the good stuff

snowday 2: the revenge

Good heavens, I wasn't sure it was EVER going to stop snowing.

But it did, finally, tonight.  And I spent the day in a big cozy sweater, slippers on.  Thankfully, TK was home, and able to do all the necessary shoveling.  I HATE shoveling.  LAst year, when the december snow was starting, TK had just started his job in NYC and I was on for all of the snow removing...How I appreciate it now!

Sam was so into making a snowman, and though the snow was still too powdery for it, they gave it a good shot today, and I managed to sneak out onto the porch and catch some great shots of them playing.  I am always so grateful that Sam and Jane have a real playmate in their dad.  And I am grateful also for my long lens, enabling me to get some great pictures of them, without having to remove my slippers.

Do notice, as you are looking, the very handsome husband, he is so often photographically neglected, and I got some great ones of him today!  The end also has them having a snowball fight...check the one where the snowball is crashing into sam...love it!

4 more sleeps!!

snowday & the bob

I officially LOVE snowdays.

No school, a pot of chicken soup on the stove, christmas movies, and playing in the snow...I think it doesn't get much better.  Once the cleaning of cars commences, though, LOOK OUT.  Obscenities are flying.  =)

Some pics from our snow play...keep in mind it was almost dark...there is some heavy duty editing going on here...

Jane, trying to throw a shovel-full of snow over her shoulder, miscalculated the strength needed to toss a shovel-full of snow over her shoulder...and ended up with a face full of snow.  I would have felt so sorry for her, if I wasn't laughing so hard.

This morning, at the crack of 6AM, everyone but TK bundled up and got into the car, braved the roads (which, while empty, were actually okay!) and headed to the cape for haircuts.  Sam, though he did not partake in a new hair-do, was content to sit with a movie on my iPod, his modeling clay, and some munchkins.  Such a good boy.  My mom, Rebecca, Jane and I each had a turn in Tricia's chair, and one by one we were transformed into BEAUTIES!  That woman, I swear, is magical.  I fyou live on the cape, or find yourself there and want to be BEAUTIFIED by the best, seek out Tricia Joyce at Beyond Beauty.  (Trust me on this one.  And tell her I sent you.)

Jane was last in the chair and while I was being shampooed, the nail tech asked if she could do Jane's nails...oh hello.  If you could have heard the conversation between the two of them...

But the very best...my baby girl...looking like the little girl I dreamed of...with little bob cut and big bow...I LITERALLY can't get over it.  It's love, all over again...

And I'm off to dinner with the hubs!  Love having a live-in babysitter!  Thanks mom!!

for abigail

For the FIRST Abigail in my care, who happens to be a ridiculously talented artist who has decided that Sam will be the  subject of her next masterpiece....WOO HOO!  Can't wait to see the finished product, Abby!!

a little christmas

And I say that with much sarcasm.  We couldn't be MORE entrenched in the season if we tried.  These came home from school a few days ago....

I can't tell you how relieved I am that he comes home with lists that haven't changed since we bought all of his gifts... =)

Yesterday, on the way home from Sam's gymnastics class, after an entire ride of tourretts-like shouts of "CHRISTMAS LIGHTS!!!!" every few minutes, I had an inspired idea to drive up the street NEXT to ours, to see what kind of lights they had going on there.  I slowed down when I saw a house ablaze with lights, and as I did so, saw another car stop, and shut its engine off.  I was right to assume it was the owner of the house, and rolled down my window to tell them how nice (cough cough) their house looked.  What I was decidedly NOT prepared for was that SANTA CLAUS LIVES IN THAT HOUSE. He stepped out of the car, in full red suit from head to toe, (real) white beard, rosy cheeks and hat, and we all went crazy.  I rolled Sam's window down and we said hello to him, and he waved and said "Merry Christmas!" and we were all just so tickled by the whole thing.  Sam bounded into the house shouting to TK, telling him that "SANTA LIVES IN OUR NEIGHBORHOOD!!!!"  Couldn't have planned that better if I had tried.  It was AWESOME.

This morning we woke up to the tiniest bit of snow on the ground, which called for hot chocolate with whipped cream.  (doesn't it??)  I did it up right....heated up milk and everything.  I found once again that my son really is MY SON, eating three helpings of whipped cream and about a molecule of hot chocolate.

And I love this picture of my little dino-girl, complete with pink bow, conked out on her bean bag.  That's what a Christmas-music-dance-party will do to a girl...

 
And so everyone can rest easy, I have a copy of Emmet Otter's Jugband Christmas.  Christmas of my childhood is here in the house. 

8 more sleeps 'til Christmas!

home is where your mom is

I love that quote.  I have seen it on everything from fridge magnets to wall plaques, to little engraved necklaces.  And every time I read it I have to say (aloud, to anyone who might be listening) "that is SO true."  And lucky for me, I get to live it all the time.

Christmas for me is really, well, freaking awesome.  Those poor saps who are close to me are forced to listen to Christmas music starting in about July, watch White Christmas year-round, and have to put up with my endless "icantwaitforchristmas" chants come December 1st.  But I didn't REALLY appreciate it until Sam and Jane rolled in, no wait, that isn't quite true.  I appreciated every Christmas as a kid, but as a GROWN-UP, the best Christmases are just starting.  We just got our tree up and decorated, the stockings are hung, those Hallmark singing snowmen are singing away (thanks, Auntie Bob....) and the Christmas season is in full swing.  It is about being here at home, enjoying each other, continuing traditions from when we were little and making new ones as we go.

And I got a great present early....my mom arrived form Savannah last week.

That woman gets into this house, and immediately commences to showering the kids with affection, changing the sheets, ironing our clothes (and sometimes our money, you know. So it isn't so wrinkly.) and making meatloaf and mashed potatoes.  I have ABSOLUTELY NO IDEA how she does it.  No. Freaking. Idea.  This year I was especially needy, being up to my eyeballs with photo editing and holiday card-making for my most excellent clients, and I needed help in a BIG WAY.  Enter mom.  Working her magic with the kids, and the house, and dinner, and everything else that a daughter needs.   I guess it is true that no matter how old I get, I never will outgrow neeeeeding her. 

So at this most wonderful time of the year, the time when I want to hunker down and never go outside (except in the snow, of course), it is fitting that my mom is here to make these days even more special.

Home really is where your mom is.

Lucky lucky me.

(I love you, mom, thank you for EVERYTHING.)

why I love the onion

This is an article, posted some time ago on my favorite "news" website, the onion.

Police: iPhone Left In Hot Car For Three Hours

 October 3, 2008 | Issue 44•40

WINNETKA, IL—This normally peaceful suburban town is still reeling following the news Monday that a local resident, whose name is being withheld by police pending a full investigation, left an iPhone unattended for more than three hours in a car parked in the hot sun.

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At this time, police are holding the iPhone for examination and Twittering.

"Responding to calls from concerned passersby, who observed the iPhone sitting in a vehicle in the parking lot of the Westfield Shopping Center, police arrived on the scene at approximately 4 p.m. and immediately intervened to save the device," said Winnetka police chief Douglas Blaine. "Security cameras have shown that the iPhone had been in the car—with the doors locked and the windows rolled up—since 1 p.m. Due to the tragic and highly emotional nature of this case, we cannot say any more at this time."

According to official police records, two officers forcibly broke into the car at 4:07 p.m. and found the iPhone lying face down on the dashboard. The iPhone at first showed no signs of life, but after a tense few seconds, officers were able to wake it and get it to respond to a series of simple touch commands. Police said that if the iPhone were left in the extreme heat for any longer, it could have died.

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The abandoned iPhone was rewarded with several new widgets for its bravery.

The iPhone was rushed by ambulance to a nearby Apple facility for careful examination. Miraculously, no damage to its memory, screen, or wireless capabilities was reported.

Upper-middle-class suburbanites from all over the North Shore area have reacted to the near-tragedy with an unprecedented outpouring of concern. Hundreds of cards and letters have come streaming in, and local talk radio shows have been flooded with calls demanding that the iPhone's owner be prosecuted. Many have come forward offering to take the iPhone into their custody, and still more have donated free downloads, ringtones, and MP3s to the victimized object.

Although the device was unharmed, Winnetka residents expressed shock and dismay that something like this could occur in their normally materially conscious community.

"What kind of a human being is capable of such callous disregard for a precious, precious thing?" said one concerned Winnetka resident, tax lawyer Ben Klein. "Having an iPhone is a 24-hour-a-day responsibility."

"This iPhone was less than a year old," said Janelle Mankewiecz, another outraged citizen. "If someone is blessed with an iPhone, especially one of the newer models like this one, they should never take their eyes off it for even one second."

"On a hot day, the temperatures inside a parked car can reach 150 degrees in just 40 minutes," she added, looking up the information on her own iPhone.

Witnesses said that when the iPhone's owner eventually arrived at her car and realized what she had done, she began sobbing hysterically, calling out in vain for her iPhone, and rocking back and forth on the parking lot pavement while repeatedly shouting "No" and "This can't be happening." The owner is currently being held by authorities and will likely be charged with criminal neglect. If found guilty, she will be subject to severe punitive action, including fines and possible jail time, and the iPhone will be placed under foster care.

The iPhone's owner issued a statement through her attorney.

"My client deeply regrets the incident, and wishes to express a sincere apology to the police, the community, and the fine manufacturers at Apple," said lawyer Henry Durst, who was retained by the suspect following her arrest. "My client is remorseful and clearly emotionally distraught. This is her first iPhone."

Nonetheless, local government officials remain disturbed by what they are calling "inhuman" treatment of the iPhone.

"My husband and I have been trying for months, but so far, we've been unable to have an iPhone," town assemblywoman Janet Nuetreer said. "But if we did, we would understand that there is nothing more important. Every iPhone is a gift from God."

"Sadly, this sort of mistreatment of iPhones is more widespread than people think," said Dr. Jordan Heimlich, director of Winnetka Community Services, who is currently supervising the iPhone's care. "People leave their iPhones precariously perched on the edges of counters, they forget to charge them, they even fail to provide them with basic necessities like a decorative carrying case. I've even heard cases of iPhones being dropped."

"But I've never seen anything like this happen here in Winnetka before," he added. "It's sad to see how out of line so many people's basic priorities are."

Authorities added that it was "just sheer luck" that the toddler who was also left in the car was unconscious at the time, as otherwise he could have potentially damaged the iPhone.