Marissa stories

The other night, Marissa had another accident in her pull-up... she has long mastered the "#1" part of potty training but is holding out - so to speak - on #2.  So, I told her to march upstairs and clean up and get a new pull-up.  I also told her she wasn't to say a word so that mommy could have a moment to cool off.

She stopped me at the end of the hall and said, "Mommy, I just really need to tell you something.  Something important and something you need to hear."

 I said, "Okay, but just one thing."

She said, "I'm just... well, I'm just a really big jerk".


(for the record, I told her she wasn't and turned away so I could laugh.)


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Marissa uses air quotes.  No lie.  For example, the other night, she told me that Daddy was taking his "cup" (with air quotes) into the "living room".

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Marissa & I went to the store and she wanted to walk along side the cart.  I agreed as long as she stayed where I could see her.  Of course, it was just minutes before I couldn't see her.  Sensing that she was behind me, I said "Marissa, are you back there?"  She replied, "I'm on your tail."

Christmas Decorations

I LOVE Christmas decorations... the lights, the red and green, the shiny ornaments, the memories.  We've accumulated quite a few boxes of Christmas decorations.  Each year, Scott dutifully goes to the attic... and sometimes he has help.

He gets the boxes out... 

And then it's time to decorate.  This year, I put in my FAVORITE Christmas movie of all time, White Christmas, and proceeded to put the tree together.  Then, my little helpers joined in with the ornaments.  Grandma Kenworthy gets them an ornament each year, so they had a good time getting each year's ornament out and I had a good time remembering when they received each one.

I had purchased a couple of items on clearance last year... items I had really liked, but couldn't bring myself to pay full price for.  Sure enough, I held out until the clearance prices came out and got both of these lovely items for less than $15 in all!

the oh-so-beautiful poinsettia wreath

glass advent calendar

If I had to pick my favorite decorations, it would be the mantle.  Oh, I love it.  I love remembering the days of two stockings.... then three... then four.  I love the simple lights and just how warm it makes the living room look.  

I have decorations scattered around a couple of other places too... 

Paper plate snowmen from a couple of Christmases ago

I just love it.  There's so much hope tied up in everything about this holiday... hoping for presents... stockings hung in anticipation of goodies from Santa... but most importantly, the hope that came to Earth in the form of a little baby boy named Jesus.

Marissa cracks me up for the 7,352nd time...

Marissa just asked me to watch her baby for her while she "runs errands"... she left me with the baby and the baby's "favorite novel" (seriously).  I asked what the novel was called and she said, "Breathless Eternity of the Day".   I have no idea where she gets this stuff... well, I may have some idea (right Grandma Kenworthy?)

She has also been heard having telephone conversations with bosses ("You can't fire me!  I quit!"); with her friends ("If I don't do the shopping, my husband is going to kill me!"); and with the doctor ("the baby's toes are turning green and I want to know if that's bad").

And I seriously hope this is funny someday, but she has been SO upset with all of us because we all are supporting Romney in the election and she is the only one for "Aracka Bama".  I even listened to the radio a bit this afternoon and when she heard talk of the election, she got very upset and demanded to know why no one else would vote for "Aracka Bama" and why we were being so mean. For the record, when we asked her why she was supporting Obama, she said "because he's the president".

So much for my blogging resolution

So much for my blogging resolution.  I was determined to add more pictures and to write funny anecdotes.  Oh well...

The next few posts will be out of order, I suppose.  But this will be "stream of consciousness" blogging instead of timeline.

On Halloween, we trick-or-treated with our dear friends, the Parks family, in their neighborhood.  It was very cold - everyone had extra layers on and we probably cut things a little shorter since we couldn't feel our fingers!  Luke was Captain America and Marissa was Sleeping Beauty.  It was a fun evening!

And then, I told them to pose like their characters... apparently, this is the "street" version of Sleeping Beauty...

Here is one of the "Princesses"...

And here are the super heroes (with Snow White)...

The last time...

The last time I posted, I had a three year old son.  Now I have a three year old daughter.

IT'S BEEN TOO LONG.

This was supposed to be my vehicle for remembering all the cute and funny things my kids did.  It was going to be my way of remember what we did, who we saw, what was said.  

I failed.  

But here's to fresh beginnings.  

And for my brother who has the first few lines of my last post memorized because it was there so long ... enjoy the new posts!

Miscellaneous...

I wish I was a great writer like a couple of my friends... every blog post they write seems so eloquent and so well thought out.

Alas, I'm a numbers gal.

So, I'm just adding a post with my random notes about what my kids have been doing lately to crack me up...

LUKE:

• The other night, we were talking about getting a pizza for dinner. I said, "Pizza Hut or Papa John's?" and he replied by saying "papa's in the house". I think he's seen a few of the commercials.
• There's a pesky fly in our house right now. It was on my chair tonight and he said we should try to kill it with the "shoo-fly bugger".
• At the grocery store the other night, Luke's eyes got big and he excitedly asked for some cookies that he saw... I asked what kind... he said, "the chocolate on top and chocolate on bottom with vanilla in the middle cookies". Thankfully, Nabisco figured out a shorter name - Oreos. I told Luke what they were really called, and each time he asked for one after that, he asked for "Wareos."
• When he was younger, he used to call the movie theater the "R" movies. (Not because of the movies we took him too, but because our theater is called "Rave" and has a giant "R" on the side of the building. ) He doesn't call it the "R" movies anymore, but says we should go to the "Movie ahveater".
  

MARISSA:

• Everyone's name is eye-yah. At first, we heard it mostly when she was talking to Luke and we thought it was her way to say "brother". But now, we notice that anyone is "eye-yah" except for Mommy, Daddy, Grandma & Papa.
  
• Her word for blanket is "ah-bet". No matter who you are or how often you're around her, you'll hear this word for sure.
• I may have mentioned this before - but just in case - Marissa won't say the word please. She says the p sound instead... this started because her babysitter was trying to get her to switch from signing please to saying it and was emphasizing the p sound.
• This girl knows no strangers. The other night, I took the kids down to Scott's work to meet him for dinner. She waved at everyone she met and gave a hearty "Bye" as we left... she even blew kisses at one of the workers!
• She still prefers sucking on her bottom lip to a pacifier. That girl has not used a pacifier for a day in her life!

Of course, there are a thousand other things I should be writing down, but that's all I can think of for now... since this blog takes the place of a baby book (I know - it's terrible!), I want to be sure and put as much as I can on here!

Changing Cups

It's silly when you think about it... a trip to the bank usually involves us driving by 15 other banks on the way there. In fact, when we go the "back way" to our bank, there's an intersection where there is literally a bank on each corner.

Luke knew we were going to the bank, and as we sat at that corner, he asked "Mommy, is that the bank where you will change cups?"

Change cups? I admit I was slow on the uptake, but he quickly explained how you pull up to the cup and put your money in and then push the button to change cups.

I love the way he sees the world.

Yard Work

More of my husband's handiwork... We had a pretty steep area by the side of the house that would not grow grass. Scott decided to build a 2 level flower bed... The top level has shrubs and the bottom layer has flowers. It's a nice little touch to the backyard. And we don't have to look at the bare dirt anymore!


I am certainly not the gardeners that my mom & my aunts are... unfortunately, that gene did not get passed on! But I do manage to get my lillies to come back each year. These lillies were first started at my duplex (2 houses ago). When I moved to my first house, I took 3 bulbs and planted them at the side of the garage. They multiplied enough that I split them a couple of times and moved them to various spots. When we moved to this house, of course I had to bring a few. I think I brought 3 (maybe 4) to this house. This is our 3rd summer here and you can see how they've multiplied! I LOVE these flowers - they're so pretty!

Career Day

In 10+ years of life in the accounting world, one thing I've decided is that my kids will grow up to do something they love. I don't LOVE accounting. I'm good at it, but I certainly don't love it. I want my kids to grow up to do what they LOVE.

I thought these conversations were way off in the future... but lo and behold, the other night, Luke announced that he knew what he wanted to be when he grew up.

Me: What's that Luke? What do you want to be when you grow up?

Luke: A chicken clown.

Me: [nothing at first! What would you have said?] Really? What does a chicken clown do?

Luke: [in a very matter-of-fact tone] They juggle chickens on plates.

Me: Oh, I see. Where did you see this? On one of your cartoons? On a movie?

Luke: No, Mommy. It's just what I want to do.


Let's just hope there are more career conversations to come...