5 reasons not to give yourself a hickey

1. It hurts.
2. If you do it twice in the same place, it not only hurts worse but looks like you have a case of ringworm.
3. If you then scratch it, your mother will insist on putting ointment on the horrid wound you've created. And this is a tragedy.
4. Contrary to popular belief, it isn't a fashion statement. Though if you insist on wearing short sleeve shirts, you can show off your ringworm/hickey.
5. It is a conversation starter.

Katherine gave herself a hickey on her arm. Twice. In the exact same spot. It's quite lovely. And no, it's not ringworm, just a self-inflicted hickey. And the above list is 100% true.

Items Odessa brings me

These are all things she knows she isn't supposed to have, but gets anyway. And then brings them to me, and/or spits them out when caught. After which, she runs away grinning ear to ear.

1. The remote
2. My cell phone
3. Money (This is a spit out item. Lovely.)
4. Toothpaste
5. Everyone else's toothbrush, but only after sucking on them first
6. Pretend money (Another spit out item)
7. Marbles (Yup, a spit out item)
8. My camera
9. Markers (Not sure where she finds them, and she only hands them over after using first as chapstick. Thank heavens for washable markers.)
10. Potato chips (If some fool leaves the cupboard open she heads for the chips first. I dread the day she can open doors herself.)
11. Little legos from her brother's room
12. Mini skateboards from her brother's room
13. Wet wipes

I know I'll add to this list since she gets into absolutely everything. If she weren't so stinkin' cute, she'd be grounded. But it's hard to get mad at her when her little dimples are shining up at you in a mischivious sort of way!! I do my best mommy voice to reprimand all of this, but I think she sees right through me. She still smiles when she brings me things!!

THE TIMER

As a child, I thought the timer was a cruel way to enforce the eating requirements at my house. I thought my parents were just plain mean and I thought they were the only parents on the planet to use such cruel parenting methods.

I have since learned the truth. They were merely praying that us children would finish a meal in under two hours. I now have pokey eaters of my own and I set a timer when I just can't stand to have them sit at the table any longer.

All my children commit the pokey eating offense, but Michael is by far the worst. On non-school days, he can sit and eat the same bowl of cereal for an hour. I'm not even exaggerating. How anyone could still stomache the same bowl of cereal after that much time is beyond me. I think breakfast was perhaps the only time I didn't need a timer set to encourage actual eating. But Michael, he will stare into space, sing songs, have detailed conversations and SLOWLY eat his breakfast. The only meal that doesn't usually require threats to life and limb is lunch. And that's only because he has friends waiting in the wing.

Pokey eating can be made exponentially worse by meals that are not conducive to children. (This is any food that has red, or green items in them, or is not on the favorites list.) Then the pokey eating is enhanced by whining, crying, and gnashing of teeth. This could essentially go on forever if not for the timer. Though the setting of the timer is often followed by cries of woe. How could mom set the timer? She's soooooo mean!!!

That's right, I'm mean! Oh well, someday they will have pokey eaters of their own and see the wisdom of THE TIMER!!

Mourning...

No, I'm not mourning the loss of Michael's crab. I'm mourning a different kind of loss, a technological loss.

My computer has been struggling for life for quite some time now, and so we decided to dump the info on it and wipe it clean. A new slate. I'm sure some of you can see where this is going. In the process, I lost my documents folder and my entire picture folder. I haven't backed anything up in the last six months, but I do have some pictures scattered here and there on the web that I can retrieve. However, Christmas is gone, aside from the three pictures I posted here.

So I'm in mourning. I'm mourning something I can never get back. Pictures of my children. Moments that I can now only relive in my mind and through blogging and journaling. And believe me I cried.

I'm sad about my documents folder, but to be honest, I'm not entirely sure what was in it. I managed to grab my big project that I've been working on for some time, but I've lost many of my short essays and random scriblings.

The moral of the story? Backup your computer. A lot. Every day. Often. Whatever. Just don't lose those pictures that you can never replace. If I don't blog much for the next week, it's because I am in mourning and trying to rebuild my computer. Such is life. Now go backup your Christmas photos, RIGHT NOW!!!

A death in the family...

Sadly, we laid poor Mister Johnny to rest today. Poor Michael. He cried and just couldn't understand why Johnny died. What do you say to that? Hopefully, it wasn't our cage cleaning extravaganza that did him in. He was alive this morning, but transpired sometime this afternoon. Goodbye Johnny. You were a good little crab and will be missed!

Note to self

When cleaning out Mr. Crab's cage, don't dump the excess gunk in the bathtub. Bathtub WILL clog, and I WILL get to unclog it.

As a side note to the note to self, Johnny is still doing well, but we had a sad farewell to Rex after only two weeks. (Johnny and Rex are the hermit crabs Michael got for his birthday.) May Johhny have a long and enjoyable life in his little cage, if only for the fact that I can't bear to see Michael cry at the death of another crab.

Merry Christmas...everyone!!

The Preamble: My computer ate my original post and now I'm ticked. But I will try to recreate, minus the brilliance, the original post. Stupid computer!

The Post:What is Christmas without a little choas and a lot of traditions?!? We started Christmas eve officially with our Christ-centered dinner. This is a tradition we started a few years ago, and one of my favorites! We have salmon, unleavened bread and sparkling cider. We tell the story of the Last Supper, the story of Jesus feeding the multitude, and of course we end by reading the story of Christ's birth from the bible. Some of the children are less than thrilled by the salmon, but perhaps they'll learn to like it!!



Then there's much time killing to do. This year we made a gingerbread train. The children had a great time decorating/eating the train! We also watched a very funny Shrek the Halls.



And you can't have Christmas eve without PJ's. My dear husband was woefully lacking in this tradition, but I schooled him in the importance of new jammies and it's now a tradition in our house too!


Christmas morning was the expected early-morning chaos, though Mom and Dad have a not-before-seven rule. We had to go wake up Odessa, lest she miss the fun, but the rest of the kids were up bright and early! The big ticket items this year were a PSP for Andrew, a Razor scooter for Lillie, Bakugans for Michael (Don't know what they are? I didn't either, but the kid is lucky I found him any. They are VERY popular!), a Barbie cash register for Katherine and giant leggos for Odessa. (This means she'll quit eating her brother's mini-leggos, right? No? Well, a mother can hope, can't she?)

We ended the day with a trip to Grandma's house with our 21 cousins 9 and under. The kids had a grand time with their cousins and all the adults survived the chaos! It was fun!

And so my house is a disaster, there's a foot of snow outside, and we are all exhausted! And so I declare a successful Christmas!! (And if my stupid computer doesn't eat this post too, you may be able to read the boring details of our Christmas!!)