Anyone Need a White Elephant Gift?

I have been anxiously awaiting my 24"x24" canvas print of my family. It was scheduled to arrive yesterday and I was really disappointed when it didn't arrive. I checked the Fed Ex tracking to see what happened and it said there was a security delay. A security delay? What does that mean? Well I called Fed Ex to find out what it meant and also make sure it didn't happen again, they told me it was probably because my building was locked. Well, I do make it a habit to lock my door, but I didn't think it was customary for the Fed Ex guy to walk right into my home. Then he told me that it was possible that my gate was locked. Now, I do have a gate to my backyard, but again delivery guys normally leave packages on the front porch, plus we don't have a lock on the gate. In the end, they had no answer for me. My theory is the delivery guy still hadn't bought his wife a present and decided to get done with work a little early, stamp a few "security delay's" on some packages and he is out of there.

I was excited when I heard the big Fed Ex truck coming up my street and ring the doorbell today. The package was enormous, I thought, "wow, Canvas on Demand really takes time to package well." I tore open the enormous box that took me 10 minutes to haul up my stairs. To my dismay, this is what I found:
Not just one sweet little grandma, but SIX SWEET GRANDMA'S!!! My heart sank, I want my family picture! Luckily, buried under grandma #6 was my canvas.

I quickly called Canvas on Demand to let them know about my order, because someone is expecting 6 sweet grandma's. They told me that I could keep them and they would reprint the order for the customer. So, all six sweet grandma's are now mine! Anyone going to a white elephant party?

Oh, here is a picture of my canvas hanging in my house.

I'm in love with this song!

The Joys of Parenthood

A few years ago my mom gave me a book titled, "How To Live With Your Kids and Like Them", I think I'm going to have to open that book up.

A few nights ago, Maya was in the tub. I went to check on her and the tub was full of bubbles. I'm talking "Pretty Woman" in the tub scene kind of bubbles. (of course I've only seen the edited TV version) I'm not sure what kind of bubble bath she was using, but if you are like me and you follow the recommended amount of bubble bath, you know you get a few measly bubbles in the tub. To get that many bubbles, you have to use the entire bottle.


Well, apparently that is what she did. I buy the econo-size Dove shampoo from Sams, the thing is huge. I don't remember it being completely full, but I remember it being pretty heavy. I got the bottle to shampoo her hair, and the bottle was completely empty, completely. Now, remember this was the econo-size. She had used over half the bottle to make herself a luxurious bubble bath.

I was ticked, to say the least. I washed her hair with the suds, there were plenty of them, then used the water from the tub to rinse her hair. There was so much shampoo in the water that it would bubble up as I poured the water on her hair. I had to use fresh water from the tap to get the soap out, and lets just say I didn't use the warmest water I could have. The girl doesn't appreciate that I buy her nice shampoo, I could be buying her 99 cent Suave like I do for the boys. I was upset that my little 5 year old daughter didn't appreciate that I'm looking out for her beauty.

Anyways, I felt bad that I had rinsed her hair with cool water and decided that wasn't the best punishment for the crime. I needed to think of a natural consequence for her behavior. I talked to her and we decided that she would buy a new bottle of shampoo to replace the one she wasted. We talked about how we should just use what we need and not be wasteful. So Maya and I took a little date to the grocery store, she had her $5 bill in her purse. We chose a shampoo that was affordable for her and acceptable to me. We get up to pay at the self check-out and I helped her feed her $5 bill in the machine. Seconds later, out popped her change. As she grabbed her $2 and 20 cents, her eyes got big and they lit up with glee. She exclaimed, "I got TWO DOLLARS BACK! I only had to put one dollar in and I got two back!!!" In the eyes of a five year old, two is better than one. She went on to explain that she was going to buy shampoo every time we went to the store. I explained that in actuality she had five dollars before and now only had two. She must not have listened or understood because when she got home she excitedly told Michael all about how she got $2 back. AGHHHH, so much for my natural consequences.

OK, I'm going to backtrack a second. After I got all the shampoo out of Maya's hair, I drained the tub. I went downstairs to put a load of laundry in (which you can see all over my floor in the video) and you will see what happened.... click the video.

So You Think You Can Dance

Maya is just so full of coordination and grace. I especially love her bum shake 35 seconds in, and the leg lift at about 1:40 (she gets her flexibility from me) and the hip circles at the end. She is in dance with 2 of her best friends and she loves every minute of it. I actually am very impressed with how well she did.

Twilight The Puppet Saga

Nothing Says Thanksgiving like....

Golden Corral!

Yes, we went to Golden Corral for Thanksgiving, but don't feel bad for us. Whenever we tell people where we went we hear, "ah, you could have had Thanksgiving with us!" We had a great time, we all got to eat whatever we wanted, and the best part, no cooking and no clean up. The downside, no leftovers. Mason eating pizza

Reece eating pizza

Maya eating, you guessed it... pizza

Our kids would have nothing to do with the traditional Thanksgiving items. Michael tried some yams and I tried some cornbread stuffing, they were not up to par. So, we stuck with steak, chicken, pot roast, shrimp, salad, fruit etc.

Afterwards we went to see Bolt in 3D, it was fantastic. We had a great time, the kids are still quoting the movie. Michael and I loved that it was in 3D, it made it so much fun.