Siana Quote of the Day

Siana, interrupting and trying to get my attention while I'm talking to Steven:

"Mommy....." (pause pause pause)
"Mommy....." (pause pause pause)
"Ange!!!!"

Kyra Quote of the Day

"I think my favorite Muppets character is Animal, because he's so funny. Oh, and my other favorite is Ms. Piggy because she's almost as beautiful as I am."

Lofty Aspirations

Kyra made this comment the other day:

"Mommy, when I grow up, I want to be a 'die-va.'

"A die-va?" I replied.

"Yes, a die-va."

"What does a die-va do?" says I.

"I don't know...just sits around and looks fabulous all day, I guess."

"Oh! A diva. You want to be a diva when you grow up???"

"Yeah! That!"

Kyra Quote of the Day

Kyra, showing me a picture of Cinderella she'd colored:

"I colored her blue, then I added the green for some extra flair."

Kyra Quote of the Day

Kyra: Mommy, am I five and a half?

Me: Yep, you sure are.

Kyra: So that means...that...I'm halfway through my five-ness!

Happy Easter!

Here are a few snaps of Easter at the Bruce house. The girls got books, a couple outfits, and a few healthy snacks from the Easter bunny. Ok, ok, and one unhealthy one, which of course was consumed immediately whilst the healthy treats made the cut much later in the day. Hope you all had a fabulous and fun Easter Sunday!

The rise of feminism

We often go to a church down the street from our house on Saturday nights...they have an incredible kids program, and it's nice for Steven and I to be able to go to church together, since that can't happen on Sundays. So we had gone to this church a few weeks ago, and when we took Kyra to class, we saw that they had the room (a very large room) decorated to look like a Bible times village. They had big tents with the name of each Israelite tribe, which the kids would be in when they split up into groups. Even the workers in the classroom were dressed up in Israelite-looking garb. It looked amazing and we just knew she was going to have a blast. After class, we went to pick her up, and asked her how it was and if she had a fun time that evening. Her answer surprised us...she said it was not fun at all. We were astonished and asked her why. She went off into a tirade about how, back in the Bible days, they had all these rules that said girls couldn't do this and girls couldn't do that, and they had to wear this, but the boys didn't, and then girls couldn't do such and such, and she DID NOT like that. We struggled to keep from laughing at how angry she was about girls not being able to do the same things that the boys could. Perhaps she should have been born earlier in the century...I'm sure the suffragettes and the early feminists would have appreciated her chutzpah...at the tender age of 5.

Old Ladies in Jeans

Even though my birthday is still a couple weeks away, I guess I'll preemptively post an age-related doozy that happened to me today. Siana and I went to the mall this morning because I was in desperate need of a new pair of jeans (or two). I'd gotten an email telling me that Gap was having a sale on jeans, and since I'd not been in there in literally about 6 years, I decided that I would check out all the new stuff and see if I liked any of their jeans on me. So I'm basically getting my size in every style of jean they have, and as I stood in front of a mid-rise, slim-fit, flare-leg pair, the little sales girl bounces up to me and asks if she can help me find anything. I respond that I'm doing okay...I'm just looking for jeans and haven't been in here in forever, so I'm kind of trying everything on. She then points to the jeans I'm standing in front of and says, "This style is really popular with a lot of older people." Now, the first thing that flashes through my mind is some little gray-haired old ladies walking around in flare-leg pants. This seemed a little odd to me, but ok. Then as I looked at her and she looked at me, I realized that by "older people" she meant ME! Seriously??? When did I grow up? And when did I start being "older?" 31 is the new 21, people! (Except we can hold our liquor...) It was the most surreal feeling. And oddly enough, I wasn't offended, but highly amused. It still doesn't "fit" with how I see myself, but perhaps my perception is getting blurry in my old age.

What??? A New Post???

Ok, I admit, I've been a sucky, sucky blogger the last few months, so I apologize. I have quite a few posts brewing in my head that have built up from said few months, so I will soon post a massive blog entry chronicling the Bruce Family Fall/Winter in Review. Until then, here is a Kyra quote to tide you over...

A song Kyra made up on the fly while driving home after it had already gotten dark:

We're in the light
Yeah, we're in the light
We're in the light of Jesus Christ!

There is a light
The light of cars, but not that light
We're in the light of Jesus Christ!

An Appropriate Dessert

Yesterday after dinner, Kyra asked if she could have dessert today. I told her that I was going to cut up an apple for Siana and myself, and she was welcome to have some of that for her dessert. She responded, "Nooooo, I mean an UNHEALTHY dessert." Hey, at least she knows the difference.

Future Archeologist

As I sat in the living room this morning, Siana exited the room and I heard her little footsteps padding down the hallway. Soon after, I heard a drawer open and shut in my bathroom, then a minute or so later, I heard another drawer open and shut. I decided to investigate, and as I rounded the corner into my bedroom, I see Siana arm deep in one of my bathroom drawers. I asked her, "Siana, whatcha doin'?" Her reply: "Diggin'."

From my hallway to yours...

This was the girls' activity the other afternoon: they both donned as many headbands, rings, necklaces and scarves as they could support on their little bodies and ran up and down the hallway in clunky play shoes, announcing, "We are glamour girls!!!" They would load up on bling in their bathroom, run down the hallway to me in the kitchen, show me, run back and change out some of it, run back down to show me, etc. This went on for quite some time and they were quite entertained by it. The funniest part was Kyra running down the hallway with Siana, calling out to her in an extra fabulous voice, "Come on, glamma girl!" and Siana responding in her tiny little voice, "Comeeeeeeng!"

Angie Bruce, NickJr.com Official Member

Well apparently Ms. Kyra has now learned my email address. The other day, I was going through my new emails and found one from Nick Jr. thanking me for joining their club. Sadly, I had to think back to recall whether or not I actually had been to Nick Jr.'s website and signed up for something, say a sweepstakes maybe, and inadvertently signed up for a newsletter. I came to the certain conclusion that I had done no such thing, so naturally, I called my sweet daughter into the room and asked her if she knew why Nick Jr. was sending me emails. She matter of factly replied, "Oh yeah. I put in your email address so we would get the Nick Jr. newsletter. All you have to do is click the link in the email to complete our registration." I think not. You may have commandeered Daddy's blog for a few days, but my email account is mine, sister.

Drive By Mooning

My parents are in town, so this post is a conversation as reported by my mom:


Driving in the car one evening:

Mom: Kyra, look, there's the moon...

Kyra: Oh yeah!

Mom: It kind of looks like a toenail...

Kyra, confused: Huh???

Mom: repeats statement.

Kyra, still confused: Huh. It just looks like a crescent to me.

Wind Control

Our area of the Texas Panhandle is ridiculously windy somedays, and today is one of them. The wind was rattling the doors to the fireplace in the living room, so Siana pointed in that general direction and said, "Wind." I verified that yes, it was wind, to which she replied, "Turn off."

10/17/98

9 years today...Happy Anniversary, Mr. Brcue! =)

Tired...

For all of you wondering where I've been and if I've fallen off the face of the planet, the answer is no, but just barely. The last month has been utter insanity at the Bruce house and I am tired. We are not busy people. I purposely make our routine such that we are not running around like mad all week, barely seeing each other. I prefer that we spend most evenings at home, having some family time together before the girls' 7:00 bedtime. However, the last month has been so far from our nice little routine it's not even funny. First, Steven went to Nashville for a conference for 4 or 5 days. No big deal...I can handle single parenthood for a few days, no problem. The following week, I started a new job that would eventually be a once or twice a month deal. But in the inception of the business here in town, they were severely short-staffed and severely overbooked. So I agreed to help out for 2 weeks until they could get some new people trained. The company is one that is just beginning a new contract with CPS to take over many of their supervised visitations between children and the parents they've been taken away from. Difficult, yes, but I can handle it. So Steven and I finessed our schedules so that I could work quite a bit those first 2 weeks, and I became a working mom for a short time. At the same time, my transcription work was still booming and thriving, so I would come home and write the reports for the case I'd just supervised, then work on whatever transcripts were due that day, pushing off the ones that weren't. After those first 2 weeks, more employees were hired and I got a bit of a reprieve, at least from that job. I spent the next week catching up on all the transcripts that previously were not due immediately, but had now become due. The week after that, Steven left again for a different conference in Nashville, one that I usually accompany him on, but this time for a week and a half. And although the girls were great, it's just hard being the only adult in the house for that long. I am glad that he got to go, and got to go see his mom and sister for a few days after the conference...he really needed that, but I also am grateful that he's back home. During the time he was away, I continued to get transcription work, as well as adding 2 new clients during that time. So needless to say, it has been a loooong few weeks. I need a massage and a nice long nap!

5-year-old Blogger

Well, Kyra has decided that she wants her own blog, like Mommy and Daddy have. So Steven showed her how to use iWeb on our Mac, and she's been building her own blog site for several days now. She's pulled pictures from iPhoto and put them in, written about the things she likes, and chosen her favorite colors for each section. Well, she was ready for school early this morning, so she sat down and worked on her blog for a few minutes. This afternoon, Steven called me from work, and apparently Miss Kyra published her blog all by herself. The problem is, she completely overwrote Steven's blog in the process. HA! So for the time being, if you go to http://web.mac.com/brucefamily/iWeb/Site/About%20Me.html, right now it's Kyra's blog creation instead of Steven's blog. She's got stuff on the 'About Me' page and on the 'Blog' page. If you can get past the spelling and words with no spaces, it's actually pretty darn good for a Kindergartener! =) I particularly like her Design Star section...she's got all the names of the contestants and judges, except some of them are just their initials! I don't know how long it will be up, so hurry over and take a peek. I'm sure Steven will reclaim his web space before long, but Kyra's blog will definitely have a home on the internet very, very soon. Move over, Chris Crocker, here comes Kyra!

Kyra Quote of the Day

Kyra at the dinner table: "Mom, you need to sell our car and buy a Mercury Mariner. Or a Milan."
Me: Why?
Kyra: "Because I saw them on a commercial on TV and they look really nice."

Heeheeheehee Wipe Out!

280 wipes to be exact. You know it's bad news when Siana comes running into the room exclaiming "meh! meh!" and pointing down the hall. I calmly replied, "Did you make a mess?" She giggled and said, "meh woom." Me: "Oh, you made a mess in your room?" Another giggle, and then "wahp." "You made a mess in your room with wipes?" Ok...doesn't sound too bad...maybe it got a little cleaner in the process? So I go to her room to investigate, and sure enough, she had discovered the gargantuan refill package of wipes next to her changing table, gotten it open, and painstakingly removed each and every one of them from the package. So much for "Works in your pop-up dispenser!"...nothing is going to be popping up out of that pile anytime soon. So I ever so delicately shoved them all back in the package, squished it as tight as I could to make it zip closed, and called it a day. It could have been a whole lot worse...she could have run down the hall saying "meh woom dahp," which would have meant she'd found a way to get the Diaper Genie open and remove all the nasty "dahps" from it. So I'm choosing to count my blessings!