Show Girls

 

There has been a "Vacancy" sign flashing outside our chicken coop for about nine months.  That was when the crazy tortoise "Curiosity" was living there.  He dug a ten foot hole underneath the palm tree that was on the side of the coop.  I thought about making Turtle Soup, but restrained myself and he was sent to a good family in Gilbert that had another tortoise.  So, when a sister in our ward offered a couple of chickens, at first both Kevin and I were a little leery.  After all, the last chickens we had, which were Delaware Whites, were not very kind.  They pecked at each other and ganged up on one of the chickens and then would lay their eggs on the counter outside the kitchen window, only to scoot them off and let them fall on the ground.  That is not a fun scene to clean up after birds that you are not enjoying.  We picked up the chickens, which she told us were Spanish Minorcas (pictured above) which are supposed to do well in the heat.  We've got the heat part down pat.  They are black and when the suns shines on them, their feathers have a greenish hue to them.  It's very cool.  Plus they are NICE chickens.  They don't peck at each other (there are only two right now) aren't crazed and lay their eggs in a dignified manner in the coop.  I wanted more information, so of course, I googled Spanish Minorca Chickens.  I was not expecting what I found.  I thought that all chickens were alike and had just one job: lay eggs.  Well, two jobs really, but the second job is a career killer. But when I read that these chickens were bred to be "show chickens", I almost fell out of my seat!  My first thought was "They need to have proper show girl names."  So I named them after my two favorite Broadway show girls:  Liza Minnelli and Nathan Lane.  Then I realized, these girls were competition birds, meaning I could take them to County Fairs and show them!  Who knew there would be another outlet to compete in?  Oh baby.  These girls are getting the star treatment.

Love/Hate Relationship

I have a few "Love/Hate" relationships, which I am about to divulge for the whole world to know about.  Or at least my sister, Jen, who said that she was sick of seeing "First Chair" as my last blog entry. 
The first one is........Costco.  This may come as a surprise to some who think that it is my third greatest love (Kevin being number one, children being number two-I won't tell you which one would be number one in that group), but as much as I love shopping at Costco, I detest the feeling of panic that overcomes me when I see some new fantastic offering they have, only to wonder:  How long will this last?  For instance, last December "our" Costco finally got heavy whipping cream!!  I was so excited, because I had seen it at my mom's Costco in Utah, but never here in a non-Utah Costco, where we are limited in the good stuff that we get due to the amount of alcohol that takes up valuable product display space.  So, I was thrilled.  I told my friends.  I told my family.  And then, just two weeks after its arrival I noticed the dreaded *.  Meaning that it's days were numbered and that it would not be staying for long.  WE JUST GOT IT!!!! How could Costco be so cruel as to taunt me with what they had, only to let it disappear so quickly?  The final blow came when they reduced the price to $3.97 for the half gallon.  I bought four and froze them. 
A different, but equally as devastating event happened with the Pumpkin Streusel Muffin.  Fall heaven.  It was only offered during the fall of 2009, which I can understand that it is a seasonal item, but then comes the fall of 2010.  I waited.  I checked the muffin display.  No Pumpkin Streusel Muffins.  The pumpkin pie was out, why no muffins?  I seethed because I had waited through a miserable summer waiting for the first sign of fall:  the muffins.  Then to my sheer and utter delight, they were back for the fall of 2011!!  I stocked up because who know what will happen?  They are gone from my freezer, by the way.  I can't resist.
The other thing that drives me crazy about Costco is the books.  The books!!  I could get lost in all of those books and it is so hard for me to not pick one up to read because it's right there.  It looks so good.  I have no will power when it comes to  a book in my hot little hand.
Which brings me to my next love/ hate relationship:  Good books.  How can one hate a good book?  I will tell you.  It brings my life to an utter stand still.  I am paralyzed because all I want to do is finish this really good book, and then I don't want it to end because it's so good, so then I have to find another good book and then I can't do anything because all I want to do is finish this really good book and then it ends, and I am sad because I have to find another good book to read..........It is a very vicious cycle.  One may think that getting a bad book would break this cycle, but au contraire, it only strengthens my desire to find a good book to read to wash out the bad book out of my brain.  And, yes I am in the vicious cycle right now.  It started when I was casually talking to a nurse that I work with and he asked me if I knew anything about Chicago, and I said "Everything I know about Chicago, I read in the book The Devil in the White City."  Which got us to talking about the author Erik Larson, and how he had written other books, and that I had read In the Garden of Beasts, that this other nurse hadn't, but he had read two of his other books, Thunderstruck, which I have since read, and Isaac's Storm, which I am halfway through (it is about the Galveston hurricane of 1900.  If you've read it, DON'T SPOIL IT.  I want to find out if the storm does any major damage).  And, I already have my next book after that picked out Empire of the Summer Moon.  I can't stop.  I feel like an addict.  My two older children have the same curse.  I will never forget when I was talking to Dillan's 6th grade teacher and was telling her about a book that I stayed up until 2 am to finish, and Dillan's eyes grew so wide realizing that one could stay up that late to read.  I told him that it was still forbidden for him.  The best thing about this obsession is that I am able to multitask with it now.  I run on the treadmill and read my Kindle. 
I have a love/hate relationship with Kevin too.  I love him.  But I HATE that he scares me.  All of the time!!  If he walks into a room, I am startled.  If he comes up behind me when I am not aware and starts talking, I'm likely to shriek.  And he has passed this trait onto our boys.  The other day I was drawing Blake's bath, and was leaning over the tub, when Blake starts talking right behind me.  I did shriek that time.  Dillan noted it and thought it was awesome.  Boys. 
If you have a love/hate relationship that you would like to share, please do it.

First Chair

Dillan started taking violin lessons when he was seven years old, which I was supposed to be a participant in his practices.  If you have read "Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother" that's me but dialed down about 90%.  He's enjoyed playing the violin, even after he stopped taking lessons and has been performing with the middle school's orchestra.  I can't tell if he's in the orchestra because he enjoys the violin or if he enjoys the ratio of girls to boys in the orchestra.  There is definitely a social aspect of it that he likes. 

So the District Honors Orchestra was coming up and Dillan told me that he was going to be first chair.  I said "That's great" and then probably asked him if his homework was done or if he had any chores left to do.  My parents were visiting so Kevin and I could go on a romantic weekend getaway (really, they came down to see Wicked, but I took advantage of them while they were here.  AND it really WAS a romantic getaway, not an endurance event like a Grand Canyon rim to rim to rim hike!) so I took them with me to the performance.  As always, one of the directors gives a speech that we are not at a sporting event and that there will not be any hooping or hollering for the performances, and that we are all to act in a dignified manner.  Who do they think comes to these things?  Crazed mothers?  So, when it was time for the middle school orchestra to get the seats on the stage, I was looking for Dillan, who, let's face it, is not hard to miss.  I could not see him.  I thought, maybe he's in the back, but even then I would be able to see his head poking up.  There was only the empty chair in the front saved for the first chair violinist.  Well, you can imagine my overjoy when my boy walked on stage as the FIRST CHAIR VIOLINIST!!!!  The emotion overtook me.  I hooped so loud that my mom grabbed my arm and said "You are NOT at a football game!"  That's my baby!  I have held back at many of his performances where I knew what he was going to do, but this I did not know about and was pure joy!  He got a solo part in one of the pieces that he played.  The only thing that made me sad was that his violin teacher, who had a daughter in the high school orchestra, was not able to be there.  She is the reason why he loves the violin so much and is such an excellent player.  It gave me hope that I may be able to get Blake to that point one day. 

Kevin to the Rescue

This is a common theme with Kevin.  When we lived in Utah, he would carry a tow chain in the truck during the winter in the hopes that he could rescue someone stuck in the snow.  So this evening, he and I went to Costco in preparation for my parents coming to town, when we pulled into our parking spot and there was a two year old boy on the top of a roof of a car, just enough out of reach from his very short and very pregnant mom trying to wrangle him off the roof.  There was a woman "helping", but she was on her cell phone and talking to someone and trying to reach for the boy, who was out of her reach as well.  Kevin walked over, and fortunately the ladies had the boy facing them, and Kevin took the boy off guard and just lifted him on the roof and put him in his car seat.  He was touted as a hero through all of Costco.  Little did they know that this is second nature to him.  One of the many reasons I love him.  That and he writes the best love poems.

Knock, Knock, Knockin' on Kevin's Door

I love my husband.  Even better, I love that I married a husband that has such a great name to put in place of "heaven" in songs, such as "Knock, knock, knockin' on Kevin's door" by Guns 'N Roses or the LDS favorite "Where is Kevin?  Is he very far?" or "Just Like Kevin" by the Cure.  I think of how boring my life would have been if I had married a Steve or a Bob, altough I'm sure I would find a way to incorporate their names into songs, but it's so fun having a husband who's name rhymes with a great place to be.  So it was my sheer delight when Olivia said that we needed to change a verse in "Joy to the World".  She said "Instead of 'Let heaven and nature sing', we need to sing 'Let Kevin do his thing.'"  I loved it!!  But the sad part was that we didn't sing it on church on Sunday.  Olivia and I were rready to belt that one out.  Oh well.  There's always next year. 
There are two other songs that I believe were made specifically for my niece and nephew.  The first is "No One" by Alicia Keys.  How can you not sing "No-Ah, No-ah, No-ah" when you have a handsome nephew named Noah, especially when he's in the car with you?  And when you have a niece named Oana, how can you sing Rihanna's "What's My Name?'  without saying "Oana, what's my name?" She's a little diva too, that Oana.  I love them. 
Of course, my husband's name is not the only reason why I love him, but it certainly makes it more fun.

Comments

I know it may seem like no one reads my blog because #1 Lack of Followers and #2 Lack of Comments.  It really doesn't matter to me if no one follows my blog, since the reason why I blog is so my mom has something to print and put in her binder marked "Kim's Blog" that she can easily grab if there is ever a fire in their house, and run out and proclaim to all of the neighbors that she saved it, and then they can cheer, until they realize that it was just my blog that she saved an nothing really valuable.  I do have followers that through no fault of their own, have no idea how to publicly follow me.  I am no technology expert, so I can not say "It's so easy!  All you have to do is put this in, and then put it on your thingamadoodle, and there you have it!"  I barely know how to follow other people's blogs, and even at that, I don't really follow them, but occasionally read them, and if I have a witty comment, THEN I will leave a comment.  But I do have comments, mostly from the recent blog that I posted titled "Mom's Awesome" that I want to share.
The first comes from my oldest sister, Jen.  She sent this out to the whole dadgum family
:No this is NOT a harassment (yet) to get in your December news. It is a shout out to our wonderful sister Kim who is an amazingly talented writer (I think you missed your calling in life, or rather you have more than one calling). I am an avid follower of her blog--even though I am not accredited as a follower because I can't figure out how to do it. I can always count on a good giggle when I read it. She wrote a most wonderful blog about Mom. I say "Ditto". If I was as talented of a writer I would say all those wonderful things and more. I had fun being with mom and dad for just a few days this month and all I can say is we are very blessed to have them as parents, friends and examples. I hope they have have a great time on their adventure this month and look forward to seeing where the Lord will have them serve a mission. In case you have never read Kim's blog you can find it on www.kimmicakes.blogspot.com and I highly recommend putting it as a favorite and checking it often. (Although it was quite a while in between the last posts--must be because she was working on getting that #1 mom status
That sparked others to read it, meaning my mom.  Here's what she said:

It is nice to know that you have my funeral talk written. Don't lose it. It will save you time many years down the road when you are asked to speak. All I can say is that I am grateful that you are getting older and only remember good things. Fortunately we painted over the writing inside the bedroom closet "I hate mom and dad" written during the angst of teenage years. Probably after we'd cleaned your room and thrown out AAAbras.

Love you and am looking forward to our February trip and event. Love Mom

Well, I never said my mom was known for her honesty, as I have NEVER had a AAA bra. 

My sister, Nikki, also made a comment in the family newsletter:

I also ditto Kim's ode to Mom.  Now she just needs to write one about dad. 

Okay, Nikki, that one is done.  Check http://kimmicakes.blogspot.com/2010/06/happy-fathers-day.html. 

Thanks to those of you who read this silly little blog.  I hope that you leave with a deeper sense of peace, refreshment, and wisdom.  Who am I kidding?  Refreshment? 

Reply to:

Reply to perryandlinda8@comcast.net

Bilingual Daughter

The school district sent a form in the mail to return to school to indicate which language was the primary language spoken at home, what language did the child speak, and what was the first language the child learned. I filled it out and gave it to Olivia to return to her school. She asked me what it was for. I explained to her that it was a form for the school asking which language that we spoke at home and that I had put that we speak English. Then she said "I speak Spanish." I said "Really? I didn't know that. Will you please go brush your teeth and get ready for school?" She said "Si." Then this afternoon, her and I were going to the school to watch Chloe in her chorus performance. Olivia asked where we were going and I said "To escuela." She said "What does that mean?" I said "I thought you spoke Spanish." She said "I was just tricking you. Of course I speak Spanish."
And while I am speaking about my darling daughter, get ready for her, people. With a new trampoline there have been a couple of incidents when she has felt slighted and that she is getting the brunt of bad jumps. So she called a family meeting to discuss the problem. And interestingly enough, all attended (except Blake who was asleep), and she got them to agree to rules regarding proper jumping etiquette.