Pictures!

Yeah!  I got my picture issue resolved!  So here are some random pictures of my life the last week or two.  Abby has grown out of her shoes, so we went shoe shopping last week.  Despite my desires to stay strong against commercial hype, I have such a weak spot for Abby and her princess stuff.  Buying into the whole commericialism of various products has always irritated me and I've never done it (possibly a reason why I wasn't considered super cool in school - not that I wanted to be super cool, I could care less if I had all the stuff), until now.  So Abby saw these shoes and immediately fell in love with them.  I decided to indulge her shoe love after seeing the look of infatuation on her face with them.  Only once I got them home, did I realize mistake number two.  They light up.  Can I just say now how much I despise light up shoes?  This fact made these shoes all the more glorious in Abby's sight.  I must admit that seeing her delight in them as she stomps around making them light up does make up for my irritation in myself at caving in and buying them.  I'll live with it.  They are a little big for her now, but maybe she'll outgrow them soon.  : )

Here's a picture of my sparkling clean fridge.  Makes me happy every time I open it up.  It was pretty gross before I cleaned it out.  Notice the Velveeta cheese?  A treat around this time that I get so I can make my grandma's cheesy potatoes.  No holiday is complete without them. 

I also got two bags of cuties - mandarin oranges.  Bag #1 lasted us 2 days.  Bag #2 was started today.  We like these.  I have to limit the children in their rabid consumption of them.  Ana will happily eat more than 5 a day, but I try to keep her to 4-5 only.

Here's a new project for us this advent season.  I glued together 24 little matchboxes - the girls decorated the box.  Each drawer is for each day of December up until Christmas.  Every day, they open up a little drawer and find the activity of the day.  Some of it is just fun stuff - like today is a tea party with Grandma!  Other days help them focus outside of themselves - writing letters, doing nice things for each other, looking out for those who have less than them, etc.

Other fun things that have happened lately - we picked up Grandma from the airport last night!  Yea!  We are all excited and happy about that.  Aaron and I leave early tomorrow morning for our trip to Texas.  I hear the weather is supposed to be in the upper 50s and mid 60s while we are there.  I'm looking forward to that!  Aaron also informed me that today is the official start to his "birthday season."  His birthday is on the 15th.  He celebrates a "season" every year instead of just one day.  You do all sorts of nice things for birthday seasons and try to get everything you can from it.  Such as, "Can you get me a glass of water?...It is my birthday season, afterall."  After fighting against the season concept every year for the past 10 years, I've come to accept it and try to celebrate it with him (within reason, of course), because then that gives me some leverage to celebrate my own birthday season!  I still like to be begrudging about granting his birthday season requests because I don't want him to get too self-inflated.  : ) 

And other happy news, I got new running shoes last night!  My others had over 500 miles on them and were starting to give me shin splints.  Out with the old, in with the new.  They kind of look like David's shoes now (red & white) and his feet are getting big.  So now I will have to double check what shoes I have before I try putting them on.  All for now.  I doubt I will be posting much this weekend, but if I have the chance, I'll give it a try!  Enjoy your weekend!