I Don't Know What to Title This Post

Jonathan is drowning in life right now.  He's got a ton of schoolwork that takes a ton of time, and he's finding calculus challenging (thank goodness).  On top of his beastly homework, he is in the pit for the school musical and has rehearsals every afternoon.  Tonight is the dress rehearsal; it started at 5 p.m. and is supposed to wrap up at 10 p.m.  Then he's got calculus homework and a chemistry test to prep for.  He took homework with him to stare at when he's not playing, but I don't know how successful he'll be at being able to concentrate.  The show runs Thursday, Friday, Saturday (with 2 shows), and Monday.  Then, life returns to "normal" and he has a short week of school!  Jonathan's been going to be bed late (like 1 a.m.) and has to be up early (like 5:30 a.m.) for his before school classes.  Poor guy.  His Thanksgiving Break will be sub-relaxing as well as he will have homework and a science fair project to work on, a room to clean, and college applications to finish up. 

Nolan was supposed to have a percussion lesson today, but his teacher forgot and wasn't "there" when we showed up.  Oh well, more time for him to read.  Nolan is reading a challenging book, Les Miserables. And since he chose to read the abridged version, he's enjoying it.  Why Les Mis?  The Oak Canyon Band he's in is playing a medley of Les Mis songs as part of their upcoming winter concert.  Did I mention that Nolan would love to own a marimba?  Those things as expensive!  He's going to have to wait awhile and come up with some funds to help with the purchase of one of those "toys". 

Miles hasn't been excited to go to school this week.  He's refused to put on a jacket or his backpack because without those things, he knows he can't go to school.  He hasn't wanted to go outside and wait for the bus (not that I'm complaining about that; it's been so cold in the mornings!).  He's wanted to be carried to the bus when it arrives.  Once he's on the bus, he seems fine, and comes home from school happy and excited to show me what's in his backpack.  Today he excitedly pulled out a painted pink pig with silver glitter sprinkled all over it.  He was so proud.  I was groaning as I watched the shower of glitter fall onto the entryway floor.  Miles is on a Dr. Seuss kick.  Every night he just want's Dr. Seuss/P.D. Eastman books read to him- The Cat in the Hat, Put Me in the Zoo, The King, the Mice, and the Cheese, etc.  At least he's letting us read to him.

I ended up in Hobby Lobby today.  That store in an anxiety inducer for me.  It has too much stuff and I get easily overwhelmed in there.  I went in looking for something to repair shakos, but left with other stuff.  Last month when I was in Hobby Lobby, I saw they had out their Christmas "stuff".  They had clear glass Christmas balls.  Hundreds and hundreds of them.  Maybe thousands.  Lots.  I couldn't stand the thought of buying the glass balls in October, so I made a mental note to pick some up at some point closer to Christmas.  I decided to look for them today.  There weren't any of them with the Christmas stuff.  I couldn't believe that it appeared they were gone.  It's still November, and still before Thanksgiving.  Crazy crafters must have stormed in and bought dozens and gazillions of them right after I was there in October.  While wandering the store trying to find what I was there for, I found 8 boxes of the glass balls on a endcap and maybe another 20 boxes of them on the aisle with jars and glassware.  And that was all they had left.  I bought what I wanted, but not what I went to buy in the first place.  After Hobby Lobby, I checked Joann's for what I needed.  They didn't have it.  Then I went over to Michael's hoping they would have it, but no luck.  I did see something unbelievable though.  Black Friday is still 9 days away.  Look what is already happening outside of Best Buy...

Who needs a TV or XBOX so bad that they are willing to waste more than a week urban camping to get some electronic thing?  Crazy people.  And that is why I'm not a Black Friday fan.  It's turned into such a greedy, selfish, rude, bring-out-the-worst-in-people event.  It disgusts me.  And I hate that so many stores start their sales on Thanksgiving Evening.  Give the poor employees the day off.  So, no, I don't plan on braving the Black Friday sales; besides my Christmas shopping is almost done...

Reality Check Challenge

Yesterday I had a good long talk with a child who is struggling with pessimism.  It's the theme of his life right now and he's not feeling happy or optimistic about many things.  Well, quite frankly, neither am I.  My last post featured 3 people/situations that annoyed me, and I could easily continue that post and list many others.  Instead, in the name of science and experimentation, I issued I challenge to my son. Each night for a week, we both will list one thing that went less than ideal (the negative), 3 things that went well (seeking out the positive), and anything we can think of that someone did that was kind to me/him (looking for good in others).  At the end of this week, we'll sit down and talk about our lists and what we discovered and if we feel any better about ourselves or the people in the world and in our lives.  Should be an interesting experiment.  Often it's easier to complain and blame the world when we really need to just step back and take a good look at the reality of what is going on around us. 

Yesterday's list
The Bad-

• "Knowing" I was expected to do something I was never asked to do, but it was assumed that I would do it while I intentionally took extreme measures to avoid the situation.

Things that went well-

• Miles quietly sat on the stand the whole time and participated in the Primary program.
• I had a few minutes where I could read a book.
• Miles seems to be understanding the repercussions of his kicking people in the shins habit.

Kindness of others-

• Elaine thanked me for helping with her Primary class
• I got 3 hugs from the sweet special needs child in Elaine's class
• The boys took care of most of their dishes and cooking messes.

Reflecting on Rudeness

Okay, so I'm on one...

It seems that may people are already in Black Friday mentality.  Rudeness is rampant.  Maybe I'm noticing it because I've been going out of my way to try to be pleasant to 99% of the population and especially to those who have jobs that directly benefit me and that I would hate to have.  Maybe it's because I've been horrifically rude and seeing rudeness in others is like looking in a mirror.  Maybe it's a bit of both.  Maybe I'm just ornery. 

Today I went grocery shopping, which is something I avoid doing on a Saturday.  I took Miles because he adores the grocery store.  I wasn't in a Tour de Grocery Store mood so the trip was a bit arduous.  It was crowded; I had a lot of stuff to buy.  Miles had lots of things he wanted to see (celery, mushrooms, avocados, big cans of Spam, little cans of Spam, "man cookies", toys, the inflatable snowman, etc).  I accommodated his requests as we came to each aisle that appealed to him.  I even bought him "man cookies."  We went to checkout.  I had a cart loaded with stuff and, although my checkout was very organized, I had the eye-rollers in line behind me.  Seriously, the lady behind me was buying about 20 12-packs of Pepsi and 97 other items, but had a problem with me buying 25 cans of broth, 10 bottles of laundry detergents, and a whole lot of other stuff. I wasn't in the express lane, and she had her choice of several other checkout lanes, but she chose to be in line behind me.  Whatever.  I did a good job ignoring her. I was polite to my checker; I thanked the bagger, and headed out to my car.  I unloaded my groceries, walked the cart back to the corral, carried Miles to the car, buckled him in his carseat, got in the driver's seat, started my car, then noticed that the car next to me was being loaded up and their cart was very, very close to my car.  I carefully started backing out and the 5 adults loading the car next to me just stood there and watched and refused to move the cart.  Then I noticed that the car opposite me was being loaded as well and that person had the car sticking the long way out into the lot.  That person, too, chose to watch me instead of moving her cart.  I couldn't crank the wheel and make a tight turn to get out or I would hit cart of the car next to me; I couldn't back out quite a way and make a gradual turn or I'd hit the cart behind me.  No one was willing to be polite and reposition his/her/their cart, so I pulled back into my space and decided to wait until they were finished.  Luckily, the owner of the car facing me appeared.  He backed out quickly and I could pull through his space to get out.  Yes, I know, this sounds picky, but it's just the latest in the "it's all about me" prevalence that I've been observing lately.

All election season I've been witnessing disrespect and rudeness on Facebook towards anyone with differing political view.  A friend of a friend of a friend of a friend posted something about how disappointed she was in certain election outcomes.  A few comments to her post had been left before her mom jumped on board and joined in the bemoaning before disagreeing with a post on the thread.  A small spat between some poster and the mother ensued.  The Facebook page owner intervened and directly and rudely addressed her mother, and condescendingly put her mother "in place", where ever she decided that was.  I'm sure the Facebook page owner thought she was being clever, cute, and coy (because that's how all her posts are), but to the general and uneducated-in-her-behavior population, the comment made from daughter to mother was harsh and probably caused the mother to feel humiliated. 

Tonight I was trying to figure out how to splice various excerpts from a Concerto together to make a nice and concise 5 minute reduction.  I had some questions for the performer who I will be accompanying, and evidently, the performer didn't have the patience to deal with my stupid questions.  Instead of listening and aiding my with my questions, I was tuned out while the performer decided to watch a trailer of an old Transformer movie on YouTube.  I called the performer out on the rude behavior and I rewarded with the response of, "You think I'm being rude?"  Yes.  Yes, I did.  Yes, I do.

Now, I am far from a model of politeness.  One of my biggest cringes is an odd relationship I have with a person.  It seems to be centered around rudeness, both to each other and in general conversation.  How I wish I could go back to the moment we met, when I said, "Hi, I'm Laura" and redefine the terms of the relationship.  Currently, I deal with this dysfunctional relationship by having minimal contact, but the damage has been done.

So, there.  Rudeness is everywhere.  I can't do anything about other people's bad behavior; but I can choose to be better.  I can greet people with genuineness.  I can be polite- "please" and "thank you" truly are miracle words.  I can keep snippy comments to myself and replace them with kind thoughts.  I can forgive.  I can exercise patience.  I can empathize.  I can be better.

The "Firsts" of the Season

Fall transitioned into Winter overnight.  Yesterday it was 70+ degrees and today we got 5" of heavy, wet snow.  First "real" snowfall of the "winter".  There was enough snow that my "Get it shoveled" OCD kicked in, and out I went to deal with the heavy soup.  I hate an unshoveled driveway, sidewalk, and walkway on my property.  I also knew that we'd have an awesome ice rink on the driveway if I let it sit there.  By the way, no one else has to shovel, just my property must be done. I'm sure glad I got the 6 black garbage bags filled with leaves yesterday or else the shoveling mess would have been even worse.  Miles happily ate and ate and ate snow today.  Nolan told Miles to never eat yellow snow and was promptly kicked in the shin for offering unsolicited advice.

I made the first pot of soup of the season today.  The sudden onset of cold meant soup was needed.  Baked Potato Soup!  Nolan came home from school and smelled potatoes.  He initially thought I was making Oven Fries, but was stoked to find out I'd made "that soup."  He and I ate soup for a snack and soup for dinner.  We both think it's pretty much the best.  Black Bean soup soon though.

For the first time in my history, I broke one of my cardinal rules and put up the "First Christmas Tree of the Season" before Thanksgiving. I bought a new tree on clearance last February or March and needed to see if I liked it so that if I hated it, there was time to do something about it.  The new tree is a 9 ft. slim tree with berries and pinecones.  I hoped I'd like it; it had great reviews.  It turns out that I love it.  It's the right amount of fullness for where I'd envisioned it going.  My only complaint is that it isn't an auto-fluff/shape tree.  Oh well. So it goes in the living room and the other 9 footer has been permanently assigned to the dining room, and the 7.5 footer will go in the family room and replace that ugly old 7 footer that I sent to DI months ago. 

Another Song by Miles

This little one, who charmed me by having such an awesome sleeping position this morning,

has been singing again.  Currently, he is obsessed with the "People of Walmart" video on YouTube and he spontaneously breaks out singing it.  I think it's so funny!

Tall or Small?

Miles had his 4-year old check-up on Tuesday.  It's always fun to see how the boys compare size-wise.  Bearing in mind that Miles wears a size 3T and his jeans still fall off his bum, I was expecting him to be my smallest boy at age 4.  Well, here's what I found out.  Miles is 40" tall and weighs 36 pounds, fully dressed but without shoes.  Nolan was my chunkiest toddler, so I was expecting him to win in the weight category.  Nolan, at age 4, was 40" tall (same as Miles) and weighed 35 pounds.  Miles weighs one pound more than Nolan did.  Now, when Jonathan was about 4, Aly called him "spider" because he was tall and thin.  I was expecting him to be much taller than Miles, but weigh about the same.  At age 4, Jonathan was 40.25" tall (so only a quarter of an inch taller) and weighed 34.5 pounds.  Miles wins the weight war while Jonathan squeaked by with a win in height. 

Miles was pronounced "great", but the doctor still wants him to get an apigmented striation on his side biopsied (I didn't get it done last year).  He got a flu shot which was quite traumatic for him.  "All done needle!" with lots of tears and kicking.

Fun with Nolan and Miles

I spent last weekend in St. George with Nolan and Miles.  Jonathan was there as well, but he was busy with the marching band.  All three years that Jonathan has been in marching band, we've gone down to St. George to support the band. This year was no different.  We left Thursday evening (and the band left at 4:07 a.m. Friday morning).  Miles was awesome on the way down... give him an iPod and he's content for hours.  We stopped at Wendy's in Beaver and I was starving and ordered a hamburger.  Yes, me, a burger.  It was gross, but I wasn't hungry anymore, just bloated and nauseated.  Nolan ate 3 burgers... 2 Junior Bacon Cheeseburgers and Miles' cheeseburger.  We got to St. George, checked in at the condo and went to sleep.  Okay, Miles and I went to sleep while Nolan did whatever he did.

Friday we got up and went to the Red Rocks Marching Band Competition.  The THS band had some issues.  It wasn't their strongest performance, but they managed to place Second overall (and the color guard took first).  We hydrated the band, then took off to go have fun.  Miles, Nolan, and I went to Snow Canyon. The boys had so much fun there that we decided to go back.  Jenny's Canyon is a fun place to climb.

The sand dunes were Miles' favorite.

After Snow Canyon, we went to Costco for dinner and to buy stuff for the band kids' lunch on Saturday. We spent the rest of the evening swimming.  Miles likes to get into the big pool, kick across the pool, climb out, splash in the kid pool, then jump into the hot tub.  I was content to watch him from the hot tub.

Saturday, I got up early and made 40 sack lunches.  We drove to the school where the BOA competition was held.  THS drew unlucky #1.  We hydrated the band, watched them perform (and they placed... first time ever... 3rd in their division!), took pictures, handed out the lunches, then took off for the petroglyph site at Little Black Mountain, just over the border in Arizona.  Miles liked it because he was "hiking".  He also liked climbing on rocks and playing "marching band" where he acts out the role of drum major.  Nolan liked contorting himself inside rocks.  Miles thought that was fun too.

We drove back to St. George and went to In-N-Out for lunner.  For the second time in 48 hours (and also in 6+years), I ate another hamburger.  Greasy.  Not particularly appetizing, but better than Wendy's.  Nolan ate a Double-Double. Miles was in French Fry Heaven.  Also, Miles was in "bouncy bouncy heaven."  He loves those air inflated cylinder "humans" that bob up and down.  There was one doing its thing right by In-N-Out.  Miles was mesmerized.  Nervous if closer than 20 feet, but still mesmerized.

Then we went to this cool park that we drove past the day before.  Miles played and played.  He loved the spinning cups.  I didn't even like watching him.

Finally we went back to the condo and swam again.  Nolan and I spent the rest of the night watching HGTV and incorrectly guessing which properties the clients on the shows would choose.

Sunday we got up at leisure, packed up and headed home.  We didn't stop at all and were home 3.75 hours later.  Fun weekend with my boys.