First Day of School

The first day of every school year is full of tradition at our house. When the kids were little they got to dress up in their cute little "first day of school" outfits. We would stand outside in the front yard with the cool new backpacks and the perfect plastic lunch pail we had spent 45 minutes in the store picking out. Everyone would happily smile and have their picture taken.

Well...I am here to tell you that times have changed for this Family.

First of all, this was Mo's first year of high school. The look on her face pretty much sums it up...."Why MUST I do this?"
To which I respond, "Get your butt over there and smile!"

Nasty look with eye roll...



"Do you want to be late for your first day of school? " I reply. Followed by,
"No, you don't and this car isn't leaving the driveway until I get my pictures!!!"

One problem is that on the first day of school this last year it was already about 95* out before we even packed lunches. Getting the kids to put on anything more than a tank top or tshirts was pretty much impossible. Alas, they go to school looking like the kids whose mom finds it more important to buy cigarettes and Jack Daniels than to buy her kids school clothes. WHICH IS NOT TRUE!!! The kids had tons of clothes in the house they could have worn to school that day. I think they just want to torture me... Actually, I know they do.

Ahhh....ummm... Where was I going with this story??

Oh Yes! I remember now...




As you can tell, Mo is pretty darn irritated that BEB (Blue Eyed Boy) is acting like a ??? humm??? What shall I refer to it as? I know, a boy! BEB is definitely acting like a boy here. All Mo wants to do is get the stinkin' pictures done so she can get to school and her brother is going to be as uncooperative as he can so that what would have been 5 poses turns into about 25 poses. Why do I do this to myself? Why do I suffer every year for the First Day of School to get pics of the kids?

Well you see, I have a plan, a vision, a dream. For some reason, I guess after around our 3rd birthdays my mom seems to have stopped taking pictures of us. There are a couple I remember seeing; Sis and I dressed up for Halloween as clowns and also one of us opening Christmas presents. But other than that, we seemed to have disappeared. No first day of school pictures, no birthday cakes, no parties at the roller rink, no Christmas presents and no Easter bunny pictures. Where did Sis and I go?

So, my plan is that one day I will be able to present my children with their own photo albums. Lovingly tucked inside will be a First Day of School picture for every single grade, a picture of them on their birthday, and a picture of their birthday cake.

Will they appreciate this? If you asked them today I am sure they wouldn't. But I can promise you they won't be wasting countless hours of their adult lives wondering why their parents never took pictures of them.

Until then.... Say Cheese!!!

Tattoos, Tongue Piercings and Trouble

Tattoos, Tongue Piercings and Trouble
1/21/09

My daughter had her BFF (Best Friend Forever) spend the night this past weekend. I love it when she has her friends over. Mo is pretty much always a pouty teenager towards me, so it richly warms my heart when I get to watch her and BFF laughing over silly stuff. Their most recent game of choice is trying to beat each other up and leave bruises. It’s a love/hate relationship I guess.

Mo doesn’t like to laugh and giggle with her dorky mom much. She absolutely dreads it when I sit on her bed and try to talk “girl stuff” with her. The only girl stuff she wants to talk about with me is when she needs monthly girl products or more Mac makeup. You can imagine how excited I was when I got to lay across the bed with Mo and BFF and look at all the songs that BFF had on her laptop, songs that she was going to put on Mo’s iPod for her. I didn’t hesitate for one minute to get up and dance when I found Madonna’s “Holiday” on the laptop. BFF laughed and Mo promptly turned bright red from embarrassment. (She obviously embarrasses easily…I don’t dance that bad.)

In Mo’s eyes, things went from bad to VERY bad when BFF casually mentioned, “Your mom hasn’t seen THE pictures yet.” To which I replied… “Pictures? You have pictures to show me?” As BFF navigated to the pictures file on her laptop, I watched as Mo’s uncomfortable red tint promptly returned to her face. I think she was terrified that I was now going to dance to Madonna’s “Like a Virgin” or possibly break out in a Michael Jackson moonwalk.

Now, what does this have to do with Tattoos, Tongue Piercings and Trouble you ask?

Well, according to the Kiersey Temperament Sorter test, I am a “Guardian” personality type , I like to follow the rules. I don’t just “like” to follow the rules… I get down-right uncomfortable if someone suggests we stray from the rules just a little itsy bitsy teeny bit.

So my first thought about these pictures was “Oh My Gosh, what were the people in the store thinking?” Secondly, from my job at the local PD I know what great video surveillance they have in Wal-Mart. I couldn’t help but wonder what great entertainment the Loss Prevention Department got from watching this caper unfold. But after looking at all the pictures and having the biggest, rolling on the floor, eyes watering, giggle session I have had in a VERY long time, I realized that it’s not as if my daughter and her BFF took a trip to town and came home with Tattoos and Tongue Piercings or got a free ride home in the back of a cop car. They didn’t damage any products, steal anything, or give anyone a “flat tire” with the shopping cart.

Ultimately, I abandoned my “Guardian” temperament and decided I should embrace the “Artisan” part of me that must be buried way down there somewhere. I should rejoice in all the fun they had making this montage of photos and realize that the girls probably made a lot of people chuckle as they pushed their carts full of items through the store. At least they likely got their minds off the crummy economy and their empty pocket- books for a while.

Hope you find yourself wiping tears of laughter from your eyes as much as I did. At the very least I hope your view of teenage humanity is restored by watching two girls having a good time with nothing more than a digital camera and a trip to the local Wal-mart store.

My Sister...

I feel it necessary to tell about these pictures tonight. Last week I was blessed to graduate from Simpson University. It has been quite an adventure finishing a bachelor's degree. In addition to being together as a family; we were blessed with absolutely beautiful weather. It was record breaking temps in the mid 70's.

We decided to take advantage of the beautiful weather and walk across the Sundial Bridge in Redding, CA. My dad enjoys that type of thing and the kids all got a chance to get some energy out after sitting through the graduation ceremony.

The day was filled with many photo opportunities. We were greatful for that because last summer when my dad was here visiting from MN, we failed to take many, if any, pictures of everyone together.

These are just some of the beautiful pictures we got on the Sundial Bridge. I promptly posted the pics on my Facebook page and "tag" my sister so she will be alerted to their presence. To which I receive her thankful reply saying, "Was that your attempt at HUMOR??? DELETE the photo or else. . . For those of you that don't know. . . NO I am not six months pregnant!!! "

I find this to be very disturbing.

First, my sister has the benefit of being younger than me by 1 year, 11 months and 5 days. That in and of itself, is an advantage in this picture.

Secondly, She has always been smaller than me. An inch or two shorter but about 30 pounds lighter. I remember trying to give her a pair of size 3 jeans I had grown out of and her innocently replying, "I wear a 1 or a 0...those won't fit me."
That sure made her big (pushing a size 9) sister feel pretty darn...ugh... good???

Lastly, I think I value my family quite a bit. I will admit that the family I value is probably the one I have made up in my head. It is the family I dreamed of having instead of the one I got. It is the one I have strived to make for me and my children. So...to me...these darn pictures were pretty important. I want my friends to look at them and say..."Wow, there's Heather and Carrie. They sure grew up and turned out to be beautiful, succesful women."

So,

To my sister and her complaining...go ahead! Complain away! I think you are beautiful and you fit the mold for the family I dreamed up in my head. So, unless you somehow manage to figure out my Facebook password, you'll never be able to squash my dream family.

Oh and Carrie...I don't think you look like you ate a whole watermelon...maybe one of those cute little personal watermelons that are as cute as you are, but definitely not a whole watermelon.