Fact or Fiction?

I always lie down at night with each of my kids before they go to bed.  It takes a while to make the rounds, but the rewards are great.  My two year old spends the time poking all over my face calling out eye, nose, mouth, etc.  She is always bitterly disappointed when I leave.  Then I head down the hall to where Jack and Jenna share bunk beds.  Jack is at a stage where only sometimes does he want me to lie down with him.  However, tonight I climbed up to the top bunk to have a few precious moments with my 4 year old boy wonder before kissing  him goodnight.

We were talking about our upcoming trip to the beach.  I told him next week we would be learning about sea turtles before we go to the beach.  We have visit a sea turtle rescue center.  So, Animal Boy aka: Jack rolls over on his belly, props his head up in his hands and begins to tell me in his “animal fact giving way” about sea turtles.  Jack looked at me and said, “Did you know sea turtles are like rhinoceros?  They both give birth to their young.”  I replied, “Yes, but a rhinoceros is a mammal so they give birth to live young and they nurse their babies. (talk about dirty nipples! lol)  A sea turtle is a reptile so they lay eggs and they don’t nurse their babies.”  Jack chimes in with “and the sea turtles eat jellyfish, that is all they eat.”  ”No, leatherbacks eat jellyfish, but some other sea turtles eat other things.  The babies eat sea weed too.”, I commented.  

Suddenly his face looked a little perplexed.  When he really gets to talking about animals he uses his hands to talk.  The hands enter the conversation . . .   “Well, Fire Turtles use fire to shoot at their predators!”  And they get fired all the time so we have to rescue them.” (imagine hands doing shooting motions here) The mental picture in my mind suddenly jumped to a really old king fu movie I had once watched with my brother about a turtle who was jet propelled by fire.  I could not help myself!  I was lying there in bed with him dying laughing.  I was so anxious to get this written down, I almost skipped out on lying down with Jenna.  

However, I suddenly heard, “Mom!!!, you forgot to lie down with me!.”  Oh yeah, oh yeah, what have you got to tell me about tonight sweet girl? . . . .

100 things you probably didn’t know about me

I got this idea from my sister’s blog. You can check it out here http://amyindallas.wordpress.com/.

 

1. I am home schooling my kids.

2. I am not a natural red head.

3. I met my husband at Baylor.

4. We dated for 6 weeks before we decided to get married.

5.  We had the church booked before his parents knew we were getting married.

6. We gave been married for 12 years now.

6.  I am 5′2″.

7. My husband is 6′6″.

8.  When my husband first met me he thought I was “a little weird.”

9.  I told him he was wrong.  I am not a “little weird.”  I am a lot weird. )

10. I am a synesthete

11.  I tried to dig a pool when I was about 5 with my neighbor/friend.

12. We were going to line it with contact paper.

13.  We dug about a 2 foot hole in my neighbor’s backyard.

14.  Her mom was not happy.

15.  I used to lie awake at night and wonder how the contact paper was going to stick to the dirt.

16. I lived in Arkansas at the time.

17. I have lived in Arkansas, Oklahoma, and Texas.

18. I have lived in Texas since I was 10.

19. In high school I won first prize in the science fair.

20.  I lived in the town where Dow Chemical is.

21. Most of the other kids in the science fair were total science kids whose parents had big degrees in chemistry and engineering.

22. I once stepped in a huge cow patty when I was a kid.

23. I was wearing sandals.

24. It was gross

25. I lived in Arkansas at the time.

26. My grandparents used to live on a mountain in Arkansas.

27. We sent a cat to live up there that could not be house broken – or at least that is the story I was told

28.  He lived a long time up on the mountain.

29.  When he died, my granny scooped him up in shovel and pitched him down the side of the mountain.

30.  She obviously had no sentimental attachments to the cat.

31. My dad was my principal all while I was growing up except for 3rd and 4th grade.

32.  It really wasn’t that bad.

33.  I was a pretty good kid.

34.  In high school / college I dated the same guy for 3 years.

35.  I regret it.

36.  I changed as a person after and because of that relationship.

37.  I became a stronger person and more outspoken when needed.

38.  I hope my kids don’t waste their time dating the same person in high school.

39. I have three kids and the oldest one is 5.

40. I had three kids in three years.

41. I breastfed all of them for at least a year or more.

42. Complete strangers seem to feel the need to tell me I have my hands full.

43.  As if I didn’t already know.

44.  I like having my hands full.

45.  They are now 5,4, and 2.

46.  I take all three of them to the pool by myself.

47.  We all have fun while we are there.

48.  We went to the pool just tonight.

49.  My 2 year old wore her swimsuit home.

50.  She peed in her car seat.

51.  Her car seat now stinks.

52.  My 2 year old has wild, curly, blond hair

53.  My mom calls it her “big Texas hair.”

54. All of my kid’s names begin with J

55.  The youngest one is “spicey J.

56.  I had a friend once tell me that God gives us hair to match our personality.

57.  I think it is true for her.

58.  I hope it isn’t true for me.  

59.  My natural color is dull, dark brown.

60.  My hair got darker after I had kids

61.  My feet are bigger after having kids too

62.  I get enormously huge when I am pregnant.

63.  At 6 months pregnant, I get comments from people about “any day now . . .”

64.  I like being pregnant – despite my hugeness

65.  My family thinks I am totally weird for it.

66.  As stated before I am okay with being “a little out there.”

67.  I was an art major in college.

68.  I took weaving class in college.

69.  I worked in the ceramics department at Baylor during college.

70.  I made about 300 lbs of clay some days.

71.  I also made all of the glaze used.

72.  I had really big arm muscles at the time.

73.  I loved that job.

74.  When I would come back to my dorm, people would ask me if I had been mud wrestling or in a fight.

75.  I would tell them I had been at work.

76.  I worked at a camp in college too.

77.  It was really hard work

78.  I learned how to use a leaf blower, REALLY mop a floor, and wash A LOT of dishes.

79.  I made some really good friends there.

80.  That was 15 years ago.

81.  The worst job I ever had was working at Casual Corner in Austin.

82.  The employees had a quota of pantyhose they had to sell.

83.  I hate pantyhose.

84.  I couldn’t have cared less about selling panty hose and quit.

85. I was looking for another job at the time.

86.  I finally got a job working at UT while my husband was in pharmacy school there.

87.  I had a college degree and I had a job doing data entry and answering phones.

88.  It was very humbling.

89.  God taught me a lot about humility then and his provision.

90.  I had the blessing of being able to spend a lot of time with my husband before we had kids at that time.

91.  We lived in a one bedroom apartment.

92.  Our neighbors were crazy on one side.

93.  I think our neighbors on the other side were dealing drugs.

94.  My dog Ginny was a great guard dog.

95.  She died when she was 10 years old.

96.  I still miss her some.

97.  I am a big dog lover.

98.  I have two dogs now – both big dogs

99.  I am very random

100. As if you couldn’t tell from reading this! )

 

 

 

 

Your resume please

Have you ever thought about all the things that you learn to do as life progresses?  I am quite certain I am skilled in areas these days that, not too many years ago, I could not have laid claim to.  For instance, I can wrestle down a two year old to apply eye drops in her eyes.  This is not an easy task.  It requires about 3 arms.  Or how is this for skilled? – I can nurse a baby, fix a sandwich, and talk on the phone all pretty much at the same time.  

We are in the middle of a pretty major house remodel.  In an effort to save some money, we are doing a lot of it ourselves.  My husband and my father in law just laid a glue down wood floor in three rooms of our house this weekend.

 I got a bee in my bonnet about getting the old tiles out of our house.  My mind starts churning, wondering just exactly how hard is it to get a tile floor out.  So, I called to mind some of my previous “resume” skills and pulled out a hammer and chisel at about midnight last night.  As it turns out, it really isn’t so hard to get the floor out.  And – no surprise here – but I thought it was SO fun.  No need for therapy to deal with a child who has a constant wrinkle in his sock, pockets that bother him or itchy tags in his shirt.  I’ll just pull out my hammer and chisel before I go to bed knock a few tiles out.

So, after it is all said and done.  I quite certain my resume could look something like this:

Inspector of all things poop ( who pooped, when, why, and did they wipe) 5 years

Nursing/Pregnant – 4 years (pretty much either one or the other or both)

Hammer and chisel – going on 13 years now

Predators

About a month back I walked into Julia’s room and Jack was lying in the floor.  It was that crazy time of night when I try to get all three kids in bed.  Talk about herding cats!  Anyway, back the to point. . . . Jack was lying on the the rug, wiggling all around.  His arms were waving all around – flapping sort of.  The description that comes to mind is when you make a snow angel, but much more exited and random movements.  He says, “Mom, do you know what I am doing.”  Me:  ”hmm, not really.”  He responds, ” I am confusing my predators.”  I started laughing of course.  He has been watching the Planet Earth series lately.  He picks up the info he hears on any and all animal shows and repeats it back to us. 

I just don’t know what I want to be when I grow up . . .

That is how the conversation started with my 5 year old daughter.  Up until recently she has said she wants to be a cheerleader when she grows up.  However, she told me yesterday that she wanted to be a mommy and photographer.  Then she said she had changed her mind and she just wanted to be a photographer – no mommy.  You see, she had asked me a few months back, “How exactly DO you get a baby out of your body?”  I told her there were two ways.  One way involved cutting a hole in your tummy, taking the baby out, then sewing you back up.  I explained the “other way” to her to in 5 year old terms also.

So fast forward back to today.  She asked when her cousin was going to get a baby brother or sister.  My explanation was that my sister was not going to have any more babies.  I noticed a confused look on her face.  Then she asked me, “How do you make sure you don’t have any more babies?”  I told her that you could have a surgery.  Her reply was, “I think you should just pray and tell God you don’t want any more babies.”