Is Santa Real?

When Katrina asks if Santa is real we tell her that he is real in the imagination of children. She just blows us off and keeps believing. Then we countinue enjoying the magic of Santa for children. When she was younger it freaked Katrina out that some man dressed up in red came into your house in the middle of the night. I love the questions she asks like, "Did you leave the door unlocked on Christmas Eve? No? But we don't have a chimney. Oh, I know...Santa has a special key that works in every door." On Christmas morning she got a Yoga for kids DVD from Santa. Her reaction was really cute. It is a little hard to hear in the video. She said, "Yoga kids. Thank you Santa where ever you are!"

Richard's Blessing Day

December 6, 2008

We blessed cute baby Richard. For family blessings my mother makes blessing gowns/outfits and they are amazing. She has a great gift. I gave my mom a list of things I wanted on the blessing outfit. Richards blessing outfit looked like a little horse jocky. The blue booties he is wearing in the pictures are the same booties my father was blessed in. It was orignal and cute.
Afterwards we had ham and scalloped potatoes. Then we had a jam sesson of Guitar Hero. My mom got really into it. She was the band groupy. My Dad slept on the couch during the whole thing. I don't know how he could sleep with all that noise, he must have been REALLY tired. It was really fun. I love having so many great brothers and sisters and their spouses. The grandkids had fun in our dungeon of a basement. They don't care that it isn't finished and cold. They were just happy to be together.

The grass is always greener

Sometimes I wish I was a cat. I envy their daily 20 hours of sleep. Their simple way of life- eat- sleep- eat- sleep- run around crazy like then -eat -sleep -eat - sleep. I guess the grass is always greener on the other side. Then other days I think "how can you stand such a boring life?!"

We have 2 Persian cats. This is a picture of Luka, who is half the size of her son Charlie but has twice the you know whats. Actually Charlie is neutered and has no you know whats. When Luka was a kitten she had a skin mite problem. She lost her fur and was refered to as the "ugly one." We decided she needed a name so named her "Luke" because she looked liked she had leukemia. But then to our dismay we discovered that she was a "she" and not a "he." So we renamed her Luka. When I see pictures of her like the ones above, where she is fluffy and lazy, I just have to squeeze her. These are my babies that I had before my babies.

Black Friday Plague!

Happy Thanksgiving. Okay, so I'm a little bit "feast or famine" when it comes to blogging and checking my e-mail. You'll get over it I'm sure. I just have to share.

Wow. I got to get this off my back. I read today in the newspaper about an employee for Walmart that got trampled and KILLED when he was opening up the store for black friday. This happened in New York by Manhatten. Warning to Regan/Jacob Breinholt :). A few other people got trampled, including a pregnant woman, 8 months along. So get this....when the people were asked to leave the store because of the death.....they yelled that they had been waiting since thursday morning to shop and wouldn't leave.

How sad is that? How do we get so consumed by being consumers that we become inhumane? Like, what were they thinking? Just step over the dead man...I gotta get a DVD player for cheap. I personally have only once done black friday shopping. I felt that crazy frenzied feeling that comes. It is totally irrational. But the anxiety is there. You feel this shallow urgent need to find the item your looking for and the feeling that your missing out on some great deal.

But there really are no NEEDS, only WANTS, when it comes to Black Friday shopping. It's not like we are hunting for food and shelter. I get it...those cave man instincts kick in and the adrenaline is pumping. But still.... seriously, wouldn't you help someone up if they fell down? Even during crazy concerts that I've been to, people help people get up if they fall down. How ironic that a time of "Thanksgiving" has become a time of Getting and Consuming.

I would rather sleep-in instead of saving $10 on a DVD that I'll watch 2 times or at least shop online for the same deal. I don't like that materialist shallow anxiety feeling that Black Friday induces. It's like the Black Friday flu epidemic that effects a nation. The Black Friday plague. I'm thinking we may need to immunize for the next plague of 2009 to prevent further deaths. Maybe I'll start a foundation. SAVE THE TRAMPLED PEOPLE! IMMUNIZE BY 2009 AMERICA!

Court Finalization

We got a letter from the prosecutor a few days after court. Sherry's foster daughters were flaky with their testimonies. And I'm sure their attitude, I hate judges and court, didn't help. So they gave the kid, that scratched up both our cars and didn't show up for court, the benefit of the doubt. We lost.

I Am Perfect For Boys

2 Days Before Baby Richards Birthday

Dialogue

Me: Katrina lets hurry and get your home work done so that we can get to your play date. It's with a 2nd grader.

Katrina: Oh.... is it a boy or a girl.

Me: A boy.

Katrina: Oh good.....I am perfect for boys.

Wow, no self esteem issues there.

Me: Oh really.

Katrina: Except Ismael...."Si."

(Ishmael is the boy that lives a couple houses down-we call him her Latin lover-she gets frustrated because they only speak Spanish at his house-which explains the exasperated "si")

Scooters Don't Belong on Cars

At a halloween party a year ago some kids decided it would be hopping killer to ride their razer scooters on some cars in the parking lot. Well, both of our cars became stunt props along with half a dozen other cars. Needless to say both of our cars have had scratched-up hoods and roofs for a year. I noticed the scratches when I came out of the party. I asked around about it and was directed to three boys. Spencer and his Dad pursued them by car, it was very exciting, when they fled the crime scene. They detained them until the police came.

One of the boys was crying his eyes out. I felt bad for him. In Spanish he said his Dad was going to kill him and that he didn't want to get deported because his Mom was a police officer and it wasn't safe in the country they came from. Another boy's father had recently died. I wonder if he saw the families together at this party and became angry thus taking it out on the cars in the church parking lot. I felt bad for them, sometimes kids just don't think. But we had over $1600 of damage to our cars. One kid got charged (maybe the other kids got deported, who knows?) but get this....the KID PLED INNOCENT. There goes all my empathy out the window.

So yesterday, the justice system is a little slow, Spencer was court ordered, as a witness, to attend the hearing for the one kid. My mother-in-law and I know the juvenile court judge well because she was the judge for a lot of our foster daughters. I was hoping she would recognize Spencer's last name. But not much happened because...get this....the KID DIDN'T SHOW UP. So they are setting another date. Hopefully within the next decade!

So REMEMBER kids, we ride IN, not ON, cars! Give me a call, I'll give you a ride to the skate park.