2012 Memories

Hi! Future Ticia 2023 here, as I’m reorganizing my blog, I’m combining posts and deleting posts and generally redirecting a bunch of stuff, and I wanted a solid place to put some 2012 memories, hence the creation of this post. I’m sure it will be updated a lot over the next few months.

Beware the Salad Monsters (January 4)

Saying my boys like salad would be an understatement.  The little bandits are quite sneaky about it, or not so sneaky.

It started with a simple invade Daddy’s salad, and eat it all.  Then they started reaching across to mine…….

We gave in and gave them the last scraps in the bowl and that’s when the true fiendishness started.  TWO FORKS APIECE, and then Batman upped the ante with THREE FORKS.

Only problem is it’s not super effective for actually getting the food to your mouth.

Guess what my boys are starting? January 11

They might be a little excited about this.  And by a little, the day they started they spent all day asking “Is it time yet?”

My dog secretly thinks he is a cat January 14

This is my dog.  He’s small for a mini-schnauzer, and weighs about the same as most cats.  I think he got confused and decided he’s a cat. (Future Ticia 2024 has combined the photos into one collage).

I have a bad habit, and I know it.  I put the leftovers on the kitchen table when we get back from somewhere and then walk off to put my shoes away intending to come back.

This doesn’t always happen.

This particular time as I was taking my shoes off, I stopped to look up a detail on the art project we were about to complete.  I then got distracted answering an email and then the kids were all set to head off and start the project without me.  No joke.

So, I headed up and started it up.  I send them off for a rest and then head off to spoil myself with a bath.  As I’m laying there soaking said “dog” comes up smelling of Shanghai chicken.

I wrap the bathrobe around me and see the above picture on the floor.  Notice he didn’t eat the rice.  He jumped from the chair to the table, and knocked it on the floor in eating what would have made a full other meal for the kids and I.

He is now spending some quality time outside contemplating just what he did.  I don’t think he looks sorry, what do you think?

Ha ha ha ha

This made me laugh way more than it should have.

Really Batman, you’re a baby? February 1

I’ve been slowly working on my house and go back and forth on having 3 of the rooms upstairs under control (mind that was when I first worked on this draft, now the kids have trashed one of those because of Christmas), and started working on the kitchen with the small step of cleaning out one cabinet that hasn’t been cleaned out since the kids were babies.

How do I know this, well it was filled with baby bottles, filthy bibs, and various things you need when nursing a baby……..

He thought it was quite hilarious to put the bib on himself and start feeding himself water soup from the baby bowl using the baby spoon.  I have had more fights over the one functional bottle that was found this week than I would have thought.  But, it’s all boxed up and off to Salvation Army.

Okay, the bibs were all thrown away once I got them off of Batman’s neck.

Childhood to do list: Build a fort, March 12

I remember as a kid every fall my Dad would trim back the trees drastically and I’d build a fort out of all those branches.  It was quite a feat.  So, in my mind, this should be on every kid’s childhood to do list. It’s always interesting to discover what things you think everyone did are just things your family did.

(as I’m updating this in 2024, I may or may not add affiliate links, who knows)

First you have to gather your supplies

We were trimming the trees in our front yard the other day before the spring growth hits, and we had already completely filled one with branches, when I said, “New plan!  We’re making a FORT!”

The kids were now much more enthusiastic to help haul branches.

We filled the wagon and hauled branches back to the back corner of our yard.  It’s quite nicely tucked under our big huge trees, “The Mommy and Daddy trees,” as my kids say.

Future Ticia 2024 wants to add in, this wagon is amazing. If you have one never get rid of it. We still use this wagon we got for the boys’ first birthday and they’re now 19. Dozens of kids have ridden in this wagon.

It was even used as a sled of sorts during Snowmageddon 2021. I’m sure that’s what they were thinking when they designed it. I’m sure.

Then began the real work.

Building the tree fort

I don’t quite think they thought it was work.

And of course, you need a photo shoot afterward. With lots of dramatic posing.

Don’t ever forget the dramatic posing.

Future Ticia 2024 is having so much fun looking at these pictures and how much character is in them. I know the posed pictures are good to have as well, but these types of pictures are my favorites.

Seriously, look at those faces. Aren’t they great?

Everyone needs a tree fort some time.  Maybe I’ll even dig through my Mom’s photo albums and find a picture of MY tree fort.

Future New Headline… March 19

Couple tragically killed when pile of books crushed them in the night

The Parthenon, it’s not just in Greece 4/16

We’re off on our trip and we’ve traveled through two states by the time you read this.

I was going to put this up last night, but the internet at the hotel was……. nonexistent for all intents and purposes.

We stopped at the Arkansas Welcome center, and then drove for hours and hours and stopped at the Memphis Welcome Center.  I of course had to get a picture of the statue of Elvis.

But, our stop the next day was what I was really excited about.  THE PARTHENON in Tennessee!

The city of Nashville created a fabulous park in 1897 to celebrate their centennial.  The designer of the park felt they should encourage a love of arts and culture, so he created a full size duplicate of the Parthenon.  His was a temporary structure, and over the next 50 years the city and county worked to make a more permanent structure.

Sadly, it was closed, so we only got pictures outside.

Jeff was quite kind and accommodating, and got several pictures for me as I was busy eating a sno cone.

So, I now present you with picture overload, and a little bit of text. (Future Ticia who is condensing this post did not include all of the pictures)

We really enjoyed our break from driving, and though I was sad the museum was closed, it was a lot of fun to wander around such a lovely park.  I’ve got a whole slew of pictures to write our next story.

I’ll leave you my favorite shot from the day.

Happy 10th anniversary to me, June 8

At about this time 10 years ago today I was getting married.  That is, if I’ve remembered the time of my wedding correctly.  I think I am.

My brother Chad gave me away.  My Dad had died about a month earlier from cirrhosis, or as my kids call it bad roses.  It’s a little hard to explain to a 3 year old, which is when they first figured out there was no Granddad to go with Mimi.

I mostly remember everyone trying to stuff food into me as we got ready, because everyone was sure I was going to pass out from low blood sugar.  At the same time they were paranoid about anything getting on my dress or messing up my make up.  It made for some interesting attempts to eat.

It was kind of funny to look at the picture of my family.  It’s changed so much since this picture.  My brother Chad and his wife had a baby boy about two months before my twins were born.  They had another boy a little after Princess (if I’m remembering the timing right).  My brother Sean just had his first baby with his wife about a month or so ago.  A boy.  Poor Princess is the only girl grandbaby on my side of the family.

Another side note.  My train is called a “cathedral length train,” Jeff says that is incorrect because it was not the entire length of the church, so it is not cathedral length.  His theory is it should have been on a runner and unrolled as I walked down the aisle.  Then we could just walk back up it.  I thought the dress I got was hard enough to walk in, never mind his idea.

We had swing dancing at our wedding.  According to my version of how Jeff and I met, we met at a swing dance our church hosted in the same gym our reception was in.  Sigh, I don’t think I’d fit in that dress now.

That’s probably a good thing.  I was rather underweight from the stress of my first year teaching, and my Dad being sick, and various other stuff.  I needed to gain some weight, I’d prefer to lose 5 pounds of vanity weight now, but otherwise I’m at a much healthier weight now.

My computer crashed a few years ago, so on my computer I mainly have the pictures my Mom emailed me that were her favorites that she has.  I’ve got hard copies of all of them in my wedding album, and I plan on spending some time with Jeff tonight looking through it and my honeymoon pictures.

Pretend these are pictures from our honeymoon, and not from the trip we just took to celebrate our anniversary.  Those were all on film, and are quite nicely stored in a scrapbook.  Jeff completely spoiled me and we went to London.  We saw “Midsummer Night’s Dream” at the Globe (PUCK!*  A thoroughly awesome production with an awesome Puck!).  We went to the British Museum almost everyday.  We saw the Peter Pan statue.  We went to a book store that was an ENTIRE CITY BLOCK and 5 STORIES HIGH!  When we returned our suitcases were stuffed to the gills with books and clothes.  We had to bring clothes back because it would have been rather silly to leave them there.  It barely all fit in the suitcases.

** Completely unrelated story, but I’ve found my new current favorite book series that has Puck as one of its main characters.  Any time you can throw fairies into a story, you can almost guarantee it’s good.  Almost, if it’s not then Jeff gets to hear me complain for a very long time.

This is my boys’ idea of sorting laundry

The instructions were simple.  Take the dirty clothes into my room and sort them into the bins by color.

What they heard, “Take the clothes and dump them on the floor in the entry way.”

Needs work on the hearing…….

This of course had to be then made into a meme….

Of shoes, and ships, and sealing wax, November 1

How was your Halloween?  Ours was a lot of fun.  We helped the boys decorate pumpkins (Princess didn’t want to have to touch the slimy insides).

Superman was a milk carton, and that thoroughly enchanted all of the adults we saw.  A few of the kids were less than impressed, and luckily he didn’t notice the few snarky comments he got.  Mostly they all thought the idea of a milk carton was great.

They pretty much all did awesome.  But Superman was the stand out to me for his attitude.  The costume was bulky and he had no peripheral vision, but he never really complained.  He happily explained what he was and was very polite.

At the end of the night I had 3 sleepy kiddos and 1 very sleepy doggy.

Which pretty much sums up how I felt at the end of the night as well.

How was your Halloween?  I actually was going to put up a different post, but I was so proud of my kiddos and how well they did that I had to share.

Christmas week

We started out Christmas week with our annual tradition of fondue on Christmas Eve Eve, and then opening presents at our home on Christmas Eve.

My family created our own wrapping paper from paper bags and Christmas cards, and we’ve continued the tradition, though I added in getting butcher paper for a bit of extra color.  Princess loves this tradition because it gives her quite a lot of places to color on.

We take turns opening presents with the person who last opened picking the present that will be opened next.

My kids were quite excited for Jeff to open his presents from them.  That’s one of the things I love about our kids, they can’t wait to see what you got as well as what they got.  They eagerly shove presents at you saying “Open what I got!  Open what I got!”  Jeff got quite a few new mini-figures for gaming with lots of hints “That would be good for a game with kiddos…..”

They all did a great job picking out presents for each other.  As you can see from the happy faces here, no one was disappointed with what their brother or sister gave.  Unlike another year where Superman tricked my Mom into believing Princess really wanted a hero Lego set.  That set was returned for a different present.

From there we went to my brother’s church for Christmas Eve service, it was fun to see my brother get embarrassed as he wore an adult onesie pajamas.  I loved seeing the kids excited and participating in the service, and the boys were excited to light candles this year.  Princess was more worried about playing with her baby cousin.

More present opening, we got some new games.  Batman got some fun science kits.  Princess got some American Girl doll stuff, which is going to be part of upcoming school lessons.  Oh, and the kids all got digital cameras which they have loaded up with SO many pictures.

And after the present opening we had the GREAT NERF fight!  Yes, everyone got a small Nerf gun in their stocking from AN INNOCENT BYSTANDER.  I have NO IDEA how they got there.  I might have suggested the boys bring their big Nerf guns…….  There also might have been a “bash Uncle Sean” fight with Uncle Sean grabbing whatever ammunition he could find, random streamers, books (much to my Mom’s dismay), and it continued on for quite a while.

We got up to my in-laws in Dallas to experience our FIRST WHITE CHRISTMAS!  I know the kids haven’t had one before, and I’m not really remembering one of my own either.  It started snowing right before we pulled into their house.  The boys happily ran outside with socks on their hands for mittens.  Which not too surprisingly ran through the supply of socks I’d packed VERY quickly.

The snow stayed around for a couple of days, so the kids got lots of chances to go outside and play in the snow.  Including building their very own first snowmen.

Of course there was lots of time spent with family.  Playing new games, trying to put together presents, and taking lots of pictures with their new cameras.

All in all, I’d say this was a good Christmas.

Did you have a good Christmas?  We just got back home today, and now we have to spend the day cleaning and getting ready for people to come over tonight, not too surprisingly we left the house in a bit of a mess.  Though I’m very proud of my kiddos for cleaning up the family room very quickly without complaining.  They’re currently putting together a new Lego set one of the boys got.