Category Archives: Favorite Things

Honestly, Honesty!

14 Friday Oct 2011

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Here’s a recent conversation that took place in the Sowles Caboose (otherwise known as our minivan).

McKinzi: Ooh, look at the moon, it is soooooo cool!

Mommy: Wow, it is pretty! Do you see the Man in the Moon?

McKinzi and Lake: Where????

Mommy proceeds to point it out.

McKinzi: Oooh, I see it! Oh, I have a great idea! Maybe we can pray to God and ask him on Halloween to make the moon look like it has bats and a witch flying in front of it!!!! Isn’t that a great idea??

Lake: That won’t work, McKinzi (said with full teenage confidence, though she’s only 5!)

Mommy: What do you mean it won’t work, Lake? (Worried that she might think that praying doesn’t work).

Lake: It never works.

Mommy: What never works, honey?

Lake: You don’t know what I’m talking about.

Mommy: You’re right, babe, that’s why I’m asking what you’re talking about. (Here I reiterate the above conversation and get to the point where I say: That’s why I’m asking for you to tell me what you’re talking about).

Lake: You just don’t know what I’m talking about, Mommy. (Said in total frustration, a little whining, and definitely some (pre-, pre-, pre-)teenage angst.)

And then she practically screams, I DON’T EVEN KNOW WHAT I’M TALKING ABOUT!

After controlling my laughter, I decided the conversation was over. We were LONG past figuring out what she meant.

But it got me to thinking — what if more people were honest about when they don’t know what they’re talking about?

Our trip to the Kansas State Fair

20 Tuesday Sep 2011

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Mark and I had never been to the Kansas State Fair. We decided back in May to take the girls this year. But not because of the Fair. That was just an extra thing we would be able to do. No, we were going to see BIG TIME RUSH. If you’re not familiar with them, they’re a boy band in the style of the Monkees, developed for TV (Nickelodeon) but branching out on tour. Lake is in love with the lead singer, Kendall Schmidt, who just so happens to be from Andover, KS. McKinzi kind of likes James, but not as much as the other pop singer whose initials are J.B. (Justin Bieber).

The girls have been to a couple of concerts with Dad already, Stellar Kart and Switchfoot, both of which McK thoroughly enjoyed but Lake only tolerated. This is her first concert where she REALLY likes the band. And she sure did show us how to rock it. OK, maybe Mommy showed her first. But this was MY first concert with the girls and I was bound to make sure they knew that I was cool once, too. 🙂

Before the Fair, we camped out at Council Grove Lake. we found a site away from everyone and right along the water. We stayed dry until late at night a heavy rain moved in. Inside our tent, we were good. Outside, we got wet. It was a great camping experience that we all enjoyed.

And the fair? It was cool. Except for the expensive food and the expensive rides and all the other expensive things that kept making us say “No” to the girls. So, we’re trying to budget a trip to Worlds of Fun at some point in the future. If we’re going to spend that much money on rides, we’ll do it somewhere much more fun.  I mean, seriously, $3.75 per ride or $25 per person for an unlimited pass? When did these things get so expensive?

Oh, but the $7 Mark spent on a Red Velvet Funnel Cake — definitely worth it.

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I’m not my mom … yet

17 Saturday Sep 2011

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Every day I find myself doing things more and more like my mom. That’s not a bad thing, mind you. But, 15 years ago, it certainly would have been! I find myself saying things she said that I swore I would never say, like “Because I said so” or “Don’t make me pull over the car!”

I find myself organizing the house like she did, or having those annoying habits she had, like how the house had to be perfectly clean before you leave town. (Which now it’s much more annoying when I leave town WITHOUT a perfectly clean home.)

But I can tell you with certainty that I am not my mother, yet. You see, she makes the best twice-baked potatoes. The best. I love them. I have always loved them. And I cannot, for the life of me, replicate them. I made attempt number three about a month ago. Starchy, melty mess. God bless my family, because they ate them, but I was so disappointed. I thought I had figured it out. Despite several calls to my mom during the cooking process they were still absolutely gross!

Fast forward to Thursday night. I was determined to get it right. I ALMOST didn’t call my mom this time, only because I wanted to do it myself. But my desire for actually tasting yummy goodness overcame my desire to be independent and I did call her. Didn’t really need to though, because everything I thought I was supposed to do I was doing. But it was nice to have the confirmation.

All that and they STILL didn’t come out right. But I’m pleased to say they were fairly good, and no starchy, glumpy mess. And they weren’t worse than other batches I’ve had that other people have made, so I figure most people would have enjoyed them. But they still weren’t my mothers. ;( They didn’t have her magic touch, I suppose, but the good news is that I’m getting closer!

But I have to say, that no matter when I manage to replicate her twice-baked potatoes, I will never be the mother my mom is, because she is the absolute best.

I love you, mommy!

Out of the mouths of babes …

16 Friday Sep 2011

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The other evening at dinner, Mark was, well, dumbstruck. Here’s how the conversation went ….

McKinzi: Did you think I was going to be a boy or a girl when you were pregnant with me?
Me: (with Daddy echoing) A boy.
Lake: Did you think I was going to be a boy or a girl when you were pregnant with me?
Me: A boy.
Mark: With Tucker, we just stopped guessing.
Me: But I should have known that Lake was a girl because she felt just like McKinzi did when she was in my belly. Boys and girls feel different to mommies when they’re in their belly.
McKinzi: Is that because Tucker’s tallywhacker tickled your belly?

Kids say the most amazing things. Thus the reason for Mark’s being dumbstruck. He was simply amazed that her mind even went there, and that we were having this conversation at the dinner table, nonetheless! If you don’t know the meaning, you can click here.

Amazingly, Mark had never heard that term for his special friend until he married into my family. And even more amazingly, even though we had no boys in our family, we used the term all the time (why we were referring to penises is something I won’t discuss, thank you very much).

So, anyway, after correcting McKinzi and Lake on exactly why boys and girls make mommies feel different (a very dumbed down explanation of hormones), I got to thinking, what is the history of tallywhacker, anyway?

Well, when you don’t know something, it’s pretty certain that Google knows. So, I typed in tellywacker (not really having actually read, written, typed the term before, I was unsure of the correct spelling). Dictionary.com corrected me to tallywhacker. And from what I’ve read (yes, I’ve done a just little research on the subject on Al Gore’s invention) it is mainly a slang term formerly used in the southern United States.

Online, what little debate there is, there doesn’t appear to be a clear-cut answer. Most people agree that “tally” is a Latin derivative meaning either twig or tail. I can imagine how a penis could be, ahem, compared to a tail. So I buy that. But if that is the case, why put “whacker” after that. Of the many things men can do with a penis, whacking it is probably not high on their list. I’m guessing, it’s right above “remove with a knife”.  I should ask Mark. Maybe not.

So I dug around a little further and found that “whacker” might be short for “whack”, which in turn might be a dialectic translation of “wag”.  In fact, certain very old dialects of English use the word “tallywag” to refer to the penis.

So tallywhacker = wagging tail.

Anyway, I’m sure Mark is now equally dumbstruck that I’ve spent most of this post talking about tallywhackers. 🙂

Trying to fill daddy’s shoes

12 Monday Sep 2011

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Do they fit?

 

We were hanging out Saturday afternoon and Tucker decided he wanted to wear Daddy’s shoes. He just loves his daddy and wants to be like him so much. He loves Daddy’s hats, and he loves Daddy’s shoes, and whenever he gets the chance to wear them, he will. He loves to hang out with daddy, and climb on daddy and follow daddy around everywhere.

He is definitely a mini-Mark, and I don’t think there’s a better man he could be molded after.

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I'm growing up so fast!

My new favorite thing!

02 Tuesday Feb 2010

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FREEEEEEEE-DOOOOOM! I feel so free. I feel like my life has been decluttered immensely. So much weight has come off my shoulders. These are my new best friends.

We’re slowly but surely trying to get ready for Baby Brother to make his appearance and this weekend, it started by trying to organize our guest bedroom and its closet so we can make room for the stuff that is coming out of the office/toy room which will be his nursery. I found myself with piles of comforters that had no home. I thought about putting them in plastic tubs underneath the bed, but I would need more tubs, and I wasn’t sure they’d all fit. Just so I’m clear — these are things that are necessary at times in our house, but not useful enough all the time. They take up space when they’re not being used, but when company comes, they’re invaluable!

Then I suggested to Mark that we go to Wally World and look at those vacuum bags they advertise all the time, you know the ones where you suck all the air out and they are flat for easy storage?? We thought — oh, they’ll probably be way too expensive or way to cheap(ly made).  But we went. We were surprised to find a good size one for under the bed storage for only $20 and then two-for-one boxes at $10 that sucked down into cube shapes. So, we bought a couple of different ones so we could see what worked for us, or if it even worked for us.

OMGosh!!!! I LOVE THESE THINGS! I now have four queen-size comforters sucked flat into ONE under the bed box.  Well, what can I do with these others we bought, I thought? I now have other bed blankets (five, plus a few other things) sucked into the Extra-Large Cube and about 5 Queen-Size Sheet Sets (yes, we have too many) sucked into the Large Cube and now stored very nicely at the bottom of our linen closet which has always been a source of frustration for me with everything always falling out!

Now I have another Extra-Large and another Large. What to do, what to do??? Oh yeah, those piles of sweaters in my bedroom closet that take up SO MUCH ROOM because I LOVE sweaters. I can suck those into bags and FREE UP ROOM!

I’m envisioning all the tubs I have in the basement with old girls clothes/blankets/coats/curtains/table clothes/doilies. I can probably take three tubs and condense them to 1! I’ll be finding all sorts of room in my basement now!

So, our handy-dandy Food Saver freezer bags have officially been replaced as my new most favorite thing in the whole, wide world. But I still love those too! Now — I wonder what the clothes look like when you OPEN the bags again?

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