highlights and lowlights and all manner of ights

january! a month of wonders and blunders! and gratuitous exclamation points!!!

i parked in front of this sign and then walked very slowly across the crosswalk at a diagonal, thus holding up traffic for at least an extra 45 seconds. just because i can. definite highlight.

we had a delightful pizza hut book it! lunch with these two monsters. i am old enough to have kids who can participate in the book it! program=lowlight. book it! reading program and free pizza=highlight!

this girl stopped sucking her thumb so she qualified for an all expenses paid trip to the children's museum, after a visit to our local voting precinct to vote in the south carolina primary. definite highlights. 

scarlett was especially pumped about going grocery shopping in the miniature grocery store. i was very tempted to try and make her lift me up and squeeze me into the too small baby seat; i wanted touch and  push back every can on the shelf, hang off the side of her miniature cart and put my feet down in front of the wheels at inopportune times and then act shocked when my toes get rolled over and then just for fun, run around like a crazy and then stand in front of other people's carts when they are trying to shop in peace, just to make it a more realistic grocery store experience.

children's museum=highlight

having to pay $20 for adult passes to the children's museum when we really just want to sit on benches and give the stink eye to mean kids=lowlight

 sitting on benches should be free!

making a homemade lemon curd cake with scarlett=highlight

(why yes! i do have a degree in home economics. it doesn't guarantee pretty cakes.)

having the poor cake turn out this ugly=lowlight

that lemon curd was supposed to stay on the middle layer of cake.

we've had my provolone layered lasange 3 times in the last week=highlight

baby X is a fan!

the end of an era. thomas sold his truck=lowlight

i thought we would both die in that truck when we were old and our hair matched the two tone paint job. i must admit i was sad to see it pull away. but it will live on with someone who was REALLY excited about getting it. oddly excited new owner=highlight

scarlett figuring out how to play wii tennis against herself after reagan quit mid-game=highlight

70 degree weather in january=highlight

having a landscaper come in a remove 2 gigantic flatbed loads of leaves=crazy awesome highlight

now we only have to worry about this:

the week that just wouldn't quit

this was the week that just wouldn't quit. there were highs and there were lows and my poor pregnant brain had trouble processing all of them. today i actually wore my pants inside out for most of the afternoon until i realized my mistake. i like one exciting event per week with a whole lot of monotony and laundry folding filling the other days.

monday- the national championship. some said the game was boring. i think that's what losers say. 

tuesday- i started watching downton abbey season 1. throw a british accent in it and i'll watch it(with the exception of anything with russell brand in it). it is excellent. and the costumes are brills. ps- i took the quiz and i'm edith. which is wickedly awesome.


wednesday-  the bolt in the tire debacle. i drove over a tractor bolt on the way to pick reagan up from school and that set off a domino effect for terrible. after 4 fun-filled hours the debacle was resolved. word to the wise- if your hubcaps require a special unlocking tool besides a regular tire iron, make sure you actually own said unlocking tool. that will help things immensely. discovering you don't have it while you are on the side of the road definitely complicates the situation and forces you to say several bad words in your head. 

wednesday part b- i'm 24 weeks pregnant. my back pain is ridiculous and half the time i hobble like a 89 year old grandma. my doctor suggested that i carry about a doughnut pillow. awesome.

 friday- by friday i thought i had had enough excitement in my life. and then i got a message from scarlett's school asking if she was coming that day. for some reason i just completely forgot to take her so i had to scramble like loony to get her there only 1 hour late. and that was the nail on the stupid mistakes coffin. 

saturday- we took a road trip to ikea. scarlett got ice cream. reagan got pizza. baby X got a high chair. the playroom got a shelving unit. i got restless legs. thomas got the flu and then had to drive all of us around. bless his heart.

christmas broke

christmas break excites and frightens me at the same time. i love my kids but i love they both go to school pretty regularly. frankly, i like going to the bathroom with the door closed. heck, i may get crazy and bring a magazine. sometimes i even want to dash through the grocery store and only have it take 5 minutes because i am only getting one item! i think it makes perfect sense that while i was looking forward to christmas break, i was also a little nervous about the copious amounts of unstructured free time we would all have together. i figured that the best way to get the kids excited for christmas break was to tell them about a friend's christmas party that was going to be held after school on friday. complete with santa and holiday treats. i used it to my advantage for a few days. i held it over their heads for homework, screaming, being nice, sharing, eating dinner, cleaning up. whatever. the usual incentive parenting techniques(because you know "talking things out" simply doesn't work.) then, when friday finally rolled around, we stopped by the store and excitedly picked out our snack contribution. mostly stuff that i like to eat, because i am pregnant and can do whatever i want whenever i want. then i started getting the kids ready for the party. i double checked for directions and started food prep. at this point i realized the party was YESTERDAY. thursday. as in not friday. i then proceeded to repeatedly shut my head in the door of the refrigerator because i know there will be HAIL to pay when i break the news to the kids. i also knew that i would want to be deafened because i would hear for the rest of the day(weekend, month, year) "why did you forget?" in your child's nicest most innocent voice. over and over again. like a dull knife repeatedly stabbing your eardrums. so instead of the truth, i told the kids the party was cancelled because someone got sick and was throwing up. the kids are always fascinated by news of someone throwing up. in short, not only am i a forgetful mother, but i am also a liar. to compensate for all my maternal shortcomings, we headed to blockbuster. i even let them pick out 2 movies. and that is how we got ready for christmas break.

LET THE RANDOM CHRISTMAS BREAK ACTIVITIES BEGIN!!!

 on our way to blockbuster- scarlett in a random mismash of summer clothes and tights and reagan in his pajamas.

reagan visiting santa at our neighborhood party. he smeared the crumbs all over his face as a special touch.

scarlett in an outfit she didn't want to wear in the first place. and then she realized he friend jacqui was santa's elf and got to wear an elf dress and that only made matters worse.

CHRISTMAS SWIMMING

christmas always means swimming. both kids gave my stomach a couple of good kicks. that is what happens to parents in the pool. i'm sure the baby appreciated the kicks too. 

CHRISTMAS PARTY

we watched "shrek the halls"(a classic) about a dozen times and reagan decided he wanted a christmas dinner party, just like shrek. so on christmas eve eve we had some friends over. i decorated with the most tacky dollar store decorations i could find. that is going to be my new christmas theme. tacky tinsel and randomly strewn mulit-colored christmas lights. i think i eventually want to be THAT house in the neighborhood.  i even cooked dinner. it was a christmas miracle.

this was the dining room after the kids were done eating.

i made my red velvet brownie cake.

 thomas humored me by reading "scene it" game questions. naturally, i dominated. i have no other skillz besides useless trivia.

CHRISTMAS MORNING

started off with a thud with scarlett climbing in our bed at 4am. i DO NOT like kids in the bed. but i felt like a  grinch so i let her stay. and then i was cranky for the next 3 hours until i finally kicked her out.

reagan got the one thing he really wanted, the movie, g-force. talking guinea pigs=100% cinematic genius. after that present opening was gravy. 

sign #5425 that you are a mom: gifts for the home are gifts for you. i was actually pretty thrilled with my new stainless steel garbage can. i LOATHED and DESPISED the old one. thomas said the new one was for the "whole family" but we know what that means. 

really, reagan could have cared less about presents after g-force was acquired:

miraculously we were able to postpone the rest of present opening until after church. with no tears and no whining. another christmas miracle.

we reserved the whining for family photo taking. 3 family members whined about this. in fact, it was these 3:

next year i'm asking for a tripod so it can be a real family picture. if only i had thought of balancing my camera on my new stainless steel garbage can! 

scarlett had the best reactions to her gifts. i think we could have given her a box of rocks and she would have squealed with delight. 

she loved this light saber, even though according to her "girls aren't jedis".

 sign #3025 you are a mom: gift card to bed, bath and beyond with strict instructions to "buy a dutch oven". also included was a 20% off coupon. that is why i love my mother. there is never a time to not save money.

scarlett opening her easy bake oven. for months now she has been talking about being a chef and opening a restaurant called "the golden pumpkin" and cooking food for people with an easy bake oven. i wish i had gotten a better picture because this expression was priceless. she even let me cook some (NASTY) cookies in it later that day whilst she played with other toys. i was still under her supervision, of course.

thomas and his "back stretcher" that reagan picked out. 

and the requisite christmas gift- race cars and track that usually only work on christmas day and then never work again. another christmas miracle, these cars still work.

 and in an ironic twist: thomas got the most clothes for christmas. 14 shirts. i think it was his dream come true.

baby X

a face only a mother could love:

because that face is a little creepy. scarlett looked just like darth vader in her twenty week ultrasound, so i'm pretty sure this cute little lizard-faced girl will turn out alright too. either way she's ours and we love her. 

when the tech found the heart and we watched all 4 chambers pump, it was a little emotional for me. i didn't really care either way what the baby's gender was, but when i saw that tiny heart working it's magic, i was in awe. i've been pretty grinchy this whole pregnancy(as opposed to regular heidi grinchy. some of you may not be able to tell the difference. thomas can. pregnant grinchy involves less cooking and more gas.) but i was without words momentarily. miracle of miracles. Heavenly Father has been so good to us. plus, it was wonderful to be able to hold hands with thomas while we watched the ultrasound together. it was our best date since i brought chipotle to his office last month. 

 i must admit that i laughed like the immature 10-year-old-boy-in-a-grown-woman's-body-that-i-am when the tech was pointing out and was using the technical terms for the girl parts. when will i grow up? or when will those words stop being funny?

i told the kids the big news when they got home from school and scarlett seemed pleased that everything was going along with her plans for baby ursula. her other name suggestions are gurlix and greenleaf. reagan was disappointed because he wanted a brother named gus, not another sister. and i can understand that because i know how annoying a little sister can be. now he will have 2. 

thomas seems pleased, but i was a little sad when i thought that now we won't have a little herschel walker simpson. that name was our only boy option. and we don't have any girl names that we agree on. so we are calling her baby X for the time being. because i'm a name snob. i like athena, iris and luna. i also really, really like monroe, but mariah carey just named one her twins that and therefore that puts it in the possible ultra-trendy category.  

so this is christmas

our christmas season thus far:

church christmas party* it was announced that we could wear costumes if we wanted for our night in bethlehem. reagan heard "costumes" and immediately decided that darth vader was obviously one of the magi. wise men came from far away and at least one came from long ago and a galaxy far, far away.  scarlett wanted to be mary so i put her in a robe with stars. my great effort was not wasted. 

does it get better than this?

and one more, olan mills style:

nativity* the kids have also put their special touch around the house:

the real reason there was no room in the inn:

christmas decor* i am a fan of white lights but scarlett wanted "gorgeous, beautiful colored lights, not GROSS white lights". in my Christmas spirit, i caved and got a few strands. and then we haphazardly threw them on the bushes like the rednecks we are. 

only 13 days till christmas. time to start shopping.

fanx givng

fanx givng has come and gone. we had a 24 hour long trip to waycross. we fit in as much as humanly possible in an inhuman amount of time. including a nap in a movie theater(me, to no one's surprise!), rides in a camouflage golf cart scouting out deer on the farm and 2 vomits by 2 kids. as an added bonus, one vomit was in the car!!! excessive exclamation point celebration!!! i can't wait to be dead so that i can take a break from a few things. 

thomas celebrated the holiday by dismantling the alarm system at the place we were staying. we arrived at 1230 at night and by 130am the alarm system beeping every 60 seconds was less than charming. thomas has a future in cat burglary,except for the walking quietly part. he snipped just the right wires. i couldn't have been  prouder. it was a very non-violent act when we both had quite violent emotions toward the control panel. score one for for dr. martin luther king and nonviolence!

the kids always enjoy their brief doses of farm life. 

less enjoyable was the time we spent collecting pecans(pronounced pee-cains) in the orchard. (FYI-pecans grow on trees. big machines come and shake the trees and cause the pecans to fall to the ground. other machines collect the pecans from the ground. then whatever is left is collected by people with tools that resemble raffle ticket drums. i am surprised that there isn't some group of tree huggers protesting the tree shaking because it causes emotional tree trauma.)

the kids were helpful for about 5 minutes and then the adult were left with the bulk of the work. what good are kids if they can't complete simple yard work tasks?

a personal disaster for me was waking up the day after thanksgiving and discovering that my left contact lens had ripped in half. to pour salt in the wound, i had also forgotten to pack my glasses. i am worthless without either of those items because my vision is so bad. fortunately, the waycross walmart vision center was able to contact my eye doctor and supply me with an emergency contact lens. at first the employee sort of rolled her eyes at my request but once she got the fax with my prescription her eyes popped out of her head at my utter blindness. and she also witnessed me run into a few things around the optical.  if pity equals helpfulness, i'll take it. crisis averted.

a personal highlight for thomas and me was spying this van equipped with a running toilet and swamp cooler. i bet that's a fun combination on a hot day in southeast georgia. 

a gastronomic delight was our lunch at jerry js. if ever you are feeling too good about how your pants fit and the health of your heart, head here and order the texas backyard burger. delicious. after your meal, if you sit quietly enough, you can actually hear your arteries hardening. 

finally. if you look closely enough, there is a family in this picture.

our christmas card will most likely not have an accompanying photo. we have taken NUMEROUS on SEVERAL occasions and we are just not a photogenic family. i think the slightly out of focus, very far away, bad lighting look is our best option. artsy.