who go in the military. It is a blessing we don't need as many but I think it is aways important to recognize those who have done it or are willing to put their lives on the line in order to protect what we hold near and dear. I'd just like to put a shout of thanks out to My Father, thanks for your years of service, for teaching me love and respect for this country even if the people in it didn't always respect or love you in the way they should. Thank you Grandpa Tolman, Grandpa Slade, Grandpa Burr, Grandpa Chatam. I realize that most of you didn't have any choice in the matter but I've never heard you complain. I know some of you were forever changed by your duty. I wonder what your lives would have been like in a different time and place. I know it wasn't easy but I thank you. Thank you Aunt Cynthia and Uncle Jim, watching Marine life through you guys made me know it was never the life for me but I grew and understood just how strong a person you have to be to make that type of sacrifice. Thanks cousin Brooke and her husband Corey. I realize that you two made the ultimate sacrifice and there are really no words I can say to make that okay but I love you both and hope my life can show the respect and honor I have toward  

I Don't Own My Children's Bodies - A haircut battle and a relfection on my ear piercing policy.

Yesterday I took my children to get their hair cut, all four, and yes we could have a post completly dedicated to the fact that this act alone probably proves I'm crazy, but that is not what this post is about.  The cathalyst to this event was three fold.  First Captain E was starting to look pretty scruffy.  Secondly Cheetah's hair was so crazy.  She's never had a hair cut and the last year or so it has needed a trim but I've avoided cutting it because it is a little curly and I knew the second we cut it the curl would be completely gone.  Third, Peach was asking me to get her hair cut again.  So yesterday I agreed to take them all.  We went to Great Clips...I figured when you are going to have four kids hair cut, having lots of stylist available is the way to go.  Before we left though I said to Gigi, "Do you want to get a trim?"  And she responded, "I want to cut all my hair off."  Now this started a huge fight in our house.  Not with me, me I tried to bite back what I wanted to say, but Captain E freaked out!  I mean he just went nuts.  It is important to note that Captain E is super resistant to change.  He hates it so much and pretty much his entire life Gigi has been a girl of long hair.  At birth she had four inches of hair sticking straight up in the air.  By two months she had great pig tails.  By nine months we gave her her first hair cut.  By two years the girl had waist length hair.  That's how it has been most of her life since then.  We get it trimmed occasionally so that it will look nice but for almost her whole life she's been a long haired girl.  Originally she said she wanted a bob like Peach so this was a huge change she was asking for. 

If I'm honest I was freaking out internally a little myself.  We keep Peach's hair in a cute little bob and I don't mind short hair but I'm just so used to G being my long haired girl that it was a little heart breaking to think those long blonde locs were about to be gone.  I had this thought though while this whole thing was going on..."My children's bodies belong to them, they don't belong to me."  Maybe the rest of the world doesn't have problems with this, but for me it is often difficult to seperated myself from my children, to come to grips with the fact that they aren't still part of me.  When we were newly married we lived in a ward where there was a family with teenage sons.  I remember sometime during the one son's senior year he grew his hair out super long.  He had really curly hair so it became a huge fro.  Then when it reached just epic proportions he bleached his normally dark brown hair blonde.  It was horrible, this sort of yellow sort of orange color, huge frizzy, just gross.  I remember some people in the ward talking to his mom about it.  I think someone in the ward was a little uncomfortable with him passing sacrament.  I remember his mom responding to their questions of why didn't she make him change it with "You know, it is his hair."  That really struck me.  Since that time I've watched other parents.  We are not always so easy going when it comes to our children.  We often stiffle their creativity and sometimes we make decisions or comments about their bodies that are not ours to make.  A personal pet peeve of mine is the father that guilts his daughters into keeping their hair long because that is what he finds attractive...look I'm not saying you are some kind of weird perve, but I think we shoud support our children's right to experiment and encourage them to realize that their value and beauty isn't tied to our or societies preferences. 

I tried to explain that to my freaking out son.  I sat him down and kindly said, "Look I know you are struggling because you don't like change.  I understand that, I can sympathize with it.  That being said, you don't have the right to make choices about anyone elses body but your own.  Your sisters get to choose how they want their own hair, just like you get to choose how you want your own."   Guys this statement came back to bite me exactly 30 minutes later.  I was at the Great Clips asking E how much of his hair he wanted cut off and he said he just wanted a trim, no buzzers, just a 1/2 inch off, and he wanted to leave his side burns alone."  And the thing is at that moment I had to respect that.  Just like my daughters he has the right to choose his own hair style and to have me respect that decision. 

The irony of this whole realization is that I realized my husband understood this long before I did.  When our daughters were born Dr. J and I were in direct conflict over if we should pierce their ears or not.  I wanted to pretty much do it at birth.  Dr. J wanted to have them wait until they were twelve so that it would be their own decision.  We eventually negotiated down to the age of 8.  Gigi will be eight in a month.  She has zero interest in getting them pierced...I mean does not want it one little bit.  Dr. J was right not to let me pierce them.  How do you like those apples J, how do you like them!

Captain E's before and after.  Sure he didn't cut much but hopefully he internalized that he has the rights to his own body just like everyone else has the rights to their own.

G's before and after.  She didn't end of going as short as she orginally planned.  The girl at the store was anxious about chopping it all off so cut it to this length and asked G what she thought.  G loved it.  I was sad to see that long hair go...I love braiding it, but I was happy she was excited with her cut.  I love that she can see her own beauty regardless of hair style.

Peach's before and after.  Rocking the bob.  This girl is just adorable any way but I love her hair in a bob.  FYI she wasn't sad about the hair cut she was sad she was the last on the list to get the cut.

Cheetah's before and after...okay I'm not going to lie, this one broke my heart a little, as in mommy teared up while they were cutting.  She was super good for her cut and the girl saved me a few pieces of the curl but I was right, the curl is forever gone :(  It does look a lot less crazy now though and magically now appears a tad thicker.  Welcome to little girlhood my dear.

White Chocolate Popcorn...ie Popcorn Crack

My mother-in-law is a collector of delicious recipes.  If she goes to a work party, church party, friend group and eats something delicious she always asks to get the recipe.  Her new thing is white chocolate popcorn.  It is so yummy.  You will eat all of it.  Well if you are like me, you will.  It is so easy to make. 

1) Pop some popcorn.  Linda popped hers on the stove with coconut oil.  I would have used my air popper if I were at home.  You can also pop popcorn in a brown paper bag in the microwave, just fold the top over or use plain microwave popcorn.

2)  Put the popcorn on a couple of cookie sheets.

3) Melt white chocolate chips in the microwave.  Use a low setting, stop it every fifteen to thirty seconds or so to stir.  You don't want to burn the chocolate.

4) When your chocolate is melted drizzle it over your popcorn.  Throw the whole thing in a big bowel and start stiring. You can eat it hot or after it cools on the counter.  I love both!

I guess you can do variations on this, drizzle dark chocolate to make it pretty or sprinkle it with sprinkles.  It would make a great cheap neighbor gift.  Anyway enjoy!

Day Light Savings

Can we please just talk about Day Light Savings for a moment.  Yesterday I mentioned how education may or may not be falling apart in the great state of Utah.  No one in the state government really wants to talk about that, but what they do want to talk about Day Light Savings.  While I maybe think the prorities are a little screwed up, I can definitely agree that Day Light Savings Stinks!  I grew up in Arizona.  We don't do daylight savings...my entire life was fine, no problems.  I came to Utah and then I had to deal with Day Light Savings.  I move to Illinois more Day Light Savings.  I move to Indiana and there is more.  Look I'm not saying this is the issue of the century but is it really necessary.  It's inconvienent and it messes with my kids sleep schedule.  That is the main issue.  I'm a mom of four kids...things that mess with kids sleep schedule are bad, bad things!  I saw this trailer and I just had to laugh...woh hasn't been there :)

Field Trip

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. 

It Isn't a Secret, I'm Hispanic

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. 

Looking for a Towel Solution

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....