Homesick for Home Ec

My school didn't offer a home economics course, and I had absolutely no interest in pursuing anything akin to it in university. I'm not sure if home ec wasn't an option because at that point (mid 90's) people felt that those classes were part of a greater conspiracy to keep women in the kitchen as much as it was just my school didn't have the size or funding to pull it off. I think the whole conspiracy thing may have been part of the reason I steered way clear of anything to do with home, kids, cooking, finances etc. when I was in college. I vaguely knew that Some Day I would do all that stuff, but I didn't want to study it. Why take home economics when you can learn about Ancient Greek Architecture, or navel-gaze in Beginning Acting or get 75% off lift tickets through the PE ski class, and, lest I forget, focus on my adored major which was my route for gainful employ the day after I received my diploma. No one suggested I learn anything that would have been beneficial for a stay-at-home mom, and if they had I would have laughed and then been mild to medium offended.
Fast forward a few years to the days I'm trying to get nutritious, fast and simple dinners on the table on at least a bi-weekly basis (come on people!) with enough leftovers for Ian to take to lunch on the days he needs a lunch and without busting the budget each month on groceries. Looking back I really wish that I maybe had given home ec some thought. I'm going on three years now since my working has been transferred from a windowless office to my house and it's been a little bit crazy to try to figure it all out. It definitely was not instaknowledge like I had vaguely assumed. The skills I learned in college serve little to no purpose in my new life, except as a topic of conversation. People tell me- "oh, you'll go back to it someday when your kids start school" or "think of all you learned while you were working." Don't get me wrong, I'm glad that I studied what I studied and that I worked for awhile, and I don't know if I'd do anything different if I was to do it over again, to be honest. I guess I just wonder why colleges are dumping out hundreds of thousands of grads every year who can tell you precisely what painter did what when, but blink with wide-eyed wonder if you asked them to prepare a nutritious, economical meal for four each day of the week, or run a household with confident smoothness. I guess I feel like if I had prepared myself for being a mom even a micro faction as much as I prepared myself for my career- I think it would have come in reeaaalll handy right now.

Nana and Grandpa's House

We just got back from a big visit to Nana and Grandpa's House! Boys enjoyed crawling around in the kit- wait a minute, they aren't crawling anymore, they are walking EVeryWhere. They just started walking when we left LA and they got lots of opportunities to practice their newly developing skill in the long hallways and connecting rooms of their Seattle house. We enjoyed our time with our gracious hosts, it was wonderful to not have to worry about cooking meals and taking care of the household! The boys thrived with all the attention they were lavished with. Thanks for the great visit!

Halloweening

Ever since the groovy 7os there's been at least one little Schneider who's ventured out into the cold to take candy from strangers. Can you believe that it took 30 whole years to mark the end of this fabulous era? This is the first year since 1977 that there hasn't been a Schneid trick or treater! Rach opted out of this venture this year to go to a 'scary movie party'.
Luckily we have activities like our ward trunk or treat party to dress up and get into the Halloween spirit. And this year is the start of a whole new generation of Schneider family trick or treaters! We were soo lucky to have most of the LA contingent up for a Halloween visit this year - twin turtle power! And soo lucky to have a dead prom queen, a fairy and Indian, a pumpkin patch, Harry Potter and Aaron as himself join in the festivities all the way from Vancouver.
Happy Halloween!
Love Coco

To Goo or not to Goo, that is the question.

Before Christmas I think it would be wise for us all to consider a new nickname for Goo. Well, perhaps Jord and I are the only ones still calling Goo, Goo. If that is the case then please just let us know what everyone else is using and we will follow suit. If that is not the case then let's have a blog brainstorm and then either vote on the names submitted or have Goo declare what the new nickname will be.

I know it's been a couple of weeks since I last posted, but here is some recent interesting news for all you footie fans ...

As the Premier League has become one of the most successful leagues in the world, it has also attracted an increasing number of talented players from all over the world, especially in the last few years.
The global popularity of the English league also means that English clubs can now afford the world's best who want to come to the UK and play in the league.

(Spanish player Fernando Torres is one of the many new
foreign players Liverpool has added to its squad this season)

But this increase of players from all over the world has also been a subject of controversy lately.In 1992 only 10% of the starting XIs from all teams were from outside the UK, but this season that number had increased to 56%!! and non-English players have scored 69% of Premier League goals so far this season.

With these figures in mind, one of the most controversial things discussed in the past few weeks has been Fifa president Sepp Blatter’s proposal to place a limit on the number of non-nationals per team on the pitch at any one time as an attempt to allow “homegrown” talent to flourish. A lot of people have already started to shoot the idea down though, saying that’s it’s an illegal EU restriction and that it would never get by the courts. One of the biggest critics is Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger (who happens to be French). Since his arrival at Arsenal in 1996 he has signed 124 players and only 40 of them have been English. But he also rejects suggestions that he is inherently biased against young English players, claiming his system of importing the best foreign talent improves English players in his charge.

He was quoted as saying “You have the biggest economical power, and that means you attract the best players in the world. But if the best English players play with the best world-class players, then they will be even better and develop quicker."

I think the same has also been said about Chelsea and its players, who are now making progress up the league table after some pretty disastrous results following Mourinho’s departure mentioned in my last blog - I’ve heard people say that English players like Frank Lampard have actually improved quite a bit since the club started importing other good players from all over. But as of yesterday Arsenal has been top of the table and in very good form, so we’ll see if this limit on non-English players actually materialises, but it looks unlikely at the moment.

Happy Hallowe'en!

After visiting the boys' cousin Liam (and his parents of course!) I was impressed that Jamie took her little guy so often to the photo studio to get his picture taken. They really turned out so much nicer than the ones that I take at home. As I read all the adverts about how they grow so fast and you want to capture them at each stage before it's gone forever I became wistful. So when I got home and saw a Hallowe'en coupon from Picture People and I also glanced over at the boys' as yet unworn cute turtle costumes from Children's Place, I decided I better carpe the diem.
When we got to Picture People told the photolady I just wanted a shot where both boys were looking at the camera and smiling- no fancy poses. I guess I thought I'd sit back a little and let the photographer do her thing. Well, it wasn't working out so well- the photographer took the photos, of course, but I became much more involved than I was expecting! I kept running up to the boys and putting them in place next to each other, and then running back behind the photographer and making googly faces and noises to get them to look at me. We had been at it for awhile and I must have been looking really disshevelled and just sort of panting there because she said that she thought we were good. I said- no way! I haven't gotten my picture yet! Luckily after just a few more minutes we got the winning shot. It was a good thing I had made us keep going because out of the whole lot I only got one where both boys were looking at the camera and smiling. Phewsh- close one. Moral of the story: it's much easier at these things with one baby- or two adults. And no head items. :D