For Grandpa

Showing off his muscles and his new shirt...

Car Curses and Friend Blessings

Background: We already aren't driving the Jetta right now because the clutch is mostly gone. RJ's ordered the parts to fix it, and he's going to (hopefully) have it fixed before school starts again.

Then this happens...

Yesterday afternoon, RJ was pulling out of the driveway to go meet some of his VW friends, and his left front strut snapped. Snapped! He was able to get it back into the driveway, though. I saw it after he pulled the tire off and the thingy that the tire goes on (the brake, etc...? What is that called?) was just resting on the ground.

Needless to say, I had a little bit of a freak out. It's one thing to be down to one car when RJ is off of school, but it's quite another to have ZERO cars!

BUT, RJ has some amazing friends! They all came over to our house instead of where they were meeting. They stood around and looked at it for a minute, then decided what to do. One of them had a spare set of struts and he brought them over and they all worked to replace the front ones. I'm just blown away by how generous they were with their time and talents and possessions.

So today I am thankful for three things. First, for RJ's friends. Second, that the strut didn't break while I was driving it on the interstate late last night. Third, that the strut should still be under warranty. (oh, I hope!)

Again with the cuteness...

This is how excited he was about Christmas...

I do wish I'd gotten him from the front, but this is still really funny!

The Child and the Peabody Christmas tree.


Gingerbread house that Grandpa gave him.


He loved it!


The Men of the family at Christmas Eve. They are gaining on the girls!


So excited on Christmas morning!

If this isn't the cutest thing ever...

I don't know what is.

Christmas Outtakes

About half of our pictures had the Monkey wiggling in them.

Angry faces.

Surprised faces.

Serious faces. (this is my favorite of the Monkey!)

Forgot to turn the self-timer on!

A Funny Day

The Monkey wearing his one mitten. I finished it today, and he wanted to wear it while he did his schoolbooks. Now I've just got to finish the other one.

We had friends come over for breakfast and coffee this morning. The Monkey was leading his little friend around by leaving him a trail of raisins on the floor.

It's my birthday gift to me

Guess who discovered photoshop brushes?!?!?

It's Beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

This stack of monochromatic presents gives me an unusual amount of happiness. I suggested we wrap our ornaments in the same paper, an ode to Jeanne-Claude and Christo, but RJ vetoed.

Our tree.

Funny story: We had troubles with the lights, so RJ went to Target by himself to get some new ones. He came back with new ornaments. Star Wars and Transformers ones.

And I felt so Efficient

I've discovered the drawback to having all the Christmas shopping done, wrapped and under the tree.

The never ending questions.

"Mom, can you tell me all the presents? Mom, is it Christmas time? Mom, can you tell me what the presents are?"

Go Callie!

Saturday, LRCA was in the final of the whatever football thingy they are in. They lost. It was pretty bad.

BUT! Callie and the band were so great! They performed at halftime. Mom told me later that they decided to perform and learned their routine Saturday morning!


THEN! They were in a parade on Sunday! Mom and the Child and I went to watch. The parade was pretty fun; the Child loved it! They tossed out candy, and my purse was bulging with it by the end. (and his Halloween candy was almost gone!)





Don't they look great?!


Callie and her Clarinet.

They did a really good job, and they even got second place prize. I'm really proud of them! And, I'm proud of Callie, in particular.

Video from the game on Saturday: