The Great Underwear Debate

Many have heard the argument on the great underwear debate.  Boxers or briefs.  The great compromise was made and some company came out with the boxer brief  starting in the 90's.  Kudos to them.  Since then few have heard the underwear debate much.  This solution has satisfied every man, women and child alike. 

But in our house we still have the great underwear debate.  Names have been changed to conceal identities and avoid teenage embarrassment when the archives of this are found.  I have one son we'll call him Willy - he is under the distinct impression that the only time your underwear needs changed is coming out of the bath/shower (every other night in our house) or if some kind of damage has been incurred.  I'll spare you the details on that.  But you get my drift.  Willy gives me the heebie jeebies with his distinct beliefs on underwear.

Then we have Isaiah.  He thinks that underwear should be changed at a minimum daily, but often times will do a mid-day change, especially if there is a clothing change already taking place for some reason - say into a Karate uniform.  Each time I do laundry this child always has at least double the pairs everyone else has on their piles.

And last we have Dexter.  He is a precocious child.  And although many conversations on underwear have taken place, he is under the distinct impression that this is an optional item.  More days than not he is sporting nothing under his jeans, pants, sweats, etc... And on those days that I take matters into my own hands and wrestle a pair onto the child, say for Dr's visits or something, more often than not I will find hidden pairs of underwear behind the toilet.  Yes that is right, he takes them off after peeing and hides them.

So I implore you, lest you think the great underwear debate has been solved, to weigh in on your boys  underwear habits so I don't feel like I have three little freaks running around.  Unless your kids do it the right way.  And then by all means keep it to yourself.  I don't need to feel anymore silly about this than I already do.

In Other News:

We took the kids to the Hirshhorn Museum in DC. And my kids who claim to love art thought there was no art in the place. I told them to go tell their art teacher that in school on Monday. Wonder what she thought of that?



Also in other news:

Our first official case of croup struck for this season. Suck.

And last in the news:
What would possess a grown man to wear blue spandex pants? Well Halloween. More updates – read posts – on this later.

Rick's Will Live On Forever

Many people ask me about Rick’s College. It was where I went for my first two years of college. Yeah it has a funny name. People joked about going to Sam’s college, etc… When they heard it was in Idaho, I would get a lot of comments like “Yeah you are ‘da ho!” Clever I know. Perhaps I surround myself with some lesser scholastically minded individuals. Regardless the college is now known as Brigham Young University – Idaho. It’s a legitimate 4 year college, accredited, etc…it just had a crazy name back in the 90’s when I went.


When people ask my general consensus is that I loved it. I think everyone should go. Sure there were dumb activities such as Prayer Meeting(s), despite meeting my husband at one, and sure they give fake assignments like Family Home Evening Moms and Dads for our little college groups, but overall all these social events they thought up lead to a great education and a whole lot of friends and fun.

So when I was asked to come up with games for Women’s Club of Manheim meeting, I went to my old arsenal of Rick’s college standby favorites. And it didn’t matter that the demographic of these two groups is largely different. Fun is fun and watching someone shove 8 full size marshmallows in their mouth and then try and talk is fun. Doesn’t it look fun?

 

Issac

How does this boy spend his time?
• expending more energy than any human has ever known
• and then promptly falling fast asleep while sitting up

That’s what happens when you play as hard as he does.

Cah-Rah-Tee

You know how when you buy something but then it's junk that overwhelming feeling of disappointment.  Likewise it's a good feeling to see the quality when you pay for something.  Well after putting some money into the two middle kids (wyatt and issac) into Karate it was good to see them learning something.  They are in different skill classes, issac's more fun based while integrating skills while wyatt's is more disciplined with some fun.  Well wyatt this week earned his first belt by completing his first Kata (read the first paragraph and background section) and passing a physical fitness type evaluation. 

I'm thinking we have our first official Karate Kid in the Whiting household.  What do you think?  Would you mess with him in a fight?  Well I hope not because the reality is I would hunt you down and kill you with my bare hands, but potato - patato.

Punk Rock Band - Kabuki Style

Bella has a little “Bestie”. They spend lots of time together at our house and her house, which is only like ½ mile away. Fantastically convenient if I do say so myself. Well during Farm Show week in Manheim and the 5 day vacation, Allie spent several days here. The girls are great at occupying their time.

This particular game was dressing up like different genre punk rock bands. Well they dressed in inverted colored clothing and matching makeup with Geisha style lips and then danced their hearts out. This girl is awesome and I totally give my 100% parent stamp of approval on her. I love these silly girls.

 

Trends I Don't Want to See

Lately I've been seeing some trends I'm not so excited about seeing.

First - Non Matching Socks; okay this is just me; but it looks dumb.  Will I let Bella do it?   Sure.  I mean I am not so staunch a parent as to repeat the Graver household tight rolled jean crisis.  Oh yeah, my parents took an official stand on this one and absolutely forbade it.  And since this was the height of fashion for quite a few years many Graver children could be found once they boarded the bus tight rolling their jeans.  And on the bus ride home you would see them un-tight rolling those jeans and also making mighty efforts to smooth out the creases and wrinkles.  What I learned?  That if everything becomes a battle you will make even the most obedient child (myself)- disobedient.   Okay so perhaps I wasn't the most obedient child, but you get my point right.  A silly thing to fight over.  And also you give a Graver child a problem and they will find a way to solve it.  Who knew my parents with all of their rules were creating resourceful children.  And fear not those who are non resourceful you need not create your own, you can buy them unmatched.

Second - Boob Gems; be still my heart.  The first time I saw it, I thought okay - trashy girl.  The second and third time I was like - what is going on here?  After a little tete a tete with my girlfriends I found that body gems are in and that just happens to be where they are landing.  Will I let Bella do it?  Heck no.
*Note - don't google this phrase.  Bad news.  But I did find the body gems done on the hands and that is sort of cool looking.  Also saw them on your teeth.  Freaky deaky.

Third - Shoulder Pads;  I was watching the evening news the other night, when low and behold I notice news lady is wearing shoulder pads.  Not the huge square shoulder pads of the 80's but not too far from it either.  Whoa I knew the 80's were coming back.  Really I did, but this was one of those things I thought would never return.  I mean what women really looks good with linebacker type shoulders.  I for one, having been born with them naturally, try to minimize their breadth whenever possible.  Unless of course I am trying to distract you from my even bigger hips.  Will I let Bella do it?  Sure, but once puberty hits, I'm pretty sure genetics are going to take over and provide her with the all natural ones too.

Amendment - okay if you are this skinny, you sort of can rock the shoulder pads.  But they are not made for the likes of me.
   
* Note: while having a massage the other day, the massage therapist said (oh look how PC I am in saying that instead of masseuse) told me I had the broadest shoulders and chest she had ever seen on a woman.  Awesome.  She then asked if "people were always confiding in me".  She told me that people are drawn to confess, disclose, and confide in people with broad shoulders.  But Travis was laughing when I told him.  Because he thinks people always tell me things they normally wouldn't tell other people.  I thought it was just because I ask a lot of questions and am generally curious.  But maybe all these years it was the shoulders working for me.  So for one specific husband of a friend who thinks I am a scuttle butt or bug, I can't remember which he called me - please note I do not go out trying to gather every detail about every person.  It's my shoulders.  Wife of this husband - I know you are reading this.  Pass this on to him.

So what kinds of crazy trends are you seeing in your "neck of the woods"?

Bambi Lovers

Go no further.  I swear you won't like what you see.

And what you see is that Travis is the ultimate "deerslayer".  On his last hunting trip somewhere in the outskirts of nowhere Texas he shot this guy with his bow.

What does this tell me?  Well that I'll never starve if a crisis comes, but more importantly that I am going to have one happy husband for the next few months.  Yeah!

The Measure of a Man

Okay I admit it.  I'm biased.  I'm totally prejudiced.  I have favorites.  It's true.  And lucky for me I got the one I was biased towards, the one I preferred, the one I thought was the best - Travis.

Many ask me how I got so lucky with Travis.  I joke I knew immediately I wanted him and so I "cave woman style" clubbed him over the head, drug him back to my cave, and seduced -okay I wish, this should actually read brainwashed- the heck out of him.  When he finally was aware of what was going on it was too late for him.  He was under my power and control.  Mwahhh ha ha ha! (hearing the evil laugh?)

The real answer is I have no idea.  But I did know almost instantly he was the one.  Tons of clues really but one that still sticks out is this:  He had asked me to a dance in college called Cabaret aka Prom in high school.  I was shopping for a dress to wear since I had nothing this formal and modest at Ricks College.  He knew I didn't love shopping so he went with me.  I picked a dress and as he bulked at the cost $80ish, I know a deal right?, he drug me from the store with my new purchase in hand for a surprise.  He took me to Payless.  And said pick the shoes that go with that dress and I'll buy them for you."

What does this all mean?  Well it means he knew what was important.  The shoes - yes I am still to this day a shoe girl.  But he knew all kinds of stuff about the inner workings of me and I'll spare you those details, but to know a guy for only a few months and realize he cares about all those details, it was a big sign.  So long story short, I got shoes that would go with the dress...but just barely because what I really wanted was something I could wear over and over to remind me how great he was and still is.  This was over twelve years ago.  Sadly the shoes have been hot glued, super glued, polished, and protected as long as possible.  In Texas they met their untimely demise, but I took pictures to preserve their memory because I knew these shoes were only a symbol to determine the measure of "my man".

When Large Amounts of Time Lapse

you may wonder what is happening when large amounts of time lapse in my life and there are no posts.  has she disappeared, died, or just gone insane.  well those are valid concerns, but here is what i was doing this week:

- being a single mom (see earlier post)

- taking the kids to Dutch Wonderland for one last visit before winter
- creating new hairdo's for Bella
- helping out at the Manheim Farm Show booth for Women's Club
- going to Hershey Bear's games with friends
- visitng my mom in York
- trying to plan and execute a primary program that doesn't stink
- having sleepovers during school vacations and entertaining even more children
- chaperoning field trips
- getting sucked into reading a new triloby, okay two new trilogys (don't judge me) AND
- watching my kids grow and enjoying those moments with them. (How the heck do I have such a grown up looking daughter.  I know she is almost 10 but whoa!)

Look What He Can Do!

This is a classic case of my husband is better than your husband.  Okay not really, but he does constantly amaze me.  So recently he went on a hunting, bow hunting trip, in Texas.  The requirements for traveling with bows are retarded since most bow casses count as oversized luggage and cost approximately $200 each way to travel with it. 

So while I was in Texas, one night Travis decided to fashion his own bow case fitting the airline standards while just barely containing his bow.  The man is brilliant and it looks totally awesome.  No time to stain it, but eventually we will. 

Isn't he handy?