Pinky's talent

It occurred to me as I wrote that title that I have never blogged about Pinky.



Eden = Pinky



Several months ago, I was helping Eden out of her car seat and said "Come here, Pumpkin!" to which Eden scrunched up her face and said, "I not Pumpkin. I Eden." Hmmm, I thought. Okay she doesn't like to be called "Pumpkin". I can accommodate that. So later on, while addressing her, I said, "Come here, Eden." and she grinned the biggest grin of her life and exclaimed, "I not Eden- I PINKY!!!!!!!!"

"You're 'Pinky'?" I asked.

She reiterated, "I Pinky!"

Eden loves pink. She wants to wear it every day. It's so "boo-tiful. I wuv it." as she would tell you.

So "Pinky" it is. Sometimes "Stinky Pinky", if the circumstances warrant it. ☺

Now that you know who Pinky is, let me tell you about her very special talent.


Shooting straw wrappers 6 feet away by blowing through the straw.

And now the secret is out: our little family has no class. All efforts of teaching ladylike behavior are utter failures. Yet even I must admit that it's pretty impressive how far that two year old can shoot them.

Love,

Long live the... cook?

While working through her phonic lesson on the letter "Q", Maddie was coloring a picture of a queen.

"Mom, do I know any queens?"

"No, I don't think you do." I answered.

"Are YOU a queen?"

Smiling at that, I replied "Well, I'm the queen of this house!"

Maddie thought that was funny and was quick to correct me: "No, Mom! You're the cook!"

*sigh* When she's right, she's right. ☺

Love,

Curls N Twirls for Girls

Are these not adorable hair flowers? =)

Curls N Twirls for Girls makes these and many other styles of hair bows and super cute skirts. I happen to know the talented lady who makes these... she's been my friend for over 10 yrs. She's one of those friends who you still consider your friend even though you never see each other because of living on different sides of the country. We've kept in touch via facebook. Here's why she's terrific (besides the obvious talents in bow making...):

Picture me, 11 years ago at the tender age of 16 (oops I think I just revealed my age), tall and gawky, resembling Olive Oil in a non-cartoon form (not much has changed in the department), with braces and missionary hose* on.

* Missionary hose: a pair of nylons constructed with a left leg from a pair whose right leg is full of runs and a right leg from a pair whose left left is full of runs. The ratty side of each pair is snipped off and both panty portions are worn, thus resulted in double control top and a single right and single left leg that is (mostly) run-free. Commonly worn by poor college girls attending a college with a dress code requiring nylons.

Baptists and their nylons... I'll never understand.

Back to our story.

I was starting my second job ever, the first outside the comfort of the college premise. I was to become...

dun dun dun

a telemarketer.

Yes, I sold credit card protection plans and mortgage insurance and accidental death insurance over the phone for 4 1/2 yrs. Do you think less of me now? It's a crummy job but it's a job. I was and still am grateful that I had a way to pay my school bill and (later... not at 16) pay for my wedding. Stressful and not what I want to do ever again, but I learned a lot while annoying people during their dinner hour. People skills, boldness, persistence, resilience, and 100 ways to eat a peanut butter and jelly sand which (I personally think popping a few Doritos in one makes a nice variation). Every job will teach a person character, but a job telemarketing teaches you Character with a capital C! ☺Truth be told, the ruder/grosser/more bizarre potential customers were on the phone the better. I loved having a good story to tell at the end of a shift. Not that I encouraged it... no, I'd rather have a sweet person on the other end of the line who was just dying to buy whatever I was selling. But when the person I was calling was less than nice (or uh... appropriate), it really didn't rattle me. What did rattle me: mean supervisors. A few of them made me cry. Of course I was sleep deprived (as were we all), homesick youngin' so maybe it didn't take too much.

But on that day, my first day, I was scared and didn't know what I was doing. As is the case with companies based on sales, the pressure to have big sales numbers was of course high, especially for the supervisors. And usually the supervisors would pass that pressure along to the sales floor. So there I was, wide eyed and unsure of what in the world I was doing. I'd never even had a credit card so the idea of getting others to accept one or "protect" the one they already had was more than a little daunting. And then I was introduced to my supervisor (aka. the master mind behind Curls N Twirls). And she was nice. And she put no pressure on me. She was nice. So I relaxed. Because she was nice.

Niceness goes a long way, don't you think?

And as it turned out, I was pretty good at selling things that I was, in actuality, clueless about. So I made sales. And my supervisor continued to be nice to me. And on the days when I couldn't get a sale to save my life, she was still nice to me. When I was sick, she told me to go home. Sometimes, when young people are given positions of authority, it goes straight to their head, ya know. But this wasn't at all the case with my first supervisor. She was respectful to us lowly underlings. =) As time went on, I had different supervisors. Some of them... well, the lofty achievement of supervisor at the telemarketing firm was more power than they could handle. ;) And eventually, I became a supervisor myself. And any time a scared newbie came over to my desk for training, I remembered my first sup. And I tried to be nice. Niceness goes a very very long way.

So, children, the moral of today's post is:

1. Be nice. People will remember it.

2. Don't be rude to telemarketers. They are so used to it, nothing you say will daunt them (in fact they may be bragging out ruining your day after you end your rant and hang up). The nicer you are, the more likely they will actually put you on the "Do not call" list, instead of assuring you that they will but "accidentally" forget to. (Not saying I ever did these things... but in 4 1/2 yr.s you see things... terrible things. ☺)

3. If you are in the market for cute hair flowers, check out Curls N Twirls For Girls facebook page. You can customize your flowers' color, size, etc.

4. Three month olds do not look at a camera on demand, no matter how much you beg.

Love,

Happy ♥ Day

This is me and my beloved at our church's Sweetheart Banquet. We had a great time, fellowshipped with our friends and played some fun games. Somehow, along the course of the evening, I revealed to everyone that I know how to yodel (really, who doesn't know how to yodel... nothing to it!). I did not however demonstrate, therefore leaving with some shred of dignity in tact.

Dating is funner and funner the longer we're married. Or should I say "more fun"? Whichever is correct, dating your husband is highly recommended. Getting dressed up, wearing something without spit up on the shoulder, going someplace special... all the things you'd do if you weren't an "old married couple" except now that you are "an old married couple" you get to actually enjoy your food instead of being self conscience about the massive pile you managed to scarf. And the best part is that at the end of the night, there is no saying goodbye and going seperate ways. ♥

Happy ♥ Day to you!

Love,

That crafty craft store

This afternoon I needed one thing from the craft store. ONE thing. Well, I did plan on checking for a Valentine's card for my beloved, so one, possibly two items.

I bought 11 items.

The craft stores are crafty that way. Not crafty like Martha Stewart... but crafty like the serpent in the garden! ☺

Crafty: Skilled in or marked by underhandedness, deviousness, or deception

If you have a Hobby Lobby near you, you can understand how easily this happens.

But to be fair, I have been saving boo-cu bucks with my couponing-gone-wild. Last week, it was Wednesday (I get my weekly money from my honey on Monday), I had done all my grocery shopping and I still had all the money Seth had given me for the week. ☺☺☺My fellow coupon-ers know that last week, Rite Aid was insane. I literally MADE $40 shopping at Rite Aid last week. Yes... they paid me.

I've considered elaborating on my blog about the wonders of couponing and how I plan to pay for my children's braces, college educations and weddings via Rite Aid, but I know that other sites, such as The Krazy Coupon Lady do a fantastic job explaining the ins and outs of it all. Maybe one of these days I'll add my 2 cents but anyway, back to my justification of the craft store extravagance.

I needed some Spring in my home. NEEDED it.

Apparently, we here in the tundra of upstate NY are experiencing a record breaking snowy cold winter. As I've said before, I don't pay much attention to the weather. All I know is that Baby, it's cold outside (and sometimes inside). As February inches along, the longing for warmth and flowers and grass and flip flops grows stronger and stronger with each windy, ice laden day. So to encourage Spring's arrival, I put a sign on my door.

You may think it's a welcome sign to welcome guests. But it's really a sign welcoming Spring itself. You see, the bird is the internationally symbol for Spring... so this literally reads "Spring - Welcome". Or maybe I just thought the bird was kinda cute and the sign was 50% off.

And to bring some Spring-ish cheeriness indoors, this cute lil' sign in the living room.

This is the one and only place where I do seasonal decorations. And I basically just decided on that when I forgot to take this removable hook down after Christmas. I've never done the whole change your decor every season thing. Because.. I didn't want to spend the money. I didn't want to have to organize it all. Dust it all. And I. do. not do. tchotchke.

Tchotchke: an inexpensive souvenir, trinket or ornament.

In other words, I have no knick knacks. I sort of despise them.

If you have them, I don't despise yours.

But if it's in my house, I do.

However, hanging a seasonal little do dad on the wall... that sounds nice. ☺

I also got some cute little things to make cute little cupcakes for the kids at school for Valentines Day. I of course, I got two cute little aprons for my cute little girls to wear while we make said cupcakes.

And the other things I bought I won't tell you about 'cus they're some one's birthday present. And even though she probably doesn't read my blog (not many 4 yr. old's do) one can't be too careful about these things.

So the moral of today's post is to be very careful the next time you venture into a craft store. Don't get a cart... that's just asking for trouble. Maybe you should go with a friend to help you be strong. Unless your friend is someone like me.

Love,

Beauty AND brains

Shall I warn you know that I am about to be an obnoxious mother bragging on her kid for doing what every other child in the world eventually does as well? ;)

Maddie is doing FANTASTIC in her phonic lessons. She is... (are you ready???) .... READING!!!!!

Is there anything more exciting to learn!!!?!!!

I suppose you could say we're homeschooling... when people see me with my tall-for-her-age four year old out and about during school hours (which we actually do less and less of these days), they wonder why she isn't in school. I didn't really think anything of it, since she just turned 4 in October, but I guess (around here anyway) most kiddos her age are in K4. So when asked, I started saying that I was teaching her pre-school at home.

"Oh." with raised eyebrows.

"Well, I do have an elementary teaching degree". I say... even though I don't really know why I feel compelled to "legitimize" teaching her at home. But it does make the eye brows of the inquirer go down. I think I might stop saying that though... because leaving a trail of eye brow raised strangers in my wake is kind of entertaining.

I think homeschooling is great. When moms (and Dads too) solely take on the huge responsibility of educating their children and do a great job at it, I pretty much think they are super heroes. Really. SUPER HEROES.

It sort of scares me though, to be perfectly honest. For a while, I almost couldn't wrap my mind around homeschooling, especially once you have children of different ages/grades. Probably because there are a lot of different methods and routines and approaches to it. I think I was imagining myself trying to utilize every single good idea I ever heard of into one all-encompassing mega thorough homeschooling experience. And it was exhausting just to contemplate.

So maybe you're wondering why I even think about homeschooling... isn't my handsome hubby the principal of a small Christian academy? (That's what you were thinking isn't it?) First of all, I know it's hard but I would thank you not to dwell on my husband's handsomeness. Unless you're (as like half of my readers are) related to him, it's a bit inappropriate. ☺

Secondly, yes. Let me explain our little school: it's like homeschooling, at the church. We have about 10 students who primarily work independently. They use Alpha-Omega curriculum (mostly) and the staff (other than my husband and his father) are parent volunteers.

Little ones obviously need constant one on one teaching so Kindergarten is done at home. And with the absence of my mother in law at the school, first grade will probably need to be done at home as well.

So I'm a sorta kinda homeschool-er. ☺

And this isn't officially kindergarten anyway. She just seemed ready to learn to read so... we started.

Both Maddie and Eden LOVE "school time". We read one verse from Proverbs, and we pray. I really enjoy hearing children pray, especially my own. Then we review the letters and their sounds, the vowels, maybe sing the alphabet song (or a totally unrelated song if the girls ask) and then we introduce another letter. We practice it's sound, practice writing it, talk about words that begin with it, trying reading a few words, color a few pictures and then we end with the most anticipated animal picture. Maddie holds the photo and tells me what she observes about the animal just by it's picture. Then I read to her a small paragraph about the animal. She just loves this part.

She is actually reading words on her own. Already. They are 2 or 3 letter words but she's reading them. On her own. Already.

(See... that was the obnoxious part I warned you about...).

I attempted uploading a video of her reading... hopefully it works. ☺ She sailed through the first half of the sentence and then got a little tripped over the last word. Not too shabby, though!



Love,

Assume the (sleep) position

Maddie



Eden

Leila

Makes me laugh! ♥

Love,