Oblivious

A month or so ago a co-worker asked if I had graduated with a certain person. I knew I did, but I couldn't quite place her face. When I got home I dug out my yearbooks and flipped through to find my class. I came to the beginning of our section which is filled with casual photos of students. As I saw the largest photo on the page my mouth dropped open. I couldn't believe it. The caption confirmed the identity of who I was looking at. "Rion," I said, "Want to see a picture of your teacher in high school?" We are well into our second half of the school year and it was only then that I realized that I had graduated with Rion's teacher. I immediately felt incredibly dumb for not realizing it right away. He really hasn't changed much since high school. I didn't know him well, but as soon as I saw his picture I knew who he was. My next thought was this: Did he recognize me? I sure hoped he didn't. I remember "meeting" him on the first day of school. He was really friendly, but I chalked it up to him already knowing Torii and the fact that he really is a nice guy. But was it more of a "hey I remember you from high school friendly"? Then I totally brushed him aside and moved onto Torii's class. Now I want to tell him that I'm not a snob. I'm just an oblivious idiot. The next day I asked Rion if he told his teacher that I had graduated with him. He said he did. I asked him what his teacher had said about it. "He said that you would have graduated with Hailey's mom too," Rion said. Great. Now who in the world is Hailey's mom? And how many times have I seen her at school and totally brushed her off? Really I'm not a snob! I'm just really, really oblivious.

It's come to bribery

We have tried off and on for about a year to potty train Cordelia. She started off really well, but then got stubborn and insisted she wanted to remain a baby. The ways we got the boys to be potty trained did not work with Cordelia. In fact nothing worked. Then suddenly a few weeks ago she started using the potty on her own. We stopped putting Pull-ups on her and amazingly she didn't need them anymore anyway. She is doing great except for one thing: pooping on the potty. I told her I would buy her something special if she stops pooping in her pants, but it hasn't worked. So today after worked I stopped by Wal-Mart and saw that the Dora dollhouse she wanted was marked down to $17 (originally $69!). Maybe actually seeing the special treat will help. The kids weren't home when I got home so I set the dollhouse on the table. When they got home Cordelia spotted the dollhouse right away. I explained that she could have the dollhouse, but we wouldn't open it until she started pooping on the potty. I can't say it has worked yet, but it looks promising. I also found some of the furniture for the dollhouse on sale and Cordelia holds the package as she sits on the potty. She wants to open it so badly. She tried many times to poop on the potty tonight with no success, but no accidents either. I told Cordelia I would put the dollhouse someplace she could see it to remind her to get to the potty, but I couldn't decide where. Fred had the perfect solution. Put it behind the couch because that's the spot where she goes to do her business. So there the Dora dollhouse sits. Hopefully we will get to open it soon.

A fish tale

When I was a youngster, a yearly family tradition was to go to the St. Mary's carnival. It's a tradition that has continued with my family. And thankfully, it is one of the very few things that has not changed since my childhood. There is still the silent auction, the raffle, the white elephant, and the halls are still decorated with large drawings of cartoon characters. Each year there are some new games, but you can still find shuffle board, the duck pond and fishing for a prize. And of course, you can still win a goldfish. We were never allowed to even play for a chance to win a goldfish. We begged, pleaded and whined I'm sure, but my parents never gave in. I never came home from the carnival with a goldfish. I don't think I ever forgave my parents for that until I became a parent myself. Now it is my turn each year to tell my kids that "no, you can't play the goldfish game." We have never come home with a goldfish. That is until this year. I made the mistake of letting Fred take the boys to games, while I took Cordelia to the easier games. Later, when we took a break for some cotton candy and pizza, Rion couldn't wait to tell me that he had won a goldfish. I apparently forgot to warn the husband about the no goldfish policy. Rion was very excited about it so I forgave Fred. Rion named his goldfish "Goldie". St. Mary's goldfish have a reputation for not living very long. Goldie lasted about three days. And since we had the tank all set up and the kids liked Goldie, Fred went out and bought two new fish. This time he got two mollies. One of these mollies is black and gold so Torii named it "Steeler". About two days later we learned Steeler is a girl. Now we have about ten fish swimming around. One prize fish has resulted in ten. The kids are never ever playing the goldfish game again. And I'll make sure to warn Fred next year.

Wordless Wednesday

A late Christmas story

I know I'm way behind in my blogging and I wanted to post this before Christmas. Well, I'm finally getting around to it.

In mid-December my office had a Christmas party. It's held during the same week that we have our winter meetings since everyone is in town at that time. Since this was my first year attending the meetings it was on my mind a lot and therefore, a lot of others things got neglected. One of those things was helping the kids with homework. Rion and I usually practice spelling words on Wednesday night as his test is on Thursday. On Friday morning of that week as we are about to leave for school, Rion tells me, "You know my spelling test was yesterday. My spelling homework is also late now too." I apologized to him for not practicing with him and told him I had a lot on my mind with work and it would not happen again. Rion looked straight at me and said, "Well, you need to tell your boss that you have kids."

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Over the weekend Rion was bugging me to help him with something, I can't even remember what it was now. I told him to hang on a minute so I could finish what I was doing, then I would help him. "Mom you take forever," Rion said, "It's like waiting for a website to load."

Sing Along

This is what I heard from the back of the van the other day courtesy of Rion and Torii.
"Why do you drink?"
"Why do you smoke?"
"It's family tradition!"
Fred has now been asked (told) to stop playing Hank Williams Jr in the presence of minors.