I'm baaack....

Sorry for the delay in posting....tis the season :)

Collette! You are my blog challeng winner! We should totally go do lunch anyway...email me and we'll discuss.

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Right now my fingers are so cold that I'm having a hard time typing. Thank the drafty windows in my cold old house. The mornings and evenings have been chilly but the afternoons haven't been too cold. The leaves on the neighbor's ginormous tree have fallen and my boys have dutifully raked them up after being promised large sums of money. Today we were at the movies and my boys wanted me to take them shopping so that they could spend their new windfall.

"Boys," I said, "don't you think it would be a good idea to save that money so you will have money to buy your family Christmas presents?"

"UHHHH!" exclaims son #2. "I had to do all that work to buy OTHER PEOPLE presents?"

I stopped in my tracks, took a good look at my small son, and said, "Your dad does that EVERY DAY."

The irony, however, was lost on my children as they walked gloomily to the car.

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My baby girl has become Miss Manners.

At the movie today, I sat her next to older daughter, who said, "Aww, mom. I thought you were going to sit by me!"

I replied, "Well, I thought your sister would like to sit by both of us!"

Small sister looks at big sister and says, "I'm sorry I made you sad."

Awwww.

She's been apologizing a lot and saying things like "Yes, please!" and "No, thank you," and "Please don't show that belly button!" (When a Victoria's Secret commercial came on the air...LOL!)

It's so cute to see her learn these things, but it's also a reminder that she's growing up waay too fast. And, since she's my BABY, that also brings some sadness. My last little one in kindergarten. Right now we still spend a lot of time together. Next year, not so much.

I love my little bug. And I promise to keep my belly button covered.

Tags and an major award! (Also a blog giveaway for anyone who wants to play)

I lied. It's not major. But I love that quote from "A Christmas Story."

My bestest bud Kerri gave me my Major Award. And here she is.

(Be careful. It's frageelay. :D)

So, in accordance with the rules that go with winning a Major Award, I hereby pass this award to:

Amor (Her stories about her son make me laugh)

Collette (Who wins the award for still being my friend after 20 years)

Natalie (Who has to be the most creative person I know)

Shellie (Whom I wish lived much closer to so she could play with me ALL the time)

Teri (Who also lives way too far away....but always makes me smile when I get to see her.)

OK...now to the tags:

Here's one that I missed back in October and found when I googled myself out of boredom! LOL!

In my blog surfing, I found another blogger who spells her name the SAME WAY I DO (no small feat) and also goes by "Mer." She tagged me back on October and somehow I missed it.

Five things that make me happy:

1. My family

2. Chocolate and Coke (Separately or together, it's all good.)

3. Scrapbook stores

4. Serenity (my favorite movie. "Shiny. Let's be bad guys.")

5. Books (loving Terry Pratchett right now...so stinking funny!)

I was also tagged recently by Elizabeth to list

7 Facts about Moi

1. I have feet issues. I can't stand tight shoes or stuff touching my feet.

2. I have a very offbeat sense of humor that doesn't always translate well.

3. I sing, play the piano, and play handbells.

4. I have a high IQ. (or, as my dh probably thinks, a big head. :D )

5. I hate. hate. hate. country music.

6. I used to be fairly decent at shooting pool.

7. I like things to be done my way, but I hate being in charge of stuff.

Okay...now for the giveaway portion of our program: (and YOUR chance to win a Major Award...)

Tag yourself and post about it on your blog, then come back here and comment on this post. If you do one tag, your name goes in one time. If you do both, your name goes in two times. Name will be randomly drawn.

I give good prizes, (will be scrapbook related) although sometimes they take a month to arrive! The wait will be worth it though, I promise.

Tag...you're it!

Channeling Joe Dirt

I had a opportunity come up where I had to go somewhere and do something and appearance was important.


So I said to myself, "Self, it's time to update the mommy hair and get all spiffied up so that you look nice and hopefully no one will notice that your muffin top goes clear to your nose. "


Anyway, I made my hair appointment. The gal did exactly what I asked her to do, but instead of looking cute and flirty like the model in the photo, I looked more like...


<--------this.


I went home and looked in the mirror and said to myself, "Self, I do think you are sporting a mullet!"

I called my sister, who is much more on top of things like hair styles and color and what to do if things go awry...and her advice to me was, "Well, go back and have her cut more off of the bottom! You don't want to go to your thing feeling like Joe Dirt!"


So I did. Both Self and I were much relieved.

Despite my de-mulleting, the next day at pre-school, one little *cherub* said, "Miss Meridith, you look SILLY." Same cherub responds a minute later to a classmate saying, "Miss Meridith, you're funny!" (which was fine, since that was actually what I was aiming for at the moment) by saying, "Miss Sara is FUNNIER."

49.7% of me wanted to look right at the little sweetheart and say, "Well, that's ok. Just so long as you know that Susy there...the one you're sitting next to? She's WAY cuter and nicer than YOU are. How do you like them apples?"

Fortunately, 50.3% of me was rational enough to realize that letting a 5 year old get your goat is NOT as big a deal as losing your job. So Self and I looked at the punkin and said, "Gee! Thanks for that!" and went on our merry way.

Besides, later, at the scrapbook store, a hairdresser asked me who did my hair and said it was "FABULOUS!" I didn't detect any irony in his tone or subtle smirk...and Self decided that he probably knew WAY more about hair than a 5 year old with boogers. I agreed and thusly, a self-esteem crisis of gargantuan proportions was narrowly averted.

No thanks to Joe Dirt.

This, that, and the other.

Well, I lied about the normal blog colors. I decided on something more seasonal. But at least it should be easier to read than the black stuff.

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This my my girl Bree. The layout is part of this month's DT gallery at Creative Express. (I just figured out how to do the link. DUH.)

She's 15 and man oh man, is she ever FIFTEEN.

Thankfully, she's not boy crazy (in fact, she's quite annoyed by all the attention she seems to get from the opposite sex.) We won't let her date until her birthday and so far that's been a convenient excuse. I keep asking her how she's going to dodge her admirers when her birthday hits but she hasn't come up with something yet....

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Sunday Funnies

Ok, so I was actually really surprised by the number of Star Wars costumes that I saw at school this Halloween. Seems like more than I saw when the last movies came out. Maybe the difference is that the Star Wars movie this year was a CARTOON.

Here's a little Star Wars Humor for you...makes me laugh every time...

Speaking of Halloween, here's what we rocked this year:

Notice the ax sticking out of my Dh's back. He thinks it's funny to tell people I did that when I got sick of him forgetting things.

I think that if he keeps it up, he could be right.

(I jest, I jest.)