No Words Today

First, Happy Birthday to Josh. The big 26! Mara woke him up this morning with a, "Happy Birthday Dad! Old Man!" That was cute.

That's it for today. My grandma just passed away, and I'm not really feeling super bloggy tonight. So....I'll be back tomorrow, hopefully a little brighter.

Healing Nicely

So the computer is back and healing quite nicely. There was a rough patch there for a while, but Josh restored it...we're good to go.

I thought I'd take a quick minute to discuss something I find interesting. I have noticed that a lot of people call their children by odd, nonsensical names that have nothing to do with their actual name. I read a post recently about how one child got her "additional" name, and I thought I'd explain my child's. Although I normally refer to her as Mara here, we actually rarely call her that. Generally the only time we use her actual name is if she's in trouble or if we're referring to her in conversation to someone.

When she was a couple weeks old, I loved how her little legs were finally starting to get some chub. She had lost weight for 3 weeks, so it took her a little while to work her way back up to the nearly 9 pounder she was when she was born. I thought her new little chunky legs were so cute. In fact, they were chunky and cutesie. Chunky + Cutesie= Chuky (pronounced chew-key). Of course, there are many nicknames the girl has: "Chuky" "Chuks" "The Chukster" "Lovey" "The Snuggler". But she even refers to herself as Chuky. She'll look in the mirror and say, "There's Chuky. Right there." Or say that Nicole is Chuky's mommy. Of course, she knows her name is Mara, and she also refers to herself as Mara. But she's cooperated with us nicely by adapting to the many names we call her.

So does anyone else call their kids something different, nonsensical, or strange? Chuky's mommy wants to know.

Having major issues

I think my computer is about to explode. That, or I'm about to explode at my computer. One of the two. It won't let me attach anything to an email; it won't let me copy or paste anything, and it won't let me delete. So....I'm going to go to bed before I put this computer to bed for good. Sorry, but I'll be back tomorrow. Promise.

My Kid is Quick...

So Mara is a kid who knows everyone, and if she doesn't know you yet, she'll meet you.....and remember you! Mara is one of those people who only needs to learn a person's name once, and she remember you months later. (Months for a nearly two year old can seriously mean about 1/4 of her life, you know?) She knows all the kids in her class at school (day care)....and in the 2 classes across the hall and the one next door. That's like 40 kids.

Anyway, today she came running into our room with one of her books that had a picture of a Mini-Cooper in it. She pointed to it and here's what happened:

Mara: "Dad, look, a mini-cooper!"
Dad: "Yes, that's a mini-cooper."
Mara: "It's a Lloyd car!"
Dad: "A Lloyd car?"
Mara: "Yeah!!"

Of course it's a Lloyd car. Her cousin Lloyd (who she last saw in early October--and before that last Christmas) has a younger brother named Cooper. So, of course that makes sense. My kid is Quick!

O, the Weather Outside is Frightful

Well, we don't have a fireplace in our home, but today would be a good day for one. We got so much snow yesterday and last night! In fact, we had so much snow, that they cancelled church yesterday morning for this afternoon! It's so great. While the snow started yesterday morning, I made a quick run to Meijer with Mara (I loathe that store, by the way, but that's another story) because I was in need of groceries and a couple of non-grocery items. I definitely was not going to 2 different stores with a nearly 2 year old in snow storm. So we were off to Meijer.

In the short hour that we were there, I was nearly hit by a tractor (Yes, they had an actual tractor doing their snow removal), got bonked on the head by a shovel, and walked out with three bruises up and down my shins from hitting the shovel we were buying that didn't fit below our cart very well. It was an adventure....a terrible adventure.

Today should be fun, though. We're planning on building a snow man. On another note, though, Big Don passed away on Thursday afternoon. His viewing is today, and the funeral is tomorrow. I'm not sure how that will go over today with all the snow. We'll see if we are even able to make it out of our neighborhood.

So Busy

So have you ever been so busy, you don't really know where you're supposed to begin because no matter where you begin, anything will seem like you're wasting time because there's so much to do? Okay, did that make any sense? Well, that's how I'm feeling right now. Remember that whole, "feeling all on top of things" stuff? Well, yeah, it's a good thing I got ahead early because, man, I'm feeling behind now.

This weekend will be so busy. I need to wrap gifts, get the last 2 gifts on the list of things to get, set up binders for the ward Christmas program at church (for next Sunday), put together the programs, teach Zumba, clean the house, etc..... I'm just feeling a bit overwhelmed right now.

On another note, I'm reading a really good book right now. It's called A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Housseini, the author of Kite Runner, which I actually haven't read yet. Maybe that should be my next. Anyway, it's really good, so of course I have to finish that this weekend, too. It's really good, and is about the lives of 2 Afghan women over the course of the last 45 years. It draws on actual political movements, the differences in their lives and childhoods. It's actually really informative; although it is fiction.

Well, I should probably go do something productive now, since I've been complaining and all....

She fell on my head

So I just fell asleep trying to put Mara to bed when suddenly, out of nowhere, she rolled off the bed and literally fell on my head. 'Nuff said.