When It's Cold Outside

We've been terribly busy this week.,. but I'm not exactly sure what we've been doing.

My mom and I did a little shopping on Tuesday. One of our favorite stores is going out of business and I went there armed with my checkbook all ready to buy lots of stuff. I came home with two lamps for the sofa table (that my mom and dad gave me as an early Christmas present), some new glass storage containers (because I hate BPA and plastic stuff), a little Christmas tree for Ellie's room next year and a new "The Big Comfy Couch" movie for Maggie. The store was a small percentage off and I had the checkbook with my money and of course, couldn't find anything exciting that I wanted.

My sister has a poppy painting (that she commissioned and paid lots of money for) that she's going to let me use. Hopefully, I'll get it up over the weekend and I'll share an updated picture. Our new furniture also comes in next week, so that's exciting. It will be here just in time for a special visitor next weekend. One of Big Daddy's best friends from college (and the only one he keeps in touch with anymore) will be visiting us while he's in the state for Christmas. Big Daddy was best man in Huu's Puerto Rican wedding two years ago. Huu missed our wedding because he was in New Guinea for a couple of years in the Peace Corp, but he is one of Big Daddy's bestest friends and they try to get together at least once a year. They'll be shooting guns or something and then we'll all eat together. Huu spent Thanksgiving with me and my family the year that I was pregnant with Maggie so she's sort of always known him. Ellie is super excited about meeting this Uncle Huu person for the first time.

I have finally given up hope on my Christmas photo cards arriving in time for Christmas. I sent out a mass e-greeting last week just in case. Last night I ordered a few prints of the girls for our close family and prepared their Christmas cards today. Once The Muffin signs her name, they'll be ready to go.

I ordered myself a print of Maggie and Ellie in their Christmas dresses for this special frame.

I bought this frame and a larger one with the gift certificate I won from a giveaway that The Nester did a while back. It's from Just Simply Southern and I really love it! My other frame matches our master bedroom and I need a picture of me & Big Daddy to go in it. Kristi
is awesome to work with and SUPER fast. You should really check out her blog.

Anyway...

There's been a lot of stuff going on here, but really nothing that I want to share. I managed to write several blog posts around 3:00 this morning. Of course, I wrote them in my head and now I can't remember a single thing about them. Let me assure you that they were very good. ;-)

It has been very cold and windy here this week. I was fixing my yummy, yummy potato soup (I'll share the recipe soon) the other evening when The Muffin and I heard an awful noise outside. It was already dark so I turned on the flood lights and her little house had blown apart. I had to go out and pick up all of the pieces. Our glass top patio table was also blowing around, so I flipped it over to keep it from blowing around and breaking. Our patio looks awful, because it's been so cold today that I haven't been outside to fix everything back.

Baby Ellie is now in a convertible car seat! I think she likes it and I know that she looks much more comfortable. My mom and I tried putting her in the shooping cart (with the shoping cart cover on) the other day. It didn't go as well as I'd hoped, so I'll still be using the sling a lot. Of course, I LOVE that!

Big Daddy has had a rough week at work and it's been 7:00 or later every night this week when he's arrived home. That makes for fun dinner time conversations for me, Muff and Ellie.

I was watching one of the morning news shows a couple of weeks ago and they were discussing how to deal with divorced parents over the holidays. This brought something to my attention that I had sort of put out of my mind. I needed to explain divorce to The Muffin so that she would understand why my brother-in-law now has a girlfriend. Needless to say, it was an interesting conversation! She is very fascinated by marriage these days and often talks about the day that I married her Daddy. She doesn't understand why she wasn't there! So, now she thinks that a husband and wife or mommy and daddy aren't married anymore and one of them goes to jail. I have no idea where the whole jail-thing came from. I have tried to explain to her that a mommy and daddy are supposed to stay married forever, but that it doesn't always work out that way. I do not want her to worry about me and her Daddy staying together, but I want her to know that marriage is supposed to be forever. It's amazing the things that we have to explain to our children!

I'm hoping for a relaxing weekend. Big Daddy may go to work early in the morning, but is planning on going to the gym and taking The Muffin with her. On Saturdays, he's started going to a MMA (Mixed Martial arts) gym and one of the other fighters brings his son that is around Muff's age. I'm not sure how she'll feel about watching her Daddy fight with someone, but she sees his boo-boo's so it will be interesting for her to see exactly how he gets them.

On Sunday we'll be going to the new church and we may try to go to Nana & Pawpaw's church for the Christmas play, too.

That's all for now.