Santa Uses the Bathroom

Since dragging out the boxes of ornaments and lights along with picking out a tree is a long time tradition for many on Thanksgiving I felt it appropriate to drag out this little fond memory along with the others boxed away this weekend.


To sum up last Christmas:
Our Christmas tree is stripped down to the nitty gritty. Luckily it's a beautiful tree all by itself. If the cat is not climbing up it the boys are throwing her in it. And when Senta (our late German Shepherd) comes in she's trying to get in there too. So it's been knocked down twice and that's when I decided to close the ornament E.R. for good and take the ornaments down. Before anymore were broken.

Everest and Edison are really into Christmas this year. Especially Everest all he wants are presents, presents and more presents. We draw tractors full of presents all day long. I think he believes Santa drives a dump truck instead of a sleigh. And I never knew there was a tractor song in amongst the Christmas carols. But there is. He showed it to me. Edison loves the Christmas music and dances and jumps with joy when he hears it. I take turns dancing the boys around the room to Harry Conick Jr.'s Christmas CD and to the Brass Symphony Christmas. Isaac just watches it all with a twinkle in his eye and smiles with delight as I twirl him around the room too. They all are enchanted with the lights and run from room to room when night falls. Not only to turn on our lights but to look out the windows at all the lights around the neighborhood. They won't let us go to bed without reading a scripture and putting a star on the advent calendar. Everest reminds us every evening. They dance with glee whenever a neighbor brings treats over and love even more dropping them off. When it snows the boys beg to go build snow tractors and dumptrucks and snow sharks. The tradition of snowmen has been abandoned in this generation. So we are having fun and it's a joy to watch them learn about Christ and the season. Their little spirits soak it up and are so enthused with the Christmas stories of Jesus. And of Santa too.

Which brings us to Santa:

Apparently Santa was here! Everest comes running out of the bathroom yelling, "Mom, mom look what I found in the bathroom, come look, hurry, hurry!" I knew right away what he had found behind boxes and dresses.

Quickly I whisked him up and said what is it? Did santa leave that? Luckily it was still mostly covered by the bag. Out we went and I locked the door. Later I snuck in and re-hid the presents. And later he noticed the door was open and went in to take another peek. But, they were mysteriously gone. He came to me puzzled. And I simply said, Santa must have come back to get them so he could wrap them and bring them back on Christmas. 'How'd he come in?', was the question on young Everest's mind. Crouched on the bathroom floor with my arm around him I pointed up. We both looked up at the crawl space door on the ceiling.

That seemed to be sufficient for his curiosity, at least for now. Later that night I was asking him questions about Christmas and Santa. I asked him what Santa drove: 'reindeer' he said. Well, where does he put the presents then: 'in the stockings' he said. Then how does he get in: 'Through the bathroom' he replies.

It seems a little weird leaving a plate of cookies and milk next to the toilet. But, then again Santa has needs too. :)

Someone's To Blame

This one is for my mother-in-law. The other day we were talking on the phone and she was telling me(in good humor) how every one had been blaming her for everything under the sun. For instance she just got back from a trip visiting her parents and upon her return she was informed how one of her grandsons had missed her so very much, and that it was her fault because she made him like her so much. And just before leaving her parents home they jokingly told her how they were going to be miserable now since she had pampered and spoiled them. We were joking how everything is somehow linked to her, being her fault some how in some way.

So as we were talking my youngest came upstairs with damp pants, I didn't think much of it, they were in the back yard playing with the dog and it had been drizzling on and off all morning. I wasn't on the portable phone so I dared to let the thought slip away that something might be going on. Then Edison comes bounding half way up the stairs, "MOM, Mom come see what we made!". "What'd you make sweetheart?" "Puddles!" "Puddles?!"...

"Uh, they're making puddles, I better go." My mother-in-law agreeing freely and willingly took the blame. She said 'since I called and you were talking to me, then you can blame what ever they did on me'. Well mom, it's your fault! :) They flooded almost the entire back yard with water. Mostly in the mulch border that encircles the grass area. Since it had been raining so much the past few days the ground was already saturated and it didn't take much at all to make giant stompin' puddles. The boys were in heaven and the dog was jumping and splashing too. oh, what a sight. But, yah know I remember making puddles and mud holes as a kid too. So I couldn't be upset. Some of my fondest memories come from filling giant lawn/garbage cans with water and dunking ourselves in them, coming home covered in sap and scratches, digging fox holes and playing army... Being dirty and making messes is all relative isn't it. It's in the eye of the beholder. One man's heaven is another man's mess. No I didn't jump in with them, they were cold and wet and ready to come in anyways. We cleaned up, warmed up and had snacks while watching some cartoons.


Our yard is still sopping wet. In fact as I opened the back door to let the dog in she stood right in the deepest muddiest part by the grape vines, where there wasn't any bark or mulch. And as I called her in she looked right at me and layed down in the mud as if to say make me. Well she got a bath and came in.


Needless to say it's your fault mom, you said so. With love I dedicate this one to you!

Here's to Looks!

A super thumbs up, high five, and thank you are in order for my husband for my new look. It's just the beginning of new horizons for this site. And with Cameron behind it's design it can only get better from here. So thank you honey, I appreciate your time, talent and love.

Thanks Ray for noticing and I believe Cameron set up an email link for those wanting/needing to contact me other than for comments. So have it at it folks.
I'm looking forward to big changes in the next couple of months.

Meanwhile I'll keep writing and enjoying feedback as well.

A New Addition in the Moll House

Yes, their is a new addition to our family. Saturday we adopted a dog. The boys have been begging and both Cameron and I always had dogs and pets of all kinds in our homes growing up. So it wasn't a hard sell. I've been researching and searching carefully. I decided to look through Petfinder.com and try and adopt a dog. Maybe an older one to avoid the puppy stage of chewing and housetraining. I found a couple of really good picks but, was too late. Then I came across one that really caught my eye. I inquired and she was still adoptable and sounded very promising. I waited a few days trying to decide if now was the right time. Then I decided to go through with it. After about two weeks of exchaning emails with the shelter and talking it over with Cameron and the boys I decided to go and meet her with the intentions of bringing her home. We were able to arrange to meet half way since the shelter was two hours away. They were showing other dogs at a petsmart in a city closer to us so we met there. I still had reservations but when we arrived I saw a truck out front with her in it, the bond was already attaching us. We went inside to find the woman we were meeting and there were dogs in kennels lined up everywhere. the boys were in heaven. Isaac couldn't wait to get down as he wiggled and stretched to get to the floor. He knelt down on his hands and knees and then his belly nose to nose with the dogs through the cages. Crawling along the floor blowing kisses (pptha pptha ppptha) as he would say 'Ha-Wo, Ha-Wo' to each one. (I did ask if they were kid friendly) It was so cute and heart warming. Then I found the lady and she took us out to the truck. When she pulled her out, thd dog was a little nervous, I knew it was a done deal. She was skinny (from being on the street for a while) but so beautiful and so sweet. You could tell she was well tempered and so loving. The woman let us have some time with her and she let the boys hug her and kiss her and she nestled up to us. And so the bond was made and the weight of added responsibilty faded to the background.

She has yet to bark, whimper, growl or bay. (She is a large hound about a year old) On the way home as soon as the car started she layed down and we never heard from her. We kept asking, we did put her in didn't we? She is the sweetest, gentlest, mild mannered dog. She has had no problem with being in the house or being left alone. The first couple of days she mostly lay in a corner she felt safe in and now she is making leaps and bounds in feeling at home and being more social. She comes to us on her own now to play and be petted and today she ran and ran and played chase with the boys in the back yard. So it's exciting and wonderful for us all.

There is one problem though for some reason Everest has his heart set on naming her Maurie (and he wants a cat named Ralph). Her name is Uintah or at least that's the one she came with. So we are in negotiations or so I thought. Today I called out Uintah's name and he stopped, looked at me and said, "her name is Maurie, and I don't want to hear another word about it." Well, ok then. I wonder if he got that from me?

I would recommend petfinder.com to anyone. They have you and the animal's well being at heart, making the perfect match for anyone.

Halloween 2004

I don't know what I will ever do when all of my children are out of diapers. Not only do the wipes come in handy for multi purposes from cleaning bums to fingerprints on Dad's office desk.... but I would be lost with out them when it comes to Halloween costumes. Yes, that's right, Halloween costumes. It all started last year when I asked Everest who was three at the time what he wanted to be for Halloween and he replied a backhoe, what does Edison want to be: a dumptruck, and what about Isaac: a traffic light. (Can you tell what this little boy's passion is? He lives for trucks and big ones, It was his first word) OK, since I have never actually ever seen a backhoe or dumptruck costume I can tell I'm going to have to be creative. So my mind went into overdrive and my creative side kicked in. I slowly began to piece it all together. I realized that if I cut a whole in the bottum of the jumbo diaper boxes that I buy that the boys would fit perfectly inside with their legs poking out. Then I began finding smaller boxes around the house to form the backhoe scoop with extende arm and the front shovel along with a nice dumper for the dumptruck. Not to mention I cut out bolts from cardboard and added styrofoam bumpers and large cardboard wheels with tread. I was really getting into this, I used a plastic cup painted orange for the contruction light on the backhoe and bicycle reflectors for head lights and brakes on the dumptruck. Spray painted it all yellow with chrome spraypaint for the bolts and bumpers. Then cut tiny holes next on top and used my old black nylons for straps to go over their arms so they could walk around and it looked like they were sitting inside driving. The front scoop on the back hoe and the dumper on the dumptruck was made to hold their Halloween candy. It was way cool and way fun to make. They loved 'em and even won the contest at Cameron's office party. A gift certificate at Toys'R'Us. Isaac on the other hand, I didn't use any diaper related products other than the one he was wearing. I found a cute sweatsuit with matching hat with earflaps and mittens and then took red, green and yellow felt cut into circles and loosely sewed it to the front. So I could later remove the traffic lights and use the suit during winter. According to Everest, dad was supposed to be a stopsign and I was supposed to be a construction cone. I thought of making giant signs that resembled construction signs that said, Under Construction and Caution Curves Ahead. However, all my energy went to the boys truck costumes.

This year they were pirates. Alright that shouldn't be too hard. Once again what would I do with out the diaper thing. I went to the local thrift store and yes bought my boys girl clothes. It will never happen again. But, it was the only place I could find the perfect pirate jackets and shirts. And perfect they were. Shoes were a delima, I couldn't find boots. Until I came across black snow boots at Walmart and I snatched 'em up before they were gone. They came up almost to their kneew and made their pants kind of puffy, close enough to a pirate look when put together with their long white shirts with big collars and cuffs and 'pirate' jackets. I used some old dark maroon fabric I had stored away for a sash to tie around their waists. Found pirate hats for $4 at PartyLand and cool swords for $1 at the local grocery store. But something was missing, yes this is where diapers saved me again. No pirate is complete without a treasure chest. So my brain really went into overdrive now when it dawned on me, the Huggies box! Hello! I used masking tape to cover the boxes making it look like slats of wood and then a light coat of my brown acrylic paint. (Someday I will paint masterpieces again.) And I happened to even have a tube of gold acrylic paint that sparkled a little. So I used it for the bolts or brackets along the sides of the boxes. They were perfect even though I ran out of time to make handles for them they still made my pirates complete after we drew mustaches and soul patches on their little faces.

We went up to Cameron's office for their office party and the boys had a blast, running around saying AAARRRR! When ever anyone spoke to them. But, then again my oldest says that anyways. They went to all of the offices and cubicals and filled their treasure chests to the brim. Isaac, not being able to get him in costume still was in the Halloween spirt. Every time someone would hand him a piece of candy he would hand it back saying 'uck' 'uck'. They looked surprised and said 'yuck?" I had to interpret for him and tell them he was saying 'stuck', he was asking them to open it for him. Cute, cute. He would set the candy down as soon as he would get anohter piece leaving a paper trail. He never really ingested that much candy it was either disgarded or smeared all over his face. I did however use a whole lot of wipes as I followed him around. After it all the boys layed down on the floor by their dad's desk and checked out their 'booty'. They tore through several pieced mostly tasting and setting aside for the next piece. When they grew tired and both complained of tummy aches. Edison with one hand on his tummy and holding up a sucker with the other hand asked 'will this make my tummy feel better?' I said 'no, sweet heart, it'll taste good but it won't make you feel better.' He immediatly held up another and asked "will this one make me feel better?' I replied the same and he quickly came back with a 'yes, it will, this one will, mommy' very determined.

The next night was our church's Trunk'o'Treat party. Every one decorates the back of their car at the church parking lot and the kids go from car to car. It was perfect, because it gets soooo cold by the time it's dark, too cold and usually snowing. So we went and had a blast the boys filling up their treasure chest once again. AAARRRRR Matey! It all ended just as the temperture was dropping drastically and we went home ending our Halloween extravaganza. A very fun and fullfilling weekend.

Cameron usually dresses up as a Mariachi guy. He has an authentic mariachi suit from Mexico that is way cool. So I'm going to look for a matching costume for next year. Maybe a spanish dancer, flamenco dancer or something. I did find one online that I like, but it was over $200. I'll keep looking around.

I don't have to worry about lack of diaper resources for a couple more years though. Most would be depressed, but me? No, I'm excited to have the multi-purpose uses available at my fingertips. I wonder what the boys will be next year?