Archives for 2008

This post is all about my daughter. My beautiful, precious two year old who seems to have slammed full force into the terrible two’s in the last month. I was not prepared for this. So I’m taking a moment to focus on the positives. Sometimes it’s hard to see the good, you know? So here’s my Tia, the funny, the sweet, the good.

Tia is obsessed with The Best of Elmo video. It’s the only movie she will sit though so she watches it almost daily. I’ve grown slightly bitter at Elmo after seeing this video so many times. Sloan loved this when he was younger too, so I’ve seen it roughly 500 times, and that’s probably not an exaggeration. But, as you can see, she finds great joy in her ya-ya-ya (her name for Elmo). A few more translations so you can decipher Tia talk:

Ah sees: I want to see

Hol Yushi dooth: Sloan’s Russian school

Ah ee ah d yushi dooth: When I’m three I’ll go to Russian school

Ah do hol yushi dooth mama?: Will I go to Sloan’s russian school Mama?

It is truly like knowing another language trying to speak with her. We go back and forth as to whether or not we need to have some hearing tests done on her. I’m not 100% sure that she hears well. We’ve known for awhile that she’s got a lot of wax in her ears, but she freaks out if anyone tries to look into them. Seriously, kicking and screaming – it’s awful. So I’m waiting until she’s a little older, then I’ll make Lee take her to the doctor! The pictures are of Tia bathing her baby dolls. I got this idea from my friend, Erin, and Tia had a ball doing it. Plus, she spilled so much water on the floor that I ended up mopping, which gave me a nice clean floor. I swear, I have never once bathed any of my children like this – I just wanted to clarify.

This Friday and Saturday, the St. Louis Blogger’s Guild is hosting Inter:PLAY, the first-ever St. Louis-area interactive social media festival. There are going to be a number of great breakout sessions with some of our area’s top bloggers/vloggers ranging from photography, to podcasting to protecting your rights as a blogger and increasing traffic to your site. Click on the Inter:PLAY icon to the right for more information, a breakdown of each session and to see all of the great things that will be happening over the weekend. Inter:PLAY is hosted in conjunction with PLAY:stl, a popular music festival showcasing all kinds of talent. Fifteen bucks is all it takes to glean a whole lot of great information and hear some really cool indie bands. You can purchase your wristbands (admission to all venues) online quickly and easily. It’s going to be a very fun weekend so I highly recommend you come on down to the University City loop and join us. And, if you do, come say hi to me at the guild tent on Saturday from 10:00-2:00. See you there!

For a while now, I’ve been trying to instill in the kids the importance of taking care of our house and of their own things. You know, because last I checked I was not the maid – or at least I wasn’t getting paid to be! We started having them make their beds about 6 months ago. It’s just something that I wanted them to start taking responsibility of. I do not require that the beds look perfect, just that they put in the effort. And I do not remake the beds behind them. However they make their beds is how they stay. Sloan has actually gotten quite good at making his bed look nice. When we first started, he just kind of threw his covers up and piled his pillows on top. Now, he smoothes the blankets out and stacks the pillows neatly. Tia is getting there. She tries really hard and is always so proud of herself when she’s done.

A couple of weeks ago at Once Upon a Child in Ballwin, I found these super duper chore charts. I am so excited about these because it gives the kids some focus and it rewards their work. At the end of the week, if they have their chart mostly filled we give them a small allowance. The stickers from the chart are reusable so at the end of the each week, I just pull them off and we start all over again with a clean slate. Sloan gets stickers for making his bed, picking up toys, cleaning the bathroom, doing his homework (with a good attitude), taking his dishes to the sink (after all three meals) and having a nice attitude. I reserve the right to take any stickers away if needed. Tia gets stickers for the same things minus homework and cleaning the bathroom. It’s been a fun way to encourage them to do these simple, basic chores on a daily basis. They love to put their stickers on their charts and love getting money even more!
If any of you have other good ideas for encouraging your kids to take responsibility around the house, I’d love to hear them. I’m always up for new ideas.
P.S. As an added bonus, this is great motivation for me to make my own bed and pick up my room on a daily basis. There is the slightest possibility that my room remained a train wreck almost daily but if I’m going to require the kids to keep their rooms clean, I guess I need to model that myself. Now, if someone would only pay me an allowance…

Lee was out of town this weekend, which gave me ample talking time with my adorable, precocious 5 year old. Here is a run down of two of the more memorable conversations we had.

Friday morning before breakfast, the kids and I prayed. When we finished, Sloan started in:
Sloan: Mom, does God live in my heart?
Me: Well, one day, when you’re ready to ask God into your heart and you understand what that means, you can come to mommy and daddy and we’ll help you call upon God as your Savior. But you have to be ready.
Sloan (looking up to the sky, his voice filled with drama): God, please come into my heart.
Me: Well, there will come a day when you understand what it means to ask God into your heart and mommy and daddy will help you do that. But you have to be ready…
Sloan (lifts his left leg and passes gas…loudly): HAHAHAHA! I tooooooooooooteeeeedddd!
Me (pausing for a moment to let the abrupt change in our conversation sink in): Obviously, you’re not ready right now so let’s just eat our Cheerios, ‘kay?
And thus another potentially teachable moment was gone and I ended up stifling laughter for several moments.

Later that day, we were at my mom’s house and Sloan and my mom started having a conversation.
Sloan: Byshka, you know what?
Mom: What?
Sloan: When I grow up to be a big man, I’m gonna be a daddy.
Mom: Really?
Sloan: Yeah. I’m gonna get married and have a wife and be a daddy. (and I’m thinking to myself, “Yeah and it better be in that order buddy!)
Mom: And what are yougoing to do when you’re a daddy?
Sloan: Well, first I have to go get my kids.
Mom: Where?
Sloan: At the kid store. There’s bones there.
Mom: What kind of kids are you going to pick out?
Sloan: No! I don’t pick them out. God makes them at the kid store with the bones.
Mom: Oh. Are you going to have boy kids or girl kids?
Sloan: Well, I’m gonna have boy kids. But do you want me to have a girl?
Mom: Well, girls are pretty fun.
Sloan: Okay, I’ll have a girl kid and a boy kid, or maybe two boy kids.

What a joy that little boy is – most of the time…Anyhoo, despite Lee’s absence, I actually had a very pleasant weekend. I got to go out and mingle with some of St. Louis’s elite on Friday night when I went to a soiree honoring Bob Gibson, former Cardinals pitcher. Never mind that I had never heard of the guy in my life, it was still a free meal and a nice evening out. And Saturday night I went out with my awesome neighbors where I wowed them with my in-depth knowledge of all things Cardinals. Well, okay, I think my neighbor Mike almost had a hemmorage when I said the line, “some guy named Bob Gibson who was like a pitcher or something.” You can check out Julie’s site for pictures of our kickin’ kidless evening!

And finally, a special shout out to my awesome mother-in-law who celebrated her birthday today. I am blessed to be married to her son and am blessed by her on a regular basis. We love you Barbara and hope you had a fantastic day.

To read my thoughts on September 11, scroll down to the post before this. Generally I try not to post more than once a day, but these videos are so sweet and I needed a little happy on my blog! Here’s video of the day Landon figured out how to crawl when we were at my in-law’s house in Arkansas. And another video of Sloan making Landon laugh.

I actually posted another story, then realized that today is September 11 and decided I wanted to hold that post until tomorrow. It never ceases to shock and horrify me when I remember back to the events of that horrible day. As Nicole said on her blog, this is the “Where were you when JFK was shot?” moment of our generation.

On Saturday, the Discovery channel ran a program titled Inside the Twin Towers and went through the sequence of events from inside the WTC. It was devastating to watch, even though much of it was reenacted. They interviewed the real people whose stories were being told as well, which gave it such a feeling of reality. This really happened. Over 2,000 people really died. For nothing. When they flipped to real footage of the burning towers, every emotion I felt that day came rushing back. I cringed as I watched people jump from top story windows, their bodies falling lifelessly to the ground. My stomach tightened up in knots as they replayed the sound of those bodies hitting the lobby roof. And the moment when the first tower fell, my eyes welled up with tears. I still can’t believe that happened.

Seven years ago today, Lee and I were living in Dallas. Lee was in Atlanta that day, scheduled to fly home in the late afternoon. My mom called me at roughly 8:00 and told me I needed to turn on the news. I headed down to our apartment complex’s workout facility and turned on the news while running on the treadmill. After about 10 minutes of running, I was so horrified that I raced back up to our apartment and sat on the floor, my eyes glued to the television. It was shortly after that that the first tower fell and I lost it. I began sobbing hysterically and I picked up the phone to call Lee. He was in a meeting so I left him a message. Not long after that, he called me back, the same shock that I felt depicted in his voice over the phone. My brother was in the Persian Gulf at this time on a naval carrier and I was terrified for him. My dad was somewhere on the East Coast, also hoping to return home that day and if I remember correctly he was actually supposed to fly out of one of the airports that the highjacked planes flew out of. But I could be wrong about that. At any rate, my entire family was spread out and I felt so very alone.

Because all flights were cancelled, Lee and a few guys managed to secure one of the last few rental cars left and started to drive back to Texas. I pulled myself away from the TV and managed to get to our church where I was involved in the best Bible study with a group of extremely godly women. We held each other, cried and prayed. It was a bright moment in a dark day.

Lee made it home the next day. I was working at the gym and he came straight there and it took everything in me not to break down when he walked in the room. In Texas, Lee and I had the privilege of attending Chuck Swindoll’s church. That Sunday we sat in the second row and cried through most of his sermon. One thing that Swindoll said particularly struck me. His comment was, “There isn’t a hell hot enough for the men who carried out this horrific deed.” It gave me comfort to know that it was okay to feel that way. It was okay to be angry. It was okay to question why. But it was extremely important to remember that the God of September 10 was the same as the God of September 11. Our God did not change, though the makeup of our life may have. And now, seven years later, I am once again reminded that the God I love is constant. The things of this world are not. I continue to cling to that hope and rest in that very simple knowledge hidden deep within the crevices of my heart.

On Saturday afternoon, I packed my husband and three children into our minivan and off we drove to the soccer fields where I officially joined the soccer mom brigade. I’ll be honest, this is not something I always looked forward to. I’m not talking about my kid starting soccer, but about the whole persona of being this person. It makes me feel old. My mom jetted us around to sporting events in her own kickin’ minivan. And suddenly, here I am, juggling schedules to make sure someone can take a kid to the game. And this is just kid #1. Yikes!

Sloan, of course, had a blast. He ran down the field with fire on his heels fully intent on kicking the ever lovin’ life out of that innocent ball – and he managed to get in a few good kicks, each time turning to us with a look of sheer delight on his face. The highlight came when he turned and realized we were cheering him on. He ran halfway down the field with his head turned, grinning at everyone on the sidelines, as if they’d all come just for him. Then he threw his arms up in victory. So cute.

Of course, the game was smack in the middle of the day, which meant sweet Landon missed his nap. Here he is about 6:15. He’d just had too much of a good time.

Lee and I also did something this weekend that is, sadly, a rarity for us. We went out on a date! I know, I know, the idea of us desiring to go anywhere just by ourselves is a truly novel concept but it’d been ages since we had a date and we decided to go for it. I got all dolled up, even putting on eye make up. Becke’ and Anna, you guys inspired me with your perfectly applied eyeliner and I went after it. I never wear eyeliner because I feel like it makes me look like a 10 cent hooker. But, hey, a girl ought to be able to look like a hooker in front of her husband, yeah? Lee said he liked the look. Not sure if I should feel flattered or worried. Anyhoo, we went out to Mosaic on Washington Ave. downtown. What a cool place. We highly recommend it! And, some of you will understand this, but for Lee to take me to a trendy restaurant downtown says something important! He’s come a long way from Smokey Bones:)

About 15 years ago (gulp, I’m getting old), I embarked on a journey that changed who I was and opened up the doors to a most unlikely passion. I went on my first mission trip to Minsk, Belarus with an organization called Student Venture. The second I stepped off the plane into that cold, gray land, I knew I would be back. I loved it immediately. I couldn’t get enough of the language, the people or the culture. It truly changed my life and as soon as we returned, I began to prepare for the next year. I went to Kiev, Ukraine that next spring break and the one after that. When I graduated high school and got to college, I knew immediately that I wanted to minor in the Russian language.

My Junior year of college, I embarked on yet another journey into the land that felt just as much like home to me as the U.S. For four months, I was immersed in the culture. It was lonely and cold (really, bitterly cold) and at times frightening (foreign men are forward!). It was during this last trip that I became enamored with the stories of WWII veterans from the former Soviet Union, particularly the Ukrainian region. The loss of life in Ukraine during those years is staggering. Some estimates say that Ukraine alone lost up to 10,000,000 men, women and children. One woman, in particular, had a story so fascinating that I couldn’t forget it. Her name was Maria Ivanovna and she was a laborer in a German prison camp for two years.

Upon coming home, I knew that I had to do something with Maria’s story. I was officially declared a Professional Writing major and began a class that required us to write a novel over the course of a year. I began my novel based on Maria’s story.

Fast forward a couple of years and I was still trying to figure how to make this book authentic when I got the fabulous opportunity to go back to Ukraine and tour the country interviewing veterans and survivors of prison camps. For one month, I hauled my pregnant behind (I was carrying Sloan) all over that country gathering material for what I thought would be a non-fiction book. I even had a publisher lined up. So exciting. But I came home, the publisher fell through and a few other things happened and once again, I was back at square one, only this time I had a lot more information to pull from. So I started my novel yet again. Well, it’s a daunting task, writing a novel like this. I want to do it right and I struggle with self esteem, feeling like I’m not good enough a writer to tackle such a project. But, the story is stuck inside me and it’s slightly crippling because until I get it out, it’s hard to focus on anything else. So, I’m sharing with you, my blogging friends, that I am digging out that manuscrpit, cracking my knuckles and diving back in. And now that it’s out there, I have to finish. I’m already 260 pages in. Some of those pages are great, brilliant even, but some of them are horribly attrocious (I’m thinking more are poorly written than are well written, but I’ll edit when I finish). I don’t know if I’ll even publish this story, but I do know I have to write it. Thanks for listening. I won’t write so much in my next post – promise!

*update #2* Okay, McCain just finished and I’ve got tears in my eyes and I’m wondering if there’s a homeless shelter I can go serve in tomorrow morning. I also hopped up on NyQuil about 30 minutes ago because I needed the sneezing, sniffling, coughing, aching, fever so I could sleep medicine. So, I’m a little loopy. I may erase everything I’ve typed in the morning. But for now, I’m really excited and pumped up and really liking McCain right now. After that speech, voting against McCain would be like voting against puppies and sunshine! He started a little rocky, but he finished strong!

*update* I’m listening to John McCain right now. I really like him, though he does not deliver a speech nearly as well as his kick-arse running mate, Sarah Palin. I really feel like McCain is ready and experienced to lead. He will be a good leader. I’m not sure I agree with everything he says, and I really don’t believe that he’ll do all the things he says he will, because, you know…he’s a politician. Now he’s talking about his time in Vietnam. I don’t know where I’m going with this ramble except to maybe publicly pat myself on the back for sticking with it this long. Lee gave up a few minutes into the speech. He’s downstairs watching the Gaither’s on YouTube. hehehe.*

I try not to delve too deeply into politics on this blog. First of all, that’s not really why I started it and second, well, I’m just not a very political person. I am not interested in politics the way I should be. I know, I know, I have a moral obligation to be aware and informed so I can protect myself and my children’s futures, blah, blah, blah…If I’m being honest here, I’ll tell you that the only time I really pay attention to politics is every four years when the big election comes along. Outside of that, I just don’t want to deal with it.

That being said, I have recently become a little more aware of what’s happening in the political sphere and I’ve tried to make more of an effort to keep myself informed about what the candidates support. I have never been all that impressed with Obama. I just haven’t. I think he is a smart man and a brilliant speaker, but that doesn’t make a great leader and I am not even remotely convinced that he will lead this country in the way that we need to be led. That, and I just don’t agree with him in a lot of areas. I didn’t know much about McCain, but figured since Obama was out for me, McCain was in just by process of elimination. Please don’t judge me for this lacadasical approach to electing our President. But, of course, I could not help but hear about all the hoopla surrounding Sarah Palin as McCain’s VP running mate. When I first heard it, I immediately thought that the McCain campaign was brilliant. Of course! Pick a strong conservative woman and bring the focus of this being an historical race back to the Republican party. It was a bold move, and I think it has great potential to pay off.

I listened to the last half of the RNC last night because I wanted to hear Sarah Palin speak. On paper, she seems perfect – a veritable bionic woman who can do no wrong. And after hearing her speach, I must say I am mightily impressed with this woman. She was confident, well spoken, funny and poignant. As soon as she threw in the hockey mom joke, I knew that she was going to be really, really good. I think she has revived the McCain campaign by bringing a youthfulness to it that was lacking, and by just making people want to watch – and when they watch, they hear and I truly believe that McCain is a good, decent man who would be a very good leader.

Now, I know that Sarah Palin is not the Virgin Mary or some angel sent from heaven. She’s a real person with real flaws, but she seems to have a good head on her shoulders and I admire her for that. Having said that, I will confess that I don’t understand how, as a mother, she could possibly have said yes to this potential job. This is just me and my opinion, on my own blog, but I could not have said yes to such a nomination, no matter how great the honor. Especially given the fact that her 17 year old daughter is pregnant. She had to know that the media would jump all over this. Personally, my first instinct as a mother would have been to protect my child. I could not see myself allowing my child’s personal life to be thrust into the spotlight of the world and scrutinized by every Tom, Dick and Harry who think they know what they’re talking about. My heart hurts for Bristol Palin that she has to face the media of the world and be analyzed and talked about. I’m sorry, but I wouldn’t do that. But, in watching Sarah Palin speak, it is obvious that she is a very strong and secure woman, and I imagine some of that confidence and strength has been passed down to her children, including Bristol. I am not judging Sarah Palin’s decision. I’m simply saying, I personally couldn’t do that. But, I also could co-run a country. Heck, I can barely co-run my house! So there’s that.

Anyway, I think Sarah Palin adds an interesting spin on the election. I would love all of the condidates to stop the junior high bickering and just stick to the issues. That annoyed me last night, the constant character bashing and name calling. Please, people, stop telling me what the other guy’s not going to do and start telling me what you are going to do. And I think the idea that Sarah Palin won’t be able to focus on her children if she’s elected when Obama too has young kids is absurd. Clearly, she is a woman who knows how to juggle home and work. She has a loyal and loving family – not a perfect one (whose is?), but a family who is clearly in support of her and of one another. Children need an involved father as much as they need an involved mother so that argument against Palin needs to be shelved.

Anyway, those are my, long-winded, thoughts on this election process. I’ll keep up with it as much as I can tolerate all the whining and arguing (I wrote about my lack of patience with politicians here), but as soon as they start to annoy me, I’ll probably turn the TV off and pick up a good book. I already know who I’m going to vote for at this point anyway. I’d love to hear any comments from some of you readers (I think there might be like 10 of you now). I don’t mind disagreements, just please be kind.