Farm Days

Throwback Thursday

Hair Accessories were awesome.  Yeah.  I rocked some fun hair accessories back then.  Of course only when my hair was long enough. I had the boy cut.  My mom chopped off ALL of my hair like a boy because I would cry when she brushed it.  I don't remember crying when she brushed it, but I CERTAINLY remember crying when she cut it off.  It was traumatizing and horrible.  I was made fun of terribly.  It was soooo short.  So, her solution was to give me a home perm.  Do you remember those.  Perms at HOME, by your mother?  Ugh.  The smell.  I remember leaning over my sink with my head down, while so took out those pink and blue (smallest rollers made) perm rollers, and dropped them into the sink below.  And the HORROR, when I finally was done and looked in the mirror to see what my 1/2 inch long hair looked like in a tight roll perm.  My sister always had this beautiful long blonde hair. It always was done with something "fancy". She had these barretts with ribbons, exactly like the ones pictures.  Alternating ribbon colors and if they were *really* fancy, we had beads at the end of the ribbons.  Ribbons streamed from the end of the barretts, and were about as long as your hair.  My mom made them. I thought they were the coolest things.


Later came the banana clips.  I loved those.  I always tried to wear them in my hair (when I had enough), but it never worked out the way it was supposed to.  My hair was too heavy.  So the banana clip would either pop open, or eventually sag to the bottom of my head, and scratch the back of my neck. I don't know what possessed me to want to wear one anyways.  You look like a horse with this bunch of hair streaming down your head.  Awful.

I was the era of big, hair sprayed, stiff bangs.  Teased hair.  Sun-in. Perms. Rat tails. Whew.  Thank goodness it's over!

Big stuff....

So my little one made progress today. She rolled from her tummy to her back for the first time. It's pretty exciting considering they said they would not remove her helmet until she accomplished this goal! So yeahhh!

Also, I have a confession. I am the slacker parent who dreads teaching their child to ride their bike without training wheels. Almost as much as I dread teaching them to tie their shoes. Is that awful to admit? It's like I have this fear. Those are BIG ACCOMPLISHMENTS! Those are thing BIG KIDS do. It scares me how quick my children are growing up. So, Elaina still has training wheels on her bike. And she's totally cool with it. I mean we have a lot of falls just on our own two legs, so any extra help..... the weather was gorgeous today. 78* in January!! We were playing outside and Elaina is riding her bike around, and all of a sudden one of her training wheels falls off. (FYI- her DAD put them on) She took a small tumble, and cried a little. I walked over, picked up the wheel and tried to show her she could ride with one training wheel and try to balance a little. She rode some on her one wheel, with the biggest grin. A big girl grin. I am taking in those moments of seeing them conquer new things.

As I scooted them up to bed tonight, and yelled up for them to brush their teeth, and I would tuck them in in a minute, Elaina yells back down, "mom, in case you see I have different underwear, it 'cause I got them from nurse Nancy (school nurse). I didn't know if I had to fart or poop, and it ended up that a poop came out. So she gave me new panties. I forgot my poop underwear there, so maybe you can ask for them back from her tomorrow.". Trying not to laugh uncontrollably, I said "I'm not sure she will save them. I think I'll just let her throw those away."

Man, being a mom is hard work. But, boy do they make me smile!

Love you little milk face

I love the way your lip is curled. You have milk all over your chin, and you are sleeping so content in my arms. Please don't let me ever forget this feeling.

When Did I lose my "cool"?

So, this week was kind of a reality check for me.  Last Friday the kids came home and in Julia's folder was the date for when they are showing the "video" at school.  You know, the health "education" video?  (I don't want to type it, for fear of who it would draw to the blog from searches) Anyways, I have not previewed it.  I mentioned I might want to go on the day they show it, and she was not okay with that.  It was in that instant that I felt I had lost my "cool" factor.  She told me it would be awkward.  I excused myself up to my room and sulked a little.  Racking my brain wondering why she thought it was awkward.  I mean, granted, I would be MORTIFIED if my mother did that.  But I was COOL, right?  She knew I was hurt too, and went to bed that night sulking.  I asked her why she was sad, and she said she was sorry, I could come if I wanted to.  I declined politely, (though I didn't want to) but told her that regardless of the awkward-ness of it all, her and I were going to have a talk about it, and that there were some things that I needed her to know about it, that the video may not include.  That there are things that God says about it, that school does not.  Ugh.  This is soo happening too soon.  When did she become so young lady?  I am soo.... OLD.

The next day Connor was playing his iTouch.  He is currently playing a game where you hatch dragon eggs, and build a village, harvest plants, etc.  He showed it to me, and asked me to play it, so I could "friend" him on the game.  So, I did, and frequently throughout the day he would check on my progress, to see how I was doing.  Now, normally when Connor talks video game to me, it sounds like this: "Hey, mom!  Wah wah wah wah wah Pokemon, wah wah wah wah wah Pikachu, wah wah wah wah."  I don't understand a WORD of what he is talking about.  I hear the character names, and understand NOTHING.  So, here I am playing a game, I understand and my son is totaly excited about it.  So, what do I do?  I BUY the jewels and food, to get myself further than him. So, that he will THINK I am REALLY COOL.  Did it work, yes.  For a second.  Until he figured out I did it.  Then He wanted me to buy him some.  But, I know he is still so excited to have me playing with him.  And I loves he keeping checking on me.  Maybe I'll stay cool to him for just a little bit longer. 

Where I came from

This is where I grew up.  The small yellow farmhouse in Minnesota.  The house looks the same.  This picture was taken August of 2011.  The grass maybe a little greener.... That tree was a baby tree when I was younger, with a small corner flower bed around it.  It seemed so big when I was little.  My memories of it are so vivid.  At least so I thought. My bedroom was on the second floor on the left.  I shared it with my sister.  The playroom was in the middle on the second floor.  It was more like a common area in between the bedroom, where we hung out and played.  My brothers room was on the back right, second floor.  My parents was on the back right first floor.  Kitchen on the left first floor, and the family room was in the middle and living room on the right.  It had a basement too.  Completely unfinished cement basement. Used for storing things, canned goods etc. We had 7 acres in a very small town.  Well, it was not in town.... it was down the highway from town.  My dad worked in a bakery for a while, and then he worked at a drainage supply company of some sort.  Can't remember the name.  My mom stayed home for a while, taking care of us and the farm.  She drove our school bus once we started going to school and then when we were all in school full day (after kinder) she bought the country store in town.  It was a great childhood.

Hello? Are you there?

So, most years I don't set a resolution for the New Year. Mostly because I don't Wang to disappoint myself. But this year I set several. One of which is this. My blog. I was so faithful about blogging, and then like most everyone, Facebook came along. I updated my life in one sentence instead of the usual blurb accompanied by pictures. I printed my past blog entries in the amazing hardcover book, and put it on the shelf with the rest of my photo albums. (all of which have become digitized as well.) Anyways, I have found over this past year that my kids REALLY enjoy reading my blog book. They will sit on the couch and laugh and reminisce for quite sometime. AND, I love seeing them do that! So, one of my resolutions, is to update my blog! How? Well, each picture I take is dated, so I plan on trying to go backwards one year.... because my computer crashed about a year ago. At the same time I hope to blog forwards. One of each. This is going to be my year of memories! I am happy I can share some of them with you, but most of all, I am happy I am sharing them with my kids! I love you guys!!

Gadgets

iTouch: the new love in her life

Clean or dirty?

Yep, I'm THAT mom. Clean child on one side, dirty dishes on the other.

Totally irresistible!

She just LOOKS like she is TRYING to get into trouble!!

New years eve

We were given some AWESOME tickets to the Spurs game.  They played Utah Jazz and won.  We were on the floor only 10 rows back.  We saw lots of people we knew there.  We even got to go back to the "family room" where all of the players kids hang out.  Elaina wanted to stay in there and play with her friend Jessie, and Connor wanted to stay in there and eat.  He said the food looked GOOOD!

Jessica Kozak and I toasting!

I love this guy with all my heart.

Wow!  I still can't believe there are SIX of us!

Karla and I

Julia with her friends, left to right - Kristin, Lindsey, Hallie, and Julia

We toasted as a family after we got home to the new year, and new adventures!