Why Break With Tradition?!

It's time for the annual First Day of School post. And for the "First Time In Forever," you all get the added treat of updated peeks at my gorgeous gang. I know, it's been a while since you've seen their faces 'round these parts o' the blogosphere!

{You are more than welcome for THAT ear-worm... 

it's blasting in the kitchen right now and I succumbed. 

I am weak. I admit it. And now I'm laughing at you

because you are hearing Ana in your head just like I am.}

Anyhoo.

Our "bonus daughter" had a VERY momentous First Day yesterday. She returned to us late Friday night from summer at home with her family in Beijing. She's still a bit jet-lagged and trying not to be anxious about all the SAT prep work she has ahead of her and layered on top of her Honors course load. In spite of it all, she made it to the bus on time and is officially a SENIOR!!!!!!

Today, we sent our LadyBug back to the public school bright and early. For those not following me on F@cebook, she came home in January to do cyber-schooling after some health issues that made the public school pace and routine pretty hard to manage. It was a great season of refreshment and retreat for her and she is confident that she is ready to handle her JUNIOR year. Seriously, how did this sneak up on me like this?

Next to head out the door was Li'l Empress. This girly of ours was so ready for her new school year to start. She's super excited to be in the upstairs of her building - it's a milestone that all the rising third graders wildly anticipate in our little school community. Yes, I said it. THIRD. GRADE.

After Li'l Empress climbed happily on her bus, Mei Mei and I ran inside to finish getting ready for the morning. Then we were OFF to the elementary school for their annual Back To School Celebration. It's always so fun to meet the new teachers, say hi! to the old teachers, and catch up with friends after the long summer apart. I'm particularly thrilled that Li'l Empress is going to be with her sweet little buddy "S" again this year. She's a sweet friend and so very encouraging and kind to all her classmates. It goes a LOOOOONG way for my girl to have that security and confidence in her friendships.

As soon as Li'l Empress' class was escorted into the building to start the day, my little Mei Mei fell apart in a puddle of tears. She kept saying over and over, "I miss my sissen" and wiping her tears with her Beebee. She was a soggy mess by the time we got to the van. It was decided that a little pit stop at the local Chick-Fil-A was in order, to cheer our spirits and distract both of us from missing our Li'l Empress.

Then, suddenly, it was time. Yes, that's right, the day has arrived. Mei Mei began her first day of PRE-SCHOOL today. Oh, my heart. This girl was a STITCH to listen to once I told her it was time to get ready for her drive to school. Giggling to herself while I dressed her. Wiggling in her seat trying to eat lunch. Covering her mouth in "OH!'s" of anticipation and looking over my shoulder on the 5 minute drive to see if we were "dere yet?"

Until we walked into the building. Upon which time she started muttering under her breath, "I not want go pee-kool, Momma" over and over like some tribal chant. I exercised HERCULEAN effort to not crack up and to take her anxiety as seriously as she wanted me to, but man, it was hard. SUCH a HOOT.

Oh, and yes, Yes, that IS in fact the very same dress that Li'l Empress wore on her very first day of pre-school. I'm totally a sap like that and I am so excited that she chose it from the line-up. And that I'm still smarter than my kids most of the time to make her THINK she chose it. Yeah. I still got it, baby!

I hung out with her for about 20 minutes, chatting with the teachers and helping her feel comfortable. It was fun to point out to her all the things that Li'l Empress enjoyed when she was a student there. Once she was sufficiently distracted and feeling comfortable, I headed out and the teachers reported that she only cried for about five minutes. And I didn't cry at all. :)

It sure helped to have her little buddy in the classroom - he's the youngest son of the director from our adoption agency AND LadyBug babysat for him and his big brother all summer long. Here she is watching for his car to pull up to the drop-off door. Both his mom and I got the story later that they held hands when they walked together and that he is her new "bess fren." So cute!!!!!

When we headed back to pick her up at the end of the afternoon, her very first words to us were "I had SUPER! FUN! today! Mom!" She had all kinds of great stories to share and pretty much was wiped out and ready for bed by 6:30.

You might have noticed that BBE has no First Day pictures. That's because the poor kid got hit with a a nasty tummy bug that kept him up most of last night. Prayers that no one else gets it here would be so appreciated. We have BIG family plans for the holiday weekend and we've been looking forward to them for the whole summer long!

So there you have it. The Traditional First Day wrap up. Thanks for hanging in there for it all. Hopefully soon I will have something incredibly wise and deep and important to write about. Till then, all these cute pictures of my kids make me happy. And it's my blog, so that's all that really matters, right?

Hope your First Days were momentous and memorable too. Here's to a GREAT 2015~2016 school year!!!!!

One Month In

Wow, it's been quite a whirlwind since my last post. Poor little Mei Mei came down with a tummy virus that saw her sportin' a high fever with vomiting and diarrhea for a little over 24 hours. I was a little freaked out by it, honestly, because she is still so new to us and I don't AT ALL feel as if I have a handle on her "cues" of pain or discomfort. I think we weathered it okay - I just shut down everything else and spent most of Monday and Tuesday and a good part of Wednesday of last week holding her and moving gingerly through the day's routines.

Monday afternoon, LadyBug did homework

while occupying Mei Mei with the iPad so

I could get some laundry run.

Early Tuesday morning, she just could not keep her eyes open.

She slept on Daddy like this for over an hour,

after sleeping all night long. Poor baby!

Wednesday morning, Mei Mei was starting

to feel better. As evidenced by the opinionated

glare over the "new" 'do I did in her hair!

She rebounded nicely by Wednesday afternoon, only to be forced out of bed and out the door early Thursday morning for first meeting with her specialist at CHOP. What a day that was! Right at the start of the whole "adventure", we got re-routed off of the turnpike because of a terrible accident that shut both north and southbound lanes completely. Thankfully, the specialist had an opening later in the morning, so I followed The Boss down to the city on a long, circuitous route that lulled Mei Mei to sleep for the whole two hours we were in the car. Poor baby, she has so much "catching up" to do in the area of sleep and regaining her health - I was glad for the reprieve of the long nap.

The specialist and his nurse practitioner seem like really caring compassionate folks - they offered some great hope for the upcoming repair and maintenance of Mei Mei's medical needs. Of course, they also shared the harder parts of the journey ahead but I was really thankful for the balance of their frankness and candor. The first round of tests was done after lunch in the CHOP cafeteria and future tests were scheduled to get a full and complete picture of all that we will be facing with Mei Mei's health moving forward. We left the house at 8 a.m. on Thursday and didn't return home till 6 p.m. I sure hope that the future tests and consults don't take up the whole day like that too often - it's really hard to keep a little one happy and occupied in waiting room after waiting room - even at a children's hospital!

Friday was another doctor appointment, just an "in and out" to read her TB test results. But man, it felt like another "whole day" venture - she screamed in the car seat the whole way to the pediatrician and the whole way home. My nerves were SHOT by the time I stopped at the school to pick up Li'l Empress. Mei Mei was so happy to see her big sister that crying and shrieking on the way home was forgotten. After a nice long nap for both girls, and a bit of quiet time on the couch for Momma, our social worker came for our first post placement home study visit. I take these visits very seriously, but I could NOT help laughing at some of the things that the CCCW@ wants to know about our first month together. All I could think was that the first half of our first month together was spent "in country" which is such an unrealistic bubble of newness. And the second half was spent jet-lagged, groggy, and just "surviving." Routine? Normalcy? Habits? Heh. Heh. HEH!

I'm so thankful for my bigger kids, as I sit here thinking back on the week we just had. With all the crazy-ness of stinky diapers, smelly puke, weird nap times, dinners on the fly (Oh man, there were a lot of pb&j's and left-overs consumed last week!), and all the in & out we had to do, they just totally rose to the challenge. They helped where they could: they comforted Mei Mei when my hands were full. They got their homework done (mostly without prodding). They chipped in and really did a good job of keeping things running when I couldn't. Having The Boss home every morning these last days has been a huge help, too. I'm not too anxious for him to resume his o'dark thirty workout routines, even though I know they are so good for him. I think he's kinda enjoying being home to see all the kids in the a.m. as well.

I took the weekend of her nap times to run around re-stocking all of our groceries and household supplies. And friends of the family gifted us with a new-to-us changing table that blends into the decor and look of our family room just beautifully. So I also got to re-arrange the family room and do some cleaning and sprucing up that was long overdue. That was fun - despite The Boss's decided dislike for re-arranging furniture. Ever. :)

The family room, before.

Note the cute little helper perched on the hearth!

A close up of the little helpers :)

The family room, after.

Re-arranged. Fresh and clean. Dusted.

Today, I will fill the dresser and organize

her clothes into it. Yay!

It's been a full month now since we met our sweet girl. I doubt that any month of her life, from this point forward, will ever again have quite so much change and stress and turning upside down as this month has held for her. When I sit and think about how MUCH her life has had to change from April 7th to today, I am humbled by how beautifully she has navigated it all. And by the gift that her sweet little impish self is to our home. I was mindful of it all last week.

As hard as the days were for me (and believe me, being puked on three times in less than 12 hours was really hard for this momma), it gave me a whole new kind of compassion for my little one. Such a hard month she's had - good things all to come out of these big changes but so hard getting there, ya know? I'm really  glad that our first month together had more good than hard times, but I am even "gladder" that the hardest parts of the big changes are well under our belt (not totally over with, I know, but getting to the "behind us" stage for sure...).

It's a brand new week - of more true hibernation and laying low than last week could be. I have a couple friends stopping by for brief visits. LadyBug has her end of year band and wind ensemble concert. And nothing else on the calendar. I am sooooo looking forward to it. Lots of snuggling, relaxing, and getting to know my girl better and better. New memories to make together. New levels of trust and confidence to build. It's gonna be a good week!

Down Time

Well, we had a bit of down time forced upon us today. The Boss had a "chicken club sandwich" for dinner last night and brought a nasty case of food poisoning back to the room with him. He spent the majority of the over-night hours in the restroom, which is certainly bad enough. BUT.... and please excuse the pun, buuuuut, it was terribly complicated by the fact that the water in the entire hotel was shut off for maintenance and upgrade during the same exact hours he was running between the couch, the bed and the toilet. NOT a fun night for any of us, for sure.

And just when he thought he was as empty as he could be, he began throwing up in the morning.

Yeah, fun times.

So we texted our guide, Dion, to cancel our little shopping excursion for the late morning and hunkered down to rest and recuperate. For The Boss, that meant sleeping off and on for the rest of the morning. For me, that meant creatively finding ways to entertain and FEED Mei Mei. Man, this girl likes to eat. And since she's been with us, she's really enjoyed finger feeding interspersed with some Momma-directed feeding. Today, however, I had very little at my disposal for finger feeding and she had to be content with being fed. Which she was not. Content, that is. Heh. she's got an independent streak a mile wide, which I understand given yesterday's insights from the director. I am grateful that she was one of the obviously capable ones who COULD take care of herself to some degree. But little tete-a-tetes such as we had this morning and early afternoon just highlight for me again how wrong it is for a 21-month old to be SO fiercely independent - to the point of anger and desperation to care for herself. She has a will of steel, for certain. I can only pray that our time over the table today began laying groundwork for a more healthy way of depending upon us as her parents.

Dion showed up shortly after 12:30 with a complimentary bag of groceries, things to help us weather the storm of stomach upset. Spr!te, crackers, some noodles for me, and some sweet treats for when recuperation is underway. He stayed to visit a bit and sweet little Mei Mei offered to share her crackers with him.  Me, not so much. But his presence was a wonderful distraction so I didn't mind at all.

I'm thrilled to say that nap-time routine went much more smoothly today - with only a short crying jag before settling in to suck her little fingers and hug her baby. She fell asleep in my arms and took a great nap with Baba while I relaxed with my worship music at low volumes.

Here's some pics of the last 24 hours.... really guys, if the endless parade of cuteness is too much for you and you'd rather I take a few shots of the beautiful 5-star accommodations, I'm happy to do so.

Snort. As if!  :)

She got her first bath last night. She was NOT

happy about being all nekked but I'm guessing

a few months at home with The Gang

cheering for those cute little buns will change that!

Some of you who followed our trip to Li'l Empress

in '08 will remember our love for shampoo mohawks.

She has perfect hair for it, nice and thick!

This is coloring time while Mommy dressed and cleaned

up the room a bit. I know it's a king-sized bed and all but

I feel like this pic really highlights just how very tiny

this girl is. Barely 19 lbs. and soo. sooo. petite!

She doesn't totally get the concept of coloring

just yet but she really has fun putting the crayons

in and out of the bag.

Because of the iv's she had running during

her bout with pnuemonia, she has several

scabs and tape marks on her arms and even

a few on her legs. It is hard to look at for sure.

To help them heal, I've been lotioning her up

several times a day. She's such a girly-girl!

She just LOVES it and is so dainty in how she

rubs it in. Today Baba got several turns

to love on her and massage her hands and arms. 

While I worked on making up some noodles for her dinner,

I let her share some crackers in bed with Baba.

I'm sure her messy eating habits will come back to haunt me

in a few hours when I settle in for the night.

But seriously? With a face that sweet and cute,

does it really matter if I'm itching all night from

crumbs in my bed?

Simple Beauty

After a pretty hectic week,

kicked off by a stomach virus responsible for

stealing time away from my dearest friends

and then dominated by juggling skills I didn't know I had, 

a morning walk through my gardens re-adjusted

my heart and my mind.

The simple beauty is soothing and restorative.

This is my Father’s world, and to my listening ears
All nature sings, and round me rings the music of the spheres.
This is my Father’s world: I rest me in the thought
Of rocks and trees, of skies and seas;
His hand the wonders wrought.

This is my Father’s world, the birds their carols raise,
The morning light, the lily white, declare their Maker’s praise.
This is my Father’s world: He shines in all that’s fair;
In the rustling grass I hear Him pass;
He speaks to me everywhere.

Words by Maltbie D. Babcock

Forced Happiness

I'm working hard to find the "happies" in the drudgery of cold and snot season. Really I am. So, today, I'm forcing myself to post about the things that are making me smile, even though Li'l Empress is so sick with a fever that it makes me want to cry for her.

I mean, it's not the "so sick" that I need to run to the ER or anything. It's more of the red-eyed, mopey, limp-as-a-dishrag kind of sick. The kind that makes me miss the incessant exclamations! of! great! enthusiasm! for which she is known. The kind that makes me want to crawl up on the couch with her, snuggle her under a pile of blankets, and work some kind of mommy-magic that whisks the fever and the snot right out of her in an instant. She's down-right pathetic, laying on the couch listlessly watching kids' shows. I mean, she's so out of it, she hasn't even requested D0r@ or D!eg0 for over an hour. And this is right on the heels of my recent similar virus that kept me unproductive and wiped out for 4 + days.

Oh, Lord, please make this one pass quickly

and never return our way for the rest of the season!

So. Here are the things that I'm choosing to be happy about. The things that are making me smile this week. In between wiping snotty noses and dispensing medication and juice refills. .......Oy.

The Boss drove in to work this a.m. with my defunct, dissassembled Kitchen Aid stand mixer in the trunk. He's bringing it to the certified repairman after 14 months of disuse. I'm smiling at the fact that I might actually be able to make mongo batches of yummies again soon. And that he loves me so much that he's willing to drive in to the city to do this for me. It's a pain in the neck compared to the train, but he's loving me very practically by taking care of it for me.

The Boss is also heading to the Living Hope Adoption Agency offices today for his turn in the series of four home-study meetings. This kind of progress makes me so happy, for so many reasons! We're getting closer to Brynna, obviously, but it kind of tickles me that he has to sit with a virtual stranger (she's new to our agency and we've only met with her a couple other times since she came on board) and talk about himself. NONE of these things are within his comfort zone. But he already loves his waiting baby girl and he loves me and he's doing it.  I am also supremely tickled by the notion that his appointment will likely be far shorter than my appointment was with her last week. I'm just sayin'......

Additionally, The Boss is making time in his shortened work day to head to the central Immigrations Services building near his office to get the issue of Li'l E's certicificate of citizenship and/or Chinese adoption certificate settled. We need certified copies of one of those for the dossier to Brynna and he's going after the final answer and the copies in hand today.  That makes me so happy, to have that done and checked off our big "Dossier To Do" list.

Another thing I'm really happy about is that Baby BlueEyes was named a "Citizen of the Month" at his local elementary school. I think he's an amazing kid, but now he knows that the teachers in his building think so, too!

Oh! And I'm thrilled that Dr. D scored a shiny medal at his indoor track meet this week. He rarely runs this particular relay, but since there was no triple jumping at the meet, I'm especially happy that he "took one for the team" and was willing to try this event AND that they worked together so well they medaled! Yay for Dr. D!!!!

LadyBug had a Wind Ensemble concert this week. The Boss and I snuck out just the two of us for an evening of beautiful music and we got to hear the award-winning high school ensemble also. She has some great music programming in this district and I'm so happy that she has a place to grow in her gift.

I'm also happy to report that Shaggy might be closing in on some good plans for "life after graduation."  Make no mistake, I am NOT happy about my oldest spreading his wings and flying the nest, but that's my issue. I am happy that he feels like he has some next steps that are feeling right for him. This is the month of applications and narrowing of options, so I'm happy to spend time praying over him and for him.

Finally, I'm happy that Little Guy and Little Gal have been healthy for almost two weeks. Hopefully, they won't catch the crud that Li'l Empress was sportin' all day yesterday and both families can collectively kick the nasties for good. Then, I'll be really happy.

Like, kick-up-my-heels and do-a-happy-dance kind of happy!

Hope you all have lots to be happy about today. Even if you have to force yourself to find it.

Sunday Snapshot

Better late than never, again!

Last week was brutal around here. My cold turned into the old-fashioned flu. Li'l Empress spent most of last Sunday errrr, ummmm, pooking. And then Monday laying on one couch nibbling saltines while Momma was on the other couch hacking and chilling. Literally, not colloquially. On Tuesday, I thought, "Well, I feel like crud but it's March 1st and I'm TAKIN' it."  New day, new month, new season and all that blather.

And then on Wednesday, all that newness came to a screeching, screaming halt. The tummy bug that attacked Li'l Empress (brought home from one of those indoor playlands that every mother equally loves for its contained distraction and despises for it germ-carrying bio war capacities) hit Baby BlueEyes first. And hung on to the poor little guy for a solid 14 hours. Shortly after that, Dr. D was felled; followed by LadyBug, and on to Shaggy. The older three didn't actually experience the violent pooking but rolling stomachs, aversions to smells of any sort, and random naps throughout all of Wednesday. Most of Thursday was all that and some (try a gazillion) loads of laundry and serious anti-bacterializing of all surfaces in sight thrown in for good measure.  His (planned for) day-off on Thursday to "knock out the electrical" in our bathroom project was instead used to clean all the downstairs carpets and a couple of the upstairs ones, too. By Friday night, both The Boss and I were exhausted.

We all spent lots of time sprawled on various couches and chairs, trying to recover and recuperate. On Thursday, I threw open all the shades and walked around "febr@@zing" everything in sight. And I caught this sight as I walked into the living room to check on the kids.

Dr. D. must be part cat.

He was stretched out on the living room floor

basking in the sun and trying to warm up from his chills.

For several minutes. He almost fell asleep.

I'd post more pics of the hall bathroom project but it's a lot of plain plywood and bare studs. Cuz in the process of funneling all 7 of us into the master bath for the duration of the hall bath project, it seems we over-loaded what must have been a small leak in the grout and tile of the master shower. Now, it's a big leak. With lots of really wet drywall and cracked grout. Nothing like having two bathroom projects going at once. He did manage to get all the electrical work done in the hall bath on Saturday and even start some of the plumbing too. While I laid on the couch most of the day. Yup, queasy and nauseous and afraid to go too far from one of the two working bathrooms.

Oh, and NOW The Boss is down for the count. Yup, queasy, light-headed, chills and fever. Right in the middle of the very first steps of prepping our shower on Sunday for its quick patch-and-repair job. Which means that there are 7 of us in the house and NO shower. At least not till Monday night or early Tuesday morning. And that's ONLY IF The Boss can stay upright enough to finish what he started Sunday after church. So far, this Monday morning? It's not looking too promising. He's pretty pasty. 

So, if no one wants to hang with The Gang for a couple days, believe me, I understand. Frankly, I'm not all that crazy about hanging with The Gang myself. But at least our carpets smell pretty and look fresh.

Tough Time to be Laid Up

I've been a tad out of commission the last couple days. On Friday, I had some "very suspicious" moles removed from my leg. The doctor's words, not mine. I'm totally a wimp when it comes to all things medical, for me and for others, so I was a sweaty clammy mess before I even got into the waiting room. They were running fairly behind and I was glad I brought a book to get my mind off of the ticking clock. Once they got me in there, the nurse said they'd only be doing two moles. I was at once relieved and concerned. I mean, relieved cuz it sounded less alarming to only be having two moles removed. And concerned because I was under the impression that the doc was most concerned about a large cluster of three moles that had been under surveillance for the last three years. I thought those were why I was there.

Turns out we were both right. The first mole was a small, surfacey thing, gone with a sweep and a scrape. But. BUT. That cluster of moles I thought was three was actually one large mole that was sort of merged under the skin. Turns out, that merging went pretty deep. Turns out that I needed two layers of stitches. And repeated jabs of local anesthetic. THREE rounds of jabs of local anesthetic to be exact. Deeper each round to be really precise. Ugh.  It's a good thing I reminded them of my allergy to vicryl sutures. That would be very, very uncomfortable to experience again. Whew. Averted an ugh on that one. Toward the end of the tortuous tugging and other such ridiculous imaginings going on inside my head, the doctor asked me twice if I was on an aspirin regimen or something.  Seems they had a hard time getting me to stop bleeding. Double Ugh.

So, I've been sitting on the couch. A LOT. Watching cheese-y Christmas movies. Reading. Folding lots and lots of laundry. And sitting. And sitting some more.  All while wearing pants with no outside seam. (Read, flannel pants.) The seam of all my favorite-est pants runs right through the tenderest spot of the incision. Which, by the way, is 2 inches long. And sporting five royal blue stitches.

All while my Holiday To Do list is growing. Multiplying like little cartoon rabbits, line by line on my notepad. Really, I see them, giggling and making more little to do's all over the paper. It's ridiculous, really. REALLY.

This is a really tough time to be laid up. Triple Ugh. 

I Stand Corrected

I've always said I'm not much of a collector. "Too much to dust." "Too much to keep track of." And my personal fave: "I collect kids, isn't that enough?"

But this year while taking out the Christmas goodies and decking our halls with boughs of stuff, I discovered that I am indeed, gasp, a collector.  Seems over the years I've developed quite a penchant for gathering snowmen to grace my mantle. Or my hearth. Or my walls.  Oh, well, here. You can see for yourself all my little snowmen, spread all over the downstairs of our home!

This little guy adorns my bookshelf, right where

I can see him from my computer.

I smile each time I see his chubby little self.

This is my hospitable greeter, standing sentry at my door.

He's very skinny and I keep trying to fatten him up

with my Christmas cookies and candies to no avail.

He's hanging in the foyer, keeping my greeter

snowman company with a cheerful smile.

Look at the legs on this guy!

This cute little guy used to hang on my tree,

but I put him in the kitchen to keep me company

while I putter about my day.

I snagged these two from certain banishment to

the local G**dWill this summer at my neighbor's yard sale.

Aren't they charming, there on my mantle?

 These two (with their darling pine tree friend) sit across the mantle.

I won them at a vicious rousing game of Christmas gift exchanges.

The other ladies hopefully still like me, even though I fought hard to

win this set back each time it was stolen exchanged away from me.

From the same yard sale this past summer,

this one has become my new favorite.

Although, I do try not to play favorites with my snowmen.

He's perched on my hearth, keeping us company

while we watch Christmas specials by the fire.

 My sister sent me this little pair, after I'd admired it

at her house one year. They are so happy to flank the fireplace

with my other chubby buddy.

Wasn't that so sweet of her to share?

This rotund couple is sitting atop my stereo.

I can almost see them bopping around when

"I Want A Hippopotamus For Christmas"

blasts through the speakers.

I can't for the life of me remember where I got this

snowman angel. But he sure is a cutie.

You can't see it from here, but when he's bumped

(or when the iPod is thumpin'!)

his little wings flutter on a spring. So cute.

Two years ago, I purchased new stockings for all the Gang

and picked snowmen for the kids. I didn't even consciously think about

it then, but I bought an extra one. You know, just in case.

So "Mei Mei" has a snowman stocking waiting in storage

for when she finally comes home to us. 

Even my collection of Christmas pins contains at least one or two

snowmen. Oh. Wait. I also have a collection of Christmas pins.

I AM more of a collector than I thought.  Huh. Who knew?

I was so wrong about myself. I stand corrected.

I am a collector.

We have snowman cups for the table every night.

Thank you, D*ll@r General.

Oh, and look. While I was taking pictures of all the snowmen

in the house, Baby BlueEyes pointed out that I even bought

snowmen plates for last week's holiday bazaar/bake sale at school.

I'm begining to think I'm obssessed... 

And of course, the heart of our home, you know, the refrigerator

canNOT be left out of the fun. Check out my snowman magnet.

Holding up my December menus.

I'm starting to scare myself. But I just can't help it. I mean, have you ever seen a grumpy snowman? They're kinda like Tigger. Happy, cheery, bearers of smile and joy. Who DOESN'T feel better when they see these guys dotting the holiday landscapes?  Mmm, that makes me think. I wonder what OUTDOOR decor I can come up with to make the neighbors smile. 

Well, my snowman flag. Of course!

Big Boogies and Nose Picking

This is how my Monday morning started. Before Li'l Empress even sat up in her crib . . .

Momma:  Good Morning, Li'l Empress.  How are you feeling this morning?

(She's been fighting a nasty cold that took a turn
for the worse last night before bedtime.)

Li'l Empress:  Nee ti-choo.

Momma:  Okay. Here you go. Let's wipe your nose and get you up.

Li'l Empress:  Hat bid boodie. Nee Mommy pit node.

Yeah. Umm, big boogies and nose picking.

All before 8 a.m.

All before coffee.

Good times.

Wordless Wednesday

This has become an all-too familiar scene
on our couch these last few weeks.
This week it isn't Baby Blue Eyes.
But the pitiful look in his eyes
captures well how we all feel about
this nasty virus STILL lingering.

This week it's her turn,
even though she's smiling here.
Here, she's just imitating her big brother.

Trust me, when she sees me coming
after her with a tissue for her nose,
that little smile disappears.
And so does she!

For more Wordless Wednesday fun,
head over to 5 Minutes for Mom.

Christmas Giveaway 2009

The ambitious, generous gals over at 5 Minutes for Mom are at it again! There's a whole bunch of great giveaways posting daily there. Take yourselves away to their site and start perusing the options. Personally, I'm loving the "Jewelry That Celebrates Life." Except, wearing one of those necklaces with charms for all five of my Gang might be a bit cumbersome. Good thing they only include one charm in the prize package. I'll have to train for the additional four I'd need. I'm willing to suffer for the cause should I win one, though.

I know I'm a bit behind the times, as this has been up and running for a while now. Would you believe, I had 99 posts from 5MFM sitting in my Reader queue? It's been a busy few weeks, what with all my Gang members taking turns being sick. And now, they're starting on Round Two of free-flowing boogies and hacking coughs. Lucky, lucky me.

Wordless Wednesday

Notice the date stamp . . . that's the last time

that all the kids got to play outside together
in the leaves. Between the recent weather and the
flu-like symptoms that have been nailing
one Gang member at a time,
we're really hoping for another chance
to build a leaf pile to play!

For more Wordless Wednesday fun,
head over to 5 Minutes for Mom.