I Love Free STUFF!!!

I get pretty excited about FREE STUFF!  So much so that my friends like to imitate my catch phrase, "free stuff!"  Packets, samples, piles of junk on the side of the road, you name it--its all so exciting!  "Treasure!  We might find treasure!" I often think.

I'm not sure what the intense, magnetic-like pull is all about.  Maybe it is because I like gifts so much.  Don't you love it when people are generous with you?  Maybe not, because it is pretty humbling.  But there is really nothing like it.  Right?  Giving things away for free just doesn't make logical sense to us, but in reality I suppose we are simply imitating our Maker who gave all things to us freely.  (What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?  He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? Romans 8:31&32)

I never have been able to shake that free stuff obsession and never has it been more obvious of an obsession than it was today.  As we were leaving the library and passing the last of many hand sanitizing stations that are scattered generously throughout the entire 6 floor library, I suddenly realized that an involuntary war had been going on within mind ever since I had seen the first dispenser of free nectar on the Children's Floor.   I realized that on one side of my brain I had been thinking about how I hate hand sanitizer.  I have been repulsed by it completely ever since I heard that it can create "super germs".  Its not even a "love-hate" relationship.  It is simply "hate-hate".  Like, "I hate the fact that they make my kids use it before eating lunch at school."  I always worry that they might ingest a bit of it.  I feel like I don't need the stuff and am better off without it. I also think that I am irrationally convinced that there are many other unknown side-effects the aromatically abrasive and poisonous lotion might contain.

But the other side of my brain had been thinking about how much I LOVE free stuff.  All of those hand sanitizing stations seemed like giant, neon "free stuff stations" that were calling to me like Sirens and I really, really wanted to be the recipient of their overly generous gift.

When I finally realized what was happening within me, I laughed at myself; turned up my nose to the beckoning hand sanitizing station with an imaginary "Pppft!" and an "I don't need you, but I still love that you are free" glance; took a picture of the kids in front of the library; and then purposed to tell you about it.  You know, just to get it off of my chest...

Next time I go to the library, can you please tie me to the mast of a ship so that I'll still be able to hear the call of the Sirens, but not be swept away with my passion for all that is free?  Because that was a close one!  I may need some accountability.

Thanks a bunch!

Elliott's Unlikely Favorite

We kept it simple this Christmas and got the kids just a few practical things.  We gave Elliott a new soccer ball and a new Bible, which he has been devouring.  Caiden got a french rolling pin with her initials in it and a lettuce knife for helping me in the kitchen (which she loves to do).

Even the stocking stuffers I wanted to make practical this year.  Because we have had so many problems with mildew and moisture this winter, we really couldn't afford to have any more random junk lying around that would need to find new homes. So, I filled their stockings with pencils with erasers on them (the erasers always go first!), socks, underwear, a few little candies, new toothbrushes*, things like that.  (Do I sound like a terrible, spoil sport mom???)

Funnily enough, and as always seems to happen (I'm sure you can relate), it was the littlest thing that struck Elliott's fancy.  I had remembered him asking me if we had a calculator some months ago so I picked one up at a dollar store and put it in his stocking thinking, "Eh, it wouldn't hurt.  Maybe he'll like it." And that little black calculator turned out to be the hit of the season!

He brings it with him everywhere declaring, "Its real!  I'm not joking! It really works!" as he pulls the calculator out of his pocket with a proud and excited smile--its really nerdy, but really cute.  When people ask him what he got for Christmas, this is one of the first things he remembers.  He thinks it was an actual gift.  I thought it was just a little stocking stuffer...

I'm thankful for that.  There wasn't a whole lot of hoopla this year with the presents, but the kids never really skipped a beat. They're pretty great.


*In my defense, the toothbrushes were star wars lightsabers that light up.  They were pretty cool!  Its not like I made their Christmas totally lame...

I'm Not Famous

I feel like I may have mentioned this before, but maybe I have only mentioned it to Dave.  Although, I'm pretty sure my little sister knows this quirk about me all too well.   You see, I have this problem.  I used to secretly, not so secretly, hope that "people" would be watching my life and finally realize what a great spy I could be--recognizing my "raw talent"-- and then recruit me and give me all the training I would need to be the next James Bond.  (Although now that I'm publicly writing this, I have officially dashed all hopes of it ever happening.  The words "Corynne" and "spy" are forever cached together on this thing we call the World Wide Web and my incognito status is forever compromised.)(I just can't let go of the dream, though, you know?!)  And if not that, I sort of always have this kind of ridiculous notion--or feeling, if you will-- that people are watching my life as if it were a very interesting movie.

So in that spirit I boarded a train the other day--feeling as if the whole world was watching me in interest.  I was catching BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) into the city--all by myself--to meet my love and feeling so official, and grown up, and cool and stuff.  The train was packed--standing room only--so there I stood, hanging on to one of the rails and trying to act nonchalant.  I saw some cool scenery and decided to take a picture.  While my camera was out, I noticed my reflection and I just love taking pictures of reflections, so I snapped off a couple of shots when suddenly a horrible realization swept over me and kind of took my breath away: I was not a cool, hip, grown up person that people were admiring at all!  I was still my 12 year old self on that ferry boat to Catalina Island.  The one where I had struck up a conversation with a kind old man and at the end of the trip he told my mom what a very nice son she had.  I clearly remember wearing a flannel and a horrible baseball cap that day with bluntly cut, shoulder length hair.  Not so different from my ensemble today... Today I was older, with a little more of a chest, but still looking no more than 16 years old with my hair pulled back in a bun and stuck through the hole of a surf hat.  Jeans, boots, a grey t-shirt, and a blue jacket/sweater thing completed the outfit. The only difference today was, the kind man I was talking to on this train wasn't quite as old as the one on the ferry.  Try as I might, I'm still the same old person who is just as likely to be mistaken for a boy today as I was back then.  Truthfully, I kind of laughed at myself in that moment.  It was a good dose of reality.  "You are not living in a movie, Corynne.  You are simply standing on a train looking slightly dopey, but having a great time.  Enjoy the moment.  Sheesh!  No one else can enjoy it for you by watching it."

In the end, I got to have a cup of coffee with my favorite guy who likes me just the way I am: not a spy, not a boy, not that cool. Just plain old Cryn.  But he makes me feel like a movie star!  I'm really lucky.

We Go Sledding and Caiden Snags Some Fame

Most of the places I lived while I was young involved snow.  Sledding was second nature.  It was especially fun to be towed along on inner-tubes by our horse or my dad's truck.  Sadly, my children know nothing about snow.  They've only had one or two encounters with the fuzzy, white stuff.  One of the times was when we pulled off the highway while driving through the Grapevine to get to southern California.  We stopped for 3 minutes so they could touch it and throw a snowball.  The other time was on a brief trip to Kansas when a light snow fell, but promptly melted as it hit the ground.

So when I noticed that a neighboring town was hosting a "Winter Wonderland" and parade with a sledding hill involved, I knew we had to go.

Elliott had no problem sledding like a pro, but Caiden got cold feet at the top of the hill.  There were tears and everything.  But I wasn't going to let her give in to her fears, so I waited with her at the top until she went.  I wasn't going to give up; and I wasn't going to let her give up either.  After all, its not everyday that you find a 40 ton mound of snow to sled on in 65 degree weather.

After about 15 minutes or so, Caiden mustered up her courage and slid down the hill.  At the bottom, we were met by a journalist who told me he had "watched the whole thing unfold."  Apparently, he was touched by Caiden's little journey and wanted to put it in the paper.

They put a couple of pictures of her in the Marin Independent Journal with a little caption, her name, and a bit of her struggle.

 (IJ photo/Frankie Frost) Frankie Frost

(IJ photo/Frankie Frost) Frankie Frost

And so, one of Caiden's life long ambitions has been fulfilled.  She told me some time ago: "I want to be famous.  I want people to know my name."

Well Caiden, now they do.  Congratulations. You made it.

The Time I Missed Caiden's Birthday and Made it Up to Her

When I went to that Pastors' Wives' Conference last month I missed Caiden's 5th birthday.  So sad!  Dave was here, though, and he brought cupcakes to her school and took Elliott and Caiden out to Caiden's favorite place to eat: "Sliders."  They took a super cute picture of her there and gave her presents and everything.

I told her that we could have a party when I got back, but everything got so busy on my return that a whole month flew by before I knew it.  I started thinking that maybe what they had already done was enough birthday stuff, but then Caiden kept saying, "I had my fake birthday.  I haven't had my real birthday yet."  And things like that.  When I told her that she did, in fact, already have her "real" birthday, she started crying.  "No, I didn't!" she said. "I didn't get to have my party yet and I still don't feel five!"

Well, of course, after hearing that, I had to give the girl some closure so we threw her a tea party themed birthday party a full month after the fact.  She loved it.  And now she finally feels five.

But its kind of funny because as a result of celebrating her October 2nd birthday in November, she now associates her birthday as being near Christmastime since all the stores were decorated at that time...  I may have psychologically damaged her just a little bit. :)