Back by Popular Demand

Actually, I don't know if it was "Popular"or if it was even "in Demand" but it was fun last year (and I got some good responses from reliable sources that it was well received) so I decided to do it again this year...My Top 10 Things We Learned in 2008 List. If you are on my Christmas Card list, you will be getting a hard copy of this so...you have fair warning.

The Top 10 Things Tulip's Family Learned in 2008

1. Peanut learned a lot of new things this year: how to ride a two-wheeler, how to jump in the pool and swim “like a squid”, write his letters and count to 15. His brothers also taught him some interesting words they learned on the playground which he then shared with a little girl…in front of her mom…who is my friend…from church. (This brought up many discussions about "honey words" vs. "vinegar words" and how our words should be like honey, sweet to the tongue and the ear and the Vinegar words did decrease substantially!)

2. All the children learned through careful research and experimentation that while it is possible to fry an egg on the sidewalk in July, Mom is not too happy to have ALL of the eggs she planned on using for a meal used for the experiment without her knowledge or permission.

3. The boys learned that Grandpa does not always appreciate their “creative enthusiasm” and mechanical skills when they attempted to build a tree house on a dead tree in the yard because they used his good tools and left them out in the rain. The women in the family thought it was really cute!(My sister says she still gets a good chuckle out of the plank screwed into the dead tree in the yard and I have a vivid memory of BB standing on that tree with the drill in his hands, his feet spread apart and trying to put in a screw between his feet like he has seen done on some of the DIY shows I like to watch!)

4. Mom learned that when your car makes funny noises, emits a sickly, sweet smell and keeps stalling…there is something seriously wrong and sometimes all the prayers of “please, just make it to payday” don’t work and she still wound up stranded on the side of the road with steam pouring out of the hood. Thankfully, a stranger reassured her that the van was not going to explode. Friends picked her up and loaned her a car for a few days and then she and BB found a new van a couple days later. However, Mom would have liked BB to keep the sticker price and her monthly payments to himself.(I have truly awesome friends! You know who you are and I can't thank you enough!!)

5. Mom and Princess learned that you should not drive over plastic garbage bags on the freeway. While they may look innocent and harmless, they could contain deadly plastic stepstools that wrap around your wheel, forcing you to pull over, try to figure out the car jack and wind up calling a friend. Thankfully, that friend jacked up the car, removed the tire and the nasty stool and did not make fun of Mom for being “such a girl.” (Maybe I should mention that I was also dressed in a skirt and white shirt, on my way to my sister's Bridal shower when this happened...so I really was not too keen on getting dirty this day...another day, I would have been alright with getting down in the dirt and taking off the tire, if I could have figured out how that silly jack worked!)

6. The boys learned that they should not go out onto the garage roof even if one brother threw their “most favorite” webkin up there and even sliced the screen open for them. When Mom finds out, because the police knocked at the door, they get grounded from “all things fun”; have to pay for the screen, fix it and then it gets written up in the local paper. Mom had to clip it out and put it in a scrapbook. It will be used to embarrass them at a later time.

7. Mom learned that it is better to break off an engagement than to marry the wrong person.

8. Tiger taught us that it is possible to get pregnant after one date with a handsome, suave Tomcat and the kids learned why Mom kept saying, “Don’t let the cat out!” when she went into heat for the first time. She gave birth to 5 healthy kittens in May. We had a great time watching them grow up and it was hard to see them go. One girl became our second pet. Her name is Shadow.

9. Mom learned there is nothing good after the question, “Do you want to know what your boys are doing outside?” To which she replied, “Not really.” While at the vet with a very upset kitty who had clawed Princess to shreds, she quickly wrote out the check and dashed outside to find 3 boys standing in their socks. Two were holding their shoes and one had only a single shoe. Apparently, they had been having a shoe kicking contest and one shoe landed on the SUV that was pulling out of the lot. Mom did not find it funny when someone said, “I think I see the shoe…But…you just drove over it.”

10. Mom learned that she is no longer “Mommy” but Mom. Could it have anything to do with having all 4 kids in school? She thought it would be more upsetting to have Jonah go to Kindergarten but truth be told, it was harder sending Princess to Middle school. While she did not run after the bus screaming, “Bring back my baby!” she did have to take a few moments to regroup and choke back some tears.