This carnation is blooming in the bouquet that was just delivered to mememememeeeeeeee!

My hubby is full of sweetness. I wonder if things like this happen because I notice them, because he orders it that way, or just because’a destiny.

Here’s the full bouquet, it’s massive, and makes me thirsty for some reason. Hm.

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We’re still holding bowls and pulling hair back, it went from one to the other this weekend. The monkey is back to school today though, and she doodled before she left.

I think she’s got it. You think?

Bedtime with Chick had me in stitches the other night. It went a little something like this:

Me: “Now I lay me down to sleep”
Chick: “Now I way me down to sleep”
Me: “I pray the Lord our souls to keep”
Chick: “Pay the Lord our souls to keep”
Me: “Guide and guard us through the night”
Chick: “Guide ‘n guard us twoo duh night”
Me: “And wake us with the mornings light.”
Chick: “Wake us withuh mornings wite.”
Me: “Pray a big hedge around…”
Chick: “Mommy Daddy Caitlin and Jayden AaaaayyyyyyyMEN.”
Chick: “Oh! And Alexis and Laaayyyyla and Owen. AaaaaayyyyyMEN.”

Then we do kisses. I get a kiss for me, and one extra on the lips. Then I get more extras, and she turns my head and plants them on my cheek. Every night, I make a different sound effect after each kiss – and that kindof determines how many extra I’ll get. If I’m funny, she’ll keep doing it. If not, I just get a couple. That night, I counted.

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I forgot to post this pic of Martina’s Bass player. It’s so moody and jazzy and c o o l .

Did I mention I filed our taxes already? I did. And now I’m thinking about ripping out a few more walls in our house, but not before I finish the blog design I’m working on – and the custom dog portrait that is waiting in my studio.

So little to do, so much time.

Scratch that, reverse it.

(Thanks Mr. Wonka, that will forever be stuck in my head.)

We’ve been looking at houses, too. We’d like to move far far away from this stupid snow. I’ve found two homes that are completely out of our price range but they’re beautiful and I want them. Which one can you “see me in”?

Beautiful Gorgeous Immaculate House #1or

This Wonderful Private Southern Belle of a Home

Merry Christmas, everyone! Just wanted to get a few pics of what’s been going on at our house. I’m sitting here with my new MP3 player strapped to my forearm, jamming to John Mayer – I’ve already loaded 120 songs onto it! WooHoot! I’ve got a nice big crock pot filled with ham hocks and split peas – it smells so good my stomach is just grumbling like CRAZY. Furbee baby is sleeping, he’s really sweet but sorta snarky, if ya know what I mean?

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My Friday has to be better than My Thursday. First, our Cardinal playing peekaboo out back, he’s just candy. Totally unrelated to yesterdays events.

Second, I have a question. Let’s say you get a gift, from someone you didn’t expect a gift from, someone you never talk to or even see. Let’s say you dream about the gift and how not right it feels to even accept it. What do you do?

Third, while all of my good friends were off bloghopping the TT, I was combating a hacker in my system. Here’s how it went: Leanne visits first blog left in comments. She opens the window, reads Thirteen Things, in the process the open window has gone inactive for no apparent reason 3 times. She has to click the window to activate it, then scroll. Opening comments, the comment page also went inactive several times, as though something is running in the foreground, but nothing is running in the foreground. She begins typing a comment, and the words start looking lkei tish because the cursor is being magically repositioned to the space before the letter she just typed. Thinking the blog she was visiting was cursed, she tries another TT. Same thing.

As you can see from my list of Thirteen’s I visited yesterday, I didn’t get far before I was cussing my fool head off and running Panda Activescan Pro on all three of the puters on our network, spending hours cleaning and eliminating.

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All I can say is MEAN PEOPLE SUCK. Frosty was pushed. There are footprints – he was pushed hard. I tracked the prints back to their source, and I think I know who did it – and I’m tempted to call the cops and file a report. Obviously the jerk had to push hard, Frosty is a well built snowman and didn’t go down easy.

Nothing ruins the warm fuzzies of the holidays better than evidence of the a$$holes of the world lying right in your front yard. All of the kids who enjoyed seeing him on their way to school, all of our neighbors who loved looking at our Christmas display. Sniff.

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Did I ever mention … I hate snow? But, for the past 2 hours, I’ve been out in it. Runny nose, rosy cheeks, big fuzzy boots, I’ve been out playing in the snow. I even waited until the kids left for school. I’m a bad mom. This is some good packin’ snow, ladies & gentlemen. Obviously. This snowman is a lofty 6 foot tall, I had to get his mid section up in two pieces.

Crud, I better get to work now. Hi-ho, Hi-ho!

Suspended from the peak of the roof (firmly attached at both sides so that the wind doesn’t carry it away) is this 18-inch snowflake. Blue icicle lights are draped across the house, white netted lights cover the 9-10 foot tall pines (bushy pines) on either side of the house. Getting a full shot of our light display at night isn’t easy, every photograph looks like a bunch of lights floating in the middle of black.

I upgraded my graphic program lastnight, I use PSP (Paint Shop Pro) formerly owned by JASC, now owned by Corel. I upgraded to PSP X (10.0), which has even more features and buttons that I need to play with. hehe! They have a couple of other programs I’m eyeballing as well. A small indiscreet program, Corel Painter Essentials, was tucked away in the folder and I doodled for a bit lastnight with my wacom tablet. I was like a kid in a candy store, playing with my new toys!

I took the girls Christmas portrait yesterday morning, it turned out really beautiful and looks so good I felt like a professional photographer for a day. I’m excited to finally work on our Christmas cards and get those out in the mail!

I resketched the dog portrait (that black poodle, Joey) yesterday, too. I plan to paint today in my small two-hour window of opportunity, so I’d better get ready for it, it comes and goes in the blink of an eye.

Happy Monday – only 12 more days until Christmas Eve!