A tear, a chuckle, and a bad word

Last night was Noah's Christmas program at school. It was one of those classic mom moments, complete with tears, watching my little guy walk into the church holding is classmates hand, looking around for his family. He is a proud and he wants us to see him, so he stands nice and tall.













His part in this story about Christmas is to walk up and take an ornament from the podium and hang it on the tree.







There he goes, uh oh, get out the camera, quick. There he stands, he finally sees me, and waves. Aw, the audience chuckles. (He didn't find that amusing, I was to find out later. "They laughed at me, mom, when I waved to you.")










Well, I couldn't get the camera up and out in time. I missed the whole thing. Not to worry, we have another chance.











Then his class goes up to sing...

I leave my seat and bring my camera to the side to try to get a shot.

















Pretty pitiful, eh?















I turn around and walk back to my seat, yikes, he is walking back up to do the ornament thing.

Quick, I snap the picture.

















Ha, and you thought the last one was bad.













Well, Mike says, I think you have one last chance.













Yes, there he goes up for the ornament thing again.













Snap!

















This is where the bad word comes in. $&@*&




Yep...out loud... in church.





Well, the family behind me did laugh a bit.









And then, a real Christmas gift. An unexpected last chance.











AAAAA, the angles sing!





(OK, it's still not that great of a picture with the demon eyes and all, but at least you get the idea.)

The Ross/Dymond Kids

It is so rare to get most of them smiling and sort of looking at the camera!

Let it snow

There really is nothing better than standing in a warm cozy house, drinking tea, watching your children brave weather you haven't loved since childhood. It is beautiful when it snows, but only from the inside looking out!

"MOM, IT'S SNOWING! PLEASE CAN WE GO OUTSIDE?"

turtle necks, where is your other mitten, you must wear socks with your boots, yes, you need a hat...and a scarf, don't take your mittens off outside, you will get frost bite....it's when your skin freezes and it hurts like crazy...yes, i have it on my toe....there is nothing to see...ok, i'll start the hot chocolate...stay in the backyard...because the plows will run you over...yes they will...yes they will...they can't see you.....because you are small....I know you are a big, but you are smaller than a plow

(Have I mentioned they call Noah question boy at school?)

what do you mean you are ready to come in...you have only been out for 10 minutes....ok, here is your hot chocolate

what? you just got warmed up, no you can't go back out...because you just got in...yes, you could have stayed out longer, but you wanted to come in....i know it's still snowing...it snows all winter, it will not melt for a while...alright, but you're getting yourself dressed this time...come here, you've got your mittens on the wrong hands

And so it begins again. My dad chuckles and I swear I heard him mutter something about paybacks under his breath.

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving

Our new family friend.

A Tradition Continues

Learning to play cards with Grandma and Grandpa. When I was younger it was pinochle, for the Ross', it's poker. I think Noah has a slight advantage, he is playing with grandma's money (I think she is getting soft), and grandpa tends to forget which game they are playing.

Overwhelmed

In the midst of another crazy morning...get ready, get dressed, coax the little sleepy children out of bed, breakfast, backpacks, hats and mittens, all to be out the door by 7:10am. Really, don't you think that is too early? Sometimes I feel overwhelmed with what has to be done each day. As I get back into the car from one of my many trips back into the house to get what I forgot, lunch, computer, phone, etc, there sit my little lovelies buckled into their car seats. Mom, Noah says, do you want to hear my new song?

and he sings to the tune of yankee doodle dandy

peanut sits on the railroad track, his heart is all aflutter
the 5:15 comes rushing by, toot, toot, peanut butter

He has a field trip to the train yard today.

Then the kids sing together the rest of the way to school, and I think it's about the sweetest thing I have ever heard, perhaps I was focusing on the wrong thing earlier this morning.

All That Hair

Get a load of all that hair on my husband. Hi, honey. I have been informed that there will be no hair cuts for grizzly adams until his birthday. Ahem, anyone care to comment on that?

Well, Emme has commented on it. Here is an excerpt from drop off yesterday morning.

"Emme, can I have a kiss"

"No, Dad, I don't like the way your face feels"

"Please, Emme, one kiss before you go to your class" he says as he follows he into class.

"OK, Dad" and she walks over and plants one kiss on the part of his cheek with no "fur".

I guess if he won't cut or shave for her, I am out of luck. Although, he has also stated that he will be running in the chicago marathon next year. Training was to begin in October. I'm sorry I just can't seem to find any pictures of him training to post... Maybe there is hope for that hair yet.

Thank You

At the urging of my audience of one, here is another post.

I was feeling rather uninspired, thinking what can I write about....how about Thanksgiving? Na, how about thanks? It's a much better topic. Not that I don't like Thanksgiving, I mean, come on, a holiday created just for the Ross Dymond clan, it's all about the food, ya know. Turkey, and my all time favorite food in the world, stuffing with gravy, apple pie...but I digress. Thanks, that's what it's all about.

How often do we actually take the time to think about what we are thankful for? I certainly find the time to complain. Complain about the house work, my husbands socks which never seem to make it upstairs (He wanted me to write about him, careful what you wish for, wink, wink), my job, the bills, my kids not listening, not enough hours in the day, blah, blah, blah. So, here is my promise, drum roll....I WILL NOT COMPLAIN FOR THE REST OF THE WEEK. There, I said it, and if you are reading this blog, I encourage you to join me. I will not complain. I will enjoy the holiday and all of the gifts it brings. After all, food and family, what could I possibly have to complain about anyway?

Wait, was this about thanks?

Smiling Faces

troubled economy....financial stress...mortgage meltdown...job uncertainty

What the heck happened to my retirement account?

How about some smiling faces to remind us what to focus on?

The Birds

I hate birds, or rather, I'm afraid of birds. You know, some of you don't like spiders, some of you don't like snakes, and I know one studly guy who doesn't like needles. Well, I don't like birds. But, still, I can look at a field of geese and think...someone should run into that field and startle those geese. That would be cool, but it won't be me.

I wish these pictures turned out better, but with perfect timing, as the birds took flight, my camera ran out of batteries and shut down. There were hundreds of birds, I couldn't get them all in the picture.

All About Emme

Emme was the star student in her preschool class. Which means her picture was in the newsletter, she got to sit in the teacher’s chair, and she was interviewed by her classmates. This was a very exciting day! If only life could stay that way :)

The answers to her interview questions…

Emme likes checkers

Emme loves to color

She loves strawberries, tomato soup, and chocolate chips

Her favorite color is pink

Her favorite letter is E

Her favorite movie is ET

Emme loves ballet

Her favorite ice cream is chocolate

She like Pirates of the Caribbean (I'm not sure why, she has never seen the movie)

She likes to play in the loft

She has 2 brothers and 1 sister

She likes to play princess

She loves the number 12

And she likes fruit juice

Pictures

Back in the day when there was actual film inside of the camera, we were looking at the latest roll that had been developed and we came across some photos we didn't recognize. I wish I could find them. We laughed and laughed. Heidi had taken the camera, lined up all her dolls and taken pictures. She had them in different poses, some with scotch tape around their head. Too funny. And so the tradition continues, it is not my sleeping husband that makes these pictures funny, though that is amusing, it is the horses that Noah has lined up on the table and taken pictures of...

Pictures of You

The Baller

Baller n. Slang. 1. A person who plays Basketball 2. My son

Noah loves basketball and if you want to laugh come with us to a basketball game. I'm talking real side splitting, slap your knee, laughter. You will see players shoot at the wrong basket, steal from their own team mates, tackle each other on the court, and leave the middle of the game to use the bathroom. That's his team practicing dribbling in the first picture

I had no idea what a basketball fan I am.