Photos

Skipping Christmas

Call me Scrooge, but I hate putting up the Christmas tree. Yes, of course, I am always happy when it is done and we are greeted by twinking lights in our living room for a whole month! (two, if I never get around to taking it down in January) But, c’mon what sadistic Martha Stewart came up with the tradition of putting away every knick knack in your house just to unload 6 huge boxes of junk. Is this really a necessary part of enjoying the holidays?

One of these days I will get the courage up to skip Christmas as I read about in John Grisham’s book.

Here is a picture of LG enjoying his Thanksgiving holiday. I am not trying to make him feel bad; I really am glad that he was enjoying some down time.

But, shouldn’t we all be able to enjoy our holidays, regardless of our gender?

We need an ACLU Christmas. We need to keep all of our National Holidays, yet, the week after we celebrate, we should have the ACLU version where the men do all the work that the women usually handle and the women act like the men (ie. sitting on the couch reading a book, playing football with our friends, watching sports on TV)

Think about it. Who does the work? We’ll start with Easter for the pure delight of making a point. Who buys the candy, who shops for those cute Easter outfits? Who makes sure that they get up at the crack of dawn to stage the fact that the Easter Bunny has visited (Abigail does read my blog now and so I have to be careful what I say here – I know she doesn’t believe in the Easter Bunny any more)

Next holiday – July 4th – Who buys and prepares the food and plans the outing? Really, all the men have to do is set off the fireworks..and is that really work?

Halloween – Who buys the candy, who tries to keep everyone from consuming the candy when you bought it the week earlier? Who makes the costumes? Who runs around like a mad woman on 10/31 making sure that all the preparations are accomplished for trick or treating, including the dinner, and making sure that you can somewhat tell what the kids are dressed up as, even under their coats?

Thanksgiving – who combs all the adds looking for the cheapest turkey? Who bakes the pies and the rolls and the, do you really want me to finish the food list? Who has to clean the house like a turkey with her head cut off to accomidate all the company? And, who is that actually sets that darn table? If all of that isn’t enough. Now, in American culture, we are expected to get up at the crack of dawn the day after Thanksgiving to make sure we get the best deals for the next holiday coming up.

and Christmas … I don’t think I have to explain the thought process.

I think I would really be willing to give up the two Woman holidays of the year (Valentine’s and Mother’s Day) to eliminate all the other holiday work throughout the year.

I know, I know, I am a whiner. It’s all about the memories we are making. I can’t help it that I prefer to make memories without working myself like a horse.

Not that you care, but I really wanted to add a picture of me in here of decorating the tree last night. Guess why I didn’t? I spared you the trauma of staring at my big fat bum. Every picture that was taken I was leaning over and picking something up, moving furniture, or plugging something in. Yep, you got it….working.

And were you wondering what LG was doing through all of the Christmas festivities – you got it – not working – unless you consider taking my picture work – which come to think of it – maybe he was working – staring at my bum really can’t be considered enjoyable. HAPPY HOLIDAYS EVERYONE!

Oh, and I just added the bonus picture of Kitty Bear. I think she may feel like I do about this whole tree nonsense. Check her out; she’s staring it down.

The Hubby’s Humor

Those of you that have been loyal readers from the beginning know that this blog was a gift to me from my husband for Valentine’s Day a few years back. It really has been one of the best gifts he has ever given me. One, I love to write and I use this blog all the time. (except for the year 2006) 😉 Two, this blog is a great therapeutic tool! And three, LG was able to use his skills in Computer Science (which he will adamantly oppose, saying that it doesn’t take computer skills to set up a blog) to gift this to me. Of course there is no better gift than giving of yourself.

Here is a picture of LG. He is the love of my life, which none of you care about, but look at his cuteness. Just looking at a picture of him makes me smile. LG was the one who thought of the name for my blog. “I’m so funny” came from my oft heard self description of my sad sense of humor. (If I was really funny, I wouldn’t have to declare it to everyone after telling a joke, right?) The other source of this blog’s name is from the dialogue that often takes place between LG and me. Whenever one of us gets a good joke in, we are both known to profess to each other, “I’m so funny.” Usually this will turn into a little bit of fun bantering between us; of course he always lets me have the last, “No, I’m so funny.” This is very kind of him considering that he really does have the quicker wit.

We also like to sometimes exclaim to one another, “You’re so funny!” “You’re so funny” can be said for two reasons. These reasons have never been officially discussed, but have just evolved over time and are simply understood by just the two of us. The first kind of “You’re so funny” is said in a de·rog·a·to·ry fashion. The meaning of the expression really being, “you’re NOT so funny.” The second instance where we will say “you’re so funny” is always in only the finest complimentary way. The trick with the “you’re so funny” expression is that the giver of the words has to deliver the phrase in a monotone fashion. The whole fun with saying, “you’re so funny” is making the recipient of the phrase try to figure out if the humor is being described as 1- that was bad! or 2- that was really good!

Last night LG gave me a point in case example of his quick wit. I just had to share. We were in bed having our usual late night chat. Directly after our nightly prayers, and right before falling to sleep sometimes we will engage in (NO, not that) conversation. We go over the happenings of the day, talk about our next day’s plans, and sometimes, rarely, LG will even venture into the world of sharing his true deep down feelings. LG was a little down last night. He said he was having self confidence issues. (which I am sure he will be happy that I have told the whole world today on my blog – and which will also mean that it will be a while before he dares share any more personal feelings) But this story is worth it and I HAVE to give you the background information or it just won’t be the same. I will conveniently leave out some other details, only because LG has threatened me. 🙂

Our conversation progressed last night by me pressing for the exact reasons he was down on himself. He told me a few things he felt and then I got the chance to dispel his negative thoughts. By the time I got done, I thought, “I should tell him some others things he is good at.” LG’s complete ignorance of my weak compliments led me to start using the usual backup stupid complimentary phrases, the last being, “And, you know that I think that you have the perfect amount of chest hair.”

You have to understand that this last compliment was given with a sweet kiss attached. And, what was his reply? “So do you.” How does he expect my pep talk to lead to any form of intimacy when all I could do was just crack up? In between my fits of laughter I got the last word of course, “You’re so funny!” And this time I am sure that my tone gave away the meaning of the phrase.

Last night, LG may have won the I’msofunny game. Happily in this case, I declare the war as never being over. Last night, LG was truly #2 “you really are so funny” and not #1, “you’re not so funny.” with those three quick words, “So do you.”

Maybe some of those writers in Hollywood could step aside and give LG a shot. I tell you what, “So do you”, blurted out in .001 seconds?! I would almost be proud of his joke if it wasn’t in reference to me having hair on my chest (which just in case you are wondering, I don’t) If I did, that wouldn’t be so funny, now would it?

Did you know?

According to this picture, I am the Appalachian trail. I wonder if my daughters know. They seem pretty oblivious here.

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!

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.

Far more exceeding and eternal

On Friday, we got the very not expected news that LG will have to take the bar for the 2nd time! So, we have a choice: 1-Be defeated or 2-Move forward with faith. I thought that this picture was a great way to represent the notion of moving forward with faith.

Here are two sisters enjoying each others company while walking home from the Mechanic’s on Friday. They weren’t worried about the fact we had to walk home because our car was in the shop for the second time in the same week…they both found dandelions to pick and liked showing them to each other. In fact, they had no idea that a dandelion is a weed. They think that they are pretty flowers and always pick them and bring them to me whenever they see them.

Children are a wonderful blessing in keeping a positive attitude (something I have been working a lot on lately) I guess the Lord has decided to test me in whether or not I am serious about changing my negative ways…he sure has given me a lot of challenges lately.

The good news is I finally feel that I have passed the husband test. I can truly say that I love LeGrand no differently, even with the disappointing news. I have found myself loving him more and for the FIRST time in 10 years I truly believe in him, even at the hardest time to do so. It feels so good. It is worth this challenge just to feel the way I do.

So, as for the title of this entry. Taken from, believe it or not, Sunday’s Sunday School lesson. 2 Corinthians 4:8-10 & 4:17-18

We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; Persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed; Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body…For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory; While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are
eternal.

LeGrand Voyage

This is a sign for some event that was being held on campus a few days before LG’s Law School Graduation. I thought it showed the appropriate mood at our house right now. We are all on a LeGrand Voyage as we await LG’s bar results. The countdown has been on for aproximately 3 months, but every second that goes by makes “passing” seem so much more important.

LeGrand said it correctly the other night, “Alice, it doesn’t matter if I was to stay up and pray all night, my future is decided by my maker.” I guess I better hand over my future also. AGH – It just seems so out of my control!!!

Well, whether or not LG has an official “future” in the law 2 days from now doesn’t change the fact that we have these three beautiful girls. They make every step of the voyage worth it. And, I guess LG is the bonus for me…a bonus that will be even better if he’s happy.