What did you do with your kids today?

I tried to shove mine into cupboards....darn kids kept crawling out.

I need another good book

I just finished Breaking Dawn by Stephenie Meyer yesterday and now I don't have a good book to make me want to crawl into bed.  Help me if you can by suggesting a few good books that I could really "sink my teeth into."  What have you read latley that will make me want to read and not just want to fall asleep.

One Year Ago

It was almost one year ago to the day that David, Blake and I went to Beijing, China.  Watching the Olympics has brought back so many of those memories.  It's so much fun to watch the special segments they do on China and to have it be familiar.  We were there for 8 days and truly fell in love with Beijing.  

One of the best things about being there with Blake was all the attention he got.  People just ate him up.  We were stopped all over the place while people tickled his toes and tried to get him to smile.  I wonder if having the Olympics there is going to change the way the Chinese look at foreigners coming to their country.  I hope it never becomes commonplace for them to see blond babies.  I'm sure the novelty will eventually wear off, but let's hope it's not soon.

One thing that I'm sure Michael Phelps is not eating in his 12,000 calorie diet are the delicacies of the Wangfujing Night Market.  I'm sure they all would pack plenty of protein, but I have a feeling the gag factor might kick in and you'd loose all the calories you were trying to load up on.  We never actually ate any of the funky food (scorpions, seahorses, maggots, etc), but if I had to pick something to eat out of all of them I think I would've opted for the grasshoppers....at least they would've reminded me of the pioneers or something.

Didn't Emma have to eat grasshoppers on a stick at least once?  I'm betting she'd be just fine in China.

Jane's First Soccer Game.

Jane's first soccer game was a great success.  

Now, let me stop being modest.

Jane's first soccer game was AWESOME!  From the time the horn blew signaling the beginning of the game, Jane exploded on the field.  Parents were laughing in awe as she tore past every other player kicking the ball to score two goals in the first 5 minutes.  My neighbor compared her to Mia Hamm.  I literally heard other parents yelling out to their kids to:  "DO WHAT JANE IS DOING,"  and "FOLLOW JANE!"

It was one of those fun parent moments.

(bragging complete)

Wanna See A Ladybug?

Another fun thing that happened during our trip to Crested Butte.  We were waiting outside for our turn to eat at the Ginger Cafe and there was a family waiting with us.  They had 3 kids with them (Max, Ruby and Axl).  Axl was 4 and very talkative.  He approached David while we were sitting on a very large rock and asked him:

"Do you wanna see a ladybug?"  

David energetically replied while jumping off the rock, "Yeah, show me."

Axl looked around the rock trying to find the sneaky bug and then spotted it.  "It's Right There!"

David took a look and said, "Wow, you know what that kind of ladybug is called?  An ANT."

To which the cute little boy says with a totally perplexed look on his face, "woooah, that is weird."

"You know where you get your food stamps?"

The following conversation is not made up.  It is, in fact, almost recounted back to you in strict verbatim.  The reason I know this is because David and I spent a full evening after we heard this conversation repeating it....mostly because we wanted to remember it, but also because we couldn't believe it actually took place.  Here is a little background to set the story. 

David and I are on our drive back from Crested Butte, Colorado.  Three girls approximately 17-25 sit behind me (facing David) and began a doozie of a conversation.  And now, without further adieu, I give you the booth behind ours at Kentucky Fried Chicken in Delta, Colorado:

"I want to get a tongue piercing, but I can't because if you do you can't talk for a week afterward and my job is all answering phones so I can't."  --nose pierced girl says.

Friend replies, "where do you work?"

"You know where you get your food stamps? (I can only imagine both girls heads nodding , because nothing is said), I work underneath that.  I'm saving up money to go to dental assisting school, which is $3,000 and I have that money, but I also want to get my CDL because I have to have a trade.  If I don't have a trade I'm never going to make it because it's hard with a kid." 

(at this point I'm sitting with my jaw unhinged and trying not to laugh--David had to explain to me later that a CDL is a commercial drivers license....you know to be a TRUCK DRIVER, the perfect job when you're a SINGLE PARENT!).  

"I mean, I give my daughter everything.  The other day I bought her an outfit that cost $21 dollars.  $10 for the shirt, and $11 for the pants.  I mean, I know some people will go to the second hand shop to shop for their kids, but I just can't do that.  I don't know why. I mean, if you all gave me clothes I'd take them, but I just can't shop in a second hand shop because you just never know who has been wearing the clothes.  I'm seriously so selfless when it comes to Lexi.  I'd wear second hand clothes before I'd let her wear them.  I'm $3,000 in debt with collection agencies calling after me but I still always put her first.  It sucks."  

(um.....what happened to that $3,000 you had for dental assisting school?)

Other friend asks, "where is your daughter now?"

"She's with her dad.  I hate leaving her with him but you have to, you know?  And at least it's better than my sister.  You have to be careful around her.  But she's in prison right now for murder although I think when she gets out she's just going to go right back in."

(my eyes are bugging and I literally had my hand over my mouth while David is now looking at me threatening me not to laugh for fear that we are about to get a wicked spork thrust in our hearts if we even dare to snicker.)

David and I didn't linger around too much longer than that.  We walked out a little more quickly than we had walked in, and laughed a lot harder once we got into the safety of our car than we had in a long time.  

Thanks skanky girls of Delta.  You have no idea how you helped the next two hours of driving fly by.