Going Public...

This morning, Mandy had the kids setting up at the table after breakfast with a big roll of coloring pictures of the Christmassy variety and what a great idea that was! It kept both of them happy, having fun together without a bunch of fighting (and bossing on Maya's part) for quite a while.

But, as you know, all good things do eventually end and their interests wandered to other things more exciting around the house then -mainly that Miss Maya wanted to play "teacher" to Kurtis. A nice thought, yes but not necessarily one that HE agrees with for any length of time.

However, apparently the fun of coloring and then being a teacher overtook Maya a bit -so much so that she forgot to heed any warnings within her system and as a result, at one point, Mandy noticed that the seat of her pants had taken on a kind of pointy shape to it. Tell-tale sign that she should have made a trip to the bathroom, ya know! (Although she is doing much, much better in that department, she does still have the occasional accident.)

So anyway, Mandy told her to go back to the bathroom and change her drawers. She went, skipping and jumping for joy but a few minutes later, appeared here in the living room -naked from the waist down and holding in her hand her underwear, which was still heavily laden with its not so little lump, ya know. And she stood here, holding it up, shaking the underpants as she announced to us that "it won't come off!"

And Mandy and I both went into a bit of a panic mode then as we told her to get back in the bathroom with that, RIGHT NOW, and for heaven's sake, quit shaking it too!

Ah, the fun, games and yes, a bit of excitement of small children in the house, huh?

And that thought -the excitement of children, especially babies and yet again, especially NEW babies got me to thinking that any day now we should be receiving some birth announcements from at least three sets of parents-to-be!

I'm not quite sure right now when these blessed events are due but one, the daughter of my cousin, Ken, I do recall is due the end of December. This will be Erika's second child and will be a little sister for her and husband Wade's little girl, Tori, who is 2 and a half years old now and quite the lovely little girl too, she is!

Then, there is our friend Betsy and her husband, Dan who are expecting their third child. Mandy isn't sure but thinks this baby is due in either February or March. They have two of the cutest little boys ever -Jacob and Isaac -and Isaac was in the same preschool class last year as was Maya so she got to know him then. She also likes Isaac -a lot -too! Kind of is what one could say maybe her first boyfriend, huh?

And finally, there is my friend and former co-worker, Tammy and her husband Arun -way out in Texas some place, who are having their first child either in December or early January and I'm really looking forward to hearing from her that their baby has arrived, safe and sound. I haven't heard from her in a couple of months now but I know she is one busy young woman, working, trying to keep up with running a household and all that entails so I'm sure she's been kept very busy! At least, I sure do hope that's why I haven't heard from her in a while anyway.

I should try to get out my knitting needles or crochet hook perhaps and make some little gift for these anticipated blessed events. Although since Erika's late grandmother was pretty much my mentor of sorts in the knitting/crochet handcrafts arena, I'd be a bit worried about making something for her new baby cause my skills are no where near those her grandmother possessed! My Aunt Mary was an expert -and a whiz -at making all kinds of beautiful knitted items -especially so in the baby department! I had several hand-knitted sweaters that came from her nimble fingers for all three of my children and she had even knitted a fuzzy, furry boa scarf too for Maya before she became too ill to do any knitting anymore.

That's something though that I will have to give a lot of thought as well as special effort to if indeed I do try my hand at making some baby gifts in the near future.

It's snowing here now today -not a heavy, wet snow but rather the fine snow. I'm not a huge fan of snow because I hate when the roads get all slicked over from it but I do love to be able to be in my house, all warm and cozy and watch how pretty it is to see the snow falling and slowly accumulating too.

My son-in-law is enjoying the snowfall this afternoon now and he and his older son, Shane, have taken to the woods in hopes of bagging a nice deer today. And I'm hoping they do get one too because all of us here enjoy the benefits by having a full freezer then to make lots of good, nourishing meals with the venison for the rest of the winter ahead.

The son-in-law couldn't go hunting today though until this afternoon as he had to take his truck up to his own garage first thing this morning and fix the brakes on it as they went out on him last night on his way home from work when he had a little mishap and hit -are you ready for this -a BEAR -at the intersection of the road into town here and Route 53!

He said the bear appeared virtually out of no where and when he saw it, he stomped on the brakes so hard it blew the brake lining out on his truck! So, he had to go fix that in order to be able to go out in the woods with the truck this afternoon.

Sometimes, it really does come in handy having a mechanic in the family, doesn't it?

And now that I have my blog reading for the morning finished, have this post almost ready to go too, I'm going to swipe a couple of the freshly made cookies Mandy baked a little while ago, a nice hot cup of coffee too and then, mozey over to my recliner to pick up the red tablecloth I've been slaving over for the past six weeks or so in hopes of getting it finished in the very near future!

And with all of that done or in mind, I bid you all a God Jul!