Smurfland Lowdown

THURSDAY: We had a fantastic Thanksgiving. Kids were finally feeling better. Fevers were gone. I was feeling particularly nostalgic and grateful this year. We are blessed. I'm so grateful for the health of my children. One of my husband's employees has a 3 year old daughter recently diagnosed with leukemia and she is struggling through the worst of her treatment right now. How did we get so lucky?

I'm enormously grateful that my husband has a relatively stable job (vigorously knocking on wood as that could no doubt change at any given moment). People all around us are losing jobs right and left. We are watching friends, neighbors, and family hanging on to their jobs and homes by a thread. There are no less than a dozen (possibly 2 dozen) homes in foreclosure in my subdivision alone. I believe the morale in MI is probably twice as grim as that in the rest of the US. How did we get so lucky?

I'm incredibly grateful for all my family and friends and their love and support. So many people have so few to turn to. How did we get so lucky?

I feel like I could be tempting fate by asking this...so I'll shut up now.


Our Thanksgiving was spent at my Aunt and Uncle's home with the rest of my family....

This was only half of the food....the rest was put out shortly after I took this photo...

yummmm........

salute.....

After dinner my cousin was showing one of the kids how to make an origami bird out of a dollar bill. And the kids all thought that was the coolest and they all had to have one. Before long my cousin, my mom, and my Aunt had an origami procession going. Until we ran out of dollar bills.

If you pull his tail his wings flap. You wish your family had this kind of talent! =)

Guess what happens when the wife takes the keys from the drunk husband and leaves drunk husband in the passenger seat in charge of holding the pumpkin pie......

FRIDAY: I woke up feel'n a little yucky. I went to the store. Ran a few errands. Came home to my gorgeous DD's excitement. "Mama...guess what.....(she smiles)"

She was so excited to tell me that while eating a cup cake her tooth fell out. In my mind I was thinking "the tooth fairy must write herself a note to remind her to stop here tonight." I don't know what's going on with the tooth fairy these days but I'm thinking she needs to be replaced. She can't seem to keep her stops straight and is constantly skipping right on over us. Leaving me to console my heart broken children. Is our home that difficult to see? Perhaps we should place a strobe light on our front lawn? I was silently pleading with the tooth fairy to please don't forget us tonight. Pretty please.

I made this tooth fairy pillow (pictured below) before I even had a daughter. I made one for my son (decorated as a boy in a cap)....and then made a girly one with the hope that I might one day have a daughter. I've waited 10 long years to pull this out. Isn't it cute?

The back of the pillow has a heart shaped pocket (to place the tooth in) and says on the front "Dear Toothfairy, Here is my tooth as you can see, you may have it for a small fee".





My daughter carefully tucked her tooth in the pocket before we tucked her in for the night. I silently pleaded with my husband to not let me forget. She got out of bed every 10 minutes to ask a question "Mama, do you think the toothfairy will see it? What if she can't see it? Maybe I should put it under my pillow instead? How will the toothfairy know I lost my tooth? Should I write her a note?" "No, honey, the toothfairy will see it. She sees everything. She's magic. She'll find it. Go to bed"



The toothfairy went to bed with a 102 degree fever that night. The toothfairy forgot again. The toothfairy sucks donkey balls.



My daughter woke up devastated. Fighting back the tears...."mama the toothfairy didn't come last night. She must not have seen my tooth."



My heart broke for her. Damned that toothfairy.



"I'm sorry honey, the tooth fairy must have had a busy night with lots of teeth to pick up. Why don't you write her a note and draw a picture with an arrow and we'll show her where your tooth is."



I took a shower and decided to run to the bank to pick up some of the "special gold coins" that tooth fairy always leaves when she forgets. Yes. This happens that often. I get out of the shower and daughter comes running from her bedroom all excited...."MAMA! The toothfairy DID come! I must not have seen it in there when I checked the first time. I must have put my hand in the pocket like this....instead of like this"

So it seems the toothfairy realized her error and came to our home post haste when I got in the shower.

Saturday: When I posted my to-do list last week I purposely left something off the list for fear of my mother reading it. I know she occasionally reads my blog. My step dad decided (somewhat spur of the moment) to throw her a surprise party. My mom has accepted a retirement package after 30 years with Chrysler and her official last day is Nov. 30th.....which also happens to be her 60th birthday. So, with only 2 weeks to do this we pulled it off. I was in charge of the cake and invitations. Grandma was in charge of the party favors. And my step dad was in charge of the hall and a corsage. Divide and concur.

The party was this afternoon and it went fabulously.

This gorgeous woman on the left is my mother. She's a saint. A hard working, dedicated, giving, loving, and caring saint. She is my hero and my best friend.

Happy Birthday Mom!

She had no idea it was coming. We told her we (my husband and I) wanted to take her out to dinner for her birthday. Because it was just us and not at any fancy restaurant she went for comfort and warmth as she chose her outfit. No make up. No hairspray. My step dad said "you're wearing that" as she was getting ready. "Well yeah, it's just mama and papa smurf, we're not going anywhere fancy." OOPS! Here she is trying to fix her hair as she walked in the door.

And here is a photo of my DD and her Great Grandma. I just love this photo.

And here's another photo that I love.....

That's a photo of me with my mom when I was 2 years old. Isn't my mom gorgeous?

And now, we're suppose to be at another surprise party for my cousin's 40th birthday. But, when we returned from party #1 the Motrin began to wear off and the fever returned. So we've bailed out of party #2.

And now I must sleep.

Nighty night.