We decorated for Christmas today.  Yes, I realize there is some controversy about decorating for Christmas before Thanksgiving, but...whatever.  Thanksgiving is tomorrow, I'm pregnant, and Mama's tired and cranky most of the time.  Therefore, she get to do what she wants when she wants.

My little boy was super excited.  (After being married to a holiday curmudgeon for 9 years, it's so nice to have someone to share my holiday excitement!)

We started our morning with hot cocoa,

Because drinking cocoa through a straw in dinosaur footie pajamas is the only way to truly prepare for a day of Christmas decorating.

Then we convinced Dad to get up and haul in the Christmas tree and tubs of assorted decor.  This took a little coaxing, but somehow three-year-olds are much more convincing than whiny wives...who knew?

Getting out old Christmas decorations is so much more magical when done with a preschooler!

*That's the curmudgeon in the back ground there. Eli even manages to suck him in to our holiday excitement.

My decorator knew exactly where each ornament should go...in a clump on the left side of the tree about three feet off the floor.  Our tree has never looked  more beautiful.

Particularly the angel on top.

Fun in the Country

I'm sure there are people who find perfectly normal ways of disposing with Halloween pumpkins which have sat on the front porch past their prime.  Pitch them in the trash or compost them, maybe?  We do something like that.  Usually, our old pumpkins are thrown into the woods beside our house to decompse, putting important nutrients back in to the soil. 

We're very responsible citizens like that...but first...

we shoot 'em!

Blow those suckers to smithereens.  It helps them decompose more quickly.

Blogging Fail

It's official.  I am a failure as a blogger.  When I started this blog five months ago, I had great intentions of blogging everyday...or at least every other day...or at the VERY least once a week.  Ahhh well.  I'll just chalk it up to "one more thing I suck at" and move on. 

Lets get caught up, shall we.  Let's see...in the five months since my last posting, we have: 

1.  Taken a vacation with my aunt and uncle (and cousin and twin sister and their husbands and offspring) to Florida...fabulous!

2.  While in Florida, found out that I was pregnant...the morning after trying oysters on the half shell for the first time.  *Awesome*  (Also ate delicious sushi three times previous to knowing I was prego...This munchkin is going to come out with a hankerin' for raw seafood.)

*I was irritated about this picture because I thought I looked pregnant in it.   Little did I know....

3.  Spent the next 3 months with my head in the potty dealing with lovely first trimester nausea.  (I won't include a picture of this...it hasn't been pretty.)

Some how the season has changed from Summer to Autumn...must have been while I was staring into the bottom of the commode..  Halloween has passed in a blur of pumpkin carving

 and homemade General Grievous costumes.

Thanksgiving is just around the corner.  My nausea has disappeared just in time to enjoy all the yummy holiday goodies guilt-free because, you know, the baby needs it.  As an early resolution, I have renewed my dedication to the world of blogging...we'll see how it goes.

Spookies

Ever since I was little, I've loved spookiness.  The thrill of a little shiver running down your spine just can't be beat...as long as thing don't get too creepy.  You never know when something will cross the line from "fun spooky" too "creepy spooky."  Will Smith's I am Legend gave me nightmares for weeks...something about those screaming zombie mouths... 

Anyway,  when my spookometer gets overwhelmed, I tend to use a highly logical thought process and hide in corners or cover my head with a blanket...or squish up real close behind whoever else is in the room with me. (That way I can throw them at whatever is coming to get me and run away...during times of true terror my "flight" response almost aways beats my "fight" response.) 

My little boy shares my affinity for spooky things.  Halloween is his favorite holiday.  He talks about it year round.  His preferred reading consists of my Taste of Home Halloween themed cooking magazines.  If he gets to help plan and make supper, we end up making something spooky themed from said magazines.

Our local video rental store has a section of kid movies which can be rented for free...FREE!  When we go in to rent a grown up movie, my punkin is allowed to pick a movie from this section to rent as well.  We usually end up bringing home a Scooby Doo movie.  *see previous mentioned affinity for spooky stuff.  Yesterday we brought home What's New Scooby Doo?  Merry Scary Holiday.

The image of the red-eyed, sharp-toothed snowman enthralled him. 

When punkin woke up from his nap this afternoon, he ask to watch his new video.  I popped it in the DVD player and went to the kitchen to tidy up a bit before starting dinner.  When I came back into the living room I find my baby cowering in fear.  Being the fantastic mother that I am, I dashed to the T.V. and immediately turned the offensive imagery off...but not before I grabbed my phone and snapped this picture.

Yes, that's him eating a sucker and hiding.  He inherited his mother's logical sensibilities.  Deranged snowmen can't find you if you're hiding behind the recliner.

Summer

Remember how magical summers were when you were a kid?

 

Long days of awesome nothingness

 followed by a relaxing family vacation.   



Thanks to my chosen profession (educating the young minds of America), summers never lost that quality for me.  At 30 years old I still have that tickle in my stomach on the last day of school...the overwhelming excitement that I don't have to go to school for THREE (actually two and a half) WHOLE MONTHS!!!!!!

We have days on end of

being beach bums,

honing our ice cream making skills,

(crank it Aunt Donna!)

watching for bunnies in the back yard,

just relaxing in the sun,

or...ummmm...finding ways to stay cool.

My only question is...why do those endless glorious days of summer seem to fly by so quickly?

Getting Started

This is a blog about a girl who's generally a day late and a dollar short...for everything.  She likes to think this endears her to friends and family, but knows otherwise.  She has been inspired to start a blog in an attempt to have a record of this stage in her life so that when she comes out of "the blur" she will be able to remember.  Most likely there will be no distinguishable order in the organization of her blog, because that's how her brain works.   ...And she promises to stop talking about herself in third person.