What you talking 'bout, Willis?

I know I've talked about Spencer's reading not long ago on here. Yes, we're very proud of him. He warms the librarian in my heart. Blah, blah, blah... What I didn't tell you about is one of the fringe benefits of having a child who reads above his age level. His vocabulary exceeds his pronunciation skills. And being the mom that I am I have at least one "hee, hee, hee" moment a week. I can only think of two examples right now, but here goes. There's nothing funnier than to hear a child trying to sound so grown and failing miserably. He was talking about something (probably us) stifling him. (Hear stiff- ling) Takes the wind right out of his argument when he can't even pronounce the word right. Then this morning I was attempting to comb tangles out of his hair. I'm asking if he used shampoo when he washed his hair last night because it has a conditioner in it and he shouldn't have tangles. (This doesn't even cover the fact that it also means he didn't comb his hair after the shower.) He looks at me so indignantly and says, "Yes, Mom, but that Suave (hear swave) you bought doesn't have conditioner in it." I look at Steve and go,"Hee, hee, hee! He said Swave." What's the point of having children if you can't enjoy a few laughs at their expense? My mom did and still does. What doesn't kill you makes you stronger right? Besides a laughing mother is a happy mother.

New family addition

It's been a hard winter for pets here. We've lost two of our dogs in a little over a month. First to go was Klondike. He was an inherited dog who died of old age. We figured he had to be at least 15. Then just last week our beloved Jake got run over. He was a rambler and a gambler and this time the cards weren't on his side. He was out on the highway near our house and didn't make it. That one was really tough for all of us since we have had him for 6 years. He actually defected from Mom and Dad's house when we built here and became our watchdog. We really miss him. He was an excellent protector and I didn't worry about anything when he was here.

So now it is time to start again. Jake was an Aussie/Heeler mix. We got our puppy from another friend who raises dogs and has gotten three from us. So this puppy is actually related to Jake and our two dogs we have now. His dad is a registered Aussie and the mom was one of our puppies. We hope he has got some good watchdog blood in him. He is definitely smart. He is already fetching. He is 14 weeks old and we call him Bauer. They were calling him Bear so we wanted something close to that. He is a real cutie. The other dogs are still trying to find their place. Pepsi has started playing with him but not Missy. I did manage to get a little video of the dogs playing though. Here's to the next generation.

The Quest

Recently, my DCs (that's dear cousins not darn cats) were down for a visit. Since one is an expert decorator and the other is an expert painter, it was time for some help redoing my bathroom. I'm thrilled with how it turned out. I had the red walls before, but they were repainted a red with a little more of a brown undertone instead of the color I called "caliente". The other walls were all beige before and now they are a lovely brown. I want to lick them because they look like a fudgsicle to me, (my expert painter cousin told me not to do that for at least three days though to let the paint set) but they are acutally Saddle Soap by Benjamin Moore. I had two round decorative mirrors over the sink which we replaced with a large rectangular mirror from Kirkland's and it was even on sale. It's much more user friendly when two of us are in there. We also repainted the light over the mirror to match the other walls. We added a decorative shower curtain and bathroom accoutrements from Target as well. (I love that store!) My problem now is finding a valance. I found one at Target that I thought would work, but when I hung it, it looked too plain. I'm having trouble finding one that ties in the two colors of the bathroom. The ones I have seen with those colors are either too fancy or too ugly. If I had a little bit of sewing ability, I would look for fabric. I'm afraid to even look though for fear I will find the perfect fabric and it will end up being my life long sorrow. So now I have a quest to find the perfect valance. I know it will show up someday, but until then we will just have to look at an empty rod on an absolutely lovely red wall.

Sweet child of mine

OK, this child of mine is quite confusing. He gets totally upset if someone laughs at him, but yet he wants me to make this video to put on our blog to see what kind of comments I would get. He's no Lionel Richie that's for sure. Not much for lyrics either since he's singing the song wrong. Not very good in the wardrobe department. I just took that coat out of the dryer and since it was warm, he felt the need to have it on his head. (Some things are just not meant to be understood.) Anyway, here it goes. I wonder how many of you can even figure out what song he is singing.

Snow Video: Sequel

This is just a video of the snow. Nothing too exciting unless you were here. I discovered that I preferred taking my snow pictures from behind glass even if you can't get the same pictures.

Live Snow

Are you up for a couple of videos? Sorry, I couldn't resist in my snow picture taking frenzy. I'm only posting two of them though. How many of you are afraid to know how many I took?

This is one of Steve and Spencer's snowball fight.

Snow Day

Oh, the joys of a snow day. It happens so rarely in Mississippi, so we always take entirely too many pictures of it. Look, it's on my car! Look, it's on my roof! Look, you can see it in the grass now! So if you are looking at these pictures from another state, please try not to laugh. We probably got four or five inches of snow today and that is a big deal for us. We will have a high of 50 degrees tomorrow and highs in the 60s all next week. That's not even sweater weather. One day of snow is enough to let us know we did have winter though. Hope you like the pictures.