Indians and Mexicans

Well, I am going to post pictures from our blizzard soon, I promise. But in the meantime, here is a little story for you. Okay, so It snowed on Monday night, and the first time we got out of the house (well besides playing in our yard) was yesterday (Saturday), so we had a lot of days in the house. I was seeing on facebook that people were going crazy in their houses, but we did pretty good. We all don't mind if we have to stay a few days longer, but we decided to get out yesterday and go to town to the store because they were expecting more snow/ice today and Tuesday, and if that happened, then we didn't want to miss our chance of going to the store. We really didn't need anything, but when the option of going to the store is taken away, we just feel like we need to go. ANYWAY...that is really beside the point. We got out and went to eat and went to the store. We went to a town about 20 miles away, and as we drove into the town, here is the conversation in the car. Also remember that the roads were mostly clear, but still somewhat icy, so I wasn't in the most relaxed mood ever.

A: Are we in an Indian city?
Me: Indian city?
Autumn: What makes you think that?
A: Cause I saw a big Indian painted on the wall
Autumn: Well, this town is named after an Indian tribe, but so are a lot of towns in Oklahoma.
A: Are there Indians here?
Me: Are you kidding me? (Remember, I was a tiny tense from the drive, and also know that we have pretty much this same conversation with her ALL the time....I get frustrated too easily...but there was a little laughter with my frustration.)
Autumn: (calmly of course) Yes, A, remember, there are a lot of people who are Indian.
A: (getting very excited) Really?? Where? Here?
I let out a big sigh....really? We have discussed this SO many times and she still acts like she has never seen an Indian person!
Autumn: Yes, remember, lots of people are Indian, just like you are Mexican. See...there are some Indian people right there trying to get their van unstuck.
A: Wow! Really? I don't see any!
She, of course, was looking for someone dressed in traditional Native American clothing coming out of a tee pee.
Me: Oh my goodness, A...are you kidding? (I kept making dramatic noises and saying things like that....I need to be calmer like Autumn)
Autumn: Well, they just look like regular people A. Remember, just their hair and skin are darker like yours. Indian people look a lot like you girls.
A: Was I Indian when I was a baby?
Now my dramatic noises are really getting loud...with a lot of laughter....I really need to get myself under control!
Autumn: (She is laughing now too) No...you can't change like that. If you are born Indian, then you stay Indian. Just like you were born a Mexican, so you stay Mexican, and if you are born Chinese, then you stay Chinese.
A: (She got distracted a bit with Chinese, starting to imagine what she would look like as a Chinese person)
Autumn: A long time ago, Indian people dressed in different clothing, like you are thinking of and they lived in tee pees, but most Indian people don't live like that now...just a few. Just like Mexican people lived and dressed very differently a long time ago. Do you live the same way Mexican people lived 100 years ago?
A: yep
Me: REALLY? Oh my A...good grief. How do you live like Mexicans did 100 years ago?
A: Happy!

UGH....I give up....she wins!

Where did this come from???

We are in a snow blizzard, which I will post pictures from that later, but let me tell you this little story of what happened while we were stuck in the house (which we loved by the way). One afternoon of the many we had to spend inside, H brought this cup to me and said, "I found this in the bedroom." As soon as she said this and I said, "uh-oh"...I saw the two little girls do a u-turn in the hall and head the other direction. I knew one of them had something to do with this cup full of hair.

I took these pictures after I had pulled out the hair and put it back in, but originally, the hair on top was black, so I immediately panicked and looked at A and M's hair...theirs was all in place. We had to do minimal interrogation to figure out that A was to blame for the cup full of hair, but now we just had to figure out where this hair came from.

I started pulling the hair out of the cup, realizing that there were lots and lots of things without hair now. OH GREAT!!!

Yes....LOTS of things without hair. She stammered around for a minute, but went immediately when we told her to and brought us the victims. I was relieved to know that the victims were not a sentimental doll!

Victim #1--For some reason, the barbies were all naked, so I covered them with my black fabric.

Victim #2--Gabriella from High School Musical...she is now sporting a short do.

Mr. Monkey Man now just has a little fuzz.

A little off of the mane of my little pony.

The lovely long locks are gone...we now have the spikey do.

This poor girl had wild hair to begin with, but now its a little less wild hair.

And poor Ariel got a little chopped off too!

And this Barbie started off with a choppy do, but now it is a little shorter.

So we asked miss A why she did this. Her answer: Because I wanted a collection!

Okay, I know that many little girls have chopped off their dolls' hair. I realize this. I know this is not an uncommon occurrence. Just about every girl has a doll that they played beauty shop with. However, the abnormal thing here, is that she KEPT A COLLECTION!!! She wanted a collection of hair! That could sound a little creepy. She said (through a little tears) "I don't have a collection."

Okay, first of all, yes you do...you have a collection of frogs. (I don't think that had occurred to her as a collection). And, if you want a collection, let's collect rocks, or stickers, or erasers, not HAIR!!! Seriously. Collecting hair.

Of course, as she was bringing us all of the victims, Autumn and I had to hide our heads and laugh. This girl! She also said that she just wants to be like the real hair cutters!

The thing is, she actually did a pretty good job!

The life I saved today...

Let me tell you a very touching story that happened today. Very touching. You might need your tissues for this one. Okay, you won't need your tissues, but if you are in a public place reading this, make sure everyone knows that you might be laughing very loudly soon!

I was driving down a rural road today, going back to the office from lunch. When I drive down the road by myself, I am doing one of three things: singing loudly and dancing, talking on the phone, or looking at the scenery I am passing and thinking of pictures to take there. Today, I was doing the first. I noticed a very large bird on the right hand shoulder of the road. I was trying to figure out if it was a hawk or eagle and because it was kind of bouncing off the ground, I wondered if it was hurt. I quickly figured out that the hawk (I just guessed that it was a hawk at this point so we will call it a hawk) wasn't hurt because it started flying away. Then it turned and started coming towards the road. Mr. hawk was about 20 feet in front of my car and about 15ish feet in the air. It was very pretty, and I was admiring this bird for a split second and then something dropped from from mr. hawk onto the road right in front of me.

IT WAS A MOUSE!!! Yes...a MOUSE dropped from Mr. hawk right in front of my moving vehicle. Mouse was alive, yes he was. He scurried to one side and then another. I screamed...took a breath...screamed....took a breath. And then I closed my eyes and hoped I didn't run over it. Yes..I did...I squeezed the steering wheel tightly and closed my eyes and screamed and hoped I didn't hear a thump. I screamed...then I said, "Oh no Trinity, open your eyes!" I can NOT believe that my enjoyable scenery changed from a beautiful hawk to a mouse dropped right in front of me! I stopped and looked in the rear view mirror and saw Mouse running in a zig zag back and forth back and forth. Oh great, now I saved this poor mouse's life, but he has brain damage! I so wish someone had been in the car with me...I had to scream, laugh and squeal all by myself! I just couldn't believe it. I got to the office and told Judi all about my truamatic drive! WOW....what a day! And that, ladies and gentlemen, is the story of the life I saved today!

call from the teacher

So I was at the office with three of the girls. They were playing nicely in a room and I was getting a lot done. My phone rang, and when I saw caller ID, I saw that it was H's teacher, who is also our dear friend. I didn't think too much of it because she is very involved in our church...there could be a million reasons why she could be calling. She told me she was calling about H...Oh great what did she do? She seemed to be in a great mood, she didn't seem to be hiding anything...oh great...wait a minute Trinity, pay attention!
She went on to tell me that H was doing an EXCELLENT job! She said that even on areas that she had been struggling a little with, she has put a lot of effort in and has really mastered it. She went on to tell me how proud she was that H had brought her own money (birthday money I must add) to pay for her library fine, and the librarian was very proud of her that she was responsible to get it paid and pay for it with her own money that she gave her a special bookmark. And because H passed her goal on reading her AR books, she got book bucks, which she can spend at the school store. H earned $10 in book bucks and spent all 10 dollars...ON OTHER PEOPLE!!! She even gave Mrs. Ripley a pen that she bought. Mrs. Ripley said that it was hard to take a gift like that, but it truly gives H such joy to give to other people!
So the lessons I learned today:

• H is a VERY thoughtful person and is working hard (well I already knew that, but nice to realize again.)
• She has the very BEST teacher!!!
• I need to be like Mrs. Ripley and recognize and verbalize when I see someone doing the right thing.
• I need to NOT automatically assume my children are doing something wrong...why do I do that???

So...the moral of the story...I AM SO SO SO PROUD OF LITTLE MISS H!!!! Thank you Lord for her!

Another gift from the Lord

Remember the last post I did about a gift from the Lord? It started with a little griping....something about me not having much in my baby book, and all of my pictures having my sisters in it....something like that! Well....that post resulted in another gift from the Lord! Now...I realize that the Lord gives us blessings and gifts everyday and we just have to recognize them. This was an extra special gift.
My friend Tracye felt sorry for me I guess, and decided to find some pictures of me as a baby. Tracye was our babysitter when we were little. I'm sure we were kind of bratty....but I do remember we liked her a lot. I remember when my dad dressed up in my mom's clothes for some sort of church function (I'm sure it was funny at the time...better than it sounds as I'm writing it) and I was scared to death of him in women's clothes. I wouldn't even go to my mom...just Tracye. My other memory of Tracye is when she was babysitting and the fire alarm went off, so the three of us jumped up from bed, and ran to our safe spot by the mailbox. The problem with this and the reason I even remember this situation is...we were sleeping in our underwear...or at least I was. We were very little, but there we were...standing outside in the dark by the mailbox in our underwear with Tracye! I don't know why I don't remember vital information, but I remember silly stories like that....and I really don't know why I felt compelled to share this tonight....anyway...Tracye went looking for pictures. She even had someone go through the old church albums to find pictures. They found 2!!! We actually have this one with the four of us, but not digitally, so it was fun to get. I changed the lighting and I think it looks really nice!

This one....this is so special! It is my baby dedication! I didn't even realize I was dedicated in this church. We had moved to this town a few months before, and I thought I had been dedicated in the previous town. I was SO SO SO happy! And look....do you see what I see? There are no sisters in the picture with me!!! Thank you so much Tracye!

I cropped the picture a little...I absolutely LOVE this picture! I love the moment captured where my mom is kissing my head! I just LOVE it! And look at my dad...makes me laugh! I can't believe how young they look...they look like kids!

Thank you Lord for this gift! I LOVE it!

Snowman

Today we had some snow and ice, but these pictures were taken from a little over a week ago. We had a very light dusting of snow, but the girls wanted to go and play in it. They came in and wanted me to go see their snowman. Well, I really did not want to go outside, so they brought their snowman to the porch, I stood inside the warm house, and took a few pictures of them in the snow! Then I sent the water camera out with them, but I haven't downloaded those yet.

Here is the snowman...more full of grass than snow.

I love this one because A is running in the background!

Poor hairy snowman!

Here she comes...

We went to my aunt's house a few weeks ago, and my cousin Sarah gave us a really fun gift...a party in a box. Not only was this a party, but a Miss America party! So, on the day of the Miss America pageant, we got to have our party in a box!
She sent us plates, cups, nail art, wands, tiaras, eyeshadow, ribbon to make sashes, and Miss America trivia and most importantly, a score sheet with all of our names and all of the states, so when we watched it, we could mark which ones we liked! It was SO much fun!

We went through a lot of options trying to figure out what kind of food to make....we came up with all kinds of "good" ideas to make crowns, and such, and we even thought about eating salad and then eating pizza at the very end of the pageant because we thought that might be what those girls do! But we decided to go dainty/tea party kind of like. Autumn made tortilla wraps and chicken salad and egg salad sandwiches. She also made nutella and peanut butter and then cream cheese and jelly sandwiches in the shapes of hearts and stars. Cheese and tomatoes are kind of a given for our parties!

Also we had our little debbie fancy cakes and strawberry shortcakes for the fancy occasion as well as fruit "scepters" even though Miss America doesn't really have a scepter! Oh, and notice the shoes in the background...Sarah had those and party poppers in the box too. Oh, and we ate just about all of that food!

Miss America...dog version....Maggie! Yes, she got dressed up too!

Mr. America...Hudson put on his "tie" for the occasion.

They got to dress themselves from our huge selection of dress up clothes and old curtains and such to dress up with. Notice the lovely "backdrop" they put up for the pictures! Just to note....only for a party with just the six of us would I put blue eyeshadow on them that dark! We had fun putting on makeup, doing nails, and doing hair.

We each picked one state before it even came on, and 5 out of 6 of ours made it to the top 10!!! CRAZY! Here is M being crowned (that tiara came from high school, not the party box)

lovely Miss California

She picked Oklahoma for her state, but she didn't want to pick a state...she wanted to be Miss Cinderella!

Miss Cinderella/Oklahoma

H being crowned. And notice that she isn't in her formal wear, she is in her talent competition costume!

Miss Texas

A being crowned.

Miss New York

SO MUCH FUN!!! Thanks Sarah and the gang!