RIP, old ornament

Rob and I got engaged a few days before Christmas, 2001. That year we went to Pier 1 and bought a few ornaments just for fun (I think I had a small tree in my apartment and had little to put on it). I believe we bought three: a paper elephant, a teeny tiny purple glass ball and a cool frosted blue one. The elephant was played with by Scout on one of her early Christmases and it has no trunk to speak of anymore, nor does it have a loopy thing to hang it from the tree. The tiny glass ball got pulverized around the same time. The last survivor was this beautiful glass ball. This week it fell from the tree under dubious circumstances (Scout blames Lola which is certainly under the realm of possibility, but the very fact that she is blaming Lola is suspect to me.) Although she may have validly witnessed the crime, she also may be trying to cover her little bum. This event resulted in a small hole which broke my heart a little, but I hung it back up pretending it never happened hoping somehow it would either magically heal itself, or survive for years to come with a small hole leaving us with a tale about the Christmas where tragedy struck, but it lives on. My dreams of this were dashed yesterday when Scout had a friend over and this time (according to said friend, the ornament just fell and broke into a million pieces)- it doesn't take a genius to figure out that this story is suspect especially since we DO have carpet and not some freakishly hard cement flooring you might think we have according to this ornament's fate from two falls.

Well, it does break my heart, but this picture is now the only remaining tangible evidence of my last remaining sentimental ornament from mine and Rob's first Christmas together. (Wait, we were dating the year before, but not so seriously and were not engaged, nor did we buy any ornaments.)
Anyway, that ornament was special to me and I hate to see it gone, but life happens.

Especially with a rambunctious little girl and one big great Dane.

Sigh.

At least we still have the detrunked elephant.

That WOULD be a miracle

Scout 5 1/2-

I don't remember what led to me telling Scout the entire story of Jesus on the way to ballet yesterday, but she asked me to, so I did. I started with His birth and went on from there. When I got to the part about how He healed the sick, blind, and lame, she took that in and then said, "maybe He could touch Elinor so she could walk".

I swear that girl thinks of everything.

Rant

I'm really annoyed right now, so I ask you all to indulge me while I rant.

This particular rant is about my child's elementary school parking lot. First order of business:


I have been to two events at my child's school where the parents are invited. Both times of course the place was very crowded. This over capacitated the parking lot. But no problem, there is a church with a huge parking lot RIGHT ACROSS THE STREET. So, I parked there and saw another mom I know and we walk in together to watch our children march in the Halloween parade. As I am approaching the front of the building, I notice that the entire red zone at the front of the school is totally full of parked cars. I made a joke to the other mother about how maybe blocking the entire red zone(ie- place where the fire trucks park if there is a fire), may not be the best idea at an elementary school where our children are (the other mother didn't seem to care) and then I dropped it. About a month later, one night there was an art show at the school and Rob and I and the kids went. They had a program and I think every parent and grandparent were there and you couldn't even fit into the gym. It was soooo crowded and I am sure over capacity. Again, we parked at the church across the street and as we walked in, AGAIN, the entire red zone was full of parallel parked cars. I pointed it out to Rob and this time it was just annoying to me. SERIOUSLY! What in the world makes you feel entitled to park in the red zone ANYWHERE just because the parking spots are full??? Let alone, the elementary school where hundreds of our children are? Especially when there is a perfectly fine half empty parking lot RIGHT across the street? No one is going to tow you out of an LDS church parking lot I assure you. And shame on the police department for not towing every single one of those cars parked in the red zone. I am no champion of safety here, but I know what is right and what is STUPID in certain situations.
1. You don't ever park in red zones anywhere, especially schools overflowing with children.
2. You don't speed in school zones.
3. You never ever park in handicapped spaces. Which brings us to what happened yesterday....

Scout was picked up by her carpool and as they were leaving the lot they were backed up into and got in an accident. The lady that backed into them, not only was driving a giant SUV, she had a huge decal advertising her husband's dental practice in the back window (decal letters, not the wraps that you can see through). She pops out and talks to the mother driving Scout home and was like, "I don't think it was anybody's fault". What the crap? Other mother (Scout's car) was not speeding and didn't see her. The SUV lady told the cops that she even saw the other car. What the crap again? Anyway, she was cited for backing into someone and also, was cited again because she happened to be backing out of a handicapped spot for which she had no business being in. This seems like another case of total self entitlement and this all just makes my blood boil (Self entitlement and laziness! One of the many reasons Americans are getting fatter- we can't walk across the street? Or park a few spaces further away instead of taking up a spot reserved for someone that legitimately can't walk?).

Ok, rant over. I feel somewhat better. Thanks for reading.

What Emily's Been Watching, November Edition

I ran into a big stumbling block on the first day of November. My Salt Lake County library card expired after 8 years. If you've been keeping track, I moved to Utah County, but kept my card (shhh), since SLC has an incredible library system and I couldn't give it up. Cedar Hills has of course- no library. They do however try to compensate by reimbursing you for the library fee of surrounding cities. That's cool enough, so I got an account at American Fork. Guess what? American Fork has the most woeful selection of movies ever. It's probably more like what renting a video at the library is like in normal places though. Except I would expect more artsy and foreign movies of which I saw NONE, all they had was pure crap. I kept putting in movie titles to the data base and coming up with nothing. I canceled my Netflix like a year ago because our laptop died and that meant I could no longer watch streaming movies in bed. (I am not going to sit at my computer desk in our uncomfortable chair and watch movies.) Also, SLC had a great selection of movies- pretty much they had everything- so I was totally set without Netflix. Well, this has all ended and my selection of movies I watched this month will demonstrate this. No fear though- I am restarting my Netflix account, so things should improve and movies WILL be seen again.

Date Night (2010) [PG 13] :Comedy. Rob and I watched this one night while I helped him strip cabinets. We would rather had watched Shutter Island, but decided this one was a better flick to be working on cabinets to, since it was a movie you could watch while doing something else as opposed to Shutter Island, a film you want to pay attention to every minute. It turned out to be a pretty good choice. It was about what we expected- a few laughs, but mostly fairly stupid- but it did star two talented, funny people. Let's put it this way: we could have picked something worse. So if you have a project to do and want something playing in the background, Emily can recommend this. It did have the Thom Yorke look alike guy in it (that was just a fun fact).

Babies (2010) [PG] Documentary. I have been wanting to see this since I heard of it. Then, I saw a trailer for it, and ever since, I had REALLY been wanting to see it. Perhaps it is my status as a mother, especially one that has a little baby barely out of her first year of life. Perhaps it is just cause I am a chick who likes babies. I don't know, but it was cute and it will make your ovaries hurt whether you have them or not. It is a French documentary and it basically follows 4 babies through their first year of life. One lives in a hut in Africa, one in a little goat farm in Mongolia, one is a hippy baby from San Francisco (yuppie hippie not Haight and Ashbury hippie), and the last is a little diva baby in Tokyo. It was interesting seeing 2 from middle of nowhere, outskirts of the world juxtaposed with 2 from big and modern (yet culturally different) cities. All four being raised in very very very different environments, but of course, there were many similarities beings as how they are babies. That's the thing about babies, which I took away from this- babies are babies (I also took away from watching the 2 year old Mongolian older brother an appreciation for having had my kids 4 years apart. What a pill!!) There is a funny scene where the Japanese baby is playing with this toy and she is frustrated and keeps dramatically falling over. Made me laugh. But oh how that little baby from Namibia won my heart (the opening scene of the trailer, showcasing this baby, was what jet propelled me to see it- she won my heart in like 2 seconds). I have no idea if it was a girl or a boy- the name and the clothing were not gender specific to my American ears and eyes, but I suspect she was a girl. She was SO cute and SO smart. I was tempted to feel bad for her/him every time I saw her(him), but I couldn't do it. She was happy and healthy and smart and content and very loved. There was a funny scene where she is just lying on her stomach in the dirt, playing with it and eating it etc. Directly after it shows the hippie baby at a baby yoga class and you were obviously supposed to reflect on that and all that means and I did. Emily recommends this movie if (big surprise) you like babies. In fact, if you like babies, this is one not to miss. There is virtually no dialogue and what is said, is not translated or subtitled and I don't know about you guys, but I am only able to understand one of the four languages spoken. This is not really a factor though, you just watch the babies. There is also plenty of nudity, but it is of the National Geographic variety.

The Big Chill (1983) [R]: Comedy/drama. So I've heard about this movie my whole life but had never seen it. I needed something this week to watch while I did my eyebrows and folded laundry and Scout was at school. This was On Demand, so I gave it a go. My opinion: eh. It was ok. I have heard of The Breakfast Club being referred to as "The Little Chill" and I must say, I like The Little Chill better. Not that I didn't dislike this movie, I just wasn't "wowed" in any way. Perhaps it is a generational thing, meaning it speaks to a specific generation that I am not a part of. I can tell you with authority that the filming really sucked. Perhaps it is just a product of early 80's mid set, where these things weren't considered. I don't know, I do know that I am no authority on filming, but that should tell you how bad it really was- that it bothered me and I noticed. I am inclined to believe that perhaps since The Breakfast Club has been compared to it, I was expecting a character reckoning at the end where everyone learned something about themselves and came out changed people. In a way, these people did, but not as drastically, which made the ending fall flat a bit. Despite all I've said, I liked the movie well enough and Kevin Kline (as always) was a definite high point of the movie. Emily can't decide if she recommends this movie or not. I suppose it won't kill you to see it, it IS a good film about a specific generation and time in one's life (specifically, if you graduated college around 1969 I'd say). "Won't kill you to see it" something tells me I am being a wee bit hard on this movie.

Don't look at me like I'm frickin Frankenstein

Mornings around here

Mornings. I am not the biggest fan. The reason mostly likely is that I am a night owl. I can be sooooo tired in the afternoon, even into the evening. I can make pledges that "since I am so tired, I am going to bed early tonight!" Yes, that has actually happened once or twice in my life. More likely though, 9 or 10 hits and something happens to me. Suddenly, all thoughts of sleep are gone and I am abuzz with all the things I could do. My mind activates and my family sleeps without me. Rob is not a night owl. Rob would be very happy to fall asleep every day of the week at 9 o'clock. So, because of my busy nights, waking babies at 6 are pretty cruel. Luckily, I have good sleepers and even better little girls. On a typical morning, Elle will wake up at 6 or 6:30 for the day. This wakes Scout up in the next room (but believe me, she'd wake up soon anyway). Sometimes Elle will accept a bottle and possibly go back to sleep, but not likely. I will usually just make the bottle and pick her up and take her into bed with us. I always have a hope that she'll just fall asleep, but she doesn't. So, after the bottle, I turn on an Elmo's world video and sit her up next to me and I check back out. On lucky mornings, Rob gets up at that time too, and makes Scout her cereal. On unlucky mornings, I get up and make her a bowl and go back to bed.
Between the hours of 6 and 8 are Scout's best playtime. For whatever reason, that is the time that her imagination soars, she doesn't need tv, and she plays really well by herself. Other times of the day, she wants the TV on, or she begs me to play with her or a friend to come play, or she just follows me around talking my ear off. But perhaps as a survival instinct, in the wee hours of the morning, she is blissfully self contained and plays so cute. When I get up, usually 8ish, I make them and myself a real breakfast such as eggs and toast, and the day begins. Part of my morning routine is to go into Scout's room and get her clothes and I always take a look around and peek at what had occupied her time that morning. Sometimes I marvel at how early she must have gotten up that day to do all the things she had done (sometimes Scout is up at an indeterminate hour, proceeding her sister).
This morning's play, struck me as particularly cute and I had to take pictures. She got me up at 8 to come see her "ecosystem" she made.

(I am sure that every mother in the world can relate to this: I am greeted at least 100 times a day with, "mom, come and see something" there is never an explanation on what will greet me, it ALWAYS has to be a surprise. My surprises range very widely in interest. Sometimes I am dragged downstairs to see a piece of thread on the carpet. Many times I am shown a horse in a book or on the tv or computer and asked, "can I be this horse?" (most likely scenario). Sometimes it's to see that baby sister is seconds away from falling off the couch onto her head. And SOMETIMES it's for something really cute and I am so glad she came and got me to see (I am always glad she comes to get me when her sister is in peril too, make no mistake). Anyway, this morning, it was for something really cute.)

This was the path to the ecosystem I was to take into Elinor's room which was where her "world" that she made was housed.


Here is the overall view. Basically, she took all of Elle's stuffed animals and many of hers and separated them into their different habitats (yes she threw around words like "ecosystem" and "habitat". Good to know PBS is doing it's job.)

I will now take you on a tour of the different habitats that went up in Elle's room while she was watching Elmo with mommy (ok, mommy drifted off a bit).

The farm pastures
(her favorite horse family, a sheep and a pig (that's housey for all of you who remember).


This is the barn.
It housed a kitty family, some dogs and a duck.

In the crib, we had the South Pole.
(Two huskies, a penguin and a snowman (for good measure). I must say, I was pleased to see the penguin in the South Pole, not the North Pole. I choose to believe that she knew that's where they live and did it on purpose. You will visit the North Pole in a minute.)


First we will go to the ocean.
(dolphin, manta ray, shark and Nemo.
Oh, and don't forget Kermit, he lives on a lily pad in the ocean - I was informed).


Can't forget the giant sea turtle.

Here we have the North Pole housing who else but Santa and three reindeer.


This is the beach.
Just one lonely crab.
(Guess it was the only beach creature she could find.)

This one's my favorite. It's the forest.
(Hedgehog, rabbits and two moose. Are you wondering what cookie is doing there? Well, the forest is creepy to Scout, so she felt it needed a monster.)

At last we have the jungle.
(featuring lions and tigers and bears amidst a gorilla, elephants, one hippo toy, Pumbaa, and some
vine climbing monkeys).



I don't know about you guys, but I thought it lacked a savannah, desert and frozen tundra. But she did alright for herself.