I have a million reasons to be thankful, and rather than bore you with that litany, instead here's Goose's take: (Couch because it's comfy; a mom and dad who give her a bed; art; food, lights, Christmas trees, dogs, animals, fruit, presents and birds) She was very upset with my reading choices, since she could not find a picture of hot chocolate. Sorry, Goose. This was a really fun project we did one afternoon to rid us of the doldrums. Who doesn't love magazines and scissors?
I apologize for not writing much about the general goings on around here. I'm in a funk. Things are happening, not good things to my family and my friends and I'm feeling it too much. I'll be watching Life is Beautiful or What Dreams May Come and have myself a good cry then deal--albeit with ridiculously puffy eyes.
And I will note that Goose and I were making turkeys today and to show her getting dirty wasn't a big deal I smeared orange and brown paint all over my face, forgot and then went to the post office and the grocery store and talked with the neighbor. It wasn't until six hours later that Ziggy got home and asked me what the heck was on my face that I took a look in the mirror...
And without further adieu, here's a story that could be a movie told in the awesomeness style that is the Decemberists. It's sad and cathartic, though not in the same way as Roberto Begnini...
Let me start out by saying I've been extremely lucky this year and I'm extremely grateful. I've won shoes and a couple gift cards that I've talked about before, but I won a Mutsy 4Rider with Stroller Source. If you are in need of a stroller, I strongly recommend that site. The reviews are very honest and Kristen, who helped me, was extremely friendly and responded fast to any questions I had. Excellent customer service is so important and they have it in spades! And thank you so much!
And if you want to try your hand at winning giveaways here are a few good ones:
Mama’s Holiday Wish List Meme TodaysMama and Provo Craft are giving away a sleighful of gifts this holiday season and to enter I’m sharing this meme with you.
1. What 5 items are on your holiday wish list this year?
A: A Madsen bike or Zigo, a good sewing machine, a king size bed (frame and mattress babe, I don't want to sleep on the floor...), paint for our cabinets, and Shades of Grey by Jasper Fforde, who I will hunt down if his book is pushed off any more!
2. What is your favorite handmade gift you have received?
Ziggy's poetry is wonderful. It makes you laugh. It makes you cry. It's my favorite.
3. What handmade gift have you always wanted to tackle?
A: I made some ornaments one year that turned out awesome, but it took about eight hours per ornament due to texturing the clay. I'd love to make those again, but right now I'm making a crazy quilt and hoping to have that done soon!
4. What was the best Christmas gift you received as a child?
A: I don't remember getting it, but I loved my Care Bear so much when I was little. I'm pretty sure my Grandma got it for me for Christmas...Big ups, Love-a-lot!
5. What items are on your kid’s wish list this year?
A: Goose is always pretty good about not being into a brand or one thing. This year she wants a pogo stick and a trumpet. Monkey is in to art, pink and machines, we'll see what he ends up with...
6. What is your favorite holiday food?
A: I'm going with latkes here. I can make three batches at a time and they last us a max of two days!
7. What will you be hand-crafting for the holidays?
A:I can't really say here since my readership mainly consists of my parents, but it will be messy and awesome. For Goose's friends we're making car rolls and crocheted hats.
8. What is your favorite holiday movie?
A: Does Disney's Sing a Long Songs Christmas version count?
9. Favorite holiday song?
A: "Merry Christmas, Baby" by Otis Redding
10. Favorite holiday pastime?
A: I love talking and being with my family around the Christmas tree. It's like a hug for the soul...and now I'm picturing Stuart Smalley
I know you probably have never received a cease and desist plea like this, but please take this one to heart.
Shut up. Don't get me wrong, I'm fine with the casual "how are you doing today?"s and the "did you find everything you were looking for?"s I'm even fine when you give me an extremely short anecdote about a product, but if you create a line because you're flapping your gums then we've got a problem.
What's wrong with you? You're in training remember? Black Friday and all that... You cannot possibly think it's appropriate with five people in your line to tell me about your grandson's abnormal hugeness and then try to get my phone number for a playdate with your daughter. I also don't want to hear about your personal history with constipation and your home remedies in how to alleviate it, especially when my kids are ripping each others' hair out. Do not pick up each item we are purchasing and give us a review. Do not lecture me on the safety of wearing my son or not having my daughter on a leash. Do not call others over to comment on my purchase or my family.
And to you, overly friendly cashiers who are overly friendly with one another, seriously? Quit it! You're getting paid to work, not talk about sleeping over at your boyfriend's house and who did what to whom, even if the kids aren't around, keep it PG at least and try to scan the items while you are determined to never look at your customer and only at your fellow cashier. I will not scan and bag my own items again.
Having been a cashier for three years, I know it gets boring. It's fun to break from the routine dialog of the day, but know your audience.
1. Does he/she place objects in mouth and swallow them? (If yes, then don't worry about the rest of these questions and go watch your kid like a hawk or get him to his learnin')
2. Will he/she stay just out of reach whilst yelling the lyrics of a Banana Slug String Band song as you frantically try to figure out what's wrong with the aforementioned kid who doesn't know too much? (If yes, he/she may know more than an eighth grade bio student and can read your crazed body language well.)
3. As you drive the one who is happy to stick anything in his mouth screaming to the doctor, does he/she diagnose the screaming child with actual illnesses like "conjunctivitis" or "appendicitis"? (Yep, it's looking like your kid knows enough to make you freak out and sob..)
4. During the ever-so-unpleasant suppository round of the treatment of the fool who chews the tips off pens, does he/she stay far, far away from the bathroom? (Then your baby is exceptionally intelligent and street savvy, good luck when she figures out she can manipulate you through discourse!)
Oh, Goose, please go easy on us.
Monkey, I'm so sorry for the bathroom episode. Let's leave it out of your baby book shall we?
11 minutes. That's how far into this movie I got before I was crying. Even if you don't like animated movies, watch this. Up is amazing. Goose got a tiny bit scared at the end but I think it was worth it for her to see.
The story makes me think about Ziggy and I and our kids. It really is an adventure and I can only hope that we are as successful as Ellie and Carl of Up. You're being saved from sappy rhetoric here because Goose just woke up and is now rubbing her head on my arm.
Here's Goose's take:
I like that they met the dog and that it could talk. I thought that the dogs could fly, but they couldn't so they just all fell into the lake. I like that his house floated away from the builders who made so much noise (sounds like our house, I think she can relate.) They should watch Up; it's a great movie.
So I didn't go to a concert tonight in SF that I really wanted to go to, but now it is my life's ambition to go to the Brainwash Cafe, a lounge, internet cafe and a laundromat that has music every night. It sounds like the quirkiest place ever.
Goose wants to go to the Fancy Nancy Fest tomorrow at Borders, and when I asked her if she wanted to wear something fancy, she said, "I need my princess dresses and braids of course." Now this chick has four princess dresses, so I'm not totally sure if she's going to wear layers, or pull a fashion show and change every few minutes.
Lastly, Office Max has made some pretty funny elf videos this year. Check ours out!
So there's this lady here in Sacramento that does this super cool stained glass work. She made the most amazing Bride of Frankenstein committed to colored glass I've ever seen (we're classy). But she's far too expensive to ever commission something for our weird windows, so instead, here's what Goose and I have been up to:
Faux Stained Glass!
Here's How:
1. We took the backside of the kids' craft paper, since I like to reuse like that. and painted it with watered down black acrylic paint. Let dry.
2. Cut out a pattern that you will trace onto the paper or freehand. (I just freehanded this whole thing with my super amazing X-acto knife and cutting mat.)
3. Cut out the pattern (or freehand, though be forewarned that it's easy to tear.) 4. Use colored tissue paper to back your openings. Goose painted the paper with a glue and water solution whilst I put bits of tissue across the negative spaces. This was the part that took the longest for us because we had to make a lot of the shapes work to curves. If you had a pattern of geometrics it would go much faster!
5. Hang and marvel at your work.
Ours turned out like peacocks meets Pink Floyd album art and I dig it.
So it's been a long time since I really wrote anything, which is sort of funny since everything that happens to me I internalize and write a blog post for.
Despite Ziggy's springing a dinner party here tonight on me Monday (which of course means that since Monday I've been trying to make it look like I clean the house everyday), we're functioning so well together on my favorite level: creativity.
He's got this contest at work for a holiday skit and we've been writing stuff together. I'm the idea girl, then he takes it to the next level, though some of the more hilarious stuff about how to score rock in the skit obviously got omitted.
And even when I'm yelling at him that he's a pompous jerk, it's still great. Like being back in school together in the beginning of our relationship...
It's funny, I have iTunes on shuffle and this random "Don't go" song is playing and I think it has said "don't go" three million times since I started writing this post. Where does this garbage come from? Or is it fate? Spooky...
Saturday 9-12pm Home Depot kids' clinic to make a trivet. This could be a good holiday craft gift, just tape off the tile and let the kids have at it with some acrylic paints.
11-3pm at Lakeshore Learning they're making Veteran flags. Also a holiday gift, for the loved one's your kids don't really like.
From 12-4pm at Whole Foods is their 1 year anniversary party. I hope we'll be back from Apple Hill to make the end of this. I love Whole Foods and wish that I could afford to shop there more, but I'll stick to my cheese from a can...anyway the people who run the kids club there are extremely nice and there's a bagger named Diane (I think?) who's insane and has glittered my kids on a couple occasions (why is anyone's guess...)
Goose is keeping with the nightmares and the more I see and hear, the more I think they're stemming from her feelings regarding being alone.
Yesterday, during her twenty minutes of quiet time she began sobbing that she was scared and lonely. Now, she may just be trying to get out of her room, and her deal with me to give me time to get lunch cleaned up, but her tears seemed pretty genuine. Coupled with her midnight "don't leave me" pleas as she's screaming in her sleep and I'd say I'm on the right track.
Kids at school still haven't fully adjusted to Goose being there. While she's greeting everyone and attempting to do kung fu (Carl Douglas style), some of the girls will share her enthusiasm for a time, but the boys flat out tell her she's not funny, or that they don't want to play with her, or that they don't like her dancing. (I'm not above elbowing little kids that hurt mine, and probably would have if Goose didn't hug on me post rebuff).
Combine that with the neighbor kids, whom she adores, teasing her about being slower than them (4 year old versus 8 and 9 year olds--go figure. But still, Goose doesn't know better).
It's hard. I didn't realize that kids were so tough on each other so early on. I just want to hug her and ask her to be my friend always, but at the same time I need her to learn to like herself and let others learn to like who she is too.
We're going to Disneyland! My parents are treating us to a wonderful vacation for Christmas. We are super grateful.
But now, like the excited little kids in those commercials, I can't sleep. I can't wait! SO while looking for videos to show the kids I saw a rash of disney attacks that were flat out hilarious. Goose won't be seeing these...
