Missing

More Vacation Pictures

Another speedster on the speedway.


When we went to Hollywood studios we were treated to an amazing Christmas light display. At the end of the street, suspended in the air, is an earth made of lights with the writing, "Peace On Earth" with shepherds and wise men on either side and angels all over the sky surrounding it.


But I was shocked to tears when I found this humble scene at the end of the street. Disney said, "Merry Christmas," not "Happy Holidays".


Open wide, Popcorn!


Shakespeare loved the Star Wars ride and the speeder.

Christmas at Disney

We celebrated the week leading up to Christmas at Disney! Thankfully, there was unseasonably warm weather the entire trip, so we got in plenty of swimming and wearing of shorts and sandals!



Sinatra adored the speedway at Magic Kingdom. He drove and smiled the whole time and I had to hold him back from cutting in line on the second and third time I took him. We hung out a lot together because Jon took the others on all the thrill rides. Popcorn just made the cut to get onto the Space Mountain roller coaster and loved every moment. Sintra did get to ride the little roller coaster in Toontown. He called it a train.



Gem spent a chunk of hard-earned money on this little ensemble. She wanted to do it one last time. It got hot and she quickly abandoned the princess dress during our visit to Magic Kingdom, but it was still fun while it lasted.



What would Christmas be without family?! This is Jon's brother's daughter in the pool with Popcorn. We enjoyed visiting with them for four days in Orlando.



The place we stayed had water park water slides. Popcorn wouldn't go down by himself, but was happy to ride on Jon's lap. The odd thing about the pool was that they played Christmas music all the time. It just felt odd to be soaking up the sun and listening to "Walking in a Winter Wonderland".

Holiday Relaxed

This holiday season has been the most enjoyable, laid back Christmas experience I've had since being an adult. Why? No presents to shop for (except a few for my parents and sister) and no school. That's right. Our kids are expecting no presents from us this year. We're going to Disney and then to a week at Jon's parents' home in lieu of gifts. Pretty good swap if you ask me.

My parents and sister came down for Thanksgiving and Mom brought all her Christmas gifts along (they were, of course, from Dad too--love you, Pops). Since we are not celebrating Christmas at home, we spent early Thanksgiving afternoon feasting, late afternoon watching Popcorn ride his bike, and early evening tearing through mounds of wrapping paper. Mom and Dad got to spend the next day watching the kids enjoy their presents. It was so nice.

The week before Thanksgiving we had planned to finish our first school semester, but instead decided to opt for taking the week off to prepare for Nana and Grandpa and Emily's visit and just unwind. We would put in our final week after they went home. Those two weeks of break were fantastic and so relaxing. Finishing up wasn't so fun after Mom and Dad went home, but when you only have to tough it out for one more week it's not so bad. Now we are done with all that and don't have to start back to school until January.

With Florida weather on the horizon and Christmas already done, things are looking pretty nice for the remainder of the season. Joy!!!

Worker Man

In an act of desperation to occupy the kid and to separate him from a quarreling sibling I assigned him the task of raking leaves to the curb. I knew that it probably wouldn't get done, but I figured that a couple of swaths toward the street wouldn't hurt.



The boy happily picked up the rake and began. Forty-five minutes later I glanced out the window and saw him still hard at work. Wow! Impressive. I opened the upstairs window and yelled some encouragement. After another 20 minutes I told him to come warm himself up with hot chocolate if he was getting too cold. "I'm okay, Mom!" He worked another 10 minutes before coming in.

In the playroom, the other kids had popped in a movie and were settling in. Shakespeare joined them with his hot chocolate. I went upstairs to finish my task and was shocked to see the leaf raker back at it within ten minutes. The boy worked until sundown and finished the task. I helped him with the final sweep, but my boy did the mother load of the work.

I was so proud. I talked about it for a week and bragged like a grandparent. I also gave him $2--big bucks for a seven year old. Yea! Shakespeare!!! I'm still bragging.

Candy Snatcher

In our family, the kids know better than to snatch an object from the hands of another kid. It's a basic understanding that we've conveyed even to the toddler. Of course, it's not always followed, but the understanding is there. For some reason, this basic understanding never quite got through to some college students whom we would like to see expelled.

During the week leading up to Thanksgiving someone snatched our candy machines right out of the public hallway at the campus grille. Jon had gone early in the week to check on the candy level and noticed that someone had moved the machines to the hallway where they would not be secure after the grille locked up at 11pm. Jon moved them back to our location behind protective doors. We didn't think much of it until the theft. We thought that an employee must have moved them there. Hindsight tells us that this was a calculated little heist.

The sad part is that the kids put their own savings toward the investment and hadn't quite earned back their money. Of course, we're covering their risk, but there is still one ray of hope--a security camera. Unfortunately, in the tape, a chair blocks the view of the candy machine, so in order to catch these creeps we will have to watch up to 6 days of video for the moment that they move the machines out the door. Even then it would be difficult to identify a face. We're having trouble viewing the video online, but are hoping to clear it up so we can nab the criminals. I'm assuming for the moment that it was students, but who knows?

I just hate it for the kids.

Random thought of the day--on a brighter note, I saved $60 on a $130 purchase a few days ago! Yea!!!

Biker Dude

After Thanksgiving dinner the kids and Nana and Grandpa went outside to ride bikes and scooters (grandparents watched). After watching Popcorn peddal around on his training wheels for a while, Dad took the props off and taught him how to ride. He did it in about five minutes! By the end of the day, Popcorn knew how to start by himself and had no trouble navigating turns. Yea!!! I thought we would have to wait until spring to do that. I'm so glad that Dad took the initiative.



I love watching Popcorn enjoy his two wheeler. It's so rewarding when kids reach those childhood milestones. I wonder if he will remember looking back and discovering that grandpa had let him go 40 feet ago. The surprised face was classic.

Gingerbread Construction/Deconstruction

The best part about making a gingerbread house...



is eating it later.

Unfair! unfair!!!

While lying in bed awake this morning, I thought about the first line of yesterday's blog entry. I had written that the jury said "yea" to girl, "neigh" to boy. That's right, I had us all neighing like horses. Maybe it would have been clever if I had used it with parentheses afterward like this: neigh (emphatically, like a horse).

I've also caught homonym mistakes in my writing like "aisle" and "isle" before. It's not the ones that teachers drilled into my head that trip me up (there, their, they're), it's the obscure neigh/nay's that get me. The English language is unfair! I won't whine any further about this subject. Well, maybe just a little bit more. Just know that Shakespeare had it good--no spelling rules back then. It took people like Webster to chisel it into law that sin might increase.

Well, hopefully my blunder gave all you English gurus a good laugh and made all of you who are like my husband roll their eyes and mutter, "What's the big deal?"

And the Verdict Is...

In our house, the jury voted early on: unanimously it voted yea, girl; nay, boy. Sounds a bit harsh, considering that all we really want is a healthy little one no matter what the sex, but I think even the testosterone producers of our family were hoping for a little more estrogen to balance out the hormone levels in our house.

Today was the day of truth, the ultrasound. Good heart, head, arms, legs, (will she ever get to the sex part), 10 fingers, 10 toes, nasal bone, circumference of waist (they even get us in utero), 9oz., due date May 3, 4 spine pictures, (will she ever get to the sex part) nice pelvis bone, yes, yes, . . . oh, let's measure that femur (I begin smiling, but pulling out my hair on the inside. Actually, I'm contemplating giving her the mom stare--hey,it works on the kids), now, "Here's my favorite way to do this," she said. "See, this is a picture of the baby's body as if it were split down the middle from head to foot. By looking at this cross section, it's easy to tell that...now, you wanted to know the sex, right?"

I'll take this moment to tell you that I had prepared myself to hear boy.

"And boy it is!"

At least that is what I expected her to say. I was almost shocked when she didn't. It's a girl! That's right, female! Long hair and braids and princess dresses and pink and maybe a love for the power tool section at Home Depot (hey, just fantasising here). I just sat there with all that goop smeared over my belly, amazed that the bumpy part was flat this time.

No names yet. We'll be working on it. But just know that the jury is happy.