Ask a Child

I asked my kids some questions about me. Some of the things they had to say were pretty amusing.

Haley - 5 years old
1. What is something mom always says to you? Do it!
2. What makes mom happy? Doing things that you say
3. What makes mom sad? not doing things that you say
4. How does your mom make you laugh? when we do funny tricks
5. What was your mom like as a child? you did crafts
6. How old is your mom? 16
7. How tall is your mom? almost as tall as the wall
8. What is her favorite thing to do? sit
9. What does your mom do when you're not around? clean up the house (occasionally true)
10. If your mom becomes famous, what will it be for? for a performance
11. What is your mom really good at? cleaning the house (Ha! So not true.)
12. What is your mom not very good at? sweeping (I wouldn't say I'm not GOOD at it, I just don't do it often enough.)
13. What does your mom do for a job? fashion designer (I don't know where she got that idea!)
14.What is your mom's favorite food? pizza (true, along with ice cream)
15.What makes you proud of your mom? cleaning the house (there's a lot of mention of cleaning the house... not sure why, it's not like it happens that often!)
16. If your mom were a cartoon character, who would she be? Daphne from Scooby Doo (I'll take that - she was always the pretty one)
17. What do you and your mom do together? crafts
18. How are you and your mom the same? we both have curly hair
19. How are you and your mom different? we're not the same size
20. How do you know your mom loves you? because you hug me
21. What does your mom like most about your dad? when he cleans (again with the cleaning... but I DO like it when he cleans)
22. Where is your mom's favorite place to go? a restaurant

Preston - 3 years old
1. What is something mom always says to you? Don't be naughty! (He does hear this a lot)
2. What makes mom happy? hugs
3. What makes mom sad? If I eat all the things that you got and take them away (I'm not sure if he's remembering something or planning something for later...)
4. How does your mom make you laugh? tickle me
5. What was your mom like as a child? shaking a rattle
6. How old is your mom? big
7. How tall is your mom? 20
8. What is her favorite thing to do? do the computer
9. What does your mom do when you're not around? play with my toys
10. If your mom becomes famous, what will it be for? exercise (yeah, right!)
11. What is your mom really good at? being on the computer
12. What is your mom not very good at? picking up pillows (I'll have to get right on that... no more pillows laying around at our house ;) )
13. What does your mom do for a job? tell people not to get into cups that are breakable (I don't understand that one, either.)
14.What is your mom's favorite food? soup (I do make a lot of soups. More because they're easy than anything else!)
15.What makes you proud of your mom? play with the toys
16. If your mom were a cartoon character, who would she be? a gorilla (Apparently I should shave more often...)
17. What do you and your mom do together? build a puzzle
18. How are you and your mom the same? I'm a boy, and you're a boy - that's how we're the same. (I need to have a little talk with him, I guess.)
19. How are you and your mom different? we have different shirts
20. How do you know your mom loves you? you love me with $50. Can I have $50? (Already hitting me up for money - I thought he would be older before that started.)
21. What does your mom like most about your dad? to play with him
22. Where is your mom's favorite place to go? a restaurant (2nd child in a row to say that; I guess it must be true!)

Mmmm... Chili!

I tried out a new chili recipe a couple of days ago and it was mmm... mmm good! I'd had a different recipe for this style of chili, but it was only okay, not great. This one was so good that I think I may just stop on the way home tonight and get a couple of ingredients so I can make it again. It's supposed to be cold and snowy again tomorrow, so perfect chili weather!

I'll make it at least another time before Halloween so I can perfect it before the ward chili cookoff at the Trunk or Treat... maybe this will be my year! Sadly, at the last two cook-offs I came away with not so much as an honorable mention. Aaron pointed out that this could be due to my tendancy to never make a "normal" chili. My previous entries were a taco chili and a white chicken chili, neither of which is a traditional chili that you find around here. Well, the chili this year is not a traditional one either! The problem I have with most chilis is that they tend to just be a competition to see whose is the hottest. I'm not a fan of having my mouth burned with the spiciness, so I don't go for the hottest chili. I like some heat, but not scorching heat.

So, I'll keep working on my non-traditional chili for the cook-off this year. If that doesn't work, I may have to break down and do something a little less unusual next year. But probably not. :)

Piglet Flu

I learned that the nasty cold + stomach bug that my family had last week is going around. Since it's related to Swine Flu, but milder, they're calling it the Piglet Flu. Tee-hee, made me laugh.

I also had a revelation about why it's called Swine/Piglet Flu... because after your family has gone through a bout with this flu, your house looks like a pig pen! Hopefully now that everyone has recovered I can whip things back into shape this weekend. But I'm not making any promises...

The curiosity is killing me...

A couple of weeks ago I went to bed and Aaron stayed up. A while later, he comes in to wake me out of a dead sleep to ask if the bank account could take it if he spent a bit over $100. I was still mostly out of it and trying to remember in that state how healthy our bank account was and what upcoming bills were still to be paid. I finally managed to figure out that yes, we had that much but I was still trying to process why he needed it. He told me he was buying a birthday present.

Since we've been economizing a lot lately, I had figured on more like $40-50 for any birthday gifts. When I reminded him of that (it was very articulate... I think it came out something like: "We... You... Should you spend... You don't need to spend that much?") He told me that he REALLY wanted to get this. Still mostly asleep, I just mumbled okay and went back to sleep.

Since then, though, I've been very curious. What is it? Why did it cost that much? Most of all, why was he shopping in advance? That's not at all like Aaron. Much more like Aaron is to shop via Amazon with the 1-day or 2-day shipping just in time to arrive before birthday or Christmas. Hmmm... I'm looking forward to finding out.

Getting Back to Normal

I feel like I've been so far out of my routine for the last month. The first week or so in September I ended up spending at my parents' house. When I got back, I had a good couple of weeks where I couldn't ride the bus, take care of my kids, clean the house, etc. because my back was hurting so badly. Last week I spent attending/helping with/teaching an education session (50 nurses from across the country), so I wasn't in the office all week. And again, driving to work every day because my starting and ending times were very erratic and not bus-friendly, plus by the end of the week I needed the flexibility of heading home at a random time in case the kids were sick enough that Aaron needed another hand.

So this morning, I finally feel like I'm back to normal. Everyone is healthy again. My back is still giving me some troubles, but very manageable right now. My schedule for the next month should be just going to the office as usual (aside from any overtime I need to work, because I am way behind for my deadline hitting in 2 weeks!).

Getting ready to catch the bus this morning felt so strange. I haven't ridden the bus in over a month. It was kind of nice to see all the regulars again. Not that I know anybody's names, but we all know each other by sight. Several of them commented on my long absence from the bus and welcomed me back. It was nice to see Bus Driver Dave, the 2 Old Men Who Ride Bikes, the Indian Girls, the Front-Row Ladies, the Grumpy Woman (who is very nice in the afternoon, so she just must not be a morning person), and Judy (Judy Meyer is in my ward, and she's the only person I actually know by name. :) ) and the others.

So, for this month, back to normal. November looks like it's starting off with a week in Philadelphia followed by a week-long conference for work - so all bets are off for next month!

No, It's Not a Bomb Threat

There were an unusually large number of guns in downtown Denver today. At least, I assume that it was unusual to have that many. I guess there might be that many on any given day and I just don't know about it...

But today, I did know about it. When we walked to the hot dog cart across the street for lunch, we ended up watching some sort of sensitive delivery to a nearby building. I don't know what was in the truck - money? weapons grade plutonium? - but apparently delivery required them to block off a downtown street to back the truck into the building with the whole process guarded by several men with machine guns. I haven't seen men toting around machine guns since my days working for the Marine Corps. There's a much different feel to men with machine guns on a city street rather than on a military base!

Back at the hotel (where I've been involved with an education session all week) there were several men in uniform who seemed to be armed. That seemed a little unusual to me. But I knew the Milwaukee Brewers baseball team was staying there, I figured they were extra security for the team. And apparently the men in uniform who were armed were security for the team. All the other men in uniform - who were probably not armed, but who knows, really - were there for a conference on law enforcement.

All the uniforms were very much in evidence at lunchtime, and we had more than a few nurses come up and ask us if there was a problem at the hotel. Was it a bomb threat? Had someone been hurt? What's the story? The actual story of a baseball team and a law enforcement conference was much less exciting than the theories they were coming up with. :)

Speaking of the Brewers (and wandering completely away from my original topic, by the way), they are some very large men. I never pictured pro baseball players as being much different from the guys playing baseball for the local rec-center league. You know, appearance-wise. You know that pro basketball players are going to be a lot bigger and taller than some guys playing pick-up ball on the playground court, but I didn't realize the same thing applied to baseball. But as I was leaving the hotel today, the Brewers were just returning from their afternoon game against the Rockies. I had to weave my way through quite a large crowd of them to get to the escalator. (The security guys waved me on through. Apparently I didn't look like a threat or potential stalker.) Walking through the crowd of baseball players was a new experience for me... as it would be for most people I think. That's when I realized that they were all quite tall. Definitely head and shoulders above me.

So, nothing profound to say about that, I guess. Just that they were tall. (And seemed a little sad. The Rockies won the game.)

I'm grateful...

• For a husband who hears the ominous sound of a child puking even faster than I do.
• That he can go from dead asleep to a dead run to move that child from bed to bathroom.
• That he is willing to clean up the child while I strip and change the bed and throw everything in the washing machine. I'd be just as grateful if it was the other way around - I'm just glad there is someone to help with it all!
• That my other two children can sleep through all the lights and noise that accompany all this activity with barely a twitch.
• That we have cable so we can find Sesame Street at 3 in the morning for a cranky child.
  
• That this happened heading into a day when Aaron is off work, so neither of us has to call in sick.