Heading Up North

Well, I will be signing off for a while as we are heading up north for a week to visit family and friends. I am really looking forward to it (not so much the 8 hour car ride with Elise). I love to go back home and spend time with everyone that I miss so much. The flip side to that is, I get comfortable back in my hometown and want to start looking for job listings for my husband. Then, we get back to Memphis and I start focusing on all the things I don't like about it and how much I want to move back home. But, I guess that is something I need to work on - being content where the Lord has me.

Anyways, I hear rumors of a Dutch Blogging Girls get together. If the rumors are false, maybe I will take this opportunity to invite myself and JD over anyways. (Hint, Hint, Mommy Brain, Decker Family, Ettema Family, And Then She Said. And I strongly encourage Did I Just Say That? to join us as well.)

On a more serious note, we have to make an unexpected trip up to Grand Rapids, MI while we are in Chicago. My grandpa, Harvey Klingeman, passed away the other night. He had been sick for a long time and this was somewhat expected, but he seemed to have been doing well lately and was found in his house. This is not going to be easy for my family and especially my aunts and uncle as we have all endured some painful times over the recent years. My mother's death was extremely hard on everyone and then my grandma died just a few months after that. This was so hard on my grandpa, but I was so proud of how he handled it all. I will miss him dearly. Good bye, Grandpa, we love you.

So, have a great week everyone, and hopefully I will be seeing some of you. And for those 1 or 2 people who read this that I won't see, I will be back in about a week!

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Uh Oh

You know those annoying parents who are afraid to discipline their kid or tell them "no" because they don't want to stifle them? The ones whose kid is drawing on the wall with crayon and their response is (with a sing-songy voice), "What a creative little artist you are, Susie! That's very good that you are experimenting with different types of canvas, but how about you try the paper again?" I was NOT raised that way and I do not want to raise my kids that way. If my kid draws on the wall, she will have no doubt about how I feel about that. But, for a moment today, I had a feeling that my husband will lean more towards that parent that drives me nuts.

As we sat in the restaurant eating lunch today, Elise was very loudly yelling baby babble to those on the other side of the room. Jeremy and I both reacted at the same time. My response was to reach over and cover her mouth with my hand. Jeremy's response was, "Honey, I love your spirit, but how about you use your inside voice."

It's going to be a long 18 years.

Library Storytime

Okay, here's the scoop. My library storytime experience was a good one overall. When I arrived, there were several other mothers and kids lingering around the room where it takes place. Several were talking with each other which was one of my biggest fears. I had been told when I called to ask about this program that it had been going on since January so I figured there was already a core group of moms who had become the "storytime gang." But I found a woman sitting there by herself with her daughter playing with some legos so Elise and I joined them. She turned out to be very nice, her daughter is just about the same age as Elise, her name is also Kim, and she and her husband are moving within the next month to our subdivision. I guess you can't beat that. The downside is, of course, she works during the day. She is an assistant principal so she has one more week left before she is back to work for the school year.

Anyways, the storytime room finally opened up so I headed in there and found a spot on the floor with the rest of the kids and moms. The woman leading it introduced herself and said that we were going to start by singing "our" song. Fan-freakin-tastic. Not only are they going to sing a song that I don't know the words to, but we are in a large room with not that many people. That means that others are going to potentially hear you sing. For those of you who know me, you know I can't sing. Fortunately for me, I didn't know the song we were singing, so I didn't really have to sing. And Elise didn't seem to care.

After the song, came the flannel board story. I was a little skeptical about how long this would hold these kids attention. I'm no expert on child development or anything, but I found it hard to believe that these kids ranging from the ages of 10 months to 20 months (Elise was the oldest) were going to sit still for "Are You My Mother?" on a flannel board with only silhouette cut outs of the characters. I was right. And Elise didn't seem to care.

Finally, the flannel board nightmare came to an end. Then it was on to finger plays. Oh great. Right up my alley. Once again this was something I didn't know (I'm not exactly the fingerplay kind of mother), so I had to try to catch on and make it look like I thought it was fun so the other mothers and leader didn't think I wasn't all in to it. So, like a good little mommy, I caught on to it pretty quick and went with the flow. And Elise didn't seem to care.

The fingerplay ridiculousness ended and we were FINALLY on to some book reading. She read from a book (I have no idea what book it was) while the kids all cried, crawled on their parents, or tried to escape. And Elise didn't seem to care.

Next came "instrument time." Finally, Elise's time to shine! She loves shaking things and making noise. The leader passed out a box of instruments for the kids to choose from and we went the the sleigh bell option. Once the kids all had their instruments, the leader put on "Rockin' Robin" and it was time to shake our sleigh bells. The younger kids ate their instruments and the older kids played them while smiling and laughing. And Elise just stood there and didn't seem to care.

The song ended, the instruments were wiped clean of baby drool and free playtime began. Lots of toys and books were put on the floor for the kids to play with while the parents were able to spend some time talking. I was looking forward to this part, but my little one had other plans in mind. Just about all the kids sat in the middle with the toys and books and the parents sat near them chatting. Elise, along with 2 boys, did not seem one bit interested in toys or books. The boys ran around yelling and Elise divided her time among a few options - trying to escape out of the room, running around the group of people with a high pitched scream, or trying to fasten and unfasten the stroller straps in another mother's double stroller. Needless to say, we did not stick around for playtime much longer and headed to the car.

Over all, the program itself isn't that great, but I guess it's geared towards children and not adults. And it is something to do on a Wednesday morning with an opportunity to meet some new people. I will give it another try this coming Wednesday and see how it goes. In the meantime, I think we will be practicing our bell shaking skills in preparation...

Here Goes Nothing...

I am getting adventurous in my old age and I am going to try something new tomorrow. I am taking Elise to storytime at the local library for kids between the ages of 1-2. I know, you are thinking "big freakin' deal." Well, for me it is. I have my moments when I am feeling very outgoing and willing to meet and talk to anyone, but that doesn't happen very often. If I do something like this, I usually recruit a friend to go with me, but since I don't have any friends here with kids within that age range (or kids at all) I will have to tough it out on my own. I thought about inviting my friend Joy to come with me since she has some time off work and will be home during the day, but then I thought it might appear that she is my "partner" if you get what I mean. That might make it uncomfortable for other mother's there to meet me. So, I will go it alone tomorrow. I will keep you posted.

Fine, I'll do it...

Alright already. I'll do this stupid thing, but I'm not promising greatness.

1. My home is... usually messy.
2. I am listening to... my washing machine and Elise whining.
3. Maybe I should... not tag anyone else to end this silliness.
4. I love it when... I don't have to do these chain email/blog things.
5. My best friend... tagged me and the other one started this whole train wreck of a game.
6. I don't understand... why people think this is fun.
7. I lost... my wedding ring in Lake Michigan(see Jen, 2 days isn't so bad).
8. People say... a lot of things which I only listen to half of.
9. The meaning of my blog name is... nothing - I had to come up with something.
10. Love is... the best, THE BEST!
11. Right now, somewhere, someone is... peeing.
12. I will always... hate doing these things.
13. Once upon a time... I was cool.
14. I never want to... lose my husband.
15. My personal motto is... it's 5:00 somewhere.
16. When I wake up in the morning... I usually want to go back to sleep.
17. I get annoyed when... I feel pressure to fill these things out.
18. People always... do stuff.
19. I sing...horribly.
20. Hugs are the best when... the person doesn't smell.
21. Today I... finally filled this thing out.
23. Tomorrow I will... attemp to clean part of my house and run errands.
24. I really want... to be done with this thing.
25. If my girls/boys were born the opposite sex, I would have named them... baby boy kooistra since we never settled on a boy name. thank goodness she was a girl!

So, there. I did it. Are you all happy now? I'm very tempted to not tag anyone and just end this nonsense right now, but since I'm a good sport, I will tag Christine.