Markstra

You know those things that you have to fill out random letters to post things. (Oh my gosh, Alicia, use English when you type.)




You know the "word verification" boxes where you have to type in random letters to post, say a comment on a blog. I might be crazy, but I like to pretend they are real words and make up definitions. Today, my word was "Markstra."


Markstra. V.
     To point at with great joy and excitement.

In a sentence: My daughter likes to markstra at her night light everytime she walks past it. Sometimes, her markstring casuses a delay in bed time, as she has to stop and look at every detail of it and make sure mom sees this cool giver of light as well.

What I will teach my daughter

This weekend I learned a few things that I want Zoey to understand.

*I want her to know the importance of being graceful in ones actions.
*If she says one thing I hope she realizes that it still applies when the tables are turned.
*Life is not a matter of what you are doing, but who you are doing it with.
*Family comes first. I know there will be a time when she thinks otherwise, but eventually, I hope, she will understand that family is our most important asset in life.
*Running around in a diaper will one day be unacceptable. :)

I hope you all had a great Christmas and are enjoying the holidays together with those you love.
Now, I am going to enjoy my sisters while they visit for a few days.

I've been pretty busy working and getting ready for Christmas. I probably won't have a post of substance for a week or so as my sisters-in-law are visiting after Christmas. I'm pretty excited!

I hope you have a wonderful Christmas season. Remember, this is the biggest birthday party for a special man. Pause a moment in all the crazyness and thank Heavenly Father for letting His Son to come to earth for all of us. Being a parent has given me a greater understanding on just how hard that must have been.

How to survive Walmart.

My husband worked in the Tire Lube Express (TLE) at Walmart when we were dating and our first few months of marriage. We learned a lot of things on how to not get overwhelmed by the hoards of people. I've narrowed it down to 4 easy steps.


1-Do not park at the front entrances. Simply drive to the back or side to the TLE. Most people don't realise they can park in the tiny parking lot there. But you can. It not only helps with finding a parking spot, but also with step three.


2-Say hi to the TLE worker at the desk. They may ask if you are getting your car serviced. Don't let this scare you about being parked there. Its ok. Trust me.


3-Shop. There really isn't a trick to this part. But have a game plan, it helps a bit.


4-Check at with the TLE worker at the desk. Often times they are just sitting there waiting for something to do. So help them pass the time by letting them check you out. Every once in a while there will be someone there, but chances are even then you won't be waiting for 30 minutes like everyone else at the front check stands. Also, if there is a line sometimes they get someone else to help out. That means that there are 2 people helping maybe 3 customers. That's a much better customer/employee ratio than anywhere else there. Make sure you say thanks for helping you out. This is especially helpful if you are alone with your children because you don't have to sit by all those impulse buys that they like to grab. :)


 

And that, my friend, is how we do Walmart. 

What I learned today...

*A ball point pen is harder to scrub off a wiggly toddler than a gel pen.

*Do not go to the store and leave Z-dawg sitting by two bags of chips and my laptop with Chris when he is playing a new video game.

*Animal Crackers look different than when I was a kid. They actually look like animals rather than blobs with 4 legs.

*Zoey loves said animal crackers. She also likes putting things in containers. Animal crackers almost dissolve in a cup of Mt. Dew.

*Nothing is safe anymore.


I'm kind of worried about this whole being a mother to a toddler thing if this was one day, and she turned 14 months today. But, on a good note, I found the first sippy cut we bought that she didn't like. Now she loves it and she carried it around with her favorite cow animal all day. I love that little girl.

Public Service Announcement

I'm all for public bathrooms. They are the constant in an incontinent world.

 However, they do not clean themselves. So please, if you leave a mess on the toilet seat please please please take care of it. Because there will be a girl who writes an amazingly entertaining blog who will clean said mess, and will thus write about your poop on the Internet. Now you don't want that, and I don't want to really clean it up. So lets make a deal and just not leave nasty messes for the retail associate to spend an hour cleaning up. k? k.

Dunk Tank

Can you remember a moment that changed your life?

It was my first weekend "on my own." I moved out of town to get a dance degree, but in reality it was so I could be friends with this boy  I met without getting in trouble with my boyfriend. He would say I was cheating if I talked to this boy while living at home, even if I wasn't. So in my head, if this boy was the only person I knew my boyfriend couldn't get mad for me talking to him. Strange  logic. I think in the back of my mind I knew I was being led somewhere else, and I just didn't know where.

Instead of going home for the weekend, I decided to hitch a ride with this boy to my aunt's house who lived 20 minutes away from where he grew up. Also strange logic to ride an hour with someone I hardly knew, but I was 19 and crazy. Don't judge.

That Saturday my cousin's drill team was in charge of a dunk tank at a big carnival party thing. It turned out that this boy's parents were in charge of the grill, and so he just so happened to be there. He and his friend kept trying to convince me to get dunked. Eventually I got up there. The line was full of children, and each one missed. And then someone hit the bulls eye. The last thing I remember before falling into the water was this boys smiling face in victory.

The party ended. I went my car parked on the side of the road to get my phone and call my boyfriend. I was planning on leaving that night so I could have time to go home home Sunday because I didn't have class on Monday. I sat in the backseat with the door open and my legs dangling out, kicking the curb. He was mad that I was still there. We were in another "one of those" fights: I didn't understand him, I was being stupid. The usual. As I was almost ready to cave and say I needed to get back I saw the boy go up to my uncle and help them take down the dunk tank. Now this is no easy task. He knew just what to do and didn't have to be asked. I remember thinking that if this was my boyfriend, he would have waited until someone sought him out, and then do the bare minimum to make himself look busy. But not this boy. He as so occupied in the task at hand that I hardly saw him. As I sat there watching him while arguing on my phone I realized I was in love. And it wasn't with the boyfriend I was on the phone with. I don't know what it was, but the juxtaposition of hearing how horrible I am for doing nothing wrong, and watching this boy help my family for no reason behind it is something I will always remember.
This was the moment that changed my life. It was a scary feeling. So vulnerable. And no one knew it but me.It empowered me to finally stand up for what I want. I didn't go home that day. My family, the boy, and the boys friend all went to see Hairspray. I laughed through the entire thing. Not because it was funny, which it is by the way, but because I was so nervous of what just happened. I didn't trust myself to do what I needed to do.
We left Sunday and I went straight to my house once I got to my car. I drove right to my boyfriend's house and broke up with him. I can't remember what I said. I just remember knowing that this was final. It was over. Two and  half years gone. And not even a glance back. I didn't know if this boy was "the one," or even if we would become good friends for that matter. But I had to give it a shot.

And now, 3 years later I get the opportunity to watch him play with our daughter. I get to cuddle up next to him when it gets cold at night. And most importantly get to say that he was the best thing that ever happened to me because he has brought me so much happiness. And it all goes back to a dunk tank.

Linking this up with my thoughts and treasures because being able to blog with a snoring husband next to me is a treasure.

It's like being underwater...but not.

In my 14 months of being a mommy I have discovered my super power of being able to breath only through my mouth. Why is this unique or blogworthy you may ask? Well you see, it is very useful.


See these examples:

1-THE diaper.

     You know the one I'm talking about. Like when you are at the grocery store and there is a screaming child on the other end of the aisle. It's not the screaming that notifies you that there is a unhappy 1 year old down there, but rather the stench she left behind when she was sitting right where you are standing looking for the butter beans. It just so happens that that poor, unhappy child will soon get her diaper changed. And her poor, unhappy mother will unleash the fury within the diaper. This is the moment that being able to breath solely with one's mouth is a servival skill.

2-What goes down, tends to come up.

     Chrildren throw up. It happens. And when it happens it just so happens to get all over your hair, feet, shirt, airmpit.... And cute, sick baby decides its squishyness is fun to play with and rub in the carpet, and then do it again. Yay more squishy stuff!!! Obviously,  you can't rely her to clean it all up. And so you must do so without throwing up yourself. And so mommy survival skill comes up again...pardon the pun.



3-The husband

     Husbands do silly things. My husband likes to take a lot of left overs to work. He also likes to come inside our house as fast as possible once he gets home from work. This makes him forget his tuperwear containers from his lunch, and so every Friday he cleans out his car and brings them all in for ME to clean. Some smell kinda grose. But tolerable, especially with my new skill.

Sometimes when it snows he takes my car because it is 4 wheel drive. And so his weekly car cleaning doesn't involve my car. And my car is full of clothes and baby bags and snacks and school stuff. (I basically live in my car). Things tend to get pushed to the side to make room for something else. Well sometimes, like today, I have enough time to reorganize my car and Chris's little prizes show up. Sometimes, also like today, Tupperware with a whole chicken from almost 2 weeks ago makes its appearance. Lucky for me it has been pretty cold so it wasn't as nasty as it could be. But opening the Tupperware container was done the correct, non-nosed way.

There are many other times this comes in hand, such as throwing away the garbage with said diaper or chicken. Or sleeping with a husband her just had the butter beans he was looking for. I'm not too sure when I acquired this mommy superpower, but I'm sure glad I did.

Criminal Minds

So lately I've been obsessed with Criminal Minds. It has given me some pretty good company late at night while I've been studying for finals. It has lead me to think a lot about humanity, and my role within it.

One mom said she killed her son and got executed, when in reality she was saving him from her serial killer husband by secretly giving him to a family across the country. She looked death in the face and kept her story, despite being abused and mocked in prison as people tend to be if the kill a child. It brought tears to my eyes as this story unraveled. It really got me thinking, what would you do for your child, for your loved one? Would I be willing to put my life on the line to save my family. I really think I would, but I definitely don't want to test it.

Another episode ended with a Mexican Proverb: A house doesn't rest upon the ground, but on a woman.
I wouldn't have truly understood what this was saying before I became a wife and mother. But I really like it. It is like a glamorized way to say "if mama aint happy, no body's happy."

Do you guys watch Criminal Minds? Don't you just love the quotes at the end that basically sums the entire episode. I think it would be interesting if they said the quote at the start of the episode too it would make this ending even more powerful. What do you all think?