What would you do for a pair of shoes?

The other day I stopped at the shoe store for a new pair of tennis shoes. The kids were with me so they wandered around the store. Of course they each found a pair of shoes they thought they needed as well. Truth was the boys did need new shoes so I was easily swayed....almost. Jared picked a pair of converse. Totally acceptable shoe except for one thing - he coudn't tie his shoes. It isn't that we hadn't tried in the past, we had. We had sat on the couch several times and his little fingers just flopped lazily and he would say he couldn't do it. I never pressed. Between velcro, slip ons and shoe laces you don't actually have to tie I figured he would be fine for a while.

So, we sat at famous footwear and I made a deal with him. I will teach you how to tie your shoes and you have to tie them all on your own 5 times and I will buy them for you. At first I thought for sure I would be saved the purchase of the shoes. Nope, he was determined. Unlike all of the other times when he didn't see the point - this time he had a goal, a reward within reach. He finally got it and sat there and tied and untied them five times. He was so pleased with himself he wore the shoes right out of the store.

When I was 4 I taught myself to tie my own shoes. I tied my brother's shoes for several years before he decided having his little sister tie his shoes wasn't something he wanted to to do for the rest of his life. My other two picked up the shoe tying thing pretty quickly - each by the time they were 5. I'm now able to say that all 3 of my kids are shoe tyers (if that's how you even spell that)!

Talents I Don't Have

Today Jackson went to a chess meet with the school chess team. He is not really on the team if you consider he doesn't go to practice but I guess he plays during his first period home room class with the chess coach. He was on the chess team last year so the coach is trying to bring him in again. I guess he's not too bad he just isn't patient enough sometimes to really sit and think about the next move. Not good when you're playing chess, right?

Well anyways, at the meet today he was playing and the coach came out and started talking to me. At this poing I'm not sure how he didn't see the glazed over look in my eyes. Something about board one and then something about the bishop. Which one is the bishop again? Oh right, that guy that's looking up all the time with his mouth open in a funny smile. What does he do? Heck if I know!

Just proof to me that our kids are so different than we are. That they develop talents and interests in things that we have no clue about. Yes, my husband knows how to play chess if you're wondering. But really, it is truely a talent I do not have. I also can not skateboard, play with a hackey sack, draw, sing, or...oh let's just stop now before this gets out of hand.

Veteran's Day

My Grandpa and Grandma. They met while my Grandpa was in Texas during World War II. He was in the Navy and she was in the Women's Air Corps. I think it is totally cool that my grandma flew airplanes. She was a test pilot so when they would make repairs on airplanes she would then take them for a test flight to make sure the planes were fixed completely. She crashed more than once and broke her nose two times.

Costume Party

I know, halloween was last week but I have a costume party to attend tonight. I've had sick kids home all week and totally forgot about it. I have no costume. The theme is "dress up like you would if you were a kid". I don't have any princess costumes on hand in my size, no cheerleader costumes, no cowgirl. I have 10 hours to pull something together. I may just have to drop by the costume shop and see what they have. What was it I wanted to dress up as when I was a kid and never got the chance? What did you always want to be?

I guess we'll see what I come up with....if all else fails I'll dress up as a baby and just wear my jammies. Hmmm that sounds comfy.

Kid Talk

In the car today the kids were talking about who knows what. Something my Dad told Jordan came up. The fact that almost any bug out there tastes like popcorn. Jordan says "I'm not sure if they really do taste like popcorn." Jared's response? "He's an old man - he can't lie you know!"

Halloween is Coming!

Amazed is a Halloween junky (actually I'm pretty sure she loves ALL holidays) and has a lot of really fun ideas for Halloween on her blog. Pumpkins and witches and cupcakes. I'm thinking the cupcakes are all just too cute. I decorate a little bit at my house. Mostly stuff that I've made at one relief society activity or another. Some of the stuff I have purchased but not much. I'll admit right here that I'm kind of cheap. My previous shopping partner was probably more frugal than I am so there were years that I would have never bought anything just because I thought it was too cute. Now I tend to wander out in to the world with my neighbor. I should say that a lot of my decorating is done with my mom - but she also does some of the purchasing so it allows me to still be cheap. But now with my neighbor I don't see her buying me stuff for my house but she sure helps me spend my own money. We were at Kirklands Home store and I saw the candy corn/pumpkin girl and we both thought she was really cute. Being the frugal girl I am I went home printed off a coupon and went back a few days later. When I was told that they only had the two on display and they wouldn't get any more halloween stuff I knew she had to come home with me. My only thought now is wondering where she will live after halloween is over.

The Stay at Home Mom

I am a stay at home mom. My kids are all in school, in fact my youngest is in 2nd grade so she's been in school for a while. I am still a stay at home mom. I have my degree in English and before we moved to Arizona I taught 7th grade English and Utah History. We then moved to England and I dabbled in working. I was a substitute teacher and I worked in the Education center on the base. Now we're back to Arizona and I'm back to not working. I don't think I've ever had another stay at home mom ask me what I do all day but I have had a few others wonder.

Today was a prime example of why I don't work. I spent the morning gathering things my husband needed in the colder weather, as well as a colder lab at work, while he's on a business trip. I then drove those items in to town to have the shipping guy at work mail them to him. While running this errand Jackson called to tell me that basketball starts TODAY and he needed his shoes and clothes for after school.

Off to Target I went as he wore his tennis shoes in the river camping with the scouts and he didn't really have the appropriate attire for basketball - he needs new shorts. Easy enough if I had remembered which child I was shopping for and didn't bring home shoes 2 sizes too small. I will exchange them tonight when I need to go back that direction.

Then once I returned home I had to call the guitar teacher. A 3:30 lesson time won't work when the basketball player doesn't get home until after 4:30. Rescheduling to 5:30 on Wednesday was the option.

After I pick up the younger two from school I'll take Jackson's things to him at his school.

I'm not sure how I would manage this all if I did work. And I'm really not sure who made up the term STAY AT HOME mom because I'm hardly ever home.