Life Out Loud

The myths and realities of believing

Wednesday, December 31, 2008 by Kymberly Foster Seabolt

You never think it will happen to you. I paused. I gulped. I looked around, and then down, into the earnest, twinkle-eyed face of my darling 9-year-old daughter as she uttered those words that strike fear into a parental heart:
“Mommy, is Santa Claus real?”
This is like “that talk” you know you are going to […]

Traditions: The gifts that keep on giving

Wednesday, December 24, 2008 by Kymberly Foster Seabolt

What does one give the 9-year-old who has everything?
My children — and most of their friends — are the luckiest children in America. Toys and books pack the corners of their home. Camps and chorus and lessons and DVDs and electronics of all shapes and sizes fill their days.
As a result, I cannot […]

You win some and you lose one

Thursday, December 18, 2008 by Kymberly Foster Seabolt

It’s not easy being perfect.
Just ask my daughter’s soccer team — those kids are on fire! They played an entire outdoor season from late summer to early fall and never lost a game. Not ever. Not once.
Flush with their success, they went ahead and continued an indoor soccer session with the same stunning success. […]

Home values are down, but values of homes are up

Thursday, December 11, 2008 by Kymberly Foster Seabolt

Endless ads saying “home for sale” are blatantly false advertising. What is for sale is a “house” — sticks and stones and other solid things. Only the people inside it can make a “home”.

Life is full of surprises: Enjoy the good ones

Wednesday, December 3, 2008 by Kymberly Foster Seabolt

I have always prided myself on being the smart, savvy sort. The type that no one can “put one over on.” The type to be on top of all the “little things” in my midst.
Imagine my surprise, then, to discover that Mr. Wonderful, with the endless cooperation of a myriad of my family and […]

The stick as a toy is a hard(wood) sell

Thursday, November 27, 2008 by Kymberly Foster Seabolt

Proving yet again even my dog is more forward thinking than I, the stick has recently been inducted into the Toy Hall of Fame.
The lowly stick, a universal plaything powered by a child’s imagination, landed in the National Toy Hall of Fame on Thursday along with the Baby Doll and the skateboard…Curators said the […]

Confessions of true concession stand junkies

Thursday, November 20, 2008 by Kymberly Foster Seabolt

There is nothing in life my family loves so much as a $2 hot dog. Although, if truth be known, a $3 hot dog is even better.
What it must never, ever be is a nickel and dime hot dog cooked and/or consumed anywhere near our home.
We are concession stand junkies.
You could take […]

Priorities are set in feet — and yards

Thursday, November 13, 2008 by Kymberly Foster Seabolt

It has come to my attention that when I shared a photo of our head dog, Ace, with my blog readers recently, I may have unwittingly become the subject of some good-natured ribbing (and abject horror) over the state of our less than stellar lawn.
Mainly because a fair amount of weeds and bare spots […]

HSM empire costs parents plenty

Thursday, November 6, 2008 by Kymberly Foster Seabolt

We, as human beings, tend to have a penchant for things that are bad for us. Twinkies, camping and advertisements for any food product containing the word “cheez” in the description come to mind.
In that vein, everyone under 14 (and others who are old enough to know better) has gone bonkers over High School […]

Back to the future: An adventure in fifth grade

Thursday, October 30, 2008 by Kymberly Foster Seabolt

You know that nightmare we’ve all had where you suddenly find yourself back in school? Perhaps something has happened and it has come to light that you never actually graduated and *poof* there you are, back in class?
That’s the one where you wake up in a cold sweat and the only way it […]