Death from a 4year old perspective

Lily's assistant teacher in pre-k died about a month ago. She was in her later sixties, maybe even early seventies and Lily called her grandma Henderson instead of Mrs. Henderson. She had gotten sick fairly suddenly (stage 4 lung cancer) and hadn't been there for the few weeks prior. So when sitting at the dinner table a few days later, I had wondered if the teacher had told them about her passing. I decided to ask her in a subtle way , "Was Mrs. H at school today?" She looks back and forth between Chris and I perplexed, and then like we must be complete idiots and replies with all seriousness, "NO! She's still dead!" All while rolling her eyes. God, I love having kids on these days. Although I think it was sad that she died, the way kids phrase things is truly priceless. Of course we tried not to burst into laughter, but did a little, and she thought of course that we were laughing at her teachers death and we assured that there was nothing at all funny about that and quickly changed the subject.

Vegas

Back from Vegas. Totally kicked my ass. But it was worth every minute. Didn't win big, but hey we had fun, so what the hell. I had a blast learning black jack with the girls, thanks for teaching me, I vow to never waste my money on those damn slots again. I even played a little Texas hold em and did fairly well, there too. Looking forward to next year! You know it could take my 30plus year old body that long to recover after all that!

This was the last pic taken at 2:15 am, our last night there. As you can see, we were looking a little haggard by then, our plane was set to leave in only a few hours, needless to say we made every minute count!

blah, blah, blah

I have really non exciting news to report, haven't been in a blogging mode for a while....So here's the latest......

*Really glad the Christmas break is officially over, seemed like an eternity, could've had to do with fact that we were out for an entire week in the beginning of December for that damn ice storm.

*And speaking of ice storms, we are still staring at the massive heaps of limbs, and well, unfortunately whole tress that were uprooted all over my street, the damn city needs to get here soon, it looks as if beavers have tried to build dams all up and down the median. Ugly!

*Christmas was nice, but this year I decided I am not a huge fan. I think it's more stress than it than it's worth, some of this could be due to the fact that we don't have any sort of "real" relationship with my family (you know the ones) and I see no point in pretending for such a special day. I almost backed out and then decided what the hell, we'll give it a go and spend time with them and it wasn't quite that bad, but still a little strained. They were certainly on better behavior this year compared to the last.

*There was a manhunt on my street yesterday morning, that was crazy, about 25 police cars, K9 units, helicopters, motorcycles, undercover suvs, the whole works, lasted for about an hour. I had gone out because I kept hearing the ghetto bird circling and saw all this commotion and this officer zooms up and tells me to get inside and lock all my doors, there is an armed, dangerous suspect in the area. Alrighty then, hello ghetto! They finally found the seriously scary looking guy in my neighbor's garage. So all ended well.

*Anna has a majorly swollen lymph node, that the doctor is concerned with and wants us to keep tabs on.....scary, but sure it's probably fine.

* Going to vegas with some of the hens and hubbies in like 9 days. Christmas surprise from Chris, so looking forward to that! Words cannot describe my excitement!

*And some of the biggest news of all is that little Stella Rose is officially not taking a bottle anymore and is drinking milk from a cup like a big girl, tear tear, sniff sniff.

That'll be about it for now or all that I can think of anyways, see not very exciting I know, sorry.

2nd annual outtakes

Like Ginny, I am posting my out takes as well. Because they are funny and so I can prove to the non believers on what a little witch Stellie really is. Now, let's start with saying that Anna and Lily know how serious I am about having the perfect card and they are 4 and 6. Stella damn well better figure it out by next year or she'll be voted out. I felt really bad after the whole process was over because the older girls tried so hard to cooperate and even tried to make the demon child do so too, all while showing their best smiles in the process of the me battling Stella to stay still, crap at that point I didn't even care if she even smiled! And of course I got irritated and maybe even yelled a little. I mean some people only see us through our Christmas card, so it damn well better be good! ..... on with the show.... enjoy! Needless to say, we never did get that perfect pic and I really am okay with that, because the one I got is funny and well, let's face it we're not perfect.

Cheese

This is the face that instantly appears if the camera comes out! And it's so cute because, she actually says cheese! Let's not let this innocent face fool you though, this child is almost what you might call hell on wheels, wow! Totally throwing me for a loop. The other girls were so not like her, this one is crazy. Gets into Everything. While I cleaning up one mess, she has started another. From taking everything off the magnets on the fridge and swallowing a magnet in the process, to taking out every cd or dvd we own out of the cases and spreading them all over floor, or maybe dumping out a whole bag of flour and powdered sugar, like that one? It was a joy to clean up! I need to say that we never even had cabinet locks when the other two girls were little. They were by no means perfect, but not a holy terror like this one at times is! Although, now looking at these pictures as I type, she totally has a little sparkle of mischievousness in her eyes, anyone else see that?