Sunday Funnies

Wow, I went a whole week without updating my blog (with the exception of Grosgrain's fabulous giveaways)! I'm slacking. I've had so much on my mind lately and so much to do, that I've been too distracted and busy to update my blog. For instance, last night was my work's holiday party. So, our friend watch the kiddos for the evening while Scott and I got to dress up and mingle with my fellow coworkers. A perk of working for the big guys: sitting at their table where the drink tickets are obsolete and we could have whatever we wanted and how much we wanted. I was going to drink but deciding against it because a night and day of pumping just didn't sound like fun. But Scott got to enjoy a few Tequila Sunrises, while I sipped on Sprite.

I've also been busy with my Craigslist postings. I've been trying to sell a bunch of Tristan's outgrown clothes, now Melayna's outgrown newborn clothes, and other odds and ends that we don't need or use. Scott let me go through our video game collection and drastically downsize it. So, I've got over forty games I'm trying to sell.

Oh, and my sewing machine is working! I have a few handmade gifts that I've been wanting to try. I'm not sure if I'll be any good, but it is worth a try. Hopefully, tomorrow, I'll have a chance to go to the fabric store and pick out some cute fabrics. I want to make some baby soft-sole shoes (2 pairs, one for a friend who is due in January and one for Melayna), a crayon-keeper (it stores your crayons and rolls up for easy transport and storage), and a drawstring backpack.

Alright, so I go back to work in two and a half weeks. I'm very saddened by this. I don't want to leave home and leave my babies. But I have to make the most of it. So, what has made me laughed so hard this week that it made my cheeks hurt?


My son, of course! We can get him to scream with joy and laugh just by opening our eyes wider and pursing our lips. It is hilarious to get him going with this. Well, tonight, as I was putting him to bed, I got him going with the funny looks on my face. Then, all of a sudden, he said, "Mommy, look at me!" He was doing the same thing! I was full of laughter when he would give me the "look". It was so funny! So, I asked him if he wouldn't mind me taking his picture and he happily agreed to it. I'm not to stoked about the self portrait with Tristan just below. My hair is a mess and I'm all gums from such a large smile. But, I don't have many pictures of me and Tristan together. And this one, he and I, both, were having tons of fun! Enjoy the silliness of the young and the young at heart!

My cheeks were hurting from laughing so much! Oh, no! Not the "look"!He's got to have that elephant nearby. The boy is obsessed with elephants.

Sunday Funnies

Nothing that I can recall happened this week that was overly funny, so instead I leave you with a Thanksgiving story that my dad emailed to me.

***

A man in Phoenix calls his son in New York two days before Thanksgiving and says,

"I hate to ruin your day, but I have to tell you that your mother and I are divorcing; forty-five years of misery is enough."

"Pop, what are you talking about?" the son screams.

"We can't stand the sight of each other any longer," the father says,
"We're sick of each other, and I'm sick of talking about this, so you call your sister in Chicago and tell her."

Frantic, the son calls his sister, who explodes on the phone.
"Like heck they're getting divorced," she shouts, "I'll take care of this!"

She calls Phoenix immediately, and screams at her father, "You are NOT getting divorced. Don't do a single thing until I get there. I'm calling my brother back, and we'll both be there tomorrow. Until then, don't do a thing, DO YOU HEAR ME?" and hangs up.

The old man hangs up his phone and turns to his wife,

"Okay," he says, "they're coming for Thanksgiving and paying their own way. Hee hee hee!"

Sunday Funnies

One thing you get used to becoming a parent is the amount of gross and disgusting things you can tolerate. Boogies, poopy diapers, and a child's constant curiosity can make most people gag and cringe. But as a parent, you sort of become immune to it.

Earlier this week, Scott had a very bad day of stomach sickness. I knew what would follow. Me and the children, sick to our stomachs, puking and fevers, doctor's visits for the kiddos, or at least I was sure of it. I felt sick the following day, but nothing serious. Tristan, perfectly fine. Melayna, on the other hand, was fussy and irritable. She felt warm and clammy. She perspired a lot, too. So, before we decided to take her in to the doctor's I checked her temperature. Now, call me old fashion, but I don't trust those ear thermometers, the fever strips, or under the arm. The best method of taking a baby's temperature is through the rear end. I've had friends look at me funny for doing it that way, but I want to be sure I'm getting an accurate reading.

So, I'm on the floor, checking her temperature, when all of a sudden she just farts and sprays me with poop. It was all over, even on my face. All I could really be thankful for...my mouth wasn't open at the time. Scott was there to witness this horrific act. A brief pause was followed by our laughter. As disgusting as it was, I found it quite hilarious.


Now, did you think I learned my lesson? Oh, no. She wasn't running a temperature then, but a few hours later, I thought I'd check her since she was still warm and clammy. Let's just say, I got pooped on twice in one day.


Well, if that doesn't make you smile (or laugh), this might. This isn't to take a stab at bloggers, because I'd be taking a stab at myself. I found this website, www.despair.com, with all sorts of demotivational posters, despair-wear, and DIY posters. You should also view their videos, I found them pretty entertaining. Anyway, I saw this poster and laughed at it. I have to say that for some this is so true (maybe even for me - my audience is quite small).

Sunday Funnies

Alright, so I missed a few weeks. :( I simply forgot about the installment until Scott reminded me just the other day. Oh well, it isn't the end of the world.

As a parent, I often wonder if we're doing things right. Sometimes, Tristan can be so unruly. Most times I can pinpoint why he acts up, such as no nap, he's hungry, etc. When I can't pinpoint a reason, I just figure that it is the age. After all, he is two (he'll be three next month). When he is naughty and acting up, Scott and I use a few means to discipline him (timeout, apologizing, redirection, etc), but we have never spanked or hit him. We both agreed that physical violence as a means for discipline just wasn't our style. Scott had a bad experience as a child and, well, I'm not a violent person by any means - so, I don't even think I am capable of raising my hand at our children (or anyone, for that matter). But as Tristan gets more defiant, I wonder if spanking isn't all that bad. After all other parents do it, right?

Well, yesterday something quite amusing (and somewhat not amusing) happened. It makes me feel more confident as a parent, too. Let me explain...

Scott needed a new headset for his computer. Scott goes to Walmart. Scott takes Tristan with him so I can work on dinner without him under foot.

While Scott was in the electronics section browsing headsets, Tristan was sitting in the cart. A parent nearby happened to be disciplining his child, who happened to be close to Tristan's age. He spanked his child (with quite some force). My son gets his mean eyebrow face and defiantly speaks up.

Tristan: no hitting, it not nice!

Parent (to Scott): You need to get your kid under control

Scott: Well, my son seems to think you need to get yourself under control.

Parent: I don't need to listen to this.

The parent proceeded to walk away, Scott, with a smirk on his face, proceeds to browse through the headsets. Meanwhile, the nearby photo center employees (who witnessed the whole ordeal), told Scott, "Wow, you have a well behaved kid!" within earshot of the offending parent.

The situation is both humorous and serious. We don't condone spanking with our children. We emphasize to our son that hitting is wrong. He obviously has learned something from us. Which is good. Very good. I think it is humorous, because our son had no qualms telling off an adult that he was doing something wrong. Our son, in the midst of witnessing something that has never happened to him before, something that can be somewhat scary (seeing an angry adult spank/hit a kid), still had the guts to tell him that it's not nice and give him the mean eyebrows (his mean eyebrows are adorable). What is impressive is that this is the same child that I had to drag, yes drag, kicking and screaming through the mall the other day.



Now, imagine these mean eyebrows* telling you "no hitting, it not nice".
*picture taken April 2007. Only good picture we have of Tristan with "mean eyebrows". Apparently, most of our pictures show a happy, smiling child. Go figure.

Sunday Funnies

My grandmother pictured with Tristan, April 16th, 2006

Yesterday, I received news that my grandmother passed away. We were already expecting this to happen (she's been in hospice care since early last week). I miss her already and I hope that she is in a better place (if there is one). I think that because we were already expecting this, I didn't cry near as much as I thought I would. Perhaps I have already accepted her death before it ever even happened. My dad even took the news better than expected. While I'm sure he is very sad about her passing away, he's been hoping she would go soon (she really wasn't looking good at all the last few weeks). He's been amazingly strong with all that has been going on with her and I really admire him for it. Worse part is that he is all alone with everything because his brothers have been and are still being unruly, uncivilized, and selfish. It saddens me that they can only think of themselves when their mother was on her deathbed.

My grandmother lived to be 74 years old. She loved to cook and crochet. One of her last projects was accessorizing a small dolly for Melayna. She made a bassinet, several clothes, a blanket, a pillow, and a carrying case for all of the accessories and doll. It is absolutely adorable. I can't wait until "Melly" (what my grandmother started to call her) can play with this wonderful handmade gift. My grandmother taught me how to make her wonderful chicken and dumpling soup - in fact I plan on making it within the next week or so in memory of her.

When I was about eight years old, my brother and I stayed with her for the summer. She took us to all the sites in Colorado Springs - Cave of the Winds, Cliff Dwellings, and more. We went camping and I learned how to fish (and how to clean it up - yuck!). She had lots of stories to tell me about my dad and my uncles. She was an awesome grandmother.

I regret not visiting her more. I regret not learning more of her recipes. I regret not learning how to crochet (actually, she taught me the basic chain but I gave up shortly thereafter).

Despite having many regrets, I know that she is at peace now. She no longer is in any pain or suffering. She is no longer under the stress that my uncles had put her in. This makes me feel more at peace to know that she is in much better, able hands.

*********

Alright, so why "Sunday Funnies"? I am not a morbid person thinking that this situation is funny. Definitely not! Inspiration came to me in the form of a little receipt and Scott's suggestion. Let me explain...

Today, we went to my dad's house where I made dinner for all of us (including my brother). Beforehand, we stopped at King Soopers to pick up all the necessities for dinner and dessert. As of late, I've been really into reading blogs. It mostly has to do with being stuck in one place (my desk chair), nursing the baby, with nothing else to do (we don't have cable or satellite, so tv is not an option). So, I read. I've been inspired by many of you bloggers out there to be a bit "greener". I'm not perfect - I use paper towels, I have cleaners that aren't "green", I use plastic bags, and so on. But, I figured if I try one little thing now, another later, and another after that, well, then I'm making progress. I first started with girlie's diapers. Because I plan to go back to work and I have no idea how the cloth diapering thing works, I opted for an "inbetween" option. At nights, we still stick to Pampers (mostly because we have a huge supply from prebaby), but daytimes we use gDiapers. It is a hybrid, of sorts. Cloth outer shell, plastic lining (removable), and a flushable, biodegrable liner. It actually works really, really well.



I'm digressing. Okay, so that was baby step one to the "greener" me. Baby step two: reusable shopping bags! I found this excellent tutorial at The Toby Show on how to make your own shopping bags out of t-shirts. But, since I haven't broken out the sewing machine yet to see if it still works, I put this project aside. The other day we were in King Soopers when I saw they sold reusable shopping bags for $1 each! That did it! So, now we have five of them.

Alright, so we were shopping at King Soopers today. Whenever you bring in your own bags, they give you $0.05 off your order per bag. After shopping, we were on our way to my dad's. I looked at the receipt to see our savings - I'm getting better about using coupons since King Soopers doubles up to $1.00. At the top of my receipt I saw this:


At first, I saw BYOB and was like "What the heck is this?" I saw the $0.10 discount (we only needed to use 2 bags) and realized what it was. Bring your own Bags! I couldn't help but laugh out loud. Scott asked me what was so funny, so I pointed it out to him. He told me that I should put it on my blog. He said that I should put funny stuff I find on my blog - just to make things interesting. I told him that doing that everyday would be too much for me. I then told him that I've seen things like "Wordless Wednesday", "Menu plan Monday", and "Photo Friday". That's when he said that I should do "Sunday Funnies". Like the comics that are synonymous with Sunday's (besides church, that is), my Sunday Funnies will be just that. Something that I can post for others to have a chuckle at. It may it doesn't necessarily have to be "laugh out loud" funny, but something that just makes you smile.

In times of sorrow, we have to take in the good with the bad. We must find solace in knowing that life will go on and there is a life out there worth living. We must take away with us the good experiences we had and know that our lives are much better knowing that certain people were a part of it. It was in this little humorous moment that I realize life can have its funny moments. Moments where you just have to smile and think "that's funny". So, it is with this post, I will attempt to post something funny (I promise to keep it clean) every Sunday. :P