HusbandSpeak

Matt: If I were a wizard, THIS would be my wand.

And Yoda would be my Patronus!

Luuurve

I really love...


that these boys are all mine

and that between the three of them, they possess a galaxy-sized measure of obscure Star Wars knowledge.

I love...

that I married a man who makes the most ridiculously scrumptious chocolate creme brulee...

and that there are no pictures of it to post because I ate the last of it for breakfast the other day.

I love...

going to wake the boys in the morning and finding them snuggled together

the perfect peace that is the face of a sleeping child

their coconut flavored hair after bathtime

big brown eyes



and Valentine parties

I love...

that my big kid is still innocent enough to be puzzled at our laughter when he brought this home from the school library...

I love...

photographs that stir my heart

girlfriends girlfriends girlfriends

parents and in-laws to share in the story of our lives

merlot


I love...

that J will proudly storm the grocery store in this get-up

that G tries to swing high enough to loop himself over the bar

and funny faces

and noogies

because there's just no better way to show someone you love 'em. Unless it's your grandma. You should probably just hug her.

Laugh it up Fuzzball

The last 8 days have been filled with all kinds of exciting fuzzball goodness. Jack and Simon came to live with us while the Price fam vacationed. Let me just say, this is absolutely the BEST way to have pets. You get 2 fluffy, fully trained puppies delivered to your door. They stay and play a while. And just about the time you start thinking, "If those poop machines doodle in my yard one more time...", *POOF* they go home! Brilliant! I'm thinking I could market this somehow.








The boys had a fabulous time with the pups. I am not a dog person myself, but I have to say I quite enjoyed them, too. I even learned a few things while they were here:

1. Dogs are not very fragrant when they are wet.

2. Apparently little boys require extensive training to learn to properly walk a dog.

3. Boys can move at the speed of light when a dog throws up.

4. When male pups reach sexual maturity, they do not care if the other dog is female, male, or even another dog at all.

In other news, the boys have been doing chores to earn a little money of their own. We've got them using Dave Ramsey's envelope system: Spend, Save, Give. It takes a little while to build up enough money to "Spend" when you have to divide your earnings 3 ways, but Grant finally managed to accumulate enough for a spending spree...though there's not much spree to it when you've only got $15 in this economy. But regardless, Grant is only 5. And you'll be pleased to know that when you're only 5, the amount of money in your pocket is not the important thing. Neither is the item purchased. No, what truly matters are the receipts. Who knew?



Jaden went shopping with his money as well, but at age 7, he is no longer enamored with receipts. He is all about the new series of Legos and, better yet, the freedom to purchase his very own bag of beef jerky. To each his own I always say. J even had a little extra money to spend because of this...



Honestly, that Tooth Fairy pays pretty well these days, especially when she forgets to drop by to pick up that last tooth and then has to pay double in restitution the next night.

There's no good story for this next pic. I had to post it because when I saw it the first time I was blown away by how grown up he looked.



Would somebody please be so kind as to press this kid's Pause button?

Jump!

Bear Grylls is psychotic (Hulu yourself some Man vs. Wild if you don't know this guy). Except for when he jumped out of a helicopter over a remote tropical island. THAT I understand. Not because I've been there done that, but because sometimes I'm tempted to go there do that. I'm sure all it would take is a quick Google: "pilot who will fly over remote tropical island and look the other way whilst I leap out and plummet towards silence and solitude thus escaping the frenzy that comes with living with 3 testosterone fueled males". Oh yes. There are a few of you out there that know EXACTLY what I mean. Here's a snapshot of a moment in the Potts house today ...

• Early morning Nerf dart gun war resulting in 498 darts strewn about the house including 7 in the Christmas tree, 3 in the kitchen sink, and 1 under my pillow. Don't ask. I have no idea.
• BB gun target practice in the back yard resulting in neon orange target shrapnel strewn, well, everywhere
• An archery contest with new bows and suction cup arrows that fire waaaay better than the dollar store variety. Bear in mind that said archers have had little to no education in the way of archery etiquette.

• Snowball fight on the trampoline
• Basketball practice in the driveway which morphed into...
• Nerf basketball game in the house which included the use of a random mattress
  
  
  which morphed into...
• Tackle basketball in the living room.

And none of this is out of the ordinary.  I should've asked Santa for a parachute.

Diciembre

December is a sneaky little sonuvagun. It creeps up behind you and taps your shoulder and by the time you've whirled around to face it, it's gone. I suppose that after 34.5, 26 years I should be a little more prepared to meet this lovely winter month, yet year after year it catches me unawares. Stupid December.

Here's how mine turned out...

1. My baby turned 5 the other day. And by the other day I mean about 4 weeks ago. I am unable to enlighten/bore you with countless pictures and tales of the birthday party because while I am overjoyed to have a healthy, happy, and somewhat ornery 5-year old, I am also somewhat stunned. You know, stunned like someone just slapped you across the face for no apparent reason and all you can do is make sounds that vaguely resemble Porky the Pig. And as if that's not bad enough, I also feel like I'm taking on Porky's physique thanks to the richness of the holiday season and possibly that ginormous plate of my dad's fudge that I've been consuming for breakfast for the past 3 days. Dang-o-mighty that stuff is good.
2. We officially attended our LAST Christmas program for PDO though I'm not sure why we bothered. Don't get me wrong...the program was adorable as always. It's just that our child spent his farewell performance imitating a statue. A pouting statue.
3. December 18th marked the start date for a frenzy of holiday activity: 9 Christmas celebrations (8 of which we attended), 2 more birthdays, our 14th anniversary (Cheers to one remarkable man for putting up with me for that long), and...
4. SNOW! We haven't had a decent snow in several years so this one was loooooong overdue. We woke up on Christmas Eve to 5-6 inches, most of which was plastered to the side of my house since it only snows sideways on the TX plains. The boys very nearly died from anticipation as they waited for the temperature to get up into at least the 20's and for the wind to settle down enough to quit making snownados in the backyard. Once these meteorological conditions were achieved, the boys dove into the 4 foot drifts and commenced digging tunnels and pelting eachother with snowballs.

This last pic is post-snowball fight snuggling. And notice the snaggletooth big kid? Matt yanked that left tooth out later that night. This year we left cookies and milk out for Santa AND the Tooth Fairy!

Crazy Train

It's no wonder the world thinks Americans are certifiably crazy. It's because we are. Don't believe me? The next time you're out and about, stop for 7 or 8 minutes and just watch the people around you. This is a good time of year for this exercise too because there's just something about the holiday season that ups our crazy factor by about 1000.

Crazy Example #1 ... "It's not MY job!"

I was at Old Navy today along with approximately 42% of the city. No, I was not getting a jump on my Christmas shopping. I do not have my act quite that together. I only have (had) 2 long sleeved shirts in my wardrobe and when you wore them both on Monday and Tuesday respectively, it makes Wednesday quite chilly. Anyway, after procuring 2 t-shirts and 2 hoodies I found myself at the ONE open register in the store. Did I mention I was at the end of the line which happened to be 37 people deep? Did I also mention that there was a manager chatting with person #32 in the line who appeared to be a long lost friend? The manager finally wraps up her conversation with, "Well, I guess I better go find someone to work another register." Um, wow.

Crazy Example #2 ... "Good will towards men my foot!"

The Mall parking lot from mid-Nov through Dec 27th. Enough said.

Crazy Example #3 ... "HURRY!"

Ever been in the car taking your kids to Grandma's and you tell them you're going to slow down to about 30 when you get there and that they should jump out as you drive by. Tuck and roll when you land, boys! No? Uh, right. Me either. Anyway, when we pulled into the driveway this afternoon a UPS truck came barreling down the street and did exactly what I just described to you. No lie! The driver swerved over towards the curb and sort of slowed down while the partner leapt from the top stair of the truck and sprinted, yes, sprinted my neighbor's package to the door. The delivery guy must've thrown it at the front door because no more than a half second went by and he was sprinting back to the truck which, by the way, was still in motion. He leapt over the stairs once again and into the truck, the driver gunned the engine and they sped off into the sunset. Now, I know it must sound like I've embellished this story somewhat (Okay, I admit, there was no sunset. It was only 2:30 in the afternoon) but scout's honor, that's really how it happened.

Crazy Example #4 ... "Photoshop"

Who thought this thing up anyway? How am I ever going to learn it all?? I really need to take a class because between you and me, Photoshop for Dummies just isn't cutting it. Here's a good before and after that shows you just exactly WHY I need this program.

Pretty big difference, huh? Now could someone explain to me just what I did so I can do it again tomorrow? Crazy.

Geek Alert

So who knew we were a family of sci-fi convention going nerds? If you were about to answer, "I did!" well, you can kindly shut it. But the fact remains, we are. We packed up last week and headed to the big city to attend Star Wars Fan Days III. Yee haw! What an experience....I really wish we could've taken video of the entire con because there really are no words to explain it. Firstly, we were greeted at the door by what appeared to be a die hard Trekkie, complete with her Star Fleet uniform and plastic Vulcan ears. Now, for those of you that don't know your Star Wars, let me clue you in. It's not the same as Star Trek and the two generally don't mix. I kept waiting for someone to shank her.

So when we finally get through the registration line and into the place, we find that we really are in a galaxy far far away. Everyone in sight is either wearing a Star Wars t-shirt, carrying a play light saber or blaster, or dressed in full costume. I may have even heard two guys having a conversation in Shyriiwook (the language of the Wookies), but as I'm not personally fluent, I can't be sure.

Speaking of costumed convention goers, here's a pic of me in my Slave Leia costume.

Just kidding. Not that I needed to tell you that. And just for the record, Matt was the one who saw it necessary to snap this pic whilst I was desperately trying to divert the younglings' attention to a more appropriately dressed Storm Trooper. I'm not sure if cute little Leia was wearing anything under the skirt-like thingamabob but most of her posterior was visible every time she took a step. Yeesh.

Now we really did find a Storm Trooper. LOTS of troopers actually.

AND a real live R2D2...This little fella was not a prop. He really moved, spun, and talked.

Here's a random shot of the big kid exhibiting his fascination with the dark side (he requested we take this pic).

Don't ask me why there was a Freddy Kruger mannequin at the Star Wars con. He must've snuck in with the Trekkie.

Here he's posing with another strange character. We're not sure who this guy was supposed to be. Mandalorian Jedi? It's a mystery. He let J hold his uber-cool light saber though so he couldn't be all bad.

One of the activities available was a costume contest.

I don't know who this little guy was but isn't that an amazing costume?!! The homemade ones are by far the best in my opinion. I talked with this droid's parents and they told me he didn't win. Seriously? He was clearly 1st prize material. The parents told me, however, that the winner of the adult contest gave his prize (a several hundred dollar SW toy) to the boy because he also thought the kid was robbed.

Whew! This is getting long. Cut to the short story (too late). This next pic is for my mom because describing an Elvis Storm Trooper is just darn near impossible.

Here's a random pic of me because I deserve to show up in pics too darnit.

Here's a shot of some geeks, er, fans, getting a light saber lesson.

Future geeks honing their battle skills...

Matt taking in a live Podcast and talking with one of the ForceCast guys, respectively.

And finally, the cast (voice talent) of the animated series The Clone Wars was there! This was a big deal. The Clone Wars is the most current Star Wars production and the boys are ALL about watching the new episodes every Friday night. We got to meet them all and get their autographs and even snap pics with a few.

Here's Matt with the girl that voices Asajj Ventress...

Matt and the boys with Tom Kane who voices the narration beginning each episode, Yoda, and Admiral Yularen.

This is the guy who voices Anakin Skywalker....cute yes?

At the end of the second day the cast did a reading of an impromptu script. SO cool. This was easily my most favorite part of the con.

Not a great pic, but you get the idea.

After the reading we were getting ready to head out when Matt spotted the Clone Wars director Dave Filoni who was kind enough to let me snap a quick pic.

Matt was so excited I though he was going to try and kiss the guy. I think the matching beards and lanyards are cute. I'm gonna get Matt a hat like Dave's for Christmas. That way his costume for next year will be complete.

Now to outfit the rest of us...