Thankful

Two of my things that I'm most thankful for...even if they scream when I don't cut their cheese and bologna the right way.

Thanksgiving and an Etsy Sale!

Hello! I hope everyone had a great celebration of Thanks with their family and friends! I know we did - and ours is still going strong. The kids and I are with my mother in-law in Florida and are heading to the beach for a couple days. My sister in-law is joining us too! The grown up guys are together in the cold somewhere having some manly bonding time. I'm so glad to be a woman.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

SPECIAL POST:
As you start your holiday shopping, please note that I will give my blog readers FREE shipping on any purchases at my Etsy shop between now and December 10th. Just send me an Etsy convo before purchasing and tell me you are a blog reader. I'll do a reserved listing for you of whatever you'd like with no shipping cost. Thanks! ;)

Back home on the range

All is well here. My guys and girl did fine without me this week... of course... but I think they were happy to have me return. I know I was. Working nights is not all it's cracked up to be (I know, no one cracks it up to be good - but it's even less appealing than I thought it would be). I spent a few days supporting the transition from paper documentation to electronic in a level three NICU. This means a bunch of tiny, sick babies and very intense nurses who (rightly so) were very nervous about the transition. All in all, everything went great. But, it's a stressful environment and I'm happy to return to working remotely where I can answer questions via phone and email while in the buff my sweats. And can hide from physicians.

On the home front - the kids continue to get closer and closer to outsmarting me. Brother spent the day building things with hammer and nails, creating race tracks with multiple loops and watching the third Harry Potter movie - which I'm pretty sure I wouldn't "get" even if I paid closer attention. He's also jumped full on the Bakugan wagon and amazes me with his understanding of the point systems and memorization of all their names. Fear Ripper, Diablo, Dragonoid... who can keep that straight? All I know is I was almost that woman on the local news in Charlotte this week when I went to Wal.Mart to try to buy him one as a surprise and the lady who arrived to the aisle seconds before me had taken them ALL off the hanging pegs and put them in her cart. She had twenty or thirty packages of them for her ONE child. Two other moms and I were able to pry a few away from her. Not physically... but I might have gone that route if needed.

As far as the Little Bitty - well, she is speaking in full sentences more often that not and has started telling me repeatedly the Daddy is her "best friend". I really find it completely endearing and don't have any jealousy over this. In fact, I firmly believe that if Daddy stays her best friend through high school - and even college - we will have a pretty smooth run through those teenage years. Just think... "Hey, you coming to that big party after the game?"... "Sure, just let me swing by and pick up my best friend - Daddy." Or - "Hey - do you want come to my Fraternity dance with me?"... "Sure, but my best friend, Daddy, is in town - do you mind if he comes too?"

One other tidbit that I don't want to forget is the fact that as I lay listening to her sing along to our nightly prayers, I realized that instead of the traditional prayer closing of "Amen"(in our little song it is a drawn out "aaahhhh mennn") she sings "Ohhhh Mannnnn". How cute is that? I kind of want to change the words so that we can always sing it that way.

A glimpse of home

I'm out of town for work this week. Boo. It is way harder on me than it is the kids. In fact, I just talked to them and they were playing play dough with Daddy and sounded great. But - I miss them ALL very much. Here are a few random recent pictures that I hadn't posted before.

Little Bitty smiling proudly after finally finishing her paint job on her sailboat

from Papa's Sailing Camp.

Playing in the packing worms from a Halloween gift from Grammy.

Standing in the doorway before school. Note Brother's big stick... he's been rotating decorative buttons which he glues on top. After a day - a new button "gets a turn" to be on top. He feels sad for the buttons that aren't chosen to be on top. Yet - it's a happy game because he gets to use his pocket knife tools to pry the old button off each day.

Our Weekend Hike

We went hiking last weekend ~ it was beautiful. We stopped for a couple quick photo opps.

Little Bitty is acting shy because it was someone we didn't know taking the picture.

My happy girl! She RAN most of the way, turning around every few feet to shout "Me beat you, Mommy! Me beat you, Daddy! Me beat you, Bruh-Bruh!"

Our pensive boy. I'm not sure what he's thinking about here... it could be that he's pondering the long-term benefits of the recent election... or he may just be hoping we go home soon so that he can play with his whoopee cushion.

They continue to suprise me...

A couple of days ago the kids were taking a bath and Brother was babbling on and on to/about/at one of the bath toys. Just silly chatter (anyone who has had a four or five year old probably knows what I mean), just making noise. Just as I was about annoyed with it, I heard Little Bitty turn to him and shout, "CHILL OUW, BruhBruh!" (translation: Chill Out, Brother)

So funny coming from this tiny little girl who surprises us with new phrases everyday. I would like to pretend that she learned that one at school... but I would be pretending.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

What else has surprised me lately? Well, my husband using my cucumber facial cleansing wipes to assist in changing a dirty diaper yesterday was completely absurd surprising to me also. But, hey -I think Little Bitty's bum was probably alert and rejuvenated all day.

"Yes We Did"

In the spirit of this blog being something that I want my children to be able to read when they are older - I can't let this day go by without remarking on the results of our presidential election last night. The problem is that my emotions and the importance of this definitely exceed my writing ability. I can't do it justice. So -




"If there is anyone out there who still doubts that America is a place where any things are possible, who still wonders if the dream of our founders is alive ... who still questions the power of our democracy, tonight is your answer..."

"...This is our time, to put our people back to work and open doors of opportunity for our kids; to restore prosperity and promote the cause of peace; to reclaim the American dream and reaffirm that fundamental truth, that, out of many, we are one; that while we breathe, we hope. And where we are met with cynicism and doubts and those who tell us that we can't, we will respond with that timeless creed that sums up the spirit of a people: Yes, we can.
Thank you. God bless you. And may God bless the United States of America"

President Elect Barack Obama
Presidential Victory Speech
November 4, 2008

Tasha, Spiderman and a whole bunch of pirates...

We had a fabulous weekend. The kids partied non-stop for three days starting at school on Friday with their Halloween parties. The weekend progressed through trick-or-treating, soccer game, soccer party, and the birthday bash for Brother yesterday. Yes - he's five now. And I'm so proud of him. He's such a great little dude and if someone had asked me what I'd like my son to be like... I don't think I could have ever imagined or described a kid this great.

On to the pics!

The Birthday Boy - on Friday as Spiderman

Incognito

Little Bitty checking out her Tasha costume

Waiting patiently in class for her party to begin.

The calm before the storm (pirate theme party - this was our home-made plank and sea of balloons, certain balloons had treasure maps hidden inside for the treasure hunt)

The storm!

Treasure Maps in hand - we headed outside.

Brother (Red Sox hat) passing out some treasure.

I think this look might be "do I really have to eat more sugar?"

Presents! Look at Little Bitty's face... sad that it's not for her.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

And on a separate note - to the person whole stole not only our Obama sign, but the others on my street the other night - Thank You. What you accomplished by this juvenile and cowardly act was another donation to the Obama campaign. I went less than 12 hours later to replace not just ours, but the others on our street. Through this, I met some great women at the campaign office, bonded with my neighbors and reinforced my confidence that I placed my vote for the right people. I hope that your act of trespassing and burglary resulting in no Obama signs on my rural neighborhood street for a few hours in the middle of the night left you feeling just as good. Way to do your part.