Confession Wednesday: Favorite Christmas Traditions

This is an easy confession for me.  All during my childhood years, my family and I would spent Christmas with my grandparents in Idaho Falls.  Every year, my grandma would put together a great Christmas dinner on Christmas Eve.  Besides my family, my grandma's sisters family came to the party too.  It wasn't a large crowd, but we still filled up the house.

The party always began in the basement.  We had hamloaf (like meatloaf only made with ground ham...it's hard to describe), sour cream potatoes, raspberry jello and little sandwiches.  The little sandwiches were always my favorite.  They weren't anything special, just a sandwich platter my grandpa ordered from a grocery store, but considering the fact that I only ever ate little sandwiches on Christmas Eve made them one of my favorite parts of Christmas.

After dinner, we all made our way  upstairs and had a Christmas program.  We sang songs, read from the Bible and my sister and I usually played a musical number on our violins.

Last, we did a fish pond.  This game is one that my grandpa put together.  He called it Grandma's Fish Pond.  He hung a sheet in front of a door frame and each of us took turns "fishing."  Our "fish" were always random, dollar store type things, but we all enjoyed it, even the adults.

At the end of the party, people went home and the kids went to bed trying so hard to fall asleep, but couldn't knowing Santa Claus was on his way.

As my grandparents aged, they were unable to host Christmas at their house.  So, my parents carried on the traditions at their house.  Things were never quite the same, but fortunately, I'll always have my memories of Christmas in Idaho Falls.

To this day, I insist on having little sandwiches every Christmas Eve.  No party is complete without them.

NEVER

"Never say never!"

-Good advice

I don't know where the saying "never say never" came from, but it really is good advice, especially if you don't want to look stupid for doing something you said you'd never do!

Here are two examples of when I never should've said never.

First, the mini van.  Everyone seems to have vans in Utah.  Wherever you go, there is always a plethora of vans on the road, in a driveway or in a parking lot.  Even my parents had a van.  Vans are everywhere!

When I got married, a little over five years ago, Dustin and I made the decision to never own a van.  We didn't like the look of the van, the stereotype that people that own vans have like a billion children and so forth.

Then, we bought Sammie, our Cocker Spaniel.

Then, we decided to keep Tod, the stray dog that wouldn't leave our porch and whose owners we could not find.

Then, our daughter Belle was born.

Throw in living hours away from both of our families; hence, a lot of time spent in the car just to visit family.

Combine all these things and the car we had just wasn't cutting it in terms of space and comfort.

So, we decided to look for a bigger car, keeping in mind we were NOT going to get a van.

Test drive after test drive after a dozen test drivers later, we finally agreed to check out a van.  As soon as I got into the car I KNEW it was the right vehicle for our family.   Not only did it have room for 7 people, it was so spacious.  All of our luggage would easily fit, the dogs would have plenty of room to lay down, and so much more.

We bought the van and have really been pleased with it ever since.  

Never say never!

Second, DVD players in cars.

You know how when you're not a parent you still seem to think you know what other parents should or should not be doing with their own children?  You see a mom letting her kid run around in a store and think, "My child will never do that!"  You walk around judging parents left and right as if you were the only person in the world that ever thought about discipline techniques.

Before my daughter was born, and whenever I was on the freeway or doing some city driving, I constantly saw cars that had DVDs in them.  In all my ignorance, I swore, when I had children, there would never be a DVD player in the car.  "My kids will be not be addicted to TV," I thought.  "I'll be able to entertain my children so much better than any old DVD player!"

Well, never, lasted less than 2 years.

After listening to Belle scream in the car for hours (i.e., 4 hour trip to WY Thanksgiving 2009 = 4 hours of screaming) and enduring other tantrums whether we were in the car for an hour or just 5 minutes, Dustin and I finally caved and got a portable DVD player.  We have a great setup.  I hold the main player with all the controls (because I have to have easy access to the rewind button when Belle decides she wants to watch the same clip over and over again) while the other screen is on the headrest of Dustin's seat - perfect for Belle to watch all of her fun movies.

(Try listening to that 44 seconds of video 10 times in a row.  Fun stuff!)

So, from now on, I'm going to withhold saying never as often as I can.  I can't say I'll never say never again, but you never know.  :)

Thoughts?

Confession Wednesday: THINGS I DO LIKE

It's time to get back into the swing of things.  Here's my confession for the week, K-Lo!

Dr. Pepper

Listening to music while thinking

Wearing jeans

Writing in journals

harpies

iTunes gift cards

iPod

Christmas trees

Hanging out in my PJs

30 Rock - the best TV show EVER!

Blankets

Dustin's attempts at surprising me

The sound of Belle's voice when she says "Mama!"

Long, but not too long, car rides

Reminiscing with my brothers

Looking through old photo albums

Bejeweled
Texting

Confession Wednesday: STRANGERS

This confession is super, super easy for me.  I've definitely had my fair share of strange encounters with strangers.

It all began one night when I was at a restaurant with my husband.  At this point in time, the two of us were just friends.  Anyway, while we were waiting for our food, this guy came to our table.  He was very tall and thin and smelled like cigarette smoke.  He was dressed in all black, had a huge trench coat on and was wearing a cowboy hat.  He was most definitely not an employee of the restaurant, so I was really curious as to why he was standing by our table.

Immediately following his arrival, he started talking to me.  Not Dustin.  Just me.  In fact, he acted as if I was at the table all by myself.  He began asking if I like to play pool.  I told him no.  He asked if I was interested in taking lessons, etc., etc., etc.

A few minutes went by, and I was doing all I could to contain my laughter.  Dustin found things equally hilarious, so much, in fact, that he stayed completely out of the conversation.  Apparently, he enjoyed watching me suffer as I attempted not to laugh all while listening to this guy tell me how wonderful he was at pool.  

After some more small talk, I couldn't stand it anymore. I told this dude I would consider taking lessons.  My main focus was getting him away from me.  He asked for my number.  Yeah, right.  Instead, I told him I would call him.  I asked for his number.  He said he only had a pager (Hi, 1985).  I wrote his pager number down.  I then asked for his name.  He said everyone just called him "Monkey Boy."

Ah, the suffering started again.  Dustin's face turned red.  We both tried to keep it together.  It was so difficult.

I thanked Monkey Boy and was SO happy when he began walking away.

a WEAKNESS of MINE

I've been pretty "thoughtless" lately. It always bothers me when I get this way, but what do ya do?

Today, I Googled "BloG Topics." I came across this website which had all sorts of ideas. Very helpful indeed, and until I get my own thoughts in order, I'm going to borrow these topics.  Today I'm going to tackle #9: I Wish I Spent Less Money on This.  

Without a doubt, I wish I spent less money on going out to eat.  

It all comes down to laziness.  Pure laziness.  I'm not a terrible cook, and once I start cooking I have a good time.  The problem is getting around to cooking.  It's kind of like going to gym.  I love it when I'm there, but getting there is a different story.

On Monday, a new Panda Express opened near my house.  My husband really likes Chinese food.  I used to love it, but lost all interest in it while I was pregnant.  Weird.  Anyway, he had been looking forward to going to trying it, so we decided to check it out the day it opened.  Holy crap!  The place was packed.  The dining area was swarming with people.  The drive-thru had about 20 cars waiting.  I could not believe my eyes.  I couldn't believe people were willing to wait so long for fast food Chinese.  Seriously, people, it's not that good.

My husband and I weren't about to wait, and decided to eat there at a later time.  An A LOT later time.  We've since heard people waited 45 minutes to get their food. Again, seriously, people, 45 minutes for Chinese food?

The craziness at Panda Express really made me think twice about eating out.  Seeing all those people waiting to eat rice and chicken at high prices helped me realize how unnecessary eating out really is.  It's not healthy for one thing and it can be such a waste of money.  The amount of money I spend at the grocery store for two weeks worth of food is maybe the equivalent of four or five take out meals.  The amount of money I spend on food that will provide breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks is about the same as five meals at a restaurant? When I do the math, it just really blows my mind.

The real question is - why do I spend so much money on going out?  Besides being lazy, the fact of the matter is, I like to.  It's fun to go to restaurants.  I've always like it, and probably always will.  Another reason I enjoy it is because I don't have to worry about what to cook.  My husband can get what he wants.  I can get what I want.  It's simple.

Despite my love for eating out, I have a new determination to eat at home and enjoy the company of my family without the loud music, bad service or worrying about my daughter's high pitched screams (which is something she does when she's happy) bothering those around me.  In the end, it will help the budget and allow us to spend quality time together.  Have you seen those Family Dinner Time commercials?  Yeah, that's gonna be my family from now on.  :)

Wish me luck.  This is going to be difficult for me!

Thoughts?

Confession Wednesday: FINALS

I don't have any dramatic stories about finals. I managed to take all my finals on time and, for the most part, did pretty well on them.

I did, however, have a bit of a scare when it came to my Adolescent Development class. I was taking the class my last semester of school. In lieu of an exam, my professor had us write a 20 or so page paper on any topic relating to adolescence. Usually, I was so on the ball when it came to writing papers. I was always starting them fairly early on and giving myself plenty of time to complete them before the due date. I didn't do this because I was an exceptional student, but rather a worry wart.

For some reason, I put off my adolescent paper to the last minute. And, by last minute I mean I only had a week to complete it. I was so freaked out about it, but I decided I would live in the library until it was done. Everyday, after class, I made my way to the library and spent at least 8 hours there researching and writing my paper.

By the time the paper was due, I wasn't thrilled with it. I felt like I could've done better. But, I couldn't do anything about it, so I turned it in and called it good.

Looking back, I'm glad I procrastinated my paper (and the only reason I can say is because I got an A). Part of the college experience is staying up all night and cramming for exams or freaking about finals, right?

Confession Wednesday: GETTING OLD

My friend Karen does a weekly confession on her blog every Wednesday.  I'm going to participate for the first time today.  Yay!

Today's confession is the first time you felt old.

When I was in school, all my friends and I were the same age, give or take a year or so.  Everyone knew if someone was a sophomore, junior or senior.  It always seemed like a BIG deal.  It also seemed that once I graduated from high school, age suddenly became irrelevant.

The first time I really started to feel old was when I moved to Idaho Falls.  I quickly became friends with people in my neighborhood and church.  I would go out to lunch with my friends, have them over at my house, go over to their house - all the usual friend stuff.  

After awhile, I learned that everyone I was friends with was 4 - 5 years younger than me.  For whatever reason, I just figured everyone I was chillin' with was my same age.  It seemed so weird that I was close to so many people that were my brother's age.  I never hung out with my brother's friends!  Gasp!

I felt so old!

Another time I felt old is when I uttered, for the first time, the words:  "About ten years ago..." and had a perfect recollection of what I was doing with my life at that point in time.  Double gasp!

Thoughts?