Who Buys These Snuggies Anyway?

I thought no one bought these, but I was wrong. I now know one person who owns a SNUGGIE (micro fleece, no less) and that would be my sister-in-law, Jocelyn.

Thanks and No Thanks

Thanks.

The Turkey Trot this year was run in memory of Shane Mitchell who passed away a few months ago. It's nice to know people were running it for him on both coasts. And, we're always remembering Buddy and Holly in our prayers. Hey, it's like Buddy Holly, wow, I just put that together.



No Thanks.
I should have wasted my sister in law Jocelyn at the end of the Turkey Trot because she is LIKE a WHOLE foot shorter than me, but I didn't. I'm saying I won and it was not a tie, unless she responds.



Thanks.

Thanks garage. The kids were provided a nice place in our garage to eat Thanksgiving so we could actually hear each other at the adult table. I know it was mean to put them out there, but it was absolutely necessary.



Thanks.

Thanks for helping with the cooking and clean up Harris boys.



Thanks.

Thanks for letting me reign as this years 2010 ladies leg wrestling champ.



No thanks.

No thanks to Kelli who was last years leg wrestling champ who would have beat me this year, except she is 5 mths pregnant. We decided to arm wrestle instead and...




she beat me.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Favorite Princess Shirt in the Wash?

You go without it, of course! Annnnnd, you wait until it is clean again.

Balmy and Palmy

All packed up the night before and ready to go to Palm Springs, CA with Mat, when Gretchen hits us with a possible infection. How do kids sense these things? Sick kids are a given I guess when you are planning a little getaway with your husband. Why?

Gretchen and I had a little party from about 1AM til 5AM. There was nothing open as far as health care goes to get it taken care of, so I decided to paint her nails instead. I figured it makes everyone feel better. The lack of sleep presented a horrible stew for my preventative plane sickness plan. When one of the four gets slightly out of whack, sleep, hunger, stress or heavy, smelly, airplane turbulence, it creates a BIG problem. Luckily, I held on strong with a baggy of my salty foods that seem to take it away (see car sickness is like pregnancy to Chicago).

We landed in the warmth of the sun, had a nice hotel, nice food to eat, nice bike riding especially on Fairway Drive and nice company. Most of all, uninterrupted reading on the plane! Mat and I barely talked to each other.

We met up with these guys for fine dining at a lovely Mediterranean restaurant (Kabobz). Jody, Mindi, Dannielle (Mat's elder sister although she looks way younger) and his Mom. They are all very funny. If you are in your most depressing state, just call these comedians and they make all your stresses go away. Ka-poof!



The waiter was so friendly that he brought out his own canister of saffron to smell, since some at the table had never smelled it. He said the little tin can cost $1,000 dollars. Believe it, it's the most expensive spice in the world. Thank you kind Mediterranean Man.


Went to the date farm--actual date farming from palm dates, and this sign had us in love again. I recommend the date shake and the brunette dates.



And we went to an open air market. I found this bag, would anyone like to make it for me for Christmas? I thought it was original and I know someone out there can make it. Right?



Back at it, with Thanksgiving knocking at my front door and Christmas knocking at my back door, it's time to shift into full speed mode, but we'll always have Palm Springs, CA.

Special thanks to Kelli and Jared for taking care of my kiddos. They just love them and I am lucky to have them. As for Gretchen, turns out-no infection, I guess she just wanted to spend some extra time with me before I left on my trip.

Because

It was a cute moment...



Because...7 year olds can be uniquely nuts

Dear Kelli

Dear Kelli,

Thank you for staying with my kids while Mat and I venture off to Palm Springs. I have noticed a few problem areas around my house that needed some serious attending to after celebrating Halloween and Becket's birthday, so I decided to buckle down and do them to save you from some eye popping experiences. No guarantees you might still have some of those experiences while tending to to my children, but I did the obvious ones.

The laundry room that was covered in costumes and special deliveries is now available to you if you need to do your laundry.



The dirty, dingy mouse pad got a new face lift, so you don't have to mess with the gummy rolled up corners (Micah will be happy to demonstrate how to work it, since she is a computer junkie now).



Bar stools have been cleaned and given a paint touch up. You can no longer see the hard crusted cereal and milk spots that were dried on there before.



And, I cleaned the soap scummed shower curtains that are always a battle when you live in a humid place. The toilets also have all been bleached and soap dispensers filled. You know, all things that gun you down in the morning and that you have been meaning to get to, but haven't.



Hope my kids behave. Hope it is a pleasant time for you. May I suggest that if neither of these things are going well for you, you may just want to sit on my laundry room table, criss-crossed applesauced and smile. I did and it made all the bad things go away. Poof!


Love,
Mic

Shoe vs The Leaf Pile

We were invited to our neighbors for a little leaf gathering. We did it last year and I told Margaret we would like to help her rake her leaves again this year. It was beautiful sight to see the children having so much fun



We raked, they played.



Until the Mister's shoe fell off. It was black and heavy and you would think you would have found it rather easily, but it was a big leaf pile and it took about 1/2 hour of combing the leaves to find the needle in the haystack "so to speak". Becket, as you can imagine, became very worried. Becket was forming nightmares in his head of going to school with one shoe on.

Verona ended up finding it on the out skirts of the leaves by the pine tree. We were all rewarded chocolate for a job well done.

"TODAY I AM SEVEN!"

That's what Becket shouted when he woke up this morning at 7am. It rang loudly as if it were from a mountain top. The excitement was overwhelming to this boy of 7.

I love this boy.
*He's easy to shop for
*Very sensitive to others feelings, so that makes him nice and a good future husband (I hope).
*And, he makes up funny songs on a whim and then sings them in his silly sing songy voice.

Here are some highlights from the Par-TY week.

LEGO Star Wars party



The LEGO cake was accessorized by the Birthday Man,



clean up was taken care of by sister Gretchen.





Jedi Training course, it involved a lot of jumping, flinging, and hitting stuff.



Light Saber Limbo



For the finale, Darth Vader presented the cake BOOMING, "Becket, I am your father. "
Becket's reply, "No you're not."
Mat, "Yes. I really am."




Then there was just lots of fighting after that. What else would you expect from kids this age?


I think Becket was happy, he better be or I'm getting out the Darth Vader mask. Thanks to all who came.

Note to self: When your child is given silly putty as a gift from the party, make sure you give instructions to your little sister to not use it to make fake head wounds. It could be a ratty mess.

Abundance

When there is an abundance in candy, sort and graph--at least that's what my inner organizing, teacher self says to do.



Gretchen was ALL over the sorting, I might just put her to work on my pantry.

While Becket was all over the candy



Complete! Chocolate candy on one side and non chocolate candy on the other. This will at least buy you mom's an hour to make dinner.



Then you graph! Quite the unexpected math lesson. Dums Dums and non candy items (toys i.e. spider rings) won coming in at 55. Low were the Swedish Fish, much to Mat's dismay.



As for the candy talk next year: Not so much candy! (good thing gingerbread houses are coming up)

PS My pantry looks great, thanks Gretchen! I am so glad we both get highs on mucking out deep, dark, scary places.