Wrong. Probably Illegal. But A Good Idea if You Ask Me!

You've probably have heard people (especially single guys) say, "Chicks dig kids" or "Kids are chick magnets". I told Nate the other night I had an idea of a way to make a little money. I could loan Morgan out to his ball players that were looking to find a girlfriend. On Monday I had the girls with me at the mall. Morgan decided to take a pink stuffed kitty with a pink ribbon wrapped around its neck for a leash and drag it through the mall like she was walking it. I heard more, "Oooh, look at that!" or, "She has her kitten, that's soooo cute!"

On Thursday we were at Sam's Club. This time she had to take her baby doll, in an infant carrier, with a blanket draped over the top like "real moms" do. Again, I heard more oooh's and ahhhs than the 4th of July! So many questions and all chatty Cathy can do is turn away shyly and smile.

I don't have any pictures of this, but what might scare the boys away but make the ladies laugh is the day she sat around "feeding her baby with her breast". At least that is the way I heard her describe to Shelby what she was doing. She's been hanging around too many real mommas and babies!

Here's the little momma camped out on a blanket watching TV with her baby and cell phone. She just finished texting someone and is putting the phone down.

What a corker!

Celebrating Love

We started our Valentine's Day celebrating by hiring a babysitter on Sunday evening. I took my Valentine to eat at Red Lobster (my sacrifice since I don't eat seafood, but they do serve a yummy steak) and a movie. The sitter painted the girls' nails V-tine colors and braided their hair. Both girls had school parties on Monday and I helped in each. I won't even go into my disorganization skills. I really only humor myself. To start with, I didn't get a picture of the girls in their "love" shirts before they headed to school. So I snagged Morgan as she came out of the bathroom at her school. She blessed me with a goofy smile. She insisted on the red shoes although they clashed with her red tights. Not worth fighting over. I've decided for the most part that if they don't care about looking ridiculous, I don't care either. (Side note: as I type this I just spent a couple, irritating, tiresome hours with them at the mall so if you sense any sarcasm, that is why).

Here's the Love Bug all dressed in red

frosting a heart cookie for her snack

playing a heart walk prize game

(Valentine's version of a cake walk)

her treat necklace

In the afternoon I headed to Shelby's class party. I donated Valentine snack cakes and assisted in the craft station. Her group's first stop was the game. It was a balloon flying contest. Here she is blowing up her balloon sitting next to her favorite classmate.

letting the balloons fly

working on the craft

sitting next to Quentin, again

snack time

Monday was a long day with class parties and Bible Study for Shelby and I. So the girls didn't get to open their gifts until Tuesday night. They got a couple of Ruby Valentine books. She's the best!

Misc Musings

I wanted to share a few silly things I've heard from the girls lately.

Last Friday on our way home from picking up Papa Murphy's Morgan was staring at the people in the car next to us at a red light. I told her not to do that because staring was rude. She wanted to know why people smile at you when you are staring at them. I said because they feel awkward and have nothing else to do! So Shelby pipes up and asks what awkward means. I explain it and she says, "Oh. Lily uses that word all the time so I thought it was a bad word". Lily is her best friend in her class at school who gets in trouble a lot. Since she was unfamiliar with the word and Lily is always in trouble, she assumed it was a bad word. Nice!

On Sunday before church, I was fixing Morgan's hair. I told her she had to clean her room later that afternoon. She claims she will only clean if someone helps her. I told her no one helped her make the mess. She replied with, "It's more fun to do that"!

Shelby was home on Tuesday from school with a fever. She gets overly emotional when she sees the commercials promoting animal adoption. She can't handle the sad faces on those dogs and kitties. After watching one of these, she comes over to me at the kitchen sink and wraps herself around my leg begging for a dog. She says, "I wish I had a dog instead of a sister!" Morgan says matter of fact like, "You will always have a sister and you will NEVER have a dog!"

Whoa! Snow!!

This time last week, Mother Nature dumped a load of snow on us. We ended up with approximately 13 inches here in Bloomington/Normal. It all started late morning on Monday and snowed an inch or two by 3 and quit. We did get a little freezing rain in the evening. Tuesday's snow was to start about 6am, but it was more like 11. When it came, it came hard and for the rest of the day! It finally quit snowing by noon on Wednesday. The wind also created a mess when it started blowing the fluffy snow around. Was I thankful I didn't have to get out in that stuff. Many people got stuck at work on Tuesday night if they didn't get out of their offices by 3. So in about 4 hours the streets & roads were not passable. It was taking folks with snow blowers about 2 hours to get their driveways cleared. It took us about 3 with 2 shovels! Nate and the next door neighbor thought they'd be smart and try to get to the store. They made it about 2 houses down the street before they got stuck. Luckily, several others were out shoveling so they came and helped them make it the rest of the way down the street. Plows were focusing on the main streets but they did make it down ours by early evening on Wednesday. School was cancelled on Tuesday, Wednesday & Thursday because they didn't get all of the plowing done at the schools until Thursday sometime. The worst part is it has been so cold, we have no hope of any of it melting any time soon. But when it does, I'm guessing we will just have another mess. How thankful I am that we got our basement floor fixed last year. So as long as the sump pump doesn't fail us, no water down there this year! The girls bundled up and got out to play while we did the shoveling.

the sun on the snow was so very blinding!

view of our house from the street

the drift on the south side of our house

as high as the air conditioner

Shelby & Elise taking advantage of playing in the street

Morgan & Sophie

pic of the front yard taken from the garage

looking out the window on our front porch

view out my kitchen window

snow piled on the window ledge

To say we are done with winter is an understatement. In 1 month I will be in Florida and I am convinced I have so earned a sunny, hot spring break! When I was shoveling I remembered the first snowfall Nate & I experienced in this house. We bought it in December of 1998. With the holidays, we hadn't gotten out to buy a snow shovel. In January, Nate was gone to his annual baseball clinic in Atlanta, GA and my college roommate Traci and I had made a trip to Wisconsin. While we were gone, 14 inches fell. When Traci and I got back to town, we pulled up to the house and stopped in the street. There was no way we were getting in the garage where Traci's car was parked. And she needed to get out and get home to go to work. We went straight to Farm & Fleet which of course was closed. I remember a sign on the door saying they were out of shovels as I think the entire town was! A group of Normal West baseball players came to our rescue and shoveled us out. It does pay to know a bunch of strong, young men who in a sense owes you for all the time your husband spends with them!

Like any situation, you can always figure it is worse some where for someone else. Many people lost power and others got ice instead of snow. My parents had snow up to the knobs on the doors on their deck. They live in the country with a driveway about 1/4 of a mile long. My mom made it home but my dad stayed in town so he could get out to work. On Wednesday he headed to work in a town about 20 minutes away. A county truck stopped him when he was 1/2 way and asked him where he was going. He told him and the guy said there was no way he was going to make it. He turned around and headed towards home and finally got the call from work that they were not working. Seriously?? Considering he works for a delivery company with trucks with no traction on the tires or heat, they could have made that call Tuesday night. He stopped by the house on the way back to town and tried to walk in. The drifts in the driveway were as high as his chest! They had such high drifts on some of the roads the snow plows couldn't get through. So, we aren't the only ones saying, "HURRY SPRING"!

Shelby Plays Basketball!

Shelby started Parks & Rec basketball in early January. Her team's called the Bucks and is made up of 1st grade boys and girls. There are 3 girls on her team. 1st grade teams practice and play their games at Oakdale which is Shelby's school. That means it is close to our house - nice. It is highly entertaining as they truly are letting them learn the basics like jump ball to start a game, chest pass or bounce pass to get the ball in from the sidelines, dribbling, etc. They do not call double dribble or traveling or fouls. I have only seen 1 free throw attempted in 4 games and some kids look like a football QB running all over carrying the ball while they look for an open teammate! Funny stuff. Maybe one of these days I will post a few of the videos I have taken. For you regular blog readers, you can return to that post any time you need a pick me up. It truly will make you laugh. She says she likes it and knowing her some of that is because her team is 4-0. She has 2 boys on her team who have shoot a lot of hoops in their short 6 or 7 years. They have a good shot and carry her team for the most part. I have found it is very hard to take good pictures of a basketball game and the ones I have are a little the blurry.

posing before leaving for the 1st game

she wanted a shot with her foot on the ball

and one sitting on the ball

getting instructions from the coach before the 1st game

it's intense!

(the boy on the bench is their best player)

on the move....

bringing the ball up the court

passing

They are 1/2 way through the 8 weeks. No one practiced last week because of the snow storm but for the most part you can see some improvement in all the players. Shelby doesn't get a lot of time to practice besides on Tuesday with the team as I won't let her bounce the ball in the house. I saw too many things break growing up with just playing nerf basketball in the house! It's too cold in the garage these days too. Nate did take her to the new rec center at HCC one Sunday but he's been out of town the last 3 Sundays. She did say she likes basketball better than soccer but I wonder how much that has to do with the fact that her Aunt Ashley is a basketball coach who despises soccer!

PS.

Just for the record - the Green Bay Packers won the Super Bowl tonight! :)