Reasons to Smile

I've been grumpy and self-absorbed lately. I decided that picture-less blog entries put the blah in blog. That changes right now! I promise to never post without a picture ever again.

Here are my reasons to smile:

Laurel, who is such a good sister to James, wrestling with him and playing with him. She's just an awesome big sister and I'm so sad to think that she'll be at school next year! I love having her around during the day.

For a fun family outing on Monday, we went to a reptile zoo in Monroe. What a kick in the pants that was. They have several of the world's deadliest snakes there - black mamba, king cobra, several pythons, anaconda. I talked Laurel into holding a snake - I had to hold it first, then she did. What really shocked me was that my Will wanted to hold a snake. You have to know Will well to be amazed - this kid does not like icky things on his hands. He doesn't like his hands to be dirty. He's not your typical boy that way. I didn't think he'd want to touch the snake, let alone hold it. It was a Rose Python and so it wanted to twist around your arm and climb up to your face. Will was giggling and saying "It tickles!" Just makes me smile looking at the big grin on his face!

And now, my bumblebee. One of the joys of going to school in the morning is getting to see what the kids are wearing when Aaron picks me up. I've called my mom on several occasions to laugh about it - James wearing Will's clothes, Will wearing James' clothes. Some days it's less than fun when I need to go to the store on the way home. Sometimes they don't have coats or socks and they look nearly orphaned.

Then this day rolls around. This is Laurel's costume from two years ago and she was so happy that it still fits. Calling her Bumblebee amused a lot of the people in QFC that day. But she did look beautiful and so happy to be a bumblebee.

St. Patrick's Day colors

I had to switch my blog colors now that Valentine's day is past. Which is fine with me, because I love the next holiday, St. Patrick's Day. Why?

It's not because I'm Irish. I'm pretty sure I'm not.
It's not because I have a thing for pinching Aaron and my kids. I avoid pinching Aaron because he pinches back, harder. I avoid pinching my kids because it's mean and they cry.
It's not because I like to wear green. Although I do.
It's not because I have a thing for eating corned beef and cabbage. I'm not sure I've ever tried it.
If I lived in Boston, I would love it because I love a good parade, and I hear theirs is GREAT. But I don't.

Nope, I love me some St. Patrick's day because it's the day before my birthday! Hooray. What a great holiday to have right before your birthday. Not exactly a traditional gift-giving holiday, so no worries there.

Just thought I'd share the reasoning for the new layout. There. I'm shallow. You wouldn't say that if my birthday were the same as my Dad's though. You'd just call me patriotic. That guy - he gets the whole country to celebrate his birthday with fireworks and barbecues. It's awesome!

First Five

What a fun idea - I'm glad I have the rest of the year!

The first five people to respond to this post will get something made by me! My choice. For you.

This offer does have some restrictions and limitations:
1- I make no guarantees that you will like what I make!
2- What I create will be just for you.
3- It'll be done this year.
4- You have no clue what it's going to be. It may be a story. It may be photography or an article on properly cleaning your face before a masque. I may sew or paint something. I may bake you something and mail it to you. Who knows? Not you, that's for sure!
5- I reserve the right to do something extremely strange.

The catch? Oh, the catch is that you must repost this on your blog and offer the same to the first 5 people who do the same on your blog. The first 5 people to do so and leave a comment telling me they did win a FAB-U-LOUS homemade gift by me! Oh, and be sure to post a picture of what you win when you get it!}

Good Advice!

I'm officially hiring you all as my advisors. Granted, you'll get paid in chocolate or something, but it works.

Thank you for making me feel this is the right decision. My instincts have been telling me it is and it's nice to be reassured.