Santa Claus came to town

Our neighborhood had a Christmas get together last week. There was cookie decorating, hot chocolate making, hayrides with carol singing and the youngest Santa I've ever seen. It was really a nice idea but the Santa kind of ruined it for us. He looked all of 25 years old and only gave us a half hearted HO, HO, HO. Also, the fact that he was not wearing glasses and had brown eyebrows really bothered me. I think it bothered Jake too. He was less than thrilled. I'm pretty sure he knew this guy was an imposter.

Is that Bon Jovi or did Mama get her hair done?

Let me start off by saying that I don't know why my shoulders are all hunched up in this photo. I think I just get really nervous when someone takes my picture because I'm afraid I'll end up looking like a freak. Go figure.

So, last week I decided to go to Amy's "hair gal" to get my hair cut and styled. It was just time for my bi-annual hair grooming. I loved Melanie and decided to trust her opinion that curls are coming back in style. Of course, she also told me everything from the 80's was coming back in style. I just have to say that I will NOT wear leg warmers ever again. Or sweater dresses. Just sayin'. Anyhow, she cut a good chunk of my hair off and showed me how to make the curls look good. I think. I can't decide. Sometimes I look at it and think it's really cute. Other times I look at it and think "hey, when did we get a poodle?" And still other times I look at it and frantically dig around in my purse for a cigarette lighter to hold in the air before I realize that we in fact do NOT have an eighties era rock star living with us.

Diet Diaries

Blah, blah, blah. 129 pounds. I'm happy to still be at the HOLIDAY GOAL WEIGHT, but this is really getting pretty boring. So instead of talking about my weight let's talk about them toes. I think the next time I post a picture of my tootsies they should be DONE UP. Time for a pedicure my friends. Peace out.

40 days to 40

Let the countdown officially begin. In just forty short days, I will be forty years old. They say 40 is the new 30 so I'm not too worried about the number. I just wanted to remind all of you out there (all three of you) reading my blog that you have forty days to contact Rick Springfield and beg him to come to my house with his guitar. Listen people. I don't think I can do this without you. I have not yet heard back from the Ellen show so I think they are ignoring my email. I'm considering an intensive letter writing campaign right now. So get out your pens and your spiral notebooks and help me write letters!

I know we can do this as a group. Some of you are probably thinking what good would my one little letter do? It's just like voting. If we all write a letter maybe someone will listen to us. We CAN change the world. Or at least my little corner of it. Yes we can!

He doesn't even need to spend a lot of time with me. I'm imagining it right now. I open the door to see Rick standing on the doorstep. I calmly greet him and let him into the house while offering him a beverage and something to eat. He sits down on the couch, busts out his guitar and starts singing Jessie's Girl. Then he sings Ordinary Girl, gives me a hug, autographs my arm and leaves to go make some other girl's dream come true. I never wash my arm again. He's in. He's out. It's a whirlwind of excitement.

So remember. I need emails to the Ellen show. Letters to her show or to Rick himself. Come on wordsmiths. I KNOW you can do this. YES, YOU CAN!

Three seems so big!

Oh my. How did we go from this

to this, overnight?

I cannot believe the little boy is three years old today! Time has wings, yes it does. Jake has changed so much in the last year. He is quite the little talker. He just talks and talks and talks. Sometimes I just wish it could be quiet around here. But that usually means someone is getting into trouble so I guess noisy is good.

His vocabulary is sometimes astounding. A couple days ago, we were looking at a book about dolphins and he pointed to this dolphin's head and said "mommy, that dolphin is echolocation." Fantastic! It made my marine biologist heart so happy. On a little different note, the next day when I was changing his diaper he started throwing a fit about me hurting his egg. I was completely lost for a few minutes. He finally got his point across to me. It seems that he is identifying on a very personal level with our marine buddies. In short, he thinks his little man water works parts are actually an egg. He carries his egg around in his pants just like a daddy penguin carries his egg under a pouch in his tummy. So now, in order to change a diaper I have to promise him I won't break his egg when I clean things up. I'm seeing his non-existent college fund quickly turning into a non-existent therapy fund. Oh, well. He is adorable. He makes me laugh every single day and still loves to cuddle with me so what more could I ask for?

We celebrated yesterday with a party. He really wanted a dolphin birthday cake so I was able to come up with something that looked like a third grader made it. Jake loved it though. We had family come for the party and my daddy even provided the entertainment. Here's a picture of the kids surrounding my dad while he sang them a few Christmas songs.

If I can get a video to post again, I'll put one up of Jake and his cousin dancing together. It was so cute! Happy threes Little Mister. Love you so much.

Wordless Wednesday

I just love a good hat, don't you?

Pioner Woman live and in person

Thursday night I had the pleasure of meeting a real live famous blogger in person! I recently bought a cookbook that Pioneer Woman published with a lot of her wonderful, down-home cooking recipes in it. I've been a fan of hers for some time now ever since Amy advised me to check out her blog when I started my own blog a couple years ago. She's very funny and I particularly enjoy the cooking portion of her blog. Her recipes are pretty easy to follow and she includes step by step photos of every recipe.

So anyway, she came to Austin last week for a book signing at a local book store. Amy and I went early to get a wristband ensuring that we would be able to stand in the line to get her to sign our cookbooks. We could not believe how many people showed up for this thing. It must be so surreal for PW (or Ree as I can now call her seeing as how we've met and are really tight now) to see this massive following of people she has all from starting up a blog a few years ago. We waited for about three hours for her to come out and speak. She did a 20 minute question/answer thing and was completely adorable. Her family was with her and they have become quite the celebrities in the blogging world as well. There was a collective gasp from the audience when we got our first peek of her husband. Here he is. She calls him Marlboro Man.



He got just as much attention as she did. Everyone was taking his picture and asking him to sign their books. He seemed really good natured about it all.

After she spoke the line formed for the official book signing. Amy and I stood in line trying to think of something witty and clever to say to her. Honestly, we racked our brains and could not think of anything which meant we just had to improvise when we finally got up to the desk to meet her. Amy complimented her on her public speaking because Ree said right off the bat the she was no good at it. Totally false. She was delightful. Then I muttered some lame comment about how my husband would like to thank her for teaching me how to cook him good food. After that stimulating conversation we got to pose for pictures with her.



While in line Amy and I also debated the pros and cons of hunching down to be more at eye level with her when we had the picture made. Amy said she didn't want to do that because it looked dorky or something. So just as the picture was being taken I naturally bent down a little to get on PW's level but then I looked at Amy and saw she was standing up straight so then I stood up straight and ended up looking like I'm just lurking behind her. Kind of creepy. And also, I totally forgot to suck in my tummy. Oh, well. She was so nice and it was kind of cool to meet a famous blogger. We even got a free tee shirt just for being there. Thanks PW!

It's a real live Christmas mystery

A box arrived on our doorstep yesterday. The return address said it was from a store in North Carolina. Inside the box were two beautiful mugs. One had a dolphin on it and the other a whale tail. The only other thing inside the box was a plain sheet of white paper with the words Merry Christmas. No names or anything else. So basically, we have a present from someone who knows us well enough to know we love the ocean (whales in particular) but we have no way of thanking this person because there was no name. Can anyone out there solve the mystery for me? I would love to thank you personally!

Wordless Wednesday

Elf on the Shelf

Have you seen one of these? It's an Elf on the Shelf. The little elf comes with a book that tells you his life story and how you can use him to start a little Christmas tradition for your own family. I think it's totally cute. I saw one of these when I was out shopping a couple weeks ago but didn't get it because I thought it was over priced. Then, while my parents were here last week a package came in the mail FROM my parents with our very own elf on a shelf kit! I hadn't even told them I was looking at this little guy. What can I say? Great minds think alike. But not all great minds will give up the cash for stuff. I'm just sayin'.

The book is really cute and tells your kiddos that the elf comes to stay in your house around Christmas time and he watches them to see if they are naughty or nice and flies to the North Pole every night for a little chat with Santa. I thought it was brilliant. I also thought it would help Jake behave a little bit better for the next few weeks. Wrong. It seems that not only does he NOT care what mama and daddy and God think, he also does NOT care what the elf and Santa Claus think. In fact, the other morning when he was in time out I mentioned to him the fact that Santa would be very sad when our elf told him what happened that day. Jake asked me if he could go talk to the elf for a minute. I said okay. I was waiting for him to go crying to the elf begging for mercy or something. Instead, this is what he said. "ELF! I NOT listening to Mama. Now go away and leave me alone!"

That is exactly the kind of Christmas time scene I used to picture back when I was single and wishing I had kids. Maybe next week when we take Jake to see Santa at the mall he can kick Santa in the knee and tell him he's fat or something.

I'm hoping that next year we can invoke the spirit of the Elf a little bit better than this year. I really do think it makes a cute tradition. We still need to name our elf though. So far Jake has come up with either Elf, Santa Claus or Big Giant Monster. Does anyone else out there have an elf and if so what did you name it?