jedis, booger-eating, and a major award!

K, all of my sisters have some pretty cute girls. T's big sis has two and they are night and day different in personality. Kea is a total tomboy - both Kai & Jo would follow her to the ends of the earth, they think she is so cool. She is funny and has a sweet side (adores Keo and our new little niece) and is super smart. Mai, well, Mai is pretty much the girl I would hope for if I weren't SO COMPLETELY done having children. She is girly and quite bright and says things that warrants her mom keeping a journal of "Mai-isms" as well as dedicating 90% of her blog to quoting. When we first moved back here, she instantly had me wrapped around her little finger as she does with most people. She is manipulative in a completely charming way, so it took me a while to figure it out. She did the same thing to Kait this summer.

Anyway, yesterday the girls were visiting. It was raining and thundering and still sunny and warm somehow. I LOVE the beginning of fall here, always have. So I told the four kids that this is the perfect weather to eat warm brownies, drink cold milk and cuddle up to watch a movie. They all happily agreed. The conversation went thus:

Me: "This is the perfect weather to eat warm brownies,
drink cold milk and cuddle up to watch a movie."

All four: "Yea!"

Kea: "Star Wars!"

Kai: "Star Wars!"

Jo: "Star Wars!"
(this was fully understandable and expected - they are all properly-taught Star Wars nerds.)

Mai: "Star Wars!"
(this was a bit unexpected - I would have more predicted "Anything with ponies & rainbows!")

Me: "Wow. Mai's one of the guys now!"

Kea: "Yeah, she's trying to be a tomboy like me. Cause I do so much cool stuff."

Mai: "Yeah, and I even eat my boogers too!"

I love being an auntie. We did eat some delicious brownies and drink cold milk. We didn't watch a movie though cause the t.v. was being used and it was getting late. But it was a good night all around. I didn't have to witness any booger eating.

On a not remotely tangental note, my sister (in-law) has given me (and others) an award! I hope you have all seen A Christmas Story. The major award the dad wins in the movie is one of my favorite parts. My own dad got one of those last Christmas from me - they actually sell them - in a Christmas Story box, made to look like a crate, marked with "FRA-GI-LE" and "A Major Award!" That is so not related to this story. But here's what she bequeathed:

These are the rules:

1. Thank the person who gave you the award and list his/her blog (with a link).
2. Pass on the award to seven other people whose blogs you find brilliant in content or design.
3. Notify the bloggers you choose for the award and hopefully they’ll join in.
4. List 10 honest things about yourself and post a copy of the Honest Scrap Logo on your blog.

1. Thanks Valynne!

2. I love the blogs of Andrea, Cadence, Courtney, all my work girls (the Britts, Amy & JJ), Karen, Hilary (i show off your cakes all the time), and Lindsay. I lost my "subscription" to Amber's - can you add me again please? Silvas & Ruth are MIA.

3. The above is your muddled notification.

4. Honest stuff - isn't that what a blog is for?

1. I intend to someday print out a bunch of these posts, glue them in one of my dozens of unused journals and call it "journaling."
2. I wanted to be an astronaut my entire life until I took Japanese in high school and realized how much I love learning about other places.
3. I never changed my major in college, not once. I declared it on my admission application and stuck with it the whole SEVEN years.
4. It took seven years to graduate not because I am smart and became a doctor or lawyer or got any other advanced degree, but because I took several breaks to live & play in places like England, Florida, D.C. and serve a mission in Japan, oh, and have a baby.
5. I both watched the movies and read the books Gone with the Wind and The Princess Bride so many times in my youth that I had the entire Princess Bride (movie) memorized - word for word, and I could tell you exactly where you were reading from if you were to pick one sentence out of Gone with the Wind (book). I probably still could.
6. I joke about how dramatic my husband is, but I think I am just as bad. That's hard to admit if you know just how dramatic my husband is.
7. My family is my world.
8. I am so anti-racist that I fear I get a little worked up over it - ok, a lot work up over it. A person can be defined by their culture or heritage or lots of other stuff, but not by pigmentation. To arbitrarily classify a person based on nothing more than the merits of their physical characteristics is ignorant at best. I do not want my children to grow up believing gross generalizations about or assuming ridiculously generic characteristics of people based on their race. I venomously told my kids that anyone who voted for or against President Obama because of the color of his skin should not have had their vote counted. It disgusts me when the media adjectivally reports a persons' race in a story.
9. I hate to be late, a pet peeve I inherited from my mother.
10. I am ALWAYS late.