Muffins

(2011) Just made the boys some chocolate chip muffins, which inspired Lily to entertain us with "remixes" of some old favorites.  Currently she is singing, "Do you know the muffin man ... his fleece was white as snow."  Hee!  Hee!

Flamingo

(2014)  I bought shrimp at the grocery store to make for dinner one night this week.  When we got the bags in the car beside Lily, she sniffed and said, "Yuck!  It smells like flamingos in here!"  Pretty accurate, actually!

Black

Every male in my house wears the same size and everything they own is black Nike. You need to be a member of Mensa to  figure out the laundry around here!!! #whoseisthis????

Holiness Table

(2016)  Lily asked if she could go with me tomorrow to church to decorate the "stage of righteousness" for Sunday. Ummm ... it's called the "Holiness Table," Lil.

Scale

(2012) Lily Claire just stepped on the bathroom scale and asked, "Mama, how much do I cost?"

Slip

So I am cracking up while watching a whole bunch of DVR'd holiday romance movies I didn't get to before Christmas (though I don't know HOW that is possible since I watched Hallmark 24/7 this month!).  Anyway, there is always a moment in the movie where the guy and girl (who don't like each other at first) end up liking each other and then, by chance, the girl happens to fall or slip or something during a walk and the guy falls down on top of her for this long awkward moment.  I feel like I'm missing out because in 23 years, this has NEVER happened to me and Skeet! HOW can that be??! I thought about orchestrating a "faux slip" magical moment when he gets back home, but I'm pretty sure at this point we'd break a hip or not be able to get back up!!!!  Hahahahaaa!

Mistake

"What a nice surprise," I thought when my cell phone rang and the caller ID showed it was Brandon Taylor, who is in Orlando at a baseball tournament.
"Hey Bran!! So glad you called! 😄" I gushed.
"Hello?  Hello?  Mom?  Is this Mom?  Oh. Sorry. I didn't mean to call you."
Nice.

Fire Alarm

Life with a 15 year old son .... Skeet and I leaping out of bed at 1 AM to the fire alarm screaming and the smell of smoke. Run downstairs to see Dylan standing guiltily over a smoking pan of burned scrambled eggs. Without blinking an eye he says, “Buddy did it.” Nice try!! I told him that the next time he needs a middle of the night snack, it should be a PBJ. 😮😂

Nativity

(2015) Tonight I was reading several stories to Dylan and Lily, one of which was a book about the nativity.  Dylan was super disappointed that it wasn't a "scratch and sniff" book ... WHY we would want to scratch and sniff a donkey, I just don't know!!!!

God Bless Us

As you know, my fourth graders did a book study of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol during December in our reading class. Today one of my little boys was getting checked out after the holiday party, and we gave our hugs and goodbyes and he ran out the door to go home. A few seconds later he reappeared in my doorway, and in his loudest, happiest voice he yelled to the class, “And hey ... God bless us everyone!” Completely made my day! ❤️❤️❤️

Slurping

(2016) There is no denying the Lily is my child! I bought her a drink at QT on the way to get groceries and heard all this loud slurping in the back seat. I turned around and asked her what in the world she was doing!  She said,"I'm just slurping along with the music."  Sure enough, when I listened, she was perfectly slurping along on beat with The First Noel! Oh dear.

Sweet Tea

(2017) A direct quote from my 14-year-old son tonight: "Mom ... all I want for Christmas is a mini-fridge for my room ... full of sweet tea."  Yep, he's a Southern boy.

We The People

Something hilarious happened tonight when we were at Mah Jong Chinese restaurant. At the end of the meal my father-in-law made a joke with the young waiter about there being a shortage of turkeys this Thanksgiving because they were all running for president. 😂 The young waiter laughed and said that he didn’t want a turkey to be president because the president rules over all of us. Of course, I HAD to chime in saying he needed a small lesson in US government, because “we the people” run the government, no one “rules over us” here in America! We are a DEMOCRACY (democratic republic) and the PEOPLE have the final say! I literally almost broke out singing The Preamble song from Schoolhouse Rock, I was so inspired!😂😂😂 Of course, Lily was dying during the whole minilesson and when we left the restaurant and stepped one foot out the door she said, “And THAT is why you don’t take a social studies teacher to a Chinese restaurant!!!!” We both then completely cracked up!!!! #teacherkidproblems #can’ttakemomanywhere 😂😂😂

Christmas Movies

I just feel the need to say that I hate any Christmas movie that (A) has the same day repeating itself over and over again until the character learns some lesson and changes his ways, (B) stars Meredith Baxter Bernie, or (C) involves any type of storyline where someone is sick or dying and the whole town rallies to give them one last tear-jerking holiday. All I want is complete, total, 100% predictable, happy fluff for the holidays! NO REALITY, PLEASE!  I know I can always count on you, Hallmark Channel.

Memory

(2012) Made a priceless memory today when I went over to help Mom decorate the tables for Thanksgiving ... Lily Claire and Grammie were two peas in a pod mixing and stirring and baking together in the kitchen.  Grammie had lots and lots of "help"!  I think Lily licked more of the frosting than she put on the cake and I don't think Grammie stopped laughing!  It was so much fun watching the two of them together!  Today and EVERY day, I am so thankful for our "Grammie and Papaw."