You Can't Handle the Truth!

I didn't think anyone would believe me if I told them how messy our house is right now so I decided to prove it. Jeremy is in the middle of re-doing our stairs and it has turned into quite a project. He has been working on it since Saturday evening (almost immediately after walking in the door from an 8 hour trip from Louisiana) and he spent all day Monday and Tuesday on it. To make matters worse, when the girls get home from school, they feel free to frolic around the house and make as big a mess as possible while Jeremy is quite understandably distracted with the stair project.

I am not even close to having the house ready for decorating for Christmas, and this coming weekend will be just as busy as last weekend. I feel like it's all I can do to try to make sure everyone has clean clothes to wear each day. I am so jealous reading everyone's Christmas-y posts. I just have to keep reminding myself that this is temporary, and when it is done I will have wonderful new stairs that hopefully will not scare our guests when they try to walk down them :). And really, please don't misunderstand me. I am not complaining AT ALL about Jeremy doing this project. I have been wanting to get it done forever and we finally collected enough gift cards to Lowe's to get started :). I am so thankful to have 1) a super-handyman husband and 2) a husband who gets to household projects as quickly as humanly possible. What a guy! My whining just has to do with wanting my house to be clean and life being too busy to do anything about it.

I will post pictures of the stairs when Jeremy is done with them. And, Kim's post reminded me, at least going to church on Sunday will help me start celebrating the Advent season even if my house is not decorated yet.

Thanksgiving

Jeremy told me that Olivia started asking him how to spell different words tonight and he realized after a few minutes that she was making a list of things she was thankful for. I had to share her list because I thought it was so sweet that this was what she thought to do with her free time, and a good reminder to me that I have SO much to be thankful for.



In case you need a translation, her paper reads:
Olivia Soileau
I am thankful for
bananas
turkey
corn
bread
pie
cake
parents
dog
sister
world

In the "not as spiritual" department, here is a good pic of Harper Lee with bottle caps for eyes. Hey - we can't all be theologians!

My Bilingual Child

I have told most of you this story already, because it cracked me up, but for those of you I haven't seen this week:

Sunday night on the way to eat at Panera Bread:
Harper Lee: What do they have at Panera?
Me: Sandwiches and salads.
HL: Can I try a sandwich?
Me: No, I am bringing a Lunchable for you because you don't even like the sandwiches at Subway, and Panera is more expensive than Subway. I don't want to waste money on a sandwich that you don't like.
HL: Is Panera Spanish for Subway?
Me: speechless

Too Much Halloween Candy?

I haven't posted pictures of Halloween yet, because I didn't get any really great shots. I do have this short video of Olivia after we got home. Nothing fancy, nothing I am sure that your kids haven't done from time to time, but the pumpkin on her head just makes for good entertainment.

My Boys

It's been a while since I posted about my third child and only boy. Here he is snuggling with Jeremy on the recliner Sunday afternoon.

(News flash: pigs are flying and hell has frozen over or I would not be talking about a dog in this way!)

Don't You Just Love Mornings?

I thought I would give you a taste of our normal morning routine. I thought about filming Harper Lee crying as she thudded down the stairs this morning, but I opted for a picture instead.

Here you see a fairly typical breakfast table. Harper Lee and Olivia both put their blankets over their heads some mornings so as to avoid talking to us, or anyone. Olivia is the only one who went for the blanket option this morning. (She is actually much more of a morning person than Harper Lee, but it still takes her a while to wake up for school.) Harper Lee is pictured here with her normal morning smile.

I Guess This Really Is the Great Pumpkin

What you are looking at here, folks, is not just any decorated pumpkin, this is the pumpkin that won the Mrs. Darabaris' 2nd Grade Class Pumpkin Decorating Contest!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Way to go, Harper Lee! Yesterday, at about 7:50 (yes that's 10 minutes before school starts), Harper Lee reminded me that she needed to bring "stuff" to school with which to decorate her pumpkin (which was taken to school on Tuesday). I quickly dug up some things, almost none of which made it on to her pumpkin.

(One of these days I am going to post a blog about a week in the life of Harper Lee's wardrobe. You would not believe the outfits that she comes up with. And, she is very serious about it, too!)