ACHOO!

Last night, just as we were getting ready to eat supper, Aleita let out a string of sneezes, looked at us in surprise, and then began to laugh out loud.

I looked at her curiously and then said, "what's so funny?"

Still laughing, she answered, "I just sneezed so hard that I made a little pee come out!"

When it comes to a 4-year old, if you are going to ask the quesiton, make sure you that you really want to know the answer.

PHOTO TAG

Jacquelyn, a fellow blogger and good friend of my sister-in-law, Julianne (also a fellow blogger), has "tagged me." The instructions of the tag game were to go the fourth folder in my pictures file on the computer and post the fourth photo. I had to smile when I saw this picture....hard to believe she was ever this little. This picture is Maggie, when she was just a few days old and weighing in at about 6 pounds, along with our good ol' Boxer dog, Dempsey. At the time, Dempsey was a young dog of two years old. His brown coat is very light now, and his black mask has been replaced by white.

For a comparison, I am including another photo that was taken Christmas 2007 of Maggie, Dempsey, and myself. How things change!

The other part of my instruction from Jacquelyn is that I am now supposed to tag a few others - - since Julianne has already been tagged, I can't include her - - but I WILL tag Kristin and Karen.

DOOFUS

On Saturday, Chris and I went into the Club to work out for a little while, and Maggie and Aleita went to the kids' room for the cheapest child care around ($1 per kid while you work out.....though I am thinking - how would they know if I left for a few hours and snuck out to get groceries instead?) Anyway - that afternoon after we got home, Aleita was discussing her morning experience in the kids' room. She mentioned, "I played with Max, Jacob, and Doofus."

I looked at her in surprise and said, "what did you just say?"

She repeated, "I played with Max, Jacob, and Doofus."

I then did the parent-talk that goes into one ear and out the other and reminded her that it isn't nice to call other people names, and how did she feel when other people called her names....blah...blah...blah....

She looked at me with a shocked look on her face and said, "I DIDN'T call anyone a name!"

"Aleita!" I said, "You just called some little boy a doofus!"

She looked at me indignantly and said, "That's his name!"

"Aleita," I said, "there was no one there named 'Doofus'.....Why did you call him that?"

She defensively answered, "His name was so Doofus! I heard his brother call him that so I knew that was his name."

Apparently she thus preceded to call him by his sibling-appointed name of 'Doofus' for the entire time she was there.

HAVE A LAUGH AT GEORGE'S EXPENSE.....YOU WON'T BE THE FIRST!

Sorry for my lack of colorful commentary lately. Since we have resumed from Christmas break, I am snowed under and simply don't have the time to entertain the masses with the latest installment of what is happening way down yonder in the patch.

I provide instead a pitiful substitute, but one that I do hope will at least stir up some laughs. As the world prepares to bid adieu to the man who is perhaps the least popular President of the free world ever, I thought it only fitting that we should recognize some of those "human" moments that just really brings it home for you what a good ol' boy George W. really is. Enjoy.

Letterman's Top 10 George Bush moments
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rToKEnySb7s

JESUS IS MY FRIEND

A shout out to Jacqueline for bringing this You Tube stunner to my attention. I felt it necessary to share. I'm hoping we can get the music so we can sing it for OUR church choir.

I've never considered Jesus to be like a mounty.....make sure to listen closely for the comparison.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7-NOZU2iPA8

IDLE THREAT

"Look, Mom! Apparently all that

'be good or Santa won't come'

business is just a bunch of crap!"

MAMA DON'T 'LOW. . .

Tonight as I was making dinner in the kitchen, I could hear a repetitive tapping on the dining room wall. I knew Aleita was in there (as she had been placed on a chair in time out), so even though I couldn't see her, I said, "Aleita - whatever it is you're doing, cut it out."

There was a pause and then she responded, "I'm just breathing."

I came around the corner from the kitchen with my "mom face" on, prepared to give her what-for, only to find that the noise was actually Dandy playing with a tennis ball, batting it against the wall.

She looked up at me from her chair and said, "I told you I was just breathing."

DON'T GET TOO ATTACHED. . .

How often does it happen that just about the time you find something you really like, it becomes discontinued? I have had that happen to me with lipstick, breakfast cereal, and soup - -and that is just within the past six months. I also mentioned a few weeks ago that I couldn't find my favorite "Bells & Stars" Archway cookies this holiday season and was not very happy about it - - come to find out, the company filed for bankruptcy in October. I guess the sugary goodness of Bells & Stars will have to live only in my memory. Much to my dismay, I can now add my favorite scent from Bath & Body Works to that list of things that are a-goin' down in flames. The stores and online shop are selling the remaining inventory of Brown Sugar & Fig, but are not going to manufacture anymore once that stock is gone. Of course. I find something that I really like and soon it will be no more.

That is not to say that I will no longer be shopping at Bath and Body Works. I wonder if that store laces all their items with crack - - I will go in, just intending to buy one thing of hand lotion or perhaps some soap or hand sanitizer, and come out $50 poorer. They will inevitably have some sort of deal going on, and the salesgirl feels obliged to let me know how crazy-stupid I am being not to take advantage of it. I will set my two bottles of lotion on the counter and she will glance at it and say, "You know, if you buy just one more of those, you get a free pony." OK - maybe that's not exactly true, but what it usually amounts to is me spending $25 more than I intended to and walking out with a sack so full of body sprays and lotions that the strap has dug a spot into my hand before I've gotten ten steps past the entrance to the store. I do have a very impressive collection of Bath & Body Works items stored in my bathroom at home - - but also happen to have two little girls who have picked up on how important it is to "smell pretty," and insist on smellin' good before they leave for school each morning. We have done our share of economy-strengthening through our purchases at Bath & Body Works indeed.

I have to say though, that no matter how much I purchase, I can't stand the salesgirl who is the designated "basket pusher." The basket pusher is the lady who pursues you around the store and insists that you take a shopping basket for your wares. You can be holding a single bottle of lotion or sometimes absolutely nothing at all, and she is shoving a basket in your hands and smiling and saying, "take this - - take this! It will make your shopping so much EASIER!" What that translates to is that if I make it easier for you to load up on all this crap, my commission will be bigger when you go to leave, sucker.

Maybe Bath & Body Works will have scores of letter writers and phone callers letting them know how upset they are to have had Brown Sugar & Fig removed from their line and that they INSIST it be reinstated. Hmm...probably not - but it is a nice thought.

Goodbye, Brown Sugar & Fig - - I'll miss you!!

(perhaps if they had had a more attractive label for the product, it would have sold better?)

Where you WON'T find me shopping at the mall . . .

Chris and the kids and I hit the mall tonight to make our Christmas returns. We actually didn't have that much to do, so it went fairly quickly. We had parked down on the end by J. C. Penney - - I don't often get past the bookstore at that end of the mall, so it is always a surprise to me when I pass the Native American store and see that it is still in business. I am always completely amazed that it stays open. It is a rather large store, encompassing two regular size rental spaces. In addition, that end of the mall has the least amount of foot traffic, I have yet to see anyone else in there other the person working, and besides that, the stuff that they sell is completely hideous. (OK - admittedly, I am not a big fan of the "Southwest" decorating scheme, but this stuff is hardly the stuff of actual artists. It is more "Southwest kitch" rather than "Southwest art.") This store is full of poorly crafted paintings of howling wolves and tired cowboys, cheap feathered things glued together to make "dreamcatchers," low quality pottery and scratchy wool blankets -- more than likely all made in a sweatshop in Mexico or China, rather than the southwest United States.

Obviously someone is shopping there because it has been in business for a few years now -- though I have no idea how. A money laundering operation perhaps? That is truly the only plausible explanation that I can come up with as to why that place has managed to stay afloat. Seriously - - how can they manage to pay rent AND their employees AND purchase merchandise and still turn a profit? Who is shopping there???

SANTA'S LAST HURRAH?

This holiday season has been a particularly fun one. Aleita, at age four, has reached the age where she really understands the true meaning of Christmas is biblical, and not just about Santa and presents. That is not to say that she is willing to forgo the presents, mind you - - not by a long shot. At age four, she has also firmly embraced the idea of Santa Claus. She and Maggie also both really love Christmas carols, and most anything associated with holiday cheer in general.

This year is also a little bittersweet because I think it is probably the last year that Maggie is going to hang onto the idea of Santa Claus. She is eight years old, and she has relayed to us that kids at school have told her that he isn't real. Her logical response to the naysayers has always been that there is no way that her mom and dad could buy all the stuff that Santa leaves for them. Despite this confidence in Santa's deep pockets, I can see that she is starting to have some lingering doubts about the whole thing through questions she asks and looks she gives.

Her conviction to Santa is far stronger than her doubts this year - - as we were heading home from my parents' house tonight, she and Aleita were about ready to burst with excitement because they wanted to get home and get to bed so Santa could come. Maggie even commented that her stomach hurt a little bit because she was so excited about the thought of Santa coming. It is almost hard to remember what it was like to be that age - - do you recall hardly being able to go to sleep because you were so incredibly excited? Remember waking your parents up at 5AM to go see what Santa had left? I love that both of my kids have that bit of magic in their lives. However, I imagine that 2008 will mark the end of Maggie's belief in the big guy in the red suit with the flying reindeer.

It is at times like this when I realize just how fast she is growing up. You never notice the changes in your own kids day to day because you are there with them all the time. But, there are certain moments in their lives though when you look at them, and it's like, whoaa....how did we get here? When did you get so big? How did this happen? It seems like yesterday that we were bringing her home from the hospital on a bitterly cold November night...and yet, here we are, eight quick years later, almost ready to give up on Santa.

I'm so proud of the beautiful young lady that she is becoming, yet want to her to be my little girl just a little while longer. I love that she is becoming more responsible and able to do so many more things without my help, yet I dread the day when she will no longer need my help at all. I have heard people say that the older you get, the faster time seems to go. I am finding more and more just how true that is.

From Christmas past:

Maggie (age 3) & Dempsey (age 5) - taken in 2003

Maggie (age 4) & Aleita (9 months) - taken in 2004