MY Idea of Black Friday

So, I didn't get up early to go to all the "doorbuster" sales this morning. I'm sorry, but 4 am? I am up at that time often these days, but it's with a nursing baby, not with piles of merchandise in my hands.
Seriously, why do these stores do this to themselves? I had never participated in these sales before last year. We live across the street from a Kohl's and they had some items I wanted, so I decided to go see what I could get. When I walked in and saw the line of people, I thought that they must be waiting in line for something other than to check out. Surely that was it. Then I walked through the store and the two lines cross each other. What is this?
Needless to say, I shopped for about an hour and waited in line for over three hours. THREE HOURS!!! I am happy to say that one of those items was my Hoover Floormate that cleans my wood floors and saves me a lot of work, but it was still a ridiculous wait for that price.
My idea of Black Friday? Trust me, someone out there is going to read this and someday you'll see something like this soon.
Rules for MY Black Friday:
1. If you show up before 11 in the morning, you pay double for your items.
2. You can choose to peruse through the store for your items, or for a small fee you can have a personal shopper locate all of your items while you kick back and get a pedicure, massage or sip a smoothie (or hot chocolate)!
3. The sale prices remain the same all day and you can get a raincheck if we run out of what you want.
4. You can bring your husband and he can sit in our football/basketball (HUGE flatscreen) relaxation room.
5. Bring your kids too, there's free babysitting!
6. Last, but not least, the sales associates would be friendly and knowledgable. (Okay maybe this one is the most unrealistic of all).
Trust me, this is the store of the future. I'd shop there for sure!

Time for Thorough Check up?

So, the other day I was updating my recipe book. I remembered that I had never printed off my recipe for Ruth's Chris's Sweet Potato Casserole that my cousin gave me. I knew I had posted it around Halloween time of 2007, so I clicked on my blog history and just started scrolling through last year's posts.
Scroll, Scroll, Scroll. Just out for a scroll (ha, ha).
All of a sudden one of my posts caught my eye in a BIG way!
What the heck is that picture? It used to be a picture of a heart. Not anymore, someone changed the IP address so that it was now pornography. I don't want to gross you out with the details, but I was a bit panicked to see it there. I kept thinking, "I wonder if anyone else has browsed through my blog history recently and discovered this photo?!?!?!?!?"
So, if you happen to discover any other not-quite-right photos on my blog, PLEASE let me know. And, you may want to browse through your blog history if you have ever copied and pasted a picture onto your blog.
And, for you--person who change the address of a cute little heart to that of porn--shame, shame.

Happy Birthday Owen!

Yesterday Owen turned two. I should've posted yesterday, but it seems that anymore our Saturdays are jammed full of activities.

Instead of cake, we had homemade apple pies made by my grandma and we gave him ice cream with chocolate sauce on top--yum! He remembered the hat from nursery last Sunday and ran to get it when we told him we were going to sing "Happy Birthday" to him.

For his birthday, his great-grandparents bought him a Radio Flyer Hot Wheels type car which he loves. (So does his sister.)

He also got lots of clothes from his other grandparents. Lots of cute, cute, much needed clothing. In fact, I was thinking about how wonderful my mom and dad are to buy my kids (and even me and my husband) clothes. I think that we would own about five pieces of clothing between all of us without their clothing us--so thanks!

And, we got him two shirts. Not just any two shirts, but BYU T-shirts! About a month ago Owen decided he only wanted to wear BYU clothing. This was a tricky proposition because he only owns three BYU T-shirts. I started to have to convince him that different clothing was paying homage to BYU with its color scheme. Luckily, little boy clothing has lots and lots of dark blue. He was excited to wear one of his BYU shirts yesterday (they won by the way!) and he even slept in it.

Happy Birthday to my sweet, sweet, growing too quickly, little boy!

Book Club Rules

These are the Rules of Ryanna's Book Club:

I will write them out for you~

1. No Brudrs ulood No Brothers allowed

2. No keking the wols No kicking the walls

3. Dot tac sufhing too Don't take something too

4. No keking yor feet No kicking your feet

5.No being unmodest I think that one's pretty clear

6. No gum

7. B Qiet Be Quiet

To make these rules more clear, you must understand that the Book Club was held outside in a tent which was formed by two kitchen chairs covered by a not quite big enough blanket. As a parent, you can see what these rules revealed about that particular day (interpretation matches each number above):

1. She was not getting along with Owen.

2. Owen had attempted to enter the Book Club and had been kicking down the walls.

3. Owen had been ordered out of the Book Club and escaped with contraband.

4. As preventative maintenance for the club, kicking feet of any kind would no longer be permitted. It was fun while it lasted.

5. This is the influence of good parenting showing.

6. This is the influence of school rules seeping in.

7. We're reading in this dark tent, trying to ruin our eyesight. We don't need you screaming and ruining our hearing too.

All in all, I'd say she has a great future as a dictator ahead of her.

Then, there are these notes, that I just absolutely love. See interpretation below:

I love you. You are the best Mom ever to me. You are skinny and fabulous and a great cook and I miss you every time I'm away.

The end.

Election Humor Part II

Today I volunteered in Ryanna's kindergarten class. While I was chatting with the other woman that volunteers, she told me that I had missed the most exciting part of the day.
The kids are keeping daily journals where they record a couple of sentences dealing with whatever they are thinking about and perhaps draw a picture to go with those thoughts. Since the election happened last night, Ryanna's teacher told the class she was going to write about Barack Obama being elected as the new President.
Apparently that's all it took.
One boy said, "My dad says Barack Obama is a trickster!"
Another little boy yelled out, "My dad says he's DUMB!"
So, with that, the teacher decided she would NOT be writing about the election.
The other am kindergarten class was not without their own controversy. When one little boy said that his dad was going to vote for Barack Obama, another little boy became hysterical and burst out with, "He's a baby killer!"
I guess that the passion associated with this election was not reserved to the adults and it has not yet cooled.
Stay tuned for more drama from the kindergarten class...

Election Humor?

So, I meant to post this conversation last week, but didn't get around to it.

I was looking at something on the internet when Ryanna came up to the computer. Apparently there was a picture of something related to the Presidential election on the screen that caught her eye. The conversation then went like this:

Ryanna: I voted for Barack Obama.

Me: (Shocked face and voice because this child has been referring to this man as A-Rock A-Bama since she's heard his name.) What?

Ryanna: I voted for Barack Obama.

Me: You mean that if you could vote, you'd vote for Barack Obama?

Ryanna: No, I voted for him today in school.

Me: Really? (I had heard nothing about this.) How did you vote?

Ryanna: On the computer. It was just pretend. I didn't really vote mom. (Whew! Thank goodness she cleared that up for me.)

Me: So, why did you vote for him?

Ryanna: Because he has all the answers.

Me: (Amazed that she has such good comebacks to these questions.) Well, do you even know the name of the other person running for President?

Ryanna: Yes, John McCain.

Me: (Feeling a bit in awe to be in the presence of someone who is about as politically informed as me and is only age 5) So, why don't you like John McCain?

Ryanna: He's mean and he doesn't have the answers like Barack Obama does.

Me: Oh.

Now, don't ask me where she heard all of this stuff. She has been subjected to every presidential debate, but she complained whenever we turned them on and she didn't stay in the room to watch them. I don't know where she got all of this information--school maybe?

So, it's true, your kids are listening even when you think they aren't!

***This message was paid for by the Parents Who Need to Pay Closer Attention to What Their Children are Overhearing Council.

Fall Photos

It looks like he has a queue!

The other day while Owen was taking a nap, I got some photos of Eli and Ryanna. I thought they turned out rather cute. Then there are the Halloween photos--Ryanna was a peacock and Owen was a hamburger. If there was a prize for cutest costume, I think Owen would've won it. I've never seen so many people in love with a costume.

The last detail you should know--don't bend over when you're alone in a hamburger costume--you'll never be able to get up.