Missy Pissy Pond

For the past 11 years Ryan and I have lived within miles of the Mississippi River. First, near St. Louis, MO on the Illinois side of the river and then now in Minnesota - just a mere mile from our home. We usually pay no attention to it but today as we drove across the bridge on our way home we pointed out the Mighty Mississippi to Teagan. What a great learning experience for a child - living near the banks of a very historic river.

We pointed out that the River is now flowing again - no ice; winter is O-V-E-R!! Teagan gasped and said "Mommy, what was that?! I just saw something in the Missy Pissy Pond!"

I'm not sure what she saw - it took all my might not to break into hysterical laughter! Maybe tomorrow, if we head that way, I'll take a closer look to see what she saw in the Missy Pissy Pond!!

K is for Kindergarten

Well, the big day has arrived. We received Teagan's letter from the school district and I read it in black and white - Teagan is enrolled in all day, every day Kindergarten beginning in the Fall. I'm excited. She's excited. We all celebrate! During the celebration random thoughts start entering my head:

Will she want to pack a lunch or will she want school lunch?
How will I know if she eats at all!?
Will she like school?
Will she like her teacher?
Will she make friends easy?
Will she miss me?
Will school be easy for her? Hard?
She's growing up too soon...
In a matter of time she'll be driving
College? Yikes!

Once I'm done stressing I look down at my smiley little girl and she can barely contain her excitement and she says:

"Can I have some ice cream?"

You can learn a lot from a five year old! They can teach you things like how not to sweat the small stuff, but I think the lesson Teagan taught me today was ice cream solves all! That's my Kindergartner!!!

I Heart Facebook

Do you Facebook?! It started so innocently in October 2007. Angela, my dear little sister was visiting and the conversation was very similar to this:

Angela: You need join Facebook
Me: No, that's for college students - I'm too old
Angela: It is not - you can join
Me: Still, I'm too old and I doubt any of my friends would be on there anyway
Anglea: Ok - but you can chat with me on there since I'll be in Arizona
Me: Hmmm - I'll think about it

Well that opened the door and she pounced to the computer like a cat hocked up on catnip. In minutes she had created my facebook page and added me as a friend. My first friend - lucky me!

That's pretty much how it stayed for several weeks and then some of her friends added me as a friend. I'm convinced Angela told them to add me - out of sympathy of course. Please add my old sister - she has no Facebook friends.

At best I logged on weekly, really just to check out what Angela was up to. Was she enjoying Arizona? Is the weather nice? All very innocent. Then I added my maiden name to my profile and suddenly it was a MSHS Class of '93 Reunion. I've also been fortunate enough to find friends from our three years in St. Louis - people I was sure I'd probably never see again since we'd lost touch after all these years. Voila - they are back in my life just like that and I love it!!

I don't think my story is much different from many who have joined the Facebook ranks. Take my BFF Molly for example - while in Marquette over the 4th of July she flat out said "NO, you will never see me on Facebook - never!!" And I believed her - I really did...until she left a message on my wall a few weeks ago. Welcome to the darkside Molly - we've been waiting for you!

So, almost 200 friends later and I come across an article titled '10 Warning Signs That You May be Addicted to Facebook'.

Ok, I'm game - here's my self-assessment!

10 warning signs that you may be addicted to Facebook

1. Facebook is your home page. No, it's not - but that's a really good idea!

2. You update your status more than twice a day. Gosh, depends on my day and if I have a lot to share that day. This one is a sometimes.

3. You have over 500 "friends" half of whom you've never actually met. Nope, just under 200 friends and I truly do know them all.

4. As soon as you step away from your computer you're on FB on your phone. Ok, guilty but only because Facebook is always open on my phone. Did I mention I heart my iPhone too?

5. You are a FB stalker. You qualify as a FB stalker if you

a) click on someone's profile more than once a day even if they haven't messaged or tagged you in a photo. No...okay, maybe! I may have stalked someone but I was really waiting for answer to my question!

b) have dragged and dropped more than 3 FB photos (not from your own profile) Nope! I can
confidently say I don't steal photos from other FB pages.

c) actually go to a place mentioned on someone's page in hopes of seeing them in real life...creepy! Not guilty of this one - creepy is right!

6. You change your profile picture more than a 12-year-old girl. Wrong again! I JUST changed my FB profile picture only because I was getting grief that it was so old. My current picture is only the 2nd picture I've had on FB since I joined in 2007.

7. You have checked your FB page while reading this article. No, I waited until I was done
reading the article and then felt compelled to check.

8. You clean up your "wall" so it looks like you spend less time on FB. No, although I do think my wall could use a good cleansing.

9. You are a member of more than 10 groups and respond to every event invitation "attending" even if you have no intention of going. No way - that's rude! You should never RSVP if you don't plan on attending. Haven't you people heard of Dear Abby?! That's a big no-no!

10. You change your relationship status just to mess with people. Never thought of this - that would be funny! But I also heart Ryan and wouldn't want to confuse him too!!

Based on my responses - I don't think I'm addicted...but I do keep doing things very Molly-like! For example, there are FB notes going around and I never thought I would actually spend the time doing them but here's my track record with those:

25 Random things - did it and then I swore I would not do another Facebook note.

My first born - did that one too. I guess I was wrong.

iPod Shuffle - didn't do it, but want to. However, I think some of my friends would suddenly disappear - my music choices can be so random.

So, that's it - verdict is not addicted! And you act so surprised!!!

PS - I'm so glad they didn't do 11 questions. I'm sure the 11th would be "You blog about your Facebook fetish" - whew, escaped that one!!

Happiness is in the skip

Last Sunday we spent a family fun afternoon at the Elm Creek Park Reserve tubing hill. It was the first tubing adventure for each of us and while we planned to have a good time we didn't realize how much fun we were really going to have.




We arrived to a jam-packed parking lot - I guess a lot of other families had the same idea since the thermometer was above 30! We forged ahead and within minutes we found ourselves standing at the top of 10 perfectly manicured snow lanes. We took a cue from the family in the lane next to us and we tied our tubes together - with Teagan in the middle, of course. Once the lane was clear of human targets we pushed off...down we went!!

About halfway down the hill I thought "Oh no, she's going to be so scared"! I did not think that we would achieve the speed that we did in such a short period of time. Before we knew it we were at the bottom. I looked over at Teagan and she was laughing hysterically. She pounded her fist on her tube and said "Stop it! That was so much fun! Let's go again."




We all agreed - again was a must! We pulled our tubes over to the magic carpet ride and it carried us and our tubes back to the top. I could get used to this - when I was a child we had to haul the sleds and ourselves back up the hill! Not here - I guess this is part of what you pay for. On our journey back to the top Teagan was still chattering about how much fun it was and said "next time I'll keep my eyes open!"

We repeated the process many times over for the next two hours. I know that it was a successful family outing because between each slide down the hill Teagan skipped everywhere. I've learned in her 4 short years that when she skips, she's happy! It made us both giddy to watch her enjoy our afternoon.




We're already anxiously awaiting our next trip to Elm Creek!

'Ears' to Ownership

"Blow Tinker Bell a kiss goodnight from your fully furnished vacation villa at Disney Vacation Club’s newest resort, Bay Lake Tower at Disney’s Contemporary Resort, scheduled to open fall 2009."

When we read the caption and saw the pictures we just couldn't resist and we are now proud owners at the newest Disney Vacation Club Resort - Bay Lake Tower! We're very excited about this and can't wait to see the construction progress on our Disney visit in May. Imagine being able to sleep in your bed with Cinderella's Castle lit up in the background.

I know many people enjoy places like Mexico or sandy beaches - we feel this gives us the best of both worlds - we can visit Mexico at Epcot and enjoy Bay Lake Beach right outside our hotel.

Ears to Ownership!!!

Generation WTF!

Ok, I know it seems a bit harsh - not as nicey-nice as Generation X, Y or Z, but seriously...WTF! Daily I am faced with the reality that there is a huge gap between my childhood and that of the kids of today. It's so evident in the mannerisms and activites that I have witnessed. Of particular annoyance to me is the fact that teens these days show blatant disrespect for anyone or anything around then. Case in point: yesterday I was driving down a side street to pick up Teagan when I was suddenly faced with a row of 4 teens on their way home from school. Since the street had no sidewalks they are forced to walk in the street. I get it - not their fault right? Ok, so WHY do they have to walk 4 across and not look or care if there is a car coming??? This chain-of-teens was entirely in my lane and I had to drive on the other side of the street simply to pass. Not a single one of them looked or moved.

After picking up Teagan I encountered the same group of teens and the street was busier so I had to come to a complete stop and wait for traffic on the other side. Finally - one of the teens turned and looked - right at me - and CONTINUED TO WALK IN THE STREET! He didn't move even an inch to the side.

I did the only thing I could think of that was reasonable for this situation. I pushed the gas pedal on my 3,000 ton SUV and slowly went around this group of rude, I-own-the-earth teens. I then used the situation to educate my daughter about respect and safety. I can only hope that I have taught her to make better choices then those in Generation WTF!

Thanks - I feel better now!

One word makes a big difference...

While in Marquette over Christmas we had the opportunity to enjoy an evening at Teagan's Great Grandma (GG) and Great Grandpa's house for dinner. It was a full-house with 9 of us there to enjoy a wonderful ham dinner (my favorite)! This was the first time, in a very long time that Teagan had visited GG's and she found it rather fascinating to explore the house that Poppy grew up in. By far she enjoyed the laundry chute in the bathroom and tossed down rolls of toilet paper and towels to unsuspecting people below. While she enjoyed this the rest of us enjoyed the hilarious-ness that ensued over dinner.

As a good mom should, I made Teagan's plate so all the food was perfectly placed and the perfect temperature by the time she made it to the table. Because of this, Teagan was able to get the first bite of dinner before any of us were even sitting down. As I pulled out my chair to sit beside her I hear her say something that sounds a lot like;

"This tastes like crap!"

What?!?!

She doesn't know that word?! Don't get me wrong I know kids pick up words from all over the place but I'm really confident she doesn't know it and even if she did, it's so unlikely that she would use it correctly in a sentence the first time she tests her new vocabulary on us!!

I was horrified but the looks on the rest of the faces varied from puzzled to 'I'm really trying hard not to laugh'. Meanwhile I am searching her plate to see what I would have given her that she didn't like. I spotted the unlikely cultprit - a spoonful of Ranch dressing. It was then that it dawned on me and I said "What did you say?" and she repeated it again…

"This tastes like Kraft"

Ohhhhh--- now it makes sense! For months I was throwing away bottles of Ranch dressing because she said it tasted bad and then one day she says "Mommy, can you ask Ms. Theresa (daycare) what kind she buys- I really like hers!" Turns out little miss finicky will only eat Hidden Valley Ranch Lite and don't try to pull a fast one on her - she knows the difference.

So all through dinner we're having this conversation about Ranch dressing. GG thinks it was Hidden Valley - but she threw the bottle away after she put the dressing into the serving dish. Teagan politely asks "What color was the top - because Kraft is blue and Hidden Valley is green - I only like the green." So now, we're all really curious and after dinner GG pulls the bottle, with it's blue top, out of the garbage and shows Teagan. This little 4-year old Ranch conniseur smiles and says "See, I told you it was Kraft".

Morale of the story - speak your words clearly and never try to tell Teagan she's wrong about Ranch dressing.