The Drivey-Drive

Tucker hasn't quite figured out how to steer her car. I mean, she can. She just doesn't seem to care at all. She just drives in circles until either you turn her steering wheel or she hits something. I can't help but laugh... hysterically... every.single.time. Enjoy!



Love & Shipoopies,
Leslie

Wordless... Thursdays?

*Riding the train at the mall for the first time*

"Choo Choo!!!"

Love & Shipoopies,

Leslie

Too Much Fun

*Do you love this "Flashdance" outfit she's rocking? It's of her own choosing - from the tutu to the extra headband. A fashionista in our midst, folks.*

I'm so sorry for my lack of blogging lately. I'll be honest. My life is nuts. There's work, the two-year-old, getting ready for Scrapbook camp, and about 5 million other things that I won't mention here. My brain is just otherwise-occupied, so that even when I find time to blog (which is rare), I can't come up with anything I can blog about. All my thoughts are either dull, topics I'm not ready to share (no, I'm not pregnant), or topics that are just not blog-worthy - ie NOT funny or inspiring.

While we wait on my real brain to return, I thought I'd share with you the conversations filling my days these days.

To the doctor at the end of a visit: "Thank you for seeing me today."

While I was going potty and right after she went potty: "Good job, Mommy! You get your M&Ms?"

After almost every single activity for weeks now: "Mommy, we had TOO MUCH FUN today!"

After another doctor visit today: "Mommy, I had TOO MUCH FUN at the doctor today!"

After putting on her new shoes and while modeling them for me: "Mommy, thank you for getting my new shoes!" (Man, I hope this politeness sticks around for a while!)

While already driving down the road on the way to church: "Daddy, can you crank the car? It's cold!"

And my favorite:

Yelled from upstairs where napping is supposed to be happening:

"Mommy? MOMMY?!? Mommy, what's tomorrow? It's Saturday?"

Me: "No, tomorrow is Wednesday."

"Oh, ok. Just making sure."

Hahaha!!! Seriously, we stay in giggles around our house.

I hope this finds you all well!

Love & Shipoopies,

Leslie

Genetics - Part Deux - A Translation

For those of you who don't know the actual words to "Do Your Ears Hang Low"

Do your ears hang low?
Do they wobble to and fro?
Can you tie them in a knot?
Can you tie them in a bow?
Can you throw them over your shoulder like a Continental soldier?
Do your ears hang low?

You're welcome. ;)

Love & Shipoopies,
Leslie

Genetics

Do you remember a few months back (here) when I discussed my love of making up what song lyrics sound like when I can't figure out what they actually are?

Turns out, it's genetic.

And I don't want to build this up too much, but I'm pretty sure, this is the greatest re-write in the history of all lyric-making-up-dom. (I'm pretty sure that's the perfect amount of build-up.)





Love & Shipoopies,
Leslie

Snow M. G.!!!

For those of you who don't know, we got snow in the South - lots of it - and it stayed...

and stayed...

and stayed!

Tucker is very into rainbows (aka - anything with a semicircle anywhere in or on it).

"Mommy, it's a rainbow!!!"

The average depth in our yard.

Last time I saw snow this deep in the South was in '93.

This is the layer of ice on top of all that snow that developed when it sleeted the day after the snow and stayed cold enough to freeze it all.

Can you tell where the curb is? Our cul de sac was almost completely filled with snow!!!

This was possibly the craziest part to me. I took this picture at 11pm without a flash. It was snowing so hard that it looked like daylight outside. CRAZY!

Our besties - Ashie and Will

Hands down - Cutest Picture Ever!!!

It was HARD WORK for T to walk in all that snow!

That's some seriously deep snow!

Snow cream chilling outside while we ate dinner

Tucker thought Daddy shoveling was a RIOT! :)

Do you see the lump of snow under her hand? That's the snowwoman's heart that Tucker made and placed. (I <3 her.)

Love & Shipoopies (and a yard still full of snow a full week later),

Leslie

Oh Christmas Tree, Oh Christmas Tree...

...how droopy are your branches!!!

Confession time.
See this picture of our house in the snow?

It snowed on the night of January 9th. And it caught me with my wreaths up.

And my tree...

and my other zillion Christmas decorations.

That's right, folks! I'm a complete procrastinator when it comes to taking down my Christmas decorations. It's party because I LOVE THEM!!!! And it's partly because I'm Methodist, so I actually like having the tree up until Epiphany (Jan 6th). But it's mostly for two reasons:

1.) I really enjoy my short break that I get and want to spend it doing other things and

2.) My house seems so empty without them.

I was raised in a house with conflicting views on when to remove the decorations. My father was raised Catholic (and also doesn't actually put up or take down Christmas decorations - Sorry, Dad, but the truth hurts sometimes - haha!), so he always thinks the tree should stay up until January 6th. My mom knows that taking the decorations down takes time and energy, so she wants to get them down quickly so she can have it done and still have a little time to rest before starting back to school. Usually there was a compromise that ended in the tree coming down on New Year's Day.

I talked to my Aunt Nan, and she was in a rush to get hers down as soon after Christmas as she could. Her reasoning? "My house seems so CLEAN once they're all boxed up!"

Isn't it funny how perspective can change anything? For her, it seems clean. For me, it makes everything else in my house seem small, boring, and insignificant.

We did, during one of our snow-trapped evenings, get everything down and boxed up but the tree and the outdoor wreaths. Nowhere to put the tree (garbage pick-up was snowed-out this week) and no WAY I'm letting the hubs climb on the roof or a ladder in the ice that is covering everything to get those wreaths down! But, to be honest, I will cherish any last days I can squeeze out of the decorations.

One last thought. In church the Sunday between Christmas and Epiphany, our preacher talked about taking down the decorations and how some people love to "put Christmas away". She warned us all that we can pack up the glitz and sparkle of Christmas, but to be sure we don't pack Christ away like he's seasonal. Nice. :)

What's your style on getting Christmas decorations up and taking them down?

Love & Shipoopies,

Leslie

Randomness: A Trilogy, in 4 Parts*

1.) When picking out a blanket, be it for cuddling on the couch or to cover my bed while I sleep, I find the most important factor is weight. The thickest, warmest blanket out there will still leave me feeling cold unless it's heavy enough to really weigh on my body as it covers me.

*Seriously random, I know.

2.) Have you ever:
a. Had someone say something so rude, self-absorbed, and nasty that you
b. Laid-out a sharp-tongued, well-planned line of sarcasm beginning with the classic "Well, I'm just SOOOOO sorry for...."
c.) Gotten NO response
d.) And wondered, "Was my biting and amazingly brilliant sarcasm so cutting that they realized the error of their selfish, rude, horrid ways OR are they SOOO self-absorbed that they ACTUALLY thought I was apologizing?!?"

3.) I've sent something out there in the world and just the act of beginning the process has me all giddy inside and nervous. Those of you who are prayers, please pray that God fulfills his plan with it, even if it's not what MY plan for it is. :) (Vague enough for you?!?)

4.) Yesterday, our sweet niece, Kensi Elisabeth made her debut to the world! She was born in Japan to the hubs's brother, Matthew and his wife, Shawna. She's quite adorable and looks much like her big brother, Eli, did upon his arrival. We are so happy for them and can't wait to meet her in person (months and months away :( boo).

Love & Shipoopies,
Leslie

*If you've never read a trilogy in 4 parts, I highly recommend you go find the book _In Our Humble Opinion_ written by Click and Clack (from NPR's "Car Talk"). It's a riot and totally from wence I stole my title and to what I am paying homage. :)

There's just no denying it, folks...

She is DEFINITELY my child. :)








Love & Shipoopies,
Leslie

Hot Dog!!!

If you don't watch Mickey Mouse Clubhouse everyday, you may not recognize this song.

But you'll still recognize the goober dancing to it. :)



*I love how she's singing so boldly and then remembers I'm filming and stops, smiling shyly at me. That's why I started the video from behind. If she saw the camera from the start, she never would've danced for me.*

Love & Shipoopies,
Leslie

Didn't we pass that tree an hour ago?

This is my two-year-old. (2.5 to be precise.) She is a goober. As my cousin Paige says, "She comes by that naturally."

True story, my friends. True story.

Here's another thing you may or may not know about her. She has a BIG head. I don't just mean kind of big. I mean off the charts (literally off the charts the doctors use with "percentiles" and such), grew so much so fast at one point, they watched its growth for a month and threatened a scan to make sure she didn't have fluid around her brain kind of big. She comes by this naturally as well. We're a family full of big-noggins!

One consequence of her large head is that, well, sometimes her clothes don't really want to go over her head. Sometimes, even the ones WITH buttons or snaps at the neck won't go over her head. And you can just about FORGET trying a shirt without some sort of closure to make the opening get bigger while trying to cram a head through. It rarely happens. In fact, every Alabama cheerleading outfit she's had (read as BOTH, as she's only had two), we've had to kind of clip along the shoulder seams to make the head hole big enough, and even after doing that, I pretty much made her cry because it took me so long to pull her head through it. (No pain no gain, right?)

She used to get really upset anytime we had to REALLY pull to get a shirt on. To be honest, she still does sometimes. But I've tried to make a joke out of it. You know how when your kid falls down and you have that one moment where you can kind of laugh it off and they'll follow your lead instead of melting into a puddle of sadness? I have tried to do that with the whole cramming her head into too small head holes thing.

I'll say, "Shooo, you've got a BIG OL' NOGGIN, girl!!!" She thinks it's funny. It helps.

Even funnier? The time I crammed her head through a neck hole and she said, "Mommy, I got a big ol' noggin!"

Yep. Precious.

It's so cute, in fact, that last night, while at a visitation for a family funeral (where everyone knew/loved Tucker and welcomed the joyful, childish distraction she offered), I asked her, "Tucker, why is it so hard to put shirts on?"

"I got a BIG OL' NOGGIN!!!" *Said while patting her forehead*

Laughter. Preciousness. Mommy beaming at just how adorable her child is.

*Yes, I realize I'm ridiculous. I came to grips with it ages and ages ago.*

Then we get in the car to drive home.

"Mommy, why is it hard to put shirts on?"

"You tell me."

" 'Cause the shirts and I had a big ol' noggin' and 'cause girls not need shirts."

"Really?"

"Yeah."

.

.

.

"Mommy, why is it hard to put shirts on?"

"I don't know. Why?"

"'Cause I got a big ol' noggin and girls don't need shirts."

"Well, girls DO need shirts sometimes. They either wear shirts and pants or dresses."

*We had a discussion the day before about why Daddy didn't wear dresses like Tucker and Mommy, and instead wore shirt and pants. I'm sure that's where this part came from.*

"Oh. "

.

.

.

"Mommy, why is it hard to put shirts on?"

Didn't we pass this tree an hour ago? I SWEAR we're driving in circles here.

Love & Shipoopies,

Leslie