Thinks By Me

In return for the many nights of sneaking under Little Chic's covers for a warm cuddle, DogSpot decided to pay back the favor and allow Little Chic a prime spot on her doggie cot in front of the fireplace.

Luckily I'm married to a guy who gets the whole love language deal and he's well tuned into the fact that acts of service really fill my love tank. To earn brownie points so that he could buy a new snowmobile demonstrate his undying love for me, he has been doing all sorts of favors for me this week--odds and ends that generally would stay undone and cause me to be accused of nagging at some juncture--he has just been knocking them out right and left. He's even taken on a few of my own procrastinated chores. Just because. Without me asking. So although today was the official "day of luv" as they say, I've just been celebrating all week because I won the jackpot in the husband department. It seems that we have successfully passed the idea and excitement about treating your "special one" special on this day to only one of our offspring. Little Chic got right into the spirit of carefully selecting her Valentines for each of her friends, sig...

Since the kiddos have been sick all week, and I am fortunate enough to stay home with them instead of packing them off to a babysitter while I work, we've done all sorts of things we don't usually do. I've watched countless episodes of the Colbert Report with Brainy Boy. He gets so tickled at the satire, but occasionally we do have to switch the channel if it gets inappropriate. I spent almost one day laying on the bed, keeping Little Chic company while we watched rented movies. She really loved that. We stayed in our jammies more than one day this week, although it did drive me nuts after a while and I had to get a shower and get dressed. The kids just switched from an old pair of jammies to a fresh pair after their showers. It was nice to have a week to dote on them since we were pretty much housebound. There were no distractions of having to keep a schedule or rush around to our various activities. And Muh Main Man did let me escape several nights to do errands whil...

....really, it is. Seriously. I've spent an uninterrupted week at home with my little darlings. Who's mentioning that they've been sick? And pitifully sick at that. I have to say that in my 11 years experience as a mom, I have never seen them quite this sick for this long. I've made an unofficial "mom diagnosis" of the flu. And an expert I should be in this topic since I have been a medical transcriptionist for the past 11 years and I participated in a flu study - for two years running. So go with me on this one. Got it? It started with Muh Main Man, as we've so faithfully reminded him throughout the week. The Short People got sick almost on cue Sunday afternoon/evening. It started with an extremely sore throat and some stomach queasiness. It progressed to aching and lethargy which prompted our visit to the doctor Tuesday morning. She suspected strep was on the way, although the rapid test was negative. She gave an antibiotic which has done no...

We can't ignore the truth any longer...it is clear that Muh Main Man has indeed bequeathed the most miserable of germs to our offspring. Little Chic and Brainy Boy were both feeling a little punk by Sunday night and stayed home from school to keep us company on Monday. You can imagine what a little party that was ;) By last night, Little Chic was running 103 degrees warm and barking like the resident seal. Lucky for us, Muh Main Man totes his rescue supplies where ever he goes and breathing treatments are a regular necessity on the rescue squad...so fixed her right up. Brainy Boy fared a bit better with just a very sore throat and incessant coughing. A visit to the doctor this morning confirmed....they are sick. Who knew? Five prescriptions later from antibiotics to cough medicines to steroids and hopefully they'll be on the mend. Because believe me - I've got about one more good day in me of entertaining sickies. Any more than that and I'm headed for the loony ...

.....since I haven't been feeling nearly as motherly toward ya'll faithful readers to let you know each and every mundane detail of my life in real-time fashion.... I am busy and more ambitious than ever, taking full advantage of the fact that I am no longer fully consumed with procrastinating my transcription ;) A few of the blog topics that have been waiting in the wings, and are now completely out of date (but you seriously need to know them) are... 1) I got my Christmas decorations down and put in away in a completely respectable amount of time. That is quite an accomplishment for me. While I was doing that, I snapped a picture of my favorite set of ornaments on the left--the expectant parent bears we got when we were pregnant with Eric. The other shot is the sad realization that Little Chic has a lot more personal ornaments than Brainy Boy has. Not quite sure how that happened since I get each of them one every year, but...I'll be hitting the clearance sales to d...

With all our family living scattered near and far, it's a rare occurrence for us to spend the entire Christmas vacation at home. But this year we are, and we're actually excited about it. It was awesome to attend Christmas Eve service at church last night, come home and do the Christmas Eve traditions and then get up this morning with no place to go! After we attended our annual candlelight service at church (in which Little Chic sang), we came home, sipped a little Purity Egg Nog, read the Christmas Story from Luke 2, opened our new Christmas jammies and settled in for a traditional viewing of Little Lord Fauntleroy. When the movie was over, Little Chic was initiated into the world of "non-believer" since this is her first year of officially not believing in Santa. She has been on the fence for a while, but she was never really ready to admit it before this year. We live in a family of skeptics and realists, so it's amazing that she held out as long as she di...

Okay, so Little Chic and I went to NYC last Saturday. This was a long-awaited trip as we are both city girls at heart, and we were psyched to see the Big Apple in all it's sparkly Christmas splendor. We were gettin' a little worried about the big bad Nor'easter that was supposed to come, but luckily our trusty weathermen were completely wrong. As usual. But so. We got on the bus bright and early, which was an exercise in determination for me in the first place. We made the trek into the city, got dropped off at Bryant Park and the day started.We decided to start out with a bit of education, just to make the bus fee worth our while. As if it weren't already! We headed down to the United Nations all excited to see the national flags for ever member nation. It would have helped if it had been a weekday so the flags would have been actually flying. Disappointing. What was not disappointing is the fact that once we entered the building, we found out we were in intern...

Little Chic had a half-day of school today for parent teacher conferences, but since Brainy Boy is classified as middle school, he had to go the full day. This is a new occurrence this year, and one that Brainy Boy isn't taking to so much. Little Chic and I decided to take advantage of the rare few hours together so we had lunch and then made a run to Walmart supplies for an upcoming school project. Little Chic decided to take along her purse, containing a hard-earned $24 that she has been saving. She had her eye on some new Webkinz, so she decided this was the day to shop. We made a stop in to Hallmark and picked up one stuffed animal, then headed on to Walmart for the school supplies. Like many 10-year-olds, Little Chic is not always the most organized, and she plopped her purse, containing her remaining $14 in the cart beside mine. As luck would have it, when I emptied the cart and returned it to the cart park, I didn't realize her purse was still in the shopping cart. ...

We're back from our blast to Thanksgiving in Texas. This is how we looked there. It's not how we look today, believe me. I'll be posting all the juicy details later, but first we wanted to throw out a big "hang in there" to my brother and his family who did their own traveling to a family Thanksgiving in Indiana. While there, they witnessed his in-laws having a very serious car accident. Thankfully God was watching over them and it wasn't fatal, but their recovery will be long and difficult. Also thankfully, my brother, along with his kids and wife, were following the Grandma & Grandpa, so none of them were in the involved vehicle. We love you guys!

My little sister is who I want to be when I grow up. We haven't lived near one another for any of our adult lives, but when we are together, we are remarkably alike. I remember once when I went to visit her, I found half a dozen items scattered through her house that were identical to items in mine. It was weird. And cool at the same time. Though we have similar fashion taste, she's the only one who ever wears fashionable. I err too much on the soccer mom practical side. But after being with her, I always promise myself I'm gonna spiff up and I hit the stores trying to mimic what she was wearing. She also has the creative flair that I got shorted. I decided to start digital scrap booking. I totally could not figure it out, so I never got off the ground. She actually started and has the most awesome layouts you've ever seen. She did this one of us the other day, and it made me cry. She said exactly what I've said to Muh Main Man a million times over. Th...

Muh Main Man bought a snowmobile this week. We've He's been dreaming of owning a sled, and one practically fell into his lap. He's been watching the skies all week, waiting for some promised flurries to make their way to the ground so he could take it for a trial run. We got the snow this morning. Is it just me, or is this what would qualify as barely enough to be called a snowfall ?! The important thing is that we look good on it :)

I've already tired of the role of Candy Police in the aftermath of Halloween and frankly, it's just become easier to eat the loot myself rather than to continually monitor the intake of the Short People. I was trying to be as inconspicuous as possible and my sneaking was advancing tolerably well. It became more difficult once I made Little Chic sort through and discard anything she didn't like. What was I thinking?! Add to that fact that we both like the same things, and it's become Mission Impossible, People. So I was rummaging through her bag the other day before she got home from school, looking for something that I like that she wouldn't miss immediately. There was nothing in that category. My next step was to look for something that she really shouldn't have anyway. I settled for the regular-sized bag of M&Ms and left the more appropriate-sized mini bag for her. I devoured the thing and promptly forgot all about it. That night after dinner, we ...

Here are the Halloween pictures of Little Chic who was dressed as Chinese Royalty (in her own description). Blogger was having issues this morning so they couldn't go with the post they belonged to. And yes, I did the hairdo myself. Even the teal highlights. While I was sick. Just call me "Super-woman."

The winter ick has hit me, but luckily has spared the Short People thus far. The world doesn't stop for sick moms as you know, so fall activities and Halloween have carried on as scheduled. I have indulged in some moping around the house in between all the bustle so I am surviving just fine. The highlight of the week was last night, of course, with even DogSpot succumbing to the peer pressure to celebrate. Brainy Boy would have none of the nonsense, but told Little Chic she could bring him back a treat or two if she so desired. She was happy to oblige as it added a benevolent excuse to do the Trick-or-Treat ritual. Pictures will be forthcoming once Blogger sorts out its issues.

We had another near-fatality during church yesterday. I discovered it when I got home and saw the insides of one very precious Ty Beanie Baby strewn all over the floor. DogSpot accomplished a near decapitation and I arrived in the nick of time to save the bear's life. This particular Beanie has been a constant companion to Brainy Boy since he was a baby and we call him Snowy. Snowy would also be precious to collectors if he hadn't been so well-loved since it he is actually a rare polar bear named Chilly. Snowy has a fraternal black brother that we call Soot, whose official Ty name is Blackie. Soot is not nearly as sweet to collectors as he is to us. Snowy has been through many traumas with Brainy Boy, even getting his own x-ray when Brainy Boy broke his arm when he was four years old. Luckily Brainy Boy rode to church with Muh Main Man in the truck so I had time to do a little damage control before he got home and saw the tragedy. I tucked the insides back as best I c...

My least favorite aspect of each school year is the creativity needed to complete required projects. Grades depend on them, People. And that is not my department. Little Chic was gypped in this very desirable feature in a mother, but fortunately she got doled an amount appropriate to fulfill us both. The first picture is her atomic model of the element sodium. We shopped for supplies together, she selected and I paid. Then she assembled with me only monitoring the burn factor of the hot glue gun. The second picture is one to which I can claim a measly portion of bragging rights. PTA mom friends took me under their wings and we made these strawberry treats for the class Halloween party together. I can take credit for the look of shock on each and every fruity face.

As I laid down for a rare snuggle with Brainy Boy last night, he remarked, "Mom, I like it when you snuggle in bed with me better than when Dad snuggles with me." I was shocked at this revelation since Muh Main Man is a lot more inclined to these bedtime snuggles than am I. I thought that perhaps it was because Dad falls asleep on the bed and takes up way too much room. This doesn't go over well with Brainy Boy who likes to sprawl across the entire bed. He doesn't even allow DogSpot to sleep with him. But the truth was revealed when I asked him why he like snuggling with his mom so much. "It's because Dad's legs are furry." So there ya go. Just wait till he realizes that his are getting furry too.

In my Dog Whisperer enthusiasm, I've taken it upon myself to 'master the walk.' In the words of my man, Cesar Millan, it's important that I don't let DogSpot drag me along on our walks or she's gonna think she's the pack leader. And we can't be having that, now can we? But DogSpot doesn't see things that way. Each morning, she gleefully hops in to the back of my Explorer, enthusiastically hops out when we've gotten to our walking spot, and then she just takes off. The poor thing has about strangled herself and crippled me in her quest to lead us off into the wild blue yonder and she's just about yanked my arm out of socket a time or two. You'd think the little beast weighed more than 33 pounds. I've tried all the tips. I faithfully recored each and every episode of the show and pore over all the instructions. And I try to follow them, I really do. But my dog just doesn't turn into the little miracle that Cesar promises she...

It was another dandy day in the realm of bow hunting yesterday as Muh Main Man scored yet another success for the hunter and gatherer instinct that is so alive and well within him. The pressure was on as last year's record buck was something to be reckoned with. He didn't exceed the catch from last year but he did himself proud nonetheless. The Short People and I did the appropriate amount of oohing and aahing, even running the camera into the deep, dark forest last night. DogSpot rose to the occasion in her first up-close encounter with a stag and made all sorts of fierce noise in an attempt to protect the homestead from the dead intruder. Muh Main Man did resist the temptation to take the beast along to church this year. He save sthat privilege for the Pope & Young records like last year's but the picture was passed around to many an admirer, I assure you.