Alanis missed this one.

We have Simply Orange containers (the company whose commercials tout the fact that their oranges never, EVER have to worry about being concentrated) that we use to hold our O.J. made from concentrate.

Hmm.

Is it animal, vegetable, or mineral?

me to Poodle:
Is a strawberry a fruit or a vegetable?

Poodle:
It's a fruit!

me:
Good. Hmmm.... are YOU a fruit or a vegetable?

Poodle:
::scrunched face:: I'm a princess!

Granny's 99!

As of Feb. 29, that is. Ahhhh - she has no birthday this year! Can't tick another year onto her counter! :-)


Some family shots.

A few of the place, and the wonderful church folks who came to celebrate.

We had a lovely, just lovely, birthday party for her after church yesterday. A lot of families from church came and joined us, and we all met at the Cellular South Cafe' at Trustmark Park (where the Mississippi Braves play). Those folks there did a bang up job - they let us take over the place practically, and were SO attentive and kind. Bent over backwards, and the food was fantastic.

Plus, the kids got to run around the seats of the ballfield while the boring adults were running their mouths. ::grin:: The weather was perfect - sunny, and cool, but not too chilly!

I know that I speak for the family when I say how glad we were to have so many wonderful people from church come and take part in celebrating. Granny may sleep all day today, but she had an amazing time yesterday!

You saw a few picture collages from the day, and the rest, including of the birthday girl herself, can be seen from the link at the family website.

Thank you to everyone who helped to make Granny's 99th birthday so memorable and, well, lovely!!!

Awwwww.

Through the house what busy joy,
Just because the infant boy
Has a tiny tooth to show!
I have got a double row,
All as white, and all as small;
Yet no one cares for mine at all.
He can say but half a word,
Yet that single sound's preferred
To all the words that I can say
In the longest summer day.
He cannot walk, yet if he put
With mimic motion out his foot,
As if he thought he were advancing,
It's prized more than my best dancing.

Charles and Mary Lamb
Poetry for Children, 1809

Website Update

Open invitation to see pictures for January! Address up at the top of the blog page - although if you're reading this and don't know our last name, but know us from "around the way", just leave me a comment with your email addy and I'll send the address to you!

For SueSue & PopPop

As the story goes, Jmk spent some time in his younger years as a puppy dog. This picture proves that the imagination apple falleth not far from the proverbial tree.

Although, technically, Poodle is actually being a kitty cat. I had to put some sunflower seeds in the bowl to be her "kitty food"!

Um. Just go see it.

First - hat tip to The Beehive for this one.

Betcha it gets stuck in your head too! Frodo lives!

Back!!!

Wow, does it feel good to have Junior Miss finished for this year! At least, the show part, anyway. Everything went well, we have our new Junior Miss in place, and I am really proud of all the girls. The group of young ladies that we worked with this year really made me feel good about the kids that are up and coming in the world. Maybe it was just my small group experience, but these were some lovely girls. I'm so proud of them.

But, now, I'm left with that sense of confusion that always follows an intensely focused period. I'm not sure what needs the most attention, because everything piles up. My In Box is overflowing with unanswered emails, the laundry has piled up, the house definitely isn't clean.
BUT, at least my kids don't have to hear the phrase "not right now, honey. Mommy's working on Junior Miss". I felt sure that by the end of last week, their heads were going to spin right off if they had to hear it one more time.

Now. Back to "real" life. And as soon as I figure out where to start, I'll be sure to let you know. ha!!!

Next fun event, though, will be Granny's birthday - she's going to be 99!!! We'll be celebrating after church with as many as can come from church as well as lots of family, of course. Technically, she's not really 99, as her birthday is actually on Feb. 29. BUT, people are such sticklers about counting the years that don't have that leap day. ::grin::

Funny Poodle tidbit. At some point last week, she pulled a bag of mini marshmellows out of the pantry, hoping to talk me into letting her have some. As I was incredibly distracted and busy, I was letting them get away with more than usual, and said yes. So, as I'm opening the bag, she asks me, "Can I have 4 or 30?"

lol.....

Bad Dress........

...Good show!!! You know your electrical engineer father has truly been paying attention all those many many years of ballet performances when he pulls that saying up from out of the blue as you are driving down the road talking to him on the cell phone.

Way to go Dad!!!

We'll return to Blog World soon - Junior Miss dress rehearsal is tonite, (tech was last nite), and show is tomorrow. Woohooo!!! Almost finished!

Some Pictures

It was Saturday, we were outside, it was sun-shiny and chilly, and I just wanted to take pictures. That's pretty much the caption for each picture!

(Sorry for the yucky out-of-focus'ness here. I just had to include the I'm-a-Stinker grin.)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY POPPOP!!!

We love you so much and we hope you have a wonderful day today!!! As Poodle would say - here's a big squeezy hug and a big smoochy kiss for you!

Happy Anniversary!!!

To my love, my best friend, my joy, and my laughter. To the music of my heart and the dance in my toes. I love you so much, and these past five years have been a dream come true.

Thank you for being the good, kind, Christian, loving person who fills his family with happiness.

I love you scooper lobster!!!

Oh my stars. I'm not going to make it.

He's not even 2 yet. Heck, he's not even 15 months old yet. He's such an unassuming little tyke. At least with Poodle, we knew she was fearless almost from day one. Tooter, however, didn't strike me as quite so gung-ho'esque.

Hmmph. Apparently, I have a lot to learn about my dear boy.

Or maybe I just have a lot to learn about boys, period.

So, we're outside yesterday afternoon, taking advantage of the briefly warmer weather. The kids are running around willy nilly and I'm pooper scooper'ing the yard. (tmi? sorry.) Anyway, I spot check Tooter, and he's engaged in investigating a pine cone. I scoop, and turn back around barely 10 seconds later, and he's halfway up the stairs that lead to the decking at the top of the slide part of the swing set.

Oh good heavens.

So I go running to the swing set and spot him the rest of the way up, and help him slide down. We do this at least a million times and he finally gets interested in something else.

He comes back for a few more sliding sessions, and then he takes off for one of the palm trees. I take advantage of the moment, and sit down at the laptop that I brought outside an hour earlier, to get some work done on the Junior Miss script.

I swear - I think he must have Star-Trek-transported himself back to the swingset, because I really was paying attention. Or at least I thought I was.

I look up, and the boy has climbed all the way up the stairs and is sitting in the upper deck-thing of the swingset, trying to position himself to slide down the slide. Oh. My. Gravy.

The blasted thing is, what, 4 1/2 something feet off the ground?

I won't tell you what all went through my mind. Praise the Lord nothing happened to him - although I'm not entirely sure my heart has gone back into rhythm yet.

Playtime outside this summer is sure to be an adventure. I think I'll need Prozac!

STOP. Step Away From the Chainsaw.

Please. For the sake of pete. If you haven't already committed annual crepe murder, then please please, read THIS. There is also a good article in the most recent Southern Living magazine (which is actually the link I was trying to find), if you get that publication. Or, you can go HERE and get a downloadable PDF file on proper pruning. Come on folks. We can reverse this trend! Let's all stand together! No more crepe murder!!!

And, no, I don't care if all your neighbors have already done it. To quote SL - "if the neighbors start keeping Nile crocodiles in their pools, you'll be on the next plane to Africa?"

If you have already unwittingly committed a crime against crepes, then take heart. All your saw sins shall be forgiven. Here's to a new start next year!

Dungy's Quote

Just in case you've tried to Google the quote and haven't found it either (I finally found it at rushlimbaugh.com):

DUNGY: I'll tell you what. I'm proud to be representing African-American coaches, to be the first African-American to win this. That means an awful lot to our country. But again, more than anything -- I said it before -- Lovie Smith and I are not only the first two African-Americans, but Christian coaches showing that you can win and doing it the Lord's way. We're more proud of that.

I didn't get to see a ton of the game and we were giving baths during halftime. (Yes. I missed seeing Prince. But, I hear I didn't miss much anyway). But I saw a good deal of the 4th quarter. The game was pretty much won by then, but it was still nice to see a little of it. What will forever stick with me, though, was the awards ceremony. The unabashed faith-confessions of both the Colts' owner and Coach Dungy really moved me. And the behavior of the Colts players was something to watch. I actually turned to Jmk at one point and said "They do know that they won, right?" I'm so used to seeing showboating and over-hyper celebration. These guys looked like real men - not a grown version of my 3 year old on too much sugar.

Anyway, Coach Dungy was extraordinary to watch, and his behavior will forever stick with me. I'm not a huge library of sports facts, (okay, I'm not even a neighborhood newsletter of sports facts), but I don't think I'll ever forget his name. If Tooter (or Poodle - gotta be fair!) ever decides to play football (or any sport for that matter), I pray they will be coached by that type of man. What an experience that would be!!!

A day of wow and wow.

My first wow - and it's not as though this is the first time she's done this, but it just wow'ed me more than usual yesterday. I had laid out Poodle's church clothes yesterday morning, as is usual for me. She was to wear a jumper dress, turtleneck, tights and dress shoes. Later in the morning, she shows up in my bathroom as I'm putting on makeup with all her clothes on (and on properly), including her shoes. The only thing she hadn't done yet was zip up her dress, but the zipper was on the back, so who can blame her? Like I said, this isn't the first time she's gotten herself dressed. She's been doing that for, gosh, I don't know - months? She can't button or zip all the way yet, but the clothes part is getting easier for her. It's just that for some reason, yesterday morning - with the tights and everything - it just wow'ed me. She wows me. She is just such a blessing and joy.

My second wow came during church. I had taken Tooter out and was letting him go up and down the stairs in the foyer of our borrowed church building. (It was the activity that was keeping him the most quiet). And, as I walked him across the balcony and down the stairs to let him start over, I was just overwhelmed with love for him. I have these moments with my kids. I don't know if it's normal or not, but while I always love them, I have these moments where my heart overfills with intense emotion and it just spills out all the way down to my toes. It's probably the drama queen in me. I was wow'ed at how blessed I am - and I don't say that lightly. I truly mean Heavenly blessed - I give all the glory to the Father for allowing me to take care of His children for a brief time. I'm not worthy, and I certainly don't do the best job of it most of the time. But I'm so grateful.

I just had to spill this out to the universe!

Tooter's Expanding Vocabulary

Okay, it's just one new word, but this one word doubles his vocabulary! Of course, "Dahdee" was his first. And now.... (drum roll please)..... we have cracker! Technically, it is "cah cah cah cah". BUT, he is using it to request the actual item. Often. I think he just likes having a word that he can use and we understand at the same time. Buy stock in Nabisco - we're going thru a ton of Saltines right now!

Interesting side note, "cracker" was also Poodle's first word. I still rememer her pointing to the cabinet where we kept them at the time, and saying "cahcah".

Reminder - cracker, for Tooter, is not "cahcah". It is "cahcahcahcah". Let's be clear about that! ::smile::