Fair Warning

Number 1:

We packed into the car to go to the library this morning.  As I'm backing out of the driveway I hear a question from the back seat.  I ignore it because I can't possibly answer the 374,563,981 questions I get from the back seat in a day.  Then it is asked again so I try to pay attention.

Me: What?
Greg: Do people die by theirselves?
Me: Well, people get old and sick and then they die.
Greg: (Long pause) Hmm, I think this will be a good question for Uncle Garrett.


Number 2:

Charlotte must have had some sort of space unit at school a while back.  A couple of weeks ago she sat down at the kitchen table and drew pictures of earth, and comets, and rocket ships.  I was cleaning the bathroom when I overheard this:

Greg: What's that?
Charlotte: The Earth.
Greg: What's the Earth?
Charlotte: It's a planet that we live on.
Greg: What's that?
Charlotte: A comet.
Greg: What's a comet?
Charlotte: Greg, you are asking too hard of questions.  You need to ask Aunt Katie.  She knows this stuff.

Fashion For Christmas

I realized something about myself after the comments on that last post.  I don't ever look at my husband's clothing anymore.  I honestly did not give it a second thought when I photographed him wearing that clothing or when I published it to the internet for everyone to see.  Then I saw all those comments and looked again and hoo-boy!  Luckily he did put on jeans for the actual dinner (and also the top is a jacket, not a shirt so that came off too).  Dinner was a completely plaid free event.

So here's my predicament.  I told my husband that all my creativity and planning for gifts this year was zapped and if he wanted to get a gift that he actually wanted he should just tell me what it was so I could get it for him.  He didn't even hesitate when he said a belt buckle that could go with nice black pants.  He has a beautiful belt buckle that my parents got him which has copper tones in it that goes well with brown or khaki pants, but not as well with black.

I know what he wants.  He wants to be able to wear this belt buckle with slacks in to work.  I want him to look nice too, wearing something he likes, but I don't want him to look like a caricature of a doctor cowboy.

This poses a problem for me because he wants something western and formal and the two don't often overlap.  Especially not in the under $100 category.

So do I:
1) Swallow hard and get him a belt buckle that I know is the type he wants, but that I don't really think is a more formal look
OR
2) Buy him a nice new formal belt with a more formal buckle?

And if I do go with option 1 where do I find something that could come even close to being appropriate for his work, and his personality.  After all is is an understated man, something overly flashy doesn't ever suit him.

And most importantly, why is my husband always the hardest one for me to shop for?

Happy Thanksgiving and Tree Day!

I finally got around to looking at all the photos from Thanksgiving and Tree Day on my camera and they made me smile so I thought I would share them with everyone.

The first series of photos are of our family on Thanksgiving afternoon.  The pies were made and the rolls were rising.  The kids had finished watching the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade and were getting a bit restless.  I decided we needed some family fun time.  So we went outside and played relay races.  

 The boys won because the girls spilled too much in the grass.

 And after it was over Percie got to have her Thanksgiving feast of the spilled popcorn.

 And then we went to a friend's house and ate.

The next day was Tree Day.  The kids were thrilled.

 Charlotte really wanted to put the star on so I got out the ladder and let her have at it.

 I found this little sweater in the Christmas decoration boxes and immediately put Lee in it because who wouldn't?

 Of course I took 30 photos of him in an attempt to get him smiling and with his hands out of his mouth.  The one photo I got was out of focus.

 This next series of photos I like to entitle, "Why I'm thankful for a non-walker at Christmas."

 Yesterday the kids badgered me into making Gingerbread cookies.  We mixed and cleaned and rolled and cleaned and baked and cleaned and then finally we were ready to decorate them.  Dan got a few shots of the kids moving the cookies to the table so they can decorate them.  Of course "Stompie" needed to help move the cookies.

The kids each did about 5 cookies before they were through decorating.  Then I told Dan I wasn't going to decorate anymore because I was done too so he took up the challenge and finished the lot.  Here's my favorite Gingerbread Man, I call him Mr. Bones:

 And this last series of photos I included to prove to myself that I may be bad at using our camera, but at least I'm not as bad as Dan:

 After about five more photos that looked like that he did manage to get this one:

And let it be Christmas!

Early Christmas Moments

Today I wrapped our "Tree Day" gifts for the kids.  Tree Day is a holiday that my mom made up to encourage her children to help put up the Christmas decorations.  We had a huge amount of decorations accumulated in my family.  My house was transformed for the month.  But it took the day to transform it.  If you are helping during Tree Day you periodically get a very small gift.  She has taught this tradition to my children so much so that they really think it is an official holiday so I scurried out to find a few presents (all under a dollar) for the kids.  This made me think of some of my favorite things of Christmas growing up.

I loved the movie Bushfire Moon (I never realized that was its name) growing up.  Our VHS version that my mom taped off the TV might have had some commercials in it, sometimes the first few seconds after an attempted edit of a commercial break were cut off, but I still loved it.  For the life of me I can't find a version to purchase now so I can show it to my kids.

You know what movie I never watched growing up?

My husband's family watches it.  Every year.  All together.  Loudly saying the funny parts exactly in sync with the movie.  Sometimes on repeat all day long.  And they still laugh every time.  You've never heard a great laugh until you hear my father-in-law's laugh.  So now I know how the movie goes.

Which is why this experience was so funny to me a few days ago:

Scene:  I'm upstairs doing chores.  Charlotte, Greg, and a neighbor friend, we'll call her Sally, were playing downstairs.  This is what I overhear:

Greg: Sally is an idiot!  Sally is an idiot!  Sally is an idiot!

I immediately came downstairs and put him on time out upstairs.  After time out and tears had subsided I sat and talked to him.

Me: It isn't nice to call people names.  Not ever.

Greg: Oh-Kaaaay.

Me: Where did you even hear that word?

Greg was silent, but the look in his eyes said I know where I heard that word and you know where I heard that word, but if you think I'm going to say anything you're nuts.  He was properly reprimanded and had to apologize, but the entire thing made me shake my head.  Christmas 2012 here we come!

Why I keep Her

 I finally found the dog pee.

 I had to sprinkle baking soda over the carpet and the vacuum it up to find where it stuck.

That's how I knew it was dog pee. 

 On our brand new carpet.

 And also on the brand new wall too.

 And sometimes I think we're too poor to own this one dog wrecking crew.

 And sometimes I think we should just get rid of her.

 And then I find a million photos 

 that Charlotte

 and Greg

 and Dan have taken of her.

 And I know I'd never be able to do that.

 So instead I buy an industrial size jug of Nature's Miracle

 And hope it works.

Leopard Family

My thoughtful sister has been sending me short clips of her day with her son, my newest nephew, almost every day since he was born.  I've been loving it.  Since I don't get to see him until Christmas this is helping to tide me over.  Because of that I thought I'd share a few clips of my baby for everyone to enjoy. 

This is a photo of my favorite birth mark that he has on his lower back.  Lee has five (or is it six?) birth marks.  I blame Dan, I may have freckles, but that man is part leopard with all of his markings.

This next video is Lee's favorite game to play-jump on Mommy's bed!

And this last photo is not of Lee, but of Greg in the same outfit that Lee is wearing.  It just cracks me up to see how differently this clothing seems to be fitting the second time around.