A couple of funny things

It's late and I'm tired, but before we begin another whirlwind of a weekend I wanted to take a moment to record a couple of funny things that I managed to catch and remember (which is something short of a miracle these days).

When I was putting Kate to bed the other night she said something like, "Mom, I just love my two top front teeth!  They are my favorite!"  This seems funny to me because it's so random and who knew you could have favorite teeth?!

Then the other night as I was rotating laundry before starting dinner Kevin said something like, "Mom, I love all the technology in the whole world, but I love you more."  And no--he has not seen "Napolean Dynamite".  He just thought about that and came up with it all on his own to make sure that I knew just how much he loved me.  So sweet and still makes me giggle.

Well that's all.  Have a great (and hopefully warm) weekend!

Little Known Facts

Tonight's top 5 consist of little known facts about me. 

1.  I am a sucker for red shoes.  I don't know what it is, but I love red shoes!  I am a little embarrassed to admit that I only have one pair, but if I could, I would probably have one red pair in every style of shoe imaginable.  Something about red shoes just makes me happy.

2.  When I feel like I'm in a stressful moment with my kids, instead of saying something like, "Calgon take me away!" or "Bleeding Hearts of the World Unite!"  I will start humming or singing "Zippidy Doo-daw".  That is probably spelled totally wrong, but that doesn't really matter.  The fact is, I use that song to help me keep my cool and try not to yell at my kids.  It started when I just had Kelly I think, and she was little and I of course always wanted to set the perfect example and not have her sweet innocence forever scarred from witnessing her mother have a total melt down in front of her because she was taking off her shoes and socks...again, or something like that.  Don't get me wrong, I do yell at my kids way more than I should, and yes on occasion ugly words have come out of my mouth too.  But I really try to start with "Zippidy Doo-daw" first.  I mean how mad can you really be when you're singing, "My oh my what a wonderful day!"?   It's too bad that I can't use this at work.  Well, not out loud anyway. ;)

3.  I took several years of French in High School and even college.  At one point I even thought about minoring in French.  Do you think I could speak it now?!  Sadly I can only remember just un peu, a little.  Maybe I will take it up again someday.  I think if I were to learn another language these days I would go for Portugese instead, because it has similiarities to French and Spanish-or so I'm told.

4. When I was in junior high and high school I was always climbing onto the roof of our house.  Of course my mother hated it--what mother wouldn't?  But I loved going up there and being up so high, (it was a two story house).  I could see so much of the world around me and I just felt so calm and reassured.  This time of year was one of my favorites to climb on the roof and soak up all of the beautiful fall colors.  We lived in Oregon and the trees were magnificent!

5. I didn't learn to swim until I was 9 years old.  *Insert Gasp*  What can I say?  We lived in the Pacific Northwest and it wasn't like there were swimming pools all over the place.  At one point our neighbors did have a pool and we would mooch swimming invitations all of the time.  Well one day I was trying my hardest to just stay in the shallow end, but I couldn't help it! I was so tempted to see what it was like in the deep end.  After having to be rescued by my neighbor's mom--totally humiliating by the way.  My mom signed me up for lessons--thanks again mom!  I'm happy to report that I have been swimming very well ever since!

Well you know a little more about me.  What is a little known fact about you?

p.s.  Thanks for the tips on the caramel apples and yes, Stacey I would love Colleen's recipe!  I am motivated and inspired to try it again.

Pancakes in the Morning

O.k. I admit it, none of these pictures are really great.  I was playing around with different camera settings to see what I liked best. I really don't like using the flash on the camera, so you kind of have to get creative with other settings to get the lighting right.  Not only that but you have to hold really still, (I didn't think it was worth getting out the tripod), or they turn out blurry.  Oh well.  I saved these pictures because of the cute and funny facial expressions of my kids.  Kelly had already gone to school and we were just hanging out, having pancakes.  It was a fun morning.

Speaking of mornings I have the hardest time getting going!  Once my kids are off to school it's like I'm swimming in quicksand.  I just have so little motivation to do anything and I hate it!  What are your mornings like?  What gets you going?  I need to figure something out that gets me going a lot sooner than, "Oh my goodness!  It's lunchtime and we're all still in our pj's and haven't brushed our teeth!"  (That is really gross and probably an overshare--sorry).  But seriously, I'm tired of being in this slow motion fog every day.

Come look out our window!

This is what we saw yesterday morning as we woke up and got ready for school.  I know it's not much and if you could hear the drip, drip, drip as it quickly melted, it didn't last long.  But for our kids, coming from Arizona it was pretty exciting.  Kate exclaimed, "It's snowing?!!  (deep, excited intake of breath) It's Christmas today?!!!"  It was really cute, and I felt pretty bad having to tell her that it wasn't Christmas yet--but it's definitely cold enough.

What is your name?

Apparently my name has been changed to "Hey Mom!" because that is what my kids say now when they talk to me. I'm not sure what has brought about this change. Have I been saying that to the kids? I don't think so. At first it was just Kelly, but you know how it is, "monkey see, monkey do." Now Kevin and Kate do it too. Honestly it kind of bugs me. I used think how nice it would be to change my name. At least for just one day could I not be "mom," could someone else be "mom," and I could take a vacation. O.k., mostly I'm kidding but you know what I mean. Now I think that just plain mom would be great to hear! Do any of your children call you funny things? Just wondering.