ARGH!!

So I emailed myself a whole bunch of pictures that I had been taking over the past few weeks, so that I could update the blog today. Well - you're never guess!! But I sent the wrong pictures - pictures that I have already posted!!! So I guess you'll have to wait yet another day for an update!

You'll Never Believe It...

I got halfway to the library for Storytime and realized I had forgotten my camera! So no cute pictures from Storytime today. Mrs. Dorothy read two books, The Berenstein Bears Learn to Share, and a Winnie-the-Pooh book. The girls were not at all interested in the books Mrs. Dorothy was reading. Bella ended up going to the tables and putting a puzzle together and Brooklyn just roamed all around the room!

Nothing new to report....

What Did You Do All Day?

A man came home from work and found his three children outside, still in their pajamas, playing in the mud, with empty food boxes and wrappers strewn all around the front yard.The door of his wife’s car was open, as was the front door to the house and there was no sign of the dog.Proceeding into the entry, he found an even bigger mess. A lamp had been knocked over, and the throw rug was wadded against one wall.In the front room the TV was loudly blaring a cartoon channel, and the family room was strewn with toys and various items of clothing. In the kitchen, dishes filled the sink, breakfast food was spilled on the counter, the fridge door was open wide, dog food was spilled on the floor, a broken glass lay under the table, and a small pile of sand was spread by the back door.He quickly headed up the stairs, stepping over toys and more piles of clothes, looking for his wife. He was worried she might be ill, or that something serious had happened.He was met with a small trickle of water as it made its way out the bathroom door.As he peered inside he found wet towels, scummy soap, and more toys strewn over the floor. Miles of toilet paper lay in a heap and toothpaste had been smeared over the mirror and walls.As he rushed to the bedroom, he found his wife still curled up in the bed in her pajamas, reading a novel. She looked up at him, smiled, and asked how his day went. He looked at her bewildered and asked:“What happened here today?’” She again smiled and answered, “You know every day when you come home from work and you ask me what in the world I do all day?”“Yes,” was his incredulous reply.She answered, ‘”Well, today I didn’t do it.”

Shhhh! Do you hear that?

Me either!!!!!! Both girls, yes I said both, are napping in their respective beds and at the same time!!! I've updated the blog with today's pictures and am going to attempt to climb Mt. Laundry (hope you don't mind me stealing your terminology, Liesa).

Lesley posted a blurb on her blog today on a different perspective on Motherhood from one of her Coffee Morning friends and the lady told her to remember that "The days are long, but the years go fast."!! So true and I hope you don't mind me stealing this perspective, Lesley!!!

Happy Thursday to everyone!

This Sums It Up for Me (especially this week)

From an email I received....

An old, tired-looking dog wandered into the yard. I could tell from his collar and well-fed belly that he had a home.He followed me into the house, down the hall, and fell asleep in a corner.

An hour later, he went to the door, and I let him out.The next day he was back, resumed his position in the hall, and slept for an hour. This continued for several weeks. Curious, I pinned a note to his collar: "Every afternoon your dog comes to my house for a nap."The next day he arrived with a different note pinned to his collar:"He lives in a home with ten children -- he's trying to catch up on his sleep. Can I come with him tomorrow?"

Labels for Posts

I've decided to add labels to all my posts. I've done so for all past posts (quite a feat when you have nearly 500 posts)! And will continue to do so for all posts going forward! This way if someone is looking for say, Christmas pictures, they can just click on the Christmas label and it will bring up all the posts with that label! I post a lot (obviously), and some posts can get lost on the page - so thought this would be easier. The listing of labels is on the right hand column, as is the blog archive! I've also added some pictures down the left hand column of the girls through the years.

Balloon Crisis

Bella insists on taking her balloons with her where ever we go! Today she opted to take the Hello Kitty balloon with us. She carried it outside and accidentally let go of it and off it went into oblivion!!! She was so upset trying to run after it. I told her that it was gone and that she had sent it up to Baby Jesus (at which point she start singing Happy Birthday to Baby Jesus). We were out today anyway, so we stopped at the Dollar Tree and got her a new balloon (and Brooklyn one too). They didn't have Hello Kitty but they did have a Princess one that she picked out! CRISIS AVERTED - woo, that was a close one!

Making Monkey Bread

Today the girls and I made Monkey Bread (see: http://whatchacooking.blogspot.com for recipe). In order to coat the biscuits in the cinnamon/sugar mixture, I split the recipe requirements in half and gave each of the girls little tupperware containers to "shake"!

Brooklyn was upset with me because I took her cup away from her and gave her the container instead! Once she got her cup back in her hands, she was happy again and she shook the container quite a bit!

The monkey bread turned out quite yummy and we had that as our treat for Movie Night (instead of popcorn). Tonight we watched Return to Neverland - it was cute!

Blog Title - A Change is Needed

If you've been reading the blog over the past few days, you've probably noticed I've changed the title a bit. I just can't seem to come up with anything "catchy"! Here are some that I came up with:

• "Insert catchy blog title here..."
• Parmer, Family of Four
• It's A Wonderful Life (currently in the header)

Anyone have any suggestions on a "catchy blog title"?

Send a card to a soldier...

This literally takes seconds to do - everyone has a few seconds to spare for those who are protecting our freedom 24/7!
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Something cool that Xerox is doing:

If you go to this web site, http://www.letssaythanks.com/ you can pick out a thank you card and Xerox will print it and it will be sent to a soldier that is currently serving in Iraq . You can't pick out who gets it, but it will go to some member of the armed services. How AMAZING it would be if we could get everyone we know to send one!!! This is a great site. Please send a card. It is FREE and it only takes a second. Wouldn't it t be wonderful if the soldiers received a bunch of these? Whether you are for or against the war, our guys and gals over there need to know we are behind them ... SO SEND ONE!

Damsels in Distress

The girls and I went to Anniston on Monday for a funeral and we headed back after the services on Tuesday. We got on the road about 4:00 heading home. All was going fine - the girls had a snack when we hit the road and Brooklyn quickly went to sleep after filling her belly! Bella was enjoying Thumbelina (for the millionth time, it seemed). We got to Wetumpka, AL and I got a little confused as to whether I should take Interstate 65 or Interstate 85. I ended up deciding that I should be on I-85 but had passed the turn, so I drove up the road a little and made a U-turn and once I made the U-turn, I lost all ability to steer my Suburban. I was able to get it out of the road and onto the side of the road (well actually into a turn lane on the right side of the road). I literally could not get the steering wheel to turn! A bit of panic came over me, but I didn't want to show it because then the girls would get upset. So I called Brannon at work and they initially told me he couldn't come to the phone (this was at about 6 pm). I told them that it was an emergency and that I was on the side of the road with our two kids out of town and that he had to come to the phone now! She went and got him to the phone. While I was talking to Brannon and him trying to tell me what to look for under the hood, a man stopped. He didn't stay long (thank goodness - he was a little scary to me). It didn't appear that I had much power steering fluid in the vehicle, so I was getting the girls out of the truck to walk across the street to buy some when another gentleman stopped as well. As he was getting out of his truck a FedEx truck was stopping as well - the FedEx truck went on its way after they saw the other guy (they apparently knew each other). The guy who had stopped happened to be a certified mechanic (WHAT LUCK?). He agreed with the lack of power steering fluid but was concerned because it appeared that the fluid that was in there was black (it is apparently supposed to be red) and burned smelling. I went across the street (with the girls, of course) and bought the power steering fluid. He ended up putting 3 quarts in the truck in an effort to flush out the "bad" fluid. This did no good at all. He then drove my truck across the street into the parking lot of a Marathon gas station. By this point, Brannon and his dad are already on their way to get us, with a tow truck following them! The nice gentleman who stopped was very apologetic that he could not do more, but I was very thankful he stopped to help and we were no longer on the side of the road. The girls and I went to McDonald's (just across from the gas station), got some supper and headed back to the car where we watched Over the Hedge and the girls played in the truck! A cousin of Brannon's works for the Attorney General and he stays in Montgomery during the week, so he came over to sit with us until Brannon and his dad arrived. Danny got there around 7:30 and Brannon and his dad got there around 9:30 with the tow truck! We finally made it home around 11:30 last night. The girls were exhausted and both of them slept all night! The truck is already fixed and is waiting for us to pick it up - is the power steering pump! Here are some pictures of the girls from our adventure last night!

Brooklyn says she could have driven us home!

Bella didn't want her picture taken! She was having her lollipop and watching her movie. Brooklyn was in the background just having fun!

Bella climbing from the back of the truck to the front seat!

Here they are loading my truck on the tow truck!

A Fun Day...

Today the girls and I didn't do anything exciting -but we had a fun day! Most days I keep up with housework - as far as keeping the dishes washed (our dishwasher isn't connected yet), picking up toys (at least maintaining a clear pathway), laundry, etc...Well, today we did no such things!!! We had our usual Friday lunch with Grannie (Brannon's Grannie) and Olen (Brannon's uncle). Both girls fell asleep on the way home and stayed asleep through me getting them out of the truck and into their beds (SWEET!!!). I proceeded to clean out and vaccuum the inside of my truck - it soooo needed it! Bella woke up shortly after we got home (maybe slept 45 minutes)! She "helped" me finish the truck and then we blew up the "jumpy thing"! That was a feat in itself! I used our little air mattress pump until it gave out and then I finished inflating it with my lungs!! They didn't jump for any long period of time - but would go in and out of it! I have not deflated it, as they can play with it tomorrow and it is under our carport with Brannon's truck in front of it - so it should be ok!

After a bit of just playing in the yard - we decided to go for a walk! Bella loves all the Christmas decorations people have out and we usually just drive by at night, so I thought a walk would be great for her to see everything in the daylight!

So, off we went (notice the jackets on the girls - yes there is finally a bit of a chill in the air - not much, but at least it wasn't 80 degrees today)!

Our first stop was to see the giant Santa Claus and Frosty the Snowman! Bella loves these inflatables - she knows who they are as well. She started saying "hey Frosty" as soon as he was in her sight! As we were walking away, she was saying "bye-bye Santa Claus, I love you so much"! This was the same child who wouldn't go near Santa Claus at breakfast with him last weekend...

Next on our "tour of Huxford" was the Santa Claus and his reindeer display. Bella gets so excited when she sees this as we drive by (we drive by it every time we go somewhere). She did get a little rough with the reindeer pulling on one of the ropes and then hitting the reindeer. Hopefully, Santa will not hold this against her as she did say she was sorry and gave the reindeer a kiss on his (or her) nose! For our next stop we had to cross over the railroad tracks to visit the giant polar bear!

As we continued our tour, Bella spotted a manger scene and kept saying "Mommy, Mary, Joseph" - it took me a second to deciper that she was saying Mary and Joseph - but she definitely was. She went up to see Baby Jesus...

One final decoration for the tour! One resident of Huxford decorated his truck with lights and ran over a Snowman!! Who is it driving this truck and running over snowmen? None other than Santa Claus!!!! Bella gets "upset" every time she sees this. She will say, with her hand over her mouth, "oh no, run over snowman" and I will ask her who ran over the snowman and she even answers "santa claus".

So the dishes are piled high, the toys are scattered everywhere and the laundry is still in the clothes basket waiting to be folded and put away! But I feel quite certain that it will all still be there when I wake up tomorrow and if I don't get to them tomorrow, they'll be there the next day!!

You know you live in the country when....

You open your front door and see this...

Wednesday's Project

So Storytime today is our Christmas party! We were all asked to bring something for everyone. For the Halloween Fall Festival, I made cookies and candy/lollipops. For this, I decided not to bake! We (well, mostly I) made Peppermint Pals and put some candy in a little "loot" bag! The Peppermint Pals were much more time consuming that I had thought - especially the reindeer ones. But they are cute - they are little things you make using pom-poms, googly eyes and pipe cleaners. You then wrap them around a candy cane!!! Thank goodness the audience is small children! I finished them up while the girls napped yesterday and when Bella woke up they were on the table and she picked one up and said "pretty", "good job Mommy" and clapped her hands!

Happy Birthday, Aunt Allie!

Today is Allison's birthday (Michael's ( my brother) wife, Whitney and Dalton's mom - for those blog readers who might not know who she is!).

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, AUNT ALLIE!

Movie Night

So, it seems that Wednesdays will be our movie night! Brannon is at the office these days, so he is usually home by 6:30 or so. We watched Alladin this week. I'm just not a big fan of this movie, but Bella did seem to enjoy it! When I told her that afternoon that it was movie night - her response was "movie with popcorn?"!!!

Another Movie Night

So we had another movie night with Bella on Saturday. Really, there was just not much else to do (or watch on TV) and she has been wanting to watch Spirit. So I popped some popcorn, fixed her a sprite and Daddy some tea and they watched the movie. I slipped away for a shower (with no screaming kids at the door - ahhh, the simple pleasures!). I did finish watching the movie with them!

1955 Goodhousekeeping Article

Ladies, please take note (click on the image to bring up a larger one)

Another Movie Night

We had movie night again last night. We watched The Polar Express and Bella really seemed to enjoy it!

Tuesday's Project

I have been looking for clear glass (well, preferably plastic) ornaments that you can take the "top" off and stuff with foil shreds and then decorate the outside with foam stickers. I cannot find them anywhere! After much thinking of what I could use instead, I saw some "mini" water bottles at the grocery store! While it isn't the Christmas Tree Ornaments I wanted to make, it is a suitable replacement (although I'm still on the lookout for the ornaments)! On Tuesday, we made Christmas Bottles! We stuffed them with colored (red, silver or gold) shredded foil, decorated them with foam stickers, wrapped/glued a pipe cleaner around the lid, glued little pom poms on top of the lid, and then tied a bow around the "neck"! We made three - I made one while they napped to see if it would work, then Bella made one after her nap and then we made a "Christmas Tree" bottle using green beads for the inside of the bottle. Thank goodness I only have to impress a 2-year old! She thought they were "so cute" (her exact words)!