Both kids have a great love for our School House Rocks DVDs. We put those suckers on shuffle and the kids are just mesmerized by the songs and cartoons. In fact, Jayne excelled in her America knowledge on the day they covered the States in Pre-K. Thank you School House Rocks!

Lately Wesley has also started requesting we play the DVD for him. He calls it “Chuckin Juckin.”

Do you know which cartoon he is referring too?

That’s right. Conjunction Junction. Considering it is animated with trains, it is no wonder that Wesley prefers it.

The problem comes in when he continues singing the song. Remember it?

Conjunction Junction, what’s your function?

Well, if in Wesley-speak the word “conjunction” equals “chuckin,” and “junction” is equal to “juckin,” can you do the math and figure out how he pronounces “function?”

Yeah. This is going nowhere good. Thank you, School House Rocks.

Tonight I put on The Nutcracker Suite and set about whipping up a recipe for cookies I’ve been wanting to make for ages. The recipe is for chocolate orange cookies. Naturally I scrapped the orange and made them chocolate almond cookies instead. I am so predictable.

I donned my Christmas apron, and although it is safe to assume it has been a year since I’ve worn it, it is probably more accurate to say it’s been many years since I’ve worn it. It has only recently occurred to me that wearing aprons while cooking might prevent some of the stains on my clothing. I’m sure you’ve heard me brag on my entirely stained wardrobe. Yeah, aprons could prevent flying olive oil from staining a shirt. What a concept, eh?

But the purpose of this tale is not to remind you that I still, and most likely will forever, fall into the category of “cute but slow.” Alas no. The purpose of this tale is to tell you that as I reached down into the pocket of the aforementioned formerly neglected Christmas apron and pulled out a wadded up, used Kleenex I realized that despite being somewhat slow on the uptake, I have truly become my mother.

Not to worry, it is a very cool place to be. Love you, Nana!

As an ice storm plows through the Midwest, we here in Nash-vegas have been enjoying tolerating very unseasonable weather. Yesterday the kids were playing in the yard without a jacket. And today the high is 75. I’m feeling the need to change into capri pants and sandals.

What gives, December?

Yesterday the kids “raked” the leaves. Then they went berserk in them. The dog too went berserk, and I took tons of photos. Typically I whittle my photo selections down to a select few to represent an event. Not this time. Today I’m posting all the good ones to tell the story of the day. So after clicking for more you’ll see a ba-zillion photos.

Also, Ripley and I have teamed us as co-narrators on this post, because he was very active during this day as well. That and he hasn’t been around in a while. So the comments will be from me or Rip, like this:

M: These are comments from me. M is for Mom… not for “Me.”
R: Woof. Whatever… let’s get going, shall we?
M: Alrighty then. You heard the Poodle… (more…)