Twenty Eleven

The last day of 2010 was sad in that Luvae Anderson, Kelly's grandma passed away.

She was 94 years old, and I can only imagine all that she saw in those 94 years. I am currently reading a book called "How to Live". It is one person's account on the search for wisdom. This person decided the best way to search for wisdom was to interview a series of individuals all over the age of 70.....for wisdom comes with age.

The author should have interviewed Luvae.

The Anderson's lived in Albert Lea. Lionel and Luvae built a home, and a family through trying times that I have only read about in books. Lionel amassed considerable wealth by working for the same company for 40 years, and investing in little companies like IBM when a computer weighed about 4000 lbs and took up 3600 sq ft. Lionel made great decisions...but as they say...behind every great man is a better woman.

The support behind Lionel was a little spitfire named Luvae. If she were to be interviewed for "How To Live", she most likely would have shared little gems like "you can reuse those little brown bags you pack your lunch in...." She would have told the author that lunch is not a meal to be eaten as quickly as possible and consisting of whatever you can heat up fastest in the microwave. Rather, sit down...enjoy each others company, and have a good meal. Then take a nap.

I first met Luvae about 8 years ago. Kelly took me down to Albert Lea to meet her grandparents. When I was introduced, Luvae politely said hello and then turned to Kelly and said "How is Mike doing?" (Mike was Kelly's long time boyfriend from high school). Obviously, I would need to work to earn her respect.

Over the past 8 years I came to know a grandma who cared deeply for her family, who would speak her mind, and was highly independent. After Lionel passed away, we occasionally would visit Luvae, but it was tough to get on her schedule. That is right, this was the only 92 year old I knew who had a busier social schedule then I have had in 35 years.

Luvae was excited to hear when we were pregnant with Katelyn. When we told her a couple of years later that we were pregnant with Ashley she emphatically replied "oh goodness...." as she knew my wife ran a business and did not stay at home....

Luvae eventually accepted that Mike was no longer going to be in the picture, and was a wonderful great grandma to our kids. Every time we got together, it was fun to chat briefly with her to hear about her schedule, and learn about everything going on in Albert Lea. Until a year ago, Luvae could still be found driving around town in the Buick. Spitfire.

So, it was a sad end to 2010, but I can only imagine that Luvae wanted to bring in the new year with Lionel and as my older sister said "I am sure heaven just got a little livelier".

So what will 2011 bring? Obviously we hope health and happiness to all of our friends and family, but one thing we know for sure is that we will be bringing one more precious little princess into the world. We don't yet have a first name for our little girl, but Kelly suggested that Luvae be her middle name.

I can't think of a better tribute, and how lucky the little one will be to have such a strong role model represented in her name.

Because my littlest continuously yelled "Happy New Ear" and tackled me with a hug...and my oldest ends every night by saying "I love you, Happy Dreams"......I love my girls......

I don't have a chance.....

So, one of the things we deal with in the Smith household is daycare. We have it pretty good in that our daycare is two houses down from our house. It makes it easy for drop off and pick up. The only problem arises when our daycare lady, Rhonda, requests a vacation day. Either my bride or I need to take off a day of work to be home with the kids.

Side story here:

I often get asked why I still refer to Kelly as "my bride" even though we have been married for 6 years. It dates back to my days as a used car salesman. I had heard the used car manager, Whitey Herzog, talk about his bride. Not knowing Whitey well, I figured he had just gotten married. I learned a little while later that he had been married for 22 years. After a while, I got to know him and one day asked why he referred to his wife as his bride. He said that she had been his wife for 22 years, but that it all started the day she became his bride. So, Kelly will forever be my wife, the mother of my children, and the love of my life, but it all started the day she became my bride.

Back to Main Story:

I like to think I am a good father, but when it comes to who my kids would rather stay home with....I don't stand a chance. You see, when I stay home it is typically a day filled with some sort of cartoon marathon (i.e. Spongebob or Scooby Doo) microwave corn dogs for lunch, and some Wii or computer games.

When my bride stays home with the kids they get this:

Rolling dough, making cookies, and decorating them. This is how the day started....After of course chocolate chip pancakes, and some Christmas Carol singing.

A Jam packed day with mom that led to this:

So to me, she will always be my bride. To them, she will always be their cool mommy who is good at everything and super fun to be around.

Because they still "pretend" to be excited when I get home from work.....I love my girls......

Christmas Cards Can Be an Adventure

So....the Minnnetrista Smith's are much like any household in that when Christmas comes it is time to send out the Holiday Cards. Our cards are much like those you receive, pictures of the little ones with Holiday wishes to our friends.

The household rule is that we continue to send Christmas cards to everyone who sends us cards....so if you want to stay on the list, make sure to send us a card to.

Why is it an adventure you say....well, we took our kids to Target for the photo op to pick our Christmas cards. My 5 and 3 year old were beautiful in their special Christmas dresses and were angels during the photo shoot. I am very excited to send out the Christmas cards this year as the pictures turned out fantastic.

One caveat though....we finished with the photos, and of course then needed to sit down to pick which photos we liked best. The kids were playing in a little area for kids and we started looking at photos. We turned around to check on the kids after 1.5 minutes, and the three year old was missing. Literally.....missing.

We yelled for Ashley and immediately sprinted out of the picture area, my bride heading east, me heading West. Yelling, SCREAMING her name as we tried to figure out where she went. It was the scariest 2 minutes of my life. The Target photographer had picked up the phone and declared a kid missing, so they shut down the exits....

After a frantic search, I was told that my kid was on the other end of the store, and my wife was with her. It turns out that Ashley did not know where we were, and decided to go looking for us. We were two feet away, but with our backs turned she did not recognize us and therefore she went on a hunt. In thirty seconds she had ended up on the completely opposite side of the store. What can I say, apparently the kid's got some wheels.

We hugged her for a good 19 minutes when we found her and even received three hugs from random mothers that were helping us in the search.

Never again will I make fun of a parent who misplaces their kid. Where as I used to say "how could they lose their kid", I now understand and instead of making fun of their parenting skills will always assist in the search.

The good news is that the photos did turn out spectacular. As a matter of fact, when we went to pick up the photos, the photographer told us that our kids were selected to be used in their advertisement on the walls. They wanted to use my little princesses likeness on their walls. So, if you head to the Super Target on 101, you will see my little ones smiling back at you on their portrait selection wall.

Our compensation for this: Four dollars off of our purchase.

Hey, it's four dollars I didn't have yesterday.

Because one has speed rivaling Flash Gordon, and both were so cute they earned dad four dollars....I love my girls.....

So much to be thankful for......

As we approach another Thanksgiving....I have been thinking through what we are thankful for. First, thanks to my older sister for hosting Thanksgiving this year. We have traditionally hosted Thanksgiving, and although we enjoy it....for those of you who know my wife, you know there is always a plan attached. I refer to the spreadsheet created by my wife when preparing for the feast as "The Matrix". The matrix is an excel spreadsheet that defines what needs to be done from cooking to cleaning, and the timing in which all of them need to be done.


This year, there is no matrix, as Kerry has volunteered to host. Thanks be to Kerry.

For those of my readers who have not heard, we are also thankful to be welcoming our third little princess into our family. As much as I tried to tell everyone that we were having another girl, we did not officially find out until yesterday. Here is the first picture of [insert name here].

That is the new littlest girl sucking on her thumb. These ultrasound pictures require a little imagination...but that is what they told me. I prefer the above picture over this one that was also taken:

In this picture, I see no thumb sucking or cute little baby girl. I don't know about you, but I see an alien.

My two girls were very excited to learn that they would be having another sister. When told, Katelyn exclaimed "Yes!" and did a little fist pump. When we told Ashley, she exclaimed "Can I go play the computer..." (We are working on the excitement level with Ashley).

For those of you keeping score, this means that there will be Kelly, three little girls, a female dog., leaving the only two males in the house to be me and.......Spencer.

Spencer is the cat. As aforementioned in previous posts....I hate him. But, when we (and by "we" I mean my beautiful bride) told him, he seemed to take the news well:

Because all my girls (including the one in the oven) will understand when dad needs to go down to the basement and watch something besides Barbie, Dora, Strawberry Shortcake, TinkerBell, E News!, Keeping up with the Kardashians, Kendra, to take in a ballgame....I love my girls....

Putting the plan into action......

So, for those of my readers who have not yet met me....you should know that I am a fan of food.

I also have Crohn's disease.

This is a blessing and a curse. You see, Crohn's disease is an intestinal disease that causes anyone who has it to frequent the restroom. This is the curse. The blessing is that since food goes right through me, I don't think I have gained as much weight as one should when consuming as much food as I do.

One of my vices is Chinese food. I have found that a single order of Chinese food is good...but a Chinese buffet is something special. When I die, I am pretty sure that my version of heaven will have multiple Chinese buffets each boasting of 110 fresh items daily.

One of my favorite Chinese joints is in Plymouth. I found it one day while on a lunch break. It was great. I frequented it often. It is one of those mom and pop Chinese places that the owners run themselves...and I think this one is actually called "The Chinese Place."

I don't often go to lunch with anyone, so I frequented it often alone. After a multitude of visits, I figured I couldn't keep this gem all to myself any longer so I invited a few friends in my department to attend one day with me.

True story, I walked into the place, with 4 other people from my department and the owner walks up and in her cute little voice she says "Oh so good to see you. ha ha...(literally she said "ha ha") One of my co-workers on cue said "what's so funny" and I swear to god she replies "Oh...he usually come alone...."...

I tell you this story because at the end of the feast you are given the fortune cookie. My fortune cookie on this day said "You will become an accomplished writer"

Obviously, Confucius knows what he is talking about...because I think fame and fortune is right around the corner. If you read my earlier post, you know that I recently sold a lunchbox on e-bay. To my pleasant surprise, the gentleman who bought it paid me rapidly and sent me the following feedback:

Positive. GREAT SELLER< RAD LUNCHBOX< WILL YOU BE MY WRITER? Now, I don't know much about the buyer other then his name is Jack and he lives in Illinois. So I googled "Jack, Illinois and Publisher" It turns out that there are 1,457,453 hits to "Jack, Illinois and Publisher". So, I don't think it is that big of a stretch to assume that the Jack who bought my lunchbox IS a publisher and wants me to write some sort of novel that will most likely sell millions of copies.

I am relatively sure this is the EXACT same way J.K Rowling got her start.

Because I know they will help me stay grounded when I am rich and famous.....I love my girls.

Three Letter Words

I have been working with Katelyn on spelling. Being that spelling is about my wife's only nemesis...I thought best that I take charge of Katelyn's spelling education.

She is five. We have some time to learn, so we have been working on three letter words. I would say the word, and she would sound it out and spell it.

Run.....Cat......Fun.....Two......she did really well. You may think 4 words is not a lesson...but when all your kid wants to do is color of play computer, it was good to have her attention for 9 minutes. Then she impressed me. She said:

"Daddy, you forgot one. B. O. O. BOO!"


She was right, although I don't know that their costumes would have scared anyone this year:

Katelyn is obviously a cat. She has had a plethora of costumes this year as their was Halloween at Dance, Halloween at Preschool, and Halloween at Daycare. She was Sleeping Beauty at all of these, (thanks Mom for sewing an unbelievable likeness) but for Halloween we needed to be warm and Katelyn wanted to bring back the cat from last year.

Ashley is a horse. Thanks to Target, we found a cute little outfit. Ashley's legs were the back legs of the horse...and the rest of the horse was stuffed that she held up by the reigns. She ran around all night yelling Giddy Up! Occasionally though she would all of a sudden lay down. When I asked her one time why she did this, she looked at me and said "the horsey is dead...."

?????????????

I am hoping that she simply thought her costume was scarier if the horsey was dead versus having some sort of psycopathic tendencies....

Because they have two very distinct personalities...one as gentle as a "Meow" and the other riding a dead horse....I love my girls......

Big Weekend Plans

In my opinion, one of the greatest conversations in a movie ever is from "Old School" starring Will Farrell as Frank. A funny movie in general (although I could have gone without seeing him "streaking") but the lines fit my life to a tee.

Frank: I told my wife I wouldn't drink tonight. Besides, I got a big day tomorrow. You guys have a great time.

College Student: A big day? Doing what?

Frank: Well, um, actually a pretty nice little Saturday, we're going to go to Home Depot. Yeah, buy some wallpaper, maybe get some flooring, stuff like that. Maybe Bed, Bath, & Beyond, I don't know, I don't know if we'll have enough time.

You modify the stores just a little (i.e. include Target), and you are looking at the life of Dan....which brings us to this weekend.

We were comparing weekends at work, and I was listening to my assistant talk of the Halloween parties she was attending (she was born in 1982). Then I listened to my old assistant talk of the Gopher game she would be attending (she was born in 1980). Then I went over my weekend which made me realize that I sound like I was born in 1930...

Kasey (current assistant): I have three Halloween parties. One tonight, and two tomorrow. I am trying to figure out what to wear, and how we are going to get home from the bars.

Cara (previous assistant): I am going to the Gopher game on Saturday...not sure what time we are going to start tailgating, but most likely about 10AM. Then, heading to Uptown to see the costumes.

Dan (me): Tonight we are closing on our mortgage refinance, and tomorrow we are having our new couch delivered. Tomorrow night we are going to have movie night with the kids and sit on our new couch.

Sighhhhhh

Monday, we will all compare notes. I think to demonstrate that I can still "kick it" with the younger generation I will let them know of the crazy wrench I am going to throw into this weekend. You see this weekend, I am also going to visit........Great Clips.

When my girls are old enough to hear stories of how cool their parents are, I plan on leaving out the nights that we were excited to go from 5.375% to 4%.

Because they still look at me like I am cool, even though our weekends are consumed by cleaning the house and Target.....I love my girls.