Bye, Bye Blonde!

As poor students we have been forced to forgo most of our previous luxuries in life. The latest to go is far more personal than all the rest. Say goodbye to the too-expensive, nice salon acquired, sun kissed highlights....And say hello to my#7 medium, mocha-brown new do!




What have I done?!?!






I am easily swayed by 3 words -- "untried," "unprecedented," and most importantly "cheaper." Those three words have never served me well when ordering from a menu, so I have no idea why I risked it on my hair! But from wanting to explode out of the salon chair to wash out the bright purple chemical to scaring myself every time I looked in a mirror, after 3 days it's starting to grow on me. I will always be a blonde at heart, so this change is totally temporary. But, do you think I can pull it off? Say hello to the more economically friendly, brown-haired me!

Alex vs. Claire

No, it isn't a competition. Just a random sampling of what my kiddos are up to lately. Enjoy!

Alex:
He figured out that he could bug his sister just by looking at her. It's a powerful tool only used by the most proficient of big brothers.
Claire:
Figures that everyone who looks at her is doing it to bug her. The phrase "Stop looking at me!" is hurled at everyone under the age of 5.
Alex:
He thinks he can speak Korean and tries it out with any Asian he encounters. He has a theory that if he speaks out of the corner of his mouth and yells (yes, yells) some gibberish in their same intonation that our little Korean neighbors can understand him. I can't decide if they feel this is totally offensive or not, but we're trying to break him of this practice.
Claire:
She thinks that if Alex isn't yelling at her than it's great and joins in with the gibberish. There is a lot of well-intentioned yelling going on around here.
Alex:
He soaks in any information he gets about bugs. This being an area I try to avoid, I am no use. Thank goodness that's what kindergarten is for. He's added the word "aphid" (pronounced ay-fid) into his vocabulary. Since Alex has been known to make up words I ignored him for awhile until he used it quite frequently and in the same context each time. Only after the teacher sent home a cheat sheet of ladybug facts did I find out that an aphid is a pesky little insect that ladybugs love to eat. I guess I shouldn't have taken offense to his earlier comment of "Mmm, this dinner smells like aphids."
Claire:
She is now obsessed with Disney princesses. (It goes to show that nature beats out nurture.) She is either pretending that she is a princess or that one of them has come over for a playdate. I never know if she is talking to me or not when she and I are the only ones around. Case in point: I put a dress on her and she twirled and said "Now I'm pretty just like you." I was flattered by the comment (when I was still in my bathrobe and had no makeup on) so I said "thank you." She looked at me with disgust and said, "Not you, Mom. I was talking to Princess Jasmine."
Alex:
Acts like discipline is a new tactic in our house and pushes the limits any way he can. My ingenious "put your hands on your head and listen carefully" talk is becoming a lost art on him. But he is motivated by the whole "oh no, you lost one lightn'ing mcqueen, do you want to lose another one?" routine. Thank goodness he has 5 of them, but insists they are not complete without each other. It's very effective.
Claire:
She's really getting into the whole discipline thing and mocks me constantly. I overheard her say to another one of her make-believe friends, "Simba, put your hands on your head and listen carefully! There will be no screaming in the car or on the horse. Understand?!?"
Alex:
He is really enjoying kindergarten. I no longer have to bribe him with gummy bears to tell me about his day. He has really taken to his teacher's ways of teaching him how to write letters and numbers. He loves "homework" and you can catch him muttering "big fat belly and walk away" when writing his now-favorite number 2.
Claire:
She really enjoys time to herself while Alex is at kindergarten. She can play with all her animals and dolls without fear of having them thrown across the room or stepped on by an whirlwind ambush that is her brother. I caught her in the act of playing the other day and captured it on video for all of you who have wondered what she does while Alex is at school. I am blessed to have at least one of my kids be self-entertained.

Alex:
Is a really good helper around the house. I am definitely not a task master (and really struggle with thinking of jobs that I would be willing for my kids to help me with) but he does the normal things like make the bed, put away the silverware, and dusting without complaining and with some finesse. He has even started sleeping on top of his covers so he won't mess up his bed, a strategy I remember using myself when I was little.
Claire:
Struggles with helping because she is so easily sidetracked. Before she starts her "job" I have to put on the "Mamma Mia" soundtrack at her request (I have taught my children well!) But today as she was "helping" me, she threw down the swiffer duster and said, "I'll dance and you dust." It was a fair trade, I thought, seeing that she wasn't helping in the first place. One day she'll be as good at dusting while dancing as her mother is.
Alex & Claire:
Alex loves, loves, loves his cars and Claire loves being a girl. So they have combined their two passions and have invented a hair salon for all the cars in the house. They take a bucket of toy cars, squirt bottles, spray gel, and combs outside and make each car look real spiffy. I love to see them use their imaginations and actually work together on something. Those moments of mutual pleasure are few and far between, but this "car wash" thing has been building bridges this week.

Why is it the times when they are most apt to get along is when they shouldn't be? Now that they share a room, bedtime is at 7:30 but more often than not they are still up playing and laughing at 9:30pm. Why is it that they can't ride 15 minutes in the car without someone hurting someone else but they can spend 2 hours joyfully not sleeping?

In order to promote the getting along times we have incorporated the use of a warm-fuzzy jar -- a compilation of ideas from my elementary school days. The idea is they can add a warm-fuzzy (a little puffy ball) to the jar when I catch them doing something nice. When the jar is full we can have a special treat as a family. We already went to a "pizza party" at the famous Zachary's Pizza here in Berkeley (I looked around for a local Chuck E. Cheese or something more kid-friendly and exciting but I couldn't find one and pizza is pizza, right?) Now we're working towards an ice cream party. We'll let you know if that ever happens. The way things are going it won't be for a while.

The Update

Okay, this is a REAL blog -- enough of the social soapbox that I'm apt to crawl upon. This entry goes out to the grandparents and faraway friends that would like more details of what goes on and how life is in our new place. I think I can summarize things by creating two categories:


Things we've gotten used to:

• The train -- we hardly ever notice it anymore unless it's right when we're trying to fall asleep and the horn blares for a continuous 30 seconds until it fades into the distance.
• Not having a dishwasher -- I really never expected to get used to washing all things by hand, but there's something very soothing about the white noise of the running water and the fact that I'm left alone for a half hour because nobody wants to help me with the dishes. Occasionally I find a spot on my glass (or some dried-on food on the bottom of a plate) and it's a little disconcerting that the blame can't be placed on an appliance -- I am the appliance!
• Being a ONE car family. Cory can probably count on both hands the number of times he's ridden in a car since we first moved here. He takes the city bus to and from school every day, bless his heart! And, thanks to the close proximity of the school, park and any friends' house, I rarely drive either.
• 1002 sq ft of living space. When we first arrived here I thought it would be impossible to function rationally in such tight quarters, but we have survived. And as long as I remember this is TEMPORARY and our family doesn't grow, it will be fine.

Things I'll never get used to:

• Not having a washer and dryer! The laundry room is just 2 doors down from our place and, yes, I can get 5 loads of laundry done at once, but I hate, hate, hate the fact that I have to pay money for doing a household chore that I hate doing in the first place! At the beginning of this month I went to the bank and got $50 in quarters and it better last through September, because I will NOT pay more than $50 to get laundry done unless I'm paying someone else to do it for me.
• NO garbage disposal. You know what they say, you never appreciate something until it's gone. So, if you have a garbage disposal go to your sink right now, turn on the water, and flip the switch to give that puppy a crank for me. I never knew how annoying soggy, leftover cereal could be until I couldn't just wash it down the sink. Claire has been banned from cereal in the morning due to her tendency to never finish a bowl.
• And I will never get used to Sundays in Berkeley. Our ward is far from conventional. I am starting to look forward to the riveting theological debates in Sunday School and Relief Society, but I will never get used to the many women who wear pants. That's it, call me "old-fashioned!" (and if you happen to be one of those women who does wear a pair of trousers or culottes, please don't take offense and stop coming. Better to come to church in pants than stay at home in a dress, I always say)

And for those of you who NEED a visual update--


These are the geese who live in the soccer field of Alex's school. We walk past them everyday. Pretty cool, huh?

Alex and Claire at Park Day today. Every week we go to a different park, there are so many to choose from!

And this is the view from the park that overlooks the bay. It was a gorgeous day today!

Faux Mother

Talking to my friend the other day I coined a new phrase: "faux mother", you know, like "faux leather." Really, I can be quite creative, if I do say so myself, and this term would be amusing if I were not using it to describe myself. Definition, please?

faux-mother [foh muhth-er]

-noun

a female parent who is just waiting for the skills of organization, ingenious discipline techniques, and savvy decorating ideas to suddenly come to surface without much effort on her part and one who doesn't pretend to have or desire such skills

see also, plother as in "play mother"

This realization came to me as my friend was informing me that she was off to can pears that day from fruit that had been harvested from her own trees. You know, the exact thing my own mom used to do when I was little. The smell of homemade pearsauce simmering in my kitchen is something my children will never experience, I am sad to say. Neither will they know the feeling of putting on an original Halloween costume made just for them.

But, in my attempt to become closer to my own ideal concept of a "real mom" I have enlisted the help of a new kid-friendly schedule and an old-fashioned alarm clock. The moment I became a mother (or more realistically, the moment I was put on bed rest while pregnant with Alex) the alarm clock has become a mere decoration on my nightstand. But at the beginning of this school year and in commemoration of the fact that I now have a kid in school, I actually set it to wake me up at the wicked hour of 7:00 am. (And it's really earlier than that because I always set my clock ahead at least 10-15 minutes.) And there's really no reason to wake up that early because Alex is in afternoon kindergarten and the kids don't wake up until 8:30. So, by the time they're up I am showered and dressed and even have some alone time in the morning so I can face them fresh and ready! (Not a new concept for the born-to-be-mothers out there, but an epiphany for me.) Cory thought it would only last for 3 days, tops, but I've been doing it for 2 weeks now -- only one more week to go until it's a habit. (3 consecutive weeks or 21 days make for a habit, so says my own far-from-faux mom.) Now if I fit exercising and scripture reading into this whole equation it would be perfect. But you know what they say about running faster than you can walk....

I'll keep you posted on the more advanced skills of sewing, canning, and freezing. But in the meantime I'll stick to what I know -- singing silly songs, reading bedtime stories, and just plain wingin' it.

A Long Time Coming...

After 4 years apart, the roomie reunion was in full force this weekend up in Grant's Pass, OR. And can you believe it, we still have the same taste in clothes -- this coordination of dresses for church was NOT planned!!

It was a struggle to make the trip -- have I mentioned my two kids are not good travelers? And road construction for half of the 6 hours did not help at all. But I would have crawled there on my hands and knees to see you, Erica!! Okay, maybe that's a tad bit dramatic. I would gladly endure another 6 hours in our cramped little car that has no DVD player, help Claire pee on the side of the road again, and drink another disgusting strawberry-banana smoothie from Jack-in-the-Box to see you.

We had a blast reliving some of the most memorable times in our 4 years of rooming together, some of which are better forgotten. And our husbands were good sports to go along with the fun. Now, some things you should know about Erica and I -- we were engaged 2 weeks apart, married 2 weeks apart, and our first 2 kids are both 2 weeks apart from each other. (She really messed up when she went on to baby #3 -- didn't she know I wasn't ready?) Well, the close proximity of the ages of our children made for a great weekend-long play date for everyone.

Alex's greatest moment was discovering that fruit came from TREES and not just the local grocer. He kept running in to tell us he had found a pear, then a PLUM, and, oh my goodness -- an APPLE!! I think that's when we were officially named the "city folk."

We found a stage in an outside amphitheater (where Willie Nelson was to perform that night) and we used it for our own private Talent Show. This is Claire taking a bow after her riveting rendition of "Part of Your World" otherwise known as "Ariel's Song" in our family. Once we learn how to get movie-clips off our video camera, I'll include it.

This is Alex and Claire being "de-city-fied" by Owen.

Well, thanks for a wonderful time, the excuse to see gorgeous scenery, and the abundant amount of Tillamook ice cream that we consumed, Jed and Erica!! Let's not let another 4 years go by again!!