You Can't Hide Chocolate Ice Cream from Mama

Everyone in our family knows that I love and adore chocolate. I think that chocolate is truly a gift from God. I mean it has stuff in it that makes you feel good, enhances your "love" feelings, and reduces stress. It's almost perfect!!! The only negative thing about it is that you can get fat by eating too much of it. Bummer.

So, when Hadyn got her new kitchen set for Christmas, Mommy was thrilled to see there was an ice cream freezer and four different kinds of ice cream included. All right, it's plastic ice cream, but that IS the non-fattening kind.

As I was cleaning up some toys today and putting things back in their places, I noticed the chocolate ice cream was missing from Hadyn's freezer. I searched all over her room, in and around her kitchen, in our living room under the coffee table and around the couches. Then, as if my chocolate Ninja senses kicked in, I opted to look under the Christmas tree. Reaching between the two tree skirts (one is a cute automated Santa one and the other is my hand print project skirt), I felt a lump. I quickly peeled the two skirts apart to discover.....THE MISSING CHOCOLATE ICE CREAM!!!

Yeah, like you could really hide chocolate from Mom. Even the plastic kind. Sheesh. Who do these kids think they are dealing with?

Wonderful Christmas

We had an absolutely wonderful Christmas. We discussed at length many times what the REAL reason for the season is and why we celebrate. But at 7 and 2 years old, presents rule!!

Grandparents and Aunts & Uncles gave way too much to our kiddos totally overwhelming them. But we are very grateful for all those gifts anyway.

But the gifts from Mom and Dad and Santa are the hits at our house. Hunter has spent most of his time on his "NASCAR Ultimate Speedway Track Set". You must say all 5 words when you speak of this gift. Just saying Track Set, or Speedway, or toy, won't cut it....it must be ALL 5 words!!!!

And Hadyn is totally infatuated with her new kitchen. She is taking our orders right now on her pad of paper and serving us with her choice of our orders. Mostly ice cream, iced tea, and tottee (coffee).

It was fun and we are loving watching them play and have fun. What a joy to see such joy in them!!!

Waiting for Christmas

Merry Christmas!

I am loving being in a house with young children at Christmastime. Hunter is bouncing off the walls in anticipation of Christmas. Hadyn picks up on anything brother does and is bouncing right along with him. They've been really good to stay out of the gifts that are under the tree, but ornaments on the tree are a completely different story. My tree is starting to look a little off kilter with all the ornaments slowly migrating to the top of the tree. Oh well. I love the anticipation, too.

At church one day, some of us had a discussion over what is told to children for the inevitable question of "is there a Santa Claus?" One dad said that he will answer honestly with a direct question, but disclaimer the answer with it is not to be discussed with other children. When another dad said that they would not "lie" to their child when asked, I had to respond. My mom and dad never told me anything. I got to an age, but I don't remember when, that I knew where that gift under the tree came from, but my mother would not 'fess up for nothin'. By doing so, she taught me to hold on to the faith of Christmas. She didn't lie...she would just answer, "what do you think?"

I love that answer. I know what Christmas is all about. I teach the true gift of Christmas to my children. But I also love holding on to that childhood joy of the magic and anticipation of Christmas morning.

I don't dread the holidays, I look forward to Christmas morning, too! Santa still visits me and Scott, too. Yea!!!

In a Trance

So, I have my mother to thank for this:


And this:


So what is this you're looking at, you may ask?

These are my children being entranced by "Hannah Montana". When my Mom visited a while back, she let them watch this, because she watches it and likes it. Now, Hadyn - the 2 year old - will ask for "Heena Tina" and Hunter will "watch" it if it's on.

Of course, don't tell anyone, but Dad and I have guiltily admitted to liking the show, too.

Shhhhhhhhh.

Treasure Trove

At Thanksgiving, we went to visit my family in the Texas Panhandle. My mom and dad have started the long move out of their house of 40 years, so Scott and I took a day and went treasure hunting in the attic. After blowing black snot for a day afterwards from the dust, I came home with some memories...and I tossed a few.

Funny story...while cleaning out the attic, I found a box of love letters, pictures, and other things for and from a high school boyfriend. Scott rolled his eyes, I laughed and we tossed them. After Scott came back home and the kids and I stayed longer, we went to the local Christmas parade. I ran into a high school friend and his family so we chit chatted for a while and caught up. Then another man walked up and my friend asked me if I recognized him. No, I didn't, so I was told who it was. Turns out, this way older looking and way scruffy looking guy was the same love interest I had just found in my parents attic. Yeah buddy, I was praising God for the direction he sent me. My mom couldn't believe this was the same guy either. I think she was singing Scott's praises that night! HA!

Anyway, does anyone remember the Bionic Woman beauty parlor and repair center set? I had it and even though I did not find my Bionic Woman, I found part of the action set:
Man, this baby was so cool, it was so high tech - it used a punch card!!!!

Then I found my Empire Strikes Back bubble gum card in completion! Along with a few other Star Wars goodies like these fashionable t-shirts:

Do you remember the glittery iron on type of t-shirts? Yup, I had them.

I brought back a Winnie-the-Pooh piggie bank that Hadyn is using now and a Cookie Monster alarm clock that is just sitting as a display in her room right now.

I also found a game called "Go To The Head of the Class". Another friend, who happens to be a 2nd grade teacher, was over one night and I showed her the game. It was her favorite board game when she was little, too. We agreed that we were both probably a little nerdy as kids.

Yeah, okay, maybe I still am. That's cool, though. It'll be good to use to embarrass my kids later!!

It's Been a While...

It's been a while since I've posted a blog entry, or at least it seems like it's been a while. Seems that a certain little 2 year old girl has taken over my life. Having started with a son, a very calm, low key boy (until he hit 7), I have been caught totally unaware for the goings on of a 2 year old little girl. Oh, yes, I realize that I was once a 2 year old little girl, but see, God has a wonderful way of removing our behaviors at that age from our memories so that we can feign innocence in the eyes of our parents.

I watched in shock and awe the other day as Hadyn sat in the middle of the living room floor trying to put on her own socks. She managed to get one sock on, but the other foolhardy sock would not cooperate with her demands and would not go onto her precious little foot. Only 3 or 4 of her tiny piggies would go into her sock which as you would figure would make it rough to pull on a sock. She worked for what seemed like hours (probably only about 5 minutes, but you know), then she tried stubbornly for another few minutes before SCREAMING a scream I've never heard from her before and throwing herself and the sock on the floor, screaming some more and then picking up that contrary sock and trying it again. I gently asked her if Mommy could help. "NO!" Okay, but it might go on a little better if Mommy could just help a tiny bit. "NO! NO, MOMMY, NO!" Alrighty then. I finally got up from watching this show and approached the actress. She screamed, picked up the sock and hauled her little tuckus as fast as she could down the hall to her room, screaming the whole time, "NO MOMMY NO!" In her room, she spun around and told me "Bye, bye, Mommy!"

I sat down and hugged her tightly and let her know that it was okay to be mad and frustrated, but that we can't throw fits. We talked about it being okay to ask for a little help - why is it that we never really get that one. I ended up putting her in timeout and then when that was done, she sat down with me on the couch and we "talked" again. She still didn't want me to help her but I managed to sneak a hand to her foot and get that last reluctant piggy into her sock and she screamed as she pulled the sock up on her leg. At last, success! She puffed and panted as she sat and reveled in her accomplishment. I didn't mention that the heels of the socks were on top. We'll get to that later.

So, that type of thing has started to erupt at my house. I'm in shock. But I did read some blogs and talk to some Moms of 2 year olds and I found, it's going on at everyone's house!!!

I'm so sorry for you, too!! But they'll be beautiful, precious young women someday. Doggone good thing she's so cute!

Tornado Warnings - or Not

Having grown up in the Texas Panhandle, I got my tornado education pretty much first hand. My dad took me out on the front porch many times to watch the storm clouds develop and see tornados appear and take out barns and other things. Now, I knew that standing on the front porch to watch this was fairly okay, because the storms most regularly travel to the north-east, and so it would have already passed over us. I would not go to the back porch to watch a tornado since that would mean it would be heading right towards us. I have a vague little girl memory of looking out the back window watching one coming toward us. And I saw one form over my head one time. I spent several after school stormy afternoons watching the news from the comfort of our basement just in case. I have seen the aftermath of destruction and have seen the bizarre things that the high winds can do. All of this to say I do not take tornado warnings lightly.

But.

Our local warning system has me a little concerned. The warning sirens went off last night while we were flipping channels between Leno and Letterman on the bedroom TV. The weather service telling us there was a possible tornado near Allen, TX, so the tornado warning was issued for our entire county, but we could see on the radar that the storm and the impending "hook" formation of the storm was to the south-east of us, which in tornado storm terminology means - not a big concern for us. Had it been south-west, yup, head for cover, but this one had already passed beyond our neck of the woods. This was the 2nd time this year our sirens have gone off AFTER the storm has passed over us. Makes me a little concerned.

So, as I read blogs this morning from friends who were grabbing their kiddos from bed and heading for cover, I have to think, some of them needed to do that and some just woke their kids up for a storm that had already passed over. Scott and I walked outside to see what was up.

Alrighty, then, who do we need to write a strongly written letter or blog to????

Oh So Super Easy Christmas Craft Idea

This is an oh so super easy Christmas craft idea. My next door neighbor told me a lady at her work has been doing this and I just loved it, so it is not a new idea and if I can do it, you know it has to be quick and easy.

Make a fleece tree skirt to mark your children's hand prints every year and see the growth each Christmas time.

I just cut a large piece of red fleece into a circle with an opening for the tree, then just glued a lacy little trim to the edge. Painted up the kids hands and voila, a memory in the making. I may try to pretty it up more as the years go by, but for now and with the time I have, I love it.

Something to Give for Christmas and on and on...

On a serious note....

As some of you may know, I design simple websites for small businesses and individuals. One of the sites I did was for my sister, Jodi McClellan (be her friend on Facebook). The site is Supporting Our Heroes.com. With a husband having served in the Marines during Viet Nam and with two of her three sons now serving in the Army and Marines, she took on what she calls her "Heart Project" and is sending care packages to deployed troops. The letters she gets back can tug at the heart strings. These men and women do not complain about being where they are, nor do the people they encounter. And she has been told that the boxes she sends are some of the best they have received. More over, she has found new sons and daughters to call her own. They have given her the name of "Momma Marine".


(Pic of our Marines handing out candies and small toys to Iraqi children)

She is working on getting a non-profit organization set up, but finding the time to do that has not been easy. She'd rather just work on sending boxes out, but it is something she is working toward. But in the meantime, she is accepting donations of products needed to send and of course, money, to purchase the products and pay for postage.


(Marines of the 2/24 Weapons company - this was during the Summer with over 100 degree heat!)

If you are planning to travel through the Texas Panhandle anytime, or have friends or relatives traveling that way, and would like to donate something for her to send, please contact her through the website or Facebook. Also, if you'd like to donate money for her project, I can guarantee you that 100% of anything you give will go to support these troops.


(The HALO (High Altitude Low Opening) Team. ODA 044, 10th Special Forces Group)

One more thing, there are many of these men and women who have no one to send them packages. Jodi gets the names of these individuals and sends a box specifically to them as well as sending packages to the whole troops. It makes the heart weep to think that these beautiful people signed on to serve and protect their country, yet did so without having to have "someone" at home to do it for...they do it for all of us. Let's support them!!

Beware of Smelly Dijon Mustard

My Mom and I had just walked into my sister's house after a late morning/early afternoon cleaning spree at the old house. We were greeted at the door very promptly by my wonderful sister, who had a very stern look on her face.

Seems as though she and Hadyn were sitting a sharing some pretzels for snack. Jodi had put out a small bowl of Dijon mustard for dipping and apparently, little missy was enjoying the dip. Or more accurately, she was enjoying dipping and feeding Auntie Jo. Hadyn would eat a pretzel but then she would dip and feed "An Do". Then Jodi smelled something not so fresh. She sniffed around a little bit and when the smell landed on a little Dijon mustard cover hand, Jodi thought she was going to barf.

Yes, my little precious has a (thankfully declining) habit of reaching in the back of her pants to see what all the hub-bub is back there after something has happened. Something occassionally the color of Dijon mustard.

Needless to say, Jodi will probably never eat Dijon mustard again and my little darlin' has attained status on Auntie Jo's poo-poo list.

Literally. HA!!!

Cleaning Out

My Mom and Dad have just moved out of their home of 40 years. That's FORTY years of STUFF that has accumulated in addition to all the stuff they brought with them from the previous 17 years of their marriage and children.

Scott and I (plus kiddos) came to visit for Thanksgiving and to go through some of the stuff to see if there was anything of mine that I wanted to keep. We got up in the attic and dug through so much stuff. Boxes would just crumble in my hands as I grabbed for them. But I did find my collection of Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back bubble gum cards - the entire set, t-shirts, and some other collectibles, along with my old Mrs. Beasley doll, my Bionic Woman computer station (complete with punch card - that ought to date me for sure), a Cookie Monster wind up alarm clock, a Winnie the Pooh piggie bank, and some other games that I had forgotten all about that I though my kids might like to see.

My mom gave me, or actually she gave to Hadyn, her play tea set from her childhood. One of which is a pink depression glass set. Once I get home, I'll try to remember to take pictures and post.

Anyway, this week, the kids and I stayed to visit and to help clean out a bit. I have come to discover that my mother has a real problem with throwing things away or letting things go. That scares me, because I can look in my garage right now and wonder how much of that stuff do I really need? How much of it is truly collectible and how much is junk? Will my kids really care about that "thing" or will they just toss or sell it when they clean out my stuff? You know, you can't take it with you and there are people that live very fulfilled lives without all the "stuff". I don't want to be unsentimental, but geez, how much do we really need to keep?

I guess that's why scrapbooking is such a big deal.