This week's sign #2

I'm sitting on the floor of the living room, folding laundry, and flipping channels between The Girls Next Door and Star Trek the Next Generation. Yes, I'm that cool. Don't be jealous. So, anyway, there's a commercial break in The Girls Next Door and on comes a commercial for a live performance of Dora the Explorer on roller skates or some fool thing. Seriously? A commercial for Dora the Explorer at 10:45pm in the middle of The Girls Next Door???? What demographic are they reaching out for???

Hell in a hand basket folks....

It's settled. She nuts.

Oh yeah, as if we weren't sure yet, tonight proved it. My poor sweet little Red. Honest to God, she's possessed. And stubborn is the name of the game. Let's see, what set her off tonight? Cleaning up the three things she had out in the living room after dinner before going up for tub. No, really. Like three things. And did she howl! For practically the whole 30 minutes of bathtime! As I had Pudge in the tub there she sat in the hallway whooping up a storm. I knew giving her any attention would only feed it so I paid extra attention to the little man in the tub and we had a blast. And I made sure little miss thunderstorm heard it all. I played it all up, laughing with Pudge, singing songs, just trying to get Red to hear us and want to stop her shenanigans and join in.

Did she? Nope, not all the way. I heard the lame attempt at banging on the gate we have at the top of the stairs get softer and softer. She banged on the wall and bathroom door a bit but I ignored that too. She was just trying to get my attention, not doing any damage, so I just let it go. (At this point, if you really know me, you should be picking yourself up off the floor. He let something like that go??? I know, I'm trying my best to keep it all in perspective and it even works, sometimes.) A few times I saw her little fingers poking through under the door and I almost lost it. She was trying so hard to get my attention. Finally, she opened the door just a little bit and then closed it right away. About a minute later she opened it again and poked her head in. I asked her if she'd like to jump in the tub and she actually slammed the door! Well, as much as a little two-year-old can slam the door while trying not to get me too mad. I laughed at that as well. Half-assed defiance is always funny.

Stubborn, stubborn little girl. Doesn't she know that this Mom and Dad don't play that game? Can't wait until she's 15!!!!!

*maniacal laughter echoing in the distance*

This guy is my new hero!

Amazing, simply amazing. I've got to get myself a workshop someday.

A pointless post

Alright, except for the Wii last year Wifey and I don't buy things that we would have to categorize as wants, especially for ourselves, and I like to pretend that the Wii was mostly for JAM when it comes down to it. We've watched with hardly veiled jealousy as people around us stock up on cool stuff. TVs, cars, computers, trips, paint for their walls, you know - the fancy stuff. But, we know its not in the cards for us right now. We're almost okay with that, really! Until tonight. I mean come on!!! We're watching ER and there is this one scene where one character is sitting across the screen from the other and WE CAN'T SEE EITHER OF THEM!!!! Honestly!

We want a new TV.

Oh well, someday. But wouldn't it be a shame if Pudge just happened to smash a Thomas train through the glass on the TV tomorrow?

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On a totally unrelated note, I just saw the funniest commercial. I can't find an English version, but what they say isn't even the point. I'm in love, let's just put it that way...

Spring is here!

It's official. As if the warm weather we enjoyed for a few days weren't clue enough, today really nailed it. That's right, it's baseball season! JAM's first baseball practice was today so I came home a bit early from work so we could warm up a bit before dinner.

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Wifey had the babies during the actual practice so no pictures were taken. Let's face it, we're lucky we still had three in the van when we went home. :) But this poor team JAM is on? Oh wowsers... It's going to be an interesting year. I mean fortheloveofallthatsholy!!!!! Don't these parent's ever play catch with their kids? Wouldn't you want them to be at least a little bit prepared for playing a sport?

And the coach? He's the same guy from last year that was helping out and we had to tell to stop yelling at kids. I'm sure you can guess our reaction when we heard it was him coaching this year. The good news was he was only a prick to his own kid tonight. The bad news? He didn't do a lick of coaching. I was playing catch with JAM in the field, and he just kind of made everyone else do the same thing, not helping anyone out at all. These poor kids, who didn't have a clue how to throw or catch, were out there hurting each other and here I am throwing deep pop-ups to JAM.

Then, JAM and I were bored with that so I started hitting soft grounders to him and coach-man made everyone else line up and do that with us. When I noticed that the balls were going every which way in the horrible grass (some kid was going to take one off the teeth if we didn't do something different), and none of them besides JAM had any clue how to even catch a grounder, I stopped that and moved everyone over to another infield where we split them into pairs and had them roll the ball to each other. Wow, that was a sight. After a few minutes of doing this with JAM (odd number of kids so I was working with him) I split off and started helping out these two really sweet but totally new kids next to us. Neither of them had a clue how to throw or catch but by the time practice was over they were both catching grounders and at least trying to throw in the right direction.

Guess we know who's really going to be running practices huh?

It's going to be a long season. :)

Because cheating is good?

Well, no. Cheating isn't actually good. We all know that. But even when I was a teaching I knew that it was silly to ask kids to memorize things that could easily be looked up. The focus should be on making connections, thinking, learning to learn, and learning how to research and locate the material you need for the moment or the project. Memorization is something that should be left to the mentats. Oh common! You don't know what a mentat is? Seriously, you should read a book.

Today I ran into one of those situations where I didn't have a clue how to figure something out. And for the life of me I couldn't figure out how to do something that I'm sure my 7th grade math teacher would kick me for. Good thing I can't remember who that person was huh? The problem at hand was trying to figure out how to turn a value I had for a duration in seconds into a duration in hours. Yup, I had to figure out how to turn something like 1.5 million seconds into hours. Do you remember how to do that? Anyone?

*chirp*


*chirp*


Yeah, I didn't either. So, I called my local math geek, my good friend D. I knew he'd know. And he did. Can't for the life of me remember how he got there, but it had something to do with dividing by 3600 for some reason. It's good having smart friends. :)

But then I had a thought. There's a web site for everything right? There had to be a site that did this kind of thing. Guess what? There is! Is it technically cheating?
How cool is this --> http://www.calculateme.com/index.htm?

From any value to any value, this site rocks. Pretty lame attempt at advertising for car insurance, but I'll overlook that for getting me the info I need.

So who needs to be smart? Just need to know where to look it up. Sorry D, you've been replaced. :)

Pics I've wanted to post

Nothing major, just some pics I wanted to post. It's okay, I know they're beautiful. :)



- Dude's gonna break some hearts!

- Check out Yin and Yang over here. Or maybe beauty and the beast?

| - My boy JAM at his honor roll assembly.

| - My nekkid babies playing after tubby time.

- It was beautiful outside the other day. I wanted to take a picture of my first flowers!


How can we go from this...

to this?



- I mean seriously, look how beautiful she is! Or maybe I should say how beautiful she can be. When she wants to be.


Wifey decided the she wanted to break out the 'ol Chef Boyardee for lunch the other day. Needless to say, these kids loved it.
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- EXTREME CLOSE UP!!!!!!! JAM took this one himself. Nice huh?

- And I just wanted to put this one up. No clue when it was taken but they just look so great together. This is our good friend E, thanks to her Dad for sending this our way.

Some sites I've found.

I wanted to get down in writing some great sites I've heard about recently. I'm guessing someone might find them as interesting as I do. I'll go in the order I heard about them.


First, something called the gethuman database. Folks, this has got to be the greatest thing in a long time. Ever get so frustrated trying to find your way through the maze of automated customer service phone lines that you just want to scream? Just ask Wifey how it makes me feel. I've been known, from time to time, to start giving some pretty "interesting" answers to those systems that want you to talk to them. Ohforchristssake... if you can't even make the effort to answer the phone why would you make me talk to a computer. So, this is my new favorite web site.


Second, something I heard about today on the 'ol NPR. I've been wondering, ever since I started really paying attention to the "real news" why almost 100% of the stories were about death and destruction. And that was just the sports news! When I heard about this next site I was excited to make it a regular in my reader. What is this site that might bring us out of the doldrums of modern news? Let me introduce you to the GoodNewsNetwork. That's right folks, a site dedicated to bringing you real stories of all the good things that are actually happening out in the world. And from what I heard on the interview, these aren't just fluffy kitten and babies-type stories. This is real news that just happens to be about positive events. I know, I didn't understand at first either. Just go give it a chance okay? I'm sure the apocalypse will wait for you.


Finally, this is my holy-crap-this-is-awesome submission for this post. I've taken to reading through the Bits Blog from the New York Times and they recently ran a story on a very cool new tool put out by a company that I learned all about way back when I was teaching and mentoring the robotics team in PG County Schools - Autodesk. Autodesk is a company that makes 2D and 3D design software that we would use to design our robots before we built them. Their new free tool is called Autodesk Project Dragonfly and it allows you to design your own home and stock it with all sorts of cool accessories and products. For those of you out there that are just like me (read - poor and not able to actually buy the house you'd like to have) you can let your imagination run wild. I started my first project, just to see what it was really like, and I've already created a reasonable approximation of the first floor of the house I grew up in. I'd love to build a slightly better version of that house someday but for now, this will have to do.

Witness...

He's my new best friend.

My man Orange. Definitely my new BFF. We were on the phone tonight talking and I was about to hang up and he told me to hold on a minute. He then told me about something that was on the TV, on the E! channel. Yes, on E!. Ohforgodssakes!!!!!!!! It might just possibly be the best show ever! My favorite part? When some freaking production assistant was sent out into the hallway with a wrench and started banging on pipes or something and they all got so scared they all crawled into bed together. Yum... three former USC cheerleaders in the same bed together. But for some reason I'm guessing this wasn't the first time that's happened. I just always imagined the offensive line would have something to do with that...

What's it called you ask?

Hot Girls in Scary Places. Yup, you heard me. And get this... I actually go online to the E! web site to search for it but it is so absurd even their web site doesn't have anything to say about it! Seriously, it is on right now and their site has no record of it.

Witness...

The web site not having anything to say about their own show? Now that is saying something... the E! site knows that the E! channel has finally hit a new low.

But, I couldn't leave you without offering up these pics I found...

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He speaks!

That's right folks, Pudge has spoken. His first sentence! Wifey and I have been a bit worried, but not wanting to say so, you know, fear of being "those parents." You know them. The ones that you meet in the grocery store or at the kid's birthday party, or where ever, that are always talking about when your kid did that or when their kid did this.


"OMG! He walked at 8 months? Ours didn't walk until 8 months 3 days!!!! We need to get him tested!"


This whole conversation is being had in light of our most recent experience with Red, who started conjugating verbs at like 10 months (wicked strange to have a less than one year old throwing out full sentences let me tell you). With her bizarre early development foremost in our minds, Wifey and I have been wondering in our collective heads whether we should be thinking about starting to wonder if we should be getting worried (that's us, real conclusive) that Pudge hasn't really taken to this whole speaking thing. Don't get me wrong, he does have some words going on. Milk, Mama, Dada, his favorite - NO!, move (we're working on excuse me to some success), more, nose, hair, hat, ears, etc. But, aside from our translation services, not many other people have any idea what he says and his vocab list isn't winning any awards.

So, imagine our surprise tonight as Pudge put his official first sentence together! Two whole words in a logical order to express a complete thought! My only regret happened to be him screaming "NO Dada!" at me after I put him in his highchair after having to remove him from running across our couch for the 8th time. It doesn't matter, he delivered his first sentence!!!! He's a genius, far smarter than those other parent's kids anyway.

My little babies...

Oh man oh man oh man.... these little kids are breaking my heart. But what a contradiction! One minute I'm wishing they would just grow up so we didn't have to deal with all the little breakdowns and tantrums (and that applies to JAM just as much as with the babies) and the next I'm wishing I could just hold their little bodies forever. All of them are growing so quickly - JAM with his monster adult front teeth, Red making new best friends wherever she goes, Pudge being able to climb to the top of the little play slide we've got out back... It is just killing me.

Yesterday, as I was hip-deep in trying to get my annotated bibliography done for class (not sure if I mentioned this, I'm going for another masters - this time a Master of Science in Management: Human Resource Management at UMUC) Red strolls downstairs after she woke up from nap. As she was sitting on the couch next to me, all sleepy eyed still, she sat straight up, her little hands on her knees and she started asking me something all serious like. The look in her eyes was one of such intense clarity, she was all into her thought, so grownup-like. There is a difference in her now, she's moving past that baby-like constant zooming from one thought to the next. She can settle her mind and really think about things now. Just last night Wifey and I were quizzing her on the names of people but asking her by asking about the relationships - like who's (friend) M's little brother? Or who's Pudge's older sister (a huge smile and a yell - RED!!!!!, although she doesn't refer to herself by Red of course :) ). She's so big.

Anyhow, as she was sitting on the couch, looking all grown up for a second, I just had to put everything else down, lay down on the couch next to her, and grab her for an extended snuggle. And you know what? She didn't even try to get away. I told her that I loved her and that pretty soon she was going to be too big for me to snuggle with like that and she just giggled. I love how she desperately wants to be a "big kid" but whenever we talk about it she just giggles like it is too silly to think about. I wanted to hold her forever but the next best thing is to write about it so I can save it that way. I love these little kids just the way they are - but I can't wait for them to grow up and get the hell out of my house. :)

As I was telling my colleague about our weekend, and relating the party we went to up with Orange's family, she instantly thought of a song she wanted to share with me. This is the same woman who turned me on to this video from a little ways back...

Although Darius is singing about his little girl, I couldn't help think about all of my babies, including my precious K who is getting much too old for me to comprehend, and the tears were hard to hold back.

Enjoy -

This week's sign---

Yes folks, the apocalypse is upon us. No, I'm not talking about Rush Limbaugh's inane comments from this week. As if we needed more proof, all we need to do is simply look outside.

Witness - this is how we started this week...

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20 degree weather, 7 or 8 inches of snow, a veritable winter wonderland.

Today?

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It is almost 70 outside and the kids were absolutely tickled to be able to just enjoy the back patio once again. I'm not sure they were ready for it though, it only lasted about 20 minutes until they were all back inside. I guess it'll take baby steps to get them used to that thing called "outside" again.

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On a wholly unrelated note, we're all looking forward to making the trip up to PA to see our friend Orange's family. There has been much said about the result of putting Red in the same room as their K. If this doesn't bring on the aforementioned apocalypse I'm not sure what will...

Random pics

While JAM was at school and I was at work yesterday, Wifey got out the camera during the day and snapped some new pics of the babies.

Some of messy Pudge.

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And here's goofy Red.

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And yes, I know... I'm in trouble. If you can look past the peanut butter on her face, this little girl is going to break some poor boy's heart one day. I'm pretty sure that day will be right after she drives him bat$&*% crazy. Just like her Daddy.

I can't believe I'm doing this...

I apologize. I'm ashamed. She's making me do this. I love her, more than life itself, so I can't say no. The silver lining? She's been hardcore blogging for almost two years and this is the first time I've been sucked into something like this. :)

So here's how it works. According to her, first there is a question. Then, I give the answer I think she'd give. Then, hilarity will ensue (to be determined) as I answer the question for myself. Eventually we'll compare asnwers and the laughter will reach even greater levels. I promise, it will be at least as much fun as it sounds.

Well, can't put it off any more.....

1. She's sitting in front of the TV, what is on the screen?

My answer for her- (what she's watching) I'm not sure how specific I need to be on this. I know it will be something funny. Every once in a while she'll get totally stuck on a show (i.e. Charmed, Sex in the City, The Beverly Hillbillies) but now isn't one of those times so this is tougher. Alright, if I have to pick something it'll have to be Grey's Anatomy. I know, not real funny but for some reason she digs McNuty or McDrooly or whatever.
My answer for me- (what am I watching) Seriously? How easy is this? Um... sports. More specific? Basketball. And in any other year I'd say the Terps but they're killing me so I'll just leave it at college basketball.

2. You're out to eat; what kind of dressing does she get on her salad?

My answer for her- Ranch. I'm sure this will get harder but this one was easy.
My answer for me- One of two things... ranch or honey mustard. I'll go with honey mustard 'cause I think that's what she'll say. Do we get points for correct answers? Is this like the old Wheel of Fortune and we'll get to buy the bedroom set and the dog statue with the leftover money? I miss that old Wheel!

3. What's one food she doesn't like?

My answer for her- Crunchy stuff in her food. Onions, garlic, stuff like that. Oh, and green stuff.
My answer for me- Squishy stuff. Beans, peas, mushrooms, etc.

4. You go out to eat and have a drink. What does she order?

My answer for her- Without kids? Amaretto sour, no doubt. With kids? Raspberry iced tea.
My answer for me- Without kids? Beer. With kids? Beer. More specific? Killians or Bass if they have it.

5. Where did she go to high school?

My answer for her- Seriously? I thought these were going to be harder than this. Plainfield HS in beautiful Plainfield CT. Valedictorian if I do say so myself. Or for her. This whole answering for her business is confusing me. I thought it was nice that they waited for her to leave and then they built the beautiful new school. F'ers.
My answer for me- Cornwall Central High in Cornwall NY. Yuppers, 750 kids in 8th-12th grade. Not exactly a bustling metropolis but in retrospect a very nice place to grow up.

6. What size shoe does she wear?

My answer for her- Before kids? 8.5. After kids? 13.5. No... just kidding. 9.5.
My answer for me- 13. Yeah, I wish that old saying were truer.

7. If she was to collect anything, what would it be?

My answer for her- Socks. Oh, wait. That's me for her. I had a habit of buying her cool socks for when she was teaching. She was the coolest teacher on that playground! But for real? I'd have to say books. Ever since she started writing for 5M4B this place has started to look even more like a library than before. And that is saying something.
My answer for me- I used to display my collection of nutcrackers, until we ran out of room and they got packed away in the attic. Same for my beer glasses. So, if I had to say something I'd actually like to collect, it would probably be (and I'll eat my hat if she gets this right) a return to my baseball card collection. I used to love to do that, and it would be great to actually have the time and money to share that with JAM and eventually Red and PUDGE.

8. What is her favorite type of sandwich?

My answer for her- Turkey and cheddar on wheat with mayo and a little bit of black pepper. Yeah, guess who gets to go on all the Subway runs?
My answer for me- My favorite growing up was the meatball parm from Prima Pizza in Cornwall. Oh man I used to love those. Homemade meatballs and sauce by this old guy who worked there for like 100 years (I am sick I can't remember his name!!!). As for a regular sandwich nowadays... I'd go with an italian sub. No one down here makes them well enough though. Man I miss those little Italian sub shops in NY.

9. What would she eat every day if she could?

My answer for her- um... that's a tough one... oh yeah... CHOCOLATE!!!!!!! Any size, shape, form, weight, temperature, it doesn't matter. Chop it up and pour it in her mouth and keep going until she passes out.
My answer for me- Does beer count? No, probably not. I'm going to be impressed, but not surprised, if she gets this one... the ice cream cakes from Carvel. You know, the ones with the little chocolate crunchies? OMG, they are like, so amazing!

10. What is her favorite cereal?

My answer for her- It's a toss up between Peanut Butter Cap'n Crunch and Cookie Crisp. I'd have to go with the Cap'n on this one if I had to choose.
My answer for me- Regular 'ol Cap'n Crunch. Man I love that stuff.

11. What would she never wear?

My answer for her- Those annoying Jersey-girls sunglasses that everyone's been wearing for a few years now. Man she hates those. Is there really any reason you want to wear half a winshield on your face?
My answer for me- Anything with my collar popped. Or anything those orange guys wore. If there were ever an ad for castration....

12. What is her favorite sports team?

My answer for her- Nothing. She hates sports. She used to try to put up with it for me but then we hit the two week mark and she stopped pretending. So, my answer? The Brisbane Broncos from the Australian National Rugby League. It's a real team, I looked 'em up.
My answer for me- The Yankees. I'm thinking she'll say the Terps but if I had tickets to the Yanks and the Terps on the same day I'd definitely choose the Yanks.

13. Who did she vote for?

My answer for her- As Red would say... Rock A'bama.
My answer for me- Ditto.

14. Who is her best friend?

My answer for her- I'd say her hetero life partner, L.
My answer for me- D from DBCJ fame.

15. What is something you do that she wishes you wouldn't do?

My answer for her- Leave my nail clippings laying around after I "trim." I sometimes forget to clean up after myself.
My answer for me- Dude, can you please clean your hair from out of the bathroom sink? PLEASE? It's just nasty.

16. What is her heritage?

My answer for her- She claims to be "French" but I don't think there is a tree big enough to actually trace that far back. Oh, and a healthy dose of hairy Spanish women are thrown in there too. But seriously, she's Connecticutian. Her whole big scary nutso family.
My answer for me- The only identifiable chunk is Irish. I'm sure there is a lot of other western European thrown in there but I'd have to have parents who cared to make that a part of our culture to know.

17. You bake her a cake for her birthday; what kind of cake?

My answer for her- Start by seeing question #9. Then, take said chocolate cake and batter it and deep fry it. Then, cover it in chocolate icing and deep fry it again. Then, cover THAT in chocolate ice cream and you're starting to get close.
My answer for me- See question #9. I really do love those little crunchy things.

18. Did she play sports in high school?

My answer for her- bwaaaaa-hahahahaahaaahhhahahahaaaaa!!!!! I think I remember her trying to tell me that Academic Decathelon was a sport at her school. Oh wow, geeks are so cute.
My answer for me- Yeah, I tried just about everything, was only moderately decent at basketball. I was always the big goofy white guy who fell down a lot though. It's good that some things don't ever change.

19. What could she spend hours doing?

My answer for her- reading, no question.
My answer for me- playing ball, working outside, hiking with the kids, woodworking if I ever get a shop to do it in. Oh, we need one answer right? Okay, playing ball it is.

20. What is one unique talent she has?

My answer for her- my beautiful lady has what I affectionately call monkey feet. She can pick up anything, and I mean anything, with her toes. Have you ever seen the videos of the poor women who've lost their arms, or are born without, and they can drive, write, cook, change diapers, etc. with just their feet? Wifey is jealous of them. I'm pretty sure it's a sickness. Oh, and she can tie a cherry stem with her teeth and tongue. NICE!
My answer for me- I dunno... I'm really good at Tetris? This guy isn't very unique so I'm not sure what to say on this one. How about I used to be able to parallel park a bus? Oh forget it. It's 11:30 and I'm getting up early to play ball tomorrow.

Anyhow, so there you go. I hope you've all enjoyed yourselves and if I can leave you with one last favor... please don't make YOUR significant other(s) - you know, just in case Hef reads my blog - do this on your anniversary. :)

HAPPY 15 YEARS BABY!!!!! And no one ever gave us a chance. HA! Look how gud we turnded owt?

Happy snow day!

What a glorious day! For three years we've been waiting. And not even patiently. I hate the cold. Being cold stinks. If it is going to be cold we should at least get some snow out of it right? Well, today we cashed in. A little bit at least. This was no Rochester snow dump or Minnesota blizzard but around these parts we call 8 inches impressive. (Yes Trillian and Orange, I left that in there for you guys.) School closed for JAM, and work even closed for me (not that I was going in anyway) so we were all cleared for a day of outside family fun.

The start of the day, all nicely undisturbed - I love that. It was even still snowing when these were taken. It didn't stop until about 9:30 or so.

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After breakfast we all suited up and went outside to shovel out. Seriously, it didn't take that long, it was the light and fluffy type snow so no back breaking labor needed. This was Red's and Pudge's first real snow so we were excited for them.

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JAM was lucky enough to find that his friend was over at his Dad's (next door) for the day. He and JAM had a blast playing in the piles as his Dad and I cleared and shoveled out the cars.

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Oh geez, just look at those front teeth. :)

And, no snow day would be complete without the mandatory sledding trip! We all piled into the van and headed down to pick up some friends to head over to the hill behind our community library. Nice sized hill, no jagged rocks, little woods at the end of the run for added excitement. JAM's friend and his Dad joined us near the end, good times were had by all.

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Well, good times were had by everyone except poor Pudge. Poor little man was not enjoying the wind blowing the snow all around. We had parked up at our friends house, then walked down to the library but by the time we got there he was just in hysterics. He looked like he was exhausted and the cold and wind weren't helping one bit. I offered to walk back to the van with him and bring it back hoping he would fall asleep as we were driving around. I had to drive around the block a few times but eventually he passed out. By the time I got back to the parking lot Red had had enough of the wind and wanted to get into the van with Wifey (oh yes, angry and yelling at the wind... good times). As they enjoyed some warming up time and a snack (and Pudge continued to snooze) I got to take a few runs down the hill with JAM.

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Once Red had warmed up and calmed down a bit she and Wifey joined us again for some runs.

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And all of this before lunch!!! So far, a great family day. How could we top it off? Well, what do you need to eat on a cold, snowy winter night? SOUP!!! Yuppers, after both little ones went down for nap I got busy in the kitchen and whipped up a batch of Tortilla Lime Chicken Soup from my brother's recipe. Check out what was waiting for us when we went up to wake up Pudge (who actually fell asleep for a second nap for the first time in a LOOONNNGGGG time - walking around in the snow for about 20 minutes must have just tuckered him right out) -

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Oh, and the soup? Soooooooo good. It came out just perfectly too. Add a few toasted-cheese sandwiches and a nice hot fire in the stove, snow on the ground outside... it just doesn't get any better than that. The kids were all beautifully behaved during dinner, Wifey and I enjoyed our soup (Pudge tore into his and even Red took a bite), and all was good.

Witness...

Recipes available for $23.99 but you'll have to ask my brother first. It may be just too good to share. :)

Let's hear it for perfect days huh? There aren't nearly enough of those to go around so we need to celebrate them when they happen.