Ode to the Mini

Oh, Junior Mints.

How you beckoned to me from the grocery aisle....just begging for me to whisk you into my cart.

You deceived me with your new packaging, and your brilliant new form.

Junior Mints....Minis.

"For baking with!" you said. For "Topping your dessert!"

How about for just eating plain, like I wanted to? Yes, yes....you would be good for that, also.

Minis....so I will be able to still indulge in your yummy, creamy, minty goodness, all the while cutting calories by consuming your smaller size.

Oh, minis.

You tricked me.

You knew that by making yourself three times smaller than the original, I would consume five times as many of you. You knew.

Your 1/2 pounder box will not deceive me again. Next time, I will *gladly* buy you, knowing full well that I will consume you in under 36 hours flat.

Mmmmmmm......minis.

It's 12:01 a.m. on November 15th, and guess what that means?!

Happy Birthday to my Mommy....

....and to our Grandma MJ!

We all love you very much!

Lessons from the Prodigal Son

Tonight, while reviewing what we had read from the story of "The Prodigal Son" (from the book Five Minute Bible Stories):

Me: "The Father had lots and lots of land, didn't he boys? He was very rich. But he still wanted his sons to work anyway, didn't he?"

Boys, both nodding: "Yes."

"He wanted to teach them the value of working hard. But did the younger son want to work?"

Cameron, very proud of himself for knowing the answer: "No, he did not, Mommy!"

"So what did he do instead of working for his Father?"

Colin: "He asked his Father for his money, and then took his money and went to a new big town."

"That's right Col. And what did he do when he got to that new town?"

"He bought lots of 'spenive stuff, and went out to restaurants."

"He never thought his money was going to run out, did he?"

Cameron, "No, he did not, Mommy!"

"But one day, he went to buy something. What did he go to buy?"

Cameron, almost shouting with glee: "A belt!"

"That's right Cameron! He went to buy a belt. But when he looked in his money bag, what did he find?"

Cameron: "He had no money. No money!"

"That's right. He discovered that all of his money was gone. Do you remember what he did then, Cameron?"

Waiting.....waiting....waiting for either him or Colin to say that he had to go and find a job to earn money to buy his food.....

Instead....

Cameron: "He......went.....to.....MISSOURI!"

**As I am sure you can imagine, I died laughing, followed by Colin, then Cameron. Of course, not to be undone, Ethan joined in as well. I then explained that while Missouri is a wonderful place to go and visit, it was certainly not the solution for the Prodigal Son's money problems. *giggle*

We reviewed the end of the story again, and then the boys were off to bed, hopefully grasping some of the understanding that coming home to our heavenly Father is the only true source of happiness.**

Cappuccino--the gateway to coffee

My brother-in-law, Roger, says that my drinking cappuccino will eventually lead to my drinking coffee. He calls it the "gateway" to coffee drinking.

I say, no way. Though I love me the smell of Gloria Jeans, and I relish my morning Mocha Cappuccino--Sam's instant brand, if you are wondering (I'm no die hard Starbucks girl, and I certainly don't have my own "real" cappuccino maker....the cheap stuff is fine by me)--I detest the taste (and, many times the smell) of plain coffee. Ugh.

Apparently, even my littles have picked up on my disdain.

Mommy, to Cameron, who was 'cooking' at his play kitchen: "Cameron, what 'cha got in there?" (pointing to the tea kettle) "You making some coffee?"

Cameron: "No, Mommy....we don't drink coffee, we drink cappuccino."

Well....he was right....but it's kind of embarrassing to be corrected by your three-year-old.

What happens when a baby is tired at the table--For Julie

A couple of days ago, my friend Julie posted a video of her son (and then her daughter, too!) falling asleep in the middle of eating lunch. It reminded me of a time last summer when Cameron was that age, and did the same thing.

I just couldn't resist digging up this old video. Then, once I watched it again, I couldn't resist posting it! Poor Cameron was sooooo tired. He cried so hard when he woke up.....that is, until he spotted a cookie crumb right under his nose.

Once he spotted that sweet morsel of chocolatey goodness, all we heard was, "Cookieeee! Cookieeeeee!" and louder and louder crying, until I actually shut off the camera and gave him his way. A yummy cookie was had....

...and then it was straight to bed.

Enjoy this flashback!

**Some funny things to watch for: how long it is before Cameron takes a breath when he first starts crying; how young Ethan is; Cameron spotting the cookie crumb and chowing down on it in the middle of his crying fit (hilarious); and Cameron spotting the rest of the cookies across the table, and then pointing, saying, "cookie...cookie", only to have Colin in the background saying, "No, Cameron, it's mine" and then Cameron cry harder and say, "me, me, cookie, cookie**

The Letter "D"

Colin made sure to explain to me that, "This picture is of a daddy, not my Daddy."

Oh! Okay. Whew!

The "dandelions" are actually mums, and the "dryer" was actually a washer....but he was close enough, so we went for it! I was just excited that he found those things all by himself.

And dirty? Come on. Only a boy, right?

As they say in Napoleon Dynamite....

"I want that."

http://www.iwillnotapologize.com/all/staying-home.html

8 years today

If you follow my blog, you know that Shane and I already celebrated our anniversary (early) with a wonderful trip to Chicago. But, now, our exact anniversary 'day' is here, and I thought I would take a minute to share a glimpse of what my life was like, eight years ago today....

Our program, my bouquet and Shane's boutonniere, my shoes, and our rings

During the song that I sang to Shane at our wedding, "(Won't you) Give me forever"

Lighting the Unity candle

First kiss

Me and my very special Grandma Franzi

The 'official' wedding pose

Oh, I just love this one. Just the two of us in the candlelight

Cutting the cake

Rings
And, lastly, two of my very favorites. Off to the Honeymoon!

It's been an incredible eight years. I wouldn't change one thing--not one--about our time together. I'm thankful for all the wonderful times--and there are so very many--and, truly, I am even thankful for the difficult times. I feel blessed to be able to say that the most difficult times in our marriage have been times that have only brought us closer to God and to each other.

Here's to 60 more years babe! I love you with all my heart.

The tree tells the story

Winter is certainly roaring in to our little neck of the woods.

My tree last Wednesday....

Last Friday......

Yesterday.....

And today

And, almost as fast as the leaves have fallen, so have the temperatures. *bleh*

I officially miss Fall already....
*sniff, sniff*

Ethan's hats

I realized today, after coming upon this draft, that I never published this post.



To. My. Shame.

One of the funniest moments we had at Indy Beach this summer--May I present.....

....Ethan In Hats.

There is a cute little gift shop that has all kinds of 'crazy hats'....well, Grandma MJ and I went a bit 'crazy' ourselves on poor little Ethan.

The Jester

The Spider (?)

The Wolf

The Hamburger

The Peguin

("Where's baby E?" we kept saying...Ethan got suck a kick out of it, he was laughing hysterically under the hat)

The 10 (more like 100) gallon hat

One of my favorites...the Pizza

And, last but not least, The Hot Dog

I'm so glad I came across that post.....*giggle*

The Letter "C"

Onward we go in the alphabet....



And, I must say, Colin is improving each time he does a new project. We are way ahead of this in actual letter learning (he is up to writing and learning phonics on "K", if anyone cares) but we are a little slower doing these projects because they take quite a bit of time.



Everyday when we do learning time, though, I can see (if even slight) improvements in his grasp of things. Here is what he came up with for "C":

• Cats
• Car
• Coats
• Carrot
• Cookie
• Clock
• Cup
• Calendar
• Capri Sun

I must say, I was most impressed with Calendar and Capri Sun. :-) I know he knew what a calendar was, but I didn't think he would recognize it. Sooner or later, I am going to realize he knows more than I do....

Did I mention that Colin loves scissors? He would play with them all day if I let him! *grin* And no paper would go unsnipped.....

Beautiful days

Tuesday--Election day--was one of the most gorgeous Fall days we have had this year. About 74 degrees, just a nice little breeze, and as sunny as it could possibly be.



Of course, with bikes and new scooters simply calling their names from outside.....we just had to go out and take advantage of what will probably be the last of these for a while.

Colin loves his new scooter/helmet/elbow pads. And, he is pretty good at that thing too, if I do say so myself!

By the way--I personally have not tried that crazy thing, and most certainly did not almost fall off and nearly severely injure myself. *Ahem*.
My little BMX stunt man :-)

And this little stink....would not look at me for anything while I was trying to get a cute one of him on his bike. He was so doing it on purpose, too.

"Ethan! Ethan....say 'cheese'! Look at Mommy, buddy....Ethan....ETHAN!? Honey, mommy just wants one good one....Ethan? Eeeeeethaaaaaan!? Oh, WHATever."

And then, of course, with the leaves now a different color than they were 3 weeks ago....I just had to get updated tree pictures!

Sweet Cameron

My boys....the Little and the Big

My sweet, always-willing-to-be-mommy's-photo-subject, 5-year-old baby

Our Tree--told you it was a new color! It is so beautiful this time of year; the outside is reddish purple, but inside (as you can see in the above pictures) it's yellow

Too bad the election results weren't as beautiful as the actual Election Day, huh?