Author: alicewgold

I would like to state that I am a brunette, but now I am a mix of grey, white, brown, and blonde. I would also like to say that I am 150 pounds, but that would be a boldfaced lie. How about I say I am work in progress because that is the truth? A beautiful work in progress. I love the sound of my fingers tapping on the keyboard and my greatest hope is that something that I write will lift someone else on their journey.

California Fires

So, LG and I took the girls for a getaway to the Atlanta temple yesterday. It’s a three hour drive each way. We left very early to get a jump start and it was a typical Southern Fall foggy morning.

Between navigating for LG, taking care of the kids in the car, and making the 7 soccer party calls from my cell phone, my mind wandered from the road. I looked up to see a wall of “smoke”. I exclaimed, “Honey, there’s a fire, slow down.”

Yes, I’m a Californian and grew up among frequent fires. LG turned to me and said, “Go home hippie.”

He didn’t really say that but that’s not the point. Our conversation just now went something like this.

Me: “Well, aren’t fog and smoke from the same element anyway?”

“No, Fog is water; smoke is pollution, you hippie.”

“What are you talking about you redneck, smoke is not pollution.”

The Master of Folk Art

Here is my birthday present from LG. I saw these kitchen canisters on the 75% off shelf at Cracker Barrel last week. I slyly told LG to tell his mom to get them for me for Christmas. Lo and behold, I didn’t have to wait that long. THANK YOU LG. You mastered my folk art wish list today. I LOVE IT!

I was very happy this morning with my surprise. I thought that you were going to get me that body spray I have been asking for from Target, but these canisters were way better. Good sneakiness honey. Now you can tell your mom to get me that Duchess body spray that I want for Christmas instead. (According to this link I shouldn’t waste my time, but as you all know you can’t trust everything you read on the Internet, and I love the scent of this stuff – The blogger also explains why I can’t find the item online to link it) I guess you won’t have to tell your mom LG because she can just read my blog. he he I love this “wish list” feature of the blog!

I love the idea of these canisters being in my kitchen (the place I spend the most time besides my bed). They will act as a constant reminder of the three greatest blessings in my life: Faith, Family and Freedom. How beautiful. I also love the style of these canisters. I am totally into folk art. Someday I am going to buy myself some authentic art. Or I can wait for LG to do it now that I’ve mentioned it on my blog wish list.

I also love the memory of being at the Cracker Barrel in Morristown when I found these. We had met my in-laws there halfway. We do this often when swapping off the kids for time at grammy’s and papa’s. It was Sophia’s birthday and we had already celebrated her special day on Sunday. She had spent two days with Duane and Faye and we were meeting to have a birthday dinner and exchange the kids back. Duane and Faye had taken them for a visit so that LG and I could discuss our future plans. I was distraught because with all the bar news ongoings I had forgotten to bring her a little something special for her actual birthday.

LG quickly comforted me with, “Don’t worry, all the girls love to shop at Cracker Barrel, I will just give her some money.” After dinner we all looked and looked for that perfect birthday toy. Everyone took turns suggesting to Sophia what would be in her budget of $10. Sophia only wanted the higher priced items. Abigail took Sophia over to the clearance side of the store and they came running back, “Mom, mom, come and see what Sophia wants to get.” Abigail informed me that it would cost under $5. (which is pretty amazing considering she is in 3rd grade and did the 75% off math for the original $10 item)

The item was a cute princess tiara wall hanging with shelf for the included mirror, brush, powder and the rankest smelling perfume ever. Of course I was sick for the next three days as all the girls sprayed it all over the house until I finally decided to hide it. Sophia was thrilled! She had found something nice for 75% off. These girls have been trained to find a deal! It was a proud parenting moment.

Not quite as proud as a few days ago when we were at Wal-Mart in the candy aisle. I was talking to LG on my cell phone and looking for single packaged peanuts as the girls ran ahead to pick out some candy. Bella came running back and questioned,”Mom, what is our budget for candy?” LG, with a chuckle, said in my other ear,”Did she just ask you what her candy budget is?”

Here is a photo of Bella playing the the Styrofoam from my birthday package. Bella has been begging to get on the computer and play Arthur as I have been typing this entry. I told her to hang on a few minutes longer so that I could type a story about her. She asked me to read it to her. She wants me to make the correction that it was Abigail that sent her back down the long Wal-Mart aisle to “ask mom what our candy budget is”

The Gold

“Vote for Abigail and she’ll give you some GOLD!” Abigail came up with her very own slogan so that she could run for Student Council. And, here is a poster made from her very own hands. I must say that LG sure did give our children a nice last name. When I ran for student council all I could come up with for slogans were “Vote for Alice in Lancerland” and “Where there’s A. Wills, there’s a way.” The latter was stolen by my older brother, Adam…you see, his name starts with an A also.

Well, Abigail’s kindergarten teacher surely led Abigail onto the right path with all that Irish talk. You can’t see it, but in her top right corner, Abigail drew a pretty detailed leprechaun.

I guess I have come full circle in my life. I thought that the world was over when I didn’t win my campaign for Student Body President at good old CHS, but when Abigail showed interest in 3rd grade Student Council, I was thrilled. I don’t necesarily want her to win because I know it may go to her head. I also don’t want her to lose because of course I never want her to be sad. I just want her to experience life to the fullest and everyone has to run for Student Council at least once. And, Abigail running as young as she is has been really nice because you should hear all the responsibility talks we have been able to have with her.

The cutest was to hear from LG (who never ran for student council in his life), but amazingly understands the meaning of it, “Abigail, do you know what the kids in your class deserve from you if your elected?” Abigail, “I don’t know.” LG, “Well, you are going to have to be extra responsible and be nice to everyone and listen to them and represent all the people in your class. You will have a big responsibility and you will need to live up to it.”

I imagined the entertaining end of the story with LeGrand saying, “Abigail you never want to dissapoint your constintuents.” Abigail, “What’s a constinuant?”

Monkey Hugs

When Abigail was about three, she quit wanting to go through the trouble to give us nighttime hugs and kisses. I don’t know how it started, but Abigail came up with a new tradition: Monkey Hugs.(It probably started when Abigail was monkeying around – hence the term Monkey Hugs)

So, every night for about four years, the girls would give us each a monkey hug by jumping on our backs. We really liked this tradition. It made an easy transition from nightly prayers to bedtime bliss. The ritual started on our knees by the kids’ beds, and advanced to them on our backs, and ended at us dumping them off our back into their bed.

For some reason the tradition died down. Probably when we started having family prayer in the family room. But tonight, after our prayer, Abigail decided to jump on her dad’s back. Then the Sophia and Bella joinedin. I grabbed the camera off the shelf. I had to hurry because what you can’t see in this picture is LG begging like a baby girl for them to get off his back….those new wood floors were way too hard on the knees.

The Family Room Fairy Gets Lucky

So the family room fairy saga continues. The family room fairy only motivated the kids to clean twice.

So tonight, I got a really great idea. It was time to go to bed and the family room was a mess. In the ideal world the kids would keep the room clean throughout the day. You know it’s not a hard concept: get one toy out, put it away before you get another on out. Well, I guess that this concept is way too advanced for any child under eight. I have not been able to get any of my three trained in this theory. Although, if I had to choose one child who was the best at keeping things clean it would have to be Bella. She definitely seems to get the most satisfaction from cleaning.

Anyhow, on with my story. So, I can’t get the kids to keep the room clean throughout the day and I refuse to try and get them to cooperate with me for longer than one hour a day…way too frustrating for me, not to mention the three little pigs. “This little piggie dumped out all the paints, this little piggie smashed cereal into the rug……etc, etc, all the way home.”

Today the mess was really bad since the girls were home sick and we had Halloween yesterday and they had free reign on the Halloween candy all day. And if you were wondering, the sick was just diarrhea and so I didn’t think that it warranted keeping their candy from them. Can you say, “candy wrappers everywhere.”

So, tonight, my big idea…

Me: “Girls, I think that if you don’t clean that mess up in the next ten minutes I will give some of your Halloween candy to the Family Room Fairy.”

This great idea evolved. For every minute I had to spend cleaning after they utilized their ten minutes, the family room fairy would get 10 pieces of their candy.

So, as you can see from the pic. the family room fairy will be surprised tonight with 30 pieces of candy. I really spent 10 minutes cleaning. Look at the trash that I gathered, not to mention the rest of the things I had to clean. And, a lot of the trash was sucker sticks that I had to pry from the carpet.

I will kindly represent the children tonight and beg of the fairy to allow the children to earn their candy back tomorrow night…ingenious, huh?

It’s too bad that Abigail has discovered my blog and loves to read it. Tonight she got a real chuckle with the fact that she knows that I am the family room fairy. I told her that she shouldn’t be laughing because I can eat her candy a lot faster.

Happy Halloween Candy eating!

Red Tree

 “Look over there,
That tree’s all alone.”
The others must think that
she thinks she’s outgrown.

“Not like us”, they think
but do not dare say.

I stand in my roots
And feel quite like the tree
Advanced in my ways
and unlike the rest green.

“It’s like me”, I think
but do not dare say.

They are all green.
I am bright red.
I stand out alone,
against their green layer.

“Not like they”, I do know,
but red was green yesterday.

(There was this lone red tree at the soccer field and it fit so well with how I was feeling that day – just different from everyone around me – But, look at how beautiful that different tree was, couldn’t I be the same?)

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Tags and labels


Rita and Shannon have tagged me, so here we go.

I thought that mom’s knew better than causing people this unnecessary work! I am really going to have to wrack my brain. And, I will try not to complain because I can’t think of anything else to blog about today anyway.

My biggest beef now is that I have to tag seven of my friends(SORRY, but I do give you permission not to follow through – don’t want to cause anyone undo stress)…I don’t even think I have seven blogging friends. Let’s see, I tag 1-Valerie, 2-Andy(who hasn’t updated his blog in forever and so I am sure he is not going to read this), 3-Cally,4-Lori,5-Dorry,6-Meagan, and 7-Karie Wow, that’s seven. If you aren’t listed above, consider yourself lucky!

Here are the rules which must be posted on your blog if you are tagged.1. Link to your tagger and post these rules.2. Share 7 facts about yourself: some random, some weird.3. Tag 7 people at the end of your post and list their names (linking to them).4. Let them know they’ve been tagged by leaving a comment at their blogs.

So, I am not following the rules to the tee, but that brings me to my first point.

1-I believe that we should all live by rules, but my beef with rules is that I should make them, not just for me, but for everyone I know. I am definitely an authoritarian at heart, and it is something that I am always trying to work on. I am a parent who tries hard to be democratic, but I definitely error on the side of being authoritarian and I cannot STAND permissive parenting. It makes me totally crazy to see parents let their children run the show! This is also something I am trying to work on constantly (not being bothered by people’s differences)

2-I am terrified of mice….absolutely terrified! – There is a good story about why, that will have to wait until another blog entry.

3-I am very strong. I often tease that I am as strong as a “weak man”, which I recently learned was not true when I arm wrestled what seemed to be a very whimpy missionary. I think I used to be able to bench press about 100, which is impressive considering at the time I was only 140 pounds. I also have pretty good endurance, which is really impressive considering I haven’t had a real work out in months. But, mental fortitude is a different story….not as mentally strong.

4-I hate the sound of sleeping bags rubbing together. The same for those work out pants that are the similar material….AHH, just thinking about it gives me the heeby jeebies.

5-I think I have almost perfect pitch. Which may be far fetched, but when I used to be the Primary Chorister, I would come in for the kids without the piano and always be right on the right pitch…this could be because of the repitition only though because if I am asked to just pull out a note to sing a song it seems I am always too high or low…so, I hate to admit it, but I probably don’t have perfect pitch.

6-I love to drink a Neer Beer whenever I go to a ball game. All you Mormons can stone me later. 😉

7-I was labeled “Intense Energy” by my graduating Carlsbad High Class GO LANCERS! I guess there were worse things to be labeled. Isn’t Travis Parker cute? Yep, he was my boyfriend for a short time. I just heard that he is finally getting married. If he is the Travis that I remember from 15 year ago, she is a lucky girl, but not as lucky as me of course…because I got married to LG and HE IS THE VERY BEST MAN IN THE WHOLE WIDE WORLD! – and don’t forget that my birthday is on Fri honey. 😉

Smokey

 
After reading Lindsey’s blog about bleeding orange I remembered that I had some pretty good pictures of the girls celebrating LG’s UT Law graduation. Here are just two of those pictures.

This is a picture of Bella with her orange and white pom pom and Abigail with Smokey. This story is about Bella and Smokey (UT’s one and only Vol mascot), but, as you can see, there is no picture of Bella WITH Smokey.

You see, Abigail tried to take Bella up to see Smokey, but Bella (my toughest daughter by far) choked halfway up the bleachers. Abigail was bewildered because she was trying to hurry to get to Smokey on time before Smokey moved on, and Bella just froze. I was watching them all the way and because of my prior experience with big stuffed animals, I knew from afar that Bella may be having issues.

My little sister Renee hated Chuck E Cheese when she was small. For all I know, she still does.

Well, anyhow, I had to run up and retrieve Bella from Abigail’s care, so that Abigail could hurry and get this photo. Before I was even able to snap the photo, I had to take a very anxious Bella back to the other side of the Colliseum to her father so he could protect her from the big bad mascot.

The rest of the evening Bella kept her very vigiliant watch on Smokey and kindly asked to go home whenever he got too close. We were trying every kind of reasoning to teach Bella that the big stuffed dog would not hurt her. The first reasoning being just that: he is just a big stuffed dog. Nothing was working. I have to admit that my best 3 year old reasoning was this: “Bella, that is just Smokey, he is related to Chuck E Cheese. You remember ChuckE from Sophia’s Birthday party, don’t you? He was so nice. You danced with him and the other kids. Well, Smokey is ChuckE’s cousin.”
This seemed to bewilder Bella more than anything. She was probably trying to figure out how a stuffed dog and a stuffed mouse could actually be related, but then again, maybe not. Now, whenever we see a big stuffed anything ranging from the ChikFilA cow to the Hardee’s Star, the girls always immediately holler, “Bella, look there’s another one of ChuckE’s cousins.

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$100 Bonus
 

Here is my traffic violation in art form.

A few weeks back I received my first traffic violation in 13 years. If you are at an intersection and all the cars in front of you are waiting for the red light to turn green so that they can proceed directly through, it is not lawful to turn right into the gas station next to you to avoid the intersection. It is called exactly that…avoiding an intersection, and it is against the law…WHO knew?

Well, I was pretty bummed, but was delighted when I got home and LG told me that he may be able to get the ticket revoked by the traffic court judge. So, I was even more delighted when LG went with one of his boss’s last week and in my behalf did exactly that. It was the first time since coming to law school that I finally got one little perk!

So, last night, we are going over our budget and trying to figure out how in the world we are going to come up with another $7,000 to pay for another bar class and bar test. (Why do they call it a bar anyway – that sounds like LG is going to go and take a drinking class – which if he wasn’t a Mormon, he might) Needless to say, we were having a good amount of frustration. LG said to me,”Alice, I am done with the law, I have got to grow up and provide for my family. We should have called this law school thing a wash a long time ago. We just keep forking out the cash and all it has done for us is provide one $100 bonus in getting you out of a traffic violation.”

I then replied, “Well that was one powerful $100 bonus to me.” The power of being untouchable on the roads is a pretty nice perk! Now, I just can’t get a ticket for another 30 days.

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