The Best Gifts

I can't imagine having a more precious gift under my tree.

Santa love

So, is it bad that it's been so long that you have to give your password a couple tries when signing in to your own blog??
Here are a couple shots with the big guy. We love Santa!


I am so proud of this little lady. She is getting used to her camera-happy mom and can flash a perfect smile with a moment's notice.

Parker was very intent on making sure Santa understood exactly what he was listing.

Peyton was introduced to Santa last weekend. Despite my fears that he would be scared of Santa (after all, the week before he went Kung Fu on Curious George, smacking him in the face and screaming at the Children's Museum in STL), he LOVES him!! Still very curious about his get-up, though.

Is she for real???

I was reading an article about sleep strategies for moms. One suggestion is to have a routine, similar to what we have for our kids, where there are cues to help you wind down. An example of such a cue was a bath, pictured above. Umm... yeah, right! I would be doing well on a typical evening to have time to slice the lime in that tub!

On her way to becoming a die-hard Mizzou fan

Today I was playing a game with Maegan and Parker helping them to learn the US state names and their capitols. When I asked Maegan for the capitol of Missouri, she replied, "Mizzou?" She also thought Hollywood was the capitol of California. Clearly, I will have to work on Cali, but the other is debatable.

Mom is NUTS!

So today I have been clued in TWICE by Parker that it seems I am losing my mind.... not that directly, of course.

Today was his turn to put away clean dishes. Upon asking him for the fourth time to do it, he insisted, "Mom, you told me you were going to do it since I couldn't get the pans to line up straight." I have absolutely no recollection of this and told him so. He said, "Ok, I'll do it. I guess you just didn't hear yourself say that." Funny thing is that he wasn't being sarcastic at all when he said it.

And before that, we were swinging in the hammock in our backyard. He likes to get it going really high and it makes me nauseous. Peyton kept saying "High, high," since mom was being a party pooper. Parker said, "No, Peyton. Mom is sick. She just needs her head to calm down!"

..... I can't say that I disagree.

Vacuum cleaner VS. Paper Shredder

My bagless vacuum cleaner has been having a hard time off and on for several months. For some reason, it always takes me a while to remember that all that needs to be done is to empty the canister and clean the filter. Go figure. This time, however, it has been doing pretty poorly for several weeks and it hasn't been that long since I cleaned it. So today I was cleaning in Peyton's room and was trying to vacuum the edges of the room with the hose. It didn't have any suction... at all. It perplexed me because the canister wasn't all that full. But I decided to empty it anyway and clean the filters, which took about 30 minutes. Nada. After much deep thought, I removed the hose and stuck a broom handle up it to see if it was clogged.... this is the point at which you need some background information....

A couple weeks ago I was looking for chores to occupy my bored kids. If I hear complaining about boredom, I don't hesitate to give them something to do. So I assigned them the task of shredding several hundred documents that had been waiting for just the right amount of complaining. They actually liked the shredding, but the problem is that Peyton opened the trash bag they were loading the remains in and was making it "rain" all over my living room and office. After picking up the largest "puddles" by hand, I decided to let my trusty vacuum cleaner do the rest. It constipated the poor thing somethin' fierce. I had to dump it several times before the task was done. It was a disaster. So back to today.....

I pushed the broom handle up and it stopped with at least 18 inches left of hose to go. WAY clogged with.... you guessed it.... millions of little shreds of paper. I had to get out our kabob skewers and work on that thing for another 30 minutes to get all that stuff out. Time well spent! After this, I hooked the hose back up and fired her up. When I put my hand over the end to test, it was so strong that it knocked my vacuum over backward. I revacuumed the house in celebration!!

So in the battle of vacuum cleaner vs. paper shredder, the victor is WOMAN!

Laundry Gauntlet

Chad teases me about "laundry explosions" from time to time on laundry days. If you are not aware of what that is, it is piles of folded or partially folded clothes on the couch, chair, coffee table... you get the picture... from the laundry I work on during the day. The idea is to have it put away before everyone gets home, but that's not always the way it ends up. One night, I decided to put all the laundry in baskets and set them outside the room they went in since the kids were already asleep. On our way to bed than night, I had to laugh. Once I saw the gauntlet Chad and I had to pass through to get to our room, there was no denying the "explosion."