Simone's Short Stories

Simone has quite the imagination.  She has written poems and now has started writing some short stories.  They are extremely short, but feel like the seeds of the next great American novel. 

The first one she wrote was an instant classic in my opinion.  Translations precede the manuscript.

Naughty Boy

Written by Simone Meyer

Illustrated by Maxton Meyer

Once there was a naughty boy who made fun of everybody.

The teacher asked everybody, "What is the matter?"  The children said the naught boy keeps on telling us we are nasty.

The End.



Love Notes from Simone

Simone loves to write notes to her classmates, but she doesn't give it to them.  She is either too shy to go through with it or she doesn't want to go through the effort of bringing them to school and hand-delivering it to them.

The same is not true for Michael and me in that we regularly receive notes from her.  This might be because we are in the house and she's very boisterous around us.

Left image translated:  Work on the bus, Daddy

Right image translated:  I love you, Mommy.  You are crazy.

Nihongo

Michael and I have been whittling away at our books and files, shredding old documents and donating books we no longer read and probably never will because we're too tired from lugging them to new homes every year.  While sorting an old binder, I found some old sketches!

These are some drawings and labels I made to help myself remember Japanese adjectives that describe location.   The ones below show formal and casual names you'd call your family members.  

I know what you're thinking.  "Wow, Gigi is diligent in her studies!"  The truth is I'm not.  Or at least I wasn't in this case.  The reason these sketches are so fun and well-color-coded is because I had been avoiding studying for my architecture license exams.  Maybe there's a correlation to how much I draw for a subject and how poorly I learn it because I have become a licensed architect and I still have no idea what the kanji mean.

This is 40

I turned 40 years old today!    I actually feel more youthful than when I turned 30!  I remember buying $200 worth of beauty products my last night as a 29-year-old.  Last night - my last one for my thirties, I bought Godiva chocolates and a pair of Gloria Vanderbilt jeans.  Ok, the pants weren't the fanciest but they felt great because they were high-waisted and sucked in my post-baby bump wrinkles!  Ok  speaking of wrinkles - I did buy a moisturizing serum.  But it was Olay brand and on sale for $10!

Life is good.  40 is nothing scary!  I think what makes it feel great is that I have a loving husband with whom I do so many projects and around whom I can fart and burp and he still thinks I'm pretty.  I also feel blessed to have 2 beautiful, healthy (well, not that healthy right now as they have had high fevers this past week) children.  I have great friends, parents, and a sister with whom I speak regularly.  I feel loved!

Walmart

I hate to admit this, but I love Walmart.

I never gave the store a second thought before I moved to Northern California.  Maybe there was no Walmart near me in West LA or maybe Target was more accessible and just more appealing of a store, but I whenever I needed toiletries or new outfits, I never went to Walmart.  I went to Costco and Forever 21, respectively.

When we moved to Berkeley, Lizette told me how she doesn't like the store because they sell guns and don't treat their employees well.  I think guns are alright, but I didn't like that people were being mistreated for the sake of selling products for cheap prices.

Maybe it's because I've moved to South Tampa where I've never seen so many white trailer folk roam and now I've absorbed their culture, but I have come to enjoy my trips to Walmart.  Their clothes are soooo cheap!  Granted I would not go to a nice restaurant in their fashions, but my kids can definitely walk around town in their dresses, pants, and shirts.

I still feel bad for liking the store so much, but if I'm in a bind and need acetametophin and some Uncrustables, I'm headed to Walmart.

Gymnastics Classes

Max and Simone have been taking semi-private lessons with their old gymnastics teacher, Miss Becky.  They had her separately when they were taking group classes and I really liked her teaching style, which was basically that she taught instead of just babysat the kids.  The other teachers would direct the kids, but not help them improve on form.  The other teachers also let the kids run around and goof off, behavior Max was beginning to adopt and something I was getting annoyed paying for.

These semi-private lessons seemed like a worthy, albeit more pricey, path to getting the kids more active.  Simone has improved vastly the last 7 weeks!  Max has too, but he still maintains his clown persona that always wants to make people laugh but that hinders him from learning.  We've had to extract Max from the class for a few minutes so that he can have a timeout.  Looking back, it wouldn't have mattered if he were around kids who didn't listen to their authority figures.  It's just in him to always be the goofball rebel.  Simone too will goof off, but I wonder if it's influence from her brother.  I don't remember her being like this when she was in a class with a bunch of girls.

Donations

Although Max and Simone get along really well for siblings, they get into fights everyday.  It's natural.  And comical.  

I often have to tell them to clean up their scattered toys.  I usually threaten to give away anything that has not been put away.  They usually will put their treasured toys away.  When they're really tired, their discrimination increases and they assess if toys are worthy for putting away or not.  Simone has gladly given up a Melissa & Doug wooden clock because she was tired of picking up the pieces.  I was tired too and as much as I hate to see a good toy go, I took it to the Goodwill store so that a more appreciative child could enjoy it.  

Despite Max's love for his cars and blocks, he is really adverse to cleaning.  He always tries to claim that he doesn't know how to clean.  Well, he suddenly learns the skill quickly when I tell him I'll donate the toys not in their proper boxes.  

I asked Max what his creation was.
"It's a bed for Grandma and Grandpa!"

One afternoon, Michael and I were working outside when we heard the kids fighting.  I ordered them to start cleaning up their mess in hopes that this project will help them forget whatever their tiff was.  I return to the work outside and after about 5 minutes, Max opens the garage door and yells something about donations.  Michael and I make a lot of noise so we were not convinced we heard Max correctly.  I walked closer to him to hear him and clarify what he said.

"Max, what did you say outside ?"

"Mommy, I want to donate my sister!"