Tuesday, October 13, 2009

The Incredible Shrinking Bug!

I have to share this before I forget! Last week I was driving Sydney Rae to school and we were playing our usual and ongoing game of slugbug(minus the slugging, being girls and all). She spotted an old one, and asked,

"Mom, why are they so small like that? Do they shrink when they get old? Man, I would hate to be driving one when it does that!"

She was of course referring to the difference in size between the newer model Volkswagen Beetles, and the older smaller bugs. I said, "What?" in my usual articulate and elegant delivery, and she said,

"You know, like how old people get smaller?"

Now what beautiful logic is that?! I laughed and laughed, and explained to her why they were smaller and more beat up looking, and then she laughed at herself! Do I laugh at my children too much, you think? I like to refer to it as "building emotional calluses"! Maybe it is more like "therapy-prep"!! :)

Silly Mommy, kids know it all!

This morning my little sprite of a Payton bounded into my room carrying the package of hot dogs Chad opened when he got home yesterday. She was beaming her beautiful little smile and breathing quite heavily(quite possibly because of all of the bounding). Silently, but with grand gestures she presented the hot dogs to me, and when I told her that "hot dogs are not for the morning baby girl." , she just threw her head back and laughed! If you have never heard Payton laugh, it is very much like being lost in the woods and hearing the bushes giggle and squeal, knowing there are forest sprites behind them, but never being able to see one for yourself!! (of course there are absolutely no such thing as forest sprites, but you can imagine it, can you not??) She then says to me, "Silly Mommy, hot dogs are for all the time, don't you know that?". I told her to go put them back and I would cut up an apple for her, and she was just as happy with that as a snack, but I could hear her mumbling to herself as she put the hot dogs back into the fridge, mostly things pertaining to how much I make her laugh, and how much I just don't know! :)

Thursday, October 1, 2009

Witty Reno Trip Retorts

We traveled to Reno this past weekend to see a childhood friend of Chad's get married. The drive up wasn't bad, and we had a lovely weekend. We got to enjoy some adult interaction and spend some quality time with the girls. All in all a lovely weekend :)

The trouble started on the drive home(there is always some kind of trouble if you're a Hiester, usually of the hilarious variety). You see, Chad drove the whole way up, and so I very graciously offered to drive home. What we were thinking I will never know, because we both know I get horribly anxious around motorcycles and road construction, and there was an over abundance of BOTH the whole weekend. I mentioned several times throughout the weekend that being in Reno during a biker convention was like being in the 9th circle of hell for me. Not the 7th, the NINTH!!! It isn't the people on the bikes that get me, it's being on the road with the bikes. How they drive up between you and other cars, and how one wrong pothole and I might run one over!! but I digress.....

So I am driving amongst all of the road construction and motorcycles, and always picking the slowest lane when the traffic would get diverted, and my dear husband is giving me lots of helpful advice on how I should be doing things! We are bickering lightly and trying to keep it from escalating(which road trips can often do to a perfectly normal difference of opinion), when he gives me one of his big dramatic sighs about my lane choice. I said something brilliant and well thought out(I am sure), and he starts lamenting the decision to let me drive in the first place. I asked him to kindly stop talking to me so that I could concentrate, and he responded with, "In the next town we are stopping and I am going to drive."

Now, this is talking to me, which I had just ever so kindly asked him not to do, and so I started to laugh(probably maniacally) and said, "Why do you insist on chipping away at the part of me that doesn't want to kill you? Why?" Which after a short pause lead to a car full of raucous laughter, and loads of broken tension!!!

Needless to say we stopped for gas, and after a quiet mutiny, I resigned my position as captain. The drive went smoother after that, at least for me :) We all got home safe and sound, to a very broken washing machine and a ripped up rug(the cat has been awfully frisky lately!). Another beautiful Hiester Family outing!!