Play for her

happy @ home

You can click on this to open it and make the image(s) larger but no, your eyes don't deceive you, I really love my Crock-Pot. 

Mike and mini-Mike

Scene of the crime

That dog is supposed to be ON the bed. Kandalle, however, disagrees.

How does that little cat toss that big dog off the bed with such FORCE?

Being Kandalle, he shows little remorse and his recidivism rate is high.

So I may have inadvertently kidnapped the neighbor boy ...

So I may have inadvertently kidnapped the neighbor boy. Hey, it happens ...

Look,
I have a LOT of kids around here and cannot possibly be expected to
keep track of ALL of them at ALL times can I?  I don't get PAID to
watch these kids, mind you. I do it for free because I'm a Good Person
and, more importantly, that's a big lie, I'm actually kind of mean and
pithy a lot of the time and frankly, need the karma to balance out.
Frankly, when you provide free childcare for a variety of people in the
'hood you could go around skewering kittens and people might look at
you funny but then they'd be all "well she does watch those kids for free ... and shrug and give you a pass.

So
I've been watching THIS particular kid for nearly a decade now. He
sleeps over a few nights a week and goes to school from here. Or not.
Sometimes he gets picked up in the wee hours of the morning, or dropped
off. Who can keep it straight?

Anywho, so our school district's
2-hour delay morphed into an actual All Day Snow Day (cue the screaming
fans of this - who are most decidedly Loud Children). So we are here
ALL DAY and having a lovely time dismantling our home for fun and only
recently did neighbor boy say "I wonder if my mom knows we had a snow day and that I'm here and not at school?"

And
I realized, with a start, that no she probably didn't and she's going
to be really confused when this kid doesn't get off a bus in the next
half hour or so.

'Tis the Season ...

To be turned into a cartoon character! Because seriously, animation has ALL the fun during the holiday season. I mean, if you aren't saving Christmas, guiding Santa, or just otherwise making the planet safe for candy canes, abonimable snowmen, and elves who really want to be dentists then what are you doing with your life? 

Mike's employer hosted a fantabulous Christmas Party this weekend. There were clowns, magicians, minstrels and Santa - oh my! There was also ... drumroll please ... a caricaturist (word?) Oh how I love them! I have wanted one of these of my kids for just a stitch past FOREVER. I've only seen them at amusement parks, however, and the children never showed the slightest bit of amusement when I suggested they sit still in the blazing hot sun to have them made.

Until now. I am going to use caricatures for EVERYTHING. Seriously, in my caricature I will be thin, and 20 years old ... for the children the look is a LOT more realistic!

Merry Christmas!   

Happy Thanksgiving!

May everyone's holiday be safe, happy, and stress-free. May your turkey be moist and your rolls be plentiful. And may you remember that there is such a thing as photographic abuse. When people say "you take such great photos" I always beam. The truth, however, is that if you take 300 shots of anything - there are bound to be some keepers. For these and approximately 298 more from our annual "Fall Photo Shoot" feel free to slog through my photostream (link at right).