Television and Games

Most who know my family know that we recently subscribed to cable. I have been boring my parents with my descriptions of these great shows that have been on for a long time that I am just now being made aware of. I can't help it if Dinner-Mission: Impossible it interesting to me. I mean what girl wouldn't want her quincenera cooked to completion in under 7 hours by a man who has never made a cake before. It is entertainment genius. Still to fully understand our family's devotion to the telly I give you exhibit a and b. The front view is the results of a second that Tristan and Jacob turned their eyes away from the television to pretend to want to take a picture. Exhibit B is what they were actually doing. In fact just last night Tristan was nursing and stopped to crane his head around my arm to watch some of "Gary Unmarried".

I really am not that upset about it because Talia and her "Playhouse Disney" + PBS has really advanced her vocabulary. I am extremely amused by the pretend conversations we get to have wherein I am Handy Manny and she is the ice cream lady calling about her broken freezer. In her scripted phone call (she insists on telling me "No you say (whatever it is) and I say this okay?" and then we do it. Tristan even gets to be involved: Talia calls him "The tool" which is a riot because to some that is a derogatory name. "Daddy is a tool" really becomes a giggling moment for Jacob and I -we can't help it.

We do not however only watch TV. Jacob and I are quite adept at playing all manner of games. In the following picture we are showing off our excellent gaming skills after taking over in Cranium on Christmas Day. Jacob is quite good at "silently" drawing. We are working on improving our Nerts skills for the Nichols family reunion and finding new words for Speed Scrabble. I need to get back to studying the "Q" and "X" section of the dictionary to hone my skills for the upcoming game night... so I hope every one's new year is going fabulous and until next time.

Talia's Imagination and Other Information

The Christmas season is here and I finally unpacked my very last "moving in box". I put the finishing pieces on my tree and lit my evergreen candle (I really miss the smell of a real tree). I made shortbread cookies last night with Candice. Tristan helped a little but mostly just tried to maintain control of the cup that Candice was letting him drink water out of. He is a strong old bugger. I have two things to address in this post first is to mention that it is really hard to have traditions once you move away from home and your whole family leaves. Continuing that feel good family feel when it is just little ones (who barely know what is going on) makes the holidays almost a sad time. I did my best to find the present everyone wanted but I think this year for me I have been fighting to not long for silly things like the ugly sweater contest or dumb old Christmas caroling. Please don't get me wrong I have much to be grateful for. I am grateful for my mother-in law for helping me continue my families tradition of matching pajamas for Christmas Eve (and Day). I am even more grateful that my children are happy and healthy. It is so fun to answer Talia's favorite question (no not "Do you want to see my new room?") "What do you want for Christmas?"; although I must say she keeps telling me that I want toys even though I keep answering that I want socks. I am grateful for family in general, I just miss some of the things that Christmas will be lacking this year...

On a totally different note: As we were decorating the tree this year Talia made a new friend out of my tree garland. I would like to introduce you to her cat. In fact she has now taken this cat somewhere that I can't find and now my tree is only half garland and half not. Personally I think it gives it some character. Below is Talia taking her cat for a walk.

Reading is Radical

You know I don't think people use that word enough anymore. Maybe it is for good reason but I think I am going to let it back into my vocabulary. Laugh if you must but it was the best word I could come up with that started with an "R" that fully describe my love of reading. I am doing my best to pass it on to my children. You can see from the pictures that so far so good. Tristan reads his books every day (he likes the cat one right now and threw up all over it today because he was so excited to read it plus he was knawing on it). Talia's favorite is her "Children's Treasury of Nursery Rhymes" that she got from her Aunt Courtney for her first birthday. We (she and I) have it memorized.

I also realized this past week as I was downsizing from my 10 boxes of school stuff that I haven't read a book in a long time. I still am trying to finish Good Capitalism and Bad Capitalism ( that one I "stole" from Brett Dobson (a fellow educator and an excellent one at that) and I need to get on it. We moved the day after Halloween and I haven't had a second to breathe let alone read. So I have decided to do a shout out and ask for any recommendations of useful, brainless, and\or must reads that you have. I love anything that is well written and have made a goal to read non-fiction more often because there are finally some more writers who have learned to write. Let me know so that my next library visit is fruitful. I normally go up and down the aisles trying to find something that sparks my attention but with Talia and Tristan that type of maneuver isn't going to fly. I await your replies.

P.S. Moving is Crappy

Much Ado About Nothing

We got Cable today and I had to share my joy and sorrow for the moment. I watched Remington Steele and was so jazzed I did a little jig. Tristan however was so excited to be alive and it quickly reminded me that just because I now have access to 300 channels and a wide variety of music channels does not mean that I need to increase my television watching time. Still I had to express my glee for that Remington Steele. Now all I have to find is when MacGyver is on and I will be set.

The Woman known as Sasha Fierce

So I have decided after reading about Beyonce's new name that I want a new name for my alter ego. Just so we are all on the same page an alter ego (Latin, "the other I") is a second self, a second personality or persona within a person. A person with an alter ego is said to lead a double life. Now I read the article and was laughing the whole but as I was running today (Candice and I normally spend Saturday's running together but she had a sign to make-so please blame this thought process on her) I started to think about what the name should be.

I must first determine what my "ego" is all about. I mean there are so many questions to answer to truly define what my alter ego is. Does anyone have any suggestions? I would love to be able to name this other person, so far I have come up with Beatrice Fierce but that just isn't creative enough. I think I should keep the Fierce part but maybe not. If only my alter ego was writing this post she would surely be able to think of something great.

Our Trip to Santa Barbara

Last week Jacob had a business meeting in Santa Barbara and he took us along for the adventure. Talia and I enjoyed an awesome (yet overly priced) meal at the hotel restaurant, we visited the beach and watched Alladin. Tristan was asleep for the meal and Alladin but he and I spent some quality time together watching the dolphins as they swam by the hotel.

Talia certainly has an extreme fondness for "computers" (see third picture) and she and Tristan both enjoyed the change of scenery. The bathtub spout shot out a stream of water in the center of the tub and it was surrounded by tiles that formed a sun. Talia was of course in the bathtub forever.

The Goddess??

Jacob sent this link to me and I thought it might be interesting to see what everyone thought their own daughter(s) might rank according to the report. I am pretty sure Talia would not have made it past the night with the heads of sacrificed animals, still one can never tell with her.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081007/ap_on_re_as/as_nepal_living_goddess

Check it out and report. I will tally a list and keep the results so that we can crown a goddess....