notes from Jules

Julianna's class at school had to write letters to Santa.  This was hers:

Dear Santa,

My name is Julianna and I am six years old. Thank you for giving me a DS last year. Can you please bring me a kitten that looks like my last cat? He had blonde fur and green eyes but this time I want a girl. I am going to leave you cookies and carrots for the reindeer.

Love,
Julianna

Do-able, I think.  Husband disagrees.


Also, here's her school picture from this year.  It's probably the best yet.

stories

I was taking Josh's pajammas off to get ready for school and amidst all the whining and complaining and dilly-dallying he exclaimed, "I don't like it when the cold gets on my pee-pee!"

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Julianna's teacher wrote a post-it note and put it on a book she placed on Julianna's desk.  On the sticky note she'd written, "I checked this book out under my name so please make sure you give it back to me when you're finished."

Julianna took it back up to the teacher's desk and put the sticky note there.  On it she'd written, "OK."

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While we were trick-or-treating Joshua must have told us a thousand times that "Halloween is my favorite!"

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Riding in the car with Nanna one day:
Nanna said something about not being able to remember because she was old or something like that ad Josh said, "My daddy is old too because he has brown stuff around his private parts."

And that's how you know you're old. Apparently.

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Coming out of church one afternoon Josh said excitedly after listening to our conversation with Jules, "You learned about God too?!"

Unbelievable!

happy Saturday

It has been the absolute best day.

It started with an awesome 13.5 mile run with my running group.  I missed them severely while in Mexico and was reminded this morning how much of a difference it makes to have a buddy to run with.

As we were getting ready to drop the kids off in childcare Julianna told me that running seems to be "working out well for you, Mom."  When I asked what she meant she said, "Well, I'm not trying to be mean, but you look much thinner."

Made. My. Day.

Then after a lazy afternoon we headed to the mall for some leisurely shopping where a kind man told me I resembled Jennifer Aniston.

After that we went to my most favorite Mexican restaurant for some delicious food (and to make up some of the thousand plus calories I earned this morning) [and yes, I am indeed the girl who can eat real Mexican food one week and American Mexican food the next and still call it delicious].

In the car on the way home just now Josh said, "Dad, how did I get in Courtney's belly when I was a baby?"  I got such a chuckle waiting for that highly anticipated answer.

Now we're having family movie night and life is just good.

I hope your weekend is just as splendid.

a Pinypon party + there's only 6 weeks 'til Christmas

We got these Pinypon dolls in the mail one afternoon and Julianna was so excited to get them open.  I'd never even heard of them but apparently she had.... so naturally I made her teach me how to pronounce it first. [It's like penny-pahn in case you were wondering about such things.]

Anyway, we gathered round some friends and cousins to play and they really enjoyed it.  We had kids ranging in age from 2 to 12 and you can tell they all had fun checking the goods out, especially the caravan.  It comes with a Pinypon doll itself and is basically like an RV that opens out with house inside.

Each doll has an accessory or two that goes with them like a purse or dress that you can change around.  They also have two faces so you can put their hair on backwards and they'll have a different facial expression.

We also received a Nenuco baby doll to play with and Julianna was amazed that it could drink and wet it's own diaper.

Even Josh liked the little Pinypon dolls and surfing them across the floor.

We had a great time trying out these new toys.  I was just asking the other day for gift ideas for younger children and I could totally see getting a few of these for our friends because they do encourage imaginative play and I think these would be pretty fun gifts.

Thanks, Pinypon and MommyParties for letting us host this fun little event!

Disclosure: I was not compensated to write this blog post but I did receive several toys, coupons, and a couple of extra toys to give away at the party.  The opinions expressed above are as always, my own.

the erotic novel trend

As you may remember, I'm on an anniversary trip with my husband of ten years and I just finished reading a couple of the smuttiest of all romance books I've ever read.  The timing of this BlogHer Book Club selection was decent for me, but that's about all the decency there is with Reflected in You by Sylvia Day. 

Actually, I wondered why I made the cut for reviewing this book when I seemed to have missed so many of the other recent ones.  Is it because no one wanted to review an erotic novel?  Was it coincidence and I just beat everyone to the punch this time?  Either way, the story made a good paperback to take on vacation and if you can get past the fact that the starring couple is unmarried, hardly know each other, and have nothing more to their relationship than a very steamy sex life then maybe you'd like to pick up a copy.  I wouldn't recommend it for much other than a tenth anniversary travel book though it is topping the charts this week... so maybe the Fifty Shades knockoff is impressing others a little more than me.

Regardless, I have a copy of the first book in the series Bared to You to send to anyone interested.  Please leave a comment if you'd like to give it a try.  I'll mail it out sometime next week.

If you've read either (or both) of the first two books in the Crossfire Series please join me in the book club discussion here.

This is a paid review for BlogHer Book Club but the opinions expressed are my own.

on instagram lately + giveaway winner

This past weekend one of my dear friends from college got married in West Jefferson, NC.  It was great to see everyone that I hadn't seen in such a while and it was a beautiful wedding.  The girls below were my college roommates.

This picture is not from Instagram but I had to include it. A friend posted it to Facebook yesterday and it's a picture of all of the sorority sisters that were in attendance at the wedding.

Last week was spirit week at my school and Friday was an all out Pink Out for Breast Cancer.  Ninety eight percent of the school wore pink and then students and teachers were invited to donate and sign the banner.  I've known three women who've fought breast cancer and you better believe I wrote their names up there. Karen Wood, Malika Fleak, and Karen Slonecker you deserve to be honored!

The weather here last week was absolutely gorgeous and Josh and I got to spend a bit of time playing outside.  He had a blast playing in the leaves. Can you find him in the picture below?

He did get irritated with me for trying to take so many pictures though!

He was too busy raking leaves to stop for a posed picture!

Julianna got this sweet certificate at school last week.  It says, "in recognition of exemplary behavior and valuable services rendered to Union Cross Elementary."  Very proud of my little stinker!

Also, my sister challenged me to photograph something I'm thankful for each day in November.  We decided to use the hashtag #thankful30 and post them to Instagram.  Join the fun if you like!  Here's my post for today.

Today I am thankful for sweet notes from my students.

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Finally, I believe I owe you a giveaway winner!  The random number generator chose commenter number 2. Amy Ellen, if you'll send me your address [courtney dot tucker at gmail dot com] I'll pass it along to get you your Safeskin Kids Antibacterial Gel.

Have a good Friday everyone!