That ain't no candy coated shell...

How do you determine how much love you have for someone?

How does one express the depth of your emotion for another person?

What lengths will you go to prove your devotion?

She bounces in the door from school.

She smiles.

She has twinkly eyes.

She has a surprise for you.

She gently hands them to you from her sticky 6 year old fingers.

She kept them carefully in her pocket all day.

She only showed them to three friends. (only two friends held them).

She only dropped one of them on the cafeteria floor.

She says, " I remember they are your favorite".

She watches your face expentantly.

She waits.

You ignore the 'extra coating'.

You hesitantly put the little 'morsels' in your mouth and make "mmm" sounds.
You hug her and say thank you.

She smiles.

She has sparkly eyes.

She skips away.

She knows you love her.

You know she loves you.

You find the Listerine...quickly.

Disposable Zombie Mom

This was me over the weekend.

Not so pretty eh?

I was in bed all weekend.

I had Mastitis, a killer head cold

and a slight touch of the

Boo Hoos.

Not a great combo.

I was pretty much out from

Friday night to Sunday.

How does a family survive

without Mom?

They have a dad like him.

Yeah. He pretty much took over.

Not only did he get them all to their soccer games,

he got them there early. Yes, I said it,

the Dibbles arrived somewhere early.

He could have made cereal but

he made ham sandwiches.

He could have put on a movie

but he played games.
He only woke me up to feed the baby.

They made Quesadillas and Popcorn.
All children were put to bed happy.

Sunday morning he went to his meetings and choir

and came home and got everyone ready.

2 boys bathed...check.

3 girls hair done....check.

(he even straightened their hair)

Off to church.

They come home happy and hungry.

I say, "Oh, just do Macaroni and Cheese or

Ramen Noodles or cereal".

Oh no, not my Super daddy man.

He comes up with this.

You're probably thinking.....

What a great dad, husband, person, superhero guy.

You are right.

But I'm thinking.....

Oh crap!! Now they all know for sure that

they don't need me.

Hopefully he'll keep me around

for this part.

I'm feeling a little better today.

I'm still not quite myself.

Case in point...

I watched 'Star Wars' by myself.

Yeah, Greg wasn't even there.

Okay, 2 things about Star Wars...

1. I never realized how whiney Luke is.

2. Chewbaca and R2D2 are my favorite characters.

What does that say about me that I can't understand a

thing that my 2 favorite characters say?

I'll be better tomorrow.

I hope.

Here's to my Rockstar husband

and to modern medicine.

p.s. I hate fruit flies more than anything.

Junk Drawer Imagination

So the kids spent some time over at

Poppy's house a while back.

They came home thrilled about all the

work they did helping Poppy clean out his junk drawers.

They were so excited to share with me all of the

amazing new treasures that Poppy let them keep.

Very useful things like this never been used lotion cap.

And this key ring decoration that

I think I had on my first keyring at 16 years old.

You can clearly see that it is in pristine condition

and worth keeping.

And of course, the very rare

"rubber bottom of a cane or walker thingy".

All very useful and important things, no?

I rolled my eyes and giggled at my cute dad.

I saw useless, nothingness.

My clever children saw this.

They saw a great little game to play.

The girls were overjoyed at Ethan's reaction to the

mini baseball game.

They spent hours (okay, 25 minutes)

throwing the lotion cap ball,

watching Ethan (amazingly) hit it with the Munchkin bat,

while trying desperately to catch it in the

"rubber, bottom of a cane or walker thingy" glove.

I have stepped on the "ball" many times,

I've found the "bat" in the utensil drawer

and I've watched my baby shove the "glove" in his mouth.

(I can't think about that one too much without throwing up a little)

I have wanted to throw this preemie pastime in the garbage

on several occasions. I just can't quite do it.

They're just too sweet a reminder of the

easiness of childhood.

Plus it's going to make Christmas shopping a breeze.

Now I just have to figure out how to wrap the junk drawer.

Dear Fall,

Took a drive through the mountains.

Please accept my deepest and

most sincere apologies.

You are lovely.

Love,

Mindy.

p.s. Could you please stay around

a little longer this year?

I like you, but I don't like your

ugly step-sister...winter.