Personalities

One word: AWESOME!

Chuck found this amazing website that offers you amazing insight into your self. It's almost like these people climbed into your brain, uploaded all the juicy stuff about you that makes you tick and then wrote it out in a neat, little, tidy, eloquent, simple format so that you can better understand yourself. While you're reading your profile you'll be like, "Hey! How'd they know that?!" I tell you, it's amazing. It's uncanny. And it's so organized. I wish I could explain myself that easily to other people. I feel much more complicated than they make my personality out to be. If they can make me out to be simple and understood then they must be geniuses because I am anything but simple to understand.

We each took the test. It is so cool. Granted, I took my test at least 4 four times just to be sure because I thought they might have messed up my results the first 3 times. But when a test comes back the same 4 times in a row, you must concede that maybe they were right after all.  Chuck took the test maybe 7 times. Each time he took it, he would get a different personality. So, I'm not 100% sure what that tells us about Chuck...either he has multiple personality disorder...or he can't commit to who he wants to be...or he was over-thinking his answers....or he's just plain weird and can't be put into a personality box. Finally he was able to get the same personality 3 times in a row - so we just went with that one.

Interesting fact...all but one of us in this family are introverts. Bennett is the lone extravert. Here's the Mallott family in all their personality glory:

Chuck

Cori

Chloe

Bennett

Gavin

The funny thing is...you're probably not really all that surprised. You probably could have accurately pegged each of us given these choices. But, oh, how I wish I came with a little manual about "How To Understand Cori" to pass out to all my friends and new people I meet. "Here, flip to page 3 to see how I deal with conflict. (Hint - I don't)."  Apparently, that would make life way too easy. We wouldn't want that. 

But it is cool to learn, on a deeper level, how people's brain's work and think and how they respond to certain things, be it correction, praise, criticism, encouragement, ideas. It helps us be more understanding, patient, compassionate and less irritated with people for not doing things the way we think they should be done. In other words, it helps us better understand what it's like to walk in their shoes a teeny, tiny bit. 

Art Debut

Ninja Nose

by Chloe Grace

ValleyScare

This sweet boy decided to join our family on October 31, 2001. It was the perfect day - granted, it was weird labor with all the nurses dressed up in costumes, but other than that, it was perfect. Bennett instantly stole my heart. It was love at first sight. He was the one who calmed my heart. Being my second baby, I was scared about how I was going to do it all now that I had two kids. How could I possibly love another child as much as I love Gavin my forlorn heart wondered. But I needn't have feared for I grew a whole other heart just for Bennett. And it was instantly filled with love for him. He was a goof-ball from the very beginning, filling our lives with constant laughter. He continues to play his role to perfection. At 14, he is a young man full of character and passion. He's passionate about basketball, learning and reading.  He still loves to hangout with us and chooses his friends wisely. He has always been all about basketball....that passion just increases exponentially by the day. 

His birthday present was spending the entire day at ValleyScare. It was a chilly day which worked to our advantage since hardly anyone was there. We walked right up to every ride. We were very unlame parents as we rode all the cool roller coasters (I backed out of only 1 simply because I love my life and didn't wish to die - thankfully, everyone else made it off the ride alive and we left soon afterward as we were all a wee bit queasy). It was such an awesome day! I'm so glad Bennett had a birthday today. They call it ValleyScare the whole month of October because they have haunted houses and such all around the park. None of those opened until 5pm and we were long gone by then. It was not our intention to get scared. We were going for a more celebratory mood.

However, when we got home, our age hit us like a brick wall and Chuck and I found ourselves laying on the floor in front of the fireplace (me with a heating pad to my neck) trying to recuperate from all that fun! It's hard to keep up with the kids. I was in a constant state of nausea the entire day. I don't recall the last time I spent so much time upside down and being thrown against a wall. It was a blast, but I'm fine if we wait another 14 years to experience it again.

And as is tradition, we got into costume and went trick-or-treating. Chuck and I are dressed for a Masquerade Ball. Bennett is just plain freaky. Chloe is a Japanese girl or a Medieval page (whichever you prefer) and her friend is a whacked out Little Red Riding Hood.

All in all, it was a full, exciting, fun day. I just love Halloween because, for us, it's a celebration of Bennett and all the joy, laughter and dressing up he brings into our lives.

Tired Prayer

The other night at dinner (seriously... have we counted how many of my blogs start with that?!? I need to get a better opening line) I was sooooo tired. Unnaturally tired. Fall asleep at the table tired. Chuck was out of town (of course). I barely got food to the table (I don't even remember cooking). The kids and I sat down and I asked, "So, who wants to text tonight?"

Yes. I asked my children who wanted to text God instead of who wanted to say the blessing.

Need I go further? That describes my exhausted mental state. 

Nobody could tell if I was being sacrilegious, mocking prayer, inventing a new way to do our nightly dinner blessing or if I was truly out of my mind. There were snickers but no outright laughter right away.

Then Bennett mimics an "air text" while saying, "To: God....THX, praying hands, slice of pizza, smilely face, LOL.

That's when we lost it. 

At least we still had thankful hearts.

Austin City Limits

I had the wonderful opportunity to accompany Chuck to Austin, Texas where he was attending his favorite Design Conference, An Event Apart.  Even though I don't personally get to attend the actual conference and learn anything, I'm thrilled that Chuck gets to and I love it when I get to go with him. We've been to the one in Boston, Seattle and San Francisco. It's always a fun adventure getting to the city early and exploring together.

This year the timing was not so great though. Chuck's conference coincided with the Austin City Limits Live Music Festival. This is only a small gathering of over 450,000 people jamming to tons of live bands in the heart of Austin at Zilker Park. Right where we were. The traffic was horrible! I don't know how we do this. We have an uncanny knack for being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Take for instance the year we drove through South Dakota to get to Colorado only to find out we were following and being followed by over half a million Harleys on their way to Sturgis, SD. It is only the largest Harley gathering of it's kind each year in America. The sounds of Harley mufflers are still ringing in my ears. Loud doesn't begin to describe their noise. And everywhere we went, so did at least a thousand bikers. Not really what we would consider our type of crowd.

Then there was the time we decided to go to Washington D.C..  It was a beautifully hot day in the Capitol City.  We walked non-stop all day long. We were on our walk back to our car when what should we hear but a loud, low, distant rumbling. We couldn't fathom what it would be. Then someone told us that a parade was coming. Chuck decided to take one of the kids across the street with him in search of a pretzel for us to snack on while we watched this exciting, unknown parade. Unfortunately, his timing was bad because as soon as he was to step foot to cross the street, over 200,000 Harleys start slowly passing in front of him. We were stranded across from each other forever while all these noise machines agonizingly sputtered past us. It was so loud, my ears are still ringing to this day.

So, it would come as no surprise that we ran smack dab into the middle of yet another loud, crowd-filled, noisy festival when we didn't plan on it. It's how we roll. Chuck and I didn't end up on the same flight out there. So after picking me up at the airport, the very first thing we wanted to do in Austin was to eat at our favorite Mexican joint, Chuy's. We thought it would be cool to go to the original one in downtown Austin. Unfortunately, we learned that the original one was also in the middle of the ginormous music festival that herds of humans were flocking to at the exact same moment as we were hunting for our late lunch. It took us 45 minutes to go 6 miles.

So we were off to a great start in Austin.

At the airport, Chuck greeted me with this beautiful Yellow Rose of Texas.

We went to the Westcave Discovery Center and had an amazing tour.

This was just a stunningly beautiful ecosystem.

 

If a cactus can be beautiful, this is what it would look like.

We ate lunch at the amazing Salt Lick BBQ Restaurant. 

I hate BBQ and I loved this place.

We walked around the UT campus. This is Chuck taking a picture 

of the beautiful limestone on the wall of the LBJ library.

We saw some spectacular views including the Pedernales River.

We learned that Pedernales means flint. This river contained the most

sought after flint for tools, trade and money in all the new world at the time.

We kayaked around Town Lake and the Barton Springs with the lovely music from

Austin City Limits in the background.

I got the chance to visit my friend Margot. We met 30 years ago in 6th grade. 

We toured two arboretums, talked non-stop and ate at Torchy's Tacos in our activewear. 

It was great catching up after all these years.

 We waited for over 30 minutes at sunset/dusk to watch the bat colony soar overhead

for their famed evening meal. Apparently, the bats didn't feel like eating that night because 

we didn't see a thing. But it was a lovely night to watch a sunset over Congress Ave. bridge.

 

I visited the Capitol while Chuck was busy learning important things for work.

On our last day, we took a little jaunt out to visit Fredericksburg. It is a quaint, vibrant, 

old, German settlement known for all it's wineries. 

It was great to actually fly back together on the same plane.

We're such great traveling buddies.

Grammar Novice

It's no secret that I have a lot of issues. They are outlined in great detail over the years through this lovely little medium. Guess what? I just found one more. Great. Like I needed another one to add to my stack. 

Apparently, grammar rules have changed since I was last in school and NO ONE TOLD ME! So unfair.

Of course I had to find out the hard way. So, I'm writing this paper and asked Chuck and Gavin to edit it for me. Chuck doesn't even scan it for two seconds when he's all like, "Why are you still adding two spaces after each period? Nobody does that anymore."

And I'm all like, "So why is this the first time I'm ever hearing about this? Are you serious?! People don't double space after periods?? Are you joking? Are you just messing with my brain? You know how gullible I am. I will believe you." I was incredulous. It was like someone just told me that we can now inhabit Mars.

How is this possible? How long has this new rule been in effect and I've been left out in the dark? How do you disseminate this type of information to the general populace no longer in school? How long would I have foolishly gone on double spacing after periods? People would now be able to take one look at my paragraphs and tell right off I was a grammar novice. I was clueless as to the new and improved and hipper grammar rules. 

It would appear that I grew up using the AMA Standard. Now MLA is all the rage. Whatever. I don't even know what those acronyms stand for. And to be honest...I don't even care. Who decides what rules we are supposed to use? Life is hard enough. Now I have to worry about spacing after periods. For the love! 

The Booty Song

The other morning, on our way to church, the kids asked to play music. You know, because we can't be in the car for more than 2 minutes without music. Preferably loud music. You never know what genre of song could come spewing forth from my playlist. I have everything from Classical to Country to Pop to Rap. Let's call it eclectic.

Of all the songs, this one was the one we listened to on our way to church. A little inappropriate for the occasion. But we all like it, so we jammed.

Seriously, we're pulling into the church parking lot with this song blaring. Bennett says, "Here come those Mallotts who just love their butts." Then we do our Walk-Five-Abreast thing into the church that we're so famous for. We looked like an album cover. Maybe if it was a shot of our backside, we could have even been the album cover for "All About That Bass".

Thank you, Meghan for teaching us to accept our bootys.

The Association Game

I will be the first to tell you that these three people are crazy!! They always want to play the stupid association game with me. They like to do that...play things I hate. I don't know why. And they love to include me. I should be thankful. But I'm not. I know how this game ends....in stupidity. Every time. 

Take last night for example. They all came into my room to "tuck me in". It's that way now. I go to bed earlier than most of them because I'm old and I like to. So roles have reversed and I'm the one who gets the "tuck in" most nights. They all came and laid on the bed with me and begged to play the association game. I thought, "Sure, what's the harm in one small game when I'm just going to go to bed anyways and don't have to think about it the rest of the night."

They were giddy with excitement. Bennett's standard answer is always "potato", Gavin likes to tell people what they can and cannot think and Chloe sits and ruminates forever trying to find the perfect answer. I tell you, it's maddening. They totally don't get the whole concept of saying the first thing that pops in your head when you hear a word. And once you add Chuck to the mixture, everything just goes askew. Apparently, he only thinks of rhyming words when he hears a word. That makes this game that much more fun for me. The problem is: I'm the only normal one! At least I think I am and this is my blog, so the story is going to be told through my lens.

I had just told the kids that one of the many problems with this game is that it has no natural ending point. It just goes on and on and on. This little fact didn't seem to disturb them in the least. I began wondering how I was going to kick them off my bed so I could go to sleep. Then it happened: the natural ending.

Gavin said: Death

Bennett said: Black

Chloe said: Dying

I said: Coffin

Gavin said: Craigslist

Boom! There it is! The one word that has ZERO to do with anything. Nobody thinks of Craigslist when they hear the word "coffin". I just proved my point of how stupid the whole game was. After the entire bed finished it's massive fit of laughter, I announced that the game had reached it's logical end and we were indeed done. Thanks for playing. Game over.

Born To Do

Whenever Bennett and I drive in the car together he loves to pick songs from my playlist and up the volume really loud! A lot of the songs on my playlist where added by the kids. This song is one example. Bennett introduced me to Steven Cooper and his rap and I have to say I love it! I never thought I'd be one of those people who play their music so loud that other people give them weird looks as they pass. But dude - this song and Bennett demand it. This is us doing our best 'cool' impersonation. Can't you just hear that loud music in the background as we rock the 'cool look'.

This is an excellent song by the way. Bennett uses it to get pumped up before a game. I sing it the whole time I'm hiking. Whatever it is you love, you'll soon find yourself humming it inside your head. You might even find that you can handle louder decibels while driving around town in your car. Sometimes you may or may not have a teenager with you and you might be listening to it anyway. I'm just sayin. Make sure you turn the volume up...it's better that way!

The Crowd

As Mark Twain reminds us, the crowd is not always right. This might be something to keep in mind during the upcoming political season.

Bedroom Makeovers

I spent an inordinate amount of time painting this summer. Bennett and I had already planned to redo his room and bring it up to "Teenager Cool". It only took a week and a lot of squats, multiple trips to Home Depot for extra paint, a tiny mental breakdown over my ancient sewing machine, a few vinyl letters and a lot of tape and sweat - but we pulled it off. He was my right hand man. We did it all by ourselves (except for installing the vinyl letters - that needed Chuck's steady hand and detailed precision). His room is the perfect reflection of him. He can't help but smile every time he walks in it, passes it or does anything in it. But that's also who he is....he's a smiler, he does everything with a smile on his face (except painting - I don't believe I once saw him smile while we were painting).

Our school mascot is The Farmington Tigers. He bleeds school spirit. His favorite colors are black and orange - so that worked out pretty good for us. He didn't want to go with any tiger print though (I knew he inherited some of my design sense - animal prints are not cool). He picked all the colors (I only helped with the orange since it had to match the curtains I found).

I found those curtains pre-made at IKEA. Unfortunately, they were like 3 feet too long. I spent almost an entire day re-reading my 1930's sewing machine manual trying for the 759th time to remember how to insert the darn bobbin. I was spitting nails by the second hour of messing with my sewing machine. I think a sewing fairy must have appeared out of nowhere while my head was bowed in frustration and fixed my ineptitude that eventually allowed me to finish my course and hang up drapes that actually had a straight hem in the same color thread (that is a miracle)!

Chuck was also responsible for hanging the mini basketball hoop. I don't know if you noticed the theme yet, but it is something like "Basketball,Tigers Basketball, Michael Jordan, Basketball, Dirk Nowitzki, Teenage Appropriate, Basketball Cool"

And then I don't know what seized me, maybe being in 'Designer Mode' I just couldn't help myself, I asked Gavin if he would like a cool new room for the TWO YEARS he has left living with us. After I blinked away the tears upon realizing the stark reality of time, I think I heard him say, "Sure".

I know with makeover pictures you're supposed to show before and after shots. But it seems I always forget to take the before shot. I'm so excited and focused on the after. I'm sure I could dig some out of my picture archives, but...oh well, you're stuck with only 'after' shots in this update.

Gavin had very particular opinions. He wanted his room to be gray and he wanted to make the ledge on the one wall navy blue. He has a basement room that has always looked a little 'cave-like' to me. Not anymore. It now has the light and bright appearance of a normal room with a normal sized window.This room is such a vivid representation of who he is. He is calm. (disclaimer - he is not calm when he is painting. He is huffing and puffing like he is going to blow the house down. He is telling me all about how from now on he will pay someone to paint for him. He will never again paint a wall. However, he was super pleased with himself after seeing the finished product. I let him vent and then I let him feel the joy of a job well done). He picked out both pictures. I honestly didn't know he loved nature prints. I would have picked out those pictures. It also makes perfect sense with his new love - archery. 

We made the bow be like art work above his bed. It is a fun way to store and display his bow. I love how he has a remnant of his boyhood past displayed proudly on his top shelf. He organized his shelves the way he wanted them. It took much encouragement, but I was finally able to get him to rearrange his furniture in a way for optimal space planning. He is such a creature of routine/habit, that this was really hard for him. The only way he let me do it was by promising him that if he didn't like my new configuration, I would gladly put it all back the way he originally had it (yes - I was that confident he would like it). He ended up liking my way better and the rest is history.

He picked out that super cool hanging light at IKEA. It was his second choice. The first one looked a little more robotic and was way over budget. He put the entire light together on his own. We even took out the old light and installed the new one all by ourselves. We were beyond proud of that accomplishment. We didn't even get electrocuted. I also had the same battle with my sewing machine while working with Gavin's curtains. I won the battle in half the time it took me to do Bennett's. I consider that 'learning from my mistakes'. 

Chloe did not get a room makeover this summer, but she kinda got one this past Christmas when she got her new loft bed. I wanted to remember what an 11 year old girl's bedroom looks like so I snapped a bunch of photos. Chloe has a wee bit of a problem with the whole pack-rat thing. She also loves to arrange things in ways that only seem to make sense to her. I love this precious little girl room. Not too long from now we'll be making it a "Teenage Girl" room. I want to just live in the moment right now.

She still plays with her stuffed animals, especially horses. She always has a ton of crap on her dresser. To her, this is clean. I don't see things her way. But it is organized and 'cleanish' so I let it go. 

This is possibly the cleanest I've seen her desk area since we put it together. She is the Queen of Trinkets. 

Here's a nice view of the side of her loft bed. Everything is in it's place. Having a decorator mom must be hard because I have an instinctual knowledge of what looks good and what doesn't. Chloe doesn't really care about my 'knowledge'. She likes what she likes and no one is going to change her mind. I love that about her. I love that I can't connive, control or convince her. She is so her own person and for that I respect her and love her all the more for staying true to herself.

School Starts

The ease and calm 

of summer is gone.

In it's place 

is busy and haste.

Our eyes awake

when the dawn breaks.

The schedule of school

now becomes the rule.

Our minds grow strong

from teachers all day long.

We learn and we grow

from all that we know.

We practice and play

and learn new ways

to grow skills and strengths

that will take us to new lengths

in our bodies and minds.

Living strong and kind

is the goal of mine.

Thankful hearts will be in store

as summer rolls around once more.

The cycle will again repeat 

and our lives will be complete.

Chloe is in 6th grade already. I'm in denial. My baby is in middle school. She is still attending the local project-based charter school. This is her second year there and she is thriving. She is excited about taking new things like choir and creative writing and possibly being in the Color Guard. She's looking forward to track again in the spring and still loves to ride her bike and play with friends after school.

This is what I got when I asked Bennett to show me 'strong'. He's pumped to be at the top of middle school in 8th grade this year. He loves everything about it. They were given alot of choices about what classes they wanted to take this year. So far, (after 3 days in school) his favorite is Spanish. This is also going to be his break out year in basketball. He's spent so many hours this summer training it's ridiculous. He is physically and mentally ready to take on anything this basketball season brings his way.

Gavin is a junior this year. Let me repeat that: Gavin is a JUNIOR! OMG!!! I thought I was still a junior. How can he be? We are not the same. He had major scheduling issues this year and had to rearrange his entire schedule 2 days before school started. Unfortunately, he had to drop German 3 due to a conflict and now is taking 4 AP courses instead. He has always loved to learn and enjoys a challenge, thus why he choose such an aggressive schedule. But we have every confidence in the effort he puts into his studies. He is also Junior Captain of his Mock Trial team this year. See that red string dangling from his pocket. This is the cool new thing kids do these days. Everyone knows that the cool kids have lanyards for key chains instead of boring ol actual key chains like their lame parents. That is one sign that I'm not a junior any more. I don't own a lanyard. 

And yes, I started school again this year too. Not only as a teacher but also as a student. In addition to teaching English to immigrants and refugees part-time, I am also starting graduate school at Hamline University in St. Paul. It has been exactly 20 years since the last time I was in college. This is really stretching me. My first goal is to attain an Adult ESL certificate. We'll see where things lead from there.