Circle Tacos

So the other night Emily said she wanted circle tacos for supper. Now, I usually speak 3 year old pretty well, but this one had me stumped.

First we thought she wanted nachos, so we made her some nachos. That wasn't it. Miles thought she might mean mini tacos, so he took her to the store, showed her various items, and asked her if she saw the circle tacos. She kept saying no, that wasn't it.

Finally, on a whim, they drove to Taco John's. Do you know what circle tacos are? Potato oles! Now we know.

Merry Christmas to all!!

My parents came up for the past couple of days. It was nice that they came to visit but it sucks that is was for such a short time. Saturday we went to the mall. It was not as crowded as I thought it would be for 2 days before Christmas. We saw "Charlotte's Web." It was a cute show. Emily loved it though. She'd been talking about seeing it for about a week.

Sunday morning we opened our presents. Emily got "Fairy Wishes Dora," and a dollhouse. I know what they mean when they say Christmas really is for the kids. It's so much fun to see her face light up when she's opening her gifts.

I actually cooked my first turkey yesterday. It turned out really well. I roasted it in a Nesco roaster. I was afraid it would be dry but it was pretty juicy.

I hope everyone out there had a great Christmas. I wish everyone health and happiness in the new year.

Sorry, once again, that I haven't updated on a regular basis. Things just get so hectic with the holidays and settling into the new house that I have just been too tired to do anything else at night but crash.

Work sucked today. I thought I did something correctly but I didn't, and it came back to bite me in the butt. Things will be fine, it just sucks when you screw up and everyone knows about it. I say once again, my workplace is like one big disfunctional family.

We finally got our tree up as well as the other Christmas decorations. We hung some icicle lights on the outside of our house. They look pretty nice. We had also bought some of those net lights to put on our bushes, however, they were too small. Oh well. Next year I think I'd like to put some swag lights along our fence. I let Miles slide a bit and agreed not to do them this year.

I have also become an HGTV addict. I think now that I own a house I am excited about decorating things the way I want. I'm even kind of looking forward to gardening next year, and those of you that know me know that I am not a gardener by any means.

That's it for now. See everyone soon!

Sorry I haven't updated for a while. Miles was deer hunting last week so I didn't have computer access other than work.

Not much going on here. Trying to get ready for the holidays. My parents are coming up for Christmas. They actually have to leave on Christmas but it will be good to see them for a couple of days. They are excited to see our house.

Saturday night I went to the Dierks Bentley concert. I hadn't been to a concert for almost 10 years so it was a lot of fun. Dierks was very good and extremely sexy. Miranda Lambert, his opening act, was also very entertaining.

I am watching the Pack play Seattle right now. Green Bay is ahead 7-0 right now. We'll see what happens.

So I was reading my hometown newspaper today and came across a letter to the editor. The writer had been out to dinner with her family. I have posted some of the letter below. It was written by Kara Mullen of Wichita, Kansas...

I had a horrible experience in a family diningestablishment. My 2-year-old had been well-behaved the whole meal, but was getting tired as we waited for our two younger children to finish. He grabbed some silverware and began to bang it, so we gently took it from him and told him no. He began to cry. He had been crying for just seconds when a woman approached him from behind, grabbed his shoulder, got directly in his face and shouted, "No, you can't do that!"

Okay. As a parent reading this letter really got under my skin. We have been to many restaurants with Emily. If she starts to get really unruly, we remove her from the restaurant. A couple of times I have had to leave Wal-Mart because she's been screaming at the top of her lungs. I know that the public did not pay good money to listen to my kid cry.

However, the part that bugged me was not that the kid was crying. It was the fact that some woman thought she had the right to touch someone else's kid. I don't care how noisy the kid is, you DO NOT put your hands on someone else's kid. Bottom line.

I guess if I had been the diner, I would have gently spoken to the parents and let them know that their child was disturbing my dinner. I'm sure they would have been more than cooperative at that point. But when someone touches their kid, don't they have a right to get upset?

Loyal readers, what would you have done in this situation? Do you have any words of wisdom for me next time my kid starts crying?

So last week I went to a wedding. Not really an unusual occurence, however, this particular wedding was quite interesting compared to the weddings I usually attend, and was a stark contrast to the wedding we attended only the week before.

Wedding #1 was my boss's daughter's wedding. The reception was held at the fanciest hotel in town. The invitation instructed us to select our dinner choice. When we got to the reception, there was an envelope with our name on it. This envelope included a colored leaf indicating our dinner choice as well as some "instructions" on the evening. Waiters in white gloves served us our meal, there was wine at each table as well as a lovely centerpiece which I took home at the end of the evening. If I had to guess, I would say the total cost of the wedding was close to $50,000.

Wedding #2 was Miles's high school friend. This wedding was at a church, with a dinner immediately following. The reception was held in the poleshed on the family farm. There was a buffet set up which people ate all through the night. The beer was being served out of a beer trailer, which if you've never seen that means it's a big trailer that holds a lot of kegs. The tapper is on the side of the trailer. There were a ton of people there. I wore a pair of casual khaki pants, although I could have worn my pajama pants and nobody would have noticed or cared. The second wedding was much more relaxed and really was a lot of fun. I would say they probably spent $3500 on the entire day.

People say that weddings are so expensive these days. Are they expensive because we have convinced ourselves that we have to have certain things on "the big day?" Whether you spend $100 or $100,000, the end result is still the same. And spending a lot of money does not guarantee the marriage will last. The statistics show that nearly half of all marriages end in divorce.

I guess the point to this rant is just that you don't have to spend a lot of money to have a fantastic time. Put your priorities and your effort into the marriage. A wedding is a day, a marriage is a lifetime.

Okay, I am back!!!

We are pretty well settled into the new house. We are loving it already. I looove having a dishwasher again. It makes it so easy to just put the dirty dishes in the dishwasher and forget about them. And we love the hardwood floors. Em spilled chocolate milk last night and it was so easy to just wipe it up and not have to get the carpet cleaner out.

I only wish the bathroom was a little bigger, but we do have 2 bathrooms now, so I can go downstairs if I don't have enough space.

The move went pretty well. Nothing really got broken. Painting went good also, although next time I think I would hire painters. Not that it's hard, but it's just time consuming, and I'm not the best detail painter there. We still have some touch-ups to do before our housewarming party.

Em really likes having all her toys in her new room. In our duplex, she had to have her kitchen downstairs. It is now in her room and she loves cooking for all of her stuffed animals. She also loves the fact that her room is pink. It looks a little like a bottle of Pepto exploded in there, but it's cute and she loves it.

Look for more regular postings now that our life is not all chaotic and twirly. Also, make sure everyone is watching the World Series. One of my high school classmates, Nate Robertson, pitches for the Detroit Tigers, who are playing the Cardinals in the Series right now. Although Detroit is down 1 game to 2, I am confident they will pull it out.