WHO YA WITH!??!?!?

While we froze our asses off (seriously I think I left my right cheek attached to the seat at LP stadium) it was totally worth it. We saw Vandy in it's first bowl appearance since the Regan era and its first win in 50 some odd years. Santa (aka Keith and Susanna) gave us awesome seats for Christmas (thanks Santa you are the BEST). It was the best New Year's in a forever even though Raif has lost his voice from screaming and I am still frozen solid. I don't know whether we are going to make it to midnight but it was definitely one of the most memorable New Years in a long time. Happy New Years to all and Go Dores!!!

A true Quincess....

An Erim Christmas

Well, we had a very Merry Christmas this year. I was quite excited because for the first time both kids understood about Santa (well sort of) and both were more interested in the presents than the wrapping paper and the boxes. Santa was very good to all of us as you can tell. The funniest part of the day was watching the kids in complete ADD mode. They had so many new things to play with that they would play with one thing for like one minute and then see another and have to play with that. By the time I got a toy out of its box it was on to something new. Here are a couple of pics from the holiday. You can see lots more at Raif's smugmug page:

http://sailrace.smugmug.com/gallery/6942279_ngAF3#P-1-15

Before the chaos.....
During the chaos....

The puppies relaxing by the fire after a meal of lobster (yes they had some too) and a nice rawhide bone.

Heard around the House...

I thought I would take a week and compile some of the things that are said around our house. I will leave it to you to determine whether I or the children said it. I hope you enjoy a little taste of life in the Erim house.

Mommy, I lost my pee.

We are smushing our strawberries to make orange juice.

Get your head out of the toilet. I promise you your poop is still there. It is just hiding behind the toilet paper.

We are playing nicely. Now go away.

I want to hug my fishsticks.

I have a nose boogie. Want to eat it?

Now you push me down.

I bit my teeth.

I am going to cut your toes off and put them on my pizza.

The rule in this house is that you only flush your own pee.

Do we jump on the bed?
No.
What do we jump on?
Quinn

He's an Erim.....

Proof that Greyson is an Erim (if you had any doubt) - tonight for dinner he insisted on his filet mignon with bordelaise sauce be finished off with fresh chopped parsley. Gotta love that kid!!

Seinfeld-esque observation

We changed garbage companies this month and I was signing up on-line to pay the bill. The last thing before I hit the sign-up button was this small check box that ask me if I wanted to receive special offers via e-mail. Really? Special offers on weekly garbage pick-up???? I can't even fathom what this would be.

Feeling Old

Last night our babysitter/teenage neighbor came over to have me help her with her algebra. After we finished with her homework we somehow got on the subject of cell phones (probably because I got a new one). Then we started talking about old time cell phones and I tried to explain to her the old bag phones of the 80's and the really big phones with the antenna that were like 5 inches long. She looked at me and said "Wow, those must have been hard to text on." After I informed her texting didn't exist back then she looked at me with this incredulous look. "Really? How did you survive." I was about to start talking about how we didn't have internet back in the day and no cable TV but thought better of it. You are officially old when you start a sentence with "When I was your age....."

Raising a Polite Child in a Rude World

OK, so I had a very frustrating day today and need to vent a little. Before I start this story I will admit that when it comes to manners and such I know I am definitely on the more side rather than the less. I had very proper parents and grandparents who expected pleases, and thank yous and ma'am and sirs and that is how I am bringing up my children. I know the world is not going to be as zealous as I am but I think that children (and their parents) have to have SOME manners.

I took Quinn to the local library for storytime this morning. With the exception of Greyson she doesn't get a lot of interaction with other children so I thought this might be a nice experience for her. I was wrong. I have never been in a room with so many rude people. We sat down and started playing with some toys that were set out before the program began. This one little boy just came over and grabbed Quinn's toys right out of her hand - his mother did nothing. Then when they were sitting around the storylady this other little boy started shoving all the children out of his way which lead to this domino effect of children falling over. Again Mom nowhere in sight. Some little girl knocked Quinn down to run up and get some bells to sing jingle bells with.

Part of the storytime they have a little puppet show where the kids crowd around this plastic fence and behind the fence is a little stage and a little puppet comes out to talk to the children. First of all all the children were hanging on the fence and one of the kids broke it. Second, apparently all the Moms know each other because they were all sitting down and jabbering behind the children so much that I couldn't even hear what the puppet was saying - neither could Quinn because she kept asking me what the little pig was saying. Finally at the end Quinn was the only one who said Thank You. I was apalled.

Do I expect two year olds to act perfectly all the time? Absolutely not - I know mine doesn't. But I expect their parents to act with manners and teach their children the same. If Quinn had stolen a toy or shoved another kid I would have been there in a second to let her know that isn't OK and have her apologize.

So am I asking too much? Am I too old fashioned? I am debating on whether to go back again because those children were so horrid but I know the interaction would in theory be good for Quinn. Argh.

Puppy Love

Birds

Has anyone ever seen the movie The Birds? It is a 1950s-1960s movie done by Hitchcock about these birds that attack the citizens of this small town. It is really creepy. Anyway, a couple of months ago we put a bird feeder up on the deck and we have had tons of birds come and it has been quite fun for both me and the kids. This morning I looked out and noticed the feeder was empty and realized I had no more to fill it up. Right now I am looking out on my deck to see no less than seven birds sitting on our railing just staring into the house. It is kind of freaky. Apparently they are hungry. So before they come and peck my eyes out I suppose I will go to the bird store and get more food.

Oops...

We came home to find this in our backyard. We are assuming that the weight of the snow and the ice did this. Luckily no one was hurt as the dogs love this spot in the backyard. Any bets as to how long this tree stays like this - anyone, anyone.

Weekend Getaway

This last weekend Raif's company had a holiday retreat/getaway to The Grove Park Inn in Asheville North Carolina. When I first heard about this I thought this place is going to be empty because who the hell vacations two weeks before Christmas - the answer is everyone in NC. The place was packed. It was a beautiful old resort reminding me (I am showing my age a bit) the hotel in Dirty Dancing. They had an enormous fireplace and Christmas trees everywhere and apparently hold a national gingerbread house competition every year. While I think we would have had more fun in the summer (the mountain activities are geared more towards nature and I just wasn't willing to spend the morning at the outdoor nature preserve in 40 degree weather) we had a good time wandering around Asheville. There was a band each night and the kids danced to the music and had fun looking at all the Christmas decorations. Here are a couple of pictures from our weekend. If you are interested in looking at more (especially to see the gingerbread houses because some of them were AMAZING) you can go to Raif's smugmug page here....

http://sailrace.smugmug.com/gallery/6841277_RJZot#437353875_25L5c

The view of the back of our hotelNow that is a fireplace...

Damn my children have rhythm.

Let It Snow

We got 3 inches of snow last Thursday night. We couldn't get our cars up the hill on our driveway so Friday was a snow day for the whole family. Grandma and Grandpa thankfully had bought the kids snowsuits for Christmas in preparation for our February ski trip and so we busted those out a bit early (thanks Grandma). We spent the morning making snowballs and learning that ice is slippery. Raif taught the kids to eat snow which they then proceeded to do later in the day in the local Chili's parking lot. Sweet. Greyson wanted to ride his trike on the ice but settled on attempting to clean it all up with a broom.

Winter Wonderland

It snowed in Nashville! We got our first snow of the season tonight and it was a doozy (at least by Southern standards). It started right about rush hour when both Raif and I were trying to get home. Two hours for me and the kids and over an hour for him. And actually Raif's car didn't make it home - he couldn't get up the hill in our neighborhood and he had to leave it at the community pool's parking lot and hitch a ride with me. I took these pics tonight because generally snow doesn't stay long around here so sorry if they aren't the best. The kids got to see the snow from the car but after 2 hours of driving in it and and hour and a half past dinner and bed that was all they were going to see. I am hoping it stay around long enough tomorrow morning for them to play in it.

Holiday Pet Peeve

OK - first if I insult you with this blog I apologize but I have to get this off my chest.

I am a big Christmas person. I love the holiday (I mean I actually listen to the Christmas radio station in the car) and I think everyone should deck the halls and get into the spirit. I love decorations both inside and out. While some might call it tacky (you know who you are) we even have the inflatables at our house that the children adore. Here is my pet peeve - if you are going to decorate you need to keep a theme and keep your themes separate. Example: my neighbor has just put up his decorations which include a nativity scene right next to Santa on a choo-choo train. Perhaps I missed that Sunday School class when I was young but I don't remember Santa puffing in to Jesus' birth on a lighted train. Perhaps he has the 3 wise men in a back compartment, but I doubt it. Nor do I think penguins in hats and gloves migrated down to Bethlehem those many years ago to play in the manger. Nativity scenes do not go with your festive holiday animals, snowmen and Santas. I don't care how you decorate - nativity v. festive holiday charm - just don't mix and match.

O' Christmas Tree

Christmas has finally arrived at the Erim house. Today Raif and I decided to take a chance and we took the kids to cut down this year's Christmas tree. I couldn't decide whether the adventure would turn out to be a cherised holiday memory or a big giant disaster. Remarkably it went really well. The kids loved walking around the Christmas tree farm and picking out the tree.
Greyson and Quinn inspected all the prospective trees.
Then carefully supervised the menial laborer.
All the sawing finally paid off.
While the Farm tied the tree to the car we enjoyed some hot cocoa.
The finished product!! The kids weren't very interested in actually decorating tree but rather fighting over who held the ornaments so Raif and I put the ornaments on after the kids went to bed. All in all, a very good day and considering we participated in an event with a hand saw and we all still have ten fingers I'd say we did really well.

Backseat Words of Wisdom

Yesterday morning I was driving Greyson to school when it started to rain, which of course meant that everyone had to slam on their brakes on the highway. As we were crawling along at a roaring 5 mph, Greyson pipes up in the back seat "Go faster Mommy." I told him I couldn't because there was all this traffic in front of me. "Mommy," Greyson sighed "there are idiots everywhere."

And the Oscar goes to....

We were out playing on the driveway when Greyson fell down and skinned his hand. It was bleeding a tad and so I offered to get him a band-aid. Quinn piped up that she wanted one too and I told her that she didn't need one because she hadn't fallen. So, Quinn then proceeds to carefully lie down on the driveway and start this quite realistic crying jag and in between sobs informs me that she fell down and needed a band-aid. I hear Hollywood calling.