Wednesday, December 29, 2010

Best Christmas Ever


Some of my favorite moments from the Becker/Povondra visit are chronicled here. I have great memories of John & Jack pushing Sam & Lucy (respectively) in the swings at the playground near our house.


And Lucy. Where does one even start? Here she is after getting into my cosmetics bag. Later I will post a picture of her wearing her new bow that Aunt Kimmy purchased as a happy. Not sure who was happier, me or her.



















And then there was the pretzel dipping & sprinkling that went on with Jack Attack & John-John. I'm not sure what I was thinking, but I'm proud to say that I didn't yell or swear during any of this.















I have several more days of vacation, but I can honestly say that this has been one of the most special Christmases ever.

I am thankful TO and FOR my family.
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New Orleans 2010


Can I just say how wonderful it is to lay in a bed and paint your fingernails and then go out to dinner and then go back and get in the bed and sleep until you want to?

Nevermind the risotto with truffles and pancetta croutons. Nevermind the Italian kale saute, the meat, cheese, & olive plate that was a 100% in-house creation, or the tiramisu that came in a little jar.  The best part about our vacation was, hands down, sleep. In a large bed that someone else made. And the shower with four shower heads and a cushy white robe to wrap around yourself afterward.

I'm not at all bitter that Brian turned down the "turn down" service every night, therefore causing me to miss the chocolate mint they leave on the pillow. How, you might ask, do I know there was a chocolate mint to be missed?


Because I marched my booty out to the Turn Down Service Cart and broke a commandment by stealing one of the aforementioned mints -- it was rightfully mine anyway had Brian not turned down the turn down service -- and it was delicious. Like a kit kat mixed with toothpaste.


And in case you ever want to duplicate this vacation, here's what you'll need to do:

make reservations @ the Roosevelt Hotel
get reservations @ Domenica Restaurant
have an omelet @ Mena's Palace
go to Felix's for charbroiled oysters
stop by Coop's Place for rabbit jumbalaya
listen to live jazz @ Fritzel's


THANKS MOM & DAD FOR WATCHING OUR BABIES WHILE WE RELAXED!  BEST CHRISTMAS GIFT EVER.
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More Cousins

Maternals this time.  I am an only child, but my children do have maternal second cousins:  Will, Kate & Scott are sometimes in Mississippi at the same time as us, and it's always fun.  This pic was taken just before Scott dropped Sam and right after Will threatened his mother that if she posted this picture on Facebook then he would get her back by posting & tagging an up-close picture of her butt.  And somewhere in there Kate taught John to say, O. M. G.

OMG.

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Christmassy Cousins




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All he wanted for Christmas was ...


... yep, you guessed it: his two front teeth.  The first one came out several weeks ago, but the second one came out on December 23rd as we were finishing up our Christmas shopping at Steinmart. 

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Friday, December 10, 2010

OWL!

These days, Sam is pointing to everything and saying, OWL!  It used to be KIH KAT! but now he's become much more sophisticated with his labeling.  Anything with four legs is KIH KAT and everything else is OWL.

Dog, Dog, Dog!

Thursday, December 09, 2010

And the moral of the story is ... Don't keep napkins in your glove box.

Today I got one of the most interesting student-teacher holiday gifts I've ever received: A copy of The Noble Qur'An in the English Language with the parts about Jesus marked with a post-it note.

That may even beat the 2008 Anatomically Correct Naked Porcelain Asian Baby and Brian's 2009 Tim McGraw Cologne Box Set.

Which reminds me ... I sent in my cash for Ms. Lash's Christmas gift this week. The Room Mom requested that we all give cash, half of which will be given in the form of gift cards to The Teacher Store for classroom use and the other half for plain and simple Lashcash. Very appropriate in my opinion.

Much more appropriate than the request for cash to purchase hand warmers for the teachers who stand outside directing traffic in the drop-off & pick-up lines.

It's not that I have anything against those who direct traffic. I certainly am not holding a grudge about the fact that one of them told me I had my "JOHN BECKER" sign on the wrong sun viser.

It's just that $20 from each of Ms. Lash's students seems like WAY more than it would cost to provide them a full set of Land's End outterwear, much less some stinkin' hand warmers.

And sometimes I just wanna say, "THEY'RE NOT DESTITUTE, YOU KNOW."

Instead I write back with things like, "Thanks so much for organizing this! My check is in the mail!" as if I am a member of their cult, willing to fund all necessary outreach efforts.

But after the Lash Christmas gift request, I did have a little more than usual to say, which may or may not have been received well. One never knows with email.

I have this fear that all the parents will agree to one thing and then do another.  For example, we have joint birthday parties every 3rd Friday, and all the kids whose birthdays have occurred during that month have a party.  It's a well-known practice at John's school for parents to say that they are only going to bring cupcakes and then show up with cupcakes, chips, sandwiches, cookies, juice boxes, a veggie tray, and goody bags.  So, the plan to give a set amount of money seemed really easy and appropriate to me, but I wondered ... will everyone else give the money AND a separate gift?

So I wrote back to the room mom, and it went something like this:

Hi Christy!  Thanks so much, as always, for organizing this really important endeavor.  I think the half cash, half gift card idea is great and very appropriate; however, I do have one concern.  Do you think that other families will donate AND give Ms. lash a gift ... because the amount you have asked for might prevent some families from doing both. 

And then I tried to make it funny ... you know, lighten the mood a bit.

One of the reasons I love the idea of giving cash is because my husband is a public school teacher, and boy has he received some doozy presents in the past!  My favorite one was the box set of Tim McGraw cologne (regular & travel size).  So I guess what I'm saying is that I want to make sure I don't need to write a check AND buy some Faith Hill perfume. ha ha ha!  LOL! 

This is the message I received in reply:

Dear Kimberly,
I can assure you that no one is going to donate cash AND purchase Faith Hill perfume.
Thanks for sending your check!
Christy

So today I went Christmas shopping in the hopes of spotting something just perfect for Ms. Lash.  I was really looking for a monogrammed hula hoop, but considering the cost of that added to the donation I've already made, I opted for hand lotion.  And all the while I was driving around town, my defroster was working perfectly.

Which is a great change from last week.

You see, over the weekend, my defroster died.  The mechanic informed us that a shredded Chick-fil-A napkin had virtually destroyed the defrost fanblower. 

Which costs $135 to replace.

Which is why Ms. Lash will not get her monogrammed hula hoop this year.
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Thursday, December 02, 2010

One.



All of these pics and those in the next few posts were taken by Jane, my favorite M-i-L, who is

Master of the Lens.

LOVE them!

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Hands down, some of my favorite pics of John-John. Ever.




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Sam's Birthday Weekend

Where is Grandaddy you might be wondering?




Well, unfortunately Grandaddy forced me to take him to the hospital where he was treated for pneumonia for a few days. Not to worry, he's on the mend!










































Fifty cents worth.
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Sam's Birthday Weekend




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smug.

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Sam & Elijah

Hannah sends me these almost everyday, but I never find time publish them here.  They're so short but so sweet.  Here are two recent ones, featuring the boys, a firetruck, and a cat.

To my first on his 14th, 15th, and 16th

Dear John, Happy Sweet 16th, sweet boy. You are now taller than me and your dad. You can pick me up. You have a job. You built a motorized b...