Around the table...

Now that Blogger is allowing pictures on my blog again, here is a little more of our Thanksgiving Day. First of all, I should introduce you to everyone...

So here we go, around the table: I'm taking the pictures of course, so here on my right are Ethan, Steven and Claire.


And here on my left is Allison, my mom and my dad.


It wouldn't be Thanksgiving without the obligatory "drumbstick shots" (which just reminded me that we never did the wishbone!). Here is Ethan trying to manage his drumbstick, but the meat was literally dropping off of the bone!


Claire with her's...


The only way I get into a picture is if I take it of myself. That day I decided to take a 'nice' picture of Steven and myself. Steven had other ideas in mind...he just wanted to be silly.


After about half a dozen pictures, you can see my disdain. lol! But really, I think this is just our personality...it's hard for us to take a serious picture. I remember when we were having our engagement picture taken we couldn't take it seriously...and when we did get a 'nice' one, it just didn't look right. After I don't know how many pictures, I lost trust in him completely, and while he was sitting there looking like an angel, I'm looking at him with my head straight ahead, but my eyeballs were looking at him at a 90 degree angle, and the photographer snapped the picture...much like this one below...and that's the one we put in the paper! lol! But it was totally us! And what? 14 years later? We're still the same.

In the beginning...

So we leave SA for Houston on Thursday. IMMEDIATELY I start getting car sick...which really doesn't happen anymore. But I'm feeling awful, and my head bouncing around is just making it worse. I happened to mention to Steven that what I needed was one of those little neck things that they make for babies to hold their heads up in the carseat.

Oh yeah. And Claire had no shoes. None. Nothing on her feet or in her suitcase. The poor neglected child with no shoes.

So we finally make it to Luling and Buc-ee's...where I head straight for the Dramamine aisle. Steven disappeared somewhere else, but I didn't really care...all I wanted was a Dr Pepper to down the Dramamine with. Then here he comes, my knight in shining armor, with a Buc-ee's neck rest thing! It's a beaver that wraps around your neck and holds your head up and straight. I think it is now my most favorite possession! just look at this! How could you not fall in love with a rabid looking beaver that is about to bite your head off?!?



After that, I thought Buc-cee's had everything...so we are looking for some flip-flops for Claire, but they got nothin'. Wal-Mart was open Thanksgiving Day though, so we got her some shoes there...you know, the traditional "Thanksgiving Crocs". LOL!

And get this...even with all of that, we still made it to Mom and Dad's in only 4 hours! It has never taken us less than 5, so that's pretty good.

When we arrived, everything was ready and it was time to eat. I didn't have time to get pictures of the food before hand, but, here's an after...


I did get a couple of in-betweens though...

OK-Blogger won't let me add the 'in-betweens'. Oh how I love Blogger! Don't you love Blogger, too? Anyway...guess I'll go watch 'Law & Order' and hopefully be able to post the rest of the story tomorrow!

The Fish Funeral

Allison's fish, Linda, died yesterday. Of course she decides to have the whole funeral thing around the toilet, and even made invitations for everyone:

What? Linda's Funeral
Where? Allison and Claire's Bathroom
When? When I say so.

(she has time commitment problems, I guess.)

Anytime something dies, it really upsets Ethan and he gets very emotional. He spent a lot of time making hearts out of construction paper for Linda. Claire made Linda two pair of construction paper pants. (I have no idea...)

Allison finally announces it's time...so we all gather 'round the toilet. I about busted out laughing when I see the lid up and a construction paper grave marker leaned up against it! I wanted to run and get the camera, but I thought maybe it wouldn't be appropriate. It said:

RIP
Linda
You were a good fish!

So, Steven scooped Linda out of her tank with the net thing and we all say something nice about her. Ethan is getting very weepy. Steven walks over to the toilet from the counter where the sinks are and dumps her in the toilet and Ethan REALLY starts to cry. Steven looks at Allison and asks, "Who's going to flush?", and before he can finish, "You or me?", Claire is leaping into the air trying to fly over Steven and yells, "I WILL!", like it's a really fun ride at Six Flags or something. Allison decided to flush, and Ethan, who I've had my arm around, starts totally bawling and turns around to grab and hug me and almost knocks me to the ground! I finally got him calmed down and had him lay down in our bed and he fell asleep almost immediately.

Out of respect for Linda, the girls won't use their toilet now, so they've been using ours ever since. There are TWO other bathrooms they could use, but what's the fun in that since there wouldn't be any reason to jump around and try to hold it in until Mommy or Daddy is finished? It's amazing how perfect their timing is! lol!

There's a new Target in town!

I thought you people were my friends...but no one even told me a Target was even being built here, much less already opened! I had to discover it all on my own. Well, Allison actually told me about it...and when she did, the first thing I did was load her up in the Jeep and go check it out! We may have actually been the first customers. Or at least there on the first day it opened, because these pictures were taken about 7:00pm, and I'm pretty sure we were the only people in the store besides the employees. Check out the parking lot and store front...






There is a big stone wall off to the right with a giant hole in it (yes, it was built that way on purpose) that Allison loves to climb through! lol!


Yeah, so I took these pictures right before Halloween and I'm only getting them up now...oh well. But...this is Gormet Candy Corn. Huh? I wonder if it actually tastes better than regular candy corn. I don't know, because I'm not willing to be the taste tester there.


As if the Gourmet Candy Corn wasn't bad enough, check out the Candy Corn Soda! Eeewww! That makes my stomach rebel just thinking about it! Allison bought some though, with her own money, because she thought it would be so wonderfully delicious. She wouldn't admit that it really was gross, but, I'm thinking she was glad it was only a 4-pack! lol!


For some reason, it's not technically a "Super" Target. Although, it does have a Starbucks and check out this "Aisle of Chocolate", aka, "The Chocolate Wall"! I heard the angels singing as I walked down this row. How can this NOT be a Super Target???

Conversations with Claire

She and Ethan are playing out in the backyard and Claire comes running in crying that Ethan is calling her a "baby". Which is the worst thing a 5 year old can be called. So she is just bawling and I'm trying to calm her down and she finally stops and says, "Can't you just send him to military school?"

How does she even know what military school is??? lol!

The Newest News

Due to some very unethical behavior within the group...behavior that I did not want to be associated with in any way...I have quit.

I'm sleeping better than I have in a long time, I can run my business the way I want to run it, have to free time to actually catch up on swaps (YES! I do remember and I'm so sorry I have allowed this to completely take over my life!) and hey...maybe even do some things for my self on the side...just don't tell the kids! lol!

I have also learned some lessons along the way, and that is the most important thing of all.

We gots a new bike rider in da hizzous!

(Do I sound cool??? rofl!)

So Claire has been wanting us to take her training wheels off of her bike. No way! Not on this mountain we live on! Allison and Ethan learned to ride in the Flatlands...aka: Houston, TX. Here in SA, however, we live on a freakin' mountain, and no way were we gonna just let her go...down our street...to fly off the cliff...straight into the valley...to become a coyote snack!

Well, Sunday, she, Allison and one of Allison's friends where out riding bikes in the street. One of her training wheels came off, so, rather than come tell one of her adults, she just took off the other training wheel! (I'm tellin' ya, that girl can do anything!)

I *think* Allison held the seat of her bike for just a second so Claire could get her balance, then she just took off! A perfect bike rider! They come in and say, "Come look outside for a second." And there she was, out riding around the circle, getting up on the sidewalk, getting down off the sidewalk...up and down the mountain...a bike riding champ.

Of course, Ethan learned to ride as quickly as Claire did, but like I said, it was on totally flat ground. I think Steven had to hold Allison's bike and run with her twice, and the third time she took off and that was it.

Claire has perfect bike riding posture though. Always has, like it's a natural born gift. Even going up steep hills, she stands up, bends at the waist keeping her spine straight, and uses the muscles in her legs to keep climbing. She only moves from the hips down. We have never talked to the kids about that at all-it's just all natural for her. No wiggling her hips back and forth or any of that.... I think I'll head on up to Austin and have a talk with Lance. I'm sure he would love to train her, because he will know, like I do, that she will be the first woman to win the Tour de France.

And don't even get me started on how fast she can run! Y'all just thought Ethan was fast. Claire is like a flash...you see some color zoom by and feel the breeze that follows, and that's it. She's outrun 9 year old boys down a street and up a full flight of stairs to the front door of a house, and the closest one behind her was still down on the landing! I'm tellin' ya...the girl is gonna win a gold medal some day.

OMG! Look!!!

My website is up!!! It's not all finished-it really only has the home page, but it's there! He'll be loading pictures and getting the blog ready soon. This is so COOL!!!

www.munkeepod.com

PS-Steven did the monkeys in the pod drawing.

She wanted to mop!

Claire decided yesterday that she wanted to mop the floor. Who am I to say no to that? lol! So I got her the Swiffer Wet Jet thing, and she is mopping in the kitchen while I'm in the dining room, sewing.

I didn't really notice her technique in the kitchen but, when she got to the entry hall, I realized that she just sprays all over the floor, then rides the mop around like a stick horse...or a witch on her broom! lol!

Whatever works!