Just passing along some good advice...

Tough Love vs. Spanking - Good Argument

Most of the American populace thinks it improper to spank children, so I have tried other methods to control my kids when they have one of 'those moments.' One that I found effective is for me to just take the child for a car ride and talk.

Some say it's the vibration from the car, others say it's the time away from any distractions such as TV, Video Games, Computer, IPod, etc.

Either way, my kids usually calm down and stop misbehaving after our car ride together. Eye to eye contact helps a lot too.

I thought it'd be really funny to paste a picture of Ryan onto this kids face but I didn't have the time to do it...Sure do love my kids but don't we all have moments like this?

Tagging

Isn't that illegal? Tagging things? You know, I was never very good at that game. Much too slow. When playing "tag" as a youth I used to try and outwit those who were after me because I never had the speed (or the desire, actually) to out run them. You can imagine how well THAT went...anyway, Suz, here ya go. (And, why 6?)

6 favorite TV shows....(Tough because we haven't had tv service for the last 4 + years...I used to like a few though. You know, back in the day my homies!)

*ER
*CSI
*Brady Bunch
*Sesame Street (WAAAAAAY back in the day...)
*The Muppet Show
*Pretty much ANY game show...I'm a junky

6 restaurants where I like to eat

*Kaye's Kitchen
*Johnny Carinos
*Cafe Rio (yummmy.....pork salad)
*Sergios
*The Star
*Flying Fish--but only because when I go there it is because I get to go with people whose company I enjoy. (The food is just NONSENSE)

6 things that happened today

*I swore at Ryan
*I made pizza and sandwiches at work (shocker...)
*Went to Ian's soccer game
*Wished Suzanne would come over and do my laundry
*Visited Jim at the drive up window at the bank
*Went to a violin recital--it was very well done!

6 things I am looking forward to

*financial independance (come on Publisher's Clearing House!)
*singing with Delmo and Connie at Christmas
*going to bed after finishing this blog entry!
*going on Courtney and Suzanne's 20th anniversary cruise (Where are we going?)
*Watching Mama Mia AGAIN (and again and again and again and again.......)
*Going to see Wicked---someday...

6 things on my wish list

*1000 thread count Egyptian cotton sheets
*a maid
*a debt free life
*new socks (this is always and forever on my wish list...if I could I would open a new pair EVERY time I had to put socks on and never wear them again after that time I would.)
*a faster metabolism OR that all the foods I love that are not good for me would suddenly have a negative caloric value like iceburg lettuce does...(HEY, it's a wish list, it doesn't have to be realistic...)
*to make a CD of me singing that might actually impact someone other than my mother!

6 people to gag (sounds rude to me....I don't like gagging but I said I'd play so....)

*that mean man at work who complained today that his pizza cheese was not "toasty" enough
*people who throw their cigarrette butts out of the car window. (Just who do they think is going to clean those up?)
*men who have crack showing--they make me gag so making them gag seems fair enough
*the dentist (or anyone else who has ever made me gag when taking impressions)
*gangsta rappers
*whomever it is at JR's that keeps putting loogies in our drinks

Scott

I realized that not much has been said about Scott. At 13 years old, he is our oldest... He currently has the deepest voice out of all the kids living at this address and as a result he no longer gets confused for his mother by those who call on the telephone... He is a very good student... (This year he begins his school day with a geometry class at the high school, then finishes up with 6 more classes at Adobe Middle School. He loves this because he finishes the school day one hour early...) He has great taste in books... He generally gives his all in whatever he endeavors to do... He has recently begun eating all the food that I fix, without complaint AND he even likes most of it!.. He is only 5 merit badges (and a project) away from completing the requirements for his Eagle Scout... Scott is learning how to deal with peer pressure by resisting efforts of a few lady friends to pair off with a certain girl he has had a crush on since, OH 3rd grade... He is readily integrating the current hip vernacular into his vocab (everything he thinks is cool is actually "sic!" I still haven't figured out how being sick is cool--I don't think being sick is cool at all)... We recently finished his bedroom in the basement and he showed potential in decorating, picking out all the paint and bedding colors (and they actually all match)... He loves his Aunt Lisa... He does not get scared while going through the Haunted House... He has a great sense of humor and readily laughs at himself, which brings me to the reason I wanted to blog about him tonight. As we finished up reading scriptures he whipped off his sock to reveal to me (it was good I was sitting down) that he has hair growing on his toes! A FANTASTIC DISCOVERY! I guess I should have known it was coming. After all, he has shaved his peach fuzz TWICE already. I called him "hobbit" and he assured me that he was not a hobbit because their hair grew under the toeNAILS. (I will have to check this fact in my copy of the Hobbit, but I think it is incorrect!) Anyway--he's an awesome kid and I am just tickled that he belongs to our family.

Here come the chiclets--a time for loose teeth

So, after many weeks of "I've got a loose tooth!" from Carly, the rascally wiggly thing finally gave up this morning before school. Jim was gone to Rotary, and I could tell it was ready to be wrested from it's precarious location but I am not good with teeth--makes me queasy--so I asked Carly who she would like to pull it. I was expecting her to say "Ian" because he was really begging to do it, but she said, "Courtney--I want my Primary teacher to get it out!" So, I called him up and he came down to do his duty as her primary teacher. (I'm sure there is something in the church handbook that includes a provision for this type of thing...) Lucky for him, Jim showed up at home 1 minute before he got here and soon after the offending tooth, bloody it was too, was sitting in my kitchen windowsill. Lucky me! After seeing the Welches blog for today, it seems that Car's "emergency" was just a warm-up for Courtney!

And so it seems that Carly has officially entered the "snaggletooth" phase of her growing up. (Sigh--before I know it, it will be homecoming dresses, a driving license and buying ice cream.)

Here is also a picture of Ryan who was nearly as excited about the lost tooth as his sister. He was immediately putting his fingers in his mouth to check for possible loose teeth. Much to his dismay, they were all quite resolute to the investigation.

But wait, there is one more to add to the lost teeth count. My neice, Natania (who is only 15 days younger than Carly) also lost her first tooth recently. Here is a picture of her and her younger sister Ellice (who is only 5 days older than Ryan...sure wish the 'cuzins could spend more time together!)

ANYONE ELSE HAVE A REPORTING ON TEETH TO MAKE? (Besides the fact that I have to get mine cleaned next week--yuck.) Please comment!

One Bedroom--11th Birthday

It is hard to believe, but Ian is now 11 years old. Yikes, where did the time go? It doesn't seem that long ago--I remember how the night before he was born we were all having dinner at my parents house. My grandmother was visiting in town but was planning to leave the next day--coincidentally, my due date. After dinner she joked about my going home to "start having pains" so she could see her new great grandbaby before she left to return home. I laughed at this as I had gone a week over when I was pregnant with Scott. However, being the obedient child I am, sure enough at about 10 pm that night I went into labor! Jim and I walked to the hospital at around 2 am and Ian arrived on the scene shortly before 5 am. We were thrilled to have him join our family--and we are still thrilled to have him.

Happy birthday Ian! (Well, it was two days ago, but I do the best I can.) To celebrate, we went bowling after school and had tacos and chocolate chip cookies for dinner. (My parents were here to share it with us...) It was very fun, AND, we were even able to "finish" his new bedroom in the basement enough that he could sleep in it that night. We still have quite a bit of work to do in there, but here is a picture anyway! Watch future postings for more info on the neverending basement project...