7 Quick Takes

--- 1 ---

By the time you read this, I will be on my way to D.C. (with the kids in tow). Dan (who has been home for only 44 hours out of the last 12 days) be meeting us there.  We will spend the night and then drive the rest of the way to Massachusetts on Saturday.

--- 2 ---

Just typing that sentence made me tired.  Why does sitting on my rear-end doing absolutely nothing make me so tired.

--- 3 ---

The only thing that is standing between me and a merry Christmas (other than 782 miles) is wrapping the Christmas presents.  That always hangs over my head until we get to Massachusetts, unpack and Dan takes the kids somewhere for approximately 3-4 hours while I wrap everything that I had ordered and that has hopefully arrived!  Once I get that done, then I can relax.

--- 4 ---

The kids and I absolutely love this version of 12 Days of Christmas.  Nothing says Merry Christmas like a little punk rock diddy!

--- 5 ---

I made sure to pack the kids snow pants and all of our boots, hats, gloves, scarves, etc.  So you can bet it is NOT going to be a white Christmas this year.  Seems like when I am well prepared, no snow anywhere on the entire east coast. But the minute I forget to pack snow pants a nor'easter blows through.  

--- 6 ---

And as much as I don't like snow, the kids really would love to have some.  Not only did we not get snow last year at Christmas in Massachusetts, but it didn't snow any in North Carolina all winter.  The kids want snow so I guess I wouldn't mind a little either.

--- 7 ---

Pretty boring QT this morning, but I've got to finish this coffee and get dressed and get on the road.  Please pray for our safety on this trip.

For more Quick Takes, visit Conversion Diary!

RIP Grandmom

My grandmother passed away on Friday morning at the age of 91.  She will be buried today and I just couldn't resist posting this picture of her.

This was taken two years ago at my cousin's wedding.  The photographer captured her when she was relaxing and enjoying the breeze and most likely didn't even know she was the subject.

Her hair was always perfectly in place so she probably wouldn't be too fond of this picture.  But I love the peaceful look on her face and I like to think that after months of suffering from congestive heart failure, this is how she is going to look for all of eternity now.

Rest in peace, Grandmommy. We will miss you.

WIWS - Edition: Old Purple Sweater and some double chins.

Once again I'm playing with the What I Wore Sunday crowd.

And once again, my outfit is less than thrilling.

I tried this long, old purple sweater with a pair of leggings that I bought when I saw so many other cute outfits with boots and leggings being worn on Sunday.  But then I realized that I really needed a different style long sweater and lo and behold I didn't have any black boots to go with my black leggings. So I ended up looking a bit like an ill-clothed hooker. Not the look I typically strive for on Sunday mornings (or any morning for that matter!).

Nothing like scrambling and muttering and not-cussing as one is getting ready to go to church. 

Since I had the shirt and sweater on already and the clock was ticking, I grabbed some black skinnies and voila.  My less than stellar outfit:

Sweater: Kohl's
Shirt: Target
Jeans: Kohl's
Shoebooties: Target

And because my husband is out of town, the photographer this morning was my eight-year-old.  And this is what she did when I told her to stop:

 "Okay, honey, that's good.  Stop taking pictures.  We're late to church! Don't make me go all crazy-eye on you!"

 I said, "Stop taking pictures!"

"I warned you! Give me that camera or my double chins will attack!!"

Head on over to Fine Linen and Purple and see what the other less-harried and double-chinned folks wore to church today.

7 Quick Takes Friday

--- 1 ---

Dan was in Seattle earlier this week but made it back last night just in time for the Christmas pageant at school.I took video of both Peter and Sarah performing musical numbers with their class.

I would post it here except I know that my mom and my sister-in-law would be the only ones even remotely interested in watching and I'm not really sure how to do it anyway.  So just imagine a cute 3rd grader playing the xylophone and signing "Rest Well Little Children" while wearing pajamas and a handsome 4th grader singing "The Little Drummer Boy" while wearing ragged clothing and banging drum sticks.

--- 2 ---

A little boy in Sarah's class has a brain tumor and beginning at noon yesterday he was undergoing an 8-hour surgery to remove the tumor. As you can imagine, the whole school has been praying for him. Everyday at noon the school normally prays the Angelus together, but yesterday, they prayed a decade of the Rosary together.

Last night, as the musical program was concluding (right around 8:00 pm) as his surgery was hopefully concluding, the priest prayed for this little boy and his family and then we all joined hands and prayed the Our Father together. I was sitting near the kids and to hear them all loudly praying the Our Father together gave me goose bumps. 

--- 3 ---

Dan normally flies into and out of a city with very little chance to do any sightseeing.  But this week was different.  His meetings were all day Tuesday and half a day Wednesday and he wasn't flying home until Thursday morning.  So he and one of the guys he works with spent the day visiting some sights in Seattle.

One of the places they visited was Theo Chocolate. He said the tour was a really good one and well worth the price of admission.  And he sent me this picture:

My husband is the one on the left who looks very annoyed that he he wearing a shower cap AND taking his own picture. He hates having his picture taking, but even more, he hates taking his own picture. Throw in a shower cap, and well, I can imagine that this is one of my husband's worst nightmares! 

He's going to hate that I posted his picture, but since he doesn't read my blog regularly, he may never know.  Ssshhhh.  Let's keep this our little secret!

--- 4 ---

He got to sample lots of different chocolates while he was on the tour and was very excited to tell me about the chocolate he tried with chili in it.  He brought a couple of bars home for me because even though he doesn't read my blog, he loves me.

One is made with dark chocolate and the pili pili chili and the other is made with dark choclate and ghost chili.

 

 

--- 5 ---

I sampled the pili pili bar last night and yikes!  According to Dan you are supposed to let the chocolate melt in your mouth as opposed to chewing it.  So as I let the chocolate melt, I got the delicious taste of really good dark chocolate (which I love!) but the finish was hot! hot! hot!   Did I mention hot?  Nose running, mouth burning, throat screaming hot.  

After that, I decided I would try the ghost chili bar later.  Because the ghost chili is the hottest chili in the world.  Looks like I've got a hot Friday night planned! 

 

--- 6 ---

I think I have all of my shopping done.  It's a good feeling to be finished.  Now I'm just keeping my fingers crossed that everything makes it to Massachusetts in time.  In ten years of ordering online and shipping, I've had good luck.  And I figure, Santa could always leave a note explaining problems with the elves...maybe?

--- 7 ---

 Even though I'm done shopping, I still have quite a list of to-dos so I guess I better not sit here on the computer all morning.  Those Christmas cards aren't going to stuff themselves!

For more Quick Takes, visit Conversion Diary!

A can of soda. And a hug.

Peter had been begging us to take him to see the new movie Lincoln.  We decided to go on Saturday afternoon.  Dan would take Peter to see Lincoln and Sarah and I would see Wreck-It Ralph.

We were at a stop light and I noticed a homeless woman on the corner.  Sadly, it seems that every time I go to town, I see more and more homeless people begging for money. 

This woman was dressed in dark clothes with a red knit cap and at first, I wasn't even really sure if it was a man or a woman.  I was staring at her wondering if I should give her a few dollars, hesitating like I always do, when a teenager in a car several cars ahead of us, hopped out of the passenger side of his car.

He had that shaggy hair that so many of the kids these days are wearing (geez, I sound like a 85-year-old curmudgeon!) and ran over to the woman. 

"Look, kids!  That teenager is giving the homeless lady something!"

The kids stopped playing their video games or reading their books or fighting or whatever it was they were doing in the backseat of the car at the time and watched.

He handed her a Pepsi.

And then he hugged her.

This kid (maybe 17) opened up his arms and hugged this homeless woman.

It was honestly one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen.

And  I stopped hesitating about whether or not I should give her some money and I grabbed my wallet. 

I noticed the car in front of us handed her some money.  And then we handed her a couple of ones. "God bless you," she said.  Her eyes looked tired and sad.

And then the car behind us handed her some money.

I believe we all gave because we saw a kid give the lady a can of soda. And a hug.

I wonder if the kid thought to himself, All I've got to give her is a Pepsi.  What good is a Pepsi?

I hope he saw the other cars giving her money after he inspired us with his hug.  I hope he saw that by giving what he had, he gave others the courage to do the same.

And I hope I will always remember that it isn't necessarily the size of the gift, but the love behind it. 

WIWS - Edition: Beef. It's What's For Dinner. Not for chuch.

I got an email last week from someone at Kohl's who apparently spends her work days searching the internet for people who mention Kohl's in their blog posts.  She kindly pointed out that I did not leave links to the jewelry department or to the cami department in my last What I Wore Sunday post and it would benefit my readers if I had done so.  She then supplied the links and asked me to put them in my blog post.

I did because I'm nice that way and because she supplied them to me.  And because I felt sorry that she wasted her time because all 6 of my readers had already read that post and I doubted that anyone else was going to stampede their way to my two-week-old blog post and wish like crazy that they had a link to the necklace department so they could search for the necklace that I had purchased from Kohl's most likely 5 or 6 years ago.

Anywho, I went back and edited that blog post but I hope she doesn't think I'm doing that on my own every week. Now maybe if Kohl's was giving me free merchandise, then maybe I would consider it but they haven't come to me yet with this offer so...no links this week. (And you know, as usual, half my outfit came from Kohl's.)

Although, she did give me a coupon code for 10% off which can be layered on top of other department codes.  Not sure where you would get a department code but department code is not the same as the normal 10%, 20% or 30% codes you can normally get off your total purchase at Kohl's.  I guess a department code is specific to a particular department in Kohl's.  Like maybe they have special 20% off bra codes?  I don't know.

If you are interested, the code is TENBLOG.

Onward and upward to what I wore to church this week.

Poncho - Kohl's (from the clearance rack and after looking at these pictures I'm starting to realize why. Not super flatering.I think it might look better with different pants and a different shirt underneath.)
Shirt - Lands' End
Pants - Kohl's
Shoes - Target

My original plan was to wear this poncho-thingy with some plum-colored pants that I got from (you guessed it!) Kohl's from the Simply Vera collection.  I had been wanting a pair of colored pants (And yes, I'm always very late to a trend if you haven't figured that out yet!).  So I purchased these plum skinnies which looked really good on me in the store.

But when I put them on at home I was aghast.  They were waaaaaaaaay too tight for normal wear and would have been scandolous at church and the color?

Oh the color!  You can't make it out very well in the picture but the plum is mixed with sort of an iridescent blackish color.  So in addition to being way to tight, the color screamed, "I'm going to a club!"

When Dan saw them he shouted, "Everybody dance now! Bomp. Bomp. Bomp. Bomp. Bomp." (And you can thank me later for having that song stuck in your head all day!")

So they are in a bag waiting to be returned the next time I go to Kohl's.

I told Dan I think sometimes dressing rooms are not only equipped with skinny mirrors but also have some sort of hallucinogen piped in that makes you think something looks fabulous and then you get home, the drug wears off, and you are left with shiny, beef-colored pants.

Head on over to Fine Linen and Purple to see what everyone else wore on Sunday!

3rd-grade girls. And I hear it's only going to get worse.

Sarah is a drama queen.  And she usually likes pull out the dramatics  right at bedtime.

Tonight she presented me with a letter that her friend Brooke gave to her friend Mia and Mia gave the letter to Sarah to read without Brooke knowing about it.

Uh oh.  3rd-grade-girl drama is not what I like to get involved in right at bedtime.  Especially on a night when my husband is taking customers to dinner and won't be home until later. Much later. And won't be able to rescue me from any crying and moaning and over-the-top-theatrics that I know are coming as soon as she closes her bedroom door.

Sarah wanted me, as her all-knowing mom, to tell her how to handle the trouble she is having.  Her two best friends at school are fighting with each other.  They were all three good friends for most of the year last year but I don't know what happened  this year because as Sarah wailed at me, "You haven't been listening at all!" (Although, in my defense, I had been listening but Sarah was presenting me with the facts in very confusing way.)

I was listening but I didn't know what to tell her.  She wanted to know how to fix it.  I had to explain to her that I can't fix everything but she should pray because God can fix everything. She said she had prayed but God had not told her what to do. So I said prayer with her.  But she moaned and cried some more saying she wanted God to tell her right then and there what to do to fix it...especially if I wasn't going to help her.

15 minutes into the crying and the dramatics, I was fearful that I was never going to get out of her room.  And quite honestly I was over all the drama.  I feel bad for Sarah that her two best friends at school are fighting but what is a mother to do?

I offered to call the teacher.(Rejected.) I offered to call the other parents. (Met with a look that told me she though I am so totally lame) I told her to walk away while they were fighting.(But she couldn't abandon her friends!) I told her to play with the other girls. (Apparently all the girls take sides on the recess and gather around while Brook and Mia are arguing.) I told her to play with the boys.(Eww! Gross! were her exact words.)

I was getting annoyed that idea after idea was rejected and all the while she is continuing to tell me that I'm not helping and that I'm the mom and I'm supposed to fix things. 

So finally in frustration I said, "Just tell them to get over it!"

And with that, she removed the pillow that was covering her head, sat straight up and said with a smile, "That's good!  That's what I'm going to tell them."  She got a notepad and a pencil and said, "Okay. Tell me that one more time so I can write it down."

"Tell them to get over it!  Tell them you are tired of them fighting and they need to get over it!"

"That's good," she said scribbling furiuosly.  "Give me two more lines." 

So I rambled off a few more lines and with that, she thanked me, hugged me, and went happily went to bed.

Bedtime crisis averted. 

Until tomorrow night.

Just a few!

Here a just a few of my favorite photos from our weekend trip to Washington/Alexandria:

I think it was a Capitol idea!

We left Thursday night to spend a long weekend in Alexandria, VA with Dan's sister Cathy.  We took Peter's best friend Colton (whose mom just happens to be my BFF!) with us as part of Peter's birthday present.  (Although really, it was a present for all of us!)

I am pressed for time as I have grocery shopping, laundry and less than 3 weeks until we leave for our Christmas trip to Massachusetts.  Let's just say I'm slightly panicked!

We had a great trip and packed a ton of stuff into our visit.  But like I said, I'm a little busy (aren't we all?) so for now I will leave you with three of the cutest kids to even pose in front of the Capitol Building:

You Capture: Lunch

Every week, Beth over at I Should Be Folding Laundry, hosts a photography link-up.  She gives you a theme and you have a week to take a picture representing the theme and then you post your link at her blog.

Since I have absolutely nothing to do right now with Christmas being only three weeks away, I thought, what the heck, I'll do it this week!  Also, the point of this link-up is to get you using your camera and heavens knows I need help with my camera and I guess one way to learn how to use my camera is to actually use my camera.   So here I am!

This weeks theme is Lunch.

And here's what I had for lunch today:

It's nothing fancy - just some Romaine, chicken, pineapple chunks, goat's milk cheese and Asian dressing.

It was delicious!  The only problem?  I could have eaten two plates. Next time I think I need to add more pineapple. And more cheese.  You can never have too much cheese!

To see how everyone else captured the theme, head on over to I Should Be Folding Laundry.

Oh Christmas card, oh Christmas card your photos aren't so lovely.

We are heading to Washington, D.C. tonight to spend a long weekend with Dan's sister Cathy.  We are taking Colton - Peter's best friend.  Even though we are a few weeks late, this is to celebrate Peter's birthday.

And while I am very excited to go on this trip(probably just as if not more excited that the kids!), it puts me even further behind on all of my Christmas work.  Last night, in an attempt to get the Christmas card photo, I hurried the kids to the shower immediately following dinner and made them put on a nice outfit and stand and fake smile in front of the tree.

And let me tell you.  They were none too thrilled.  Especially Peter.  Oh that boy hates to do anything that isn't on his master plan for the day.

I snapped and snapped and snapped and as I am sitting here reviewing the pictures, I realize that I have 25 great pictures of Sarah and 25 great pictures of Peter.  Unfortunately, out of the 50 pictures I took, that greatness doesn't coincide at the same time. 

I've got Sarah smiling a great big happy smile and Peter looking up to the heavens as if praying to God for relief.

I've got Peter looking happy and relaxed and Sarah staring off to the side as if looking for an escape route.

I could go on and on but you get the idea.

So without further ado, let me present you with our 2012 Christmas card picture:

I really should invest in professional shots next year!

Ding dong around the world!

So now that Black Friday and Cyber Monday have come and gone, I'm finally sitting down to my computer to get a little Christmas shopping done.

I have asked, begged, and cajoled the kids in previous years to make a list for Santa they never do or they make lists and contain items that are no longer made or sold out (Peter) or contain items like globe and bell (Sarah).  What four-year-old asks for a globe and a bell?

The kids had all last week off from school so I took them to Target one morning to get some ideas for their lists. 

Peter wrote down one small Lego set and three video games and then got mad when I told him three video games was enough to put on one list.

Sarah wrote down microphone (the same kind my mom got her last year for her birthday that broke and we had to ship back to the manufacturer and then the replacement broke again) and Barbie make up purse.

After writing those things down, she said, "I don't want to do this any more."  When I asked her why not she replied, "Because then I'll know what I'm getting.  I want to be surprised." 

So I've been drinking coffee and pursuing Amazon for gift ideas and have not had much luck.  But no worries.  I will continue my search and I will be victorious. I think I've done a good job for the last 10 years.  
And if all else fails, I'll get them a bell and a globe. 

The Midway Christmas Parade

Sarah's Brownie troop had a float in the local Christmas parade this weekend.  She had been looking forward to this for weeks and even said, "Mom, it's like I'm going to be famous!" 

The girls decorated a tree, dressed in Christmas colors and tossed out pounds and pounds of candy along the parade route.

When their float approached Sarah and Cheyanne were alternating between smiling and waving like a beauty queen and tossing out candy. 

The girls decorated the tree and the float themselves.

Here they come!

Sarah and Cheyanne were throwing candy and we couldn't get their attention.

Waving to the crowd!

She finally sees us!

The girls had a blast and were already asking their troop leaders if they could be in the Easter parade.  I guess they enjoyed their first taste of "fame".  I think their leaders were ready for a nap!

What I Wore Sunday

Is it really Sunday already?  Is our long weekend almost over? Sigh...Must be because here I am dressed for church this morning:

Cami: Kohl's
Shirt: Lands' End (I know!  Not Kohl's or Target!)
Pants: Kohl's
Shoes: Shoe Carnival

Necklace: Kohl's

I really probably should have tucked this shirt in but thanks to a lot of eating this last week and a lot of not working out for the last two weeks, my pants were feeling a little snug and I didn't want to have to sit with my stomach sucked in during Mass. 

So, there you have it - What I Wore Sunday.  Head on over to Fine Linen and Purple to see what everyone else wore today. 

What I Wore to Thanksgiving

Grace, over at Camp Patton, is hosting What I Wore On Thanksgiving. She called me stylish when she asked me to participate so of course, I agreed, because flattery. Hello!

And while I don't think I'm stylish at all, Grace certainly is. Check out what she and her two really, really cute kids are wearing today. Kind of makes me embarrassed to post my outfit but here goes...

Shirt: Target
Jeans: Kohl's
Boots: Target

I have a love/hate relationship with this shirt.  Well, mostly hate.  I've had it since last year and the few times I worn it, I've worn it with black pants and have hated it.  I love the cut of the shirt but I guess it's the pattern I don't care for. 

This shirt was actually in my send-to-Goodwill pile but I dug it out and thought I would see if I liked it any better with dark jeans and my brown boots.  And I guess I like it a little better although with my not working out very much in the past three weeks, I really need a much looser top to balance out my ever tightening skinny jeans. 

So there you have it!  What I Wore on Thanksgiving.

The nice thing about taking this picture before heading over to Mom's for lunch?  When I saw the size of my saddlebags, I decided not to have dessert.  And I'm going to start working out again.  On Monday.

A little DQ can make it all better.

We were supposed to go camping with the Cub Scouts this weekend.  Which in September, when we signed up, sounded like a really good idea.  But now that it's November, and cold, and windy, and cold and ugh, camping.  What was I thinking?  So I was not heartbroken when two  families backed out at the last minute and the trip was postponed until the spring.

And now I'm like, camping?  In the spring?  That sounds wonderful!  I'm in!  Let's do this!  But I know I'll be singing a different tune when it's time to actually sleep on the ground and pee in a latrine.

But not camping this weekend left us some free time so my husband decided we should go for hike.  He wanted to try some place new so we headed for the Piedmont Environmental Center in High Point.

The trail we took was nice - only about two miles.  It weaved through the woods around the shores of High Point City Lake so we had some nice views.

But Sarah decided about half way through the hike that she was over it.  She wanted to get home to work on a project and bugged me about ideas for this project the entire two miles.  Every time I would give her an idea she would say "No. Think of something else."

Maddening.  She's lucky she's so cute and that I really, really love her.

But it's all good because at the end of the hike, we headed for Dairy Queen.

And everyone knows a whiny hike and Dairy Queen trump camping any day.

What I Wore Sunday

I'm participating in What I Wore Sunday once again.  So, let's see what I wore...

I have one on of those bat-wingy type shirts on.  Is bat-wingy even a thing?  No?  Well, it is now.  Anyway, I had a pale grayish whitish bat-wingy shirt on.  Every time I moved my arms material flapped up at me. It must really be hard being a bat. I am wearing a burgundy tank top underneath but you can't really see that in the pictures but trust me, it's there.There would have been a lot of unsightly pale flesh showing every time I moved my arms if I didn't have on a tank underneath.  shudders

I am also wearing some darker gray skinnies.  And I'm wearing a long silvery chain.  After reviewing these pictures, I think I need a heavier darker necklace to go with this shirt.  The silver is lost in all of the gray.

I have the same boots on from last week but they didn't make it into the picture.  Apparently my photographer doesn't understand that shoes can make or break an outfit.  And I also don't think he really understands the whole concept of taking a picture of your outfit and posting it to your blog.  I have so much to teach my sweet husband.

 Shirt: Target
Tank top: Target
Jeans: Target
Boots: Target
Necklace: Target

Someone needs to quickly step away from Target and perhaps head to the mall or something.

Sarah wanted to have her picture taken as well because she is quite pleased with her outfit.  Dan and I kept making comments like"Sarah, are you done with that big proposal yet?" or "Sarah, what time is that meeting you called?". And Dan kept making her look at her wrist and then say, "Half day today, eh Bob?" We really cracked ourselves up this morning.

Shirt: Consignment Sale
Skirt: Consignment Sale
Shoes: Target (where else?)

Isn't she going to make a really cute executive one day?

And here we are together right before we dash out to the car. 

Head on over to Fine Linen and Purple for more What I Wore Sunday.  I'm sure the other ladies that have linked up are a little less bat-wingy and perhaps have shopped at stores other than Target and Target.

7 Quick Takes Friday

--- 1 ---

I've been at the school a ton this week.  I've been volunteering with the Scholastic Book Fair.  I took donuts in for Peter's birthday and his class is also doing a Thanksgiving Feast today so I'll be helping with the set-up of that as well. 

--- 2 ---

I was going to say that I'll be looking forward to a normal week next week but I just realized that the kids are off ALL. NEXT. WEEK. so nothing will be normal about that.

--- 3 ---

Speaking of taking donuts in for Peter's birthday, when I asked him what he wanted me to take to drink, he quickly replied, "Milk.  Whole milk."  Apparently whole milk is like fine wine to these kids.  When I took the birthday treats to the class, they were at computer class.  As they filed back in the room, I was pouring the milk.  Everyone of them asked me as they were walking by, "What kind of milk is that?"  When I responded, "whole milk," there was a lot of fist pumping and "oh yeahing". Seriously, I think I could have left the donuts at home and just brought in a couple of gallons of whole milk and they would have all been perfectly happy.  I guess by age ten they are starting to realize that 1% and 2% tastes a little chalky.  Or maybe their moms are making them drink....SKIM MILK!  Good grief!

--- 4 ---

Now that Peter's birthday has come and gone, I can focus on Christmas and all that is involved.  I have the worst time getting Peter and Sarah to make Christmas lists.  I think next week when they are out of school I am going to let them wander around Target to get some ideas.It really shouldn't be this hard but it always is.  Like pulling teeth.

--- 5 ---

Now that Peter knows where babies come from I wonder if it's time to tell him about Santa.  Although, a little part of me thinks he might already know.  Last week he said, "I don't want you to get me a ton of books like you did last year for Christmas."  All of the kid's gifts come from Santa so all of those books came from Santa.  I should have said, "Santa brought you those books" just to see what he said but I wasn't ready to go there so I let it drop.

--- 6 ---

If you don't want Santa to bring you a bunch of books kid then you better make a list!

--- 7 ---

Well, I'm off to get my hair did.  Have a great weekend, y'all!

 

For more Quick Takes, visit Jen at Conversion Diary!

One down. One to go.

Sorry to cut yesterday's story short but Peter had an appointment with the allergist and then I had errands to run and then school was over so we had guitar lessons and homework and then before I knew it, it was dinner time. 

They finally called us to our table.  Peter was looking at the kid's menu and since this is a wing joint, in addition to the typical mac and cheese, chicken fingers and grilled cheese, they also had wings on the kid's menu. 

But instead of just calling these wings "plain", they called them "virgin" wings.  Peter saw that and said, "Virgin?  Of course, they're virgin! Chicken wings can't get married!"  And then he laughed because, how ridiculous!

And I thought to myself, good segue way into the conversation we are going to have when we get home. I better jump right in.

"Well, virgin doesn't mean unmarried.  It means something else and when we get home we are going to talk about that and I'm going to answer some other questions you've had lately." 

A look of fear crossed his face. "Does this have anything to do with that baby book?" he questioned.

"It sure does," I answered.

The eye roll he gave me would have made any 14-year-old proud.  He even grunted a little.

We managed to have a nice dinner. We talked about school and video games and his upcoming 10th birthday. And we stayed away from talking about chicken wings - virgin or otherwise.

But when we got home, I made him sit down at the kitchen table and I gave him the book.

He gave me another eye roll but he sat down.  He kept his coat on and zipped up.  He kept the hood pulled over his head and seemed to be using it as a shield so that I couldn't see his face and he couldn't see mine. 

I walked to another part of the room as he was reading. I didn't want to hover over him because I could already tell the whole situation was making him uncomfortable.

After he was done, he tried to escape to his video games but I made him sit down.  I answered a few questions he had asked me in the weeks proceeding this conversation and then he said, "Are we done now?"

I stressed that if he ever, ever, ever, had any questions to please, please, please ask me. The last thing I need is for him to be Googling around the internet.

And I also stressed that he needed to let his friend's parents tell them when they are ready to hear this information.  He isn't to talk about what he's just learned at school.

Peter turned red and said something along the lines of "I'm not talking about this at school!"

And then it was done.  Easy peasy, lemon squeezy.

If anyone is interested, this is the book we used. (And no, I don't get paid for recommending this book.) 

I figure I've got another year or two before I have the conversation with Sarah.  That's going to be a completely different experience because that girl likes to ask questions...and lots of them. Wonder if I could borrow Peter's hooded jacket?  I think I'm going to need it.

And here's how it went down...

I am sure you are all waiting with baited breath to find out how The Talk went with Peter on Friday night.

In one word - smooth.

But if you want a more than one word then - On Friday night as Sarah and Dan headed for the Daddy/Daughter Dance, Peter and I headed to dinner at a local wing restaurant.  Peter had not been there in ages (and in fact never remembered even going there) because Dan and I don't think the food there is that great.  But we must be the only ones who feel that way because we had to wait 25 minutes for a table.

And we waited outside in the cold.  Peter who is cold natured liked me, was wearing a very large coat.  He had it zipped all the way up and had the hood pulled over his head.  You know how when you are a mom and you are heading out into the bitter winter weather you would bundle your two-year-old up so tightly that they couldn't move?  Kind of like Randy in a Christmas Story:

That's what Peter reminded me of standing there in the cold night air.  A two-year-old. Only Peter was not wearing a scarf or mittens but you get the idea.

And I thought to myself, where did my baby go?  He's ten and I'm about to tell him the facts of life and he's standing there all bundled up and all I want to do is squeeze him and hug him and tell him to stop growing up so fast.  But before I could embarrass him like that, they called us.  Our table was ready.

But I can't finish this story yet because Peter has an allergist appointment and I'm about to be late to pick him up....

Ten is...

Ten is...

smart

funny

a history buff

hot-tempered

tenderhearted

shy

talkative

handsome

a Cub Scout

a guitar player

an excellent student

Ten loves to...

play guitar

play Minecraft

read

watch You Tube videos

play with his best friend Colton

eat cereal

go camping with his Dad

play outside with his Air Soft guns

Ten has my heart.

Happy Birthday, Peter!

Daddy-Daughter Dance

Sarah has been looking forward to the Daddy-Daughter Dance at her school since last year's Daddy-Daughter Dance at her school.

So on Friday evening she got into her dress and her fancy dancing shoes and was ready to go.  She wanted her hair curly so we did the sock bun method to try to get some curl into it.  Unfortunately her hair is really long and quite fine and she only kept the sock in for a couple of hours instead of overnight ,so even though it looked nice and curly when we unrolled it, it was rather straight almost minutes later.  So I got out the curling iron and tried to fancy it up a bit.  Even with hair spray it still didn't hold. 

Curly or straight, I think she looks gorgeous either way!

Sarah posing in her dress.

Sarah and Daddy (please note the shoes!)

Doing the dance we like to call "The Daddy".

They had a great time and I think she's ready to do it again - as long as she gets a new dress and a new pair of shoes!