Grace in Small Things #11

1. Laundry is almost done.
2. A full sit down meal with Dave and a bottle or two of wine.
3. A really great baby day full of laughter and broccoli.
4. Being called Jerus and not being offended because it's actually kinda funny.
5. Having an almost done desk space to sit in the dark and work in quiet.

Boogers...The Breakfast of Champions.

College circa 2003 had me at a bar with my girlfriends flirting with guys....pretending I know how to line dance, spinning the Miller Lite Wheel of Fortune for free T-shirts....etc etc...

Oh and drinking...it was college for heavens sake.  

Never in my wildest dreams back then....did I think I would be singing "Booger Queen" to my baby while trying to remove the boogers plastered to her nose while wrestling her to the ground and holding her still so that she cannot escape the wet wipe.  Yes you have to use a wet wipe because boogers are sticky and well boogery...they require extra post-graduate degrees and a level of understanding of rudimentary chemistry to remove.  Also it helps if you are in top physical shape like some sort of Olympian...those skills may also come in handy here.  

Regardless that was my weekend...boogers.  I know I've lost a lot of potential blog readers on this one.  I'm not really out to market myself anyway (that's an opinion for another day).  Anyway, I thought I would post the cuteness of my weekend it was a bit overwhelming and obnoxious.  It makes the booger fights and the fact that I'm actually focusing on boogers...all worth while.

Enjoy!

A constant state of existence in our house.  I'm not sure if she's trying to catch bugs with her tongue out ALL THE TIME...maybe its just to get the gross slobber all over her clothes.  Regardless...she  is dedicated!

I took these on my iPhone so they aren't awesome but the cuteness is so it all works itself out.  

I think she might be possessed.  Either that or this picture certifies that she is indeed my child.  

Oh here we go...the point of all these pictures...Look Mom nooo boogers!

A couple of months ago Dave's parents were in town and we grabbed some breakfast with them before they drove back to Ohio.  The bebes was having an overly boogery day and my FIL asked if I was going to clean up the crusties.  I firmly responded....No.  My MIL then asked why and I was very concrete in my response that if I remove the icky grossness under her nose it will then start flowing with the power of our almighty God behind it.  And I did not have the energy to handle it on that particular day.  Well after a few more mentions of the boogers I gave in and cleaned up the bebes....and what do you think happened....Gah...It's so hard to be right all the time.  Seriously it's overwhelming! 

I also think about what would my mother do.  I should get a bracelet with that on it huh.  WWMMD that's a lot of letters.  Anyway I think my Mom probably would have diligently cleaned the bebes nose.  I think my MIL would have done it too.  Maybe I'm less of a mother....Or maybe I just want my kid to be made fun of.  Maybe I just know that if I'm happy and the bebes is happy (with boogers)...then Dave's life will be easier too.  

I think I just rationalized that I don't clean up the bebes snot because it makes my husband happy.  How on earth did I come to that point?  It's not even a cohesive thought.  I'm impressed.  

Grace in Small Things #10

1.  Today is Dave's birthday!!!  Hooray Dave!

2.  Cheetos from Amy...and CPK.

3.  Living life on the edge...of my driveway!!!

4.  My gray jersey scarf that I wear almost every day.

5.  Online window shopping...and the sound judgement not to purchase anything.

Grace in Small Things #9

1.  Mexican deliciousness.

2.  Cake-the band not the confection.

3.  Tons of E-mails from family and friends today.

4.  Unexpected bridesmaid making.

5.  Life moving forward at a pace that I'm truly okay with right now.

The Calm Before the Storm

Because of some poor Internet 'round the homestead I haven't posted many pictures recently.  Possibly because the poor Internet is that which we've borrowed from the neighbors.  In our defense I haven't posted many pictures so obviously we haven't borrowed it a lot.  I am not a crook!  Point: I think it's about time for a bebes update.    

Look how precious.  I swear.  This was taken little over a week ago and since this picture was taken the bebes has turned into an insane separation anxiety freak of a child.  It's annoyingly cute because she wants love from you nonstop.  I'm at a crossroads as to what to do...do I indulge her and help her get through it.  Do I play the tough love card and teach her to suck it up.  I'm doing some intense research on it today so that Dave and I can figure out what the best approach is.  Regardless she's such a sweet little booger...covered in some sort of mashed up orange goo!

Wowzers she sure showed you!  

Grace in Small Things #8

1.  The ability to post every day about things I'm excited about...and how I allow myself to make one of my points about food...every day!  Gah I love food.

2.  Husbando's fabulous pot stickers last night and a glass or 3 of wine.  

3.  My love for creativity and my total lack of skill combine to give me the opportunity and willingness to try and try and try.

4.  My desk is almost all set up in the spare room so I can finally have a work space to just relax at and fiddle.

5.  I'm rereading The Clan of the Cave Bear right now.  I'm so beyond thrilled and missed this piece of literature so much.  I forgot what a great book it is.  

Bling...I'm so hip!

Back in the day...in a galaxy far far away...long before I learned about social etiquette...my friend Tammy got engaged.  Tammy is 11 years older than me we grew up next door to each other....out in the boonies of Ohio.  During her engagement it never occurred to me to 'ask to see THE ring.'  Thankfully Tammy was not in any way offended by this seeing as it probably would have never occurred to her to ask to examine another woman's jewelry.  Flash forward 10 years later when I got engaged everyone asked to see my ring.  In fact the first person who was told face to face demanded to see my ring.  I was totally unprepared for this.  I didn't really care much about other women's jewelry and I couldn't (and still can't) understand that.  I guess maybe its a representation of status or how much my husband loves me?  Regardless I've never been interested in other women's jewelry.  I used to work with a woman who had a HUGE gorgeous ring and it was very much a statement of her style and personality.  It very much represented who she was as jewelry should be.  I never asked to examine her ring either.  

Am I too anti-social that I'm confused by this practice?  About three years ago one of my friends got engaged and we were all at a wedding shower for another friend (I know I'm a great story teller...I'm working on it)  Anyway we were all standing around and everyone was asking to see every ones rings?  One of my friends with her wicked sense of proper conduct and conversation was just gushing over the ring and because I know her well enough to know she didn't give a hoot...well it just made the situation that much more sarcastic, evil and funny.  My point cause I never can make it subtlety is that she at least knew she was supposed to ask about the ring and gush over the thought of engagement.  Can't I just be happy for someone who's getting married without projecting with no real passion behind my words an overwhelming lust for her jewelry?

My ring is very personal.  Dave gave it to me.  It really has nothing to do with anyone else.  It's a physical representation of our intent to marry.  We didn't get it so that I could show it off it was mostly to keep you know...the hoards of men away from me.  Who am I kidding I barely wear mascara!  Anyway!  I find this practice very odd.  

The whole reason I'm thinking about this is because I was out last night with a friend who was recently engaged and the entire evening it didn't occur to me to ask to see her ring.  I hope I didn't hurt her feelings.  I care that she's engaged I think its wonderful; marriage is a huge very important step in a couples life.  But at least to me its a very personal step which unless I'm asked to be included in really is none of my business.  

Grace in Small Things #7

1.  24 meals and red wine.

2.  Productivity...my own and that of my families.  

3.  Top Gun, NCIS, JAG, Air Force One, The American President, Dave, and any other abuse of of a political office to make good tv/movies.  

4.  Talking to a friend I haven't talked with in many months.

5.  All my pregnant friends and family members who are so excited for their upcoming family expansion plans!

Bright Orange T-shirts ARE In Style!

Last weekend wasn't anything exciting.  Dave and I got a lot done around the house and we pre-celebrated Dave's birthday with a trip to a way-too-expensive-I-forgot-my-coupons steak restaurant.  Heck the only reason we went was because we had these coupon/gift card things.  We should have gotten sushi.  Seriously!  We spent a bunch of money on things we needed but shouldn't have spent the money on.  It's cyclical and redundant and annoying and redundant.  

The bebes smelled like buttered popcorn for a good part of the weekend I'm still waiting for some divine explanation to that one?  I did sniff her a lot though.  Mostly she smells like Baby Magic or the soothing vapors bath soap stuff...the notable difference was a pleasant and interesting change of pace.

I fell...down a flight of stairs....while holding the bebes.  Thankfully she was okay.  Poor little booger.  I on the other hand was just getting over a super minor yet annoying neck/back muscle spasm when I fell so now I'm feeling a whole new level of wonderfulness! (Note the heavy sarcasm).  Saturday night I took a hot bath and because I wasn't done with the laundry borrowed one of Dave's work shirts.  It's bright orange.  No no he's not a construction worker.  Although he does build bridges.  Wait that's a lie too I'm just making stuff up over here.  Anyway I told him I was wearing it so that if he lost me in the middle of the night...in bed...he could find me again.  Go with that anyplace you would like! :)

So anyway its Monday and according to those who follow astrology Mercury is in retrograde and that basically means that life sucks.  Apparently it's not uncommon for planets to be in this state but it does mean that I've only come up with 1 thing so far for my Grace in Small Things post for the day.  I don't really follow astrology but this week is really making me pay a bit more attention.  I'm actually in a great mood but life is really trying to kick me in the shins.  Good thing I have a few Fudge Shoppe Grasshoppers and a Diet Coke to make life a bit more bearable. 

I'm hoping tonight to get a few pictures in frames so that when I say 'I want to hang pictures today' I will actually be one step closer to doing it.  Case in point.  I've wanted to hang pictures for 3 months...yet no pictures are hung.  I don't really know what my hurry is.  Half the house is unfurnished and the other half has furniture from 1985 in it.  I do not believe that this is something to model my fashion and design tecniques around.  Hanging pictures on walls in a room with no furniture may look a little misplaced.  But alas this is my life.  

Dave set up my desk today before he went to work.  I'm super excited to get home and probably not have 5 minutes to set up anything.  Oh and by desk I mean....antique table with four legs and no storage.  It will hold our computer and have enough space for me to explore my limited artistic abilities.  Most importantly its a quiet place for me to edit photos and safely store my 'stuff'.  I swear soon I'll have internet at home and I'll be able to share what I've been working on.  AND with a desk and a space to work I'll actually be able to focus on things.  Here I go with my redundancy again.  Oh joy!  Anyway I'm happy for a space to work that for now is limited in its clutter.  Redundant.  

And I'm done.  Off to pick up the bebes and have a ladies night at home on the couch in our pj's.  Those really are some of the best nights.  Not gonna lie.  

Grace In Small Things #6

1.  Chocolate milk with not too much chocolate in it.

2.  My super fabulous black flats that I've worn almost every day since I bought them.  

3.  My super fabulous new pants that I bought last Friday.  

4.  Snapfish.com

5.  A 60+ year old table I use as a writing/art desk that Dave set up for me today in our spare bedroom.  

Grace In Small Things #5

1. Church and Costco.
2. New jeans that didn't cost a lot and make my butt look nice.
3. Little Asian sauce dishes used as small candle holders.
4. Books with no bookshelves.
5. My favorite necklace with a sister charm and a mother charm (I'm sentimental and it was a really nice gift).

Grace In Small Things #4

1. Naptime
2. Black beans and future potstickers or rangoon
3. Dave getting off early on a Saturday
4. Boogers and Cheerios and a really sweet baby
5. A washer and dryer that isn't coin operated

Grace In Small Things #3

1.  The bebes is 9 months old today!

2.  It's Friday

3.  Lemonade and tator tots and chocolate milk

4.  Cookbooks, wontons and potato products

5.  The ability to be redundant in my list.  I think 3 & 4 could have been combined?  

I think maybe I was sentimental and hungry for todays list?

Grace In Small Things #2

1. Electricity. Seriously give it a shot it will be in your top 5 as well!
2. Not living in an apartment anymore.
3. Kraft Mac & Cheese.
4. A 20 something year old couch...in country blue...ek country.
5. A really great book

Read to your kids you freaks!

Dave grabbed the camera the other day to take pictures of me and the bebes and we happen to be reading a book.  Also I had a avid discussion with a friend of mine a week ago about how important it is to read to children at all ages.  The two situations randomly came together for something I think should be screamed at some of you parents:

READ TO YOUR KIDS YOU FREAKS!

My grandmother was a librarian. I was SURROUNDED by books as a child. I always had the option to read. Always something within my reach. Even with all of this knowledge at my fingertips I had and with little improvement still do have poor reading comprehension.  Can you imagine how bad it would be if I wasn't read to at home?  My mother read to me every evening.  I was part of the babysitters club book club.  I loved to read.  I wasn't always particularly fond of reading in school.  Mostly that was my attitude issues not so much my dislike of reading.  

Point: I'm a freak for books.  If I have a chance tonight I will take pictures of my families lameness and show you our bookshelves and 3rd bedroom project in the works.  Seriously we like our literature.  

Parents who don't spend time reading to their children cannot fathom the disservice they are doing.  Instilling a love of reading and literature in children will build a foundation for learning and growing as a person as a young adult as a future United Nations Translator...huh what?  Oh you get the point.  Helping children gain knowledge and learn to acquire it on their own is one of the greatest things you can do as a parent.  Dolly Parton agrees with me!

I may fail as a parent in many ways.   Many ways I cannot even begin to imagine; I know my children will lovingly throw examples in my face one day (because I do it to my mother...every chance I get).  I do know that beyond a doubt my children will be given every opportunity to grow, imagine and learn.  I had those opportunities as a child and so often I can point to a good book that inspired me to try something new or visit a new place or dream up an imaginary world.  This is the smallest of gifts I can give to my children.  

On a totally related note that had nothing to do with this:

Look at us reading a little Dr. Seuss.  

Look at that love of books.  Maybe she just wants to eat it?

Or stick her tongue out at it?  It is Mr. Brown Can Moo Can You....maybe she was trying to make some of the noises?

Oh please mommy just let me eat the book already!

Oh because I'm random:  HELLO LIBRARIES LET YOU VIEW BOOKS FOR FREE...GET A CLUE. 

Man can you feel the love from me today or what!

Grace In Small Things #1

1. two orange cats and one white snuggling with me on the bed.
2. a healthy happy wonderful bebes
3. employment and steady income
4. a potsticker making fabulous husband
5. my faith

Rant #928374023972394792374 Welcome!

So I haven't blogged a lot recently.  Seeing as this is my new obsession it's rather frustrating not having Internet at home.  I've spent half my morning and last weekend pricing out different cable and Internet options.  On top of our longing and hopefulness for Internet connectivity that whole 'digital transition' thing is coming up which means my 2-7-9-11 snowy channels are not going to work soon.  My world is crumbling down around me.  I know I know hunger, famine, chafing, swamp issues, global warming, world peace all big problems.  BUT if I can't watch TV and I can't get online I won't be able to help the world solve all of these issues.  You all know swamp issues are high on my list of importance.  

Point: I've been pricing out Internet and cable and because I live in the boonies and there isn't a lot of competition its REALLY expensive.  Only a few providers offer Internet that doesn't come from a satellite.  The satellite Internet is beyond expensive.  I can't believe it.  When we lived closer to the city our total was about 40-50-60 dollars less a month than some of these plans.  

Regardless I'm going insane without a connection to the real world in my house.  Even my iPhone connection is sluggish.  I'm sad and displeased.  And if you haven't been around me today to hear my incessant whining....my neck hurts....like whoa!  When I get home I'm totally planning on popping one of those awesome monster pills they gave me after the bebes birth.  Not the narcotic ones just the Super Advil.  I flushed the narcotic ones.  I was too freaked out by all the warnings to even take them.  Anyway the Super Advil and I have a date tonight.  I will probably be in bed resting by 9 and then Dave can make fun of me because...if you didn't know this....I go to sleep at 8:30.  I didn't know this but apparently its true!  :)

Anyway lets see what else is going on in my head that I can bastardize into a sad sad semblance of sentence structure...lets back track and reevaluate...did I really spend 3 paragraphs talking about cable and Internet.  So many more interesting things are going on in my life yet this I harp on....wow I think I may be able to psychoanalyze that to death.  

In the past few weeks I haven't been at work a lot.  Due to a well planned staycation and some doctors appointments I haven't been out of our house much.  I count it a good week when you can stay in your pj's more often than you  need to get dressed.  Regardless all of the fun had to come to an end.  If it didn't I would have been out of vacation time by the end of February............................................................................  

Anyway we got a ton of stuff done around the house our third bedroom who's door has been closed since we moved in is now open and so very close to being usable.  I have to set up my desk/table and then hopefully in the next few weeks I can start posting tons of obnoxious pictures of my life which will help everyone to realize how amusingly sad it is!  Regardless I'm excited.  I will probably take pictures of all the rooms in the house and post them because...yep...I care...no one else...just me :)  We'll call them our 'before' pictures and then never have an after picture.  By the time I get around to working on our house....there will be a new social medium who's audience doesn't give a rats BEhind about my under decorated homestead.  Lets churn some butta!

I was working desperately to use the phrase "curiously unbecoming" in this rant of mine but I just couldn't seem to fit it in.  I have other ideas though....don't you worry!

good talk...

Does anyone else find it peculiar that Internet is capitalized.  I get it I really do but it still seems odd to me can't I just say internet?  Please?

Happy Birthday Ben Franklin You Polymath-ic Renaissance Man!

1777 Jean-Baptiste Greuze portrait of Franklin.

Could I be any weirder?

Unsafe and Delicious!

I hear all you parents out there complaining that your child doesn't eat veggies. Well really neither does mine but heck she will gnaw on a hunk of celery till the day she dies. Yes yes I know she could bite a piece off and DIE. I hear yah folks I really do. Except I'm really good at ignoring you and realizing that my child was 1.5 feet away from me and I could hear every single crunch she made. Soooooo get over it....she was gnawing some nutrients into her skinny little self and I'm okay with that.

I have no intention of giving her raw celery as a snack anytime soon...heck I choke on it regularly why would I give it to her. I will be stewing some for her and seeing if it brings on any sort of similar effect because this was the happiest the bebes has been in days. Those teeth are really winning the cranky fight. I'm totally loosing.

Here is the extreme baby close up. Weird but cute cause her eyes are the prettiest shade of blue.

Side Note: The bebes took my celery which I was eating with cream cheese. I thought "Hey, a slightly healthy snack!" but she took it which left me eating straight cream cheese. Not such a healthy snack...but delicious.

When I met Dave. A story of Digital Video Discs.

When I met Dave...Oh when I met Dave...that's a story for another day. :) Anyway when we first started dating he lived in a three bedroom house. 1 man...3 bedrooms. What per say do you think he did with those extra two rooms. Well my friends they were dedicated to DVD storage. Not just those two rooms either. His living room area also had an insane amount of DVDs and Video Games. I cannot adequately explain to you a proper description of what this truly meant. Every available space was used as DVD storage. Dave spent his Tuesdays at Best Buy checking out the new releases. The man had the most impressive movie collection.

After we started dating for awhile it obviously curbed a bit because of my incessant nagging of how he spent his money. Also when we got married we moved into a two bedroom apartment and really we didn't have the space. DVDs were everywhere. They were slowly taking over our life. Finally we started buying those huge CD/DVD binders that hold about 250 DVDS and we took all the DVDs out of their cases and stored our huge collection. The obvious choice with the DVD boxes was to store them in my parents basement. Which you know they secretly loved. My mother insisted that we didn't want to rent a storage unit for all of our extra stuff so that obviously meant we were to store our junk in their basement.

Okay so anyway we have tons of DVDs that's where I was going with this and they are mostly organized alphabetically with the few exceptions we have a few binders labeled by TV series and those don't necessarily have order. Although soon I think I'm going to claim my own binder of TV series Dave has no interest in ever watching with me. Anyway I was going through them the other day and for some reason The Chronicles of Narnia I always try to place under Narnia not Chronicles. Also My Big Fat Greek Wedding is filed under Big not My so in order to watch it you have to go into a completely different binder. That one doesn't necessarily bother me and for some reason it just makes sense for Dave and I so there it stays with the B's. I look at our organizational system and while it general follows our alphabetical thought process it sometimes forms its own order.

We also try to keep movie series together so while all the Harry Potters, Batman's and LOTR are together for some reason the Mask of Zorro and the Legend of Zorro are kept separate. Again this makes sense to us but anyone trying to find movies in our system may pull their hairs out one at a time. I'm also thinking in the near future we are going to have to separate out the kid appropriate movies so that we don't have to tell them that they can watch Finding Nemo but not Finding Forester or Fight Club. Every time I think of reorganizing or restructuring our DVDs I think of High Fidelity. Yes the movie but mostly this part:

Dick: I guess it looks as if you're reorganizing your records. What is this though? Chronological?
Rob: No...
Dick: Not alphabetical...
Rob: Nope...
Dick: What?
Rob: Autobiographical.
Dick: No ******* way.

I feel like one day I'm going to have a fit of crazy and organize our DVDs by some sort of six degrees of separation and then all the Johnny Depp will be together but Sweeney Todd will be next to Finding Neverland and the world may start to spin backwards.

Someone should come inside my brain sometime and do some reorganizing then maybe I'll make sense to other people. :)

Vich is my friend, vich is yours?

In full procrastination to wash baby bottles clean up toys and work out....a blessing to you all: more rambling. Bebes went to sleep early because by golly the screaming was nonstop. Poor kid has one more jumbo tooth coming in. That will bring the total to 4 top teeth in less than a week. What a joy for us all. She does look freakishly cute though with her mouth full of razor sharp death. Overwhelmed with cuteness I am. Also I speak like Yoda. My coolness level just increased.

I had two well written paragraphs here about Rod Blagojevich and Sarah Palin...even a horrendous Lindsay Lohan reference. Honestly folks I don't have the willpower or the maturity level today to tackle those with the respect and horrific sarcasm they deserve. Well not so much Sarah Palin because I mostly just have a word or two about her but those other two....man you're lucky I'm feelin irresponsible, foot loose and fancy free.

I close today with a special thought about Coke Zero and my adoration for it.

Its dark soda goodness overwhelms me with tastiness. It's zero calories and hidden evil qualities make me question its loyalty to my health. I drink with blind faith.

Good talk friends.

The usual insanity

Today was Super Dave day and Mediocre Lindso afternoon. Dave busied himself around the house this morning before he went to work cleaning up and vacuuming etc etc. While this isn't a daily activity for him he does get into these moods and that's rather impressive. He brought up the empty Christmas boxes so that we could disassemble Christmas and bring on V-day. Well actually I'm the only one who cares if the house is decorated for Valentines Day but whaaaatever. Back to the point: I on the other hand...played with the bebes all afternoon...and then played with her some more. In my defense I did feed her 2-3 square meals and give her a bath but I still feel like I accomplished nothing today. Looking around though maybe I'm being a little hard on myself. Usually I'm the "Lindso, you're awesome" pep talker so this whole "have you reached your potential today" attitude is new for me. I'm perfectly content meeting and not exceeding expectations on my days off. I moved a small dresser downstairs and reorganized my husbands entire video game collection. I also paid the bills which heck...those are an exhausting task I think paying bills is enough to fill any one's day. Except maybe those suckers who have no credit debt or financial stress to deal with. Those folks don't know what their missing I mean seriously...THE JOY...annnywho I'm over it.

I think I've hit a new low when I marked in my post here that I paid bills today because seriously how lame and unexciting do you have to be to discuss paying your bills. Lets come full circle here....did I do anything with my day? Whooowheee.

Tomorrow I'm going to need some motivation to go out and run errands. I SHOULD go to the mall but I could probably postpone that till Monday but I will be hitting up the fancy fancy Target and possibly some Costco. Dang I love Costco talk about Disneyland for adults. (I guess a reference to some sort of Adult Superstore could be made here but I wasn't going to go there...and now I'm going there...dang it)! Don't you hate that you aren't supposed to punctuate inside the parentheses. That totally blows and really makes my point less pointy. Regardless I have a coupon for laundry detergent at Costco that is buuuurnin a whole in my pocket. Seriously...it's getting intense.

I think maybe I'm rambling in an attempt to stay conscience and functioning till Dave gets home from work. The other day he told me he was upset he doesn't have a nickname on my blog. I'm unsure what to call him other than Dave or Husband. TSC who introduced us used to call him DRJ and while I do refer to him as such its not a very cool blog nickname. I read other blogs and the writers have whole imaginary worlds and names devoted to all of their family members. While I do try to avoid using much external family members here without permission I think coming up with a name for the 75 plus people I may or may not discuss who are part of my daily/weekly/monthly life is exhausting. (So was that last sentence...aka run-on) I would need a reference guide just to keep them all straight. Maybe as my deep undying love for him grows stronger some sort of love bug nickname will surface. Isn't "Dave" romantic enough? Geeeeze! :)

Captain
Comrade
Cupcake
Kittycoosies
Bubba
Steve (mock neck of course)
Love Muffin
Pumpkin Face
Starshine
Buttercup
Babe
Hoooney
Schnookums
Husbando

Someday I will come up with a whole book dedicated to arbitrary nicknames you can use to refer to people.

I just had a thought that will only make sense to I think 4 people on early.....glove glove scarf button zip button pat pat pat pat smoooooth.

Unrelated and mean....moving on.

Earlier today the Mill Bill was snuggling with a stuffed monkey that I had taken out for the bebes to play with. Needless to say the bebes had no interest but Milli was smitten. Probably because it has about the same amount of hair as she does.

Dave's parents got this:

For the bebes this Christmas. Let me tell you it is by far the loudest most annoying toy and our child LOVES IT. Which means WE LOVE IT too. It's actually really cute it blows air and makes all the different parts move. You push the red ladybug and it activates. It has I think 3 songs and one of them sounds so close to the 1987 Mega Man music. Anyway I have flashbacks to bringing my brother Robbie ham sandwiches while he works diligently to win a game of Zelda because while I had Nintendo games I liked and video games are cool....the 1980's and 90's were primarily dedicated to helping Robbie rescue Princess Toadstool and conquer the world of RPG. Mario reined supreme and Sonic the Hedgehog helped pass the time. I know I'm mixing about 50 different genres but trust me I do know what I'm talking about...and it's rather sad...and rereading has brought me back to how I'm as usual....OFF TOPIC.

Oh well Dave's almost home and I need some husband/wife time....

Till tomorrow....Or the next day....Or the next... My consistency is a little off. It always is. There are many to blame for this but I'll try not to throw stones.

I don't know where to start!

I have no idea where to start with the insane chaos of the last two weeks of blissful wonderful Christmas vacation.  Oh how about here:

This was the traffic...leaving Illinois on the 23rd of December.  We drove...and drove...and drove.  We arrived in Ohio at 6AM Christmas Eve.  

See 6AM.  Happy awake baby...at least she slept through the night.  

My lovely lovely...lovely husband let me get some sleep that morning.  As noted previously I'm not necessarily pleasant with little sleep.  I don't even attempt to function properly it's not actually in my power to be nice.  I try I just fail miserably at it.  So I slept and it was glorious.  

We/I woke up and had a business lunch.  By business lunch I mean...we attended a free lunch at a business...owned by my in-laws.  I adore my in-laws they amuse me to death.  Well not literally buuut whatever.  Christmas Eve is when Dave's family celebrates Christmas.  We went to church and out to dinner.  I LOVE Christmas Eve church service.  I grew up Catholic, baptized Lutheran...it's very confusing.  Dave and I now attend a nondenominational evangelical church...again...confusing.  I'll explain it all at another time.  Anyway I love the church service.  It brings the whole season in perspective for me.  I truly loose sight of it as so many people do.  I do every year.  I focus on gifts and celebration and I loose focus.  Going to church on Christmas Eve really brings me to the point and it's Gods way of gently smackin some sense into me.  Thanks God.  I love Dave's parents church because they have a beautiful sanctuary and they ASL Interpreters are just awesome.  Although we were singing "Oh Come All Ye Faithful" and the lady interpreting the song signed "Oh come let us adore him...Oh come let us Jesus love you...Oh come let us love you(disambiguous not in reference to God)" and well it gave me the giggles and that's not cool.  Anyway the rest of the signing for the service was flawless and I give those interpreters the utmost respect because I certainly couldn't do it.  

After church we hit up Cheesecake Factory...I am not allowed to order the Avocado Egg rolls there.  Seriously.  Every time I order them I spill the lime green sauce on myself.  I am always wearing something that does not look good with lime green sauce on it too.  Pitiful.  Anyway moving on.....

Look cute picture of the bebes.  

So Family Christmas #1.  Here we all are...rockin out.  Don't we look festive?

The closest thing to a family shot I have from the 2-3 week hiatus/traveling extravaganza.  

Christmas day we stopped over to visit the extended family on my Dad's side and then headed over to my parents house to spend the afternoon with them.  I have no photographic proof of any of this.  Hopefully some will trickle in soon.  

Dave had to work so he traveled back to Illernoise for A day...so stressful for him.  Slightly stressful for me considering the bebes was workin on 3 wonderful and sharp teeth!  I did some shopping with little to no consumer purchase...which is sad...I know!

My mom hung out with the kiddo for a bit....here she is harassing her with tickling.  The bebes doesn't seem to mind much though....

Wonderfully back in the great state of Illinois and missing O-H-I-O; Dave and I went out for our whoppin 2 year anniversary.  It was so wonderfully lame I can't even muster up enough to tell you about it.  We had this:

I want more now...please....please?

And lets round off my random ramblings with a cute picture of the bebes.  I think it is the best way to end a post!