That was Ben then. . .

This is Ben now. . .
He did it snowboarding on Thursday. It was a complete dislocation of his right shoulder. The X-rays make my stomach turn and the story of it being jammed back in makes me light-headed.
The poor guy has a shiny-bright, brand-new sandblaster, compressor, and 200 pounds of sand in the garage waiting to be used for their first time. But no arms to use it.
The doctors say 6 weeks, Ben's thinking more like 4 or 5 days. . . or maybe this afternoon.
I realize it is basically impossible to understand what you are looking at, but let me just say that the big white blob in the middle of the X-ray should be all the way up underneath the white line at the top. Yah, ouch.
POST SCRIPT: There has been some debate if that first picture is really Ben or some stock photo. To clear the record, yes that is Ben. Honest, I promise.

A Future in the FBI

We went to our church Christmas Breakfast last week. And what do you know?? Santa came for a visit! Of course there is a kid-stampede to get in line. Téa is in line, surrounded by other kids, and loudly announces,
"I don't know if I feel comfortable sitting on some strange old man's lap pretending to be Santa."
Oh. Ok. Well you can't fight her on that. But she kept going on and on. I finally had one mom asking me to get my kid to zip-it.
She came bounding off the stage excited because apparently he was the real Santa. No doubt about it.
But she later withdrew her claim, stating that
A) He had bad breath, and that
B) the REAL Santa only eats mints. and
C) not only does he eat only mints, but specifically minty cereal, so
D) it would be impossible for him to have bad breath at a Christmas breakfast.
Therefore, it couldn't have been the real Santa.

Avery, on the other hand, was just happy to be there.

Ben made these glasses and I love them, but there is just something about the way Justin photographed it that makes me NEED the glass and NEED some Orange Fanta. When was the last time you needed Orange Fanta?

Countdown to Christmas

Ready or not, it's coming. This is the first year Ben and I have felt "under the gun." For the past four years it has always been "I want the pink Fairytopia Barbie for Christmas. Oh - and some Cheetos." Ben and I would go out on the 23rd and knock it out in 2 hours. We didn't get what the big deal was. Oh no. No No. Not this year. Our precious little 6-year-old has sung a different tune this year. It was more like "Santa's bringing me a Nintendo DS, a pink Gameboy, and an iPod." Who have you been hanging out with little girl? What about the new Fairytopia doll? It comes in purple this year! Or that cute little tea set? huh? Huh? HUH?
Yah, no. Santa better be quick on his fat little feet, and clever.
Yes, we finally got a tree, and no, we did not drag one in from the yard this year. And had we done so, Aves would be eager to clean up the mess.



Over breakfast, Avery went into great detail of how her friend was mean to her baby brother and how she "won't do that to my new baby." (It's true, I'm pregnant.)
I freaked, wondering how we could have eaten so many oranges in one day. I went to turn out the lights, and found this by the front door. Don't ask. I don't have an answer.
It was a little quiet Saturday morning, I came downstairs and found this. Better than breakfast in bed. . .

A visit to my brother's

I visited Jake's house for the first time this weekend. This was taken in his room.

So in Love

As soon as I told Avery this was her first ornament from the year she was born, it was love. I'm in love.

Merry Christmas to me!!

Saturday morning Ben told me he had a surprise for me. It was killing me. We went hours of me not knowing what it was. At 2pm there was a knock at the door and before I could get around the corner the girls were screaming "It's Jamin and Kimra!!!!!" Oh wow, instant tears. I lost it. They moved away to St. Louis a year and a half ago and we haven't seen them since. We love love love them and we have been broken since they "left us."
Then Darren shows up and then Mitch and Katie too. I thought it was Christmas morning. Everyone knew The Barbers were coming, except me. It was a great surprise. We all went to lunch together and then the Barbers stayed with us the rest of the day. They even came with us to pick out a Christmas tree.

Tay and Avery got turns with the camera.
It was late when they left and Avery got dressed "warm" to go outside and say goodbye.

Listen up

I need your email address. If you are reading this, and you have my email address, well . . .I need yours. We reformatted my computer like 2 months ago and I lost all of my addresses. So - this is my plea for your info.

(And here are a few Halloween-time photos that decided to upload 5 weeks after-the-fact. Others are still being stubborn.)