Sugar-tarian

Before thanksgiving I was undecided about whether or not I would be eating turkey with my dinner. As the food began circling the table the decision was suddenly upon me, meat or no meat. I took a little turkey and ate a bite or two, but alas the nausea soon followed. So my thanksgiving was mostly turkey free.

In the wake of my slight dissapointment at not eating turkey on turkey day I consoled myself by thinking about all the yummy holiday treats that are sure to abound during the next few weeks. First to mind; Christmas Creme Cookies....mmmmm. Then I thought about all the calories involved in all those treats, calories which I know I don't need. First to mind; Christmas Creme Cookies.....oh(sad face).

That is the moment I wondered why I couldn't feel about sugar the way I feel about meat. I decided to try to think about all the grossness of sugar. After sitting with a pen and paper for over 20 minutes, (I've decided to be open and honest about my intense need to make lists for everything) I had no bullet points under the heading, "Things That Are Gross About Sugar."

So my desire to be a sugar-tarian was short lived due to the lack of evidence in support of it. Oh well, but at least I will get to eat those Christmas Creme Cookies....mmmm. Maybe I'll try to keep it to a minimum, then again.....

Things I'm Glad I Tried-Even Though I Was Petrified

I am afraid of a lot of things; an international ice-cream shortage, only having brown shoes to wear with a black outift, wearing really high heels, spiders, someone hiding behind the shower curtain waiting to kill me, and cleaning the toilet...just to a name a few of the ones I am working on in therapy. Then I thought about some of the things I was afraid to do that I did anyway....

Things I'm Glad I Tried:

1. Starting My Own Business!
2. A second kiss-the first one was so terrible I nearly gave up on it for life!
3. Escargo-even though I almost threw up.
4. Airplane Food-even though I did throw up.
5. Entering the MTC---and leaving the MTC
6. Blind Dates-I mean COME ON!

I am wiser, more mature, more understanding of myself and the world around me, and certainly stronger for having done these things. Of course there's still long list of things I am scared to do....(anyone who wants to clean my toilet is welcome to.)

They do what?

I am finding that if I write down the funny things right away I don't forgot so easily.

In preschool this week we have been talking about Thanksgiving, Thankful attitudes, and of course, Turkeys. This morning as she dropped off her son one mom said, "we talked about turkeys yesterday so he is all ready to talk about them today." Then to her son, "Remember TURKEYS not chickens." (this is apparently a very confusing concept.)

So after his mom left this sweet little boy shared what he now knew about turkeys with me. I am wondering which family member was the source of his information. Please to enjoy.

Little Boy: "They slice their body (knife cutting across belly motion) and they cut their body off (cutting off hands motion)."

Miss Dawn: I'm sure my eyes were wide, "Oh really?"

Little Boy: "Yeah. And its cool!"

I will at this point reference a previous blog of mine entitled "Vegetarian?" maybe I will retitle it to "Vegetarian!"

One Of Life's Disappointments

I usually hope that kids I teach don't have to feel the little disappointments of life this early, but alas, it is inevitible.

(to get the full efect read matthew's part in the voice of whatever 3 year old you know that has those little speech impediments that are so endearing.)

Miss Dawn: "Hey Matthew."

Matthew: "I'm Superman!"

Miss Dawn: "Oh yeah, Hey Superman. How are you today?"

Superman: "Good."

Miss Dawn: "Did you fly anywhere last night?"

Superman: "My dog is name peanut."

Miss Dawn: "Cool." (I am understandably a little confused at this point.)

Superman looks up at me through his eyelashes and I'm quite confident I saw the glimmer of a tear forming, and now I am afraid that he is going to tell me about Peanut dieing, so I hug him a little closer and wait for him to continue.

Superman: "But she can't fly."

At this point dear little superman runs off, or I should say pretends to fly off, to play with his friends. I laughed and laughed until a tear came to my eye.

And then I wondered: Did he test out a flying-super-dog theory on the family pet?

Food for Thought

This week my preschool had a fieldtrip to Alberstons to learn all about healthy eating and more importantly where the cookies are made. It was a really fun fieldtrip and the kids were awed by all the neat things they saw-live lobster included. However, it was more than a little ironic to me that they started off in the bread section and told the kids all about good bread-brown and bad bread-white, then we promptly headed into the in store bakery where we saw cookies baking and then they gave all the kids a cookie. I think the real lesson learned was, bread=bad and cookie=good.

There were two comments from these adorable children I wanted to share.

Comment #1
Little Girl: "Miss Dawn, look! There is McDonalds!"

Miss Dawn: "Yeah-there it is."

Little Girl: "We don't eat there cause mom says it stinks."

Comment #2
A Different Little Girl: "My brother is allergic to ice-cream."

Miss Dawn: (curious as to her level of understanding) "Hey, what does allergic mean?"

Little Girl: "It means when you smell something you are allergic to you DIE!"

Miss Dawn: "Oh, thanks for explaining."

Authors note: Maybe it would be good if I were "allergic" by this definition to ice-cream.

Santa's Mind-Reading Abilities

I know that I am probably biased but I think that my adorable niece Emma says some of the funniest things I have ever heard. Here is one that happened about a week ago.

Auntie Dawn: (in an attempt to secretly gather Christmas information) "Emma, do you know what you want from Santa for Christmas this year?"

Emma: (not even looking up as she continues to play with her toys) "Yeah."

Auntie Dawn: "Oh, what?"

Emma: "You'll see."

Auntie Dawn: "I'll see what?"

Emma: "You'll see what I want when Santa brings it."

Her mom is sitting behind her and the "deer in the headlights" look in her eyes was classic.

Auntie Dawn: "Well, should we write him a letter?"

Emma: "No, I already told him."

Auntie Dawn: "You did? When?"

Emma: "Just now."

Auntie Dawn's internal dialouge: "Does Emma think you can pray to Santa? We should probably discuss who it is appropriate to pray to."

Auntie Dawn: (because I still have no idea what to get her for Christmas, I continue) "Well, what else would like for Christmas?"

Emma: "Nothing."

Although I still have no idea what to give Emma, my heart really goes out to her parents-good luck with all that.