I loved Lindsey's photo of this, and Marissa was willing to reprise it for me.
"I get married," she said to me when I asked her to hold the peony.
And just in case you forgot what the first photo looked like...
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
Monday, June 23, 2008
Marissa-isms
This weekend Marissa said a couple of things that had us all in stitches.
The first time we were at a little cafe having breakfast for lunch. Lindsey and Marissa had just been served their Mickey Mouse pancakes and I had cut some of it up for Marissa to eat. She picked up her fork, closed her eyes and moved her head from side to side, saying "Where my Mickey Mouse pancakes? Where my Mickey Mouse pancakes?"
Then she opened her eyes, pointed to her plate and said, "Oh! There dem are." She proceeded to eat while Wayne, Lindsey and I giggled.
The next one happened while we were driving home from this same visit. We were up in Anoka, after a failed attempt to go strawberry picking (yet another story), and we had a bit of a drive ahead of us (45 mins, which is long in our books).
Lindsey was chatting. The. Entire. Ride.
Some people think Lindsey doesn't talk. She just doesn't talk around people she doesn't know well. She makes up for it when it's just the four of us.
So Lindsey was chattering and chattering away and we were listening to this for some 20 minutes or so. Finally Marissa says, "Who's talking??"
She said it as if she'd been tuning out the words and just realized that someone was STILL talking and wanted to know who it was.
Pure entertainment!
The first time we were at a little cafe having breakfast for lunch. Lindsey and Marissa had just been served their Mickey Mouse pancakes and I had cut some of it up for Marissa to eat. She picked up her fork, closed her eyes and moved her head from side to side, saying "Where my Mickey Mouse pancakes? Where my Mickey Mouse pancakes?"
Then she opened her eyes, pointed to her plate and said, "Oh! There dem are." She proceeded to eat while Wayne, Lindsey and I giggled.
The next one happened while we were driving home from this same visit. We were up in Anoka, after a failed attempt to go strawberry picking (yet another story), and we had a bit of a drive ahead of us (45 mins, which is long in our books).
Lindsey was chatting. The. Entire. Ride.
Some people think Lindsey doesn't talk. She just doesn't talk around people she doesn't know well. She makes up for it when it's just the four of us.
So Lindsey was chattering and chattering away and we were listening to this for some 20 minutes or so. Finally Marissa says, "Who's talking??"
She said it as if she'd been tuning out the words and just realized that someone was STILL talking and wanted to know who it was.
Pure entertainment!
Sunday, June 22, 2008
a Photo Pictorial
Hey look, I'm pretending to read the paper with Aunt Sherrie!I can even lay on the arm of the chair -- lookit me! Lookit lookit lookit! Cheeeeese!
Look, I love the camera, I'm going to lean just a little closer and...hey!! I fell off!
(Note the smile on her face as she doesn't realize she is falling off yet.)
Friday, June 20, 2008
Time Article: Pregnancy Pact by Teens
Click on above post title for the Time article.
The saddest statement of this story has to be:
"They're so excited to finally have someone to love them unconditionally. I try to explain it's hard to feel loved when an infant is screaming to be fed at 3 a.m."
-- Amanda Ireland, 18-year old graduate of Gloucester High School, who had a child her freshman year.
Amanda theorizes that many girls in the pregnancy pact saw her as a role model and agreed to get pregnant together.
Where are these girls' parents?
The saddest statement of this story has to be:
"They're so excited to finally have someone to love them unconditionally. I try to explain it's hard to feel loved when an infant is screaming to be fed at 3 a.m."
-- Amanda Ireland, 18-year old graduate of Gloucester High School, who had a child her freshman year.
Amanda theorizes that many girls in the pregnancy pact saw her as a role model and agreed to get pregnant together.
Where are these girls' parents?
Tuesday, June 17, 2008
Apple: Amazing Marketing
Now that Father's Day is over and Wayne's present has been given (and now has to be returned), I have to relate the experience I had of buying his gift. I found the experience fascinating; those who aren't marketing-minded may not.
I wanted to get Wayne an auto accessory for his iPod so he could play it through either of our car's sound systems. Neither vehicle has an auxiliary jack made for today's MP3/iPods, so something like an FM tuner adapter or cigarette adapter were my only options.
I went out to the Apple website and did a product search for car audio accessories. There were so many options with so little for descriptions that I had to click through many products to figure out if they would work for our vehicle. I was doing this at work over lunch (same way I'm writing this post) and finally ran out of time and closed the page.
A few hours later I check my personal email (company time again, ahem hem), and lo and behold I had received a promotional email from Apple. The subject line was something like "Apple accessories: Make your life mobile!" Of course this piqued my interest and when I opened the email, right there on the front page was one of 9 products specifically for running your iPod through your car stereo. Not their docking accessories, nor their headphone accessories, but specifically the car stereo accessories.
Coincidence? I think not.
I think there is some very smart marketer on the other end who saw my IP address land on the accessories, look around a little and close out, then had their software program evaluate which of several hundred canned promotional emails would be appropriate for me and followed up to my inbox in an appropriate amount of time to not make me suspicious that someone (other than my employer, perhaps) is tracking my online activities.
Smart smart smart.
Of course, I purchased the accessory right from that link via the email, affirming in Apple's database the fact that this is indeed a smart marketing strategy.
Now I'm going to screw them up when I return the product because, despite my having read the description as closely as I could, I STILL ended up buying one that needs an auxiliary jack in your car to run the sound through the car stereo.
Now if only they could work on their product descriptions, they would be perfect.
I wanted to get Wayne an auto accessory for his iPod so he could play it through either of our car's sound systems. Neither vehicle has an auxiliary jack made for today's MP3/iPods, so something like an FM tuner adapter or cigarette adapter were my only options.
I went out to the Apple website and did a product search for car audio accessories. There were so many options with so little for descriptions that I had to click through many products to figure out if they would work for our vehicle. I was doing this at work over lunch (same way I'm writing this post) and finally ran out of time and closed the page.
A few hours later I check my personal email (company time again, ahem hem), and lo and behold I had received a promotional email from Apple. The subject line was something like "Apple accessories: Make your life mobile!" Of course this piqued my interest and when I opened the email, right there on the front page was one of 9 products specifically for running your iPod through your car stereo. Not their docking accessories, nor their headphone accessories, but specifically the car stereo accessories.
Coincidence? I think not.
I think there is some very smart marketer on the other end who saw my IP address land on the accessories, look around a little and close out, then had their software program evaluate which of several hundred canned promotional emails would be appropriate for me and followed up to my inbox in an appropriate amount of time to not make me suspicious that someone (other than my employer, perhaps) is tracking my online activities.
Smart smart smart.
Of course, I purchased the accessory right from that link via the email, affirming in Apple's database the fact that this is indeed a smart marketing strategy.
Now I'm going to screw them up when I return the product because, despite my having read the description as closely as I could, I STILL ended up buying one that needs an auxiliary jack in your car to run the sound through the car stereo.
Now if only they could work on their product descriptions, they would be perfect.
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
Photos from our weekend visitors
Had to post a few pics of the fabulous weekend we had this past weekend when my friend Amy visited with two girls in tow. I realize now that I don't have too many photos of Molly, and didn't get a single one of Amy and I together!
The story of the weekend (outside of Marissa having at our couch and her books, previously told) had to be how Amy surprised her former neighbor Marilynn, who was the highlight of the weekend. Marilynn was like a grandma to Amy and Jim's two girls, and she turned 80 on Friday, June 6th. The whole reason for the visit was to attend Marilynn's 80th birthday party on Sunday.
On Friday Amy landed at the airport and was driving to our house with the girls when she gave Marilynn a call on the phone to say "Happy Birthday." Marilynn, who describes herself as "long winded," was still chatting away when Amy pulled up to Marilynn's house. Amy got out with the girls, walked up to the door and rang the doorbell.
Marilynn says to her, "Oh Amy, someone's at the door, just a minute, I have to see who it is." She drops the phone, opens the door, and drops her jaw. Then the tears started.
She had such a hard time believing that Amy was actually here that later on that same evening she walked down to our house just to make sure they were still there and she wasn't dreaming. It couldn't have been scripted better.
Doesn't Marilynn look great?! I can't believe she's 80, I would have never guessed it.
Top 'Er Off
Yesterday I was going by a gas station near our house and decided to top off the Civic even though the tank was three-quarters full. After all, this particular gas station was a full 12 cents cheaper than every other one around us!
So I put $16.08 worth of gas into the Civic, which was 4.05 gallons.
$3.97 is now a "deal" for gas.
So I put $16.08 worth of gas into the Civic, which was 4.05 gallons.
$3.97 is now a "deal" for gas.
Sunday, June 08, 2008
She continues to amaze us
This weekend we have friends (former neighbors) from Buffalo, NY visiting. On Saturday I hosted a ladies night out at my house, for all the neighbors to get together and visit with Amy.
The party was supposed to start at 7:30 -- Wayne had left a little before 7:00 to go see the new Indiana Jones movie and avoid the estrogen fest. So it was just Amy and I prepping appetizers and doing last minute cleaning to get ready.
At 7:15, I come downstairs from doing I can't remember what and see Marissa sitting on the couch saying, "Mommy, look what I did..." in that same tone of voice she uses when she's done she wasn't supposed to do. Here on the couch are 8 beautiful vertical lines, drawn in our guest's non-washable crayon. Amy's jaw dropped -- she'd only been out of the room for less than 60 seconds.
So I put Marissa in her room for a time-out while I washed up the couch. I heard bumping and thumping from up there, and knew that she was emptying her bookshelf of her books. She usually does this then carefully puts them away when you go to get her out of her timeout. But it took me a bit longer to clean the couch, and by the time I got upstairs she had pulled EVERY book off the bookshelf...and then peed on them in the middle of the room.
It is amazing the child is still alive.
By this time people are arriving and I am spending more time upstairs attempting to get this child calmed down than greeting people.
I pulled all the books out of her room and put them into ours -- she lost the privilege to have books if that's how she's going to treat them, and she's going to have to earn them back. Then I put her in her pajamas and told her that she is going to bed. I closed the door to her screaming and crying, and checked back in 10 minutes.
I check back, amazingly so, Marissa found one other area that I didn't think of to mess up, and that's the remnants of her diapers and wipes, which she pulled out and put all over the room. So once again, cleaning up a mess and scolding her at the same time, then putting her back in bed.
By this time she was finally accepting of the fact that no matter what, she was not getting out of her room, she was not going downstairs, she was going to go to sleep. And within a matter of minutes she was asleep.
Great. I went downstairs, got myself a glass of wine and sat next to the damp couch cushion so I could warn people not to sit there.
Whew!
The party was supposed to start at 7:30 -- Wayne had left a little before 7:00 to go see the new Indiana Jones movie and avoid the estrogen fest. So it was just Amy and I prepping appetizers and doing last minute cleaning to get ready.
At 7:15, I come downstairs from doing I can't remember what and see Marissa sitting on the couch saying, "Mommy, look what I did..." in that same tone of voice she uses when she's done she wasn't supposed to do. Here on the couch are 8 beautiful vertical lines, drawn in our guest's non-washable crayon. Amy's jaw dropped -- she'd only been out of the room for less than 60 seconds.
So I put Marissa in her room for a time-out while I washed up the couch. I heard bumping and thumping from up there, and knew that she was emptying her bookshelf of her books. She usually does this then carefully puts them away when you go to get her out of her timeout. But it took me a bit longer to clean the couch, and by the time I got upstairs she had pulled EVERY book off the bookshelf...and then peed on them in the middle of the room.
It is amazing the child is still alive.
By this time people are arriving and I am spending more time upstairs attempting to get this child calmed down than greeting people.
I pulled all the books out of her room and put them into ours -- she lost the privilege to have books if that's how she's going to treat them, and she's going to have to earn them back. Then I put her in her pajamas and told her that she is going to bed. I closed the door to her screaming and crying, and checked back in 10 minutes.
I check back, amazingly so, Marissa found one other area that I didn't think of to mess up, and that's the remnants of her diapers and wipes, which she pulled out and put all over the room. So once again, cleaning up a mess and scolding her at the same time, then putting her back in bed.
By this time she was finally accepting of the fact that no matter what, she was not getting out of her room, she was not going downstairs, she was going to go to sleep. And within a matter of minutes she was asleep.
Great. I went downstairs, got myself a glass of wine and sat next to the damp couch cushion so I could warn people not to sit there.
Whew!
5 Shots for the 5-year-old
This past week I had the dubious honor of taking Lindsey in for her 5-year check-up. I knew that she was due for a minimum of four shots at this visit, and it wasn't going to be a pleasant one.
We got a surprise when we got there that she's actually due for FIVE -- Minnesota now also requires a booster for the chicken pox vaccine prior to entering kindergarten.
God bless her, she sat down so well and did the shots so well. She didn't even cry until after they were all over, probably from the relief of being done. Her reward was a trip to Target for some lip gloss and a Hello Kitty DVD ($5.99 in the bargain bin).
I was so proud of her, and had to retell her the story of when I was a little girl and had to get shots. I think for one visit I had to have three nurses hold me down. Yowzaa.
We got a surprise when we got there that she's actually due for FIVE -- Minnesota now also requires a booster for the chicken pox vaccine prior to entering kindergarten.
God bless her, she sat down so well and did the shots so well. She didn't even cry until after they were all over, probably from the relief of being done. Her reward was a trip to Target for some lip gloss and a Hello Kitty DVD ($5.99 in the bargain bin).
I was so proud of her, and had to retell her the story of when I was a little girl and had to get shots. I think for one visit I had to have three nurses hold me down. Yowzaa.
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