God bless the grumpy old lady

I have been neglecting my blog, which is of course obvious. One of the biggest reasons is I wasn't quite sure what to blog about. Social networking has exploded, and the avenue that I use the most is Facebook. So my thoughts, my pictures, my stories have gone to Facebook. However, my sister-in-law, Nicky, has recently re-inspired her blog by taking questions from a blog journal. Although it is interesting and I have been reading them. I don't want to copy it. Previous to my Facebook craze and purchase of a smart phone I use to feel like I entertained my blog followers through pictures. However I post most of them on Facebook. So I have decided, despite myself, that I am going to tell stories of our family or describe thoughts in my life. Things that are just too long to post in the limited character status update. So I am starting with a story that I have told a couple of people. One I hope you find as entertaining as I have been replaying it.

 Emily, my neice, came up to visit us over the winter break. While she was up we decided to go up to Shaver Lake and see the snow. We were a little worried the day of because there was a "30% chance of percepitation" (meaning snow) and we have a minivan. We do not own chains. And we are from southern California.  So to say we have a limited experience driving in the snow would put it mildly. Hey, where we are from they say that we don't even know how to drive in the rain. Of course not us directly. :-) Anyways, it was agreed that we would go to the snow but if it started "snowing" or if it got unsafe we would come home. We got there no problem. Went to a snow bank by the lake and played until the kids complained about the coldness and their tummies were grumbling. We decided to then go back into town and eat at one of the local diners. We stopped at the first one we saw and Russ parked into an available parking spot. The available parking had snow at the end and was on a decline. Russ came to a stop just as we heard the snow crunch beneath the front tires.  We both looked at each other and then looked in front.  And then just around the corner but visual from our new parking spot was a clean parking spot.  One that didn't have snow.  We decided right away to move the car into the obviously better spot.  Russ put the car into reverse, stepped on the gas, and then nothing....The engine revved, the wheels turned but we were not moving.  Yep, we got stuck despite our best intentions. 

We sat there for a second.  Russ trying again to see if doing the same actions might perhaps provide a different result.  However despite Russ' best endeavors just putting the car in and out of drive wasn't getting us anywhere.  We both got out of the car to take a better look at the situation.  Lo and behold we were in a frozen pickle.   First we tried kicking out the snow that had built up around the tire.  Free the tire.  Now try again, step on the gas.  Nothing.  Okay, let me try again.  Free the tire.  Surely that will be enough.  Now try again, honey.  Step on it.  Nope, that didn't work.

Well maybe we should just go eat.  I'm sure the diner could help us out too.  They would know what to do.  Just then Russ spotted a Cal Trans truck with a snow plow parked across the street.  Russ told me, "run over there and recruite his help".  The guy went to the back of his truck to get something that would help us.  As I started running back to the car.  A little frail old lady started yelling for my attention close to where we were parked.  I ran quickly over to the lady.  The lady couldn't have been more then 100 lbs soaking wet.  She had a nasal cannula hooked up to an oxygen tank she used as a cane.  She then put me in my place.  You see there were 3 stores in the parking lot.  A diner, a chimney sweeper, and her antique shop.  And I  was parked in front of the chimney sweeper.  I needed to move that car immediately. 

"We are actually trying right now, but we got stuck"
"I don't care, you need to move that car"
"Ya we are trying to move it.  Do you have anything maybe that could help us?"
"Do I look like I can help you!?"
"Well, I thought maybe you had a piece of wood or something."
"You need to move that car"

And on and on she went.  Bent on the idea that despite us actually working on moving the car because I haven't left her side she must repeat herself.  And so I went running from the Cal Trans guy, to our car, to the grumpy old lady who kept yelling for my attention.  Just for me to walk over there to have her tell me to move my car.  Can't you see I'm working on it.  It got to the point that she was so rude that it was almost comical.  It really wasn't hard to just polite say "yes ma'am, I'll get to it." because she was so irrational with her constant request.  We are literally doing everything we can.

The whole time the Cal Trans guy is walking back and forth from our cars with shovels of dirt for us to spread under the tires.  Then he had to help show Russ how to turn the wheel back and forth to get some friction.  All the time constant interruptions from the lady standing outside the antique shop.  Finally I got tired of walking over to her.  When she told me something that I couldn't quite hear from a distance I responded with my normal answer.   I  must have not responded in a way that made sense to her because I then heard her exclaim, "They must be from Fresno."  I just kept busy trying to unstuck our car.  But in my head I wanted to tell her, "Lady I can beat that, I'm from Los Angeles."  Eventually we unstuck the car and probably made that grumpy all lady very happy.  But of course by that time we got out of that parking spot the other parking spot was taken.  As we sat in the parking lot waiting for someone to pull out of a spot.  I turned to Russ and we decided that I should check to see if there was any room at the diner.  After all, it did look like a small diner.  Sure enough there was only 2 spots left at the bar and there was 5 of us.  So off we went to another diner. 

A saying my Grandpa had when referring to bad drivers was "dirty dog".  His wife would correct him with a smile saying "God bless the dirty dog".  And so it goes with this old lady.  "God bless the grumpy old lady". 


 

Baby Jesus and Santa

Okay, I'm gonna start at the beginning....

Russell was raised in a loving Christian home. His parents decided early on no Santa, no Easter bunny, nothing. I was raised in a loving home but not in the church. My parents told us the whole Santa thing, until we found out on our own. They would have gifts from "Santa" (interestingly enough in my mother's hand writing).  Russell's brother and his family decided to continue the tradition, no Santa.  I remember learning about this when Russell and I were dating.  It didn't go over well with me the first time.  Hey, my favorite movie is "Miracle on 34th St".  Anyways, Russell and I did talk about it before we got married and we both agreed that we were ok with Santa.  Also because it would help include my family more.  In addition, as I saw Russell's brothers children grew up each one of the kids while entering public school struggled a lot with Santa.  At moments they would believe, because it was pushed so much at school.  But the struggle at home where it was reinforced that it's not real.  The look on the mom's face.  The look on the kids face.

So that brings me to how we did our kids.  I was okay with my kids knowing about Santa.  Like I said it was a way of tying in my family with the holiday.  But I always wanted Santa to be the runner-up.  I wanted Jesus to be the reason for the season.  I wanted Jesus to be more real to them than Santa is.  So we have decided to do some things and not to do others.  To have lots of talks.  To answer questions slightly differently.  But we still have fun with Santa.  But that brings us to now.  My daughter entered Kindergarten.  Wow, there is a lot of Santa push.  You would think some over zealous, doesn't have enough to do person (almost said lawyer, but I'll play nice) would claim separation of church and state.  After all, Santa is still celebrating Christmas.

Also, one of our normal family functions, "Back to Bethlehem":  Where a whole church changes their land into the city of Bethlehem.  There are people dressed the part walking around.  Everyone is in uniform.  Roman soldiers will yell at you if you look at them wrong.  Jewish teachers are in the corner teaching from the Torah.   And there is Joseph, Mary, and a real life baby in a barn that you can go see.  I loved taking the kids there, however; I am having a hard time finding one around.  There is one where we live but it is happening when we are going to be out of town.  When we go visit family they already ended.  Unless anyone knows of one?  Please.  That was my way of making Jesus more real.  Seeing Jesus' birth,  walking through Bethlehem. 

It's harder for Russell too.  He is having a hard time answering Penelope's questions about Santa.  I like to answer things like,  "Well, honey, he is as real as you want him to be."  Or something like that.  And at the end I always ask her, "What are we really celebrating?" and Penelope knows to answer "Jesus' birthday". 

Plus now that she is getting older there are some things that she can do now....write a letter to santa, sit on Santa's lap (we did these for the first time this year).  I was thinking about doing 'The Elf on the Shelf'.  For people who don't know.  It's a book and a toy elf.  You read the book, which has something to say about this elf that is really real and is going to sit up on a shelf and watches to make sure the kid is good or bad to tell Santa.  The parent without the kids knowing moves the elf occasionally so the kid really thinks that maybe it is real.  I told a friend about it.  Said I was thinking about it because I wanted the extra assistance/ leverage in having proper behavior.  She said it reminder her a lot about idols in foreign lands.  An inanimate object that is "real" and can pass "judgment" on you.  My response was, "Say no more.  Not gonna do that.  Don't want to miss with that".  I'm not condemning you for doing it.  I just couldn't after making that connection.  (That friend also does no Santa with her kids). 

We don't do presents from Santa.  We haven't yet done cookies and milk for Santa.  Never left a carrot for the reindeer.  Presents use to sit under the Christmas tree as I bought and wrapped them until the kids started getting into them.  Now they only come out right before hand.  I like the cartoon character of Santa.  I like the make-believe-ness.  Encouraging him being real, as much as Mickey Mouse is while you are at Disneyland (Hey, we are really big Disney fans.)  And somehow it has slipped away from that.  Is it a phase that I cannot completely control?  Is there a different direction I should be going in?  I'm not about to tell my daughter, "Sorry honey.  But really, Santa isn't real.  It's just a fake story."

FYI I'm not looking forward to Christmas with the older cousins who know very well there is no Santa and my daughter enthralled with him right now. 

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Back in the saddle again

We got bikes for Christmas. We got them for the whole family (don't spill it to the kids yet). But we also got them for ourselves. No, we didn't put a bow on them and set them aside only to be used on Christmas. The day we bought them, after we got the kids to bed, we went out for a bike ride. Yes, we had an adult at the house, we didn't leave the kids unattended. But riding on a bike brought back so many childhood memories. Russell and I haven't had a bike since childhood. I don't remember what happened to mine. Russell remembers his being stolen right out of his garage when left open for only a little bit unattended.

Just like riding a bike you never forget, or ya, riding a bike. I remember going on the many camping trips my parents would take us on.  We (my sister, brother, and I) would go through bike rides through the camp ground, sometimes down to the lake.  It was a beautiful camp ground.  If only someone remembered where it was that we went those times.  We would all sing at the top of our longs "Ba, ba, ba, ba.....bad to the bone.....ba, ba, ba, ba....bad to the bone".  Not that we were bad or pretended to be so.  It was just a fun song.  It was a time full of laughter and fun.  Everyone was always in a good mood.  The sky was always shining and the weather was never too hot.  At least in my head.  Hopefully someday I can impart memories like that to my kids. 

On a side note,  I've been feeling a little under the weather lately.  I've had a pounding headache.  I thought maybe I was having migraines.  Since I couldn't shake it and no medicine I found over the counter was touching it.  I went to the urgent care.  The doctor said it was a sinus headache, "since migraines are more chronic".  Meaning I should have had more then one in my whole life.  Well, I guess I understand that idea.  Either way he got me some stronger pain medication and I was again able to be part of civilization again.  I have a prescription for antibiotics if the headache doesn't go away in a couple of days.   Don't worry my pain prescription isn't needing a triplicate or anything.  But I am okay with taking it.  Because I was either rolled in a ball holding my head trying not to move in pain.  Or able to do the fun things with my kids before Christmas, with a little medicinal aid. 






 

Austyn's 3rd birthday

Austyn turned 3! Wow, how the time flies. We had a wonderful birthday party at the house with some of Austyn's pals and family. It was spider man themed and we had a big jumper out in the backyard.

 Austyn  had a great time.  We got him a scooter for his birthday and he loves it.  He is riding it really well, everywhere (in house and out) that he can.  (Defiantly right handed.)  He has a smile that melts everyone he comes into contact with.  He is so adorable.  Everyone loves him so much!  He is very much a boy.  Loves to be rough and tumbley with daddy.  Plus he makes great sound affects whenever anything needs to crash together.  LOL.  His speech is getting better.  But we will probably get him into speech therapy soon (early intervention starts at 3), just so he is fully prepared when he does start school.  His favorite words right now is "no" and "why".  Classic, right?  He is doing a lot better pronouncing things, but some things that he does mispronounce are cute.  Right now he is calling sister "P".  We are almost potty trained.  He is in underwear except for nap and bed time.  We are working on him telling us when he has to go and poo-poo in the potty. 


 

Penelope Preschool graduation

 I'm not going to mention that it has been a long time.  I'm just not going to say it.  I'm moving on from that, ok?  Okay.  I'm glad we are on the same page.  : D   

I wanted to upload some photos of Penelope graduating from  preschool.  She did a great job during the performance.  I'm very proud of her and that she is getting over her stage fright.  My little girl is growing up and Mommy isn't quite ready for it yet.  She'll be turning 5 next month.  Every once in a while I will say to Penelope, "Mommy has decided that you can't turn 5.  You have to stay my little girl." To which she will reply, "Naaa, Mom."   : (   I can't believe it.  Where did the time go?  She'll be starting kindergarten this August!




 

Penelope's finger

I know, I know, I haven't posted in forever. I'm a horrible blogger. But I'm here, right?

Anyways I had this adorable story I thought I would share that I think is just so funny! One night Russ, Penelope, Austyn and I were all sitting down at the kitchen table eating dinner. In the middle of dinner, Penelope showed us her middle finger. Totally flipped us off. Russ and I were pretty taken aback from it. Russ was the first one to tell her not to ever do that. He went on about how it wasn't acceptable behavior. Something you never do and defiantly do not show to your parents. And then drilled her on where she had learned it. Since it was a school day, our first assumption was she must have seen someone do it in class. We drilled her and drilled her. Surely someone taught her how to do it there. Did you see someone do it? Did someone do it to you?

Looking back she looked a little confused, I attributed it to her not really knowing what it meant. She eventually gave us a boys name (I don't really remember his name). She told us he had spit at her today. And though it wasn't the finger she was talking about, I'm sure he showed her the finger. We went on about how we might see people do things but that doesn't mean they are ok. We talked about not following behavior but deciding on our own what is good. Eventually when both Russ and I had had our peace we finally changed subjects and continued with dinner.

About 10 minutes later she showed us her middle finger again. But this time she pointed with the other hand to the hang nail that was bothering her. Oh boy. Did we get that wrong.

a post about....everything....

Lots of things have been happening around here. Above are pictures we took of us going up with Granna and Papa to Yosemite for the day.

Below are some pictures of us carving pumpkins and enjoying 2 different Halloween festivals.























Below we have some pictures of Austyn's 2nd birthday. Can you believe he is going to be 2 already!?! My baby is growing up. We had some of our friends over to the house and had a little birthday party for him.

I feel like lots have been going on around here. There is so much to update. But not quite sure where to start. Last time I updated it was 90-degrees and still felt like summer. Now we have already gone through our 2 weeks of wonderful 70 to 80 degree weather and have hit fall. It's now cold with an average high of 50 -degrees. We are approaching living here in fresno for almost a year. And in case you were wondering, yes, we still love it here. And we love being home owners.

I decided after Penelope had another bout with her stomach trouble to have her checked out. I have a co-worker who has a gluten allergy and when I was describing Penelope's symptoms she was having a lot of the same symptoms. After talking to her Pediatrician and then going to see a specialist we got her tested for gluten allergy and we are tring to get stool samples to check many other things. The gluten allergy came back negative. Her stool samples are hard to get. (You can stop reading if this is TMI for you and skip to the next paragraph.) They gave me a little container that would catch any droppings. For whatever, reason she is scared of it. I begged, and bargained, and tried talking her through it. She sat on it to go pee a couple of times. She even sat on it while she watched a movie on the portable DVD player. And still nothing. Someone had the idea of putting saran wrap on the toilet and she wouldn't notice. Let's just say it didn't work. She noticed and there was a big mess. Then we drained the toilet several times in an attempt to "cetch it". In about 2-3 weeks of it, we caught 1. ONE! Ugh. I was hoping once she saw that was all she had to do the other samples (we need a total of 3) would come easily. But nope. I called the doctor, she doesn't have any other options or ideas. Just keep trying. Can't move forward until we have the samples. So we are hoping, praying, that we can get on with it already.

Russell took the kids to the zoo with some friends. And Penelope was climbing on something she wasn't suppose to and fell back and hit her head really hard. I ended up meeting Russell at the Children's hospital and a great friend picked up Austyn for us. She had a "mild" concussion according to the ER doctor. Looking back I don't really know what was mild about it. She had a horrible headache, nausea and vomiting. Through the night we had to wake her up every 2 hours to make sure she was ok. Being a nurse I know the reasons why we do things. What I am really looking for is if she is having a small brain bleed. What really happend to her is that she hit her head so hard that her brain actually bouced around in her skull and caused small microscopic connections between her nerves to tear. It was awfull for me. And probably something as she gets bigger that she has a small memory of but will eventually be no big deal. She of course recuperated fine.

We are going to vacation soon. yay! Can't wait. More details of that when we get back.