A Thank You and A Story

I wanted to write a quick post to say thank you to everyone who posted a comment or emailed me concerning Anonymous. (If you missed what happened read this, then know that some rude woman gave me crap for it, thinking I'd done it to punish Jeremy-which it totally wasn't a punishment, then read this.) Y'all are great friends and since some of you were worried that my feelings might have been hurt from her comments, I'd like to let you know that I'm fine. I mostly found her amusing. Rude, but amusing.

The last couple days I've been thinking about my personal attitude toward people who are rude. I've always thought of myself as someone who just took the rudeness and fumed quietly. I've recently realized that I'm not. Nor have I ever been. If it's someone I care about, like friend I think I might be more likely to just let it slide, but even then I can't say that with certainty. I really do think I am most likely to react with a bite.

The first time I can think of when someone was point blank rude to me was in sixth grade. Again, I thought the situation was funny and I wasn't actually offended at all. The "popular athletic" girl in my class (Shelley) and the "wanna be popular" girl in my class (Vanessa) were talking during recess. They were sitting on the desks inside our classroom portable while another girl, sweet, kind, never missed a day of school in her life Lindsay sat and watched.

I was sitting in the doorway reading Nancy Drew.

Vanessa was trying to ascertain who she should like so she could be as popular as Shelley and was listing a few people in our class to see if Shelley liked them or not. With each name Shelley had either given a "yes" or "I guess so" answer.

Then Vanessa looked at Lindsay and asked, "What about Lindsay?" Shelley looked at Lindsay. She sized her up and finally declared, "I guess so. Who doesn't like Lindsay?" And she was right. No one dared not like Lindsay. She'd cry. And she was so little and nice to everyone.

Then Vanessa spotted me.

The loner bookworm who didn't ever talk.

"Do you like Kellie?"

Shelley looked right at me, "No. I don't like Kellie."

It looked like Lindsay was going to cry. She looked at me and asked me with tears in her eyes, "Kellie, are you ok?"

I just laughed and said, "Yeah. I don't like Shelley, either," and then I went back to my book.

I was honestly ok. And I honestly hadn't liked Shelley. I'd always thought she and Vanessa were full of themselves and I didn't care for them. Vanessa looked a little shocked. I didn't bother to check out Shelley's reaction, I wanted to get back to my book.


I think I've always been like this. Rude people bug me if they are rude to others but humor me if they are rude to me. So I just bite back and let them know what I think of them.

So no worried Anonymous. You're far enough away that you don't have to worry about me biting you for reals. I broke your World's Best Mom mug though. Sorry.

Being Thankful Despite The Chaos

Yesterday was a rough day so I decided to post
some of the things I'm thankful for to help me get in a better mood.

1. Visiting Teachers who came in the morning,
thus making at least the morning part of my day happy!

2. This

and a clean

because it would have been really difficult if I had to eat it by just sticking my head in there.
And don't think I wouldn't have done it. I needed the ice cream.

3. My family is safe from Ike.

4. We are safe from Ike.
(I can't believe all the trees here that were uprooted because of the winds.)

5. My fish with their calming bubbles floating to the top.

6. A loving husband.

7. Kids that are usually sweet and thoughtful.

8. A pair of jeans that I like and almost fit in comfortably.

9. Kids that are almost quiet because I put a movie in and pulled out the hide-a-bed.

10. A testimony of Jesus Christ and His plan.

11. A blog where I can be me and have friends.
(Am I lame that I consider all you people who I don't know, but leave me comments, friends?)

12. Even if we don't have a van and are literally stuffing our
children into the back of a tiny Honda,
we are at least seriously looking at vans
and will buy one when we get our signing bonus from the Army.


13. Good music to sing along with even if I can't hear the song or
myself because children are
screaming/crying/whinning
in the background.

14. A bookshelf full of good books. Which leads me to . . .

15. Jane Austen and the BBC.


16. Good friends, most of which are in Utah, Texas, and Arizona,
but I'm slowly making a few here in Ohio.

17. Answers to prayers.

18. An oven that won't burn this year's Thanksgiving pies.

19. A two bedroom apartment that miraculously fits a family of five fairly decently.

20. An improving (be it slowly) ability to ignore the chaos and appreciate the little things more.

21. Fuzzy socks.

22. A husband who not only cleaned up the mess, but also wouldn't tell me
just how big the mess was when Jeremy got into the baby lotion.

23. My teeny tiny iPod Shuffle.

24. The time I get to work on my own writing (however small that time is).
hint, hint. hint, hint. (I know you'll read this, Nathan.)

25. We get to go to the temple on Saturday
(hopefully, we still need a babysitter)