When we re-listed our home for sale, we thought that with the holidays upon us, the showings would be few and far between for at least the next month. Maybe our focus could be on getting ready for Christmas since we are a little behind? Wrong! Our house went back on the market Monday, and we have been showing it all week with no signs of slowing. I’m happy to have the attention, heaven knows we would love another offer on our house, I just hate the early morning showings. It’s hard to get my house in perfect order whilst in the middle of getting kids off to school and trying to get myself dressed and ready for the day. That said, we are extremely grateful for the amount of traffic our home has been getting, so we can only hope it not only continues, but that we get another buyer soon. Who knew this many people wanted to move during Christmas? Well, at least they can wrap all of their moving boxes to look like presents.

   Due to a conversation with my children about their full names, and where some of those family names came from (some living and some deceased relatives), the subject of death came up. I tried to explain as simply as possible that as we get older our bodies do too, and that our bodies can wear out and stop working the way we need them to, and sometimes people die. It was Haven that asked me the big one…”Are you going to die Mom?”. Oh boy.

   So I had to tell her the truth, that yes, even I would die, but not for a very, very long time. Then she asked about her Dad, Mammy and Pappy, and I had to tell her yes, but again, that they are all very young, and have many, many years left. Haven got very quiet, and I could tell she was thinking it over. Then Noah asked me another question about dying, and as I began to try to answer him, Haven quietly piped up and asked me to stop talking about it as her eyes welled up. Bursting into tears, ran over to me and buried her head in my shoulder, sobbing. Great, I traumatized her.

   I must seem so old to them, their ages are in the single digits, and here I am in my third decade with a double digit age. I got her to calm down after some more explaining, but I feel terrible that she got so upset. I understand completely why she did, at her age her family is her enitre world right now, and the thought of that kind of loss is so overwhelming. But I didn’t want to lie about death, they are old enough that I need to answer those questions as truthfully and simply as I can. I can only hope I haven’t scarred her for life. Any suggestions?

    Lucy somehow managed to catch her paw in the door, and tore one of the nails on her front left paw almost all the way off. It was bleeding fairly badly and it was hard to even get a good look at what was wrong, let alone touch it, it was really hurting her. So we wrapped it up as best we could and I took her to see the vet. $200 later she is back home with another bandage on her foot, and a bag of medicine for her pain and a round of antibiotics not only for her paw, but also to treat the ear infection we had missed, and luckily caught on this visit. Her wound on her paw was bad enough that we will have to wait for one month to see if it will even heal properly, and if not, then she will have to have the toe on her front paw amputated. Poor little girl. And there was another dog in the waiting room with us that was later thought to have Parvo, so the vet recommended Lucy get a booster shot to be safe before we left. We went ahead and had all of her shots updated too just to be sure she was current. It turned out the other dog tested negative for Parvo, but I am happy she got the shot anyways, better to be safe than sorry. So she is resting quietly in C’s room for now, hopped up on some very nice doggie pain killers, and getting lots of snuggles and loves. Poor little sweetheart, it was a rough day for her, and I’m sure she is glad to be done with it.

   I love ‘The Office’, it’s simply hilarious. I love the humor, the writing, and all of the characters, they each add so much to the show and make it what it is. But hands down, my favortie character is ‘Dwight Schrute’. He is so earnest, and takes everything so seriously, which has been the starting and ending point for so many funny episodes. Dwight is extremely loyal, and would literally die or kill someone in the name of Dunder-Mifflin….or beets, whichever the case. He means what he says, and does what he means. For Dwight, there are no gray areas, everything is very black and white for him. Yes, I know Dwight isn’t real, but his character makes every episode that much funnier for me. Before NBC came out with their series, I fell in love with the original British ‘The Office’ after watching it at Heidi, Mark and Scott’s insistence, and I was instantly hooked. ‘David Brent’ was almost painful to watch, but of course it was that much funnier too. He is my favorite from the British ‘Office’, Ricky Gervais played him brilliantly I thought. (By the way, she said it wasn’t hers…and I for one believe her.) So what I want to know is, does anyone else have a favortie character on NBC’s ‘The Office’?  Who and why?

   We spent the last part of the week with family for our Thanksgiving holiday, having a great time. Our Thanksgiving dinner was delicious, and the little ones loved all of the fun with their cousins, it was such a nice day for everyone. Craig and my Mom both braved the crowds and hit different stores for some early morning ‘Black Friday’ shopping, and came away with some great deals and interesting stories. I went out later that afternoon when the madness had died down and found some of my own treasures, most of it being fabric, but exciting to me nonetheless. ‘JoAnn’s’ was a lot of fun to wander through, and I even went back again the next day and came away with some more “totally-necessary-to-my-survival-and-happiness” fabric. (Oh it was gorgeous!) Heidi and I made our way out on a late night shopping trip friday night, and we both came away with a bag or two of great finds. ‘Jolene’s’ may have been a bust (and your total is 3 bazillion dollars for a piece of crap dress), but ‘Walden Books’ was a treasure trove of fun! I managed to get in some sewing while we were at my Mom’s, Haven needed something warm to wear over her dress so she wouldn’t freeze that night at the Nutcracker. All in all, we had an incredibly fun holiday, and I won’t even try to post it all since there is far too much. Basically, we had an awesomely fun holiday, and are now getting ready for all of the Christmas fun in the coming weeks!

   I wasn’t able to go to the Nutcracker this year so I sent H and C with my Mom, and Heidi was able to take L with her this year since she was now old enough. And after last year, I decided that it would be so much more fun for each one of the girls to have her very own Nutcracker to take to the perfomance. They loved being just like ”Clara”, right along with the ballet, it was a hit with all of them. H and L both looked so beautiful, and I was thrilled C decided to go this year. (Next year I’m banning jeans, and I will buy her any dress or skirt she wants….with or without a tiara….) As sorry as I am that I wasn’t able to go this time with both of my girls, I know there is always next year. I am so excited about the dress possibilites for next year, I’m already looking through patterns for the perfect one for next years performance.

I am thankful for many, many things, I really and truly feel blessed. But for that which I am most thankful is my husband, children, family and friends. Have a wonderful day and Happy Thanksgiving!

   I forgot that I also heard about a scare involving plastic baby bottles leaching a harmful chemical once they were heated. Here is an ebay auction for some glass bottles, and it has some info listed in the description as to why the switch to glass bottles might be important. Anyone else heard of this?

http://cgi.ebay.com/12-Momo-Baby-Glass-Bottles-4-oz-Red-Blue-Green-Yellow_W0QQitemZ320185665906QQihZ011QQcategoryZ20402QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

   While some of you may already be aware of this, I am passing it on for those that may not. Local reporter ‘Bill Gephardt’, of ‘KUTV’ news, recently did an investigation into the levels of lead found in your dishes/dinnerware. If you have not seen the report, and if you would like to see the list of some of the brands of dishes they tested themselves, click on the links below. It makes me wonder how safe my ”Friendly Village” dishes are. I wonder if the older the dish the higher the risk? Maybe I’m overeacting, but I must admit it has me concerned enough that I am going to change out my dishes regardless. Also I read that some artificial Christmas trees begin to shed a fine dust containing lead after about a week or so of use. I don’t know which trees or brands were being referred to, or just how accurate the information is, but we may opt for a real tree this year anyways, who knows.

some brands listed with the results-

http://www.kutv.com/sites/kutv/content/documents/lead-plates-results.pdf

original investigation-

http://www.kutv.com/content/gephardt/story.aspx?content_id=1fd09736-768d-4539-a830-f5d3f5eb8a40

more on the investigation-

http://www.kutv.com/content/gephardt/story.aspx?content_id=d567af85-e5fc-4343-bc6a-a7c3bc47ba9f

http://www.kutv.com/content/gephardt/story.aspx?content_id=0088bc5d-a090-487e-bce7-6a9ff089d913

a dish buyers guide-

http://www.environmentaldefense.org/article.cfm?ContentID=957

   Craig was away last week for about 5 days on a work related trip to San Francisco for “Open World”, an Oracle event. It was huge, with people attending from all over the world. At the end of the week there were tons of drawings for really fun prizes like Wii’s and Ipod’s, and they were also handing out tons of fun little gifts like glowing pens, mini lava lamps, tiny stuffed toys, t-shirts and hats, and Craig had a bunch of them in his suitcase when he came home (the little gifts I mean). The conference ended with a huge Oracle appreciation party, and three tents featuring three different headliners in each one. Billy Joel in one, Stevie Nicks in another, and Lenny Lravitz and EnVogue in the last one. Craig picked the third tent and said Lenny was awesome, even jumping down off the stage, going right out into the middle of the audience and dancing with everyone. Craig didn’t venture over to the other tents since the crowds were so big and it was almost impossile to navigate out of there, but he wouldn’t have left if he could have anyways, he said Lenny and EnVogue put on a fantastic show. I know, this doesn’t sound like a real business trip, but I assure you, he spent the entire week in classes and workshops, the big blowout was afterwards, and it sure makes the rest of the week a lot more memorable. And am I jealous? You bet I am! He did arrive home with a huge bouquet of really lovely flowers for me, but let’s just say that if he gets to go to Open World again next year, I am SO going with him! I need to start teaching Miss G how to make grilled cheese sandwiches now, then she can take care of dinner while I’m gone.