My mostest very favoritest video of all time!

This man is a genius:

What a sad state

No, I'm not talking about Virginia - we're pretty happy right now in that respect (well, except for the cold temps that are FIFTEEN DEGREES below normal for this time of year but that's for another day). I am talking about the sad state of my toe nails. If you've ever met me and seen my toes, you will notice that they are always nicely polished. Even at 15 months pregnant with twins my toes looked nice due to my loving and very helpful husband (for the record I wasn't 15 months pregnant, just felt that way). And if you don't know me or have never peeked at my toes, well you are just going to have to take my word for this. Now here's the problem:
My toes have lost their way - they are terribly lost. My nail polish remover just made it's appearance two days ago, but there's no polish to be found. I have it all stashed away together, but when I was out of town in early October for a bit, and my rooms were flipped, the polish made it's exit. i might have to *gasp* buy more nail polish. I hate to do that because I have, ahem, several bottle of the stuff already, but what's a girl to do? I guess the one good hting here is that it is cold - very cold - and there's no real chance that my poor toes will be exposed. Off to hunt up that box of polish...

Gobble, Gobble!

Seems that Max gets all the baking goodies, but that's just timing for you! This go round his class gets Turkey Cookies! I'm taking them in tomorrow then heading over to Ian's Thanksgiving Feast. Max has 40 kiddos in his combined class (two classes share two teachers - it's a Spanish Immersion thing), but poor Ian is having his feast with two other classes, so I wasn't about to offer anything up for that feast. Sam's class is doing something December 4th, so maybe I'll be back up and running for that party, but for now the baking shop is closed. And look how cute these turkey turned out!

And in case you are wondering where the rest of the cookies went, well I decorated those too:

THE most patient dog EVER.

I guess everyone has those days too...

GO NOLES!!!

So this time I wasn't just sitting at home - in the comfort of my WARM home - and cheering for the Seminoles. They came to MY neck of the woods, so Tom and I headed out to watch the game in person. Problem was - it was really , really cold out:

Yes, that really does say feels like 23 degrees. First column time, second air temp, third "feels like temp," etc. So we were out in the cold watching our Noles whoop up on those poor turtles (Maryland has an unfortunate mascot).
And here we are at the beginning of the game. By the end of the game we couldn't feel our fingers enough to snap any pics, and we couldn't get back to the car fast enough. We sat amongst fellow Noles and everyone, including the two not so bright guys who took their shirts off in celebration, had fun. Well, everyone except for all those poor, sad looking Terrapins. Oh well.

Thanks guys for making our first football game in YEARS such fun! A 37-3 victory was well worth the trip around the beltway.

Look at me!

I'm four months old now and I can hold my head up during tummy time!

Following in my footsteps

One of the best days in life is when your kiddo takes an interest in something you hold near and dear to your heart. In my case it's politics - and here's my little election junkie. From a few days before the election where he couldn't wait for the day to come, to the actual process of voting (which was probably a total let down as we didn't have to wait at all and it took me all of thirty seconds to vote) to the results which started rolling in just before bedtime, Max was hooked. He is fantastic - simply fantastic.

Cats are gross.

I say that with the most loving tone I can generate, but cats really are gross. Aside from everything else they do that isn't quite what I consider hygienic, they eat bugs. At least my cat does, and we find evidence of it regularly. I guess the good thing is that we don't see that many bugs - I always assumed it was because the bug guys come every three months and spray, but now I wonder how many the cat catches and digests. Here's the evidence - you be the judge:

Those sure do look like cricket legs to me - and I found this in the basement a few days ago. I guess that our Bunsen has some hunter in him still - the good life hasn't taken all of the cat out of him. And good thing he's cute, because seeing this might just send me over the edge if he wasn't.

Yea! SHHHH....Yea!

I can say it out loud now -

GO COWBOYS!!!

Living in Redskins territory really is a bummer sometimes...

BUT NOT TONIGHT!!!

Cornhole anyone?

Can't believe that I'm actually writing about this, but when I heard about it a year or so ago all I could do was laugh. Well, it seems that while this slipped out of my mind completely, while I was looking for a t-shirt yesterday online it all came rushing back:

Bet that you didn't know that tossing a bean bag into a hole on a board was called Cornhole, and that there's an organization dedicated to maintaining order in the activity, as well as places where you can buy your supplies online. Yikes. Unfortunately the more widely know definition is not a sport that children should be playing, and that's all I'll say about that. Look it up if you aren't aware of that definition, but only if you are up for an adventure. Anyway, the bean bag toss has taken on a whole new meaning - and who knew that I made my kids do this a few years back:

Isn't Ian cute tossing that beanbag into that hole in the board back in 2005? So terribly sorry for bringing it up and subjecting you to a not so wholesome activity (the more commonly used definition if you looked it up - not the game), but that darn t-shirt made me.

Little Fingers, Little Toes

These little fingers and toes are getting bigger by the day. She is growing and exploring and learning more and more each day. Her toes are searching out the fun as her fingers have been doing for several days now. Lucy is well on her way.

Big Brother, Little Sister

What more could you want?

A Cool Samhawk

At school the kids have Crazy Hair Day in June. Last year Max had stripes, and Ian and Sam both looked longingly at his cool do and wanted one of their own (the preschool did NOT have Crazy Hair Day and that would have caused a big old ruckus if we sent them in with crazy hair). Ian says that when HIS crazy Hair Day comes around he wants to get stripes or circles painted on - in wild crazy colors. And Sam? Well, he wants a mohawk. Easy enough you'd think, but I am NOT the master of the haircuts. I am perfectly capable of cutting the boys (and Tom's) hair with a pair of clippers, #3 guards all the way around. But that and the hair spray type color is the extent of my skill set in regards to the whole hair thing.


Then I tried something new. Sam had really, really long hair and was in need of a haircut. I started cutting with the clippers, trimmed him up, and left the middle part long. There was a mohawk in my son's hair and I did it all by myself. (Yes, I know I sound like I'm three years old, but geez, it was a big accomplishment!)


So here, in all of his glory, is Sam's cool mohawk:

It is tough to photograph a kiddo's crazy hair, but you get the general idea. We let Sam keep his cool do through soccer practice but cut it off before he went to school. Not really sure what the rules are regarding hair styles, and we're not really interested in getting our kindergartener sent home for a hair faux pas. But we are totally set for Crazy Hair Day next year - everyone is ready.

A little home maintenance...by the kids...

My kids are not plumbers, and they know this. So the other morning when the toilet overflowed they did the best they could to clean it up so that there wasn't water everywhere:

I definitely appreciate their effort at not destroying our house, and their attempt at getting this not-so-much-their-fault mess all cleaned up. But should I be offended by the note they left?

In case you can't read it, it says:

Daddy only

Daddy, the tolet overflowed twice. There is something worng. Can you fix it?

Love, Max

Did I mention that Daddy happened to be out of town when the boys so lovingly wrote this note? Obviously Daddy is the one in charge of overflowing toilets, so what did I do? Nothing. Absolutely nothing, that is, until Tom came home and I pointed out that they boys left him a note. Fortunately he arrived home later on that evening, so we didn't have a sopping mess and broken toilet for long. Love those kids...

The Election

Word clouds are cool. Hopefully this one will stay up for a bit as it's a really cool idea. I don't talk much about politics here - I could honestly go on forever about that as I'm a dyed in the wool policy wonk - but I'd like to keep this blog positive and steer clear of anything really controversial. Well, at least steer clear of those things that I consider controversial. Anyway, the Times has created a word cloud that represents what folks are feeling today. You can click on the supporters of either major party and see where they are at, and you can see the mix if you click on everyone. But what a cool idea to really get a sense of where people are the day after a major shift in our country's path has occurred. Here's the link, so enjoy.

And after you are done playing around with this, go take a peek at where my day after the election newspaper went to here.

I love this man

Not always sure why, but I do love him.

P.S. - He didn't actually put the horns up for this picture willingly. I had to beg to take his picture with them up - just like he had them five seconds earlier. And yes, they are football uprights. The boys made them at Home Depot Kids Workshop - pretty cool, huh?

My babies

This is what happens when you leave the baby toys out in a house full of big boys:

Then again, some things never change:

Election Day

So did you buy a donkey cookie or an elephant cookie today?

Seems there are quite a few of the elephants left around in the case. Time will tell...

Sneaky Kitty

And I was just saying the other day that I was surprised that Bunsen wasn't hanging out in the crib more...sneaky kitty...

Halloween 2008

Well, this one will go down as another fun one, uneventful, but fun. I guess you always want it to be uneventful, but that never makes for a good story. So, instead of a cool story about a grand adventure, I'll share a picture of some cute kids - mostly mine plus one good friend.

Red Power Ranger Sam, Obi Wan Ian, Candy Corn Sami, and Pikachu Max

The kids had a ball, complained the whole time about their legs hurting, and ended up with a gallon sized bag of candy. Lucy, behaving as a true 3 1/2 month old, slept through most of the evening, so no candy for her. Regardless, a truly successful Halloween any way you look at it.

49710d 6h 27m

This is my phone. I love my phone. I buy Skins for my phone because I love my phone so much. Actually I love the skins, the phone is getting on my nerves lately, but that's another story. I used to love my phone tons and tons, and generally love what it can do now, so I'll leave the rest for another time. I love that I can download stuff onto my phone and my phone does things. it plays games, plays music, and saves my confused, direction impaired butt from getting lost.

I have Google Maps on my phone, and I can't tell you how many time I have used it since I got it. But every once in a while Google Maps does me wrong. If you've ever used it online, you know that occassionally it sends you to a place that has closed or moved, which makes me always call ahead. Imagine my surprise though when I saw the message above.

We were driving a total of 26.7 miles more to our destination, which, according to Google Maps, normally takes 38 minutes on this particular route. But geeez - a traffic delay of 49,710 DAYS, 6 HOURS and 27 MINUTES? What on earth? I live right inside DC's infamous beltway. it is known for it's traffic jams and delays. Just today there was a one hour trip taking three hours due to simple traffic creep - you know - traffic creeping for no reason. But 136 YEARS? That's way over the top DC style, and hoenstly, a bit much for me.

Just so you know, our 26 mile trip actually took about 25 minutes - no traffic, no stoplights, and certainly no 49,710 day delay.