Drops of Awesome

Personal Blog of Author Kathryn Thompson

Kathryn

Independent Kids – No Imitations

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Magoo informed me this afternoon that he wants me to change his name to J. J. I was pretty sure he hadn’t seen Lost or the new Star Trek movie so I assumed Mr. Abrams had nothing to do with this choice. I was right.

“There’s a boy in my class named J. J. and he’s my friend. His name is just J. and J. Isn’t that cool?”

“Yeah. That’s pretty cool.”

“It’s so cool. He’s my friend but he has way more friends than me. He hangs out with like 4 guys every day on the playground. I want to change my name to J. J.” [Read More at Parenting.com]

Drowning in Cuteness

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There is no shortness of cute at our house lately. There is no shortness of soccer, rain, dirty dishes, cheerios on the floor, or late nights full of homework and milk.

There is a shortness of time. Time is flying by too quickly. The Fatness just turned one and I thought I’d share some pictures I took today. Here she is paying oh-so-close attention during Sunday School.

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Mothers who function and manage to look good, keep a clean house and care for your kids – I salute you. Sometimes I’m just barely keeping my nose above water here. But I am keeping it above water.

There’s sort of a magic to motherhood. Things always work out.

Just when you think all is lost because your son stashed his favorite blanket in a crevice outside an unnamed shop at the mall, you find that the sales clerk at Ben Bridge Jewelers has found it and put it aside for you.

When your 7-year-old is exploding with rage and attitude and you wonder if the teenage years are already upon you, you touch her back and feel her melt and turn to you for love.

When you’ve given up all hope of ever figuring out what’s wrong with your moody baby, a tiny white tooth pokes its way through her gums.

When you realize your umbrella’s really for real lost and that you must buy another one or sit drenched at soccer games, Nintendo sends you a back-to-school package with a new one inside. (They must know I live in Seattle or something.)

When the kids are cranky, the house mess is out of control and you can’t think of another nice thing to say, you find that it’s bedtime and you all hit reset for a few hours. Things usually look better in the morning. Well maybe the house doesn’t look any better but you all like each other a ton more after a nice rest.

Mockingjay – A Review – SPOILER ALERT

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I devoured the first two books in the Hunger Games series in one sitting and have been counting down the days to the release of Mockingjay this week. I was one of the first to purchase it Tuesday morning and I carried it around with me all day like a security blanket. Then I read it. All night I read it. And it was over.

Like all good things that come to an end, it left me feeling a bit deflated. Now what? I often feel that way when I finish a good book, movie, or TV series. The characters have become my friends and I just don’t want to say goodbye. My sadness at the end of Mockingjay was a little different though.

The three book jackets tell a vivid story. Book one shows the Mockingjay small, almost timid, with its head down, clutching the arrow as though picking it up for the first time. Book two shows the bird as robust, surrounded by the color of flame, ready to take on the world. The cover of book three is pale blue and shows the Mockingjay with its wings spread out, surrounded by light. The book jacket radiates hope and rebirth. Then you open the first page.

Keep reading at your own risk. Highly opinionated commentary and spoilers abound. …

Read More »

Yesterday

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Yesterday was a tough one. I sort of blogged it out over at at Parenting.com.

But today is a new day. I was nicer to the kids. The fridge situation got all sorted out and the new one is lovely and spacious and if we were gonna cash in our life savings for a fridge, then I’m glad it was this one.

Laylee’s hearing aids are still under warranty and will be replaced by the manufacturer. I told her that they “gave us one more chance.”

Yesterday was bad. Today was better. Tomorrow my in-laws are coming and we’re gonna have all kinds of fun.

Chicken Sitting

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I am chicken-sitting for a friend who is on vacation.

The chickens are angry.

When I fed them but did not let them out to roam, they vocalized their displeasure. I have a feeling they will lay non-free-range eggs tonight in retaliation. These eggs of rage should be avoided.

I wonder if they know that if they combined forces against me, they could do significant damage with their sharp beaks and talons. I don’t think they know. I escaped the property unharmed.

Mission Accomplished

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This makes me want to add a new category to my blog for premature signage:

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If they’ve ended hunger, then why are my kids still begging for lunch and should I still donate to the food bank this year?

Wii Netflix Party – A Review and Giveaway

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***The winners have been chosen by Random.org. They are Poppa2b, Carolee and Julia. ***

wii-netflixSo now Nintendo has asked me to be a Brand Ambassador. I’m not totally sure what it means but I do keep getting free stuff, which is nice and they have not yet set fire to my house so I think both of those things must be part of the agreement. As far as I can tell, we come in peace and bearing gifts.

Last weekend, they sponsored a little get-together at my house with some friends. We had a game and movie night with food and games provided by Nintendo. They also sent along a sweet little flip video camera to capture the fun and we did have a great time.

However, I’ll warn you that as I tried to edit this little baby together, I discovered that there’s not much in the world quite as boring as watching video of other people playing video games and watching movies. There is a really cute shot of Wanda in the middle of it all which I think makes it worth watching.

We downloaded Haunted Mansion Party with the free points cards they sent us, kind of a board game with interactive Wii-play arcade-type games along the way, and ended up playing some old favorites, Big Brain Academy and Dr. Mario as well.

Then keeping with the Dr. theme, we streamed Dr. Horrible with our Netflix disc. I think everyone enjoyed themselves. We’d do it again for sure.

Nintendo provided some Nintendo Points Cards to give out to our friends and since I consider you all friends, I’m extending the party and I’ll send cards to a few of you if you’d like. Just leave a comment listing your favorite game for the Wii and I’ll draw 3 winners to receive a couple thousand Nintendo Points each so you can download fun software for your Wii or DS.

The timing was a little funny to be throwing a party celebrating streaming Netflix because we’ve had some issues with it lately. We’d been really enjoying it until a couple of weeks ago. There are a lot of great movies and TV series available and it’s nice to have them on demand.

But two weeks ago, we left Magoo inside playing Lego Batman while Dan put together the play set in the back yard and he got into some trouble with the Netflix. He knows he’s not allowed to use it without me or Dan there but like most 5 year-olds, he thinks he’s smarter than us and he “totally knows what movies are for kids.”

Long story short, he ended up watching some really offensive content. It was animated so he thought it was okay but it was WAY R-rated and honestly I don’t know any adults who would not have been offended by it. It was awful. Luckily Netflix keeps track of what’s been watched so we could go back and see what he’d seen and address it, but it was a wakeup call.

Nintendo products tend to be so family-friendly, a big part of the reason I chose the Wii and the DS over other gaming systems when I had money to spend. However, the Netflix disc does open up a whole new can of worms. We now have the whole Wii on lockdown so I have to enter a passcode for the kids to use any game or the Netflix disc. I’ve also set our Netflix rating max to PG in case I leave it unlocked someday.
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So, be wise. Use it for the good but protect your family from the bad.

Leave a comment if you’re interested in the giveaway!

Click to Read My Product Review Policy

Daring Dos – Tomorrow Starts Tonight

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I often blog about things because I need the reminder myself. My swimsuit post was one of those cases where I had a sudden realization that I needed to do better at something. Usually I have to re-remember several times before I actually turn a good intention into a habit.

So I’m going to start sharing my re-rememberings with you in little mini-posts called Daring Dos, things I dare you (and myself) to do or at least to keep in mind as you go about your day.

Today – I want to remind you that tomorrow starts tonight. If you want to have a great day tomorrow, go to bed at a decent time tonight. You’ll be happier, more patient, more able to handle your life. You can’t wake up early if you don’t go to bed early, not and maintain peak sanity throughout the day.

Tomorrow starts tonight. Go to bed early!

Antiques Roadshow – The Greatest Hoax Ever

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Every night when we head to bed, we turn the TV to channel 9 so that when the kids wake up at zero o’clock in the morning to watch cartoons, they will find Arthur and Sid and Dragon Tales on PBS.

As I reach channel 9 late at night, I am often sucked in to the droning convention center hubbub that is Antiques Roadshow. I’m drawn in by the people and their stories.

“This was my great grand-daddy’s Civil War drum.”

“My mammy made this quilt for me out of shards of canvas that she says were ripped up pieces of a Picasso painting.”

“Sometimes I just go online and buy ornamental snuff boxes and hope they’re worth something someday. Of course I’d never sell any of them but I dressed up in my finest jeans to come down to this sound stage and find out what they’re worth for no apparent reason whatsoever but it sure is fun to be on the TEE-vee.”

There’s always the bustle of people wandering around in the background, shuffling in their jeans. Everyone wears jeans but the experts. They are the only ones allowed to wear professional attire.

Watching tonight, I couldn’t help but wonder how awesome it would be if it were suddenly exposed that Antiques Road Show was entirely staged, like The Bachelor. They’re all actors. None of the artifacts are real. It really is just a bunch of random junk from garage sales that the producers dig up, bring into the event hall and assign to the various actors.

The more personal/incredible/inane the story, the more money the actor gets paid to tell it. If they let the hair and makeup people give them an eighties perm, they earn an extra $200.

I would love to be an extra on Antiques Roadshow. You wouldn’t get real face time in the two-shot in front of the camera, with the deer-in-the-headlights look of confusion mixed with anticipation, but you could stand in line behind them and try to get in the shot, staring creepily off into the distance, clutching your circa 1860 Pez Dispenser.

No, I don’t think it’s a staged hoax. At least I’m not willing to investigate it at this time. I don’t think the world’s ready for the truth.