We wish you a merry Christmas

Since you weren't with us for Christmas, here's a little holiday cheer coming your way! Enjoy

ALERT...ALERT... Phone in the toilet

What do you do when you drop your phone in the toilet?

Obviously, the 5 second rule must apply to more than food on the kitchen floor...

So you get the phone out of the used toilet...and it appears to still be working. I quickly take it apart and lay it on the counter.

Now what? You've waited for it to dry...but now it has tee-tee water dried in all the crevices AND you plan on putting this next to your face all the time.

I have a few choices:

• clean it and risk getting some other part wet
• just go ahead and use it
• throw it away and start over
• trade with Darren

What would you do if your mother ask you? (Dr. Seuss - The Cat in the Hat)

"Can I..."

Yesterday morning, about every 3.5 minutes, Amanda asked, "Can I watch a movie?"

• While I'm making breakfast, "can I watch a movie?"
• After breakfast, "can I watch a movie?"
• Trying to get the sisters out the door, "can I watch a movie?"
• During kitchen clean-up, "can I watch a movie?"
• While I'm making my bed and getting dressed, "can I watch a movie?"
• Getting Claire up and dressed, "can I watch a movie?"
• Trying to brush my teeth, "can I watch a movie?"
• Getting Jacob going with school, "can I watch a movie?"
• Starting a load of laundry, "can I watch a movie?"
• Getting Amanda dressed, "can I watch a movie?"

I said no in as many nice ways as I could:

• no
• not yet
• stop asking
• go play with Jacob
• go do your puzzles
• stop asking for a movie
• ..but the refrain I settled on the most was "when Jacob starts school and I sit down to nurse Claire".

When my nice voice finally ran out, she stopped asking for a movie.

She started asking: "Mom, can you nurse our baby now?"

Claire's 6 months old today!

I just didn't know how much I could love another one. They each have a special part of my heart and they each make me laugh. Claire is currently the one doing it in a 6 month old body...
(You'll need to pause the music on the left.)



And in case you missed how cute she is, here's another one:

A week in pictures...

Well, there was the sleepovers. All 7 in the girls room one night...
then all 7 in the big kids room the next.
One last picture with the threesome here. How long ago did I work at Mervyn's while Amy and Darren went to the movies without me?
Amazingly Jacob's coat does fit me...at least around the neck...
Here are the Clampetts, on their way out of town at 6am on Thursday.
Only 18 more hours to go!
Darth Manda isn't sure what to do with herself without her sisters around.
And Claire is trying really, really hard to make a tooth. The bottom teeth were no match for this top tooth...and it's not even the front one. It's one over - just like the sisters. I think she favors them. So 3 from my side and 3 from Darren's.
Needless to say, she's constantly wet from the drool and wants to be held. So I wear her in the backpack so I can get something else done. And she gnaws and gnaws on the backpack. It's hard work making these things.

Friday night we had a celebratory dinner for such a big week. The girls survived (and thrived) the first week of school, Amanda is in panties 24/7, Claire is making this tooth, mom made it through her sister moving away, and Daddy had a good meeting Thursday night.
There are 5 candles on the table (one for each kid to blow out when we are done), little bottles of Coke or Dr. Pepper for everyone, and no place settings for the parents - we actually went on a date to celebrate our week...can everyone say cheese fries and bloomin' onion. YUM! YUM!

Blue Christmas

We are dedicating this little Christmas song to all the cousins that will be far away this holiday season. Eat lots of goodies, laugh as much as you can and we'll see everyone next year!!!!

90 second video

Here's a neat video that shows who has controlled Israel for the past 5000 years.

Hope you enjoy it as much as Jacob did!

Who's gonna watch you die?

There's a new song on my playlist... What Sarah Said by Death Cab for Cutie.

This must be one of the saddest songs I've ever heard. The music is great and the word choices are unbelievable... who puts the words ICU, piss and 409 together in a love song?

My neighbors (in their late 80's/ early 90's) have just recently been moved into a retirement home. He could still drive (slowly) but I don't think he had been upstairs in years. She has Alzheimer's...so who knows what hasn't been taken care of in those years. They've lived in the house since it was built in back in the 60's.

Their grown kids came through one day and took what they wanted. Then two guys (not family) came with a U-haul truck pulling a trailer and worked for 3 days filling it up and taking it to the dump. There apparently wasn't much worth saving...and what was left was old, broken or it all smelled so bad they couldn't salvage it.

It's sad to think that so much of the past 40 yrs of their life was thrown away because they had grown too old to take care of it... but they had each other. And that is worth more than beautiful things to pass on to your kids.

At least they know who's going to watch them die.

I know who's going to watch me.

So here's the words to my beautifully sad song...

What Sarah Said by Death Cab for Cutie

And it came to me then that every plan is a tiny prayer to father time
As I stared at my shoes in the ICU that reeked of piss and 409
And I rationed my breaths as I said to myself that I'd already taken too much today
As each descending peak on the LCD took you a little farther away from me
Away from me

Amongst the vending machines and year-old magazines in a place where we only say goodbye
It stung like a violent wind that our memories depend on a faulty camera in our minds
But I knew that you were a truth I would rather lose than to have never lain beside at all
And I looked around at all the eyes on the ground as the TV entertained itself

'Cause there's no comfort in the waiting room
Just nervous pacers bracing for bad news
And then the nurse comes round and everyone will lift their heads
But I'm thinking of what Sarah said "Love is watching someone die"

So who's going to watch you die?..