Gaggle of Girls

Diane and Me with our all-female offspring:

Holiday Happenings

We have company in for a week during Thanksgiving and it has been a little crazy around here! We added a family of 6 - 3 adults and 3 children (2 months, nearly 4, and 6 1/2 years old)to our humble abode. Let me just say that there is never a dull (or quiet) moment. The Ruckers are here visiting family as is standard for Thanksgiving and we are having a great time having the families together. The only thing that is not working very well is the sleeping. There's not a whole lot of sleeping situations happening as planned. This was the original plan: Diane and Derek on the 3rd floor sleeper couch with the baby; Mary's bed joined Emma's in the Dora room and the queen sized inflatable mattress on the floor for Sabrina and Fiona; the second twin bed from the Dora room into the nursery for Grandma Mary to sleep in and us in our room. The first morning found Sabrina in Grandma Mary's room sharing a twin bed and Mary in our room on the floor. The next morning found Diane and Baby Brianna on the couch in the living room, Sabrina on the third floor with Derek, Fiona in with Grandma Mary, and Emma on the floor in our room. We've just about given up on any night time order whatsoever. And if you can follow all of that then you are doing better than we are.

Thanksgiving dinner was here, with my parents, my grandfather, Jim's mom and Avis joining us. I really enjoying maiking all of the Thanksgiving Day food. This year we brined the turkey overnight, which gave it a fabulous flavor and texture. I think I will ALWAYS brine fowl from now on. I highly recommend trying this recipe.

We are spending a great amount of time working out with the Ruckers. Today Jim, Derek and Sabrina went to the rock wall at the fitness center and spent a good portion of the afternoon rock climbing. Then Diane and I went back and swam for a while. We also raced down the water slide, but only twice. Whee!!!! The day started out with the girls frosting Christmas cookies, which I made a video of for you to see.

Dora and Swiper

Emma doesn't usually do a Dora role play, and today we found out why. Mary isn't quite the willing accomplice Emma would like her to be, apparently.

The Ultimate and Terrible Demise of Little Guy

Emma has an imaginary friend, who she pulls out occasionally. This is not the constant friend who never leaves her side. This is someone who comes out when she is playing with others and joins in. His name is Little Guy. The other day (Tuesday) I was driving to go do errands and there was a clump of dirt in my tire, clanking around as clumps of dirt tend to do when stuck in the wheel well. I stopped briefly to get out and look at it and announced to the inquisitive girls what it was and drove off. Then Emma broke out in screaming and sobbing fits.

"NO! NO! MAMA! IT'S LITTLE GUY! YOU SMASHED HIM WITH YOUR TIRE! STOP! YOU'RE HURTING HIM! IT'S ****LITTLE GUY****!!!"

And so the car ride went, with Emma convinced I had just killed her imaginary friend. Yep. Ran him over. Much like Grandma and the reindeer in that catchy holiday song. Emma was beside herself for the rest of the ride. At nap time, she had nightmares about Little Guy. After nap time, she moped about and looked wistful, saying the house was an awfully sad place without Little Guy. About every hour she teared up and mourned her loss.

It's amazing to me that I have never come across any parenting articles about how to handle this occasion.

And the Stockings were Hung...

Well, there you have it, the fabulous tree in the living room, with matching decor. Sunday the girls helped me and Grandma decorate the little tree in the foyer with Hallmark ornaments (read: less breakable). They were so excited it was hard to keep up with them, but they enjoyed it so much it was nearly insupportable! Grandma Saunders was a good sport and I think she even enjoyed herself. We all had such a nice, Christmas-y time and now the trees are up, thanks ever so much to Grandma!

12 Days of...

BUSY-NESS! What on Earth have I been doing??? Well, let me tell you, my friend. ***I*** am getting ready for CHRISTMAS! Friday my mother-in-law and my niece came over and we spent all day long making our Christmas cards, with lots of red and green candy and many Christmas music CD's. I made 38 cards out of the 60 I need. That was a very productive day! I worked hard enough on those that I had a cramp in my hand later that evening. Something like carpal tunnel for stampers. Ouch!

Today we took the girls to gymnastics, where both of them proceeded to crumple into small melted toddler piles when they should have been doing donkey kicks or candle sticks or something. Really, Mary was a pile on the floor and kept saying she was tired. Poor girls were just not in the mood to be jumping and flipping about, even if they are unbelievably cute in their little leotards. Then we met Niecey at Sam's Club and found her some new tires for her little car and we got her a few important food items to take home with her. I'm so glad I'm no longer in my 20's and on my own again! The girls continued to be melted messes so we took them home. While Emma neglected her naptime and refused to sleep, we put up the big Christmas tree. IT IS BEAUTIFUL! This is the first year the living room is painted a rich burgundy and it matches the colors of the tree ornaments. It is all so sumptuous and glamorous and makes you want to weep it is all so Better Homes and Gardens. At some point (when the furniture is back in place) I'll take a picture to share with you. Kind of sad this will be the only year it will be in that room. HUH!

After all of that holiday happiness I went and worked out - swimming again. And I did my personal best! I swam 1/2 mile today. You can check out all of the statistics on my Triathlon training blog here. So now we are exhausted, sitting in the family room just listening to the laundry get washed in the washing machine. When I have some energy - tomorrow - I think I will run for 3 miles. I'm serious about getting with the skinny.

I'll keep you posted.

Halloween

Just for those that continue to think about that long past holiday mentioned above, here's a treat. The little girl in the JoJo costume is my good friend's daughter.

Christmas

Well, it is snowing today. Not just lazy, drifting, thought you might not notice flakes - we have full white out conditions over here in southeastern Michigan. Were you expecting a post about Halloween? Well, it is November SECOND, which means we are a full TWO days into the Christmas season. The catalogs are spread out on my kitchen table, with dogeared pages and ink stars all over them. Christmas cards designs are piled on my craft table, waiting to be tried and loved - chosen to be the special one that is duplicated 60 or 70 times over and them sent all over the Earth before the end of December. Even the weather has given up any hope that fall extends one MINUTE past October 31st. There is no time for wallowing and focusing on Halloween any more - that holiday is SO last Tuesday. Time to dig out my holiday CD's and mull the cider - we have cards to make!

Multiple Postings

Well, apparentlyBlogger is having a little case of the hiccoughs. Yes, those videos are all the same. As hard as I have tried, I cannot delete them. As a matter of fact, they are not real. When I check my posts they are not listed. So I ask you - how do you get rid of something that is not really there?

The Making of a Family Photo

We went to Jim's Dad's house to visit Grandma Miller, who is in from Las Vegas. At 93, she is sprightly and has a twinkle in her eye. She has never met Emma or Mary, so the girls got all gussied up to go visit. At some point the inevitable family photo had to happen, so Karen and her kids piled around with Jim and our girls. Poor Grandma probably will be glad to get back to her own house!

Skirts!

These are wonderful skirts that Lydia made for my girls. Hooray for skirts! Nicest thanks to Lydia for clothing my children in such cute clothes. And an extra Hip! Hip! for a little display of sisterly love momentarily shared happily. The only problem is that I didn't have any long sleeve shirts that matched the skirts, so they look a bit summery and knocked kneed. Very knock kneed. I hope that is not permanent, or a side effect of new skirts. Ha!

This is definitely a scrapbook-worthy picture.

Video Attempt

I tried to upload to You Tube. This is from 2 weeks ago when we brought home a baby chick from preschool to keep over night.

I hope it worked!

Halloween Costumes!

Well, the two Tinkerbells did not really work out. I could not find the shoes in Mary's size, nor could I find a second set of wings. So, there, in the middle of Disney Mania, I said to Mary, "You can pick any costume you want instead of Tinkerbell". Or something like that. Then I immediately followed that up with, "AND LOOK AT MINNIE MOUSE!!!!!". And there you have it. We now have 2 complete Halloween costumes, and Mary LOVES the gloves that come with the Minnie Mouse set. She is only slightly jealous of Emma's wings. I let the girls play in their costumes for a while and Emma has already ripped the wings, so no more frolicking in full garb. But honestly, I am just glad to have that done with. I do love the little shoes for both costumes. I think I will let them use them at Christmas, too. It is a good use of $6 shoes and they are wicked cute.

Boo!

My mom bought this CUTE dress for Mary. It is reversible and has Candy Cane appliques on the other side. Thankfully, I had the perfect model to put in it!

Emma is at school today, so after a trip to work out, Mary and I bumped around Meijer for a while, looking at shampoo and what-not. Amazingly, there are no pumpkin pies at Meijer. I may have to make one myself - UGH.

Antebellum Dress

This dress was worn by Leona Denning (Peaslee) in 1863 in Atlanta. It's been in our family (as well as the name) since.

***Addendum: I photoshop edited the girls into one picture, and not very well, I might add. There is only one dress of great antiquity and heritage in that picture!

Musings

I am still plugging away t the Triathlon workout. There is one in May (yes I KNOW that is far away, but you can't really DO a triathlon in Michigan in the winter) nearby that I am contemplating. I have had another person offer to do one with me (that makes 2). Yikes! Who are all of these people who do these things??? And Jim is right there with me, swimming and running and biking as though it were HIS surprise to the world Triathlon training. That is true love, I tell you. You can keep up with all of my training minutiae by clicking the Tri to be Fit link on the right side of this page under Blogs of Interest.

Today is another day of Emma at preschool. Mary and I have settled down to a comfortable routine together. Mostly, the routine involves Mary happily following me to anything at all while she sings about how she loves Mama. Seriously - that is what happens. So last week we went to the mall and bumped around for a while (spending too much money - at Gymboree in particular) and shared a cookie from Mrs. Fields. Later we read books for a VERY long time and she translated them all for her new stuffed Nemo doll. Today we went tot he mall again, this time to get tinkerbell costumes for both of the girls. Yes, they are both going to be the same thing. It was not my idea, but Ithink it is wonderfully cute. The only problem is that they are out of wings. Mary had her heart set on wings. We have tinkerbell shoes and dresses, but no wings. One would just not believe the sadness that descends on a two year old when she was expecting tinkerbell wings and did not get them. She's napping now, so I am hoping she is over that for the moment.

This past weekend I went to an all day crop with my mother-in-law which was wonderful and productive. You would think that 12 hours straight of scrapbooking would satisfy some corner of crafty neediness, but it does not. Much like an addiction, that only makes me want to do it more. I am having a hard time focusing on things like laundry and meals because I only want to scrapbook. That's all there is to say about that - I am trying to avoid a good portion of the draw to craft right now.

One more thing - I am saddened by a recent event. Two of my regular blogs have closed up shop in the last month. One is a good friend of mine (actually, my Nemesis). He closed up with no explanation except that he was done with blogging. Imagine! I cannot believe that he would leave he blogosphere hanging like that. I really did enjoy reading his witty posts. I am hoping this is a temporary thing or he is planning on sending me long, descriptive emails about his daily life. The other blog is Fluid Pudding, which always makes me laugh out loud. *SADNESS*. Just thought I'd share.

It's All About Me

I know this is cheating, but I was reading away on one of my favorite blogs and she referenced this post, which made me laugh out loud in a way that is unfitting.

Other news that is unnecessary and totally about me:

I am reading Eats, Shoots and Leaves. Amazingly enjoyable!

I have now completed 4 full weeks of training, 2 of them completely swimming. (This means 5 or more days a week of working out). I am almost enjoying swimming. Almost.

I am cooking Lemon Pepper Pork Roast for dinner. YUM. With homemade applesauce. And Caesar Salad (homemade dressing and croutons, and Parmesan we shredded ourselves).

I am aggressively learning how to use Access Database - this week. Anyone have a pile of data sitting around?

We painted the railings on our patio yesterday since snow is supposed to fly by Friday.

I am looking for Halloween costumes for the girls - a white dog and an orange cat. Krypto and Streaky. Any ideas of where I can get those?

Going to work out again tonight, but I may NOT swim. HUH!

I got up at 4:30 this morning and couldn't get back to sleep. YAWN.

I'm doing an all day crop this Saturday with my mother-in-law : now THAT'S bonding!



That's all she wrote, folks. I just couldn't think of anything else today!

The Best Quote from Today

Emma: "I'm quite out of little hugs now, it is awfully late. I can only give you big hugs now."

Friday Night

It's Friday night at 9:00 and the girls are in bed (mostly) and Jim is off at a poker tournament (I'm not kidding, but I'm not going into details). I only want to sit and watch TV in my (mostly) quiet house. What to watch? Traditionally, Friday nights are bust for programming, even though we have hundreds of channels. Tonight, I've got 3 Martha Stewart's TiVo'd. Not the right mood.... Let's see... Battlestar Galactica! No, not quite. OOOOOOoooooooo American Idol- Back to the Beginning! Doesn't THAT sound like fun? Hm.... $40 a Day, Larry King, That 70's Show, every CSI ever invented, Law and Order.... and I settle on Most Haunted. THAT should be a good show to watch all by myself and go to bed until somebody creeps home at ungodly hours. Oh- ***TWO*** EPISODES! HOORAY!!!!!!

Triathlon Blog

For any one who CARES to see all of the hours of cold, wet swimming and not so much of the other two sports, you can try this link. I started training the wek of September 11th, so you can go back on the little calendar and see all of the things I have been doing for 4 weeks. If you don't care about the exact numbers, the jist of it goes like this:

I am so bad at swimming I couldn't even swim far enough non-stop to do the fancy drills the book wanted me to push through. So I stopped following the book - a break, if you will -and just swam. That's all. I'm on week 2 of only swimming, 4 or 5 days a week. Things are going well, especially since I figured out how to zone train using heart rate information. Ugh, it all sounds so technical. It's not, really - I swim. I think next week I will try the training book again, I'm feeling a little soggy.