Ahhh...This Is Much Better

Sending Rich and the boys to the North Pole has greatly improved my Scrooge-like mood. Here is some video of me after they left.

http://www.scroogeyourself.com/?id=1376862569

I've Had It!!!

That's it! I've had it with all the boys in this house!

So, I sent them all packing - to the North Pole. If you do not believe me, here is the evidence. Click and see for yourself!

http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=1370314575

First Friends ................................. WARNING - so adorable, it may make you puke

Meet Grant and George. This picture was taken Christmas Day last year when Grant got (met) George from his Grandma. They have been inseparable ever since. Frankly, George probably should have been in our family Christmas picture. They play together, watch Curious George on TV together, ride in the car together, read stories together, share snacks, and George even comes to church with us. (where Grant makes him sit, stand, and kneel at the appropriate times - its a sight!)




Recently, George got a rip on his head. Grant said,
"Don't worry, George, I'll take care of you." This is the result:













(In case you can't tell, that is a band-aid that Grant did all by himself without telling me - never mind that about 5000 band-aids were dumped out in the drawer - thats not the point)


Then, a little later Grant came to ask me, "Mommy, do you think Jamie and Connor will babysit George?" Puzzled, I asked, "what do you mean?" His answer: " I need them to take care of George so I can go shopping to buy him a Christmas present."

And, if that is not one of the sweetest friendship stories you have ever heard involving a 4 year old boy and a monkey, then you have no heart. Or, maybe you know more monkeys than I do.

Did you have a favorite cuddly "friend?"

Some People are Lucky, and Some, Notsomuch

Lucky People (i.e. me) walk into Krispy Kreme to discover that they are rolling pumpkin spice doughnuts hot off the line and get handed one, free of charge! If you love the originals hot, OMG, you have to experience one of these during the holidays.

Not so lucky is the suddenly accident prone middle child's head which was pelted in the face with a ball at P.E. It was enough of an event that the school nurse called to inform me of the incident. Does the kid's head have some kind of gravitational pull? Is this his way of retaliating against my many claims that he is not, in fact, the axis on which the earth spins? Has he changed the laws of physics and nature just to spite me? If so, I hope he realizes that his head is paying way more of a price for such rebellion than I am.

You Might be Catholic if...

When you leave mass during advent your kids say, "hey! they didn't play the song!"

They were highly offended that the choir broke what they see to be a "rule" by choosing not to sing O Come, O Come, Emmanuel. I think the boys might be right. Is it really a mass during Advent if that isn't sung at some point during mass?

Some snowmen doughnuts from KrispyKreme seemed to make up for their disappointment.

Sorry, guys...

but, you must endure ,once again, putting up with one of my bitchy replies to one of my in-laws. I've had my fill of his crap in my inbox, but this one struck me as particularly asinine. I'd LOVE to send it directly to him, but I'm pretty sure that a few (well, 2 of them) members of the family would get together and have me lynched for female insubordination. Well, and my husband would be SERIOUSLY pissed off (rightfully so) that I stirred the family drama pot. Neither is likely to stumble upon a blog, though, because I heard them discussing "blogs" once...ohhh my...that would be a post for another day.

Betrayal? Seriously? While I may or may not agree with them, voting against a language bill is certainly not tantamount to treason which is what the words "betrayal", and "violation of the pledge of allegiance" imply. Undermining the military? How, exactly, does our not having an "official language" do that? Rich's email address is XXXXXXX@XXX.com. Please send all stupidity to that address. The author isn't even smart enough to hit the spellchecker button before he sends an email out to be disseminated to the entire world. The word is spelled, w-a-r-r-A-n-t-e-d!

Only in Texas - A Weather Report

You are going to think I am making this up, but I'm not. This was what the weather lady actually said during yesterday's morning forecast:

" We're headed for a high of 72 degrees today, but with a north wind this might still seem pretty chilly to some of you."

Are you serious? WHO? Who on earth thinks that 72 freaking degrees, IN DECEMBER, is chilly? People in Texas? Well, that figures.

Mr. Murphy, You can stick your "law" right up your ass already

1. Murphy's Law is a real bitch. But, it is, in fact, a rule of nature. Since the man of the house has abandoned me to "serve the country" for a few weeks the following have occurred.
   
   1. Mouse in the kitchen (are you freakin kidding me?"!#$%^@*!)
   2. Middle child split back of head open, AND had the audacity to bleed on my vintage cowboy print pillows.
   3. Aforementioned middle child's injury is reopened when his head is pelted with a basketball at PE the following day.
   4. Aforementioned mouse (which we thought was long gone after visit from exterminator)scampers across floor as my mom (read: only reinforcement) is leaving for the airport, so I am once again left alone to deal with the D-A-M-N nasty sonofabitch.
   5. As I am sitting in desk chair (feet pulled up into chair) pretending to not know there is a mouse in the kitchen, the school nurse calls me to pick up middle child. He has been hit, hard, in the forehead with a badminton racket and seems to be abnormally drowsy.(thankfully, he turns out to be just fine.)
   
   Does any of this crap ever happen when the man is at home? Hell no! Any time he leaves for the airport (and, um, hello - he is a pilot - so this is like all. the. time.), you can count on some plumbing disaster, a call from school, a trip to the ER, or most likely all three and more. Are you with me on this? Tell me it is the same at your houses. Nothing ever goes wrong until you really, really need it to go right for a while. I'm thinking of starting a new blog called, Don't Marry a Pilot!
   
   However, the universe must have taken some pity on me because my mom and I accomplished the great majority of my Christmas shopping, and most of it is even wrapped and safely hidden away. AND, I landed two really cool, hard-to-find gifts that I had planned to not even bother with. I bet you can guess what at least one of them is ;)

Compromise is Good

For once in our life, we had Christmas pictures taken by a professional instead of getting some snapshots ourselves. The DIY version usually involves much stress and some arguing. Using a professional was much less traumatic for all involved. However, one point of contention was which frame/pose to use for the Christmas card picture. He won. So, in the spirit of compromise, I'll just publish the one I wanted to use here. Consider this a holiday cyber-greeting.

Merry Christmas!

Only in Texas - Special Christmas Edition

I challenge you to find clip art of a Christmas tree decorated with images of your state.

AND...


Christmas music just for you and your special state: