Video Stores

I miss video stores.  Do you remember Hollywood Video, and Blockbuster?  I even remember when grocery stores had their own little video collection you could browse and rent.  I know Red Box is super convenient, but I miss going to actual brick and mortar video stores and browsing the aisles.  I miss seeing what the employees listed as their favorites.  I actually enjoyed seeing what Joe, and Angie, and all of the other employees recommended as their favorite movies, because sometimes when I walked into the store I didn't know what I wanted to watch, and it was nice to have a recommendation from an actual person..
I know this is a silly thing to miss.  We have more video option at our fingertips then ever before!  With Netflix, Hulu, and all of the other streaming companies I could forever have some movie constantly playing.  Maybe that's the problem.  Maybe there are too many choices out there.  There can be too much of a good thing.  That good thing could even turn into perhaps a bad thing?  My kids as I type are all watching something different, because they can.  Two of them are watching different things on Netflix via our iPads, and one is watching a movie rented from Red-box.  I do put limits on the time they spend doing this, but something about them watching so much, or having so much available bugs me.
I remember the 'good ole days'  when it was a weekend treat to go to the video store and pick out one movie.  Yes, just one lone movie.  Now on the weekend we browse through our instant  queue that has hundreds, even thousands of options, and we can watch these movies back to back if we wanted.
One day in a few decades someone will say, "Hey, we should open an actual store where people can come and look at all of the movies and rent them".  And we will have to let that person know that it was done, and it died.
As I'm typing this I am thinking I probably sound like an old person right now!  I'm not that old, but I do miss those old fashioned video stores!

Happily Ever After = false

Wow, the title of this entry is depressing. Everyone wants to believe in happily ever after, but I'm not convinced it's true.  Maybe I'm just getting cynical in my old age, and my mature marriage of 13 years.  Ha Ha, no I realize I don't actually know anything,  and I may change my mind later, but this is what I was thinking.
I read an article the other day about a handicapped woman who was hailed at being a success story.  Her success was that she had defied odds and had found love and had gotten married.  I of course congratulate her, but somehow the fact of her success hanging on her getting married rubbed me the wrong way.  It was stated as if, now she had made it.  Now, she has what everyone wants, "Happily Ever After". When really it's not.  I mean marriage is great, but it's not clear sailing after you tie the knot. I think life gets more real when you get married.
I love Disney.  I love their movies, I love going to the parks, I love it that my little girl dresses up like the princesses, but I'm beginning to think it's wrong of them to portray the thinking that marriage is a happily ever after.  Maybe this mentality is why so many people get divorced.  Do we all feel entitled to a happily ever after?  And so when things get hard we bail out?  I hope not.
There are a lot of ups and downs in any marriage.  Mine, since that's the only one I really have license to critic, has had it's fair share of bumps.  Three of those bumps have first names and lived inside of me for 9 months.  Some bumps are just your regular run of the mill day to day stuff, and some bumps are just between me and my Mr. Houston.  But we've worked through them and we will continue to work through future ones, and it's not easy. Part of a quote from former Prophet Gordon B. Hinckley says "most successful marriages require a high degree of mutual toleration".
Maybe you can finally say you are in your happily ever after when you are like my grandparents and have been married for over 60 years, but the funny thing is they still get frustrated with each other today.
 Of course we should be happy when someone gets married, but we should also be truthful and let people know it takes a lot of work to make the happily ever last.  In fact there may be days that you arent happy.  But is it worth it?  Oh yes!  You have to work hard to find your moments of happily ever after.  And yes I know.... I am wise beyond my years :)

Oh no....What are you looking at?

We went to Barnes and Noble this morning for story-time.  Will had some leftover birthday money so he bought a book about fantastic facts. He was so excited to go home and read it!  And of course with me having gotten my degree in English (don't judge my grammar, it was more of a literature degree) I'm all about reading and books!  So he settled down on the couch to read, and I sat down in the kitchen to write a desperately needed grocery list.  As I was deeply into writing my list I hear from my 7 year old son,
"oh my gosh, mom you have to see.  This book shows how babies get in the mom's tummy!".
This exclamation from my son  took my breath away and made my heart stop for a minute.  I was NOT ready to have THIS conversation with a 7 year old.  What the heck type of book did I let my son buy?  The book was is the kids section right?  While all of this is running through my head I was running over ready to slam the book shut.....calmly.  As I was headed over to him he goes on to tell me "see mom look how the baby grows". As I looked down at the book I realized it wasn't what I thought.  It was a gestational timeline photo of how the baby grows in the womb.  You know it starts as a peanut looking baby and on and on until it is fully developed.   Will said "look how tiny it is to start with".  I then, breathing normally again, told him that yes he was that tiny once in my tummy.  And he said, "gross, I was touching your guts". Yes, I can have this conversation, just not the other one ...not yet.
Whew I was relieved.  I almost didn't handle that well.
Now off to grocery shop on this wonderful memorial weekend.  Wish me luck!

I curled my hair for this?

We had the great opportunity to go to a Bees baseball game tonight. Here's the thing, something inside of me wants to make it sound like the game was a wonderful family experience, but then I remember that I'm trying to be "real".  So, I can not tell a lie...  The night actually kind of sucked. I mean there were some ok parts, but I'm pretty sure I don't want a do over.  It all started when Mr. Houston came home from work.  We both got a little grouchy at each other.... GASPS...  yes even us perfectly married people know how to  get into a fight :). Now there are 3 sides to a fight ya know (mine,mine,and mine) so luckily I'm writing this so you can get the correct info...  I was mad that no one noticed what a lovely clean home I had provided for them to come home to.  I mean hello I vacuumed AND mopped.  Also, people, I had taken a crazy amount of time to curl my hair. You may not think that last part is anything to complain about, but if you had my hair you would understand my misery. I can't remember the last time I curled my hair because it takes FOREVER.  Today I had started the tedious processes of getting my hair to curl for the eyes of my Mr. Houston, but since he didn't even notice, I'm  changing my mind...  I curled it specifically for The Bees.  That's right Utah Baseball I curled my hair for you.  Also, just to be fair, apparently Mr. Houston had had a bad day at work and I was not being empathetic.  Anywhooo, so we weren't communicating our FEELINGS. Off to the baseball game we went with kids in tow.  Parking was crazy, the wind was crazy, someone was sitting in our seats, the kids kept complaining that it was "SO boring".  Luckily my Mr. Houston bought those complaining kids some cotton candy and then it became the best night ever for them. The Bees were playing horribly.  Hello Bees didn't you hear I curled my hair for you?  You all could have tried harder in my opinion. Well at least we got to ride the little train around the baseball field.  But seriously did I really curl my hair for all of this?  Next time it will be a hat day.

P.S.
I feel a little bit bad about complaining about my husband.  I love you Mr. Houston.  You are a good guy, but come on please notice the hair... It's way more important than noticing if I vacuumed.  Let this just be a reminder for all you good guys out there. When a woman does something different with her hair-notice, or just try to notice.

Why is the Academy Award immodest?

My oldest daughter is almost 10, and is a beauty!  Sometimes I worry about this beauty.  You know the "she's gonna grow up and start dating" type of worry.  Of course I want this to happen for her, but I just feel like time is flying by and sometimes it's going too fast.
Anyway, she just finished an acting class that she has been participating in all school year and when they finished their final performance they all got a replica of the academy award because they were all so awesome!  On this particular night with her on stage I was more stuck by her beauty (yes I can keep saying that because she's my baby).  After the performance she runs out to find me, and the first thing she says to me as I'm trying to tell her she did great is: "mom this statue does NOT have any pants on, I can see his butt"  she is saying this loudly and laughing hysterically.  And that is when I realized I don't have to worry about her growing up too much yet.  She is still totally a kid inside.  And then she went on to show everyone in our extended family that it is true the statue has no clothes on....  I wasn't even embarrassed she was kind of making a scene with her naked statue talk, I was just glad to have her be a silly kid.  And really why is that award a naked person?  Here's a picture if you don't believe me :0

Messy House

Dear Clean House,
How are you? I enjoyed your visit the other day. I don't see you around as often as I would like. I get the feeling that maybe you don't like my kids, because it's amazing at how fast you disappear when they come home. 
Your brother, Messy House, is around us all the time. He and my kids seemed to have really bonded. Maybe if you stuck around for more than a few minutes my kids would start to appreciate you. Think about coming around more often. If not my kids will be in college in about 15 years, so maybe we can see each other more then. 
Well, just know that I love you and you are always welcome around here. 
Yours always, 
Liz

Weight

My 3 year old got out the bathroom scale this morning and checked out the cute little number that registered when she stood on it. Then she asked me to stand on it and when the numbers started going up and up compared to her result she got so excited. She jumped up and down and said "yeah mommy, you won!"
I guess we can confirm she understands the general concept of increasing numbers.