Mom, you shouldn't have given up on me -- I'm now paying for it.

Mom eventually gave up on me ever learning to keep my room clean and would just close my door any time she passed my room. One time after my sister left for college, Mom was going around the house with the video camera making a tape for my sister. I made a mad dash to stuff everything under my bed or in the closet. I even threw a pile out in the hall so my room would be clean before Mom got to my end of the house. Mom taped my clean room, and I was proudly telling Kellee how well I was taking care of her old room when Mom turned the camera and got a great shot of my pile in the hallway.

I was reminded of that tonight when I was trying to clean up a pile of stuff that has been sitting on top of my night stand for a while. It wasn't until after about the third item was stuffed under my bed that I realized what I was doing. I couldn't help but laugh at myself. I guess some habits die hard.

Pictures

We had a friend take some pictures of our family a couple of days ago, and I just can't get over how cute our girls are! =)

We're going to send this one with our Christmas cards this year.

Hannah

Nikki

This is the first picture Nate and I have taken with just the two of us since our wedding pictures. I have a goofy grin, but I'm not sure I'll ever find a picture of myself where I can't find something wrong with it. After we got home, Nate was worried because he realized he hadn't done his hair. He looks pretty darn good even with no effort at all.

What a mess!

Last year for our church Thanksgiving party I doubled my broccoli casserole recipe to take. As I was trying to get out of the door the whole thing landed upside down at my feet. I still can't believe what a mess that was! Then at this year's Thanksgiving party I tried to take a brownie dessert with a cream cheese, cool whip, and chocolate pudding layered topping. When Nate set it down on the seat of the car, half of topping slid off -- yes, all over the seat. That one was actually salvageable since there was so much cool whip on top I could respread it around. Tonight we had a Christmas party at church, and I should have learned my lesson by now, but Nate volunteered us to take a pot of chili. It was fine until I came to a stop sign and the chili ended up all over the floor of the car. Next time we have a church function I'm volunteering to bring a bag of chips.

Hearing problems

There is so much in this life that I take for granted and Nikki has reminded me of one of those things. For the past week and a half she has had a hard time hearing. I first noticed it when I was reading a book to her asking her to find different colors. I would say, "Point to the red triangle." Then she would say, "What's next?" "Point to red." "What's next, Mom?" When she was looking at my lips she could understand me, but if she didn't look at me she acted like I hadn't said anything to her. So, we have gotten a little frustrated with each other this week because she won't respond to me and she thinks I'm ignoring her.

She has some congestion, and I thought maybe she has some fluid in her ears that's not draining properly. I had J.W., my physician's assistant brother, look in her ears, and he said he couldn't see past this incredible amount of hard wax in her ears. So, he gave me some drops and after a couple of days a bunch of really gross stuff came out that I thought would surely have been all that could be in there, but she still can't hear. Then Hannah woke up last night complaining of an earache, so I just took both of them into the doctor this morning. Fifty bucks later, neither of them have an ear infection and Nikki's ears are still clogged. The doctor told me to put some wax softening drops in Nikki's ears to clean them out. I guess I should have kept up the treatment JW prescribed. Her poor ears must have been packed full of gunk. How gross!

But it's gotten me to thinking how hard it would be to go around without the use of even one of our senses. She gets so frustrated when she can't hear the TV, or she thinks I'm not answering her question, or she can't find what room I'm in. What if I didn't have my glasses or contacts? I wouldn't be able to function. Or what if I couldn't taste anything? I love food! That would be miserable. So, I've been really thankful for my body and my good health. And it will be so nice when Nikki doesn't have to say anymore, "Mom, say it louder!"

Silly

One of Nikki's favorite things to do is make a silly face and watch me copy it. She could play that game for hours. Her faces were so cute the other night that I had to get some of them on camera. And you can be sure that Hannah will be close by whenever the camera is out!

Pilgrims and Indians

Hannah and Nikki both had Thanksgiving feasts at school on Tuesday where they got to dress up as Pilgrims and Indians. Nikki only liked hers after Hannah came home with something to wear, too.

Blowout

Today I learned what it meant to have a blowout -- not a flat tire, a blowout. I was on the way taking Nikki to preschool when I noticed that the car was pulling really strongly to one side. (It just so happens that we bought this car last Saturday and thought that we actually found a good deal. This is a typical bargain for us!) I thought at first that Nate just must not have noticed how out of alignment it was when he was testdriving it, but when the car started shaking really bad and I saw black pieces of the tire fly by my window I finally got a clue that something was wrong. I'm not the sharpest tool in the shed, I know. I have never seen a tire look that torn up in my life. It was shredded, and I was afraid I had messed up the car driving on it.

Anyway, Heavenly Father really was looking out for me. One of the things that Nate made sure the car dealer included was a spare tire and jack (which I think he pulled out of another car on the lot), and I was so grateful to have that. I don't have a cell phone, so I knew I just had to change it myself. I had no clue which end of the jack was up or down, and we could have sat on the side of the road all day before I had it figured out. But a nice older man stopped just a few minutes after I pulled over and changed the tire for me. Just one more reason that I really like living in a small town.

So, I finally got Nikki to preschool and I asked the director where the closest place was that I could get a new tire. She told me about this little backwoods hole-in-the-wall tire shop just down the road. They had me in and out in less than 30 minutes. It just so happens that last week I had to get a new tire for our other car, and I called around for prices a little bit and ended up at Sam's. Well, it took them 3 1/2 hours and cost two times more than what I paid this morning. I guess that was a bonus to now know where to go to get new tires.

All in all, it was quite an experience, and I am so grateful that the Lord was looking out for us. He kept us safe and sent wonderful people in my path to help me out.

Just a side note, the man who stopped on the side of the road kept calling me "shoog" (short for sugar), and the guy at the shop kept saying "baby doll." Now, I hadn't showered, I was in sweats, I had no makeup on, and my hair was a frizzy mop on my head. Nobody was flirting with me. It's just the way the locals talk around here. Even people at church say that. It just made me smile this morning to be living here with these good country folks.

Our neighborhood pet

We have a dog that has been hanging around our neighborhood for maybe a couple of weeks now. No one knows where he came from, but he is the nicest dog ever. The neighborhood kids have named him Buddy. Almost every house in our subdivision has a dog (except for us), and he is getting fed by a few of them, and then there is one house that leaves their garage door cracked open for him to sleep in at night since it gets so cold these days. All these dog lovers can't stand to see him get hungry or cold enough to find his own home. I'm not really an animal lover, but I don't mind petting a dog every now and then. Actually, if we were going to have a dog I think one like him would be perfect. He's too big and stinky to even make it an issue as to whether to bring him inside, and he loves the kids. I was out staining the deck on Saturday, and the girls came out and played with him for over an hour. When he finally ran off to go check on some noise, Hannah pretended to be a dog for Nikki to play with. Then it was Nikki's turn by the time they came in for baths. So, while Buddy is a good dog, we could never keep him because he obviously doesn't like to stay in one place, he runs in the road, I would have to buy dog food and clean up poop, he would kill our grass, and he would cost veterinarian fees. I really like the girls' solution of just pretending to be the dog themselves.

Breakfast choices

Nikki is most definitely not a morning person. The only thing I can say about it is that I passed on more of my genes than just my curly hair. This morning she actually woke up pretty happy, but as soon as she got into the kitchen for breakfast, things went downhill. Our conversation went something like this:

Me: Would you like Frosted Flakes or oatmeal?
Nikki: I don't want cereal!
Me: Okay, what do you want?
Nikki: I don't know.
Are you hungry?
I want apple juice.
Ok, and what do you want to eat?
Lemonade.
You can't have lemonade for breakfast. How about some toast?
No!
Would you like some eggs?
(on the verge of tears) No! I don't want eggs! I'm hungry! I want a cookie!
If you're hungry you need to eat something good, not a cookie.
I want peanut butter crackers.
Fine.
(As I was bringing the peanut butter to the table) I don't want peanut butter. I want cereal!

Can you see me shaking my head?

Kitchen duty

5 ways to know when you have neglected your kitchen duties for too long:

1. The dishes in the sink fill up more than one load in the dishwasher, and the second load didn't finish them off either.

2. When sweeping under the table you need an industrial sized dust pan to get up all the crumbs.

3. The trash can is so full that you are afraid to touch it, and then when you do it takes another whole trash bag to pick up what fell off the top.

4. The only silverware left in the drawer are baby spoons -- and there's no baby in the house anymore.

5. The groceries you bought three days ago are still in the grocery bags.


Okay, so maybe there are a few small exaggerations here, but it's a pretty close picture to what my kitchen was like this morning. I can't believe I'm even admitting it. My mother would be shocked. And while I do have a couple of good excuses, I won't even attempt to explain them to make myself seem justified or pitiable because I can still hear my mom saying, "Excuses aren't good enough." Needless to say, I need to go finish up the dishes -- it'll take me until lunchtime and then I'll have more to do! AGHH!