The Tired Santa ...

I received this picture today from email. It was too cute to resist putting on the blog. I kind of feel like Santa today. The kids get out of school tomorrow so I had to do all my wrapping before they are home for good. I finished it all up and I can tell you, I would like to be that baby asleep!!What a wonderful picture ... makes me wish I had done that with my babies!

All the Christmas cards are rolling in. I love this time of year to see pictures of everyone's kids growing up and all these young friends we have with babies and toddlers and AGING! Yes, we are all aging. Some are doing this classier than the rest of us but still, it is so fun to watch, isn't it???!!!! This morning, I was listening to the Today Show and it went over to The View with all those over forty-something sarcastic "hip" women that argue over every political and Hollywood event. As I was getting ready, they started on Christmas cards. In a nutshell, if any four of those would be your friends, don't send them a Christmas letter. They hate them. So this got me thinking .... you can either hate the letters or love the letters. I particularly like them. I like hearing what is going on with friends and let's face it - we honestly can't keep up with everything and everyone. So once a year, I get to hear about life from my friends, close and distant. So for those of you who have wondered whether you should or shouldn't send a Christmas letter, I am happy to receive them so feel free to put me on your list!!!!! :)

First Christmas Band Concert

We attended our first Christmas band concert for Erica. She is playing clarinet and it is so fun to watch her. I keep having flashbacks of when I played. She is really enjoying the band and is very good at it. She was given this book and playing with first year students - 5th and some 6th graders. In order to move up with second year students which are all 6th graders, the book must be completed. Well, she finished the book in 2 1/2 months!!! And they asked her to stand and be recognized because apparantly that is not something that happens very often. So she has amazingly picked up this instrument and run with it! We were so proud of her accomplishment. When she stood, her face was five shades red! I thought she was going to just die right there!!! But it was really cute. And Erica's friend, Madison, played as well. They did such a great job!!!!
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It's True ... I'm having an Affair

I never thought it would come to this really. I never saw it coming. It seemed so suttle at first. A friend is responsible for introducing us. I had no intention of this ever happening. I was completely content with life, satisifed and happy. The first introduction was nice. I got to know him and checked him out. I even did a couple of loads with him. He was nice of course. He was very easy to work with, handled great and had nice knobs and was even clever. And then I said good bye; we parted ways to never see each other again. I returned home to the same thing, the same way, over and over. I opened the lid, shut the lid, bent over to put the clothes in and I simply could not stop thinking about him. I became disenchanted with my current situation. After all these years, I was simply done. It was time for a NEW MODEL. And there was no stopping me. So I did it. All by myself, I sought him out. And he is MINE!

Okay, enough Harlequinn writing gone really stupid and bad ... you have to admit, you were kind of laughing and I bet when you saw the title, for a split second, you really wondered what this would say. Well, in a nutshell, this is my new love affair: it is called LAUNDRY! We finally caved in to the old washer we'd be using that was left in this house and Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, Birthday, Anniversary, St. Patrick's Day and First Day of Summer to us. Imagine laundry actually being a joy. My favorite part? When the dry is done, it sings this cute little song. It just beeps in all these different sounds but I've put words to the song and it sings, "I am now all done so you can open me!" And on really adventurous days, it sings, "You are so beautiful to me; can't you seeeeeee?!!!!?" If it would only say my name ....... I now officially throw laundry parties. LOL!!!

The Ones That Didn't Make the Cards ....

So here are a few shots of the kids for Christmas .... these are the ones that didn't make it into the cards. You can tell from the images why! Getting them dressed was actually the easy part. I managed through with not too many issues. It was when they sat down that the issues began. Who would sit where .... and then the tongues got involved and that was it. Spencer didn't realize she was getting ready to lick him. And then he felt it and that was it. Spencer stomped off so Erica and Jack stayed and continued the rioting against Christmas pictures. This may be the last year for cards with pictures .... or maybe I'll take individual pictures and you will get one picture of one child ..... now that would be interesting .... :) In some ways, you do wonder why it has to be so difficult. It isn't that hard .... just sit still and smile!

End of Soccer Season

Well, we officially survived our fall season of soccer with no trips to the hospital or injuries!! Yeah for us!!! I got some great shots of the boys finishing up their last game. I'm almost kind of sad that it is over. It has been a great outlet for them both to burn off some energy one night a week at practices and on Saturday. But before we know it, baseball season will start. We really enjoy them both playing on the same team! The coach plays them together which has been a great team building experience for them!! Last week, Spencer kicked the ball across the field directly to Jack and he was able to score a goal!!! Jack was so proud and especially proud that Spencer kicked it to him! There have been several times Spencer will assist and give Jack the goal. They both are so funny......I love their individuality and their spirits :) They will get to play baseball together this year so I'm excited and anticipating it! It makes for such a fun spring and gets us outside!! Just pray for some cool weather .... we are in the mid-80's and still waiting for a cool front to stay!

Elf .. and Jack

Have you seen the movie, "Elf?" We have watched this about thirty times and it has become our all-time favorite Christmas movie with the kids. They aren't quite ready for Christmas Vacation, Scott's favorite.

Tonight, we were sitting around the nook table. I had made homemade hot chocolate - yes homemade. The kind where you warm the milk with unsweetened chocolate squares and add sugar and vanilla? The real deal! With a dollop of marshmallow cream ... delicious ... and we were discussing what the kids wanted for Christmas. Scott felt it necessary to tell me something at the table so he asked me to lean over so he could whisper to me. So he is whispering and Jack comes over quick-like, leans in and says, "I like to whisper, too!" If you have seen the movie, you will get it! If not, in the movie, Will Ferrell who plays Elf does the exact same thing when his father is whispering to his secretary!

All of us absolutely died laughing because at the very same time, we ALL got it! As I'm writing this, I am laughing. I am absolutely amazed at how witty and quick Jack is. He is amazingly bright and just a sharp, funny little kid! He truly makes me laugh a ton and melts my heart at least twice a day ...... he is such a gift to our family .... they all are. I really missed them while we were gone. I enjoyed the time and I enjoyed getting back.

This morning, Spencer did not want to get up and go to school. He wanted to stay home. His reasons went like this. "Mom, I don't want to go to school. Mom, I'm tired. Mom, my nose hurts. Mom, every single part of my body hurts." To which I am responding, "wow ... aw man ... sorry about that bud .... time to GGGOOOOooooooooooooo!!!!!!" We walked out the door and his last words were, "Mom, I'm just telling you I'm really tired. And when I'm tired, I get really grumpy at school. I can't promise you I'll have a good day." Translation: there is a really good chance that I will lack self-control today, get my stick pulled at school and it will be your fault because you made me go!!!! Well, I was willing to risk it :)

Erica? She was just easy ..... what? Did I just say Erica was easy?? Knock knock knock on wood!!!!!

Chicago ... A Must

I'm back in Lakeland, back in the 80's, back in the humidity and the sunshine! Bummer for sure! Recapping our weekend, there were a few funny parts I wish you could have been there for. Dinner at Wild Fire? Wonderful and fortunately, uneventful. I got to take a wonderful whirlpool bath with bubbles and plenty of warm water for my feet! I miss a big tub so when we are away, I always take advantage of the big tubs!!!

Friday morning, we visited the new Jewish Museum that opened an exhibit on their culture and history. I have been reading a couple books on Jewish history and also on Israel. This has helped me better understand the Bible even more. So I was pretty excited to go see this. It wasn't quite completed so I made friends with this 70 something Jewish woman who started explaining to me all the artifacts and the meaning of each item, etc. So when we arrived at this one item and I asked what was the symbolism of it, she looked me dead square and said, "you can't ask me that." I'm standing there with my stomach in my shoes and I can feel my heart completely stop in my chest. I was thinking to myself what could this possible be that made her respond that way. Then she said, "well, it symbolizes when the last temple was destroyed." OOOOOOooooooohhhhhhh!! Now it makes sense ...... leave it to me to ask what something symbolizes and it has to do with what was so sacred to them and it was destroyed. Scott of course has already walked away. Isn't he soooo supportive???!!!!! Shortly after that, we left but the museum was very interesting and I enjoyed it. We walked the streets after that and had lunch at the Grand Lux Cafe! WONDERFUL!!! The best lunch and it had a great, fun atmosphere. I felt sorry for the lady next to us when her 9 month old son started projectile vomitting formula everywhere. Her sister freaked out and the young mom proceeded to yell at her sister for making a scene .... it was quite a little five minute ordeal. I was thinking, "good Lord, I'm not even part of the family and I'm tense!!" Bruce and Mette made it in from Lexington ... we hit a few shops before dinner at the Chicago Chop House. We shopped in Eddie Bauer - well Bruce did most of it. Scott and I sat on the brown couch and it was when I sat down that I realized there was a very large life size brown goose sitting on the table. HHHhhhmmmm... for those of you that know Mette, remember her HUGE bird and feather fear? Could I resist the goose?? Should I??? It was when I picked it up and put it under my arm like a friend and walked up behind her at the counter as they were checking out and asked her, "hey, is everything okay?" She turned around and there it was! The response I knew I would get! The blood curdling scream in a two story Eddie Bauer store and her bolting 20 yards away screaming!!! YES! I GOT IT!!!! And so did the other fifty hundred people in the store that actually congratulated me as they left the store and said, "If anything, that was well worth our trip into the city to see that!" Fortunately, Mette loves me like a bad kidney infection .. smacked me hard a few times while I wiped tears off my face from laughing until my stomach hurt... and she forgave me!!! I can't help it. I really should have my own practical joke show. Needless to say, we had a wonderful dinner and again, walked the streets. It was absolutely windy and freezing cold but we had a great time.

Saturday, we made it again to the Corner Bakery and window shopped all morning. It started snowing around 11am and it was so pretty! Everything started turning white and the snowflakes kept getting bigger! We headed to Gino's for our favorite Chicago pizza. We ended up with the EXACT same waitress as last year and she remembered us!! That was pretty funny ... I guess we are making our mark in Chicago :) We came out of the restaurant and then, it was sleet! It was cold, windy and ice hitting us in the face. We found solace in some more stores and had dinner much later at Wild Fire again. Bruce and Mette had never eaten there and we didn't mind it again.

It was on the way to the restaurant that we decided to avoid the sleet/rain/freezing cold wind and take a taxi. And it was at that point that Scott forgot the other man in front of our building that almost fell on the ice ten minutes prior. I remembered and did a half moon to get around it into the cab. Scott ... not so much. He walked straight and right to the taxi until he hit the invisible ice. At that point, I turned around and he was flat on his back with his leg/shoe in a huge deep puddle of sludge ice water and ice was flying!!!! We were like, "What the heck are you doing?" He gets up and slides into the taxi and Mette and I laughed all the way to the restaurant until we almost wet our pants! Luckily, he was okay .... a little sore during dinner but okay!! Second time Scott falls on ice in Chicago!

Sunday, again the Corner Bakery --- I was ready for something different but some people don't like change! We packed our stuff and headed to the airport in the rain. Our flight was an hour late into Tampa. The pilot said be ready for a bumpy flight not once, but five times. So we were a little worried. But it ended up okay :) The nap on the plane was good ..... All in all, a great trip and a great time! I can't imagine not doing Chicago at Christmas! Wish you were there!!!