The Westside Story

For school, my daughter wrote a letter to President Obama. Short and sweet, it read:

“Dear Obama,

Could you try and have some times when you could be whith (sic) your family.

From: D. West”

Of all the things she could say to the president, and of all the concerns we have with our nation right now, she wrote about having more family time. She represented the concerns of children everywhere, and she knew the most important thing the most powerful man in the world could do is spend time with his children. It made me think of President David O. McKay’s quote: “No other success can compensate for failure in the home.”

It also made me think that my lame-o job (compared with Mr. Obama’s prestigious position) should not take me away from my family as much. I need to make sure to spend enought time at home! It also made me think that this post is sounding a little too much like a primary talk .

K., after Stephanie had peeled her an orange: “I have never seen an orange split open showing its bones!”

This picture is of K at school. Her teacher reported in Parent/Teacher Conference: “K. makes me laugh in how she sees the world.” Yep, we know what you mean.

A few favorite quotes and stories from our kids and holiday vacation recently:

1) When we were visiting some friends of ours in Logan over the holiday break, a family showed up at the party (unrelated to us) and K. boldly introduced herself by saying, “Hi, we’re your new cousins. You’ll get used to us!”

Where does she get this kind of stuff?

2) D. received the challenge from the Primary to read the Book of Mormon this year, and they gave her the first reading chart for 1st Nephi and told her she’d get a prize when she completed it. D. loves challenges, reading, and prizes, so she jumped on this one. Within 24 hours she finished 1st Nephi, start to finish. I couldn’t believe it, so I started quizzing her every few chapters about what she had read, and she really did read it—and understood it. Wow. Now she is charging through 2nd Nephi and I’m curious what will happen when she hits Isaiah. Hmmm.

She’s been so preoccupied with reading the Book of Mormon that I’ve found myself saying things I thought I would never say, like, “D. put down the Book of Mormon and listen!” or “Do not read that Book of Mormon until you have done X.”

I never thought I would ever be telling my child NOT to read the scriptures because they were reading them too much. Weird!

3) While we were visiting friends in Provo and in Logan, Utah, K. was in her best early bird form. Each morning she woke up VERY early (about 5:30 or 6 a.m.) and snuck out of the room where we were sleeping and wandered upstairs where she found the mother up with a baby in each home. Then she chatted off the mom’s ear each time and entertained the baby. What a nut! She is such an early riser, full of energy, each morning. She used to wake up at 6 a.m. and come to our bedroom door and crow like a rooster to wake us up. This same child crashes early at night and will frequently put herself to sleep. We’ll look around and go, where is K., and find her in bed already.

4) K. has a tradition–two years now and running–of singing Christmas carols on the plane ride out to Utah for the holidays. We’ve had some of the passengers tell us they enjoy it. Hopefully they are not lying.

5) We flew into Las Vegas this year (because it’s cheaper than Salt Lake) only hours before the airport closed due to snow. Whew! We probably would have been rerouted to Arizona or something. Then we were snowed in at my parent’s place in Idaho and couldn’t go to church. Remind me why we want to live out in Utah again?

–posted by Rick

We went to the dentist yesterday and they cleaned both D’s and K’s teeth (and got their fingernails painted).  You gotta love a good visit to the salon … I mean, dentist.  Anyway, D’s bottom tooth was really loose and we knew it would come out any day.  That night as she was brushing her teeth I heard a scream from upstairs.  The girls had just been fighting so I didn’t worry about it until K came running down to tell us, “D’s tooth fell out! And there’s blood everywhere!”  When we arrived in the bathroom at the top of the stairs, there was D, a big smile on her face, with her mouth hanging open and her hands trying to catch the little stream of watery blood coming out.  I think she was just so surprised the tooth had actually come out that she wasn’t sure what she should do about the blood.  I would have posted a picture, but our camera battery is still dead from our trip to Washington DC.  (Sorry, no pics from that trip either.  We may have a little bit of video, though, if we ever get around to downloading it.)

I’m not sure what the going rate is for the tooth fairy. So, if you read my blog, I would like to know:

1)  If you have children who have lost teeth, what did the tooth fairy bring them?

2)  If you don’t have children who have lost teeth, what did the tooth fairy bring you when you lost yours?

For myself, whenever I lost a tooth the tooth fairy brought me a quarter, a dime and a nickel.

I’ve seen this “tag” floating around and I know I’ve been a tagged a couple of times but I’ve just never gotten around to doing it (actually, I just couldn’t be bothered figuring out the web address and password to post- yeah, I forgot it again).  So …

6 Quirks about me

1.  I’m a terrible backseat driver.  When someone else is driving I feel this compulsive urge to tell them that they are driving wrong.  They’re either too fast, too slow, following too close, not paying attention, yada, yada, yada.  And when I am driving it’s all the other cars around me that are doing something wrong.  In reality, I wish someone else was driving so I wouldn’t have to but then I hate it when they do because I want to be the one in control of the car.  Yeah … I think it would just be better to fly.

2.  I love interior design.  I never want to be an interior designer but I love having a house of my own to work on.   In fact, the main reason I go to the gym is because we don’t have cable and if I can go to the gym then I can watch HGTV.  Love it!

3.  I cut my own hair.  After I had my first baby I felt like I needed a real “style” to my hair.  I went and got it cut and cried the whole way home (on the bus, no less).  As soon as I got home, I pulled out the scissors and realized there was no reason for me to pay someone else to do something (and badly, I might add) that I could do myself.  I touched up that haircut and have been cutting my own hair ever since.  The pros to this are that I save a lot of money.  The cons are that I sometimes end up with okay hairstyles and other times they could be better.  It’s also difficult because it’s just too easy to “touch up” my most recent hairstyles.  My husband says he’s going to hide the scissors from me if it gets much shorter.

4.  I plan on going to school forever.  One big benefit to having a husband that will be a professor is that I can continue going to school and not paying for it.  I also have a really hard time deciding on any one major because they all sound interesting to me.  Hence, the length of time that it has taken me to complete my first two degrees.

5.  I easily forget the story lines of books and movies.  If it’s been more than a few months since I read a book I can read it again and it’s like I’m reading it for the first time. My husband says this also works with stories and jokes. He’s been retelling the same stories and jokes for the entire time we’ve been married and I still think they’re new.

6.  I like to do my taxes just for fun.  My husband says this is because I have a high tolerance for repetitive, detailed work but it’s really just that I like to have a general idea whether we’re going to get a tax return for the year or if we’ll have to pay money.  As soon as the new year hits, I start to remember, oh, yeah, it’s tax season.  One New Year’s Eve we stayed up late playing games.  When Rick got tired I still wanted to stay up so I went ahead and started doing our taxes.  But don’t think of asking me to do yours.  My motivation is purely selfish … unless, of course, you want to pay me a lot of money to do them.  Then I might consider it.

7.  Although I’m at six Rick says I should add that I have a very strong sense of smell.  I’m always the first to know if something is burning or if something smells good or bad.

So there you have it.  My seven quirks.  I could probably go on and on, but it’s December and writing about my quirks has reminded me that tax season is almost here so I think I’ll go get started on my taxes!

For those of you who were wondering (and I’m sure all of you were ) we finally took D to the dentist.  We actually ended up seeing two dentists.  The first wanted to pull out the baby tooth with anesthesia because D has INCREDIBLE doctor/dentist anxiety.  And the form of sedation they wanted to use? Yes, an IV.  You think she has anxiety letting you look in her mouth?  Try sticking a needle in her arm and leaving it there.  Yeah, not a good idea.  Hence, our visit to the second dentist.

The second dentist was WONDERFUL!  She told us that we should wait a couple of months to see if her bottom teeth (by this time, she actually had a second tooth coming in right next to the first which will require pulling two bottom teeth) would work their way out on their own.  If not, we’ll be back in December for an evaluation and an appointment for extraction.

So … last week, D came up to me and said, “Mom, I think I have some popcorn behind my tooth.”  And my thoughts were, “Oh, no.  Here we go again.”  Yes, she now has three teeth pushing through the gums behind three FIRMLY rooted baby teeth.  Two on the bottom and one on the top.  Now, I’m just waiting for the second top one to come in.  Who knows?  Maybe at Christmas we’ll be singing, “All I want for Christmas is my four front teeth ….”

You know it’s been too long since you posted on your blog when you can’t remember:

1.  the address of your blog to post on it (yes, I remember my blog address, just not the “special” one that gives me the ability to post on it)

2.  your login id and password

Okay, so now to the whole reason I’m back to blogging.  I want to win free stuff!  Yes.  My super crafty friend has a blog highlighting her projects and others that are out there for you to enjoy.  So, go ahead and check it out … but not until October 25th when it will be too late to enter the free giveaway of all the stuff I’m going to win! Wahahahah!  (maniacal laugh, cue the scary music)  It is Halloween after all.

Oh, yeah … her blog is at:

http://www.thevillageshopblog.blogspot.com/

So, check it out … after the 25th.

For any of our friends in our neck of the woods, Wal-mart is selling the classic musicals Fiddler on the Roof and Westside Story. We are watching Fiddler now, and I’m remembering that I always hated the dream scene in this movie. What a weird scene.

Then I remembered that I also hate the dream scene in Oklahoma. Also very, very weird.

Then I remembered that I also hate the daydream scene (Just you wait, Henry Higgins!) in My Fair Lady. Cheesy and weird.

Come to think of it, I have hated just about any dream scene in any musical. What’s up with that? Note to all musical composers and screenwriters: No more dream scenes!

—posted by Rick

This was really a great book. It’s a young adult novel, probably most appealing to youth ages 10-16, but Stephanie and I both enjoyed it as well. It’s a great “instructional” book that I’d like my children to read because it’s a) historical and teaches about the time period of 1929 agriculture, b) it’s intercultural, and teaches about the challenges of being a Mexican immigrant in the US and the racism that occurs, and c) it teaches the value of overcoming challenges. The title “Esperanza Rising” is about Esperanza rising above her challenges as a phoenix from its own ashes. Finally, d) it teaches about the importance of family, as family is what carries Esperanza through and makes the challenges worthwhile. Beautiful message.

In a nutshell it’s about a primadonna rich girl in Mexico who has everything taken away when her father dies. Now destitute and threatened, she flees to the US with her mother to begin a new life as an agricultural worker.

A side note that the narrator on the audio version is excellent as well. Also, the book is based on a real person–the author’s grandmother.

Penny from Heaven by Jennifer L. Holm

My review

rating: 3 of 5 stars
This is probably more like 3.5 stars. It’s a young adult, Newberry book, so it’s perhaps geared more for that audience in style, but I still found it interesting. I like books with quirky characters, and that’s what this has. It’s also a great story of discrimination in our own country towards Italian-Americans. We often don’t think of discrimination against this group, so it was enlightening. I think adults who like young adult books will enjoy it, and young adults (in my opinion) should add it to their “should read” lists.


View all my reviews.