Phones

I got an iphone this week.  I know, fancy, right!  Anyway, that's not really what this post is about.  While setting up the phone (does anyone else find the process of choosing ringtones annoying?) the kids came in and wanted to hear the ringtone.  I'd chosen the tone called "old phone," it sounds like...duh...an old phone circa 1950-80 ringing.  So I played the ringtone and all 3 kids laughed and said, "What's that supposed to be?"

WHAT?!

That's when I realized they have never heard a phone with a bell ringer!  I shouldn't be surprised because we've not had a "landline" in all the time they can remember.  But still, it's a shock to the system to be reminded of how much things have changed just within my lifetime.  Both sets of my grandparents had those heavy, black rotary dial phones.  In fact, until I was a teenager my Granny had a "party line."  The old lady who shared the line was ALWAYS on the phone!  Could you imagine that today?  It's not like this is ancient history we're talking about; I'm not THAT old.  (Shut it!  I hear that snorting and snickering!)

My children have never lived without cellphones, video games, satellite TV and the Internet.  They are very savvy, not only technologically so but also environmentally and gastronomically.  They remind ME to turn off lights and not to run the water when I brush my teeth.  They sigh and shake their heads whenever they see people clearing land and cutting down trees.  They question the origin of their hamburgers' beef and want to know if their fruit is organic.  I'm amazed at their sophistication -- I did not teach them a lot of this stuff -- they are just products of their era.

Of course, they are still kids (thankfully).  They ride bikes, play outside, run in the house, and jump on the furniture.  At the same time I marvel at the differences in our childhoods, I smile at the similarities.  It all makes me wonder...what will they live through?  What will their children never live with and without?

Much Love,
- J

PS -- I'm not daft, I know this is not a perfect time we're living in, but I know there is more good than evil.  I would drown in fear if I thought about all the chaos, hate, and danger prowling today.  You can say what you will, but I choose to focus on the positive in the hopes that I can increase the amount of good, beauty, and love in the world.

Big Girls Now

Posting two days in a row?!  Shocking, I know.  But there's been some big time events the past few days and I'd be remiss if I didn't document them.  Last week, on the first day of school, my two sweet baby girls turned SEVEN.  I cannot believe they are seven years old!  We had a little pool party on Saturday complete with pink elephant cupcakes and a giraffe mini-cake.  Evie loves elephants and Kallie is my giraffe girl.  We had a great time with friends and family.  The girls got new bikes and some other great things, but they were most excited about this.....

Yep, my two babies got their ears pierced yesterday.  Now I've got two big girls complete with bejeweled ears.  There were a few tears (from them) and a little doubt (from all of us).  In the end, however, they are happy and I'm excited, too!
As my sisters can attest, this ritual was a big deal in our house growing up.  We had to wait until we were 10 to get earrings, but it meant we were big girls.  And they are big girls - sweet, kind, and helpful.  I love those two!

Evie didn't want me to take her picture just after the piercing.  She asked me to wait, "Until my face isn't so red and puffy from crying."  Seriously.  We are definitely raising a priss here!  Kallie wanted to choose skull studs.  "Ooooo, these are cool!", she said.  I convinced her to pick gold hearts with crystals in the middle.  Hint - She is NOT the priss we are raising.  Holdyn's only comment after the piercings was, "I'm glad I'm not a girl!"  This will not be the last time in his life he thinks that, I'm sure.

It's as crazy here as ever!

Tardy-Pants

Evie wasn't feeling well this morning. She convinced me that she had over-indulged in Valentine's candy and was tummy-sick. Of course, today is the day that I begin my independent teaching unit (Romeo and Juliet) so she had to go visit Mama Ford. After a frantic early-morning phone call I dropped her with my mom on our way to school. About 25 minutes later I get a call from Mom. She tells me Evie has eaten bacon, grits, and a biscuit feels better now and wants to come to school. WHAT?!

I rush to Mom's grab Evie, race home grab her backpack and snack, and we head back to school. As we're pulling into the parking lot Evie says in a completely serious voice, "Mommy, am I going to have to go to the office and get a tardy-pants slip?"

It was all I could do to hold back a laugh. Then my heart warmed; my sweet baby was worried about being tardy! She's never been tardy before and only knew that the "tardy-pants" in her class had to go to the office and get a "tardy-pants slip."

That and holding her little hand as we walked down the hall-way to her classroom made the rush, frustration, and worry all worth it!

So, just call us tardy-pants today.

The 'Mean Bone' - Every Girl Has One

This is our hateful cat, Marble. She is terribly cute and slightly cross-eyed. We brought her to Vaughn Farm a few months ago with the intention of her eventually becoming an "outside" pet (as I believe ALL pets should be). K had visions of teaching her to be a mouser and her living in the barn, on the porch, all around and keeping mice, snakes, etc. away.

Of course, when we got her she was new and fuzzy and small and baby kitten-ish. She was just away from her mother and we loved on her, petted her and generally let her do as she wished IN THE HOUSE. The plan was to let her get a little bigger, get used to our place and then get her fixed and then...out you go.

However, she has YET to be fixed. She terrorizes us (me in particular) and is generally a whiny, meowy pain in the tookus! The other day while I was laying on my exercise mat panting and sweating to near dehydration, trying to make it through my 5am workout Marble decided to stretch and sharpen her claws IN MY HAIR. I'd already almost tripped over her 50,000 times that morning. Exasperated, I picked her up, threw her in my bedroom and closed the door. K was out of town on business so I knew she couldn't bother anyone. 50 minutes later as I drug my exhausted body shakily toward the shower, I opened my door and was hit in the face by a foul, poopish odor. Immediately I screamed out, "CAT!!! Where did you do it?" and began searching for the mess. I found it, hot and steamy right on top of the (thankfully) dirty laundry. I don't know about you, but scrubbing poop is not a few of my favorite things. Scrubbing poop at 6am isn't either and scrubbing cat poop at 6am is enough to send me into a flaming fit!

So, my day started well. Later as I was driving the kids to Mom and Dad's for the day (oh yes, I still had to go to work after that great start) I was ranting about the cat and how she needed to be an outdoor cat except "Your Daddy still hasn't gotten her fixed like he promised he would." I know, great example to my little angels.

Anyway, Kallie says, "What's fixed?" I hesitated because I wasn't really sure how to say that "fixed" means neutered so she can't have any cute, sweet kittens. I mean, how do you say that to a bunch of big-eyed, golden-haired, sweeties staring expectantly at you so that you can almost see their halos gleaming? Thankfully, I didn't have to reply because Holdyn, wise big brother that he is, says to Kallie, "You know, fixed, she has to get her Mean Bone taken out." Kallie says, "Oh yeah, her Mean Bone."

I reply, "Yes, exactly, she has to get her Mean Bone taken out."

Get ready Marble...

Things I've Heard

If nothing else, kids are good for a laugh. Actually, they're good for a whole lot more than that but recently I've heard some doozies.

First...Evie and Kallie are playing and come together into the livingroom. Evie tells Kallie to lay down on the couch. Kallie lays down and Evie gets a notepad and says (completely seriously), "Now Kallie, tell me about your childhood."

It was all I could do to keep from falling out of my chair laughing! Where did they ever hear such a thing?

Then...over the weekend we were driving along a country backroad past lots of yard sales and pastures. All of the sudden Evie says, "Oooo, those people must be selling their cows because they all have price tags on their ears!"

So funny! Krager and I just looked at each other and grinned. Could she be any cuter? Could they all 3 be any cuter?

How lucky am I?

Dang it!

Last night while I was laying in bed almost asleep, I thought of a great post topic. It was witty, clever, and everyone would want to comment about it. I was so excited about it and proud of myself! This morning I can't for the life of me remember anything about it except it was good, I mean good people. Dang it!

Lesson for today: Strike while the iron's hot, people, while the iron is hot.

Instead, you'll be treated to this tasty tidbit that Evie and Kallie shared in Primary on Easter Sunday. I was teaching a lesson about Christ and the events before and after the Resurrection. I showed a variety of pictures and the children were to tell me the event and then place them in order. When I held up the picture of the Last Supper and Evie yells out, "That's Jesus' last dinner!" and Kallie chimes in "And dessert!"

Dinner and dessert, it what life is all about! ;)

Have a great day, love ya!

Meeting Miss Lilah and other stuff, too

This is Miss Lilah. She the new baby of our dear friends, Rachel and Ben. We were privleged to meet her for the first time this last Wednesday. She lives out of state and it was our first chance to see her sweet, baby face. Evie loves babies, as you can see. Spring Break is drawing to a close. The weather has been great and the kids have had a blast playing outside all week long. Today Evie dressed as a cheerleader and Kallie as a dinosaur. They went out to jump on the trampoline and Holdyn was in his room. He came out in his robe with his lightsaber, dressed as a Jedi. Too funny! Even funnier was later I went outside to break up a scwabble between him and Kallie. She had taken the lightsaber from him and he was mad. He says to me, "Mommy, Kallie took the lightsaber and now I'm just a man in a robe!" I guess a Jedi without a lightsaber is, in fact, just a man in a robe. :)

Mamma Mia!

So, I've got a new favorite movie. For years now my favorite has been Notting Hill. You know, with Julia Roberts and Hugh Grant. She plays a super-famous movie star (a stretch, I'm sure) and Hugh Grant is a regular guy, bookstore owner. They meet, fall in love, have a disagreement, reconcile, etc. It's actually not a new story but for some reason it so captivated me. I dreamed about it. Especially the last scene where Julia lounges pregnant on a park bench with her head resting on Hugh's lap as he reads a book. So picturesque and sweet and Julia looked so fabulous with her (fake) pregnant belly. Oh, I dreamed of that for myself (even after I fell in love, got married and had babies). Ok, so I'm slightly (extremely) delusional and dreamy, sue me. No, don't I can't afford the stress, hassle, expense, etc. Instead, over-look my eccentricities, m-kay?

Well, while I will always hold Notting Hill in my heart my new fave is Mama Mia! I love the songs, the locale, and the humor. If you've seen it and wonder why I'm just catching on, again over look please. If you haven't seen it, it's a fun time. I mean, who knew Remmington Steele/James Bond could sing and dance?

Now, moving on, a few more things...

Evie's new favorite phrase? "BARRACK OBAMA IS AWESOME!!!!!!" I don't know where she heard that or why she feels the need to scream it repeatedly but there you go. She's five and obviously feels the need to scream alot. (It's hereditary, I'm 32 and feel the need to scream alot!)

Holdyn's new obsession? Weighing things. Yesterday I subbed in the school's Home Ec dept. The elementary kids get out earlier than the high school so I always have a student go get the kids and bring them to the class I'm in. Holdyn found the food scale that measures in ounces. He spent 30 minutes and would have spent the rest of the day weighing random things.

Him: "This pencil weighs less than one ounce!" "The glue bottle weighs over eight ounces!" "These trash bags weigh two ounces!" "I wonder how much the fire extinguisher weighs?"

All the students in the class look at each other in confusion.

Me: smiling at my little scientist the entire time!

The kids new favorite song? Well, their favorite used to be Led Zepplin's "Black Dog". As Kallie said, "This song is good even if they never talk about a black dog!" Now a new favorite is sung repeatedly at full volume, "American Woman, said get a-way! American Woman, listen what I s-ay!"

Do they totally rock or what? I wish I was as cool as them when I was a kid. Oh well, I'm growing into my coolness! ;)

I was going to upload a photo but stupid blogger won't let me! AAARRRGGGHHHHH!

Arch-enemies in Kindergarden

So the other day Evie tells me that Audrey in her class is not her friend. I was only slightly concerned. I mean, there are tons of folks who aren't my friend, no biggie.
Anyway, I say, "Why is Audrey not your friend?"

Evie replies, "Well, we like the same things. I like pink and so does she. I like princesses and she does, too."

Now I'm confused. So I ask, "If you like the same things why aren't you friends?"

To which my sweet Evie replies, "Because she's my enemy!"

Ok, time to be concerned. "You shouldn't say she's your enemy. That's not really nice," I say.

Evie thinks for a minute then says, "Well, ok then she's my arch enemy!"

Wow, I've got two kindergardeners, one waiting for her super powers to "grow in" and the other with an arch enemy. I think we spend too much time playing super heroes here at Vaughn Farm. What do ya think?

Sleep Reading?

Tonight we were having our usual family scripture reading. Here's how it usually goes: Holdyn reads a verse or two then Evie and Kallie read a verse with help from me or K.
Tonight, Evie wanted to go first. I helped her read her verse and she did a really great job of sounding out the words. Next, Holdyn read two verses and Kallie read a verse and also did a great job of sounding out the words. In the meanwhile, Evie had crawled up into K's lap and promptly fallen asleep. After scriptures is prayers. Kallie said her prayer first and then Holdyn. We noticed that Evie was asleep so I called her name and K told her to say her prayer. She sat up, bowed her head, folded her arms and began, "Wu, wu, wu-i, wu-i, wu-i-th, wu-i-th, with" She was sounding out the word "with." I, compassionate mother I am, realized she was still asleep and immediately cracked up laughing. Holdyn and Kallie joined in. K shook her gently and said, "Evie, say your prayer." Her eyes popped open and she said, "Oh, I thought I was reading my homework sheet." Bless her heart she was so tired! But still, I had to laugh. As my family knows, I've had my share (and then some) of sleep talking outbursts. That girl is me made over, in that respect!

Dr. Horrible and his two-headed monster

As I mentioned in the last post, Saturday was also the school's Fall Fest. Last year, I was PTO Mom and worked the entire festival while K and the kids toured the booths and played. I missed it and was excited to be free of PTO responsibilities so that I could participate this year. It was a good time. This year K and I brought along Dr. Horrible and his two-headed monster, just look!

Although we took only the children with us to the Fall Fest we returned home with a new member of the family, Goldy the fish.
Holdyn won Goldy at the bean bag toss. So far, he/she/it has lived since Saturday. We have been sure to explain to Holdyn that gold fish don't necessarily live long lives. On Sunday morning Holdyn woke up and ran to the kitchen where Goldy was living in a Mason Jar until I could dig up a fish bowl. He peered into the jar and let out a sigh of relief. He came over to K and me and said, "I knew Goldy would still be alive. I said two prayers last night to Heavenly Father that she wouldn't die." Such sweet, pure faith.

On Making Fur Coats

No one in our family wears fur coats. First of all, we live in Alabama. We barely need to wear any coats ever. Second, we don't have that kind of cash laying around to spend on something we'd never use. Third, I do think it is kind of cruel to kill an animal for fur when we have other coat options. If we were living elsewhere (Siberia) or in another time(pre-industrialization) I can see the need but today fur coats are an unnecessary excessive luxury (just one girl's opinion, here). I'm no vegan but, come on.

Anyhow, I have never expressed this opinion to my children. As a matter of fact, they have never even seen modern fur coats until this week. So, they're watching one of our most favorite shows, "How Its Made," the other day. On the episode they start showing how fur coats are made. They begin with beaver fur pelts, blah, blah, blah. Well, our kids do know what beavers are. A family of them lives at my parents' lake and wreaks all sorts of havoc there. Nevertheless, the kids love the beavers.

As the announcer is talking about the fur coat making process Evie (age 5) screams, "What!? They kill animals just so people can wear the fur?! Who would do that?! That is awful?!" (She is also covering her face with her hands and on the verge of tears)

Ever the loving brother Holdyn (age 7) replys, "Oh, come on, Evie! Give the guy a break! He's just doing his job and trying to make a living!"

What? Where did either of these children get these ideas? I was sitting there looking at them and trying not to bust a gut laughing at both of them. But, also I was proud. They have different opinions and feel they can express them freely in our home. Kinda cool, I thought.