1.The evening after school got out my family attended a retirement party for my mother in law at her home. Clara, being her usual self, had to work the crowd, and was happily entertaining newcomers by the fronts door when I happened to overhear this conversation.
Clara: Hi! I'm Clara! I want to give you my autograph
Woman: Oh, that would be nice.
Clara: Does anybody have a paper and a pen? I need a paper and a pen!
Grandma: Can you turn her off?
Me: No.
Clara: I really need a paper and a pen. I really really really really want to give you my autograph.
(Two new visitors produce a post it note and a pen and Clara proceeds with her autograph:
Clara: Now, I want you to keep this forever, okay?
Woman: Okay.
Clara: I mean forever and ever and ever. Never throw it away!
Woman: I'll keep it forever
Clara: I mean, when you are about to die, I want you to be holding it in your hand.
2. I was sitting at home about a week ago in the evening and Clara approached me with a small handful of money and asked me if 3 quarters was enough to buy a ring pop. I sometimes sell candy to my kids. I told her that it was enough (since I sell them for one quarter) but asked where she got the money from. She had been broke that morning. Clara hemmed and hawed for a while but finally admitted that she had gathered fallen snowball flowers from the neighbors tree, loaded up her bike basket, and set off to peddle her wares down the street. She had 4 flower bunches and sold three of them. She informed me that one neighbor "didn't have any money because she doesn't get paid until tomorrow." I asked "Did you give it to her for free?"
Clara responded, with hands on hips, and exasperation in her voice, "No Mommy! They weren't for free, they were for sale!"
3. Clara "Mommy, We Mormons don't believe in pole dancing, right?"
Friday, June 24, 2011
Tuesday, June 21, 2011
How to Win a Baby Costume Contest
I know my title sounds a little bit arrogant. Sorry. Hopefully the post won't be unbearable while I talk about how cute my baby is and how smart I am . . .blah blah blah. Okay, seriously, I like entering baby costume contests. I admit it! There isn't much in life that is cuter than babies in costumes. Why else would Anne Geddes be making such a hauling with her photos?
Anyway, when Reuben was a baby I entered him in the Provo Freedom Festival baby contest in the costume category. He won 2nd or 3rd place and I was hooked. I entered him again the next year and he won a medal again. I can't remember which place which year. It was just so much fun to come up with creative costumes and try to come up with a cheap way to pull off my vision.
Here's a rundown of our participation over the last 12 years:
The 2nd year the theme was something about " When I Grow Up..." My mom sewed Reuben this really cool futuristic spaceman costume with a sparkly blue cape. He was the Ambassador to the Moon. We made up business cards for him to hand to the judges. He arrived in style in a baby walker converted into a spaceship. It was rockin!
Well, we moved to Baltimore but happened to come back and visit at just the right time when Timothy was 8 or 9 months old. The theme was "It's a Small World" Timothy was a really fat kiddo at the time and I decided it would be adorable to make him a little Samoan, adding humor to the costume by his pasty white skin and ultra blond hair. My mom sewed him a blue flowered lava lava and I made him some handmade sandals, an arm band to look like a tatoo, a flower for his ear, and a sequin covered earth ball for him to hold. He sat inside of a sparkly cardboard canoe. He won 2nd or 3rd place. I don't really remember that far back too clearly.
Fast forward a few years. We were back from Baltimore. I had ingored the baby contest for quite some time and was living in Holladay. Amy was just barely 2 and I was pregnant with Clara and decided I was ready for the contest again. This time I wanted to be really creative. The theme was "Sweet Land of Liberty" I decided Amy was going to BE the Liberty Bell. I started with a baby swing, the older kind that is symetrical. Then I made a paper mache Liberty bell that fit over the swing seat and fastened with velcro. There was a hole for her face, which we painted gold. The bell was spray painted gold and looked pretty cool. When Amy sat in the swing with the bell on, we could swing it just like a real bell. We even had the top part covered to look like the top wooden part of the bell. That was the year that we didn't win for the costume. I still think we were jipped. Amy won a special award that year- 3rd place for the happiest baby. I think there was arguing among the judges and they wanted to give her something, but felt that her costume wasn't a real costume because it was cardboard, so they gave her happiest baby as a consolation prize. The reason I think that is that Amy was very antisocial as a baby and wasn't particularly happy for the judges. I can't find any pictures of this, but it was so cool!
After not winning in the costume category with Amy, I swore off of the baby contest. I had entered so many times and never managed a first place win. I just couldn't figure out what they wanted. Then I met my friend April. April can sew. April can sew really well and she lived right upstairs from me and she was willing to make a ridiculously difficult outfit for my next baby Clara. Clara was 11 months old and the theme was "Let Freedom Ring". I dressed her up as an ancestor- Alice Bracken, a pioneer who came to America because of joining the LDS church and traveled to Utah with the pioneers to avoid religious persecution. This dress was amazing, and turned out to be, yes, you guessed it, the key to WINNING to baby contest. She had matching bloomers and a precious pioneer bonnet that my mother sewed. My mom also made a cover for our wagon to make it look like a real pioneer wagon and we packed it with supplies she might have taken with her. She was so stinking cute and she won first place!
After that I decided that the dress was the key. I entered Audrey two years later. I used the same dress. My mom made a different shirt to go under it. The theme had become a more general one and has stayed that way- America- Freedom, Family, and Country. Audrey was Martha Washington. I got her a white curly wig and a hat like Martha would have worn. I made her a little hand fan and a bag with a famous quote of Martha's hand embroidered on the front. We had no vehicle that year. Audrey won 1st place! She got to be in the Freedom Festival parade.
And now, finally, this year. Enter the dress again. Emmeline didn't need the wig and I didn't want to do the exact same thing, so I decided to have her be Betsy Ross. She wore her own hair with hair bows that matched her dress, made from leftover material I had saved. I got some felt and hand sewed a Betsy Ross flag. Then I decorated the wagon so she would have some awesome transportation. Because, really, I knew that this time we were going to make it. I knew she would win a medal and we'd get to be in the parade and I planned ahead. Okay, I didn't really know, but I hoped a whole lot. And SHE WON 1st place! That dress is so awesome!
And now that every one of my children has a medal from the baby contest- I CAN STOP ENTERING. There is a chance that I won't be able to resist. It could happen, but it might not. Anyway, back to the title. The secret to winning the baby contest is as follows:
1. Be obsessed
2. Be friends with April
3. Have a baby with cute hair or cover up a lack of hair
4. Pay attention to little details
5. Know my Mom
6. Don't forget about April and my mom.
The end!
Wednesday, June 15, 2011
How Russia Changed My Life
When I was 14 years old and living in Garland, TX, my dad lost his job and began working in Siberia. He would go there for 6 weeks and come home for 6 weeks. It was a terrible time for our family. So, after doing that for a while, my dad was able to find a contract job in a part of Russia where we could join him- Moscow. I grew up in Texas and lived there for nearly my first 15 years, so when my parents told me we were moving to Russia in 6 weeks, it was not happy news. I never considered my mom's perspective, not until many years later, and I think it was probably many times harder for her than it was for the 4 children she brought along with her to join my father, who went ahead of us. But, at the time, all I could think about was how my life was over. I had planned everything and "they" had ruined everything. They were taking away my chance to go to High School, to be on the debate team, marching band, school plays, girls' camp, and a climate that I considered to be heavenly. I went to the same elementary school from K-6 and the same Junior High for 7th and 8th and had a great group of friends. I had my path charted and it had just drastically changed. At the time, I couldn't see how any blessings would come from it. But, I was wrong, of course. I didn't know yet that trials and challenges always present opportunity for growth, increased faith, and even blessings. I didn't know yet that Russia would change my life in a way that I would never want to go back and change.
How can I really describe to someone who hasn't experience this, what it was that was so profound about moving to a foreign country in the midst of adolescence? I don't know, but I'm going to try. Imagine your life as it is and then something happens that opens up a whole new dimension of awareness, like in The Wizard of Oz when the movie switches from black and white to color. All of the sudden you realize that there is a perspective that you weren't even aware of, and how did you not know it existed before? This is what Russia did for me.
I lived in an American bubble. I took my life for granted because I didn't know any different. I grew up in the middle class. We had challenges and we couldn't afford anything and everything, but my parents gave us a good life. There were times that were harder than others, but there was never a day in my life that I woke up wondering if I would have a place to sleep or healthy food to eat. I never questioned my ability to go to college or where the money came from for piano lessons. I enjoyed the mail system, the stores, the weather, transportation, education, and many other things, but I didn't cherish them.
We were not poor in Russia, but money cannot buy things that aren't for sale. At first, I learned that a different country meant different food. I yearned for American foods like peanut butter and root beer. I daydreamed with fond memories of late nights watching T.G.I.F on T.V. eating Reeses Peanut Butter Cups and Chicken n' a Biscuit crackers. But, all of my favorite snack foods were NO WHERE TO BE FOUND!!!! Three weeks after arriving in Moscow, we celebrated my 15th birthday with a storebought cake that was a nasty concoction of marshmallow and cardboard like cake material. The ice cream we found turned out to be frozen meat filled pasta. It was a low point. We tried to be happy while we took our turns with the 3 sets of utensils and chairs, but I was pretty unhappy. My parents had ruined my birthday and my life. Birthdays meant ice cream and friends and I didn't get either one of them. It took me a while to stop griping and realize the gifts I was getting.
Russia taught me to be grateful for everything. Here are some things I am grateful for directly because of what I learned there:
1. Grocery stores where you can buy your meats, dairy, produce, and all other food at the same place and only have to stand in one line. And a cart is provided for you to use!
2. The U.S. mail system.
3. Toilet paper- the soft fluffy white kind
4. Being in control of my heater and air conditioning
5. having air conditioning
6. Roads that are maintained
7. Drivers who try to follow the rules of the road
8. white mayo, as opposed to green mayo
9. Being able to attend church in my native tongue
10. The church house being around the corner, and not an hour away by smelly public transportation
11. clean air
12. safe neighborhoods
13. religious freedom
14. spacious homes
15. democracy
It's more than all of that though. I just came to realize, eventually, how lucky I am to be an American. I learned that people are different and that it's okay. I learned that I determined my happiness, whether I was at a pool in Texas or throwing snowballs off the 10th floor balcony in Moscow. In the orphanages, holding the malnorished, uncuddled babies, my eyes were opened to true need in the world. I gained a depth of appreciation and a stronger sense of my place in the world. It's strange, but leaving everything I knew and going somewhere totally different and definitely difficult helped me learn that I leave a very small thumbprint on this huge world, but that I matter, and that everyone matters. I learned so many things in Russia. It just changed me. Do I ever want to live there again? Um, no, not really. But, would I ever undo the three years I spent in the former Soviet Union. No. I don't think I'd like the person that I would be.
How can I really describe to someone who hasn't experience this, what it was that was so profound about moving to a foreign country in the midst of adolescence? I don't know, but I'm going to try. Imagine your life as it is and then something happens that opens up a whole new dimension of awareness, like in The Wizard of Oz when the movie switches from black and white to color. All of the sudden you realize that there is a perspective that you weren't even aware of, and how did you not know it existed before? This is what Russia did for me.
I lived in an American bubble. I took my life for granted because I didn't know any different. I grew up in the middle class. We had challenges and we couldn't afford anything and everything, but my parents gave us a good life. There were times that were harder than others, but there was never a day in my life that I woke up wondering if I would have a place to sleep or healthy food to eat. I never questioned my ability to go to college or where the money came from for piano lessons. I enjoyed the mail system, the stores, the weather, transportation, education, and many other things, but I didn't cherish them.
We were not poor in Russia, but money cannot buy things that aren't for sale. At first, I learned that a different country meant different food. I yearned for American foods like peanut butter and root beer. I daydreamed with fond memories of late nights watching T.G.I.F on T.V. eating Reeses Peanut Butter Cups and Chicken n' a Biscuit crackers. But, all of my favorite snack foods were NO WHERE TO BE FOUND!!!! Three weeks after arriving in Moscow, we celebrated my 15th birthday with a storebought cake that was a nasty concoction of marshmallow and cardboard like cake material. The ice cream we found turned out to be frozen meat filled pasta. It was a low point. We tried to be happy while we took our turns with the 3 sets of utensils and chairs, but I was pretty unhappy. My parents had ruined my birthday and my life. Birthdays meant ice cream and friends and I didn't get either one of them. It took me a while to stop griping and realize the gifts I was getting.
Russia taught me to be grateful for everything. Here are some things I am grateful for directly because of what I learned there:
1. Grocery stores where you can buy your meats, dairy, produce, and all other food at the same place and only have to stand in one line. And a cart is provided for you to use!
2. The U.S. mail system.
3. Toilet paper- the soft fluffy white kind
4. Being in control of my heater and air conditioning
5. having air conditioning
6. Roads that are maintained
7. Drivers who try to follow the rules of the road
8. white mayo, as opposed to green mayo
9. Being able to attend church in my native tongue
10. The church house being around the corner, and not an hour away by smelly public transportation
11. clean air
12. safe neighborhoods
13. religious freedom
14. spacious homes
15. democracy
It's more than all of that though. I just came to realize, eventually, how lucky I am to be an American. I learned that people are different and that it's okay. I learned that I determined my happiness, whether I was at a pool in Texas or throwing snowballs off the 10th floor balcony in Moscow. In the orphanages, holding the malnorished, uncuddled babies, my eyes were opened to true need in the world. I gained a depth of appreciation and a stronger sense of my place in the world. It's strange, but leaving everything I knew and going somewhere totally different and definitely difficult helped me learn that I leave a very small thumbprint on this huge world, but that I matter, and that everyone matters. I learned so many things in Russia. It just changed me. Do I ever want to live there again? Um, no, not really. But, would I ever undo the three years I spent in the former Soviet Union. No. I don't think I'd like the person that I would be.
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