Random...

I found this website with a bunch of journaling prompts and while I think they would be awesome for some scrap pages I also thought they would make good blogging material! These are just the first 4 on the list.

Where did you live as a child – town, country, suburb, etc. I grew up in a tiny suburb of Minneapolis that grew as I did. At one time there was farm land around us but that is mostly gone now. It is also the town and house that my mom grew up in. There are lots of memories in that place.

What is your greatest joy? Your greatest sorrow? My greatest joy would be Owen and motherhood. Motherhood is something that you cannot explain to someone who isn't a mother and until you do it you don't understand. I think marriage is similar! My greatest sorrow would be the loss of loved ones. Especially Nikki.

What do you feel has been the most significant world events that have taken place in your lifetime and why? Well, the things I remember the most are:

1. the explosion of the space shuttle in 1986. I was in the sixth grade and the entire grade was at a winter camp up north in MN. I remember our teacher coming in and telling us. I was sitting on the top bunk writing in my camp journal.
2. Princess Diana dying in 1997. I was home on summer break from school before going back to do my student teaching.
3. The September 11th attacks. I was in a staff meeting when it happened and we found out after the meeting while students were arriving at school.
4. The election of President Obama.
   

Describe your yard as a child. As I mentioned I grew up in the house my mom grew up in. When I was younger there were more trees than there are now. Many of these have died or had to be cut down. It was a huge yard. It's not as huge to me now! My great uncle lived with us and we would sit in his car after he came back from work eating fruit that he had brought home under the big pine tree by the driveway. It was a wonderful yard for playing in and even though our house was on a busy street it was always a safe place to play because there was so much room. It makes me happy that Owen gets to play in the same yard as a child.

Creative style...

According to this quiz, for me, creativity is a release. I would tend to agree.

For you, creativity is first and foremost a form of expression: it creates a special link between the internal and external worlds. It allows you to get a grasp of your powerful emotions, by molding them into a physical form. In fact, the most important thing for you is to be able to release your emotions. You need to be able to touch them or look at them in concrete form, and to do that you have to find a way to make them come alive. This is how your desires and anxieties take shape. Keeping things bottled up creates a tension that can only be resolved once you have expressed how you feel. This means you have to be strong enough not to let yourself get swept away by chaotic impulses; if you turn your creative urges on everyday life — making a picnic, singing to the baby, choosing what to wear — you can express yourself while staying rooted in reality. Creativity is principally cathartic. It relieves a deep need, an almost primal, archaic impulse. For you, being creative is about having the power to give form to something you feel, to those deep personal issues that are often raw and disorganized. For these reasons you are usually attracted to art that demands physicality, that allows you to express what’s inside, and that unites spontaneity, strength, freedom, power and movement.

Funny stuff...

I think I've mentioned before that I love Owen at 4. He's funny. He says funny things and does funny stuff. Although he talks about butts and farting and poop a lot.

The other day he and Morgan were making a trip to the potty while we were at a restaurant and he said to me, "We'll be back in a jippy mom!" A jippy! I loved that.

On the way to a friend's house last week we were chatting while in the car and he said, "When I grow up I can be a mailman, a doctor and drive a car." I said, "yes honey, you can do all those things if you'd like." I grew up being told I could be anything I wanted to be "even and Indian Chief". I don't know where my mom came up with that but I knew she meant I could do whatever I wanted to do. Unfortunately I let some fear and some outside influence limit me and I think I may have done a few other things had I had a little bit more confidence to do them. Like study abroad or dance more or take some art classes.

I love how cheerful Owen is. Most of the time anyway. Yesterday he wasn't so cheerful. He was mad because we couldn't go to Donald's (Mc Donald's) after the eye doctor. We had to get home and have a quick lunch before my sister arrived and I had to go to work. I explained that we had food at home and we would eat there. Except that he was "so-so-so-so hungry" and wanted to go to a "quick drive-thru" rather than eat at home. This kind of set the tone for things. He got mad because I asked him to close the car door before he came in the house, which he didn't do, and ended up having to go back out and do that. When he came in he was just too tired to move and ended up laying on the floor in the kitchen. He couldn't possibly get up on the chair to eat and started throwing a fit so he ended up sitting in his room crying while I ate lunch and he threw a fit. My sister arrived while he was still carrying out his drama in his room. When I went in I told him Naunee was here and asked if he was done to which he replied, "yes, I'm done crying now". He came out and ate his lunch. Shortly after I got home from work he decided he was starving again and brought me a banana that he wanted made into a smoothie. I asked if he could just eat the banana and he said no. So I got out the blender and together we made a nice strawberry -banana smoothie. I put it in two glasses and put his on the table for him. He sat down and said, "I want a banana to eat with my smoothie." I said, "No, we are not eating a banana too. You wanted a smoothie with the banana so I made a smoothie. Now drink the smoothie." "But I'm hungry too. I need something to eat while I drink my smoothie!" "No, we are just having smoothies." The crying began and the whining about how he's so-so-so-so hungry AND thirsty! I told him he could drink the smoothie that we made, which he HAD TO HAVE but that wasn't good enough. More crying ensued so I carried him to his room and on the way he wails, "Not again!" I went back out to the kitchen to get his smoothie so he could cry and drink it in his room and while I was leaving his room he says, "MAMA! Don't forget to close the door!" These things drive me nuts and make me laugh at the same time. I swear sometimes he's a little bit crazy.

This morning at 2am he comes into our room and says, "I'm so hungry guys!" Like we weren't doing anything in our room besides lying there waiting to serve whatever need he had! He gets this starving gene from Morgan and since Morgan can't go hungry for more than a nanosecond he always gets him something to eat or drink. Or makes sure I do it if it's 2am. So I got him a snack and some juice and put it in his room. After he ate it he came and crawled into our bed. He laid there for 15 minutes and said, "I want some water please." So Morgan fetched him some water. 15 minutes later he says, "I want something juicy." So Morgan got him more juice!

But he really is quite cheerful and friendly. Today we were at a friend's house and the neighbor came home. Owen's friend was saying hi to the neighbor and Owen hollers over, "I'm Owen! Hi! I'm Owen!" I just love watching his personality and sense of humor and his sense of self developing.