Look Out Chicago!! We're BACK!!!!

We have arrived in the Windy City! Windy doesn't really define the airplane landing so much in Midway. It was the part when we were coming in that freaked me out .... where I started moaning, clutching the seat in front of me and almost crying that made me realize we were back. I kind of thought "maybe" the pilot wanted to cartwheel in instead of landing on the wheels. For this is the reason I hate landing in planes. I mean, truly hate ... hate isn't strong enough really.

We took the Orange Line in. I sat on a seat with a heater so about half way into the city, the backs of my legs and butt were so stinking hot I had to move. I thought I should not have sweat on the back of my knees! So I moved and we got off only to find 30's in the face! We huddled and walked quickly to the Corner Bakery, our all time favorite hang out. We watched the sights, had a sandwich and coffee. Scott even walked across the street and got us two chocolate covered strawberries to have with our coffee because I was craving it from Fannie Mae!

We then walked 9 blocks (we had to burn some calories for dinner at Wild Fire tonight) and arrived at the apartment. We are on the 31st floor with amazing views, even better than last year. I was looking out the windows and you can't help but be curious. For instance, you see all these windows and couches and rooms and one building close by has a fire going in the gas fireplace. I suddenly found myself wishing I had binoculars! Isn't that terrible? I just could go from lit window to lit window and look at the decor and make up stories about each one. It is my Aunt Peggy's fault .... she used to drive me around on the interstate when I was little and she would make up funny stories about the people in the car that we were driving next to!!!!

Anyway, we are off to dinner .... looks cold out there! Will write more as the weekend goes on ... sure hope I don't have stories like last year!! :)

Another Gas Station Catastrophe!!!

I know, I know. You might be thinking what in the world could be worse than my last episode when the "diesel" nozzle wouldn't fit in the car before I realized I had the wrong nozzle! WELL, this morning, I dropped the kids off at school and was running a few errands before we left town. We were leaving for the airport at 10am to head to Chicago for our annual Christmas alone without kids find ourselves enjoy our marriage and enjoy food, shopping and miscellaneous weekend. So I knew I had exactly one hour and 45 minutes to accomplish a bunch of tasks and meet Scott to leave.

So I pull up at the pump chatting with dear Dana and talking away. I scan my card, select my gas, still chatting, the nozzle fit and pump away. I hang up from dear Dana and go to the door to put my gas card back in the pocket of the door. And the door was locked. I looked in and low and behold, the keys are out of the ignition sitting on the console and I had locked the door. Not only that, but the second spare set was in my purse from our trip over Thanksgiving and my purse was sitting in the passenger seat. This is the part where I absolutely cracked up laughing and lost it!!! Luckily I had my phone.

So I looked at the man on the other side of the pump. He looked at me. I told him what I had done. And I said to him, "If I dial my husband's number, will you tell him what I've done??!!" He said, "Sorry ... can't help you with that!!!" So I dialed Scott's office and luckily, his manager named Scott as well, answered. I explained to Scott M what happened and did he have any ideas. His response was .... "Hmmmm...if I hypothetically locked both sets in the car at the gas station, what would I do?" Yeah, Scott was standing in the office with him and I hear, "Are you serious? She seriously has done this?"

Well .... to make a long story short, once again PRAISE THE LORD for OnStar!!! Even though he had not set up the account, he was able to call them and set it up and they unlocked my door for me!!! This took about 10 minutes so I called dear Dana back to share my uncanny luck, had another good laugh and waited until Scott called me back!!

I have come to a conclusion .... one, I think I was being tested in my response to this situation, two, I think Scott was definitely being tested in the situation and three, I know have an official pin for Onstar and their number in my cell phone!!! And four, I have to be the luckiest wife on the planet ..... how many other guys would put up with this???!!!!! I am grateful for the man God gave me .... He knew exactly what I needed :) Love you honey!! xoxoxo

One Tired Elf .....

Sometimes you have to just stop what you are doing to capture moments like this .... at bedtime tonight, Scott said Jack insisted he wear his Santa hat to bed. No harm in that, right? Neither of us realized or thought he would actually leave it on and fall asleep in it .... I've checked twice and he seems to just be spinning his head in the hat because the hat has never moved!!! LOL!!! Awake or asleep, he charms ......

Holiday Dance

Well, as you can see, we sent our middle school daughter off to her first Cotillion Holiday Dance. She has been taking classes weekly for ten weeks. Scott said the other day when she did something obnoxious, "we paid how much for those lessons??" We had to attend/chaperone one of the weeks and it was pretty funny watching 6th graders swing dance and waltz! Erica, of course, was laughing and smiling and talking the entire time! I have never seen her "nervous" laugh so much in one evening! If it had been me at that age, I would have been throwing up in the bathroom which was what happened to me when I got really nervous. We went out Saturday night to find her a dress and came home with three outfits ---- big sales you know ...... and besides, she looks so great and everything looks good on her!!! Yes, I think I am living vicariously through her size right now and I am admitting the weakness. I must be held accountable for this action, friends. Needless to say, Memaw was in tears when she left after seeing her all dressed up and beautiful. Scott walked her outside to take her and drop her off at the church where this was being held and he went around to open the door for her. Now, get this. She said, "Uh no, I'm not getting in with you holding the door, Dad." She would NOT get in the car until he went around on the other side and got in!!! I mean, what is the deal??? Hello??? Have I not taught you ANYTHING???!!!!! We pick her up at 7:30pm. I can't wait to hear how it went. Not that I ever get more than 10 words out of her .... I will have to call her friend, Meredith, or Ocean's mom to get more information!!! :) We feel really, REALLY old tonight .... it is just weird. Freakin' us out over here ......... doesn't she look elegant???!!!!

Cleaning Your Own Clothes!!!

If you scroll down farther in my blog, you will see the retired blue shirt that Spencer trashed at school during play time ... so bad that I had to throw it out because it was terrible!!!

Well, we sent him to a class this week to teach him what happens if he does it again and that he will have to start washing his own clothes like this. There will be no privileges of using the machine or dryer.

He wore dark clothes to school this morning ... :) Scott went on Spencer's field trip this week and they visited this "old place" as he called it, where he got "back then" fake money and a rabbit fur that he slept with last night .... yuck! He just kept saying "back then" .... it was really cute. They had loads of fun ... Scott particularly liked the thick New York accent on the "southern" "back then" lady .... he said, "You know, you just can't try to reinvent, make it feel old and then throw in a yankee accent! It just doesn't mesh!"

You Just Can't Blame the highlights ...

Funny thing happened to me today while I was out running errands. I needed to fill the car up and since gas is $3.14 a gallon, you can't help but whistle while you are pumping gas into a suburban. When you wish you had a moped .....

I stopped at the station, Pump 7 to be exact, slid my card, selected my gas and grabbed the nozzle to put in the gas. And the nozzle wouldn't fit in the hole. I thought, "well that is stupid, what is the deal?" So I looked more closely at it and into the hole and tried to make it fit again and the stupid thing would not fit. So I thought, "Well, maybe I don't have it in park." So I went and double checked to be sure I had it in park and I did. Now, those of you men (Uncle Mark) are either laughing your butts off or you are shaking your head. Either response, it did not occur to me until 7 minutes later that it has nothing to do with it. But at that moment, I was simply trying to figure out my dilemma. So I went back and nothing changed. I glanced over at Pump 8 and actually walked down to it to look at the nozzle and indeed, it was smaller. I thought, "well they must have installed new nozzles and that is just going to be a problem." You know, I'm just thankful at this point that my take-charge attitude did not march into the store to notify them of this "future" problem. So, I walked back to Problematic Pump 7 and cancelled my transaction, got in my car, started it and drove the car 25 feet to "Good Old" Pump 8. I slid my card again, selected my $3.14 a gallon gas thankful that it had not gone up in the last 5 minutes, and filled my car with gas because the nozzle fit.

I'm leaning against the car enjoying the breeze and sunshine and I glance back over at Pump 7 in my mind thinking to myself "what are people going to do with this issue.." when I realize when I really took the time to look at it from another angle, there were two nozzles. Your normal good old nozzle under your three choices of gas and then your second "Diesel" nozzle. At that moment, it dawned on me what I had done!!! And yes, I simply admit that I did not know that the Diesel nozzle is in fact larger than the regular nozzle. And can I tell you how thankful I am that some "what we are guilty of calling male shovinistic pig man" actually took the time to think through this whole process? I am SOOOO thankful for that today! I finished pumping gas and I am pretty sure the lady on the other side thought I was losing my mind because I was standing there pumping gas and laughing. It was really, REALLY funny when I realized it! And I thought, "These highlights covering the gray must really go deep!"

To make it even more interesting, how often are we standing so close to something that we can't seem to see the bigger picture? All we see is the immediate problem that we think is the problem to later find out that wasn't even the problem ...... sometimes I think that is what God does to me. Sometimes I think He just wants to say to me, "Will you please get out of the way?!!"

If you ever need a babysitter and you are willing to still let me watch your small children after this story, please feel free to call me :) !!!!!!!!

Time to Retire the Shirt

Well, as you can see, or can't see, this shirt used to be blue. This is one of Spencer's uniform shirts. Lately, he has been coming home filthy dirty. I'm not talking just a little dusty. I'm talking dirt under the fingernails and trashing his clothes DIRTY! I finally asked him the other day, "Son, what are you doing at school? Are you guys mud wrestling or what?" He came home today and this was the back of his shirt. IT kind of resembles someone that maybe sat on their butt and rubbed around on their bottom in the dirt. It is BEYOND salvaging .... another shirt bites the dust. I ordered him a pink polo at his request and I told him if he continues to trash his light colored clothes, I will be purchasing black and navy blue from now on, PERIOD!!!! AAAHHHHH!!!! BOYS!!!!!!!!!!

A Guilty Dog

Do you know what a guilty dog looks like? Exibit A is a picture of what one might look like. Now, you might be asking yourself what could a cute dog like this have done. Yeah, it is all fun and games until the candy bag is involved; Exibit B ...... Jackson Tyler's Halloween Candy Bag to be exact who left it laying in the laundry room floor. When you come home and find all the wrappers all over the floor, you sort of wonder exactly how many pieces of candy made it into his stomach. And you decide that this is going to involve some sort of medication. Well, Chip never got sick and he didn't have any accidents. And when you look at him and ask, "Did you do that?" He drops his head, tucks his tail and goes to the nearest table and lays under it with his head on the floor. It truly is one of the MOST pathetic responses I believe I have ever seen. And I realize I actually feel sorry for him. But for some reason, I never feel sorry for my kids when they are in trouble .... .hmmmmm... maybe it is because he doesn't say a word and they fight tooth and nail in their defense????!!!!

Tricks and Treats

The kids went out for Halloween this year. Erica didn't want to dress up but she wanted candy. She made this make shift costume that really was pretty funny because there was no theme at all and she was super girl. Me? Yeah .... it was really hard to not say anything. You know me .. I gotta have a theme or something at least that goes together. But again, it really isn't about me, is it? DARN!

Anyway, we got a treat this year. I'm going to brag on my kids for a minute. I don't do this very often on my blogs. I am usually just talking about all the things they do and get into and not telling all the good all the time! They all got their report cards last week and they all made the honor roll!!! Yeah!!!! They all did so great and deserved to be praised!!!!

A First Time for Everything

Spencer decided he wanted to be a football player for Halloween so he borrowed some stuff from a friend. His new thing is football. He used his allowance and bought a ball. He plays outside in the yard every day and involves Jack and somehow it also involves someone being tackled and getting banged up. And his favorite team is the New England Patriots. Scott's favorite team is the Indianapolis Colts. So the game this past Sunday was a big event at our house as these two rallied against each other! Scott ate crow for dinner ...... anyway, I have a point. Last week, I was having one of those mornings with the Erica and Spencer. It seemed neither of them were in the mood for anything to say the least and it got a little tense and heated as we left for school. I dropped them off and they didn't tell me goodbye .... I think they were thinking more like "die" instead of bye but I deserved it. I wasn't exactly a leading role model at that point.

I leave school and head off to the parking lot of where I have a bible study on Wednesday. Imagine that .... I REALLY needed refreshed and renewed at this point. I was listening to music and finishing my study. The scripture was incredibly on target as usual and I felt really convicted over my attitude and inability to communicate with the kids. The cell phone rings breaking the silence and I answer it to, "Mrs. Pearce? This is Lucy (the Elementary Principal) at school and I have Spencer in the office .............." Mmmmhhhhmmmmmm....... long story short, he and another little boy hit another boy in the private and Spencer seemed to name off all the body parts he hit instead of the correct one so he was in the office for lying. The whole time, I am sitting there mmhhmming to everything as she is relating the story to me. I give her a few words as she said, "Spencer is in my office alone thinking ..." Oh, how I wish I could have been a fly on the wall as he sat there! Thinking .... we hang up and she calls back a few minutes later to tell me that he finally did tell her what happened and the truth and he was on his way to apologize to the other teacher for lying. Spencer got on the phone with me and I wish you could have heard how small his little voice was ..... in the end, I reminded Spencer of what we had been talking about already at home -- take responsibility for your actions, do not shift blame, and make it right. I reminded Spencer that we have talked about this and unfortunately for him, he was not in the privacy of his home with us to walk this lesson out. His voice still sounding very small ..... the outcome? A little 7 year old boy that learned a valuable lesson on taking responsibility for his actions and apologizing to those he has wronged. I would say that it was a total God thing that morning and I praised the Lord for His timing and goodness in all of us!

Needless to say, I went into my study blubbering like an idiot and realizing that my life isn't about the pictures I have created in my mind but about releasing those pictures and expectations and allowing the Lord to direct each of us for His honor and glory. I would like a perfect little family with perfect little children, wouldn't you? I realized again it isn't about me or what I want that makes perfection but striving for what He wants for all of us. The good and the bad :) God is faithful to those who love Him!