Football Sunday

Will loves football. I mean LOVES IT!!! Anytime there is a football game on TV he has to watch it. While he watches football he tosses a football around as well. I spend quite a bit of time during commercials answering to "hey Mom, catch!"

The evidence...







And here is a 2 minute clip of what he does during the game. Well...he doesn't always get so violent with the couch cushions. The Cowboys are to blame for that! I think I might have to send them the bill for couch cushion repair/replacement! You will also understand why he had to wash off the blue star I painted on his stomach for last week's game after only a few minutes of "wearing" it. I have no idea what he is saying. Mostly talking smack I think. And the video is a little dark, but you'll get the idea!



After we arrived in the states we had to spend the first 3 Sundays watching football at my parents' since we didn't have cable yet. The first Sunday Will didn't think to bring a football with him to use while he watched. He ended up tossing around an old Snoopy stuffed animal instead. Later that week we were at Old Navy buying some jeans and he ran across this football which he had to have.



For Christmas Erica gave him a Nerf football, and Grandma and Grandpa gave him a Dallas Cowboys football with an autograph pen. Now he is itching to get to a game to get it signed. Next year I'm guessing we will be purchasing Cowboys tickets. He also got Dallas Cowboys bedding from his parents. They are such nice people! Supporting his habit like that!

Taste Test - Holiday Edition

The kids and I decided to do a special holiday edition taste test. Actually I decided to force the kids to participate, because when they heard what I was going to make them taste they were not excited.


First up we have eggnog. Now I don't think the kids would have minded trying eggnog if they hadn't seen a video of an eggnog drinking contest where the participants threw up after drinking it. I reminded them that the contest participants drank half a gallon of eggnog before they threw up. I was only asking them to take a few sips!


Erica finally agreed to go first. Hm...this smells an awful lot like paint...


I don't want to drink it!

Come on...just one little sip!


You could hold your nose while you drink it.


Fine. One sip.


Hm. What is that flavor?


Plants. It tastes like plants to me.


Jacob smelled it before he took a sip, too.


Yuck. That smells gross!


Yet he takes a drink of it anyway. What a good boy that Jacob is!


That's not terrible. I mean I don't really like it, but I could drink it if I had to.


Aw, is it my turn already? Ok.


But I'm holding my breath while I taste it!


Oooo...gross. Yuck. (And here is where I don't tell you that she was mad. Like really mad. Like there were tears underneath those hands, because I "made" her try it.)


Um. No...I'm not trying it now. Not after Anna Grace cried!

Oh yes you are! Everyone else tried it you have to at least take a little sip!


Fine.


That tastes like paint. Really. I think I just drank paint!


Next up we have Yoo-hoo chocolate drink. What? You don't drink Yoo-hoos during the holidays? Well, ok, I guess technically it isn't a holiday drink, but I thought it would make a great edition to our taste test since my kids had never tried it.


So...what do you think?


Um...


That tastes just like watery chocolate milk. Yuck.


Ok...down the hatch.


Well it's very watery. Chocolaty water. Nope...I don't like it.


Let me try it.


That was really good! I like it!


No. I am still mad. I am so mad that I am not talking to you or even looking at you.


Please...just one sip. Ok, fine, but I am still not looking at you.


This just tastes like water with a little bit of chocolate milk powder mixed in. I can't believe you made me taste this.

Aw...come on AG...look at me.


If looks could kill...

Wow

I just finished reading the children's book The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick. Amazing...really. I saw the book at a Scholastic Book warehouse sale and it caught my attention. I had heard of it before...recently, but it took me a few minutes to figure out where. Ms. Morton, the teacher, made a comment about it on my blog about collections. She asked if I had read it. At the time my answer was no. Now...yes...and I loved it! The book is a fiction account of a portion of the life of Georges Melies, an early French magician and filmmaker. To read about his real life click here. Fascinating stuff.

The website devoted to the book, www.theinventionofhugocabret.com, has this to say about the book.

"This 526-page book is told in both words and pictures. The Invention of Hugo Cabret is not exactly a novel, and it’s not quite a picture book, and it’s not really a graphic novel, or a flip book, or a movie, but a combination of all these things. Each picture (there are nearly three hundred pages of pictures!) takes up an entire double page spread, and the story moves forward because you turn the pages to see the next moment unfold in front of you."

There is also a clickable link on that website where you can see an opening sequence of drawings from the book. Brian Selznick won a Caldecott Medal for his artwork in this book. Again...amazing. Fascinating. I loved it.

Email issues

Just wanted to give everyone a heads up that my main email address isn't working right now. There seems to be a server problem. If you've emailed me in the last two days or so at the chronicles address I probably didn't get it. You can use the nagdalie@aol.com email address if you need to reach me. That one is up and running. I'll let you know when the other one is fixed. Thanks.

Christmas 1972

Yesterday I bought a big bag of these.

I remember having nuts like these around during the holidays when I was younger. I mentioned that to Brian, and he had similar memories of nuts as well. I thought it would be fun to buy some and let our kids share in the experience. The only problem was that we didn't have a nutcracker. We stopped at several stores on our way home to look for a nutcracker. Brian went in search of the nutcracker while I picked up a few other things. He looked everywhere in at least 3 stores to no avail. No nutcracker. Tonight we stopped at Walmart to pick up a couple of things. When we were done we walked over to the kitchen supplies where I picked up this.

He started to laugh.

Turns out he was looking for this...

And then it was my turn to laugh. I'm still laughing. Hahahahahahaha...

OK...editing to add another picture I found of a tree bowl nutcracker set.

This one has a clearer picture of the nutcracker in the middle of the back with a pick on each side. Hope this helps...and I'm still laughing!

Mele Kalikimaka

Last Friday I hung out with some of my friends. We played dominoes and ate lots of yummy food. During the festivities my friend Paula mentioned the Christmas song Mele Kalikimaka. Only 1 of her 6 guests had even heard of the song, and it wasn't me. There was much discussion about the song during the day. As we were leaving we all gathered around Paula's truck to hear Bing Crosby give his rendition and watch Paula do motions to the words.

Mele Kalikimaka is the thing to say on a bright Hawaiian Christmas Day.
That's the island greeting that we send to you from the land where palm trees sway.
Here we know that Christmas will be green and bright.
The sun to shine by day and all the stars at night.
Mele Kalikimaka is Hawaii's way to say Merry Christmas to you

On Sunday as we were waiting for our Christmas program to start at church different trivia questions were flashed across the screen up front. One of the questions was asking how to say Merry Christmas in Hawaiian. Mele Kalikimaka! Because of Paula I knew the answer!

Later that evening I was doing a little shopping at Target. A 4-pack of Jones soda caught my eye. Mele Kalikimaka flavor! Of course I had to buy it for Paula.



The flavor was light with a hint of pineapple and coconut. Yummy! Mele Kalikimaka everyone!

Steady

I have been a horrible blogging buddy lately. I have read so many great blog posts, but I have rarely commented on any of them. I know that I have been in transition for some time now, but I still hate that. I can promise you that I am reading. I care about what you say. I really appreciate all those who are faithful to leave comments on my posts when they read. I am going to try to do a better job of that. I am feeling somewhat out of sorts and needing a little bit of a routine. Routines are already being put in place around here. And while I am a pretty spontaneous person in most of my life I need some steady as well. I think that will come after the Christmas break. I am looking forward to the new year.

Proof

Trying to prove he is the biggest Dallas Cowboys fan Will begged me to paint a star on his stomach for game time on Sunday. The best part is that he was watching the game at home with only his dad for company. The second best part is that the only paint I had was wall touch-up paint without a brush. He didn't mind so I finger painted on his stomach. He wanted me to take a picture as proof. I told him that his underwear was showing, but he didn't care. Ok then. Proof.

laughed until i cried

ok...i know i just posted, but i just read this and can't stop laughing. so funny to me. that cat's got talent!

Three Reasons...

I am so happy to be in America for Christmas.

1.


2.


3.


Um...what?

smiling

Looked through some old photo albums this past week. These pictures made me smile.


Senior year in high school...photo scavenger hunt I think.


Um...I don't sing which makes this picture even funnier. We were practicing for a duet. Summer before my senior year. Hahahahaha!


I loved these people!


Lance Borden in drag...Wheel of Fortune anyone?


And then we have my hair the summer after 10th grade. My hair looked remarkably similar to this the other day when I was out. It was humid and slightly rainy. Not an attractive look for me I must add. I went out and bought some humidity fighting conditioner and hairspray. Brian sang the "You're so Vain" song to me because of it. Um...hello. Do you see the curls? Being vain has nothing to do with it. Not looking like Bozo the clown does.

There are so many more where these came from. I might have to do regular flashback posts. Just to make me smile!

Update

Finally. I finally have an internet connection at my house. I have had a random floating wireless connection since I've been here, but I could never count on getting online. I also never knew how long the connection would last. Now we are set up with our own wireless so the possibilities for blogging are endless. Now my problem is time. Well time and tiredness. We have been pretty busy going and doing since our wireless connection was established on Wednesday night. I have had very little time to actually sit down and blog. Then when I did have time I was so unbelievably exhausted that the thought of looking at words on a screen made my eyes cross. Now. Now I have just awakened from a 2 hour nap. I feel rested. I am blogging.

Wow. Can I just say that living in America is more exhausting than I thought it would be? I know that isn't completely true. It just happens to be a true statement of these past three weeks. I have been to Walmart more times than I care to count. I have spent more money than I care to know about on things like a mop and bucket, a printer, measuring cups and spoons, and telephones. And that is just a sampling of the lists and lists and lists I've brought to Walmart with me. All of those things were so much cheaper than they would have been in Turkey, but they still add up.

Another thing that has worn me out is school. I'm not in school, but I almost feel like I am. Erica and Will have to get on the bus at 6:50am. They get on 2 different buses since they are going to 2 different schools. I am used to getting up about 7 so getting up an hour earlier to make sure they've had breakfast and have lunch has been an adjustment. I am not a morning person or a night person per say. I just need some sleep to function. I prefer to stay up late, but I have barely been able to keep my eyes open past 9pm the past few weeks. I hate that!

Anna Grace and Jacob don't leave for school until 8:25. I must admit it is nice to get the two older kids out the door before having to wake up the younger two, but by the time they leave on the bus I've been up for 2 1/2 hours already. I want a nap by that point! I did manage to take a nap one day last week, and boy did it feel good!

Blogging about naps...twice in one post already. Um...let's move on.

The kids are doing a pretty good job of adjusting. They have had some culture shock going to school here which was expected some. I was surprised at how different things were from what I remember. Anna Grace seems to be having the hardest time. She doesn't do well with change so I expected that. There have been many tears and exclamations of "I hate this school" over the course of the last two weeks. On Tuesday of her first week of school I got a call from the counselor who was trying to calm Anna Grace down. Evidently the math is different than what she was used to in Turkey. Something about a 4 step process. I had no idea what she was talking about, but I talked Anna Grace into going back to class. The next morning she cried about going to school. I managed to get her ready and out to the bus stop. As soon as she saw the bus coming down the street she came and hugged me and said she wasn't going. She was adamant. She started to try to run for the house, but I managed to grab her and hold her there. I told her she had to go to school. I told her that everyone understood that she didn't know how to do the math. The counselor said that the teacher was going to sit down with her and show her how to do it. The bus pulled up and all the kids except Anna Grace got on it. She wouldn't let go of me. I knew that if I gave in and took her to school it would be a fight every morning. The bus driver was telling her that she could sit in the front. Finally at my wits end I started to cry. Through my tears I told her she had to go to school. She looked up at me, saw the tears, and turned and got on the bus. Poor girl. Made me weepy all day. At lunch her math teacher called to welcome us to the school. She said that Anna Grace mentioned that she made me cry that morning at the bus stop. Yes. Yes she did. Reverse psychology. It works...even when you don't mean to do it.

We still have almost all of our Christmas shopping to do. The adults were taken care of before we left Turkey, but the 8 nieces and nephews as well as our own children might like it if we gave them a present. I have seen wish lists from some of them which should make the job of shopping easier. The problem is that after all the necessary shopping to set up house I haven't really wanted to Christmas shop. I am not a big fan of shopping in general. Unless it is for shoes...for myself...which hasn't happened at all since I've been here. It's been 19 days and I haven't purchased a pair of shoes yet. I haven't even looked at shoes! I did buy 2 pairs of slippers, but that doesn't count! What is the world coming to?

Oh. Our Vonage phone is now working as well. Same number as before. If you don't have it and want it email me. It will be our main phone line here.

Collecting dust...

I am a collector. There I said it. I admitted it on my blog for the world to see. My last post was about a cool collection I had. Vinyl. This post will definitely showcase some of my not so cool collections over the years.

Bags. As in shopping bags. The catch was that they had to be from different countries. My dad traveled some when I was a kid, and I always loved the bags the souvenirs came in. They were so interesting to me with their foreign writing. I have since gotten rid of those bags. I'm guessing I just trashed them at some point.

Hats. Lot of different kinds of hats and caps. I still have part of this collection. I saw it the other day when I was going through the boxes to be put in the attic. At the time I had no idea I would be writing this post so I didn't take a good look at it to see what was left. It made me smile though.

Within the hat collection there is a small sub-collection of old hats.


Now I didn't go out and purchase these old hats. They belonged to a great aunt of mine. When I was little I used to love to go to her house and try on all her hats. When she died my grandmother secured these 6 for me. Ahh...memories.

Buttons. Completely random buttons. I have no idea where some of them came from.


At the bottom left of this picture are some aluminum coin things that were stamped with sentiment and given to me by a friend. They were in the button collection bag as well.

Salt and Pepper Shakers


Please...I know. What in the world was I thinking? Where do I put these?


I also have 7 of these...


and 11 of these.

I've dabbled in stamps, rocks, Wizard of Oz figurines, and Santa Clauses over the years as well as other things I'm sure I'm not remembering.

Currently I am collecting books...classic children's literature as well as Newbery Award winners and honor books. I couldn't even begin to tell you how many books I have in boxes everywhere. I also have an ongoing collection of Nativity Scenes. There are four set up in my house and two more in a crate somewhere between Turkey and Texas.

It's a sickness I tell you.