Today's lessons learned

Everyday of my life brings some new piece of information or lesson learned. Today's task of removing a wallpaper border taught me the following things...

1) A wallpaper adhesive stripper solvent is a must.

2) Another must is a little gadget called the "Paper Tiger". It perforates the wallpaper so #1 can soak into the adhesive. Well worth the investment of $8 plus the gas and time it took to return to Home Depot to purchase it.

3) Never...ever...ever put up wallpaper or a border if there is even the remote possibility that you'll ever need to remove it.

Feline dimentia

Anyone who knows our cat, Cheeto, knows that she's relatively sociable, as far as cats go. She comes out to greet people, enjoys hanging out with the humans of the house and definitely appreciates a good forehead scratch. But those who know her really well also know that Cheeto is not a lap cat. Never has been. She'll sit close by...but never on your lap. And her proximity to humans seems to be closely related to the temperature outside. During the winters you'll find her sleeping on the bed versus her favorite summer location, in a basket on the floor. But regardless of the temperature she'll leave that location if a foot gets too close.

Another character trait of Cheeto...Steve is probably her third favorite human in the house. He was surpassed by the fair-headed one when she became old enough to give her treats.

Anyhow, either Cheeto's old age is mellowing her or she's just getting plain senile...because today the girls and I walked into the room to find this...

Go figure.

Merry Christmas to all...

Christmas was a wonderful distraction from everything else we had going on in the days before.

Santa and family were very generous with gifts this year. We spent the day eating and playing with just about all of the toys and games that were received...Dogopoly, Sequence, Apples to Apples, GoFish and Super Mario Bros for the Wii were just a sampling.

Megan's new scooter was her favorite mode of transportation for nearly every task of the day...take something to the garbage, bring Emily a glass of water, a trip to the bathroom.

Twas the night before Christmas...

Some Christmas time prose

My Santa Poem
by Emily H

Santa
Wooly, soft,
Eating, working, reading.
Ho, Ho, Merry Christmas.
Working, building, laughing,
Funny, excited.
Elves.

Two months of Saturdays

This summer we were kicking around a soccer ball and realized that Meg was pretty agile with the ball. Following that we decided to sign her up for soccer...but then Emily announced that she wanted to play again (she's played for the past three years). So we took on the challenging endeavor that millions of parents have undertaken before us... two children in organized sports at the same time.

Steve is also the assistant coach for both teams (can you say gluttons for punishment?) So for the past twelve weeks our Tuesday nights, Wednesday nights and Saturday mornings and afternoons have been all about the black and white ball.

Emily's age group started playing on the bigger field this year. Her favorite positions are either defense or mid-fielder. Megan's favorite part of soccer is running through the tunnel (the parents arm tunnel at the end of the game) and snacks.

As you can imagine, we're looking forward to the last weekend of the fall season coming up and a few open Saturdays for awhile.

Best in Show

My mom is an amazing seamstress. Back in the 70s she made both my clothes and my Barbies' clothes. Just think about the scale of Barbie clothes. She added beautiful detail to each outfit. I didn't appreciate the skill it took back then...but I certainly loved that I had the most stylish and best dressed Barbies in the whole neighborhood.

Now that I'm the mother of girls and have a playroom full of Barbies, I definitely can appreciate my mom's talent. The clothes that you buy in the store are less than stellar quality, not to mention Barbies less than conservative taste in a wardrobe. It is also hard to find just the clothes. If you want the wedding dress for your Barbie, you need to buy the entire wedding themed Barbie doll. The marketing is ingenious for Mattel's stockholders but frustrating for the average consumer.

Lucky for both me and my girls, my mom is still making doll clothes. Megan received a trunk full for her birthday last month. From casual to formal, Meg has had so much fun dressing up the dolls.






Mom sent duplicates of some of the outfits so I've tucked them away for safe keeping. Perhaps one day both girls will be able to share them with their own daughters. A special gift made with love by their great-grandmother!