Have I ever mentioned that my brother lives in Scotland? His wife is a Brit. She came over to get her masters in Kinesiology (dance) at the University of Utah and through a round about way met my brother (via mail). He was living in Italy and she just started writing him because my Aunt thought it was a good idea. The hunch turned out well. My brother actually proposed to her before he even met her. Sounds like a love song doesn't it.
Well he came home, they got married and moved over to England right before their little girl was born and eventually migrated over to Scotland. As you can imagine, it's been a while since I last saw them; almost 10 years. I haven't even met 2 nieces and 1 nephew yet. So I was excited when I found out they were coming over for a visit. But due to airline restrictions on pregnant women traveling, their visit will hit in the during Christmas.
I was really excited for them to visit until I realized that meant that we would have to travel down to Utah for Christmas. I mean we have our own traditions that are deeply ingrained in us. This is mainly due to my LOVE of all things Christmas. We have certain music that we listen to and food that I only make at this time of year. My children have already anxiously asked if my family will allow us to make the same food on Christmas Eve. Or if we'll still be able to have our birthday party for Jesus on Christmas day. Add all of this to the fact that we won't even have beds to sleep on and that we'll have to discreetly transport all of the gifts with us. Which also means that I have to coordinate with Santa about our new location so that he and Rudolph can deliver the children's gifts.
I'm a little stressed/depressed/frustrated.
Stressed because I have to figure all of the logistics out for my family while trying to make their experience a good one. Depressed because we don't get to have our beloved Christmas time together. And also because I probably won't get a single good night sleep the whole time. Frustrated that I'm going through all of this effort for a brother I love but don't really like.
I know that going down to spend this time with my family is the right thing to do. Who knows if this opportunity will ever happen again. But to be completely honest the main reason we're doing this is my Grandma. Having all of her kids, most of her grandkids and all of her great-grandkids in the same place for Christmas is her idea of heaven. And I love my Grandma enough to make this happen before she passes away.
There is a silver lining though. I get to see more of my best friend! We're even having a girl's night out; just the 2 of us watching crazy movies, eating junk and talking the night away! I. AM. SO. EXCITED.
Ella
copyright Ella's Place
November 27, 2012
November 15, 2012
We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together
In September Teeny discovered a girl in his class had a crush on him. Which wasn't a bad thing because it turned out that he had a crush on her too. This of course meant that they were "going together" or whatever they're calling it in elementary school these days. Coincidentally, this girl's brother is in the same Cub scout troop as Teeny and the following Thursday was Pack meeting. This meant that I got to meet her. I was excited to see who had caught my son's eye. She was pretty and seemed nice but she was hanging all over my son the entire time. She was obviously twitterpatted. I thought it seemed a tad excessive for the age but I found out later that she's 11, which explains a whole lot about her behavior.
Have I mentioned that Teeny turned 9 at the end of the summer?
Well, a week or so went by and suddenly this girl decided that she no longer liked him. Which is normal for the age. I didn't think anything of it. I consoled my son and moved on. Until he mentioned that she was now being mean to him. I guess she wasn't okay that he wasn't pining for her. I advised him to just ignore her. He replied that it was a little hard to since she now sits by him.
Later we were on a date and Taylor Swift's latest hit came on the radio. Teeny started singing along and then inspiration struck. I teasingly told him that he should sing this song to her to let her know he was so over her and the way she was treating him. We laughed and forgot about. That is until he came home from school the next Monday with a huge grin on his face. Yup, he actually did it. On the walk home from school Graham had started singing "We are never ever getting....." to her. As you can guess, she was ticked.
Let's just say this song came out at the perfect time.
While I find the whole situation funny, I fear that I might have sent the wrong message to my son. Have a taught him to treat his "exes" poorly? Or have I taught him that it's okay to stand up for himself in a non mean way? What do you think?
Ella
copyright Ella's Place
Have I mentioned that Teeny turned 9 at the end of the summer?
Well, a week or so went by and suddenly this girl decided that she no longer liked him. Which is normal for the age. I didn't think anything of it. I consoled my son and moved on. Until he mentioned that she was now being mean to him. I guess she wasn't okay that he wasn't pining for her. I advised him to just ignore her. He replied that it was a little hard to since she now sits by him.
Later we were on a date and Taylor Swift's latest hit came on the radio. Teeny started singing along and then inspiration struck. I teasingly told him that he should sing this song to her to let her know he was so over her and the way she was treating him. We laughed and forgot about. That is until he came home from school the next Monday with a huge grin on his face. Yup, he actually did it. On the walk home from school Graham had started singing "We are never ever getting....." to her. As you can guess, she was ticked.
Let's just say this song came out at the perfect time.
While I find the whole situation funny, I fear that I might have sent the wrong message to my son. Have a taught him to treat his "exes" poorly? Or have I taught him that it's okay to stand up for himself in a non mean way? What do you think?
Ella
copyright Ella's Place
November 6, 2012
I Voted for Mitt Romney
I'm not a particularly political-minded person. Don't get me wrong, I like to keep up on the current issues and exercise my right to vote on a regular basis. I just don't care for the "politics" of politics. I also don't care for the hurt feelings that tend to happen when people have differing opinions on the matter at hand. Because of this, I wasn't going to say anything about the Presidential election that's happening today. But I feel that I must. So here's your warning: political opinions are expressed below.
I voted for Mitt Romney. I stood in line with my two youngest children for 20 minutes, checked in, received my voting ticket and voted. I contemplated waiting to vote til I could go by myself; no children. But as I thought about it, I decided that I wanted my children to see me vote for various reasons. I made the right decision because Tater Tot was quit sad that he didn't get to "bote" too.
I voted for Mitt Romney for several different reasons. I'd like to share those reasons with you on the small off chance that one person might be reading this undecided. I know it's highly unlikely to happen but I'm doing it just the same.
1. I voted for Mitt Romney because I believe that he has a better grasp at how our economy works. While the economy wasn't in the best shape when President Obama came into office, he has shown his lack of understanding by more than doubling our national debt in just a few years. The national debt incurred by President Obama alone is greater than the debt incurred by all of the other 42 Presidents of the United States of America. For some reason he thought it was advisable to put our country into more debt to pull our economy out of the recession than was needed to be incurred to pull our nation's economy out of the Great Depression. I don't believe that the debt President Obama incurred was justifiable based on the current state of our economy at this time. In fact, President Obama's actions goes against all tenants of our free market economy.
2. I voted for Mitt Romney because I believe in the sanctity of marriage between a man and a woman. That being said, I do not think people who are homosexual are bad people. I don't. They are like any other socio-economic group of people, they range from amazing to not-nice-at-all. While I believe that marriage should be reserved for a man and a woman, I also believe that those in the LGBT community should be able to have some legal rights in relationships as well. I support civil unions for anyone in the LGBT community who wants to make that long-term commitment. Because of this belief and President Obama's approval of gay marriage, I support Mitt Romney.
These are just two reasons out of several of why I voted for Mitt Romney. If you want to know more, ask me.
If you take nothing else from this post, please vote. Whatever you believe or whoever you think is the best candidate for the job, vote. Voting is a precious gift that we have. Please use it.
Ella
copyright Ella's Place
I voted for Mitt Romney. I stood in line with my two youngest children for 20 minutes, checked in, received my voting ticket and voted. I contemplated waiting to vote til I could go by myself; no children. But as I thought about it, I decided that I wanted my children to see me vote for various reasons. I made the right decision because Tater Tot was quit sad that he didn't get to "bote" too.
I voted for Mitt Romney for several different reasons. I'd like to share those reasons with you on the small off chance that one person might be reading this undecided. I know it's highly unlikely to happen but I'm doing it just the same.
1. I voted for Mitt Romney because I believe that he has a better grasp at how our economy works. While the economy wasn't in the best shape when President Obama came into office, he has shown his lack of understanding by more than doubling our national debt in just a few years. The national debt incurred by President Obama alone is greater than the debt incurred by all of the other 42 Presidents of the United States of America. For some reason he thought it was advisable to put our country into more debt to pull our economy out of the recession than was needed to be incurred to pull our nation's economy out of the Great Depression. I don't believe that the debt President Obama incurred was justifiable based on the current state of our economy at this time. In fact, President Obama's actions goes against all tenants of our free market economy.
2. I voted for Mitt Romney because I believe in the sanctity of marriage between a man and a woman. That being said, I do not think people who are homosexual are bad people. I don't. They are like any other socio-economic group of people, they range from amazing to not-nice-at-all. While I believe that marriage should be reserved for a man and a woman, I also believe that those in the LGBT community should be able to have some legal rights in relationships as well. I support civil unions for anyone in the LGBT community who wants to make that long-term commitment. Because of this belief and President Obama's approval of gay marriage, I support Mitt Romney.
These are just two reasons out of several of why I voted for Mitt Romney. If you want to know more, ask me.
If you take nothing else from this post, please vote. Whatever you believe or whoever you think is the best candidate for the job, vote. Voting is a precious gift that we have. Please use it.
Ella
copyright Ella's Place
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