I was not going to post today. I am feeling ever so much better and need to get on Bulls Eye and “ride like the wind”. But then I clicked over to Sassy Cat Hill and read Schmenky’s Way Back post. I then slid over to Capri Deb’s and shed a tear while reading hers. There was no help for it. I had to go Way Back.

I have 1,497 things I need  to do in the next 2 days. So, of course, I am downstairs sifting through pictures and scanning for Way Back When-sday. Makes perfect sense. But once I started, I got all caught up in the nostalgia and memories of  a decade past.

It is hard to believe that 10 years have passed! We moved into our new house in 1999. Our children were 10, 8, and 4 then. I miss my little Guys. I will now inundate you with pictures. Through the Christmas wonder that is scanning.

I adored Mousey’s little dress. She adored Pikachu.

Beeve and Stacey wrapped this block of wood to confuse The Boy as to his real present.

Oh, it was SO worth the subterfuge! Star Wars was HUGE at our house. For many, many years.

Ab-Cat was in the throes of her “I Love Lucy” phase. She has much memorabilia.

Grandma’s Girls. Have I mentioned that I adored Mousey’s dress?

Mousey and Beeve. The two babies of their families.

Beeve and Stacey. Pre Goomba. What I miss most about this picture is the genuine smile on The Ab-Cat’s kisser. She rarely gives us a good one anymore. She has beautiful teeth, we know, we paid the ortho bills! We just don’t know why she won’t show them.

Bud E. Bear and his Grandma.

Ab-Cat reading The Christmas story from The Message.

The GrandParental Units with their Furlings.

It is possible for a 4 year old to have enough Christmas!

I want my baby back.

Thanks for meandering Way Back with me. You all have a very Merry, Blessed Christmas.

It is a brisk 16 degrees this morning. Yesterday was a balmy 19.  With high wind advisories. It was a good thing too, because I was out in it at least 19 times. I just have the knack of running errands and “must do’  shopping on the WINDIEST, coldest day of the year so far. I have always wanted to have the wind scour my skin and snatch my hair out by the roots. All in one fell swoop. Mousey said the wind knocked her off the sidewalk yesterday, on one of her many jaunts between school buildings.

I went to BSF, Hobby Lobby, Marshalls, decided not  to go to Michael’s, a decision I would live to regret, crossed over to the Office Max, crossed back over to hit JoAnn Fabrics, back over to the other side to hit Meijers, and last but not least, took an awkward route to get to Krogers, because there was no left turn out of the Meijers parking lot.

I will now tell you why I patronized all those places. Because I am sure you need to know.

I went to BSF  (Bible Study Fellowship) because it is what I do every Thursday. That was two extra trips outside right there, to place the handicapped parking cone, and to retrieve my orange buddy, The Cone.

I went to Hobby Lobby to check out their yarn selection the day before yesterday. They don’t have a ton, but they do have a fun fur that I quite adore. Considering that EVERYTHING at the Hobby Lobby is usually 50% off, I find it ironic that I have never seen much yarn even on sale. This is just wrong. I decided to go home that day and use my handy internet skillz to see if I could find a Hobby Lobby coo-pin. I see other customers with coo-pins, there must be a coo-pin. I GOT myself a coo-pin. So I went back to purchase the adorable fun fur.

I did not stray over to Homegoods, as I had been there the day before, looking for  pasta maker for Honey. We saw lots while we were in Florida. At Ross, TJ Maxx, Homegoods, and Marshalls. Honey didn’t want  to buy one of the many we saw in Florida because they were too heavy. The airlines and all. I told him last night that he may live to regret that hasty decision. I am not finding a pasta maker up here in The Mitten.

Cross over to Marshalls to return the two shirts that I bought for The Boy on the weekend. Not what he had in mind. Because I had also been there the day before, doing a chai run, I did not stay. I then made the poor decision to skip Michael’s. Because I had been there the day before as well. Buying more yarn. Because I cannot stop buying yarn to knit up into delicious scarves!

Went down the road to the Office Maxx to return the calendar that I had bought for myself , to record all of our doctors appointments and my lunch dates, because it was way too big for the inside of my cupboard where I hang it. What was I thinking?

Off to JoAnne’s, because they will take my Michael’s 40% off coo-pin. I have no JoAnn’s coo-pin. Honey, The Coo-pin Deliverer, did not bring me a JoAnne’s coo-pin this week. How can this be?  They have a kind of yarn essential to my delicious yarn making, that is not offered at Michael’s. So I took advantage of that opportunity. They also had other skiens that called to me with more possible combinations. Oh, I am obsessed.

Over to Meijers to buy my family food. They have been complaining lately. They can get so fixated on minor things.

Because I was so completely unsatisfied with Meijers selection of Clementine Cuties, and because I forgot the low carb wraps that The Boy has been asking for, I zipped over to Krogers. They did not disappoint.

I then went home to eat lunch and change out of my BSF heels.

But The Ab-Cat had other ideas. She wanted me to go with her to the library. There were several movies on the top shelf  that she needed for her viewing pleasure. It needs to be asked. What were those library people thinking? Even Shaq here had to reach! I just can’t see your average student or housewife being able to stretch up there. For Pete’s sake!

I was more than happy to go with her, because I had my own favor ready and waiting. She needed to go to Michael’s with me and use my other coo-pin! You know how  Michael’s gives you another 40% off coo-pin with your receipt? It’s like waving a brown paper bag with a bottle in it in front of a wino. They know we can’t resist. They just suck you in with that additional 40% off. And I belly right up to that bar. So off we went to buy a few more loaves of not on sale yarn.

I am wearing myself out remembering all this.

In addition, I could not fall asleep last night, and I was up at 4:30. I’m pretty sure I will be feeling nappish this afternoon. Have a fun Friday, and I hope your face doesn’t freeze and your hair stays on your head.

Christmas 1996. Five year old Boy, two year old Mousey and seven year old Ab-Cat.

Be still my Mama’s heart. I miss my litter of kittens.

But, I quite adore the cats they have become.

I don’t really have anything to tell you Guys. Nothing noteworthy.

But I have been thinking about some random phrases I have heard floating around our house lately.

I’m going to punch you in the tooth. - From The Office

I’m going to kick you in the beak. -From some comedy show The Boy watched.

I’m going to bite you in the wrist. - Honey

What is going on here?

They all make me laugh.

I believe I mentioned that we watched “Elf” last weekend. So those quotes have been floating around as well. Last night, The Ab-Cat asked me the four food groups. That was easy. Candy, candy canes, candy corn and maple syrup. I think I have told each of the kids “I saw a dog today”. And Honey and I have been singing to each other in a very high voice “I love you, I love you, I love you Dad”. Whenever any of us hear the word Santa, any one of us will randomly squeal, “Santa? I KNOW him”.

Have a Humorous Thursday. It’s the best kind to have.

This has been a favorite part of Christmas for our kids since 1993 or 1994. I’m not quite sure. I was thinking ‘94, but I would have had a 5 year old, a 3 year old, and a 4 month old that year, and it seems unlikely that I would have had much time to sit down and sew anything. That was also the year that The Boy was hospitalized around Christmastime with sepsis. So maybe I made it in ’93, the year  before Mousey was born. I KNOW it was not 1995.  Who cares. I made it for the kids.

I copied the idea from my friend Vickie. She said her 2 little boys had loved it as well. They are both married now. One is a father. We are getting old.

I made mine much bigger than hers, because I had one more child, and I couldn’t imagine putting 3 things in a tiny little pocket. If I were making it again today, knowing what I  know now, I would make the pockets even bigger. It is hard to find little bitty things sometimes.

In previous years, I have put in toothbrushes, pencils, tattoos, little characters, cars and trains for The Boy, jewelry and little girly doodads for The Girls, candy, quarters, bubble gum, stickers, bookmarks.

As they became older, it become a little more difficult. There were batteries, pens, tape, staples, scissors, markers, makeup, rolled dollar bills, Pokeman cards, Harry Potter cards, chap sticks, hand cream, and a contact lens case.

Even though they are getting even older, they are still looking around for the Christmas calendar on December 1st. Here is this year’s edition.

As you can see, I was in my puff paint phase. This lasted for several years, until no one needed anymore holiday sweatshirts, t-shirts, or tote bags. This is the last surviving remnant.

As usual, I spent quite a bit of time at Target, looking for little things.

Candy canes, repeated 3 times, Trident gum, lint rollers (with 3 cats, these will never go to waste!), Crystal Light Raspberry Lemonade for water bottles times 3, Nivea Lip Balm, espresso chocolate covered pretzels for The Boy and Mouse with a Snickers for Ab-Cat times 4, St. Ives Face Scrub, Slim Jims times 3, peppermint blo pops times 2, BreathSaver mints,

Clean and Clear Morning Burst face wash, Sharpie markers, mechanical pencils, and Dial Hand Sanitizer.

I have loved doing this every year for the kids. It was such a joy to see how excited they were when they were little. To hear them asking each other, what did you get in the calendar? I miss those little cotton headed ninny muggins! That is from “Elf”, for the benefit of the majority of my readers!

I will definitely try to make  Christmas Calendars for our GrandKids. And I will hope they love them as much as their parents did!

Thanks for the great idea, Vickie!

Scenes from Halloween ‘01.

A groovy, peace and love, Ab-Cat. Dumping the candy bucket. Let the trading begin! I SO remember doing that with Beeve. We were all about the gum. My Mother was all about the candy bars.

Miss Mouse was her old standby. A cat. I think her collar said Frisky. The Boy was a doctor. But he couldn’t just be a regular doctor. That would be boring.

He was Dr. Zaius from The Planet of the Apes. Ah, those were the days!

The Boy has been busy. Busy getting into accidents. In the last 2 weeks, he is 2 for 2.

Before I tell you about the accidents, I have to tell you about the ticket.

He got a ticket after he had been driving for about 3 weeks. It was for turning left on a yellow light. He says yellow, the police officer said red. He was sick about this. Seriously, he was in distress. I know how he feels. That is a bad feeling when you are pulled over.

I would be more upset about this, but to be honest, the police in our town have just gone hog wild. They have a new little racket. They like to give a ticket with points for a minor infraction so you can go before the judge and have the points removed if you will pay a higher fine. Honey and I have both gotten tickets in the last 3 years for this. Like I told the judge, it’s a judgement call for me to make if I feel like I can slam on my brakes, so I can catch  the yellow light. In that split second, you weigh your options. Sometimes, especially if it is raining, or in Michigan, snowing, or you have someone thisclose on your tail, the better choice is to go. Plus, do all of my passengers need to grab for the safety bars, just so I can stop, when I could have made it through with no problem? Most of the lights in our town have left turn signals anyway.

All of this would not be nearly so annoying if we did not live in a town that has  people flagrantly turning left on RED lights as a matter of course. They just keep on comin’. Or speeding, or not paying attention because they are talking on the rackin’ sackin’ phone! Go get those guys!

The boy now has a fear of the yellow lights. Being the conscientious driver that he is, he now stops at ALL yellow lights, if it is in his power to do so. But the woman behind him last week was not privy to his history. When the light turned yellow, he stopped. She accelerated, and drove right up into his truck. She broke his bloody truck!

We were so thankful  that The Boy and LMNOP were not seriously hurt. They had sore necks and really bad headaches, but were fine. The Boy was going on a retreat with his jr. high youth group boys that night. It was a long weekend for him! Those jr. highers like to hang from him like baby possums.

It doesn’t look as broken in the picture as it really is. It looks like a giant stepped into the truck bed and bent it.

They want to throw it away. That is probably for the best, it has over 160,000 miles on it, needs a new exhaust, every warning light is permanently on, door locks and windows are haphazard. After he got home, the truck bed door fell off.

The woman who hit him was really sorry. She said that she thought he was going to go through.  She was not paying close attention.The Boy said she was so rattled that he gave her a hug.

Honey and I both agreed with The Boy that we were GLAD that it wasn’t his fault. That made it a little bit better.

Last Sunday, The Boy was on his way to church with his friend, Tiger BatBoy. In Tiger BatBoy’s car. Tiger BatBoy was going about 45 through a yellow light when a car turned left, right in front of him. WHAT UP WITH THAT?????

Now Tiger BatBoy’s bloody car is broken.

They both have sore chests where the seat belts caught them. The airbags didn’t go off.

Honey and The Boy have been spending quite a bit of time looking to replace the bloody truck. They are sharing Honey’s Grandpa Gray Taurus. I am back in the big high top conversion van, which I quite like. Comfy leather seats, good cd player, temperature on the rear view mirror, chapstick, kleenex.  Honey’s car lacks certain amenities.

All of this is inconvenience.  A big, fat, costly inconvienience. A little treat we like to call Michigan No Fault Auto Insurance. 

We are most thankful to the Lord for the safety he provided to The Boy, LMNOP and Tiger BatBoy. We know how quickly your life can change in a vehicle. We are grateful for the hedge of protection.

This was Once Upon A Time when we used to carve pumpkins. The last couple of years, they just sat out on the porch looking natural. Then I would throw them out into the field as a special treat for our pets, the groundhogs. Or whistlepigs, as I learned from Capri Patt last week. I am an absorbant sponge of information.

This was the year of Harry Potter for The Ab-Cat. She went as Hermoine herself . Her love for all things Harry was at its highest point that year, although she remained a Potter-head for several more. My best guess was she was in 7th grade.

I’m not sure about the look The Boy was going for this year, but he had been all about the knives and swords since he was about 3. He was probably Albert Einstein that year. He was also in an Albert Einstein phase for quite a while. If my best guess was correct above, He was in the 5th grade.

No surprise here, Our Mousey was a kitty-cat for the majority of her Halloween outings. Actually, when she was 2 and 3 and 4, she probably had her cat costume on 4 or 5 times a week. Everwhere she went. Yes, that was us at Meijers. This is 2nd grade Mouselina.

I heart these Precious Pumpkins!

 Hey Guy’s! Guess What? The NutHatch Dictionary is up and running! There are only a few words and phrases in it so far, but I will be sure to alert you when I add more to it. I know, you are on the very edges of your seats!

Look over there on the left, under pages, and BAMBO! there it is!

The Boy has offered to contribute the first  phrase in a post. Bless his little pea pickin’heart. You all have a great Thursday!

After many years, my mother has switched the duties of the parent and the son around. The norm is that the parent will tuck  the child in bed at night. That’s the way we always did it. Since  my mom now goes to bed with the pumpkins, and I am such a night owl, I usually tuck her in, or come in her room for some reason after she has gone to bed. I come in her room to the sight of her reading, watching right wing news stations, or the Discovery Health Channel, and sometimes, if  she’s in a crazy mood, she will watch animal cop shows.

The phrase I am contributing is, “Pull the door to”.

Now, from the look of it, it makes no sense, but from the beginning of time I have known what to do and exactly what it means. One night, I picked up on the nonsensical nature of the  Hatch phrase, and questioned my mother. Her response was “I’ve just always heard it” which is another typical response to the questioning of our unusual vocabulary. 

Now the definition of this phrase is, swing the door all the way to the frame without actually shutting it, so the kitty’s can get out. This is because if a kitty gets locked in her room, which she always has all three in her room at night, and that kitty has some business to take care of  elsewhere, it will howl incessantly to get out, waking my dear, sweet, mother. To respond to my mothers request, I would sarcastically say, “Pull the door to where?”

After awhile, I stopped questioning my mother’s requests and did my duty.

Sincerely, The Boy

Since our kids won’t allow photographs on the first day of school anymore, I have to go pawing through my pictures while singing “Memories” to myself.

Here are the precious little pumpkins, all dressed in their finery, and thrilled  to have some place to go! Remember that? Kindergarten, when children could not wait  to get to school!

First up we have Darling Ab-Cat in 1994. I coerced the Dr. to induce my labor with Mousey so I could be home 2 days later to take Abby to her first day of kindergarten. I was not missing that once in a life time experience  because of some 10 day overdue child ! Sheesh,  people who have cesareans PICK the day they want to give birth! But they expected me to wait for the entire 14 days before they forced  that wee mouse out? There is no justice in the world.

Who is not AT ALL impressed with their cute self? Ah, that one, she was a poser.

The Boy was not quite sure what was going on. But he wanted to be in the picture. He was not happy when he discovered his best friend in the world was gone every single morning. Her backpack was The Little Mermaid, as were a great many of her belongings at that time. It would have been even cuter had it been turned around.

Here she is in first grade, 1995. We never made that turned the wrong way backpack mistake again. Hello Pocahontas!

1995, now it’s HIS turn! While he did not like his best friend being gone all day, he sure was excited to go do whatever it was she was doing! I am quite positive he had Batman and Robin on his backpack.

1998, There’s our Baby Girl! She was SO ready! She had been hauled all over that school by now, she could not WAIT to get over there and do some learning! She had herself a Pikachu backpack, and Girlfriend already knew her way around the building! She had the same teacher that the other two had. She hung that pack up on the peg and said “see ya”.

It’s only fitting to have another one of The Boy with his other sister. Cause that’s what he is, the sweet middle of a sister sandwich.

Thanks for going Way Back with me, I know I enjoyed myself!