"Sappy" Christmas!

You know it isn't right when the Christmas Eve entertaining is done in the bathroom gathered around the toilet! I've never seen so many people gathered in one tiny bathroom taking pictures! We had to stand in the shower for there to be room for all of us. I'm just glad that my son didn't develop any more toilet issues after he was bribed to go potty and discovered a surprise waiting for him in there! Jayke has issues with his privacy when pottying and didn't want to go with so many people in the house. My sister, Sherri, bribed him by telling him that if he would at least go sit and try to go she would give him a surprise. He finally agreed and below is what he discovered when he opened the lid...




We all posed with the green monster and took numerous pictures. We told Jayke to go tell P'pa to come see what what was in the toilet. I think the exact words Jayke said to P'pa were, "P'pa! I have a surprise in the toilet for you come see!" I wish I had a picture of the look on my dad's face, but he obliged.




It was a crazy night. Jayke got sick, I ended up going to WalMart at 3a.m. to get Tylenol for him and ended up coming home with a new bike from Santa and a lot of other stuff. 3a.m. is the BEST time to shop WalMart! The next morning we began the marathon. Here is a shot of one side of the room...



....and the other...



I must have been really good this year because I got my new Nikon camera and my personal diecut machine! I was really surprised that I got both. Dad tricked me into thinking there was no way I was getting the camera by telling me he had got me the diecutter. I haven't been surprised in a lot of years so it was fun!

Here is Santa bringing in the 2 bushels of fruit for my mom's stocking...



Can you say overboard? All that stuff is her stocking! Her fruit stand was getting in our way all morning. Here is my dad receiving his favorite gift...A Hillary Clinton nutcracker! A gift from the Phantom. The Phantom shows up every year and drops off interesting gifts.



Jaykeb was excited to get all his gifts. His last one was this big Hummer which made his day and got the biggest squeal out of him.



I got other pictures of him opening stuff but they were not very good...now that I have my new camera though!!!I will be able to take better pictures...I hope. You know I've been blaming the camera all along, it couldn't possibly have anything to do with the photographer.

That was our first Christmas. I have to go hit the after Christmas sales with my sister, niece, and Mom now so I will have to post about the others later. I've come down with Jayke's cold too so I'm not feeling well. Why do kids always get sick over Christmas?

Christmas Rundown

Tonight is our first Christmas eve. It will be one of many for Jaykeb. I don't know how I'm going to explain how Santa finds him in so many different places and on so many different days! Tonight Mike will bring Jayke home and we will head over to my dad's to spend the night and have our Christmas in the morning.

Christmas at my dad's can be like a marathon. We have a big family and my dad is a big spender when it comes to Christmas so we usually end up taking an intermission somewhere along the line it takes so long. This year may not be as long since one of my sister's and her family did not come home, but I'm sure it will still be longer than most. Some of my cousins are bringing their kids over to play with Jaykeb after we have our Christmas. He always has fun playing with Kylie, they are the same age and Alexa is a little younger. Two girls for the boy to play with!

After that it is off to my mom's on Christmas eve for Christmas at her house including a non-traditional but yummy meal. HINT, HINT, MOM! Steak and seafood would be fine with me this year. We will meet up with Angi and the kids to let the kids all exchange gifts. They are adopted family, ya know! There may even be a trip to the Me's Zoo that evening!

Christmas morning we will be at our house (Grammy's)for our Christmas. I am cooking breakfast and have lots of fun things planned for the boy this year. Oma and Opa will come over to watch The Boy open presents. He is going to have to work for some of his gifts. I've made up scavenger hunts and other fun games for receiving his gifts. I made reindeer food this morning and I have Santa's cookies ready to go. Last year I ordered a Santa letter to come by mail but I think this year I am going to take care of that myself. This is a great age and I think it will be the most fun Christmas yet. We may even make it over to my aunt's house for a little while where there will be more kids than he will know what to do with! That will all depend on what time he has to leave.

Christmas afternoon he will go with his dad again for Christmas with him.


So those are the plans, as you can see we are extremely busy this time of the year. Since I grew up in a divorced family I am used to this though...it is just normal. I've done it since I was 5 years old so I'm a pro at juggling families. Now I have to get back to painting my scavenger hunt box...the creative bug kicked me in the butt this morning and I got up made, Hello Dollies, another batch of faux turtles, reindeer food, painted a special scavenger hunt box that I am decorating with wooden reptiles, and wrote all the directions for the hunt. This is what happens when I am killing time until the boy comes back.

Hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas!

What's Up With Your Retro Wallpaper?

The Boy goes with his dad today. He is so excited I can hardly stand him this morning. He has called his dad about 5 times so far...I'm sure Mike is not enjoying Jaykeb's new talent at dialing the phone now either.

Lets talk about that wallpaper in the background for a minute. I know it has shown up in many of my pictures now and then you read a post about how I worked in Interior Design for 10 years and probably are thinking to yourself...no wonder she is no longer working! That wallpaper, my friends, is in my grandmother's spare room upstairs and has been there as long as I've been on this earth. I considered painting over it but the last room I painted I no longer get to enjoy so I am living with the 1970s pussywillow and forsythia wallpaper for now. No, it doesn't match anything I own and yes, I do cringe when I see it in the backgrounds of my pictures. I just wanted to go on record as saying it is not my choice. If anyone likes it or by some weird chance has this wallpaper in their own home, I apologize for offending your willows. It is only my opinion.

As I sit typing this I now remember that I had sworn to myself that I would not allow a late pick-up of the boy ever again. He is literally hanging on my neck and won't be quiet. He spoke to his dad and we know he is somewhere in Indiana. I started naming towns but Jayke couldn't remember which one he is in. He could be in Russville or he could be in New Castle...we don't really know. I guess I will know when he gets here since there is about a 30 minute difference between the two. In the meantime I am going to try to sit here and wait with this boy turned maniac. What I'm going to do after they leave, I have no idea...probably miss them.

A Brief Explanation of My Insanity

Kailani wanted to see our favorite Christmas ornament. Well, that would be difficult for me seeing as how I am crazy for Christmas! I should be after dealing with Christmas 12 months out of the year for 10 years!

In my past life...the one before Jaykeb was born...I worked in interior design. I did a lot of different jobs like floral design, in home consultation, visual display design, waited on customers, I even did the books but my favorite part of the job was planning the Christmas trees. I would start in January when the new catalogs came out and begin putting together my themes for our 9 trees. Sometimes I would also be planning a particular customer's special order tree as well. We would go to market closer to Christmas and that is when the fun really started. Seeing the stuff in person was so different than planning from the catalogs. It was exciting!

Since I dealt with Christmas 12 months out of the year it was hard not to change your own Christmas tree from year to year. If not change it then at least add a substantial amount to it. I believe currently I have 4 trees ranging from 9 foot to 4 foot and atleast enough stuff to fully decorate in 6 different themes. Crazy, I know. I couldn't help it!

When Jaykeb was born I decided I needed to go to a more kid-friendly themed tree and have stuck with that them ever since. Yes, I still add to it every year and next year I will need to use my bigger tree if I plan to get everything on it. My Christmas stuff was one of the things I made sure I didn't leave South Carolina without and I have decorated Grammy's house from top to bottom...literally.

So when I saw Kailani's post about showing off our favorite ornament I thought to myself how could I pick just one? Well, I couldn't so I give you several of my favorites and why...



This is a Department 56 Snowman in mercury glass. Department 56 is my FAVORITE company to buy Christmas ornaments from as you will see because most of the ones I chose to show you came from them.




We carried Department 56in our store but back then I was on different themes and wasn't really interested in them. I've had to acquire most of mine through Ebay since they are retired or hard to find. I don't think we ever had Humpty Dumpty in our store but I loved him the moment I saw him and had to get him. I like to have differnt size ornaments on the tree from very small to very large. Humpty is huge!



Another Dept 56 ornament for Jayke because he loves his automobiles!



Dept 56 baby shoes...For The Boy, of course! As you can see I love the mercury glass ornaments!



This one was Jayke's special ornament this year. He is on that Scooby kick ya know!



I'm crazy for The Kitty so I had to have this Kurt Adler collectible Hello Kitty! I like to have an ornament or ornaments that represent each of our likes on the tree.



This last one I had to think about putting on this year. It is the ornament Mike bought for me after Jaykeb was born. It seemed a little strange to put it on there with all three of our names on it but it seemed even stranger to not put it on. In the end I stuck it on...towards the back so it wouldn't constantly be reminding us of what we are missing this year.


Honestly I could have put a picture of every ornament I own on here and told a story about it but that could take weeks. I already showed the Texas Star I got from Tommiea earlier in the week and I got two super cute wooden ornaments from my cousin in Colorado. I managed to select an ornament that matched my tree perfectly from the ornament exchange party...we selected without seeing them first. It was a pair of red mercury glass mittens. Love it!

So there ya go. A handful of my favorite ornaments. So, do you have a fvaorite ornament or are you like me and love them all? Tell me, tell me!

Mr. Telephone Man

Yesterday I had one of those proud moments as a parent. When you look at your child and you can see yourself in him and you are so proud of his accomplishments. Jaykeb learned how to dial Oma's phone number. Now he can call her anytime he wants and as often as he wants...which, it turns out, is about every 10 minutes. He is a chip off the ol block! Anyone who knows me knows how I love the telephone and now my child is taking after his mother.
tear slips down cheek
I don't think my mom is too thrilled with this development, however. Every 10 minutes she gets a phone call that goes something like this...

Mom: Hello?
Jayke: Hello, CAN I COME OVER?
Mom: (makes up and excuse and tells him not right now)
Jayke: Soooooo...what are you doing?
Mom: (tells him something)
Jayke: Okay, bye, I love you, be careful!

10 mintues later the call is repeated.

I just sit and laugh enjoying my son's accomplishment and my Mom's torture.

A Frozen Winter Wonderland

I think I have a sledding injury. My neck is killing me. Must have been that huge bump Jayke and I hit while flying down the slopes. We didn't get the snow they said we would but we got enough to sufficiently cover the huge hill in McCollough park where the best sledding in town is. Angi invited us to join her family for sledding and we happily went. I had located The Boy's snow boots stuffed in his grocery cart and I got him stuffed into his snow gear...not an easy task when he is constantly screaming at me about bumps in his socks and his sleeves not being right.

We got to the park and it was packed. Half of Muncie was there with every kind of sled and snowboard you can imagine. We found a good place and off we went. I have to admit I didn't think Jayke would go down this huge hill but he did. Hopped right on the sled with Angi's daughter, Maci, and went flying through the masses of people right to the bottom.



It didn't take long before Angi and I decided to join them. Yes, we had four sleds but decided to pile up on one for our first trip down the slope. We ran out of room so we had Maci hanging onto the back of the sled going down on her stomach. Good thing, she slowed us down some.



When we got back to the top of the hill I asked her husband, Ryan, if we were the picture of grace and eloquence gliding down the hill. I don't think that was quite the image he got of the two grown women flying down the hill on a neon orange sled screaming louder than all the kids out there. I was hoping the daylight reflecting off my huge silver earrings would alert the people on the hill that we were coming. I think the screaming did a better job though.

After that ride down The Boy had worked up the courage to tackle the hill solo. He climbed on one of the discs and took off down the hill. He needs to work on his technique though, leaning back dragging your hands while your feet are sticking up in the air is not the best way to accelerate down the hill. It was slow going but he made it and then trudged back up the hill carrying his sled.






There was a guy there taking video that we assumed he would use for the news or to get stills from for the paper. He was fond of Jayke and took lots of shots of him. I think he was admiring the technique. I'm hoping to see his rosy cheeks in the paper tomorrow.

After an evening cruising down the frozen hill we had to go have hot chocolate (a Mocha for me)from Starbucks. Daddy had won a bunch of gift cards a while back and Jayke and I are still using them. Even the folks at Starbucks were getting into the frozen spirit and I snapped this while waiting at the window for my order...



I just wish I had a picture of my sledding ensemble to show you. Pigtails, earmuffs, huge silver earrings, soccer socks so I could roll my jeans up on top of my boots, and my new white winter coat. The before and after shots would have been priceless. Somehow Ang and I looked worse than the kids when we got back to her house and peeled off all our snow gear. How does that happen?

The Best Time to Go to Chuck E Cheese...

....not that there is a good time really, but if you have to go you should do it when the weather forecasters are calling for up to 17" of snow! The place was almost empty and it was great!

We were there for a birthday party for our new neighbor's son. He was turning one and his mom invited Jaykeb. I knew Jaykeb wouldn't really play with Danny much but he would enjoy Chuckie Cheese and we hadn't been there in over a year so off we went. We lucked out because not very many people showed up for the party because of the weather so The Boy got a ton of tokens and had a blast. We ended up getting lots of little prizes which thrilled him to no end. That place is a racket though, they make a ton of money off that little junk they call a prize. I didn't care though because it made him happy, which made me happy and I didn't have to pay for anything. That is a good thing considering my lack of employment right now. That could all change very soon though!



Monday I have an appointment with one of the higher ups at the bank where all my friends work. He has asked me to come in and said he would help me. I'm sure part of the reason he is doing it is to get my grandma off his back. You don't want an 85 year old woman who has nothing else to do to have you in her sights. She is relentless but she gets things done! One year she decided she wanted her street paved and called them everyday until they came out and did it...I'm sure just to shut her up. She knows this poor guy at the bank so she just gave him a call. The same day my dad asked his contact at the bank to talk to him and Angi emailed him! He is probably sick of me already! Oh well, I don't care as long as I get a job soon.

If that doesn't work out then I have an opportunity in Indianapolis at St. Vincents Hospital to become a transcriptionist. AJ hooked me up with this one. There would be a lot of training involved and I'm not thrilled about the drive but at least I would have a foot in the door. We will see. At least I have a couple of options now.

We got a package in the mail from Kelly today! Cute cute ornaments and a couple of other goodies! Thanks, Kel...your package is in the mail. Really it is, you should get it Monday.

Today was the last day of soccer. The parents were supposed to play so I managed to get a representative to take my place. Opa ended up taking Jayke and I showed up a half an hour later. Managed to get myself out of that one. I considered wearing my heels so that I wouldn't be able to play but opted to send the grandpa instead. Jaykeb got a certificate and we got his pictures back. They were adorable! I'm signing him up for the next session which starts right after his birthday in January. He loves it now so I figured I better sign him up.

We got snow today but not what they were calling for. I guess the rest is coming tonight then the winds will come so tomorrow I am planning on doing laundry unless some crazy woman from "The Woods" calls and wants us to go sleding. We may join her family for a day in the snow if we can locate The Boy's snowboots. Someone tell me how you lose a pair of snowboots! They are gone...no where to be found. Yes, I looked under the bed in and the closet and in my car. They are gone unless the mountain of laundry in the bathroom ate them.

Party update tomorrow!

How to Prepare for a Blizzard

It's on its way! The big snow! I'm sure the bread, water, and milk will be flying off the shelves today. Personally, I will be buying dog food and ice. Yep, ice. Weird thing to buy before a blizzard huh? Not if you are having a party the night before the blizzard! My party is this evening. I have already made my Hello Dollies/magic cookie bars...whatever you want to call them. Now I am just trying to keep the two vultures I live with out of them! I tweaked the Christmas tree with some more decorations...you know me and my Christmas tree decorating issues! I cleaned the dog's kennel out so it wouldn't stink up the garage on the slight chance someone may need to go out there for something, and I've made arrangements to ship the little and the old out of the house for the evening! I actually tried to ship them out first thing this morning but my mom wasn't going for it.

I received a special package in the mail today! Tommie, from Tuesday Update, sent me a little bit of Texas and I love it! It will go right on the front of my tree where everyone can see it! If you haven't visited her blog you should! She is a wonderful friend, wife, mom, and organizer! Go see her soon, her husband comes home from Iraq in a few days and she may be too busy to update for a while. I am hoping to see pictures of the reunion and the happy happy faces of her children when they see their daddy again. I can only imagine how excited she must be so I thank her for taking time to send me a little something to brighten my day! Internet friends are the best! Just so Angi doesn't get her panties in a bunch..."in person" friends are the best too!


Now back to our regularly sceduled post...What do you do when a blizzard is on the way? Well, if you are my mom, you try to burn wet leaves in the driveway. Why? Who knows!!! Who knows why she does half the stuff she does! I'm sure it is becaue Grammy mentioned it and mom knows it will now be the topic of discussion until it gets done but come on! Wet leaves don't burn woman! I saw the happenings going on in the driveway and raced out there with my trusty camera in hand to capture the moment for the other half of "Lucy and Ethel" who lives in Colorado. Yeah, Dona, I'm talking 'bout you because you know if you were here you would be right there next to her! My mom and her sister are exactly like Lucy and Ethel...when they were kids they were called Westinghouse and GE but that's a whole other story about child labor I won't get into now.










All I know is when Mom came out of the garage dragging the box my new computer desk came in I left the scene. I heard a lot of banging and the leaf blower going later but I was too scared to look out the window to see what the situation was. She could have picked a day I wasn't having a party to indulge in her pyro adventures. The whole house smells like burnt wet leaves now. Yummy!

I'm off to rescue Angi from the old folks home she is running over in the Woods now. We have a mission to accomplish before I have to be back to finish the preparations for the festivities this evening. With the amount of bottles I have sitting on the kitchen counter there just may be interesting pictures to follow...in a day or two...or four.

Please Use Your Little Voice...PLEASE!

We made ornaments today. I saw them online somewhere and thought I should make some. Then I figured since I already had the glue out and all we would go ahead and make garland like I used to make when I was a kid. Why is making that garland so much fun? It's just paper glued together but when you get finished you have this cool chain of brightly colored paper. Of course now I have to make another one because the first one wasn't enough. I just like to cause myself to stress out over stupid things...like I don't have enough on my plate already to stress over. Paper garland shouldn't even make the list right now but somehow it does. Paper garland and my party guests. They are starting to stress me out too. I'm about to break down and have two parties so everyone can come on their preferred night!

Since I was already stressed out over my insufficient amount of paper garlands I decided it would be a good idea to take my very loud child to meet Angi, Maci, and Matthew at Target this evening. Nothing calms the nerves more than two wild kids racing through Target on Heelys. No wait, scratch that...two kids yelling, throwing a ball, and climbing over the seats to retrieve that ball while I'm driving is even more relaxing. For some reason all of us also felt that we needed to shout everything at each other. Angi and I eventually just gave up and broke down into hysterics at our stressfree living. Next week we may kick it up a notch and actually take the hellians inside the mall instead of just cruising the parking lot. They should make Christmas shopping with children an extreme sport. Moms could compete against each other to see who lasts the longest without screaming or throwing something. I swear I would tune in!

Christmas Puppies

Jaykeb's Christmas pjs have puppies on them this year. Perfect for a little boy who LOVES dogs. His friend, Matthew, gave him this puppy and he insisted that he have his picture taken with it in front of the tree with his puppy jammies on. Not quite what I had in mind for his picture in front of the tree but I was sick of arguing and Jayke needed to get to bed. When he reaches his limit there is nothing you can do or say to argue with him. I think he gets that from both his father and me. Stubborness runs in the family. Poor boy didn't have a chance. I think I will have to try again another night to take some more pictures.

Jayke's school was having a book fair today. I don't know whose bright idea it was to set up racks of books and small toys in the lobby where every child has to walk past them to get in and out of the school but they should get a promotion! I practically had to drag Jayke out the door screaming because he wanted a book that had a jeep on it. I had already bought him 5 other books but he didn't want those "dumb books", he wanted the one with the JEEP ON IT! I would have gotten him the one he wanted but it was a little young for him and I'm pretty sure we have others like it...in a box...somewhere... Seems like most of our life is in a box somewhere right now.

Once we got to Oma's and she read the books I got him, he loved them. Turns out Mommy isn't so "dumb" after all! I hope those books are gone by Thursday when we go back. Jayke is still talking about "Taylor, with the long hair". I guess there is more than one Taylor but he only likes the one with the long hair. He told me today that he always sits by her, with a big cheesy grin on his face. I think I will invite her to his birthday party next month. Better get to know this girl.

Christmas Meme

My day was pretty boring. Cleaning the house and doing more decorating for the party Friday. Shopping, a daily activity. I did get a super cute shirt. I tried on new jeans but decided to wait and see how long I can wear the jeans that literally fall off now when I walk across the room. I don't want to have to keep buying new ones.

We put up another Christmas tree and Jaykeb decided to decorate it with his toy cars. Very cute but not practical. They don't want to stay on there. I had them remove them and put the real ornaments on. He is into decorating this year. We also got glass ornaments and drew pictures on them Very cute. I had him make one for his dad. We hung them all on the tree and they look pretty good. I'm going to make more tomorrow. I'm starting to feel crafty again. It comes and goes.

It has been a while since I've done a Meme...so here ya go. Stolen from Cheeky.

My name….Wendy, Mommy
My website…..You’re reading it
I hail from ….Indiana.

1. All I want for Christmas is…to erase the past year of my life and start over at last Christmas.
2 My favorite holiday cocktail….I don't have one...I may after the party Friday though.
3. My favorite holiday party hors d’oeuvre….I love Angi's sausage thingys. Could I get that recipe please? I need it before Friday!
4. The average price I spend per gift….I'm not buying gifts this year except for Jayke. When it comes to him there is no limit!
5. My favorite gift to give during the holidays ….. It doesn't matter...whatever as long as I know the person will love it.
6. Something overrated about the holidays ….Nothing...I love it all!
7. Something I must have before Christmas ….. Ornaments! I get tons of new ones every year. Next year I may need a bigger tree!
8. One thing I always do during the holidays …. Send cards, decorate like a maniac, shop like crazy, take tons of pictures, make Christmas crafts.

9. Where I love to shop for the holidays….Target, Kohls, Hobby Lobby, etc.

10. A holiday tradition I have ….I thought I was starting a new one last year and that was going to Me's Zoo on Christmas eve with Jaykeb and Mike. I guess I will have to change that now along with everything else.

11. One thing you won’t find me doing during the holidays….Singing...I'm terrible.

12. What do you want for Christmas….Um, wasn’t this the first question.

I’m not tagging anyone, if you wanna steal it too, go for it.
AJ, I would appreciate an update sometime soon...maybe you could steal this meme!

Deck The Halls, Falala, Grandma Got Run Over and All That...

We went to a Christmas party this weekend. My friends were kind enough to include Jaykeb and me in their family get together. We had a stocking exchange which turned out to be really fun and cute. My friend, Jen, has a daughter who is 5 and goes to Jaykeb's school. Avery and Jaykeb are becoming good friends. Together, they played Santa for the party, passing out the stockings to everyone. They had each other's names in the drawing too. Jaykeb was very excited about what "He" got for Avery, that is after I talked him into giving up the stuffed puppy we bought.




Here he is before diving into his stocking. He got all kinds of goodies. I was thrilled with my stocking because it was full of scrapbooking supplies and other cute things. I've said all my life that the stocking is my favorite part of Christmas morning. I love filling them and love going through my own just as much.



We got our stockings, sang Christmas songs with the kids, took pictures, ate, then played Catch Phrase. Jaykeb decided he wanted to spend the night with Oma at one point so I dropped him off then somehow the evening ended up with Ryan, Angi, and me playing Rockband in Best Buy. Not quite sure how that happened. I'm pretty much just along for the ride these days.



I took this picture of my angel making an angel the other day. The snowman making didn't go so well. I am not a snowman builder, but I can definately make a snow blob. Guess I will have to practice or go over to "The Woods" and take a lesson from one of the bazillion kids that are always in Angi's yard.

Nothing a Good Bourbon Can't Take Care Of!

We went to see Santa today. Finally, the kiddo was agreeable about something. I promised him this morning that if he didn't cry when I dropped him off at school I would take him to see Santa when I picked him up. Normally he wouldn't have taken this deal because sitting on a strange, bearded, man's lap terrifies him but some genius at the Muncie Mall...Yes I said genius and Muncie in the same sentence...decided to set up a train ride right next to Santa. What a perfect bribe! When I saw that little train chugging around the track I knew I was going to get my Santa picture this year.

When I picked him up he was all set to visit Jolly Ol' St. Knick. We got there and I was all prepared to remind him of our deal involving the train but my little trooper marched right up and climbed up on Santa's lap without any hesitation. He sat there and timidly smiled for several pictures so I even got a choice. He told Santa what he wanted and got his candy cane then it was off to the train. Uh oh. The train doesn't take plastic and Mommy doesn't carry cash. Luckily for Mommy she had $2 in change buried in the bottom of her purse so the perfect trip to see Santa was not ruined by a penniless, promise breaking mother.

The Boy got his train ride and all was right with the world. He refused to smile at me while riding though and each time he passed he had this silly look on his face with his lips pursed from attempting to look serious. I was in hysterics as was the girl running the train.

If I can figure out how to work my scanner I will put the picture up...I wouldn't hold my breath though. I did get a couple of him on the train...



Before all this Christmas fun took place we had an interesting day. Mom, Grandma, and I headed out for lunch this afternoon. On the way back my mom got fed up with the holiday traffic and took a shortcut across a parking lot.(She is always taking shortcuts that end up taking 3x as long) Turns out her shortcut cost her the rest of the afternoon. She bounced us off a curb that was buried in the snow and blew out her tire. Normally this wouldn't be such a problem except that my mom is at the end of her rope stress-wise and sort of flipped out. We got to see where my temper really comes from. You know it is a sad situation when I am the calm and collected one on the scene. Jim showed up to take Grandma home and me to get my car. When we got to the house Grammy was like a kid who had just been on an adventure. We got in the door and she had this huge grin on her face and started talking about how fun it was. I didn't have time for that I had to get back across town to pick up my mom before she hitched a ride in the tow truck. I also had a resume to deliver! When I got there and told her about all the conversations had on the way home she was in hysterics. Literally. Grandma had never seen her that mad before and just couldn't figure out what was wrong, I just thought it was funny, and Jim thinks everything can be fixed with a good bourbon. Sigh This is what my life has come to now, afternooons spent with a bunch of nuts!

SNOW DAY!

We got snow last night! Not as much as they had predicted but enough for The Boy to bust out his new sled and head out into the frozen tundra. Oma took him out and I joined them later. I pulled Jayke all over the place on his sled. I must report that my new fancy snow boots worked quite well, my feet were not cold at all and my new coat is almost too warm.

The dogs were even excited about the snow. I ended up losing Laynie for a brief period of time. At least I got my exercise in today hauling the kid on his sled and running after a crazed beagle.



When Opa got home from work he and The Boy went out to find a hill they could go down. They found one just Jayke's size, not too big but big enough he could get a good ride. I trudged out through the drifts to take one picture before the battery in my camera died. Unfortunately the snow was not the Snowman making kind. We will have to wait for Friday's snow to see if it will be the right kind to make Frosty. Jayke didn't seem to care, he was just happy to ride around on his sled and walk through the drifts.



One great thing about the snow is it tires one little guy out enough that he is willing to take a nap after playing all morning. Good for us during the day but not so good for me at bedtime.

Love is In The Air...

This boy is in love...again. Instead of Twila, her name is Taylor. Once again I have no idea which little girl she is either. Guess I will be scoping her out on Thursday. All I know is she has blonde hair and it is long. There is a Taylor with short hair too that he apparently isn't interested in. He gets this goofy grin on his face when you mention her. Very cute. Guess I will have to be inviting her to the big birthday party next month. I think I'm more excited about the birthday party than I am for Christmas. This will be the first birthday with friends there instead of just grandparents sitting around staring at him. We are having it at Escapades, an indoor playground and the theme will be Scooby Doo, of course. Jayke is already telling people he is four. He needs to slow down. I don't want him to grow up any faster than he already is.

It is snowing tonight. We are under a snow advisory. Jayke has his boots and brand new sled all ready to go tomorrow. He doesn't know about the surprise from Aunt Dona yet. Guess I will be breaking in my new snow boots tomorrow too. I am just waiting to get my mom out in the yard and throw snow balls at her. I'm easily amused. Before we can go out for out snowday I have to go see a man about a job though. I'm not saying anything else about it right now 'cause I don't want to jinx it but this is the job I want so wish me luck! I'm ready for the job search to be over. It is all anyone ever wants to talk about.

Jaykeb and I watched Rudolph tonight. This is the first year he has been interested in watching the Christmas movies so it was fun. We watched The Charlie Brown Christmas movie last weekend but he fell asleep. Friday Frosty is on. I usually am watching my own Chritmas favorites by now but am not in the mood this year. I've got everything ready for Christmas, the decorating, the Christmas cards, all the presents are wrapped and under the tree, my party is planned and the invitations are out but it still doesn't feel like Christmas. Maybe the snow will help. Hope so.

A Whole Bunch of Stuff...

It has been a while so I have a lot to catch up on. First is a day in the leaves with P'pa. We pulled in the driveway and the entire yard was covered with pretty yellow leaves that had just come down over night. The Boy was ready to rake leaves as soon as he saw them. He made P'pa go out with him and blow them into a huge pile.



It didn't matter that P'pa uses a tractor to pick up his leaves, he went out with his leaf blower and made a huge pile just for the kiddo to jump in. He had to go back later and spread them all out so the tractor could pick them up. Anything for the boy! I got in the pile with him and Meemaw video taped it.



Amazing how much fun a pile of leaves can be. The first picture was so cute I had it made into porcelain Christmas ornaments.




We are halfway through soccer now. Jaykeb loves it. He had one bad day there and ever since then has been bugging me all week about going back to soccer. I can't wait to put him in the spring league. He looks so cute out there in his soccer clothes. He is getting the basics down but when it is time to scrimmage he just runs back and forth grinning at me the whole time. Last Saturday he actually kicked the ball during one of their games. His team won too! He has a favorite coach who they call Captain Norway because that is where he is from. There are two little girls from his preschool class who play too so he has familiar faces there.



There hasn't been another Twila yet but he has two friends who are boys who he talks about alot now. He really likes his teachers too. He got his picture taken for soccer and for school. We got the school pictures back and they were pretty cute. He looked like he didn't really want to smile in them though. I am anxious to get the soccer pictures back now.

We play outside a lot. There is a lot to do here for little guys. Where we live now is where I grew up so I have been having fun taking Jaykeb to do all the things I did as a kid. Walks in the woods, picking up buckeyes, blowing milkweed seeds, and climbing on Grandpa's equipment.




As you can imagine, The Boy LOVES all the construction equipment that is available for him to get rides on. He doesn't look thrilled in the picture but that was because I was making him pose all over the place for pictures. He is getting tired of that. He has started giving me goofy faces when I tell him to smile for pictures. I guess this will be a stage for a while. I did manage to get a cute picture of the two of us for our Christmas card this year. We had it taken in the woods one evening before it got too cold out.



We got our Christmas tree put up after he got back from his weekend with his father. Oma and Opa came over for dinner and decorating the tree. I will put pictures of the finished tree later when I get some good ones. I have been decorating like crazy for my party I am having on the 14th. I've never had a Christmas party so I will probably go overboard like I tend to do, but it is giving me something to look forward to right now.




Along with tree decorating, we also baked Christmas cookies. This was quite a production. I let Jayke cut the cookies out himself and I even gave up control of the decorating and let him do it all.



We had all kinds of fun stuff to put on them. Jaykeb liked the sprinkles and icing pens the best though. When we were finished we were both covered from head to toe with flour. That is the only way to bake though! At one point I looked at him and he had this funny look on his face. I just turned my back to him and told him to brush it off. He wanted to know how I knew what he had done. I told him it was because I was the mom. I had a big white handprint in the middle of my black shirt. I think he was in shock that I wasn't mad. I had already decided that we would just have fun with the cookies and I would clean up the mess later. Much easier that way, I don't spend the whole time worried or upset about the mess and just have fun with him.





Before we left SC we had sent out a Flat Jaykeb to visit my cousin, Kelly, in Colorado. We got Flat Jaykeb back today and boy did he get around. Kelly took him to work with her and had tons of great pictures of what all they did there. She also took him to see the butterflies and to the aquarium. After hanging out with Kelly Flat Jaykeb got to go on a cruise where he visited Turkey, Croatia, Greece, and italy. Man do I wish I were Flat Jaykeb! My other cousin, Ryan and his wife Serenity, took him to see all of these places and had wonderful pictures all with Flat Jaykeb in them. I wish I could put the whole book Kelly did for us on here. It was fantastic! I bought the book, Flat Stanley for Jaykeb so he could read it then see where all his Flat traveler went. She also sent lots of post cards and little toys from where she works so he was in heaven when his package arrived today.



My only problem now is that I have no idea where to send Flat Jaykeb next. I had planned to send him to Indiana to go to work with Opa and hang out with Oma, Meemaw,and P'pa but now Jaykeb can do that in person. Also, I told my mom that Kelly did such and outstanding job that she may have raised the bar too high. I guess I will have to think about this for a while and figure out where Flat Traveler can go next.

Thank you Kelly! We were more than pleased with your hosting duties! I knew you would do it up like that though.

We have a Christmas party to go to this weekend with a bunch of friends and their kids. We picked names and are doing stockings for our exchange gift. Jaykeb got Avery, who is five and a new little friend of his, so it should be super cute to see him give her her stocking. I finally got to buy for a little girl too...you know I had fun with that right? Can you say Pink and Hello Kitty?!?

We are supposed to get snow in the near future so I'm hoping we get enough to go out and use the really nice snowman building kit Aunt Dona made for Jaykeb. We will make a snowman and a snow dinosaur and all kinds of cute animals. P'pa saved a bunch of sleds for us too and I want to go to the Me Zoo in the snow. Just plugging along trying to feel normal. Still no luck in the job department though. I turned in an application today that I have high hopes for. The job is exactly what my degree is in so hopefully I will hear something soon. Keep your fingers crossed for me.