A Letter to my Love

Dear Love,

8 months ago we banded together and decided to cancel our cable. It as a bittersweet moment. We mourned the loss of easily accessing our favorite shows, while eagerly embracing the idea of more free time and the freedom from the pull of the DVR. It was a good time and we truly did feel free. Sadly, our antenna didn't work causing tons of interference as we tried to watch the news, and all non-cable options to fix the problem were just too costly and difficult. So, we did what any normal couple would do in our situation, we sucked it up and called the cable company. Not only have our favorite cable channels returned, but you were so wonderful to have the cable man install it in our bedroom. For this I thank you. You have combined two of my favorite pastimes, hanging out in bed and watching TV. Yes, I know that I was able to do that before, but not with so many options! It has been heavenly, and although I know that you have been a bit lonely as you sit downstairs doing whatever it is that you do, you know where to find me, upstairs, snuggled in bed, watching Food Network.

Love,
Me

Sledding

We took the kids sledding today. It was awesome because they are now all old enough to do it by themselves which means that I can watch them have tons of fun all from the warm confines of my car. It was highly enjoyable. 

Snow Time

Last year we didn't get any snow. This was wonderful for me, but not so great for my little snow bunnies. We were a little bit nervous that this year would be much of the same, but fortunately yesterday the weather gods smiled upon us and sent down some of that wonderfully wet, white stuff that the kids love so much. It didn't take long before they were dressed and out the door, only to be dragged back inside hours later, wet, cold, and happy.

 

A Christmas Review

I have many thoughts swirling about in my head this Christmas season. It has been a fine Christmas, but by no means has it been the best and by that I mean that sadly, I let the busyness of the season overshadow what is truly important and I can feel its effects. I admit this just to make sure that I never make this mistake again. My oversight has made me feel just a bit "off" as well as a bit guilty and has prevented me from ensuring that this Christmas season was as magical as it could have been for my three little people. Lucky for me they all claim that it was a fine Christmas and that they are happy, but I know that they felt that something was missing as well and that it could have been better. Well, I will just have to make sure that next year I do it right. With that said, here are a few highlights from our holiday.

 A tree waiting for kids.

 A boy ready for Christmas.

 These kids love their Christmas jammies.

 Two brothers

 One sister

 One silly boy

 "Hey mama, get a picture of my whole body."

 "An orange sweater!! I can't even believe it!"

My sweet Tiger has been making huge strides towards reading this year and so as her present to him, Woo made a special book full of words that Tiger can read all by himself. Tiger absolutely loved this special book and spent quite a while reading what Woo had worked on so hard. This was probably one of my favorite moments, especially since Tiger has been having such a hard time these days and Christmas day in particular was quite difficult and so it was so wonderful to see him just having a quiet moment and enjoying himself.

 

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. We're expecting great things this next year, so we'll just have to wait to see what comes our way.

He makes me feel so good about myself

Tiger: Mom, are you going to take a shower today?
Me: I'm not sure. I don't think I feel like it. Why?(Knowing he really just wants to play video games)
Tiger: Because your hair looks yucky.
Awesome.

That's my boy

This boy of mine is a piece of work who constantly keeps us laughing and on our toes. However, I am quite frustrated with this little boy at the moment and so I thought I would share something funny that he said the other night so that I remember not to string him up by his nose hairs.

Doug: What do you want to be when you grow up?
Tiger: *Sigh* I just want to be a guy. . . a guy with a hairy back.

Also, the poor boy thinks that there is going to be a puppy wrapped up in a box and waiting for him under the tree this Christmas morning since he saw that it was possible on America's Funniest Videos. Sadly, he is going to be extremely disappointed for there will be no puppy coming to this house on Christmas.

Tying into the puppy on Christmas theme, last week his primary teacher at church came up to me and asked me if we really had a bunch of pug puppies at our house. It seems that this boy totally convinced his teacher that for Christmas he had gotten a box full of pug puppies. He had them all named and described each one of them in detail to his teacher. *Sigh* The boy lives a very detail-oriented imaginative life. Also, he is obsessed with pugs.

Our little elf

Last weekend we put our tree up. Tiger was bursting with excitement the entire day. Bursting to the point that I thought his little body just might explode with sheer Christmas spirit and he has been bouncing off of the walls ever since. As soon as we were done with the tree, Tiger decided that he was going to be an elf. So he put on his Santa hat and his Superman jammies, but backwards because he wanted to be dressed all in red. He then proceeded to run around the house spreading Christmas "cheer", which was really just more chaos and noise.

Once he had gotten a fraction of his energy out he looked down at the floor and noticed that it was dirty from all of the ornaments and tree fragments. This was not to be tolerated by this elf. He immediately got the little vacuum out and proceeded to vacuum the floor. What a helpful little elf.

Yep, Christmastime with a 6-year-old is mighty fun.

A literary masterpiece in progress

This little morsel was found on our laptop when Doug was cleaning up old files. So, of course I felt that it must be shared. Now presenting, in all of its unedited glory:

The best book you will ever read

By Woo

One day there was a humming floob. He was very floppy. He liked trains. He worked at a swimming pool. He loathed it. One day Santa clause left him a present. He screemed. He opened the present. I don’t like muffins or fruit cake. It is my least favorit thing in the whole world.

December 1 - A day of pain

Back in October, a friend of mine asked me if I wanted to run a 5k with her on December 1. "Sure," I said, because I don't run and so choosing to run a 5k when it is cold outside seemed like the logical thing to do. These are the things that I learned from this experience:

1. Running when it is cold outside is really quite nice because you don't get all sweaty and nasty.
2. It is really hard to convince yourself to go outside and run when it is cold outside because all I want to do is stay inside, snuggled up in a warm blanket, watching Hulu and catching up on all of the shows I have missed.
3. I really need more than a month to train for a 5k. This has a lot to do with #2, I might have missed a few days of running because I am weak when it comes to the cold.
4. I have old lady feet and they require really expensive running shoes. On the bright side, since I have bad feet, and have bought really expensive running shoes, I wear them all the time because they are the only shoes that I can wear without complaint which means that I am totally getting my money's worth. Plus, they are bright, blazing pink.
5. I think I have shin splints.
6. I got my worst time ever on a 5k race, but I had more fun at this race than any of the others I have done because the company was so good and it's just more fun to run when you are wearing jingle bells. If I do this next year, I'm wearing Santa shorts and striped socks.