I awoke this morning in a post-Thanksgiving, carb-overloaded stupor to the sound of tiny feet pitter pattering around the hallway outside our room. Pumpkin came in and said "Mom, Princess is awake," just like he does every morning. I groaned and looked at the clock. 8:30. Well, happy Thanksgiving, indeed. I told him to go talk to her and I'd be right there. Then I fell back asleep. The next thing I knew Princess was hitting my nose and telling me she wanted breakfast.

"I hopped her out of her crib! I just let down the side and helped her climb out!" said Pumpkin. Well, that's cool, I thought. Now if only they want to snuggle for the next hour. No such luck. They were hungry.

"Ok," I said, "run downstairs and play for a minute and I'll be right there."
"Okay!!!" they shouted and ran downstairs. And I promptly fell back asleep. Nothing but snores from D.

The next noise I heard was a dinging sound which I thought was the alarm clock. I hit it with my hand, but it didn't stop. Finally I realized it was the sound of the refrigerator letting me know it'd been left open. I groaned and asked D if he wanted to go investigate. I got nothing from him. I heard the fridge door slam shut and decided I'd better go find out what maniac had snuck into our house and decided to raid our fridge.

I pulled myself together and went down to the kitchen. I was met by the proudest expression I've ever seen on a 4 year old face. "Mommy! I got Princess and me breakfast!!!"

Sure enough, Princess was at the table all buckled in. She was gleefully eating a bowl of cheerios. There was a bowl waiting for Pumpkin, too. There was no mess, no spills. There was no cereal box out, and he'd already put the milk away. "I spilled a little bit of milk, mommy, but I got a paper towel and cleaned it up," he told me.

I couldn't believe it. When did my little guy turn into a competent babysitter? He got her out of bed, got her buckled into her high chair (with her help) and got her breakfast. This is awesome!!! I just have to make sure he doesn't try to scramble any eggs or something and I'm set! I may sleep in every day!

If you look close you can see me! Ok, so not really, but I was there! Ok, not in this picture, but I was in this stadium on Saturday to watch BYU stomp the Air Force team from Colorado. It was an awesome game! We won 38-21, a score which should have been 52-21 if a few referee calls had been in our favor. What the heck is "intent to deceive the defense"? Isn't that kind of the point of the game? You line up one way, then switch at the last minute to deceive the defense into running the wrong coverage? Weird call. And the pass-interference call in the first few minutes of the game took away another touchdown. Oh well, we still won.

This win makes Max Hall the winningest QB in BYU history, beating out Ty Detmer. And Harvey Unga is now the all time rushing leader at BYU. And I was there to see it happen. Someday I'll tell my children's children's children. :)

This was part of my birthday present from D. I mentioned that I hadn't been to a game in 9 years and now that the kids were old enough I thought they wouldn't mind being me taking off for half a day. My awesome mom babysat (and did the laundry and cleaned the kitchen and made cookies. Best Babysitter Ever!) and D, The Brother, and I headed into the chaos. The game was chilly, but we'd bundled up and the layers helped. So did the huge mugs of hot chocolate. Yum. We ate cougar tails (long maple donuts) and hot dogs and ribs and way too much hot chocolate.

It was intoxicating being in a crowd that huge. They aren't kidding when they say "the roar of the crowd". You can feel it vibrating your intestines. We booed for a straight 4 minutes at the official's call of "attempting to deceive the defense" on Max at the end of the 3rd quarter. We pulled that same play last year and no one called us on it. Apparently the officials had gotten a memo about the play a few weeks ago, but neglected to let Coach Bronco know that he wasn't supposed to use it. He said he wouldn't have called the play if he knew it was illegal. Makes sense. The officials threw their flag almost right after Max started walking away from the center, so you knew they were looking for the play. Oh well.

Anyway, it was a great game and an awesome day. It took me back to my freshman year and all the fun we had making fools of ourselves at the games. I seem to recall a few of the crazier Merrill Boys painting their chests blue and white. You know who you are...although your wives may not know. Should I name names? Anyone else make the game?

Pumpkin and Princess have really been testing boundaries lately. They've been pushing and pushing and eventually I've had to lay down the law. Princess has started "play hitting" and Pumpkin has been asking for food all day long and then not eating the meals and snacks I've made for him. Frustrating? Yes. Impossible, no. We now have some new family rules that I'm trying to enforce and adjust to myself. It has occurred to me recently that the Mom's reign can be easily compared to that of a Benevolent Dictator of a small country.

The Mom. She is the queen of the house. She is the maker of the food and the doer of the laundry. Dad may help out, but in most cases the Mom reigns supreme.

Think about it:
-Mom creates rules and laws and expects the subjects of her country to abide by them without question.
-Punishment is meted out in the form of jail time/time out chairs or grounding, or loss of privileges and the occasional longing wish for corporal punishment. (just kidding on that last one...or am I? How many of you have had a fleeting thought of cp when you found your toddler with your brand new $40 stick of color-fast lipstick spread all over her and the new white guest towels? Be honest)
-Mom works hard to keep democracy to a minimum. (If you haven't said "Because I said so" or "We listen to this music because it's my car" you will eventually, trust me)
-Mom has to listen to the constant demands of her subjects, and they expect her to fulfill all the ones in Mom's power and sometimes the ones that aren't.
-Mom requires subjects to pay taxes in the form of labor and physical affection.
-Mom will reward citizens for a job well done with universal health care, food in the fridge/market, and energy for their consumption. And the occasional ice cream.
-Mom has to attend state functions, including plays, sporting events, graduations, performances, etc.
-Mom sometimes uses Dad as the enforcer for her lawbreakers and an adviser in her lawmaking.
-Sometimes Mom can get a little power hungry but for the most part she cares for her subjects and has their best interest in mind. She has absolute power, but hopefully it doesn't corrupt.

Mom rules her country with an iron fist and a soft nougaty heart. She takes little time for herself and always has the best of her country in mind. Until the Teenage Uprising of 2018, that is...

Ok, fine, I like the droid. Are you happy now? Geez.

We have always decorated for Christmas on the day after Thanksgiving. It's just tradition in my family. We get the tree, string it with lights, hang the ornaments and enjoy a glass of egg nog while admiring our handiwork.

This year we're heading to Seattle in the middle of December to spend several weeks with D's family. It occurred to me that if we did our decorating at the end of November, the kids would only have two weeks of seeing our decorations before we leave. It didn't seem worth the effort to schlep the boxes from the basement, decorate, enjoy, and take it all down for just 14 days of smiles. So, I decided to do it today. November 14th. Six weeks before Christmas. I know, I know, I'm crazy. I'm sure we'll be sick of the holidays waaaay before they get here. But dang it, I'm determined to enjoy every single sugar-laden, frost-bitten, song-overplaying moment of the Christmas season.

So, today we listened to Christmas music, put together an old artificial tree, and let the kids laden it with non-breakable ornaments. Mommy's special glass ornaments are going to be saved until next year when we get a real, sturdier, taller tree. I embraced my inner Christmas elf and flitted around the house strewing decorations in my path. I spread Christmas cheer in nearly every room in the house. Only the laundry room and the storage room escaped my boughs of holly and seasonal trappings. I can now glance up at the stockings hung over the gas fireplace with care...and smile. I can walk by the living room and see the small but well decorated tree...and sigh. When I come home the Christmas lights in the windows wink at me with merriment.

<<>>

I LOVE CHRISTMAS!!!

Apparently my choice of cell phone embarrasses my husband. I've always been partial to phone-phones. You know, no fancy keyboard, no touch screen, no music player...just a phone. I think I've owned a total of three phones in the last 8 years. I don't even really like talking on the phone. And I definitely don't like people being able to get in touch with me whenever THEY want to. Although, I will admit that being able to call someone when it's ME who needs something is pretty handy. We also don't have a house phone, so cell phones are pretty important.

This embarrassment didn't come out until recently. D got the new Droid phone, the new super-cool, super-special, super-options-loaded phone. It's Verizon's answer to the iPhone. It's not even really a cell phone. It's a computer that can make phone calls. Our contracts were up and he got a smoking deal on it. I was ok with it, but since I dropped my phone in the kids' bath while in Seattle, I unfortunately needed a new one, too. I loved my Chocolate, and I miss it. I've been using one of D's old computer-phones for several months now and I still can't figure out how to use it half the time. I'm a pretty smart cookie, but all of the menus and workarounds get me. When I just want to make a phone calls, all I want to do is push a speed-dial button and go. The phone I've been using doesn't even HAVE buttons, and the "speed dial" function takes like 4 clicks.

So, D got his Droid and I was looking for a new phone. I don't text (at least I never really have) and I barely use the phone. I call like 3 people regularly. I just need to be able to throw it in my pocket when we go for a walk and find it in the house when it falls between the couch cushions. But "enough for me" wasn't enough for D. He called me an old lady, afraid of phones, and admitted he was embarrassed by my dinky little phone choices. He kept going on and on about the Droid and its amazing features. GPS! Internet! Free texting through GoogleTalk! Access to Facebook! GoogleMaps and Driving Instructions!!!!!

I laughed quietly and told him I wouldn't use half those features most of the time and some of those things I was sure I'd NEVER use. Why pay hundreds of dollars when all I want to do is make phone calls? But "no" wasn't a good enough answer for him. He got huffy, he pleaded, he cajoled and joked. Finally he convinced me to try it for 14 days and return it if I didn't like it. Apparently Verizon has that policy. To keep the peace (and because I was a little curious at this point) I said "Fine, whatever, let's just get me one."

So, that's where he is right now. Buying me a computer that makes phone calls. The sheer number of applications "apps" for this thing are ridiculous. It's sorta heavy and kind of big. It will fit in my pocket, but D just rolled his eyes when I made that a criteria of getting the monstrosity.

I guess he could be neurotic about other things: sports, horses, hiking, art...whatever. At least I get some benefit out of this type of craziness. It just seems a little much, dontcha think?

Just when I thought he couldn't top last year's gift of an Amazon Kindle (e-book reader), he goes and gets me this:

*It's an electric pottery wheel for throwing clay pots

And that moldy room in our basement? We're going to remodel it with tile and wipeable walls. It's going to be my craft room/pottery room. It's amazing. I never thought I'd be able to throw at home. I've done three years in high school and two in college. I've taken a number of community center classes just to get time on the wheel. And now it's mine...all mine!!!

Thanks, D, thee's the best!

Thanks, too, to everyone who sent me birthday wishes, cards, and presents. I love you all and I feel so blessed to have such great friends, family, and neighbors. I felt truly cherished and loved yesterday. As a matter of fact, I was a little embarrassed with all the attention. So, thanks to everyone who made my 29th a special one.