From the Mouths of Moms...

Overheard at a recent gathering of Moms discussing the two heinous outbreaks that have hit our school community:

"I would rather have 4 cases of swine flu in my house than 1 case of lice."

I wholeheartedly agree (assuming I could get antibiotics, stat!). The kids have been going to school with slick, gelled hair (lice hate dirty hair) and they are under strict orders to use Purell at every chance they get.

BTW, did you know there are companies out there that specialize in lice removal? I did a Red Tricycle advertising profile of a Seattle-area biz that has the best name EVER: Lice Knowing You, Inc.

Brain Drain.. not in this country

The other night Miss P's 5th grade language arts assignment was to interview someone in her family on the topic, "What was the bravest thing you have ever done and what did you learn from it?"

We sat around the dinner table trying to figure out if Hubby or I had anything to contribute. JJ pipes up, "Mom, you can tell the story of how you went snorkling in the ocean in Mexico and almost drowned." (True, that. It was only my second time and I stupidly didn't wear a life vest. But I did manage to see an awesome sea turtle before getting a life preserver thrown to me from a nearby tourist boat.)

"Let's figure out something Daddy has done," I suggest.

JJ pipes in again -- "He was brave when he married you." (Hubby LOL.)

Miss P decides to interview her grandfather (my dad) who tells the story of how he left India in the 1960s to come to America to practice medicine. Originally he was denied a visa by the Indian government, who at the time feared Brain Drain. He ended up taking his case to the High Court and with the help of his barrister father-in-law (my grandfather) made the argument that it is in the Indian Constitution that every Indian has the freedom to travel.

Speaking of Brain Drain... wonder why Americans don't worry about it like the Indians and Chinese do? Probably because we suck at math -- just look at this recent report card from the National Assessment of Educational Progress. Pathetic.

Getting sucked into the Halloween scene

Halloween has always been my least fave holiday, for various reasons: tacky decorations. the month-long saga of picking out an [expensive] costume. the sticky, gooey mess of pumpkin guts. the loads of candy that you still find when you are putting Easter baskets together.

(It was especially annoying in Florida, where a pumpkin patch was essentially a parking lot full of pumpkins. Once you carved them, you got maybe a week before they'd get all rotted and moldy in the heat. And wearing costumes is so not fun in 80 degree weather.)

Now that we live in a cool-weather climate and there are tons of actual Pumpkin Patches and the kids are old enough to want clever costumes AND we live in a neighborhood where everyone loves to decorate -- I am embarrassed to admit it, but I have been bitten by the Halloween bug.

The kids started begging me in late Sept. to decorate. I was resolute in my anti-Halloweeness until I visited my friend Katy's house. She has four kids, a Labrador and a massive house that is DECKED out in decorations, from inflatables in the yard to wreaths on doorways, skeletons hanging from chandeliers, and so on. The kids left there and you'd think they had just been to Disneyland. They couldn't stop talking about it.




So I let them get our meager decorations out of the attic. Last week, I hit the craft store where all Halloween decorations were already marked 40 percent off. After reading this great local blog, I got even more inspired.



In addition to decorating, we carved pumpkins, baked pumpkin seeds and I actually had to sew part of Miss P's costume. (Will post that on Halloween day.)

While all of this has thrilled the kiddos, and I have enjoyed it for the most part, you will not see a pumpkin in sight come Nov. 1.

We're Baaackkk...with a new 'do

Well, friends, it has been more than a year since I started Bellevue Blogette. The initial point of this blog (I swear, there was always a point!) was to write about my family's adventure in settling into our new community of Bellevue, Wa.

Take note of my new blog profile, (right over there, on the left...) as I join the vast write-wing conspiracy, A.K.A the Mom Blog universe. Here's hoping you'll follow my various and sundry posts about parenting news, trends and personal experiences, and that occasionaly you'll find something that's funny, fascinating or farcicle enough to repeat at your next dinner party/office water cooler/mom-friends gathering.

Enjoy!