A little bit of humor goes a long, long way

I haven't written since Anny's birthday.  That's a long time, she turned 7 in July, and it's October!  I can think of too many good excuses to explain that.  We were busy moving, busy packing, busy unpacking, and all the drama that comes with that.  However I think the biggest reason I haven't written any new entries, is because I've been sad.  As explained in detail in a previous entry, I wasn't very excited to move from beautiful Florida, to dry New Mexico.  It's been much more difficult than I thought it would be, adjusting to our new home.  It's been hard to make friends, difficult learning where everything in our new town is, challenging creating order and comfort in our new home, frustrating finding a new doctor, new dentist, new piano teacher... if you've moved before, you know what I mean.  I have moved a few times, but I don't know if it's because we were in FL for so long, or have more kids now, or what it is, but this move has just been hard.

However like any difficult life challenge, with diligence, faith, patience, and lots of hard work, one slow day at a time, it gets better.

Humor, of course, also helps.  I have been surprised to find how much I need humor in my life right now.  I need to laugh.  It is such an immense relief from all the stress, to find something that causes spontaneous laughter and smiles.

So, instead of posting pictures of our new house (still not unpacked yet), or listing all the things I am trying to like about this new place but still don't, I thought I'd make a list of things I've found funny the past few weeks.  Even if you don't find them funny, hopefully when I'm having another long day, I can look back on them, and bring up a much needed giggle.  Maybe even a snort.  You know it's really funny if it makes you unattractively snort.

1.  DH learned some interesting information in his welcome to Cannon AFB five hour brief.  (It really was that long!)  He was warned to be watchful of cows.  Yes- cows.  If someone's cow gets loose and wanders into the road, and you hit it and miraculously survive the crash, you'll wish you hadn't.  Not only is it considered your fault for hitting the cow, even if the cow isn't anywhere near the farmer's land- BUT you are required to reimburse the farmer for said cow, PLUS an additional two generations of cow, making up for the loss of potential cow offspring.  Crazy, very crazy.  But also funny.  If I ever hit a cow though, not so funny.

2. We saw a man in a restaurant in a crazy cowboy outfit.  By crazy, I mean he had a huge belt buckle, big brimmed cowboy hat, and cowboy boots that were so pointy, they actually pointed upwards at the tips like elf shoes do, and were covered in a sort of stud-polka dot design.  This may not be funny if you grew up around cowboys, but to this suburban girl who literally had no idea adults wear cowboy hats and boots outside of Halloween parties, it was very funny.  I may have let my jaw drop to the floor, and stared much longer than is polite, before a huge and stupid grin formed on my face, and I had to suppress an intense case of the giggles.  

3. Watching the What Does the Fox Say viral video on youtube over and over with my kids, (it never stops being funny) and having my two year old walk up to me at random moments of the day and sing, "pow pow pow pow, what fox say?"  I've tried to catch him doing it on video with my phone, but as soon as he sees me try, he wont do it anymore.  I haven't given up yet though, it's such a great combination of funny and cute.

4. I saw this commercial on TV last week.  I'm afraid I'm one of those city people who doesn't get it.  Instead, I find it funny.  Just imagining Earl, Jim-bob, Bubba, and all his cousins taking a break from haulin' hay so they can log onto onlyfarmers.com and look up chicks- yeah, sorry, no matter how hard I try to be humble and understanding, it's still funny.

5.  Lots of funny posts on Facebook.  Thank you, my dear friends, for sharing life's funny moments.  I needed the laughs.  I think my favorite funny post, was by my best friend from high school.  She so kindly wrote:

Words I never thought I'd utter: "Don't use your toothbrush to scratch your butt!"

Ah, parenting!  You just can't make this stuff up.

So, it's not a very long list.  There have been a few other humorous moments, but they would fall under the, "you had to be there and have heard the entire conversation" category, and I've found whenever I try to explain those kinds of funny moments, I just start sounding stupid, and whomever is listening, kind of glazes over, and will respond with a fake laugh, or polite comment such as, "haha, yeah", or "uh-huh".

If you have something funny for me, please, by all means, share it in the comments.  Like Elizabeth Bennet, I dearly love to laugh.  

Another form of relief

Last post I tried to provide a little heartfelt encouragement, in the best way I knew how.  It concerned feeding the soul, and finding solace through Christ.  Now for a lighter yet often effective form of relief- humor.

I dare you to watch this video and not laugh, or at least smile!

Make a video - it's fun, easy and free!
www.onetruemedia.com

Special thanks to Anny, and the laughter we've had at her expense.  She giggles at this video now though, so I figured she wouldn't mind if I shared.  In her defense, she was a little tired from trick-or-treating (that's a lot of walking for a 5 year old) and she'd been going at that doughnut for about 5 minutes before she'd finally had enough.  I think it's safe to say she put the old adage "when at first you don't succeed, try, try, try again" to the test, and found it to be lacking in this case.

It's a Love Story . . .

One of my very best friends sent me a link to this You Tube video, and it made my day, on a day when it needed to be made.  Reading that you'll think this is some inspirational or possibly spiritual video.  Nope! While both are great, the medicine I needed this time was humor.   

This week I feel exactly like the mom in the video does, in the "three years later" part of the song, only it's 5 years later for us.  Same boat though.  Enjoy, and pass on the link to another overwhelmed mom in desperate need of something to laugh at!



Five stars from this exhausted and emotional stay-at-home critic!

A few things I love about Daddy not being deployed

If someone knows how to summarize in words all the combined emotions of having a deployed spouse home again, I'm impressed. I don't think I'm even going to try to describe how great it is. Either you already know, and would be reading what you've felt yourself, or you don't have to know, so why suffer through a sappy description? Instead I've made a little list of silly things that have surprised me in how un-silly they are to have again, now that my sweetheart is home. Just to be different, I'm listing 11. We all have a tendency to make lists of 10. Here's my attempt at being nonconformist.

1. Creaks and noises at night don't make me nervous anymore

2. There's someone else to answer the call of, "Mommy, there's poop on the rug!"

3. When we're driving as a family somewhere, I can safely turn to look at the girls, or grab things they dropped

4. I don't need my cellphone on me every waking moment

5. I don't feel the need to check my email every time I walk by the computer

6. It's rewarding again to make a nice meal for dinner

7. The question, "Which do you want to do, the supper dishes or bathe the girls?" is so much better than "Which should I do first . . .?"

8. When the sodas, cookies, candy, chips, etc. start to disappear, I know it's not because I ate them all myself

9. When I want hugs and kisses, I get them

10. Spiders and ugly bugs are a "Daddy" thing again

11. My house being filled with the confusing sounds of 3 simultaneous games of college football streaming in from internet radio, ESPN.com, and the tv doesn't bother me in the least

Welcome back, Daddy! We missed you more than we can say . . .

Kids say the darndest things . . .

We went to a baptism this past Saturday, and took the girls. On the program was this beautiful picture of the Savior and John the Baptist.



Scott, being the sweet father he is, took the opportunity to teach Anny a little about baptism. He decided to use the picture as a visual. He asked her if she knew what was going on in the picture. She nodded, and pointing to John the Baptist, said, "He's going to hit Jesus in the head".

Needless to say, she was corrected very quickly.

Alternative to Spanking

I received an email from a friend with this little story and photo. It's not about me, obviously, as I don't have a son. Some of you may have already seen it, but I thought it was worth posting. This is a well timed post for me, as Anny has been driving me crazy this week. She's definitely testing her limits. Here's to all you parents in the same boat as me right now, or have been there. If you can handle the suspense, read the email before you check out the photo.

Most of the American populace thinks it improper to spank children, so I have tried other methods to control my kids when they have one of 'those moments.' One that I found effective is for me to just take the child for a car ride and talk. Some say it's the vibration from the car, others say it's the time away from any distractions such as TV, Video Games, Computer, IPod, etc. Either way, my kids usually calm down and stop misbehaving after our car ride together. Eye to eye contact helps a lot, too. I've included a photo below of one of my sessions with my son, in case you would like to use the technique.

Sincerely,

Your Friend

Minnie Mouse Cuts In

Merrylee was chattering away today in her swing, of course until I pulled out the video camera. Then she looked at me curiously, and silently. Anny was also curious about what I was doing, and brought a little friend with her to check it out.