me to a T - Tracey Odachowski

Oh, my boy. He’s a constant source of belly laughs around here. Just heard in the Odie household…

***************
Gabe: Look Mom. I put on some weight. (rubbing his belly)

Daddy: Boy, you’re the only one in this household without a gut.

Gabe: Yes I do have a guh. I’m the only one in this household with a guh. Like guh for Gabe.

(insert alot of parental laughter here).
****************

That wasn’t funny enough? How about a dose of Mister Literal:

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Gabe: Hey Mom, when are we going to put that paper stuff (garland) and lights around the bridge (the rails that overlook the living room)

Me: I need to buy a new one buddy. But we won’t do that this year. ok? How about next year?
(pause for about 30 seconds)

Gabe: Mom, so in January, when it’s next year, we will….

Me: (cutting him off) No, Gabe, I meant next Christmas.
**********************

Yeah. Constant laughter.

Well, since I really don’t have anything at all to write about, I went blog-hopping. And Becca found another cute, short quiz, so I thought I’d check it out:

You Are a Tree

You love every part of the holidays, down to the candy canes and stockings. And you’re goofy enough to put a Christmas tree ornament on your tree!

So it was right. Again. And then I got really bored and took another 5 question quiz, in the spirit that I’m trying to finish my annual holiday cookie baking:

You Are a Black and White Cookie

You’re often conflicted in life, and you feel pulled in two opposite directions. When you’re good, you’re sweet as sugar. And when you’re bad, you’re wicked!

Man, these quiz people are REALLLLLY good! Black and White cookies are my FAVORITE!!!!!! Ok, the molasses cookies at Starbucks are really darn good, too, but when I see a Black and White cookie, there is just something in me that gets a wee bit excited.

Must…
stop…
taking…
these….
darn….
quizes……

(curse you, Becca.)

How dare I forget to write this down! Tonight I was cuddling w/ Em, and asked her what she wanted from Santa Claus. It is blowing my mind just how much she ‘gets’ it this year! Here were her responses, in the order that she gave them to me:

Emmy Santa Claus Dora. (big surprise there….not)
Emmy Santa Claus pesents (presents).
Santa Claus Gabe (translation - bring something to Gabe)
Gabe get blue (i.e., he wants something blue)
Emmy orange (her fave color)
Emmy fwincess (princess)
Emmy Santa Claus baby (translation - she wants, yet another, baby doll. Man she is a GIRL!)

That’s all I can remember. I’ll have to ask Chris if he remembers more. By this point I was cracking up that she actually had a LIST in her head of what she wants!!!!! SHE IS TWO!!!!!! Like I said, it just shocks me how much she is really enjoying the Christmas season this year. I love it!

I added a few more pictures to the Photo A Day slide to the right. That brings me up to date to today. ——->

Went home this past weekend and had a blast. It’s always good seeing family. Enjoy!

You Are a Cranberry and Popcorn Strung Tree

Christmas is all about showcasing your creative talents. From cookies to nicely wrapped presents, your unique creations impress everyone.

Saw this on Becca’s blog, and I could resist. They got it soooooooo right. I actually thought of doing this kind of garland w/ the kids this year! Now if they could just act like two decent human beings lately so I could do it with them. It’s been rough here lately. Looks like Chris might be the only one in this family actually getting a visit from Santa this year. The rest of us will have enough coal to fill a large locomotive. Hey, maybe I could power all of those Thomas trains in the playroom????

Oh, and if you look to the right ——————————>
you’ll see my new slider w/ pics. This is for the photo a day challenge for the month of December at Scrapvillage. If you click on it you should get captions for each of the photos explaining what day they were taken and why. Fun challenge! In the end, they will all go into a mini-book.

Last week I received a Scraplight in the mail to play with. They’ve done alot with Hambly in the past, so they sent a few to the team to see what we could do. Granted, I don’t usually do alot of altered art, but this thing was pretty easy. And I LOVE how it turned out. Not to mention the proud, new, 2-yr-old owner of it loves it, too!

I trimmed the pink Hambly overlay to about 8″ tall. In PS, I cropped the photo of Emily to fit inside one of the circles, used an Itty Bitty action to make it b/w, the colored the edges in lime green before printing onto a transparency. Used spray adhesive to adhere to the overlay. Finished w/ the Hambly organic rubs in lime green. (LOVE those!)

After reassembling the light, I folded small green Heidi Swapp flowers in half and used mini glue dots to hold them to the light. In between the flowers I placed the acrylic HS hearts, using just a little ZIG pen glue & sandwiching them b/t the two layers of the scraplight.

After all was said and done, I think it took me about 30 minutes to put together on Saturday afternoon. Of course, I broke Emily’s bookcase when I was trying to move it in order to plug this in, but that’s beside the point.

Do you see it? About half-way up on the right hand side? It’s a gold oak leaf. My man is now a Major. A Field-grade officer.

After exactly six years, to the day, Chris is no longer a Captain. He’s now a Major. Six years ago, I remember holding a two-month-old Gabe in my arms while watching Chris be pinned a Captain in a conference room in Fort Bragg. Yesterday, that same baby is now a handsome little boy who got to pull of the Captain’s rank and put on the Major’s rank on his Daddy’s right shoulder. And our daughter got to do the same on her Daddy’s left shoulder. And it wasn’t in a conference room. This time it was at the Casemate Museum at Fort Monroe. One of the oldest operational forts in the country. A site that has been of historical military importance since 1607. In a building that was erected to protect our country nearly 200 years ago. In a room adjacent to the cell which held Jefferson Davis while he was being imprisoned for treason. Chris got to choose any place he wanted to have his promotion ceremony, and this is where he chose. Standing in front of the 3rd Artillery flag that flew during the Civil War. Amazing.

I don’t say it often, but I’m so proud of him. So much so that it brings me to tears thinking of it. Seeing him in his class A uniform reminded me of that yesterday. Seeing all of the ribbons and metals on his chest, from the two Bronze Stars, the Airborne wings, the EOD crab, and now, the Oak Leaves. He’s done so much. He DOES so much.

We still don’t know if he is going to stay in the Army come May, but today, that didn’t matter. He’s a Major. And I’m so very proud of that and of him.

I love you baby.