Hi. I'm a mac.

Santa left a huge surprise under the tree for me this year in the form of a new 15 inch MacBook Pro. I was hoping for a MacBook, but had no expectation of receiving the literal "Macdaddy" of them all. I've only had a few minutes to play with my new toy, and already I'm smitten. Rob loaded this bad-boy up today with tons of cool software, and I can't wait to get some photos loaded on here and really start messing around. I guess this answered the question of whether or not I've been a good girl all year long.

Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas

From our family to yours, we hope that you have a safe, healthy, and very merry Christmas.

Dancing Aldermans

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Mothering From the Floor

Our family was hit with the dreaded stomach flu this week, and I've spent the morning mothering from the kitchen floor. You'd be amazed at how well you can care for children while laying on the kitchen floor, as long as milk refills and snacks are limited to 1 per hour, and as long as your 4-yr old cooperates by bringing diapers and wipes for the little ones to you. This has been a particularly nasty strain of the virus, striking Casey first last Friday and then slowly making its way through the rest of us. Thanks to a few doses of Zofran and ginger ale, I've kept down some toast and crackers and feel like I'm on the mend, and praying that everyone else is too.
And it has made me realize that no matter how old you are or how many of your own children you have, when you're sick you still want your Mommy. I would have hated for mine to be here and risk catching the bug with us, however I would have given anything last night for her to sit by my bed, push my hair behind my ear, and bring me chicken soup and a Cherry-Limeaide from Sonic (Why? Dunno, just sounds good. I don't even know where a Sonic is in this God-forsaken city). Oh well, I'm headed back to the floor to do some mothering of my own, to push hair behind some little ears and tell them everything will be alright.

The Perfect Shot

Now that our Christmas cards have gone in the mail, I can share some of the outtakes. I've lamented before how much easier it is to take pictures of other people's kids, and it was especially true this year with 3 kids at these ages. I basically set the camera on the tripod and danced around the room singing "Jingle Bells" in a silly voice while clicking the shutter with my remote control. They cooperated by smiling and laughing, just not all at the same time or while looking at the camera. I feel like I got some great shots, but that I might be perpetually in search for the perfect Christmas card shot because every year I feel like I fall short of getting exactly what I want.

Going to Great Lengths

Over the weekend I bit the bullet and had 9.5 inches of my hair chopped off. I had decided this spring to grow it out long enough that I could make a donation to Pantene's Beautiful Lengths program, which makes & donates wigs to patients who have lost their hair due to cancer treatments. I just figured if I was going to cut off 6 inches, I might as well grow it out for a few more months and cut off 8 so it could be of use to someone else. I enjoyed having it long, but I was ready for a change. It was hard to take care of and took forever to dry. Tangles were a daily battle, especially if I went for a run and forgot to braid my ponytail. And the worst thing about really long hair and 3 small kids is that there seemed to be a chunk of something - food, spit-up, pirate swords, etc - constantly caught in my hair. So I was over it, but found myself surprisingly nervous as the stylist cut my ponytail off. I like the new 'do, and it has been clear of all foreign matter all weekend, and so I think it's a change for the better. And hopefully my donation will make someone else feel better. And yes, I did make sure the ponytail was chunk-free before mailing it in.

Santa's Missing Elf