Christmas

It’s beginning to look a lot like…

December 1, 2010September 30, 2015 Lindsey P. Brackett2 Comments

Christmas. It’s making it’s way into our house and although I vow every year to slow down and savor the holiday more, once again it feels like a race to the finish with the prize being just plain survival.

How do you know Katy?

November 27, 2010 Lindsey P. Brackett3 Comments

How do I know Katy? Well, she just happens to be my own personal Black Friday Crazed sister. So I bet I know her better than any of the random folk she befriended last night when she drug me out to Wal-Mart at 11 p.m.

Now to be fair, I suggested the Wal-Mart frenzy because the line at Toys R Us was beyond ridiculous and I was claustrophobic just thinking about entering that building with all those people. For those of you who don’t know, Wal-Mart will price match any competitor’s price on the same item for Black Friday, so why go anywhere else?

Once I reminded my shopping savvy sister who always loves a good bargain (though why she’s not a coupon fanatic I don’t understand) about this little realized fact, we were in the Honda Pilot and on our way faster than those fat turkeys flying away from the farmer in Madelynne’s Thanksgiving song.

And it was on the end of the bike aisle between a case of Leggos and a pallet of scooters that I began to learn some interesting things about this sister of mine…

…she has never met a stranger. Within two minutes she had reconnected with a worker from her childrens’ old daycare center, befriended another young mom staking out those Leggos, and talked the sweet lady guarding the scooters into saving two for her.

…she is not afraid. There were some shoppers who were bigger, bolder, and scarier than her, but there was no one louder or more helpful. You want to know if that Magna Doodle that’s $18 is on sale in the Target ad? Don’t worry, Katy will let you know. And if you guard her cart or stand in a line for her, she’ll run down the aisle and fetch you anything you want. Then she’ll tell the manager what price you’ll be paying and show him the ad so all you have to do is whip out the VISA.

…she can operate within her parameters. She may not like it. Budgets and Katy have never been the best of friends, but if she’s got a certain amount than she’s going to stay up all night and be back in line at Wal-Mart at 5 a.m. because that’s when the portable DVD players went on sale just to make sure she’s stretched her dollar thin enough to make Christmas for her kids and someone else’s.

Because truthfully she does have a heart of gold and that’s worth more than a price match on a pink Leapster anyday of the year.

P.S. My favorite Black Friday deal? A Shark Steamer Mop for $36 and my free toothpaste and M&Ms I scored at CVS. How was your shopping adventure?

Manic Monday

Vacation Manic Monday

November 22, 2010 Lindsey P. Brackett5 Comments

There is nothing like a break. I know people who don’t teach can’t imagine why teachers (and students) need frequent breaks from school, but I would hope if you’re a parent you can understand.

Imagine being locked in a room for 8 hours with your kid. Now imagine you have to help your kid achieve unrealistic standards set in place by someone who has obviously never met a kid.

Now imagine that the only break during that day occurs for thirty minutes when you get to eat lunch (with the kid), go to the bathroom, check your mail, and have a conference with someone who thinks they know more about your kid than you do.

Then imagine that you try to give this kid something independent to do and while the directions seem so simple to you, they necessitate more questions than an inquisition.

Oh, and the only adult conversation you have all day revolves around, you guessed it, the kid. Ready for vacation, yet? Of course, if you’re a stay at home mama, you totally get this, minus the vacation part.

It’s people like my husband who (jokingly) says he has a “real” job, that don’t get it. I mean, why would they? They get to have lunch somewhere other than a cafeteria that’s akin to the zoo at feeding time, go to the bathroom without fear that a fight will break out in the 45 seconds they’re away from their post, and have conversations about how to fix problems with people who (hopefully) have some experience with the situation.

But if he didn’t do his job, I wouldn’t get to do mine. And be on vacation all week. So, yeah, 180 days of educational stress is totally worth Thanksgiving, Christmas, Spring Break, and summer. Just remember us teachers have earned every minute of it!

Oh, and on my agenda this week? Lots of blogging catch up, decorating, cleaning, and adventures with the Princess Monsters. Stay tuned…

amelia · motherhood

9/12 or 3/4?

November 22, 2010September 30, 2015 Lindsey P. Brackett1 Comment

I’m not sure what makes me more sad. To say my baby is 9 months old and to realize that she’s grown more than twice as big as she grew the first 9 months I knew she was in existence….or to say she’s three-fourths of the way to one.

Let’s not even think about her being one. That’s when manufacturers switch her from “infant” to “toddler” and I have to baby proof everything in the house that’s within three feet of the ground.

Well, I wish I had that long to wait on the proof that she’s ready to get going and exploring in her little world, but the truth is at nine months, she’s more active than I remember either of her sisters being and she’s into anything she can reach, which means I hope I never have the need to call anyone in the next county who’s last name starts with V-Z since our phone book no longer possesses that page.

At nine months, Amelia can crawl fast enough to make it down the hall before her sisters can shut the door of their room and proclaim they’re “doing big girl stuff” necessitating in a lot of wailing from Amelia, whining from Annabelle, and shrieking from Madelynne–“She’s going to eat the crayons!”

At nine months she can put away two jars of baby food, a Swedish meatball, a half-dozen noodles, a handful of puffs, and a cup of juice in one dinner and still pull up on my jeans with a beseeching look less than an hour later when I’m doing dishes and she realizes I’m holding a bottle.

At nine months, I have introduced her to the simple pleasures of life like ice cream…and the never ending drudgery of such tasks as dishes. For now she finds the dishwasher an intriguing contraption with the allure of denial. As in, she’s not supposed to play in it, so of course that’s the only place she wants to be when it’s open.

At nine months, she coos and squeals and squawks and calls “dadadadada” constantly. But never, ever will she even attempt to utter an “mmmmm” sound. She waves “bye-bye” and giggles when tickled. She’s by far the best behaved when we go shopping, but that might be because she waits until I’m distracted to soothe herself by chewing on the cart. Despite the seat cover.

Right now she’s chewing on my knee and pulling up in another favorite play place. Under the kitchen table. She’s sweet and cuddly and demanding of attention. She thinks Annabelle shows her too much love and Madelynne is the funniest person she knows.

In just nine months she completed enough growth to ready her for a vibrant life…and in nine months she has completed our family beyond my dreams.

holidays · Paynes

A Payne-Full Thanksgiving

November 17, 2010September 30, 2015 Lindsey P. BrackettLeave a comment

The bigger the family gets, the harder it is to celebrate holidays on the day officially set aside for that celebration. Anybody else have that problem? Throw in an expectant (any day now) mother thousands of miles away in Utah, a sales-savvy business associate who has parties every weekend, and a couple of high-strung college students and it becomes impossible to manage to celebrate when you’re supposed to.

But whoever said the Paynes like doing what they’re supposed to? So this past Sunday we all got together at the big Plantation (someday I’ll blog about the house on the hill that’s overrun with cats, dogs, and kids) to give thanks for another year of blessings…..like new a new niece and a forecoming nephew….a few inches taller for the cousins….a job that semi-pays Calley’s bills….a Thirty One bag for any occasion (courtesy of our personal consultant)….Uncle Bubby back home to prepare the turkey properly….and that my sisters have finally learned how to load a dishwasher without being asked.

Hope you enjoy these images from a day that was perfectly Payne-full in every way (especially when Big Daddy insisted on educating us about the first Thanksgiving by reading aloud from this book for half an hour…I think he quit when he realized everyone had gone outside to “check on the dogs”).