Oh Baby Mimi

Because I am absolutely in LOVE with the newest member of our family, here's a short video of her. She smiles, she coos, she DROOLS. What's not to love?

Friday morning was a SHOPPING day! Of course, we didn't do much for the economy (sorry guys) but we had fun. Wonder Daddy was given a gift card to a large electronics store, so we wandered there for a while. I took the girls and hit the Joann's sale. We all grabbed a bite to eat, and then hit the big sale at....Goodwill. Everything was 40% off! I found a great shirt (new with tags!) and short trenchcoat, and Ernie got her very first tricycle. She was so excited when she found out that we were going to buy it. She actually did a happy dance in the parking lot as we put it in the trunk :) It's on our deck now, with the gate closed, and she's spent hours out there yesterday and today riding around, and talking to her imaginary friends. And you can't beat the price- $2.40.


By the time we arrive home, we'd been shopping for 4 hours, and Ernie was DONE. She was a sobbing mess. "Why are you crying" "I DON'T KNOOOOOOW" *sob sob* After a good nap, she was up and perky...and ready to do something we'd been promising her all week long.

We had a high school classmate and his cutie-pie wife over for dinner earlier in the week. She works at Costco, and came with a large jar of truffles for Daddy and I, and a gingerbread house kit for Ernie.

Now my whole house smells like a cookie!

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! I hope everyone had a great day.

It was so nice to have a "family morning"- we had a good breakfast together, and Daddy sent Ernie and I out on a long walk while Mimi slept.

Dinner was at my aunt's house- it's always fun to get together with my aunt and uncle's family. Dinner was at 2, and we didn't come home until 8.

Reading everyone else's posts today, I realized that not everyone does dinner like we do- it's POTLUCK all the way.

My dad takes care of the bird (because they have an electric roaster oven!) and the cranberry sauce (because it's fantastic), and Mom takes care of the pies (because she's a fantastic Costco shopper- their pumpkin pie is the BEST :o)

My aunt does Jell-O (because my uncle loves it), green bean casserole (because this might be the only thing her daughter eats), and green salad.

My cousin does the rolls.

My grandpa does the gravy, because he has a whisk, magic flour, and mad gravy skillz.

I was in charge of mashed potatoes and sweet potatoes this year. Unfortunately for us all, I bought heavy cream at Costco. Oh dear. Do you know what happens when you mash red potatoes and garlic cloves, and then gently stir in rosemary-infused cream? And butter? It's amazing, that's what it is. And we're going to spend a long time repenting!

Head over to the Chow Review for the recipes!

Happy Happy Birthday!

Oh folks...thanks for making it such a fantastic day and week. I've had cards, visits, phone calls, and 17 "Happy Birthday" posts on my Facebook wall.

You know, as a twin, a "single" birthday is an odd thing. Really odd. I think this is the second time it's ever happened.

Here are a few shots from tonight's festivities. At one point Ernie grabbed the camera and started snapping away...maybe you can tell which ones are hers?

Dad/Bobby got some quality time with Mimi tonight- she has so little time between "asleep" and "hungry" that it's been hard to get in the past.






Gorgeous Wonder Daddy!


This one was *really* heavy! (Good grief- it turned out to be a Wonder Mill! No more grinding 2 cups of flour at a time in the Vita Mix blender!)




I seem to be opening a gift in this one...which is ridiculous, since Ernie insisted on opening everything by herself...she actually kind of growled at me if I got too close to the process. Considering all the excitement inherent in having grandparents over, and presents, and everything else... I'd say it's pretty good behavior under the circumstances!


My parents went a little nuts on Joanns.com. I am now the proud and happy owner of pinking shears, a huge cutting mat and rotary cutter, and a full complement of embroidery hoops.



Isn't this cake adorable? It was super tasty too- my little sister works at a hoity-toity grocery store in a hoity-toity neighborhood...but man, they make good cakes! Lemon cake with berry filling...yummy...and so cute too!


My mother-in-law sent a beautiful tile with Joshua 24:15 "As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord."

My parents also found my top-three, must-have crafting books: Sublime Stitching, Sew What! Fleece, and Sew What! Skirts. Oh, my Christmas crafting just got SO much easier!

Oh, and Ernie and my husband found me a great metronome (my current model is rather old...old enough that my brothers (who are both now grown) kind of damaged it during a particularly rambunctious afternoon. But as long as you don't touch it too much, it keeps a steady-ish beat...which hasn't been too great for my piano students. This new one is good and LOUD, and even has the option of accenting the downbeat of each measure. Spiffy!

Oh, and one of the BEST presents: our old house sold! Title transferred this afternoon. I don't think I'll believe it until December 2 comes around, and we haven't paid that mortgage.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! Hope you all have plans for tomorrow that involve good food, good friends, and lots of family.

Wow...she was listening

Last night was our weekly Family Night- we have dinner together as a family, and then have a family prayer to start off right, followed by a song (normally Popcorn Popping), and a short scripture lesson and a small activity. If Ernie is really lucky, all this is followed by a treat. It's a great thing, and I think it will make our family stronger if we keep at it.

The past few weeks we've been pulling our lessons from the new nursery manual "Behold Your Little Ones"- it's fantastic! It has great little lessons, with activities, coloring pages, teaching tips....everything you need to get a grasp on how to teach the gospel to your tiny tots. Maybe it's just me, but it's rather daunting to think of everything I know to be true, and try and figure out how to distill that knowledge and pass it on to my children.

Last night's lesson was number 5, "Jesus Christ Showed Us How to Love Others." I told Ernie the story about when Jesus taught 5,000 people and they were hungry. He took the bread and fish he could find, blessed it, and told His disciples to tear it up and fill some baskets to take around to the people. When they came back everyone was full and the leftovers filled more baskets than when they started! He loved the people and so he fed them. We handed Ernie a little basket and she took it around and pretended to "feed" us all until we were full.

I thought it was just a cute little activity for her, but this morning she grabbed the basket, filled it with all her "Cootie" pieces (you know, the build-a-bug game?) and proceeded to feed me and herself until we were both FULL. Then she sat down and told me about Jesus- when he was born, it was sunny. Then he died and went home, and it was dark. Then he came back to his body!

"Behold Your Little Ones" indeed.

Myrnie Is

...grateful

...tired

...overwhelmed, in moments

...in love with her children and husband

...working on an embroidery pattern, 4 stitches a day.

...wishing her toddler didn't follow her around the house, saying "You're mean!"

...glad she got the soup on the stove during the half-hour of "nap overlap"

...looking forward to cooking sweet potatoes and mashed potatoes for Thanksgiving

...excited to make Bert's present, it's really cool

...glad her visiting teachers came this morning and said "Patience WILL come, over the years"

...still an introvert. Two kids hasn't changed that!

...waiting for her french bread to rise

...listening to her baby sing to no one in particular

...wishes her toddler hadn't learned the word "why."

...wishes her toddler hadn't used the word "why" 75 times today. And it's only 1:30.

Happy Monday, everyone! If anything reaches "completed" stage today, I'll be sure and let you know :)

Happy Saturday!

It was the kind of Saturday I love- we got so much done.

I opened my eyes this morning to find Ernie 2 inches from my face, staring and waiting for me to wake up. Do you know how BIG her eyes can be? And how WHITE her face is? Yeesh.

I rolled out of bed to start the Saturday pancakes- I'm not certain, but I think we've had pancakes most every Saturday for the last 5 years.



Daddy and Ernie spent the morning together running errands- Aunt LoLo, your birthday present is in the mail!


While Ernie and Mimi took their naps, Wonder Daddy got a few hours of studying in while I did some much-needed pruning in the yard. Bamboo, boxwood, blackberry, and italian prune suckers were no match for my Tub Trug, leather gloves, and beat up bypass pruners. I pulled up what the slugs had left behind in the garden, so that's all settled for the winter too.


Wonder Daddy took a few hours in the afternoon to bike up and down a mountain, and run a few miles afterward for fun. Because he felt antsy. (Crazy head.)

And THEN...oh my, Mimi was asleep so I went thrifting alone. I found a small embroidery hoop, a beautiful milk glass candy bowl, a lambswool sweater for some projects I have in my to-do list, and two plain t-shirts for myself. I have this idea that I can take a voluminous t-shirt and make it into something nice. Maybe a gather at the neckline and a few new seams to make a trapeze shirt? Maybe take in the sides, cut off the bottom and re-attach it as an empire waist? (I haven't quite figured out what to do about the sleeves though.) At any rate, even if I make nothing but cleaning rags out of the shirts I'm only out $2. (The floral "arrangement" is from this afternoon's pruning- it's the tops of the bamboo.)



I came home to find Mimi asleep again, dinner in the oven, and Ernie playing quietly downstairs while Daddy studied. Wonder Daddy, you're awesome :)

Happy Saturday, everyone!

Our Day

Ernie is such a great big sister! She's really great at getting a binky for baby Mimi. She calls her "MY baby Mimi."


Mimi has a VERY expressive face. (Especially the mouth part.) Name that comedian?




Here is a project I've been working on- this is the largest stitchette I've ever done! I knew when it took almost 5 minutes to trace out that it would be a race to finish before the ink faded away.

The pattern is from one of my favorite embroidery artists, Hillary Lang over at Wee Wonderfuls. She does such adorable little patterns.


Besides Hillary Lang (Wee Wonderfuls), Jenny Hart (Sublime Stitching), and Annie Oakleaves...anybody have any favorite stitch artists to share? Any patterns out there you've been dying to stitch up?

No One Does Sad Like Mimi Does Sad

One Project Completed

A few weeks ago, stitch pattern artist Annie Oakleaves put out an all-call for test stitchers. If she sent us a pattern from her new Holiday series, would we please stitch it up before Thanksgiving and send her a photo? Would I ever???

I stitched most of this little snow-girl up yesterday, and put the finishing touches on this morning and sewed her into...a door hanger? A Christmas ornament? I'm going to go with door hanger, because I think she'll look so sweet saying goodbye to all our guests!

I'm so glad I started stitching this past summer- it's such a relaxing thing to do, and so versatile. I'm also glad I found a big bag of embroidery floss at the thrift store for $1, because I haven't had to purchase ANY! This is a good thing, because every time I go near the floss display at the craft store, I'm paralyzed with indecision. So many colors!!

I used split stitch, back stitch, satin stitch, and a little bit of seed stitch (because I STILL can't manage a french knot.)

MiMi Grows!

Two month check up today for MiMi. She's 13 pounds! We went ahead and bought size 3 diapers last night, figuring that by the time this box is over she'll be close enough to 16 pounds.

Wow, we sure can grow babies around here :) I'll have to get out Ernie's charts and see what she was.

On another note, Wonder Daddy's co-worker asked today if I make necklaces- he and his fiance want custom jewelry for their August wedding. Wouldn't that be a blast, to make necklaces and earrings for such a beautiful occasion? We'll see if it pans out, but I think it would be so much fun.

There will be a shop update tomorrow, as well as a completed stitching project (fingers crossed.) The danger of tracing my stitch patterns in disappearing ink is...it disappears! So it's gotta be finished tomorrow or bust.

And We're Live!

Camera is found, Etsy is stocked, and we're moving forward.

Hooray!

For those of you who see my blog in a reader, click through to my site to see the new "Mini Etsy" widget on the sidebar- you can see a preview of what's in the shop, and click through to see more.

And, even if you don't see anything you like in my shop...check out the rest of Etsy. It's a fantastic crafting community, with so many talented people! You can see my favorites listed in the etsy shop. LoLo Craft, Black Apple, Just Lovely...so many fantastic artists!

And in home news, Ernie has discovered something.




She's the same color as a potato.

Thank you.

Etsy Postponed

As you've probably noticed, I've misplaced my camera. Which means that there's no etsy action for me until I find it! But if you want to bookmark the shop, it's www.myrnietwin.etsy.com. It just happens to be empty right now. But go ahead- favorite me! It will be great. I'll be the most loved, emptiest, shop on all of Etsy :)

Once I DO find my camera, I'll be loading eyeglass chains, embroidered kitchen towels, and beaded badge holders (a favorite with the ladies at Wonder Daddy's office). I'll probably send a few of the "toys" (crayons, tutus, etc) to friends and then the remainder will go to the yearly Bishop's Toy Drive. It's a great thing- we send all kinds of cool toys to the Deseret Industries, and the Bishops of the wards can give families vouchers to go Christmas Shopping. How cool is that? You can go to a separate section of the store, full of new toys and games and clothes (either new or in SUPERB condition) and pick out the perfect gift for your little brother!

If you DO want to order anything that you've seen pictures of, or a custom piece...well just e-mail me :o) Because I aim to please.

Anyway, thanks for coming on this roller coaster with me and now I can buckle down and start planning my Christmas baking, and Thanksgiving side dishes, and making all the Christmas gifts I've been bookmarking. And, Annie Oakleaves if you're reading this- I'll start stitching that pattern this week. :)

I hope everyone had a great Sunday! I know we did. Mimi slept 9:00-6:00, then 6:30-9:00. Which means that we all had a VERY good rest last night. (Can you tell I needed it? I forgot to even title my last post!) Church was wonderful, as always, and we had a great dinner with my family. Thanks for coming over tonight, guys.

Oh, and my favorite part of yesterday's craft fair? The little girl dark-haired girl, with shining eyes and a crumpled $1 bill in her hand, asking for the pink crayon. She walked away clutching her mama in one hand and her crayon in the other, with the most enourmous grin on her face.

Craft fair is over! It was a lot of fun, and sitting at that table was actually really relaxing. No laundry or dishes staring me down... very relaxing :) E spent the day with Daddy, and they had a blast.

Thanks to everyone who came out, and thanks Mom for taking MiMi on a 2 hour walk!!

Updates...

So it's 10:30, and I've done pretty well with the daily posting, so I didn't want to leave y'all hanging.

We diverted the downspout pipe, so hopefully that fixes our wet basement problem. We have a massive fan running down there to dry things out.

I took Mimi to the doctor this morning- if a baby can't nurse on a particular side without screaming, there must be something wrong. Right?? Nope, perfectly healthy. Just doesn't want to nurse that side. Who knew?

Tonight was our last "Strengthening the Family" class. It's been a little rough on Ernie, since this class has met every Friday night since the week before Mimi was born, and runs rather late (pushing her bedtime from 8 to nearly 10) but it has been a good class.

I am absolutely wigging out over tomorrow's craft fair. What if nothing sells? What if I'm not taking enough stuff? What if I'm delusional and the sales I've had so far (6) have all been pity sales? I think certain members of my family could quote my hysterical ramblings along with me, but they don't...because they're nice. I'll post pictures tomorrow. And start making Christmas presents! (It's an addiction, I tell ya!)

When it rains...

So it's been raining a *lot* here in the Pacific NW. Turns out even if you don't live on one of the many flooding rivers, you can still wake up to sopping wet carpet in the basement. Especially if you forgot to ever re-direct the downspout that your dad pointed out, LAST SPRING, was pointed directly at your basement wall.

I'm off to find more towels and fans!

Much love, and with damp socks and knees-
Myrnie

Clothes Horse

I'm folding laundry right now- Ernie is asleep, Mimi is in her bouncy chair, enthralled with my laundry hamper. I'm looking at Ernie's clothes for the last few days:

12 pairs underwear
6 pairs pants
2 pairs shorts
1 sweater
9 shirts
5 pairs pajamas
10 pairs socks

What is is about girls and changing their clothes? Ernie has some funny habits now that the baby is here, and changing her clothes seems to be one of them. It's not uncommon for her to come out from her nap in an entirely new outfit. She's already dressed by the time I see her in the morning. Socks are strewn all over the house. Sweaters are next to every exit. And me? I just empty the hampers when they get too full. At least the soap is cheap!

A beading we will go...

I'm in the home stretch before the craft show, and just have a few things left to do. (*trying to convince myself it's only a few things*)

I love these little beaded ornament hooks- aren't they shiny? They would look so pretty holding a pretty ornament on the tree, or linked into chains to highlight smaller ornaments.

Now to finish the last few crafts, print up the package tags, finalize the inventory list... and re-stock the etsy shop just in case anyone from the show wants to do a custom order!

I Do Not Live in California

(Picture from KOMO news)

A couple facts that you already know:

1) I am a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
2) I do not live in California.

When my mother was married, a woman's group was still protesting our church by chaining themselves to the temple fence. This particular temple had just been completed and dedicated about 3 months prior, if I remember my dates correctly. (They were unhappy that women do not, CAN NOT, hold the Priesthood in our church. And yes, I am absolutely OK with that.)

Protesters stationed themselves outside of a number of Seattle-area LDS church buildings again yesterday, waving signs and shouting slogans at the families as they entered and left- most of the signs centered around gay rights in reaction to Proposition 8 passing in California, although it seemed to also include a number of other Mormon-haters.

I understand they are upset (although after reading their signs I don't think they understand what our church ACTUALLY teaches) but why picket our families? We don't live in California, we didn't vote on the proposition, and if they have a beef with the way our church conducted itself, what do they want US to do to change that?

It's just mean.

Wonder Daddy

Have I ever told you about Wonder Daddy? Settle in, guys- this is going to be good.

So I'm called "I Wonder Woman" because I ask questions. WAAAY too many questions. But Wonder Daddy? He's the real deal.

I met Wonder Daddy just days after he returned from a two-year mission to Sao Paulo, Brazil. I was playing prelude on the organ when he walked in to church and he thought "Oh, it's her." I looked around the organ when his name was announced and thought "Oh, it's him."

We formally met the following Wednesday at choir. My sister, Aunt LoLo, decided that he was the best singer there (he was) and would he please demonstrate to the altos how to sing their part. Poor guy, he DID do it better than the altos. I wore braided pigtails, baggy jeans, and a gray sweatshirt that night...and he asked me out on a date. Now ladies, THIS fellow is a keeper! I assure you, I was not looking at all dapper that night. And, for reasons we won't get into, I was MAD. It was a whole MAD PERIOD for me. I was mad at a lot of things, but mostly I was mad at MEN. Over the next few weeks I repeatedly explained this to him...and he just laughed. And invited me over to see his guitars.



It's a good thing Wonder Daddy has a sense of humor, because I think I might have actually laughed out loud when he answered the door that day. Here was my dapper, tall, blond, handsome friend...wearing holey jeans and a tie-dye concert tee. I kid you not. Tie-dye. It was awesome to behold.

Three months later, we went for a hike on a trail that I thought would be pretty. He seemed really excited to go when he called me that afternoon, so I couldn't figure out why he was so silent once we got out. I thought he was mad because I said there would be a waterfall, and so far all we found was a creek. "Whatever. He can be mad if he wants, I'm going to hike." So, snotty me, I just forged ahead. I waited for him when I got to a little bridge across the creek, still feeling a little snippy. I leaned on the railing, staring into the water, and noticed there were a few handfuls of red rose petals in the pooled water beneath me. When he caught up, he joined me on the bridge, arms on the railing. I started to wonder if he was ready to turn back, when he pulled something small out of his coat pocket and asked me a question. And ladies, he's a trooper. I latched on to his neck in a ten-minute, silent, hug, I kid you not. My mind was racing. Mentally, I was ten years down the road- we were married, had kids, everything. It was beautiful, I couldn't believe it was happening. Then I remembered the poor guy was still in my death grip, and all I could think of to say when I raised my head was "I guess I should say yes, huh?"


Six months later, we were sealed together. And then the fun began. I was already working at a large company as an inventory accountant, and he was just starting out at community college full-time, with a job at a timeshare company call center. 18 months later, Ernie came along, and I stopped working. He's still working at the timeshare company, and going to University now. Life can't get much busier for him, and then he's elected president of the accounting fraternity. This is a Big Deal. And a lot of work. He's teaching Sunday School at church, schooling, working, studying. He's swamped. And then Masters program starts. He's working at an accounting firm part-time now, and we purchase our first house, across the street from Aunt LoLo.



Masters program ends, he's working full-time at the accounting firm, and he starts studying for the CPA exam. And along comes Mimi.

He's our Wonder Daddy. He's always there when we need him, and always full-steam-ahead working on the next big thing. (Just don't let him try and study in bed on April 16th. We need a few days to recover after Tax Day!)

Crafting

"The crafting has consumed my life, dahling, as only crafting work can."

Name that kids flick, with my egregious tampering?

My supplies take up half the dining room right now, and I even turn Wonder Daddy's trips to the hardware store into crafting forages for plumb bobs (found it!) and 20-guage wire (fail!) But he's so sweet, he doesn't even mind asking the nice men in red aprons where he might find 20-gage wire, SANS PLASTIC COATING, for his wife. (Yeah, that lady over there ogling the tiffany-style chandeliers. It's for her.)

Ernie and I have been working on tutus this week, as you can see above. Luckily for me, she doesn't mind one bit. In fact, she loves to help me! She especially loves to sample (and claim) the wares. Here she is, all set to leave with Bobby for the evening. When we picked her up 4 hours later, she was still wearing that tutu! I'm pretty sure it will be included in tomorrow's outfit as well.

Accidental Vegetarian

I snitched a piece of fudge yesterday morning. My sisters and I made up a large goody box last week for our brother who is serving a mission right now, and a big batch of fudge was the last thing we made. My husband looked so bereft at the notion of all that fudge leaving his home forever (I've never made HIM fudge!) that I cut the batch in half and sent the remainder to Elder Bear and the rest of his roommates.

Mimi has already gathered a few nicknames-Screamin' Mimi, Crabby Mimi, etc. The girl has lungs.

I noticed yesterday that after nursing her, post-fudge, she would be happy and then spit up and start to scream. Could it be the chocolate?

My grandpa sent me home with soy milk, and I drank that instead of cow milk yesterday and today. She's only had one short crying spell today. Normally she can't lay on her back more than five minutes without spitting up acid, but she just lay quietly next to me for half an hour while I worked on a project. Could it be the milk?

I'm going to keep dairy and chocolate out of my diet for a while and see if Mimi continues to improve. Combine this with the infrequency that I serve meat, and I might become an accidental vegetarian! Thank goodness for calcium-fortified soy milk and large multi-vitamins!

Three

You know, I really like this girl. Wednesdays are just really long and tiring, and Wonder Daddy called to say he was going to be home late. I decided I couldn't hold off on dinner anymore and warmed up Ernie and my spaghetti and meatballs before she had a complete empty-tummy meltdown. Mimi was amazingly asleep in her swing for a few moments, so I sat down with Ernie to wolf down my bowl of pasta with two hands free before the baby woke up again.

When I finished just sat there with my head in my hands feeling tired and scrutinized and generally end-of-the-day-ey and wondering if I should throw the girls in the car to get milk for my little sister's birthday party I was hosting in 45 minutes, or if I should send someone else, because we really needed more than a quarter gallon between the 7 of us.

I heard a little voice "Mommy sad?" "Yes" I nodded, "Mommy is a little sad." "Oh." She paused. "I your fwend Mommy." That's when I almost started to cry. "A Daddy, a Mimi, a me...we a fwee! A fwee fwends." She pushed her noodles and milk across the table towards me, climbed into my lap to wrap her arms around my neck and said "I you too, Mommy."

I love you too, sweetie.

How could a girl be so lucky?

NaBloPoWhaa???

So I proudly proclaimed my intentions of participating in this year's NaBloPoMo extravaganza...and then Nana and Bobby J came to town. We had such a fantastic weekend, and I think I saw my computer for about 5 minutes a day- my daughter and her Nana found the most TERRIFIC preschool games to play. Although, it was rather jaw-dropping to hear my "I won't eat, smile, laugh, dance, sleep, or potty on command" daughter SAYING THE WORDS WHEN THE COMPUTER TOLD HER TO. What does this gray box have that I don't, eh? Now that the weekend is over, she's probably added 15 words to her vocabulary. She says home rather than reejoy, for goodness' sake!

Ernie had so much fun with her grandparents- one morning she climbed in Nana's bed, snuggled up to her face and said "I you too!" (she doesn't say the love part, but I know she means it) and then sat up on her knees and matter of factly stated "I nice." Yes sweetie, you're very nice.

They've gone home now, and we miss them! But, we're counting the weeks until Christmas. My whole family (the ones that still live in the family house anyways) are headed east to see Aunt LoLo and her Christmas baby, so my parents used up a vast amount of airline miles to fly us to Nana and Bobby J's windy domain. And I escape the post office at Christmas time once again. Hooray! (Before you ask why we're not headed east, picture Ernie, BBJ, Mimi, and little lolo boy all in the same drafty, cavernous, ECHOING lake house. For two weeks. Yep, we're definitely not invited :)

Oh, and here's a gratuitous picture of my little family at church.

Halloween Re-Hash

Oh folks, this was a good year. We've never convinced Ernie to hit more than a house or two- we've always had church parties on Halloween, and traipsing around the neighborhood is not high on the agenda of a cranky two-year-old. But we're in a new ward now, and our party was TUESDAY, leaving the holiday totally open!

Ernie was a champ- legs and arms pumping, she strode from door to door. A few loud knocks, an energetic "Boo!" (we work with the words we've got, and trick or treat is definitely NOT in the arsenal yet), a quick "Najoy" (Yeah, that means "thanks") and she was off to the next house with porch lights. Wonder Daddy stayed home with a sleeping Mimi, and we traded places once she woke up. Because when she wakes up she wants food NOW, thankyouverymuch. His exact words over the phone were "I've held her off as long as I can." Somewhere in our family lines there is an eagle whose genes are finally showing themselves. You can see her little face start to twist and screw... just before she blows completely through you ear drums and your brain starts to throb. Yeah, it's short but potent.

I hope everyone had a fabulous, safe holiday...and welcome back to NaBloPoMo! You're about to hear a lot more than you have been about my little family, and my frantic efforts at a craft business, i-ground-the-wheat-myself bread, hand-made holidays kind of life!

Gather your courage, and welcome!