The Price Family Home Companion

Return to Sender

This morning, I sent Chantell an e-mail to let her know I'd just wired money to her bank account and that the money was earmarked for holiday shopping. This was both a preemptive strike and a gesture of goodwill since she will be going to the Nutcracker Market this Friday (in what has become, I fear, an annual rite of passage - along with Canton, San Marcos, and Black Friday).

Later, she replied with a cheery Thank You. It went without saying (I'd hoped), but I added "You know, this means no credit card?"

Oddly, I never heard from her again. Instead I got one of those Undeliverable messages:

*****UNDELIVERABLE*****
I'm sorry but the email sent to Chantell was NOT received. We will try to deliver this email again on Friday sometime after 9:00am. You do not need to resend this message or discuss it when you get home. Thank you and good day.

My Name is Salem, I'm 7, and I'm a PC

Salem's first digital masterpiece after discovering Microsoft Paint

Tooth Fairy Foibles

The Tooth Fairy nailed the delivery, but muffed the pickup... as evidenced by this note Salem wrote later that night:

Kidpocrisy

I'm not sure which of my children embarrassed me more today.

Today at Salem's dance class Ryan was playing Mario Kart on the DS. There was another little boy there about his age who was very interested in Ryan's game. He would get so close that he would sometimes put his head in between Ryan's face and the screen. Ry was really polite about it, well, for the most part. One of the times the boy's little face got too close Ryan's. Completely focused on his game Ryan said, "You need to bruss your teeff kid." The little boy was confused because Ryan never looked away from the game so he asked, "Who needs to brush their teeth? That guy?" Ryan still playing responded, "No. You do. You have some bad breaff." Yeah, like Ryan should talk.

--

Then there's Salem. Every week Salem has to write sentences using her spelling words as part of her homework. This week one of her words is white. For her sentence she wrote, "My family does NOT have white teeth." Of course she wrote with pen so it couldn't be erased. I suppose I should be happy she didn't have the words yellow or breath as well

Wii Bit Heavy

I was horrified when my daughter told me she was comparing Wii Fit notes with a friend from school. Both girls described their fathers as measuring "fat" in the Body Test portion of the program (although I believe the accurate description is "obese").

While this is admittedly a true statement, I audibly recoiled... to which she assured me:

I didn't mean to hurt your feelings. I didn't mean fat... I meant, you know, chubby.

Thanks, that's so much better!

Edited 1/15 to Add: Salem's concern has escalated to the point where she is now playing Wii Fit using my Mii. Frantic step arobics, super hula hoop, etc... all in an effort to slim down my Mii character. If only it worked that way!

Christmas Newsletter 2008

In these recessionary and environmentally-conscious times we too have sought to reduce our carbon footprint (not to mention the fact that stamps are $0.42 per). We've halved traditional snail mail delivery of our newsletter this year. Since most of you throw it out  anyway (hopefully after you read it), we hope you don't mind receiving it electronically.

Family & Friends,

Christmas comes on the same day each year, yet it still has a way of sneaking up on us. In the midst of 2008 it seemed like the year would never end, so it's hard to believe it's now coming to a close, and time for another newsletter.

Ryan (3) started preschool this year. He was looking forward to it all summer but was a little apprehensive on the first day. After Jeff and I dropped him off, I called my mom for support. I told her I planned on staying close to the school; you know, in case Ryan needed me. She laughed as I (tearfully) told her I was still in the school parking lot. Fortunately, we adjusted to the arrangement. He loves school and his teachers, and I have become fond of having a couple of "free" weekdays to myself.

Ryan is quite a little character. He can (and will) talk your ears off and takes great joy in being contrary. He enjoys antagonizing his big sister almost as much as he loves her. Every night after we tuck him in bed, he comes down stairs (many times) to say, "Mom, you're great and God loves you!" Needless to say, that pretty much makes up for anything he's done during the day.

Salem (6) is in the first grade this year and is doing very well in spite of the fact it has not been "fun" like Kindergarten. Recently she told us, "School’s okay, but I am SICK of all these tests." It's beginning to dawn on her that school will be her lot in life for many years to come... and she's none too happy about it.

Extracurricularly, Salem is busy with dance class and swim. Her favorite thing in the world is going on dates with her Daddy. Her second favorite thing is wrestling with him and learning how to throw punches. So, Jeff is teaching how she deserves to be treated on a date and how to handle any boy that fails to measure up.

Jeff re-injured his back early in the year and was either immobile or in great pain over several weeks. Regardless, I went on a girl's shopping weekend, leaving him to "watch" the kids. I know, it was cold, but don't feel too bad for him... I inadvertently left my credit card at home!

Jeff and I took an anniversary trip to Austin. We stayed at a nice hotel on Town Lake and were having a wonderful time... Until that fateful evening returning from dinner on Lake Travis, a deer hit our car. Yes, IT hit US, not the other way around. The damage to the car was significant, but fixable. We were shaken up quite a bit, but were not injured. That put a damper on the remainder of our trip, but we praise God for having kept us from harm as it could have easily been much worse. 

A few weeks later, Hurricane Ike hit the Texas Gulf Coast. After a long, tense night we awoke to see fences down, roof damage, and neighborhood trees splintered and strewn all over the street. We were without power for only a few days, but it seemed like much longer. Salem said it best when she woke up and assessed the damage: "Well, we did it. Now we never have to do that again." I agree. One hurricane is enough... next time we're out of here!

During this same time, Jeff's grandmother passed away. Her health had been in decline for some time, but still she is missed. We rest in the knowledge that she is rejoicing in the presence of our Father. She was a strong, Godly woman and the Heritage of Faith she left behind serves as inspiration to us as parents.

All these events, along with many others not mentioned on this page, culminated to make this an emotionally exhausting year. Yet, Christmas brings with it a chance to reflect; with reflection, thanksgiving. For in every moment... big and small... whether in joy or in pain, God is faithful.

So this Christmas, perhaps even more than in years past, we celebrate the simplicity of Jesus' birth and the magnitude of His purpose. For what that midnight made so clear - Jesus is God's promise fulfilled!

Merry Christmas,

 

The Price Family

Gift Concerns

Last night I was telling Jeff how concerned I was about packing our gifts for Albuquerque in our luggage. While we've never had a problem it still makes me nervous. Should I write our names all over everything with Sharpie? Cut the tags off all the webkinz? I finally told Jeff I would put a letter in each suitcase that said something to the effect "These are gifts we have worked hard to provide for our family. If you take them there will be a pox on you and everyone you care about. Your children will take no joy in playing with the toys because they break as soon as they are unwrapped. The new outfits will cause rashes to the anyone wearing them. Sickness and disease will follow you all the days of your sorry miserable life. Also there are GPS trackers in some of the items so Dateline will show up at your door and you will be publicly humiliated and lose all your friends." When Jeff stopped laughing at me long enough to take a breath he said, "Or we could just pray about it." Well yeah, I guess we could do that too.

Product of their Father

Both of our children inherited some of their fathers "best" qualities. Salem has his computer know how. The child Googled herself at three. Today she figured out how to work her Netfilx Instant Watch queue (completely by herself) so she could catch up on all the Hannah Montana episodes she's missed.

Ryan inherited his Daddy's wit. Jeff was getting on to him for standing on a chair, which he'd been told not to do many times. He looked at Jeff, sighed, and said, "Dad, just  pretend I'm not standing!" He's his father's son alright.

Mad Mom

Last night I took Salem to stroke clinic. It was a really light crowd. Salem only had two other kids in her lane. One was a little girl who was really fast, she has to be on swim team somewhere. The other was an unpleasant little boy. I say unpleasant because saying horrible, ugly, or rotten could be considered name calling, which I just explained to my daughter as being unacceptable.

Anyway, Salem is a good swimmer. She's not a fast swimmer but for 6 I think she's pretty impressive. Anytime Salem would come close to passing this boy he'd do anything to stay ahead of her. He'd stop doing the stroke he was supposed to and freestyle, he'd push off the ropes, and finally he started hitting her in the face with his kick board (the coach never noticed). I just about lost my mind! I wanted to go down there and wap that brat in the head with a kick board and yell, "You like that? Does that feel good you little punk?" I'd never let one of my kids get away with something like that but his mom was reading her book and never saw a thing.

Then he and the little girl started teasing Say Because she was so much slower than they were. When it was over I hugged my sweet little girl and we talked about what to say when people act like that. Now I know what a friend meant when she said, "It doesn't matter if a person is 2 or 92 when they hurt your kid's feeling you just want to punch them in the face."

Oh Ye Of Little Faith

Anyone who knows Jeff knows that he is an awesome programmer, but he's not known for being terribly handy around the house. However, this is a stigma he is working to overcome... mostly by amassing various power tools.

Since we bought our house he has learned to fix leaky toilets and dripping sinks and can hang pictures with Euclidian precision. Last summer we painted the outside of our 2 story house ourselves. This summer we built a new fence after the hurricane knocked down our old one. All these accomplishments have greatly improved Jeff's handyman-esteem.

So, this Saturday he spent several hours building a large shelf to suspend from the ceiling of our garage. He got the idea from a friend who is very handy. He got to use all of his favorite tools: the circular saw, his cordless drill (affectionately called the Makita), and his Dremel. When he was done we all ohhhed and ahhhed. I made a passing comment on all the extra holes in the ceiling which he quickly attributed to a faulty stud finder - a backhanded hint of a stocking stuffer if you ask me.

He was very proud and didn't waste any time putting things on the new shelf (heavy things) before we left for a birthday party that night. When we got home and opened the garage door we were all holding our breath. I let out a quiet sigh of relief when I saw it still hanging.

Salem on the other hand just blurted out, "Wow! I was sure that thing was going to be on the floor!"

Jeff turned and said "Thanks." She responded, "Well, I was!"