Where the Wild Things Are

I just had a good trip to the post office with the children. I can hardly believe it myself. Usually I LOATHE the post office. My kids scream, Matthew runs around grabbing puffy envelopes, stuffed teddy bears, and hiding behind "no admittance" counters. Grumpy adults scowl at me. Not so this morning. Partly because I woke the kids up at the crack of dawn to get there by 7:50. There was still a short line, only two people though. My package was ready, stuffed, taped up, addressed, it only needed postage. As I pulled the kids out of the car to pack them into the stroller Will started complaining--No Mommy, No! I knew this was going to be a disaster but hopefully just a short one. To my surprise, we stood in line behind a very nice man who asked the kids about Santa--he he--they can talk all day about Santa. Immediately Will was interested, Matthew jumped into the conversation all about colored presents, legos, and diesel trains. Bless that man. Before I knew it I was up to the counter, had paid my five dollars, and was out the door. My own little Christmas Miracle!

There's been so much going on lately I've hardly had a free minute to get to the keyboard. I have lots of potential post energy but the kinetic part is having a hard time getting started. This post will serve to update some grammies on some funny things the kids have said and what they have been up to. A couple days ago I got together with two good friends, Elana and Tara, to make some gingerbread houses. Thanks to Elana the kids were decked out with a bazillion little Christmas candies. I thought Matthew's house was worthy of some blog space.

It's a rocket ship. See the licorice wings coming out the side--and that little candy cane sticking out from the roof is the American Flag. My little boys a patriot!

Here are a few things overheard lately:

After a rough morning Matthew blurted out to me: "I love you Mom. You're the greatest Mom ever. Not like those other moms." I'm not sure who those other moms are but it still made me feel good. Especially since he is always telling me he likes Tara's spaghetti better than mine and asking why I can't make it like her with no vegetables and meatballs.

Will likes to repeat whatever the nav system in our car says so after the nice nav lady tell me "Turn. Slightly. Right. In. 500. Feet." I often hear instructions from the back, "Turn slightly, Mom. Turn slightly." Except Will has a problem with his "l's" so it comes out "Turn swightwy, Mom. Turn swightwy. Was that swightwy right, Mom?"

The other day we passed a Santa out on a street corner and Will called out, "There's Santa, Mom." Matthew corrected him, "It's just a man dressed up like Santa, Will." I'm not sure what gave it away. Maybe it was the billboard Santa was wearing addvertising Jack's plumbing and heating. We want to be your plumber!"

This was heard while I was in the family room: "MOM! Joseph's in the oven!" (don't worry, it was just the drawer beneath the oven.)

Lastly, Matthew has been a bit over taken with Rudolf the Red-nosed Reindeer lately. He loves that old movie and likes to play all the characters. He even convinced some nice lady at Costco that his name was Rudolf. She commented that it's not a name your hear often and asked if it ran in the family. No. It just runs in his imagination. The other day he came to me despondent complaining the Dasher and Dancer and Prancer and Vixen, Comet and Cupid and Donner and Blitzen were calling him names because of his red nose and wouldn't let him play their reindeer games. Oh dear. He has also assigned each family member a character from the movie. He is Rudolf, I, of course, get to be Mommy Donner, Chris is Donner (in the movie Donner is Rudolf's father) and William gets to be Clarice. This cracks me up. Clarice is Rudolf's love interest but Matthew thinks it's his sister. Fine with me. And too bad for Will on both fronts, love interest or sister. Matthew calls him Clarice and will come report to me, "Mom, Clarice won't let me have a turn on the computer," or I'll here him say, "Clarice, come play reindeer with me." Sorry Will. The plight of being the younger brother. And for the finale, there's the character Matthew calls the Abdominal Snoman. Oh yes, we know all about the Abdominal Snowman. He usually roars his ugly head after a big dinner of mexican food.

I've been out for a bit with household projects and glad to get a minute to check up on my blog world. Tiling, rearranging furniture, organizing closets, ahhhh, it's all taken hold of me. The lure of leaving town for a bit has put the fire in me to tidy up all those secret places, the back of the coat closet, the junk drawer, Chris' whole office--it's not really that secret being right next to the front door but has been an eye sore much too long. And I must confess, much of the mess is mine. I also had another 2 a.m. night last night staying up to work on a Christmas project for . . .Grammy! Who me? Yes, you. Couldn't be. Don't worry it is. Anyway, this post is much delayed but the computer was on the fritz during Halloween and I've been promising grandma's pictures for a month now so please indulge me. The best treat of the evening was a surprise visit by the one and only Daddy! Chris had been working out of town but made a special trip home to take the boys trick-or-treating and they were in heaven. Daddy and candy makes for one great time. Here's another picture. I'm pretty sure we ended up with more candy than we started with which was okay for a few days but unfortunately self-indulgent Emily knows how to get past the child lock on the pantry door. Self-control Emily is not happy about this and several weeks ago threw out all remaining Halloween candy. That was all well and good until self-indulgent Emily showed up again. The kids were in bed and she was ready to sit down and watch herself a little Entertainment Tonight with a piece 'o chocolate. When none was to be had she started to get a bit disgusted with self-control Emily. Fortunately, resourceful Emily had saved some of the candy for her Young Women's class and self-indulgent Emily remembered where it was. Mmmmmmmm. Chocolate. All is right with the world. At least until I go to bed, think about my day, and self-control Emily reemerges, determined to maintain the command post a bit longer tomorrow, to keep self-indulgent Emily at bay. Self-control Emily is very confident in her bed at night planning for the next day's events. Alas, by about 11:00 a.m. when hunger starts knocking and tiredness begins to set it, it is all to easy for self-indulgent Emily to bump self-control Emily to the passenger seat and drive this van wherever she pleases. And it's most likely Wendy's.

I enjoy reading the comments on other people's blogs but seldom click on any of the commenter's to see which blogs they belong too. (Follow me so far?) Tonight I was enjoying some productive neglect (credit's to Annie) and let a bit of wander lust take hold. This is where it led me . . .

• I started at my friend Nikki's blog. I noticed in her sidebar a link to another friend, Nicky, who moved away a while ago.
• I jumped over to Nicky's blog to see if her new baby had come and in her side bar noticed another name of an old ward member, Maylin, who (or is it "whom"?) I never new well and has since moved away but is the daughter-in-law of a good friend. So . . .
• Popped on over to Maylin's blog to do a bit of stalking and noticed in her sidebar that her mother-in-law, my friend Robin, actually has a blog of her own. Stay with me, only three more to go . . .
• While posting my comment on Robin's blog, I felt a little pinch of curiosity as to who was behind the screen name "Our Ole' Kentucky Home," who had also commented so I clicked on him/her/them to find out who would choose such a name.
• Our Ole' Kentucky Home took me to the blog of Nate and Sarah Wells. People I had never heard of before and had no idea existed on this little earth with me but did in fact live in Kentucky as their screen name suggested. I guess that's why they chose it. Anyhow, out of the corner of my eye in their sidebar I noticed the name Jillyn Wells. I know one person and one person only named Jillyn so again, dragged the mouse over and click . . .
• Who should I find but one of my mother's best friends! Ha Ha Ha! A woman I have know for YEARS, whose children I went to school with, whose husband was our vet (an important man in a household of four dogs), and whose front door I see every time I exit my parent's house. Again, ha ha ha, I couldn't get over it. So, hello Jillyn! Fancy meeting you out here in bloggyville!

So I suppose the six degrees of separation theory works for internets as well. The only people I don't know in this scenario are Nate and Sarah Wells so my questions are two: 1)Robin, how do you know these people and 2)I assume you, Jillyn, with the same last name and all, are related--am I correct? To the rest of you I issue a challenge to head out into the blue and see who you can find with some random comment clicking . . . happy hunting! Update me with any good stories.

A bit of randomness to begin your week:

1. The tile is ongoing. I am only a grouter and know better than to engage the actual saw so the heavy work only gets done on weekends when hubby is home. The floor is finished but the built in wall/shelf and the front of the tub are still in the works. Pictures coming soon.
2. I watched the You Tube debate last week and actually found it very interesting. I don't think I have watched an entire debate before. We all know politics are important, being involved and all that citizenship stuff but putting all that aside, I couldn't get over the post debate commercial. Obviously networks target adds toward assumed viewers. Dora dolls in between Diego shows, Tide and Palmolive are at home on the Food network, etc. So this is You Tube, I would image a young, hip, techno savvy crowd. Imagine my surprise when 'ol Anderson Cooper raps up his opinion on the debate along with some of his distinguished friends only to be followed by an announcement as to why I should buy a Cat Grass Chia Pet for my furry friend. What does this mean? Is the young, hip crowd so techno savvy they have lost their humanness and only have relationships with cats? Or perhaps is the older, crazy-cat-lady crowd suddenly found a place to feel needed and understood on You Tube? Discuss.
3. Where is the justice in placing the Chipotle in the same building as the dang Gold's Gym. I'm just trying to get me a burrito. I don't want to share the sidewalk with lycra clad men with pecs embarrassingly larger than mine. Rather than trying to shed some calories running for the door I am only trying to bite into mine a bit sooner. Then as I leave the building with said burrito and its mate of chips I must confront chipper twenty-somethings in their little outfits with their little gym totes skipping to their little cars. Not only am I not working out but I can't even wait for the car to delve into the warm saltiness of my bag 'o chips. I did try to maintain some dignity by pulling out a chip with an elegant teacup grasp, little pinky held aloft but all the daintiness was lost due to my mitten clad hand acting more like velcro and emerging from the bag looking like a chip paw. Rats, foiled again.