Wednesday, December 23, 2009
Kathryn to the rescue
The other day Kathryn and I were in our master bathroom upstairs. I ran out of toilet paper. Grrrrrrr. Kathryn's two years old now and learning all sorts of new words and phrases and about following instructions. I thought, "how wonderful! she can help me out in a crisis!" so I asked her, "Kathryn, can you please get mama some more toilet paper?" She replied, "ok Mama!" and ran off. I heard her little feet go past the other bathroom upstairs and then I heard her going down the steps. I thought, "Thank you Lord for such a smart child!! She knows that there are extra rolls of toilet paper in the downstairs bathroom!" Waiting patiently, I hear her little feet climbing back up the stairs and then run to me in the bathroom. With utter delight and pride she goes, "here go Mama!" and hands me a single square of toilet paper. Awww. She's just way too cute. Yep, I made it work.
Sunday, December 6, 2009
Christmas Tree Shopping
Let me tell you a little story about the Gram Family Christmas Tree... This year will be our 6th Christmas together. Our first Christmas in our apartment in Georgia, we borrowed mom's fake little Christmas tree that she used to use in her classroom at school. Hands-down I prefer live Christmas trees - the smell, picking out "the perfect one", how they look, etc..but having the fake little tree that first year didn't matter since we were celebrating our "first Christmas" together. The past five years living in our house, is where my story begins.
Year #1 - We venture out excited to purchase our very first tree together. We shop a few tree farms and end up at Home Depot and Lowes because we had no idea how expensive trees can get and they had the best (ie cheapest) prices. A little discouraged to be buying from a national superstore, and not driving up a mountain, finding "the perfect tree", chopping it down ourselves while sipping hot cocoa and singing Christmas songs, loading it into the car just as the first snow begins to fall as we drive away... No, that didn't happen our first year. Our first year purchasing our Christmas tree, I learned that Matt did not know how to tie a knot.
Year #2 - We venture out excited to purchase a Christmas tree. We drive to a few tree farms and remember how expensive Christmas trees can be and we end up at Home Depot and Lowes. We pick out the prettiest tree of the bunch and since we learned last year Matt didn't know how to tie a knot, we know this year it's up to me. Our second year purchasing our Christmas tree, I learned that I do not know how to tie knots very well either.
Year #3 - We venture out excited to purchase a Christmas tree. We drive straight to Home Depot and Lowes. We pick out the prettiest tree of the bunch, promise each other we're not going to snap at each other in the parking lot like we did the two previous years and we're going to work together tying the tree to the roof. We successfully tie the tree to the roof and drive home. Our third year purchasing our Christmas tree, I learned that it is exactly 2.3 miles from Lowes to our house and if you drive under 20 miles an hour the whole way home so your tree won't fall off, it takes a really long time to get home and cars behind you aren't happy that you and your husband can't tie knots and have to drive really slow holding onto the tree through the windows.
Year #4 - We venture out to purchase a Christmas tree. We drive straight to Home Depot and Lowes. We find the perfect tree, dread getting it home and promise again to just work together but thankful that we have a Trailblazer this year and believe it will be much easier than year's past transporting. We take no chances tying knots and put it directly in the back of the Trailblazer. Our fourth year purchasing our Christmas tree, I learned that if you put a tree directly into your car, you should have a sheet or plastic under it.
Year #5 - We debate about venturing out to get a Christmas tree. The morning we were planning on going, it was cold and drizzly outside. We step outside to see exactly "how cold and wet" it actually is and like geniuses, remember we need nothing short than ideal weather conditions. We agree we should wait until the sun comes out..there's no point torturing ourselves when we know it's going to be a difficult hour.. We drive straight to Home Depot once the sun came out. We find the perfect tree and then the most amazing thing happened...Two men (I like to think angels..) who work at Home Depot carried our tree out for us, wrapped the netting around it, and told us to pull our car up. We did exactly as we were told without hesitation. They loaded it on top of the Trailblazer, tied knots and tied it down in under two minutes. Matt and I looked at each other, smiled, thanked the men repeatedly and exclaimed that this was the most wonderful tree experience we'd ever had. We drove to McDonalds and got the men gift cards because we were so elated. It's going to be a MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!
Year #1 - We venture out excited to purchase our very first tree together. We shop a few tree farms and end up at Home Depot and Lowes because we had no idea how expensive trees can get and they had the best (ie cheapest) prices. A little discouraged to be buying from a national superstore, and not driving up a mountain, finding "the perfect tree", chopping it down ourselves while sipping hot cocoa and singing Christmas songs, loading it into the car just as the first snow begins to fall as we drive away... No, that didn't happen our first year. Our first year purchasing our Christmas tree, I learned that Matt did not know how to tie a knot.
Year #2 - We venture out excited to purchase a Christmas tree. We drive to a few tree farms and remember how expensive Christmas trees can be and we end up at Home Depot and Lowes. We pick out the prettiest tree of the bunch and since we learned last year Matt didn't know how to tie a knot, we know this year it's up to me. Our second year purchasing our Christmas tree, I learned that I do not know how to tie knots very well either.
Year #3 - We venture out excited to purchase a Christmas tree. We drive straight to Home Depot and Lowes. We pick out the prettiest tree of the bunch, promise each other we're not going to snap at each other in the parking lot like we did the two previous years and we're going to work together tying the tree to the roof. We successfully tie the tree to the roof and drive home. Our third year purchasing our Christmas tree, I learned that it is exactly 2.3 miles from Lowes to our house and if you drive under 20 miles an hour the whole way home so your tree won't fall off, it takes a really long time to get home and cars behind you aren't happy that you and your husband can't tie knots and have to drive really slow holding onto the tree through the windows.
Year #4 - We venture out to purchase a Christmas tree. We drive straight to Home Depot and Lowes. We find the perfect tree, dread getting it home and promise again to just work together but thankful that we have a Trailblazer this year and believe it will be much easier than year's past transporting. We take no chances tying knots and put it directly in the back of the Trailblazer. Our fourth year purchasing our Christmas tree, I learned that if you put a tree directly into your car, you should have a sheet or plastic under it.
Year #5 - We debate about venturing out to get a Christmas tree. The morning we were planning on going, it was cold and drizzly outside. We step outside to see exactly "how cold and wet" it actually is and like geniuses, remember we need nothing short than ideal weather conditions. We agree we should wait until the sun comes out..there's no point torturing ourselves when we know it's going to be a difficult hour.. We drive straight to Home Depot once the sun came out. We find the perfect tree and then the most amazing thing happened...Two men (I like to think angels..) who work at Home Depot carried our tree out for us, wrapped the netting around it, and told us to pull our car up. We did exactly as we were told without hesitation. They loaded it on top of the Trailblazer, tied knots and tied it down in under two minutes. Matt and I looked at each other, smiled, thanked the men repeatedly and exclaimed that this was the most wonderful tree experience we'd ever had. We drove to McDonalds and got the men gift cards because we were so elated. It's going to be a MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!
Wednesday, December 2, 2009
Yummy new snack..
I'm starting to wonder if my blog is turning into the lamest blog ever now that I'm resorting to posts on "yummy snacks"... Hmmm.. Now that I have your attention, try this one day:
Spread peanut butter on a small tortilla. Peel a banana and put onto of the peanut butter. Drizzle honey on top. Wrap up like a taco and eat. Yum.
I'm not going to lie and act like we have whole grain tortillas - I'm not that health concsience but that would make it healthier and I've also heard adding granola to it makes it tasty. That may actually push my health meter too far to the right though... Enjoy.
Spread peanut butter on a small tortilla. Peel a banana and put onto of the peanut butter. Drizzle honey on top. Wrap up like a taco and eat. Yum.
I'm not going to lie and act like we have whole grain tortillas - I'm not that health concsience but that would make it healthier and I've also heard adding granola to it makes it tasty. That may actually push my health meter too far to the right though... Enjoy.
Tuesday, December 1, 2009
Favorite Findings...
Why spend money on toys when your child can play in the coolest "boat" on the planet for the same cost as diapers?
Last night after I put Kathryn to bed, I started to pick up some of her toys she had left out downstairs... This is what I found:
A perfectly set table of tea and grapes for two.
Pizza in a play wallet. Why do I never remember to pack a slice??
Her cup of milk in "her" frig. (Hopefully it was not from earlier in the week..)
Her purse on the pony. It makes sense..
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