My BFFs

These are my siblings.

Jessica, Jami, Alan, Katie & Marie.
Not to brag, but I have the BEST siblings EVER.
Seriously, EVER!
Love 'em.
Want to know why?
Check back throughout the next few days and I'll tell you.

The Princess Tea: An enchanted tale

Once upon a time there was a girl…

A very beautiful girl.

With flowing blonde hair, the perfect speckling of light brown freckles and a smile that caused her nose to wrinkle.

This girl was the delighted guest of an enchanted Princess Tea Party.

Where she mingled with the most elite.

And dined on only the finest.

::Delectable Ham & Cheese Roll-ups, Exquisite String Cheese, Sparkling Pink Water & Strawberry Milk::

She was happy.

And she enjoyed her night out.

Then she made her way back to her castle.

Put on her most regal of pajamas. And snuggled up next to her daddy for a few bedtime stories.Then she closed her eyes and escaped into dreamland. The place where all princess fairytales are allowed to come true!

.

.

.

Once upon a time there was a girl…
A mama, if you will.

That loved this little princess.

And would just be delighted…
Elated, even.
If all her princess' dreams were able to come true.
Every last one of them!

::Picture by SFoto::

And if the young princess would always and forever

…live happily ever after.

The end.

This video tour is brought to you by MAJOR lack of focus.

Edited to add: I wrote this post yesterday, but I couldn't get the video to upload.  And since a video tour's quite lame wthout the actual video.  I didn't post it.  But today the video uploaded {hence the posting}.  

{Oh, but let me verify that even though the video DID upload it does't in any way mean it's still not LAME}

{Just wanted to make sure you weren't expecting more than my usual lameness.}

{Okay, I'm done with this "edited to add"}

{For real}

I've had a hard time focusing today. A REAL hard time.


I'm not quite sure what my problem is.


Take the laundry for instance…

I have two laundry baskets of fresh, clean laundry wrinkling on the washer and dryer waiting to be folded and put away. They've been sitting there all day. I went to fold it first thing this morning. But as I made my way into the laundry room something fell from the ceiling and landed on my head. I did the only sensible thing to do when something falls from the ceiling and hits you on the head. I let out the most classy and feminine FOUR LETTER WORD {rhymes with mitt} put both hands over my head, clutched tightly and IMMEDIATELY fell to a semi-fetal, semi-squat position.

Do you know what you shouldn't do when something falls from the ceiling and hits you on the head?

Swear.

You should never swear! :)

And you should NEVER put both hands over your head and clutch tightly.

Because there's a chance that the thing that fell from the ceiling would be a green, sticky ball that Aunt Kate had purchased from the quarter machine to appease a demanding three-year-old. A three-year-old that throws the said green, sticky ball on the ceiling right by the laundry room door and leaves it to fall on any random passerby's head.

And that passerby just might be you. And if you indeed put both hands over your head and clutch tightly you will spend the next twenty-seven minutes trying to unstick the green, sticky thing from your uncombed locks.

However, due to all the lack of focus, standing in front of the mirror for twenty-seven minutes trying to remove a green slimy ball from my hair made me realize one thing. MY EYEBROWS. OH, MY EYEBROWS! Those babies need some major waxing. Like, NOW! And we all know that according to {fake} Ancient Chinese Proverb, "Women should never fold laundry with bush for eyebrows!"

So I once again neglected the laundry for far more important duties, and went upstairs to plug in the wax. While the wax warmed, I played with those children of mine. And because they focus about like me we played no less than eight-seven different games. Each lasting 92 seconds.

Then I looked at the clock. No time to wax eyebrows, no time to do laundry. Only barley time to shower and brush teeth and meet my just turned 28 year old friend, Kali Jo, for a birthday lunch.

::Kali Jo & I::

After lunch I stopped by the store to grab some paper towels and some sprinkles for the gingerbread cookies my little family would be making for Family o'evening {which is what the three-year-old owner of the green, slimy ball calls it}. I walked out of the store with a roll of SpongeBob Christmas wrapping paper, a little gift for Spence's stocking and a reusable shopping bag of other grocery items that DID NOT include paper towels or any form of sprinkles. I'm telling you guys, my focus was off.

Then I came home and instead of folding said laundry I started a little craft project, but the dishes were bothering me so I neglected the craft for the dishes. Then neglected the dishes for an intense Dora the Explorer computer game with Brynlee. Then Brynlee got bored and I swept the floor, but before I cleaned up the pile of dirt I got distracted by my email. The email led to a phone call. Which led to a second trip into town. Which led to the purchase of some sprinkles {but no paper towels}. Then I got home, and finished sweeping the floor. And since the floor was swept and the dishes done I might as well take some pictures of the new kitchen. And since I have exactly zero focus, I instead took a little video because that would surely waste more time and keep me from folding the abandoned laundry:

A few things about the video:

• The colors are way off. In the video my kitchen table, walls and floor have a dingy yellowish look. And the floor and the cabinets don’t really look like they match. But in real life, they do match and everything is not yellow. I guess you’re going to have to come over and visit and see for yourself. I will be sure to put all green, sticky balls in the toy box if you come.
• That black and white flower thing that you see when I show you the floor is my apron. I’m not wearing a skirt with my jeans. Not that there is anything wrong with wearing a skirt over your jeans.
• Do I really sound that annoying when I talk? And that little laugh thing I did. Sorry about that. That’s a little creepy!
• I wonder how Wiley would feel about being called “our” cabinet guy?
• Why yes, that is mistletoe hanging in the door way.
• Do you like the archway below the mistletoe? We put that in as well. I love it ‘cause it matches the arches on the upper cabinets.
• Do you like how I point out the sink, dishwasher, microwave and sliding glass door? I’m quite the tour guide now, aren’t I?
• We still need to paint and hang the last of the trim and buy rugs and barstools. {I gave my old barstools to my little sister in exchange for the BLUE trampoline circus stairs.} And I still need to do the decorating.

And I'm going to get to all those things first thing tomorrow morning. Right after I wax my eyebrows.  And fold that dang laundry.

*****

And here's some still shots for those of you who chose not to listen to my annoying voice. No hard feelings, this would be the option I would choose too:

Thanksgiving week in NINE bullet points…

• One. Our original Thanksgiving plans and what we actually did for Thanksgiving are two different things.
• Two. We spent Thanksgiving at our house with eight of my absolute favorite people: Mom, Dad, Alan, Kate, Marie, Spencer, Brynlee & Jace.

::Alan cutting potatos for The Feast::

• Three. It was quiet, low-key, enjoyable & delicious. I love Thanksgiving!
• Four. Spence's older brother, Andrew, his wife, Tammy, and their seven (seven!) kids came to visit on Friday. Did I mention that they have seven kids? We watched Monster vs. Aliens. And by "we" I mean everybody but Tammy and I. Being how I didn't watch it, I'm not really sure why I said "we".
• Five. Spencer got summoned to Jury Duty for the entire month of December. Merry Christmas to him.
• Six. Zeb, Jami, Brookie & Zayne came and stayed from Friday to Sunday. I love when they come to visit.

::Jami and I::

• Seven. Zeb welded us some new stairs for the trampoline. They're big, sturdy and the most perfect shade of GOOD CRAP THAT'S BRIGHT blue. I adore them. They make the trampoline look like a carnival ride. How happy that makes my kids, and therefore, me.
• Eight. When Jami & Zeb were down we went to the "Ring in the Holiday" celebration, The Christmas Night Light Parade and ate Smothered Foot-long Burrito's from Senior Iguanas. A foot-long burrito, people…that's a whole lot of burrito.
• Nine. We intended on going to "Christmas in the Nighttime Sky" fireworks show. But decided to instead stay in where it was warm and play the Wii. We took the Wii Sport Fitness Test. Spence's Wii Fitness age was 36, I was 25 {woot! woot!} Zeb was 42, {point and laugh} and Jami…Jami was SIXTY-FREAKIN'-FOUR! SIXTY-FOUR, you guys. She insisted that the Wii was absolutely, most definitely, positively incorrect. And to prove her point she re-took the Fitness Test. Turns out she was right; the Wii was wrong the first go around. She's instead SIXTY-FIVE!

::Jami::

P.S. Brynlee called my "honey" all day yesterday.

P.S.S. Brynlee can write her name all by herself!