Growing WarriorsJust your typical family…

I am trying to organize the christmas stuff and Meredith opened up this big chocolate thing and was chewing on it. I sorta chuckled (she looked so cute chewing on this big chocolate M&M thing) so I told her, ok, but lets break it up so that Allison can have some. I break it into pieces, hiding the biggest piece for myself, and went back to cleaning. I turned around and Allison was chewing on ANOTHER big chocolate M&M…

Me: Allison, did you get ANOTHER one?
Allison: No
Allison: Meredith opened it
Me: But I put them away, Meredith didn’t have any more to open
Allison: I gave it to her to open
Me: You mean you gave her that candy to open? Allison, I said that the first piece of candy was all that we were going to have. Give that to me and I will put it in the kitchen for later.
Allison: NO
– I take the candy and put it in the kitchen. I return to the living room to see Allison standing in the middle of the room with this crushed, I’m about to break down into tears look.
Me: Allison, what is it?
Allison: (breaks down sobbing) BUT WE’RE GOOD GIRLS MOMMY.

Broke my heart.. I just grabbed her and said “of course you are good girls. I just don’t want you having that much chocolate”

It ended well…but my gosh…did my taking away her chocolate send her that message? I was actually amused that she had thought to herself that I wouldn’t want her opening the candy, but since when Meredith opened it, they all got to have some, she would get Meredith to open another piece for them to share.

Dunno if I will have the chance to update again in a long time, so here goes. I know that I haven’t written anything since Thanksgiving. Not much going on really. I’ve been very busy working. I am on the fourth index since Thanksgiving. Oh, and I did celebrate a birthday in there. It was a lovely day. All of us have been sick in some form or another since Thanksgiving. Actually Allison has been the least sick of the family, knock on wood. She did have the sniffles for a few days, but that was it. Jess is just now getting over a yucky stomach thing. Oh, and Eric is dealing with a rib injury. He and my dad were installing a water heater, and Eric sustained an injury to his ribs. The Dr. said that it was severly torn cartiledge, but I wonder if something else is going on in there. I have never seen Eric in so much pain. He hasn’t been able to make it through a full day at work since the injury, and anyone who knows Eric knows that he is a workaholic, and he has made it through full days at work being very very sick. This isn’t like him. He called the Dr back today, as the medicine isn’t helping either, but the Dr. didn’t call him back. Ergh. I think he’ll be ok. He is just really hurting.

Oh, and it looks as though we are moving. Our landlords want us to move into another one of their houses…it is bigger and has more features, and we will have the option to purchase it down the road, if we so desire. They want someone in there that they know will take care of the place, so they are going to charge us the exact same rent that we are paying right now…and we will get 5 bedrooms, a huge kitchen with an island and a writing desk, a wood, two leveled deck, a huge master bedroom with a monster closet and bathroom…and the biggie..the creme de la creme….AIR CONDITIONING! So we are going to move there. We figure that we will be ready to purchase in about 15 months or so. I need to have two years of income to report since I am self employed, and since this year has been the first year I have really generated any income to speak of, we really need to wait until I file both my 2002 and my 2003 taxes in order to have my income work in our favor. So if we are going to be renting for another 15-18 months anyway, why not do it in the bigger house with air conditioning for the same that we are paying here? So we are now beginning to pack up our stuff again. That is the biggest pain, but we’ll survive. We can start moving stuff in on Jan 1, so real soon.

Not much else going on. I think that I am all ready for Christmas. I only have 2 more gifts to buy and that is it. Eric hasn’t done his shopping yet (that means for me, heehee). Allison is so excited about Christmas this year. She talks about Santa and draws pictures of him all the time. She can’t wait until Christmas morning. Meredith just likes the tree. If you were to come to my house right now, you would wonder why the bottom half of the tree is empty….well, ask Meredith! SO all the ornaments are on the top half of the tree….odd looking, but very necessary! Oh and I am totally freaking out. I ordered the santa gifts online and they haven’t arrived yet, nor have I received any notice that they have even shipped! I ordered them about two weeks ago! Oh well..if they arrive late, I will just have to deal with it….and then save the gifts until next year or something …..it’ll be ok. And on Christmas day we are going to go to dinner at my cousin’s house. Should be absolutely lovely!

And then, the following week, my dad is going to get married on New Year’s Eve! How exciting! No wedding really.. just the happy couple and some friends. They are going to have a reception later. I really am glad that my dad found someone, and I wish them all the happiness!

Now I am off to bed. Dunno why I am even still awake…except for the fact that finally, also just this past week, most nights after I put Meredith to sleep, she actually stays asleep for at least 6-7 hours! Her entire life she has never slept more than two hours…so I find that after I get her to sleep, I tend to roam around the house doing odd things…working, tidying up, etc. It is very nice to be able to honor my night-owl spirit once again.

Till next time!

Meredith decided to talk this week. Just out of nowhere. Now she says:
-”Ho Ho Ho” – well Christmas is just right around the corner! Allison taught her this one.
- “Up”
-”night night”
-”hello”
-”bye bye”
-”Weeee”
-”What?”
-”ungh ungh” – you know….like “no”. I have no idea how to spell it..this she has been saying a long time…
-”daddy”
-And the big one…the cool one. The original one..how many kids have this as one of their first words??
she can say:
SANTA

Well Thanksgiving went VERY well! I only lit one thing on fire, and that was quickly extinguished and the charred bits were scraped off and the food still served. If you are dying of curiosity, it was the marshmallow topped sweet potatoes. I put them under the broiler and forgot all about them. Note to self, don’t do that.

But besides that, and a wee bit of choas right before the meal was served, I think that it was pretty flawless. The food was great, the company even better. It was a lot of fun hosting it. I posted some pictures over on the other blog. GO check it out. I also just posted a bunch of long over-due pictures…like of our trip to Oklahoma, and of Jessica’s play. I think that since I posted so many of Thanksgiving, you may have to look in the archives to see the other pictures, but they are there. All under November, if I am not mistaken.

One cute thing…On thanksgiving morning I was talking to Allison and trying to tell her what Thanksgiving is all about, and what it means to be thankful. After this I asked her if she was thankful for anything. She replied that she was thankful for Marshmallows. Later at the family meal when we were going around the table saying what we were thankful for, she reiterated this. Very cute.

Oh and both she and Meredith sat at this little picnic table for the meal. I couldn’t believe how little Meredith sat there and ate so good! She didn’t throw food, stand in the mashed potatoes, or do anything else weird.

It was a VERY nice day indeed.