In Case You Missed It

Last week, a very "louse-y" week. This week? Not one single bug or nit reported at any of the schools I work at. Yeah! But parents, I caution you from becoming complacent in your diligence of checking your children's heads--sometimes we miss a bug or two and then the whole cycle begins again. January is almost over and I was doing really well on the avoidance of snide and snarky remarks. UNTIL I watched the President's State of the Union Address. If I were giving myself credits for the days I didn't make a rude remark, I would have blown them all in the 2 hours I was watching the speech. So not a proud moment or two for me. In case you are wondering what provoked me here are the top three...

• His slam on the Supreme Court for the recent ruling on corporations spending for election campaigns. Excuse me Mr. President, but didn't you reject public money for your campaign and pay for it exclusively with private donations and funding?
• His issue of an executive order because the Senate recently failed to pass one of his pet project bills. Well, golly gee, Mr. President, it seems to me that the Senate is still 60% in your favor so the fact that they neglected to pass your bill might indicate they were actually listening to their constituents--you know, the people they are supposed to be working for. So basically with your issue of an executive order you are saying "Screw you, American public, I'm going to do what I want and I'll achieve it in any way possible.
• His declaration that in 2011 he will freeze government spending on military, healthcare, and one other thing (which I can't remember because I was too busy commenting on the previous two--mostly healthcare). So tell me, Mr. President, how will you freeze government spending on healthcare if your healthcare reforms go through? Oh yeah, that's right. The taxes on the middle, middle-class and upper middle-class will be so exhorbitant that we will want to quit our jobs just so we can enjoy the government programs we are paying for. Thanks alot for rewarding my husband's and my hardwork.

Ok, now I'm totally in the negative as far as snide comments. Oh well, I'll repent and try again in February.

To Some It Is Given to Nit-Pick

Dear Parents: I want to let you know that I just finished up a "louse-y" week, in what is stacking up to be a pretty "louse-y" year. I don't know why the little buggers are so prevelant this year--maybe it's the mild winter. I was hoping that coming back from Christmas Break would be uneventful, meaning no head checks and nit-picking. Unfortunately, no such luck. So what can you do if you receive a letter saying that your child was exposed to or has head lice? First, do not go running and screaming the other way. Lice is a pain in the rear, but it is not life-threatening. Second, do not bury your head in the sand and think it won't happen to your child because after all, your child takes a bath, changes their clothes, lives in a clean house, etc. Those louses really could care less about your socio-economic status. So, gather your wits about you, pull your child close, and start looking. The only real way to combat head lice is to be vigilant in watching for the nits and being diligent in picking them out. The little lice combs are great for getting out lice, but are worthless for removing nits. You literally have to pick them out--hence the term "nit picking". Not sure what you are looking for? Schedule an appointment with your school nurse. I am sure he/she would be happy to educate you on what lice and nits look like. Some school nurses might even have a very cool magnifying lamp that makes spotting the nits so easy. I know I am hoping this was the last of the "louse-y" weeks, but it will only be so if I have your cooperation and help. Remember, only you can prevent the spread of head lice. Insist that your child follow some preventative measures: put all belongings in a plastic bag that gets hung on the back of their chair so there is no touching in the cubbies; don't share combs, brushes, or hair ties; discourage them from trying on hats at the mall; and allow you to check their heads every day for the next couple of weeks. Thanks for your help. Sincerely, Nurse Graham

I Think You Should Know...

Sometimes I can be a total sap. I can't think of a better word to describe my sometimes over-leaky eyes. Cry over sappy Hallmark movies? Yep, most of the time. Cry during Primary Programs? Almost always. Cry when I see awesome feats of athletism by amateur athletes? Handy me a hanky. Cry when patriotic songs are played? Depends on the timing and venue, but yep, sometimes I cry. Cry when children are involved? Definitely a tender spot for children which causes me eyes to leak. So it should come as no surprise that I was crying Friday night as I watched the little ice skaters unroll a giant American flag with Lee Greenwood's "I'm Proud to be American" playing in the background as the Opening Ceremonies for the 2010 Ice Skating Championships came to a close. I am such a sap. But, not sappy enough to cry over spilled milk--as Carson will attest. Before Christmas we got a new couch. The first new couch for our family room in 15 years. It is a beautiful deep chocolate brown made of deliciously soft velvet material. Several conversations took place before the couch arrived about no food or drink on the new couch--all things edible or drinkable must stay in the kitchen. The new couch had not been in the house more than 20 minutes when Carson (who was standing in the kitchen) choked on his milk and sent a mouthful of dairy mist all over the back of the new couch! I have never seen milk cover such a wide surface area. Carson just looked at me with huge eyes, afraid of what might come next. I just laughed and laughed. It was so funny to see that milk spray everwhere. I think Carson breathed a huge sigh of relief as he was getting a wet towel to clean up the milk. I just continued laughing as I helped him mop on the milk--because what else can you do?

Nurse Graham in Real Life

So I have been mulling over all week the posts that were written by Jessica, Jessica, and Lindsey. I have been trying to decide if I was going to accept their challenge and what exactly my blog is. The more I thought, the more I realized that this blog is ME in real life--the cleaned and polished moments. And you know what? I think I am totally OK with sharing the mostly good. Yes, our family definitely does have foibles and faults, trials and tribulations, but they are not where I put my focus. I spent a lot of my teen-age years, my twenties, and most of my thirties focusing on what was wrong with my life. And guess where all of the energy and focus got me? Nowhere but mostly unhappy. So now I have switched my focus to the good and that is where I place most of my energy. So yes, this blog presents the mostly good in my life because I have a good life. And if in the future my children read this and say, "Wow, we had a good life," then my goal was accomplished. You see, I believe it is human nature to dwell on faults and bad times unless we make a concerted effort to replace them with good memories. I want this blog to be a place where my children can find good memories when they are feeling down. With that being said, here are a few things that I will own (so I can seem more "real" in this totally surreal world of internet):

• There are some nights when I am just too tired to brush my teeth before going to bed.
• When I am alone, I enjoy taking a tablespoon of peanut butter right out of the jar, coating it with chocolate chips, and calling that "dinner".
• I spend way too much time worrying about my abdomen and the fact that is no longer as tight and toned as it was when I was 18 (please no comments about how if I avoided peanut butter out of the jar, I might not have to worry). I also am more envious than I should be of those women who have borne more than 1 child and have abs of steel.
• Sometimes I think I am funnier than I really am, according to my kids.

Just keepin' it real.

Detox and Purge

Last year I was mostly happy. By that I mean, I tried to turn from a mostly "glass half-empty" sort into a "glass half-full sort" and find the positives in life. I was mostly happy--try as I might there were just somethings I couldn't find a positive for. I was so mostly happy that after one particular perky post one of my brothers commented "Who are you and WHAT have you done with my sister?" I wrote back that I attributed my new outlook on ridding my body of a toxic organ and finally purging wheat altogether from my diet. The gallbladder came out pretty quickly because it hurt! The wheat? That was a little harder to let go of because I wasn't life-threateningly allergic to it and who really wants to give up all the best things in life like pasta, bread, cookies, crackers, cereal only to replace them with things that sometimes taste just plain disgusting? But I finally bit the bullet and got off of wheat. Coincidentally that occurred around the same time that my gallbladder was quiting. So I felt GREAT after all things were detoxed and purged. So I got to thinking, what happens if this positive perkiness didn't last? What would I purge and detox? I don't really have any more expendable organs and my family might just shoot me if one more thing shows up on my allergy, "can't eat it" list. So I had to dig a little deeper and think about what I could let go. I turned again to the talk and read the line, "Being temperate is to use moderation in all things or to exercise self-control (emphasis added by me)". Exercise self-control--I read this to mean, BITE YOUR TONGUE before saying something or at least counting to 10 and remembering the advice from Thumper's mom. I really don't have too much of a problem with yelling/screaming at my family, friends or people in general. But I do have a problem with snarky, snide, sarcastic and smart-alecky remarks. So mini-goal #1 in learning to develop temperance: Decrease snarky, snide, sarcastic and smart-alecky remarks. No more than two comments per day. Why even give myself one or two comments? Well, I am embarrassed to admit, but these comments are said more often than they really should be. Elder Watson says to carefully examine our expectations and to be diligent and patient when seeking righteous goals. I think if I just tried to go cold-turkey I might fail miserably and give up altogether. So I am trying to make it more realistic and doable for me. Dad, if I can decrease snide, sarcastic, snarky and smart-alecky remarks can we go to Victoria again? (Inside joke, but my family will know what it means)

Resolutions

The other day I was at lunch with a group of friends and the subject of New Year's goals came up. We each went around the table and talked about what races we were training for (this was a group of runners/triathletes). After lunch I got to thinking about my goals for the year--train for Windermere 1/2 marathon in May and try to improve my time (totally doable), train for and compete in my first Olympic length triathlon (again very doable), eat 3 fruits and 3 vegetables per day (yep, doable). Why are all of these things doable? Because I am totally committed to them. Then I got thinking about the song "Dig a Little Deeper" from Disney's, The Princess and the Frog. I realized that when it comes to making spiritual goals, I am woefully lacking. It is definitely not because I am so good that I have trouble identifying areas needed for spiritual growth. Quite to the contrary--there are so many areas that are desparately needing improvement that I don't know where to begin and make the goals "doable". Here is definitely where I need to "dig a little deeper." Then I remembered a special blessing I received when I was 18 years old. In this blessing I was told to develop charity--you know, the pure love of Christ. Yeah, that seems a little overwhelming. But if I develop charity, that means I have learned humility. And if I have learned humility, then I have learned how to be temperate in all things. I definitely need temperance. My strong personality, fierce independence, quick rush to judgment and big mouth often get me into trouble. OK, learning temperance seems doable. Here's how I am going to do it:

• refer to this talk often (as in read "daily" until things start to become a habit)
• read from the Book of Mormon daily (should already be doing this, but yeah, I don't)
• practice yoga (seriously. Learning the practice of yoga should help me release some of my Type A personality. Although I have tried yoga before, and let's just say, it hasn't gone very well.

So there you have it...my spiritual resolution for this year is to learn to be temperate in all things. I'll try to give you periodic updates on how it is going. Should be an interesting journey, anyway.