Posts (page 2)
What's on your holiday wish list?
A truck load of money so I can buy my kids everything their hearts desire and give them the best Christmas ever and, oh yeah, pay off my bills.
Show us your pride and joy.
Submitted by ::c::.
My three kids. Nothing compares to the pride of your children. This picture was taken about 6 months ago.
I found the picture above while scouring the internet, yet again, for nice angel pictures. The one above is by far, my
Funny what you find while you are looking for something else. I typed "angel" into a Google Image search and got everything from religious angels to Hells Angels. Let's see, there was also Charlie's Angels, the baseball team The Angels, Angels and Demons (Dan Brown's book), Blue Angels, angel fish, City of Angels (L.A. and the movie), how to make snow angels (they need web sites for this??), there was one called "Angels With Only One
It's just really fun when you have some free time to do something unproductive and completely selfish. This is mine.
I am unfortunate enough to live in a neighborhood consisting almost entirely of male offspring (you see where this is going..) Both my sons frequently play around in the neighborhood with them and find varying degrees of mischief to get into depending on which boy they have chosen to spend their after-school freedom with.
One particular afternoon a few days ago, my older son was playing with the neighborhood whiner. He's not bad, just whiny and loud. They had chosen not to include my younger son in their adventures so my youngest decided to entertain himself. He found an old pot on the side of the house my husband uses for his yard work and proceeded to create a interesting, if not disgusting, "stew" if you will, consisting of sand, grass clipping, dirt and water. I was happy he was keeping himself busy (I loved making mud pies when I was a kid).
Apparently after I went back in the house my older son and his whiny friend came by to see what he was doing. They spotted the doggy pooper scooper (we have a German Shepherd) on the side of the house that my husband had forgot to empty and dared him to include it's contents in his culinary creation. Never being the kind of kid to back down from a dare, he took the challenge.
By now, the older ones had attracted some other neighborhood boys with their cries of "EWWW" and "GROSS!!" My mother instinct said "Go check what's going on" and of course I listened (sometimes, I swear, I don't want to know!)
To my absolute horror my younger son was throughly enjoying the attention from the older boys who were now daring him to eat it!!! Moments before the disgusting concoction reached his lips, I was able to intervene. I sent my younger son in the house to wash his hands with instructions to stop only when his hands were raw, while I tried to figure out how to dispose of the contents of the pot.
Once disposed of (washed down the driveway) I sat down and had to come to terms with the fact that regardless of how well I raise my boys, they will continue to do things that flabbergast me. I found myself wondering, yet again, why do boys do things like that? After relaying similar stories to male family members and friends, I think I have finally given up trying to figure it out and accepted that the answer "boys will be boys" will be the most insightful piece of advice I will ever get. The moms I talk to complain of similarly offending incidences but offer up no useful hints that would help curb such behavior. I can only surmise that males either do not think of the consequences before they act or grossly misjudge them.
At any rate, I now need to insert new rule number 1,048 into my Personal Male-Child Parenting Notebook: Boys and dog poop will never end in anything good. Which reminds me of rule 12: Always have lots of sanitizer handy.
So far today, I'm doing alright.
I have not
gossiped,
lost my temper,
been greedy,
grumpy,
nasty,
selfish or
self-indulgent.
I have not
whined,
complained,
cursed
or
eaten any chocolate.
I have charged nothing to my
credit card.
But I will be getting
out of bed soon
and
I think that I will really need
your help then.
Do you keep a journal or diary? How often do you write in it?
Submitted by Kim.
A journal, right here on Vox. I've kept written journals off and on throughout my life and they are very helpful and funny to read years later. I found that when I was contemplating an issue or really upset by something, when I wrote down the things I would never, ever say out loud (with anyone around) I felt much better.
After posting so many pictures of my youngest son, I thought maybe I should explain Ferf. He was born Christopher Joseph on Oct 12, 2001, almost a month to the day after 9/11. My husband chose the name from Winnie The Pooh saying he always thought Christopher Robin was such a wonderful kid (never do that to a child, trust me) From his first day home he was Ferfie, taken from the last syllable of his name. We call him Ferf, Ferfie, The Ferf Man, Terfer, Terfie and occasionally Christopher (when he reminds us "My name is Christopher!" or when I'm mad at him).
He was so cute when he was born that, just miuntes old, the doctor swept him away from us to show him to her new husband who was waiting in the hall. After half an hour, I waddled myself out into the hallway to go get my new baby back and found them sitting down cooing over him. I could hardly blame her, he really was that cute. He has the most amazing blue eyes and a smile that lights up a room. When he cries, his lip juts way out to one side in a really comical way.
He's my youngest and by far, BY FAR, my most outgoing child. He has a hair trigger temper but always knows just the right thing to say and do when you're upset or sad. (he's only 5, where does he get that stuff?) He was born to be on stage and always poses for a picture with his hands in front of his face, I think to frame himself. He talks incessantly when he's nervous like when he goes to the doctor because he always thinks he's going to get a shot. He worships that ground his older brother Nick (8) walks on.
Ferf has a blanket we never go anywhere without. Ah yes, Purple Blankie (it's actually blue but he didn't know his colors when he started talking and named it). Sewn, patched and yet literally, being loved to peices. When I wash it, he waits anxiously by the washer until it's done and then puts it in the dryer and makes me turn it on. He then checks back about every ten minutes or so until it's done.
He's the only five year old I know who knows his right from his left without hestiation yet doesn't seem to have a stitch of common sense. He is an absolute fantastic artist. I thought I was just being biased, after all, I am his mother you know, but other people started noticing and telling me how amazing it was. I'll try putting some pictures of his creations up here later.
He contiunes to challenge every parenting skill I thought I learned with my first two but he also reminds me that people are born with an agenda and the most we can do as parents is help them become the best version of themselves. Any of you parents, particularly with more than one child, know this.
And that is why he is Ferfie. A unique nickname for a unique kid.
I totally love this video. Maybe, okay not maybe, I have a thing for guys that can dance. Chalk it up to the whole mating ritual thing, I guess.
It's always a blast to get a new computer and mess around with all the software that comes with it. And, again, the application du jour on the new Mac is Photo Booth. It's such a simple program but omg, we were laughing so hard when we took the pictures, we almost threw up. Seriously! (that's a Grey's Anatomy thing, seriously).
The built in camera on the screen means that we're gonna have many more hours of good ol' fashion, stupid fun for a long time. Never mind exploring complex new programs that can wash your dishes while correcting your HTML mark up, NOOOO, we want simple minded! Look in my Photo Booth Collection for more of the pictures we've taken.
Sitting here drinking my coffee (creamy hazelnut half-caff with milk, my current fav) I'm thinking about my Thanksgiving evening last night.
My mom and I usually devise a plan to split up preparation of the various dishes. I make the turkey and mashed potatoes, she makes and brings everything else (she's been doing it a lot longer than I and therefore ROCKS!). In a mess of confusion and phone calls we both overlooked the mashed potatoes. A last minute rush to the store before it closed at 6 p.m. proved futile as the doors were locked in front of us. So we made rice. Rice..oh well. Not that we didn't already have enough food!
An 18 lb. turkey for 3 adults (dad had to work at the firehouse and couldn't make it) and 3 kids. We also had candied yams with melted marsh mellows on top (my favorite), fresh green bean casserole, rolls, homemade cranberry sauce, green salad, white rice and gallons of homemade gravy. Then, pumpkin and pecan pie with whipped cream. Lots of turkey sandwiches to come! Yum!
As inevitably happens as the evening grows old, we started playing with the computers. Between my mom, dad, husband, daughter and I, we have 7 computers, me being the only recent Mac convert (family o' nerds). So... we played with the my new Mac (a MacBook Pro (laptop) 15" screen with built in camera, 1GB of memory, 120 GB hard drive, with the ability to run 3 operating systems, Mac OS Tiger, Windows XP (yes, Windows!) and Linux).
The application du jour on the new Mac would have to be Photo Booth. Using the built in camera, you can take pictures of yourself and choose from various filters to make you look cool or funny. You can also use it as a web cam which I use on my Yahoo! Messenger account. I gave mom the basics and let her have fun. Of the pictures she took of herself, the one above is my favorite.
As I have been struggling trying to get Mac OS as the puter language in my brain and abandon my beloved Windows XP native tongue, I wanted to name the Mac to make it feel more like a favorite pet instead of a foreign object lodged under my finger tips. Please offer up any ideas you may have for a name. I will pick from them and announce the winner here once I have chosen. Have fun! The weirder the better. I'm an "outside-the-box" type of person.
