Samitslan

So, my 15-year-old niece, Samantha (Sam), gets off the high school bus in front of my house and hangs out until my oldest sister (her mom) comes to pick her up on her way home from work. Sam's usually at my house at least two hours. We arranged this, so Sam wouldn't have to hang out alone at her house, which is just a few miles away.

In the beginning of the school year, Sam did her homework while she hung at my place. After three weeks, her ambition wavered. Now, we end up doing silly things while she's here. A while ago, she introduced me to her imaginary country, Samitslan. She has gone to great trouble to create a fictional country with laws, punishments, a flag, territories, everything. She says it's a socialistic country. She seems to really know what she's talking about. Her and her friends play around with all this stuff while they hang out. I can't tell you how much I wish I wasted my time imagining up fictional countries instead of day-dreaming about boys.

Today, our silliness consisted of going link after link on people's blogs trying to see how far we could go. We would click on each blog's tenth friend's blog. Does that make sense? It was fun. We saw lots of cool things. Then, we changed my blog up a bit and we wrote our names with our mouth, feet, and opposite hand. Here is Sam's attempt.

I think she did pretty awesome. On the top is with her right foot, then her left hand, then right hand, then mouth. After she was done, she realized she had put the pen in her mouth after holding it with her foot! Pluhh!

She and I always have a crazy time. A couple weeks ago, Scott went with a buddy on an overnighter at his family's cabin so I asked Sam to come stay with Kate and me. Long after Kate was zonked, Sam and I were giggling the night away in the king-sized bed. It was all silly stuff, to be sure. The last thing I remember before I fell asleep was Sam introducing me to the gurgly sound her stomach makes when she moves. We had a lot of fun. I never had a little sister but Sam really is that for me.

I enjoy having Sam here more than she will ever know--not just because she's helpful with Kate. She keeps things real and fun. Ironically, Sam is the one who gives me the parenting advice that works! Go figure!

Our Empty Room

I've been a little busy moving my office downstairs. We're running three services through Comcast now. When the tech came for installation, we realized we needed to rethink how we are using our rooms. We needed to add a cable outlet in whichever room we chose for the office and it seemed silly to go to the trouble of setting up our current office (upstairs) because our plan has always been to move our office downstairs once we have more children.

-

Now we have an empty room upstairs and it's really weird. I keep thinking maybe we jumped the gun. Suppose we never have more children? Yes, I have these thoughts a lot because Scott and I just aren't the conceiving type.

-

Today, when I finished cleaning out the upstairs room and put all the final things in the office downstairs, I--for the first time--thought maybe we would choose to adopt. Maybe Scott and I should talk about it so we can save for it. Scott is still in the hopeful stage and thinks I am horribly impatient and that I don't have enough faith. This is possible. But maybe my women's intuition is kicking in, telling me that it won't happen again and that Kate was a miracle and I should go to plan B. ???

-

All I know is when I look at that empty room I have the overwhelming feeling that it would be selfish of us to leave it that way when there's got to be a little someone, somewhere who could use it. Of course I would pray and make sure that was the route our family should take. And then there's all that money to be saved--I hear it is quite expensive to raise someone else's child--how odd. But really, what else does one do with an empty room?

-

We're using two of our three upstairs bedrooms. We have a separate playroom and an office and a family room and a living room... The only thing I can think of, besides using it as some future child's bedroom, is turning that room into a formal dining area. We could open it up to the living room and it would make perfect sense with our eat-in kitchen being less than spacious. I know that would cost less than adoption. So, it's an idea. But what good is a bigger-better dinning room with no more than three people to eat in it? And at what point do we make such drastic changes like adoption or changing a bedroom into a dining room?

If you have any ideas, let me know.

Especially for Gary & Kathy

I thought Kate didn't know the ABC song yet. Grandma B was telling how her niece helps her children learn the ABC's by singing the song while washing hands. So, we tried this today and to my surprise she sang along.

Well, I called my mom and dad so Kate could sing them her newly acquired ABC song. However, she got bored of the process before I could call Scott's parents. Lucky thing that I recorded it! So here you go, Grandma & Grandpa B. Enjoy.

P.S. This is 9:00 am, she just finished eating her pancakes (with syrup this time). She wanted to watch Emperor's New Groove (which she's never seen before) so I made a deal that she could watch it with popcorn if she sang the ABC's for Grandma & Grandpa.

P.S.S. Notice the one letter that she skips. :)

And yesterday, she came to me with money (coins) in her little purse and said, "I have good news, and I have bad news." I was cracking up so hard that I couldn't even find out what she was going to say until a little later. The good news was something silly about the money. I couldn't tell what she was saying about the bad news.

Then, while I was pretending to be her pet doggy, following her around, panting, and barking, she turned around to look at me and said (in her best imitation of Woody from Toy Story 2), "Reach for the Stars!"

I already relayed this next thing to the Grandparents but I loved it so much I thought I should write it down for me so I don't forget:

Kate has decided she no longer needs a nap. I beg to differ but I thought I would let her have her way for a while and see how it goes. Yesterday, she struggled but kept bouncing back and trying so hard to be pleasant. By 5:30 pm she was done trying and got whiny and couldn't keep it together. I told her if she kept crying and whining then she'd have to go straight to bed. She pulled herself together for one minute more only to lose it again. I picked her up and while carrying her to her room I told her that it was time to go to bed. She was SOOOOO upset and in her most passionate 2 1/2 year old way she cried, "How can you do this to me?" With Scott within earshot, we both laughed harder than ever--So hard that we couldn't put her to bed. We got her laughing, too. She was able to make it until 7:00 pm and even then she exclaimed pitifully, "It's not fair!" But she was adorable and went sweetly to bed after our bedtime ritual. Scott and I had so much fun with her--even in her tantrums she is adorable to us--she keeps us laughing.

Random Accounts of Kidspeak

Kate painting her DQ Dilly Bar on Malifecent and Sleeping Beauty

Last night we were getting ready to go for a quick walk and I told Kate we needed to all get our shoes on before we could go. We all went in different directions. Then, Kate comes to me with her shoes on and she hands me a pair of mine and she says, "Here's your shooooos, momma. I bwaht (brought) them just in case."

First thing this morning, I open the door and Kate goes into some out-of-the-blue line of questioning about Toy Story 2 characters, which she's only seen twice.

Kate: Is Buzz here?

Me: Buzz? What do you mean? Buzz Lightyear?

Kate: No, not Buzz Yight-year, Buzz is Woody's friend. Is he here?

Me: No

Kate: We have to get ready for Woody and Buzz they're my very best fwend (friend). What's the girl's name?

Me: Calamity Jane

Kate: Oh, Yeah, Can-uhn-ee Jane. I want to play with her, too.

Later on I caught her repeating, "Run like the wind bullseye"

Some of Kate's other Best Fwends: Horton, Turtle, and Puppy-Puppy

Then we were cleaning up in the basement after playing in the playroom and while we were walking upstairs, I noticed Kate was crawling up the stairs on all fours. She was looking down at her hands and suddenly said, "I don't have paws. Just fingers. Just fingers and poe-nails (toe nails) and feet."

Mid-Week Respite

Scott's work is a little slow right now so Scott forwarded his business calls to his cell phone and gave his employees the day off while we went for 4-wheeler rides at the cabin.

I don't have to tell anyone that fall is in full swing. We captured several pictures and here are a few from Windy Ridge, otherwise known as "the lookout."


Kate in her "cabin shirt". I had to call it that so that she'd put it on. She has an abhorence to long sleeves (I think she caught it from her Grandma Mayfield).

Loves for Daddy--lucky guy. He is always getting the "loves". That's okay, I know who Kate wants when she skins her knees or has a bad dream.

Too bad we didn't bring a photographer for this backdrop. We could've had our Christmas photos captured and out of the way. Anyone good at photoshop? :)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY PUPPY!

Puppy has been in the family since before Christmas 2006 and it was high time he had a decent birthday celebration. Here's the cake and song.

And today, while I went back and forth from the car to the house putting the groceries away we had a cute exchange:

Me: Hey Kate, are you doing okay in there?

Kate: Yes-sir-ee Momma! Because I have a starburst in my mouth. Look!

The "yes-sir-ee" made me giggle.

Till We Meet Again...

Adene Ruth Houtz 1929-2008

Sunday night, while Scott was gone fishing, Scott's Grandma died in her sleep. She was only 79. The thing I remember most about Grandma Houtz is how she used simple traditions to show her love and unite her family. Every Sunday she made a special dessert and her children and grandchildren came to visit. Holidays were her specialty. Every holiday had a rhythm that never skipped a beat.

If Scott and I showed up to visit unannounced, both Grandma and Grandpa dropped everything they were doing and sat in the living room and listened patiently to all the new things in our lives. Selflessly, they rarely shared the details of their aging aches and pains unless we pulled it out of them.

Grandma always made me feel like I was one of her very own grandchildren, and I was. She knew about me. She went to every special event I invited her to. Her presence was enough of a present but she gave those, too. The day I knew she was my Grandma, just the same as Scott's, was my first Christmas Eve as Scott's wife. We gathered with the whole Houtz family to celebrate. I looked up on the mantle and saw a stocking with my name on it. I can't tell you how much that meant to me. They could have just given one stocking for each married couple but I had a stocking all my own. In a way, I felt like that stocking was always there with my name printed on it, waiting for my arrival into the family.

I know I will feel a great whole in the family with Grandma gone. God be with you, Grandma, till we meet again.