Joe's Birthday!

My sweet, amazing, darling husband celebrated yet another birthday yesterday. I'll let you guess how old he is, because he is so devilishly handsome and debonair that it's hard to tell (he's 41).

Poor Joe always gets shorted on birthday gifts from me, because come January 29th, we are basically skint since we haven't been paid in nearly 6 weeks. Don't get me wrong, we are appreciative for the early pay check when it comes to finishing up Christmas shopping, but the last 2 weeks of January always get a little lean.

So, for Joe's birthday I decided to shower him with his favorite foods. My friend Mandi (the cake master) made him a strawberry cake with cream cheese icing, I got him a 5 guys double bacon cheeseburger for dinner, and I promised to make boeuf bourguignon on Saturday.

Since he bought me the Julia Child tome "Mastering the Art of French Cooking" for Christmas, he has mentioned making boeuf bourguignon at least 985 times. I have caught him thumbing through volume 1 several times, and I am never surprised at which pages appear to be more worn than the rest. The book practically opens to the beef stew section on its own. So, I decided he would finally get his beefy filled wish the day after his birthday.

What he really wanted was a classic Schwinn bicycle. I will get that for him, but just not yet.

For now, he will have to enjoy his strawberry cake and beef delights.
Please enjoy the pics of Jacks fawning over the cake, then putting in as many candles as he could find. We never counted how many there were, but there was quite a large smoke cloud after Joe blew them out.

Happy birthday, darling Joe. I love our small family birthdays we enjoy year after year - a small gathering of my favorite people in the world.
(by the way - I did make the boeuf bourguignon today, and it was amazing. It took me nearly 4 hours to finish, and I hired a baby sitter to help out with the kids for a couple of hours, but I think it was worth it. He has had 2 helpings so far, and he is pleased as punch.)

**if you already read the crossing the grate post - you will notice Miss Nealy's toes curled every so tightly around the edge of her high chair. I'm beginning to notice a trend - little one has to hang on for dear life all the time.

We've seen this before....

Nealy is 9 Months Old!!

Twilight Assignment Update

Well, I'm nearing the end of my deadline to finish all 4 Twilight books by the end of the winter holiday, but I'm not close to actually completing the assignment. I managed to read the first book, with little interest (in fact, I spent most of that book bored out of my mind). And I've read the first 100 pages of the second book, but I'm not anymore interested.
A good friend of mine (who loaned me the books) who has read all four books and loved every minute of them told me that she is falling out of love with the Twilight series. She very cleverly compared the series to New Kids on the Block. You kind of had to be into them when they were hot, or else you never really got it. I think I'm totally feeling that with Twilight.
The whole thing reads like a very tame teenage romance novel, and the vampire story line kind of lives in the background of the primary romance story line. And it's my opinion that you can only talk about one seventeen year old kid living and dying for another seventeen year old kid so much before you reach complete ennui.
I will certainly finish the series - this is my solemn vow, but I'm not promising that I'll like it or get it or catch on anytime soon. In fact, I'm thinking of going out and renting the movie tonight so maybe I can get a better feel for the book? That thought is just about completely crazy - to have to watch a movie adaptation of a book in order to like the book a little more. I'll be sure to keep you posted.

Christmas has arrived!

Ok - much to tell, but I'll stick with some pictures for now. First of all, Santa came! He brought lots of stocking stuffers and toys for the little ones, and Jacks and Nealy have had a wonderful day playing and playing and playing. Jacks is, in fact, still in his pajamas at 4:30 in the afternoon. When he woke up this morning, I think he expected Santa to be there waiting for him, so his waking words were, "I can't find Santa!!" Very cute.

And check out my new bike that Santa brought me!!! Sweet!!

A quick Twilight update.......no me likey, y'all. I'm going to stick with it, because I am going to treat it like an assignment, but I am failing miserably. I was sure I'd be through 2 of the books by now after about 3 nights of reading, but I'm still trudging through book 1. I was hoping things would start to get interesting by page 300 or so, but I'm still waiting for something good to happen other than page after page of descriptions of how gorgeous the boy is, how plain the girl thinks she is, and how much they are in love with one another because of the scent of one another's pheromones, or something like that. You know when you see a movie, and the romantic leads seem altogether wrong for each other, so you wonder why you care about their story? Yeah, it's like that. I need more, Twilight people. Much more.

Also, we spent a night with Joe's grandmother in Huntsville over the weekend. The kids were so well behaved, I didn't know what to do with myself. I'm always terrified that Jacks will go running toward one of her beautiful china cabinets at top speed and break all of the contents in millions of pieces, and he did manage to manhandle a few things that he shouldn't have. And there was that one time that he ran smack dab into Granny ON PURPOSE because he was playing with her (we were really scared she was about to fall over!). But overall, they were really great. I couldn't have been prouder. And Granny gave Nealy the cutest little baby tiara! Have you ever seen such?


We will be headed to Pensacola tomorrow to spend a few days with my family, so I'm sure there will be more to post about. Before I leave you for a while, I just HAD to post this picture of Nealy in her monkey hat. Have you ever?


Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night. Sorry for the erratic nature of this post. I've had a major search for a missing Transformer going on around my feet. I'm so easily distracted.

Nealy is 8 months old!!!

Well, we did take these pictures on or around the actual date of her 8 month "birthday." But, they were held hostage in Joe's work camera for a while, and I didn't get them for myself until today. Unfortunately, we attempted to use a spotlight to offer additional lighting since our house is so dark, but it made Nealy look a little eerie. So, while I am anxious to tell you about all of our wonderful Christmas festivities and fill you in on how I'm doing with Twilight (not good, I'll tell ya that), I really need to blog about Miss Nealy Bug before her 9 month birthday arrives in a few short days.


Little one is crawling all over the place and pulling up to stand more and more frequently. And of course, her cheerful nature cannot be denied. She smiles and laughs and smiles and laughs. We can hardly look at her without being flashed a wicked grin. I'm not sure what she's up to, but I have a feeling it's something BIG and HILARIOUS. Stay tuned for Christmas updates......

An Assignment

Ok, I admit it, I saw Julie and Julia, and I'm feeling all inspired to chronicle an assignment on my blog. Of course, I'm over a month overdue on writing a blog post for my cousin, but I have a major problem with focus and procrastination. Plus, I can't seem to stick to the assignment she gave me. I keep digressing into discussions of baby poop and snot. Apparently, these are not appropriate topics for the general public. Who knew? (sorry Robin - I will come through for you when you least expect it)

So.....can you see my tendency to wander? Let's get back on topic....an assignment!

I have not read the Twilight books. I have not seen the movies. I do have a strong grasp on the general content of these stories, and I have maintained a snobby ignorance of them. I previously decided that I DON'T DO Twilight. But, everyone loves it so much, and my students (all girls - big surprise) are SO into it.

All I know is that the stories are about vampires and werewolves with six-pack abs and carefully, messily coiffed hair-dos, sleepy eyes, sloppy clothes, and uber-pale skin (but glowy in all the right places so people will find them attractive). Blogs are generally writing about these teen-aged stars every single day as if they are the Beatles - here they are getting off a plane, here they are leaving the gym, OMG is he going out with her? And so on.

What is the draw? I'm not sure I get it. But clearly, I want to. I want to know why my tween aged students are super in love with some boy who plays a werewolf and looks like sasquatch, and why do they hate the other one who is much better looking but needs an attitude adjustment (which I have determined he needs based on the butt hole look on his face).

So, here's the plan. I have 2 weeks of vacation and 4 books to read. I will even attempt to watch the first movie. Depending on my commitment to the series, I may or may not go see the 2nd movie at the theater (if it's still showing, and if I have any money, and if I can find someone to go with me). I will write about my reactions to these stories after each book.

Happy Holidays and Merry Christmas to all. Wish me luck in my endeavor. I hope I don't get any major injuries from excessive eye rolling.