An Unexpected Visitor

This evening we had an unexpected visitor. Scarlet the elf! We heard some jingle bells coming down the stairs and suddenly Scarlet the elf appeared around the corner.

There appears to have been a very bad boy sitting behind Scarlet when I was taking a picture of our surprise visitor. Apparently, he is not concerned about his standing on the naughty or nice list. Scarlet will be reporting back to Santa about those bunny ears!

Scarlet was dressed all in red (appropriately), but the elf shoes on her feet bore a remarkable resemblance to the elf hats that I had purchased for Savannah and a friend to wear during their school Christmas program (which were never worn).

She even had a Build a Bear bow on her ponytail. Very authentic.

We were all very glad to have this visitor for the night. She was very cute. And with the exception of Myles, we were all on our best behavior. I guess when piles of coal are found in his stocking, we'll know why.

One light goes out, They all go out!!

Tonight, I have experienced one of the 12 pains of Christmas. (Thank you Bob Rivers, I love that song.) Hanging Christmas lights. No, not on the outside of my house, but on my Christmas tree. At my house we have a Christmas forest rather than just one Christmas tree. 4 trees of varying heights, each with it's own decoration theme. Earlier this week, Myles noticed that the tallest tree and second tallest tree were not lighting up. GREAT!!

So, I decided that I would test the lights and buy some new ones to replace the non-working lights. Tree 2 has multi color lights and plugs into Tree 1, which has clear lights and plugs into Tree 3, which has pink lights and plugs into the wall. Tree 4 has no lights at all and is now my favorite of the trees because it causes me no problems. After isolating each tree and testing the lights, I discovered that it was Tree 1 that was causing the problem. I went to Walmart and purchased a new package of clear lights and today I buckled down to remove all of the 5 million tiny colorful glass ball decorations, blown glass decorations, and strings of blown glass garland.

About an hour later, I was ready to remove the lights. This is a task that I absolutely hate, which is why the trees get put away every year with the lights still on them. Part way through the removal process I realized that I had 4 strands of clear lights wrapped around this tree! 4! And, it turned out that only the one in the middle of the tree wasn't working. So, I only had to unwrap half of the tree. Yipee!

I unwrapped, opened new lights, connected the plugs, and re wrapped the tree. Then, I pushed the tree back into position, connected all the trees together again and called in the kids for the Griswald-esque reveal of the working lights. And, in true Griswald fashion (drum roll, please), this was the result (notice the dark area in the middle of the tree)...

The middle portion of Tree 1 was, for some unknown reason, repelling working Christmas lights. Turns out only half of the new strand of lights was working. Half? I thought if one light goes out, they all go out. So, I grabbed one more strand of lights and decided to just layer this strand over the non-working half and call it good. Separate all the trees again. Wrap lights around and around. Push trees back into position. Connect all plugs. And this was the result...

Now, I had lost the lights on Tree 2. At this point I invented some new, especially festive curse words and considered turning the trees into mulch.

Some time later, I unwrapped Tree 1 again, completely removing all of the lights on the tree. I decided to just use the one strand of clear lights that were working and re wrap the entire tree with just the one strand. Surprisingly, it worked! And Christmas is not cancelled. The Christmas tree forest is slightly less bright than it was originally, but so is my Christmas spirit. (Hopefully it will recharge after I start wrapping tonight. Ha!)

Time Flies!

It's nearly Christmas and I'm really not sure where the time has gone. I'm also not sure where all of my available spending cash went either. Maybe it was sucked out of my purse while I was at Target attempting to grant my children the greatest Christmas of all time!! (I may have succeeded this year, but I can't talk about that until after Dec. 25th. I have learned that my kids have quickly caught up with me on computer abilities. Their snooping skills are still sadly sub par, however.)

So, to catch every one up...

1. B hit a deer and wrecked our car. Boo-hoo. But, we got a rental that I sort of grew to love. Until...

2. We got hit by the blizzard of 2009. On that day I learned that our rental car hates the snowy weather nearly as much as I do and prefers to stay tucked away at home.

During the blizzard, the kids got 3 snow days in a row! Greatest 3 days ever as evidenced in the photos below. I am pretty sure that Myles is campaigning for larger xmas gifts by doing so much work for me outside. He shovelled all the sidewalks and cleaned off the car for me. I may have to start shopping for a snow blower to give him for Christmas.

3. Another great event that just happened in our house was captured in this picture:

Myles finally got to eat his first ear of corn on the cob since getting his braces off. It's incredibly difficult to track down some corn on the cob that looks edible in December, but we finally did it and it was delicious!

4. We were able to meet a couple of Santa's reindeer last weekend. Dancer and Prancer. They were very uninterested in us and preferred to eat. They also didn't fly at all!! But they were fun to see. Just prior to our meeting the reindeer, we spotted Santa driving a blue Oldsmobile. I guess that's his back up transportation when his reindeer are out doing PR.

5. Last night was the Christmas program at the kid's school. The kindergarten through third grade performed and the 5th and 6th grade band opened up the show. It was a smash hit! You can watch the most important parts on my youtube page here. The incredible camera work explains why hollywood is constantly calling me. (I think I need a tripod. Or possible some arm muscles.)

6. Finally, I am now gearing up for the last few days left before Christmas. I have shopping to finish. I haven't even begun to wrap anything. And, I really have no idea if the gifts I have purchased for the kids are in any way even. The school parties are coming up next week and we have Christmas cookies to bake. I've been waaaayyyy too busy lately and have decided that all I really want for Christmas is a nap. A long, uninterrupted nap. Please, Santa, please.

Super Mario Mania!!

This weekend I thought it would be fun to rent the New Super Mario Bros. for the DS. I have always loved playing the Super Mario games and kicking some Koopa butt. I still remember playing the original on my old Nintendo which was hooked up to my parents console television (and still is). Savannah is the sole owner of a Nintendo Ds in our household. She is also the only one in our house who doesn't enjoy the Super Mario games. This weekend we planned to change that.

I brought the game home and immediately began to test it out. Then Myles caught wind of what I was doing and quickly demanded a turn. Savannah remained distant, determined that she didn't like the Super Mario games. So, we let her watch as Myles and I would raise the DS up over our heads attempting to help Mario leap a large gap, or kick our feet violently up into the air after Mario died a premature death. Finally, the nervous ticks, sweat, and bad words lured Savannah over to us. She wanted in on the action. And she promptly died. That was it. She wanted nothing further to do with the "stupid Super Mario game!"

Myles and I have been fighting over it all weekend and we have learned one thing: Super Mario causes ulcers. (and creative bad language) Our goal had been to beat the game before I have to return it, but it's going back tomorrow and we have only made it to world 6. (Ugh, the frustration.) The good news is that this has totally renewed Myles's interest in the Mario games that we do have. And, since he has only been interested in playing sports video games (boring!!!!), I am very excited about this. I can finally play video games with him again and enjoy myself. (And also have a chance at beating him) However, the housework that I have already put off for 500 other reasons, will still sit undone because we are busy playing video games. Who needs clean clothes or home cooked meals, when we are desperately trying to rescue Princess Peach? A poor princess's life is hanging in the balance!

The Braces are Off!

Well, Monday was a big day in our house. Myles finally got his braces off! Woo-hoo! I'm still not used to looking at him and seeing teeth instead of braces. We had big plans to get him something special for dinner Monday night. He had specially requested corn on the cob. He hasn't been able to eat corn on the cob for the past 2 summers, and living in Nebraska, corn on the cob is a staple of our summer dinners. Mmmmmm farm fresh corn on the cob. But, unfortunately it's November not July, so farm fresh corn on the cob isn't available. So, we thought we buy some frozen ears of corn (something I'd never done before). Well, looking at those sad bags of very expensive freezer burned corn at the grocery store forced us to forgo our plan for dinner. Such a pity. All this time waiting and he's still going to have to wait until next summer. Anything less than fresh just isn't going to cut it.

Those teeth look nice and straight, don't they? I wish the sun would have been out so my pictures didn't look so gloomy.

Count Down to New Moon and the mini Edward

I am anxiously awaiting my chance to see New Moon. My sister and I have tickets to see the Saturday matinee. We weren't hard core enough to make it to the midnight showing tonight. We have been planning to see this movie for months, though. Then, my son, Myles, gets invited to a birthday party friday night (New Moon opening night) and he and his friends will be going to see the movie before me. And I'm the big Twilight fan. But Jen Lancaster may have me beat. I haven't gotten the action figures. Only because of the ridicule I know I'd have to endure.

Anyway, since Myles has been happily rubbing my face in the fact that he's going to see the movie before me I thought I needed to turn him into a vampire. Here is my Edward. And in case you were unsure, we are a Team Edward household.

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Hot or Not?

Today I am wearing a sweater that I had bought myself over the weekend. I was out doing a little Christmas shopping and found myself a sweater on clearance and had to buy it. (I like to reward myself while shopping for gifts). It is a very cute sweater with purple and gray stripes and a cowl neck. And it's lightweight and very comfortable. And, I thought I looked quite good in it.

This morning while in the kitchen getting ready to leave, Savannah walks in and laughs at me. "Your sweater's on backwards," she says. "What?" I asked her. She was all giggly and I thought she was just being goofy, so I disregarded her comment. Then Myles comes into the kitchen. He, too, laughs at me and tells me my sweater is on backwards. Now, I'm a little concerned. I glance down at myself and see nothing amiss.

"What are you talking about?" I asked them. They are both still hysterically laughing and pointing at me.

"Mom," Myles says, trying to catch his breath, "your hoodie is in the front instead of the back." He means that my cute cowl neck sweater looks more like a backwards hoodie sweater. So, in 5 minutes time I went from feeling hot in my new sweater, to feeling self conscious wondering how many other people today will be looking at me wondering if I realize I have my hoodie sweater on backwards. Thanks kids!

Procrastination Payback.

Well, my mom did it to me again. As a child she cursed me. And that curse has been lying in wait. Just hanging out waiting to rear it's evil little head. Last week, it got in it's first punch.

When I was a kid, I was the supreme master of procrastination (I still hold the title). I think I was under the delusion that I worked better under pressure. Actually, my panic in meeting an unmeetable deadline probably just resulted in many people having to chip in to make things work out for me. I can recall many last minute school projects being worked on the night before they were due and my mother telling me that someday I would have a child who would put things off until the last minute and I would be left feeling as frustrated as she did.

Well, last week was payback time.

I had come home after picking up the kids from school and was completely exhausted. I immediately changed into comfy clothes (none of which matched, but all of which was super comfy and perfect for laying on the couch in). After enjoying about 30 minutes of couch time, Myles informed me that he had a social studies project due tomorrow and he needed to bring in homemade pretzels.

He is learning about immigration to the US in the early 1900s and is playing the part of a German immigrant. "Can't we take in some gummy bears?" I asked him. "No! It has to be homemade or I'll get a bad grade," he informed me. This is perfect because not only do pretzels take about 5 hours to make, I don't have any yeast in the house. So, I have to run to Walmart to pick some up. And, I'm currently wearing an outfit that would guarantee me a place on the PeopleOfWalmart.com. Damn! So, I have to change my clothes and Myles and I run to Walmart.

So once we get home I have to make dinner and clean up the kitchen so that there is a usable surface free of dirty dishes that we can roll pretzels out on. This is much more work than I'm up for. None of this added stress is bothering Myles in the least. "You are going to do most of the work making these pretzels," I told Myles. Only, that didn't work out since his teachers also assigned about 3 hours of other homework to do on top of this procrastinated project.

I was elbow deep in pretzel dough, when Myles strode into the room telling me that he can put his "3 German things" in a pillow case or bag. "What 3 German things?" I ask. "We have to bring 3 German things that our immigrant would have brought with him from their country," he explained. "What are you taking?" I ask. He shrugs. So I order him to go seek out his 3 things and report back. I continued kneading pretzel dough quite angrily.

"Are their snakes in Germany?" he asks me a few minutes later. "Why?" I ask. Well, my boy spent 30 whole seconds coming up with a rock, a leaf, and a snake as his 3 things to take in his sack. "I'm pretty sure they have all these things in Germany," he tells me proudly. "Really? Do you really think that an immigrant would choose to bring a rock, a leaf, and a SNAKE along on the long long journey across the ocean to the United States. Those are the 3 things he'd want in his bag?" His face fell as he realized that I wasn't impressed at his tiny little effort on this project. He stalked out of the room to hunt down some better "German things".

I was now ready to hide sauerkraut inside of these pretzels as punishment for dumping all of this on me so last minute.

So, while the pretzel dough was rising, we found 3 better "German things". He took an old book of mine that is written in German (the book was published in 1925 and his immigrant came over in 1905, but close enough), he drew a German flag, and out of desperation, we threw in a recipe for German potato salad (that's still better than a snake). If I were coming to the US from Germany, I know I wouldn't want to leave behind my German potato salad recipe. Then we had about 5 minutes to spare in which we crafted some lederhosen out of colored paper and staples. (He had asked me if I had any lederhosen that he could just borrow for his costume, but unfortunately I had already worn my to work that week and they were in the laundry.)

I have yet to see the grade on our last minute project, but I'm hoping we did alright. Really, the pretzels alone should have earned him an A+. But, in fairness, I have passed along the curse. He, too, will have procrastinating offspring.

Halloween 2009

How did Halloween come and go so quickly this year? I always look forward to this time of year because it's my favorite season to decorate for. And, I usually do it very very early to get maximum enjoyment out of my decorations. This year I just couldn't keep up. We finally got our cute porch things out the week before Halloween and we didn't even carve our pumpkins until the afternoon of Halloween. Anyway, this is how awesome our pumpkins turned out.

Here is a fun video of what happened to the one pumpkin that hadn't ripened completely and was not able to be carved. The kids found another purpose for that pumpkin.

After all of that mess, I am predicting that we have pumpkins sprouting up under that tree in our front yard and next to our porch where most of the carving and seed spilling took place. Pumpkin vines everywhere might be our landscaping theme next year. Won't the neighbors be excited?

Here are the kids in their costumes.

Myles and Savannah both went trick or treating with friends this year, leaving me at home to deal with all the neighborhood trick or treaters. I was usually able to weasel out of this duty because I was the one taking the kids around. It was a nice night out, though, and B and I sat out on our porch and handed out candy and scared kids with our skeleton guy.

B also brought out his red laser pointer and we discovered that it will shine a laser light all the way across the street, across the neighbor's yard, up their siding, through their open front door, and onto their living room wall. This will result in the neighbors coming to the door to look out in confusion as to where that red dot of light dancing all over their living room wall is coming from. Once, they sat back down, we did it again. And they came to investigate again. It was a great way to entertain ourselves between groups of trick or treaters.

All in all, it was a sort of strange Halloween for me. The kids came home with their sacks full of delicious candy (and I haven't even stole much of it yet). But, they are getting older and Myles says that next year he probably won't go trick or treating since he'll be too old. (He was a bit glum about it, though) So, we are planning a Halloween party for his friends next year complete with scary movies that I'll refuse to watch. (I get nightmares). But for now, Halloween is over and I get to begin stressing about Christmas. Black Friday ads are already taunting me. EEEEKKK!!!

Lots of Leaves

Over the weekend, the kids and I decorated our porch. We put out our new lighted archway and now have an awesome Halloween porch.

Today was the first day in a long time that we have had both sunshine and no rain. So, we decided to go out and tackle the growing leaf problem in our yard. To remedy this situation, we decided to make giant leaf piles and jump into them.

After several jumps, we noticed that our pile had taken on a shape. So, we worked on it and created a leaf sculpture. Meet Leaf Teddy:

And here is Savannah holding hands with Leaf Teddy. You can see how big he is.

Now I've had enough fun with the leaves. They will probably stay where they are and next summer we will have a giant "Leaf Teddy" shaped dead spot in our yard.

Bumbling Tooth Fairy

Myles lost a tooth, and our bumbling tooth fairy's services were required once again. Our tooth fairy is often forgetful and often needs a couple of days notice before the monetary reward is exchanged with the tooth.

Additionally, Myles, who is 11 years old, has been sleeping with his bedroom door closed at night to block the hallway light that Savannah requests be left on. However, on this fateful, toothless night, Myles surprisingly requests that his bedroom door be left open and informs me that his tooth is tucked into a baggie and has been placed in the pocket of his tooth fairy pillow.

"The pillow is right over there, Mom. On the other side of my room. Do you see it?" (hint hint wink wink) He's not on to me, is he? Well, I can promise you that at the risk of having to give up the tooth fairy's payment of $2, he'll never admit to being a non-believer.

So, again, the bumbling tooth fairy's services are required. I have now been subtly reminded by my son and to aid my senile mind, I race downstairs and write a black "TF" on my hand for additional reinforcement.

Well, as 11pm approaches and I feel confident that there are sound sleepers upstairs, so I attempt to tip-toe up the stairs of our century old house. I remembered that we have 17 stairs leading up to the second floor and each and every one of those steps has a very distinctive creak in it. There is absolutely no sneaking in this house. The hallway leading to the kids' rooms is just as creaky. And, to speed the falling asleep process, I turned out the hall light. It is completely pitch black up there. And in the 20 minute journey up the creaky stairs (I was attempting stealth, but failed miserably), I would have thought that my eyes would adjust, but they had not. So, I was forced to move one step at a time with my arms outstretched in front of me. Step. Creak. Stop and listen. No movement from kids, then repeat. It was painfully slow, but I made my way successfully into Myles's room. Two steps past the threshold. I had a general idea of the location of the pillow, but this was going to be tricky. I knew there was a chair between me and the tooth fairy pillow and I was determined not to stub my toe on it. So, I extend my foot out in front of me. No chair yet. So, to expedite this mission I decide to take a giant step toward the tooth fairy pillow. And land my foot right on a plastic shopping sack, which crinkles and sticks to my foot. The enormous racket caused by this sack forces me to make a speedy retreat back into the hallway, where my foot is ensnared in a pile of dirty laundry and I crash into the hallway wall.

I believe both kids sat up in bed and asked me what I was doing. "Just checking on you guys," I told them, trying to regain my footing.

"You are doing it very loudly," I was told.

"Sorry. Good night." I headed back down the creaking staircase.

So, the tooth fairy's mission was a complete failure. She'll be making a second attempt in the morning.

It's very unfortunate that my children should be assigned to such a bumbling tooth fairy.

Tales of a Relived Youth

Well, I spent this past week getting up an hour early and racing around to get Savannah off to her cheerleading camp. The rather enjoyable side effect of this was that once Savannah was at school, I had nearly 40 full minutes of morning with nothing to do. (Ok, there was plenty to do, but I chose to have some fun with my spare time.)

While Myles was stumbling down the stairs to get himself ready for school, I busted out the Guitar Hero game. Amazingly, I had it completely to myself each time I did this. I guess early morning bleariness doesn't lend itself well to schooling your mother on the Wii. And, it brought back memories of hurrying downstairs every morning as a kid to get first shot at the Nintendo. There is nothing like a little early morning video gaming to get you going. So, I was rocking out all week to Guitar Hero.

"Hey Myles," I yelled on Friday. "I'm totally jamming out here."

"I don't think so," he told me. "I can hear all of those missed notes."

Damn. He can still tell that I need more practice. (But this is only due to the fact that I had promoted myself up to the medium difficulty since I felt I had graduated from easy.) I was hoping that Joan Jett might be looking for a band mate, and thanks to Guitar Hero, I was ready for her.

So, I played on all morning, and learned that my right hand that is used for the strumming action on that guitar would cramp up after a while and I had to develop new ways to hold either my hand or the guitar to ease that pain that my wimpy hand muscles were experiencing.

"Wuss," Myles taunted.

I am no wuss. So, I played through the pain in a truly non-wuss fashion.

After nearly a week of this Guitar Hero-ing, my hand was still wimping out after about 30 minutes of playing. It wasn't toughening up at all. Maybe I am a wuss.

Saturday morning I woke up with my right hand aching and feeling as though it were riddled with arthritis. The simplest movement of my hand would nearly send me to my knees. It took me nearly half of the day to realize that this newly crippled hand was caused by my Guitar Hero mornings. This condition is akin to the "Nintendo Thumb" that I used to suffer from as a child after spending an entire day trying desperately to rescue Princess Peach. Oh that princess nearly cost me my thumbs.

In the same way that the Nintendo has evolved into the Wii, I think the "Nintendo Thumb" has evolved into the "Wii Arthritis". And I'm afraid that my jamming days are over. At least for a while.

I did make myself feel better today with a little Super Mario action. I played my old Nintendo on the same console television that I played on as a kid. Surprisingly, I still remember many of the secret tricks to that game. I also was reminded of the frustrations of not being able to save your progress in that game. Aaaarrrrgggghhhh!!! Tomorrow my thumbs will probably hurt. Advil and I are becoming better friends these days.

Sleep, sweet sweet Sleep!

Due to my total sleep deprivation this week, posts have been lacking, but I am going to cram it all in to this one novella post.

I took the kids out Sunday afternoon to try to find Halloween costumes or get ideas on what to make for costumes. I was determined not to spend $150 on Halloween costumes. However, after a trip to Nobbies and Halloween Express, $150 didn't even seem like enough. So, we left those two shops and headed over to Target. By this time we were all hungry and pretty much hating everything about this Halloween shopping trip. I was thinking that it would be cheaper for me to spend $30 on candy and forget about the costumes all together. I think everyone would be happy in the end. There wouldn't be any stress about having to put on a winter coat over costumes or having to take out a second mortgage to afford the stupid costumes. And, there would be a huge amount of candy that didn't suck! Win, win. Except for the darn school parties. DRAT! I'm not even in school any longer and I must still succumb to peer pressure.
So, after much angry searching on the Internet, we have decided on Myles dressing up as a Woopie Cushion and Savannah is going to be the Statue of Liberty. For the statue of liberty costume, we are making the entire thing. Wish me luck. The instructions and pictures I found on the internet make it look easy, but we'll see how true that is.
Monday was the first day of my crazy week. I have to get up an hour early everyday this week to get Savannah to school by 7am for cheerleading practice. (It may not sound like that big of a deal, but I function on an average of 5 hours of sleep a night. Not by choice, but how else could I get everything done? So, this week, it's been 4 hours a night and it's sucked!) Day one was rough. And to make everything better, I was greeted by some "special rocks" (as they are known in my house ) deposited in my back porch by my little Fillmore. And, in the pitch blackness of the 5:30am morning, I nearly stepped on the "special rocks". I love being sleep deprived and having to deal with bad little dogs all at once.

Day two, Savannah and I got to walk to school at 6:30am. This is just wrong. It is still pitch black out at 6:30am. And our little town has very few street lights. It was an adventure. We made it there and I walked back home. Prior to our walk, I had done my hair, but when I returned home, thanks to sweat, wind, and humidity, this was how I looked.

Day 4 was the worst. I went to bed late. I've been nervous each night that I would hit the snooze button and sleep through her cheerleading practice. So, my shortened night's sleeps have not been good. Last night, Fillmore decided to bark at 3:30am. For no good reason. I chose to ignore him figuring that if I didn't get up he would shut up. But at 4:15am I could take it no longer. I got up, shuffled to the Fillmore's kennel, opened it, shuffled to the back door and shoved him out. All without opening my eyes. It was an attempt to not fully wake up so that I could still get my last needed 30 minutes of sleep. It worked. (But, tonight any barking will result in certain death) Now, tomorrow is Day 5, and we will be walking again. (This is due to the fact that our second car is uncooperative and won't start during our greatest times of need). It's been raining hard for the past 24 hours and could possibly be snowing in the morning. Should be the makings of a great Friday.

Tomorrow night she gets to perform with the cheerleaders at the high school football game. (and she gets a sweatshirt, which I think was her biggest incentive to do this cheerleading camp. So much like her mother, she is. Offer us clothing and we are there.) Then, on Saturday, we will be completely focused on the making of her Halloween costume. (And catching up on the hours and hours of sleep I'm behind on).

Swine Flu and Ham

Well, guess what is going around my town? The Swine flu. Or H1N1. And, it’s in my house. It’s been here since last Friday. Myles started feeling bad on Friday and is only now starting to return to normal. He had every swine flu symptom that was listed online except for the high fever. I have theorized that this is because the virus has mutated and Myles is actually sick with the H1N2 virus. That’s right, folks. We grow giant pumpkins and hybrid viruses. Come on over! I’ve been hearing ever since that kids have been dropping like flies at school. Lots and lots of absences. And, to celebrate this institute of germ sharing I spent the evening working at the Scholastic book fair in the school’s library. I was thinking that surgical masks should have been offered to everyone entering (or at least to me since my health should be everyone’s top priority). There were so many sniffles and coughs in that little room that I will certainly come down with some sort of terrible cootie. When I got back to my car, I hosed myself off with Purell. Twice.

Onto some exciting news. Savannah lost her tooth at school today. I think this is the first tooth she’s lost at school. She got a special treasure chest ring to put her tooth in and wear for the rest of the day. She also won a coloring contest at school and gets to pick out a poster from the book fair. Woo-hoo. Top ten day for Savannah. She drew this picture when she got home from school. It illustrates her new smile without the tooth.

Yesterday, B harvested our pumpkins (without me). I came home to a pile of pumpkins next to our front porch. It was exciting to see them up there, but I would have liked to witness the transportation of the pumpkins. Myles told me that B had to get our plastic saucer sled out of the shed, roll the giant pumpkins onto the sled, and slide them up to the front. Since he was home sick, B had told Myles that he wasn’t allowed to come outside to watch (it was about 34 degrees out), so we have no you tube-able videos of pumpkin wrestling. Darn it. But, here they are. (Maybe I'll be able to get some pumpkin wrestling videos when we carve them :) )

I had to take this picture while it was raining down ice pellets. Or, micro-hailing. That’s my new weather term. I’m writing in to Jim Flowers (local meteorologist) to let him know that it was micro-hailing in Arlington and we had hail the size of Nerds at our house.


Adventures in Ham -- Dinners this week have been a challenge. I thought that I would purchase a ham from the grocery store when I saw they were on sale. We don't eat ham very often and now I remember why. I cooked up a big ham and for dinner Tuesday night, I enjoyed it. Myles, full from his cupcakes, wasn't interested in ham and potatoes. (I brought cupcakes home from work and he greedily devoured 2. Later that night, while complaining of not feeling so good, I learned that the 2 cupcakes had been all he'd eaten all day. Good Job Mom!) Savannah took one bite of the ham, convulsed violently, and informed me that she didn't like ham. (I couldn't have figured that out from the dramatic performance she just gave). So, I sat happily enjoying my ham. Night 2 I had planned to make ham and cheese melts. Under normal circumstances, my kids will devour any sort of melt presented to them. But these were not normal circumstances. Myles was full from his Salisbury steaks and gravy. (After I fed him nothing but cupcakes, B thought a lunch of frozen Salisbury steaks covered in a thick gravy with a side of fries would be a good lunch for a sickly kid. We are hopeless.) B wasn't hungry either (thanks to Salisbury steaks). Savannah wasn't putting that ham anywhere near her mouth, so was instead served a turkey melt. I had a ham melt. So, after 2 nights, my humongous ham was now missing exactly 3 slices. Tonight, we will all be enjoying a crock pot dinner of Au gratin potatoes and ham. Will anyone enjoy this meal besides me? Probably not. And after these 3 nights of ham dinners, I still have nearly half of the ham left.
I hope the dogs like ham more than the kids do.

Slumber Party Aftermath

Remember the good old days? Staying up all night, gossiping, playing truth or dare. Savannah spent the night at a friend's house last night, and in true post-slumber party style remained awake for an entire 10 minutes once she got home.

Did I Miss Fall?

This is what I woke up to this morning.

After watching the news last night, I was expecting the snow, but it was only suppposed to be around an inch and most of that was supposed to melt since it had been so warm lately. But, once the sun came up it still looked like this.

I've been excited about the trees changing colors and the fun of going for a walk with the kids and crunching our way through leaves, but that was only beginning. I think we are getting jipped. Where's our fall? I'm not looking forward to winter and am in no way eager to bust out the snow boots. Savannah, however, is now beginning the countdown to Christmas. The snow inspired that. 76 days and counting. We may have to move. Trick or treating in the snow will definitely suck. And, to make matters worse, Myles may be sick with the swine flu. Best weekend ever? Probably not.