Onions and Vocal Cords

Every family has their oddities, or I should say every person. Two of mine are that I worry about things like "damaging your vocal cords" and that I had bunion surgery the summer before 9th grade.

Big deal right?

I spent a lot of money learning about vocal cords back in my readin' ritin' 'rithmetic days,  so I might as well train my children to be paranoid of injuring their vocal cords :-). I can't deny that I try to enforce good vocal habits (drink lotsa water, don't make crazy sounds that will strain your voice and my ears.

It wouldn't be unusual to hear this phrase in my house, "My vocal cords are hurting." I always get a good smile about that one. I wish I could post a cool picture of vocal folds on here.

You gotta admit, that is cool isn't it? I am fascinated by it. I am always wondering about birds and whether or not they have vocal cords. Anyway . . . I am pretty sure my child had a sore throat, not sore vocal cords.

The other oddity is those bunions of mine. Again, I will find a cool picture to illustrate.

http://www.webmd.com/skin-problems-and-treatments/picture-of-bunion

I inherited my bad bunions. But, I hold no disregard for the people before me. Honest, I don't. There is still a slight scar on my feet and my children like to inspect scars. So, they've heard my story many times (about having surgery and having to wear two gigantic boots and how my friend came and played "Easy Money" with me the entire summer when I was laid up).

So, the funny thing is that my youngest daughter will look at my dainty (ha ha) little feet and say, "Mom, are those your onions?"

What kind of odd things are you passing onto your children?

My own little Stevie Wonder

Last week my daughter's eyes were dialated for an eye exam. She was given a pair of flimsy sunglasses to be worn out in the sun for the hours following the appointment. I really didn't think anything of the glasses. I saw that she didn't want to wear them into her school when I dropped her off and left it at that.

This morning, I noticed she had those glasses in her backpack still.

When I picked her up this afternoon, I saw a girl walking along the sidewalk, kind of a determined-neck-forward type look. It was none other than my own little Stevie Wonder:

I have been chuckling about this all afternoon. I guess she thinks she still needs to be wearing her special glasses. I wonder what all of the passersby were thinking about my daughter :-).

Counting Steps

Yesterday my children were introduced to:  Pedometers. Cool huh?

We all ran a 5k in our community. The company sponsering it handed out pedometers at the beginning of the race.


The Joys of my life
 

My children were all about their pedometers and kept checking to see how many steps they'd taken. The pedometers had a little clip that a person could attach to the waist of their shorts.







The day was cold and fun, the pedometers were a lot of fun. This part was also fun:


Seattle Seahawks mascot -- the band in the background was right at the end of the race, what a super way to end a race

This morning at church, I sat next to my youngest daughter. She looked up at me with a look that let me know she was trying to be discreet about hiding something from me. I thought she needed to use the bathroom since she had her hands down in that area (TMI). She kept stealing glances at me, I just smiled (I had already asked the bathroom question). Finally, she sneakily reached up into her dress (from below -- we are sitting on the bench at church mind you) and pulled her pedometer out.

Do you think this headband might be a little over-the-top?

It just made me chuckle. She had to go through quite a few layers of ruffles and then had to find the pedometer which had no place to attach but her underwear. I guess she was wanting to get some exercise in with her religion.


Four Eyes

How bad could it possibly be?

One of my children has always given me the impression that she adores me. She has clearly been my little pet. Somehow today, I have rocked her world and I guess the bubble has officially burst.

To introduce my story, let me just say that I have owned a pair of reading glasses for over 15 years. Just because I sometimes only wear them once a year really doesn't change the fact that they are in my possession.

Now, to back my story up, I printed out an article I needed to study using a ridiculously small font size (there are over 200 slides in the presentation/article!). I have been hefting around my 25 or so sheets of paper, trying to grab a few minutes of study when I could.

OK, today I took my above-mentioned daughter into a doctor for an eye exam. While in the waiting room, I put on my glasses and started studying. She looked at me and said,

"Whose glasses are those Mom?"

They're mine.

"Are they really yours? Those glasses are really freaking me out" (I don't think I've ever heard her use this phrase before)

"Does Dad know you have glasses?"

"Are you going to get a surgery to fix your eyes?"

"Please don't wear those around me."

I couldn't even make this stuff up. I have shaken the rug right out from under her. Our little bond is forever disintegrating.

I was so taken back by her response, I asked her to take a picture of me so that I will always remember the day her world ended.



Mom, "What does ***** mean?"

I guess with all the drinking and smoking we did over spring break, I shouldn't be surprised swearing also joined our party.

During one of our many meals in the dining room flanked by decor about both drinking and smoking :-), my son asked me what "dammit" means.

Here we go. . . . . . .