I may live to regret it, but...

We have a houseguest this evening. He is cute and sweet and he will be spending the night. Did I mention he only weighs about 12 pounds or so? It is his parents anniversary and they would like to be alone for the evening. Of course, like any other man he requires feeding, cleaning, and constant supervision. For the most part, he has been remarkably good. I am writing this into history tonight because who knows how I'll feel about this kid in the morning...;)

At first, he was a little worried...

Then he began to admire Memphis' hair.

Then he began to yearn for his own hair.

Then he decided to be really cute...

Don't worry mom, he did miss you a little.

But, then he felt better again.

Right now, his mother is thinking, "Why are you blogging about my child instead of watching him you crazy, crazy woman?"

Well, he's sleeping now. I would take a picture so you could see what a cute sleeper he is, but I'm afraid that he would no longer be a cute sleeper if I did. You'll just have to imagine it.

Pet Peeves

Let me start out by saying that we had a wonderful Christmas even though Cody and my brother Richard were in Colorado. It was relatively calm and not as overwhelming in the childrens' present department as it has been in the past.

Ok, so now that you know that I don't always complain, I'll get on with two pet peeves that have been driving me crazy.

The first is especially maddening lately. I know you parents will join me in my quest to eliminate the wire twist ties that hold toys into their boxes. I am so fed up with having to endlessly untwist these things as my impatient and excited children sit watching me and bouncing and saying, "is it out yet?, how about now?, is it out yet?" over and over and over. It has really become ridiculous. If a thief wants the toy that bad, just let him have it. Don't punish the hard-working parents by requiring us to own a blow torch just to get the toy out. And it's not just the ties, now there are plastic tabs held down by industrial strength tape and string that is impervious to human teeth. Come on! Give me a break here. If you must tie the toy down, at least pick one restraining method and stick with it. Most toys have a combination of all of them which makes me picture a man in a dark room somewhere laughing in delight as he secures Barbie's horse drawn carriage to it's box, all the while imagining a parent attempting to extract the carriage while stifling expletives and applying bandages to the bloody stumps where their fingers used to be.

The other thing that has me all in a tizzy these days are those wonderful inspiring and love filled emails with the guilt message at the end. I am usually moved by the body of the email and I am making a mental list of all of the people who I would like to forward it to, when...BAM! The next line reads something to the effect of: If you do not forward this email to every single person in your address book then you are a faithless, loveless, useless slug of a person who barely qualifies as human. You have single-handedly condemned the souls of all the people you know. You will have no chance at getting into Heaven and forget about being rich and famous. You will enter a self-loathing, ungrateful, maniacal state of mind from which you will never recover. Do you want to know what I do with these emails now? I delete them. They are gone. The people to whom I wanted to send the original message are far too important to me to send them something so guilt inducing. Here's what I want to say to whoever it was that tagged that little disclaimer onto those wonderful emails: Shame on you for turning something so wonderful into yet another way to make people feel guilty. It defeats the whole purpose of the original message and it ruins it for everyone.

Aaaahhhhh, I feel so much better!

Ever lose a finger?

Apparently, making Christmas cookies was not something we were supposed to do this year. I really thought it would be a fun, memory making event for the girls. Instead they were left traumatized. The only success was that I made sure they would never forget this experience.

While making sugar cookie dough, Cody was in charge of the mixer while I added the flour mixture gradually. I did this while holding Carson with my left hand. The batter began to stick to the sides of the bowl so I grabbed a rubber spatula and began scraping.

It didn't take long for these two mixing elements to come in contact with one another. This caused the spatula to shoot through the beaters taking my hand with it. So, my right hand is stuck between two beaters that are straining to move again and my left hand is still holding my daughter.

This is the point where I began to realize what could happen to my hand and I very calmly ask Cody to unplug the mixer. Cody then runs screaming into the living room leaving me stranded in the mixer. Carson had also begun to panic and was clinging to me making it very difficult to put her down.

I finally get Carson to let go, unplug the mixer, extract my hand and get it under cold, running water. I don't know why. Anyway, there I am with my hand in the water while both girls are running around the living room screaming bloody murder. I mean it very well may have been the most dramatic scene that ever was.

Other than a little temporary numbness in my right ring finger and a bruised thumb, I came out remarkably unscathed. Although, I did somehow get a beater shaped indention on my left hand. I can't remember my left hand even being near the mixer.

So, you would think that after all this trouble it would be even more enjoyable to sit and devour all the wonderful cookies. Well it would have been, if the cookies had turned out edible. In keeping with the tone of the day, the cookies became permanently attached to the cookie sheet during the baking process and would only break off in smaller than bit-sized pieces. Lovely.

At least the kids had a good time using the cookie cutters!

I want it to go

Did you ever get that nervous, guilty, scared feeling that won't go away? No matter how hard you try to think about something other than the thing that is making you nervous, guilty, and scared, it just doesn't work. It just eats at your stomach making you feel worse all the time. You just do your best to ignore it and hope it goes away soon.

Friends

There are many things that make a friend a friend. There are several people whom I consider friends, but just a few that I consider best friends. You know, those people who will make a permanent mark on your life. They become more like your family. They are the people who when it has been more than a day or two and you haven't spoken to them, you start to miss them.

Friends make you laugh...

...until you cry.

Friends share everything...

beds,

chairs,

elephants, fish,

and food, among other things.

Friends know when to back off,

and when to be silly.

Friends always watch over one another.

And, friends always have lots of pictures.






We really miss you, Karin and Taylor!

Just don't teach them to read

I thought teaching Cody to read would be difficult and not fun. Well tonight she totally proved me wrong. We were learning together on this great website: www.starfall.com. Check it out. Anyway, we came to the lesson on "sh" when a series of words beginning with "sh" comes across the screen. Cody is doing well, successfully reading "shop" (that's my girl) and "sheep." The next word comes up and it is "she." My Innocent little child says, "sh*t," feels my breath catch, turns to look at me, and repeats, "sh*t." She truly has no idea that she has just uttered an expletive. She is waiting for my usual praise. Try as I might I could not hold in the laughter any longer.

I laughed until my stomach hurt. The whole time she keeps saying, "What, Mom? What's so funny?" Which only makes me laugh harder.

This learning to read stuff? Not so boring after all.

Feelin' the Love

I found myself caught up this evening in a moment of overwhelming love. Carson was in front of me playing very quietly with a toy and performing both sides of a conversation between two figures. I just had that feeling that I wanted to grab her and squish her and never let go. You mothers out there know the feeling. I said to her, "Do you know that I think you are so precious?"

She looked me straight in the eye with a very sincere gaze and said, "Mama, I need to go pee."

Best of November 2006

I purchased a new camera in November, so there were approximately 46,895 pictures to choose from for this post. Anyway, we had quite a few visitors here this month for Thanksgiving and we really had a good time. I turned 27 a few weeks ago and I am slowly coming to terms with the fact that the countdown to 30 has officially begun. I always thought that people just kind of pretended that it was a big deal because they were supposed to. But, I actually feel a twinge of real panic at the thought of turning 30. Silly? Probably. Rational? Probably not. Well at least when I get old I'll still have all these pictures to remind me of the good old days.

Yes, I tried to talk her out of it.

Apparently they were tired of having their picture taken.

Cousins. Well, my 3 kids and their cousin.

Yes, my thumb is good.

Memphis and me with my brother, sister-in-law, and nephew Hayden.

The girls think Uncle Billy is the most fun ever!

A little girl time

I know there are a few pictures of these two together, but look at those faces!

Cody took this one.

Even Memphis is getting in on the face making fun, oh no.