It's Beginning to Look a lot like Christmas!

10 Things 90s Kids Will Have To Explain To Their Children

This is a hilarious article from Thought Catalog:

While most things we experienced as tots in that headiest of eras seems pretty self-explanatory (plaid was everywhere, Leonardo DiCaprio was the molten ball of light around which the solar system turned, and there was no color too bright for your sweatpants) there are some things that will be a bit harder to explain. Here, a primer for when your future children want to know what the heck you were doing with your boxy, multicolored electronics.

Nov. 23, 2011

By Chelsea Fagan

1. Topanga was at some point in human history considered not only a legitimate first name for a human being, but the kind of name that would inspire in malleable teenage boys a life-long infatuation. Topanga, in our day, was leading lady name-material. Topanga (pronounced Tah-payne-ga, for those who will have only ever seen in it written down) is the name of the quintessential girl-next-door who will live, along with Feeney, in our hearts forever.

2. At some point, we carried around little plastic eggs with tiny screens on them — in these screens lived our hearts, our pets, our raison d’etre, our very own Tamagotchi. We loved them, we listened to their tiny electronic screams of malnourishment, and we occasionally forgot to pick up their poop for long enough that they died a tortured, poop-filled death. They were perhaps our first foray into the life-consuming world of electronics and self-absorption, later to be fully manifested by Facebook.

3. The black Power Ranger was black and the yellow Power Ranger was Asian because…we were so completely ahead of our time and beyond the capacity to even think in terms of something as inconsequential as race that… uh… I don’t know. Casting directors were racist in the nineties.

4. Long before he was spending his days foisting his mediocre children on us, Will Smith was actually the perfect human specimen. He also undoubtedly holds some world record for saving the world the most times while simultaneously delivering flawless catchphrases and giving cool guy nods to the camera. The Men In Black rap song, at the time, was created and received by the public without the slightest trace of irony. Really. He was that good.

5. In some inevitable shift of the time-space continuum in which James Cameron continues to rob humanity of all that is good and sacred in this world, Fern Gully will be known as that movie that ripped off Avatar. It will be up to us to crusade for what is right. It is up to us to explain that Fern Gully was not only a predecessor to Avatar, but far better, in that it contained both Tim Curry as a singing pile of molasses and Robin Williams rapping about animal testing in the pharmaceutical industry. (As a side note, if you have not recently listened to the full lyrics of the “Batty Rap,” I recommend you do, as they are horrifying.)

6. A neighborhood boy who completely disregards your family and puts a ladder directly under the teenage girl’s window to climb up at his discretion is not only acceptable, it’s charming. It’s the kind of stuff that would make said family take the ladder boy under their wing and into their heart. The nineties were a simpler time, one where we didn’t have to worry about things like breaking and entering. Clarissa today would have steel bars on the inside of her window and her father would continually remind her that the next-door boy with his ladder and his touchy hands have no place in his household.

7. Though on the surface, they are the exact same thing in every conceivable way, whether you liked The Backstreet Boys or N*SYNC said more about your character than all of the terrible macaroni art you could ever make for your child psychologist. Essentially, liking *NSYNC meant you liked Justin Timberlake, as he was clearly the Seabiscuit in that race from the get-go. You even liked him with his terrible, icy-blond mini-fro. Liking the Backstreet Boys gave you a bit more of a cultured palate, as there was no clear Diana in those Supremes. Nick was kind of the wholesome, if northern-Florida-redneck safe choice (save for his humiliating younger brother, Aaron). Brian was the shy, sensitive type. AJ was the hottt, dangerous meth addict. Kevin Richardson was mute with sexy, sculpted facial hair. No one liked Howie. Choosing between the two groups was like choosing between two beloved children, but once that line was crossed–there was no going back.

8. “I wanna really really really wanna zig a zig ahh,” has a meaning, and all true nineties kids know it, but we must never share it. Like the Illuminati, it must remain between us, the keyholders. With great power comes great responsibility.

9. Lisa Frank is not the name of a woman, it is the name of a movement, a culture, a way of living. It is a theory, a concept, a belief in something greater than yourself. It is the belief that all girls are entitled to dolphins covered with rainbows, jewel-encrusted frogs, and unicorns in acid-trip colors hugging each other. It is the ideology that no notebook is complete until it literally hurts your eyes to look at from so much color saturation. It is the hope that no school supply, no matter how insignificant, will be left un-bedazzled. It is the knowledge that your eraser cap, and that of your granddaughter’s, and her granddaughter’s after her, will not be some boring little nub–it will be a diamond covered with butterflies in a rainbow of colors. It is the dream of a better tomorrow.

10. Incredibly depressing women in Indiana covered in cats and glass figurines they buy at The Hallmark Store used to troll the web 1.0 to invest thousands of dollars in tiny stuffed animals filled with plastic beans. That happened. Beanie Babies were not just significant, they were the first example most of us had of envy, greed, and wrath. If someone messed up that little heart-shaped Ty tag, so help you God, that was the end of whatever contact you had with that monster of a human being. That tag-less Beanie Baby was now trash, and you had to deal with the consequence. It was at that moment, that de-valued Beanie Baby moment, that most of us accepted the truth… we’ll never have nice things.

Another Beautiful Winter Day in So Cal

"Greetings from Seal Beach!"

My Grass is Pretty Green

Recently I was reading another girl's labor story and it made me reflect on my own. When someone asks how it was I usually say, "Terrible. Awful. Horrendous. 22 hours of painful labor with no pain meds just to get cut open." They ask why I got a c-section and I tell them because just about everything that could go wrong did: failure to progress, baby facing the wrong way, baby's head pushing on the cervix and both the head and cervix swelling up, baby passing meconium. I think about being pregnant again, and then I think again- I was not a fan of the nausea, the total lack of energy, not being able to do all the things I am used to and all the weird things your body does.

But when I think about her delivery and post- delivery, I suddenly feel very ungrateful and ignorant. Yes, I had a painful labor and wasn't able to deliver naturally like I wanted to. But my life was never once in danger, and as frustrating as some of it was, it was mostly all normal delivery stuff. Yes, my baby had to go to NICU for monitoring for aspiration pneumonia and I didn't get to see her for her first 3 hours, but she was completely healthy and it was only 3 hours. No, I didn't have the easiest pregnancy, but I can have another child again, anytime I want to.

This has been an awesome reminder to me to be grateful for what I am given- and I have SO MUCH to be grateful for.

Cousins Day

Last Friday we took advantage of the Veterans' Day holiday and had a fun cousins day! Did you know that there is a zoo in Irvine called the Orange County Zoo? Apparently it's Orange County's best kept secret. It's in the middle of Irvine Regional Park and perfect for little kids. It's small (there aren't too many animals there but you probably won't lose your kids) and only costs 2 bucks to get in. Plus there is a petting zoo inside. The whole park is great- on top of the zoo and acres of grass and trees,
they have a train,
pony rides,
and bikes and paddle boats you can rent.

So, Penny got to spend the day there with her cousins on the Dimick side for her first official Cousins Day. This was really exciting to me because I don't have any cousins my age and have always been jealous of people who do. Siblings are great and I love mine, but there's something about cousins. I am lucky enough to have adopted a few through the Smith family!

The kids had the funnest time, and the adults had a great time too.

After everyone rode the train, we saw a cute little photo spot- some pumpkins and bales of hay setup. So we decided to take some pictures of the kids there. We started herding them over when I noticed that Penny needed a diaper change, and then I noticed she needed an outfit change. So I started changing her when my sister- in- law called my name. I looked and some man was loading the pumpkins into his truck! He didn't care that there were kids playing on them and parents trying to take pictures. So I started changing her faster and then ran her over. Once I got there I saw that Sam and Trenton were sitting nicely, but they were sitting amongst some random kids. Now the random kids were very nice looking, but we didn't know them and didn't particularly care to have them in the photo, so we had to beg and bribe the kids to move to a different corner of the pumpkin patch. Once we got them there and gave them the baby, we saw that Travis was out cold. His mom laid him down on the pumpkins, where he woke up unhappily, trying to figure out where the heck he was. For some reason Rosalynn wanted only her back to be in the picture, and then Penny started crying. Lilly was probably the best one, even though she wasn't always looking at the camera. And in addition to all this, the random kids are climbing all over our corner, and the guy is still picking up pumpkins around kids and loading them in his truck. These are the beauts we got:




They're not exactly what I had in mind but they do accurately capture what our lives with these guys are like!

This sweetheart loves his cousin (and she loves him too):

Can't wait for the next Cousins Day!

Dreams Realized

Anyone who knows Scott knows that one of his dreams is to help design video games. And anyone who knows him knows the video game industry needs him. He is so creative, an excellent artist, and he looks at video games the way some people look at art. He sees every part as a separate element, and can tell you just about anything about any video game.

This week he reached a milestone in that dream. For the past 4 months Scott has been working for Activision in the Technical Requirements Group (if you want to know what that is, ask him. It's a good job but not super exciting). His group has been working on Modern Warfare 3, which was released this week. If you happened to be one of the 6.5 million people who bought the game (in the first day alone) you can look at the credits and see:

"Scott Smith"!! Yes, it is a very common name, but this is referring to Scott Michael Smith of Lakewood, California. This may not be quite his dream of designing games and characters for games, but it is one step toward that dream, and I know that one day he'll be there. We are all so proud of Scott!

6 Weeks Old and Loving Life!

Today Penny had her first real smile! Luckily my phone was nearby so I caught a picture of it.
It's blurry because she was wiggling around, having a good ol' time.

She is a good baby, we've only had a couple of stumbling blocks, but we have figured them out pretty quick. She eats well and doesn't cry much. The only time she does cry is when she's hungry or lonely. She does not like to be left alone at all. In fact, her favorite way to sleep is cuddled up with Mommy or Daddy, or somewhere where there are lots of people talking (Grandma and Grandpa's with the cousins there or my Young Women class both work great). Really the only way to get her to sleep in her own bed is to get her good and asleep on one of us and then put her in her bed. But I don't complain much, because at least I have a way to get her to sleep.

She is the NOISIEST baby. Just call me when I'm feeding her. She eats loud, poops loud, sleeps loud and just makes noises when she's not doing anything. I LOVE those little noises.

Being a mom is the hardest thing I have ever done in my life. But it is also the BEST thing by far. I wouldn't give it up for anything, and I'm so grateful Heavenly Father has entrusted me with this responsibility.

In other news...
I have no idea how long she was sleeping like this before we found her. We are bad parents.