Never a Slave to Fashion...or Common Sense

She wore her pants like this the entire day. Actually, they weren't even her pants--they were Mason's. It definitely didn't help that she paired Mason's backwards pants with red polka-dot underwear (that, at least, was hers).

Happy St Patrick's Day!

Here are a few photos from today. They made a great team.

What Matters Most

For the last couple of Family Home Evenings, Ryan came up with the idea of sharing our memory books with our kids. Ryan pulled out his things last week, which included lots of saved artwork, his journals, and other things. The kids loved it.

Tonight was my night. I remember editing my memory things sometime during college and putting what I wanted in a book. That then got edited out and the important things got stuffed in plastic page protectors. So my 12 years of school from first grade to graduation were reduced to all of the awards I had received--I guess I didn't figure my art had any lasting value because it obviously didn't make the cut.

It was interesting going through it with my kids, because I realize that unless there is a ribbon, trophy, or a shiny certificate to acknowledge the accomplishment it doesn't count. The fact that I rocked the ACT? Nothing compared to getting 2nd place in high jump during my 6th-grade field day. The fact was that field day was only the 6th graders, and there were only 30 of us total. Not a lot of competition. But it came with a ribbon, and was therefor much more glamorous than the test that funded my entire college education.

They took turns holding my ribbons, which included ones for going to girls camp, and a solid number of fourth and fifth place ones that were probably in events comprised of four and five people. I compare much more to the guy on "Meet the Fockers" whose parents had his shrine to mediocrity, but because I have colored ribbons my kids thought I was pretty amazing. Maybe I should buy a trophy for myself (think along the lines of Michael Scott's "Worlds Greatest Boss" statue on the opening of The Office), because if I had a trophy that said "World's Greatest Mom", I think my kids would buy into it 100%. Just because it's on a trophy.

Car Cleaning

Every day Katie goes to preschool, she can bring a show-and-tell. She puts a lot of thought into what she's going to bring, and has recently adding the innovation of finding unique ways of disguising the chosen object.

For all of her preparation, though, she's weak on the follow-through. Twice in this last week she has left her show and tell at home, which is not realized until we're already at preschool. At this point, there's no way I'm going back home to get it and bring it back, no matter how much she pleads.

Here's where it has come in handy that although I'm trying to do a better job at keeping my car clean, I haven't gone too overboard with it. The result was that on Monday, I found a stray Pokemon card that satisfied her, and then today (although I didn't think I had a chance of finding anything), I excavated under the seats where Mason and Katie sit and found a spider ring that they must have gotten for Halloween. I also noticed a quarter under there that I'll leave for some other future emergency.

So although I would love to have an immaculate car, it is handy to have those stray half-eaten bags of goldfish, loose change in the cushions, and almost-empty bags of baby wipes tucked into little hiding places that can be retrieved when needed.

Are You My Friend?

Last week, I got two emails from friends, well actually from Facebook, saying that I had two friends who had joined Facebook and I would need to join too to see their page. I have gotten these before and always ignored them, but I wanted to check in on one of them so I went ahead and signed up.

Along the way as you sign up, you give them your email access and Facebook goes through all the names in your address book to see who else might already be in Facebook. Then I got the list of all the people I might know, and was asked to choose which ones were my friends.

Facebook is really into the "friends" thing. I looked down the list and clicked the people that I knew pretty well and continued on. I didn't realize that Facebook then sends all of those people emails to confirm if we really are friends or not. I've been feeling like I'm back in 5 th grade when you pass notes that say "Are you my friend? Check "yes" or "no"."

I guess I wasn't very careful when I chose who my friends were, because I clicked on someone I don't actually know. She emailed me asking, "Do I know you?" I had to email her back and tell her we're not actually friends and that I just made a mistake. Maybe I should have asked if she wanted to be my friend.

I never actually meant to do anything on Facebook except have an account so that I could see my friends webpage. But I logged in to see what was on my page, and it has this long list of who my "friends" have recently become "friends" with. Are they doing that to taunt me because I don't have any new friends?

Either way, I guess I'll keep it. The funny thing is that somehow it makes me feel more exposed than this blog where anyone can check in--as opposed to Facebook where I have to approve you as a "friend". But in the end, you've got to have friends, and according to Facebook I'm up to about 17 of those.

Dentist Karma

I have bad dentist karma. Really bad. I never go to the dentist and hear good news. I have more crowns than all the royal families in Europe put together. So making dentist appointments always fills me with a sense of dread.

I realize now that this has affected how I deal with my kids and the dentist. Mason has already had two cavities. The first time he had one filled, it looked like he was having an epileptic seizure and it took three of us to pin him down. The second time, they wisely doubled the dose of anti-anxiety drugs I could give him before he came in and within 5 minutes on the chair he was asleep.

The last visit we had, I don't think either of them had cavities, but Mason had x-rays done that showed he was missing (as in never-going-to-show-up-to-the-party kind of missing) his two lateral incisors. Those are the ones right next to your top front teeth. That will make for a really nice smile, don't you think? Luckily, he can have implants. ($$$$)

So even though I knew they needed dentist appointments, I couldn't bring myself to make them, and I realized it was because I was afraid of my bad dentist karma. Something always goes wrong. Once I figured that out, I knew my solution was to have Ryan take them, since he has much better karma than me.

It paid off, folks, because the brown spots on Katie and Mason's teeth were just stains, not cavities and Mason is only missing one tooth ($$ instead of $$$$). That never would have happened had I taken them. They would have both had cavities and they probably would have found something else wrong. It's all about karma.

Money Can Buy Happiness

Here are a couple of cute money-related events of the week. The first is that we have opened the Quinn Family Bank and Trust (QFBT). A friend of mine told me that she and her husband (an accounting PhD that we knew in Michigan) pay their children interest on the money they save. Mason and Katie get an allowance every week, which they have to use for any fun things they might want to buy. We give them $2 a week, half of which they get to keep for fun and half of which goes to tithing (10%) and savings (40%). So effectively, they get $1 a week.

Mason has been mentally spending his accumulated allowance on a hundred different things during the last couple of weeks. It drives me crazy, so I decided to turn all banking matters over to Ryan and an excel spreadsheet. He only pays 3% interest, though, where I had imagined more like 10% or so in order to encourage them to want to keep more in the bank.

Either way, it had the effect of getting the kids to want to save instead of spend. I'm not sure how long it's going to last, but they might as well learn early that it's better to be the one earning the interest instead of paying it. And for those of you who might be interested in investing in the QFBT, we'll be happy to take your money. No, we are not FDIC insured.

The second thing is that I love how when Mason and Katie are writing/sending cards to people who they feel bad for, they often enclose money. For instance, an older couple in our neighborhood had a wonderful standard poodle they would always walk. The poodle (and it's owner) loved to stop and let the kids pet him. The dog passed away a couple of months ago, and the letter Mason wrote to the owner was "I'm sorry your dog passed away. Here's 17 cents."

Tonight when we got home from church, I was feeling pretty lousy. I'm not sure if I caught something from Katie, who had thrown up the day before, or if it was just a combination of fasting plus a splitting headache plus taking medicine on an empty stomach plus 12 8-year-olds during primary with no one to help out. Either way, by the time I got home I threw up what there was in my stomach and then went and sletp for almost 3 hours. I awoke to a sweet card from Katie with a little attachment that has some coins in it. I haven't opened it yet, so I'm not sure how much I've made off of being sick. But I just love how they both somehow have decided that sacrificing some of their hard-earned cash is a way to show their empathy.