Responses

I was asked a few questions in the comments on my last post. Instead of responding to them on the comment page, I thought I'd make a new post (since I've been running out of blogging inspiration lately).
Q: Have you put up your Christmas clutter yet?
First of all, I love that you called it Christmas clutter. I feel like that's what it is sometimes. I know - I'm so bah-humbug. Not really though - I actually have like 4 boxes full of decorations. The problem is that they're completely inaccessible right now... they're in the hidden crawl space below our home in Provo that we're renting out. I wouldn't feel comfortable asking our renter to take everything out of the under-stairs storage closet so we could lift up the carpet, unlock the wooden door, and hop 6 ft down into the dark, cold storage area. I don't even want our renters to know that area exists. We didn't even know about it til we had been there over a year. Before we left for Vernal, I forgot to get our stuff out of there. We have all kinds of junk down there... I mean, important stuff. Like Brian's ginormous basketball card collection he won't let me sell. Anyway...so yeah, we don't have 98% of our decorations - just a few little things I grabbed at the swap meet a few weeks ago. The picture of Brianna sticking her tongue out (cuz she refused to smile) shows the few doo-dads we have. And we have a wreath on our door. I say that's festive enough.

I took this extra picture of Brian at our door with the wreath and realized I should explain all that stuff in his hands. It's a balloon, sign, card, treats, and gift card for his employee's birthday. As we were going to bed the night before, he's like, "oh - it's Carly's birthday tomorrow. Can you take care of it?" Thanks for all the notice. Hmph. But I actually really like recognizing other's bdays, so it was fun to go get some goods for her. She puts up with Brian's cheesiness and unending extreme enthusiasm very well.

And this picture of her with the wild smile... she's throwing the nativity scene decoration. After I told her to be careful while holding it.
Which brings me to the next topic:
Q: How's that TIMEOUT business going?
So here's the story: several months ago, I decided I needed to start some sort of disciplinary efforts. Most of my friends were into the time-out method. So that's what we did. She deliberately did something wrong/dangerous, so I told her she had to SIT in the corner for 30 seconds. Of course she wouldn't stay there. So I put my hands on her shoulders firmly enough that she couldn't get up. There was much weeping and wailing and gnashing. Definitely unpleasant. Mission accomplished - she learned the consequences of her wrong/dangerous actions. Until she decided to test her limits again (and again and again). Eventually she understood that if she just stayed sitting for the whole 30 seconds, I wouldn't hold her down. She doesn't like restraint, so now she just runs to the corner when I announce TIMEOUT. Sometimes she even counts along with me and smiles. That's annoying. This isn't supposed to be fun. Soooo... obviously I have no idea what I'm doing and I just have to follow my instinct and pray she doesn't turn out to be a self-centered adult with an inherent sense of entitlement. That's one of those things that drives me nuts - people who feel entitled. Like when they get a speeding ticket and blame the "mean cop." Or get furious at long lines. I totally think it stems from a childhood with a poor discipline system where basic virtues weren't taught. Ever seen the movie Seven starring Will Smith? I want my child(ren) to have the character qualities of the blind guy. Because I don't always. And I want better for my kid(s).
Next topic:
Q: Why do you like the Seriously, SO Blessed blog?
Ok, so no one actually said that verbatim... but I feel obligated to defend my adoration of TAMN and her satirical posts highlighting the banes of the Zion society in blogworld. Am I the only one that wants to gag at the "my-life-is-so-fairy-tale-perfect" blogs done by LDS woman portraying their lives as blissfully excellent? But instead of gagging... through this blog, we can just laugh at it! It's not done out of spite - the true author is a 25-yr old married mom in grad school, simply making a spoof. I can't be the only one who laughs and cringes at the same time while reading other's blogs... the public declarations of love for their "best-in-the-world" spouse, the "my baby is rolling over and doing sign language and walking at 2 weeks old!", the obnoxious widgets, the teenybopper music on autoplay, the flagrant misspellings, 500 exclamation points, obsession with posh winter boots...
It's also a self-help tool for myself... I see my sins more clearly. Like taking myself too seriously. Or like when she did a spoof on women who whine and cry about their "infertility problem"... because they had to "try" for a whole 2 months. Or how brides wearing flipflops and sparkles think they're uber-unique/creative/original. And all forms of shallowness and materialism and superficiality.

I love how she reminds me that we don't have to pretend we have perfect children and are madly in love every second of every day and are size 2 and maintain immaculate homes with trendy hand-made decor.
With all that said... I admit I may have a kooky sense of humor. The kind that likes Simpsons and Seinfeld. I blame it on my siblings. Brian doesn't like or "get" the SSB blog either. Then again... he's a Zionite.