Matt has been busy at work, reading books his company publishes and then telling me about what is wrong with….exfoliates, lotion, makeup, beef, chicken, white bread, sugar and just about everything else I enjoy. I am hoping he gets into grad school soon so I can at least keep a few of the things I enjoy. No I kid, he just tells me how horrible they are, but I still put on makeup and eat hamburgers. Actually, we eat turkey burgers. He has also been putting together and fixing several computers. He enjoys this a lot and we may have a lot of computers in the house, but he is happy. We get a lot of calls for tech support from family and friends. This is only complicated for people who don’t live within driving distance of us. Otherwise it is fun. He has also been applying to grad schools all along the west. This is very time consuming and we are still in the midst of it. We will let you know how it goes.
I worked at Hickory Farms for the Christmas Season. Now that my beef stick misery is over, I can get down with some serious complaining. I was starting to get really annoyed with people. My job is to entice people to buy overly priced items and how do I do this? Samples. I figured if you took a sample I have to give you my sales pitch as payment, even if I had to give it to your back. (Get something for free, I don’t think so). I learned that everything has a price somewhere a long the line. Anywho, I offer a sample to people and an appropriate response if you don’t want one is, “No, thanks.” Nothing else. Anything else sounds very trite. For instance, saying, “No, I just ate.” Makes you seem very silly because I am offering very small samples. Not whole meals. I also get, “I can get it at Wal-Mart (Smith’s, Target, etc.) for cheaper.” This is a very bad idea because it is the quickly establishes you won’t be buying from me, so why should I waste my time? My mother told one lady to get a sample from Wal-Mart then. It just makes us mad. My personal favorite is the little elderly men and women who just walk by, pretending their hearing aid doesn’t work and they can’t hear you. If they hadn’t kept their eyes glued on the opposite wall (a trick I use myself from time to time, like when I pass the Living Scriptures people. My answer does not change. How many times do I have to tell them I do NOT want a free video? Sheesh.) I figure that there has to be some benefits to growing older and if they don’t want me to bug, more power to them.
I am also planning my husband’s family’s reunion. I have made menus, collected data (sometimes forcefully), planned the activities, made countless spreadsheets of information, given assignments, and picked a day that everyone agreed to. I have been working on the thing for a year and as we get closer, the more people find that the date doesn’t agree with them. People seem to be dropping out left and right. We really would love to see all of Matt’s family, but I have come to a conclusion. It would take a miracle to get all of them together. Let’s see if we get one. Now I have to make alternate plans for each family that doesn’t come and can’t fulfill their assignments. This means many more spreadsheets. At least my part will be done. This maybe a good thing in case I need to do the work for the people who can’t come. One good thing is that I have been preparing a class on toddler and preschool ideas for the reunion. (We are to have several classes, not just this one. It is actually a neat idea.) I have been collecting here and there for about a year and it is starting to come together. As a practice round, I am going to (hopefully) teach a class for Homemaking/Enrichment Night. I am really excited. I have been helping a friend with ideas for her girls. I am pleased to say they are working and she loves the ideas. This is exciting to me because I love teaching. Teaching about teaching is also very exciting to me.
To get to the important news I would need to talk of Elijah. My baby boy is entering the Terrible Two’s with a vengeance. He is still a good little boy. He is learning to mind his mommy about 70% of the time and (in an unrelated percentage) only destroys things about 20% of the time. He has learned hitting and spitting (oh joy). He throws tantrums. He has a really interesting way of doing it. He starts stomping and jumping until he is in the next room. Which is fine by me. I have enough experience to know to ignore a tantrum and it is much easier if he is in the next room. He lets me kiss him a lot afterward though. He is starting to pick up. He suddenly really likes doing laundry. If he takes off his clothes, even his socks, he will put them in his laundry basket. Of course he will move the spot the laundry basket goes several times in a day. That just makes life exciting. On washday, he will help me load the washer and unload the drier. I think it is because it involves water. He can make any activity messy. My little boy. He also really enjoys brushing his teeth suddenly. He has to go through the same routine I do. Floss, Brush, Listerine and Brush. (Actually I just hand him the Listerine cup, I don’t think children should have alcohol.) He will do this several times a day, that and washing his hands. Heaven help you if you skimp on his sink time. He tantrums all the way to the kitchen.
Elijah has started a strange phenomenon. He has suddenly become clingy. He has never done this before. I am blaming it on my three months of sporadic work schedule. But seriously, I suddenly have a monkey-boy attachment. If I leave the room he cries, if I leave the house, you need earplugs to get away from the screams. I can hear them halfway down the block. It often reminds me of the Yaz song, “Don’t Go.” It goes a little something like this, “Can’t stop now, don’t you know, I ain’t ever going to let you go, Don’t Go!” I am seriously questioning having another child. The extreme energy didn’t really faze me, the destructive tendencies, no problem, even the lack of sleep I could deal with. But suddenly following me everywhere (unless we go to the store of course, then he runs away laughing), this has got to stop. I love him, but a mommy needs her space. Do a little shopping without have to hold my 30-pound son. Take a nap without him shaking me awake, or climbing all over me like a jungle gym, or hitting me with a heel to my gut, the ultimate cheap shot. Cooking dinner without him dumping all seasonings he finds on the floor. Go to the bathroom without him staring at me. I love him. I can’t wait until he is three. I know what to expect from that age.
Okay, picture time!
1.) Picture one is Elijah figuring out how to get ice out of the ice machine. He would push and poof! It was raining ice. Of course he would just leave them there and we would slip on them later, but that is another story.
2.) Ah, my little boy brushing his teeth, and brushing his teeth again. He could sit there for hours brushing/chewing away at his toothbrush. Did I mention the amount of toothbrushes we go through. He has recently added water dumping to his routine. We are working on that one.
3.) Elijah doing laundry. He was loading his clothes up for me. What a nice little boy. This was cute and nice until he discovered the biz bucket and tried to see how many clothes fit into it. Then he dumped the bucket over and well...that was the end of that washday for him.
4.) Matt decided to distract him from the laundry by letting him help with his computer. This was actually just an old box that didn't have cover, but what Elijah doesn't know, won't hurt him.
