We come bearing fruit snacks not fruit cake

Took Peanut over to our neighbor's house Sunday night. They wanted to show her their tree. She was her usual spunky self and just ate up the attention. David had a new camera and took some fun shots of the two of us. It's been a while since I've gone to a neighbor's to just hang out and visit...it was fun. Joy and I sat and talked while Peanut asked David to take her up and down the stairs...and of course we had to bring them fruit snacks (Scooby Doo and Hello Kitty)...so Monday she said to me "I want to bring David a fruit snack"...translation: "so I can have one too".

Bah Humbug Bookcases

Saturday morning I went to Target to look for a bookcase for Peanut's room. I found what I was looking for and proceeded to pull it down from the shelf. It was on the top shelf at about shoulder height. The boxes were all upright and supported by a brace. I started to pull it down and must have tapped the larger bookshelf boxes to the right of mine(no brace to hold them up)...the next thing I know I'm reaching over to ease the fall of one of those boxes...and then three more boxes fall on my back and head(like dominos). Ouch!!! Some very nice people helped get the other boxes off of me. I was lucky enough that they fell in a way that I didn't feel the weight of them on me, but my head sure did hurt. Thankfully, no bump. The Target people were surprisingly less than kind and the first girl on the scene didn't even ask me if I was okay. The manager was nice and I filled out an accident report just in case there was more wrong with me than I realized...she had someone help me get the box I needed. Thank goodness Peanut was not with me. If the shopping cart with her in it had been next to me it could have been ugly. They pulled all the boxes down and stacked them horizontally after that...zoiks! I was more stunned than anything else which kind of caused me to cry...not pretty. That funk kind of stuck with me for the rest of the holiday weekend. I had so much planned for the weekend. I was only going to have Peanut Sunday night (Robert had her for Christmas this year), so I was going to use my "free" time for cleaning out closets and getting rid of the clutter in the house...yet somehow my time didn't feel "free". I wasn't prepared for the emotional rollercoaster. I spent most of my free time watching Lifetime Channel movies (tear jerkers!) and doing sudoku puzzles...inbetween crying and just plain old feeling blah. Brian and I weren't able to be together for the holiday and that was tougher than I thought. I really miss him. We have this amazing connection (even long distance), but if you throw in being alone for the holiday, newly divorced even the people you're connected to most feel 10 times more distant...and all it took was a bump on the head to bring me to that place of loneliness that I knew all too well from years past. There were some really special moments over the holiday break though...I will share those in another post.

Ride

Christmas break got off to a nice start on Friday afternoon. We got off work early and I had plans to go to CarMax to trade in my Charlie Brown (aka, my Camry). Good 'Ole Charlie Brown was starting to deteriorate and ever since the accident it just didn't feel as safe. I found a few cars on CarMax's website that looked good....particularly the Ford Fusion. 20 minutes later...I got the Fusion. It's a 2006 model and is charcoal grey with a tan cloth interior...sweet! It only had 9500 miles on it and looked brand new. It felt so good driving home! Now I've never been a Ford person in the past b/c I am loyal to my Toyota's and Honda's...but the price was good and it's a pretty car! I think I'm enjoying driving it more than the Honda Prelude (Linus) that I had a long time ago. Something about a new start, I guess...and unlike the Prelude, this car was reasonably priced...Did I mention that I got $3K for Charlie Brown?! I so expected less...that car was not in "good" condition, more like "fair"...but I'm not going to argue with them. :)

After getting the car I drove myself back to Dallas (I went to Arlington for the car). I could have driven all night...and I don't like to drive...I went to the Galleria Mall after that. I found a ring the week prior that I liked and it was being sized. It's a 3 stone aquamarine ring set in white gold. Between the car and the ring these are the last of my big purchases to celebrate the divorce settlement money. It was a little strange to buy myself a substantial piece of jewelry, but liberating as well. My mom did this when she and my step-father divorced. Something that signified her independence and a new start. I guess it stuck in my brain. Just wanted a piece of jewelry that says "I treated myself". So the three stones signify the past, present and future. I like how my future is looking and I'm learning to enjoy my present.

Friday was an expensive day, but I so enjoyed the ride!

Ponies are the new Dinosaurs!

Peanut has been into dinosaurs for the last 16 months...recently she has discovered ponies. This is great (I'm kind of tired of the dinosaurs), but I just started re-doing her "big girl" room with Land Before Time dinosaur stuff...As evidenced in this photo (and by the fact that her big dinosaur still has to ride with us in the car everywhere we go), I think the dinosaurs and the ponies will get along just fine. We did a dinosaur dig for her 3rd birthday...guess we're going to have to do pony rides for her 4th?! ....hmmmmmm...don't know if Mimi and Paw Paw want a pony in their backyard.

Dancing Peanut

December 13th was Peanut's ballet recital. We signed her up for ballet classes thru the country club where her day care is. 4 little girls paying absolutely no attention to directions...it was great! They looked so sweet. When she was trying she actually did a very good job. I was impressed that she knew her positions...and that she kept her tiara on. Here are a few of my favorite photos...ok, a LOT of photos! :)

Diggin It with Nana Rose

The weather was pretty crappy while my mom was here, but we did have one or two nice days. "Nana" and Peanut had some fun time with her sandbox on the front porch.

Chanukah Party

Proper spinning form is everything

when chocolate money is at stake!

And one more, just because

A rare picture of Cecilie - she is like me and doesn't post many

pictures of herself on her own blog, so I felt compelled to post one here

"We're just playing for the gelt"

" M's & M's - I'll just help myself, mom!"

" What do you mean I'm too young for Latkes?!"

We had a Chanukah party on Sunday the 9th at our house. What a joy to share the holiday with my dear friends and their children. This year I did something I've never done...I didn't buy too much food for the party. We had just enough! The kids actually played dreidel this year. They were too young last year, so the adults did the playing. Nana Rose made some excellent latkes. I wish I remembered to take a photo of her with her spatula and Chanukah apron. She looked so cute! What a pro too! Can't wait for the third annual Chanukah party next year.

Lotsa Matzo Balls!

Nana Rose came to visit for 10 days (during Chanukah). Peanut usually will only eat Matzo ball soup if Nana is feeding them to her. She used to call them white balls, now they go by Lotsa Balls! We were sitting at the dinner table Saturday night scarfing down the yummy soup. We lit the Chanukah candles and said the prayer for Chanukah. While we were eating we started singing the Chanukah songs. Peanut learned them last year and I had just started re-teaching them to her earlier in the week. She has a book that has both songs in the stories, so she knows the Dreidel song and Oh Chanukah song. We sang the Dreidel song together and then she started to sing Oh Chanukah by herself. It was so cute and she brought both my mom and I to tears...I think my mom is a bit worried that Peanut won't be exposed enough to her Jewish heritage since we don't go to temple. I have decided to look into taking her to Friday night services. There's a temple that has a Tot Shabbat service on Friday nights that is geared toward children and families. I will have to investigate. Fear not, Nana! Later that evening we spent a half hour dancing to the new Chanukah CD I got for the party. We were spinning like dreidels until we dropped...and then we had to spin again!

Stay tuned

I have numerous pictures from Peanut's Chanukah party, School Holiday party, Ballet recital and Nana Rose's visit...check back soon! It's been a great week and I can't wait to share it.

Glimpse

I have been posting (and emailing) a lot of pictures of Peanut these days. I know the purpose of this blog is to "connect" with loved ones and friends and truly express myself. Feeling a bit disconnected this holiday season, so sharing pictures of Peanut just helps. To add to the strange holiday blues my divorce should be final any day now...this is a huge relief, but still a loss...so I'm masking the blues with photos. So much of this past year has been spent concentrating on the "motherhood" side of me. So much of the divorce had to do with custody, parenting, etc with very little emphasis on the relationship ending. I am pretty sure that's going to hit me soon, but also confident that all the work I've done on myself in the past 16 months (and the love and support I've been receiving from so many of you) will help me get through it...so bear with me and the overload of Peanut photos and mommy ramblings, there's a real me behind all of this and I intend to show it. BH, thank you for helping me find and love the me I thought I lost.

Chanukah Hairy?

Percy plays a mean game of dreidel!

Happy Chanukah from Super Barkely!

Peanut got a new stuffed dog for Chanukah last night. I am proud of myself for not giving it to her sooner as I got it over 2 months ago. He's a super-sized Barkley dog that Jellycat just came out with this year. I forgot how big he was until she opened the box up. He's almost as tall as she is. I made a small Chanukah celebration for us last night. Pretty much consisted of the opening of her present and lighting the menorah candles and reading some Chanukah books (over and over again). Sunday we are having a rather large party with our friends and my mom will be in town. Nice to share my holiday with my non-Jewish friends and I'm touched that they are excited about participating. In a couple of the photos she is reading to Super Barks. She got her books and sat down on the floor to read to him. Had fun getting the candids for that.

Like a Prayer

We're in the car after school Monday and Peanut says "I'm a princess and I'm going to marry my prince in 4 days". So I asked her what her name was (trying to figure out which princess she thought she was which might explain why she picked 4 days). She told me she was Princess Madonna! We were in Robert's car on Thanksgiving b/c he was giving us a ride to the airport. Thank goodness for that because I would never have figured out why she chose Madonna. Apparently he's playing Madonna's Like a Prayer song a lot b/c she requests it and knows the words...because I knew this I was able to sing a couple lines from the song...she picked up right where I left off and sang the song...so funny...a singer she is not, but it was entertaining because she just had so much fun...and so did I.

Strike a pose

Took about 15 shots before I finally got a few that were Chanukah Card worthy...next year we're going to a pro. The picture with both Barkley and Braun the dinosaur was the winner.

Eli Magic

Peanut instantly connected with Eli (mom's dear one). She just adored him. We all took her to the Dinosaur Museum on the Friday after Thanksgiving. She stuck to him like glue. I tried in vain to capture those moments with my camera...grrr. I did get a couple of decent photos. I love sharing my daughter with people...especially when they are so giving and kind.

Let's Go Seminoles!?

Saturday the 24th of November was the FSU/UF game. We played on UF's home field (aka "the Swamp"). Not a good game...but we did have fun dressing up for it! Again, I just could not get a good photo of Peanut because standing still for "mommy" to take the picture is just no fun. I was surprised when she remembered the cheers though...Let's go Seminoles, fight team fight, scalp em!...or not as was the case on Saturday. :(

Blanket

It snowed in Albuquerque Friday morning and afternoon...didn't really stick, but it sure was fun watching it come down. Ever notice how quiet the world seems when snow first starts to fall? Like the earth just camly stops and waits to be covered. The same calm you get when you're putting a blanket on someone. Here are some photos taken from my mom's house. Her views of the mountains are great. Also there's a picture of a peace rose that bloomed outside her kitchen window. It was a stunner!

More White Balls Please!

Peanut has been calling my mom's matzo ball soup "white balls" since she was old enough to talk. The last time my mom was in Dallas she made extra soup and matzo balls for me to serve after she left. Peanut wouldn't eat them. The only time she'll eat them is when Nana Rose feeds them to her. I was unable to capture a good picture of the two of them together (camera issues), but I did get this cute one of her being fed. The hand feeding her is Nana's though! Matzo balls are pretty big . She ate two! I had three and could have had them all day long. Nobody makes matzo balls like my mom! Best feel good food on the planet...Jewish Penicillin.

Plane ride to Albuquerque

I took Peanut to Albuquerque to celebrate Thanksgiving with Nana Rose and Eli. Was a little nervous about the plane ride since it had been about a year and a half since the last time we traveled. I purchased a portable DVD player a few hours before our flight. I didn't think I had enough time to charge it up, but I did it anyway (for about an hour and you're supposed to charge the battery for at least 8 hours according to the instructions). I pulled it out while we were on the plane and told her that I wasn't sure how long it would work...it lasted for over an hour! She especially liked that the headphones fit ("Mommy, these fit me just right!"). Flying back was also a breeze and not just because we had the DVD player. We simply had fun. She made so many people smile along the way. It amazes me her capacity to spread sunshine. Here are a couple of photos of my traveling Peanut.

Happiness comes in a wrapper sometimes

Received these photos from Robert. They're from Halloween night at Mimi and Paw Paw's house. She really got into the candy this year. I love the "mmm" noises she makes when she's eating it. Pure happiness.

The Percy-nator

New table

I have been wanting a new table for my dining room for the last two years. Finally found one to match the sideboard (close enough). Amazing what a little furniture can do to lift a girl's spirits. Doesn't quite lift my spirits as Seattle, but it will have to do for now. ;)