lemme tell you a tale...

Promptly upon waking up Thursday morning, Logan made a bee-line to the backyard at my in-laws' place. He has a really loud lawn mower that he can only play with outside because it is so VERY LOUD. At little later, Logan came inside insisting that I come outside to help him with something, "just something, hurry, let's go!" something. The "something" was his lawn mower. I took pictures to illustrate our conversation.

L: Mom (he calls me "Mom" now, Lynn gets such a kick out of it.), where's my gas can?
A: You don't have one. You'll have to use your imagination.
L: But, Mom, I NEED a gas can!
A: We don't have a gas can that you can use. You will just have to pretend.

L: Mom, I'm going to the gas station.
A: Okay. Write if you get work.

(That's a bird feeder full of millet, also, apparently, known as the gas station.)

L: Mom, I'm filling up the tank.
A: Leave some for the birds, they need their gas too.
L: Okay, Mom.

L: Look, Mom, I filled up the tank with gas!
A: Good job! Does it run better now that the tank is full?
L: Yup! Its belly is all full now.

The End.

home again, temporarily...

Thanksgiving was nice, but quiet, this year. We all know "quiet" is a relative term and we all know that my family is not quiet by any measure known to mankind, so by quiet I mean not everyone was able to make the trip. As far as kids go, between the both of our families, it was just us and Beth and Pat. Everyone else either had to work or was juggling a busy travel schedule. Anyway, the food was good, all the usual suspects were served: carrot cake with peas, meat stuffing, green bean casserole, etc. Caleb broke the crystal that usually cradles the cranberry sauce about five minutes before we were going to bust open the cans and plop them into the bowl. You have to watch that Caleb, he takes to smashing stemware and china when he feels he's being neglected.

I bought myself a new, bigger, better memory card for my camera before our trip and of course had to test its capacity so here are a few pictures from our weekend:

Our trip started out with this: bumper to bumper brake lights on I-20. Thankfully the bumpers were just in front of the exit to Stephenville.

Both Logan and Caleb were EXCELLENT travelers the entire trip.

Part of our detour included driving down Main Street in Dublin, TX. Dublin is the home to the world's oldest Dr. Pepper bottling plant and we drove right passed it too.

Did I mention we left at 2pm? That's sunset in case you didn't know.

This is a tree in my in-law's backyard. That's right one tree, half maroon and reddish orange leaves and half chartreuse and yellow leaves.

Uncle Patrick raked a pile of pecan tree leaves and let the boys obliterate it. Uncle Patrick is a good guy.

Now, I have to get back to laundry, unpacking to repack and putting up Christmas decorations. Ah the bliss of the holidays.

thanksgiving and stuff...

It's all downhill from here...in a matter of a few fleeting days it will be CHRISTMAS! And in just a few fleeting days minus five days it will be my SEVENTH wedding anniversary! Man, seven whole years. Ha, I jest of course, seven years isn't even a drop in the bucket. My parents will mark their 33rd on Thursday. My grandparents are four or five years passed their GOLDEN anniversary and still cute as ever. Definitely something to strive for and certainly something to be thankful for, indeed.

Oh, and holy crap, in a few more fleeting days passed Christmas I will turn 30. T.H.I.R.T.Y. Stick that in your cap and take it around for a spin. About six months ago, in conversation with myself and a handful of my siblings my dad says, "I never really felt 'OLD' ever, until it occurred to me that I have a child who is thirty." I promptly reminded him I wasn't thirty YET, so chill the funk out, man! People, my dad is 54 years old. That's not old. They say old is how you feel, and I, for one, will concur with they on this one. Subconsciously I guess I want to cling to my twenties. WTF? It's a number, I know this. I'm a grown woman, married with two super cute, super sweet little boys. What does three-oh have to do with that? Nothing. So there, my birthday is coming (January 6 if you want mark your calendars, hee hee) and yes, I will be thirty, but so what. It's the celebration that counts, not the number. Ahhh, I do believe I feel better now.

And of course, just in case you wondered what I did all day today...I cleaned house and posted auctions. Here is the link for my auctions: L I N K . As for my clean house, you'll just have to use your imagination.

santa....

Last night we all made our way down to the Vista Ridge Mall to do some shopping and to the see The Incredibles. What a great movie! Go see it! And while you're at it, see it twice! Phew, that's a lot of exclamation points for one movie. I have added it to my list of movies to buy on DVD.

Okay, now that that's out of my system...while at the mall we came across Santa, all gussied up, peddling snapshots to the kids. I would have been happy to have the boys take a picture with this Santa. He was a nice, clean, jolly looking Santa. In my three (practically four) short years of being in the market for Santa pictures I have found there to be a WIDE (and sometimes disturbing) variety of Santas from which to choose. Well, Logan, in no uncertain terms, refused to even CONSIDER a picture with this Santa. As in, his very loud exact words were, "I DON'T WANT MY PICTURE WITH THAT SCARY GUY!" Perhaps my son has pedophiliac radar. Who knows. All I know is he was NOT having any pictures taken with that particular Santa.

On to a Santa who is definitely not scary:

little boys' fascination and mommy's new carpet...

November 17, 2004

Well, the new carpet is WONDERFUL. Moreover, I think it's the PADDING that is really wonderful...like walking across a fluffy pillow...SO NICE!

Logan makes it a point to let anyone and everyone who crosses our path know all about our new carpet. Oddly enough, he still asks about what happened to the old carpet as well. Caleb likes to rub his little hands over the carpet and to dig his little toes into the carpet on the stairs too. New carpet is highly exciting for all age groups in this house.

In other news, I'm tempted, very tempted to start putting up Christmas decorations this weekend. I believe the catalyst was the oh-so-awesome Santa I finished last night. I'll have him up on ebay shortly so you can see just what I'm talking about. (When I say shortly, keep in mind that I'm speaking in terms of "Amy Time," so shortly could mean lunch time or after the kids are down for the night, buwahahaha.)

In more breaking news: Holy crap, do I want a chinchilla! I will collect my faculties shortly, but what a cute little bastard.

i love the smell of 4-phenylcyclohexene in the morning...

We are having new carpet installed today. HOORAY! It's sooooo pretty, I just want to roll around the floor with my babies! The two guys installing it, Jorge and his sidekick "smile and nod," are highly entertaining to Logan. "What's that for, Momma?" "What's he doing, Momma?" "Where's the nasty carpet?" Jorge asked me if I have ever installed carpet or had carpet installed before. I said, "Ney senior mas fina*, 'tis all the This Old House and HGTV that I have watched over the years. I just know this stuff." I'm sure he was thinking to himself, "Mismo, esta mujer va a ser un dolor en el asno." If he'd have said it out loud I would have promptly informed him, that, yes, esta gringa habla bastante español para entender. I may speak spanish just as broken as his english, but it's all good. Seems to be a nice guy. Definitely a hard worker, except I think he's taking his siesta right now because they left at noon for lunch and a trip to Home Depot for staples and it's already 1:45. As long as the job gets done today, I don't care how long it takes them, we've already paid in full. I'll post some pictures tomorrow for all to enjoy. For now, I'm off to work on my newest Santa!

*A slight exaggeration, tee hee. The actual conversation went more like this: "No, this is our first carpet installation. I have just vegged on This Old House and HGTV. I just know this stuff."

pinball wizard...

If you ever wondered who the mayor (Grand Poobah, King, etc.) of Pinball Town is, well, wonder no more, my husband is he. Lynn isn't deaf, dumb or blind, but he sure plays a mean pinball. Ha! Now that you have that song on your mind you can hear a sample of it: number 14 on disc one.

In a little place called Irving, Texas an annual pinball festival is held and, thanks to our good friend Gary, Lynn hasn't missed a single one since he found out about it. At the moment Lynn is still there waiting to collect his prize money and trophy(s). He won a trophy and prize money last year so now he's hooked. He'll keep going back until he has bestested everyone. Lucky for me it falls right after his birthday every year so I don't have to worry about figuring out what to get him. It's always a kitchen pass for the full weekend.