Christmas pictures

Okay, I underestimated how much the Farmville trip was going to take out of me. :) But here are pictures.


The tree


The tree lit up


What Santa brought the girls


Divvying up the presents


Opening presents


New sippy cup!


Modeling the light-up Santa hat from Gamma


Modeling Mommy's camisole


Apparently Crush appreciates what Santa brought him.


Nemo overload! (That would be her stuffed Nemo on one side, her Nemo book on the other, and Nemo on the TV.)

i cut you.

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forward facing!

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Hanukkah pictures

Christmas-y ones will be tomorrow night. :) Blogger is being slooooow tonight, and I don't have the patience to wait for more!

In this group of pictures: latke frying (although the ones at the synagogue party were infinitely better!), dreidel playing (A is a hustler! She and I battled it out for quite awhile), candle lighting, and chocolate eating.

This year's card

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at the high school 2 watch nutcracker with mommy

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A 4wheeler at a gas pump

left straight from here to the fourlane highway.

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A Very Disco Holiday Special

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Aren't we cute?

After dinner on our date. We left here and went walking/shopping for a bit before heading home (to two very tired babies.)

Dinner

We went to The Melting Pot on a date tonight. We did the cheese course (pictured), salad course, and a double dessert course. ;) (Lager cheddar, California and House, and Yin and Yang for the curious) It was nums! Oh, and an apple martini. Enchanted (as in, the Disney movie) is totally encouraging of-age drinking. At one point the "chef" brings out a really yummy-looking poison apple martini to get the main character to drink.

So I had much fun talking about "muh aaaappp-eel mah-teee-nee" at dinner. Good thing we were in a dining room alone! ;) (I'm guessing it's where they put the two-person date types.)

Childbirth Song

Not safe for little ears

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EM2CORdyv8k

also it's effing cold outside

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asleep on the couch

i set her on her back so i could pee & brush teeth. by the time i got back she'd flipped over & was sleeping pretty peacefully. goodnight!

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Mmm.. algae and mushroom oil formula

http://www.cornucopia.org/replacing-mother-infant-formula-report/

I find the FAQ a scary read...

What, me OCD?

I discovered an even better way of making sure I get all of my stuff in the right bags at the grocery store today with the use of the double-basket carts.

Produce on the bottom.  Dairy on one half of the top, dry on the other half, and meat in the bottom back part where I put my bags.  Bread on top of the stuff in the top basket.  That way I can make sure all refrigerated stuff goes together, all cans go together, and I remember to ask for a plastic baggie for the meat when I put it all on the belt.

Makes putting away muuuuuch easier too!

(And in case you're wondering, I separate my grocery list into categories too.)

President-elect Obama

Whoa.

Virginia

Fox News has called in VA.

Fox News.

OMG.

Election Day '08, part 2

I'm back (and showered and warm again!) from working the Dem table at my precinct!  :)  Charles wasn't feeling so hot, so I decided not to go into Fredericksburg to help there.  It was another night of standing in the rain and yucky temperatures for Obama. ;P

I think it was worthwhile.  We probably had 1/10th the number of people stop at our table than stopped at the Rep table, but our voters were SO much more psyched.  Like yelling "GO OBAMA!!!!!" across the parking lot. :D

There were actually 2-3 new voters there, even!

We are now proudly displaying Barack Obama and Mark Warner yard signs in our front window.  (Better late than never?)

And returns are coming in!  So far McCain has a 7500 vote lead, but I need to see where those polls are.

I'm feeling good. :)

I voted!

This morning, we got up, got the girls dressed and headed to the polls.

(Well, after I taped a black construction paper bar over the "Obama" portion of my shirt.  I decided against writing "CENSORED" on it, but it got the point across anyway.)

There was pretty much no line, and I only had to wait a minute until one of the four machines freed up.  I cast my vote for a straight Democratic ticket, got my "I voted" sticker for potential doughnuts/ice cream/coffee if I go into Fredericksburg later, and walked out the door.  I immediately took off my black bar, and headed to the Dem table.  Where there was a lawyer standing to ask me if I had any trouble voting.  (She said I was smart to wear my black bar to the poll.  Ha!  The campaigner, however, said he was there to get locked up, so he'd be wearing his button to the poll.)

There were 85 people in line first thing when the polls opened.  The line stretched almost to the highway.

I'm going out to volunteer somewhere today... it may be here in my precinct or it may be in Fredericksburg. 

Halloween 2008

My princesses in the front yard this morning before storytime.



Adia eating a cupcake at storytime.



Francesca eating a cupcake at storytime.



Pretty pink princess and puppy dog "goggie"



Cinderella castle, face, O-ba-ma, fleur-de-lis



Zombie puppy



Zombie puppy rolls over



Yay! Sugar buzz!!

My dorkitude is showing

I'm trying to come up with a speech topic for our informative/persuasive speech (due next Monday... ha) and I've been looking at pages of nothing but topics.

Did I say: "wow, I wish I knew more about current events or sports, etc.?"

Nooooo

"It's times like these when I wish I knew how to speak Klingon or read Elvish."

Faux pas?

On the morning where we're getting ready for the Realtors to come walk through our house (not like "we've sold it"... more like "want to see them all") I put an orange-colored tart in the burner.  I thought it would be pumpkin or something.

No.  It was patchouli.

My house REEKS of dirty hippie.  Urgh.

My good deed for the day

We had planned to go to the coffee shop this morning, because I'm out of coffee (teh horrors.)  Seriously, I couldn't remember how to tie a bow.

I walked out of the front door to find...... a little grey kitten!  She was emaciated and had crusty eyes, so  two big signs that I didn't want to bring her inside with immuno-compromised Crush.  I called the local cat rescue (I guess is what you'd call it?  The shelter doesn't take cats here, so she does with a pretty cool setup.)  I brought kitty in without a fight -- she walked right up to the cat carrier.  I offered her a treat, but she just wanted petted.  I had to sign away "my" rights to her, and when I told her why I couldn't take another (sick) kitty right now, she asked if Crush had FIV.  I said no, and she explained that someone was looking for a home for a FIV+ kitty.  Alas, if Crush were to get FIV, that would be the end of him.

So we went on to the coffee shop, and I'd brought books for the girls.  So I got to read the Post and the FLS in peace.  Good times.

And now we're home.  I need to get bleach for the carrier later and it's the first day of fall shares at the CSA.  As soon as I finish this blog, I'm headed to the kitchen to clean (it REEKS because the trash had some pretty gross stuff in it this morning) and after that is nap.  Charles is coming home early so we can get to cleaning before the Realtors are here on Friday to critique us.  I'm a bit nervous about that.

Uggggggghhhhh

Zombified is probably the best way to describe how I feel at the moment. I started with a headache on Monday (Sunday too? I can't remember) and assumed it was allergies. It was the usual pounding headache.

By the time Charles got home last night, I was just glad that the girls were playing nicely enough that I could lay on the couch and read. He thought I felt warm, but the thermometer said pretty much normal (maybe a teensy bit high for me.) After dinner, though, it was around 99.5, and by bedtime it was over 100. I finally figured out that the Advil I'd taken for my headache must've been the reason my temp wasn't any higher when he first got home.

This morning I thought I felt better. I even begged to go with the girls on the LLL berry farm field trip, but I have my "laying on the couch" orders. Sigh. I'm kinda glad now though, because my eyes feel watery and my forehead feels warm again. And there's that whole "can't fully breathe" feeling, but that's been there since I woke up this morning.

Maybe I'll have some cute pics from the berry farm to post this afternoon after Charles brings the girls back. (He has to go in for a meeting this afternoon.)

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Redneck Jam-bo-ree

About half an hour ago (10:45pm) the neighbors started playing loud-ass music.  It is now to the point I can identify the songs through the wall.



A minute ago it was "Sweet Home, Alabama"



Now?  FREEBIRD!



Yee-haw y'all!

Remind me again why we would ever want to move?

Oh, money

I got my statement today for my annuity (which is "my" retirement fund) and I've lost $1100 this quarter.  Bah.

Good thing we have another 30 years before Charles can even consider retirement!

A curious coupon

We just got a coupon booklet in the mail.  There was a coupon in there from a pet store -- $100 off any puppy.

I'm sold!

Off to get a puppy!

;)

I am approximately 0.985074627 smoots tall

There was a headline on CNN about the smoot measurement today. That was a new one for me, and in googling, I found a pretty neat history of it.

Biden video from the rally

I have another of Biden, but I think you get it from the two grainy-ass vids here. ;) Note the deafening roar of cheers and applause at the end of this snippet.

going 2 kohls 2 get

going 2 kohls 2 get fall clothes. miss a is too big 4 almost everything from last year! having fruit in car first.

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Swim lesson #2

Note the purple lips... guess they have yet to fix the pool heater?

She posed like this -- silly kiddo!

No campaigning materials...

Add this to the list of things I didn't know.

I suppose I will be bringing a sweatshirt to wear within the 40ft. at my polling place this November.

God bless whoever created hulu.com

Because I can listen to The Daily Show while I clean the bathroom. Makes it far easier.

I think I might be a better housekeeper if I had TV. (Now we'll see if my mom actually reads this. ;)

I believe I'll be cleaning the kitchen to The Colbert Report this afternoon.

Oh, economy

Back in April, when we were getting our taxes together, I realized that my share of Wachovia stock was sold last year when I pulled my money out of my Merrill Lynch mutual funds. I was pissssssed.

Not so much now. Ha.

This isn't my video

But here's Obama from the rally last night. Too bad they didn't include Biden's remarks too, but still -- yay!

Review of the rally

We got there and got lunch and got in line around 1pm. It was like 85 degrees and we were in the sun. J went to take our trash to a can and by the time she got back, I'd heard that this was the line for people with blue tickets. We had no tickets.

Luckily, some nice Aussie(?) came by with white tickets and we got those and this line was also for white tickets. Yay!

Finally we got inside and we stood. It rained for a few minutes, so then it was 85 and humid. And we stood. We saw the snipers get in position, so we knew the time must be drawing near. Then it started pouring. And lightning. And thundering. And then the snipers went back inside. And we stood. And it poured. Eventually the rain lightened up a little bit, and two political types and a minister came onstage. Seriously, halfway through the prayer, the rain stopped. And a rainbow came out. (God votes Democrat, y'all!)

Then there were technical difficulties with the teleprompter, so more music from the 45-50 minute long mix CD. (No love for Natasha Bedingfield here now -- every time "Unwritten" came on it would rain -- feel the rain on your skin fer sure.) This was after 6pm. That's a lot of repeating music.

Finally, they were able to come out. Biden took the stage first, followed by Obama. It was freaking AWESOME!!!! Biden just seems really nice, and he's energetic. If I can figure out how to get the videos of him speaking off of my cell phone, I will. Some asshat kept trying to yell Obama during Biden's speech. Rude. Hadn't noticed until he spoke that McCain didn't utter the words "middle class" during the debate.

Then he introduced Barack (I like to think I can refer to him on a first name basis now.) Crowd went wild. He laid it all out there, and he was so so SO comfortable with speaking. Like, I have no idea how we've put up with Bush over the last 8 years, because I could listen to Barack for days on end. It should not have been remarkable enough to me to lean over to point out to J that he had kept speaking while scratching his nose. Seriously, a world leader should be able to do something like that. (And, ya know, scratching -- not picking.)

The rain started up while he was talking, and he took off his jacket.And he just kept on going. At the end, he used the metaphor of feeling like the rain was never-ending and the storm would never pass to talk about the economy. :P Whether that was planned before or after the weather, it still had us laughing.

After he left the stage, we started to head to the car. I noticed that the peeps in the front were getting to see our Pres and Veep up close, but didn't think it was worth it. We went up anyway. See the backwards hat? That's Biden! He was like a 6 year old or something -- and I mean that in a good way. No pressing of flesh, but was awesome to be just a few feet away.

In the pic of the two of us -- our jeans are normally 2 shades lighter. We were SO soaked. As J kept saying "We could've jumped in the shower fully clothed and been less wet." But SO totally worth it. SosoSO worth it!

(I posted this elsewhere, but I wanted it here too. :)

From the Obama/Biden rally at UMW tonight

Oops! These uploaded in reverse order, but whatever.

Drowned rats for Obama!
Biden with his hat backwards.
After the rain started pouring again, Obama took off his jacket. There are those in the audience who yelled "Take it off!" I admit nothing.
Before the downpour.

obama 2

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obama

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joe biden!

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obama lied. they r not

obama lied. they r not providing enuf water at this damn rally.

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