Tonight is the last night I'll spend in this house. We're moving tomorrow! Actually, we're only moving out tomorrow. Our "new" house won't be ready for another week. So we'll be staying with my mom until then.

Moving has brought me low in some ways...tonight, while cleaning out my pantry, I found a Reese's Peanut Butter Egg (as in Easter egg) way back in the corner of the top shelf. I assume it was from last Easter, but it could have been from the Easter before that. I debated for about 5 seconds, then opened it. I looked it over and broke it open. (I did this because one of my best friends swears that her mother broke open a Butterfinger once and it was full of maggots.) It looked OK. I found out seconds later that it most definitely was not OK.

I also found in the back of my freezer a popsicle wrapper that had not been opened and yet contained no popsicle. Only some gummy stains on one side. Like the Shroud of Turin.

I wonder if I'll be homesick when we move. I wasn't homesick when we moved from our first home to this one. But it seems to me that a house is consecrated by the life you live in it.

To this house, we brought Jonah when he was 15 months old, and put him in a big boy bed because he had leaped from his crib right before we moved. In this house, he learned the alphabet, and "The Night Before Christmas," and all the words to "If You Give a Mouse a Cookie." In this house, he learned to pray, and on our front porch he would go alone if he needed some quiet time with God. In this house, every morning, every morning for 3 whole years he awoke and said, "I want to drink hot milk and lay on the couch with Mommy, " and we did. In this house, he loved Spiderman and Batman and Superman. In this house, he was Spiderman and Batman and Superman. In this house, he grew tall and thin, and went from being a baby to a boy.

In this house, I sat on the bathroom floor and wept when I found out I was pregnant with the baby who would be Finley. In this house, I prayed for her before she was ever born. And to this house we brought her after she arrived. And when she got sick at 7 days old, and she had to be put in the hospital, and we almost lost her, it was back to this house I longed to bring her. In this house, she crawled, and then walked, and then ran. In this house she lisped her first words. In this house, she fell in love with Ernie from Sesame Street. And in this house, she gave her first hugs and first kisses.

In this house, I fought with my husband and made up with him. In this house, I laughed with him, and I laughed at him. In this house, I cried with him and prayed with him, and burned his toast, and many times forgot to do his laundry. I stood with him in our living room and said goodbye to our best friends. In this house, I saw him do things that no one, not even Todd himself, ever would have guessed he could do, like hang a ceiling fan, or tile the floor, or fix the toilet. In this house, I've watched him become the best father I've ever known.

I've loved the life we've lived in this house. I'm about to spend my last night here. So, good night!

THINGS I LOVE ABOUT

FINLEY WHEN SHE IS 1

...the little rolls just above her knees.

...the way she jumps without her feet ever leaving the floor.

...the way her hair looks all puffy when she wakes up.

...the dimples in the backs of her hands.

...the way she wants to do everything herself.

...her profile. It's perfect.

...the was she says, "aahhh" and rubs

her feet when she takes off her shoes.

...that her love of clothes and shoes is matched only by her love of cookies and ice cream.

...that she belly laughs at peek-a-boo.

...the way she gives kisses with her bottom lip sticking out.

...that sometimes, when I put her in bed at night, she says, "Love you..." before I do.

Here are some things that have happened in the past few days:

I fell down in the kitchen. It was one of those falls where you're walking, then you think, "Hey! I'm on the floor!"

Finley has started stripping her diaper off at every opportunity. Yesterday I found "number 2" in various spots all over the living room. This set Jonah off, who repeatedly screamed, "I see poop!"

Finley refused to nap today (one of the only times ever) and during the whole brouhaha, pulled every toy off her shelf, to the point that could hardly walk in there. I went in to check on her to find her diaper leaking "number 2" which got all over my arm. Later, I went to check on her again and stepped on pee.

This evening I had to wake Todd up to go to guitar lessons, and he talked gibberish, and told me he had to put on his "belter."

Jonah has his first loose tooth.

We sold our house today. We'll close on Oct. 29.

We called my mother-in-law tonight, and could hear her shouting, "A.W., you need Febreeze, you need Febreeze!"

Today at Sonic, a girl named "NewNew" brought us our drinks.

Jonah asked me if people would have skin in Hell.

Well, I've been busy lately. Finley got sick last Thursday night. She ran low grade fever and threw up, then she was fine for the rest of the weekend. Then on Sunday night she started running fever again, (she still is today) and threw up Tuesday. You know, I don't know very many people who aren't shaken up by vomiting. Whether you are the victim or an innocent bystander, it's an unnerving experience. But Finley is an exception to this rule. She throws up and then just walks away like it never happened. When she threw up and then just walked right into the kitchen and got into her booster seat, apparently ready for a snack. Geez!



After much deliberation and prayer, we've decided to home-school Jonah. We explained to him what we'd be doing and he's been really excited. We ordered our curriculum on Monday. Then today, when we picked him up from school, and he'd said goodbye to all his classmates, he said, "Call the school and tell them it was all a BIG MISTAKE!"

Today, I was playing with Finley and was chomping my teeth. (Don't ask me why...if you have kids, you won't even ask why.) Anyway, without warning she stuck her finger in my mouth and I chomped it HARD! I mean, hard. And she cried hard! Can you imagine how I would explain that to a doctor if she had needed stitches or something?

I thought I'd be able to keep it together a little better than I have this week. You know, anytime it would come up in conversation that Jonah was starting Kindergarten this year, people would give me this knowing, pitying look. But I thought it would really be no big deal since he's been in Mother's Day Out for a couple of years. I couldn't have been more wrong.
Sunday night, I was a little weepy when we put him to bed. I just kept thinking, "Are we here already?" I kept thinking of him as a baby, or a toddler, or anything but a kindergartener. But I thought that would be it for the tears once we put him to bed. Wrong.
Todd was watching Saving Private Ryan and I just happened to be in the room during a particularly moving scene where a dying soldier calls out for his mama. That's all it took. I boo-hooed. I mean, sobbed, y'all. And pretty soon, Todd was sitting right beside me crying, too!
I was fine on Monday morning. After all, it was the "big event" we had been waiting on for weeks. Jonah was nervous, but shed no tears, so neither did I. We did drive past the school twice that day to try to see him, though.
Then, Tuesday morning, things weren't so great. I was really grouchy, got into a fight with Todd, and went and spied on Jonah at recess, only to see him sitting out because he was in some sort of trouble. More tears from Mommy.
Today is Friday, and I'm looking forward to having Jonah home for the weekend. I really don't think I was prepared for the emptiness of the day without Jonah around. If you know Jonah at all, you know he's a ball of energy, full of questions and plans and hugs and fun. It feels so weird for all that to be gone for 7 whole hours every day. I'm ready for Christmas holidays already.

I've been sick, y'all. I mean, really sick. First I thought it was a virus, then gall stones, but it turned out to be a severe urinary tract infection. (Sorry to say the word urinary on the blog.) You know, it's weird how incapacitating nausea and vomiting can be. It just completely takes away my powers of mobility. I was sitting there on my couch, throwing up right onto my living room floor, thinking, "I should probably try and walk to the bathroom" but knowing that there was absolutely no way I was going to move off that couch.



I remember the first time I got sick after I was married. All my life, my mom has brought me a cool washcloth and a cup of crushed ice when I was sick. I thought this was the universal treatment for nausea and vomiting. Imagine my surprise when I had to ASK my new husband for the washcloth and the ice. Imagine my even bigger surprise when he brought me a warm washcloth and 3 large cubes of ice (not even in a cup, he just put all three cubes right into my hand!)



So, my mom was at my house the other night, when I was sitting on the couch throwing up. And like magic, within mere seconds, she has the cool washcloth. It was almost like she already had it in her pocket, it was so fast. So, Mom, if you read this, thank you. Todd, if you read this, thank you too, for all the extra work you've done while I've been sick. Jesus, if you read this, thank you for answering my prayers that I wouldn't have to have gall bladder surgery.

Well, Jonah's debut as a ringbearer went off without a hitch (almost). I was a little worried..be-ing a ringbearer is a lot of pressure (for the mom.) I guess this really hit me when we went to try on and pick up his tux Thursday. I was really nervous he would get the tux dirty or wrinkled before the wedding. Then, right as we were about to take his tux off, he said, "I just peed a little bit." Great... I figured I'd have to have it dry cleaned before the wedding...but no damage was done.

On the way home from the tux store, Jonah told us his plan to "bow" once he got to the front of the church. I tried to talk him out of it as gently as possible. We went to the rehearsal the next night, and he did fine. The plan was that he and the flower girl would walk down the aisle and straight to their moms, who were sitting on the second row. He was cool with that, but he did express some concern that there weren't any rings on the little pillow he was carrying. I tried to explain why but he couldn't seem to understand.

The next day, we went an hour and a half early to the wedding, and he did really well (meaning he didn't destroy anything or sully his tux before the wedding.) They gave him his little pillow, and he was excited to see 2 silver ornamental rings tied onto the pillow. The wedding started, and he looked so cute walking down the aisle! He was so serious! I sat on the second row, relieved that the hard part was almost over. Then he stopped right in front of the groom and just stood there. The groomsmen tried to silently direct him to me, but he seemed confused. He looked around with this bewildered look on his face. He finally threw back his head and gave a little (but audible) exasperated sigh. I whispered his name 3 times before he finally headed to his seat beside me.

When he got there, he said, "How am I supposed to be the ringbearer if I don't give them the rings?!" He had stopped in front of the groom so he could give him the ornamental rings! I felt so bad I hadn't realized he thought those were the real rings... I tried to tell him those weren't the real rings and that the the best man had the real one...I told him he had done his job perfectly and he shouldn't be upset...he said, "Well, is this the wedding?" I said yes, it was. "Well, then I didn't do my job!!!," he said.

For a few tense seconds, I was afraid we were headed for a meltdown. I mean, he had that look. But he settled into his seat without much more grumbling. For the rest of the wedding, he wiggled and whispered, then made his exit beautifully with the flower girl (who had cried for most of the ceremony) at his side.

He posed for a few pics after the wedding, and he acted like a little grown up for all of that. Then we went to the reception where he promptly guzzled 3 cups of punch. All in all, I think the day was a success.

Well, I just got back from my first ever real recording session. (I'm so important!) It was great. I had a really good time, and enjoyed hanging out with Todd's man crush, Ross, and his beautiful family. It was a really neat experience all around. One of the highlights was getting to sleep 10 hours straight last night. Another was going to Freebirds for lunch. I'm glad Todd talked me into making this trip.

We bought "prizes" for the kids (the babysitters are really the ones who deserved prizes.) We got Jonah a little Transformer and Finley got a phone pull toy. At the check out they had little Venus Flytraps for $4.00. I've never seen a real one. Plus I imagined them way bigger. I thought Jonah might like one, because he's asked us about them before. He went nuts over it. But I could tell from his face that at first he was a little worried it might bite him. Hope it doesn't, cause I told him they don't bite people.

We were worried that Jonah's new frog didn't survive our trip. (We forgot to arrange for someone to feed him. Plus we don't even really know what or how often to feed him...or her.) Anyway, I was kind of afraid to go look, but he was still alive.

While we were gone my mom tried to clean out our fridge and clogged up our disposal with broccoli. You know, broccoli at its best doesn't smell so great, but broccoli sitting overnight in the kitchen sink is just...real real bad. When we ran the disposal, it took a while but it finally came unclogged and pureed broccoli shot straight up out of the sink and got all over the kitchen cabinets. No thank you.

My mom also messed up the dead bolt on our side door last night. It was already broken but she didn't know it, so it got stuck in a locked position. She called to ask us what we thought she should do, and someone gave us advice to have her hit it with a rubber mallet. Looking back, that seems like something they would do on Looney Toons if their lock was stuck. I can just picture Foghorn Leghorn with a big rubber mallet. Anyway, that didn't work, so we had to take the whole thing apart when we got home tonight.

At bedtime tonight we realized Jonah had left Snorey Bear (his "lovey") at my mom's house, so Todd had to go get him before Jonah could go to sleep. Jonah has had Snorey Bear since he was one and is very attached to him. Finley doesn't have a regular lovey, but goes to bed most nights holding the remote control for the fan. I've tried to get her attached to a stuffed animal, but she prefers the remote.

All in all, I'm glad to be home with my kiddos. Plus my mom mopped the floor. Who could ask for anything more?

I was tagged by my husband. Here are my seven facts. Unfortunately, all my friends with blogs have already been tagged too, so there may be some repeats in my tag-ees.

The rules: each player should list seven random facts about themselves on their blog as well as the rules to this little game. At the end of their post, they need to tag seven people. Let those folks know they've been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

1. I have a pair of what I call my bad luck pajamas. I was wearing them on 9/11 and when I had an eclamptic seizure on Jan. 1, 2002. I still have them but haven't worn them since.

2. When I was 16, I hit a parked car in the mall parking lot and took off.

3. I was a twirler in Jr. High. I also played French Horn.

4. When I was 17, I went to a New Kids on the Block concert and got to stay at their hotel. We snuck onto their floor and stole a used glass off a room service tray that we truly believed had been used by Joe McIntyre. When they left the hotel there was a huge stampede around them, and my hand got cut somehow.

5. In third grade I won a school essay contest called, "What the School Lunch Means to Me." I got to write the essay on posterboard and it was hung up in the cafeteria.

6. I used the be obsessed with The Monkees. I knew all their songs, had posters of them, and my friends mom had some shirts made for us that said "The Monkees." They were black and had the words written diagonally on the front in white block iron on letters. Then she had our names written on them in red paint pen on the shoulder. I was a big nerd, and even I thought those shirts were nerdy. But I had to wear it anyway.

7. To this day, a 64-count box of Crayola crayons thrills me. When I was a kid my favorites were "Sea Foam Green" and "Sky Blue."

My tags are:
Susie
Forrest
Rachel
Amy
Lance
Jason
Robert

Sorry if there are some repeats.

Well, this week has been interesting, as usual. I ran over our cat's tail on Friday. He's 8 years old and has always been a slow mover anyway. I was driving into the carport and he just didn't get out of the way in time. I felt so bad about it. I called the vet and they said he would probably be fine. So far so good.
Jonah told me this week I was turning into a man. Don't you just love hearing that kind of thing from your kid? So touching. He said it because for the past 2 years I've been shaving my arms (which breaks one of my mom's cardinal rules..."Never start shaving your arms. You'll regret it." Another one I sometimes break is, "Don't ever look at truck drivers. You may see something you don't want to see." Anyway, I decided to stop shaving my arms about a month ago. Jonah apparently noticed this week.
Jonah and Finley took a big spill in the buggy at Big Lots (really that was last week, but I think it bears telling). Finley was in the front seat of the buggy and Jonah was walking. I let go and turned away for about 10 seconds...then I heard a huge crash. Jonah had tried to coast while holding on the the handle. It flipped right over, and he landed on his back with the buggy on top of him, and Finley still in the seat. It scared me so much I sat right down and cried in Big Lots. This guy with a mullet (very puffy mullet, I might add) came over while I was crying and showed me a bunk bed. I think the sight of his hair helped me pull myself together. Thank the Lord, the kids were fine.
Finley has learned to climb up on the table. Jonah never even attemped this. (He's not exactly a risk taker. Too much like me.) Finley not only climbed on our table, but also Gigi's and MawMaw's. My PawPaw loved this because my mom used to climb on the table to eat out of the sugar bowl when she was a baby.
Here is a confession. I play Webkinz every night after my kids go to bed. Jonah has adopted 2 Webkinz (a dog named Redman and a bunny named Sallie) and I'm just addicted to playing Webkinz. If you don't know what it is, don't find out. You'll get addicted, too. Let's just say I'm about 25 years too old to be playing it.

I sang "a solo" in worship today for the first time in about 3 years. I've refused to sing for a long time now because I just couldn't handle the anxiety that came with it. That's something that's been hard for Todd to understand. I know it sounds strange, but I would literally be swept away by a feeling of panic when I had to sing (and at lots of other times too). It was uncontrollable. It really got to the point that my anxiety was almost unbearable and was affecting my life in a major way. I finally started dealing with it about 6 months ago, and to be honest, I feel really great that I was able to do this today. I had to work really hard to control my anxiety over the past 48 hours or so. (I know that sounds so crazy, but it's true!) I mean, I had to REALLY WORK at it. But, I made it through the song, and Todd said I did a great job. That's all, folks!

I'm hoping that Todd isn't reading this.

I have to share this with you all. I've been thinking this for quite some time, but have finally decided to say it out loud.

MY HUSBAND'S SONGS ARE HORRIBLE.

There! I said it. Who's with me?

Well, I'm back. I've had an exciting couple of weeks. We got back from vacation exactly one week ago. This was our first real family vacation. We had a really really good time. Jonah, in particular, had the time of his life. We went to the zoo, then Sea World...he rode his first roller coaster, ate his first giant sucker, and did his first cannonball into a pool...we went to the Magic Time Machine and our waiter was HAN SOLO! Jonah got his autograph...We went to the Rainforest Cafe, and Jonah spent most of his time hiding in the bathroom because he was afraid of the thunder...but all was redeemed for him when he bought an electronic voice changer at the gift shop before we left...and he didn't stop talking in that thing until we got back to Lufkin. Amazingly, Finley slept all the way home.

On Sunday, we moved Finley to a toddler bed. I had an unspoken plan of keeping her in her crib until she was at least 2, and maybe even longer if she'd let me. (We had to move Jonah out of his crib at 15 months old when he took a flying leap out of it in the middle of the night.) Finley hasn't shown any desire to climb out, but she kept getting her legs caught between the slats of the crib. Anyway, we moved her crib out and her new bed in. She liked it, and did great that first night, except for when I caught her walking down the hall at 5 a.m. The week has gotting progressively worse, though. Last night she got up 5 or 6 different times, starting at 2 a.m. and finally going back to sleep at 4 a.m. But on the plus side, she looks REALLY cute sleeping in that bed.

On Monday, I sent Jonah to VBS at my cousin's church. Within 2 1/2 days, they had moved him to 3 different classes. When I took him on Wednesday morning, they had him in a class with 3 year olds! (3's, 4's and 5's in a class together...) He didn't want to stay, and I really couldn't blame him. I tried to talk it over with a lady who seemed to be in charge, and she really didn't want to budge on the matter. (Not that I was trying to make her, but she was kind of bossy. And it was "crazy hair day" so she had her hair in a sort of pink mohawk...I just don't think you should try to be bossy with a person when you have a pink mohawk.) Anyway, we left. And later, I called the church and complained. It's not like this week was going on his permanent record, right? What would it have hurt to keep him in the Kindergarten class ( he is 5 after all) for 2 more day? I told them we were part of a church, but that if we had been looking for a church, we wouldn't have come back there. So...BOO YA!

Today, my sweet son conspired with his daddy and bought me A DIAMOND NECKLACE! Yes, folks, a real diamond necklace. This was Jonah's own idea. He picked it out by himself. He's the sweetest kid in the world! It's from a real jewelry store and everything. And when he presented it to me, he told me how much he loves me and what a sweet mommy I am. Honestly, it was one of the best moments of my whole life. Wow...

Later, we took Finley to get her ears pierced. She did really well, with no more than the expected amount of crying. She looks too cute.

Tonight, we rented Night at the Museum to watch with Jonah. I know the whole world except for me has already seen. Well, now I have too. Good movie. But even better, Todd got some M&M's for us to put into our popcorn...YUM! You do not like it, so you say...Try it, try it, and you may!

The other day, Todd and I took the kids to the library. The book I wanted wasn't there (The Key Lime Pie Murder, which is the latest in a series books involving Hannah Swensen, a slightly overweight, curly haired 30-something who owns a bakery called the Cookie Jar. She always gets involved in a murder mystery in her small community of Lake Eden. Why so many people get murdered in Lake Eden I don't know. She's also trying to decide between 2 guys, the hot police detective, Mike, and the lovable and funny dentist Norman. I'm pulling for Norman. These books will never be classics, but hey, they're completely stress free entertainment. Anyway, they didn't have it.)
So I'm over in the section by the computers looking for the book, and as I head back to the children's section, a young blond woman watches me leave. I smile at her, and she says, loudly, "I notice when I pause, everyone around me pauses..." I beg your pardon? I said, "Hm. You mean on the computer?" She said, "No, it's just when I pause, everyone else pauses..." I just walked away. I had Finley with me, so I didn't want any trouble. Mental illness? Weed? I don't know. But I reported her to the lady at the front desk. Weird-o-rama...really.

Tonight, I'm going with my cousin Stephanie to see the 20th anniversary re-release of Dirty Dancing. I can't imagine that I watched this movie when I was 13, but I distinctly remember going to the theater to watch it with a bunch of other girls for Amy Cryer's 14th birthday party. My mom was very opposed to my going, but for some reason she let me. Then, a few months later, Stephanie and I rented it, and Mom was still didn't want us to watch it, but she let us again! She got mad that we were watching it and went to bed. But she came out after a few minutes and said, "Y'all know that you are NEVER to dance with ANYONE like that!" My friend Martha watched the movie almost every day one summer. She even sat at her computer and typed out every word while she watched it. I always wondered if she typed out what was happening during parts where there was no talking, like the dancing scenes and...other...scenes...if you know what I mean. I don't know why she did it. I just know I loved that movie. I've probably seen it at least once a year since I first saw it 20 years ago. I leave you with this final thought...NOBODY PUTS BABY IN A CORNER!

Yesterday, we went to dinner at Logan's Roadhouse. Jonah had never been there before, and he loved that they had a bucket of peanuts on every table, and you could put the shells right on the floor. He didn't eat a lot of peanuts, but he did put a lot of shells on the floor. Imagine that. Then, when Todd took him to wash his hands before we left, on the way back to the table, he grabbed peanuts out of the buckets on every table that they passed. I think Todd was walking in front so he didn't notice until it was too late. I'm just glad he didn't grab food off other people's plates.

Today, Finley walked down the hall to Jonah's room. Up till now, she's taken maybe 5 steps at once, so it really surprised Todd and me. Then, when Todd went into Jonah's room to get her, he found her eating a piece of an old tortilla. I don't know how old it was, but it was old enough to be about as hard as a saltine cracker. How did she find it? I never even saw it in there. I guess I would have noticed it if I was 2 1/2 feet tall.

Yesterday was field day at Jonah's school. He had a great time. They had a big inflatable slide, face painting, sno cones, bubbles, play doh, sidewalk chalk, etc. (I was expecting a 100 yard dash or softball throw like we had at field day when I was a kid. But I guess preschoolers don't do that.)

The funniest part of field day was when, after everyone else had gone inside, Todd went down the big inflatable slide. He shouted, "Woooo! Yeah!" as he was going down, and then he tried to get off the slide. I think he was going to do one big bounce then pop up on his feet, but I heard him go, "WUH" and when I looked he had landed right on his rear. I don't think I've ever seen him look more surprised.

This morning, in the span of about 1 hour, Finley broke a glass jar, a cereal bowl, and pulled a lamp off the end table. She's just gotten to the stage where she's getting into everything. It may seem like we weren't watching her, but we really were, except for one time when Todd and I were playing each other on Gamecube Marvel Nemesis. All the rest of the time we really were watching her. And the other day, she crawled out from under the table with a SPIDER on the end of her NOSE! At first I thought it was dead, because it was kind of rolled up into a ball, but when I flicked it off it started uncurling and moving around. Plus, it was my worst kind, those crabby looking ones with the set of long legs that look kind of like pinchers. I bet she tried to put it in her mouth, but it crawled right up onto her nose instead. Can you imagine?

We've had a bad turn of events on the whole house situation. The VERY DAY we finally signed a contract on the house we're supposed to buy, we found out our buyers want us to come down off the price of the house because of some things on the home inspection. Like $3000. We just couldn't do it. So we called our realtor and told her that, and when she relayed the message to their realtor, she said, "Well, can't they come down even $500?" The realty game is just beyond me. Honestly. So we said we could come down $500, but we haven't heard if they still want the house or not. The drama of all this is too much for poor little Todd. He doesn't like the wheeling and dealing of it all. He didn't even want to be in the room while I was on the phone talking about it.

Yesterday we went to Maw Maw's for dinner and the big easter egg hunt. Jonah is so funny hunting eggs. He is so busy talking he can't hunt eggs. And yesterday for some reason he wanted to hunt eggs in a cape. Later, I asked him why and he said, "Because I wanted to have a real live super hero easter egg...Um...I just wanted to look cool." Finley didn't really know what was going on, but we posed her and took her picture as if she was really hunting eggs. Every year I help hide the eggs and every year I hide them in the same place. Guess the kids will catch on eventually.

It snowed like crazy today. I mean, really really snowed (for Lufkin.) Jonah and I even had a little snowball fight. Jonah took complete credit for the snow. He said, "HA HA! My genius plan worked!" We let him play out there for quite a while, because he'll probably have kids of his own before it snows like that around here again. He stayed out too long, in fact. He knocked on the door (who knows why he doesn't just come right in, but he never does) and when I opened the door, he gave a little shriek and said, "I just peed my pants!" I think all the playing in the snow tired him out, because it's 7:00, and both the kids are in bed. (Ha ha...MY genius plan worked!)

Well, we sold our house. Almost. We have a signed contract and earnest money on it, and if they don't back out within the next 9 days it's a done deal. By the way, it's a CASH deal. Wow. I hope someday I'm able to pay CASH for a HOUSE. The house has been on the market for a month, and so for a month I have been racing around the house all day, inside and out, trying to keep it looking great. Not that easy with a 5 year old.

Jonah, on Sunday afternoon, came inside and told me he needed to potty. He has to have an escort to any part of the house that's not the living room. So I say let's go, but he wants to go outside. OK, just don't let anyone see you, I say. He comes back in to say there are people outside next door, and he just can seem to find a hidden spot. Can he go close to the carport, he asks. Yes, just don't get it on the car, I say. In a few minutes, he reports that the deed is done. He had, of course, peed right inside the carport, leaving a nice sized puddle right next to the doormat.

On an unrelated note, just a few minutes ago I took the trash out to the can and when I put the bag into the can some drops of moisture flew up and landed on my face. And in my hair. Not good. I'm sure my friend Lance would appreciate that story.

Another unrelated note: the other day my mom told me that a lady she works with admitted that every so often, she has to eat dirt. Literally. She gets a craving for it. But it has to be this specific dirt from Nacogdoches. Mom said she didn't remember that I used to eat paper as a child. She says she never knew. How could she not? Maybe I only did it at school. But I ate probably several packages of notebook paper as a child. (Not all at once, over several years.) If I ate a sucker, I would also eat the stick afterward. I didn't like the paper off of crayons. It had a weird taste. I found out my dad also ate paper. I hope I didn't give myself some disease that will show up later.

Finley ate a bug yesterday. She didn't swallow it, just chewed it. Usually I keep the floor bug free, but we've been having tons of "gal-nippers" (yes, that's what we call them) in the house. They fly in and then die behind the furniture and I never know they were here. Finley found one and ate it. Taking a bug out of her mouth was just about too much for me.

Jonah is a bug mad man. He catches them to put inside his "bug habitat." Yesterday, he caught 2 gal-nippers, a caterpillar, a june bug and 2 identical beatles with orange stripes. They were apparently husband and wife, because I "walked in on them" last night. You know, that's the kind of thing you see on nature shows, but it's just not something you want to see up close, in your own house. No thank you, bugs.

Then, this morning, we found a dead bunny on or door mat, compliments of our cat Henry. I just switched his food last week to a "senior" formula (he's 8 years old) and I guess he really likes his new food so he brought me a dead bunny as a thank you. Either that, or I'm not feeding him enough. It was raining, so Todd left the bunny there until he could dispose of it. We went out later, and all that was left was a BUNNY HEAD and a few tufts of fur.

Finley ate a clump of dirt off the floor today. I know it sounds like my floor is dirty but it's really not. We had JUST walked in the house and the dirt must have come off Jonah's shoes. Finley found it almost immediately, before I had a chance to pick it up. I don't think she liked it.

Jonah said "dammit" yesterday. He heard it on a Spiderman cartoon! He had no idea what it meant. He thought it was a beam at a construction site. He said, "Daddy, Spiderman thought that dammit was about to fall and hurt those people." So Todd had to tell him it was a bad word. Later, he said to me, "Mommy, did you know dammit was a bad word?" Then, "They said dammit on Spiderman." Then, "I know some words that rhyme with dammit....jammit, blammit, dammit!"

Can you believe they still show "McGee and Me?" Jonah's watching it right now. Maybe he won't learn any more dirty words from that.