January. Brrr.

You see all the bloggers doing the 365 thing, you know, a photo every day for a year? I like the idea, but only in theory. If I participated, most of the pictures from January would be of Jack playing Wii, Gemma climbing over the gate into the kitchen to sneak into food, and Toby still in his jammies long after lunch. It's pretty much the same thing every day around here with me wearing differing versions of warm and comforable clothes. What can you do? It's January in the midwest and it is cooooold.

Today we had a variation on our January theme. Gemma decided that it should be summer and that the couch makes a great swimming pool. I think she's on to something.

Nudity Might Be A Good Idea

The answer to the question: "What are you doing today Heth?"

My Own Goodnight Moon

What is it about the book Goodnight Moon? It's magical, I swear. I just can't figure it out, there isn't really anything special about it. The gaudy green and red illustrations aren't that impressive, but every time I start to read, "In the great green room, there was a telephone..." I suddenly have every one's attention. Weird.

So here is my experiment. What if I change the words? What if I personalize it? Will it still have the same power over my children or will it lose it's magic? Let's try it.

In the tiny green house
There was a salamander
And a possible mouse
And a picture of-

A girl with her future spouse

And there were remotes for the Wii all without batteries

And two triple bunks
And seven kids with spunk

And a big string bass
And not much space

And a desk and a drawer and a broke bi-fold door.

And a mom with a mullet who was scrubbing the floor

Goodnight house

Goodnight spouse

Goodnight girl with her future spouse

Goodnight laundry
And the possible mouse

Goodnight Wii
Goodnight batteries

Goodnight bunks

And goodnight spunk

Goodnight pile of boots
Goodnight all Jack's loot

Goodnight bass
Goodnight space

Goodnight desk
And goodnight drawer

Goodnight everybody

Goodnight door

And goodnight to the mom who was scrubbing the floor

Good night snow

Goodnight cold

Goodnight children who are getting too old

Confession

I still have Christmas decorations up. Don't judge me.

I took down the tree and that was as far as I got, but according to my Christmas Cactus, I've still got time.

I Guess I Really Am 32

Today was my birthday. I still have 35 minutes left. Some highlights:

• A new laptop bag for my The Golden Laptop
• BK french toast sticks and ciniminis for breakfast
  
• It ended up being a good hair day. (You never know with a mullet)
• Tiramisu
• Starbucks
• Wii
• Mom taking the kids for the afternoon and evening
• Dinner out
• Monster cookies (see a theme?)
  
• Packages in the mail
• Facebook birthday wishes
• Another year marked by God's faithfulness

It was perfect.

It's Wednesday.

Is that a profound title or what? So edgy. You'll have to forgive me, we are on our hundred and fifteenth snow day this winter and my right eye is starting to twitch a little bit. The girls just went out to play in the latest round of snow. The very snow that keeps sealing our housebound fate. And just to let you know why I'm not up for mother of the year...it's negative one outside. Negative one. Have fun girls. Happy frostbite to you. Desperate times people, desperate times....

No, they are fine. They have on so many layers they look like marshmallows. They have very specific directions to come back in after three minutes. They also tanked up on hot cocoa before they went out. Preventative measures and all of that. (Side note, do you ever get sick of my not-sentences? Too bad.)

Just a minute, I smell a very ripe diaper that needs to be taken care of immediately.

Ok, I'm back. That was fun.

I never told you about my new Golden Laptop did I? Nate found an amazing deal and hooked me up with my very own laptop. And guess what? No games allowed. I will not allow any games to be installed on this bad boy. No WarCraft. No Enemy Territory. No Star Wars Galaxies. Sorry boys, this one is game free. There has been a bit of controversy as to the color of the laptop. Nate says its mocha. I say gold.

Gold.
No question about it.

In other shocking news, Randall is still alive. I know! I can't believe it either. He's probably unaware as to the wonderful conditions in which he lives compared to what is going on outside right now. Being a salamander harassed by small children is much better than being a frozen salamandercicle. At least I think so. I guess if you ask him, he might welcome death if it means not suffering under the hands of Toby. Toby likes to put things in Randall's aquarium. Poor, poor Randall.

That's all for now. I know. What an exciting post. Hey, it's Wednesday, and a snow day at that. It's all I got.

Let's Meme!

The 2008 meme.

It's been while since I memed. But I might as well, this one looks easy enough and interesting in a reflective kind of way. The deal is that you take the first sentence of the first post of each month in 2008 and see if you notice any pattern or common theme. I saw it over at Joanne's. For added fun, I've thrown in a little commentary. And links, just because.

January: "We celebrated a little early this year, having family over for tacos and cake." (Good old Noelle and her New Year's Day birthday. She gets first post of the year, every year.)

February: "This is what is for dinner tonight."' (When I saw this again, it looked so good. I think I might just have to revisit this on my family soon. *evil laugh*)

March: "What do these words have in common?"

April: "I love watching The Biggest Loser." (Haven't been watching it this year, I kind of miss it.)

May: "People. Don't even try to tell me that this isn't the awesomest thing you have seen all day." (It is. It really, really is. Maybe even the awesomest thing of all time. And so is my sentence structure. People. is not a sentence.)

June: "It begins." (This began four months of running posts. All running, all the time.)

July: "Another reason I love The Great White." (There is Starbucks involved. Of course.)

August: "We are halfway through our marathon training."

September: "What a fun time that was."

October: "As soon as I shut off the video camera yesterday I ran upstairs to the kids' room to asses the damage." (This is the infamous misspelling post. And look, it's even in the first sentence! Way to start a post off right Heth!)

November: "For a couple weeks Nate and I were keeping a secret, we had plane tickets to the East side of the country." (Miss you Ann!)

December: "I just got done sorting socks." (This sure is a thrilling place isn't it?)

So that was fun. Reoccurring theme? Probably food. The majority of those posts have something to do with food. I wonder what the theme of '09 will be?

Go ahead and try it. It's a great way to perfect your cut and paste skills. Oh, and to reflect.

No. Not in the House.

It snowed last night, a fresh blanket of about a inch and a half. The wind drifted it a bit in some places but not in others. I got up early to head to the gym for a run and peeked out the front window, I could see that they hadn't plowed our street yet. Two lines of tire tracks ran straight down the middle of the road. An ambitious dog owner had already walked their dog, leaving big boot marks and frisky dog prints along the curb. The cat that we do not own but that lives in our garage left telling marks as to where he has been sleeping at night.

And then the most disturbing tracks of all.

A tiny perforated line from the garage, straight under our deck. Where it went from there, I can only dread. Dear Lord, not into our house I pray. A mouse. Could it be the same mouse that scared me last summer, hiding in the recycling pile in the corner of our garage? I hope so, and not his brother, cousin, or *shudder* offspring.

Please. No.

Quiet

Shhhhh. Do you hear that? Me neither.

The kids have gone back to school. No one is fighting over the Wii. Jack has free reign. Gemma has my full attention and can read her Sandra Boynton books to me uninterrupted. Toby slept in. Of course I miss the crew, but that was the longest Christmas break ever. They got out early in December for bad weather, they stayed here a day later for bad weather.

It was just time.

She's 12

She turned 12 and we took her out, alone. Noelle's birthday was on New Year's day so she kind of gets hosed every year. Usually everyone is dragging after a late New Year's Eve night and her birthday is spent with tired, grouchy people. We celebrated with family that evening and then last night Nate and I took her out for dinner and a movie.

She chose a Japanese Hibachi grill. You know, the kind where you all sit around the grill and the guy with the crazy knife skills lights a flaming onion volcano right in front of your face. Now wouldn't that be fun to see pictures of? I thought so too but apparently the company I was keeping wasn't too excited about me pulling out my camera and drawing attention to ourselves while the people around us were just trying to enjoy their noodles and whatnot. So no pictures. Then we headed to the movies. We had a bit of a wait until the next show so we killed time at Best Buy. Good times. Who do you suppose chose that store? Let me give you a hint.



It appears she takes after him, she hacked into some games on the demo netbook. Good work Welly.



We saw the movie Seven Pounds and then headed home. It was a really fun night with our new twelve year old. Happy Birthday Noelle. And keep up the growing just a little bit more. Only about a half a shoe size more and we can share and that will be a happy birthday present for both of us. Double the shoe choices. Wheee!