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Sunday, December 21, 2008

On the Twelfth Day of Christmas I posted on my Blog ...

Twelve canes of candy

Eleven cranes a-folded
Ten points on antlers
Nine manger figures
Eight links for counting
Seven pm concert
Six handmade stockings
Five birthday guests
Four excited kids
Three bloggy gifts
Two dozen cookies
and a PRETTY DECORATED CHRISTMAS TREE!

Merry Christmas, Bloglanders!

...and we will now soon return to our regularly scheduled programming.

Saturday, December 20, 2008

On the Eleventh Day of Christmas I posted on my Blog ...

Eleven cranes a-folded

Ten points on antlers
Nine manger figures
Eight links for counting
Seven pm concert
Six homemade stockings
Five birthday guests
Four handmade stockings
Three bloggy gifts
Two dozen cookies
and a pretty decorated Christmas tree.


Though I do do some origami, and can make cranes (with the instructions in front of me) I did not make these, but the friend of a friend who knows that we were without our regular decorations this year.  So kind to share ...

Friday, December 19, 2008

On the Tenth Day of Christmas I posted on my Blog ...

Ten points on antlers

Nine manger figures
Eight links for counting
Seven pm concert
Six homemade stockings
Five birthday guests
Four excited kids
Three bloggy gifts
Two dozen cookies
and a pretty decorated Christmas tree.

Thursday, December 18, 2008

On the Ninth Day of Christmas I posted on my Blog ...

Nine manger figures

Eight links for counting
Seven pm concert
Six homemade stockings
Five birthday guests
Four excited kids
Three bloggy gifts
Two dozen cookies
and a pretty decorated Christmas tree.

Wednesday, December 17, 2008

On the Eighth Day of Christmas I posted on my Blog ...

Eight links for counting

a Seven pm concert
Six homemade stockings
Five birthday guests
Four excited kid
Three bloggy gifts
Two dozen cookies
and a pretty decorated Christmas tree.

Tuesday, December 16, 2008

On the Seventh Day of Christmas I posted on my Blog ...

a 7:pm concert (played by #2)

Six homemade stockings 
Five birthday guests
Four excited children
Three gifts from Shauna
Two dozen cookies
and a pretty, decorated Christmas Tree

#2 plays flute in the 7th grade concert band.  The flutes are the first two rows to the right of the conductor.  #2 is on the second row, second chair.  I have to say, these kids are amazing.  I have heard (and been in) my share of jr. high and high school bands, and this is one of the best I've heard, especially for how young they are.  They play well, play together, and have an amazingly full and talented percussion section, which adds depth and fullness.

Monday, December 15, 2008

On the Sixth Day of Christmas I posted on my Blog ...

Six homemade stockings

Five birthday guests
Four excited children
Three gifts from Shauna
Two dozen cookies,
and a pretty decorated Christmas tree.

The other "Mina's Christmases" picture this post will paint for you has not to do with the photo, but the time.  I have set all of these posts to publish at 7 am.  Some are missing photos as events are on-going, but I have been able to get them all ready by publish time.  Not the stockings.  I taped them up (because I need to buy hooks), shot them and uploaded the pictures the minute they were finished.  (And these were pretty sloppily done by my standards--thank goodness the photo hides much of that.)  It will be 1:40 by the time I post.

I spend all season, and all year for that matter, procrastinating.  I always want to have everything ready to go ahead of time.  But it almost never happens.  The only time I was ready for Christmas early was the year I was scheduled to be induced on Dec 23rd.  The sad fact is that if I had not decided to post about our stockings, they would remain yet unsewn.

Tomorrow's post is scheduled to publish at 9 pm.  That is not because of procrastination, but because of the time of the event I will be posting about.  Just so you know...

Sunday, December 14, 2008

On the Fifth Day of Christmas I posted on my Blog ...

Five birthday guests

Four excited children
Three gifts from Shauna,
Two dozen cookies, 
and a pretty decorated Christmas Tree.

Okay, to be honest here, there were 4 guests and one birthday boy.  But "guests" alone fit the tune so much better.  So I took poetic license.  Though his party was yesterday, #4 turns 7 in another week and a half.  In the photo he is second from the left.

Saturday, December 13, 2008

On the Fourth Day of Christmas I posted on my Blog ...

Four excited children




Three gifts from Shauna, 
Two dozen cookies, 
and a pretty, decorated Christmas Tree.

Friday, December 12, 2008

On the Third Day of Christmas I posted on my Blog ...

Three gifts from Shauna

Two dozen cookies, 
and a pretty, decorated Christmas tree.

Thank you, Shauna!  You are so very sweet.  I don't know where you find the time ...

Thursday, December 11, 2008

On the Second Day of Christmas I posted on my Blog ...

Two dozen cookies, (made for the prison)

And a pretty decorated Christmas tree.


With all of the great comments I'm getting, I wanted to add two things.  One, my 2 dozen cookies were a contribution to a Stake Relief Society annual project.  The over 6,000 cookies get bagged into sets of 4 cookies and are delivered to the local state? prison.  It's a really wonderful service and is this year particularly close to my heart.

Also, thanks for saying the cookies "look" yummy.  I guess it's a good photo, because these are the ugliest Holiday cookies around.  We sometimes call them ugly duck cookies.  There's nothing to do to pretty them up.  But they taste wonderful.  Full of brown sugar, pecans, dates and candied cherries.  Almost like a fruit cake.  But actually delicious.

Wednesday, December 10, 2008

On the First Day of Christmas I posted on my Blog ...

... a pretty decorated Christmas Tree.



Today through December 21, I will be posting 12 Posts of Christmas.  I got the idea from Erin, the great.  This will give a small peek into celebrations Chez Poisson.

Monday, December 08, 2008

Insecurity


I was recently presented by Wendy with this "honest scrap" award.  The original idea was to list 10 honest things about yourself.  I knew, however, that I'd be writing an essay instead.  Coming up with a topic took a while, but thanks to a Facebook chat I had with my schoolmate Tim and to some brainstorming in the shower, I am ready to write.


My dad left home when I was almost 7.  (Just about exactly the same age as #4 this month.)  The divorce was final when I was in 6th grade.  It was long and drawn out.  Absence of closure is not a helpful thing for someone who tends to brood over everything to begin with.  Throughout that time, adults (including my parents, or at least my dad) always seemed to comment on how well I was handling the divorce.  That was absolutely false.  But an overwhelming desire to be very grown-up kept me from correcting any one.

To be honest, I was sad.  I had been a bit of a daddy's girl, and to have him gone every night was not easy.  I felt disillusioned.  Divorce had been a fear of mine a year or two before, and one night I'd asked my parents if I would have a say in a decision like that.  They had said yes, and I felt safe, because I knew my vote.  Anger over that "lie" lasted well into my teens.  More anger was directed toward my dad for leaving at all, for then quickly leaving the church, and for frequent miscommunication.  Even more anger was directed toward his new mate for her existence and for being so hard to hate.

I felt embarrassed.  Maybe not quite at first, but by 3rd or 4th grade, I was embarrassed to have a single mom, poor, living in an apartment.  By middle school I was also continually embarrassed by our very old cars.  That is, until I could drive the old cars.  Lots of kids drove old cars.  I was embarrassed to have very generic clothing.  Ironically,  now that I can generally shop wherever I'd like, most of what I own comes from Target.  My kids aren't even embarrassed.

All of this fed what I believe to be a natural inclination toward insecurity.  I felt like I had something to prove.  I had to prove to my friends that I was friend-worthy.  I had to prove to my cousins that I was family-worthy.  I had to prove to myself that I was better than my surroundings.

This is not a good state to be in.  Especially when a little kid decides that the best way to prove all of this is to tell everyone how great she is and show off.  That is actually a fantastic way to lose friends and make your cousins think you're obnoxious.  Losing friends and having family not like you is a great way to think you have something more to prove.  It was, tritely put, a vicious circle.

Gradually through middle school and by high school, I found that the best thing to do was to keep my mouth shut (not only about how great I was but about most things) and hope for friends to find me.  And some did.  I decided that it did not matter, really, what anyone thought.  But if I'm really being honest here, it did matter.  I'm still not sure how to make it not matter.  I acted back then in ways I am ashamed of to fit in and get just a tiny bit of attention with out the bragging.

Being honest, I still continue under the assumption that most people probably won't like me.  Or like me enough to be my friend.  I have a hard time putting myself on the line enough to reach out.  I am always grateful for the friend here and there who reaches my direction, and then once I feel certain the rejection is not, in fact, eminent, I can finally open up.  I am fully aware that this is a selfish way of thinking and behaving.

That has been the seductive aspect of blogging.  Being in a brand new place, I have found it relatively easy to hop over to some one's blog, click "follow" and leave a comment. At least once I figured out that that action would not come off as presumptuous and bothersome. And you know what?  A few kind folks have clicked "follow" on my site.  They even return, some of them, to see what I have to say.  This is the best my social life has been since kindergarten. To be honest, it's some of the best that I have felt about myself.



For more introspection, though hopefully less depressing, click here, here, and here.  Otherwise stay tuned for my upcoming fluffy 12 days of Christmas posts, Dec 10-21.

Friday, December 05, 2008

Shameless Product Endorsement

Well, except I'm not getting paid.


Not long ago, a fellow blogger listed "dog owners who don't train their dogs" as a pet peeve.  Sorry.  I'm in that category.  Lucy is completely house broken, which she was not when we got her.  And she can sit.  And she does (usually) sit for me.  I think that's about it.  We're working on the not jumping on visitors thing which she is getting better about.  And I've gotten her to stop waking me up to go potty in the night.  But that's really it.

Let me 'splain.  We got Lucy in August 2006 from my father-in-law's neighbor who'd gotten her for the kids for Christmas, but decided they didn't really want a dog after all.   She hadn't been abused or really neglected.  I think she was largely ignored.  She was about 9 months old. 

I immediately started walking her almost daily.  This was a chore.  She is a pure-bred Golden Retriever.  It's not uncommon to see Goldens walking their owners.  They are high-energy dogs.  I thought, "I need to train this dog." (Especially since she was not, as I said earlier, housebroken.)  So I bought some books and videos from "Uncle Matty" (this is not the shameless plug).  Those really did help with the potty training.  And I think they would have helped with the "heel" command too, but ...

It was just barely a couple of weeks later that I was hit in the middle of the night with Trigeminal Neuralgia.  My life was turned on it's head for several months.  Not walking Lucy anymore wasn't the worst of the pet troubles we had.  We had a dwarf hamster that I stopped feeding and watering, and no one else thought to do it ... and she died.  If I hadn't been in such constant pain followed by constant drugged-upness for months, I would have felt like a monster.  As it was I felt pretty bad.

Anyway, I never got back into the walk the dog regularly thing.  Send her in the back yard with the kids and a tennis ball just seemed much easier.

Since we've moved, though, I've been inspired to really train her.  She still acts like a big puppy, and everyone would be happier with a trained dog.  I read those books again.  They are great.  But I haven't actually used them.  Then last Saturday, my brother-in-law sold the new puppy that #3 was sure was meant to be hers.  TO help ease the devastation, Larry suggested we go let her pick out a new toy for Lucy.  While toys were being analysed, I happened to see a dog harness.  It claimed that it would instantly end pulling.  I was totally skeptical.  But for $9.99, I figured it was worth a shot.

Yesterday we tried to for the first time.  INSTANT SUCCESS!  I was absolutely astonished.  This basically works by having a harness around the dog's chest with two straps that go under her "armpits" and lace through a loop.  The ends of the armpit straps are connected to another loop where you hook your leash.  So when the dog pulls, the straps tighten.  I guess this is uncomfortable, and keeps the dog from running ahead.  I am still unsure why this is more uncomfortable that the choking that always resulted in the past, but I guess it is, because it keeps her by my side.  It's a Festivus MIRACLE!

I just got back from ... walking my dog.  No choking.  No arms pulling out of their sockets.  It was wonderful.  I like walking so much better when I'm walking her.  I don't know why.  But my hope is that this will get us back to the walks that we both need so badly.  A tired puppy is a good puppy.  And a walking Mina will hopefully be a skinnier Mina.

* Note:  If you are interested in this product, check it out with the link above, but don't buy it there.  It's $16.48 there versus the $9.99 that I paid at Walmart.

*Another Note:  Here are photos of us, post-walk.  I was trying to show the harness, but she wanted to lay down and have her belly rubbed, so there was limited success.  Isn't she pretty, though?

Oh, my!  Let's zoom out, shall we?


Ok, not a bad shot of the harness, but what the heck is she doing?  
Can't she see I have a camera in my hand?  Come on ... smile!



Well, now cute puppy and no harness.  BAAAAAA!


Ok, finally!  A little of the cute dog.  A little of the harness.

Wednesday, December 03, 2008

Reason #43 why I am glad we moved to Idaho

In Southern California:


Sudden bladder infection hits.  Pain, blood, need medical attention.  

Larry drives me to the ER (Urgent Care closes early), where I pee in a cup and wait 5 to 8 hours for a doctor to confirm what I already knew and get me a prescription.

Why the long wait?  Because the ER is full of a) folks who are trying to get out of work the next day, and b) folks who use the ER as their regular doctor because they have no insurance, generally for a reason which I will not state because I will sound like an insensitive bigot.

Wait 45 minutes at the over-crowded pharmacy for my anti-biotics and pain meds.

Sleep all of the next day to make up for the whole ordeal.

In Idaho:

Sudden bladder infection hits.  Pain, blood, need medical attention.

Larry is in California on business (bummer!), but helps me think while I find the number and address of an open Urgent Care Clinic open until 10 pm.  I drive there, get registered there since I'm new, pee in a cup and wait 5 minutes for the test strip to develop.  

No wait?  What?  I'm seriously the ONLY patient?  Alrighty then!

Wait 15 minutes for a my prescriptions.  Head home. 

 Total time gone: 1 hr. 20 min.




~~~~~~~~~~~
Last summer I was talking to a sales woman at Joann about moving up to Idaho.  She said, "Well, I hope you like it, because you probably won't be able to move back if you don't."

Good.

Tuesday, December 02, 2008

Get Yourself a Blog Already

Larry is in California this week. (Thankfully I have all of you to fill the void of my evenings!)  Anyway, I just got an email sent from his cell phone.  This is not in itself very strange.  He knows I'm more likely to be at my computer than I am to hear my cell.  He sent a photo he'd taken.  Also not strange.  I often get pictures of ridiculous things he sees for my entertainment.  But what I got was this:

with the caption, "They fit just right!"

Let me back up to give a small amount of context.  Larry was packing for the trip and opened a new package of socks.  The label read, for shoe sizes 6 to 12.  Larry started to gripe about such a large range of feet that were all expected to fit into this particular sock, adding to his frustration that socks never seem to fit him well.  I pointed out that his size 9 foot was smack in the middle of that, which was a good sign.  And I guess it was indeed.

Ok, is it me, or does this seem like just the kind of photo and story we'd run across as a post from one of our bloggy companions?  In fact that thought struck me so hard that it was a little of a turn-off.  It seemed, I don't know, feminine of him.  (Not that I find blogging feminine, CaJoh, but there is certainly a feminine style of blogging.  I don't see a post like this on your blog.)  I mean, what's next, a picture of pouty-faced-Larry holding a up stripped screw?  Maybe a fresh-out-of-the-salon photo--how do you like my new hair-cut? 

Larry has mentioned more than once the idea that he start blogging.  I'm not sure if that would annoy me or please me.  I don't think he even knows my url.  If I want him to see something on my blog I have to show him myself.  Well, maybe he just wouldn't have Mormon Mommy Bloggers on his blog roll.  I might have to "pay" him to list mine.  Of course, I think he had ideas of posting insightful and humorous bits of wisdom rather than pictures of his feet.