December - No Witty Title

I've been sitting in my chair for over an hour now trying to get this post started. I want to post a couple of stories. I have a few photos from today. But I got distracted by these other blogs... and I have not made progress. The Pioneer Woman and Bakerella who is actually from Atlanta somewhere. Then I started clicking on other blogs and I had to just close them down and not even look at the address. This place can be so addicting. I hope you aren't addicted! :) I'm just thankful the clothes take an hour to dry and the kids are in bed and the dishes are finished. The guilt of reading and sitting is lessened.

So, last Monday The Pioneer Woman (P-Dub) was in ATL signing copies of her cookbook on her book tour she affectionately likens to the Griswalds trips. I've been reading her blog for a couple years - ever since my sister-in-law, Leslie opened my eyes to it. She is a witty lady and writes well. But she also puts recipes up for the cooking-challenged, like me! She posts step by step pictures of each recipe to make it easy for me. Her cookbook is full of such recipes. Actually, it's not FULL of recipes - but it has plenty for me to work on while enjoying the other pictures and stories in the book. Leslie wanted to go to the book signing, as did I. But alas - I had to work. I told her I would attempt to get off early so we could drive the hour to Buckhead and get in line. The sweet girls I work with said they would cover my last 2 feeds so I could scoot out early. Thank you sweet girls! Leslie picked me up and realized she had left all her cookbooks at the house so we were a little later than desired after swinging back around to get them. At least I got a bowl of soup out of Seth! Good thing, as we had no idea what we were about to endure. We made good time despite being Atlanta at 6pm and got to the bookstore at 6:30 - for a 7:30 book signing. We didn't notice any great lines or gatherings of wild women so we thought things were good. What we didn't see, and would learn later, was Borders handed out bracelets all day long to put people "in line" and Ree had already started signing at 6. I guess it's a good thing she started early because there were a slew of people. We got bracelets that were GREEN lettered F. They started with ORANGE and went A through I (I think) and then hit GREEN. I don't know how many people were in each group but it took a LONG time before Green F was called. In fact, it was 10:09 before we were in line to weave through the book shelves to actually see her. She signed our books at 11pm - 4 1/2 hours after we arrived. Neither of us had done anything like that before. In fact, I always scoff at those who camp out for Chick-fil-A openings and Black Friday sales. I probably still will but I might consider joining them now. It's not so bad if you have good company and people to watch. And good coffee. And a bathroom. I had a white chocolate peppermint latte of sorts - YUM!! I could have ingested several but I stopped after one. Plus, the bathroom got pretty nasty with the 1000 women all waiting together... but I digress.

I can't tell you which section of books Leslie decided to plop in front of while we waited - but it was entertaining for us and for the husbands on the other end of the photo texts. I can tell you that not one other customer asked us to move so they could pick a book!
We enjoyed our time together - waiting. We also got to meet P-Dub's sister Betsy (right) and friend Hyacinth (left). Bakerella was there but I didn't know it was here until I read her blog post facto. (is that correct usage?)
I was able to get a few extra books signed for friends who couldn't join us and also for Christmas. I hope Leslie doesn't remember the trip, the book, or the fact that I told her I had her name and was getting the book for her. :) Maybe!

So, here I am another hour + gone by. Picking and uploading pictures can be time consuming. I want ALL my pictures here... but then it becomes too much. One of my "friends" once told me I had too many pictures and his computer couldn't handle it. I've tried to cut back.

Really.

Today we had a stay at home, do nothing day. It is super cold today and never hit 40. I sent him out once to get the mail but that was all I could do to him.

We played a little Wii - well, the kids did. It's hard to share! So hard.

I had to split the kids and send them to their rooms at one point because they just couldn't be nice.

These guys?!?!

Yep!

Ruthie and Lydia baked brownies this morning. I did the hot work but they did the rest. Maggie helped cut them and serve them up.

I love having them do things for themselves. Not only is it freeing for me... but it allows them to learn.
Cooking and baking is one of Ruth's favorite things to do. I have to work really hard to LET her do these things. The cleaning part is what I hate because the work is double, or more.

But how can you deny this face??

Too sweet.

Lydia wanted to help so she could lick the beater.

I asked her not to get it on her shirt or on Ruthie's shirt.

So she got it all over her face instead.

How does a person get like this?

Makes for sweet kisses too.

I was trying to figure out the flash and focus of the camera. Sometimes it really washes the faces out. And sometimes I can't get it to focus automatically. It wants to focus on something that's close... and you can't tell when you're taking the picture... but when you look at it later - blur!

So she played along. I told her not to smile. I love these little faces. You know when you say DON'T SMILE - it's all they can do.

As my Daddy would say - Look at Dat face! Just look at dat face.

It was minus the flash... but too cute to delete.