After Thanksgiving

Well, Thanksgiving has come and gone... we had everyone over at our house, and we had a really good time. This house is great for gatherings... but not so much fun to clean up! Luckily, my mom and my mother-in-law pitched in since I had to go to bed at the same time the kids did (I worked retail on "Black Friday!"). We had a relatively good holiday weekend... we got almost all of our shopping for Christmas done, and industrious little ole' me wrapped it all, so now maybe we can enjoy the month of December!

Josie is walking faster and faster every day. Jesse calls her his little Frankenstein (or "Franken-bean," as I prefer) because she stomps her feet so hard and she still walks pretty stiffly... she's still not that sure of herself. I know how she feels! Walking is hard. When I get to the kingdom, I'm definitely going to ask God why He chose bi-pedal locamotion for us. Sometimes I stop and think, we must all look so funny to the rest of the planet - walking around on two legs and everything. Anyway, I digress.

Sadie is SO excited over Christmas... every time we pass Christmas lights or decorations in someone's yard she yells, "Did you see THAT, DADDY??" And then she'll say, "Oh, that is so BEAUTIFUL!" Everything is beautiful these days. That's a nice change! :)

We started getting out Christmas stuff last night... the kids only broke 3 or 4 things... I miraculously didn't even care. The longer I have kids, the less material things seem to matter to me. Throw up on my clothes? Who cares? Broken china? Big deal. Purple marker on my cheek? Fashion statement. Sheesh. I have changed! I have somehow become a totally different person in a 2 year time frame.

I am now going to work on our yearly newsletter... by some stretch of the imagination, I think that I'm going to be sending it out in December. Hah. That's my joke for the day! :)

Thankful

Last night, the girls and I were looking at pictures on the laptop (they love doing that). When we finished, Sadie said, "Mommy, I want to look at the pictures that talk. You know, the pictures that talk and move!" Meaning, of course, the home videos of her and Josie. So, I played one for them of when Josie was about 7 or 8 months old. They both sat here, enthralled, for about 30 minutes. They love watching themselves! When I came back to check on them, they were watching a video of Josie in her "Johnny Jump Up" bouncing in the door frame at Jesse's parents' house. In the video, Sadie was pushing Josie, talking to her, making her laugh, and just generally entertaining her. They were having such a good time in the video... Sadie turned to me and asked, "Mommy, can we go back there?" I said, "Sure, we can go back to Grandma and Grandpa's house... we'll go back next week." She said, "No, Mommy. Can we go back there? Back when Josie was a little baby and I was there in my PJ's and we were laughing?" I said, "No, we can't go back in time, Sadie. I wish we could."

And then I left the room and cried.

Thank You, God... for my girls, who are growing up so fast.

Made Me Laugh

Last night, Deanna (aka "Dee-tah" to Josie) came over. She asked Sadie if she was feeling better and Sadie said, "Yeah, but I have a dinosaur in my throat." I guess it wasn't just any old frog!

My father-in-law sent these to me today... they made me laugh out loud:

> Who was the first person to say, "See that chicken there? I'm gonna eat the next thing that comes outta its butt."
>Gardening Rule: When weeding, the best way to make sure you are removing a weed and not a valuable plant is to pull on it. If it comes out of the ground easily, it is a valuable plant.
> There are two kinds of pedestrians: the quick and the dead.
> Who was the first person to look at a cow and say, "I think I'll squeeze these dangly things here, and drink whatever comes out?"
And my personal favorite:
> If Jimmy cracks corn and no one cares, why is there a song about him?

Eww

Yesterday, I took the kids to the doctor while Jesse went to his own doctor appointment. Let me reiterate that it has not been a fun time around this house lately! So, the girls were both sitting up on the exam room table, shirts off, ready to roll. The doctor comes in and Sadie says, "Hello, Doctor. Are you going to check my ears?" The doctor looks at me, somewhat surprised, and says, "She's two? She speaks awfully well for two." Sadie goes on to say, "Now you need to check for my heartbeat with your steth-o-scope." Now, THAT one even surprised me! Apparently, she picked up that word from Papaw reading "Fozzie Bear Goes to the Doctor." The bad news... they both have double ear infections. The good news... they are on antibiotics now and have stopped screaming non-stop.

Grammie put Josie's hair up in a little palm tree/Alfalfa-looking do today, and when I took it down, she looked just like that little kid on the ice cream cone boxes at the grocery store. She's now walking more than crawling, and it's so funny to see her little chubby self toddling along, reaching out for the wall, the couch, the dog, whatever, to steady herself once in a while. She has also become obsessed with my old Cabbage Patch Kid. She hugs her up tight, right up to her chin, and says, "Oh, Baby! Mm-wah!" and plants kisses right on the doll's cheek. It is too cute. The only thing funnier was when she decided to change the doll's diaper... she took off the doll's pants, held up the doll's legs, and turned her own head with this awful look on her face, then she said, "EWW!" Hmm. I wonder where she observed this behavior.

On another note, not child related, I have decided not to keep the job that I previously accepted. It's just too much for me to work full time. I have apparently over-estimated myself. Or I did the math wrong when I was calculating the number of hours in the day (I was an English major, after all :). So, over the next few weeks, I will be phasing back to part time. Whew. I'm glad that's over with!

Another thing... (I hate to admit this one, but the blog is cathartic, you know) tonight, I backed out of the garage - please note that it was dark, raining, and the reverse lights are not the best on the car - and rammed right into the front fender of my mom's car. Crunch. Yes, I'm a moron. Yes, I feel bad. Yes, I'm going to try to make Jesse suck the dent out with a plunger.

Sick, sick, sick

Hope all of you are well... here, we are all sick, sick, sick. Sadie is walking around with little circles under her eyes, saying, "I don't feel good. I need to go to the doctor. My head hurts. My nose hurts. My tummy hurts. My shoulder hurts. My back hurts." Apparently, everything hurts. I know how she feels! So does Jesse... he hasn't been to work in two days. Josie, also afflicted, gives new meaning to the old southern term "she has a bee in her bonnet." She's like bi-polar baby, bless her little heart. As for me, I almost passed out in the grocery store tonight... and I have a fever! Oh, the joy!

Well, I started a new job this week. This was by choice, but now I'm beginning to wonder what the heck I was thinking. So far, it's super hectic and challenging. I think I could use a challenge since life has been so easy lately. HA! I hope you all detected the sarcasm with which that little statement was intended. Anyway, I am trying to remain calm. I do have to get up at 4:45am EVERY DAY, which is a big adjustment, especially since my wacko friends talked me into watching LOST and I have to stay up until midnight every night because I am now hooked on it.

On Sunday, we had our "Thank you" party for everyone who helped with the new house. We ended up with 33 people! It was a great turnout and a fun party. Mama and I fed them all kinds of southern food, which turned out to be a smashing success! Look out... I think some Ohioans may be headed your way to raid your kitchens.

Josie fell down the stairs today (just the bottom 3, thank goodness) and whacked her little cheek on the baby gate. Yes, I said baby gate. Apparently, we have another smart one on our hands. I guess I should just be glad that the gate was there to break her fall. Good grief.

Funny things: Josie says no all the time now, and shakes her head back and forth while she squinches her eyes shut. The funny thing about it is that when she says "no," she pronounces it, "Doh!" It's like a tiny Homer Simpson is mouthing off to me all the time. :)

We started taking the girls to Story Time at the library, which they both love. Josie likes the "Tick Tock Song," in which you put her on your knee, rock her back and forth and throw her UP in the air and yell "Cuckoo! Cuckoo!" when the "clock" strikes. She does it at home now anytime she sits on my lap. Sadie is more partial to the "Dinosaur Song." I must admit that it's a catchy tune... I find myself humming it all the time.

"We are the Dinosaurs marching, marching... We are the dinosaurs. Whaddaya think of that? We are the dinosaurs marching, marching. We are the dinosaurs. We make the earth flat. We make the earth flat. We stop and eat our food when we’re in the mood. Stop and eat our food on the ground. We stop and eat our food when we’re in the mood. Stop and eat our food and then we march around And then we ROAR!!!Because we are the dinosaurs."

Last time we went, Sadie ran over to the Story Lady when we were done and informed her, "I have to give you a hug right now." :)

And, last but not least, some of my friends who haven't seen me lately (like a year or more) wanted me to post a picture. The only one I have that's recent is from a wedding that I sang at a couple of weeks ago... here I am! With bangs, no less!