Size does matter

Anyone ever play with a POLLY POCKET? I tried to avoid them, I've seen other Mothers cringe when they mention the dreaded "P" word. It's a doll that is VERY TINY, so of course all of her shoes, purses and accessories are even more tiny. I have a friend who has twin daughters **Hi Samantha!* and they had a HUGE bag of Polly Pockets. We went to visit her once and Faith dumped out the whole bag of miniatures, and I was like, "Oh my god, PLEASE don't stuff a doll up your nose!" I have another friend that has 2 daughters that collect another miniature nightmare called MY LITTLEST PET SHOP *Hi Diana!*, and of course when we went to her house Faith gravitated to their huge stash of itty bitty dolls. You'd think that as small as Faith is she'd want to play with big things, but I guess she figures she'd stick to stuff more her size.

This past birthday Faith got a LITTLEST PET SHOP set from her Aunt Kel, and at first I was thinking I might have to put that box up in the closet for about, oh, let's just say 10 years or so. But I digress, I opened it up and Faith fell in love with all things miniature. Want a cake the size of a pea? She's got one. Would you like to brush your hair with a brush the size of belly button lint? She's got one of those, too.

To add to the miniature horrors I bought Faith a POLLY POCKET limosine ( every girl needs a miniature pink limo you know), and it came with a POLLY POCKET doll, several fashionable plastic dresses, a few pets and shoes...lots and lots of shoes. And can I tell you how small these shoes are? Well, let's just say that I've pulled boogers out of my nose bigger than these shoes. When she brings them to us she just stuffs them in our face, and with our big adults hands we have to maneuver these itty bitty shoes onto these itty bitty feet. It's no easy feat (er, feet?). I keep schooling Faith on the need to keep all of these little pieces in one place, because if any of the pieces are left on the floor they will sucked up in the vacuum ( but alas, a mother must vacuum first for that to happen, and I don't think she's worried about that). Her response: " why would your vacuum want to eat the shoes?" Logical question from such a little girl.

I don't like those little pieces, but for now I'll put up with them because Faith really does love playing with her POLLY POCKET and her LITTLEST PET SHOP. I'll just have to learn to embrace the smallness of the pieces.

I tried taking some pictures of the pink high heal shoes ( they're very stylish, yes?). I thought that I'd set them next to a postage stamp to illustrate how small they are. Faith's response: "OHHH, Stickers!!!'" EEK! no, honey, not stickers. So then I asked her to hold the shoe in her tiny hands, I figured that ought to show how small they are. But I got so distracted by her messy hair and her big brown eyes that I don't think I accurately captured the smallness of the shoe. But either way, I'm still posting the pictures.

Thanksgiving means..

...it's time to make the traditional American Indian Headband. Because as well all learned in school, American Indians wore colored macaroni on their headbands, as well as dyed feathers that are glued onto construction paper.

It's all very authentic.

Temecula Childrens' Museum

We took the kids to the kids' museum in Old Town Temecula. It's really cool! Ethan has been there a few times but this was Faiths' first time. It's a really neat place for kids her age. There is the neat glow-in-the-dark room where you have to work your way through a maze in the dark. I think that was her favorite part. There are little passageways and secret hiding places throughout the museum. It's very hands-on. I like that a lot of the activities are science-based so the kids are learning while playing. Faith really enjoyed being able to bang away on the piano. It's so nice having a great museum like this right in our own backyard.

Ethan's birthday party

We had a small party for Ethan with 3 of his friends from school. We started the party off with some Wii bowling and then we had the kids take part in a building contest using toothpicks and marshmallows. Instead of having a birthday cake we had an ice cream sundae bar, the kids had fun topping their ice cream with gummi bears, oreos, sprinkles and M-n-M's. Finally Ethan opened his presents, and this was what Travis had been waiting for for months. We bought Ethan "Guitar Hero" several months ago and it had been hiding under our bed, and every so often Travis would beg to open it up. So once Ethan opened it Travis got right to work on putting it together. The kids had fun jammin' on the guitar. Overall it was a fun party. I still can't believe my baby is turning 11 next week!

The cutest couple EVER

Maybe I'm a bit biased, but I think Trav and I make a pretty cute couple. After 11 years of married bliss we've still got the hots for each other.

My Christmas list

Dear Santa,

I have been a pretty good girl this year ( as long as you don't count the obscene amount of donuts I've eaten or the fact that I don't do the laundry as much as I should). But other than that I've been way better than any other girls I know.
Therefore, I figure that I should get pretty much everything on my xmas list.

** A wife. I hear they do EVERYTHING around the house. I have heard from a secret source that a wife will pretty much do anything you ask as long as you say, "thanks" and bring her flowers once in awhile. This is something I think I can handle

** A goat. I think this would eleviate the weeds in the yard. And although Travis is the one that does the yardwork I figure that if the goat can take care of the weeds I can have Travis in the house longer so he can load the dishwasher for me.

** A hot air balloon. I will fill this up with all the hot air dispensed in my house via the rearends of my lovely husband and kids. I only ask that if you can't supply me with the hot air balloon that you instead enroll me in the Glade Stick-Up of the Month Club

** A tattoo of my name across my husbands back. I only ask for this because I am hoping that one day he will actually do what he's been telling me he's going to do for years now. And we all know how important it is for a woman to mark her territory. Step off girls, he's mine!

** Menopause. Because that monthly visitor I've been having for 20+ years now has outstayed her welcome. Frankly, I wish she'd get hit by a bus.

Sincerely,
Shawna " ain't misbehavin' " Romine

Dishwasher Hell is cooling down

We finally got the new dishwasher. It works, it doesn't leak. So I should be jumping for joy, right?
Nope.
And of course I only have myself to blame.
When we were at Best Buy looking for our THIRD dishwasher I was in such a pissy mood that I pretty much just picked out a new one without really looking at it.
The new one is small..it holds half of the dishes our other one did. Not only that, but it's too small for the hole in the kitchen where the dishwasher goes, so now there is a 2 inch gap between the kitchen counter and the dishwasher.
For Crissakes, can't I get a break here?

Lesson learned the hard way

Rule # 347 of Life with Kids:

DO NOT LEAVE YOUR BRAND NEW SCHOOL TEXTBOOK ALONE IN THE ROOM WITH FAITH AND A BALLPOINT PEN

** I don't even want to know how much it will cost to replace this book.

Thanks for pointing that out, Faith

Today Faith comes up to me and says, "Mom, how come you never make your bed?"

Thanks for pointing that out, Faith. I love being reminded of my failures. But wait...perhaps I haven't made my bed in awhile because I'm too busy doing stuff like:

Wiping your butt
Cleaning dried up syrup off your face
Collecting cat hair from the couches
Cleaning lipstick off the wall
Scrubbing soap chunks off the shower wall
Feeding you and your brother and your dad
Vacuuming 12 year old carpet that looks dirty no matter how often I clean it
Folding your teeny tiny socks, shirts and shorts
Correcting your brothers' homework
Cooking dinner, and then making a separate dinner for your picky brother
Picking up toys that I just picked up 5 minutes ago
Plucking my eyebrows that haven't been plucked in way too many days, I'm growing the Sherwood forest on my forehead I guess.
Planning meals
Packing school lunches

**So there you have it, just a small list of the real reason I haven't made my bed in 4 days. Faith, please forgive me. I will go make my bed right now just to make you happy.

Fabulous!

A big congrats to our Ethan for scoring some majorly awesome grades on his first ever 5th grade report card. As most of you know Ethan has some troubles with Auditory Processing, so he has difficulty with comprehension of the spoken and written word, but you wouldn't know it because he kicked ass in reading and writing. He got a C+ in reading ( BIG improvement!) and an A in writing! We are so proud. His other grades are: Math (B+), History (B) and Science (B). His teacher said that if he had just turned in one more math assignment he would have gotten an A in math. Ethan needs to work on his organizational skills. His backpack is the Black Hole, the Bermuda Triangle. Nothing is safe in there. So yes, he misplaces one stinkin' math homework sheet and it brought his A down to a B+. But live and learn. Hopefully he'll never make that mistake again.
Way to go, Ethan. You made us so proud! Keep up the good work.

Charger game

Travis and I got invited to see the Charger/Chiefs game yesterday. It was hit & miss with the rain, we got rained on pretty good on the drive to San Diego, but thankfully once the game started it stayed dry. Our friends, the Sauceda's, have season tickets and were kind enough to donate 2 of their 4 tickets to a charity case like us.

Dear Dishwashwer guys from Best Buy,

You said you'd be here today between 8am-12pm and that you would call me an hour before you got here. It's 11:50am and you still haven't called. Please do not hold me hostage in my own home again while I wait for you to come install my THIRD dishwasher. Please don't make me mad, I have a 3 year old little girl here that hasn't pooped in 3 days. I can easily give her an enema and take her down to Best Buy and sit her on top of one of your beautiful plasma TV displays.


Sincerely,
A very flustered woman that doesn't have PMS but can clearly act like she does

Seriously? Yes, seriously.

So the majority of California voters SERIOUSLY still think it's cool to deny rights to people? Seriously.
Sooooo, the proponents of Prop. 8 wanted to RESTORE the meaning of marriage. What exactly is it they're trying to restore?
Oh, I know! Here, let me take a guess. They're trying to RESTORE:

* The divorce rate. God knows it could be higher. Gotta have a goal!!

* Broken homes. Because a divorced hetero couple usually has kids, so let's RESTORE the broken home! Kids will learn to love seeing their Daddy only every other weekend! woohoo!

* They'd like to RESTORE the number of divorce lawyers. Because we all know this country doesn't have enough of 'em.

My feeling is this: Straight folks screwed up marriage. Straight folks have made a mockery of marriage. You got the: 1) "I drank too much in Vegas and got married to my cousin" type of marriage . And then there's the 2) "You got my daughter pregnant so you're marrying her" type of marriage. Finally you have the 3) "I need to become a citizen, I'll give you 400 pesos to marry me" type of marriage.

It's a farce. Straight people have run the meaning behind marriage into the ground. I'm not beating anyone up for getting a divorce or marrying under odd circumstances, I am just wondering why YOU ( supporter of Prop 8) can be imperfect in the world of marriage, yet somehow still find it Okay to tell other people that THEY can't get married? It makes no sense. I wonder how many people that were picketing their "YES ON 8" signs were on their second, third or fourth marriage? Are they really the type of people to be fighting to RESTORE marriage?
I don't know, I just get sad when a group of people seem to think they're worthy enough to tell another group of people what to do in their private life? I think about how 40 years ago a black person couldn't marry a white person. That's just shitty. And right now we're going through the same thing, except it's not the skin color people are afraid of, it's who a person has sex with. It just seems awfully unfair, and completely ignorant. And if some people want to start quoting the Bible thats okay with me, but it's a little unecessary since the Bible has no place in the Constitution of our State or our country, due to this little thing I like to call THE SEPARATION OF CHURCH AND STATE.
Okay, I'll hop off my soapbox for now.

Fur-real? For real.

It was Prom 1989. Remember back that far? The only thing I need to do to bring back memories from 20 years ago is to take a whif of some Aqua Net or listen to Duran Duran.

Anyhow, it's prom night and my Grandma just HAD to take pictures of me. No problem, I thought, it's not like I've got anything better to do....not.

But since I have always been respectful of the gray-haired I went to my grandma's house with my $89 JCPenney dress on and my high heals, the "DYE-ABLES" that I had dyed to match my dress exactly. Holy crap, do they even do that anymore? Geesh, I was really matchy-matchy that night.

So I get to my grandma's house and she's like, "Oh, you'll be cold in that strapless dress, why don't you wear my fur shawl"..."um, yeah grandma, I'm gonna rock that shawl in 1989 with a bunch of 18 year olds. I'm still a virgin but I don't want to look like one." I kept thinking that the shawl ought to get me to the bottom of the popular list right quick.

So I complied, took several pictures wearing a dead animal that smelled like a vacuum cleaner bag. You can tell that I only put it on half-way, that way I can be half-happy and grandma can be half-happy. And by the way, the shawl never made it out of the house. I "accidentally" left it there. Now excuse me while I go sew some shoulder pads into my T-shirts and go light my eyeliner on fire.

The Sneak

Since Faith is little ( and by little I mean short), she has trouble reaching things up high. Of course, she doesn't realize that anything that is out of her reach has been put there for a reason. But does this deter Faith? Oh no siree, it just makes her want it even more. If I put one of the cat's turds up high, she'd ask me, "Whatcha doin' momma?" and I'd say, "Oh, I don't want you to have this turd, so I'm putting it up high so I can keep you safe." Then you can watch her as the wheels spin in her head trying to figure out how to get up there to get the turd.

Anyhow, she figured out before she was 2 years old that if she dragged the kitchen chair to the kitchen counter she can climb up and get to the hidden treasures ( honestly, we really only keep her vitamins and toothpaste up high..hell, even the kitchen knives are down lower than the vitamins and toothpaste..because as we all know you can get impaled by a stale vitamin, and we wouldn't want that to happen now would we?) So if any of us are upstairs and we hear the screeching sound of the chair being dragged across the kitchen tile, we know she's trying to get up onto the counters and into her toothpaste or vitamins. When we hear it we always say, "Faith , you better not do that." and she'll usually just admit defeat and take the chair back to the table. But on this particular day she pulled a fast one on me. I was upstairs and I hear the familar dragging sound of the chair being pulled across the kitchen tile, and before I can open my mouth she yells up to me, "Don't worry Momma, I'm not getting on the counter!"
Oh good grief, this girl is too smart for words!

Guitar Girl

Faith got her groove on with her Barbie guitar, she just LOVES listening to The Polices' "Roxanne" ( or as she says, 'WOXANNE')

I took the easy way out

I have realized that life is much better at Halloween if the kids just paint their pumpkins. Really, who needs the mess of carving? I mean, I love roasted pumpkin seeds as much as the next guy, but I can buy a pack at the gas station for $1 and save myself a lot of heartache.

I am gangster, yo!

It may look silly, but this "homie from the 'hood" costume won Travis $75 in his office costume contest. Way to go, gansta!

Dear Faith,

Dear Faith,

When you pick your nose, can you please refrain from putting your boogers in mommy's hair? Thanks,
Mom

PS. I'd also like for you to clean your room, I almost sprained my ankle on a Little People.

Dishwasher Diaries

*sigh*
You guessed it, the dishwasher is still being a pain in my ass. We STILL have the leaking one. It's taken us a lot of work to get them ( Best Buy...should be renamed Best Butt)to finally bring us our new one. They scheduled an appointment for Nov. 3, but when they called to confirm they said they weren't going to install the new one or uninstall the old one. Hmmm, so what were they planning on doing over here, having coffee and crumpets with me?
So they cancelled the "delivery", and yet again we had to go through a mile of red tape to finally get someone to help us. If all goes well we'll be getting our new dishwasher on Monday, and hopefully I'll finally emerge from Dishwasher Hell.

We did it!

November 4th, Super Tuesday. I hadn't planned on shedding tears that day, I wasn't expecting to sob like a baby, but I did.
It made me soooo extremely happy that the message of discontent was heard loud and clear. The American Voters rose to the occasion in record numbers ( that in itself was cause for celebration) and voted out the Bush Administration and voted in Barack Obama, who will on Jan. 20, 2009 take the podium and be sworn into office as Americas first black president, along with Joe Biden as his right-hand man.
I'm not one to rub salt into the wounds of my Republican friends and family, I'm not that type of person. But this is, however, my Blog so I can write what I want **neener neener neener**
Obama is a politician, I'm not losing sight of that, so I can say with certainty that somewhere during his campaign he may have stretched the truth or committed to do something he won't get done. But that's the game of politics so we all sort of expect that to happen. I don't think he's the Messiah, I don't worship him, I don't drool over him ( although he's a lot easier on the eyes than JDubya), but I DO respect him and I DO have hopes in him. Anyone in his shoes has to be given respect, I mean, how many in the Aryan nation are sitting at home mastering plans to kill him? Probably several. He knows this, yet he did it anyways. I feel he wants to make changes in our country so badly that he put his life in danger to make it happen. Let's be frank here, there are way too many people that still believe that black folks aren't smart enough, aren't literate enough, aren't nice enough to be in leadership positions. Today black folks in the South continue to wake up to burning crosses in their yards. The more things change, the more they stay the same. Yet here is one man, a Senator from Illinois who could have just been happy enough to settle for Senator. But nope, not him. Positive thoughts, a lot of friends, great determination and the support of his family gave him the strength to do what no black man before him could ever do: Run for president.
Through time black boys and girls that wanted to grow up to be president were giggled at, some nicer folks would pat them on the back and say, "no sweetie, you can't be president." But now, parents of these children can now say for sure, " Honey, you can be ANYTHING you want to be" and they can say it with certainty. Less than 50 years ago blacks couldn't even vote, even though they paid income taxes, even POLL TAXES, yet they couldn't vote. And now, look at what we have here. Like the saying goes, "Karma is a bitch".
Again, I don't expect world peace, the end to global warming or the cure to cancer while he's in office. Heck, if Travis can just keep his job during Obama's presidential term I'll be happy. But the thing that excites me the most is that even through all the Republican mud-slinging, the world already seems to be a kinder place. And if the only thing that changes in the next 4 or 8 years is that the people of America can get along better and open their hearts and minds to others, then that would be one of Obama's biggest accomplishments.
And it warms my heart to know that my kids will never grow up thinking that a black president is a novelty. To them, it will be normal. And that makes my heart happy. Now, if Hillary takes over after Obama, then I really will die a happy woman.
I'd like to end this with giving some props to Sen. John McCain. His speech Tuesday night was great. He was dignified and that spoke volumes to me. As for Sarah Palin, well, maybe she can get a job in Hollywood being the stunt double for Tina Fey. ;)