We are home and digging out from under all the traveling baggage. Hope you had a wonderful week!

It's almost my anniversary!

Christmas is over which means that New Year's is almost here which means that right after that I will have been married 5 years. Such a short time and yet such a long, long time. So much can happen in 5 years. 3 babies can happen in 5 years. 3 homes can happen in 5 years.  2 complete sets of dishes can happen in 5 years.

We are still enjoying our family here in Tennessee. The girls have moments of being overstimulated and super cranky but overall are having a wonderful week.

I can't believed it snowed at home. Snow must hate me. It never wants to be where I am. :(

It smells like spring outside.

What a beautiful day!

The girls are getting a chance to play outside with Bella before we hit the road. I am braving the weather (since it is lovely) and cleaning out the van and........

I completed my ironing. ALL of it. That is a big, big deal for me.

I doubt that I will be posting much during this holiday week but you never know. I might just find the time while vegging out at the in-laws. Maybe I'll take a break between my canasta games and get you all caught up on our holiday going-on's.

Pioneer Woman is having contests every day through the 25th on her blog .  She's also having them on her Tasty Kitchen blog. Go enter and buy me a professional carpet cleaning with your prize.

Happy Holidays!
Rebekah

Be warned. It's strange.

I'll just be honest with you. My stomach is tore up. Something I ate last night does NOT like its new surroundings. So you can guess what the outcome is...

I was playing  (at) the Moonlight Sonata this morning while the girls were eating breakfast. Claire finished and scooted up on the piano bench beside me.

Claire: "Ewww!!! That smells bad!!"

Elaina: "It wasn't me!"

Claire: "It was Eily. She pooped again. holding her nose Oh gross!"

She cuddles up next to me and gives me a hug.

"Momma smells good."


It's so nice to have someone just assume that anything bad can in no way be related to you. I wonder how long that will last.

Note to Eily:

Dearest Eily,
Thank you so much for always taking the fall for Mommy. It helps my self esteem more than you can imagine. Especially because you have no idea what self esteem is.
Your loving, gastrointestinally tore up mother,
Rebekah

I saw this on a bumper today and it made me laugh. It'still making me laugh.

Eat beef. The West wasn't won on salads.

A new blog to follow

Sarah has a blog now.

It's a Curvy Irby Road

Hey, all you Arkansas women. Look what I just ran across.
http://www.nwadeals.net/

I just want to apologize for all the "it's" in the previous posts that should have been "its." Some days I just don't catch it all.

Bella, Christmas things and present time

Bella let her cold nose touch my fingertips this morning. Happy day!

It's a Christmas Festival!!

Today I am participating in a Holiday Festival. It starts at 8am so I woke at the bright and early hour of 5:30 to shower and get loaded in the car.

 It takes a little over 30 minutes to get from my house to where the Festival is so I made sure I left in plenty of time to get here and get set up. There are about 12 vendors here and I am the only one that had to travel so far. Someone please tell me why it’s 8:12am and I am the only one that is ready and set up. All the women are frantically bustling around and I’m just sitting here taking it all in. I’ll probably update when I get bored.

8:20am

I’ve started thinking about how different men and women are. I tried to visualize a bunch of men all setting up booths of tools, car parts or grills and trying to make it all appealing. Perhaps a deer head or two placed just so. It just gets me all tickled inside. Jason would think this is all just a bunch of silliness if he were here and in some way I agree with him. There is garland and sparkly tablecloths and Christmas trees and one booth even has a little coffee table set up with two different kinds of coffee to choose from. Ok. That part isn’t silly. In fact, that would be Jason’s favorite thing about this festival.  We have jewelry, Home Interiors, Pampered Chef, Scentsy, Arbonne and many of the stores around town have set up booths. The lady to my left (who I think was in one of my old Girl Scout troops) is even selling rugs. Three tables full of rugs. Good luck, honey. What we don’t have are customers.  Oh! Correction. I just had my first customer.

8:42am

I just heard one woman say that it starts at 9am. That makes a lot more sense. The rug lady is bringing in more rugs. She has a cardboard box that says Rug Sale. Hmm. Who would have ever guessed?

8:44

I hear jingle bells!!

I wish someone were selling food.

8:55am

Hey! Someone is selling food!! Now I just have to find someone giving away money and I’ll be all set. I’ll for sure keep you posted about that.

9:56am

Rug lady sold a rug.

No free money to be found yet.

10:10am

I’m starting to covet one of Rug Lady’s rugs. Look away, self. Look away.

I’m also very, very hungry.

11:01am

Mom, Rachel, Leah and kiddos came by.  Rug lady is actually doing quite well. I’m not doing too bad myself.  I’m enjoying this time to just sit and think and occasionally visit with strangers. People can be very nice.

11:19am

Ugs should not be worn with hoodies.

11:25am

IPhoto can double as a mirror when you are sitting at a booth and want to check and make sure that the rooster tail on the back of your head isn’t sticking up again. I cut my hair very short. I don’t like it but the good thing is that my hair grows exceptionally fast so maybe I won’t have to deal with it being this hard to fix for very long.

11:55am

I’m growing weary. Mommy, mommy, where’s my food?

I need a nap.

12:22pm

Madam, please know that it is after noon. You should not be showing up here in your pajamas. Come on!

12:50pm

I’m starting to get bored. I should have brought a book with me for when there are no customers in the building. I just finished the first book of The Zion Chronicles and I am so anxious to start the second one. These books are just wonderful and it’s been long enough since last read them that it’s almost like reading for the first time all over again.

1:01pm

I have decided to sell rugs. This lady is making a killing!

I am drinking the worst tasting coffee but I need its warmth.  Sometimes you have to go through some unpleasantness to survive.

1:15pm

Has another hour passed, yet?

2:36pm

Rachel, Eli and Luke are here visiting. It’s nice.

3:23pm

It’s been a very successful day. I booked 4 shows and sold several items. Now it’s just about time to pack up and I am more than ready. I miss my babies and my man. He took the girls to the Dollar Tree today and let them pick out a gift, a card and wrapping paper for my Christmas gift. How fun is that?  He also let them wrap it and he said you can really tell it was wrapped by little children. I can’t wait to see it!

I did not mean to go so long between posts. Sorry.

Everyday I think about the fact that I need to post but then I get sidetracked and I just let the whole day go by without getting it accomplished.

Things are just regular here. Our day typically goes like this:
We wake up and get dressed.
We eat.
I get the house cleaned and the girls play.
We eat.
Eily naps and Elaina and Claire do their schoolwork.
I clean some more, read and do computer things and they play some more.
I cook.
We eat.
Bath time/wind down time/clean up once again time.
Bed time.
Ahhhhhhhh time.

It's nice and most of the time I don't feel like messing it up by spending a lot of time on the computer. I have started reading again. It's made me deliriously happy. I forgot just how enjoyable it is to lose yourself in a book.

Eily is so funny right now. If she starts to throw a fit I just say, "Eily, go to your bed," and she knows to go there until she has stopped crying. I love watching her walk down the hallway. It's like a dog slinking off with it's tail between it's legs. It's so cute and then once she has calmed down she totters back down the hallway. It's so stinking cute.

*sigh* Nothing to write about. I'm quiting for now. Maybe I will feel a bit more chatty tomorrow.

It's a girl!!!!

We have a new member of the family (suprise!) and it was confirmed just this morning that is is indeed a girl. This house will be just overrun with females. Poor Jason. He hasn't a chance.

Now, for the name. It's Bella. Rememeber when we were expecting Eily? The two names under consideration were Eily and Isabella. Eily won but Bella has stayed close to my heart. So this one is Bella and such a sweet, sweet face she has. She was extremely modest and we had a very hard time determining the sex but she eventually moved her tail just enough that we were finally able to get an adequate glimpse.

Oh stop having heart attacks and fainting spells. It's just a dog.

She's a beagle with the most precious face there has ever been on a canine. She is very, very skittish so we have been putting food out every day and slowly but surely she is warming up to us. She wants so very badly to let me touch her and will get within a few inches of my hand but then she wimpers and runs back a few feet. I feel that with love and patience we will get there. Any tips from you animal people out there?

Giveaway! (Not from me. Sorry.)

Melanie at Big Mama is having a $100 dollar giveaway and I encourage you all to read this but then not go enter. The less entries the more likely that I will win! Not really. Enter your heart out. Her blog is the very first thing I read on the Internet every morning. She posts once a day so it's nice not to have to check back all day long to see if there have been updates. You should make it a daily read.

Someone tell me if I have misspelled anything, please.

My 400th post. Woot!

Natural light is beautiful. My children are beautiful.  Enjoy.

You may call me crazy if you like.

I started something new today. Well, two things actually. First, I switched Eily's crib for a toddler bed. I only had to discipline her twice this afternoon at nap time. When she woke up she just hollered from her bed because apparently she now thinks she is never supposed to get out of bed without permission. Even if nap time is over. I didn't correct her.

I am staying home all this week except for an occassional trip to Dollar General or the grocery store. You know, to get toilet paper to wipe...there. The reason that we might need extra tp is that I have decided to see how potty training Eily goes. She is very, very young, 19 months, but she hates to be wet and she is VERY excited about the whole idea. My carpets are so stained that a little spot or two from accidents won't even show. Better to try this before cleaning the carpets, no? So far she has gone in the potty zero times and on the floor twice. I'll try to remember to keep you all updated on how this crazy idea is coming along.

Updated again

In case there is anyone that still needs a gift idea for Christmas.

Sacran Wishlist