Road Trip

When did the term "road trip" become negative? I fondly remember packing up in a car with friends in college and going a great distance, sometimes for no real reason at all. Great fun, great times. Plenty of snacks, plenty of liquid refreshment, and off you go. So now, after having two kids, why are road trips not fun anymore? We had plenty of snacks and plenty of liquid refreshment. Maybe because the liquid refreshments were juice boxes or maybe it was because my husband maniacally insisted that "yeah, we can drive from Illinois to Texas in one day with two kids." Off we went to visit relatives back home. Eight hours later, as we were leaving Missouri, I started to give him the evil eye, and finally in Muskogee, Oklahoma it worked.Road trip aside, we arrived in "Big D" and had a good visit with Chris' mother (Grandma) and grandparents (Guelito and Guelita). Georgia was delighted to spend time with her cousin Erick and had a blast with Brody following close behind. We continued our trip south and made it to Pleasanton. Thanksgiving included time with my parents (Honey & G.P.), my grandparents (Grandma and Pa-Pa) and Aunt Zannah and Uncle Matt. I was thankful for a lot of things this year...including the time I had with everyone, but mostly because the Cowboys whipped up on the Giants and A&M beat t.u. in Austin. This was partially because I had a 6 hour drive with Chris immediately after the game! Needless to say after driving through four states, we made it home, unpacked our new collection of McDonald's toys, and vowed that we were too old for road trips like that and would fly from now on.

Give the mother of the year award to someone else!

So, one of the perks of living in what was once the country, is little creatures that want to share your space. In our case, it is field mice. We noticed them coming out of the fireplace and running around the baseboards and promptly put down those gross glue boards until the exterminator could come. We caught four in all. Of course we left a few of the traps out...just in case. Brody, ever the inquisitive little man ,decided to reach way behind the bookcase to investigate this new object. Since I am still limping, I was not fast enough to stop him. And since he does not respond to "No" it was an effort in futility. He started screaming, not because he was hurt, but because his hand was completely stuck to the glue trap. Nice! I thought that I got all of it off until I later noticed that he had a crayon stuck to his hand. I started wondering how much soap it would take to get this stuff off, and then thought that maybe if it lasts until his twenties we could have him drafted as a wide receiver.

It's the Great Pumpkin

Howdy from Illinois! We are currently enjoying the season known as Fall. For those of you back home, this weather phenomenon has cooler temperatures, the leaves on the trees turn pretty colors, and everyone gets to put on a sweater. We even saw a few snow flurries at the beginning of October. As a Texan who likes most things hot, I must admit that I do not miss 90 degree October and November days.
Georgia is having a blast in preschool. She enjoys dressing up and painting. She is currently having difficulty with using “today and yesterday” in normal conversation. She uses “on this day” and “on the other day” as in, “Am I going to school on this day?”

She has been eagerly awaiting Halloween and had a great time picking her own personal pumpkin directly from the patch. Brody didn’t know what was going on but loved banging on the bright orange “drums” in the field.

Georgia dressed up as a cheerleader and Brody was her football player along for the ride.
Brody is now 15 months. He went to the doctor two weeks ago and was 24 pounds and 32 1/2 inches long. He runs faster than I do and loves to climb and empty my kitchen cabinets and drawers of their contents. In keeping with the typical male’s lack of things to say, we only hear “mama and da-da.” He did however pick up on some baby sign language and knows the sign for “more” quite well. As is more food, more kisses, more...more...more!