Pain in the...

I have a horrible pain in the knee. How did I injure it you ask? Did I try to run a 5K. Was I hiking. Was I running to save a little puppy that was about to get run over? No ! I did it by kneeling down to help Griffen go to bed. I even said a prayer. So basically I hurt my knee praying. How old and decrepit do you have to be to injure your knee praying.
Being out of shape and old is really a pain in the butt. I swear that everyday I find a new joint that hurts. I feel like I am in my eighties and not my thirties. I sound like a little grandma saying oi my aching back my aching knee.
My new favorite hobby is to explain to the girls in my young womens all the lovely things they have to look forward to with getting older. Like finding random whiskers on your chin or realizing that what you wore in high school is hip again because it is now considered retro. My favorite is how many moles and skin tags I am growing. On top of that I have more pimples now then I did when I was a teenager. What the heck is up with that. I have noticed that as far as a metabolism I have none. If I look at food I gain weight.
I hoping that when I hit my forties I will discover the fabulous forties are the new twenties. Oh lets hope. Otherwise I will be driving around in my jazzy moaning oh my aching body.

Any Ideas

So how do you teach a 3 year old to listen? Because I am really not succeeding in that area. I have tried rewards, time outs, and even an occasional spanking. We have been trying and trying to teach Griff not to hit. We tried time outs and now I tell him if he hits me I will hit back which seems to be helping a little but I am not such a fan of that method. I know being consistent is the key but ugh that key sure takes a long time to work.

Thanksgiving

The funny thing about Thanksgiving for me it becomes a day to remember the good old times. It is a day when I think back on the Thanksgivings of my childhood. In some was it is a day I grieve the inevitable changes of life brings.
This Thanksgiving I have been thinking a lot about my extended family. And all the big parties we used to have. Eric and I were talking about how when we were kids we looked forward to Thanksgiving but now not as much. I started thinking about why I loved Thanksgiving when I was a kid but as an adult it kind of makes me sad.
When I was a kid we used to go to my Grandma Gygi's house for Thanksgiving. I loved Grandma's house. My Grandma had 10 kids and a gazillion grandkids. Needless to say the house was crowded. I remember it always getting really hot. I don't know how we all fit in the house. I do know that I loved it. I loved playing with my cousins and watching my aunts put the final touches on the food. I loved watching my Grandpa skillfully carve the turkey. My Grandparents were farmers and several years they had raised the turkeys we ate. One time we ate one of their geese. Holy crap that thing was good. And well when it was a live it was mean so the vindictive side of me loved the fact that the little buggar was part of my dinner. My Grandpa always seemed to be very proud of the get together. I think he loved being able to have all of his children around him and to be able to provide for them. Grandpa wasn't a big talker but he was a big influence on all of us. My Grandma is one of my favorite people in the whole world. She used to babysit me a lot and I loved talking with her. For some reason everything was better at Grandma's house even pb&j tasted gourmet when Grandma made it.
Eventually the family got too big to have Thanksgiving at their house. And then Grandma and Grandpa had to sell their home and then the year I got married Grandpa passed away. Grandma isn't well and doesn't really know who we are anymore. She has had such a huge impact on all of us. I often think of all the wonderful times at my Grandparents' home. When I am really stressed I have dreams of being back there and I wake up calm. I am so grateful for my Grandparents and the memories I have of them. I am so grateful for my amazing aunts and uncles who have taught me so much. I really have been blessed to have so many incredible people in my family to love and support me. I think God knew that I was going to need extra help so he sent me a huge extended family and wonderful friends to surround me.
I miss what my family used to be. I miss the family members we have lost. I miss being crowded into a small house that was full of great food and great people. But with all change there good and bad . I am so grateful that I get to watch my son enjoy going to his grandparents homes and enjoy playing with his cousins and creating memories that as an adult he will look back on and be grateful for.

Resolutions

I won my 4th set of tickets from the radio last week. I went to see Kate Nash. I went to a Meet and Greet and I had my picture taken. I got all dressed up in what I thought was my hippest outfit. I thought ok I am looking good. So I just saw the pictures. Hmm can you say Jabba the hut in plaid. Holy crap what a rude awaking. Photos are a very mean reality check. So I decided that I need to make some new years resolutions. I started thinking about past years resolutions and how I never succeed at keeping them so I am taking a new approach this year. The child psychology approach. My first resolution is to not lose weight. My second is to be a less patient mother and wife. Third is to be more judgemental. Fourth is to be less helpful to friends and family. Fifth is to read less. And last I am going to blog more.
I really think this is a win win sort of idea. If I fail at my resolutions then I accomplish some good things. If a succeed then I have finally succeeded at following through with my resolutions.

I Was a Much Better Mom, Before I Had a Child

I think I was a much better mother before I had a kid. It seemed so simple. You just teach them whats right and then everything is perfect, right. Uhm nope. They come packaged with personalities, tempers, and that pesky free agency. Granted at 3 my child isn't really exploring much of his free agency...yet. I was thinking about the difference between the theory of child rearing and the actual application. See in theory I was never going to yell at my child because I wouldn't want to lower his self esteem. In theory I was only going to serve him healthy food and avoid that evil fast food and junk food trap. In theory I was never going to use TV or DVDs to distract my child. I was going to take ever opportunity to teach him all the things he needs to know to be a happy well adjusted child. In theory I was going to be patient and peaceful and be the mother equivilant of Budda.

In practice some days are full of McDonalds, PBS and Nick Jr., and me trying not to lose that last shred of sanity I cling to. And yep there is yelling. Often you will hear such phrases as, stop jumping on that, don't touch that, Argh stop climbing on me, get that out of your mouth, and stop putting your feet on my head. Yep theory and practice are two very different things.

I was thinking about the difference between the great mother I was as a childless woman and the adequate to below average mother I am now. At my child's gym the other day this woman had brought her niece to my son's class. It seemed no matter where little G and I went she was right there telling me what I should be doing with my son. Actually most of the time she didn't even seem to notice me she just followed Griff around telling him what he was doing wrong and what he should be doing. I have to admit that it took everything I had not the knock the witch out. But I still believe hitting others in front of your child isn't the best way to teach them to be kind. Luckily that theory stuck because I would have liked practicing some kick boxing on her *ss.

In the short amount of time I have been a mother I have been surprised by how many people are willing to share their opinions on how you should raise your child. From strangers at the store to well intentioned women at church or even preschool teachers I have been given ample advice as to how to raise my son. Funny thing is when I ask friends that I admire or family I usually get something along the lines of I don't know, I guess you just do the best that you can do.

So that is my rant of the day. Basically opinions are like butt holes and I don't want to smell strangers butt holes.

T-Shirt contest

So I entered this t-shirt contest on Sugardoodle.net and I didn't win. I was a little disappointed but then I got an email from the t-shirt company and they want to make my design even though I didn't win. Which is kind of cool. I wont get money like the winner but I will get my t-shirt made. The other cool thing is that I can use the whole experience as one of my value projects toward my personal progress. I am so excited that they let leaders earn another medallion. I think the new ones are so pretty. No I just have to read the Book of Mormon. That is going be a bit harder. It is so hard to read scriptures. I wish you could just watch the movie or buy the cliff notes :)

I am back..maybe

I haven't written forever. I always plan on writing but then I want to add pictures and other fun stuff and that gets a little overwhelming.
Man today has be rough. It actually started last night. I went to New Beginnings which was wonderful but it was during the academy awards which was soo wrong. I mean the Academy Awards people!! Forget the Superbowl the Oscars are where it is at for me. But I was trying to be responsible and I went to New Beginnings instead. Luckily I have a dvr so I recorded it. Unluckily the dvr quit when the awards were supposed to be over instead of when they were really over. I missed the Best Actor, Actress, Director, and Film. Only the 4 most important awards. Ugh!
So this morning I woke up to the reality that yesterday I lost a design contest, missed the academy awards, neglected my family, missed my sons bedtime and basically just sucked at about everything I touched. So I took Griff to his little gym class today and well all heck broke out. See Griff is finally getting his 2 year old molars and they are coming in with a vengeance. He is ornery, I am ornery and the combination is deadly. So after multiple warnings that if he didn't start behaving, stop pulling hair/screaming/ and disobeying that we would go home, we went home. It broke my heart he was so sad and cried and cried. I almost gave in and went back in but I don't want to raise a brat and I think you are supposed to stick to your guns on these things. I don't know. Now I wonder what I should do it those situation.
So the morale to this story is that being a responsible adult and parent sucks sometimes.