Not Blogging

You may have noticed -- I'm not blogging these days.
Just busy, you know?
And I never can find the camera to upload pics. And one computer is broken.

But if I were blogging, I'd blog about some of these things, in depth...

-- Samantha turned six. I am so excited to have a BIG six-year-old girl!! She's so cute and already seems so grown up. To me, it seems like she's been six for the past several months anyway, so I'm glad she finally gets to BE as old as she's seemed. ;) She had a great birthday -- got to wear a birthday crown at school, got to bring in treats (well, fruit, actually -- no REAL treats cuz everyone's allergic, apparently). And she had a fun birthday party with friends, followed by a fun party with family. I definitely have to give her a full post tribute. Soon. I promise.

-- Samantha was in her first school holiday program. It was so fun to see our girlie up there singing her little heart out. She knew ALL the words, and sang with great gusto. One funny thing... when they opened the curtains on the stage, all the kids were on the risers being so still and reverent, and all the parents in the audience were WAVING, almost uncontrollably, at their kids. It was so funny to me. Isn't is supposed to be the other way around? But no, those kids kept their composure, for the most part -- only three or four of the 100 kids that were up there actually waved back. Samantha didn't... not even once the entire program. But she did acknowledge that she saw us and our waves, with a bigger smile, an eyebrow raise, and a small upward tilt of the head. So proper, our little stage lady!!

-- Spencer is doing better at night. And is doing somewhat better with some of his other anxieties, as well. He still wakes almost every night, but is getting much easier to settle back, for the most part. Thank you so much for all your advice -- I've tried some of it and have found it very helpful. We're seeing progress, which means a lot.

-- At church this past week, we had our ward Christmas party. My good friend, Lindsay, was in charge of it. I wish I would have taken pictures of it, because it was really fun!! It looked really elegant and festive, and the food was delicious. They had a variety show, and Brian and I were on the program, believe it or not. You don't picture us the stage-y type, I bet? Well, we were actually the first act -- a magic trick, where we made a ba-dana disappear. hee hee. You'll have to ask the kids about it, they still can't stop talking about it, and keep asking me to retell them how we did the whole thing. (Brian told me to pick up a bandanna, but I picked up a banana, instead...)

-- The season is moving right along, and I have eaten more gingerbread than any one lady of my age should consume in such a short time. Seriously, I never even liked gingerbread until this year. I have found my perfect gingerbread recipe, and have probably made six batches of it in the last two weeks. Sooooo good. I will have to share the recipe. (When I'm blogging.)

-- My mom had back surgery. The big major kind where they used words like "grinding bone" and "locked vertebrae."  It's a long, slow recovery, but she's doing really well. I got to go home and see her for a few days at the first of the month -- just Natalie and me. It was a great trip, though I hate to see her not up to her normal, best self. She's in my thoughts and prayers so much right now.

-- My parents like a fun book series that parallels "Pride and Prejudice." They introduced the series to me a few years ago, and I really enjoyed it, too. (It basically tells the tale from Mr. Darcy's viewpoint.) Well, my dad has read the series multiple times (yep. my DAD... the Louis La'Mour lovin' cowboy guy). I decided to get them the series on CD, so my mom could listen to it while she's laid up, and my dad could also listen to it while he drives around (which he does a lot). But they don't have it on CD. So I made my own recording for them. ha! I sound kinda nerdy trying to do all the voices and get the inflections right. But it's been kinda fun. I gave them the first book when I went to see them (7 full CDs), and plan to give them the other two for a Christmas gift.

-- For the rest of our gifts, I think we're almost finished. Hooray!! We have amazon.com to thank for a lot of our fun gifts we're giving (and receiving) this year. Nothing quite so personal as a package brought to your door, right?? :) I'm proud to say I've actually sent most of our Christmas cards this year. That's sayin' something, ya know?!?

Welp. That's all the time I have right now. My bed is calling me. And so is the ham soup that I left on the stove, that needs to be redished and put in the fridge for the night. So...
g'night, y'all.

I hope I'll be back to blogging for REAL sometime soon.